By Sherry Stocking Kline
written for FamilyTreeWriter.com on September 19, 2009

Hello all!  This is my first foray into Saturday night genealogy fun, (see Randy Seaver’s website at http://www.geneamusings.com/) and I will most ashamedly admit that although I’ve done genealogy for 20 years and written about it for 10, I’ve not taken the time to understand the ahnentafel numbers.

Mea culpa. What is it Johnny Carson used to say “so many lashes with a wet noodle?”  Anyhow, I’m not sure, well, actually, I’m pretty darn sure I played the game wrong, but I tried.

Like R. J. Seaver, my father was born in 1911, but he would have been 98, almost 99 by now. So I began with me, and went back almost to 19 back from me. Got to George before 19.  If someone can explain to me how to do an ahnentafel in Family Tree Maker 16, and have it tell me what numbers are what, I’ll re-do my entry here.

My Ancestor is George Stocking

Anyhow, My ancestor is George Stocking, who emigrated to America in 1633. The following is the info from my Stocking Ancestry Book, compiled by Hobart Stocking by research and previous books!

George Stocking, born about 1582, Suffolk, England, married Anna ?

He emigrated to America on the ship Griffith, and settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built a house there in 1635 at the corner of the present Holyoke and Winthrop Streets.

George joined the Thomas Hooker Party

On May 6, 1635, he was made a freeman. (I don’t know what he was indentured as) He joined the company of the Reverend Thomas Hooker (one hundred in number according to family history) and traveled on foot through the wilderness to the Connecticut River in 1636.

Helped Found Hartford, Connecticut

He was one of the original founders of the city of Hartford, CT, and you can see his name on the stone of founders in the city there, as well as find his tombstone in the cemetery.

George was a prominent proprietor there, and “in the general distribution of land, he received twenty acres, “on the south side of the road from Geoge Steel’s, to the south meadow,” other grants being made later on.

On the death of Anna, whom he had married in England, he is understood to have m. 2d. Agnes (Shotwell) Webster, widow of John Webster, governor of the colony.  The Stocking Ancestry Book states  “It does not seem probable:  Agnes is not mentioned in the 1683 court distribution of George’s property.)”

He took from the first an actiave part in local affairs; was selectman in 1647; surveyor of highways in 1654, and ’62; chimney viewer in 1659, and was excused from military duty in 1660, owing to “great age.”

George became a freeman, October 4, 1669.  (again?? I wonder what this means?)

Living to 101 is Pretty Good for those Times!

He died May 25, 1683, aged 101 years, and his name is inscribed on a large monument erected to the memory of Hooker’s party, and which now stands in the old Center Church burying-ground in Hartford.

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF GEORGY STOCKING:

“15 July, 1673.
“George Stocking of Hartford upon the River of Connecticut planter dos in this my last Will and Testament Give unto Anne my Wife all my housing barn orchards homelott upland and meadow & swamp land cattles and all other estate for her to use during the time of her life, and after her decease to be disposed of as follows.  I doe give to my daughter Lidia Richards the wife of John Richards The sum of (pounts) 14.  and do also give to my dau Sarah Olcott the wife of Samuel Olcott the sum of pounds 10.  I doe also give unto the six children of Andrew Benton, that is to Andrew Benton, Jr., John Benton, Samuel Enton, Joseph Benton, Mary Benton, and Dorothy Benton, the sum of (pounds) 12.  to be divided among them I doe hereby give unto Hannah Camp one Mare.  My will is that these legacies be discharged within one year next after my wifes decease.  My will also is that my wife shall keep the housing and barn in repair unless something more than ordinary befall any of them.  The remainder of my estate to my son Samuel Stocking and make him my executor.  The land to pay its due proportion to the Ministry of the New Meeting house.  I desire Gregory Wollerton and St. Bull to be oversers.
“George Stocking (seal)

“Witness
“Gregory Wollerton
“George Grave,Sen.”

“December 1683.  This Court (at Hartford, CT.) haveing viewed that presented as the last Will & Testament of George Stocking in the circumstance of it, together with what George Stocking (#1) hath declared to George Stocking (a granson, #11) & Captain Allyn & his declaration of his will in part controdicting, doe Judge that the Will presented is of no value, & therefore the Court distribute the Estate as followeth: to Samuel Stocking (Pounds) 100; to Hannah Benton’s children (Pounds) 41; to the wife of John Richards (Pounds) 41; to the wife of Samuel Olcott (Pounds) 41; to John Stocking who had lived with George Stocking, his frandfather, for some years, the remainder of the Estate, being (Pounds) 34, we distributed to John Stocking; and desire & appoint Marshall George Grave and Thomas Bunce to make this distribution.”

It’s Definitely A Small World

One interesting aside note, or interesting to me, anyhow. When six of us gathered here in Sumner County, Kansas some 300 years later to form the Sumner County Genealogical Society, FOUR of us could trace our history back to Hartford, CT founding fathers, and one of us descended from the man Hartford was named for.

Small world indeed, and when we did closer research, a librarian friend and I discovered that our ancestors had witnessed each other’s wills back and forth.

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