Parshall Terry III, 3rd GreatGrandfather

Parshall Terry the third was born 30 Sept 1778 in the middle of the revolutionary war at Ft. Niagara, Ontario New York. In 1802, he married his cousin, Hannah Terry. They had 13 children, the first 8 of which were born in Palmyra New York, from 1803 to 1819. The last 5 children were born in Canada where the family had moved around 1820.
They were familiar with the Joseph Smith family who had moved to Palmyra in about 1815. Several kids overlapped in ages. When missionaries from the Church in Missouri came to Ontario Canada in 1838, Parshall and his family joined. He was baptized on 27 Sept 1838.
He died in 1861 in Draper Utah. His obituary in the
Deseret News Weekly published 25 Dec 1861



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We come through his 10th child, Marilla.

The Fair Maid of Kent

Joan of Kent was born 29 Sept 1328 at Woodstock palace. She was also known as Joan Plantaganet, the Princess of Wales, or "the Fair Maid of Kent." In 1361 she married the Black Prince (her cousin) and in 1367 she gave birth to the boy who would become King Richard II. As the mother of the young monarch, Joan was a very influential figure in early part of Richard's reign. According to tradition, Joan was the extremely beautiful woman who was the inspiration behind Edward III's Order of the Garter. Chaucer may have had some personal interaction with Joan during his lifetime (many believe that a famous manuscript illustration depicts her sitting in the audience as Chaucer reads his poetry). (Crowned woman in blue in the first row.) In any case, Chaucer received mourning garments for her funeral in 1385.

She is our 22nd Greatgrandmother through her son Thomas de Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, via her first husband, Thomas de Holand who died in 1360.

Queen Ermentrude of Orleans : 35th GGrandmother

Queen Ermentrude of Orleans was born 27 Sept 823. She is a 35th to 41st great grandmother, more than 100 different ways. She married Charles the Bald, in 842. he was the grandson of Charlemagne. Together they had nine children. We come through two of them, her daughter Judith,Oueen of Brittany and her son Louis the II, King of France also known as 'the stutterer'.

Ermentrude had a gift for embroidery and an interest in religious foundations. Her husband gave her the Abbey of Chelles. ...She died in 869. Ermentrude was buried in the Basilique Saint-Denis, Paris, France.

Michael Heneage 11th Great Grandfather

Michael Heneage, was born 27 Sept 1540 in London Middlesex England. He received a BA and MA from St. Johns College, Cambridge in 1563 and 1566. In 1571, he became a member of Parliment, representing first, Arundel, then East Grinstead (1572) and later Tavistock (1588-1589) and Wiggin (1592-1593). He was an antiquarian and was appointed keeper of the records in the Tower. He was a member of the Society of Antiquaries (founded in 1572). Two of his papers, read before that society, were later published, On the Antiquity of Arms and On Sterling Money.
He had ten children with his wife Grace Honeywood. Michael died on 30 Dec 1600. We come through his daughter Lucy, whose son John Read was one of our immigrant ancestors to Massachusetts in the mid 1600's.

Ross Solon McGee: Grandfather

Ross Solon McGee, Dad's dad was born 24 Sept 1882 in Missouri. Here is a photo with seven of the ten kids of his parents. (One missing and two having died earlier.) This photo was taken sometime during 1951 when Grandpa Ross was in his late 60's. Dad identified who is who. Grandpa wrote a sketch of his life (dated in 1952) I've given excerpts before. Here are some more describing some of his childhood:

While in, or near, Adair [Oklahoma], we [his fathers family when he was under 10 years old] rented a farm and had raised corn
and wheat and a few hogs and the like. I say we. Some of we boys
were pretty young at the time. But after all, there isn't one of
us lads can remember when we were too young to help with the
work that had to be done on the farm and around the house. With
six rough and roudy boys there was plenty to do. And we had a
most wonderful and patient mother to guide us in our work and in
our lives. ...

Our father and the older boys wanted to get land of our own, so
in the early Spring of 1893, I think March or April, we moved
about 30 miles east, near Vinita, Indian Territory, and located
on 160 acres of new land under the Cherokee rights. At that time
very sparingly settled, the nearest town of any Vinita, which
was 18 miles away. Our post office, 3 miles, Ruby, Indian
Territory. Our neighbors were scattered and far between. Our
nearest neighbors lived about three-fourths of a mile away. A
Mr. Webb and family. So our environment was mostly around the
home and home was in the making. At times it wasn't so easy sledding.

The house put up, the fencing of 160 acres and fixing for spring
plowing and planting our crops. All in a pioneer way. The older
boys did most of the work with the sod plow, and old "Tobe and
Mal", (a mule team). We had a few other small horses, but old
"Tobe and Mal" were the old stand-by.

With warm spring weather coming and the blooming of beautiful
wild flowers that were plentiful in that wide open prairie
country, it made things look very pleasant.

With all the work and chores there were to do, we, as boys, had
plenty of time for fun and play. By this time we had pretty well
surveyed all the country aroundabout. We picked out the best
"Swimming holes", as we would call them, for part of our
summer's recreation. Ice skating in the wintertime, etc. And as
time went on, some of the boys rated pretty good in swimming and
springboard diving. I mean as we became older.

Now back to some more work. With a pretty good crop of corn, it
had to be shucked and put in the crib which we had built during
the summer. We rasied sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and all kinds of
melons, vegetables and so on. With the fall work done, including
the cutting of the wild grass for hay, and with the corn put
away, and a few pigs fattening for our meat, we were all ready
for a hard, cold winter. We also raised sorghum cane and made
molasses, as this insured us pretty well for feed for our stock
and something in the way of food for ourselves.

Now there were other things for us to do, such as our winter
fuel. We had learned how to find coal, by the formation of the
rocks on the creek banks, where we would dig down from 4 to 6
feet and find coal with a depth of 12 to 14 inches. As time went
on and we became older, some of the boys got pretty good at
digging coal. When we would sell it we would get $1.00 per ton
on the ground. So you, the reader, can imagine how much money we
would make. But what we did get, we got the hard way.

... More later.
Grandpa Ross raised 11 kids and passed away just before he reached 96.

Thomas Philbrick(Brook) 10th GGrandFather

Thomas Philbrick, was born on 13 Sep 1584 in St. Marys, Bures, Suffolk, England. He was christened on 23 Sep 1584 in St. Marys, Bures, Suffolk, England. Thomas with his wife and six children, emigrated from Lincolnshire, England, in company with Governor Winthrop, Sir Richard Saltonstall and others. We come through his daughter Elizabeth. They arrived in Massachusetts Bay, June 12, 1630, after the tempestuous passage of seventy-six days on the ship Arabella. They attempted a settlement where is now Salem, Mass., but in July, with Sir Richard and others, they went ot a place now called Watertown.

In 1639, the second summer after the settlement of Hampton, N. H., John (son of Thomas) PHILBRICK moved to Hampton, and his younger brother, Thomas, soon followed him. We are told that "The first settlers of Hampton were attracted to the place by the fishing, the fowling, the best of clams, and the salt marshes, almost ready for the scythe."

In 1645-6, Thomas Philbrick, Sen., a grantee of eight lots, sold his estate in Watertown to Isaac Stearns, and in 1650 or '51 he had removed to Hampton, where his elder sons lived. In 1661 he bought of John Moulton, land joining the farms of his son James and his son in law, John Cass. His wife, Elizabeth, died, 12 mo. 19, 1663 and in March, 1664, when he made his will, he calls himself "very aged." He d. in 1667.

He was buried in Seabrook, Rockingham Co., NH. in Quaker Line Church Cemetery.

Thomas1, the emigrant, was said to have been a shipmaster in the old country. His children settled near the ocean and not a few of them were drowned in it, passing by water into the future state. A natural affection for the sea, appeared among his descendants for generations. The young men took to the water as young ducks take to the stream, and seemed never more happy than in their "Home on the rolling wave."

There is an online resource for descendents of this family.

Ruth Amelia Newell: 2nd Great Grandmother

Ruth Amelia Newell born 22 Sept 1822 in New York is our 2nd Great Grandmother. She married Solomon Joseph Despain in 1842 in Illinois. We come through their first born son, William Joseph Despain, who was a twin, but his brother twin died at birth in 1843. Interestingly, their next child, born in 1845 was named Hyrum Smith Despain although the family didn't join the church until 1851. They had a few more kids in Illinois but soon after they were baptised, they moved to Arkansas where children were born in 1853, 1856 and 1858. They avoided the Civil War by finally moving to Utah where the last three kids were born in Granite in 1861, 1863 and 1866.
We should probably have a photo of Ruth but I don't have it at the moment.
She lived till 1901 and was buried in the Granite Cemetery.