Cow Hampshire

J.W. Brown, this blog’s editor, spoofing over a witch’s brew. Her ancestors, of course, were not really witches at all. They were simply strong minded women, perhaps with healing talents, who had upset their neighbors, or had property or possessions that other wanted for themselves.

This year for Mother’s Day, I thought I’d try something different when it comes to story telling. I was looking at my personal matrilineality–the tracing of kinship through my female line. In some cultures people are identified through their “matriline” (or their mother’s family tree) rather than through the paternal line that I am used to in European and United States family research.  [See Matrilineality on for details of cultures who use matrilineality.]

My oldest female ancestor in the United States (in this direct line from my mother, to grandmother, great-grandmother etc.) is my 9th-great- grandmother, Jane, wife of Thomas Walford [Wilford, Wolford, Woolford] of England and Great Island, Portsmouth, New Hampshire (now New Castle). [Editor’s Note: four months after the posting of this story, mtDNA has confirmed that my matrilineal line shown here is correct.  Jane’s (wife of Thomas Walford) haplogroup is K1a4a1b.  I match up DNA-perfectly with a descendant of another of Jane’s daughters, Martha Walford mentioned below, and since then have found 4 more descendants of various lines.] Continue reading →