The Hathaways and the Colemans.

Hello again, Renate! I'm picking up the Hathaway family from our great-great grandmother Lillian Sophronia Hathaway Fenton . Here she is again, on the left, with her grown-kids and a few grandkids.

A closer look at Lillian. She has a nice face.

Lillian Hathaway was born in Missouri in 1865, the middle of six children of Martin Van Buren Hathaway (1835-1905) and Esther Coleman Hathaway (1833-1906.) Here is Lillian as a young woman with her parents and siblings. Left to right: Martin, Mae, Carrie, Willie, Rose, Lillian and Esther.

 Lillian joined the Mennonite church as a young woman, and I would love to know the story of how she came to the church. There are other Mennonite Hathaways, so maybe several family members joined in her generation, but the Hathaways were not a Mennonite family originally.

My grandma Mary remembered her grandmother ("Grandma Lillie") very well, as she lived till 1946. She told me that Grandma Lillie was immensely interested in people and would know more about your business than you did yourself! Here is Lillian in old age.

Here she is with her son Clyde and his family: Florence, Mary, Walter, Helen, Esther behind (Lewis is missing) and Clyde, Emma and Lillian in front.

Lillian's father Martin Hathaway and her mother Esther Coleman Hathaway were both born in New York, and their families came to Illinois at some point. Here's a very old, very spotty picture of them...the one above is much better!

Esther Coleman Hathaway's parents were John Coleman (1795-1881) and Elsa or Elsie Greene (1794-1890). John Coleman's family was English, and he may have been born in Quebec, Canada--the records are contradictory. He served in the War of 1812 in the New York militia. Elsa Greene's father's family, the Greenes, have been in America since at least 1665, and her mother's family, the Nichols, date to the 1640s in America, and are Welsh in descent. John and Elsa Coleman lived such long lives, I am sure there must have been photos taken of them at some point. I would love to turn them up!

There are many tangles in my family tree, especially on my dad's side, and the Colemans are a bit of a tangle. You and I, Renate, are descended from John Coleman twice, through his daughter Esther above, and also through his son Perry Greene Coleman.

Perry Greene Coleman (1821-1900) was also born in New York like his sister, and married Amanda Sheppard (1823-1888.) They moved to Illinois and later to Missouri. In Illinois, their daughter and oldest child Sarah (Sally) Coleman married Orville Fenton in 1862. Remember Sally? Here she is again.

Bottom line: John Coleman, father of Esther and Perry, is our fourth-great-grandfather through Esther, and our fifth-great-grandfather through Perry. I've counted it up three times and I think that's right!

Back to the Hathaways, to Grandma Lillie's father Martin Van Buren Hathaway. The Hathaways are a very, very old American family--it appears that they date to the 1620s when Nicholas Hathaway came to Massachusetts colony from England. On Ancestry.com, the family has been dated back about 20 generations to William Hathaway, born in 1194, but I take everything I find on Ancestry with a large grain of salt, unless it is well-documented or I put it there myself.

We are also related to the Hathaways through marriage--our great-aunt Esther Fenton married Oliver Hathaway in 1945. Their sons Howard and James are thus twice descended from the Hathaway line, through both parents.