Captain John Marchante (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025, Week 6 Theme: "Surprise")

Panama 2023 photo by author

Notwithstanding my having encountered many surprises during my quarter century of family history research, the word "surprise" occurs just once in my extensive genealogy database. 

My 11X great grandfather Captain John Marchante was from Yeovil, Somerset, England. He became a privateer (essentially a pirate authorized by Queen Elizabeth I) serving under Sir Francis Drake for the decade from 1585-1595. Their numerous campaigns against the Spanish included the 1587 Cadiz expedition, a pre-emptive strike on the Spanish Armada. 

Marchante accompanied Drake on his ill-fated 1595 voyage to challenge Spain in the area that would become Panama.  Both men lost their lives, Drake from disease and Captain John from the "surprise" that awaited the English in Panama.

Panama Canal area
Photo by author 2023

After failing to seize a Spanish treasure ship in Puerto Rico, Drake and his entourage moved on to Panama where they took the town of Nombre de Dios (near the location of the Panama Canal today). They had been hoping to intercept Spanish gold being brought over the isthmus, but when Drake's forces marched up the hill, they were surprised to discover a Spanish fort on top. About 20 Englishmen were killed, including Captain John who died there 2 January 1596. 

 A longer story with more details about the life of John Marchante can be found through this link.

Captain John Johnson (1590-1659) - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025, Week 5 theme "Challenge"

My 10X great grandfather John Johnson was born in England about 1590 and shows up in the record for his marriage to Mary Heath (1594-1629) at St. Mary the Virgin Church in Ware, Hertfordshire, England on 21 September 1613.

St. Mary the Virgin Church, Ware, Hertfordshire - photo by Christine Matthews licensed for reuse through the

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Included among their children was my 9X great grandfather Humphrey Johnson (1620-1693), whose story would appropriately suit this week's topic of "Challenge", but I had already written a story about him (accessible through this link).

Shortly after Mary's death and John's second marriage, the family sailed to the Colony of Massachusetts Bay on the Arabella as part of the Winthrop Fleet, landing at Salem 22 June 1630. The Johnsons were Puritans and one might discuss the challenges faced by these religious dissidents at the time, but that isn't going to be the focus of this week's story either. 

They were among the English founding families of Roxbury (now part of Boston) where John took an active part in the affairs of the community, serving on various committees and juries. He was able to read and write. By 1638-40 he had 6 goats and 4 kids (which, based on goats’ reputations, could also have inspired a story about challenges). 

In 1641 he was chosen Surveyor General, which included responsibility for the weapons and ammunition of the Colony. He was to ensure that each soldier had a musket, sword, rest and pair of bandoliers with 2 fathoms of match for each musket. (As best I understand this, the muskets would have been matchlock muskets which use a piece of slow-burning match cord to ignite the gunpowder. Two fathoms of match would have been 12 feet or twice a man's armspan.) Much of this along with 17-18 barrels of gunpowder were stored in the Johnson home. On 6 April 1645, fire broke out and levelled the house; the ammunition blew up causing homes in Boston and Cambridge to shake with what residents thought to be an earthquake. Fortunately no one was home at the time and, surprisingly, no one was killed. That may in part be attributed to a high wind that changed direction in time to save all other nearby homes.

Johnson did not seem to be blamed for this disastrous loss of defense materials. Instead, the general court was chastised for its many years of not having taken better care of the community's stock of weaponry and there was also some thought that it served them right for previously not having come to the defense of their countrymen in Virginia and Plymouth against the Native Americans. (Today we might well challenge the assumption that they should have been waging war on the Native Americans in the first place!)

However, this brings us to the challenge that now faced John Johnson (aged about 55) to replace his house and out-buildings and all the family's personal effects. He was certainly a man of means with significant land holdings who also ran a tavern. No doubt the community came to his aid. But he also benefitted by having no qualms about his conflict of interest when he used his own tavern for training day meetings and headquarters for Roxbury's military Train Band of which he was Captain.

Just months after the fire, John Johnson was listed as an officer to oversee the establishment of a school for which he himself became a donor. This was the origin of the Roxbury Latin School which is billed as the oldest boys school in North America as well as the oldest school in continuous operation in North America.

Johnson was a signatory on a report for rebuilding of the community's defenses on Castle Island on 20 July 1652. He was a Selectman in government during the 1650s and also was involved in a group erecting a new mill. He obviously remained involved in community responsibilities throughout his life.

John Johnson died 30 September 1659 and was buried in the Eliot Burying Ground in Roxbury. 

Eliot Burying Ground, Roxbury, MA
from Findagrave.com website
Permission to use photo kindly granted by photographer Rhonda Clark

The inventory of his estate after his death shows just how well he had met the challenge of rebuilding his fortune lost in the fire and explosion 14 years earlier. The list of possessions goes on at length (6 pages!) and is valued at 668 pounds, an amount considered very high for those times. The full list includes 6 beds and abundant bedding, clothing, carpets in every room, silver, chests and trunks, several tables, stools, chairs, many yards of cloth, pounds of cheese, bushels of grain, several cows, sheep, ram, lambs and a horse, along with several parcels of land. He clearly provided a very comfortable life for his family while meeting the challenges of his lifetime. 

Some Resources:

* Johnson, Gerald Garth: The Biography and Genealogy of Captain Johnson from Roxbury, Massachusetts: an uncommon man in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1630 to 1659; published by Heritage Books, Bowie Md 2000; available on Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/biographygenealo00john/mode/2up

*Anderson, Robert Charles: New England, The Great Migration Begins, Vol. 2, G-O, p1105

Myrtle Bullen and Ruth Dunlop (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025, Week 7 Theme: "Letters and Diaries")

My first cousin 3 times removed, Myrtle Iva Bullen is a kindred spirit I never had the opportunity to know in person. Still, I know she and I would have been close friends had we not been separated by so much time and distance.

Early on in my genealogical journey I was provided with loose photocopies of a collection of letters and writings from the 1930s. My Uncle Bob Anderson had received it from a distant cousin in similar format and had sorted  the loose sheets into sections and renumbered the pages. As a result, most of the pages have more than one hand-written page number. 

The title page calls this "Source Book for the Bullen Family" collected and compiled by two women - Myrtle Bullen Nelson and Ruth Dunlop. I sometimes call this work the "Nelson-Dunlop Papers".  Until this week, I had not been able to find a family connection to Ruth, but now have her placed in my tree and know that she was Myrtle's niece and my 2C2XR.

Title Page for the Nelson-Dunlop Papers

It had also taken several years for me to determine where Myrtle Bullen fit into my family tree. Our most recent common ancestors were her grandparents (my 3rd great grandparents) David Bullen (1788-1872) and Jane Murdie (1801-1857). Myrtle's father was David Bullen Jr. (1832-1911) whose younger sister Sarah Catherine Bullen was my ancestor. 

Myrtle had three sisters, Eva born 1868, Maud born 1869 and Mayme born 1874. Myrtle was born 22 October 1879 in Arlington, Columbia, Wisconsin. It was only this week while preparing this story that I learned of the existence of  Mayme, which led to the connection to Mayme's daughter Ruth Dunlop. This compilation of data was an ambitious family project undertaken by aunt and niece. While Myrtle's sister Eva also contributed to the Source Book, she wasn't credited in the authorship. 

Wescott Family Photo c.1902, Mayme Bullen Dunlop back row 2nd from left and Eva Bullen Wescott 4th from left; my great grandmother Mary-Jane "Mayme" Wescott Edwards is on the far left with her 4 children in front of her; Ruth Dunlop should be here, about age 2 - possibly front row fourth from left in front of her mother

Writing on the back of a 27 August 1935 letter addressed to Eva Wescott from the Port Washington, Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce shows the collaboration of the women, with historical searching interspersed with current family news. Forwarded to Myrtle from "Ev", it discusses the information received and says "not much satisfaction." She goes on to detail current family matters saying that "Gene, Myrtle and Florence Marsh were here last Sunday. Florence said she would look up the Bullen history at some place in Washington, D.C. , , , Are you getting anything out of the papers I sent? Wonder if we could find out anything from old records in Milwaukee? Kenneth and family were here yesterday. He has four awake boys. Evelyn will go to school in Wausau and take the two years at Training School."

Birth record for Myrtle Iva Bullen daughter of David Bullen and Hannah Hodgson

Myrtle lived her entire life in Wisconsin, marrying Adolph Nelson on 25 June 1902. Included in the Source Book is information from the newspaper clipping announcing the marriage; from this we learn that the marriage occurred at her father's home in Arlington with only a small party of relatives present.

No evidence has been found for any children for them, perhaps generating her interest in looking back up her tree to research its earlier members. Sadly, she did not include many details about herself in her collection. She died 13 January 1971 and is buried in Hillside Cemetery in Poynette, Columbia, Wisconsin. 

Headstone for Myrtle and Adolph in Hillside Cemetery, photo from findagrave.com website
 used with permission of photographer EAKII

As for Ruth Dunlop, she was born in Minnesota 1 March 1900 to Myrtle's sister Mayme and her husband William Caldon Dunlop.

When Ruth grew up, she probably attended college, based on her career at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, She was a member of the  AAUW (American Association of University Women) and was listed in a 1936 Courier newspaper article about the group's State Support of Public Education regarding equalization of educational opportunities.  She never married. Her career at the college lasted from July 1923 until her retirement in July of 1969. Census records describe her employment as college teacher, stenographer at the college and records clerk at the State Teachers College. According to her obituary on the College's website, she was the Advanced Standings Analyst in the Admissions Office at the time of her retirement. She died at the age of 80.

Myrtle and Ruth's "Source Book for the Bullen Family"  was their magnum opus.  Its contents include sections on our shared common ancestors David Bullen Senior (1788-1872) and Revolutionary Captain John Bullen (1747-1824). Also included are sections on extended family members the Honorable William Bullen, General John Bullen (1783-1850), Caroline Quarles and Family, Lathrop Bullene, David Crosit, Alfred Bullen, Orlando Foster, Hudson Baes and Charles Clement and for Myrtle's Hodgson mother's family.

In addition to copies of many newspaper articles and excerpts from history books, examples of some of the correspondence included in the source book are:

• letter to Ruth Dunlop from the County Archivist in the County of Montgomery Department of History and Archives of Fonda, New York dated 20 January 1936 (relating to her query about David and John Bullen in the 1790 census and other records for Whitestown, NY)
• letter to Ruth Dunlop from the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York dated 2 January 1936 (relating to (non)membership of John and David Bullen and referring to the Morgan affair)
• letter to Eva L. Wescott (Myrtle's sister Eva who had married Harvey Wescott) from the Principal Emeritus of the Hannibal NY High School dated 15 December 1935 (also relating to the roles of John and David Bullen in the Masonic Lodge at Hannibal of which they were founders and first Senior Warden and first Master respectively, and how the Lodge went with the Morgan times)
• letter to Eva from their cousin Americus Vespuccius Brown dated 19 October 1935 (relating to his knowledge about the family background of David Bullen and Jane Murdy)
• letter to Myrtle from cousin Josephine Brooks (a descendant of John Bullen) of Portland, Oregon dated October 1935 (relating to the family's move to establish Kenosha, Wisconsin, and visits to some of the family members' gravesites in Kenosha and in Paris Hills, NY)

While reviewing the Source Book this week, I realized there was much information I had overlooked and not added to my database, including finding where Ruth and her mother fit into my Bullen family tree. Many more relatives have now been added to my tree and more details added from the collection amassed by Myrtle and Ruth (and Eva too). The gift they created for the family keeps on giving.

Having used their Source Book for the Bullen Family extensively over the years, I think it is well past time to honor the work of these dedicated family historians who left no descendants of their own. Thank you, Cousins Myrtle and Ruth!

Some Resources:

Without the kind assistance of the Archivist, Cedar Falls Historical Society, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, I would still largely be in the dark about the life work of Ruth Dunlop. They were able to provide information including Ruth's various addresses in Cedar Falls over the decades, newspaper clippings and the link to the College Website. Many thanks!

Jane Davididson (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025, Week 4 - "Overlooked")

Jane Davididson was overlooked for years. First, she simply wasn't named in any available records, but even after coming across her name, I  considered her a stepmother to my maternal line 3rd great grandmother Jane Murdie (or Murdy) and continued to pay her little attention. 

Mitochondrial DNA is passed from a mother to all her children but only daughters pass that on to the next generation. My mitochondrial haplogroup H2a1 came down my female line from Jane Murdie, and also from her mother, quite possibly the woman named Jane Davididson.

I suspect the reason for my oversight was the wording in the "Source Book for the Bullen Family" collected and compiled in the 1930s by Myrtle Bullen Nelson and Ruth Dunlop, quoting from a letter written by Jane Murdie's granddaughter Mrs. A. H. Nelson: 

My grandmother's (Jane Murdy) father died and her mother married a Mr. Chambers who was the father of Mary and Kate Chambers.

I interpreted that to mean that Mr. Chambers was Mary and Kate's father but, no mention being made of their mother, it wasn't the same unnamed woman who was Jane Murdy's mother but some other unknown previous or subsequent wife. When I later came upon several unsourced references to Jane Davididson as the mother to the Chambers daughters, it still did not occur to me that she might also be Jane Murdie's mother.

Piecing together the sequence of events without much in the way of documentation, it seems Jane Murdie's mother had married Mr. Murdie in Scotland, came to Hannibal, Oswego, New York where daughter Jane was born in 1801 (or possibly as late as 1808). Mr. Murdie headed west on business with a fine herd of horses but was never seen again, eventually being presumed dead. 

Without finding any death or marriage records to pinpoint dates, there are a couple of possible scenarios that fit the known events. First possibility is that by about 1817 the widow Murdie married John Chambers and had 3 daughters with him: Mary born 1818, Louisa born 1820 and Catherine "Kate" born 1823, the same year Jane Murdie married David Bullen. (This may seem like a huge gap between the birth of Jane and of the younger girls but is certainly quite possible, especially given the circumstances.) 

Kate Chambers Gilmore Griggs, daughter of Jane Davididson and possible half sister of Jane Murdie

Another possibility is that Jane Davididson died sometime after 1823 and John Chambers then married the widow Murdie, Jane's mother, whose name remains unknown. 

Jane Murdie married David Bullen in Hannibal, Oswego, N.Y in 1823. When the Bullens moved from New York to Wisconsin, the Chambers soon moved there too. The 3 Chambers girls all married and had families. One of the few pieces of documentation that has been located is the obituary for daughter Kate.

Obituary of Kate Chambers, La Grange WI 23 August 1900

Although only one sister (Louisa) is said to have survived Kate, it is noteworthy that "Mrs. David Bullen" (Jane Murdie) attended from a distance. Clearly they had been close to justify this travel. Were they half sisters or step-sisters? 

The lack of documentary evidence leaves the possibility of using DNA to solve the mystery. Although I have tried to find an appropriate descendant of one of the 3 Chambers girls who would be able to take a mitochondrial DNA test to see if they too have the haplogroup H2a1, their families seem to have "sonned out", leaving no likely candidates. (One autosomal match does descend from a Chambers sister but that could be from any number of ancestral lines.) Although we still cannot know for certain whether Jane Davididson was Jane Murdie's mother, at least now she is no longer being overlooked.

Joseph Pratt (1665-1765) - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 (Week 3: Nickname)

My 8X great grandfather Joseph was born 2 February 1665 in Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts to Joseph Pratt Sr. and Sarah Judkins. He married twice but had all of his children with first wife Sarah Benson. A very productive member of his community, he held many positions of trust in Weymouth and then in Bridgewater where he moved in about 1705. 

Joseph was known as "Little-leg Joe" because one of his legs was shorter than the other.

Notwithstanding the short leg, Joseph lived a long and useful life, dying 13 January 1765, just a couple of weeks before he would have celebrated his 100th birthday. He is buried in First Cemetery, Bridgewater, MA. 

Joseph Pratt gravestone, used with the written permission of Chip 5610 (#46997557) at FindaGrave

Barbara Hoover - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025, Week 2 Favorite Photo

 

Barbara Hoover/Edwards/Payton (c.1834-1890)

My grandmother was not born until several  years after the death of her paternal grandmother Barbara Hoover and, as far as we can determine, never even knew her name let alone anything about her. Grandma would not have known that she may well have inherited her interest in the hospitality industry from this unknown grandmother. Both women were business women at a time when this was not common. 

My grandmother, not content with life as a homestead farm wife, bought a house in Swift Current, Saskatchewan that she ran as a popular boarding house for many years. When Grandpa was set to turn over the farm to their oldest son, they planned to move to California to buy a motel. Grandma carried on with that plan even after Grandpa's unexpected passing. She ran the El Rancho Motel in Watsonville, CA for several years. 

Grandma might have found it interesting to know that her grandmother Barbara (now using her married name of Payton) had opened a string of restaurants and hotels in Kanas in the 1880s. Newspaper clippings give us a sample of what Barbara was up to.

The Citizen 23 February 1883

Like my grandmother at her boarding house, Barbara would have been an excellent cook. She also had a knack for setting up and operating hotels. 

The Grenola Hornet 5 September 1885

The Howard Courant 16 September 1887

This is just a smattering of the advertisements relating to Barbara's numerous business endeavors. A full account of her life can be found through this link to another story .

(It occurs to me that I also followed their familiar path by operating a bed & breakfast in Victoria, BC, for a number of years with my husband.)

For the longest time, I assumed that no picture of Barbara existed. Thanks to the collaboration afforded through the familysearch.org family tree, another descendant of Barbara's mailed me a large stack of photographs including the one above. This is definitely a treasured photo.

In the Beginning - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 1

My passion for genealogy began in 1997, the year my father died. Shortly before his death he had received a package of family history information from someone named Tom Larsen in Oslo, Norway. Dad was so excited about receiving all this information that I actually tucked a copy into his casket before he was buried. But it took awhile for me to take a closer look at the contents.  It was so much easier to begin my genealogical searches on the internet with my mother's English-speaking early American ancestors about whom so much was available online as early as 1997. 

Finally getting to the point where I wanted to tackle my Norwegian branches, I realized just what a treasure Tom Larsen had gifted our family. I attempted to write to him at the address in Oslo, but by then he was no longer at the address given. (Years later, he turned up as one of my DNA matches and I was so delighted to finally be able to communicate with him and thank him before his untimely passing.)

This is a small portion of the tree Tom sent to Dad: 

Top Portion of Family Tree prepared by Tom Larsen

The 1990s were early days for software for family trees. Tom's tree is half printed in pale blue early printer ink and half hand-drawn. Still, he manages to convey a whole lot of detail in his tree, giving me a good place to start  when doing my own research. The earliest ancestor in this tree is Oluf Lunde, the father of Gulbrand Lunde born c.1585/95. The most recent listings were my grandmother Louise Nilsen and one of her sisters. He listed his sources, though I didn't immediately appreciate the significance of that.

Tom Larsen, last section of tree

Tom also provided another type of report with the earliest ancestor being Ingebjørg Helgesdtr Frøborn born before 1458. As a new genealogist, I didn't know what this report was nor how much information it provides. 

Tom's ahnentafel report, oldest section

(This report was originally printed on that continuous paper feed with holes along the edges for feeding through that old-style printer!)

Not knowing the name for the report or how it worked, I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what it all meant, even going so far as to having a Norwegian-speaking acquaintance label the male and female names. The number assigned to each person in this ahnentafel report would have told me that -  to find a father, you double the person's number (making it an even number) and to find the mother, you double the person's number and add 1 (making it an odd number).  Oh, the useful things we learn in our genealogy voyage! But this was the beginning.