A Tree Grew in Oakland

My six times great grandfather, Mark Hotchkiss, passed away 244 years ago, 19 November 1775, in Guilford, Connecticut.  Grandfather was the son of Joseph and Hannah Cruttenden Hotchkiss; born on 1 July 1714, also in Guilford.  He married Miriam Lee, the daughter of Joseph and Lois Pond Lee, on 8 January 1751.

The pair were the parents of 5 children: Timothy (1752), Eunice (1754) [my 5 times great grandmother], Isaac (1756), Ira (1758), and Eber (1762).

It was Grandmother Eunice that confused my genetic tree by marrying William Lee, son of Ebenezer and Sarah Chidesey Lee, her second cousin, once removed.   Thus, condemning me to become my own cousin.  Of course, this means I have the perfect excuse to buy my cousin birthday and Christmas gifts. Right???

369 years ago, 18 November 1650, in Milford, Connecticut, Thomas Stevens, son of John and Mary Moulson Stevens, married Mary Fletcher, the daughter of John and Mary Ward Fletcher.  The pair were my 8th great grandparents.  Thomas was born in London, England on 5 December 1630 and died in Killingsworth, Connecticut on 18 November 1685.  Mary was born in Roxbury, England, on 18 May 1630, and died in Guilford, Connecticut on 24 October 1683.  Both Thomas and Mary came to North America with their parents as children in the early mid-1600s.

Thomas and Mary  were the parents of 13 children: James (1651), Mary (1653), Rebecca (1655), Sarah (1657), John (1659), Thomas (1661). Timothy (1664), Joseph (1666), Abigail Elizabeth (1666) [my 7th great grandmother], Elizabeth (1668), Ebenezer (1670), Phoebe (1672), and Jonathan (1675).  The birth of their children spanned 24 years!

Their daughter, Abigail Elizabeth married Edward Lee which launched one of my Lee branches — it gets confusing since due to the Lees I am my own cousin.

From Descendants of John Stephens, NEHGR, Vol 56, October, 1902

“[Thomas] moved to Killingsworth and was member of church there 1670. He never became a freeman in Guilford. With his father and brother, he was a strong adherent of Dr. Rossiter, and in October, 1662, all three joined with the others of Guilford in seceding from New Haven Colony, and tendering themselves with their persons and estates to the Connecticut Colony, and were accepted and promised protection. The bitter controversy that followed was the chief cause of both Thomas’s and William’s leaving Guilford. Thomas was a man of ability and prominence at Killingwoth, and twice served in the General Assembly from that town. On March 11, 1670-1, he sold to William all his lands at the East End of Guilford, reserving his right in “any other divisions that shall be hereafter laid out” and his right in “commanage if they come to be stinted.” On June 7, 1679, he sold nine acres of the East Creek land to Stephen Dod, and on May 28, 1683, he sold to the same man the rest of the East Creek land and the old homelot. In 1654-5, he was convicted of selling flax with defective weights, through carelessness in not having them inspected. He was a miller. In 1654, when an expedition against the Dutch was proposed, he was chosen corporal, “but money for this present service and that he accede no higher in any other office because he is not a freeman.”

Estelle, Claire, and Miriam Mae Wright

It was 123 years ago, 4 November 1896, that my first cousin, twice removed, Miriam Mae Wright was born in Southfield, Oakland County, Michigan, to Stephen A. D. and Mariette Lee Wright.   Marietta was my  Great Grandmother’s sister.  Cousin Mae was a frequent writer to both my Great Grandmother and to my Grandfather in the postcards that appear in earlier editions of this blog.  Mae was the second child of Aunt Ettie and Uncle Steve whose brood numbered 8 in total.

On 29 January 1924, in Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan, Mae married Henry Ray Coons.  The couple had two daughters, Shirley Jeane (1926), and Wanda Mae (1927).   Mae passed away on 6 November 1944, just after her 48th birthday, and was laid to rest in the family plot in the Southfield Cemetery.