1 Jan 2019

Dear Grandparents,
Another year has begun. Hopefully, it will be full of more genealogy research that I accomplished last year. I'm making a concerted effort this year to keep up with Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. She provides prompts to encourage writing about at least one ancestor each week. Her first prompt for 2019 is #First.

For my first post of the year, I've selected my 7th great grandfather who was known as Lieutenant Jonathan Lyman. He is the first person I can document who was born on the first of January.

Jonathan's birth listing from Vital Records
www.ancestry.com

Born January 1, 1684 in Northampton, Massachusetts, Jonathan is the son of Richard and Lydia (Loomis) Lyman. He was the fifth born of their nine children. His grandfather, Richard  Lyman, had immigrated from High Ongar, Essex, England in 1631. His grandmother, Hepzibah Ford, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Cooke) Ford had immigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, England.
The Lyman family moved to Lebanon, Connecticut in 1696 with a number of other families from Northampton.

Jonathan married Lydia Loomis, daughter of Deacon Joseph and Hannah (Marsh) Loomis. They were from Windsor, Connecticut. Their marriage was recorded in the volumes of Lebanon Vital Records however, the date is illegible. Based on page number in comparison to legible dates recorded on the same pages it was about 1708. This would also agree with the birth of their first child.

Jonathan was termed Lieutenant from his service in the Train Band of the North Company of the South Society in the Town of Lebanon. He was Ensign in May of 1726 and then Lieutenant in 1729 (Barrett Wendell, Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston, 1906 p. 353).

Jonathan and Lydia were the parents of eleven children. six boys and five girls. Jonathan survived four of them. We are descended from their youngest child Anna Lyman who married Isaiah Tiffany.

One of the benefits of going back and looking at genealogy research that was done in the past is that it creates a new to-do list. I had not previously found Jonathan's will. Now I have it and will be transcribing it tomorrow. There will be lots to decipher including more that six pages of inventory. Jonathan signed his will and a quick glance at it reveals there were several books in the inventory so I assume he was literate.

Amanda, Ed and I visited Lebanon in 2015. We did not find a headstone for Jonathan in the old cemetery but he is most likely buried there.

Happy 335th Birthday, Grandfather Jonathan,

Love,
Cecily