Crossed Family Lines: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Lines”

Three Family Lines Criss-Cross in Eighteenth Century Andover

Susannah Burt: 1758-?

Abiah Burt: 1759-1798

Lois Burt: 1763-1814

Lucy Burt: 1785-1842

 

One set of my fifth-great-grandparents had daughters who married into two other of my ancestral lines. The resulting mix of family relationships is confusing at the best. Apparently the town of Andover, Massachusetts was so small that there were a limited number of families available for marriage. These four women’s children have varying relationships to me depending on the familial connections of the Burt women’s husbands.

My fifth-great-grandparents Joseph Burtt (1726-1810) and Abiah Mooar Burtt (1741-1828) married March 23, 1758 in Andover. Joseph was 32 years old, while Abiah was half his age—just 16 years old. They had a total of eight children, including six daughters. Four of those daughters—all my fourth-great-grandaunts-- chose husbands from two other of my ancestral lines.

Abiah Mooar Burt

Joseph Burt

Susanna Burt was Joseph and Abiah’s eldest child. According to a transcript of Andover’s birth records, Susanna was born June 25, 1758. This means her mother was nearly six months pregnant at the time of her marriage. Susanna married at age 22. Her husband was William Dane, born October 17, 1753 to parents William Dane and Mary Osgood. William the senior was the son of my sixth-great-grandfather John Dane and his wife Sarah Chandler, making him my fifth-great-granduncle, and his son, Susanna’s husband, my first-cousin-six-times-removed. William and Susanna had an amazing ten children, who were my first cousins five-times-removed.

Joseph Burt's will mentioning daughters Susanna, Abiah and Elizabeth

Abiah Burt was Joseph and Abiah’s second daughter, born December 13, 1759. She married my fourth-great-grandfather Francis Dane on May 1, 1781. Francis Dane was born on February 18, 1750 to John Dane and wife Elizabeth Chandler Dane. This complicates my relationship to Abiah Burt Dane—she is both my fourth-great-grandaunt and my fourth great-grandmother.  

Lucy Burt was born June 5, 1785, 27 years after the birth of her oldest sister, Susanna. At the time of her father’s death, she was named in his will, but as an unmarried minor. On May 10, 1805, at age 19, she married another member of the Dane family, Peter Osgood Dane. Peter is my second cousin five times removed, the son of Joseph Dane, who was the son of Joseph Dane, who was the son of my 6^th Great-Grandfather John Dane.

Lucy and Peter O. Dane had one daughter named Lucy after her mother, and three sons, Peter Osgood Dane, Albert Kimball Dane and Joseph Mooar Dane. These children are my first cousins five times removed.  

Lucy Burt and Peter Osgood Dane graves

So how are these three Dane husbands related to one another? Francis and William Dane were the sons of brothers, so were first cousins. Peter Osgood Dane was one additional generation along on the family tree, so his father Joseph was another of Francis and William’s first cousins, while Peter Osgood Dane was their second cousin.

Clear as mud, isn’t it? Talk about crossed familial lines!

Lois Burt, along with sisters Elizabeth and Sarah, found non-Dane husbands. Elizabeth married a man with the surname Clark and Sarah married John Foster. Fortunately, neither of those families appears in my tree. However, Lois is a different story.

Lois was born June 16, 1763. She married Thomas Blanchard on March 12, 1782. She was 18 and he was 19 years old. Thomas Blanchard is my third cousin seven-times-removed—a very distant relationship, but a relationship all the same. Thomas was born November 11, 1762 to Aaron Blanchard and Eleanor Holt. Aaron was the son of yet another Thomas Blanchard, my first-cousin nine-times-removed. His father, also named Thomas, was the half-brother of my eighth great-grandfather Johnathan Blanchard, 1664-1742.

Lois Burt Blanchard grave

Ancestry’s cousin-calculating algorithm ignores this complex relationship, and lists Lois and Thomas Blanchard’s children as my first-cousins five-times-removed.

Running across familiar names as I traced the Burt family tree led me down quite a rabbit hole. I ended up delving into the collateral Dane and Blanchard lines to confirm my initial suspicion that those four husbands of the Burt sisters were already connected to my endlessly growing, sprawling family tree. I wonder how many other twisted, crossed familial lines I will find as I continue my research. Small towns foster intermarriage, and many of my early American ancestors were born and died in small colonial towns. I look forward to making even more complicated connections.