Pirates, poets, and a ghost or two along the way    

(Author's note: Family history, and indeed the genealogical process of discovering it, is fluid. Many times it's "one step forward and two steps backwards." The good part is the discovery of what can be found on those last "two steps backwards.")

As always, unapologetically, unedited.

THERE ARE A FEW THINGS I don't have in my own family tree. Among these, are a pirate and a ghost. Heck, I don't even have anybody writing about the rumors of a pirate or a ghost. (Well, maybe one pirate...) In this family tree, however, I was able to find both - and written about by someone like the poet Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

How cool is that?

Allow me to digress...

Recently, I posted here about the discovery of a "dynamic duo" of Revolutionary War patriots, James Babb and Mary (McCool) Babb, and their possible connection to a new friend of mine, Paige. This connection was through their son, Sampson Babb, who also connected Paige to an alleged grandson of Sampson's, one Jesse Babb. Jesse Babb was an enslaveed person likely fathered by Sampson's son, James Kellett Babb. However, after a better examination of the records, I discovered that I had made an error in my research, and that my friend Paige is not a descendant of Sampson Babb, nor a great-great niece several times over of the enslaved man, Jesse Babb.

It was definitely a case of "a mistaken Babb" identity.

I followed up on this post with another to describe my error and how I had discovered it. It was disappointing, as the legacy of a direct relationship for Paige to two Revolutionary War patriots and an ancillary relationship to an enslaved person of color seemed like a pretty cool story to tell. All of these connections for Paige depended on her ties to the Babb family. And while Paige did lose these immediate direct connections to these members of the Babb clan, one thing is very evident:

It does not mean that friend Paige is not "a Babb."

Almost serendipitously, I discovered another "Babb" line for Paige. It's close to the original lines I had explored before, in that both of these lines (the previously discarded one from Sampson) and this newly discovered one extend from the same original Babb ancestor, Phillip Babb. This new "Babb line" is through Phillip Babb's grandson, Thomas Babb, Jr., whose daughter, Elizabeth Babb, married David Rees. 

Anecdotally, this line for my friend Paige starts to shape up like this:  

Follow the blue highlights to reveal the structure of the genealogy from Phillip Babb to Paige:

And further:                           

The above two excerpts are from Jean Sargent's Babb families of New England and Beyond, SLC, Utah, 1987

     Tracking the line to Paige goes even more smoothly from here:

  

Above excerpts from: Marshaleigh Orr Bahan's Captain David Rees, Fighting Quaker, PDF file as published through United Empire Loyalists of Canada

And further:   

             

  

         

The above three images are taken from: Emma Plunkett Ivy's, Ten Thousand Plunketts: A partially documented record of the families of Charles Plunkett of Newberry, South Carolina, Peachtree Letter Service, Atlanta, Georgia, 1969, and as viewed on Ancestry.com.

The above highlighted images will serve as an anecdotal and previously published line of descent from Phillip Babb of the Isles of Shoals, Maine, to Allison Paige Brown. 

As you can see, Paige is very much a descendant of "Old Babb."  

Now for the good part. Here are a couple of incredible things about Paige's ancestor, Phillip Babb:

Did you know that there are rumors that the ghost of Phillip Babb haunts the Isles of the Shoals, specifically Appledore Island? Did you know that there are rumors (however unfounded) of his connection to pirates' treasure? Did you know that Phillip Babb has a connection to two nineteenth-century poets, Celia Thaxter, and even some guy by the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne?

Now, how can you discount your own family's ghost? Wink!

               

              

 

Passages from the American Notebooks, Volume II, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

                               

                     

The above three images are from: Among the Isles of Shoals, by Celia Thaxter

  

Okay, who has ancestors from a place called Appledore Island? That is so so so Harry Potter if you ask me. Anyway, there is MUCH written about the Babb clan of which Paige is surely a part of both here directly and indirectly through folks like Sampson and Jesse Babb. There is even MORE written about hers and their ancestor, the infamous Phillip Babb, of Isles of the Shoals.

If it were me, I'd be planning a road trip.

You see, I've got a friend who's got an "in" with the "Ghost of Appledore Island."  :)

END