A Walk On The Howland Side

This is my great-grandmother, Sarah “Sadie” Margaret Tranmer nee Howland.  She died in April 1971,around the time I turned 10.  Which means she lived to be just short of 75; younger than I always thought.  These are great pictures, exactly as I remember her, reflecting her personality.  Reportedly she was a real wise-ass, could cut you to ribbons with her tongue, but would do anything to help you if you needed it.

She married James Edmund Tranmer, and they had six kids, my grandmother, Hazel Margaret, being the oldest.  The others were Richard, Natalie, Ellery, Winona, and Shirley.  Besides my grandmother, only her sister Winnie and one cousin, Dutchy, remain alive out of that generation.

My great grandfather was a rogue, so besides who knows how many local “milkman” spawn, he hopped the train, ran off and had more than one other family, including one in Connecticut that’s been in touch with my mother to compare information.  He reportedly was involved in early computer systems for the government.

More stuff about Howland genealogy, at some length, follows the pictures…

So last night I’m going through these pictures I took of sheets of pictures my mother got from some relatives who are also part of the whole Howland lineage.  Forever it’s been “known” that one of the Howlands married a Wampanoag indian woman, and she’s one of my ancestors a few generations back.  Most recently my understanding was she’d have been my great-great-great grandmother.  Yet looking at what I had on record for names, that would have made her Philena Haskins, which sounded not like an indian’s name.  I called to ask my mother more about it, and she thought her name might have been Keturah, married to Malachi Howland, one generation back from Seth Howland, who was born in 1789) and Philena Haskins (who was his second wife).  Trouble is, you go back too far and it’s not possible to have a picture like this:

Which may or may not be the ancestor in question, and may or may not be an indian ancestor in the Ashley line instead.

So I enthusiastically found Malachi Howland and Keturah, whose name in this case was Howland because they were cousins, not boding well for the indian idea.  I gave my mother their entire lineage, available easily online, back to 1481.  Then I poked around more and got suspicious about the fact that those two were listed as having no kids, not to mention that they moved from Middleboro to Manhattan, and that meant the lineage had to make its way back to Massachusetts.  I found evidence that they had one daughter, but that’s it.

Later I found a near-match of our own lineage that I could match us to, with a totally different path up the Howland lineage to the same place.  Starting with my great-grandmother’s parents and going down the generations of paternal parentage, that one went:

Seth A. Howland
Emily Martha Ashley

Seth Howland
Philena Haskins (2nd wife; 1st wife was Abigail Ashley, Seth A. was youngest of a grand total of 15 children)

Joshua Howland
Abigail Pierce (see paragraph below)

Joshua Howland
Mary Allen

Joshua Howland
Elizabeth Holloway (one source had her spelled Halloway, which is apparently wrong)

Samuel Howland
Mary Sampson

Henry Howland Jr
Mary Newland

Henry Howland Sr
Margaret Aires

John Howland
Emma Revell

John Howland
Agnes Greenway

John Howland b.1481
Agnes Agnette

The trouble is, if I went to the seemingly better source on overall Howland lineage up to a few generations ago, or less, depending, and come down from the top, I came up to the third Joshua being married to Phebe Chase, so I thought my conclusion was wrong.  I also thought I had too long a break between a couple of the generations.  However, it turned out that Phebe Chase was third Joshua Howland’s first wife, with whom he had four girls, including that same Keturah who married Malachi, and the online source I was treating as particularly comprehensive and authoritative made no mention of his second wife, Abigail Pierce, and their one child, the first Seth Howland.  As for the dates, I’d noted them wrong when trying to get it straight on paper.  In reality it all fits fine.  Which allowed me to stop demonstrating, to Deb’s amusement, where Sadie might possibly have inherited her obsessive tendencies.

I still have no idea which one was an indian.  If there was a picture, even a tintype, it couldn’t have been too far back.  My great-grandmother had a picture displayed in her house, and I believe my mother said she claimed it was her grandmother or great-grandmother.  Which would be Philena Haskins or Abigail Pierce, if it’s in the Howland lineage.

Finally, finishing off this post I started yesterday morning, here is my grandmother, daughter of my great-grandmother pictured near the top of the post, at the age of 11, and then 79 years later, this past Sunday, with Sadie looking as she talks with my brother-in-law’s mother, not pictured.

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