Augie's Family, Part 2

In light of the London Olympics, I thought I might share some family lineage I was given recently about Augie's English side of the family. You might remember Gretchen and I signed up for a free Ancestry.com account back in April and did some digging into our family lines. I posted some information on the Steinke side of the family, and Gretchen promised to post some information on the Westerhoven side, but she hasn't gotten around to it yet. Anyway, I ran into some obstacles trying to research the Becker/Hathaway side of my family. However, I wasn't super concerned about it, because I knew a relative in Arizona had already done some of that work. Now, I will share some of her research.

The Steinke side of our family traces back to Germany, but my mom's side traces back to England. The oldest known ancestor, Nichalas Hathaway, was born in Kingscote, Gloucesterrshire, England in about 1595. It isn't noted when exactly the family moved to the American colonies, but it was prior to the Revolutionary War because some, or all, of his grandchildren were born in Massachusetts in the mid-1650s.

My grandmother had seven children, and apparently large families run in the family. One pair of ancestors had 13 children, the youngest of the 13 being my relative, Melatiah Hathaway.

I'd be interested to know if any of my ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, and maybe my great-grandma Dawn (who did the research) knows. The best bet from my direct lineage would've been Job Hathaway (b. 1736-7, d. 1796). His youngest son, my relative (another) Meletiah, was only 6 when the war started, so he probably didn't fight. Some of Job's other sons, would've been of an age that they might have fought, however.

It appears that my relatives moved to Southwest Michigan sometime in the mid-1850s. Job Hathaway was born in New York, but died in 1874 in Allegan County. The move to Michigan was likely after 1854, which is when his youngest son, my relative Herman, was born in Ohio.

As a final note, my great-grandpa Robert Hathaway is closing in on his 100th birthday. He turned 93 in June. It looks like he is the longest living person in my Hathaway family line. Here's to hoping he can make it seven more years to celebrate 100 years.

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