The Maiden Name

June 28th, 2022 was a big day. Cousin Les sent email with a biographical sketch he found in The History of Rutland Co., Vt *, which revealed to us the maiden name of Huldah. What was it? I'll get to that in a minute. In the meantime, let me remind you of where we are at. 

We've found the common ancestors of two groups of shared matches that are associated with descendants of Daniel Jacobs and connected to the descendants of his brother, John Jacobs, Jr.; this suggests that the segment came from John Jacobs or his wife Huldah. The deep New England history we found in that pedigree, suggests that the segment came from Huldah. One of those groups converged on Josiah Proctor, b.1742, Littleton, Middlesex, MA, and his wife Sarah Preston. Click here to look at the pedigree we have created for Josiah (you probably need an Ancestry.com account to see it).

Now, here is the excerpt from the History of Rutland Co., Vt:

"John B. Griffith's mother, Betsey (Jacob) Griffith, was a daughter of Daniel and Abigail (Lawrence) Jacobs; was born on May 29, 1798. Daniel was a son of John and Huldah (Harwood) Jacobs. John Jacobs was a German and at the age of ten years was captured while tending cattle; he was captured by Northmen, and take away with his cattle; later the English captured him from his keepers and he was held by them until he was twenty-four years, when he escaped and came to Boston, where he met Huldah Harwood, who recognized him as her lover of whom she had been informed in her dreams. They were married at once.""

If you looked at the pedigree, you'll probably remember seeing that name "Harwood". I don't know if we could have settled on this particular surname being Huldah's with just DNA evidence, but fortunately, now we don't need to do so. 

And what an intriguing story! John was a ten-year-old German immigrant tending cattle and captured by "Northmen" (our best guess is French Canadians and/or their native American allies). That he was freed from them by the English and then held by them for a number of years before escaping could easily explain why he changed his name - he didn't want them to find him again. He met Huldah in Boston and married her soon after, about 1759, based upon the date of their first child's birth. At that time, Huldah was about 26 years old and unmarried - unusual in those times. That he was "her lover of whom she had been informed in her dreams" suggests that it was likely her first marriage (that Harwood was not a name from a prior marriage). What was she doing in Boston? Did her family live there? Answers lead to more questions. The big questions are: What line of Harwood's was she related to? Who, specifically, were her parents?  DNA genealogy seems to give us a decent chance of at least finding an answer to the first question. 

Next Entry:  The Harwood's of New England

* Reference:  History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers

CREATOR: Rann, W. S. (William S.). OWNING INSTITUTION: Internet Archive

PUBLISHER DIGITAL :Cornell University Library

https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/491509-history-of-rutland-county-vermont-with-illustrations-and-biographical-sketches-of-some-of-its-prominent-men-and-pioneers