Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 13:01:55 -0600 (MDT) From: Stoughton Bell X-Sender: sto@chaco.cs.unm.edu To: all bells Subject: ancestors here follows an 'ancestor' list - granted, it is narrowly oriented towards MY children and grandchildren - and, i have left out an enormous amout of detail, but i thought you all might enjoy reading my fun - and, Mark, i garnered this info from public libraries and the massachusetts historical society . . . speaking of the historical society reminds me of an amusing note: after visiting my pa in orleans, mass, more than 25 years ago, i was on a flight from boston to denver and i couldn't ( honestly, i couldn't ) help seeing the name, hester mahieu, in a folder that the man on my left was reading - i introduced myself and told him that one of my grandmothers was named hester mahieu - we quickly realized that we shared her as an ancestor - she was born in canterbury, england, and married francis cooke in leiden, holland - to escape the prejudice of the 'mainstream' english, many of the pilgrims migrated to leiden where hester married francis cooke on june 30, 1603 - and from leiden, many returned to plymouth, england and from there, "as we all know", left for the new world - francis sailed in 1620 on the mayflower and hester followed in 1623 on the anne - well, back to airplane - my fellow passenger, whose name i used to know but have forgotten - i could find it if i wanted to, since he was a mormon and was the computing center director at brigham young univ AND i was then the computing center director at the university of new mexico - small world - so - francis and hester, sometime before 1613, begat jane cooke who, sometime after may 23, 1627, married experience mitchell and they, in 1629(?), begat elizabeth mitchell who, in 1645, married john washburn II and they, in 1646, begat john washburn III who, in 1679 married rebecca lapham and they, in ?, begat rebecca washburn who, in 1719, married david johnson ( captain to you - out of hingham, mass - i have visited his grave there ) and they, in 1734, begat rebecca johnson who, in 1756, married ezra edson and, in 1785, they begat zidon edson whom you will meet later . . . last anecdote, DIShonestly, hannah prescott was killed by indians in lancaster, mass, in the year of our lord 1696. back in 1660, in the aforementioned lancaster, she married john rugg and they, in 1678, begat daniel rugg who, in 1704, married elizabeth priest and they, in 1705, begat john rugg who, in 1741, married lydia fletcher and they, in 1752, begat levi rugg who, in 1775, married relief whitcomb and they, in 1776, begat abigail rugg who, in 1798, married james ross and they, in 1809, begat james ross who, in 1832, married almira edson and they, in 1841, begat charles e ross who, in 1870, married emily langdon and they begat florence e ross who married conrad bell and they begat stoughton bell - whew! one more anecdote, honestly, in 1634 in scotland, was born james ross who, in 1658 in sudbury, mass, married mary goodenow and they, in 1707, the VERY year that she was SCALPED by indians, begat thomas ross who, in 1707, married anna ? and they, in 1711, begat james ross, later deacon ross, who, in 1737, married abigail buss and they, in 1743, begat james ross, later deacon ross, who, in 1766, married phebe gary and they, in 1771, begat james ross who, in 1798, married abigail rugg whom you met above . . . i quit - too much work left undone - --------------------------------------------------------------------- Stoughton Bell - mercoledi 30 agosto 1995 10:32 A.M. This is file: edson Number of Number of Generations Grandparents in Thomas Edson's generation 0 0 Thomas Edson b. 1480 Adderbury, Oxfordshire 1 0 Richard Edson d. 1558 ? 2 2 Thomas Edson d. 1587 Fillongley, Warwickshire 3 4 Thomas Edson II m. Elizabeth Copson 1596 4 8 Samuel Edson b. 1612 ?, England 5 16 Samuel Edson II b. 1648 Salem, Mass. 6 32 Samuel Edson III b. 1690 Bridgewater, Mass. 7 64 Ezra Edson b. 1730 Bridgewater, Mass. 8 128 Ezra Edson II b. 1759 Bridgewater, Mass. 9 256 Zidon Edson b. 1785 Grafton, Vt. 10 512 Almira Edson b. 1811 10 512 James Ross m. Almira Edson 1832 11 1024 Charles E. Ross b. 1841 12 2048 Conrad Bell m. Florence Emily Ross 1908 13 4096 Stoughton b. 1923 14 8192 Karen, Mark, Nathaniel, Joshua 15 16384 Eric, Ethan, Courtney, Sean Averaging more than 4 children per marriage, and most of these families did, Thomas Edson had at least ( CLEARLY not distinct ) ( 4^16 - 4 ) / ( 4 - 1 ) = 1,431,655,764 offspring, of whom ( roughly speaking ) 4^15 = 1,073,741,824 are "alive" today and YOU are one of them. If these alives were distinct, then, approximately one fifth of the persons on the planet today could call Thomas Edson of Adderbury grandfather.