FrancoAmerican Gravy – People, Places and Purpose

August 28, 2025August 28, 2025

Writing up My Research

FrancoAmerican Gravy here. I’ve been doing more research and hoping to write it up but life gets in the way – or perhaps it is plain procrastination.

Despite my enjoyment researching my Franco-American ancestors and their stories in Quebec and northern New York, I seem to be obsessed with the ‘early’ Kingsley immigrants to Washington County, New York. They were patriots, or brothers of patriots, of the American Revolution. They and many others came to New York in a mass migration between 1785-1800. The Dutch called them locusts. Their sons and daughters moved westward after the passage of the Northwest Ordinance during the administration of George Washington.

By ‘early’, I mean the Kingsley’s who emigrated from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and the Hampshire Grants to farms and villages in northern Washington County. The lack of original and secondary sources in the county at this time, handicaps the best genealogist. I can only make associations between fathers and sons, and brothers. Connecting the second generation – those born in Washington County after their parents migrated – is another challenge. These Kingsley eventually go back to John Kingsley who emigrated from Hampshire England about 1635.

For the first generation of Kingsleys who emigrated from New England, I have connected the following Kingsley branches in Washington County, New York.

From a Kingsley branch that migrated from Rehoboth/Swansea to Becket Massachusetts came:

Zephaniah Kingsley was a supervisor of Fort Ann and is mentioned in The History of Washington County several times. He was married in Westfield in 1783 and he remained in Fort Ann through the 1820 census. Sometime after 1820 he migrated to Crawford Pennsylvania.
Zephaniah’s father is Jeremiah Kingsley (1738-1833), a Rev War veteran as well as French & Indian War vet who was at Fort William Henry. Jeremiah lived in Fort Ann in the 1800 US census. He is buried in Canaan, Columbia county, NY.
Thaddeus Kingsley was a brother of Zephaniah, and he went to Hartford. I believe he, like his father, he is a Revolutionary War veteran.

From a Kingsley branch that migrated from Rehoboth/Swansea to Richmond, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, came the sons of James Kingsley and Lydia Bowen. Lydia Bowen died in 1828 and is buried in Otis Cemetery. The sons were:

Peleg Kingsley – probably died between 1803-1810 in Whitehall. Burial location unknown.
Jonathan Kingsley of Granville and Ft Ann, died after the 1840 census in Washington County. Burial location unknown.
Daniel Kingsley of Granville. migrated to Onondaga County , NY.
James Kingsley of Fort Ann (1764-1851) migrated to Chautauqua County, NY.

There were 2 John Kingsleys in Washington County between 1790 and 1820. I have not determined if they are father and son, uncle and nephew, or cousins.

1790 John Kingsley of Westfield AND WHITEHALL. He was a tax collector in Fort Ann (see attached image which is a page from the Hx of Washington County, New York). In 1791, he bought land from John Williams and Edw Savage in Whitehall and is identified as John Kingsley Junior of Whitehall.
1797 – John Kingsley Junior is stealing horses and appears in court. In another court he appears with Nathan Kingsley (his son?) for stealing a mare from another man. John is identified as “John Kingsley Junior late of Westfield”.
John Kingsley of Whitehall is in the 1800 US Federal Census; In the same census year, there is John Kingsley (Junior?) in Westfield with Nathan and Thomas in proximity who may be his sons.

1797 The People of the State of New York versus John Kingsley Junior.

There are additional “early” Kingsley Head of Households and their children born in Washington County between 1790 and 1820. There are many names appearing in the 1810, 1820, 1825 census who I have yet to connect to parents. I hope to add more information soon now that I accessed the NYS 1825 census in the basement of the Washington County archives in Hudson Falls.

1825 New York State Census — Hardcopy of the 1825 Census of Washington County

I’ll keep you updated.

November 27, 2023November 28, 2023

Reuniting Family

Winter is here in Colorado and 2023 will soon be in the past, for better and for worse. For FrancoAmericanGravy, your host, the days and seasons of 2023 moved quickly. It was a summer of reuniting with extended family – some family members I had not seen in 30 years. I made a deliberate effort to see family and I am glad I did. Many of my first cousins are now grandparents and great grandparents. Their grandchildren have no inkling about their Franco-American culture and tradition. That, too, is all in the past.

Through this site, your host will try to bring some of that back into focus for our extended family who are now 4th, 5th and 6th generation Americans with little understanding of the Franco-American immigrant experience. As immigrants continue to come to the United States, the parallels continue and cannot be overlooked. Unless you are indigenous, you are a descendent of an immigrant. Immigrant ancestors had hardships – more than can be imagined in our 21st century consumer culture. Today we, descendants, enjoy the fruits of our ancestor’s labors. We all live on land once the homeland of indigenous.

Thanksgiving is giving and acknowledging all we have been given.

April 20, 2023May 22, 2025

Folks and Family

Welcome to FrancoAmericanGravy. This is a family history and genealogy site with stories of people and places connected to me. Some of these people and places I knew well; other peoples and places I only know through reading and researching. With a few exceptions, the families in these stories emigrated from Old Regime France to Quebec and Acadia in the 17th and 18th centuries. Later, their descendants migrated to upstate New York and Vermont. Some of their stories were passed to me; others were rediscovered by me. Contrary to the hopes and dreams of family members, there are no royal bloodlines. However, if you account for overcoming hardships, there are certainly many noble women and men. The people in these stories were from the third estate – commoners. In the 17th century, they were the pioneers of New France: tradesmen and traders, ‘filles du roi’ who married soldiers who became farmers, voyageurs, mariners, weavers and laborers. In the 18th century, many were deported from Acadia (present day Nova Scotia) to live as exiles shipped to New England colonies.

During the 19th century they followed the French speaking diaspora from Quebec to New York and New England, leaving farms to become dayworkers, Champlain canalers, miners, masons, iron workers, and factory textile laborers in the new industrialized state.

Here are the families:

The Wills family is here

The Mylott-Glode (Poissant dit Saline)

The Rivet-Lord of Cohoes, NY AND LaCasse-Mireault is coming soon.

Some stories about these families originated on my blog.

Thank you for reading.