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HAHA - Warning! Don't go here unless your old enough and know German.
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Use this to search my site!
A narrative by Diz Caldwell on his recent trip (pilgrimage) to the Caldwell Cub Creek Settlement in Virginia.
Caldwell Reunion news: The reunion is over. Details to come. Databases: Browseable DATABASE of my family tree starting with John and Alice Alston in 1444! No special software needed.
South Carolina Caldwell Connections: A database produced by Edith Greisser and donated by Dean Simpson.
Caldwell.paf This is my Personal Ancestral File and it includes all data back to John in 1304. Right click and save to the location of your choice. This is a downloadable PersonalAncestralFile updated 16APR01. It now includes the earliest Caldwell settlers of Pa., Md., Va., Ky., NC., Tn., SC., WV., Mo., Ms., Oh., La., NJ.,with fingers into Ga., Tx., Mi., Ca., NY., and others. Click Here if you need to download your own free PAF program. I suggest the 5.0 so that we can share files easier and you can send the file above back to me after you have made your entries and then I can merge it with my copy for direct comparison and posting the updated file. If you find a connection to this tree, then please contact me and let me add it so that we can really get the tree growing. If you have the PAF program, then you can add it my file above and send me a copy to update my post here. Please send all supporting documents you have or at least a short narrative as to the source of information. Also, if you have notes or stories I would like to add them too. If anyone knows of any book that is published and references the Caldwell family, then please pass them on to me. I have many references already, but I would like to have all possible references. All contributions will be greatly appreciated and will be sourced properly as to the contributor. If you contributed and find a mistake in sourcing, please let me know. At 3 in the morning, I sometimes mess up!!!
This is a work in
progress and has just expanded to include 23 generations and
many branches of cousins complete to the present
day! Thoughts on my research: Also see below: the Oliver Cromwell connection and the Three Brothers. The direct line is pretty clear, but offshoots keep popping up that cloud the picture occasionally. This is due to the fact that before coming to the states the first names did not change to often and the last name changed in spelling depending on where they lived. This is the story as I see it. The first "Caldwells" settled outside of Worcester England prior to 1300's. I say first Caldwells because this is where they picked up the name. Whoever they were and wherever they came from, they had a habit of settling outside of big towns and setting up their own settlements. They also had a habit of naming these places after themselves or the places they had came from. This may be a clue when trying to go back farther without the last name. The first possible "Caldwell" was John in 1304. He is directly related to several Caldwells known by church documents. The name Caldwell or Coldwell first appears to become a formal surname around 1350-1380. This Worcester (Ca/oldwell) settlement seems to have a lot of interelated marriages and centers around Alstonhall. This settlement picked up a lot of followers that continue on with the clan. The Caldwells don't seem to move all at once, but in waves. There seems to have been an earlier move than our direct line northward in the late 1400's to early 1500's. A group seemed to have moved north to Leicester. I think at this point two main things happened. First, there was a split in the "Caldwell" clan. The ones that remained in England used the Co derivative of the Coldwell name, ie Colwell, Coulwell, Coldwell, Couwell, etc.. The ones that remained in Worcester, suddenly packed up and completely moved to Ayr Scotland between 1527 and 1548. This is where there is a name problem as they are the ones with the Ca derivatives of the name. The Caldwell name became Cauldwell in Scotland. The other problem is that at this time many "Caldwells" I think consciously decided to use different spellings of the name to distinguish themselves from other "Caldwells". Hell, they were all named John, Joseph, Alexander, Andrew, James, William, David, Robert and Thomas. It also seems that the offspring of these relatives started to change their names back to Caldwell in the next few generations. The Caldwells did well in Scotland, but were still moving. They sailed over the Irish Sea to Londonderry or Derry as it was called then around 1600. At this point, another fraction of the Caldwell clan splits off, but they don't stay. They go to the New World and set up the first Caldwell's in New England. I have a distinct feeling that they are responsible for Worcester, Mass. This group heavily populates the Boston/Worcester, Mass., Hartford, Conn., New York/ upper New Jersey area. The Caldwells remaining in Ireland spread out and prosper. They are located from Donegal to Enniskillen to Derry and some migrated to Belfast and Dubln in later years (1800's). The Scottish side remained in the Ayr/Glasgow region. I believe there was a lot of contact between the two sides. The first of this group to travel to the New World were Aunts, Uncles and Cousins of ours. They were the relatives of our Uncle James who bought Castle Hasset in 1662. James's direct descendent was the first Royal nobility in our family obtaining the title of Bt. around 1770. I am sure it was only due to owning a Castle and land and their ties to the Humes, however his daughter did marry the Earl of Belmore. Castle James is also directly linked to relatives that ended up in W.Va. I believe the first group of Caldwells to the lower states were located in Newcastle, De., Lancaster County, Pa., and Maryland. The rest that followed joined up with them. This migration seemed to have taken place over the time period of the late 1600's to the mid 1700's. They did not migrate to the New England states as the original Caldwell group had done. My direct ancestors seem to have come over sometime around 1727 in the third wave. In this migration, there seems to have been another split in the Caldwell clan immediatly following this third wave. For whatever reason, the De/Md/Pa region did not hold everyones interest. This split consisted of those that stayed in the Pa/De region and spread northward into New Jersey and may have met up with the original Caldwell group that was now spreading southward more than 100 years after their first arrival from Scotland, a very religious bunch that migrated southward into Va and the Carolinas, and our ancestors that spread westward into Ky and Tn after leaving the Cub Creek Caldwell Settlement in Virginia. I have the distinct feeling that this third wave to the States consisted of both Scottish and Scotch-Irish Caldwells and that was the reason for the northern migration and the south and southwestern migraton split of the groups. The Scottish going north and the Irish going south/southwest. There is also a rumored connection with Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658). Well, I have looked into that and this is what I found: Oliver Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourshier, both of Huntingdon, England. FACT See Monarchs History Oliver's father was Robert who married Elizabeth Steward, both of Huntigdon. FACT This Robert has two possible fathers. Recorded at the Royal database is Henry who married Joan Warren, married 1562. The problem is that Henry and Joan's Robert was born much to soon (~1560). They also had an Oliver born in 1569 in Worcester, which is near the place of the Caldwell Settlement. This Oliver married Elizabeth Bronley in 1587 and had Thomas in 1587. The other Robert was born to Thomas (born 1572) in Huntingdon and an Ann unknown born in Birmingham. Birmingham is also where the Caldwell Settlement was located near and the Caldwells had ties to Alston Hall in Birmingham by marriage. Thomas and Ann were married in Boston in 1577, but they had a son named Robert in Huntingdon in 1574. When they came to the states, they did not come with a son, but a daughter that was born in Worcester England. In Boston, this daughter married one Richard Price at some later date. There are two Roberts born to two people in Huntingdon whom have ties to the Worcester area. One Robert dissappears from the records. This Henry and this Thomas I think are brothers. Henry's Robert died at a young age. Thomas gets a girl pregnant and are not married. Thomas's older brother Henry graciously takes Thomas's son and names him Robert to cover tracks of the bastard boy. Thomas and Ann (perhaps of Caldwell) are really in love and flea to the New World, but first, they are married in 1576 in Birmingham and then again in 1577 in Boston. Two recorded marriages suggests they had a reason for making sure everyone knew that they were married-finally! Of course this is only a story that could fit the data found, but in my family we have always known through tales that Oliver Cromwell the King had somehow been the product of an illigitimate act involving one Anne of Caldwell. I believe that the Thomas and Anne above are the true grandparents to Oliver the Protector, but whether this Anne is an Anne of Caldwell will probably never have a recorded relationship that would make it 100%. I do find that the coincidence of the tales that I have always heard coming so close to the time and places and names a bit scary as to how well tales are passed down in this family!
The Three Brothers: John, Oliver and Alexander I believe these three brothers were one of three possibilities. 1) They existed and went to Toulon France before or during the time of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorship. Did basically what all the stories said and then returned to Scotland to tell their tales of adventure around the mid-1600's. This being the case, I am sure the stories got quite enormous in scope from what actually occurred. 2) They never existed and were only made up by the Caldwell's moving from lower England to Scotland and then to Ireland to hide their past ties with Oliver Cromwell. This would also explain why the name Oliver dissappeared from the Caldwell recorded lineage from the mid-1600's until the mid-1800's. John and Alexander are names that are saturated throughout our history, but Oliver was and is very rare in comparison. 3) Some combination of the two above possibilities. They being strongly Protestant and knowing the recent past history of religious persecution, this would make a very credible story at the time to allow them to move into the Scotch and Irish Clans a bit easier.
These are great sites besides mine: John's Site by John A Caldwell- Just getting started, but looks promising as to a really fantastic site. I may have some competition here! Mike's Site by Mike Caldwell- His site helped me decide to do mine. Unfortunately, he didn't tell me how much work it would take! Caldwell Research and other names by J McClung- A very very nice site for actual reference data done by researchers in many states!
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Randy
Randy@eurovol.net
Date Last Modified: Yesterday or when I have time,!