Ancestor Birthday - October 1 - John Howe 1732

John Howe was my 5th gt-grandfather, born 1 Oct 1732, in Wallingford, the Colony of Connecticut. John's parents were Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Gaylord) Howe. The Howe Genealogies published in 1929 listed 11 siblings for John with at least 6 of his siblings living long enough to be married. It showed that 4 died as young children.

In the History of the town of Goshen, Connecticut a listing of marriages showed that John married twice: 1 Apr 1756 to Mary Wadhams and on 15 Apr 1766 to Lydia Norton. After he and Mary had 4 children: Mary, Experience, Anna and Deliverance, Mary died 30 Sept 1765.

John and Lydia had 7 children: John, Ichabod (my 4th gt-grandfather), Isaac, Luman, Daniel, Seth, and Lydia.

Since I had not found a death date for John, I checked some of the family trees on Ancestry.com. It was easy to see that one which said he died in 1736 was incorrect. But one gave a date of 1781 in Canaan Connecticut. The Howe Genealogies stated that John had moved to Canaan in 1766, apparently after his marriage to Lydia. The youngest child was born about 1779, so this date was plausible. Most researchers have left his death date blank, so I probably will also until I find some evidence about when and where he died.

Ancestor Birthday - Lydia Norton - 5 March 1739/40

Lydia Norton was a 5th great-grandmother of mine. I seem to have very little information about her. Her entry on my website shows that she was born on 5 Mar 1739/40 in Durham, Connecticut, the daughter of Isaac Norton. She married John Howe, the son of Jeremiah Howe and Elizabeth Gaylord, on 15 Apr 1766. There is one child listed for her: Ichabod Howe. And that is all that is there.

What more can I tell about her?

Well, I can add her mother's name: Mary Rockwell.

From her father's will: she had at least 4 brothers: Silvanus, Isaac Jr, Aaron and Joel.

and she had at least 4 sisters: Abigail, Mary, Anna and Deborah.

Her marriage was recorded at Goshen, Litchfield County, Connecticut.

She was John's second wife, so became a step-mother to at least 2, maybe 4 young children.

The birth of her first child, John, was recorded at Goshen.

Her second son Ichabod was said to have been born in Canaan, Litchfield County, Connecticut.

She probably had about 7 children.

Now there needs to be some effort on my part to get this information entered into my database so it can be uploaded to my website.

But as seems to often be the case from this time period, I don't have information about her death. I need to keep looking.

Ancestor Birthday - February 17 - Jeremiah Howe - 1705-1783

Jeremiah Howe, my 6th great-grandfather, was born over 300 year ago, on 17 Feb 1704/05 in the town of Wallingford, Connecticut. I believe he was the son of Jeremiah Howe (born 1675) and Judah Cook. His father and mother were married 20 Apr 1704, ten months before Jeremiah was born. They had a daughter named Judah, who was born 22 Oct 1706. Jeremiah's mother died 20 Mar 1708 when he was only three years old. His father remarried about 3 1/2 months later to Mary Cook, a widow. In the next few years Jeremiah became the older brother to four half-siblings.

At age 25, Jeremiah married Elizabeth Gailor or Gaylord on 11 Mar 1730. They continued living in Wallingford for the births of their first eleven children, but between Oct 1746 and Oct 1748 they moved about 40 miles northwest to the fairly new town of Goshen. It had been settled about 1739 and soon after Jeremiah and Elizabeth moved there and their 12th child had been born the town was incorporated in 1749. Jeremiah lived in Goshen through the Revolutionary War times and died there 20 Nov 1783.

A family story has been handed down that our Howe family was related to the British General Howe from the Revolutionary War. However, Jeremiah's grandfather was born in the Connecticut Colony in 1650, a hundred twenty-five years before the War. If there is any relationship, it would be distant, so I won't worry about it now.