52 Ancestors 2020 – 3 – Long Line – Joseph Kimball

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 8^th 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.

Some of My Immigrant Ancestors

(with probable immigration information)

Name	Gen #	Ship	From	To	Date
Thomas Blossom	13	Mayflower (not 1620)	England	Plymouth	1629
Richard Kimball	13	Elizabeth	England	Boston MA	1634
Henry Kimball	12	Elizabeth	England	Boston MA	1634
William Law	12	Planter	England	MA	1635
Maximilian Jewett	12	John of London	England	Boston MA	1638
Henry Reynolds	10	Kent	England	Burlington NJ	1676
William Clayton	11	Kent	England	Pennsylvania	1677
William Woolman	12	Shield	England	Burlington NJ	1678
John Borton	12	Griffin	England	NJ	1679
Benjamin Acton	10	Lion/Lyon	England	Salem, NJ	1683
Ludwig Falk	4	Wieland	Posen/Bremen	Baltimore	1858

Are any of you related to these men? Maybe we can compare and share information.

Ancestor Birthday - January 18th - Mary Wicom 1679/80–1741/42

Although I'm posting a blog about Mary today, January 18th probably isn't her birthday, but it was the date of her baptism or christening in 1679/80. Her birthday most likely was within the week before January 18th. I found that 6 of her 9 children have both birth and baptism dates recorded and all the dates are less than a week apart.

In genealogical classes we are taught to research women in the past by looking at the men in their lives: father, husband, brother, or son. Mary is mentioned in the book, Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts by George Brainard Blodgette and Amos Everett Jewett on page 172 in the entry for her husband, Jonathan Jewett, who she married 24 Jan 1679/1700. She is also mentioned as a child of her parents, John Wicom and Abigail Kimball, on page 409. Her children are named as a part of Jonathan's entry on page 173.

Going back 300 years to 1717, we could find Mary alive, living on Bradford Street in Rowley with her husband Jonathan, who was a tanner.  By 1717, 7 of her 9 children had been born. Before her death on 21 Jan 1741/42, the 9 children had been born, all living to adulthood and 8 were already married. One son, Jedidiah, had graduated from Harvard College in 1726 and then was ordained in 1729 and became the minister at First Congregational Church in Rowley.  Do you suppose she was more regular in attendance when her son was the minister?

There were at least 20 grandchildren born before her death, so we can imagine she enjoyed those babies and children. Mary died in Exeter, New Hampshire "while there visiting."  It is probable she was visiting her son Moses and family who lived there. Maybe she wanted to see the grandchild who was born in 1740.