Cindy Walcott has revised her family history for William Robblee and Keturah Baker of Lanesborough, Massachusetts. In a message to Roblee Researchers, she wrote:
In the spring of 2021, I realized that it had been nearly 3 years since I updated the Register reports on our web page robleesonline.org. I decided to start with the document titled The Descendants of William Robblee and Keturah Baker of Lanesborough, MA because that is my own line.
I never really take a full break from researching families with the surnames Robblee, Rublee, Roblee, Roblyer – and the several other variations. Really, this has been my life’s work, genealogically speaking. I have a Google alert set so that I get informed about web content containing these surname. That helps me to keep up with recent marriages and deaths. In recent years, I have come to value newspaper content. In particular, small town newspaper contain a wealth of personal information about residents and former residents. Personal information was published in the 1800s and early 1900s that would never be published today.
At this point, I feel that I know these people! Exploring genealogy led me to exploring history. To truly understand why families stayed in one place, or moved on to another, one has to understand the history of the time. In the case of the Robblee/Rublee/Roblee family, the American Revolution was a seminal event. The family was split – some supported the cause of the Revolution and others did not. The result was the two Robblees ended up in the Maritime Provinces in Canada after their land in New York was confiscated. Two others (at least) remained in what became the United States. I wonder how many generations it took before the knowledge of that reality was forgotten, if ever. Did William and Keturah’s children know they had cousins in Nova Scotia?
Our families’ origins are still a mystery. We have the record of baptisms in Huntington, Long Island, New York. But, because no parents’ names are not given for the children, we cannot with certainty sort the children into their proper families. This has been frustrating in the extreme. And there is our brick wall. Who were these Rubliers/Rublears (etc) who lived in Huntington? Where did they come from?
When I started researching this family way back when, it was not too long before I ran into the theory that we are descended from Joris Jansen Rapelje and his wife Catalyntje Trico. It is so very tempting to think that this interesting couple, early settlers of New Amsterdam, are our immigrant ancestors. Finally, I started a serious attempt to trace their descendants into the early 1700s. I could not make any connection to the Huntington, Long Island families. In my own mind, I have 95% rejected this theory. I hope that during my lifetime, DNA research help us to settle this issue once and for all.
Recently, my husband and I moved from the house in which we raised our family. We are now living quite nearby to the gravesite of Keturah (Baker) (Robblee) Haight in New Haven, VT. The following is carved upon her gravestone: “The deceased was formerly married to William Rublee of Lanesborough, Mass, by whom she had 12 children. She lived to see the fifth generation and left at her death more than 300 descendants”. I go to visit her now and then.
The revised report is:
The Descendants of William Robblee and Keturah Baker of Lanesborough, MA
(Adobe PDF – 2.87 MB) – Revised July 2021