Hi Larry, Hello Everyone, Friends and Cousins, Larry, thanks for your messages about the Sisson woman buried next to her husband - in England - and about the names of New England towns. larry sisson wrote: > I have thought for the last 3 or 4 years that Richard's line probably > came from the northern counties of England, Northumberland, > Durham, or possibly even somewhere in South Scotland. That is the assumption the British researchers have been using too. > I was looking at some of the towns in England and the towns > with the same names in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. > It appears that many of the colonist came from the southern > part of England near the English Channel or from the South > Wales area near the Bristol Channel , as there are many names > of towns and villages that were named the same in New England. > Some of the towns that were in these areas of England and also > in Rhode Island, or Massachusetts are: > Plymouth, Dartmouth, Falmouth, Newport, Bristol, Yarmouth, > Swansea, Taunton, Barnstable, Tiverton, Weymouth and Exeter. > I am sure that there are probably more that I missed, but this > amounts to several towns in a small area of England. It might just mean > that these towns were near the ports where they sailed from > and thus were some of the last towns that they were in, but > it is interesting. You're right, and historians agree. Many New England Towns were named for villages and cities in the south and east of England. > There are probably about the same amount of towns that were > renamed in these areas from the rest of England, but these few > are from about 100 miles or less from each other. It would appear > to me that the majority of the new settlers probably came from > this area of England. That does not help in our quest to find > where Richard was from, it appears that it is going to take a > DNA test that will hopefully narrow this down. My own theory is that Richard and Mary did indeed come from one of the northern counties of England, probably Yorkshire. Here is a quote from material I am (very slowly) working on and will ask Carol Sisson Regehr to upload to the Sisson website and attach to Richard's record: "There is a certified affidavit from the Vicar of Snaith, Yorkshire, obtained in 1998 by Sisson-family historians David and Joan Sisson. The affidavit states that the parish register of Snaith (officially Snaith Priory Church) contains a record of the marriage on 14 Feb 1632 of Richard Sissons and Mary Atkinson. Mary was from nearby Hecke, Yorkshire. "Two British genealogists have added to this interesting record. Ken Smallbone found that Richard Sisson was christened in 1615 in Saxton-on-Elnet, Yorkshire. Smallbone also found a record in Saxton-on-Elnet of Richard's marriage to Mary of Hecke. So both parish records, Snaith and Saxton agree on the marriage. "Helen Whittle, another of our professional researchers, found records that confirm that Richard was baptized in 1615 in Saxton-on-Elnet, and that also show that he was the son of Ralph Sisson and Anne Burdsall, who had married in April that same year. "Other records show that Ralph's father (Richard's grandfather) was John Sisson (who died after 1561), and that Ralph's grandparents were Robert (who died before 1541) and Isabel (originally from Shadwell, Yorkshire (who died between 1548 and 1553). I wish we knew the source of this information about Richard's father, mother, and paternal grandparents." We can thank these researchers for this information, but we cannot - unfortunately - be certain that it applies to the Richard Sisson whom we know to have been in Rhode Island and Massachusetts by 1650. I suppose the only confirmation possible will come if some record can be found in England or New England mentioning Richard and stating when and where he lived in England, and mentioned the circumstances of his emigration from England and/or when and where he arrived in New England. No official emigration or immigration records were kept either in England or America at the time. Sometimes a ship's manifest gives the names of persons arriving in 17th-century New England. Early historians of Plymouth Colony and of the Massachusetts Bay Colony often tell us when new people arrived from England. Richard and Mary do not appear on any such list. If they had come first to Dartmouth, Massachusetts (then part of Plymouth Colony), they might very well have been listed in some document. I think it more likely that they came first to Rhode Island and that this new colony was not keeping records of new arrivals. See http://colonialancestors.com/ri/rihistory.htm. Thanks, Larry, for bringing all this back to the top of my mind. I hereby promise myself and all the descendants of Richard and Mary that I will complete my revisions of Richard and Mary's "notes" on the Sisson website. ASAP! My problem is that I have too many projects going and I give each of them a little of my time, too little time to finish any one of them. (Come on, David! Get yourself organized!!!) Best to you, Larry, and to you all, David Arne Sisson