Adrianne Martelli's Quadruple Scull Team Takes Bronze

LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Ukraine won the Olympic gold medal in
the women's Rowing quadruple sculls at the 2012 London Games on

Wednesday.
Ukraine finished with a time of 6:35.93 at Eton Dorney in
London to claim Ukraine's second gold medal of the games.
Germany won the silver with a time of 6:38.09 and The United
States won the bronze with a time of 6:40.63.
Ukraine now have four medals at the games, with Germany
collecting their seventh and The United States collecting their
24th.

Results Table

1. Ukraine
Katerina Tarasenko/Nataliya Dovgodko/Anastasiya Kozhenkova/Yana
Dementyeva 6:35.93 
2. Germany
Ann-Katrin Thiele/Carina Baer/Julia Richter/Britta Oppelt 
6:38.09 
3. U.S.
Natalie Dell/Kara Kohler/Megan Kalmoe/Adrianne Martelli 
6:40.63

Standings going into Monday Aug 30

So, we have 2 seconds over Australia... We just need a repeat performance.

Results of our Olympian. First heat

They came in 2nd in the first heat, 2 seconds behind Germany.

A Taste of Chattanooga.... Leet's Tanyard

For a flavor of the drama around Chattanooga, see https://sites.google.com/site/leeteleetgenealogyna/home/leeteleet-biographies/arthur-irvin-leet-1812-1892.  There are some pictures on the page and a PDF file at the bottom of the list of files.  For the most part, this is just bare-bones pictures.  But many of the pictures are of original contemporaneous articles and the wonderful diary that has surfaced.  

2014 Leete/Leet Reunion

Given my progress to date, by 2014 I should have most of the major Leete and Leet trees for early immigrants to the US from England and Ireland in electronic form.  I should also have a number of epic stories to tell.  So, it is time to reconstitute the Leete Family Association and to plan a reunion.

Now, one of the greatest stories to tell has to do with the Civil War battles fought around Chattanooga.  I believe ALL the Leete/Leet lines converged in this time and place in history to fight with and against one another in the epic battles.  Absolutely fascinating and educational to all.

There are other place I could think of.  Of course, Guilford, Connecticut.  But that would emphasize Gov Leete, and the Leet(e)s in Western PA and NY would say:  We've got more history here than Guilford has!  But even there we'd miss the drama of Leet(e) against Leet(e), Yankee against Rebel.  We'd miss the literally! crazy Leet that was the talk of Washington after the Civil War, editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and major developer of Denver.  We'd miss the stories of the Leet(e)s in Nevada, where Quebec Leet(e) met Leet(e)s from the other branches.  (The Quebec Leet(e)s were of Gov Leet's line.)

In addition to being central to Leet(e) history, Chattanooga is nice to visit in its own right, and the Smokies are a couple of hours away.

So, what do you think?  A Family Reunion in Chattanooga in 2014, probably just after school is out, so you can bring your kids to learn history.

A Leete Olympian!

We have a Leete in the Olympics!  (Maybe more than one.  Any others?)  Adrienne Martelli, daughter of Chris and Gail (Leete) Martelli, has qualified in the 4 person skulls (that’s rowing a skull , a kind of skinny canoe like thing.)   She is 24 years old.  She started rowing at the University of Washington in 2006 and did very well.  After graduating from college in 2010 she moved to New Jersery to continue training with the USA National team.
So, if you haven’t watched rowing before, nows the time to see what an exciting sport it is.  I’m a kayaker, so I know something of the stamina and overall conditioning required to excel at this sport.  It’s in the Leete genes!
Here’s the link to the official announcement: http://www.usrowing.org/News/12-06-22/USRowing_Announces_Final_Olympic_Lineups.aspx
Here's the link to her bio:  http://www.usrowing.org/Pressbox/AthleteBios/AdrienneMartelli.aspx

An Important Hint on How to Use Ancestry.com

I've been giving cousins access to the main Gov Leete tree and to their own lineage branch.  I give you this access by "sharing" the tree in Ancestry, which sends you a boilerplate email with a link to the tree.

You may be confused with what you see when you first click the link to tree.  The first thing that might be displayed is a kind of Welcome splash screen.  Just click OK or whatever the button is to close that screen.  What's left is a screen that looks like this example?

  You can navigate around using this view, but it isn't very obvious how to do it.  (Parenthetically, there are good tutorials on how to use this interface.  If you don't understand, you can ask a question by emailing me.

BUT, there is a much better view for navigating around the tree.  Look in the upper left hand corner.  See that the button labeled "Pedigree" is dark(er).  This is because this default view is called the "Pedigree" view. Note the button beside it:  the "Family" view.  Click that button and this is what you will see:

(You can left click on these pictures to make them larger.)  This is the "nice" view for exploring the family.  Note the box with the little squares in the lower left corner.  If you click on the box outline inside this box, you will move around the tree.  You can accomplish the same thing by clicking on the background of the tree and holding your left button down.  A hand will appear and you can move the picture with the hand to see the rest of the tree.)  This should be enough to get you started with the Ancestry.com trees.  All the details can be found in the link I gave you on "good tutorials."

PS.  If you double left click on a person, the Pedigree view of that person will be displayed.  There will be a line near the top of the Pedigree display that says something like "go back to tree."  This will bring you back to the above Family view.  Oh, if I have given you modify access, then you can add pictures and documents to any person.  That would be really nice.  I still need to retain control over entering new information, unless we are both at the point where the rules for changing the tree are understood.  It takes a lot of work to vet the tree- there is so much misinformation in the Ancestry.com databases.  I"ve been 4 years on the master Gov Leete tree and it is still not ready for prime time.  So, once a tree is vetted, we have to be careful to not add misinformation.  Thanks, Duane  

Lillian (Bonnie) Burke (1919-2012)

Bonnie Burke, one of the Champions of LeeteLeet Genealogy, passed away May 5.  She was a talented writer and contributed several articles to the Leete Legacy, our now defunct (any volunteers?) Family Association publication.  She was a wonderful, caring person.  She was a great help to me in establishing her previously undocumented branch of the LeeteLeet family tree.  Following is her obituary, but it doesn't really enlighten us on her contributions to the family history.  Her family branch is its own tree in ancestry.com and some of her articles and findings are in that tree.  I will continue to collect her contributions and place them on our family association web site.

Bonnie Burke

Lillian L. Burke was born in Spokane, WA January 28, 1919. She was an Honor Student at John Rogers High School where her favorite subject was music. Her mother's maiden name was Lourene A. Leete. Her father's name was William D. Bonner. It was natural for everyone to call her Bonnie. she had an older sister, Lucy; and a younger brother, Bill; but Bonnie outlived the rest of the family. She was 93 years old when she died May 5, 2012 in Edmonds, WA.
After attending Kinman Business University, she passed a Civil Service examination and accepted an appointment to the War Department in Washington D. C. Her father worked for the Great Northern Railroad so she traveled on a family pass. She was there when Pearl Harbor was attacked December 7, 1941. Bonnie has been a 7th Day Adventist since March 1942.
In 1944 she moved to Glendale, California where she was employed at Glendale Sanitarium. It was there that she met Administrator, Clarence Burke. They were married in 1952. She was step-mother to his children. They moved to Sacramento, CA where she was Supervisor of a hospital steno pool. In 1962 they moved to Portland, OR where she was a Medical Secretary and Tumor Registrar.
In 1967 they moved to Seattle , WA. She became a Certified Medical Registrar and Tumor Registrar while working at Northwest Hospital. In 1980 she retired to care for her husband who was ill. He died in 1982.
Bonnie was an active volunteer at the South County Senior Center in Edmonds, WA. She became a member of the Senior Swingers there in 1983, playing clarinet in the band and singing in shows like the Lawrence Welk Program. She was an excellent drummer for two years, when a vacancy occurred.
Bonnie attended a Creative Writing class, taught by Marylyn Pedersen at the Senior Center, and became a published writer. Many of her memoir stories have been published in Nostalgia Magazine of Spokane WA.

Obituary: William Harmon Leete (2255)

Today I am going to put a new section on our Leete web site:  "Champions of LeeteLeet Genealogy."  Though the obituary doesn't mention his genealogist contributions to the family, Harmon Leete will be on this list.  I am saddened by this news.  

LEETE, William Harmon 
William Harmon Leete "Harmon" died on March 26, 2012 in Hartford, the city in which he was born on September 12, 1931 to William C. Leete and Doris Harmon Leete. The family moved from West Hartford to Longmeadow, MA, where he attended Longmeadow Junior High School. A loyal alumnus of Andover and Yale, he met his wife Betty on a blind date for the Yale Junior Prom when she was at Wellesley. Yale gave him his diploma even though he still owed a term paper on James Joyce, which he turned in after writing it while in the U.S. Navy aboard the carrier Intrepid. What he referred to as his "trade school" was Harvard Law, from which he graduated prior to his Navy service. On returning to civilian life he worked first with the law firm of Steele & Maxwell in Hartford, then for several different divisions of United Technologies, where he delighted in playing April Fool's day pranks. On one he posted a notice that the Otis elevators in the Gold Building, where UTC offices began on the 22th floor, would be out of service for ten days and that officers would be helicoptered to the roof and others who did not want to walk up could take vacation time. He traveled widely for UTC and also for pleasure, often with a group of four couples self-titled the "Boubalinas", named for a Greek heroine. 

A week prior to his death he was focusing on a trip to San Francisco for a Yale Class mini-reunion, and planning a trip down the Danube and to Turkey. 

After retirement from UTC he continued to practice law up to December of 2011, primarily as counsel to DeMaria Electro Optics, later known as Coherent Inc. 

He began rowing at Yale and continued throughout his life, primarily as a member of the Hartford Barge Club "Ancient and Honorable Four", coxed at one point by Brewster Perkins wearing tails and a top hat. Jeff Carstens, one of the four, would calculate with his slide rule what prize the Four would have taken had they been given an age handicap. After a knee injury he rowed with Riverfront Recapture, where he rejoiced in being relieved of carrying the boat to or from the water by other volunteers. 

No one enjoyed good food and drink more than Harmon; he was the hostess's delight, and belonged to the Hartford Club, the 1892 Club, the Madison Beach Club, a scotch-tasting group and a book club. He was an amateur astronomer who could spot a waning moon in a painting that faced the wrong way. He was a published and prize-winning serious poet, as well as an accomplished writer of funny doggerel and songs for all occasions. 

He loved skiing and sailing, calling his summer place "Yawl Come". A dedicated gardener, he chose law over farming so he could sleep later. 

He passed his sense of humor down to his four children, William Harmon Leete Jr. (Bill), Lisle Baker Leete, Russell Leete, and Virginia Leete Beach. He was blessed with five wonderful grandchildren, Christopher Leete, son of Bill and his wife Emily Dickinson, Zachary Leete, son of Lisle and his wife Lauri Semarne, and Gus, Max and Ben Beach, sons of Virginia and Charles Beach. He leaves two brothers, Robert Leete married to Susan Leete, and Richard Leete, married to Esso Leete. 

Using Ancestry.com

On Ancestry.com, the primary interface is a "tree" page that looks like this:

Ancestry.com provides a good explanation about how to use this interface.  Click here for the explanation.  For those who just want to look at the tree, it is best to read the section Family Chart and Report and use that view.  In a nutshell, in the picture above click on the "Family" button in the upper left corner of the default view.

If you have any questions, add a comment at the bottom and I will do my best to answer.  

Obituary: Lydia Leet Willey (1948-2012)

MILO, Maine - Lydia (Leet) Willey "Ma," 63, a wonderful mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin and friend, went home to be with the Lord on the morning before her 64th birthday April 12, 2012. Ma was born April 13, 1948, the oldest daughter to Bernice (Astle) and James Leet. Ma was a woman of many talents; she loved to cook, loved to craft, and had a talent like no other when it came to floral arrangements and Christmas wreaths. She had a passion for wildlife and nature. She never passed up the opportunity to gamble, or to advocate for someone in need. She enjoyed watching the Red Sox and was always up for a good day trip. Ma's greatest joy and pride in life was her children. She equally shared her unconditional love for all four of them. Ma was predeceased by her parents; grandparents, Nettie (Baker) and Clinton Astle; brother, Raymond Leet; and her beloved husband, Millard Willey. She is survived by her sons, Richard and Tammy Andrick, and Jeffrey Andrick; daughters, Tracey and Everett Gray, Gail and Joey Spack; stepson, Todd and Susan Willey; dearly loved grandchildren, Richie and Josh Ireland, Miranda Royal, Cody Andrick, Chris Gray and fiancee, Morgan Royal, Savannah Stubbs and Emily Spack; and stepgrandchildren, Zach and Jacob Willey. She eagerly and anxiously awaited the arrival of her great-grandson, Brody Michael Gray. She also leaves behind a brother, Robert Leet; sisters, Lynn Allen and Susan Burke; several nieces, nephews, cousins and friends; and her beloved cat, Troubles. A celebration of life will be held 2 p.m. Sunday, April 15, at United Baptist Church, Milo, with the Rev. Phil McGlauflin officiating. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Community Health and Counseling Service Hospice, 1093 West Main St., Dover-Foxcroft, ME 04426, where Ma received wonderful, compassionate care in her final months here on earth. A private graveside service will be conducted on Mother's Day at Evergreen Cemetery, Milo.

Gaining access to trees and stories- moving to a financial model to support future work on Leete genealogy

I have some 60 trees on ancestry.com in various stages of vetting.  I am permitting individuals to view the trees according to the criteria:

1. Leete/Leets or descendants
2. Understand the trees have errors in them and communicate the errors to me
3.  Will contribute pictures, stories, etc to those trees directly related to their ancestry

Finally, they will contribute a small amount to support the work.  (optional, but important)  I'll try to have more information on this last item; ie, how much, how to pay, what terms, etc. 

I'm still working on a viable business model for this effort.  I would appreciate any suggestions.  I can imagine that I might create e-books and charge a fee for access.  For example, the links on the web site would be restricted to those who have subscribed... Kind of like premium content.  Or I could charge for a customized book on your ancestry.

I should mention that one of my objectives is to transfer responsibility for each branch of the tree to someone in that branch who will maintain the information.




  

T0133 John Leet (1863-) Released

John Leet was an immigrant from Northern Ireland.  In the census records he was a saloon keeper in Philadelphia.  He had children, 2 boys, apparently by a wife who was born in New York.  I keep track of all “roots” because I continually run into Leets and Leetes I can’t fix to one of the main trees.  In such cases they can usually be traced back to another Leet(e) immigrant.  So, when I find them, I start a new tree.  By the way, this is the 133rd tree I’ve started.  I just haven’t published all of them because they have to be at least partly vetted.

Mystery Sign on the Cape

This sign was at Pirate's Cove mini golf course on the Cape (MA).  What does it mean? 

B1,1770 William B Leet Sr (1880-1975) Tree Added

The descendant tree for William Bullis Leet Sr has been added to Ancestry.com.  William B. Sr is one branch of the series I am creating of descendants of Gov William who were born in the late 1800s.

The Broome County NY area has seen many generations of Leets, many of whom descended from Vermont Leets, the same Leets I count as my descendants (Miles Leet).

William B Sr's descendant tree is sparse, with only his children; I have been able to identify no grandchildren.  So, if you are a descendant of  William B Leet, Jr or Janet Lucille Leet, please let me know.  

B1,0740 Eliza Ann Leet (1823-1890) Released

The descendants tree for Eliza Ann Leet, #740 in the Gov Leet book, has been uploaded to Ancestry.  She was married to Reuben Allen in 1843 and they moved to western MI, around Holland, sometime before 1855.  The majority of her descendants I've traced continued to live in western MI.    

Reuben Allen was a descendant of Edward Allen, b 1634 in Suffolk, England, with some records indicating he arrived at Boston, MA at the age of 2.  Edward's wife was Sarah Kimball, who was born in 1635 in Middlesex, MA.  Her father, Richard, arrived in Boston in 1634.

Think of the risks these immigrants took, with pregnant wives or small children!

With respect to Eliza, there isn't much information on her descendants.  I must admit that I didn't work too hard at tracing them down.  If you want to take ownership of this tree, please contact me.

B1,1269 Frank Arthur Leet (1872-) Released

The tree of descendants of #1269 has been published to Ancestry.com.  His descendants moved from Potter PA to Michigan and Wisconsin.  I'm missing a lot of information, such as when and where Frank Arthur Leet died.  Please contribute if you can.  Thanks.  

B1,0749 James Oliver Leet (1850-1918)

As mentioned, I am trimming the primary Gov Leete Tree, removing branches and estabishing each one as a new tree, hopefully with editors from that branch of the tree.  In this case, Bob Leet is the editor and the tree name is B1,0749 James Leet Desc on Ancestry.com.  If you want access, send an email to me at leeteleetlink@gmail.com.

This new tree's root person, James O Leet, was a descendant of Andrew Leet, who migrated to Guysborough, NS, Canada after the Rev War.  If I haven't written about him on the website, I will need to do so.

James immigrated to the US from Harcourt, NB, Canada around the turn of the century and settled in Millinocket,Penobscot,ME,USA.  There have been numerous descendants around Millinocket.  They represent the majority of the Maine population of Leete/Leets.

Bob, if you have anything to add on your family, you can use the comment section or send me something to add to this entry.

As usual, I need to mention that this tree is a work in progress.

• There are many duplicate entries for facts like "birth."  This makes any reports ugly, because there is so many redundant facts.  Time lines really look bad. 
• The place names need to be standardized so that, when you search by place name, you'll get all the people who are associated with that place, and not just the ones with a particular version of the place name.  
• There are also some conflicting dates and names that need to be fixed.  
• Finally, the images names need to be standardized, so you can quickly know who belongs to the image.  Where possible cameos need to be attached to the header of each record, so you have a face with a name.  (Bob has done a great job adding photos to the tree.)  

B1,1444 George K Leet Desc

This tree had been posted:  the descendants of George Keller Leet, #1444 (1873-1950) in the Gov Leet book, which I call B1.  Note that his descendants are not documented in B1; furthermore, the name is George Keeler Leet and his birth date is entered as 21 Dec 1874, which, I believe, is incorrect.  One of his descendants is being given edit access to complete his descendant tree.

I need to make an important point.  There are 2 George Keller Leets.  One is #1444, this one.  The other is the Major/Colonel that served under U. S. Grant, #801.  The extant genealogy work has these confused, with their data commingled.  It took a while to clean up the mess, at least in the official trees.  

New page to the family web site, Alva Leet (1850-1901)

I think you will find this interesting.  Go to this page and open the attachment at the bottom.

From the introduction:

This is a synopsis of the ancestors and descendants of Alva Leet, born in Allegany County, NY in 1850.  His father, Franklin, moved to Van Buren County, MI before the Civil War and then died in that War at Shiloh.  The family's journey through American history is interesting, but the journey to creating that history is interesting as well.  See the attached file "The Family of Abby" for more on the genealogical journey.


What started it all was a chance posting on Facebook of this youtube video:

Confusion on Early Dates: The Double Date Issue

The Family Tree Maker 2012 reminded me that dates change because calendars change.  Here is the help on this issue from FTM:


Beginning in 45 B.C., many parts of the world used the Julian calendar to mark the passage of time. According to the Julian calendar, March 25 was the first day of the year and each year was 365 days and 6 hours long. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII determined that the Julian calendar was incorrect: each day was just a little bit too long. This meant that the human calendar wasn't keeping up with nature's calendar, and the seasons kept arriving slightly earlier in the year. To solve the problem, Pope Gregory XIII created the Gregorian calendar. This is the calendar that we use officially in the United States. This new calendar changed the first day of the year from March 25 to January 1. Pope Gregory also had everyone jump ahead by 10 days to make up for the days that were lost when the world was using the old Julian calendar.
The practice of writing double dates resulted from this switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, and also from the fact that not all countries and people accepted the new calendar at the same time. For example, England and the American colonies didn't officially accept the new calendar until 1752. Before 1752, the English government still observed March 25 as the first of the year, but most of the population observed January 1 as the first of the year. For this reason, many people wrote dates falling between January 1 and March 25 with both years, as in the following examples.

Julian or Old Style	Gregorian or New Style	Double Date
December 25, 1718	December 25, 1718	December 25, 1718
January 1, 1718	January 1, 1719	January 1, 1718/19
February 2, 1718	February 2, 1719	February 2, 1718/19
March 25, 1719	March 25, 1719	March 25, 1719

By the time England and the colonies adopted the new Gregorian calendar, the discrepancy between the two calendars was eleven days, instead of ten. To resolve the discrepancy, the government ordered that September 2, 1752 be followed by September 14, 1752. Some people also added 11 days to their birth dates (a fact which is not noted on their birth certificates).

So, for someone like the two Williams born in 1612 or 13, FTM 2012 likes to see the year of birth ans 1612/1613.  What I have to annotate is that Gov William was born 6 mo before the other William.  So I put Gov William as 1612.

The two Williams

In a couple of on-line trees the crossover to England is with William Leete b. 1613, Dodington, Huntingdonshire, England, d. 1683-04-16 Hartford, Connecticut, USA and I cannot make a connection to the England Leetes.

My answer was: 

I'll put another tree up as soon as I can on William Leete (Gov). I just changed his record to point to the other tree, though it hasn't been uploaded. 

There are two William Leetes, cousins. One was born in the summer of 1613; the other was "6 mo and more" when the 1613 visitation occurred. So... most trees make the obvious mistake of combining the two.  

The "Leete-Leet NA Ancestors in England" tree is not "done." Several key questions remain. There are redundancies to remove, and, above all, there are church records as well as mistakes on places born I have to address. But it is better than what is out there.

An Interesting Collision in History (1675)

Most of the recent blogs concern Isaac Leet and descendants.  Isaac immigrated to New Jersey in abt. 1685. Searching for his ancestors, I found that our English genealogist, Michael Leete, shows, in a note on rootsweb, that Isaac's father was Gregory.  Isaac's brother was Samuel (c1633-1679, though I think 1682 is probably a better date).  To make a long story short, Samuel appears to have immigrated in 1675 to help govern the recently acquired (from the Dutch) municipality of New York City.  He was Clerk to the Mayor and then Alderman.  At the same time, the Gov of New York and New York City was Edmund Andros.  Sound familiar?  According to The Family Face:  "Had it not been for the political skill and determination of William Leete, particularly during June and July, 1675, when the Gov of New York attempted to annex the land as far east as the Connecticut River, the state State of Connecticut might have ceased to exist."  Hmmm.  Did William Leete know Samuel Leet?  Were they adversaries?

Isaac Leet Ancestors in England

I am trying to establish with a reasonable degree of certainty the English ancestors of Isaac Leet, the early immigrant to New Jersey and ancestor to Daniel Leet.  Other entries in this blog provide background to my quest.  I've been reading James Oliver Goldsborough's book "Misfortunes of Wealth," which includes information about (Major) Daniel Leet and his descendants.  Page 289 shows a picture of Newington, which was Eliza Leet (Shields) house.

In "The Family Face," Michael Leete speculates that the immediate English ancestor to Isaac Leet was Gregory Leete (1627-1672) of Badby.

I've just started to explore the English church records recently made available through Ancestry.com.  I found this record.

Name:	Margret Leete
Marriage Date:	Feb 1639
Parish:	St Mary, Newington
County:	Surrey
Borough:	Southwark
Spouse:	George Benor
Record Type:	Marriage
Register Type:	Parish Register

Could this be a connection?  I didn't have time to research Gregory of Badby.

BUT... for those Daniel Leet fans out there, was the house Newington named after the place or road Newington in England?   (There is a Newington Road just a few miles from Badby village.)

Ancestry.com Tree Publication: Leete-Leet NA Ancestry in England

The tree "Leete-Leet NA Ancestry in England" has been published to Ancestry.com.  It is a private tree.  I have given read access to those on my email list.  If you would like access, please contact me at leeteleetlink@gmail.com.  Please provide a reason for access.  I will need your snail mail address and phone number as further confirmation of your interest.  This will also mean that you may get an occasional email or snail mail from the Leete Family Association.

I acknowledge that a primary source for this work is "The Family Face," written by Michael J. H. Leete.  I have, to the best of my understanding, translated his words on the North American Leetes and Leets ancestry to Ancestry.com tree format.  I have, of course, added primary electronic sources and other materials made available since the writing of that book.

This is a work in progress.  Updates will be ongoing and I won't announce each change.  I will discuss anything major here.

2012 Ancestry.com Improvements and the Future

The new version of Ancestry.com provides improvements that have led to a change in my tree management strategy.  The new version allows Family Tree Maker trees to be "synchronized" with on line Ancestry trees.  Additionally, security controls have been improved:  easier to use and good quality.

My new strategy is to begin publishing all The Leete Family Association trees where I have made significant progress.  This doesn't mean they are complete or error free.  In fact, I'm hoping publication will speed the process of vetting the information and adding to it.

The trees are all "private."  However, with reasonable ID and justification, I will permit you to either read or edit a tree.  (There will eventually be several hundred.  I have about releasing about 50 in the near future.)

I may have said this in another blog entry, but I will say it again- the Leete-Leet web site, https://sites.google.com/site/leeteleetgenealogyna/, will provide stories, e-books, and memoirs that integrate the experiences and records of the Leets and Leetes of North America.  Thus, the Leete Family Association will provide a multi-dimensional portrait of our family.

We have to find a way to finance the Leete Family Association's work; I have voluntarily put in hundreds, if not thousands of hours over the past four years and have paid the membership dues, etc.  Therefore, it may be necessary to provide some of this material in "e-book" form, with some kind of merchandizing arrangement with Amazon.  Your thoughts on this?  Use the comment section below.

Michael J H Leete, where are you?

Michael J H Leete of England wrote the definitive contemporary work on the Leets and Leetes, called "The Family Face."  I consider him to be the overall chief of the Leete/Leet genealogists. The work I have been doing is to electronically merge The Family Face with The Descendants of William Leete and add all the web information that has been made available.  In addition, I am trying to update all trees to current.

In order to verify some of my translation work, I've emailed Michael.  I have received no response.  Does anyone know how to get in touch with him?   Thanks,

The "dirty" trees on the internet

I just wanted to put in a word on the difficulty of taking information from the ancestry.com databases.  The bottom line:  very few trees are checked for consistency.  And they are a mess.  For example, John Leete of Islington is listed with two wives, Jane Horneby and Anne Shute.  (Anne Shute is the wife of John of Dodington.)    So we are on a mission to "get it right" for the Leete clan.

Isaac Leet (1646-1686) ancestry

Isaac Leet's ancestry has been a tough nut.  Michael Leet, in "The Family Face" speculates that Isaac's father is Gregory Leete of Badby, Northamptonshire.  But extant information can't link Gregory to the primary Leete lines in Cambridgeshire.  (I do understand that boundaries and names of places change.  If you look at the English map, Badby isn't very far from a number of towns that have confirmed recorded Leetes.)

One thing for sure:  all the entries in the genealogy databases and trees that link him directly to Gov William Leete and his father are very wrong!

There is one very speculative possibility, based on the Isaac Leete family tradition.  That is that Isaac is the son of "the other" William Leete.  In the 1613 Visitation, John of Dodington recorded his son, William, who was "half a year and more" of age.  (By the way, it is reasonable to suggest that Gov William Leete was born in 1612.  In fact, Michael Leete, in his records, does just that!)  Now this John was the son of Thomas Leete and his second wife, Dorothy Warde.  But the Visitation mentions another son of Thomas also name John.  This 2nd John's mother was Thomas's 3rd wife, Maria Slade.  He was born in 1575, whereas the first John was born in 1570.  He is called "John of Islington"

John of Islington had a son, William, born 5 Aug 1613.  And there lies the confusion in the published genealogical records.  Two Johns with the same father but different mothers and two Williams with essentially the same birthday.  William Leete definitely existed:  somewhere in the Family Face Michael mentions a gravestone with that date in Oakington.  

I'm working on this second William, reading and rereading Michael Leete's discussion.  Any help? I'm just wondering, given the Isaac Leete family oral tradition, could it be possible that Isaac's father was this second William?  The birth dates of father and son are right.    

Isaac Leet (1646-1686) and his spouse Elizabeth

I'm hoping I can get some definitive information on Isaac Leet's spouse.  The Isaac Leet referenced here is the immigrant in 1686 to Hunterdon, NJ.  This Isaac is not descended directly from Gov William Leete.  In fact, that should be a topic of another blog entry.

The question is his spouse, Elizabeth.  Here are the research notes I have on her:
"Elizabeth OWLE, b. prob. in England, d. aft. 1696 New Jersey; md. 1st, Isaac LEET who died bef. 1688; Elizabeth (Owle) Leet md. 2nd, ca. 1688 to John CHADWICK, b. ca. 1642 Rochedale, England, d. between 1689 & 1695 in New Jersey; Elizabeth (Owle) Leet-Chadwick md. 3rd, ca. 1695-1696 in New Jersey to John DIXSON.
**NOTE: Elizabeth Owle Leet was the mother of Mary Leet Chadwick by her first husband, Isaac Leet. John Chadwick ADOPTED Mary Leet after his marriage to Elizabeth (Owle) Leet. Thus Mary's maiden name is really LEET and not CHADWICK.  


Most of what I know about Elizabeth Owle and the Owle connection comes through my ongoing study of the WOLVERTON/WOOLVERTON family. There are many questions raised about Elizabeth Owle, who is better known for her reported marriages to Isaac Leet, John Chadwick and John Dixson. The best understanding I have concerning Elizabeth Owle is through a chart that was supplied by A. J. "Jim" Wright of San Jose, California. His information came from another fine researcher, Nora Wolverton of Indiana. No primary sources have been found to show that Elizabeth's maiden name was Owle, and Nora Wolverton is not sure where she got that name from.


 from http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gohrpage/owle.html


In the Family Face the name for Elizabeth is Elizabeth Nebb or Neff.  I don't know how that came about.  The footnote suggests from an article in the Leete Legacy.  Investigation is required.

The last entry is mine.  The preponderance of evidence is that her name was Owle.  So where did the other name come from?

Misfortunes of Wealth

The title is of a book by James Oliver Goldsborough.  It describes his own family from the Revolutionary War to the present, through his own ancestors, starting with Eliza Leet, daughter of Daniel Leet.  From that point, of course, the Leet name is (only) a middle name of some of his ancestors.  BUT, I have a secret in an epic story that won't be a secret once I tell it.  It starts in western VA/W Va/Pa/OH/NY contemporaneous with the beginning of the "Misfortunes of Wealth" and leads south and west.  All the Leet and Leete branches crossed at a point in time and place, and arguably impacted the course of history, for the family and the continent. But I do need to close some gaps, starting with Cruttenden, Crittenden, Chittenden.

Crittendens, Cruttendens, or Chittendens?????

I think somewhere I've given the scoop about the 6 or 7 more or less ancient Leete or Leet lines in North America that are derived from John of Eversden.  One of these lines is Isaac Leet, who immigrated to Hunterdon, NJ in 1686 or so.  In family trees and genealogy his line has often been mixed into and confused with the Gov William Leete line.  It's been a trial to pull all apart.  My question here involves the ... and this is really the question: involves the Crittendens, Cruttendens, and or Chittendens.  I've seen these three names and more given to the same person!  Can anyone help out.  It seems that the Cruttenden name seemed to morph to Crittenden, and yet the Isaac Leet line is full of Crittendens, from Virginia, not Guilford.  Help!

It's been a long time, but now I'm ready to roll

I've been working.  So now comes the dump.  I'll be putting trees on line and on the family web page and begin to ask questions to clarify some things I haven't been able to resolve.  I'll announce family trees and stories here, but you will usually find them on our web site,   You will need to let me know at leeteleetlink@gmail.com if you can't access the reports as I link them here.  I'd advise subscribing using the function on the right side of this blog.  Note that every post has a comment area associated with it.  You can post answers to my questions or ask questions yourself.  Here we go...