New England Genealogy Pages of R.J. O’Hara

I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever.

—Daniel Webster

Welcome to my personal genealogy pages. Two main ancestral branches are represented here: a poorly-known Boston Irish branch going back through my father to the time of the Irish potato famine (surnames O’Hara, Nugent, Cross, Thomson, and others; Y-haplogroup R1b1a2), and a well-known Massachusetts Bay Puritan branch going back through my mother to the early 1600s and before (surnames Cogswell, Cummings, Fitch, Holden, Hosmer, Lakin, Longley, Parkhurst, Pratt, Rogers, Shattuck, Shedd, Woods, and many others, mostly in Middlesex County; mt-haplogroup K). No information about living individuals is included. Like most genealogy pages, these pages contain a good deal of fragmentary information drawn from sources of varying quality.

• Ancestor Table with Surname Index, and “Web Family Cards” with Surname Index — A comprehensive database of my known ancestors, directly output from Reunion for Macintosh with source data and a few images. The design of these pages is not elegant, but it is the best I can do at present with the automated output from Reunion.

• Immigrant Ancestors — A chronological record of known immigrant ancestors from Great Britain and Ireland to New England. (WORKING DRAFT ONLY)

• The Demonic Possession of Elizabeth Knapp — Elizabeth Knapp (1655–1720) of Groton, Massachusetts, was my seventh-great-grandmother. In 1671, at the age of sixteen, she had the misfortune of being possessed by a demon.

• Descendants of Samuel Scripture and Elizabeth (Knapp) Scripture — Elizabeth Knapp’s possession by a demon in 1671 was apparently not a bar to her marriage three years later to Samuel Scripture of Groton, when she was 19 and he about 24. They had ten children and more than 50 grandchildren.

• Rev. Nathaniel Rogers of Ipswich (abt1598–1655) — Despite my many Puritan ancestors, I have found only one link into New England’s extended cousinage of Puritan ministers: Rev. Nathaniel Rogers of Ipswich, Massachusetts, the immigrant son of Rev. “Roaring John” Rogers of Dedham, Essex, England.

  • Rev. Nathaniel Rogers from the Dictionary of National Biography.

  • “The Life of Mr. Nathanael Rogers” from Cotton Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana (1701).

  • Rev. John Rogers from the Dictionary of National Biography.

  • Elegy on the life of Rev. John Rogers (1642) from the Luttrell Collection of the British Museum.

• American Colonial Wars (1637–1763) — A chronological record of ancestors who served or died in the American colonial wars, from the Pequot War (1637–1638), King Philip’s War (1675–1676), King William’s War (1689–1698), Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713), and Dummer’s War (1723–1726), to the French and Indian War (1754–1763), including those who were early members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts.

• American Revolution (1775–1781) and Shays’ Rebellion (1786–1787) — A chronological record of ancestors who served or died in the American Revolution and Shays’ Rebellion.

• “That Memory May Their Deed Redeem” — Why we remember the Nineteenth of April and the battles of Lexington and Concord.

• “Notable Kin” — Links to famous cousins including American authors Dickinson, Emerson, and Hawthorne; American presidents Adams, Bush, Coolidge, Fillmore, Garfield, Grant, Nixon, Pierce, and Taft; Diana, Princess of Wales; vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin; and many others.

Most Wanted People

• Peter TURRELL/TERRELL/TIRRELL/TUREL, b. 7 Mar 1777 at Dunstable, Massachusetts–New Hampshire, m. Sarah (Sally) BLOOD, b. 4 Sep 1784 also at Dunstable. He d. 17 Jul 1830 and she d. 29 Mar 1861. Who were Peter’s parents and grandparents? His parents are variously given as Edward or John TURRELL and Ann CHAPMAN/CHATMAN. (The original boundaries of the town of Dunstable cross the present-day Massachusetts–New Hampshire line, and this is often a source of confusion in genealogical records: “Dunstable was granted by Massachusetts and was a part of that province until 1741, when a revision of the province line transferred the greater part of the original grant to the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. The early families of this ancient town at the time it was cut in twain were living in Nashua, and parts of Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimack in New Hampshire and in Dunstable and Tyngsborough in Massachusetts. The early records of legislation, civil and military appointments, land titles and probate court are preserved in the archives of Massachusetts.” [Stearns, 1911: v])

• Charles TURRELL, b. 12 Aug 1813 (s. of Peter above), m. Ruth SEARLES. They lived in the Dunstable, Massachusetts–New Hampshire region. Who were Ruth’s parents?

• Caleb BLOOD, b. 21 May 1752, m. 20 Apr 1775 at Hollis, New Hampshire, Rebecca HOPKINS. He d. 23 Feb 1813, and she d. 11 May 1810. Who were Rebecca’s parents?

• John SLEEPER, b. 26 Oct 1786 (place unknown), m. 25 July 1809 at Francestown, New Hampshire, Lydia DODGE, b. 16 Feb 1790. He was said to have been a successful farmer in Francestown. John is certainly part of the well-known New Hampshire Sleeper family, but I have not been able to connect him up; who were his parents? [Update: His father now appears to have been Moses Sleeper, who was resident in Francestown in 1793, but there the line ends again, with no additional information.]

• Joseph PARKHURST, b. Nov 1782 in Massachusetts, m. (1) 26 Nov 1807 at Bedford, Massachusetts, Rhoda WYMAN. She d. 28 Sep 1815 at Bedford, and he m. (2) Elizabeth WALKER. Joseph is said to have been a carpenter of Wilton, New Hampshire, and Reading and Lexington, Massachusetts. Who were the parents of Joseph PARKHURST and Rhoda WYMAN?

External Links of Interest

• FamilySearch — The genealogical databases of the LDS Church.
• Family Tree DNA — One of the most popular DNA testing services for genealogists.
• Fire and Ice — Puritan theology and literature.
• GENDEX — World Wide Web genealogical index. (The great pioneer of Internet genealogy, sadly out of service as of April 2004.)
• GenealogyBookshop.com
• GenForum
• GENTECH Genealogical Data Model — A window into the future of web-based genealogy, also for the technically inclined.
• Higginson Books
• New England Historic Genealogical Society
• New England Towns — Historic descriptions of New England cities, towns, rivers, lakes, and landmarks, from 1837.
• Reunion — Macintosh genealogy software.
• RootsWeb Mailing List Directory
• Society of Colonial Wars
• Sons of the American Revolution
  • Massachusetts SAR