Friend needed help with tree, and we uncovered some roots
I suggested she do a little more digging--on two free family history sites. She sent some names. I hit family history gold in no time digging deeper for the story. I discovered something new too.
My Revolutionary War relative was Carter Batchelder. I think he was from New Hampshire. Related to Alice Jane Batchelder Putney, our common relative, my great grandmother.
Was Capt. Carter Batchelder a preacher?
Was Jane A Putney the same person as Alice Jane Putney, daughter of Bartlett Ellsworth and Nancy Batchelder?
I understand I am related to several presidents through the Batchelder line.
It took me just part of a hot afternoon in the Pacific Northwest to find another family story for a friend. I used the same research strategies and tips I’ve recommended in other posts.
Once I found her family’s correct relatives, it didn’t take long to conduct some additional searches. I suggested she use the free familysearch.org and wikitree.com sites to find further information, and then provided quick exceprts as well as the links I to further information and photos.
This the raw material that makes for family stories.
Educated at Cambridge, he left England and emigrated to the American colonies during the Puritan Great Migration. Carter was ordained as a Puritan minister in 1642, becoming the first person in the American colonies to receive a Christian ordination. He served as a church elder and minister in Dedham, Watertown, and Woburn. A prominent religious figure in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Carter was one of the signers of the Dedham Covenant and one of the founders of Woburn.”
I used the wikitree.com Relationship Finder and discovered that Thomas Carter is my eighth great-grandfather, too! My family stories came from the Alden/McElrath lines, though. On to the next person!
Capt. Carter Batchelder was likely a Captain in the Revolutionary War. He is listed in the Daughters of the American Revolution website as a verified Patriot:
BATCHELDER, CARTER
Ancestor #: A007307
Service: NEW HAMPSHIRE Rank(s): PATRIOTIC SERVICE
Birth: 10-31-1726 HAMPTON NEW HAMPSHIRE
Death: 7-16-1806 AT SEA
Service Source:
BATCHELLOR, MISC REV DOCS OF NH, STATE PAPERS, VOL 30, PP 61, 62
Service Description:
1) SIGNER OF ASSOCIATION TEST
Residence
1) City: HAMPTON - County: ROCKINGHAM CO - State: NEW HAMPSHIRE
Spouse
1) HULDAH MOULTON
2) HANNAH LANE
https://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/default.cfm
Part of what my friend said in the question was correct, which is pretty common. It’s a good clue even if it is partly incorrect. I used FamilySearch’s tree to go back a few generations to see if there were any other Carters, and I found, on one of the great-grandmother lines, the first Puritan preacher to be ordained in the Massachusetts Bay Colony—the same area in which my Mayflower ancestors would have lived.
Carter is also related to me! (In fact, we are all related to each other through DNA.) WikiTree is focused on relationships and is fun because of how they can show how you are related to almost anyone:
Was Jane A Putney the same person as Alice Jane Putney, daughter of Bartlett Ellsworth LCWL-D3J and Nancy M Batchelder LCWL-DQ9?
No, but the additional information about her parents helped me find it in familysearch.org, and that led me to this story:
Bartlett Bryant Ellsworth and his twin brothers enlisted in the New Hampshire Army during the Civil War. He left his wife with six young children. She never remarried. Privates and twin brothers Bartlett and John Ellsworth with brother Samuel Ellsworth of Company A, 12th New Hampshire Infantry (Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.27120/)
Bartlett Bryant Ellsworth was born in 1823 in New Hampshire and was a farmer and then a Teamster on the railroad. He and his brothers enlisted in the army when he was 39 and was serving in New Hampshire when he died on 22 December 1862—leaving his wife with six young children. She never remarried, which means she probably had family nearby to help. She lived to be 80 and died in 1902.
“New Hampshire regiments and soldiers actively participated in many significant battles throughout the war, often suffering heavy casualties. He likely died fighting in The Battle of Fredericksburg in the American Civil War, which took place between December 11-15, 1862, with fighting on the 13th being the most intense. The battle occurred in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, and involved the Union Army of the Potomac under General Ambrose Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia led by General Robert E. Lee.
There is actually a Library of Congress record of the twin Ellsworth brothers and their brother Bartlett Elsworth along with a photograph, above.
Twin brothers Bartlett and John Ellsworth, along with their older brother Samuel Ellsworth, of Wentworth, New Hampshire, enlisted with the Union army at the end of August 1862 during the American Civil War. Samuel was 42 and Bartlett and John 39 years old when they joined the 12th New Hampshire Infantry’s A Company. The regiment was created in just three days, intended to serve three years, and would suffer the tragic loss of a third of its members over the course of the war. In his history, Captain Asa W. Bartlett described his regiment as making "for itself a record of valor and sacrifice unsurpassed, if equaled, by any other regiment of infantry in the Union army.” The Ellsworths indeed experienced some of the worst battles and hardships of the war as part of this regiment.
Brother Bartlett was buried in Fredricksburg, but it was common at the time to include a cenotaph in memory of someone whose remains are elsewhere, often in a different cemetery or location. It serves as a memorial or marker to commemorate the deceased, even though their actual burial site is elsewhere. (Findagrave.com)
The regiment set out for Washington, D.C. in late September 1862. Comprising, according to Captain Bartlett, “a greater proportion of the ‘sons of the soil,’” the regiment took on a reputation for brute strength and was soon christened “The New Hampshire Mountaineers.” “A thousand larger and more stalwart-looking men never marched down the main street of their capital city,” wrote Captain Bartlett.
Upon arriving in Washington, the regiment became part of the large Army of the Potomac. Most of October was spent in drills, November in transit, and its first battle, at the start of December, caused the regiment little loss.
The Virginia winter that followed, however, was brutal for the regiment, which was plagued by sickness. The disease that spread through the camp killed many soldiers, as many as seven in a single night. Bartlett Ellsworth was one of those sufferers. He died of disease on December 22, 1862, at Potomac Creek, Virginia.
John and Samuel Ellsworth continued on after the loss of their brother. They withstood January’s grueling, abortive “Mud March” through Virginia, which claimed many more of the regiment’s lives.”
I understand I am related to several presidents through the Batchelder line.
It’s best for you to use wikitree.com’s Relationship Finder. Your family is likely already in the tree. All you need to do is attach your name to your ancestors who are likely already in the tree. Then you can navigate to the U.S. Presidents page. Click on one of the presidents, and it will show whether you are related or not—, but there are nine who are distant cousins. George Washington and I are 8th cousins 6 times removed!
fascinating! thank you!