The Children of Three Ephraims in Colchester, Connecticut
I love the Barbour Collection.* Connecticut’s pre-1870 vital records are transcribed and alphabetized so beautifully. I can’t say enough about it. Except when there is generation after generation of the same name.
The transcripts try - they use 2nd and 3rd and Jr and other ways of pointing out who it refers to, but sometimes the web gets incredibly tangled.
I was recently working on a Wells/Welles line from Colchester, Connecticut, and ran across one of these “we love the name, every boy must be named it” situations. But they had wives with different names, which helps so much.
Here are the children of three Ephraim Welles’.
First, how I got here. Lydia Lincoln (b. 1682), daughter of Samuel Lincoln and Sarah Royce, married William Chapman Jr. in 1702 in New London, Connecticut. Their daughter Lydia Chapman was baptized July 2, 1710, in New London and married Ephraim Welles (1696-1786) February 2, 1727, in Colchester, Connecticut.
His father was also named Ephraim Welles but doesn’t appear in the Colchester records until the births of his youngest children around 1709 - his death record may be among missing pages from the Colchester vital records.**
Lydia and Ephraim (I) had a dozen children in Colchester (listed as parents Ephraim Jr and Lydia, but his death record is under Ephraim Sr.):
Lydia Welles May 24, 1728.
Abigail Welles February 2, 1730.
Ephraim Welles, Jr. (II) August 26, 1731
Lucretia Welles February 24, 1733.
Hannah Welles October 7, 1734.
Thomas Welles January 28, 1736.
Joshua Welles May 19, 1738.
Elizabeth Welles May 4, 1740.
Mary Welles March 28, 1742.
Joseph Welles January 2, 1744.
Sarah Welles April 28, 1746.
Ezekiel Welles July 8, 1748.
Ephraim Welles, Jr. (II) (d. 1799) married Sarah Gates February 10, 1763, in Colchester. They had six children in Colchester (listed as parents Ephraim and Sarah):
Sarah Welles January 26, 1764.
Lovina Welles April 21, 1765.
Hannah Welles January 17, 1767.
Thomas Welles December 22, 1768-January 23, 1769.
Ephraim Welles (III) June 16, 1770.
Ruby Welles April 25, 1772.
Ephraim Welles (III) married Ursula Griswold March 3, 1800, in Colchester. They had seven children in Colchester (listed as parents Ephraim and Ursula):
Ephraim Welles December 19, 1800 - April 14, 1801.
Lynde Griswold Welles February 22, 1802.
Amanda Welles October 6, 1803.
Ephraim Thomas Welles April 5, 1805.
George Welles December 8, 1806.
Orrin Matthew Welles August 10, 1808.
Ursula Griswold Welles May 21, 1810.
Notice they started using middle names. Though they can help match children based on connections to their maternal lineage, they don’t help much when they’re just their parents’ names and the surname is left off of some records.
It’s debated why families started using middle names. It seems to go in and out of style regionally. It could be a status symbol, a way to honor family connections, a way to make your kid stand out among a bunch of other Ephraims, or simply trendy.
*The Barbour Collection is available in the Connecticut, U.S., Town Birth/Marriage/Death Records databases on Ancestry or from the Connecticut State Library
** Orlando J. Hodge. Hodge genealogy from the first of the name in the country to the present time… Boston: 1900. p. 351.
I find it so useful when families use middle names.