I’m hoping, as is my wont, to get off the road to hell. Nearly five years ago, I placed this genealogy chart on my website, with the intention of following up with more information and commentary. So the paving had begun some time ago.
Recently, a friend in town reminded me that he had discovered that his lineage can be traced back (as can mine) to John Wilcox (sometimes spelled Willcocks), one of the Founders of Hartford. So, we are related, and it will be fun to see where the family trees diverge.
I thought of this chart, which my mother prepared many years ago (obviously), under the guidance of her mother-in-law, who knew everything about how my father’s family was connected with everyone in the known universe.
The chart is light on dates and other specifics, only hinting at many stories that need to be told. I have lots more information that was left to me by my grandmother, and getting it all digitized and organized have been some of the paving stones that have so far smoothed my road.
Perhaps embarrassing myself with this post with provide a bit of motivation in changing direction.
In the chart, the Wilcox name in Stockbridge goes back only to around 1800, and I know I have evidence of additional lineage from there back to Simsbury Connecticut (where there is a Wilcox Street in the center of town) in 1732, and eventually back to Hartford ca. 1635.
As it happens, my father’s mother can also trace her ancestry back, through the Reverend Adonijah Bidwell, to John Bidwell, also one of the Founders of Hartford. And that was only coincidence. My father’s parents met because of baseball; another story that wants telling. Hint: my father was a huge baseball fan (not surprisingly, I suppose), and taught me how to swing a bat almost before I could walk. I once wrote a story, called “Baseball and My Father,” for a baseball fanzine, at the invitation of the editor, who had been befriended by my dad back in those days of postal correspondence (before the days of email, if any of my readers can remember that time so long ago). It was meant to be a surprise tribute to my father, and when he read it he countered by writing his own story “Baseball and MY Father“…
I now live at the base of Tom Ball Mountain, and I have long wondered, but been unable to find out, what, if any, connection Tom Ball had to my Stockbridge ancestors, who included the Isaac Ball shown on the chart. Tom Ball was not European, and evidently “owned” (an English concept) the mountain and much land to the east of it, which is now Williamsville. So his Anglicized name was chosen for some reason, but I’ve not been able to discover it.
A few years ago, my brother Rick was researching the Stockbridge town records, and came across a copy of the special bill passed by the Great and General Court in Boston, giving permission to Isaac Ball to purchase land from the Indians. It was signed by Governor John Hancock.
As my patient readers will detect, there is a plethora of family stories aching to be dragged into the light of day. I can only hope, not promise, that I will continue in my diversionary program and bring some of them here to provide entertainment to those who enjoy learning about life in these parts in bygone days.
