West in New England: Hastings Family

Showing posts with label Hastings Family. Show all posts

Sunday, September 10, 2023

ON THIS DATE: SEPT 10TH

ON THIS DATE
MARRIAGE:
10 Sep 1778 4x ggp Amos Hastings & Elizabeth Wiley were married at
Haverhill Ma.

DEATHS:
10 Sep 1694 8x ggf Daniel Cheney died at Newbury, Ma.
10 Sep 1696 8x ggf Samuel Davis died at Haverhill, Ma.
10 Sep 1731 8x ggf Eleazer Green died at Groton, Ma.

Sunday, April 19, 2020

THE SHOT HEARD `ROUND THE WORLD

Today is the 245th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington & Concord which
started the American Revolution on 19Apr 1775.

These are our colonial ancestors from our Dad's family lines for whom I have
so far been able to discover records that they took part in those battles and served in the
Revolution:

Jonathan Barker Jr. My 5x great grandfather
Was a Minuteman from Methuen Ma with rank of Sergeant.
He responded to Lexington and Concord with his sons
Served in Captain Samuel Johnson's Company in
Colonel Titcomb's Regiment for 2 months in 1777 in Rhode
Island and then with Nathaniel Gage's Company in Colonel
Jacob Gerrish's guards from Dec 1777 to l Apr 1778 guarding
the captured troops of General Burgoyne.

Jonathan Barker 3rd My 4x great grandfather
Enlisted on 19 Apr 1775 in Continental Army, Capt. John
Davis' Company, Col. James Frye's Regiment, in the
Massachusetts line for 8 months in Cambridge, Ma. At the
conclusion of the term, he reenlisted for another 3 months in
Capt John Allen's Company, Colonel John Waldron's Regiment,
General Sullivan's Brigade in the New Hampshire Brigade at
Charlestown, Ma. He then enlisted a third time in June 1778
at Methuen, Ma., joining Captain Samuel Carr's Company, Col.
James Weston's Regiment, in General Lerned's Brigade at
White Plains, N.Y. and serving for another 9 months.

John Ames My 5x great grandfather
Was a Minuteman under Capt. Asa Parker on April 19th,
1775. He then enlisted in the Continental Army under Captain
Oliver Parker, Col. William Prescott's Regiment and
in the Brigade that was commanded in turn by Generals
Putnam, Lee, and Washington and served for 8 1/2 months.

Asa Barrows My 4x great grandfather
A member of the militia from Middleborough , Ma. (south of
Boston) in the Company of Captain Joshua Benson, in Colonel
Cotton's Regiment, and General William Heath's Brigade for
8 months during the siege of Boston. In December 1776 he
joined a militia Company commanded by Captain Joshua
Perkins and marched to Barrington, R.I. and was stationed
there for 6 weeks. In July 1780 he again enlisted, this time
in a militia company commanded by Captain Perez Churchill
that marched to Tiverton, R.I. .

Moses Coburn My 4x great grandfather
Moses Coburn got into the War late and by reason of being
"hired by a certain class of men in the then town of Dunstable
to go into the Continental Army in the summer of 1781."
When he reached Phillipsburgh in New York he was placed in
Captain Benjamin Pike's Company, in the Regiment of the
Massachusetts line commanded by Lt. Colonel Calvin Smith in
which he served for nearly two years until it was broken up.
He then transferred to the Company of Judah Alden in the
Regiment commanded by Colonel Sprouts until his discharge
in 1783.

Samuel Haskell My 5x great grandfather
Samuel served in Captain Joseph Elliott's Company in Colonel
William Turner's Regiment and then under Captain Hezekiah
Whitney in Colonel Josiah Whitney's Regiment.

Amos Hastings My 5x great grandfather
Amos responded to the Lexington Alarm as part of
Captain Richard Ayer's Company and Colonel William
Johnson's Regiment. He later served in Captain Timothy
Eaton's Company in Colonel Edward Wigglesworth's Regiment
and was at the taking of the British General Burgoyne at
Ticonderoga.

Elisha Houghton 5x great grandfather
Enlisted at Harvard Ma as a Private in May of 1777 in the
Massachusetts militia and was at the Battles of Bunker Hill
and Stillwater. He then enlisted for three years in the infantry
company commanded by Captain Joshua Brown in Colonel
Timothy Bigelow's 15th Regiment of the Massachusetts line.
and took part in the Battles of Monmouth and Newport and
was at Valley Forge. He twice was promoted to Sergeant and
twice was busted back down to the ranks.

Amos Upton My 5x great grandfather
Responded to the Lexington Alarm and marched there from
his home in Reading. He later joined the militia company
commanded by Captain Asa Prince as an orderly sergeant
and then enlisted for eight months in the Continental Army
under Colonel Mansfield. He was at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
He was discharged in October of 1775.

John Griffith My 5x great grandfather
Enlisted in 1781 as a Matross (he swabbed out the barrel of
the cannons after they fired, or so I've been told) in Captain
William Treadwell's Company in Colonel John Crane's
Artillery Regiment.

Reuben Packard My 5x great grandfather
A Sergeant in Captain Josiah Hayden's Company in Colonel
Bailey's militia. They marched to Lexington at news of the
Alarm. He also responded several more times as a Minuteman
for a total of nearly 8 months duty.

Jonathan Abbott My 5x great grandfather
Served as a Sergeant in the Militia under Captain Henry
Abbott and responded to the Lexington Alarm

Samuel Stowe My 5x great grandfather
Minuteman from Sherborn, Ma. Served in Capt. Benjamin Bullard's
Company in Col. Asa Whitcomb's 5th Massachusetts Bay
Provincial Regiment.

Besides those direct ancestors, these other relatives fought
in the Revolution:

Moses Barrows, brother to Asa Barrows.

Samuel, Jesse, and Benjamin Barker, sons of Jonathan
Barker, Jr. and brothers to Jonathan Barker 3rd.

James Swan, brother in law to Jonathan Barker.

Friday, April 19, 2019

THE SHOT HEARD `ROUND THE WORLD

Today is the 244th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington & Concord which
started the American Revolution on 19Apr 1775. They were celebrated Monday in
Massachusetts on Patriots Day, the third Monday in April, when the Boston Marathon is run.

These are our colonial ancestors from our Dad's family lines for whom I have
so far been able to discover records that they took part in those battles and served in the
Revolution:

Jonathan Barker Jr. My 5x great grandfather
Was a Minuteman from Methuen Ma with rank of Sergeant.
He responded to Lexington and Concord with his sons
Served in Captain Samuel Johnson's Company in
Colonel Titcomb's Regiment for 2 months in 1777 in Rhode
Island and then with Nathaniel Gage's Company in Colonel
Jacob Gerrish's guards from Dec 1777 to l Apr 1778 guarding
the captured troops of General Burgoyne.

Jonathan Barker 3rd My 4x great grandfather
Enlisted on 19 Apr 1775 in Continental Army, Capt. John
Davis' Company, Col. James Frye's Regiment, in the
Massachusetts line for 8 months in Cambridge, Ma. At the
conclusion of the term, he reenlisted for another 3 months in
Capt John Allen's Company, Colonel John Waldron's Regiment,
General Sullivan's Brigade in the New Hampshire Brigade at
Charlestown, Ma. He then enlisted a third time in June 1778
at Methuen, Ma., joining Captain Samuel Carr's Company, Col.
James Weston's Regiment, in General Lerned's Brigade at
White Plains, N.Y. and serving for another 9 months.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

THE SHOT HEARD `ROUND THE WORLD

Today is the 243nd Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington & Concord which
started the American Revolution on 19Apr 1775. They were celebrated Monday in
Massachusetts on Patriots Day, the third Monday in April, when the Boston Marathon is run.

These are our colonial ancestors from our Dad's family lines for whom I have
so far been able to discover records that they took part in those battles and served in the
Revolution:

Jonathan Barker Jr. My 5x great grandfather
Was a Minuteman from Methuen Ma with rank of Sergeant.
He responded to Lexington and Concord with his sons
Served in Captain Samuel Johnson's Company in
Colonel Titcomb's Regiment for 2 months in 1777 in Rhode
Island and then with Nathaniel Gage's Company in Colonel
Jacob Gerrish's guards from Dec 1777 to l Apr 1778 guarding
the captured troops of General Burgoyne.

Jonathan Barker 3rd My 4x great grandfather
Enlisted on 19 Apr 1775 in Continental Army, Capt. John
Davis' Company, Col. James Frye's Regiment, in the
Massachusetts line for 8 months in Cambridge, Ma. At the
conclusion of the term, he reenlisted for another 3 months in
Capt John Allen's Company, Colonel John Waldron's Regiment,
General Sullivan's Brigade in the New Hampshire Brigade at
Charlestown, Ma. He then enlisted a third time in June 1778
at Methuen, Ma., joining Captain Samuel Carr's Company, Col.
James Weston's Regiment, in General Lerned's Brigade at
White Plains, N.Y. and serving for another 9 months.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD

Today is the 242nd Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington & Concord which
started the American Revolution on 19Apr 1775. They were celebrated Monday in
Massachusetts on Patriots Day, the third Monday in April, when the Boston Marathon is run.

These are our colonial ancestors from our Dad's family lines for whom I have
so far been able to discover records that they took part in those battles and served in the
Revolution:

Jonathan Barker Jr. My 5x great grandfather
Was a Minuteman from Methuen Ma with rank of Sergeant.
He responded to Lexington and Concord with his sons
Served in Captain Samuel Johnson's Company in
Colonel Titcomb's Regiment for 2 months in 1777 in Rhode
Island and then with Nathaniel Gage's Company in Colonel
Jacob Gerrish's guards from Dec 1777 to l Apr 1778 guarding
the captured troops of General Burgoyne.

Jonathan Barker 3rd My 4x great grandfather
Enlisted on 19 Apr 1775 in Continental Army, Capt. John
Davis' Company, Col. James Frye's Regiment, in the
Massachusetts line for 8 months in Cambridge, Ma. At the
conclusion of the term, he reenlisted for another 3 months in
Capt John Allen's Company, Colonel John Waldron's Regiment,
General Sullivan's Brigade in the New Hampshire Brigade at
Charlestown, Ma. He then enlisted a third time in June 1778
at Methuen, Ma., joining Captain Samuel Carr's Company, Col.
James Weston's Regiment, in General Lerned's Brigade at
White Plains, N.Y. and serving for another 9 months.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD

Today is the 241st Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington & Concord which
started the American Revolution on 19Apr 1775. They were celebrated yesterday in
Massachusetts on Patriots Day, the third Monday in April, when the Boston Marathon is run.

These are our colonial ancestors from our Dad's family lines for whom I have
so far been able to discover records that they took part in those battles and served in the
Revolution:

Jonathan Barker Jr. My 5x great grandfather
Was a Minuteman from Methuen Ma with rank of Sergeant.
He responded to Lexington and Concord with his sons
Served in Captain Samuel Johnson's Company in
Colonel Titcomb's Regiment for 2 months in 1777 in Rhode
Island and then with Nathaniel Gage's Company in Colonel
Jacob Gerrish's guards from Dec 1777 to l Apr 1778 guarding
the captured troops of General Burgoyne.

Jonathan Barker 3rd My 4x great grandfather
Enlisted on 19 Apr 1775 in Continental Army, Capt. John
Davis' Company, Col. James Frye's Regiment, in the
Massachusetts line for 8 months in Cambridge, Ma. At the
conclusion of the term, he reenlisted for another 3 months in
Capt John Allen's Company, Colonel John Waldron's Regiment,
General Sullivan's Brigade in the New Hampshire Brigade at
Charlestown, Ma. He then enlisted a third time in June 1778
at Methuen, Ma., joining Captain Samuel Carr's Company, Col.
James Weston's Regiment, in General Lerned's Brigade at
White Plains, N.Y. and serving for another 9 months.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD

Today is the 240th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington & Concord which
started the American Revolution on 19Apr 1775. While the traditional
reenactments of the battles will take place today, they are celebrated in
Massachusetts on Patriots Day, the third Monday in April, when the Boston
Marathon is run.

These are our colonial ancestors from our Dad's family lines for whom I have
so far been able to discover records.

Jonathan Barker Jr. My 5x great grandfather
Was a Minuteman from Methuen Ma with rank of Sergeant.
He responded to Lexington and Concord with his sons
Served in Captain Samuel Johnson's Company in
Colonel Titcomb's Regiment for 2 months in 1777 in Rhode
Island and then with Nathaniel Gage's Company in Colonel
Jacob Gerrish's guards from Dec 1777 to l Apr 1778 guarding
the captured troops of General Burgoyne.

Jonathan Barker 3rd My 4x great grandfather
Enlisted on 19 Apr 1775 in Continental Army, Capt. John
Davis' Company, Col. James Frye's Regiment, in the
Massachusetts line for 8 months in Cambridge, Ma. At the
conclusion of the term, he reenlisted for another 3 months in
Capt John Allen's Company, Colonel John Waldron's Regiment,
General Sullivan's Brigade in the New Hampshire Brigade at
Charlestown, Ma. He then enlisted a third time in June 1778
at Methuen, Ma., joining Captain Samuel Carr's Company, Col.
James Weston's Regiment, in General Lerned's Brigade at
White Plains, N.Y. and serving for another 9 months.

Monday, December 29, 2014

THE LAST INDIAN RAID

((First posted in 2008))

I've written before about my ancestors' experiences and
encounters with the Native American peoples of New England.
In researching the Barker brothers I found several references,
including Mitch Barker's here, of them temporarily leaving the
Bethel, Maine area after an Indian raid. This turned out to be
what is considered the "Last Indian Raid" in New England and
it took place 233 years ago on 3 Aug 1781.

At that time Bethel was still part of Canada and was named
Sudbury. There has been many clashes between the English
settlers and Indians over the previous 150 years but there
had also been occasions when various tribes allied themselves
with the English against the French, but with the French
departure from Canada and then the American Revolution
the political landscape had changed. Neither the Indians
nor the Americans could count on the British as an ally
against the other.

While most of the Indians in the area were friendly with the
settlers, one leader, Tomhegan(supposedly an Anglicization of
Tumtumhegan) was not. One account cites a dispute over
lands near Rumford Falls as one reason for his animosity.
Whatever the reason for it, on the 3 Aug 1781 Tomhegan led
a small group of followers on a raid that went through the areas
of Bethel and Gilead, Maine and then crossed over to the
vicinity of Shelburne, NH, where a settler named Peter Poor
was killed.

At Bethel the raiding party had killed a man named James
Pettengill and captured two of the prominent citizens,
Nathaniel Segar and Benjamin Clark, along with two other
men who managed to escape. Tomhegan kept Segar and
Clark as hostages, forcing them to carry the loot taken from
settler's homes as they went north. Eventually they reached
Canada where Segar and Clark were sold to the British.
The men were kept captive at Montreal until the following
year when they were released and returned to Boston on a
ship.

The families in the Bethel area had fled to safety at the
approach of the attack and eventually returned to the area
along with more families. The 1790 census for Sudbury and the
surrounding area shows my ancestors Amos Hastings and
Jonathan Barker(and his brothers) among the inhabitants.
The town incorporated itself as Bethel in 1796 and in 1931
held a celebration to mark the 150th anniversary of the
raid.

As for Tomhegan, he was eventually captured and killed. Benjamin
Willey in his "Incidents in White Mountain History " claims he was
tied to the back of a horse which was set loose in an apple orchard
so that the branches of the trees tore Tomhegan to bits but there is
no official account to verify what seems to me folklore.

The final irony is that Tomhegan's name mainly lives on not as the
leader of the Last Indian Raid in New England but in the names of
various places in the Moosehead Lake area of Maine, one of which
is the Tomhegan Wildlife Sanctuary.

You can view Peter Poor's headstone here at the First Mountain
Forest site. Brief entries on prominent Native Americans in the
Bethel area can be viewed here at their site. Willey's account
of the incident is here at Googlebooks.

Written for the 53rd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.

2014 Update:
Among those settlers living at Bethel at the time of the attack were the families
of my ancestors James Swan, Jonathan Barker, and Amos Hastings. One
of the homes targeted by the Indians was that of Benjamin Barker, my
4x great granduncle

Saturday, November 29, 2014

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS#46: JOHN HASTINGS SR. & JOHN HASTINGS JR.

Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. I've
been tracing the ancestral lines of my grandmother Cora Barker, which include
the Barnes, Colby, Davis, Hoyt and Kelley familes, and now turn to my Hastings
ancestors.

I finally found something in Google ebooks about my 6x and 5x great grandfathers
John Hastings Sr. and John Hastings Jr. It was in a collection of family histories
for families in Maine, which I now realize is someplace I should have looked
at earlier, given my branch of the Hastings had moved there in the late 18th
century. Even so, most of the information on John Sr is about his wife's grandfather
Richard Bailey:

(IV) John, youngest son of Robert and Elizabeth (Davis) Hastings, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, September 3, 1691. He married, May 2, 1717, Edna, daughter of Joseph Bailey, and granddaughter of Richard Bailey, of Rowley, who is said to have come from Yorkshire, England, some time from 1630 to 1638; he is represented then as a lad of some fifteen years, a very pious person, called on to pray for the safety of the ship during a storm encountered on the passage; the ship was the "Bevis," one hundred and fifty tons. Richard Bailey was one of a company to inaugurate at Rowley the first cloth mill in America; his death occurred between 1647 aml 1650, aged thirty-three to thirty-five years perhaps, just in the young flush of middle life. Richard Bailey left one son, Joseph, who was a leading man in state, church and army; a selectman in Bradford and a deacon from the formation of the church there till his death: he in turn left eight sons and daughters, among whom were Elizabeth and Edna, who married Robert and John Hastings, respectively, as aforementioned. Children of John and Edna (Bailey) Hastings: 1. John, born January 23, 1718. 2. James, May 4, 1720. 3. Abigail, August 12, 1722. 4. Jonas, January 12, 1727.

(V) John, eldest son and child of John and Edna (Bailey) Hastings, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, January 23, 1718. He married (first) Rebecca Bailey, and (second) Mary Amy. Children of first wife: 1. John, born April 11, 1744. 2. Richard, October 12, 1745. 3. Rebecca, 1746. 4. Jonas, November 9, 1747. 6. Timothy, April 12, 1750, died young. 7. Amos, February 3, 1757. Children of second wife: 8. Levi, June 6, 1762. 9. Evan, July 12, 1764, died unmarried. 10. Mollie, September 12, 1766, died young. 11. Joshua, June 7, 1768. 12. Abigail, August 2, 1770. 13. Ann, March 3, 1772. 14. David, June 17, 1774. p1752

Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Volume 4 (Google eBook)
Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs Lewis historical publishing Company, New York 1909

One problem surfaced in all this information: the book lists John Hastings Jr.'s first
wife as Rebecca Bailey while I'd previously found it in other places as Rebecca
Kelley. Here are images from the New Hampshire, Birth Records, Early to 1900
collection at FamilySearch. These are for the births of four of the children of John
and Rebecca Hastings. If you compare the birthdates in the images with those in
the passage from the book, they match up. In all four, the name of the mother is
given as Rebecca Kelley.

I have a possible explanation for the discrepancy. Here is the image for the
marriage record of John Hastings and a Rebecca Kaley, The date here matches
with what I had in my database:

Could it be someone misread Kaley for Baley?

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS#45: ROBERT HASTINGS

Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. I've
been tracing the ancestral lines of my grandmother Cora Barker, which include
the Barnes, Colby, Davis, Hoyt and Kelley familes, and now turn to my Hastings
ancestors.

I recently did two posts about my 7x great grandfather Robert Hastings and his
parentage. It turns out there is not too much information about Robert available
on Google ebooks. I did find some in a genealogy of the Peaslee family written
by Emma Adeline Kimball:

On the same page of the history is the record of a house built by Robert Hastings
in 1676. This was not far from the home of the Peaslees. It may have been a log
house, and a larger one have been erected £ few years later; but, the house of
Robert Hastings was, in 1696, licensed as a tavern. There was no Hastings among
the Proprietors of the town of Haverhill. Being a mason or bricklayer, it' is easy to
conjecture that he came to the place to work on the house of Joseph Peaslee. It
is certain that he married Elizabelh Davis, born March 11, 1653-4; that her father
gave to Robert Hastings the land on which he built his house, and a few years later
added to the former gift of land one cow-common right and pasturage.
Robert Hastings, Sen., in a deed recorded April 21, 1710, gave to his son Robert thirty
acres of land on the "back side of ye said land I now live upon"; also a piece of meadow, half the orchard, and the east end of the house, to be his at the signing of the deed. For himself and wife, during life, he reserved the other half of the house and orchard; after their decease, Robert, the son, was to have the whole house and all of the orchard.

Elizabeth, the daughter of Robert Hastings, Jr., married Joseph Kelly, Jr., and lived on the homestead. It has never passed out of the family, the present owner being a descendant
of the Kelly and Hastings families under a different name.
pp10-11
The Peaslees and Others of Haverhill and Vicinity (Google eBook) Press of Chase Brothers, Haverhill, Ma. 1899

There was also this:
Katharine, eldest daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Davis) Hastings, married Samuel Davis, Jr. Elizabeth Hastings married the third Joseph Peaslee. Robert Hastings, Jr., married Elizabeth Bailey, daughter of Deacon Joseph Bailey of Bradford, March 18, 1706. John, brother of Robert, Jr., married May 2, 1717, Ednah "Bealy," sister of Elizabeth. George Hastings, born April 24, 1688, and his brother John built their houses at the foot of the hill beyond the homestead, the home of Robert Hastings, Sen., and his son Robert. The house of one was near the-highway, in later years known as the J. H. Morse place, which was destroyed by -fire many years since. The other brother built his house on the edge of the intervale, now the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Swain, the daughter of Oliver Morse, in whose family it has been for more than a century, having been purchased of Robert Hastings of the third generation, son of the builder.p44

I was struck by the fact that Robert was a bricklayer. That's the third ancestor that
had that occupation, and all from different branches of my family. Besides Robert
Hastings on the maternal side of my Dad's family, there is 5x great grandfather
Joseph Ellingwood on his paternal side. And my Mom's side, her great grandfather
John McFarland from Ireland had worked as a bricklayer in Edinburgh, Scotland!

Thursday, November 13, 2014

THE QUESTION OF ROBERT HASTINGS PT2

My next stop in trying to find a clue to the identities of Robert Hastings' parents
was at FamilySearch.org Historical Records Collections, specifically the Massachusetts, Land Records, 1620-1986 for Essex County. Robert Hastings had married his wife there in 1676 and died there in the town of Haverhill so I looked for transactions that might
have been made between him and whoever his father may have been.

I found these entries under Hastings in the Deed index (grantee) 1640-1799 Had-Pix

Among them were transactions where Robert received or bought land from his father
in law James Davis.Some, like the following one, call him Robert Hastings Jr.

Others just refer to him as Robert Hastings. And to complicate matters further, my
ancestor had a son named Robert, and in later transactions the son is called Jr and
my ancestor Sr.

It's possible my 7x great grandfather Robert Hastings' father was likewise named
Robert Hastings. It's also possible there could have been another older relative, such
as an uncle or cousin in the area with the same name and my ancestor was called
Robert Hastings Jr to differentiate him from the other. But I think I can say with
some certainty that his father was not Walter Hastings of Cambridge, Ma.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

THE QUESTION OF ROBERT HASTINGS PT1

One of the reasons I've enjoyed the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge is that
it has inspired me to do research on the older lines in my ancestry that I hadn't
spent much time on as yet. It's helped me understand some of the ways the
different lines came together, and in some cases helped me push some of those
lines back a generation or two further.The past few months I've been exploring
the ancestors of my paternal grandmother Clara Barker, which will continue
next with the Hastings family.

But in doing some preparation for the first post I stumbled across a problem
with the parents of my 7x great grandfather Robert Hastings. I had them as
Walter Hastings and Sarah Meane but I had no record in my database for their
births, marriage, and deaths, nor did I have anything for Robert's birth other than
a birth year of 1653. I'd probably gotten the information that Robert was the son
of Walter and Sarah from a Google search years ago when I was a beginner but I
hadn't known enough to cite sources back then, so I set out now to see if I could
find something to confirm that.

What I found on Google didn't help:

-In an entry about John Meane of Cambridge on p 153 of An Historic Guide to Cambridge, it says Walter Hastings married Sarah Meane in 1655, two years after the supposed
birth year of Robert Hastings.

-On page 216 of Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University Volume 3,
an entry for John Hastings, Class of 1681, it says he was the eldest son of Walter and
Sarah Meane, and that he was born on 2 Dec 1660

- I found the will of Walter Hastings in the Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers,
1648-1871. There was no son named Robert named among his children.

There was one more place I decided to look at for answers.

To be continued.