Month: April 2021

Collecting and connecting our family story

Family histories have been passed down through the generations through stories told, histories written, and documents collected. The problem is making sure this information continues to be passed down in a similar manner for generations.

This site is an experiment in collecting and sharing this information with other members of the family.

Family stories and pictures are in one section while the family tree and information about individuals are in another. Currently, living individuals do not have their information published (and won’t up to 10 years after death). If you would like to see that information please contact me and I’ll pass along what I have in a private mannor.

If you find any inaccuracies or wish to add any information, please send that information to me at eric@aehe.us.

Tracing the family back to the Pilgrims

I was told, way back when, that our family could be traced back to the Pilgrims. I’ve not done much research into the topic but I recently decided to at least try to see if I could confirm what information I had without doing too much work.

The connection ends with Francis Sprague, who came over from England on the ship Anne. His son, John Sprague, was the first born in America (literally born in Plymouth, Massachusetts) in 1630. This line can be traced, but not completely confirmed to my liking, down the Sprague linage until 1867 when marriage links the Sprague family with the Rogers family. That marriage leads us to a marriage to the Betzer family in 1897 which then leads to a marriage to the Christensen family in 1930.

The lineage up to, and including, the connection to the Sprague family is well documented. Beyond that, it gets difficult. I’m quite surprised with the amount of “official” documentation available in Connecticut back several centuries. Still, once you get to a certain point, much of the research that needs to be done is in libraries and archives. The next on my list is “Sprague Families in America”, by Dr. Warren Vincent Sprague which may or may not provide confirmation of the lineage that has been laid out in my documentation.