Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Pratt/Woodruff History-Names & Numbers

Have you ever considered the number of people whose genes and DNA make you what you are? There is mother and dad, that's two people. Grandmas and grandpas, four more, total 6. Then great-grandpas and great-grandmas, 8 more, total 14. G-3 generation, 16 more, total 30. G-4 generation 32 more, total 62, G-5 generation 64 more, total 126. G-6 generation, 128 more, total 254. G-7 generation 256 more, total 510.
 
But we haven't been dealt a full deck of progenitors. Take the Bartrams. Henry Bartram's paternal grandmother was Mary Burr, twin sister of Elizabeth Burr, who was Henry's maternal great-grandmother. Thus the twins' father, John Burr Jr, was both a paternal great-grandfather and maternal great-great grandfather to Henry. That also means that the twins' mother, Catherine Wakeman, was both a great-grandmother and great-great grandmother to Henry. See how we have been shorted here? 
 
There's more. In the next generation back John Burr Sr and his wife Deborah Barlow are double-progenitors, as are Joseph Wakeman and his wife Elizabeth Hawley. It gets better (or worse) another generation back. Nathaniel Burr and Sarah Ward are doubles, as are John Barlow and Abigail Lockwood, Samuel Wakeman and Hannah Goodyear,  Ebenezer Hawley and Hester Ward, etc. etc. back two or three more generations. And there are more sister acts like Mary and Elizabeth Burr, and a couple of sister-brother progenitors. But we're alright.........
 
Other family names in our Bartram family tree include Jennings, Staple, Gould, Williams, Gray, Bradley, Canfield, Crane, Talcott, Thompson, Harrison, Pritchard, Phippen, Frost, Birdsey, Hopkins, Sherman, Cable, Vickaris, Mott, Goode, Makin, Gutter, Skinner, Wells, Mead and a bunch of others that I have never been able to identify, though Dan Elliot might be able to add to the list.
 
The same possible numbers of progenitors apply in the case of William Bond Pratt's family tree but I have not been nearly as successful in identifying them. However, I'll bet there is a lot closer to a full deck of Pratt progenitors. They tended to keep moving while the Bartram ancestors seem to have hung around Fairfield intermarrying. William Bond's mother was a Bartlett, and her father and grandfather were both named Ithamar, but I have no maternal family names. His grandmother was a Bond who brings with her the Greenwood, Woolson, Woodward, Bancroft, Biscoe, Hyde, Metcalf, Hammond, and Cason families. His great-grandmother Pratt was Jemima Alden, whose father was John Alden and mother Thankful Parker. There may be a Mayflower connection there but I haven't tied it down.
 
In the case of the Woodruffs, I have identified about as many progenitors as in the case of the Bartrams but more people since I have found no sister-sister or brother-sister combinations.
 
Here is a run-down of families in back of Newton R. Woodruff (Newton, Henry and William Bond are all great-grandfathers to me): Nettleton, Orton, Mason, Rossiter, Gould, Hopkins, Davis, Andrew, Plumb, Smedley, Carter, Pierson, Cruttenden, Butler, Phinney, Platt, Treat, Baldwin, Newton, Orvis, Dimon, Arnold, Skinner, Sherman, Robinson, Kirby, Bronson, Olmstead, Linnel, Lumbart, Plum, Kellogg, White, Tapp, Alsop, Green, Fenn, Pratt, Wheeler, Ward, Osborne, Field, Easton, Mitchell, Griegson, Ventris, Bigelow, Loomis, Shelly, Rogers, Derby, Wood, Bouton, Gaylord, Bryan, Gilbert, Bainbridge, Hooker, Butterfield, Garbrand, Pellate, Bristow, Allgar and Symonds. Whew!
 
In the Cannon clan, my great-grandfather equivalent to Henry, William Bond and Newton R. is James S. Cannon (like Harry S. Truman, the "S" stands for nothing) . The Cannon family tree in America is just a little shrub compared to the Bartrams and Wooduffs. The only families that I have found behind James S. are Brown, Woodburn, Mitchell and Shields and we are already back to Northern Ireland and Scotland.
 
Wait. There's more. If you are a Woodruff descendent you have to add the progenitors of my great-grandmother Sophronia Tanner with family names of Mead, Hill or Sweet, Palmer, Tibbets and Staunton. If your are just a Pratt-Bartram descendent you still have to add the progenitors of my great-grandmothers Elizabeth King and Freelove McIntyre with family names of Morris and Williams. There are more but they are unknown since we are already back to Germany and Scotland.
 
And even more: If you are a descendent of Burr Pratt you have to add the Kelly progenitors. If you are a descendent of Joe Pratt you have to add the progenitors of LaVica Curtis. If you are a descendent of Clara Pratt you have to add the McOmbers and so on. If you are from Helen Pratt you have to add the Tracy Shane progenitors. Likewise from Henry Pratt add the Whidbys, or from Isadora Pratt, the Thayers.
 
Any questions???

Emailed Nov. 28

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