Did You Know #12

Brief mention was made in Did You Know #8 of an early settler in in America's northeast, Edward Bragg (born in 1616 England), whose growing family thrived in the Salem, Ma area. Since that time, actually well before that time, I have been seeking a legitimate connection with our section of that Bragg family that settled further south in Virginia. Imagine my excitement with I seemed to have found that connection. Imagine my surprise when I found that connection in studying, not my Bragg family ancestors but the Ethington family.

My mother's earliest American ancestors also settled in Virginia, in their case in the Spotsylvania and Culpepper section of the state. First, let's work our way back through the Ethington family, beginning with our grandfather, Luther Ethington.

	Luther Ethington b.1888
	Charles Franklin Ethington b.1862
	Charles Neal Ethington b.1831
	John Lewis Ethington b.1806
	John Ethington b.1774
X	William Ethington b. 1748
	William Ethington (born around 1720)

I have placed an "X" next to our 5th great grandfather, William Ethington (b. 1748). He and his wife, Cathrine (or Caty), became the parents of eleven children. While our specific family descends through their son John (b. 1774), it is the family line of their son William (b. 1748) that we will next trace out. The chart below adds William's descendants in the column to the right of our own family tree.

	William Ethington b. 1748
	John Ethington b.1774	William Ethington b.1773
	John Lewis Ethington b.1806	John Ethington b.1820
	Charles Neal Ethington b.1831	William Preston Ethington b.1845
	Charles Franklin Ethington b.1862	George Floyd Ethington b.1872
	Luther Ethington b.1831	Ralph Price Ethington b.1906

As the above chart illustrates, our grandfather, Luther, and Ralph Price Ethington were 4th cousins. Ralph Price Ethington was born in Shelby Co., Kentucky on Dec. 26, 1906. He married Veda Haymore on Jan. 18, 1927 in Mesa, Maricopa Co., AZ.

It would be in Veda Haymore Ethington's ancestors that took me across the New England Bragg family. First you have to wind your way through 17 generations all the way back to Eleanor Plantagenet. She was, according to Wikipedia , Eleanor was born on Sept. 11, 1311 and died on Jan. 11, 1372. She "was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Philippa, and was in service to her in Ghent when her son Henry was born. John de Beaumont [Eleanor's husband] died in a tournament on 14 April 1342." After the death of her first husband, Eleanor married Richard Fitzalan, the 10th Earl of Arundel, on Feb. 5, 1344, after Richard's previous marriage was officially annulled. They had seven children.

"Eleanor died at Arundel and was buried at Lewes Priory in Lewes, Sussex, England. Her husband was buried beside her; in his will Richard requests to be buried "near to the tomb of Eleanor de Lancaster, my wife; and I desire that my tomb be no higher than hers, that no men at arms, horses, hearse, or other pomp, be used at my funeral, but only five torches...as was about the corpse of my wife, be allowed.""

Veda Haymore Ethington would have then been the 16th great-granddaughter of Eleanor Plantagenent through her Matilda de Beaumont (daughter of Eleanor and John de Beaumont). The third child of Eleanor's second marriage was named after his father, Richard Fitzalan. Proceeding down from Eleanor Plantagenet through her son Richard and across some 11 generations to Zerviah Brigham. She was born 1698 and, sometime around 1730 Zerviah married Ebenezer Bragg, the grandson of Edward Bragg.

Looking over this convoluted journey in our daughter's home in western Missouri, after spending some time just the evening before in Independence, MO, I realized something interesting from this material. continuing from Ebenezer and Zerviah Bragg, this is what I found:

Ebenezer and Zerviah Brigham Bragg

Elizabeth Bragg b.1732

Samuel B. Gates Senior b.1760

Samuel B. Gates Junior b.1783

George William Gates b.1807

George Porterfield Gates b.1835

Margaret Elizabeth ''Madge'' Gates b.1862

Elizabeth Virginia ''Bess' Wallace b.1885

Bess Wallace, then, was the 6th great grand-daughter of Ebenezer Bragg, the 17th cousin 2 times removed of Veda Haymore Ethington. She is, however, best known for her famous husband, the man who brought her to live awhile in the White House, Harry S. Truman.

I know this must be hard to follow, so here is a chart that traces out the lineages presented above:

		Eleanor Plantagenet
		Matilda de Beaumont b.1358	Richard Fitzalan b.1350
		Hugh de Courtenay b.1396	Elizabeth Fitzalan b.1366
		Elizabeth Courtenay b.1447	Margaret de Mowbray b.1387
		Thomas Trethruffe b.1478	Sir John Howard b.1420
		Margaret Jane Trethruffe b.1505	Thomas Howard b.1443
		Francis Buller b.1545	Countess Catherine Howard b.1496
		Richard Buller b.1578	William Rice b.1530
		Katherine Buller b.1600	Henry Rice b.1564
		Richard Parker b.1630	Edmund Rice b.1594
		Richard Parker b.1670	Henry R. Rice b.1617
		Hannah Parker b.1694	Mary Rice b.1646	Edward Bragg
	William Ethington b.1720	Elizabeth Sisson b.1726	Jonathan Brigham b.1674	Timothy Bragg
	William Ethington b.1748	Frances Strange b.1767	Ebenezer Bragg married Zerviah Brigham b.1698
	William Ethington b.1773	Nancy Williams b.1787	Elizabeth Bragg b.1732
	John Ethington b.1820	Benjamin Taylor Jr b.1816	Samuel B. Gates Senior b.1760
	William Preston Ethington b.1845	Lucinda Adeline Taylor b.1847	Samuel B. Gates Junior b.1783
	George Floyd Ethington b.1872	Arthur Samuel Haymore b.1878	George William Gates b.1807
	Ralph Price Ethington b.1906 married Veda Haymore b.1908		George Porterfield Gates b.1835
			Margaret Elizabeth ''Madge'' Gates b.1862
			Elizabeth Virginia ''Bess' Wallace b.1885 married Harry S. Truman