William Lakin and wife Mary of Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, England have thousands and thousands of descendants. William Lakin was born about 1595 and was buried on 22 April 1633 in Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, England. His widow, Mary (MNU) remarried on 22 July 1637 at St. Nicholas, Nottingham to William Martin. William and Mary Martin then immigrated to New England along with Mary’s sons, William and John Lakin, about 1644.

It happens that both William and John Lakin are my ancestors and I descend not once, but twice, from each of them. My comment about William and Mary Lakin having not just “thousands,” but “thousands and thousands” of descendants is partly borne out by the fact that Ancestry has 2934 public member trees just for John Lakin and about the same number for William Lakin, although it is likely that the two mostly overlap as William and John were brothers.

The sad thing is that very few of these trees have the correct place of birth for the Lakins even though the family has been well researched and documented both in the New England Historic Genealogical Register (48:444-446) by Dr. Samuel A. Green and by Douglas Richardson in The American Genealogist, July 1995, pages 142-148. It is a reminder to myself once again about how few people even fact check before importing information from others.

Dr. Green gave the clue that Lt. William Lakin, born 1623, received a legacy from his deceased father, also William Lakin, of “Reding   tn in England.” Douglas Richardson took the important next step of eliminating Reading, Berkshire, England as the family home and instead discovered the marriage of Mary Lakyn to William Martin in 1637 in Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, England. Further research proved the theory that this was the same couple who migrated to New England in the 1640’s.

If you are one of the many Lakin descendants and haven’t read those two articles, I strongly encourage you to seek them out, as the information is fully documented and sourced.

Now, back to my quadruple descent story. William and Mary Lakin, parents of William and John, are my ten times great grandparents. I started to sketch out on paper how to best demonstrate the tangled lines of descent through four Lakins. The clearest method seemed to be a chart documenting the lines up to the generation where they converged.

By the way, the Lakins had no bias against intermarrying with cousins and widows/widowers in the family. It happened multiple times.

Here are the first six generations of descent from William and Mary:

William and Mary Lakin, Ruddington, England

William of Ruddington died in England and left a will. His widow, Mary emigrated to Massachusetts with her second husband and Lakin children. By 1655, the new town of Groton was settled and the Lakins spent the remainder of their lives there. The following two Lakin generations (my generations 3 and 4 from William of Ruddington) were also born and raised, married and died in Groton.

By the fifth generation, though, some of the family began to move away. Oliver Shepley and wife Mary Lakin (both great great grandchildren of William of Ruddington) moved to nearby Pepperell. Both died young of a pestilence in 1755, leaving only one child, a daughter, Sibbel. Sibbel married James Scripture, also of an early Groton family. James Scripture was also descended from William of Ruddington, who was, for both James and Sibbel, their great great great grandfather.

James and Sibbel Shepley, in turn, are my five times great grandparents. The Shepleys removed to Mason, Hillsboro, New Hampshire. My line of descent continues as:

6. James Scripture = Sibbel Shepley
1749-1810                1755-1834

7. Oliver Scripture = Mary Goddard Bucknam
1796-1862                1801-1879

Oliver and Mary Scripture removed to Glenburn, Penobscot, Maine.

8. George Rogers Tarbox = Mary Elizabeth Scripture
1818-1895                              1827-1866

George and Mary Tarbox removed to Calais, Washington, Maine. The remainder of my line were born in Calais, down to my mother, Doris Priscilla Adams.

9. Calvin Segee Adams = Nellie F. Tarbox
1843-1921                         1856-1927

10. Charles Edward Adams = Annie Maude Stuart
1877-1922                               1874-1940

11. Vernon Tarbox Adams = Hazel Ethel Coleman
1899-1968                              1901-1995

12. George Michael Sabo = Doris Priscilla Adams
1926-1985                            1923-2008

13. Linda Anne Sabo – me!

Vernon Adams worked for Western Union so the family moved up and down the East Coast between New Jersey and Maine. My parents met and married while my mother was living in New Jersey. Vernon and Hazel eventually moved to Massachusetts, where they lived out their lives.

Have many overlapping lines of descent have you found in your own family tree?