Witch Witnesses

I have 2048 9x great-grandfathers. Technically, everyone does. We have two birth parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents…it just keeps doubling. I’d never be able to trace them all, particularly in Ireland where an overwhelming majority of my ancestry comes from. However, for the thin slice of my father’s Colonial predecessors, history has been very well

Boat Builders

In 1813, the Story family established their shipyard in Essex, Massachusetts, where the Essex Shipbuilding Museum is now. That’s where I found this charming old “trunnel” shed—a term that means the builders used wooden pegs to fasten the pieces of wood together, like those used in boat building. A nearby marker states that 4000 boats

Ipswich Immigrant

Edward Colborne was an immigrant from Cornwall, England and probably walked these fields in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He was a farmer for the wealthy Saltonstall family in the early years of his new life in America in the 1640’s. Edward did not come by himself – his brother Robert emigrated on the same ship, landing in

Wrong House, Right Place

Perhaps my earliest ancestor in North America was Edward Colborne who sailed to the New World from England with his brother Robert on the ship Defense in 1635. He landed in Boston and settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts, taking a job as a farmer for the wealthy Saltonstall family. I was excited to find that this