Looking for some info on my family?

Question

I am trying to find some info on the following:

Family Tree

The woods we owned in England

Rev. John Davenport

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Family Tree- I need to get ahold of a family tree that has just about every person listed in it.

Woods- All I know is that we owned some woods in England, were we would kill theives. The symbol I think is a headless man with a rope around his neck.

Rev. John Davenport- I really need to find out if I am related to him or not. He founded New Haven Conneticutt.

Answer 1

You have a really tall order.  As to your need to "get ahold of a family tree that has just about every person listed in it", only God would have a clue.  There is no such tree; I have seen trees with hundreds of thousands of names; some with millions of names.  There are currently 6.7 BILLION persons; each of those persons had 2 parents, who had 2 parents, who had 2 parents...

By the time you go back a mere 34 generations, the 34th generation would have required .                8,589,934,592 persons, meaning your ancestors (as well as mine and everyone elses WERE related and married fairly close relatives!)

At the time of Robin Hood (yes, he was a historical character) most of England was woods!  All I can do is suggest the following:

You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history.  Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department.  Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc.  Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required).

Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers.  They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you).

A third option is one of the following websites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.geni.com/

Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever.

Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example.

Good luck and have fun!

Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

Answer 2

This looks like the tree you're looking for

Rev. John Davenport

Birth: 9 Apr 1597 in Coventry,W, Eng 1

Death: 15 Mar 1669/1670 in Boston, Suffolk, MA

There are over 60,000 people in this tree.  Once you open this link then click on Index, it will show all the people listed or click Decendancy to see his direct decendants.

It show notes stating:

- JOHN, New Haven, first min. there, son of John, says Wood's Athenae Oxon. not, as the fondness of Mather states, mayor of Coventry, in idle attempt to magnify a great man, was b. 1597, bred at Oxford........

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/...

Here is a list of 99 more trees for Rev. John Davenport b. 1597.  Take your pick!

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/...

You may be interested in this link to the Davenport DNA project which states:

-His descendants acquired the hereditary role of Magistrate Sergeants of the Forest of Macclesfield, of the county Cheshire, with local legal powers to prosecute and punish criminals.

-Be sure to click on Rev. John Davenport for other links.

http://www.davenportdna.com/

Another interesting link, scroll down to The Davenport Family of Bramhall

http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/history...

Answer 3

You need to do your tree, follow the paper trail.  Using Birth, Death and Marriage certificates trace back your various lines, there are also Baptisms and census returns and then immigration records.  Ancestry.com is excellent but you can also use www.familysearch.com and www.rootsweb.com both of which are free to use,

Good luck and good hunting

Answer 4

If you're really interested in your family genealogy, I suggest you join Ancestry.com. There are bushels of John Davenports in the eastern states who all came from England, and many of them are Reverends.

You can also Google him very easily...:

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/uni...

"..John Davenport who was the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony had come from a wealthy family in England.."