DNA Family Group #6

GROUP #6

This group has branches which match through DNA, but that we have not been able to connect genealogically. This Hawkins group is English. The branches that match are:

• Martin Hawkins (1837-1893) was born in South Hampton, England and ultimately immigrated through New York City, NY to Illinois. Family legend has it that Martin Hawkins fell in love with an Irish girl named Hannah Sheehan. Martin's family would not approve the marriage and Martin gave her passage money to New York. He was in the English navy and was on a ship bound for New York. He jumped ship in New York and met up with Hannah and were wed. They came west headed for California but got as far Illinois when their first baby was born.
• Stephen Hawkins was a “mariner” who was born in coastal NH in the late 1600s & died May 7, 1720 in Dover, NH. This line moved westward through Vermont and New York and ultimately to Michigan. Stephen has a son Stephen (b. 1718) who had a son name William (b. 1758). William homesteaded in VT in the 1790's. William's youngest child was Luther (b. 1805 Caledonia Co, VT). The tester’s great-great-grandfather, Luther Hawkins (d. c1883 Tuscola Co, MI) is believed to be this Luther (son of William). He appears in the Niagara Falls NY in the 1840 census and migrated to Michigan from New York just after the Civil War (1867 or so).
• James Hawkins (b 1841) m. Fanny Clark. Their child Alfred John Hawkins (b 1864 London, England; d. 1902 Kent County, England); m June 30, 1885 Mary Ann Jameson in England) immigrated to Gibson City, IL in the US. Both became naturalized citizens on November 5th, 1892. They had five children in Gibson City: Ethel, Albert, Reuben (Vincent), Marian, and William. In 1896, Mary Ann , Ethel, Marian, and William returned to England. In 1897, Alfred, Albert, and Reuben returned to England. Back in England, Alfred worked as a house painter and he and Mary Ann had four more children: Gladys, Grace, Herbert, and Alfred Jr. Alfred Sr died of smallpox on March 31 1902. Sons William and Alfred Jr immigrated to Pasadena California and in 1915 sponsored their sister Gladys who also immigrated to California.
  Their son Reuben Vincent “Vic” Hawkins was born in Gibson City, IL but moved to Great Britain during the first World War and joined the Royal Navy, and then after the war settled in Canada (in Toronto, Ontario). His grandchildren currently live in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and Ontario, in small towns outside of Toronto. It's not clear when, and to where, Alfred and Mary Ann's other children emigrated (or whether they remained in England). Mary Ann spent her last years with her children in California and died in Los Angeles California on December 15, 1947.
• Richard Hawkins – nothing known of this line other than descendants are in Australia.
• Elijah Hawkins (bef 1774-1840) married to Elizabeth Scott (1782-1842) the daughter of Reuben Scott and Margaret Cope. He is buried in the Benjamin L. Perry Cemetery in Salt Rock, West Virginia. Some of his children ( traveled west and settled in Monroe County, Indiana. Some researchers believe Elijah is the son of Nicholas Hawkins (c1700-1754) and Elizabeth Long (c1704-1768). Nicholas is a descendant of Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595), the privateer cousin of Sir Francis Drake. Other researchers disagree and believe their ancestors (in other groups of this project) are from this line. DNA has proven this Elijah line and the other lines are not related. It is not known which research is accurate.

At this point we need help to do the following:

We have two samples from descendants of Elijah's son Henry. We need to find a sample from another one of his sons, either John N. (b1809 & married Lucinda Holmes) or William (b. 1811 & married America Beleu). William had a son named George Eldridge Hawkins.

• We need a fully proven descendant of Sir John Hawkins tested.
• We also need to find another sample from another son of Stephen Hawkins.
• We need a DNA sample from another son of James or Alfred should be tested.
• Learn about the Richard Hawkins genealogy to determine what further steps should be taken.
• We need to find the marriage license of Martin and Hannah, which might have their parent's names listed and the birthplace. If the death certificate and/or obit of the first one of them to die are found, they also may have parent information and/or birthplace information on them.
  
  
  The above information has been provided by Cherie Ohlsson who is the Hawkins DNA co-adminstrator responsible for DNA group #6.  If you have questions about this DNA group, contact Cherie at:
  cherie_ohlsson@yahoo.com
  
  
  Bob Hawkins (rghawkins51@gmail.com) had an interesting comment/question about possible family connections on the above lines.  Anyone have any thoughts on this?  (Harry Hawkins answered the question about which city Martin settled in on the next blog post....but the rest of the guess is something someone might want to pursue.
  
  
  

  Question/Comment: Does anyone know in which city in Illinois that Martin Hawkins settled?  I find it an interesting coincidence that Martin and my great-great grandfather (James Hawkins) were born within a few years of each other in England, and then James' son Alfred (my great-grandfather) moved from England to a very small town in Illinois (Gibson City).... usually new immigrants settle in large cities (like New York).  Perhaps Alfred had relatives (from Martin Hawkins' line) in Illinois, and that's why he chose to emigrate there?  Just an interesting thought......... it would link my line to the Martin Hawkins line.

Descendents of Martin Hawkins in Family Group #6

I loved this story because it is so romantic.  Harry Hawkins of group #6 shared it and I have edited it a bit, but present it as written:  (Harry still lives in the St. Louis area where Martin and Hannah stopped on their route west)

 Martin Hawkins was from England, born in South Hampton in 1837. 

I know from experience that facts get twisted. Family stories in a space of a few years get twisted and no longer resemble the facts. Therefore, take this with a grain of salt. 

Family legend has it that Martin Hawkins, who came from England, fell in love with an Irish girl named Hannah Sheehan. Martin's family would not approve the marriage and Martin gave her passage money to New York. He was in the English navy and was on a ship bound for New York. Martin jumped ship in New York and met up with Hannah and they were wed. They came west headed for California but got as far Illinois when the first child was born (Harry's great uncle George).  Hannah and Martin had seven children (she was Irish Catholic).  There were 5 boys and 2 girls. 1 boy died young but the other six had families and Martins descendants are numerous and spread all over the U.S.  One of his sons Daniel did eventually make it to California and there is fairly large contingent of Hawkins who belong to this line living there.  Harry has spoken to and met several of them. 

This Hawkins family has been successful. There are many Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers, and just some down right good people.

Richard has gathered  good documentation to back up the story.   He has a ship's registry with Hannah Sheehan coming to New York. The ages and times match to support the story.

Hannah died young, age 37, 1878 and is buried in Staunton IL.   Martin died in 1893 age 58 and is buried in Taylorville Il.  He is in the Cemetery's record book, but they used a poor quality soap stone for grave stones and most are unreadable in the section he's buried in.

Hannah's stone is very readable.

Another story that Harry tells that is of great interest and could be followed up on for additional research in England is as follows:  My great uncle Tom Hawkins (one of Martin's sons) bragged about his uncle (Martins's brother) as having paricipated in the Boxer Rebellion. Harry shares some facts about the Boxer Rebellion that are quite interesting.

 Note:  The Boxer Rebellion, Boxer Uprising or Yihetuan Movement was a violent anti-foreign and anti-Christian movement which took place in China between 1899 and 1901.  For more information try Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion

The Boxer's,  a group of Chinese, laid seige to the western embassies, which were about 90 miles inland from the sea. A contingent was formed of various nations who had ships in the port to rescue the people in the embassies. An English officer was put in charge, and a Russian officer leading his group agreed to obey the orders of the the English officer. The crazy fact was that at the time of the Boxer rebellion, the English were at war with the Russians in the Crimea.  Hence a Russian officer accepted orders from and English officer at a time when their countries were at war. The contingent of various nations marched inland and successfully rescued the people in the Embassys.

Harry added the following information about his family line:

My great grandfather Martin Hawkins, lived in many towns in south central Illinois.. The coal industry was booming. The bulk of the immigrants were eastern european working in the coal mines. Martin was English and was able to read and understand blue prints and such. He was employed when mines were first built. Consequently he would move to a new mine location when one was started. I know that he was in Anna, Collinsville, Staunton, Carlinville, Bethalto and lastly Taylorville. He died in Taylorville and is buried there. I've not located his grave because the stones were of poor quality and inscriptions are hard to read. He is on the registry there. His wife who did about six years earlier was buried in Staunton. I only presume that in those days, unless you were relatively wealthy, they planted you where you died.

Martin's son, my grandfather William, whom I did have the pleasure of knowing for 10 years, was the president of the local United Mine Workers.  Thiis grandfather was a personal friend of Mother Jones and was involved in the Virden Riot as he was president of the local union at the time. My politics are conservative and independent. But at the time of the Virden Riot, Unions were fighting against crooked mine owners, paid off inspectors, unsafe working conditions, child labor, etc. I would have liked to be standing by his side.