Most Americans researching their roots expect that, at some point, they will identify the ancestor who was their founding immigrant, the one who came from "the old country," wherever that might have been.
Shortly after my marriage, when I set about to begin piecing together my husband's family tree, I interviewed my mother-in-law to gain the information needed to start such a research project. How clearly I remember her telling me that, surely, when I made it back past her grandparents, I'd discover the previous generation had just "gotten off the boat." She was that certain of her ancestors' immigrant status.
After pressing back generation after generation on my mother-in-law's matriline, however, that founding immigrant ancestor is yet to be found. With Elizabeth Howard, my mother-in-law's fourth great-grandmother, that family tree was still firmly planted on American turf. Colonial territory, admittedly, but still on the continent.
So far this month, we've explored Elizabeth Howard's patriline, briefly reviewing information on her father Joseph Howard, then her paternal grandfather Cornelius Howard. With those three, we've remained well within the bounds of the 1700s in colonial Maryland. But as we move back yet another generation, two details strike me. The first is that Elizabeth's great-grandfather was born in the 1600s—approximately 1676, but still within that earlier century. The second detail I noticed was that this man was also born in the New World, not a European-born immigrant.
Elizabeth' great-grandfather, yet another Joseph Howard, was a man who had married three times, outliving all three of his wives. All told, this senior Joseph was able to name nine children in his 1736 will, at least according to the entry in Harry Wright Newman's book, Anne Arundel Gentry.
It is from the children of his third wife that our Elizabeth was descended. Joseph Howard married "Margarey" Keith (sometimes reported as Marjorie) on September 28, 1708. According to the Newman book, the record for this marriage was noted as held at Saint Ann's Church, a document I'll need to verify.
Margarey and Joseph had five children, with the second-born being Elizabeth's grandfather, Cornelius Howard. Joseph became a "gentleman planter" with land holdings in the western portion of Anne Arundel County. What was interesting to discover was that the "mansion house" on the Howards' main property, said to have been "a fine specimen of early American architecture" and "the oldest brick house in Anne Arundel County," was still standing.
At least, that would have been true when Harry Wright Newman published the book providing these notes on the mansion. But that was back in 1933. My next question—and you know I'll have to take this detour—is: could that house still be standing today?
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