The Intersection of Gardening and Genealogy
Posted on January 30, 2023 7 Comments
The idea for this post came after my recent migration from the “bird site not to be named'” taken over by a megalomaniac, to the much pleasanter and helpful, not for profit, social media site Mastodon. While this blog post is not about Mastodon I do want to put in a plug to fellow genealogists and gardeners to check it out. The desktop version works great but you may want to use one of the apps for Mastodon like Toot or Tusky as they seem to lead to less frustration for newbies.
I couldn’t help but notice in the lists of interests posted in Introductions on Mastodon [new to me social media site] , the number of genealogists who are also gardeners and that got me to thinking of all the ways that the two hobbies overlap. That’s not to say that all genealogists are gardeners or vica versa, but it seems like a very high percentage are. It is certainly true for me. My interest in gardening goes back as far as my memories stretch to fuzzy caterpillars and beautiful garden flowers. My serious involvement with genealogy began at 17. Our garden whether cultivated or that which nature provides has always been my sanctuary. And it seems that the lives of my ancestors also provide a sanctuary from the cruelties of life.
So what things might they have in common. Gardeners and Genealogists are:
- Hopeful: the act of planting a seed or adding a new branch to the tree
- Patient: both gardening and genealogy take patience
- Dirty: they both reveal secrets and they both get you on your knees
- Colorful: Gardens and Family trees are colorful
- Tools: Gardening and Genealogy can be practiced by everyone whether tending to a potted African violet or spending hours researching an archive from afar.
- Rules: Good gardeners and genealogists often break the rules and tolerate chaos becasue it feeds their souls
- Stories: The best gardens are filled with stories, like the best genealogies
- Love: What’s not better with love?
HOPEFUL
There is nothing more HOPEFUL than planting a tree that you will never see reach its maturity, knowing that its branches will harbor future creatures and provide shade to people you will never know. And no genealogist finishes a family tree —we are ever hopeful that the gardens we make and the family history we uncover will blossom in the future and somehow the failures and brick walls will eventually be overtaken.
PATIENT
Anyone who sticks with gardening or genealogy will either make their peace with PATIENT or give up the pursuit. Some of my brick walls have taken 40 years or more to come tumbling down—and as a gardener I cannot possibly add up all the failures and dead plants that a lifetime of gardening entails. Yes, the weeds keep coming and yet I have spent the last few weeks a couple of hours a day on my knees weeding—in a rather futile attempt to win the war in favor of the native wildflowers. Similarly I am ever patiently plodding along hoping to make a new discovery or DNA match which will unlock the origins of my third great grandparents John MERRITT and Margaret GEARY.
DIRTY
Gardeners and genealogists get their hands DIRTY—I mean that literally. Your hands lead you to places you never expected and your searching for the right plant or the right resources unlocks untold secrets of our connection to the natural world and to our past. We get down and dirty and on our hands and knees in archives and libraries and gardens. We learn dirty little secrets someone worked hard to bury. We just keep digging.
COLORFUL
Even if you garden is currently covered in a blanket of snow or all shades of green, there’s no denying gardens are COLORFUL. Even if most of the color is plays of light and comes on the wings of those who visit it. Genealogy is colorful both in the characters we meet, the places they come from and for some the color coding we often use to separate this family from that one.
TOOLS
This goes without saying, both endeavors have their own sets of favorite TOOLS. And there is a large degree of overlap. Books, libraries and the internet being repositories of knowledge and inspiration. Metaphors abound in raking and shaking the leaves and trees. Pruning branches, cross pollinating and simply mucking about in gardens or graveyards.
RULES
Anyone reading my blog, knows I both like rules, and like breaking them. The best RULES are like paths, they are more interesting when they meander. The rules give structure and orderliness but they can also constrain and discourage. A gardener should always look forward to surprises as should the genealogist. The rules are guideposts. They are not fences nor gatekeepers and don’t let anyone tell you different!
STORIES
I say it again and again, who cares about all those names, dates and places and neatly organized files? Well you do. However, what is important is the STORIES. Even in the garden, it is telling its story. Plants that fail to thrive and others that spread with reckless abandon. My grandfather had a Japanese maple from which my parents had a seedling. Many gardens later the progeny of that maple carry on in my garden today.
LOVE
Arguably gardens and family history grow stronger with LOVE. Our time on earth is transient. We garden and compile family history, best watered with love and perseverance. It is both a solitary act of selfishness indulging in our love of growing things and the selflessness of helping and providing a path for others. Only fellow gardeners or genealogists will appreciate what it took to get there. We did it for love.
“Time is to slow for those who wait,
― Henry Van Dyke
Too swift for those who fear,
Too long for those who grieve,
Too short for those who rejoice…
But for those who love,
Time is Eternity.”
Kelly Wheaton ©2023 – All Rights Reserved
New Speculations on the Origins of Robert WHEATON: Part One
Posted on January 30, 2023 Leave a Comment
Many years ago I wrote an article TItled Conjectures on the Origins of Robert WHEATON. At that time all of the indications were that he was descended from the Wheatons of Devon. This turned out to be 5 different DNA WHEATON/WHEADON/WHIDDEN lines in Devon, England: Wheaton of Sidmouth; Wheadon of Axminster; Whidden of Buckfastleigh; Wheaton of Exeter; and Wheaton of Winkleigh and Brixham. After lots of DNA testing in England with not a single DNA match, I highly suspect Robert WHEATON, who settled first in Salem, Massachusetts in 1636, did NOT come from Devon.
INTRODUCTION
In April of 2015 I had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with Den and Jean Wheaton and spend 3 days visiting parishes in Devon and Somerset where WHEATONs were known to have lived in the 16th century and into the 17th century. On this trip Den and Jean WHEATON and I met up with David WHEATON of the Branscombe WHEATONs. So we represented 3 distinct WHEATON lines—none of them DNA related. We visited many churches from the southern Devon ie. Exter, Branscombe, Sidmouth, to mid Devon parishes like Tiverton, Honiton and Loxbeare. Each unique and beautiful in its own right. As we climbed higher and higher onto Exmoor I began to feel we were closer to the ancient Robert Wheaton homeland. When we went reached Wheddon Cross, Watchet and Stogursey I said, “this feels right.” Now of course a “feeling” can be meaningless but in this case it has led down some very circuitous gopher holes. In 2019 and continuing through Covid I have not let up in researching—although I have been remiss in not writing it up. So without further procrastination here goes.
I am not sure what it was I feeling or even what I was looking for— it just felt right. The topography had similarities to where Robert Wheaton settled in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. The area of the original “Ring of Green” settlement of Rehoboth, where Robert spent most of his life, is actually located on the East side of the Seekonk River in what is today Rumford, Rhode Island [adjacent East Providence]. Robert owned a homelot on the Ring of Green as well as a farm/woodlot on present day Wheaton Ave. in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. The Seekonk River adjoining Rumford feeds directly into the larger Providence River which in turn flows into Narragansett Bay which exits into the Atlantic Ocean. The area is a mix of woods and wetlands. Similarly, in North Somerset, the Avil and Washford Rivers empty into the swamp lands of Minehead and Watchet which border the Bristol Channel and out into the same Atlantic Ocean. Both areas show a marine influence and the North Wheddon Coast and Exmoor have more similarity to Rehoboth than the Midlands and South Coast of Devon, my earlier focus. This may mean nothing at all, but when clutching at straws that’s where we will begin.
Compare the two areas adjacent waterways and nearby major waterways leading both to the Atlantic Ocean.

A little while later we got a bit of a nudge in this same direction when 3 anonymous samples of YDNA from the Bristol, England area, matched a key mutation of our Robert Wheaton [R-FGC22501]. The only other person other than our Headless Warrior in York to be positive for this SNP. To be fair this could just be a coincidence, but for now it is all we have. When Robert first appears in Salem the spelling appears to be abbreviated Robt. Wheato and then Robert Wheadon and Robt. Wheaden. Note in the later two instances the name is written Wheadon. It would be a bit ironic if Robert was a Wheadon and not as he was later known Wheaton. However, as I have pointed out elsewhere the dialects in southwestern England make d’s and t’s nearly interchangeable. In two instances a Farm called Wheaton later becomes Wheddon Farm. In many early documents a name will be spelled multiple ways in the same document.
SOMERSET ENGLAND
If we assume for the sake of conjecture that I am right about my suspicions about Robert WHEATON in Somerset, we need look to the first record in Somerset of a Wheaton/Wheddon etc. which is in the year 1201, when a Walterus of ‘Watesden‘ paid scutage on half a knight’s fee which is held of the honour of Dunster, the lands of William de Mohun. William de Mohun [also spelled Moion or Moyon] was a knight in the service of William the Conqueror who received as many as 68 manors in the west of England including 55 in Somerset. His home estate consisted of the ancient hundreds of Minehead, Cutcombe and Dunster. He built his castle upon an earlier fortified castle in Dunster [shown below] originally called Tore. He was engaged in breeding horses at Cutcombe and Nunney [near Frome]. [Planche, James Robinson The Conqueror and his companions London 1874]
William de Mohun held two manors in Cutcombe both mentioned in the Domesday Book:
- Cutcombe [Udecombe, Codecombe] William de Mohun and 3 men at arms from him. Mill, 36 brood mares, 250 sheep. 22 villagers. Later 11 smallholders. 6 slaves. 6 pigmen 1.5 lord’s lands. Meadow 8 acres. Pasture 2 1 leagues & 0.5 leagues 5 furlongs mixed measures. Woodland 1 0.5 leagues & 14 acres mixed measures. Cutcombe is Somerset’s highest parish in elevation. [Uda = wood; combe = deep valley] Manor Value in 1086 £7.8
- Oaktrow [Wochetreu] Durand from William de Mohun. Oaktrow Wood. (in Cutcombe parish) Manor later known as Cutcombe Mohun, half a virgate of land. 1 plough. In demesne is 1 ferling and half a plough, 2 villeins, half a plough, 1 ferling, 4 acres of wood(land). 6 beasts and 50 sheep, 20 she-goats and 8 swine. 4 s. [och = oak, treu or treow = wood]

and Wheddon Farms Annotated OS map
A bit more on perhaps the first of Robert’s line.
“The early history of a small estate at Wheddon is obscure, It seems to have begun in 1201, when a Walter of ‘Watesden‘ paid scutage [Scutage: money paid by a vassal to his lord in lieu of military service] on half a knight’s fee [Knight’s fee: a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight approx. 1,000-5,000 acres] which is held of the honour [honour: Barony] of Dunster.”[Lands of William de Mohun]. “Walterus de Watesden reddit compotum de j. marca de feodo dimidii militis de honore de Dunstore de scutagio. In thesauro liberavit. Et quietus est.[original Latin]”
Lyte, Sir H.C. Maxwell. Historical Notes on Some Manors formerly connected with the Honour of Dunster 1931 p .88
WHEATON WHEDDON WHAT’s in a NAME?
Our next mention of a Wheddon in the Somerset records is in the year 1243 where a lawsuit mentions Robert de Wotedon, a son William, a Richard Whadden and a tenement called Whetendene in Cutcombe. In 1253, ten years later, we see three spellings Whetedon, Whetden and Whedden all different from the earlier three. This is not at all unusual as early documents may have multiple spellings in the same document. Although these spellings may seem very different, the alleged meaning is similar. In Proto-indo-european (udén), wodor, and wodon means water. Variations include waden [to wade], wader, weden, wedene again all meaning wet, wade or water. With den or done meaning valley. So we have Walterus of water valley or the wet valley.
In the Inquisition of Sir John de Mohun from 1285: “Wadendene [alias Uhetnedene, Wetdene]. 1/2 knight’s fee held by Walter de Wadedene [alias Wetendene]. This seems an apt description given all the waterways and springs I have marked on the map below. This area is bordered on the West by the Quarme River and the North the Avil River and everywhere you look are water courses and freshwater springs. Also note a place called Watercombe adjacent Cutcombe. Essentially Watercombe and Wheddon are the same thing. Water + combe = water valley.
There are several other mentions of Wheddons in the 13th century but this one is of particular note. “In 1253, Alice of Wheddon, daughter of William of Wheddon laid claim to a third [of the] manor of Wheddon, whereof her father had been seised in demense when he set out for the Holy Land [Henry III Seventh Crusade 1248-1254]. Robert Wheddon, the tenant in actual possession hereupon vouched his overlord, Reynold de Mohun [Reginald de Mohun 1206-1258, 3rd great grandson of William de Mohun], to warrant his title, but soon afterwards recognised the plaintiff’s right, and agreed that she and her heirs should hold of him and his heirs at a rent of 12d. Which, it will be observed, was a third of the rent payable by him to the lord of Dunster. [Lyte, Sir H.C. Maxwell Documents and Extracts Illustrating the History of the Honour of Dunster Somerset Record Society Vol 33 1918 pg 89] This is the only mention I have found of an actual manor and it may be construed that this is probably the Oaktrow, later known as Cutcombe Mohun. It later seems to fade into oblivion.
Also noteworthy that Alice’s father was a “Knight on Crusade in the Holy Land.” This William Wheddon may be the son or grandson of Walter de Wheddon who was the first of that name recorded. As is the case with William de Mohun there are 4 generations of that same name. So too we find a Walter de Wheddon son of Walter de Wheddon. In the 13th century other forenames include for Wheddon’s include: William, Robert, Richard and Alice. It is likely that the Walter de Wheddon mentioned in 1333 and 1335 as “regarder” of the forest of Exmoor would be a descendant of the original Walter since the first mention is 132 years earlier. A regarder was an ancient officer of the forest, whose duty it was to take a view of the forest hunts, and to inquire concerning trespasses, offenses, etc. It may have been a duty that was passed from father to son over many generations. In 1348 we find a Walter de Wheddon as a witness to a deed in Kilton some 20 miles to the East. In 1376 there is a debtor Alexander Leygh alias Alexander Wheton of Tiverton, North Devon. Creditor John More, citizen and mercer of London. [National Archived C241/164/8]
SILENCE
Then the record is silent for nearly 185 years! There are mentions of the place name Wheddon but none of that name or similar in the area. Then the 23 November 1559, Agnes Littlejohn and William Whetton are married at St. Mary Bridgewater [about 30 Miles east of Cutcombe]. In 1571 is a deed of Thomas Luttrell Esq to and a Thomas Withey alias Wheddone. [In 1376 Lady Elizabeth Luttrell purchased Dunster Castle from Sir John Mohun and it remained in Luttrell family hands until 1976 when it become part of the National Trust]
To Close Part One I share with you some photo of Cutcombe. The church of St John was constructed in the 13th and 14th century probably built upon an earlier church from the early 12th century. It sits at a high elevation with lovely views of surrounding countryside.
And for comparison I offer this photo taken in 2021 of Robert WHEATOn’s land in Rehoboth. The trees follow “Clayey Brook” which will make an appearance later in our story.
Kelly Wheaton ©2023 – All RIghts Reserved
Genealogy: What’s It All About?
Posted on January 29, 2023 3 Comments
“What’s It All About Alfie?”
Song title Burt Bacharach & Hal David
In genealogy we use lots of metaphors for what we are trying to do when faced with a dearth of evidence, and often what we have is circumstantial at best.
- Reading Tea Leaves
- Following Bread Crumbs
- Fitting Pieces into a Jigsaw Puzzle
- Putting Flesh on the Bones
- Going on Treasure Hunts, without a Map
- Scrambling Down Rabbit or Gopher Holes
- Firing up the Old Time Machine
- Crystal Ball Gazing
- Communing with the Dead, hoping they will speak to us somehow, someway
After nearly half a century I am quite familiar with all of them and I am not at all embarrassed to admit that I will use anything to get at the truth of an ancestor’s story. I know in some circles these methods will be met with eye rolling or disdain. No both, we do what we have to do. Sometimes breadcrumbs are all we have. And even as breadcrumbs do not a loaf make…we do what we have to do. Clamber over stiles, plough through muddy fields, name your metaphor, the intrepid genealogist has done it, in metaphor or in fact.
The good thing about breadcrumbs is they lead us to places we never intended to go. And this is the very best thing about genealogy. Genealogy is not just filling in boxes on a tree,rather it is being led to new and unexplored places, physical and metaphorical. Oh how I wish, that back in Junior High and High School, I had been able to connect to what I was studying in a more personal way. So much I have learned about geography, history, anthropology, archeology, architecture and so forth is due to my desire and need to see my ancestors in the context of where they lived and what was going on around them. I can accurately fill in a blank map of the United States and do a fair job on the countries of Europe and the shires of England or even the counties of Germany! This is not due to geography coursework, but rather learning through the day to day research on my families and their origins.
Sometimes I muse on what drives a person to spend a half century on trying to unlock mysteries of their long dead kin? I think Maud Newton has some interesting thoughts in her book Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation. She Writes “I, too, believe that our family dead, and our relationship to them, are important, to me as an individual and to humanity as a collective.” At some point we all need to ask ourselves this question: What is Genealogy all About for me? I think I can finally answer that for myself. I want to understand who I am in the context of my kin. How can their lives inform my own? I want to understand where I, where we, add to the great soup of humanity. Simply I just want to understand in some primordial way, what is it all about?
So crumbs do not a loaf make. However, they provide enough nourishment to see you through. As has been said in many ways it’s not the destination, but the journey. So, while some of my fellow genealogists are busy with lists, filling in names and ticking of boxes give me a few bread crumbs and off I go on another adventure, learning as I go. A few years back my girlfriend, Denise, and I went on a trip to Scotland. Our tour guide, Donald, when asked about times and plans he told us, “It’s guidelines—it is all just guidelines.” I have come to use this as my personal mantra, especially when it comes to genealogy. Whether you are a beginning genealogist / family historian or a more seasoned one, let me suggest that whatever you have been taught, told, etc. that all the rules—-they’re all “just guidelines.”
Everyone has their favorite or “best” way to organize, research, color code, document, etc. And yes there are guides to just about how you should do EVERYTHING that is genealogy related. But the idea that everyone needs to follow the same rules is nonsense. They always start out to be helpful, until they are not. We start out with one idea, one bread crumb, and often end up far from where we started. We make a commitment to log every resource we consulted. I did this for the first five years or so—but after 50 that’s ridiculous, it would take longer to enter all that into a database and check than it would to retrace your steps. I know more than I did back then. I say to myself, “Oh I remember this!” I don’t think oh silly me, but rather, “thank God I came back to this, look what else is here!.”
Let there be no shame in doing genealogy any way that works for you. Even if it is one bread crumb at a time.
“When you walk, let your heart lead the way”
Song lyric Burt Bacharach & Hal David
Kelly Wheaton ©2023 – All Rights Reserved
Photos and Postcards: Now and Then Part Two
Posted on January 27, 2023 1 Comment
This is the second post as a follow up to the first Photos and Postcards: Now and Then. I just keep running into more examples in my photo and postcard collection.
This one it will take 3 to illustrate as I obviously wasn’t matching up angles. These are of St. Nicholas Church in Henley in Arden, in Warwickshire. The day of our visit was quite memorable as inside the church was a young couple, who had been married there the day before. They had come back to experience it in quiet of reflection—as it happened as they said, “in a whirlwind.” Please click on images for full image.
HENLEY IN ARDEN, WARWICKSHIRE



TOTNES, DEVON
This is from Totnes, Devon and is the old Guildhall there. We had a lovely visit in 2017.


WARWICK, WARWICKSHIRE
A very special Place the Beauchamp Chapel at the Collegiate College of St Mary’s in Warwick, Warwickshire, England. Final Resting place of my 17th great-grandfather Richard BEAUCHAMP Sir , Worcester “13 Earl of Warwick,” “Knight of The Garter,” and “Captain of Calais.”


DARTMOUTH, DEVON
This next one is a very different vantage point but is clearly recognizable. Dartmouth Castle and St Petrox Church in Devon. This protected port was quite strategic in many battles.


KENILWORTH
Different viewpoint but discernible.


GLASTONBURY ABBEY
These two are quite close some 70 years apart.


WIDECOMBE CHURCH on DARTMOOR


ST. GERVAIS les BAINS, FRANCE
I stayed at this hotel last October and later purchased this old postcard posted in 1926. The apartment is on the next to the top floor as pictured on the right in the photograph with a Stone balustrade of a balcony on front side and iron railing on the side to the left in photo.


OLD REHOBOTH, MA now RUMFORD, RI
Eventually I hope to write more about this but the photo was my attempt to find Robert WHEATON’s home lot and an old postcard along Ten Mile River. The home lot would have been occupied about 1645 and the back border would have been Ten Mile River, now in Rumford, Rhode Island.


Who know there may be a third part, some day. Hopefully these inspire you to do a few of your own.
Kelly Wheaton ©2023 – All Rights Reserved