Cousin Group on Zoom Uncovers Surprise from the 1630s

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 7: Unusual Source

 

 An unusual and fun source for information about my Woodward ancestors is a group of cousins that now meet monthly on zoom.   At our last meeting, one of our members shared an exciting discovery from the 1630’s.  

The informal group has 8 members scattered across the country, most in the northeast.  All are Woodward descendants, all descending from Jonathan Woodward (1762-1843) and Rebecca Smith (1764-1824) of Hanover, NH.   Two of the eight members are descended from Jonathan’s son Theodore, whereas six of the members are descended from Jonathan’s daughter Martha.  Martha married Smith Sherman in April 1815 in Barre, Vermont, and it is this other “Sherman line” that figures in this discovery.   

 

In a previous 52 Weeks prompt on January 3 of this year, I shared the story of Richard and Rose Woodward leaving England for the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634 aboard the ship “Elizabeth” from Ipswich, Suffolk County, England.  They left Ipswich on April 30 and arrived in Boston in July.  The well documented records of this ship tell us that there were 105 passengers on the 2-month journey to the new world.  Richard and Rose, along with their two sons John and George, were amongst them and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts.  

 

In our zoom meeting cousin group, I shared the 52 Weeks article I wrote on Richard and Rose Woodward.   It rang a proverbial bell with one of the cousins, specifically the part about leaving England in the 1630’s.  Thus motivated, she went through her genealogy papers to locate a document, hand-written by her grandmother, entitled, “Sherman Ancestors from England to Theodore Mott Sherman.”

In the middle of the Sherman document, we see “John Sherman” born in Essex County, England, in 1612 and a date of death of 1690 in Watertown, MA.  Essex County is adjacent to Suffolk County where Ipswich is located and also part of the East Anglia Puritan concentration in England so it makes sense that John Sherman wanted to be part of that “Great Migration” of Puritans to the colonies.

Next, the motivated cousin looked up the complete passenger list of the “Elizabeth” for the April 1634 voyage and John Sherman was on the list and the right age.  So, this ship not only carried our Woodward ancestors, it also carried a key Sherman ancestor.   This documentation can be found online via “Great Migration:  Passengers of the Elizabeth, 1634 & 1635.”  

We have no reason to suspect that the Woodwards and John Sherman knew each other prior to the trip, although they both settled in Watertown, MA so they certainly knew each other then.   It would be 181 years later that the Woodwards and Shermans were connected via Martha Woodward’s marriage to Smith Sherman in 1815.

This discovery is the biggest find our online cousin group has made.  Many of our meetings are not as productive but they are fun.  The group is also very helpful for sharing photos.  Collaboration is good, sometimes I think it has a "more than the sum of the parts" feel to it.  If you are thinking about starting a group like this, I encourage you to do it.