Ogden Family in America, 1640s On

[jdelauche]

Hello from the U.S.A.

Author John Harpster has extensively researched the family of John Ogden (The Pilgrim) (b. 1609, England; d. 1682, Elizabethtown, New Jersey, British Colony.) He came to the conclusion that the John Ogden he was studying was probably from Lancashire. Mr. Harpster had a book published in the United States: JOHN OGDEN, THE PILGRIM (1609-1682): A MAN OF MORE THAN ORDINARY MARK (2006). Cranbury, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

The book is really a biography, but is useful for those tracing that Ogden family line in the British Colonies and the U.S.A. It definitely clears up all the bogus information that U.S. Ogden genealogy researchers obtained from the William Ogden Wheeler book THE OGDEN FAMILY IN AMERICA.

Fortunately, once in the British colonies of North America, John Ogden did the kinds of things that got his name and deeds written in official records, so getting that information correct was easier for Harpster. Plus, enough of "The Pilgrim's" descendants became people of enough import, of a sort, to have their names and deeds recorded in official records. (Although those dang American Ogdens seemed to have named a lot of their progeny after another Ogden, living in the same location around the same time, helping to confuse "the issue" - pardon the pun.) The Ogden family descending from John, The Pilgrim (as the U.S. genealogists call him) was also fruitful and multiplied, so there are now a lot of us.

Jean E. DeLauche, a John Ogden, The Pilgrim, descendant
P.S. For more information on John Harpster's book go to:
ogdenbooks.com