I believe the parents of Joel Curtiss to be Joseph Curtiss (also spelled Curtis and Curtice) and Martha Hart. Likewise, I believe the parents of Hannah Kelsey to be Jonah Kelsey and Martha Nettleton.
It is true for Connecticut online records that they are more of a listing or index than actual records with specific information. It is also true that I haven't thoroughly examined and separated the names, dates and locations, but I believe that I have a pretty good idea of who is who. This is based on location as well as names.
So, let's talk location.
Joel Curtiss was born in 1761 in Wallingford, Connecticut. Hannah Kelsey was born in 1757 in Killingworth, Connecticut.
Now, Connecticut has only eight counties, and four of them were original counties formed in 1666. The original four are Fairfield, Hartford, New Haven, and New London. The concluding four counties are Litchfield, Middlesex, Tolland, and Windham.
Now, the town of Wallingford, where Joel was born, has always been in New Haven County. Wallingford was established in 1667, a year after the formation of New Haven County.
Killingworth, on the other hand, was part of New London County until 1785, when it was included in the newly formed Middlesex County. Hannah was born when the town was still a part of New London.
The present day counties of New Haven, Middlesex, and New London counties are located in the southern part of Connecticut, with New Haven to the west of Middlesex County, and New London to its east. Because the towns that Joel and Hannah were born in were in neighboring counties, the distance between Wallingford (Joel) and Killingworth (Hannah) is only a direct distance of a little over 15 miles.
Now, with Joseph Curtiss (father of Joel), I made the mistake of connecting him as a son of Benjamin Curtiss and Miriam Cook. This was an error that has recently been rectified as Joseph could not have been their son. Benjamin and Miriam were married after the date of Joseph's birth.
Joseph was, in fact, the son of Joseph, brother of Benjamin, and Ann Stevens.
It should also be mentioned here, briefly, that there is actually two lineages of Curtiss' in the early days of Connecticut. One lineage traces back to the widow Elizabeth Curtiss, and the other lineage traces back to Richard Curtis who moved from Dorchester, MA to Wallingford, CT. These two family lines did intermarry, so from here on out, whenever I speak of Richard's descendants, I will use the Curtis spelling. Likewise, when I speak of the widow's descendants I will use the Curtiss spelling.
Future posts will talk more on the Curtis branch. For now, let's focus on the Kelsey branch.
As I mentioned before, I believe that Hannah was the daughter of Jonah Kelsey and Martha Nettleton.
I have 13 children for Jonah and Martha. I had a fourteenth child, John, but I removed him from the tree because I could not find any record of him as a child of Jonah and Martha.
Of these 13 children, I have found baptism index listings for old Connecticut records. They are: Martha (1747), Phebe (1755), Hannah (1757, father's name transcribed as Jonas), Freelove (1759), Jonas (1761), Nancy (1763), Sarah (1765), James (1767), and Hubbard (1770). All were baptized in Killingworth.
I found only three with transcribed birth listings from the old Connecticut records. They are: Jesse (born 25 Feb 1746), Martha (born 13 Oct 1747), and Jane (3 Aug 1749). All three were born in Killingworth.
There were only two that I did not find a birth or baptism listing. I include them as they were included as children of Jonah and Martha in the book, A genealogy of the descendants of William Kelsey who settled at Cambridge, Mass., in 1632, at Hartford, Conn., in 1636, and at Killingworth, Conn., in 1663.
The write-up in this book for Seymour (1751), and Nathan (1753) is pretty in-depth, so I have included them in the tree.
select pages above and to the left are from the book mentioned above. They pertain to Jesse, Freelove, Nathan, and Seymour.
In my next post, I will explain why I believe the Hannah Kelsey who married Joel Curtis was the daughter of Jonah and Martha.
