Current Research

 This site is researching the following family names:

Ames, Adkinson / Atkinson, Allen, Alsop, Andrews, Angier, Apuke, Atherton, Baldwin, Banks, Barrett, Barter, Batchelder, Bate, Bell, Beresford, Bird, Birdsey, Blackman, Boreham, Briscoe, Bristol, Brotton, Brown, Brundish/ Brundage, Bryan, Bunker/ Bon Coeur, Burroughs, Butler, Butterfield, Camp, Canfield, Churchill, Clark, Clay, Clippingdale, Clogston, Combes, Conklin / Conkling, Cooper, Crabtree, Craighead, Crane, Crobber, Croker, Cuthbertson, Davenport, Davis, Demott, Dexter, Dodd, Dolte, Dormer, Du Bois, Eliot/ Elliot, Erdeswick, Erdley, Farrar, Foxcroft, Frederick, Fry, Gilbert, Glasford, Godfrey, Gorham, Gunn, Hait/ Hoit/ Hoyt, Hannah, Hardy, Harris, Harwood, Hawley, Hawten / Hawtayne, Herrington, Hills, Hobson, Holly, Homes, Hopkins, Houghton, House, Howell, Howland, Hubbard, Hurd, Hurst, Hussey, Hutcheson/ Hutchison/ Hutchinson, Jacob, Jenkins, Jones, King, Kinge, Kitchell, Knap/ Knapp, Kuthankova, La Tour, Lambert, Lamoureux, Launders, Lee, Leete, Leggett, Liska, Little, Lockwood, Ludlam, Lyon, Marshall, Mason, Masse, Matousek/ Matouskova, Mayhew, Meigs, Mercereau / Mersereau, Merry, Mitchell, Mott, Mountfort, Mulford, Newman, Northrop / Northrup, Paine, Parkhurst, Parmalee / Parmelee, Partridge, Paxton, Pearce, Penoyer, Phelps, Pierson, Platt, Platts, Prout / Prowte, Rankin, Ray, Reaves, Reynolds, Rice, Roe, Rogers, Rose, Rudd, Rutherford, Sarson, Scofield, Sheafe/ Sheaffe, Short, Shott, Skiffe, Skynner, Slavicek, Slavickova, Smith, Stackhouse, Stevens, Stoddard, Taylor, Thomas, Thompson, Tilley, Tracy, Traintor, Turner, Tyboth/ Tybott, Waitstill, Wales, Warren, Waters, Weaver, Westlake, Wheeler, Wheelock, Wheelwright, Whitcomb, White, Wiggins, Wight, Wilson, Wingar, Winthrop?, Wood, Woodhall and Youngs.

Research currently focused on the following ancestors:

1. BROTTON, George Wheatley

2. CLIPPINGDALE, Josiah

3. CUTHBERTSON, Fred

4. NORTON, Francis

5. ROGERS, John

6. BELL, Jonathan

7. KNAP, Lydia

8. PIERSON, Rev. Abraham

9. THOMAS, Nathaniel

10. WHEELOCK, Rev. Ralph

11. MATOUSEK, George

1. BROTTON, George Wheatley.  It has so far been impossible to trace Grandpa George Brotton's ancestry, though we know a fair bit about his life.  Evidence of both Quebec and New Brunswick as place of birth.  Enlisted in the Civil War (with the North) on August 9, 1862 as a private. Listed residence as Tonica, LaSalle Co., IL.  However, a George W. Brotton is also listed in the 1860 census of Birmingham Township, Schuyler Co., Illinois, listing Ohio as place of birth.  Could there really be two George W. Brottons of the same age living in Illinois?  Is there a story here?
   
   Listed Quebec as his place of birth, noted on all his veteran's pension applications; however, on his death certificate, his wife wrote his place of birth was North Creek (sic?), N.B., Canada.
   
   Also some question as to the year of birth.
   
   Enlisted in the Civil War (with the North) on August 9, 1862 as a private. Listed residence as Tonica, IL. Served with the 2nd Chicago Board of Trade, Company "A", 88th Regiment, Infantry Volunteers. Discharged June 9, 1865 at Nashville, TN. At time of enlistment he was 5 feet 9 inches tall, fair complected, had blue eyes, brown hair; listed occupation as a farmer.
   
   Written by IDA MAE BECK (1902-1987), granddaughter of Melissa Jenkins and George Brotton:
   - George Wheatly Brotton: Grandpa Brotton, Bron 1842, New Brunswick, Canada. English - German - Dutch. Moved with mother and siblings to Illinois. Fought 3 yrs in Civil War. Married in 68, 2 sons 1 daughter. Pension certificate# 655829. In 1912, paid $24/ month. Pensionable service: 2 years, 10 months, 1 day.
   
   Lived in: 
   
   1839: Quebec or New Brunswick, Canada.
   1872: Bartlet, Kansas (daughter Mary born there on 14 July, 1872)
   1877: Gilmore, Illinois (son Elmer born there on 26 June, 1877)
   1891: Winfield (sic?) (township), Renville (sic?), Minnesota
   1895: North Dakota
   1909-15: York, Benson Co., North Dakota
   
   (according to a pension application in 1909), he lived:
   - Illinois 1 year
   - Iowa 1.5 years
   - Kansas 4 years
   - Illinois 13 years (?)
   - Michigan 1 year (?)
   - Minnesota 9 years (?)
   - North Dakota "1895 and still here."
   
   Applied for an Invalid Pension July 19, 1891, saying he is "now" unable to earn a support by reason of "being crushed between cars of Loudon, East Tennessee[45 miles SW of Knoxville, TN], while transferring rations from boat to cars. Also took a fall down a coal shaft at Streator [??? difficult to read, but Streator is in La Salle Co., where he was married], Illinois. Also by effects of protruding piles."
   
   According to Charlotte's Grandmother Fern Brotton in 1978, The original spelling of the family name was BROUGHTON. That family lived in Holland and moved to England. From England, where the name was still BROUGHTON, the ancestor(s) moved to Eastern Canada, changing the name to BROTTON. There, George was born.
   
   According to his death certificate, at the time of his death, George had lived in York, ND for 30 years and in the US for 87 of his 91 years. The certificate cites cause of death as influenza, with the "contributory" of bronchial pneumonia. 
   
   Brotton - Broughton - Norton: I am requesting help finding information concerning George Wheatley Brotton (Broughton), who was born Aug. 24, 1839, at North Creek, (near Saint John) in New Brunswick. His parents were George William Brotton and Lucy Norton. George William Brotton was born in England and Lucy Norton was born in Pennsylvania. In 1843, when George Wheatley Brotton was four years old, the family moved to the United States. During the Civil War, George Wheatley Brotton enlisted in the army from Tonica, La Salle Co, Illinois. He died in 1931 in North Dakota. I am also looking for information on John Broughton, who immigrated from Ruthland Shire, Great Britain, in 1817 or 1819. 
   - Betty Brotton, Box 234, Powers, Oregon, 97466.
   
   A George W. Brotton is listed in the "1861 Militia Roll Record - Birmingham Township", of Schuyler Co., Illinois, as an "ablebodied male citizen". Source: Family History Library Microfilm 1689432. Transcribed by Robin Worth Petersen for Schuyler County ILGenWeb. Please note: This Military Census can be borrowed on interlibrary loan from the Illinois State Archives. It is also available to members of Heritage Quest as a rental or purchase. Copyright 1999, 2000 Robin L. W. Petersen; all rights reserved. For personal use only. Commercial use of the information contained in these pages is strictly prohibited without prior permission. If copied, this copyright must appear with the information. 
   
   Birmingham Township in Schuyler Co., Illinois, about 100 miles SW of La Salle Co., Illinois where he was married, was originally called Eden Township. The census of 1850 of this area is of Eden Township ... but George W. is not listed there. A George W. Brotton is, however, listed in the 1860 census of Birmingham Township, listing Ohio as place of birth. Also his death certificate lists his father's place of birth as England, and his mother's as Pennsylvania ... right next door to Ohio. Is there a story here? Was George distancing himself from his past? And, if so, why? In any event, by the time of the 1870 Census, the George W. of Schuyler Co. is gone ... perhaps he left for points west?
   
   CENSUS YR: 1860 TERRITORY: IL COUNTY: SCHUYLER DIVISION: BIRMINGHAM TOWNSHIP 
   REEL NO: M653-228 PAGE NO: 11 BIRM 
   ==================================================================================== 
   LN HN FN LAST NAME FIRST NAME AGE SEX BIRTHPLACE 
   
   29 75 75 BROTTON GEORGE W 29 M OH 
   30 75 75 BROTTON DIADAMA 20 F OH 
   31 75 75 BROTTON INNUS N 3 F ILL 
   32 75 75 BROTTON CHARITY E 6/12 F ILL   
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2. CLIPPINGDALE, Josiah: Searching for composition, "Joy and Roses" at U of Wisconsin.  Spoke to choir director at Westminster Abbey, he suggested corresponding with the librarian through the web site. Searching for composition, "Joy and Roses" at U of Wisconsin.  In August, 2001, I spoke to the music director at Westminster Abbey; he suggested corresponding with the Abbey librarian through their web site.  
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3. CUTHBERTSON, Fred: Information only on parents.  
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4. NORTON, Francis: His genealogy is very problematic.  Mother's name is alternatively Denise Cholmley, Demis Cheemsley, Dionesia Cholmeley, Dionesia Cholmesky and Dennis Cholmley.  The LDS AFN has some trees including grandmother Demis Cholmondley, giving birth at 12 years old.  The elder Cholmondley has well-established noble heritage, which may be the impetus for faith in such an early blossoming.  
   
   There is also some question whether this Francis Norton was the father of Francis Norton, our ancestor.  This Francis Norton lived in Piscataqua, New Hampshire, while his son lived in Milford, New Haven, Connecticut.  One of them may have had a history in Charlestown, Massachusetts ... someone named Francis Norton lived there while they were alive.  Notice also that they seem to be born in different parts of England (Sr. in Sharpenhoe, Jr. possibly in Wilkersfield).  Interestingly, one of these Francis Norton's drowned.
   
   There is another interesting angle on the Norton family lineage.  There is an early genealogical chart of the Nortons, of which a description appears in the "New England Historic and Genealogical Register,: Vol. 13, pp.225-230.  The respected genealogist W.H. Whitmore furnished it for publication, and said it is almost the only case where he has found a carefully drawn pedigree brought by a settler.  It traces a noble lineage back through William Norton, who married 2nd Dennis Cholmley, niece of Sir Nicholas Hare, Master of the Rolls.  Third son among their 9 children was Francis Norton, younger brother to eldest son Thomas Norton, settler at Guilford, CT.  Is this our Francis Norton?  If they were brothers, would they not likely have both settled at Guilford?  This lineage includes the families Hawes, Wingar, Cowper, Lord Grey de Ruthyn, Monsignor Bassingbourne, Hadscoke, Dampre de Court, Vevill of Raby, Dalbemonte, Barr, Valois and Noruile (Constable to William the Conqueror).
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5. ROGERS, John: Possible royal lineage, but it's also problematic.  There are so many John Rogers, and it seems the famous Rev. John Rogers (possibly his grandfather) is claimed by many, including many genealogists researching our family.  Other genealogists aren't so sure.  This web page does have a link to a picture the Rev. John Rogers, just in case.  Below is a brief biography:
   
   John Rogers, "The Martyr":
   
   John Rogers was born at Deritend soon after 1500. At Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and later at Oxford, he absorbed the New Learning which Erasmus and Colet had fostered there. He was born too late to be under their actual tuition. For two years, till 1534, he was Vicar of Trinity the Less in the city of London. 
   
   Shortly after Sir Thomas More's arrest in 1534, Rogers went to Antwerp as chaplain to the Merchant Adventurers. Tyndale was then in Antwerp working at the Biblical translation which led to his arrest and death (1535-1536). Rogers completed and edited Tyndales's translation. It is known as the Mathew Bible ("Matthew" being Rogers under an assumed name which protected him from Tyndale's fate). This Bible, by a Royal proclamation in 1537, was to be provided for all to read, in every parish of the land. 
   
   Meanwhile Rogers had married a daughter of an Antwerp family (Adriana de Weyden). He thereby severed himself from the medieval church with its celibate priesthood and decisively threw in his lot with the Reformers. In 1537 he went to Wittenberg (where Luthers's manifesto, 20 years before, had inaugurated the Reformation). Rogers ministered as pastor to a Wittenberg congregation for eleven years. As soon as the marriage of priests was tolerated in Edward VI's reign, he returned to England. He became Vicar of St. Sepulchre's Holborn, and a prebendary of St. Paul's. As a preacher at Paul's Cross he fearelessly denounced the misappropriation of the properties accruring from the dissolution of the monasteries. 
   
   But the accession of Mary Tudor brought a sudden and far severer test of the preacher's courage and sincerity. Rogers was the first called upon to preach at St. Paul's Cross after Mary's arrival, as undoubted Queen, in London. He could have had no illusions as to the nature of the preacher's ordeal. The Privy Council under whos scrittiny he would be preaching was already "overmatched with papist bishops." When Rogers was a young cellibate priest, Bilney and Frith had been martyred. Their example had been with him for twenty years to warn him as to what a confession of the Reformation faith was likely now to involve. Ridley's imprisonment added a rather diferent warning. And he had now, as hostages to fortune, his wife and ten chidren. "There was," says a biographer, "in the whole of the Reformation, all things considered, no position where the responsibilities thrown upon one man were greater or more nobly sustained." The preacher's vocation had become that of the first martyr of the Marian persecution. He accepted the challenge: In his sermon that day he denounced what he considered to be papist errors and bore witness to the truth as he saw it through eyes that had been opened by Colet and Erasmus, by Tynbdale, Luther and Melancthon. 
   
   Rogers was summoned before the Council. His defence appears to have been that the laws of Edward VI's reign had not been repealed. He was set at liberty, only to be rearrested a few days later, in violation of the principle that forbids re-trial for the same alleged offence. He was placed under house-arrest. In December his wife and eight other women pleaded in vain for "enlargement." In January, 1554, he was imprisoned in Newgate, within a stone's throw of his own Church of St. Sepulchre. He was in Newgate for more than a year awaiting trial. During all the latter months, till the very day of his death, his wife and children were refused access to him. 
   
   The income due to him both from St. Sepulchre's and from his prebend, bad been confiscated. Somehow food and shelter had to be found for his family, and also food for himself. The latter he proposed sharing with other prisoners more destitute than himself. 
   
   Perhaps in the brief last moments when husband and wife met at Smithfield, he had made known to her the existence of this document and its whereabouts. About a hundred years ago its true copy was found, a document of paramount interest and importance. 
   
   Hooper had been tried and condemned on the same day as Rogers. They passed each other as they were being led from the scene of the trial (probably what is now the Lady Chapel of Southwark Cathedral). Hooper, looking back said: "Come brother Rogers, must we two take this matter first in hand and begin to try these faggots?" "Yes sir." replied Rogers. "By God's grace "Doubt not." returned Hooper, "but God will give us strength." Later from his cell Rogers sent a message to Hooper: "There was never little fellow better would stick to a man than he (Rogers) would stick to him." 
   
   To prevent a demonstration of the crowd the torches of the costemongers' stalls and other lights in the streets between Southwark and Newgate had to be extinguished. But the Londoners brought out candles to light the prisoner's way on that strange "bridal" procession across London Bridge. Hooper was taken from Newgate to Gloucester to be burnt at the stake near his own cathedreal. But before Hooper reached Gloucester, Rogers was burnt at Smithfield, within his own parish. As he went along the road from Newgate to Smithfield, past his own church of St. Sepulchre's, there were shouts of thanksgiving from the crowds. The French Ambassador (a Roman Catholic) wrote of Rogers that he went as one who goes to a wedding. 
   
   Bradford, soon to suffer martyrdom in the same cause, said that Rogers "broke the ice valiantly." Ridley, from prison said that his death "destroyed a lumpish heaviness in my heart." 
   
   On the Monday morning of his death, the Sheriff had shown Rogers a document promising pardon if he would recant. "That which I have preached with my lips will I seal with my blood," was the answer. 
   
   Now that the dust of bitter and mortal controversies has died down, it is possible if we look attentively, to see John Rogers in his true stature, as no one --not even Hooper himself--could have seen him before his death. The figure that emerges is of one who held the Reformers' faith with great integrity, uncorrupted by power or threat. In the penetrating spiritual exposure of those critical years, he did not waver. He died for conscience sake, and blazed the trail for the three hundred who were to follow him to the stake. He was therefore of the company of the great proto-martyrs--of Sir Thomas More, in the same century, of St. Stephen, in the first century, of our era. And like them he brings perennial encouragement to hard-pressed men and women of to-day and to-morrow in a world where the fires of different kind of persecution have been lit, and other martyrs are sealing their faith with their blood. 
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6. BELL, Jonathan:  The Jenkins Genealogy states: "60 Jonathan Bell was born 14 February 1663 at Stamford, Connecticut, son of Jonathan Bell (120) and Mercy Crane (121) at Stamford, Connecticut.  He married Grace Kitchell (61), daughter of Samuel Kitchell (122) of Newark, New Jersey, and Grace Pierson (123), daughter of Rev. Abraham Pierson (246) and Abigail Wheelwright (247) 22 March 1693.  Their son Jonathan was born 15 January 1693-4 and Grace died in February at Stamford.  Lieut. Jonathan Bell died 11 March 1698."  So there seem to be a couple of competing Jonathan Bells.
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7. KNAP, Lydia:  The Harwood Genealogy says FIRST, "62 Jonathan Hait was born 11 January 1683, son of Samuel Hait (124) and Hannah Holly (125).  He married Melicent Penoyer (63), daughter of Thomas Penoyer (126) and Lydia Knap (127), daughter of Nicholas Knap (254) on 1 April 1710.  In his will, dated November 14, 1768, proved July 4, 1769, he mentioned his wife Melicent, sons Jonathan, Nathaniel, Samuel, Joseph and daughters Hannah, Lydia, and Melicent"; AND SECOND, "126 Thomas Penoyer was born 29 March 1658 at Stamford, son of Robert Penoyer (252) and Elizabeth ____ (253).  He married Lydia Knap (127), daughter of Roger Knap (254) and Elinor ____ (255).  She was born 1670 and died 1710."  So there seems to be a question re: her parentage, or perhaps there are at least 2 different Lydia Knaps, and ours must yet be proved.
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8. PIERSON, Rev. Abraham: If he died in 1678, then how could he have been appointed 1st Rector of Yale in 1701, as claimed by the Harwood Genealogy?
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9. THOMAS, Nathaniel:  The HARWOOD genealogy says FIRST, "Nathaniel Thomas was born 1643 at Marshfield.. See Willaim Thomas (#276?) at the end of the Harwood Genealogy for a possible parent.  He married 19 Jan 1663-4 Deborah Jacob (139), daughter of Nicholas Jacob (278) of Hingham and Mary ____ (279). She was born 26 November 1643 at Hingham, Plymouth Colony and died 15 June 1696. He died 22 October 1718.  He was deputy of Plymouth general court, 1672, 77, 82, 85, 90, 91; representative Massachusetts general court 1692; Chancellor 1693-1702; Associate Magistrate of Plymouth Colonial Court 1685, judge 1692-1702, chief justice 1702-12 of Plymouth Colonial Court of Common Pleas; Captain in King Phillips' War"; the JENKINS genealogy says SECOND, "276 Nathaniel Thomas, son of William Thomas and Abigail ____ . He married Deborah Jacob (277), daughter of Nicholas (278) and Mary Jacob (279), on 11 February 1663-4 [Ed.: or on January 19, 1663/64]. She was baptized at Hingham 26 November 1643. He died 5 January 1657 at Hingham [Ed: or on October 22, 1718].  He resided for a short time at Watertown, where he became a freeman in 1636. He returned to Hingham, which he represented in 1648 and 1649.   THEREFORE, serious discrepancies between the facts in this Jenkins genealogy and the Harwood genealogy; one must question whether the correct lineage has been identified.
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10. WHEELOCK, Rev. Ralph: (from Jenkins Genealogy) was born 14 May 1600 in Shropshire, England, son of Rev. Eleazar Wheelock and Sarah Davenport. He married 17 May 1630 Rececca [Ed.: Rebecca?] Clark who died 1 January 1680. He died 11 January 1684 at Medfield. He was an eminent non-conformist educated at Clare-Hall, in Cambridge and came to New England in 1637. He settled in Dedham and was made a freeman and was one of the founders of the church in 1638. He was a large land-owner of Medfield when it became a separate town, which he represented 1653, 1663, 1664, 1666, and 1667. He had sons, Benjamin, born in 1639; Samuel in 1642, and Elezar. [Ed.: what about our ancestor, Gershom? This casts some doubt on the veracity of this lineage.]
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11. MATOUSEK, George: George's sister, Mary, said the surname was in fact Matouskova.
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