Tag: Violate Stockwell

52W Mark V – Week 19: Violate Stockwell

Violate Stockwell (1794-1880)

I’m amazed – it feels like it’s been months since I last posted, but I see it’s only been three weeks. Yay me.

I am, however, eight weeks behind in the  52 Ancestors Challenge. When I commented on that fact a week ago on Amy Johnson Crow’s Facebook group, Generations Cafe, her only response was “You know what I’m going to say.” Of course I did! I even have the receipt to prove it.

October 2024. Not the first time I received that reminder.

So let’s get a move on and talk about my Great x4 Grandmother, Violate Stockwell. She was born on October 10, 1794 in Windham, Vermont, to Abraham Stockwell and Vilate (Violette? Vierlaty?) Gale, who were both originally from Massachusetts. They were third cousins. Even outside their common ancestor, Abraham and Vilate both had deep roots in colonial New England going back to the 1600s.

If I have fancy-pants ancestors or famous cousins, many of them are through Violate. Violate’s Great x4 Grandmother was Rebecca Towne Nurse, one of the accused who was convicted and executed by hanging during the Salem Witch Trials. Violate is also a descendant of the Putnam family, whose members included some of the accusers at Salem. As well, since it’s the Fourth of July (otherwise known as “Saturday” here) while I am writing this, I might as well point out that Violate is a direct descendant of Richard Singletary, who is my Gx 10 Grandfather. Richard is Barack Obama’s Gx9 Grandfather. So the former President and I are 1oth cousins once removed. As far as I know, he’s the only US President I connect to.

While Violate’s parents were from Massachusetts, they married in New Hampshire. I don’t know if they met there or in Massachusetts. Their first two of seven children were born was the third of seven children. Violate, Abraham and Vilate’s third child, was born in Vermont, as were the next three children. The youngest child was born in Hartford, Washington, New York. There was a 27-year difference between the eldest and youngest child. Violate was 23 and had been married for five years when her youngest brother was born. This may have foreshadowed the age span of Violate’s own offspring, for there was a 22-year difference between her eldest and youngest child.

Violate married William Burgess, Sr., on May 1, 1813, in Putnam, New York. While Hartford and Putnam are both in Washington County, they are over 40 kilometers apart, so I have no idea how Violate met her husband.

Violate and William had 12 children together. In fact, Violate appears to be the one who has had the most children of all the women in my family tree. Violate was 18 when she married and gave birth to her first child, Harrison, a year later. The next five children, including my Gx3 Grandfather William Burgess, Jr. were all born in Putnam, while the next five were born in nearby Warren County, New York. The youngest, Vierlaty (or Vilate!), was born in 1837, in Kirtland, Ohio, after Violate and William joined the fledgling Mormon church. Violate was 42 years old when she had her last child.

Extract from William Snow’s Journal, in which he writes about baptizing Violate and William, and two of their children.

Violate and William, along with their second and third oldest children (aged 14 and 18 at the time), were baptized into the church on December 2, 1832. This makes them amongst the earliest converts to the church, as Joseph Smith had only published the Book of Mormon in 1830. In fact, the church founded by Smith was known merely as the “Church of Christ” until 1834 when it was renamed as the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints. They were all baptized by William Snow, who himself had only joined the church earlier in 1832.

Violate’s conversion, along with her husband and two children, came through her son Harrison’s involvement with the early Mormon church. According to Harrison’s diary, he first heard a Mormon missionary by the name of Simeon Carter in July 1832. Harrison converted and was baptized by Elder John S. Carter on Oct. 10, 1832 and confirmed as a member of the church by Elder Orson Pratt. Harrison described Violate as “a very gifted and talented mother and of a very religious nature.”

Violate and family joined the migration of Mormon adherents to Kirtland, settling there around September 1833. They remained there until about 1840, when they moved with the Latter Day Saints to Nauvoo, Illinois, which was to be a new Zion for the church.

However, tensions grew between the Mormons in Nauvoo and their neighbours elsewhere in the county, as well as the state. Matters culminated with the state revoking the city’s charter in 1845, followed by the expulsion of the Mormons in 1846. Brigham Young, by then the head of the church, called on church members to migrate west, beyond the western frontier of the United States into Utah, which was then still part of Mexico. Violate and family were part of that migration.

Due to the rushed departure from Nauvoo and the lateness of the season, in September 1846 the Mormons established a camp and waystation near what is now Omaha, Nebraska, known as Winter Quarters. While it essentially began as a refugee camp, it quickly evolved into a small organized town. Despite that, conditions were rough and there were waves of disease that took their toll. The Latter Day Saints vacated Winter Quarters by December 1848.

Violate and family were in Winter Quarters for most of its existence. Two of her children died during their time there. The family set out from Winter Quarters in 1848 destined for Utah, in a party of 662 individuals led by Heber C. Kimball, who was essentially Brigham Young’s right hand man. Violate and family arrived in Salt Lake City in September 1848 and settled in the 16th ward. Violate was 53 years old by that time.

Compared to the tumultuous events that marked Violate’s life from her conversion in 1832 to her arrival in Salt Lake City in 1848, the next 32 years of her life were relatively quiet. So much so that I have little indication of her activities, which presumably were centered around the home and domestic life.

Perhaps the most significant events during that time was Violate’s husband entering into a polygamous marriage in 1854 and the family’s move to Pine Valley, Utah in 1861 at the direction of the church. Coincidentally enough, the first bishop of Pine Valley was William Snow, the man who had baptized Violate into the church.

Violate died in Pine Valley on July 21, 1880, aged 85, having outlived nearly half of her children, and predeceasing her husband by only four months. Violate is buried at the Pine Valley Cemetery.

52W Mark II – Week 23: So Many Descendants

The theme for this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge is “So Many Descendants”. The approach I’ve chosen to take is to look at immediate descendants – children only – rather than foray into who in my tree might have the most grandchildren and beyond.

That said, I will take a moment to note my great x10 grandfather, Dirck Jansz. Dirck is the furthest back I’ve traced my direct paternal line, “van der Fluit”. One of my projects has been to find all known descendants of Dirck, a project which of course is nigh impossible and will never finish. That said, I’ve found about 864 direct descendants of Dirck.

Onward and upward, Dirck.

Of course, the person with the most children in my tree is a father. My great great grandfather, Horace Burgess, had nineteen children. He had nine children with his first wife, my great great grandmother Sarah Cook. Their eight child, and youngest son, was Milton Leo Burgess, my great grandfather. After Sarah died, Horace remarried, to Julia Josephine Lundquist, with whom he had ten children.

The woman in my family tree who appears to have had the most children is Horace’s paternal grandmother, Violate Stockwell. Violate and my great x 4 grandfather, William Burgess Sr., had 12 children, including my great x 3 grandfather William Jr. Violate had her first child, Harrison Burgess, a year after she married William. Violate was 19-years-old when Harrison was born. Violate was 42 when her last child, Vilate, was born. There is a 22-year difference between Harrison and Vilate. In fact, Harrison had been married for two years when his youngest sister was born.

Forget about so many descendants – so many kids! I highly doubt Harrison was put to work helping his mother with his younger siblings. I’m willing to bet that task fell upon the eldest of his sisters, Rosina, who was four years younger than Harrison. Needless to say, times have changed. My mother absolutely put me, the eldest of five, to work helping her with the household and with my younger siblings. It certainly provided me with plenty of life skills I am grateful to have.

52 Weeks – Week 37: High and Low

Highs and lows bring to mind the Guinness Book of World Records. So for this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge, I thought I’d consider some of the superlatives in my family tree. Bear in mind that this is for entertainment purposes only, because some of these superlatives have not been sufficiently researched or verified such that they can be taken as fact.

Here’s a high: Mount Baker, Washington

I cannot verify with certainty the longevity of the few centenarians in my database. According to my database, my longest-lived ancestor died at age 110. I don’t believe that for a second, so I won’t even name them. The person for whom I have at least a scintilla of information regarding their longevity is Joseph Metz, my first cousin three times removed. According to his headstone, as seen on Find a Grave, Joseph lived to be about 102 or 103. The longest-lived person in my database with the most reliable information regarding their lifespan is my fourth cousin three times removed, Fern Renner. She was better known to the world as Fern Welk, as she was married to the well-known band leader, Lawrence Welk.

My relative who was the oldest on their wedding day was my great great great uncle, Samuel Nelson, who married for the fourth time when he was 77. The bride, Cecilie Anderson, was 62. Samuel lived to be 93, making him one of my longer lived relatives.

The newlyweds, Hazel Nelson and Albert Beaves, about July 5, 1967.

My great grandmother, Hazel Nelson, married for a second time at age 67, not quite two months before she passed away. Her husband, Albert Beaves, was also a widower marrying for the second time. Albert was 85 years old at the time. He lived another nine years after Hazel’s death. Albert died when he was 94.

While Samuel Nelson had been married four times, the record for most marriages is my 7x great uncle, Archelaus Kenney, who apparently married five times. Not even any of the Mormon polygamists in my tree married that many times. However, I have not verified any of Archelaus’s marriages.

Otherwise, Samuel’s record was tied by his younger brother, my great great grandfather, John Alexander Nelson. However, while it appears that Samuel had been widowed each time he remarried, John was a polygamist. Another ancestor, my great x3 grandfather, Henry Lyman Cook, was also a polygamist who married four times. Other polygamist ancestors, including my great x3 grandfathers William Burgess, Jr. and Preston Thomas, only married three times.

A bunch of polygamists: John A. Nelson, Henry L. Cook, William Burgess Jr., Preston Thomas.

It probably comes as no surprise that the women in my family tree have had fewer multiple marriages than the men. I can find few examples of women who married more than twice. One of the exceptions is my great x4 grandmother, Louisa Thomas, who married three times. Her first husband, Lazarus Beakley, died a year or two after they married, when Louisa was around 24 or 25 years old. Louisa’s second husband, my great x4 grandfather Conrad Liggett, died 18 months after they married, when Louisa was 26. Louisa married again at age 29, to Aaron Cook. Unfortunately, that was another short-lived marriage, as Louisa died when she was 35.

Of course, with marriage there are often children. Of course, the person with the most children in my tree is a father. My great great grandfather, Horace Burgess, had nineteen children. He had nine children with his first wife, my great great grandmother Sarah Cook. Their eight child and youngest son was Milton Leo Burgess, my great grandfather. After Sarah died, Horace remarried, to Julia Josephine Lundquist, with whom he had ten children.

The woman in my family tree who appears to have had the most children is Horace’s paternal grandmother, Violate Stockwell. Violate and my great x 4 grandfather, William Burgess Sr., had 12 children, including my great x 3 grandfather William Jr, who had 12 children with three different wives.

Delving far from what I’ve established through the genealogical proof standard, the earliest occurrence of a surname in my direct lineage is de Fleg, which dates back to the 10th century, through my 9x great grandfather Thomas Flegg. My connection to Thomas is through Henry Lyman Cook. While I have done a pretty good job at demonstrating my connection to Henry, I have not really done much work on his ancestry beyond the basics.

Here’s a low: standing a meter below sea level in Waarland, Netherlands

I realize that in this examination of superlatives, I have only considered the highs. Of course, considering the people in my tree who are at the opposite end of most of the categories I have discussed are in the multiples. The one category that might lend itself to reasonable consideration of the low end is the surname that might be the opposite end of earliest occurrence. In other words, the surnames I have traced the least far back in time. I’ve identified all 32 of my great x3 grandparents. It is the next generation where I face my first brick walls. I am missing nine of my 64 great x4 grandparents, all on my maternal grandmother’s side of the family. They are all Germans from Russia, who are particularly difficult to research. These lines trace back to settlements in what is now Ukraine, when it was part of the Russian Empire.

Genealogy: all the highs and lows are fascinating!