Chasing Our Past

François Belanger (1612-1685/87)  & Marie Guyon (1624-1696) Born in Normandy, France they became pioneers of the Beaupré coast and  François became the first Lord of the Seigniory of Bonsecours at L'Islet.   Our ancestor, François Belanger, was born on October 7, 1612, (son of François Belanger and Francoise Ruel Horlays) in St. Pierre de Sees, Touque, in the Normandy region of north western France. St Pierre is situated on the River Touques.  Normandy takes its name from the Vikings or the “Northmen” invaders who menaced large parts of Europe towards the end of the 1st millennium in waves and settled there between the years 790–930 AD. (More on the Vikings of Normandy can be found below) At the age of 24, François joined a group of pioneers coming from Perche in the company of Robert Giffard; which included the families of Gasnier, Maheu, Boucher, Guyon, Drouin, Cloutier, Gagnon and more. Records show that this gro...

The Rover Captain Alexander Godfrey, our 2nd cousin 6x removed, was born in 1756 in Chatham, Massachusetts. At the time of his birth his father, Josiah, was 28 and his mother, Eunice, was 25. Josiah Godfrey was cousin to Enoch Godfrey our 5th great grandfather. Godfrey and family moved to Nova Scotia sometime in 1759-60 and appeared in the 1763 Canadian census. Alexander is a descendant of Stephen Hopkins via his granddaughter, Deborah Hopkins. In 1768 he married Phoebe West, b 1768, d 1849 on January 4, 1791, in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada. They had two children, Josiah b aft. 1791, d: unknown, and Ruth, b 1791, d 1798. Our ancestors come from different family lines in Brooklyn, Queens County, Nova Scotia. Many Godrey's are listed as settlers. Many of these Godfrey ancestors were in the shipping industry and ma ny were ship captains. Alexander was no different. The ship he captained was called the Rover, a 14 gun brig of which has been stated the most famous o...

The Godfrey's of Chatham Resources: Library of Cape Cod, History & Genealogy Early Chatham Settlers, by William C Smith, Esq. Early settlers, 1690, 1711-- Atkins , Bassett, Covell, Eldredge, Godfrey, Hamilton, Harding, Howes, Lumbert, Nickerson, Paddock, Phillips, Sears, Smith, Stewart, Tucker. Later Settlers--Collins, Crowell, Doane, Eldredge, Ferris, Hawes, Kowles, Mayo, Mitchell, Ryder, Smith, Stewart, Taylor. Settlers of Chatham https://archive.org/details/earlychathamsett00smit/page/n3 Neil Diamond: Jesus Christ, Fanny Brice, Wolfie Mozart and Humphrey Bogart and Genghis Khan and On to H. G. Wells. Ho Chi Minh, Gunga Din Henry Luce and John Wilkes Booth And Alexander's King and Graham Bell. Ramar Krishna, Mama Whistler, Patrice Lumumba and Russ Colombo, Karl and Chico Marx, Albert Camus. E. A. Poe, Henri Rousseau, Sholom Aleichem and Caryl Chessman, Alan Freed and Buster Keaton too And each one there Has one thing shared...

Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882) Our Ancestor, Stephen Hopkins 1581-1644 As you may already know, our ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact and the assistant to the governor of Plymouth Colony thru 1636. But what many don’t know that he already had an interesting life before planning the Plymouth trip and settlement.   Caleb Johnson wrote about Stephen’s life refers to him as “an ordinary man who lived an extraordinary life." Stephen was taller than most and very athletic. He was full of energy. Stephen was the son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. He was baptized April 30, 1581 in Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England.   Hampshire is a beautiful county in southern England and there he married Mary (Machell?) between 1602 and 1603. Little is known of her family. Stephen and Mary had three children, Elizabeth, Constance and Giles (named for Mary’s possible father, Giles Machell) all bap...

The Family Tree Snapshot Above is the current family tree in a Fan Chart.  Unfortunately, the chart only displays out through 10 generations whereas my actual tree goes much further in some lines. There are many ways of presenting the material, however, at this point the data is very large. This layout works for overall visual glimpse of the entire structure but not worthwhile for study or in-depth review. Immediately one sees where data is missing and that helps me to choose where to research next.   Unfortunately I have a hit dead ends in some family lines and I can only hope to repair them in the future. The plan is to use this chart to assist when writing about an ancestor so that it’s easy to see where they fall in the entire tree. Another way of defining one ancestral tree from another is to number the ancestors. I have not used this process as of this date but I may need to apply this approach in the near future.