The Harwoods of New England

Watson H. Harwood, M.D. published a three-volume genealogy * of the Harwoods of New England that details the descendants of three branches of Harwoods that came to America. The first volume covers his own Harwood ancestry, starting with Andrew Harwood of Dartmouth, Devonshire England. The other two volumes cover the Harwoods of Salem, MA (Vol.2, starting with immigrants Henry and Elizabeth Harwood) and Concord, MA (Vol.3, starting with John Harwood, b.Abt.1595, of London); all are available online through FamilySearch.org. Mr. Harwood did not have any knowledge of the relationship, if any, between these three branches before coming to America. Our Huldah Harwood likely was a descendant of one of these three Harwood lines. 

We have found no evidence whatsoever of connections between the Chr.#14 segment and the Salem, MA line. Salem is on the coast, on the NE edge of Boston in Essex County, and Concord is about 23 miles inland, NW of Boston. Littleton is about 10 miles NE of Concord, both in Middlesex County.

We have clues that could point to either John Harwood's Concord line (via son Nathaniel) or Andrew Harwood's line (via son James). Neither is conclusive at this point. 

Supporting the Concord line is the fact (as discussed in "The Maiden Name") that the Harwoods in Josiah Proctor's pedigree are associated with it. However, the Chr#14 segment could be coming from anywhere in that pedigree and so far, the closest we've come to finding an ancestor that ties all matches together are Isaac Stearns and Mary Learned (uniting all but the Minot tree).  One other  Chr#14 match , not yet connected to the Proctor or Sawyer/Minot trees)  has also been found to include a Nathaniel Harwood descendant.

Supporting the Andrew Harwood line (Charlestown, MA) is yet another match that is not yet connected to the Proctor or Sawyer/Minot trees; this match descends from James Harwood, who was a son of Andrew Harwood of Dartmouth, Devonshire, England and married Lydia Barrett. He was born in Chelmsford, Middlesex, MA, where Josiah Proctor has connections, but later lived in Littleton, Middlesex, MA. 

A summary of all Chr#14 segment matches investigated can be found here.  As you can see, there are several others that have not yet been connected to Proctor or Sawyer/Minot trees; this is likely because the research came to dead-ends and the connections are behind them. If not, there could be other lines that also carry at least a portion of the same segment (a so-called "community gene").

As we discover more segments with the potential to have belonged to Huldah, we gain new clues. Tracing those segments to their common ancestors should create a picture of the pedigree of Huldah and that should shed more light on which Harwood line she came from. 

Next Post: New Clues 

* References:

Vol. 1: A Genealogical History of the Harwood Families, Descended from Andrew Harwood, whose English home was in Dartmouth, Devonshire, England, And who emigrated to America, and was living in Boston, Mass., in 1643, Chasm Falls, N.Y., 1911, Watson H. Harwood, M.D. 

Vol. 2: A Genealogical History of the Salem Harwood's, Descendants of Henry and Elizabeth Harwood, who came from England to America with Gov. Winthrop, in 1630, and settled in Charlestown, MA.,  Chasm Falls, NY, 1912, Watson H. Harwood, M.D. 

Vol 3:  A Genealogical History of the Concord Harwoods, Descendants of Nathaniel Harwood, son of John Harwood, of London, England. Nathaniel with Elizabeth, his wife, settled in Concord, Mass., about 1665, Chasm Falls, NY, 1912, Watson H. Harwood, M.D.