First things first – “Nabby” is an old-timey nickname for Abigail. This particular Abigail, Nabby Wood, was born in 1766 in Plymouth County, Massachusetts – the town of Middleborough. In 1788 she married Nathaniel Richmond from Taunton in neighboring Bristol County. They had a flock of kids and made their home along the northern reaches of the Connecticut River in the area around Woodstock, Barnard, and Bridgewater in Windsor County, Vermont.

The area was also popular with Connecticut folks.  The family that Nabby and Nathaniel’s son Allen would marry into came to Vermont from New London County (along with most of their neighbors and relatives, it seems).

Nabby’s big story, though, is found in her ancestry. She is truly the 6th Great-Grandmother lode of silver-buckle, clunky-shoe Puritans!

When she was born, the settlement at Plymouth had already been around for 145 years. [Reality check – that’s as long ago, to us today, as post-Civil War Reconstruction and the inauguration of President U.S. Grant.]  And her people were there from the get-go! Her Mayflower connections on her mother’s side are Degory Priest and Edward Doty. On her father’s side we find Priscilla Mullins and John Alden. Nabby’s grandmother was Hannah Alden Wood – the couple’s great-granddaughter.

That last discovery warranted a big WOOHOO! in this house. But following the Wood line back through Hannah and a few Aldens back to Mullins family, it was doubly cool to see the line link back with the Wood family!

Nabby Wood’s original ancestral surname was Atwood, and her Atwood emigrant ancestor was John Atwood. By the time Nabby’s great-grandfather Abiel Wood came along, the “At” prefix had been dropped.

Priscilla’s parents (both Mayflower passengers) were William and Alice Mullins. And Alice was an Atwood – her brother was that very same John Atwood. The families stayed connected throughout that first century, that much I knew. But it’s wild to find out they were related back in England, and who knows how much farther back!!