English colonists in 17th.- and 18th.-century Connecticut seeking to marry had a relatively small pool of potential spouses from which to choose, with the result that Connecticut's Founding Families are interconnected -- and inbred -- to a remarkable degree. My late mother-in-law Carolyn Jean (Riggs) Spencer (1949-2017) is a descendant of a number of Colonial Connecticut families, and several of them appear in her ancestry more than once. Shown here are a series of pedigree charts illustrating the tangled complex of family connections in Carolyn's genealogy, chiefly involving the families of Riggs, Keeler, Whitney, Hoyt (Haight), Rockwell, and Benedict. These bewildering webs of intermarriages sometimes involved the marriages of cousins, but more usually resulted from siblings of one family marrying siblings of a neighboring family, or the remarriage of widows and widowers that often transformed someone's father-in-law or mother-in-law into one's step-father or step-mother! For the sake of space and convenience, the charts below show only a selection of the many ways that the Founding Families of Connecticut were related to each other.
Rockwell-Keeler-Hoyt-Whitney-Riggs: Elizabeth Weed=John Rockwell=Mehitabel (NN) |(c.1621-1674)| __________________________________| |_____________________________________________ | | Jonathan Rockwell Joseph Whitney=Hannah Hoyt[*] John Keeler=Mehitabel Rockwell=Zerubbabel Hoyt=(NN) | | |________________________________. | ._______________________________ ________________|_______________ ___________________|_________ | | ______|____________________ | | | | | | | | | | | John Rockwell=Elizabeth Keeler David Rockwell=Elizabeth Whitney=Miles Riggs Hannah Whitney=Daniel Keeler John Keeler Jr.=Rhoda Hoyt Hannah Hoyt[*] Caleb Hoyt=Mehitabel Keeler |_________ _________________________| ______________________| | | | | Abraham Rockwell=Esther Riggs Joseph Riggs=Mary Keeler Daniel Riggs Samuel Riggs Albert Riggs Albert D. Riggs Herbert Benjamin Riggs Carl Spencer Riggs Sr. Carolyn Jean Riggs=Roy Eldon Spencer Jared Linn Olar=Christina Carlene Spencer Whitney-Keeler-Hoyt-Rockwell-Riggs: Henry Whitney Ralph Keeler=(NN) Betts (1613-1672) (1613-1672)| | __________|_____ | | | John Whitney Samuel Keeler John Keeler=Mehitabel Rockwell | | _____| _______________________|____________. | .____________. | .________________ | _______________________| | | | | | | | | Elizabeth Whitney=Joseph Keeler Henry Whitney | Joseph Whitney=Hannah Hoyt | | __________|______ | | | | Elizabeth Keeler=John Rockwell Daniel Keeler=Hannah Whitney Elizabeth Whitney=Miles Riggs | |________ ___________| | | | | Abraham Rockwell=Esther Riggs[*] Mary Keeler=Joseph Riggs Esther Riggs[*] | Daniel Riggs Samuel Riggs Albert Riggs Albert D. Riggs Herbert Benjamin Riggs Carl Spencer Riggs Sr. Carolyn Jean Riggs=Roy Eldon Spencer Jared Linn Olar=Christina Carlene Spencer Hoyt/Haight-Keeler-Whitney-Rockwell-Hustis-Riggs: Simon Hoyt=Jane Stoodlie (c.1593-1657)| _____________________________________|__________________________________________________________________________________ | | | Walter Hoyt Nicholas Hoyt John Hoyt | | | (NN)=Zerubbabel Hoyt=Mehitabel Rockwell=John Keeler Samuel Haight John Haight |________________________________. | ._____________________________________ | | | ______________________|____________ | | | | | | | | | | | | Rhoda Hoyt=John Keeler Jr. Daniel Keeler[*] Mehitabel Keeler=Caleb Hoyt Hannah Hoyt=Joseph Whitney Mary Haight=David Hustis Daniel Haight _____________________________ ________________________________|_________ | | | | | | | | John Rockwell=Elizabeth Keeler David Rockwell=Elizabeth Whitney=Miles Riggs Daniel Keeler[*]=Hannah Whitney Joseph Hustis Joseph Haight |__________________________ ________|_______ __________| | __| | | | | | | Abraham Rockwell=Esther Riggs Joseph Riggs=Mary Keeler Charity Hustis=Beverly Haight | | Daniel Riggs ________________________________| | | Samuel Riggs=Elizabeth Haight | Albert Riggs Albert D. Riggs Herbert Benjamin Riggs Carl Spencer Riggs Sr. Carolyn Jean Riggs=Roy Eldon Spencer Jared Linn Olar=Christina Carlene Spencer Keeler-Turney-Sherwood-Hoyt/Haight-Riggs: Ralph Keeler=(NN) Betts Benjamin Turney=Mary Odell Thomas Sherwood=Mary (NN) (1613-1672) | (c.1597-1648) | ____________________________|____________________________ _______|____________ _________|_______________________. | .________________________. | .______________ | | | | | | | | | | John Keeler Rebecca Keeler=Benjamin Turney Jr. Rebecca Turney=Stephen Sherwood Ann Turney=Thomas Sherwood Sarah Turney=Matthew Sherwood | | Daniel Keeler John Hoyt (Haight)=Elizabeth Sherwood | | Mary Keeler=Joseph Riggs Daniel Haight | | Daniel Riggs Joseph Haight | | | Beverly Haight | ___________________________________| | | Samuel Riggs=Elizabeth Haight | Albert Riggs Albert D. Riggs Herbert Benjamin Riggs Carl Spencer Riggs Sr. Carolyn Jean Riggs=Roy Eldon Spencer Christina Carlene Spencer=Jared Linn Olar Whitney-Hoyt-Olmstead-Benedict-Lobdell: Henry Whitney Thomas Benedict=Mary Bridgum (1613-1672) (1617-1690) | | ____________________|_______________________________________________ | | | | John Whitney John Olmstead=Mary Benedict John Benedict Samuel Benedict ___________|_________________ _________|__________ | | | | | | | | Joseph Whitney=Hannah Hoyt Henry Whitney=Elizabeth Olmstead Eunice Olmstead=Joshua Lobdell=Mary Burwell Thomas Benedict Thomas Benedict | _______. | ._________________| | _________|___________________________________________________ | |_____________ ______| | | | | | | Hannah Whitney=Daniel Keeler Miles Riggs=Elizabeth Whitney Thankful Whitney=Ebenezer Benedict Ebenezer Lobdell=Rebecca Benedict |_______ _______| | | | | Mary Keeler=Joseph Riggs | |_________________________________ ___________________________________________| | | Daniel Riggs=Susannah Lobdell | Samuel Riggs Albert Riggs Albert D. Riggs Herbert Benjamin Riggs Carl Spencer Riggs Sr. Carolyn Jean Riggs=Roy Eldon Spencer Jared Linn Olar=Christina Carlene Spencer Keeler-Westcott-Riggs-Knapp-Pennoyer: (NN) Betts=Ralph Keeler=Sarah Howes=Thomas Skidmore=Joanna (NN)=Richard Westcott |(1613-1672) |(c.1610-c.1650) | | John Keeler Moses Knapp=Abigail Wescott | | Daniel Keeler Thomas Pennoyer=Lydia Knapp | | Mary Keeler=Joseph Riggs Reuben Pennoyer | | Daniel Riggs James Pennoyer | | Samuel Riggs James Pennoyer Jr. |_________ __________| | | Albert Riggs=Mary Elizabeth Pennoyer | Albert D. Riggs Herbert Benjamin Riggs Carl Spencer Riggs Sr. Carolyn Jean Riggs=Roy Eldon Spencer Jared Linn Olar=Christina Carlene Spencer Buxton-Hustis-Haight-Knapp-Pennoyer-Riggs: Clement Buxton=Eunice (NN)=Nicholas Knapp=Elinor (NN) | | | | Robert Hustis=Elizabeth Buxton Moses Knapp | | Mary Haight=David Hustis Lydia Knapp=Thomas Pennoyer | | Joseph Hustis Reuben Pennoyer | | Beverly Haight=Charity Hustis James Pennoyer | | Elizabeth Haight=Samuel Riggs James Pennoyer Jr. |_________ ____________| | | Albert Riggs=Mary Elizabeth Pennoyer | Albert D. Riggs Herbert Benjamin Riggs Carl Spencer Riggs Sr. Carolyn Jean Riggs=Roy Eldon Spencer Jared Linn Olar=Christina Carlene Spencer
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