That's Right...My Family Tree Doesn't Fork

Here’s a nice little genealogical tangle to consider:

Richard Thayer was born 1562 in Gloucestershire England.  He married Ursula Alice Dimery, and they had several children, including Richard Thayer (1595) & Thomas Thayer (1596), both of whom their families to Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts, in 1630.

Another early settler of Braintree, Massachusetts was William Hayward and his wife Margery Knight.  Among their children were Huldah (1636), Samuel (1641), and William (1647).

Thomas Thayer was the father of Ferdinando Thayer (1625), who married Huldah Hayward in 1652.  They were the parents of Huldah (1657) and Isaac (1671).

Huldah Thayer married Jacob Aldrich (1652); their son Seth (1679), married his mother’s first cousin Deborah (1682), daughter of Samuel Hayward.  Seth & Deborah had a son Abel (1704)) who married his first cousin Elizabeth, daughter of his father’s brother David Aldrich.  As already mentioned, Seth & David Aldrich were sons of Jacob Aldrich & Huldah Thayer; Jacob Aldrich was the son of George Aldrich (1605) and brother to John Aldrich (1644), whom we will discuss in a moment.

Abel Aldrich was the father of Benjamin Aldrich.

Benjamin Aldrich was the father of George Aldrich.

George Aldrich was the father of Rhoda Aldrich (1799), who married Isaac Heath (1779), son of Peter Heath & Abigail Crawford.  Isaac & Rhoda had three or four daughters—Tamar (1818), Judith (1822), Mary (1832) and Celina (1843).

Peter Heath (1742) was the son of Nathaniel Heath (1708) & Sarah Stevens (1705), who were second cousins, their grandfathers being brothers Josiah Heath (1651) & John Heath (1643), sons of Bartholomew Heath (1615), a native of Naezing, Essex, England and early settler of Haverhill, Massachusetts.

And Peter Heath’s sister Abigail (1776) married Ebenezer Huckins (1775), a descendant of the Huckins, Burnham, Thomas, Goddard, Edgerly, Whidden, and Ault families who were among New Hampshire’s earliest settlers.  Two of Ebenezer & Abigail’s sons were Moses (1814) and William (1815).  Peter & Abigail Heath and Ebenezer & Abigail Huckins moved their families from lower New Hampshire to Stanstead, Quebec, Canada, about 1825.  In 1835, Moses Huckins married Tamar Heath; after Tamar’s death in 1853, Moses married her sister Mary.  William Huckins married Judith Heath.

Moses Huckins fathered 17 children, 7 with Tamar and 10 with Mary.  He moved his family from Canada to Bureau County, Illinois, about 1855, where his son Sherman Alberta Huckins (1865) was born.  Sherman worked for the railroad in Kansas, and there he married Phoebe Louisa Vansell in 1892.  Their son Cleon Gerold Huckins (1905) met Laura Gertrude Rhodes (1903) while cowboying in Western Oklahoma and married her in 1927.  They moved to Hutchinson County, Texas, where their first child  Gerold Edward Huckins (1929) was born.  Gerold married Naomi Joy Bigham in 1950, and my mother Donna Gail Huckins was born the following year.  Donna married Bryan Stafford in 1969, and I am their only child, Casey Lynn Stafford (1972).

In 2013, I married April Lanae Paschen, and we have two sons—Conlan Ray & Joseph Bryan. 

April (1988) is the only child of Eldon Ray Paschen (1947) and Nancy Ann Harris (1947), who married in 1972 in Ardmore, Carter, Oklahoma.

Nancy was the daughter of William Guy Harris (1897) & Delta Malissa Matilda Smith (1909).

Guy Harris was the son of George Roswell Harris (1869), born in Shasta County, California.

George Harris was the son of Jackson Harris (1836), a native of Canada, and Susan Cheney Thayer (1836).  Remember that Thayer name?  Well hold on, and I’ll come back to it.

Jackson Harris was the son of Nathan Kendrick Harris (1799) and Orpha Aldrich (1803).

Orpha Aldrich was the daughter of George Aldrich (1770), who was the son of George Aldrich (1738), who was the son of Benjamin Aldrich (1684), who was the son of John Aldrich (1644) whom I mentioned earlier.  John was the brother of my ancestor Jacob Aldrich (1652), which makes me a 9^th Cousin, once removed from my wife April.

But wait!  There’s more!

Susan Cheney Thayer ( 1836) was the daughter of Asa Thayer (1794), who was the son of Joel Thayer (1760) & Susannah Cheney (1760).  Joel Thayer was the son of Samuel Thayer (1713), who was the son of Isaac Thayer (1671).  Now I’ve mentioned Isaac before; go back to the beginning of this story.  My wife’s g⁶ grandfather was a brother to my g⁹ grandmother, making us related again, 8^th Cousins, three times removed.  And Isaac Thayer married his own first cousin Mary Hayward (1680), who was the daughter of William Hayward, brother to Isaac’s mother Huldah.

But there’s more.  Susannah Cheney, wife of Joel Thayer, was the daughter of Wales Cheney (1732), who was the son of William Cheney (1700) and Joanna Thayer (1706).  Yes, there are more Thayers.

Joanna Thayer was the daughter of Nathaniel Thayer (1680) who married his second cousin Sarah Wales (1680).  Nathaniel was the son of Nathaniel Thayer (1658), who was the son of Richard Thayer (1625).  Sarah was the daughter of Joanna Faxon, who was the daughter of Thomas Faxon and Deborah Thayer (1634).  Richard Thayer & Deborah Thayer Faxon were the children of Richard Thayer (1595), and we’re back where we started.

So 400 years after these families came to America, the many intermarried lines intermarried once again in April Paschen and Casey Stafford, making our sons descended four times each from Richard & Ursula Thayer, William & Margery Hayward, and Bartholomew & Hannah Heath, and three times from George Aldrich and Katherine Seald.  Of course, since it happened twelve (or thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen) generations ago, we’re talking about 4 (or 3) among 2048 (or 4096, 8192, or 16,384) ancestors. 

So no chance of a chromosomal mix up in the shallow end of the gene pool.

Thank God.

And don’t get me started on the Clarkes of Rhode Island.  That’s another blog for another day (which I’ve already done before).