Who is Capt. John Worthington’s father?

OK, it’s time to get a discussion going on who are Captain John Worthington’s (1650-1701) parents.

This past week, I had a chance to spend some time in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The trip to Salt Lake City was planned, but the visit to the FHL was not. Since “I was in the area” with 6,700 other family researchers, I thought I would see if I could find a passenger list or something to give me some more details on Capt. John.

I found it !!! Happy dancing going on in the 2nd basement.

Worthington, Capt. John (1650-1701: son of John, of Jesus Coll., Cambridge, Eng.): came to America with his brother, Samuel; was in Md., 1670; capt. Anne Arundel Co. militia; burgess; judge Provincial Ct.; mem. Quorum; m Sarah. dau of Matthew Howard¹

Now, I have heard that this is an unreliable source, but I wanted to see if there were any hints here for other sources. I have, in my files, the “brother Samuel” but loose him in Somerset County, Maryland. But, what about this Jesus College. The problem here is that I have records that show that Frances Worthington as the father of Capt. John and he was from Manchester, Lancashire, England. This is showing John, of Cambridge.

I found a book on the History of Jesus College. Sure enough, there is a Mr. John Worthington, later listed as Dr. John Worthington about 1648, which looked promising. Since this book was about the history of the college I didn’t expect to find too much genealogical information there.

In that book, A History of Jesus College Cambridge, by Arthur Gray, M.A., Mast of the College 1912-1940; and Frederick Brittain, LITT.D. Fellow of the College; Heinemann, London Milborne Toronto, it associated a term, for John, as “a Fellow of Emmanuel”.

Back to search in the FHC Catalogue, I found another to John Worthington in Alumni Cantabrigienses. It was located  where the History of Jesus College was, so I picked it up. Sure enough there was John Worthington. Not one but 4 John Worthington’s. The first of the  John’s refers to “Fellow of Emmanuel, 1642”. Happy dance continues.

BUT, later in the paragraph it says “Brother of Samuel (1644) and father of John Worthington (1680-1).” Oops, the dates don’t work for me. It also says that John married Mary, dau. of Christopher Whichote, Oct. 13, 1657. The dates still don’t work for my Capt. John.

Going back though my file, I do see a reference to Christopher Whichote and Mary but not a good connection.  I went back to the History of Jesus College and there was mention on page 87, speaking of John, “His only son, John, was admitted a pensioner of the College in 1680.”

End of the Happy Dance.

So, I am back to Frances (1624-1668) and Sarah Byrom (1624-1664) married 1648 as Capt. John’s parents. So I am back to The Cathedral in Manchester, Lancashire, England. The couple of a Samuel, born about 1648 and John about 1650. But Samuel is listed as the 3rd child. So, the dates still don’t work for me.

I thought I had broken my “across the pond” problem, while I was in Salt Lake City, but after reviewing the data, I am back asking the question, Who are Captain John Worthington’s parents.

¹Frederick Adams Virkus, Immigrant Ancestors:  A List of 2,500 Immigrants to America before 1750  (1942; Reprinted, Baltimore:  Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1976); Page 75; Worthington, Capt. John; Family History Library, 35 North West Temple Street
Salt Lake City, Utah.

QUERY: Descendants of Charles Worthington (1701-1774)

This is a copy of a Query Posted on this blog:

 

Russ,

 

Thanks very much for the personal and prompt response. 2,196 descendants of Captain John is astounding but not too surprising considering he had, by my searches, 31 grandchildren; a GREAT start.

 

(If you’ve never read “Adam’s Curse”, by Bryan Sykes, it makes interesting reading on the spread of DNA down through the generations. Apparently a third of all Asians are descended from Genghis Khan.) Anyway, I’m descended from John’s son Charles via HIS son Charles; from which of Charles senior’s four children do you descend? I have attached an Excel copy of my family tree, if it comes through this email, and you can see the Worthington section on page 4, bottom right. My interest, other than playing with spreadsheets, is to find the other siblings of my string, down through the generations.

 

The fact that you know how many descendants are from Captain John and Charles means there’s info out there. Is it consolidated anywhere?

 

Your blog is amazing. By the way, are you aware that the Worthington House at Monacacy Battlefield was bought by John Thomas Worthington, Captain John’s 3rd great grandson by John’s son John? Per my cousin Fred Jenkins who I believe you know or know of. Keep up the good work. Almost forgot, I had planned on attending the Worthington reunion last year but didn’t make it. I live not far away in Kennett Square, Pa. You met my sister Janet. Our sister Peg Ellis is who you apparently received much research info from, as you mentioned in you blog report.

 

John Worthington Austin

 

My Reply:

 

John,

Please email me your spreadsheet to:

hrworth at gmail dot com

DNA results are interesting, and J2 is the term I think you are suggesting. Don’t know about Genghis Khan though.

I know Fred and met many others (not Fred) at the Reunion this past summer. Had a great time.

I was born and grew up in Chester County.

Here is a link to a Descendant Chart of Capt. John.

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/w/o/r/H-R-Worthington/GENE6-0001.html

It may not be current, but it is online.

You are descendant of Charles Jr (1736 – 1799) while I am descendant of John (1733-1803). My family left Harford County between 1815 and 1866. Don’t know off the top of my head when.

Russ

Who moves at Christmas ?

Today is a big day. We close on our new house.

Thirty years ago (1982) I moved our family from Washington, DC to Long Valley, New Jersey. Who knew that 30 years later, on the same date, I would be moving again. We have been in an apartment too long. But, it wasn’t possible to purchase a house any earlier. In a couple of hours, we will close on this house. Can’t wait.

Our cat, J.T., has been running around trying to understand what all the boxes were about. Now clue that tomorrow, his kingdom will be in a new place. 30 years ago, the kids had many boxes to open on Christmas day. Guess I’ll have to leave a couple of small boxes for J.T. to play in, when we move.

We will finally have SPACE. The two windows to the left of the door, will be the room for our Genealogy Cave. A Genea-Blogger, Bill West of http://westinnewengland.blogspot.com keeps posting, on FaceBook, pictures of his bird feeders outside of his window. I hope to be able to compete with him in a couple of days, or how ever long it takes for birds to find a new “Diner”.

For many years, my parents had a Christmas Cactus that was always in full bloom at Christmas. When my mother passed away, I took a shoot from that Cactus and brought it home with me. It has bloomed in the past and continues to grow. But, it needs room. Too many other (small) plants in the windowsill. 2 days ago, it started to bloom. It is ready for space. It will be in it’s new home this afternoon.

This was taken a few minutes ago, in the crowded flower tray. This tray was also from my parents house. Tomorrow, this Christmas Cactus will have room to grow. The cat will have room to roam.

I think we all are ready for a new beginning.

Merry Christmas to All.

Not Everything is Online

I am working on a “How to” search presentation for my local Family History Interest Group.

Hurricane Sandy caused the presentation to be rescheduled / postponed until the library could get it’s power back and that folks could get to it safely. There are still road closures, trees down, folks without power, even a week after the storm.

This extra time provided me with some more time to research my two “case studies” for this presentation. Two folks from the group sent me “problems”, to be used as examples for the “Group” to help search for solutions.

In the Inferential Genealogy program that I have discussed here, having a specific goal or question to answer was very important. Both of the ‘case studies’ have specific questions.

Leading up to my presentation, several presenters at previous meetings have reminded us about “not every thing is Online”; being patient with results, and YOU are an expert for your own family.

The first case study, which will be in presentation form, meaning I will present a couple of searching techniques that I use and that will be used for the 2nd “group” or “community” search case study.

Both of these examples will illustrate that “not everything is online”. But in different ways. The first is Civil War records and a Civil War Pension files. The information that is needed to order these files are online, but the details are not. The “how to order” forms are online.

The second case study will reinforce that, but in a different way. This 2nd case study will bring in the “family expert” that would go with the data that can be seen online. In working with the person who gave me the 2nd case study, I have found that there were relationships that aren’t found “online” but the “family expert” knows what the real relationships are. Just looking online, does not reflect two “step” relationships.

The good news, in working with these two case studies, where to “go next”, or what repository to visit “next” becomes obvious. This second case study, the crowd or community search will provide this second person with one or two repositories that should be visited, but with a list of items to look for at that repository.

In addition, the Friends, Acquaintance, and Neighbors (FAN) concept will be introduced, just based on the specific example / problem that was presented to me, and the importance looking broadly and not being focused on an individual. For example, who are the people on the census page before and after “your people”. Hints to resolve this 2nd “problem” became obvious is the resolution of the specific question for this case study.

Note: I am writing this as a reminder to my self, of a couple of points to be made during the presentation. Comments are always welcome.

A Worthington Family Reunion

I didn’t know what to expect when I went on this adventure, but what the heck, it was to an area of Maryland that I have visited before but hadn’t spent much time learning about the area, nor the people who lived there. My ancestry spent a couple of generations living in Harford County, Maryland, but then moved to Philadelphia. I have visited Deer Creek in Darlington (just up the road a bit), and I realized that I really haven’t spent time researching the area.

Having read about this Worthington Family Reunion in a recent Worthington news letter, I decided, with permission, to be a part of this reunion. Afterall, we were related. Indeed, we were and are related. A colleague and Worthington researcher, who was NOT able to attend, sent along some information about HOW we were related. In fact, I had information on this specific branch of the family already in my database.

SteppingStone, the name of the property, was a beautiful place to hold this reunion.

 

 

 

Too many names to remember, but clearly they were / are Family. One gentlemen I met was born in one of these buildings. I think it was the first house above. I didn’t get into the details, as this clearly was a family picnic and reunion.

I didn’t get any research information for my files, as I know who to get that information from. In fact, I met the sister of the person who I received much of the information that I had in my file, on this branch, back in 1998 via Email and to meet her sister was awesome. (Yeah, Source material and Citations).

There was a genealogist in the group and we spent time chatting about our research. Both with Ancestry Member Trees, online, so we had access to your research information. That conversation will take place via email and will continue to connect the dots.

At this point, I intend on attending next year, but will be far better prepared for it, now that I know how were are related. (6th Cousins). In the group, there were probably a number of 1 or 2 times removed from 6th cousins, as there appeared to be 2, if not 3 generations, all descended from William Evans Worthington (1855-1940) and Louise Green. Lots of dots to connect.

There was one Family Bible that was packed with family history. I do hope that some one in the family captures that data and makes it available for others in the future.

I do admit that I was not prepared for such a visit, but I didn’t know what to expect, but will be far better prepared next time. I will say that it was AWESOME to be able to have a Family Reunion and Picnic on the Property of an Ancestor with so many descendants. Congratulations cousins.