JulieWhitsonSwigart on Family Tree Circles

Let us start with my maiden name - Whitson. There are two main line of Whitsons in America both arriving in the 1600s. There has been a great deal of discontent between the two lines on if we are actually related or not and to date and my knowledge there is not any tangible proof that the two lines are related. My line descended from Henry Whitson who is first found in Lynn, Massachusetts before 1640 in which he was a founding member. He is soon found on Long Island in New York where he stays and establishes our line in America.

Whitson is Scottish and means 'son of White'. We are descended from the Vikings that invaded Scotland. We are not associated with any specific clan. It is my understanding that we are our own clan. We have our own plaid which can be found online. Whitson spelled in Gaelic is Quitson or Quoitson or Quhitson and I am sure there are other various spellings.

Henry married Rebecca Foster whom we can trace when she arrived in America with her family and back in England unlike Henry who just appears. They marry and have one child that we can find - Thomas Whitson who is born in Hempstead, Nassau Co., New York 20 August 1652. Henry is a founding member of Hempstead, Long Island, New York as well.

In 1643 a group of settlers from New England purchased land at Hempstead, Nassau Co, Long Island, New York where they settled. Henry Whitson along with his father-n-law, Christopher Foster, were among the original 50 proprietors to settle Hempstead.

Little known fact - Cape Cod was almost known as Whitson's Bay and in fact a map of the Atlantic Coast of North America dated 1610 shows it as Whitson's Bay. Martin Pring entered the harbor of Edgartown which he named as Whitson's Bay based on a farmer who farmed there. If he had made it back to Europe before the map maker that beat him there Cape Cod would be Whitson's Bay.

I have worked on my family genealogy for over 10 years off and on. I am sure most researchers have the same story. We would all like to spend our days in a genealogy library with our heads stuck in books looking for that one clue that will open up the block you have had for months on that one person. But life does tend to get in the way.

My research tends to go in spurts based on time and luck of finding just the right clue to open the door. It is much easier to stay motivated if you are finding one clue after another and before you know it you have more relatives than you have paper to write the information down on.

My maiden name is Whitson, my Mother was a Dickens, I married a Swigart, his mother is a Keller and then of course we have all the directions that our grandparents lead us as well. At this point I have Whitson back to 1640 here in America, Dickens back to 1700s, and Swigarts back to Germany in the early 1600s. Keller has already been done by other family members which reduces my work load but there is still plenty of work left.

Currently I am working on all of the details - checking in newspapers, town records, court filings, wills, etc. to fill in and add to what I have. This can be tedious but still enjoyable when you find that your relative might have been involved in a major part of history.

In addition, to my family I have also taken on another family - Harrison. Across the road from our farm is this little family cemetery.....well I can't let that go without researching it.

I hope that my input into this blog will assist someone else in opening some of their doors. Until my next post happy hunting!