Sam's Genealogy
Sam's Genealogy
These pages are lovingly dedicated to my mother,
Dorothy Williams Behling, a pack-rat who saved
everything - - - a genealogist's dream!

Surnames

Family Stories

Family Photos

Wills & Obituaries

Notable Women Ancestors

Awards

Genealogy Terms

Genealogy Abbreviations

Colonial Occupations

Colonial Diseases

E-mail Sam Behling

3540 S. Pearl St., Apt. #303
Englewood, CO 80113

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WELCOME! Here you'll find lots of early New England names as well as my poor old dead-ends in the Midwest.

Allow me to introduce myself. My parents named me Susanne Lucretia Behling. The name traumatized me as a child. No one could ever pronounce my surname (it's "bailing"), and everyone misspelled "Susanne", wanting to stick a "z" in there and change it to "Suzanne"....or worse, shorten it to "Susan", "Sue", or "Susie". And Lucretia??? For years I pretended I didn't even HAVE a middle name, it was that ghastly. I thought I'd been named after the famous poisoner, Lucretia Borgia. Only later in life did I acknowledge the fact that this was my maternal grandmother's middle name, my paternal great aunt's name, and both my paternal and maternal great, great grandmothers' name. Anyway, somewhere in my early teens, much to my great relief, someone gave me the nickname "Sam" which stuck and which I have used ever since.

Since getting into genealogy, I have discovered that my name isn't nearly half as bad as some of the ones my ancestors carried around. How did folks address Thankful TUTTLE? Did they say things like, "Thank you, Thankful," or did they shorten it and say, "Thanks, Thanks?" And poor great uncle Mahershallalhasbas DYER must have been 21 years old before he learned how to spell his name. (They called him "Maher" for obvious reasons.) Then there is my HINEY line, which has been the "butt" of many jokes....and it doesn't help that this line is a dead-"end". (See what I mean?)

On these pages you'll meet some rather interesting characters whom I call my ancestors. There's Benjamin TUTTLE, who killed his sister, Sarah with an axe. You'll meet Sarah WILSON, one of the numerous women and men arrested in Salem for witchcraft. And Edward WIGHTMAN, the last man to be burned at the stake in England, is fondly known as my "twice-baked" ancestor, as he was actually set on fire twice before being reduced to ashes. You'll also bump into Mayflower passengers, Richard WARREN, Francis COOKE and his son, John COOKE, as well as some very influential women in early New England, Anne HUTCHINSON and Mary DYER. Like every good family tree, there are also some scalawags in mine, like William/Walter BEHLING who was arrested for bigamy, and Thomas GRANGER who was executed for bestiality.

So enjoy and happy hunting! I look forward to meeting new Cyber Cousins! Please note this is always a work in progress. You are welcome to use this material for research purposes only. Commerical use of the material, including photos, is prohibited without my consent. (That means don't go posting my photos or histories on your web site. They are copyrighted.) Keep in mind that while the information provided is based on 30 years' of my research and that of my aunt, it should be used only as a guide in your own search. My genealogy information has been compiled to the best of my ability as a genealogist/family historian, and is only as accurate as my sources. I am open to new or different information.

 

Created and Maintained
by Susanne "Sam" Behling
© 1997-2007, All rights reserved