Other Families/Surnames
Other genealogical projects pursue my ancestral lines other than Leonard. I usually go "up the tree" as well as "down the tree" to identify as many cousins as possible. Descendant files come down surname trees (except for Sweden), but there are also some files that go back into ancestry.
Here are some ancestral files containing many surnames:
Ancestors of Walter Bradford Leonard 1887-1956 - 10 generations, to the early 1600's, all New England
Ancestors of Edith Ann Regester 1889-1954 - ancestors were almost all from Yorkshire (Sheffield), England
Ancestors of Arthur Robert Kells 1888-1947 - ancestors were mostly from western Massachusetts and Eastern NY
Ancestors of Amy Alfrida Johnson 1888-1959 - ancestors were from Älvsborg län (Västergotland), Sweden.
Descendants of John Redchester, abt. 1700, of Sheffield, England, who probably was the progenitor of the Redchesters who later became Regesters and emigrated to the United States in the 1880's.
Descendants of Hendryk Kells, abt. 1700, Farmer, of Claverack, New York, who may have been of German or perhaps Dutch or Irish origins.
Descendants of Carl Ambjörnsson of Långared, Älvsborgs län, Sweden, abt. 1700, ancestor of a number of later Swedish emigrants to Rhode Island in the 1890's.
Descendants of John Redchester
I've been working on the ancestors and descendants of the Regester families who immigrated to Rhode Island from Sheffield, England, in the 1870's and 1880's. The picture below includes Charles W. Regester (1840-1921) just to the
right of center, with his sons in the middle row, husbands of his daughters in the back row, and some of the grandchildren in the front row. The picture was taken in Providence, RI, about 1918.
The first Regester (Redchester, Radchester, Register, Rochester) to appear in Sheffield was John Redchester, who married Sarah Stubbin in 1735. He may or may not have been the son of John Ribchester, who was in Sheffield about 1700. Other earlier Redchesters lived in northern Yorkshire and Northumbria back to the 1500's. My great grandfather said the family descended from the Earl of Redchester, but I find no mention of an Earl of Redchester in English history. There is a small town named Rudchester near Newcastle upon Tyne, which may be the origin of the name. There was a Robert Redchester who came to America in the 1600's and has many Regester and Register descendants in the United States today. Perhaps further research will bring us back to common ancestors.
Descendants of Hendryk Kells of Claverack, NY
My grandfather insisted the Kells family was Scotch-Irish and settled in New York in the 1680's, but the track back through recent generations leads to a Hendryk Kells who lived in Claverack, NY, about 1740 and apparently descended from German Protestants from the Palatine persecuted by the Catholics and the French and offered asylum in New York by Queen Anne about 1710. But much confuses the track, including the fact that the family were members of various Dutch Reformed Churches in that part of New York, and the Dutch spelling of Kells is Kels or Kelts (no double letters in Dutch), which in turn was different from the original German spelling (Kelz, Koelz, Keltz, perhaps Els or Eltz). Other genealogical research of another Kells family traces the ancestry to the same area in the late 1600's, with their ancestor escaping persecution by going to Scotland and then to Ireland. Perhaps both branches have a common ancestry.
Descendants of Carl Ambjörnsson of Långared, Älvsborgs län, Sweden
With the recent availability of Swedish parish records through Genline, I've begun piecing together my Swedish ancestors and their descendants. Nearly one-fifth of Sweden's population emigrated to America in the late 1800's, including some of my ancestors. John Johnson, the name Johannes Johansson received upon arrival here, and his wife, Maria Charlotta Nilsdotter, brought their seven children from Hössna, Älvsborgs län, and settled in Cranston, Rhode Island. Their descendants now live in at least eight states and Canada.
Ancestors of Walter Bradford Leonard 1886-1956
Walter's ancestors include the surnames Leonard, Eddy, Bennett, Dyer, Peabody, Munro, and more.
Ancestors of Edith Ann Regester 1888-1954
Edith's ancestors include the surnames Regester, Oldale, Empson, and more.
Ancestors of Arthur Robert Kells 1888-1947
Arthur's ancestors include the names Kells, Howland, Lisk, Monnier, Dewey, and more.
Ancestors of Amy Alfrida Kells 1888-1959
Amy's ancestors include Johansson, Nilsson, Jonasson, and more.