🎄 TWIGS AND BRANCHES 🌀

Robert Follett and Persis Black Follett lived in Salem MA in the middle 1600’s, as noted in their marriage records. They lived there until they died, according to death records. They joined the First Church of Salem, in 1686, according to church records.  On the 21st of September in 1678 Robert, “the fisherman”, bought 207 acres from William Brown. This was the record that indicated Robert’s occupation. Records were kept for everything back then, as a part of the New World’s social institution. 

Salem, Massachusetts in the middle 17th century must have been an interesting place to raise a family.  Robert 

Follett emigrated from Devonshire, England, and while his parentage is debatable due to a number of Robert Follett’s in Devonshire, I could google and research the history of the country and get a pretty good picture of the life and lands of that family branch. 

Being able to trace back and view old family records allows you a sort of time-traveling experience.  We sleuth through hoards of them, now digitized online, and filter in and out of the equation, the possible ancestral record. And, when trying to determine if the Stephen Brown in your family tree was born in Rye, Westchester NY, or in Connecticut because the old genealogies point to either, well, that’s the time to “let it go”. In my Stephen Brown’s case the records were seemingly lost (burned) during the War of Independence. I may never know if my 6th great grandfather Brown was Sylvanus or Hachalia. 

Emigrants, whether they were a part of The Great Migration, or if they came later, are here because of the desire to start anew. And all of us can be humbled by what we have now, in our own lives, because of our ancestors.