The time I found a Livingston and made a monstrous family tree
Lately, I’ve been accidentally stumbling into genealogical surprises without trying, with various degrees of confidence / conviction.
In a short span of time (just over a month), I discovered:
my maybe-ancestor John Quincy Adams mentioned my definite-ancestor in his diary.
I’m related to the guy who was law partners with the father of the guy who shut James Garfield (my favorite!) right up so he didn’t talk his way out of being nominated as a presidential candidate.
a guy I’ve been making fun of / holding a grudge against for years was (maybe) named for my ancestor.
another Heather Rockwood! (We’ll get back to her)
I also made a rubber stamp announcing that maybe I’m related to Presidents Adams, which I’m sure is a completely normal thing to do.
And most recently, whilst sifting through my esteemed Willard family I discovered a John Livingston Willard.
Let me tell you about the Livingstons.
Robert Livingston was a Founding Father, and helped write the Declaration of Independence.
He swore President Washington into office!
He lived at Clermont in Germantown, New York.
For five years, I was on the board of Friends of Clermont, an organization dedicated to preserving the living legacy of Clermont State Historic Site.
I’m actually scheduled to give a talk there this fall sharing all of the Livingston family trees I’d pulled together over the years trying to make sense of things. Like these.
We picked a date for that talk yesterday.
Also yesterday, I looked into a Hollow Earth series that The Other Heather Rockwood wrote that ties into John Quincy Adams.
In that series, I learned that John Cleves Symmes maybe wrote the book Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery. This feels very neither-here-nor-there, but we’ll circle back to it.
And today, while not working on my upcoming James Madison talk, I decided to look into Mr. John Livingston Willard.
I’ll just save you the endless scrolling and get to the point:
We are related.
His parents were Catharine Livingston and Dr. Elias Willard. Elias’ parents are Hannah and Lemuel Willard — and I roll up to them, too!
Look! Research!
Overwhelming, right?
I spent all day trying to stitch together a bunch of family trees into a family tree to end all family trees. I wasn’t 100% successful. Still feeling pretty pleased…
Ta da!
There’s so much here I want to call your attention to, but that’s not an adventure for today.
JOIN ME NOVEMBER 17 AT 2 P.M. EST!
I’m doing a presentation with the Friends of Clermont, where I dive into the Livingston family trees and try not to get discombobulated in front of a live (but virtual) audience. Join me to see how I manage!
But for now…
I do have a few things to share.
Disclaimer: I’m just now realizing I left off an entire piece of the Livingstons I meant to incorporate! This batch… oops.
Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, by Cokie Roberts; if you think I misspelled William’s name, let me remind you there was a boycott on T
1 & 2: John Livingston Williard and me!
It’s less than ideal for my process here that there are multiple marriages that go from one side of this tree to the other.
3: The Hollow Earth guy!
He’s not a Livingston but his third wife was — Susan Livingston Symmes. It’s worth pointing out that Susan Livingston Symmes was the stepmother of Nancy (Anna) Symmes, who married — very much against her father’s will — future President William Henry Harrison. President Benjamin Harrison was their grandson.
4: Sarah Livingston was married to John Jay
Her brother Henry Brockholst Livingston was a pain in her keister. They’ve all been popping up for me a lot lately.
Note to self
[You can stop reading now. I’m just corralling some of my thoughts here.]
At some point I want to dive into (or call attention to) these areas:
✔ All of the damned Roberts.
✔ Maybe all of the signers?
✔ Figure out how to fit the Lewises
✔ The tie-ins to various presidents and First Ladies
✔ That Maturin Livingston wanted to duel with Alexander Hamilton, but didn’t and his daughter then married Alexander Hamilton, Jr., who was confusingly Hamilton’s grandson… not to be mixed up with a different Alexander Hamilton, Jr., who was Hamilton’s son. I’m dizzy. Good thing no one is reading this. Neither the child nor the grandchild were offspring that died in a duel… that was Philip Hamilton… three years before his dad was killed in a duel.
✔ The Schuylers
✔ The Fultons
✔ Zoom in on people and show more doodles of them
✔ Maybe focus on everyone in this family tree with ties to the Revolutionary War?
More genealogical tomfoolery
Visiting three dead guys 🪦🪦🪦