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Subject: [GENMASSACHUSETTS] Genealogy Meeting
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:32:28 EDT

How can the true Kerly/Kerley history be brought before this group?


Subject: Kerly Family History

I have been researching this family's history for the last 15 years and I
have reached some serious conclusions about much of the recorded history
for this family. As I am a descendant of this family, I would very much like
to see all of these discrepancies solved and resolved. Please take the time
to follow what I have discovered in my probings.

1. The senior and core Kerly family to come to Massachusetts was a William
but not the William of the "Confidence". The first family was William, b.
1602 at Ashmore, Dorset, England with his wife Ann White, and their
children, 1. Mary, b. 1627 (m. 6 Oct. 1647 Richard Smith, Sr, b. 1626, d. March
27, 1654 at Lancaster); 2. Henry, b. 1632 (m 1 at Sudbury November 02, 1654,
Elizabeth White who was killed during the Massacre at Lancaster in 16776,
m. 2. February 18, 1677 at Charlestown, Elizabeth Ward, widow of John Howe,
Jr (actually John Howe, III), d. December 13, 1713 at Marlborough; 3.
William, Jr., b 1633, m. Jane Unknown in 1666 at Sudbury, d. May 13, 1719 at
Lexington where he is buried with wife Jane and daughter Elizabeth in the
Robbins Cemetery, East Village of Lexington - his age at death noted on his
heasdtone corroborates his date of birth. These three children of William, Sr
and Ann White Kerly were all born at Ashmore in Dorset, England.

2. The William of the "Confidence" is noted in ship's documents as having
arrived in MA with and Edmund or Edward who was 22 years of age at the time
of embarkation, making Edmund/Edward's date of birth as 1616.
In "Ages from Court Records 1636 to 1700, Vol.I: Essex, Middlesex, and
Suffolk Counties,Massachusetts"; Melinde Lutz Sanborn, (William Kerly) Took
oath as Freeman at Marlborough - 23 May 1666 and in Court records -
Gen.Pub.Co., 2003 gave his age in litigation proceedings as follows;
-William Kerly....age 45 in 1666....MCC folio 40
-William Kerly.....46 in 1667....MCC folio 44
which makes his date of birth 1620/21 depending of the date of the
proceedings and the actual date of birth.
This would tie him better to having married Anna King, b. abt 1625 at the
Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, England, daughter of Thomas and Ann King, than
would a marriage to Ann White Kerly b. abt 1602, or to Jane Unknown, who died
in 1721 at age 70. It is also a distinct probability that the Bartholomew
b. between 1650 - 1660 was the son of this union and not of Capt. Henry and
1st wife Elizabeth White Kerley as there is no history of Bartholomew in
Lancaster prior or post the Massacre there in 1676.

I have gone through these records and dates over and over and I can find
no justification for making William Kerly, Sr out to be the William of the
"Confidence" and actually, another cousin who is of the British side of our
family has traced the early lineage of these two Williams back into the
1400's and has found that the Senior is a grandson of a Robert Kerly, b. 1510
through his son Martin, b 1538, while the younger William is a
great-great-grandson of Robert through son Henry, b. 1542 and Henry's son William, b
1563 through his son William, b. 1594. Thus they are both of the same "root"
but different twigs from a branch -

I further believe that William, Sr is the William Kerly called as Planter
at Hull in 1637 - his last known sighting in Ashmore was in 1636 when he
was reprimanded by the minister of his church there for not attending a
service in that year, to which he responded that he was in another town
attending to his property there and thus unable to be at Ashmore on that day. Would
a 14 year old have such an excuse? I also believe that the duties assigned
to William, Sr, by the town authorities would have been far beyond the
abilities of this younger William, at least for many more years than outlined
by your town histories and records, and that there has been too much
confusion for too long a period with no one paying attention to the minute details.

I am aware of the complications involved in anyone recognizing that these
are the true facts but would very much like to see them become the actual
record for this family.

Judith J. Schreiber
Valdosta, GA

10th GGDaughter of William and Ann White Kerly.

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