Who is my granddaddy?

Dear Kinfolk,

Are we descendents of the Mayflower pilgrims?

It got a little exciting today as I traced our Guernsey lineage to John Alden and Priscilla Mullins.  Do you remember in school studying Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH?   Well, it now has some special meaning.

Priscilla Mullins is known to literary history as the love of newly widowed Miles Standish.  According to the poem, Standish asked his good friend John Alden to propose to Priscilla, on his behalf, only to have Priscilla ask, “why don’t you speak for yourself, John?”  Longfellow must have known the story first hand, as he was a direct descendant of John and Priscilla.  (Information taken from Wikipedia.)

Priscilla was most likely born in Dorking in Surrey, England, the daughter of William and Alice Mullins.  She was a seventeen-year-old girl when she boarded the Mayflower with her parents.  When I checked the passenger list of the Mayflower, it listed John Alden, Priscilla Mullins, her parents William and Alice Mullins and her brother Joseph.  Unfortunately, her parents and brother died the first winter in Plymouth.  John and Priscilla were reported to be the third marriage in the Plymouth Colony of Pilgrims.

John Alden and Priscilla Mullins

So, what is our Guernsey lineage to John and Priscilla?  You must follow our paternal line of Elmer Guernsey (James, John) to James Garnsey, born 1758.  Then we trace his maternal lineage, his mother Elizabeth Bowen, his grandmother Barbara Martin, his great grand mother March Thurber*, his gg grandmother Priscilla Alden and his ggggrandmother Priscilla Mullins.

*I have to admit the weakest link in this research was Marcy Thurber,  our 7-g grandmother.  Checking Ancestry.com I found four different family trees showing Marcy as the daughter of John and Priscilla.  Then I found four family trees that omitted Marcy’s name.  I will continue to search for birth certificates, records, etc.  Your help would be appreciated, someday we may be listed as Descendents of the Mayflower!

John Alden - Mayflower - Plymouth

The picture at the top of my blog was taken in my backyard.  In the past week we have had two major snow storms.  The picture below shows the same scene today.

Backyard and frozen lake

Hope you are well and warm,

Jim

Dear Family,

Who is my granddaddy or whom am I part of???

The fun part of genealogy search is finding the different ancestors we are  part of.

For a starter let’s look at our Grandmother Madelena HONDERICK Guernsey’s lineage.  Madelena was born 4 Jan. 1865, Lee County Iowa, died 4 Dec. 1909 in Strong City, Oklahoma.  She married Grandfather Elmer Nov. 9, 1891 in McCracken Kansas.

The picture below is of the four daughters of Madelena and Elmer Guernsey.

L to R, Luella Guernsey Caffey, Alida Lena Guernsey Anderson, Minnie Guernsey Innes and Pauline Guernsey (never married).

Madelena’s grandfather Christian Honderick was born around 1805.  He was of PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH parentage.  His grandparents came to America from HOLLAND. Christian and his wife Mageliene Gingerich from FRANCE, had nine children.

Their son, John Honderick would be our G–Grandfather.  John and his wife Elizabeth King, and his father Christian were part of American History.  In their home there was a secret room where they could hide runaway slaves.  Christian was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a term used popularly in the United States to name a system by which escaped slaves were secretly helped to exit the Northern States by sympathetic Northerners before the Civil War.  Could your compassion for others have come from Christian and Mageliene Gingerich, Madelena’s grandparents?

Cousin Dorothy Lee and Curt Jr. discovered in their research that we are part AMISH.  In the book The Mennonites in Iowa by Melvin Gingerich, it mentions Christian Haundrich who came from Ohio in 1847.

Also AMISH was John King, he came from GERMANY and he was the father of Elizabeth King Honderick, our G.Grandmother, (Madelena’s mother).  Enjoy your new AMISH geneaology.

Cousin Dorothy also said that our G– Grandmother Lena Saulsman sounded JEWISH.  She had no proof of that, but she thought that might be where her nose came from.  I will leave that research up to one of you.

Below is another picture of the children of Madelena and Elmer Guernsey.  The picture is from their farm, the only ones I am sure of are Curt Guernsey (with the hat) and Pauline (the baby).  Mike was not born yet.

Children of Madelena and Elmer Guernsey

Hope this helps you figure out who you are part of.  Any feedback or corrections would be appreciated.

Jim Lee