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I was going through some old print outs of emails from the Rootsweb lists
and found a couple on the topic of Celia Nichols mentioned in the Rawleigh
Chinn will.
The mystery has been solved as to who she is, her relationship to Rawleigh
and it also led back to open the SMOOT mystery.
Priscilla "Celia" Nichols was the daughter of Elizabeth Goodridge and John
Nichols.
Elizabeth Goodridge was the daughter of William Goodridge and Thomasin
Gilbert.
William made provisions that Rawleigh be her guardian in his Will. Reason
being... Elizabeth Nichols was Rawleighs niece.
Her mother Thomasin Gilbert m. William Goodridge then after he died, she
married Abraham Marshall. But while married to William Goodridge they also
had sons William and Moses who were also to be taken care of by Rawleigh.
By the time Rawleigh made his bequeath about Celia and her mother Elizabeth
the boys William and Moses were of age.
Thomasin Gilbert was sisters to Alice and Dorothy (originally thought of as
SMOOT) However it was their mother Mary who was a Smoot.
So the story goes like this
William Smoot Sr. m. Unknown and had
Mary Smoot m. James Gilbert
William Smoot m. Grace Wood
Mary and James had Alice (John Chinn, John Stretchley) Dorothy (Thomas
Durham, Jeremiah Greenham) and Thomasin (Abraham Marshall, William
Goodridge)
William and Grace Wood had Thomas, Richard, Elizabeth, Ann, and William
Smoot who m. Jane unknown in 1683 and THEY had a Mary Smoot who married
Thomas Durham Jr. son of Dorothy Gilbert and Thomas Durham above.
It's all very confusing but opening the door to William Goodridge being the
father of Elizabeth Nichols then opened to door to his wife and the floods
just came. I have documents, abstracts, will etc. that don't positively
prove the connection by virtue of a marriage or birth per se but all
professionals have read it and agree that it seems to be the real deal and
therefore ends the Smoot mystery.
I write this for James Burgess and another poster somewhere who said they
descended from Celia Nichols back in 2000.
Janean
Janean