One of my favorite ancestral family lines to trace was my great-grandmother, Edna Southard. Her ancestry was one of my early successes when I began to really dive into genealogy. I knew little about genealogy and less about her because my father never knew either of his biological grandmothers, partly because they died so young and my father born so late in parent's life (his mother was 42 when he was born). My father never really was interested in family history and never asked much about his family besides who the Smith's the cemetery buried in the lot with his grandfather.
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| Edna Estelle {Southard] Pease |
My great-grandmother Edna Estelle Southard was the first person I found who was adopted. Her maiden name in my dad's bible was Pease, but when I asked more about her, he contacted his aunt by phone. He learned his grandmother had been adopted and her real surname was Southard from Corinna, Maime. Over the years, I found her ancestor Constant Southworth was the first settler of the town, he was also my first Revolutionary War ancestor. Then to find gold at Maine Historical Society in Portland, Maine with the Southworth/Southard Genealogy published in 1903 by Samuel G. Webber completed my ancestry to Plymouth with my first Mayflower ancestors, John Alden and Myles Standish.
Webber's book also included tracing the family back to England and provided a royal ancestral line tracing back generations of Knights, Lords, Earls, Dukes and Kings from all the early Royal families of Europe and beyond. For years this family was my connection to being related distantly to the current royal family of England.
However, as genealogy grew popularity and more documentation began to be needed for proof of ancestry. Question from scholars in genealogy began to doubt the Southworth connection. It had always been a sticking point of proving that Edward Southworth of Leiden, Holland (father of Constant Southworth, the first to settle in America) was the same Edward Southworth of Samlesbury, England whose ancestry could be traced back generations of nobility. Others in England with the surname Southworth were proposed as the ancestors of Edward Southworth. Some were discarded and still left open the possibility of the Samlesbury connection, but solid evidence to prove the line has not been found. Even the latest issue of Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants by Boyd Roberts still includes the Southworth line but states it is now unproven and needs more research.
In 2019, Sue Allan published her research "In Search of Separatist Edward Southworth of Leiden." She details her work on other possible ancestors of Edward being from Clarborough, Nottinghamshire, England. This Southworth family had several connections to the separatists who fled to Leiden in the early 1600s. There are connections of the Southworth's of Clarborough and Gov. William Bradford's family's marriages with these Southworths (besides William marrying Alice (Carpenter) Southworth, Edward Southworth's widow). She also highlights the fact that the Southworths of Samlesbury were strong catholic supporters while the Southworths of Clarborough were protestants aligned with the separatists. Edward Southworth's father-in-law, Alexander Carpenter was also a protestant and would have sought a marriage for his daughter with Clarborough Southworths over the catholic Southworths.
Sue does add the caveat that the Clarborough Southworths may be descendants of the Southworths from Samlesbury, but further back in the family tree. I have to admit I hung on to the belief that DNA testing of the Southworth YDNA would also prove the Samlesbury lineage which it has shown that they do share the same YDNA haplogroup. That does not prove the lineage that Webber's claims in his book as the haplogroup is the most common among European groups. However, it does not disprove earlier family connections. Sue mentions that Sir John de Southworth who died in 1415 owned lands in both Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, England which he deposed off before leaving for France. His son and heir, Sir Thomas de Southworth died in 1432 made no mention of the Nottinghamshire lands, suggesting these lands may have gone to a younger son who could be the founder of the Clarborough line of Southworths. Recent Ancestry DNA updates on ethnicity currently show my brothers and myself share a percentage of common DNA from the midlands area of England, exactly where the Southworth family of Clarborough were from.
The new ancestral line is the following:
1. Aymond (Edward) Southworth of Welham, Nottinghamshire, England (based on The Visitations of the County of Nottinghamshire in the Years 1569 & 1614)
2. Richard Southworth b before 1513; d. 1545, Clarborough, Nottinghamshire, m. Ellen Levesey.
3. Richard Southworth b 1544, Clarborough; d Feb 1630/1 Clarborough; m. Immyn Ashton.
4. Edward Southworth bp 12 April 1585, Clarborough, Nottinghamshire, England; d 1621, London, England; m. Alice Carpenter in 1611. Edward moved to Leiden and helped finance the pilgrims trip to the New World and returned to England before he died. His widow married Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth, Massachusetts.
5. Constant Southworth b 1614 in Leiden, Holland and with his brother Thomas settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1628. Constant is our Southworth ancestor (my 9th great-grandfather).
Sorry to all cousins who believed in the earlier ancestry of Edward Southworth. Sue Allan's book can still be purchased online.
