In September 2018, Steve Isham of Tasmania recorded a series of informal YouTube videos to ensure that his knowledge of Isham family history would be available–first-hand–to his posterity. Following are links to those videos, each accompanied by his short description of its content.
The Ishams in England and America. (Brainard) – a book of geneology that enabled me to explore my ancestors. The updated version: An Index of the Ishams in England and America – Nine Hundred Years of History and Genealogy (Edward P. Isham) 1984
The Northhamptonshire town of Isham is located on the road between Market Harborough and Wellingborough. Steve first visit brought an introduction to Sir Gyles at Lamport Hall. Returning in 1977, Steve and Marion stayed overnight in the town. Parts of St Peter’s church were built in the 1100’s — the oldest remaining building. Isham as a family name goes back to Norman times too and was originally written, d’Isham.
A young man named Isham, perhaps a cousin of the Lamport Ishams, appears at the door seeking assistance. Suspecting an unsavoury past, he is sent on his way. Could he be the John Isham who is ancestor to nearly all the American Ishams? What are the clues? The dates would fit with the appearance of John in Barnstable Massachusetts.
John Isham appears in Barnstable in the late 1600s. Considerable research has gone into his origins but they remain a mystery. He is the ancestor of nearly all the American Ishams. His son Isaac also lived his entire life on the farmland of his father. Isaac, his wife Abigail, and his seven sons and one daughter were self sufficient, even weaving material for their own clothing and making their own shoes. Books in the final inventory indicate their literacy. Good neighbourly relations are suggested by that not only Isaac but also his daughter married members of the Lumbert family on the adjoining (?) property .Steve’s brief visit to Barnstable in 2005 lead to contact with Mrs Crosby, whose ancestors bought the property in 1837 from the last of the Ishams living there.
John and Jane left wills that tell a tale of self-sufficient life, including weaving and shoe making on early New England farms… and of their Christian faith, beautifully expressed. Extant records show no evidence of association with institutional churches.
Most of Isaac’s 7 sons move to Connecticut. Timothy marries Rebecca and they raise 10 sons and 6 daughters near Bolton. Timothy dies at 87, Rebecca lives till 92! Son Timothy Jr dies in 1776 for his part as soldier in the American Revolution. His brother, Joseph had only 2 children, one of them, Enoch is my direct ancestor.
We visit Delavan Wisconsin one afternoon in 1980 and end meeting a Mr. Spooner and we’re soon up in his attic looking at lost family photographs out of an old trunk. William Willard’s house is still there – a nice old place on the SW corner of Washington and 3rd Street.
Frank survived the Civil War in part because his Wisconsin regiment had guard duty for the duration. What was going on with Frank around 1880? Was there a connection between his separation from wife Florence and the appearance of his name in the Illinois records as married to another woman? Was it even him? Another woman never appears in any of the records of his several pension applications and submission of sworn answers to questions in the following decades. And what of the 1880 accident, falling from a horse in that year, his broken ankle and his memory loss? Young son Ned was only 7 years old. How was he faring in all of this?
More on Frank Isham. Frank appears in 2 locations simultaneously in the 1880 census. Hmm. Was that a bit of flip misinformation in the Shipman Illinois census entry because he was angry, thinking himself a cuckold? But Martha his future second wife is in the next county just a few miles from Shipman. Was Brighton her town and Frank’s destination when he fell from his horse late in 1880? He records that journey and injury to his ankle 20 years later. What ever happened to Martha?
Florence Alena Benton, (born 2 September 1849 in Vermont) my great grandmother, was a beloved figure. My father hung a large dignified photograph of her on the wall but after many moves it was eventually lost. The painting in this video is my attempt recreate her likeness in oils. She married Edward W. Jenks on the 23rd December 1883 when she was 35 years old. Young Edgar my grandfaither would have recently had his 10th birthday. The divorce from Frank Isham had been in “the Spring of 1881or 82”.
Ned Isham lived most of his life in Chicago, but died in Michigan City Indiana in 1925, at 52, when my father, Edward was 21 years old. I forgot to say that Ned was a musical man. He played the mandolin.