As the series on John Adams, second President of the United States, begins tomorrow on HBO, I thought you would be interested to know that we are – distantly and collaterally – related to this prominent historical figure.

We share with John Adams the ancestors Henry Adams and his wife, Edith Squire, puritans who immigrated to the United States in 1638, during the “Great Migration” of puritans from England to New England. Henry Adams was born in about 1583 in Barton St. David, Somersetshire, England, to a family of yeoman farmers. President Adams claimed that Henry Adams “took flight from the dragon persecution in England” but there is no record of any action taken against him (Bartlett, p. 65). The family immigrated with eight of their nine children, settling in Braintree, Massachusetts, now Quincy. A memorial plaque to Henry Adams, as the ancestor of two American Presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, is on the wall of the nave of the Church of Barton David.

One of their sons, Joseph (1626-1694), was the great-grandfather of President John Adams.  Another son, Samuel Adams, is our direct ancestor.

How you are related to Samuel Adams

On your personal Ancestor Fan, find Eunice Waldo, on the outermost ring.  Click here to open the Eunice Waldo Ancestor Fan.  Samuel Adams is on the outermost ring, in the blue section.  In case you were wondering about all those Waldo ancestors – yes, we are also distantly related to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Sources

J. Gardner Bartlett, (1927) Henry Adams of Somersetshire, England and Braintree, Mass. Privately Printed, New York.
Waldo Lincoln (1901) Genealogy of the Waldo Family. Press of Charles Hamilton: Worcester, Mass.