About Bob Sturdevant

Administrator of The Sturdy Tree and the STURDEVANT Y-DNA Project. Retired (1st) Chief Warrant Officer, U.S. Army; (2nd) systems engineer. Active with genealogy of my I-L22 ancestry. Creating and (hope to) publish a collaborative, basic family tree for each of the STURDEVANT lineages.

Solomon Sturdevant (Stirdivant) 1794-1885

This is a reconstructed forum post by Lisa Roppolo. Unfortunately, this post and others were lost with the demise of the previous website. I will rebuild the Forums as time permits and reconstruct other posts as they are available.


Hi folks,

I see this forum topic is empty, but wanted to put my information here in case there is a “breakthrough”.  I have an ancestor, my 4th great-grandfather that I cannot trace back.  I think he may be related to the William line, but I cannot find the connection.

Solomon Sturdevant (name changes spelling to Stirdivant after they move to Wisconsin)
b. 1794 Norwalk, Fairfield Co, CT
d. 1885 Sheboygan Falls, WI
m. Maria (Marriah) Higley on November 22, 1822 in Hartland, Hartford, CT

Verified Census information:
1840: Bloomfield, Crawford Co, PA
1850: Waterford, Erie, PA
1860: Bloomfield, Crawford Co, PA Sheboygan Falls, WI [see below]
1870: Sheboygan Falls, WI
1880: Sheboygan Falls, WI

I know they were farmers.  I also know that Pamelia Higley is the 1st cousin of Marriah and she married a John Sturdevant who I suspect is either a cousin or brother of Solomon. John Sturdevant: 1796-1853 lived in Simsbury, Hartford, CT.  He married Pamelia about 1821 (a year before Solomon and Marriah got married). John and Pamelia lived in Simsbury in 1830, 1840 and 1850. Pamelia then followed her children to various places.

This is all I have unfortunately.  I’m not sure if anyone has any other information, but hoping that sometime down the road as new discoveries are made that this will all be found!
Lisa

Hi Lisa,
Interesting…I found Solomon some months ago but didn’t do any research and didn’t notice his father was from France. Thanks, we seem to have another lineage. But I would think France very unusual. Maybe a mistake?

FWIW, I think there is a problem with the Solomon in the 1860 Bloomfield census. That Solomon with wife Elisa and kids, Levi and William, seems to be a different Solomon and family that are also found in the 1850 Bloomfield census. I wasn’t able to find your Solomon in the 1860 Bloomfield census. They may have moved on at that point.
BobS

Thanks for the forum reply. I will need to go back and look at the 1860 census information. Also wanted to add, family lore backs up the census record that lists Solomon’s father’s origin as France. This keeps getting stranger and stranger!
Lisa

Hi Lisa, I was browsing Fold3.com and I may have stumbled across your Solomon in 1860 census, Sheboygan Falls, WI. Take a look at page 225 on Ancestry. What do you think?
BobS

You are right! Good catch! That’s the correct information.  I need to go update my tree.  Sheesh, I don’t know how I made that mistake.  The only excuse is that I have been trying to research him for the past 5 years and a person can go cross-eyed sifting though all this research!  lol Thanks!
Lisa

YW but probably won’t help with the larger search. You are right about going cross-eyed. It always surprises me how often I stumble across something I wasn’t even looking for. Here I was looking for Salmon Sturdevant and the Fold3 search engine found 30+, some were Solomon… I find the Ancestry search engine often fails. I also always wonder how the census info can be so far off sometimes. Good luck.
BobS


The following from a related post dated 10/01/2013 by Betty L. Allen on [email protected]:

There is a very good chance that Solomon Sturdi(de)vant 1794-1885 is a brother or cousin of John Sturdevant 1796-1853 that lived in Simsbury, Hartford, CT.

John Sturdevant d. in Simsbury, Hartford Co, CT 22 Nov 1853 age 57 (b. 1796) according to Connecticut, Hale Cemetery Inscriptions 1675-1934. John Sturdevant m. about 1821 to Pamelia Higley the d/o John & Lodama/Loditha (Messenger) Higley and gd/o John & Hannah (Dibble) Higley. John & Pamelia lived in Simsbury in 1830. 1840 & 1850. Pamelia then followed her children to various places.

Solomon Sturdevant 1794-1880 m. 1822 in Hartland, Hartford Co, CT – Mariah “Polly” Higley d/o Timothy & Polly (Allen) Higley & gd/o John & Hannah (Dibble) Higley.

Timothy & John Higley are brothers & sons of John & Hannah (Dibble) Higley. Mariah & Pamelia are 1st cousins. The location in Hartford County, CT and the relationship of the wives would make me suspect that Solomon Sturdevant 1794 & John Sturdevant 1796 are related as well.

John Sturdevant 1796 remained in CT while Solomon & Polly (Higley) Sturdevant went to PA, living in Athens, Crawford Co, PA in 1830 – Waterford, Erie Co, PA in 1850 – Wilson, Sheboygan Co, WI in 1880. Haven’t found them yet in 1840, 1860 or1870.

I don’t know that the parentage of John Sturdevant of Simsbury has been discovered. This is a line still to be resolved.

Solomon Sturdevant is listed at the time of his marriage 1822 to be a resident of Otis, MA in the southern part of Berkshire County. Other Sturdevant’s living in Berkshire Co, MA in 1820 were James, Andrew, Daniel & Robert all living in Savoy in the northern part of the county. I do not have any information on these persons or know of any connection.

Also unaware of any Native American ancestry in these families, doesn’t mean that there isn’t, but nothing in my records.

The line for John Sturdevant 1709: s/o John 1676 – s/o William. William’s parents unknown.

Hope this helps.
Betty

 

Mayflower Connections

Recently, I came across a very short book, Hill Genealogy by Hervey S. Sturdevant. The author makes the interesting claim that the descendants of Elisha Sturdevant, by his second wife, Betsy Hill, are entitled to Mayflower honors. This is a topic that I have not heard and I wonder if anyone has actually researched this premise? You can click on the above link to download the book. I have learned that there are several connections as identified below.

Here is a great website full of Mayflower History including The Mayflower Compact. The compact identifies all of the signers. STURDEVANT descendants of the signatories are listed below. Comments and updates are welcome…

Here is a great comment by Dorothy Gaston, a late member of The [email protected] (check us out). Dorothy was a very active and prolific member who kept us properly focused:

In my own “TE” line, each new generation brought a bride with yet another Mayflower connection for quite a few generations so that I can add Governor Bradford, John Howland, the Tilleys, and Richard Warren. I recently saw an estimate of the number of living descendants of Mayflower passengers that numbered in millions, so I suspect that most folks who had an ancestor in New England before about 1700 are likely to have at least one line that goes back to the Mayflower. When you think that only half of those passengers lived through the first years, it’s amazing. (26 Jan 2008)

UPDATE: March 25, 2017, Additional Mayflower descendants:

  • Descendants of Elisha and Betsey (Hill) Sturdevant (5th great granddaughter of John Alden (c1599-1687) and 4th great granddaughter of Edward Doty (c1600-1655)).
  • Descendants of Elizabeth (Warren) Church, daughter of Richard Warren (c1585-1628).
    Zadock Sturtevant, 1724-1821
    Zadock Sturtevant, 1763-1847
    Paul Sturtevant, 1767-1824
    Ann Sturtevant, 1801-1880
    Lydia Ann Sturdevant, 1835-1928
    Dependence Sturtevant, 1740-1803, daughter of Hannah Church and Josiah Sturtevant
    Eliphalet Sturtevant, 1768-1824, son of Hannah Waterman and Dependence Sturtevant
    Thomas Morgan Sturtevant, 1800-1896, son of Anna Morgan and Eliphalet Sturtevant
    George Ford Sturtevant, 1832-1899, son of Maria Ford and Thomas Morgan Sturtevant
    George Henry Sturtevant, 1861-?, son of Mary Elizabeth Smith and George Ford Sturtevant
    Alger Henry Sturtevant, 1892-1957, son of Josephine Pierce and George Henry Sturtevant
  • Descendants of Zechariah Soule, son of George Soule (c1595-1679)
    Sarah (Soule) Sturtevant (1755-1839)

 

Keziah Who?


Here is an enlarged image of the name of Keziah Barnum, the daughter of Ebenezer Barnum and Sarah Sturdevant. Keziah predeceased her father and it is copied from Ebenezer’s probate record. It appears the surname may have been “Benedict” perhaps indicating that the deceased Keziah had been married to an unknown Benedict.

Any thoughts?

Keziah Barnum as written in her father’s (Ebenezer) probate record.