Saturday, January 2, 2010

Best Genealogy Moment Saturday Night Fun

Hey, it's Saturday Night - time for some Genealogy Fun!! I know - you had a great time on New Year's Eve, and are just recovering from the holidays, so we'll keep this one pretty easy.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to accept it (frankly, I've noticed that SNGF participation has dropped off in the last month - why? Too much eggnog? Too much work? What?):

1) "What was your best Genealogy Moment during 2009?" This could be a research find, a fabulous trip, a found family treasure, etc. Your choice!


Well I guess my best research find was finally breaking the brick wall back to George Soule of the Mayflower. My grandmother was Anna Dillingham and she was a descendant of Edward Dillingham who came to Cape Cod in 1632. The Dillinghams were Quakers and not very popular with the Puritans of Massachusetts. I have the Book The Dillingham's of New England and while it does a good job of chronicling the Dillinghams from New England it seldom has anything about any of the ladies that married into the Dillingham family. One such lady was Elizabeth Chandler and she married Melatiah Dillingham. They named one child Enos Chandler Dillingham, and the Dillingham information said she was the Daughter of Enos Chandler. So I had done some searching for Enos Chandler and he was a Lt. in the Revolution according to the DAR and had married Elizabeth Soule. Elizabeth Soule was a descendent of George Soule of the Mayflower. The Soule information had the child of Elizabeth Soule and Enos Chandler as "Betsy Chandler" and the dates for her birth did not match the dates for Elizabeth Chandler birth from the Dillingham book, so was this the same Elizabeth Chandler? I know Betsy is used as a nickname for Elizabeth, but I was not able to get the dates to match. I knew a couple of things, one a lot of dates were wrong in the Dillingham Book, so I expected that it was the problem. Second I knew the Soule Kindred of America was working on a 6 generation book. Elizabeth Chandler was listed in the 5th generation book, but no husband. This fall I found the Pink book by the Mayflower Society George Soule of the Mayflower and his Descendants in the Fifth and SIXTH Generations. WOW it has Betty/Elizabeth marrying Meltiah Dillingham on page 14 and confirmed that the Soule dates were correct and that the Dillingham dates were in error. So now I know for sure I am a descendant of George Soule and this information added John Alden also. And to find an ancestor that was in the Revolution was great also. Since the Dillinghams were Quakers I did not figure I would find a Revolutionary War soldier.

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations on this great find! And what a coincidence - I was just doing a bit of research on Dillinghams who married into my Norman family (down in Texas).

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