After an unavoidable delay that seemed to last forever, Discovering Nicholas Ackley is now available for purchase from the printer at this link:
In early February, the book also should be available online from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
From the back cover
Nicholas Ackley was born about 1630, most likely in the East Anglia area of England to Puritan parents. He arrived in Hartford, Connecticut about 1650, joining a town of about 800 people. In 1653, he thought briefly about leaving with two dozen other young men to start a new town 40 miles to the north. Instead, about two years later, he bought a parcel in Hartford at what became 42 Trumbull Street, complete with house, outbuildings, orchard and garden. That same year, he married Hannah and children soon began to arrive.
In 1662, he was one of 28 young men who agreed to carve a new town out of the wilderness on the Connecticut River at Thirty Mile Island. He moved the family to his 14-acre plot in 1667, locating with about 10 other families at the southern end of what became Haddam.
The Ackleys started from scratch, clearing the land, constructing the house and outbuildings, and preparing the land for farming. About 30 homes were built in Haddam by 1670, a small town compared to Hartford, and a day’s ride from the nearest larger town.
Additional children arrived in rapid succession. In all, 10 Ackley children, 5 boys and 5 girls, survived to adulthood. The children settled nearby, many in the new town of East Haddam, and produced about three dozen grandchildren.
Hannah died in the mid-l680s and Nicholas married the widow Miriam. Less than a decade later, Nicholas Ackley went on to his final adventure, dying on 29 April 1695 in Haddam.
Nearly half a millennium later, interest in genealogy has exploded as has misinformation about Nicholas Ackley and his family. Myths and errors about his life are splashed over various family history sites on the internet. This book identifies the documented facts available about Nicholas and his family, and uses the norms and customs of the time to discuss what else might be true. It sets the Ackleys in the context of early Connecticut, providing a richer view of their lives than just names and dates.
Discovering Nicholas Ackley 