Thaddeus was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. His DAR ancestor number is A024561. He is a great-great-great grandson of Deacon Edward Collins, 1603 - 1689, the immigrant ancestor. If you are a descendant of Thaddeus (or Deacon Edward), some of your ancestors will be on this site.
My intent is to provide information about some of the descendants and ancestors of Thaddeus Collins, as well as of Deacon Edward Collins. Hopefully this site will help narrow your search for information about some of your ancestors.
There are a lot of 17th century people here, including (1) all of Thaddeus' ancestors back four generations plus nearly all of the fifth generation, (2) all of Deacon Edwards' descendants for three generations, plus some for many more generations, (3) some of Deacon Edward's English ancestry, plus the first few generations of his sibling's descendants, and (4) some additional folks who tie in to the preceding in one way or another.
There are a number of additional people in here, including some of my mother's family, and also some who are unrelated that I wanted to document anyway. You may need to use the search page, or the indices, to find them.
This is a work in progress. The information given here should be considered as a hint or guide. This is not a proven genealogy, although I do my best to be accurate and to show my sources. I know there are many rough edges, sharp corners, missing citations, typos, and outright errors. I welcome your comments, corrections, and/or additions. If this site helps you in your research, it would be nice to hear from you.
The main effort has been to identify people, places, and dates. Information of a more biographical nature may come later. The US census citations are complete and (hopefully) accurate, and the associated images are also presented. Citations for vital records are (unavoidably) more limited, although I am working to add more. You may wish to confirm these for yourself.
My mantra is:
[I'm refering to real sources, ie., the Primary and Secondary variety. Someone else's tree on Ancestry.com is not a source, but merely wishful thinking.] I believe in "telling it all", making my source citations as full and complete as possible.After all, what good is the best research if it is kept hidden under a bushel, and passes into oblivion when you become another entry on Find A Grave? If your genealogically challenged heirs throw all your years of effort into the dumpster, what have you accomplished?
I realize I am probably in the minority of researchers who feel this way. Others might share info on a one to one basis, but certainly not share it with the world, where they would loose control of where it goes, and worst of all (God forbid) not receive any credit for coming up with it in the first place. I know people are visiting this site. It averages over four hits per day. That, for me, is sufficient reward for putting it out here.
Fifty years before the start of the internet age, Lillian Lounsbury (Miner) Selleck, author of "One Branch of the Miner Family ...", wrote in her Preface:
There has been no desire to overthrow statements of others which heretofore have found general acceptance; but when obvious errors or discrepancies have been found in previous publications, it has sometimes been found essential to refute them in order to justify our own conclusions. Too often the so-called "authorities" proved, upon critical comparison with record sources, to be a mingling of facts with ill-advised guesses and erroneous deductions. But having been embalmed in print by the inexperienced enthusiasts who concocted them, they have assumed an almost sacred character in the eyes of the naive genealogical students who trustingly quote them.
A note about dates: If your genealogical research goes back more than 260 years or so, you've probably come across "double dating." It is one of those inconvenient truths which is tempting to ignore. Unfortunately, its not going to go away, and if we want our work to be considered even the least bit "scholarly", we must buy in to it. Here's how it works:
The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. The year began on the 25th of March, and March was called the first month. September, October, November, and December were respectively the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months, based on the Latin digits septem (7), octo (8), novem(9), and decem (10). February was the twelfth month, and the year ended on March 24th. The number of the year was constant throughout, and did not change between December and January.
The Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582. The year began January 1st and closed December 31st. The "new" calendar took a long time to be accepted by many nations, and England (and by extension, the American colonies) did not adopt it until 1752.
During the period from 1582 to 1752, the Julian date was called the legal date, and the Gregorian date was called the historical date. The old records frequently combined both methods for dates between January 1st and March 24th. Thus Feb. 17, 1736/7, means the legal year was 1736, and the historical year was 1737. For the remainder of the year - from March 25th to December 31st - the number of the year was, of course, the same either way.
Beware of dates where the month is given by number and not by name: for example, "the seventh month" could be either July or September.
Over half of the people in the database have links to the person's Find A Grave memorial web page. Many of these memorials have photos of the grave marker, and many also have additional photos and biographical information.
I anticipate revisions/updates approximately once a month, so check back again. Be sure to reload the page, else you may not get the latest version.
You are welcome to link to any page on this site.
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