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SPENCER, LEWIS, WHITE, HOWELL

Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, England, to
Illinois, Kansas, and Wisconsin, USA


GRANDFATHER

GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

2ND GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

3RD GREAT-GRANDPARENTS
Ralph Edward Spencer
1894-1955
Chicago, Ill.
Athelstane, Wis.
Oakland, Ore.
Joseph Tyndal Spencer
1860-1939
Cambridge and Stroud,
Gloucestershire, England
Chicago, Ill.
Athelstane, Wis.
Joseph J. Spencer
1833-1909
Wotton-Under-Edge, Gloucestershire
Reading, Berkshire
Cambridge, Glos.
Stroud, Glos., England
Jacob Spencer
1798-1880
Wotton-Under-Edge, Glos., England
DESCENDANTS
ANCESTORS
+Gertrude Seehawer
PHOTO

PHOTOS OF JOSEPH AND MARY ANN +Hannah Howell
Abt. 1797–1863
Wotton-Under-Edge, Glos., England

PHOTO OF JOSEPH AND SARAH +Mary Ann White
1827-1919
Newbury, Berkshire
Reading, Berkshire
Cambridge, Glos.
Stroud, Glos., England
James White
Abt. 1804–1882
Newbury, Berkshire
Reading, Berkshire, England
DESCENDANTS



+Esther Payne
Abt. 1804—1884
Newbury, Berkshire,
Reading, Berkshire, England

+Sarah Ellen Lewis
1858-1941
Bisley, Glos.
Stroud, Glos., England
Chicago, Ill.
Athelstane, Wis.
David Lewis
About 1832-1910
Bisley, Glos.
Stroud, Glos., England
John Lewis
1800–
Bisley, Glos., England
DESCENDANTS



+Elizabeth Driver
1801–
Bisley, Glos., England


+Lydia Watts
Abt. 1827–
Calne, Wiltshire, England
Bisley, Glos., England
Stroud, Glos., England
Samuel Watts
Abt. 1793–
Melksham and Calne, Wiltshire
Stroud, Gloucestershire
England



+Eleanor Buckland
Abt. 1798–
Melksham and Calne, Wiltshire
Stroud, Gloucestershire
England

Spencer family on ship's list

Jos. T. Spencer family on the list of passengers arriving in New York City on the ship Dorset April 5, 1882. Sarah's middle name was "Ellen" or "Eleanor." "Opee," age 17, was Joe's brother Opie.

MISSING PIECES (Do you have one of them?)
  • Is the Spencer family story that we're related to Charlie Chaplin true?
  • Are any descendants of Joseph J. and Mary Ann Spencer living in England now?
  • What happened to the descendants of Florence Spencer Biehl (Albert Biehl and Delores Biehl Schultz) and Millie Spencer Rasmussen (William E. Rasmussen, Jr.)?

LINKS

Spencer Photos

Joseph J. and Mary Ann (White) portrait, wedding portrait of Gertrude Seehawer and Ralph E. Spencer, Joseph T. and Sarah (Lewis) Spencer with some of their children and grandchildren, four Spencer sisters.

Mary's Spencer Photos
Gertrude Seehawer Spencer’s papers and photos ended up at my aunt’s house after Gertrude’s death. My cousin allowed me to scan these photos.

Debbie's Spencer Photos
Sarah (Lewis)  and Joseph T. Spencer and some of their children.

Susan's White Photo
George Beaumont White (brother of Mary Ann) with his son and his son's family.

Unidentified Spencer or Lewis Photos from England
Can you help? Having old portraits and not knowing who the subjects are is so frustrating!

Transcription of Spencer Bible
One of my father's cousins has Joseph and Sarah Spencer's family Bible. She let me copy the names from the front of it during a visit in 1984.

Northern Wisconsin's Cutover Lands
In the first few decades of the 1900s, both sets of my grandparents and some of my great-grandparents tried to develop farms on land that had been cut over by lumber companies in northern Wisconsin (Marinette County). They hoped to achieve the same kind of success as homesteaders in the Midwest in the previous century, but the odds were against them. Here are some links with more information:

"1870-1940: Defining a Region" by Robert Gough

"Richard T. Ely and the development of the Wisconsin cutover" by Robert Gough

"Colonizing the Cutover: Wisconsin's Progressive-Era Experiments in Rural Planning" by Susan O. Haswell and Arnold R. Alanen
 
Photos of Cutover Lands from the Wisconsin History Society

LDS Ancestral File compiled by Carol Oldroyd (going further back than Jacob)
You can find it by going to the LDS search page and searching for Jacob Spencer in England and then choosing the file for the Jacob Spencer in Wotton-Under-Edge, Gloucester.

Laurel Roots Amazon Associates Store
Books about Stroud, England, in the 1800s, the history of Chicago, and trying to farm cutover timber lands in northern Wisconsin.

To go to the main Amazon site or to see information about your privacy when ordering through my store:

Lost Cousins
Lost Cousins banner and link The Lost Cousins site uses the 1841 England and Wales, 1881 England, 1881 Canada, and 1880 US census to match family history researchers. The way it works is entering relatives (including ancestors, other blood relatives, and those who have married into your family) who are found in those censuses. What makes this site unique is that using census entries gives you exact, accurate matches with other relatives of the same people. Entering the names is very easy, and the site will search automatically for matches and put you in touch with cousins researching the same names as you.

Tourist information about Wotton-Under-Edge
A wonderful way to pay a virtual visit to the birthplace of Joseph J. Spencer. Lots of history and photos.

My Charlie Chaplin Musings
All of us Spencers have heard the story that one of our aunts ran off and had a baby who became the famous movie star named Charles Spencer Chaplin. Is it true? Here's all I've found on the subject.


LATEST ON THE SPENCER AND LEWIS BRANCHES

December 26, 2009
Books
Farming the Cutover: A Social History of Northern Wisconsin, 1900-1940
My husband bought me this book for Christmas, and I have already started reading it. Joe and Sarah Spencer were prime targets for the salesmen disposing of cutover forest land near Athelstane. When he retired as a painter, paper hanger, and decorator in Chicago, they bought land and moved to Wisconsin in 1907. They did their best to turn the land into a farm, but by the time they died (in 1939 and 1941) they were broke and depending on the county. The county took their land after they died. This book describes what they were up against.

I've added some links above to articles about the cutover that you can read on line. 


Around Stroud: The Stories behind the Pictures
Santa brought me this book for Christmas, too. It doesn't have an index, so as soon as I opened it I flipped through it looking for the Joseph Spencer shoe factory on High Street. Close! On page 54 there is a photo of Waterloo Pharmacy at 11 High Street in 1887. In the 1881 census, the Joseph Spencer family was living at 11 and 12 High Street.


Dec. 10, 2009
Kenda Cook
Kenda passed away this morning. She was born April 12, 1961, to June (Spencer) and Robert Cook.


Oct. 20, 2009
Spencer and Lewis descendants (cousins)
I've updated the pages for descendants of Jacob and Mary (Howell) Spencer and John and Elizabeth (Driver) Lewis.


Sept. 28, 2009
Kenda's book
My cousin Kenda has just published a book about the adoption of her daughter. [Link removed as availability is not known at this time.]


June 5, 2009
I've made a little progress on finding some Spencer cousins. From putting together information from censuses, death indexes, and even a passenger list from Bermuda to New York, I'm pretty sure Albert Biehl died in California in 1979 and William E. Rasmussen, Jr. died in Florida in 1996. I don't have any information on children for Albert, and I have very little on William's children. I still haven't been able to find anything on Delores Biehl Schultz.


April 9, 2009
I've added an Amazon Associates store to the site to recommend books that give us an idea of what our Spencer ancestors' lives were like.



CREDITS
  • 1965: My grandmother, Gertrude Seehawer Spencer—The foundation of my research—names of my Spencer great-grandparents, second great-grandparents, and all their children; photos.
  • 1966-1982: My grandfather’s sister, Blanche Spencer Kiefer Cannon—Information from Spencer family Bible; memories of her siblings and parents; identification of people in old photos.
  • 1999 to present: My cousin Carol Oldroyd, great-granddaughter of Joseph T. Spencer’s brother Opie—Jacob Spencer's parents and children; descendants of Opie Spencer and John George Beaumont Spencer; maiden name and father's name of Mary Ann White Spencer; copies of records; and much more.
  • 2000: Mary W., a cousin who is the descendant of my second great-grandfather David Lewis’s sister Charlotte—Confirmation of their parents’ names and name of their grandfather Giles Driver; information on Charlotte’s branch.
  • Brian Blackwell, a descendant of Charlotte Lewis’s husband’s brother, Richard Blackwell: Information on Bisley. Please use the link on Brians name to contact him if you are researching Richard Blackwell.
  • 2002: Carol M., a cousin who is a descendant of Opie Spencer and Beatrice Spencer MorastInformation on that branch.
  • 2003: Kendall, a cousin who is a descendant of my great-grandfather's brother, John George Beaumont SpencerInformation on that branch.
  • 2007: Susan, a cousin who is the descendant of Mary Ann White's brother George Beaumont WhiteInformation on James and Hester (Payne) White and their descendants.


OTHER SOURCES

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Updated 12/26/09