Update on Descendants of Reuben Robblee and Phebe Austin

No sooner had the “ink dried” on work correcting the title of Cindy Walcott’s compilation on the Descendants of Reuben Robblee and Phebe Austin (shared with Roblee researchers via this site), but Cindy decided to update the report again to correct formatting errors and a few others discovered after a few of us had a chance to review it. It is in keeping with the general philosophy that all family histories are works in progress and need frequent, and constant revision.   As an example, Cindy and I exchanged updated information on one of Reuben Robblee’s descendants–my 2nd great-grandfather Norman Roblee (1815-1900), who married Henrietta Adelia Soule.

A publication on the Soule family describes the birth of “Harriet” Adelia Soule (1816-1908) and an unnamed twin daughter.   For many years I belived this simply to be a naming error by the Rev. G. T. Ridlon, author of the 1926 two-volume history of the Soule family (including descendants of Mayflower passenger George Soule). Because I had so many other mysteries in my family (still unsolved example: who were the parents of my 4th great grandfather Nathaniel Winslow, and how are we related–if at all–to the Mayflower passenger Edward Winslow?) I didn’t bother attempting to identify the twin daughter until recently.  And then, when I did discover that Henrietta’s twin was actually named Harriet Adelia (yes, they appear to have been given identical middle names), and identified her family using online cemetery records.  But I neglected to share this with Cindy  (with whom I’ve shared cross-continental electronic correspondence for many years) until  motivated to do so after reading her updated Descendants of Reuben Robblee (and wife Phebe Austin).

Cindy has done a masterful job compiling  (and sourcing) the Robblee/Roblee story in the five reports available on our website.  But, as she points out:

I would ask that anyone using this report not turn “speculation” into “fact” when using the data for his or her own purposes. I welcome any questions, criticisms, confirmations, rebuttals, etc. My interest is in placing all   individuals in their own families, locations and historical context. I welcome documentation that would help me to turn those into fact, or establish that my guesses or estimates were wrong!

There are other additions and revisions to be made in these compilations, and I’m gratefiul for the revisions Cindy has continued to make.  I encourage readers to share comments with Cindy (her e-mail address is shown in the reports).  And, we’ve decided to replace the document listed in a recent post with an updated version, available here:

The Descendants of Reuben Robblee and his wife Phebe Austin of Dutchess Co., NY, Lanesborough, MA and Granville, NY
(Decenber 2018 revision, Adobe PDF – 3.27 MB)

[Note: This document was revised and republished in September 2021.]

Originally we thought we weren’t going to have this ready until early next week (the reason it’s dated December)  but we had good luck finishing up…enjoy the reading.

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