I have chosen to interpret this topic by choosing the
sibling from this birthday week who was born the longest time ago.
Joseph Kimball, an 8th great-granduncle of
mine won this contest. Joseph was born a little over 350 years ago on
20 January 1661/62 in Wenham, Massachusetts. Of course at that time
it was not a state, but a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Joseph was the son of Henry and Mary (Riddlesdale)
Kimball. Henry was probably still a teenager when the family
immigrated to the Colonies from Rattlesden, Suffolk, England in 1634
on the ship Elizabeth. Henry was the son of Richard and Ursula
(Scott) Kimball. So of course they were Joseph's grandparents. They
first settled at Watertown and Henry and Mary were married by 1641.
They moved to Ipswich about 1646 and then to Wenham about ten years
later. My ancestor, Abigail Kimball, was born about 1652 at Ipswich
and Joseph was born after they had moved.
It helps when a family history has been written and has
been placed online at familysearch.org: The History of the Kimball
Family in America. Also on the New England Historic
Genealogical Society website, AmericanAncestors.org, there is a
sketch for Henry Kimball in the Early New England Families
1641-1700 by Alicia Crane Williams, Lead Genealogist. However
there is a conflict in the information given. The family history
gives the name of Joseph's wife as Elizabeth Needham. This is the
wife shown in the findagrave.com memorial. They probably used the
family history. However in Early New England Families, it
states “More study is needed re the identification of Elizabeth,
wife of Joseph Kimball.” There seems to be some problems with the
Needham choice and it suggests she might be Elizabeth Halsey. So at
present all I can say is that her name was Elizabeth.
According to the family history, Joseph and Elizabeth
had two children born in Boston:
Joseph born 24 Feb 1701 and died in 1767
Mary born 27 May1703
My “Uncle Joseph” is said to have died in 1713, as
the family history notes that “Administration on the estate of
Joseph KIMBALL, mariner, was granted to his brother-in-law, Ezekiel
NEEDHAM, 14 Apr 1713.” This is the reason that Elizabeth's name has
been given as Needham. But Ms Williams explains that Ezekiel's sister
had married someone else, so Ezekiel could be a brother-in-law
through other relatives.
When you are researching relatives who lived that long
ago, we often use published family histories. However, we must
always remember there may be errors. Our goal is to get back as close
as possible to the original records, whether or not it is easy to do.
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