WHITNEY-L Archives

Archiver > WHITNEY > 1999-05 > 0927916285


From: "Jeanne Muse" <>
Subject: [WHITNEY-L] Re: John Whitney of Watertown
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 14:31:25 -0400


Dear Merry: The Whitney group would be tickled to add your family to the
John & Elinor database. It would be good to join in the group first to help
you "fill in the blanks", as you said.

To join our Whitney Surname Discussion Group, send an email message to
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About the ancestry of John Whitney, nothing before his father, Thomas
Whitney, has been proven! In fact, some of the published records may be
completely false. Read what has been done so far in research by finding the
link on this page:

http://www.erols.com/rlward1/whitney/index.html

The group is in the middle of transcribing and putting on-line the ~entire~
book by Pierce that you said you couldn't find. The link to it is also on
the above page.

Nice to hear from another Whitney cousin!

;-) Jeanne W. Muse

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--Original Message--
Hi. My name is Merry Whitney. My family was via John Whitney's (the 16 year
old, born England 1620 & came here with his father, John born England 1589,
mother Elinor, born England 1599, brothers Richard b. 1626, Nathaniel b.
1627, Thomas b. 1629 & Jonathan, born 1634 in England); brothers Joshua
(b.1635 in Watertown; Caleb, b. & d. 1640, and Benjamin, b. 1643 were born
here after arrival on ship Elizabeth & Anne in 1635. John's son Nathaniel,
b. 1646, was my first ancestor born here. Nathaniel & his wife, Sarah Hager,
b. 1651, had 3 sons & 5 daughters; one of the sons, Samuel, baptized 1687,
married Anne Laboree Jan. 18, 1721 and had one son & 3 daughters; their son
Samuel, b. 1727, married Hannah Judson and had two sons, then married second
(Martha) after Hannah died of smallpox in 1760. Samuel & Hannah's first son,
James, b. 1753, d. 1841 was my great-great-great-grandfather. James & wife
Eunice Johnson (b. 1756) had 12 children; their son Zerah b.1784 married
Jane
Demond 2/19/1808 had six sons & one daughter; son Abraham Johnson Whitney b.
January 1820 married 3rd wife (I don't know what happened to first two,
Julia
Morse, then Virginia Chatterdon, I have no list of children, if any)
Franncess Bennett, born England, d. 1909. Abraham J. & Franncess Bennett
Whitney (there's supposedly a Frank Lloyd Wright connection to Franccess
Bennett, & we have copies of a childish scrawl in F.B. Whitney's scrap book
of "Anna Wright" & a bequest to Anna Wright in F.B.'s will), but A.J. & F.B.
Whitney had one son, my grandfather, Willard Johnson Whitney, b. Grand
Rapids, Michigan 12/12/1876; Gramps married Carrie Myrtle Fannaff, & they
had
one son (another child died in infancy), my father, Chester Gaylord Whitney,
b. 6/18/1901, married Marguerite Sigmon, b. 11/18/1898, d. 10/07/1954 in
1929
(my mom). My parents had three children, my brother Wyman Gaylord b.
12/28/29, d. 1968, my sister Geraldine b. 1/24/37 and me, Merry Janet
Whitney, b. 10/09/38.
I have parents & siblings, usually with siblings spouses, back to
James Whitney, who married Blanche Milburn (no b. or d. dates) & was
appointed Receiver of Newport by Henry VIII in 1522, but I'd love to fill in
a lot of blanks as well as to supply what I have wherever it might be
wanted.
There's a post on aol.com's genealogy site (familyhistory.com) that mentions
a book titled "Whitney: The Descendants of John Whitney Who arrived from
England in Watertown Mass" by Franklin Pierce, pub. 1895, but I could get no
recognition from either Amazon.com or barnesnoble.com; one of them pulled
endless titles by Franklin Pierce, the pre-Civil War President (who died in
1862 or 1867), nothing on John Whitney. Do you have a suggested reading
list?
Is there anything in the above that you'd be interested in an elaboration
on?
(sorry: I've been accused, if asked what time it is, of giving instructions
for the construction of a watch factory).
I live in Berwyn, Illinois and work as public relations director for
Cicero (IL) public library. I really thought the library was the end-all
when
it came to finding information -- then I found out my computer at home could
do stuff besides word processing. What a phenomenal tool!
Thank you very much for the information you've put on line. How do I
go about "joining forces" with the Whitney Research Group?
My e-mail address is: , and a second service,
(aol was really tough to get connected to between 6pm and
2
or 3am for a while).
P.S. The spelling on some of the above names is as it appears in my
ancestral
"tree." I suspect some of it may be typo or misspellings, but I'm not
certain so I've left it as is.

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