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Monday, August 31, 2009

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.1831William 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