Happy 237th birthday, Grandmother Simons!  

Thankful Isham [my 5 times great grandmother] was born on 21 March 1752 to Timothy and Rebecca Fuller Isham in Bolton, Connecticut.   She married Jonathan Simons and the couple had nine children:  Thankful, Hannah, Abigail, Judah, Silas, Mercy (1771) [my 4 times great grandmother], Mary (1779), Timothy (1780), and Rebecca (1782).  

For many years Grandmother Thankful Isham Simons was my personal brick wall in discovery.  I could not move beyond her.  Then this past summer, through DNA testing, I saw a match on MyHeritage DNA to a distant cousin (30.5 cM, 2 segments) with the surname of Isham.  I contacted him hoping he would be my link.   He replied (first point of being Thankful) that there was no one in his database by that name.  But, there was a rather well documented family history of the Isham family available on Amazon (second point of being Thankful).  I found the book — it was over $100.00 (not quite so Thankful because I was not willing to spend that much on a book of unknown value to my research).   I then set up a Google Search — I found the same book on eBay for $30 (Very Thankful, I could do that even if it was a dead end).  I BOUGHT IT!  Grandmother was in it (THANKFUL !!) and it was really well documented with probate records and church records.  Investigating her parents, Timothy Isham and Rebecca Fuller led me to the New England Historical and Genealogical Society printing of the “Silver Books” published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.   Specifically, Volume 4 (of 24) which deals with Edward Fuller’s pedigree in Mayflower Families Through Five Generations.  Grandmother Thankful Isham Simons is listed!!!   I am now in the process of preparing my application to the Society of Mayflower Descendants in time for the 400th anniversary of the landing in 2020!   So, Thankful went from a Brick Wall to an open flood gate!!