My Mayflower Ancestry - Part 2

Seven Graves and a Lot of Connections

A great deal of genealogy research is about shaking the tree to see what falls out. Experience helps, but sometimes you just work on a hunch until you can prove it or disprove it. Any genealogy web site with a search engine that stands as much as on the periphery of the topic domain is ripe for exploration. And web sites that are close to what you’re exploring are obvious targets. The Saratoga NY GenWeb site was one of those web sites in my search. All of the people in the branch of the family that I was researching lived in Saratoga County. And as I explored all of these resources, one piece of reference documentation kept popping up. It was a compilation of epitaphs from the tombstones of small cemeteries, both public rural cemeteries and small family cemeteries located on private property. This compilation was published in 1878, so the author, Cornelius Emerson Durkee, was able to extract the epitaphs while the tombstones were still in readable condition. This compilation is called “Some of Ye Epitaphs In Saratoga Co. N.Y.” or simply  “Durkee’s Epitaphs”. References to this work can be found on genealogy web sites as well as in family trees on ancestry.com and on findagrave.com.

Finding a single grave that you’re searching for in an old reference document such as this is by itself a big win. But when you find an entire cemetery with nothing but your relatives, it’s nearly amazing. This is what I found by searching “Durkee’s Epitaphs”. And it became the most important point in this research of connecting Mary Wilcox Wyatt to William Wilcox and Mary Stevens Wilcox. It seemed that every time a point was raised that cast doubt on the veracity of a claim, simply referencing the cemetery and the people buried there made the doubt of the claim seem very unlikely. The three most important people buried there are Mary Stevens Wilcox, Mary Wilcox Wyatt and John Wyatt. This cemetery is known as The Wyatt Cemetery because it was located behind the farmhouse and on the property that the Wyatt family lived with Mary Stevens Wilcox until her death in 1847. With the knowledge of Mary Stevens living with her daughter and son-in-law in her elder years, it is not surprising that we find these three people buried together in the private family cemetery on the property. But there are seven people buried there. They are

Mary Stevens Wilcox
Mary Wilcox Wyatt
John Wyatt
Elisabeth Wyatt
John B. Wyatt
George Miller
Alice A. St. John.

At first blush, we see that there are other Wyatt family members buried there. Since I had already done a great deal of research on the family, I knew who these people were straight away. But research using just the U.S. Census and the New York State Census reveals most of these people and further research with online resources discovers the rest. Instead of writing out who these folks are in longhand, I will let the picture say a thousand words.

There are seven people highlighted in this extended family chart. They are the seven people buried in the Wyatt cemetery. They are people from 5 generations of the family starting with the matriarch, Mary Stevens Wilcox. The biggest reinforcement of the assertion that this is a family cemetery of closely related people, at least for me, is the burial of Alice A. St. John there. Her grandmother was Angelica Wyatt Petitt, my 3-times great-grandmother and the granddaughter of Mary Stevens Wilcox.

In my documentation to The Society, I concluded my discussion of the Wyatt cemetery with the following statement.

This small cemetery is the tie that binds this family together through 5 generations. To discount the importance of this cemetery is to state that these people had no relationship and through shear fate they found their final resting place in a 7 plot cemetery behind a farmhouse in rural Schuylerville, N.Y. It is not random. It is not coincidence. They were a family in life and they are buried together in death.

I cannot overstate the importance of this cemetery, not just in this quest to establish Mayflower heritage, but as a memorial to the ancestors that were responsible for an enormous family tree, of which, I am just one member.

Other Contributing Facts

There are other facts associated with the proof that Mary Wilcox Wyatt was the daughter of Mary Stevens Wilcox. One of these facts simply verifies that her maiden name was indeed Mary Wilcox. This was verified by the discovery of the death certificate of George Wyatt from the State of Michigan. Therein it states that the name of his father was John Wyatt and the maiden name of his mother was Mary Wilcox. This is one of the cases where a physical document comes through in a big way. To find certificates of birth, death or marriage that contain the maiden names of mothers pushes the genealogical search along with greater ease.

Other breadcrumbs that help establish the picture include the 1850 census showing George Miller living with John Wyatt, the 1840 census showing 1 “Free White Persons – Females – 80 thru 89” living in the John Wyatt household (Mary Stevens Wilcox would have been 83 at the time), and even the postmark on the envelope sent by William Wilcox Jr. showing the post office as Pike, NY, which is 9 miles from his residence in Eagle, NY, that fact confirmed by the census showing him living there.

Further bolstering the assertion of relation between William Wilcox and Mary Wilcox Wyatt is the discovery of an old family document held by a descendant of William Wilcox Jr. which names the descendants and establishes an important relationship. In describing Mary Wilcox Wyatt, the author of the document refers to her as “great aunt Mary Wilcox a sister of greatgrandfather”. Though not a legal document, it is old and contains information similar to that of a family bible. The part of the page referring to the Wilcox genealogy is included here. The remainder of the page contains information on another branch of the document owner’s family.

And when the entire picture is sown together, it results in the family tree descending from Francis Cooke and Richard Warren down to myself. It’s been a long project, but worth the results of finding my family roots.

My Mayflower Ancestry - Part 1

Introduction and the Connection to Sir Winston

My story of Mayflower heritage started 14 years ago when I decided to look into my own ancestry. My goal was to simply discover who my direct ancestors were since I wasn't even in possession of that information. I was quite pleased to make it back to my 3rd great grandparents since I had never known about anyone further back than great grandparents. But as I researched further, I discovered the parents of my 3rd great grandmother including the maiden name of her mother, Wilcox. It was intriguing since the name Wilcox was famously debated in Mayflower ancestry as I came to find out. It was involved in a tussle about a specific famous person, Sir Winston Churchill.

The debate revolves around the descendants of Francis Cooke and Richard Warren, both Mayflower passengers. Francis' son John, who was also a Mayflower passenger, married Sarah Warren, Richard's daughter. The daughter from their union, Elizabeth Cooke, married Daniel Wilcox, the person around whom the debate swirls. The assertion that created the turmoil was that Sir Winston was a Mayflower descendant. And the crux of the issue is that Elizabeth was Daniel's second wife. He had a son, Daniel Wilcox, Jr., by, who the General Society of Mayflower Descendants contends, is his son from his first wife. And Sir Winston descended from that bloodline, making him a step-descendant in the Mayflower line  (and in matters relating to the family lines of Mayflower descendants, the findings of "The Society" are the gold standard). All of the children resulting from the union of Daniel Wilcox and Elizabeth Cooke are Mayflower descendants. And it is from that line that my heritage descends. A nice discussion regarding this connection is documented on a website about Churchill written by his grandson, Winston S. Churchill.

Let the Research Begin

This ancestry is not a well-documented lineage all the way down to myself or my father or grandfather. The Society has documented five generations of Mayflower descendants which includes William Wilcox, the great-grandson of Daniel Wilcox. For any person who would like to join The Society, it is incumbent upon them to establish the lineage from themselves to the person known by The Society to be a Mayflower descendant.

After researching the ancestry extensively, I decided that I could not come to a conclusion on my own. There were just too many differing versions of who descended from whom. There is much speculation and undocumented optimism in genealogy and this results in many different family tree structures being generated by amateur genealogists, among whom, I count myself. I didn't want to add to the unsubstantiated confusion by coming up with my own speculative family tree structure. The best way to conclude this one way or the other was to contact The Society. Anyone can apply to The Society without absolute proof of a connection to a Mayflower passenger. If the case cannot be made, you're not a descendant. That's that.

The Society responded with the appropriate documentation, which included the known descendants from Francis Cooke and Richard Warren, all the way to William Wilcox, who married Mary (Molly) Stevens. A vertical pedigree chart for William Wilcox, based on the information provided to me, would look like this.

William Wilcox and  Mary Stevens had eight children. Of these eight, only one had been documented as a Mayflower descendant by The Society. That was William Wilcox, Jr. That documentation came in the form of the application for pension by his mother, the widow Wilcox, held by the National Archives, which includes a handwritten letter from William Jr. in which he described his recollection of his father, a soldier in The War for Independence. Within other documents contained in this dossier, William Jr. states that he was one of eight children but did not provide the names of any of his siblings. It's a fortunate thing for those who descended from William Jr. to apply to The Society as they only need prove their lineage to William Jr. And it's a straight-forward matter for The Society as well. Solid, well documented cases like this will result in a much expedited membership.

Collecting and Examining the Puzzle Pieces

So it was obvious that a quick membership is not what I was in for. Since I had traced my lineage back to my 4th great grandmother, Mary Wilcox, who married and became the wife of John Wyatt, this was the place for me to start. The Society does not have a documentation trail for every person that could be a Mayflower descendant. Only those who have taken the time to establish this paper trail. Documentation trails are the preferred mechanism of proof since things like records of birth, baptism, marriage and death often contain maiden names and the names of father and mother with the mother’s maiden name as well. It's simply a matter of following the links in the chain. It's certainly the way that I would prefer it to be. But it didn't work out that way. But I had something that I thought was very powerful that could provide a circumstantial case for lineage that would be a part of a proof that I could present to The Society. And they did accept circumstantial cases. But you had better come with good evidence.

Starting this journey would have been much more difficult if I had nothing of substance to drive me in the direction of a solution. But I did. It began with the pension application which Molly Wilcox started when she was 88 years old. At that time, she was living in Schuylerville, NY with one of her children. She had lived in Schuylerville since about 1800, so when her children moved out and moved around, she chose to stay at home. But at that old age, she could not take care of herself anymore. And the child that she stayed with her was not her son William Jr. He had moved away to Eagle, NY in Wyoming County, west of The Finger Lakes. He wrote his deposition for the pension committee and sent it back to the person handling the pension matter for his mother. That person was his sister and brother-in-law. Documentation such as pension applications from past wars are stored at the National Archives. Apparently, they save everything. Including the envelope that he used to mail his deposition.

And the letter that William Jr. wrote to the pension committee regarding his father did not contain any information about other members of his family. But it had something just as powerful. Since he was sending this correspondence to his family back in Schuylerville, he decided to include a personal note to them at the end of the deposition. He stated (transcribed just as it appears in the letter):

"a word to John and Mary my health is fine I had a fit of sickness last month I have not Recovered it being troubled with infection of the lungs -- I have Rarely been out this winter I hope these will find you and yours in health I wish to see my friends in Saratoga I proposed in my mind to come there next fall if the Lords willing -- tell Mother I am numbered with the Living -- pleas forward this to the man who is filing the pension"

So, he sent this deposition back to John Wyatt, the husband of Mary Wilcox Wyatt, since they were handling the pension application, and he refers specifically to "mother" in the letter, a personal reference to his mother and Mary Wyatt's mother, Molly Stevens Wilcox who in her infirmity was living with her daughter and son-in-law. All of this could just be speculation on my part as there are several different ways this could be interpreted. I will, however, go on to provide even more evidence that will close the case definitively.