Elizabeth Parrish b. 1691

/ Kirstin Miller

Elizabeth Parrish: 8th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Elizabeth Parrish was born March 19, 1691 in Groton, Massachusetts.  Elizabeth was the 2nd of 10 children of John and Mary Waddell Parrish. Elizabeth’s dad John and mom Mary Waddle were both born in Massachusetts, their ancestors were from England and Scotland. Elizabeth had 9 bothers and sisters and 4 half siblings.

Sometime before 1704 Elizabeth and her family moved to Preston, Connecticut where the family was admitted to the First Congregational Church, “Nov 15, 1704 John PARISH & Mary, his wife, by letter from Ipswich”

Also in Preston, CT Elizabeth married Francis Tracy, grandson of Thomas Tracy, on January 6, 1714. The Tracy family of England were original settlers, founders of Preston. “Thomas Parke, Thomas Tracy, and others established Preston … Owaneco, son of the Mohegan sachem Uncas, gave a confirmatory deed for the land in 1687”.

The Parrish and Tracy families were interconnected. Benjamin Parrish married a Tracy sister, Elizabeth’s sisters Mary, Sarah and Lydia married a Tracy brother.
And in my family tree Elizabeth Parrish and Francis Tracy are 6th great grandparents on my mom’s family side.
Elizabeth’s sister Lydia P. and Francis’s brother Christopher T. are 6th great grandparents on my dad’s family side.
In Elizabeth and Lydia Parrish’s lives, from 1680s on, the chances not taken, choices made, relationships built, risks taken, all led to my descendants in Iowa connecting. I don’t think about it for too long- it makes my head spin.

Parrish to speedy

Elizabeth and Francis’s first Iowa ancestor was Delia Angell, age 15, she came to Iowa after her dad Dexter died and she lived with older brother Charles Angell . Delia would marry William Flood, the great grandparents of Elizabeth Speedy, my grandma.

Parrish to miller

Lydia and Christopher’s first Iowa ancestor was Leydia Connable Gaines, age 59. Leydia and husband Obed Gaines traveled by wagon from Indiana to Waverly, Iowa to live with son William Gaines and his wife Sarah Swain, the great grandparents of Faber Miller, my grandpa.

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