"Ever Widening Circle"
Research by Coni Dubois
Some research book links for you!
Collected by: Coni Dubois
I have been collecting research books and links to free downloads – these are all from Google Books which are easy to download and add to your library.
- Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses: for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=oNAaMBIFWtcC&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- A history of New England: containing historical and descriptive sketches of the counties,cities and principal towns of the six New England states, including, in its list of contributors, more than sixty literary men and women, representing every county in New England (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=8sRWAAAAMAAJ&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- Indian dictionary, English, German, Iroquois – the Onondaga and Algonquin – the Delaware (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=UBkOAAAAIAAJ&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- Algonquin Indian Tales (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=9Fsn3Bt1fysC&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- Memoir of Eliot: apostle to the North American Indians (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=kWNAAAAAYAAJ&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- Life of John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=PNU5AAAAcAAJ&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- Oyster Bay town records, Volume 1 (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=afETAAAAYAAJ&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- Oyster Bay town records 1653-1878: http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=Pj6YNz-MdvEC&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=webstore_bookcard
- Early Long Island: a colonial study (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=8YV8kAhwjQYC&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association – Volume 6 (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=i9sTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=webstore_bookcard
- Memoirs of a captivity among the Indians of North America: from childhood to the age of nineteen: with anecdotes descriptive of their manners and customs (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=Y1tXVZ5epgwC&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- A history of the Pequot War: or, A relation of the war between the powerful nation of Pequot Indians, once inhabiting the coast of New-England, westerly from near Narragansett Bay and the English inhabitants, in the year 1638 (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=KttlnkyxvTEC&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- The New England Company of 1649 and John Eliot: The ledger for the years 1650-1660 and the record book of meetings between 1656 and 1686 of the Corporation for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=XMMGAAAAMAAJ&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- Indian paths in the great Metropolis (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=2O-FAAAAIAAJ&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
- The Christian Commonwealth or The Civil Policy Of The Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Written before the Interruption of the Government,by Mr. John Eliot, Teacher of the Churchof Christ at Roxbury in New-England. AndNow Published (after his consent given) by a Serverof the Season – http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=libraryscience
Finds Hatchet 400 yrs old – Belonged to a Race of Giants?
New Britain herald.
October 25, 1917, Image 1
Do we now have a word… created for Barkhamsted Light-house?
Highcockalorum?
No idea what this is all about?
Found some more Newspaper articles on the Barkhamsted Lighthouse Village….
Connecticut western news. [volume], April 11, 1873, Image 2 – Part 1 
Connecticut western news. [volume], April 11, 1873, Image 2 – Part 2 
Waterbury Democrat. [volume], December 27, 1901, Image 1 – Mary Webster died – Last of the Tribe 
Connecticut western news. [volume], February 08, 1900, Image 3 – Sol Webster 
Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume], February 05, 1900, Image 4 – Sol Webster 
New Britain herald. [volume], April 18, 1925, FINAL EDITION, Page 6, Image 6 – Barkhamsted Lighthouse
Found A few great tidbits on: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
Will be updating this post with all I find!
ALSO found one on death of Mary Webster.
Waterbury Democrat (Waterbury, CT) Dec. 27, 1901 – image 1
THE LAST OF THE TRIBE, Mary Webster, Aged 75, Was Found Dead in Bed.
N2T (Need to transcribe)
NOTE: You will see this in my research books – I will be putting out soon…
If you EVER want to help…transcribing would be the way to do it for me! I spend SO much time typing…finger’s get sore, quick. That would be the biggest help to me~ 😘
Please feel free to transcribe and email to me at: coni@conidubois.com
Also please update email on me in your contact as: coni@conidubois.com – this will be my research email and one I will be using for my main work email and those that have my personal email/keeping it/so don’t delete.
Three Big Lessons from Genealogy
The miracle of the Internet, combined with the hard work already done by genealogists for their own projects, has enabled me to take a deep dive into my family tree – one that wouldn’t have been possible only scant years before. The things that I’ve learned have been amazing: that I’m descendant of William the Conqueror; that I have Bohemian heritage; that my surname may be as old as 1000 years; and much more. Most of this overlies nicely with the 23&Me results I have in hand, as well as with the various historical documents my family possesses. Most surprisingly however, the main lessons I’ve taken from these last few years of research have had little to do with my particular genetics, my surname, or any claims of famous ancestry. There are three of these lessons:
Lesson One: Your surname has next to nothing to do with your heritage. I know that’s surprising, and possibly sacrilegious among genealogists, but it’s true. Unless your family has spent its entire history having marriages only between people of the same surname, your actual heritage spreads out exponentially with every preceding generation. Take my own case, for example. Surely Gilbert is a Norman surname, but my mother’s surname is likely of Pictish origin. So, fifty-percent Norman you might say? Well, one move up the rung to my four grandparents reveals surnames of Norman (my father’s father, of course), German, Pictish (mom’s dad), and another German. So now the preponderance of my heritage is, if not now German, at least non-Norman. How about great-grandparents? Norman, Bohemian, German, Anglo-Saxon, Pictish, German, German, Scottish (probably Orkney). So, just going back a mere three generations I went from “being” Norman to “being” three-eighths German, one-quarter Scottish-ish, and with a bare smattering of other origins to include now only one-eighth Norman.
I say ‘being’ in quotes there because that is the central question: What does it mean to ‘be’ something? For example, Americans have the habit (annoying to some Europeans who don’t understand the context) of saying something like “I’m Irish” if they have an Irish surname. Of course, this is American shorthand for saying “My family immigrated from…” but even that has less and less meaning the farther one moves away from the first generation of immigrants bearing the surname. My Gilbert ancestors arrived in North America as early as the 1640s but the male line has been married into by something like a dozen other families – each varying between “just off the boat” recently immigrated to being in America since colonial times. Those marrying-in families have had just as many generations of marriage with other families as the Gilbert line has had, and so on. Therefore, in 12 generations of Americans, an individual has 4,096 direct ancestors. Of my 4,000 or so American ancestors, I know 12 were Gilberts. Therefore, to say “I am Norman” is a bit of a stretch. That leads us to the next lesson:
Lesson Two: Your ancestors’ homelands don’t really say much about your or their genetic makeup. Going back to the “I’m Irish” example, a lot of people (sometimes jokingly, other times more seriously) say things like “I found out I’m German, that’s why I’m so organized,” or like sauerkraut, or whatever stereotype fits. Looking at my own Norman heritage, I used to think Gilbert was an English surname – which it is, but what makes up ‘English’? Normans, Angles, Saxons, Romans, various Celtic tribes, Norse, and many other ethnicities. Go back a bit earlier and you have a land inhabited by peoples such as the Dumnonii, Durotriges, Belgae, Atrebates, Dobunni, Catuvellauni, and a score of others. Focusing just on the Anglo-Norman origin of Gilbert, one has to further ask “Well, what is Norman?” These people were from Normandy, but the nobility at least was descended from Vikings – but also experiencing the same in-marrying effect from the year 911 to the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. This made Norman heritage Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Anglo-Saxon, Italo-Roman, Gaulic, Celtic, Frankish, Visigoth – and a ton more you’ve likely never heard of like the Suebi and Occitans. The point is that early Europeans were far more highly mobile, intermarrying easily and absorbing migratory cultures over and over again, than one might think.
The impact all this has on genetic makeup is dazzling. I remember my time in the Balkans, a place of highly charged emotions regarding heritage, identity, race, and religion. There, a person of one particular nationality described to me another of the Baltic peoples as being less-than-human, another race, and inferior in all ways due to their ethnicity. Of course, his culture (like everyone’s of any culture I spoke to there) possessed “the original” culture, and therefore superior institutions – and most importantly the right to rule over their inferior neighbors. My response was “You all look white to me.” That’s the point, there is no ‘race gene’, only a collection of phenotypes that have been tossed into a millennia-old blender that sometimes produces vaguely recognizable physical characteristics in certain geographical regions. Simply put, at some point about 800 to 1000 years ago, one of my 30,000 to 100,000 direct ancestors who happened to be speaking French and living around the English Channel said “my surname is Gilbert” – bringing with him a million years of tribal history back to the dawn of our species.
Lesson Three: The good news – your family can be as large as you want. Language, culture, geography, and genetics do not map to each other perfectly, or at all in some cases. Look at my Bohemian ancestry: Bohemia is named after a tribe known as the Boii, but they were pushed out and supplanted by a series of tribes. The last of these tribes were a group a Slavs. Who knows how many of each tribe remained and became absorbed into the new ones? Also, what does ‘Slav’ mean? Well, it turns out that nobody really knows. No doubt there is a Slavic language group, but scholars point out this might even have arisen from ancient Thracian, a people mentioned in ancient Greek texts. Certainly, linguists agree, that going back even farther one finds that the Slavs and indeed all Europeans spoke a single, ancient, lost Indo-European language akin to Sanskrit. So, you may “be Irish”, but you can also celebrate your Indian ancestry.
While all of this may be disconcerting and bewildering to someone trying to find their roots, take heart! The math makes it clear. At the start of the American Colonial Period, about 400 years ago, each of us statistically have about 65,000 direct ancestors living at that time. Going back to the time most Europeans started taking surnames, say 1000 years ago, each of us should have about 1.2 TRILLION unique, individual, direct ancestors at that time! Of course, that is impossible as the total population of the Earth at that time was only about 275 million. This clearly shows us that every single one of us is closely, very closely, related. One can very nearly just pick a culture from history they want to celebrate as theirs and it is likely he or she has at least SOME connection. In fact, mitochondrial DNA studies show that every single person alive today shares a single many-great grandmother between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. Maybe we should start considering trading in “I’m Irish” for “I’m human”.
Barkhamsted Lighthouse Village Gathering is POSTPONED till 2021!
It truly is breaking my heart to make this decision…but feel it is the best thing to do…. After talking to town official’s, donors and those planning on attending – they have all stated it would be best to postpone our upcoming 2020 Barkhamsted Lighthouse gathering.
Due to several factors: virus, economy and many people not going to be able to attend due to loss of jobs and or money not available… We feel this is the best decision to make.
I truly am sorry about this… Want to post it now so that those that made reservations can cancel and get money back before time is up for refunds.
I will be updating event calendar with new dates once I get it all planned.
Once again I apologise for any inconveniences this might bring.
Many hugs,
Coni Dubois
Email: coni@conidubois.com
Website: conidubois.com
Join other researcher’s & descendant’s in our group on Facebook Group’s at: Barkhamsted Lighthouse Village
A small change to this blog~
HI everyone!
I am just updating a few things and wanted to let you know that my blog has changed a little bit… It is still called an “Ever Widening Circle,” but it is now called a “Quest for our Ancestral Roots.” (conidubois.com)
Doing genealogy for well over 30 years now (started at 17 and I’m almost 53 now – so for a very long time), I have uncovered many wonderful stories, and it involves Colonial & Native American along with so much American history. Consequently, with that said, I am broadening my blog to include all I find and not just the Native American research I do. I have so much to share. Will be updating more once I get through the 2020 Lighthouse Gathering I am hosting in July~
I want to note: My blog also has my cousin – John Gilbert, as an Author, who has been researching the Gilbert side of us (Maternal line). He has uncovered so much & I can’t wait to see what he finds in the future.
Can view more on his other work on his blog: http://gilbertforge.com/
Gilbert research: http://gilbertforge.com/genealogy.html
Wikipedia Links he created:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilberts_of_Compton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Scott_Robertson
Question of William H Barber Burial/Tombstone?
I have been informed of a comment via JoannBarberClupper on Find A Grave. She has stated in her comment that the tombstone posted on his Find A Grave (# 62768815) “is not his tombstone. I would like to clear up this issue of William Henry Barber tombstone!
I want to CLEARLY STATE “THAT IT IS HIS TOMBSTONE!“
I spent the weekend researching and visiting the grave site and that of other Ancestors in the area. Even visited the “Barber homestead” along with visiting with living family member’s that were at the funeral along with spending a day in the records to dig up all we could find.
Reason for the confusion: The tombstone was bought several years later (confirmed by family) and the wrong birth date was put on it at that time – He was born in 1857 and it states 1861 – this was done by uncertain dates and family being incorrect on the date.
BUT IT IS FOR CERTAIN HIS TOMBSTONE!
Cathy Genella has also ‘re-confirmed’ info herself and received an email with this info for us.
Via Cathy to me: I asked him where does he get the info from, he stated the previous Sexton put it all on a spreadsheet.
Via the now Sexton? to Cathy:
Cathy, I apologize for my timing I hope this will answer any questions.
William Barber owned 8 sites, 6-11-A through 6-11-H.
Burials are as follows.
6-11-A Open 6-11-E Beulah Barber
6-11-B Maryette Barber 6-11-F George Barber
6-11-C William Barber 6-11-G Open
6-11-D Allen A Barber 6-11-H Allan A Barber Jr.
The Township has no record of sale for sites, Allan A Barber was buried in 1926. That is the earliest burial there. I found no reference to a baby being buried unless that is Allan Barber Jr.
Note from Coni: Just adding his info I have along with obit & death certificate here for you also~
Oak Grove Cemetery
Location: on South Branch Road north of South Branch, Ogemaw, Michigan. Oak Grove Cemetery is located on E. County Line Rd. in South Branch, Goodar Twp. The nearest major town is South Branch, MI.
latitude – longitude: coordinates of N 44.4789 and W -83.88638.
Barber, William Henry 8/22/1857 – 1/12/1945
Father – Age 87 – Husband of Mary
Other’s buried here:
Barber, Allen A 22 y 1926
Barber, Clia Marion 1 x 1919
Barber, Jackie William 3dys x 1930
Barber, Melvin L 60 y 1980
Barber, Myron Allen 61 y 1988
Barber, Olive M 80 y 1983
Barber, Peggy Rosella 15 y 1949
Barber, Stacy ng y ng
Barber, Verna 2 hrs x 1972
Barber, William H 88 y 1945
Barber, William Henry 70 y 1962
http://files.usgwarchives.net/…/ogemaw/cem…/cem_oakgrove.txt
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/tsphoto/ogemaw/oakgrove.htm
William Barber, 87 Of Hill Township Buried January 9
Left 12 Children, 62 Grand and 50 Great-Grandchildren
Funeral Services for William Henry Barber, an early settler of Hill township, were held from his late farm home between North and South Dease lakes at 2:00 o’clock on Tuesday afternoon of this week, January 16, and from the South Branch Church at 2:30 P.M. Rev. Frank H. Collin Officiated, and burial took place in the South Branch Cemetery, His age was 87. William H. Barber died at 7 o’clock Friday morning of last week, January 12, from the infirmities of age. He was born in Pennsylvania on August 26, 1857, and came to Ogemaw about fifty years ago from Owosso, where he married on November 13, 1881, to the former Maryette Clark.
He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Margette Clark Barber; 12 Children; Grant Barber of Bay City; Matthew, of Newberry; Judson, of Jackson; William and Stacy of Long Lake, Iosco County; George, of Hale; Erwin, of Goodrich; Mrs. Ada Thayer, of Curtis, Mich.; Mrs. Mary Rowbottom and Mrs. Minnie Craiger, both of Flint; Mrs. Anna Riley of Selkirk; Mrs. Nellie Ballard, of Bay City; one sister Mrs. Rose Short, of Mancelona, Mich.; 62 grandchildren and 50 great-grandchildren.
The July 2020 Gathering has been postponed till 2021!
Hey Barkhamsted Lighthouse Village Descendants & Followers:
Due to what is happening in this world… we have postponed our event for next year.
The July 2021 Gathering Newsletter will be updated soon~
Please SHARE to your families so we can get it out there~
Everything abt the 3 day event is in THIS newsletter~
Note: There is A LOT of links in this PDF & I am finding a few I need to correct… please let me know if you run across any. Please include the page # and link/title~
ALSO more exciting NEWS!!
Post Commander of the Riverton American Legion Post 159 (Ted Sweeney) called me yesterday about the 2020 Barkhamsted Lighthouse Gathering’s 3 day event… He is wanting to take our group on a tour of Pahke’s Cave after our July 2nd event at the Lighthouse site 😁 Orrain (Orrin) Wright married Mercy Elwell (Cooke 1st marriage) (of the Lighthouse) and lived and had several children in Pahke’s cave for many years (children were later taken and indentured out) I have yet to make a actual connection to any of the 12 children’s descendants~
View MORE on this on my Facebook Post
Super excited to finally be able to visit the site! I will be adding this to the newsletter and updating soon!
All are free to join in on the tour!!! (AS with all other events!)
Some other links for you:
Barkhamsted Lighthouse Village Facebook Group
Barkhamsted Newspapers Collection done by Coni Dubois
James Chagum Chief of the Barkhamsted Lighthouse (this is my 661 page research book)
If you are a descendant then make sure you sign in at our Roll Call!
Artwork by: Allan Madahbee for Coni Dubois
Is Henrietta (L) Webster that married Rev. A P Viets a Lighthouse Descendant?
Answer is NO…. by my research…
Both Henrietta Webster’s (YES there is 2 of them) they were both born in Litchfield Connecticut abt 1838 – One was born to Montgumery Webster – wife Sybil Elwell of the Lighthouse Tribe in Barkhamsted CT & the other one was born to David Sanford Webster – wife Clarissa Wattles in Bethlehem, CT
Note: Census was taken in NOVEMBER of 1850
Also by 1851 Sybil (Elwell) Webster past away
I am unsure as to what happen to all of the children…
Henrietta would of been abt 13 at the time of passing.
I have both Henrietta’s on a census in 1850 – 1st one is Henrietta L (Viets) with her husband and she is 20 years old and married – census taken Aug. 1850
2nd Census is our our Lighthouse Henrietta that is 12 years old and living with her parents at the Lighthouse Site.
Now let’s take a look at some important records:
Rev. A P Viets in the Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870
(Barbour Collection)
Name: Rev. A P Viets Marriage Date: 4 Sep 1848
Marriage Place: Barkhamsted, Connecticut, USA Residence Place: Canton
Spouse: Hannah Webster Spouse Residence Place: Barkhamsted
Note: Hannah could of been a ‘nickname’?
Rev A P Viets in the U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930
Name: Rev A P Viets Event: Marriage Marriage Date: 9 Oct 1848
Marriage Place: Pleasant Valley Spouse: Henrietta Louisa Webster
Spouse Father: D Sanford Webster Newspaper: Christian Secretary
Publication Date: 13 Oct 1848 Publication Place: Connecticut, USA
Call Number: 486549
As you see in this record it states she is the daughter of D. Sanford Webster
Rev A P Viets in the U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930
Name: Rev A P Viets Event: Marriage Marriage Date: 9 Oct 1848
Marriage Place: Pleasant Valley Spouse: Henrietta Louisa Webster
Spouse Father: D Sandford Webster Newspaper: The Hartford Times
Publication Date: 14 Oct 1848 Publication Place: Connecticut, USA
Call Number: 486551
Publication Date: 14 Oct 1848 by the The Hartford Times –
As you see in this record it states she is the daughter of D. Sanford Webster
Henrietta Louisa Webster in the North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000
(Pg 103) Viets Genealogy
Name: Henrietta Louisa Webster Gender: Female
Birth Date: 11 Jun 1830 Birth Place: Bethlehem, Conn
First Marriage Date: 9 Oct 1848 Spouse: Apollos Phelps Viets
Child:
Ellsworth Phelps Berkley Viets
Wordsworth Bertrand Viets
John Charles Viets
Mary Louisa Viets
Beulah Ruth Viets
Henrietta Claribel Viets
Now let’s take a look at the burial of the family:
All mentioned below are buried at Riverside Cemetery in Waterbury, CT.
Apollos Phelps Viets in the Connecticut, Hale Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices, 1629-1934
Name: Apollos Phelps Viets Age: 89 Birth Date: 1819 Death Date: 1908
Burial Place: Connecticut, USA Cemetery: Riverside Cemetery
It always saddens me when I disprove a line…
The “only way plausible” is if there is 2 Rev./Clergyman A P Viets also…..
Coni
Personal Links
- "Ever Widening Circle"
- Echo's of Lost Footsteps
- My journey & those I met along the way
- Barkhamsted Lighthouse Village Facebook Group
- Coni Dubois YouTube Channel
Verified Services
Coni’s Travels
John Gilbert
Coni Dubois
"Ever Widening Circle" 