I recently came into possession of this gem -

"Washburn Family Foundations in Normandy, England, and America"











I found this at Abe Books dot Com, a great place online to find old books. Some books there are precious and expensive, but others, although still being precious, are quite affordable, as this one was to me.

You can really knock yourself out tracing your family tree back through the ages. Trying to make all the dates match and the birth dates, death dates, names of children, names of various wives, etc., can make you turn prematurely white - or can make your already nearly-white hair go completely so!

I overdid it the other day looking for my ancestors on my mother's father's side. I had already traced my mother's family on her mother's side before this, but really only went back to the 1500s in England for those Ingersoll members of the clan.

These Washburns/Washbournes, etc., just seemed to go on forever... changing over to French names after a while and then to Norwegians. When I started finding relatives who just went by one name, like "Ivar," "Magnus," and "Olaf" - well I only continued a little further and then stopped at "Heytir Heytsson," born 680 in Romsdal, Norway. It's hard for me to comprehend a family being tallied along all those years and miles that far - one thousand three hundred thirty four years! I will give to you what I have but will omit the dates and little notes that I've included in my own list here. The Washburns - from my Mom back to Heytir Heytsson - for good or bad, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, here they all are, starting from the very oldest, the longest-dead of them all in Norway:

The Washbourne - Washburn Family
Norway, England and America

The Norway Contingent:

1. Heytir Heytsson

b. 680 a.d. in Romsdalen, Rauma, More og Romsdal, Norway

2. Svidri Heytsson
3. Sveide "The Sea-King" Sviadrasson
4. Hingmar (Ivar)
5. Arailt (Harold)
6. Olaf
7. Magnus
8. Ivar

The French Contingent:

(Note: History of the Hauteville family.)

9. Hialti Seigneur de Hauteville
10. Guiscard Seigneur de Hauteville
11. Count Tancred The Viking Seighneur de Hauteville
12. Gerard Tancred Seighneur de Hauteville
13. Rabel Tancred de Hauteville

b. circa 955 in Hauteville-sur-Mer, Manche, Lower Normandy, France

14. Gerald de Tankerville (d'Abitot)

b. circa 990 in Tancarville, Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy, France

15. Almeric de Abitot

b. 1020 in Normandy, France

16. Urse d'Abitot (or d'Abetot) (1040 - 1108)

And here begins the English contingent:

17. Roger D'Abitot, son of Urse d'Abitot.
18. William de Estham

is believed to have been William son of Ernaldus (aka Urse, see above) who received the fief in Herefordshire

19. Samson was named as son of William (son of Ernaldus)
20. William de Estham, son of Samson,

was said by historian Thos. Habingdon, a friend/neighbor of the family of Washbourne from whom descends the Washburn family of America, to have been Lord of Washbourne in the reign of King Henry II (1154-1189).

21. Sampson De Estham
22. Sir Roger, [1st] Lord of Washbourne

b. ~ 1219 in Little Washbourne, Worcestershire, England. The 1st Sir Roger, Lord of Washbourne is the first known authentic ancestor of this family. He is mentioned in an Inquisition of 1259, concerning William de Stutevil, and in the Subsidy Roll of 1280 he is described as of Little Comberton and of Washbourne, as well as of Stanford. Stanford was on the other side of Worcestershire from Washbourne, about twenty-five miles in direct line. He was living in 1299. Also, "The family of "Washbournes were Lords of Stanford, and that Sir Roger de Washbourne held in Stanford what his father, Sir John de Washbourne, formerly held. Stanford passed to John Solway in his marriage to Isolde Washborne about 1400 A.D.

23. Sir Roger, [2nd] Lord of Washbourne
24. John de Dufford Washbourne
25. Roger De Washbourne
26. John De Washbourne
27. Peter Washbourne
28. John Washbourne
29. Norman Washbourne
30. John Washbourne or Washburn
31. John Washbourne (Wassheburne)
32. John Washbourne
33. John Washburn
34. John Washburn Jr.

John Washburn, a descendant sailed to the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in the 17th century. He later married Elizabeth Mitchell who was the granddaughter of Francis Cooke, who sailed to America on the Mayflower.

35. John Washburn III
36. Samuel Washburn
37. Noah Washburn
38. Eleazar (or Eliezer) Washburn
39. Alden Washbur
40. (John) Alden Washburn
41. Capt. Zadock S. Washburn
42. Albert Z(adock) Washburn
43A. Frederick Washburn (My Grandfather)
43B. Roger Washburn (brother of Frederick above)
44A. Robert Washburn
44B. Janet Washburn (My Mother) b. 1925 d. 2001

Wow, I hope I haven't messed that up royally. Anyway, it's still a work in progress. But this is what I've uncovered so far.

The thing is, only a few weeks ago, or maybe a few months ago, I didn't even know the name of my great grandfather - Albert Z. Washburn. Turns out he was a mucky-muck (one of my favorite words!) in the Cities of Boston and West Medford, MA. I wish I could go back and be transformed into a fly on the wall of history and see them going about their daily lives.

Now I'm wondering if all our blogs and journals will keep on in perpetuity so that one day, many decades, many generations from now, someone will find them and read all about our day-to-day lives, our fears, our happinesses, our little lives... and marvel at them, the same way I am marveling at just knowing the simple names of those who went before me.


Gravestones of Zadock Washburn (left) and Eleazar Washburn(right)

Cheers,

Bex-the-searcher


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Check out my other blog, "From the Hawthorne Tree"


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Pages from the American Notebooks, Nathaniel Hawthorne

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