Family Chronicles

Relationship: Great Grandmother
Born: Apr 1863 In Germany
Died: 08 Sept 1927
Father: George Bloss – born around 1824 in Bavaria, Germany
Mother: Catherine
Julia arrived in America, from Germany with her parents, George and Catherine when she was an infant. Many did not believe she would survive the rigors of the trip. Her first husband was to a Yankee by the name of Geer, who was and alcoholic (this information was provided by Gladys when we went to visit her in Columbia, SC). Julia had one child with Mr. Geer and then divorced him, Julia then met and married Acheson O’Brien on March 11, 1891.

1880 Census Connecticut – New Haven – New Haven
Father: George Age: 56 Occupation: In Market Birth Place: Germany Father & Mother
Germany
1900 Census Connecticut – New Haven – New Haven
Birth Place: Germany
Home: 371 Grand Avenue
Household members:
Acheson O’ Brien – 48
Julia O’ Brien – 37
Robert O ‘Brien – 17
Trena Gier – 8
Bessie O’ Brien – 6
1910 Census Connecticut – Fairfield – Bridgeport – District 0025
Daniel Strecker – Head, Age 25 Born in Germany with mother and father, Occupation:
Tool Grinder.
Julia – wife, Age: 41, Occupation: None
Bessie O’ Brien – Step daughter, Age: 16,Occupation: Stenographer in the Brace Factory
Julia – Step daughter, Age: 8 Occupation: None

Julia never learned to read or write and her mark on documents was an X.
US Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 for Julia A Bloss New York, Kings 1890

Julia married a man named Geer or Gier and they had one child.
Trena Goldy Geer Born

(Rev) Richard Edwards: b 1590 d. 1625
Married: Anne …..
Note: Examination of the Stephney register disclosed that Anne Edwards was the widow of Richard Edwards and that they had been residents of Ratcliffe in Stepney but but a few years and it was necessary to seek further for the earlier record of the family of Richard and Anne. This was found in the neighboring parish of St. Botolph’s Aldgate, and the following records identified tham as the parents of the New England emigrant:-

• Anne Edwards, daughter of Richard, babtized at the the house of Henry Munter, cooper, July 30 (1615).
• William Edwards, son of Richard Edwards, minister* and Anne his wife, baptized Sunday, Novembver 1, (1618).

Follow the baptism of the son in 1618 it appears that the Rev. Richard Edwards removed at some unknown date, shortly after to Ratcliffe, parish of Stepney, where he is found in 1621 as Master of a local free school in that hamlet, founded in 1540 by Nicholas Gibson, Sheriff of London. During his service there he had the following children baptized as recorded in the register of St Dunstan’s:-

• John, son of Richard Edwards of Ratcliffe, schoolmr and Anne his wife, baptized Oct 7 (1621). What happened to John – did he follow his brother William to America?
• Sarah, daughter of Richard Edwardsm school-maister and his wife, baptized June 29 (1623).

No further baptisms are recorded to him or his wife in that parish, but in 1625 one of the great epidemics of the plague swepth over London ad its environs and in the parish of Stepney alone in a few months 2978 are recorded as victims of this scourge. The pages of the parish register are filled with the names of those dying by dozens. Among these was the husband and father of the Edwards family whose death is recorded as follows in the burial regisater:-
Richard Edwards schoolmaister of Ratcliffe freeschool the same day (August 31, 1625).
First Generation

• William Edwards 1618 – 1680
• Agnes Spencer 1604 – 1680 – widow of William Spencer, who was also one of the early settlers of Hartford, about 1645.

Children of William and Agnes only one:
Richard born May 1647 who was married twice:
Spouse(1): Elizabeth Tuthill(Tuttle), daughter of William Tuthill of New Haven November 19,1667.
Children:
(2)Mary born 1668 – no trace of her
(3)Timothy born May 14, 1669
Only 1 son (19)Jonathan Oct 5, 1703
(4)Abigail born 1671
(5)Elizabeth born 1675
(6)Ann born 1678
(7)Mabel bap Dec 13, 1685
(8) Child – unnamed

Spouse(2) Mary Talcott (1661 – 1723), daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel John Talcott, of Hartford by his first wife, Helena Wsakeman daughter of Rev John Wakeman.
Children:
(9)Jonathan Edwards Jan 20, 1693 – 1693
(10)John Edwards Feb 24, 1694 – 1769
son (54) Richard born Oct 26, 1723
son (9) John – records just say he died early?
(11)Hannah Edwards Jan 3,1696 – 1747
(12)Richard Edwards Jan 5, 1698 – 1701
(13)Daniel Edwards April 11, 1701 – 1765 married Sarah Hooker
(64) Sarah born 1739
(65) Daniel bap May 23, 1746 record says he died in early childhood
(14)Samuel Edwards Nov 1, 1702 – 1732 – married Jerusha Pitkin, daughter of William Pitkin

All of the lines from William Edwards have been exhausted up until this point – assumptions being made that the children listed as having died young actually died young and produced no children.
(19)Rev.Jonathan Edwards – colleague pastor of the church in Northampton, Mass, was married to Sarah Pierpont, daughter of Rev James Pierpont, fourth Pastor of the First church of New Haven CT. Jonathan Edwards died at Princeton NY March 22, 1758 in the 55 year of his age.
Children:
(73) Sarah born Aug 25, 1728
(80) Jerusha born April 26, 1730 died Feb 14, 1747
(81) Esther born Feb 13, 1732
(82) Mary born April 7, 1734
(83) Lucy born Aug 31, 1736
(84) Timothy born July 25, 1738
(85) Susanna born June 20, 1740
(86) Eunice born May 9, 1743
(87) Jonathan born May 26, 1745
(88) Elizabeth born May 6, 1747
(89) Pierpont born April 8, 1750
(84) Timothy Edwards of Elizabethtown< NJ until 1771 and after that Stockbridge MA was married to Rhoda Ogden daughter of Robert Ogden of Elizabethtown September 25, 1760.
Children
(178) Sarah born July 11, 1761
(179) Edward born Jan 20, 1763 Elizabethtown married Mary
(180) Jonathan born Oct 16, 1764 Married Lucy Woodbridge
(181) Richard born March 5, 1764
(182) Phebe born Nov 1768
(183) William born Nov 11, 1770 Died suddenly Brooklyn NY
(184) Robert Ogden born Sept 30, 1772

From a newspaper article in a family scrapbook given to me by Gordon Edwards. There are a few places that were hard if not impossible to make out – will have to try to find the original source.

History further records that shortly after the marriage of Richard Edwards and Elizabeth Tuttle, she had a child and Mr Edwards was subjected to ecclesiastical discipline therefor. Though he testified that he was not the father of the child he was punished. Not withstanding this, he continued to live with her for many and was the father of the ancestors of all the bright Edwardses in this country. Her conduct became such, however that in 1691, he was, after repeated refusals, granted a divorce by the Colonial Assembly, at the very time when there son, the Rev. Timothy Edwards, the father of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards was being graduated from Harvard with such distinguished honors. Richard Edwards then married the daughter of the Hon. John Talcott, and they had several children by her, none of whose descendants ever amounted to …… practiced by our enlightened forefathers in Connecticut if would have been cut off absolutely at the start the very Edwards family cited by the gentlemen as an example of the persistence through heredity of the “bad type” as seen in the Jukees family.

For it is well known to those conversant with the early history of Connecticut that Jonathan Edwards was the son of Timothy Edwards who was the son of Richard Edwards an eminent citizen of Hartford and the first lawyer ever admitted to practice in the Connecticut courts, and of Elizabeth Tuttle. Now Elizabeth Tuttle had a brother who was hanged for murder and a sister who likewise committed murder and who escaped the gallows only through the refusal of the people of Connecticut to recognize the courts and …..

Edwin Edwards was born on May 28, 1837, in Connecticut, the son of Louise and Isaac. He had one son with Augusta Sherman in 1857. He died on April 14, 1898, in his hometown at the age of 60, and was buried in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Connecticut, Hale Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices, 1629-1934 for Edwin Edwards.
Connecticut Headstone Inscriptions Vol 05.
402-4 Mt. Grove Cemetery – Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Edwards, Edwin, died Apr. 14, 1898, born May 28, 1837.
Edwards, Matilda Sherman, wife of E., born Jan. 26, 1840, died June 14, 1911.
Edwards, Hattie L, daughter of E. & A. born Dec 11, 1855, died Oct 13, 1857.
Edwards, Lillian A daughter of E,&A. born Aug. 23, 1862, died Mar. 1, 1863.
Edwards, Geo. W. son of E.& A. born June 5, 1864, died Mar. 28, 1865.
Edwards, Isaac, died Dec. 23, 1887, age 73.
Edwards, Louisa Shaw, wife of I., died Dec. 14, 1897.
Edwards, Louis E., born May 16, 1857, died Sept. 26, 1899.
Edwards, Harriet F. Beers, wife of L.E., born Oct. 1, 1851, died Apr. 1, 1909
Edwards, Charlie E., son of L.E. & H.E., born Aug. 18, 1880, died Apr. 29, 1881.
Edwards, Edwin S., son of L.E. & H.E., born Aug. 24, 1882, died Feb. 27, 1886.
Sherman, Lewis, born Mar. 27, 1817, died Sept. 14, 1881.

When Isaac Edwards, my gr. gr. gr grandfather, was born in 1815 in Connecticut, his father, Albert, was 27. He had one son with Louise Shaw in 1837. The 1860 Federal Census records his age at 45 and his occupation has a teamster and the following people living in the household.
Isaac Edwards 45
Louisa Edwards 43
Edwin Edwards 23
Augusta Edwards 21
Edwin Edwards 3
Polly Gilbert 49
Eliakine Gilbert 28