From European Royalty to French-Canadian Voyageurs: Our Kinship with James Madison

 

As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, we often marvel at how interconnected the human story truly is. In our family tree, a single line of descent bridges the royal courts of medieval France, the birth of the American Constitution, and the rugged fur-trade waterways of New France.

Through our maternal French-Canadian lineage—tracing back to the Amiot, Duquet, and Passino families—we share a common royal heritage with James Madison, the 4th President of the United States and Father of the Constitution. That makes President Madison our 17th cousin, 8 times removed.

Part 1: The Royal Bridge — High Nobility in Medieval Europe

The kinship between a Virginia planter turned Founding Father and our French-Canadian canoe builders traces back to 13th-century Europe. The shared ancestor at the top of this ancestral bridge is Matilda de Brabant, Countess of Artois (1224–1288).

From Matilda, two distinct aristocratic lines flowed down through the centuries:

1. The English & Virginian Branch (Leading to Madison): Descended through the royal Plantagenets, the FitzAlan Earls of Arundel, and the Eltonhead family of Lancashire, crossing the Atlantic to colonial Virginia with the Conway family.
2. The French & Canadian Branch (Leading to Us): Descended through the Counts of Artois, the House of Joyeuse, and Anne Convent (1605–1675), who brought this royal bloodline across the ocean to 17th-century Québec.

                    Matilda de Brabant, Countess of Artois

                                 (1224–1288)

                                      │

            ┌────────────────┴──────────────┐

            │                                                   │

  The Presidential Line                                  Our Direct Line

  =====================                                  ===============

  Blanche de France, Comtesse d'Artois                Robert II, Comte d'Artois (1249–1302)

  Henry Plantagenet (1281–1345)                          Philippe I d'Artois (1269–1298)

  Eleanor Plantagenet (1318–1372)                        Marie d'Artois (1291–1365)

  Sir Richard FitzAlan (1346–1397)                       Marie de Namur (1322–1355)

  Elizabeth FitzAlan (1366–1425)                         Yolande de Bar (1342–1410)

  Joan Goushill (1401–1453)                              Jeanne de Grancey (1348–1422)

  Katherine Stanley (1430–1498)                          Marie de Châteauvillain (1365–1423)

  Dulcia Savage                                          Robert de Sarrebruche (1400–1460)

  Maud Bold                                              Jeanne de Sarrebruche (1436–1492)

  Jennet Gerard                                          François de Barbançon (1470–1510)

  William Eltonhead                                      Marguerite de Barbançon (b. 1480)

  Richard Eltonhead (1582–1664)                          François de Joyeuse (1515–1597)

  Martha Eltonhead (1628–1689)                           Jean de Joyeuse (1540–1607)

  Col. Edwin Conway II (1653–1698)                     Louise de Joyeuse (1565–1616)

  Francis Conway (b. 1700)                               Antoinette de Longueval (1580–1640)

  Eleanor Rose Conway (1731–1829)                  ANNE CONVENT (1605–1675) [To New France]

  

  JAMES MADISON (1751–1836)                        ETIENNE DUQUET DIT DESROCHERS (1695–1753)

  4th U.S. President                                     Master Canoe Builder, La Prairie

  [17th Cousin 8x Removed]                              [6th Great-Grandfather]

Part 2: From Courtly Bloodlines to Wilderness Paddles

While James Madison’s ancestors established prosperous tobacco plantations along the Rappahannock River in Virginia, our branch carved out a vastly different life in the wilderness of French Canada.

Early French-Canadian pioneer heritage in New France

When Anne Convent arrived in Quebec in the mid-1600s, her son Mathieu Amiot, Sieur de Villeneuve (1628–1688), became an interpreter and early figure in the colony. His daughter, Catherine-Ursule Amiot, married into the Duquet family, setting the stage for our direct voyageur heritage:

• Etienne Duquet dit Desrochers (1695–1753): Our 6th great-grandfather was a master canoe builder operating out of La Prairie de la Madeleine. Etienne's hand-crafted birchbark canoes carried the voyageurs, coureurs des bois, and fur traders across the Great Lakes and into the heart of the North American continent.
• The Passino (Pinsonneau) Lineage: Etienne's daughter, Marie Madeleine Duquet, married into the Pinsonneau family. Her grandson, Gabriel "Gilbert" Passino dit Lafleur (1803–1877), carried this fur-trade legacy forward, giving rise to Lucy Passino (1836–1917), our maternal cornerstone.

Part 3: Two Paths to American Liberty

It is a striking paradox of history:

In Virginia, James Madison used his formidable intellect to draft the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, framing the legal framework for a free republic.

Meanwhile, along the northern frontier, his distant French-Canadian cousins were opening up the physical landscape of North America. Through paddling freight canoes, forging wilderness paths, and eventually migrating into the American Midwest, our ancestors helped build the working nation that Madison’s Constitution governed.

                    Two Legacies of the American Story

                    

   James Madison (Virginia)           Etienne Duquet & Kin (La Prairie)

   ========================           =================================

   • Drafted the U.S. Constitution     • Built birchbark freight canoes

   • Author of the Bill of Rights      • Opened fur-trade river routes

   • Architect of Republican Liberty   • Built frontier settlements

By the 19th century, these two worlds merged into one American identity. Lucy Passino's son was named Abraham Lincoln Brown (1864–1948)—a clear nod to the deep patriotic pride that our French-Canadian and New England lineages carried into the modern era.

Celebrating the Tapestry of America at 250

As we look toward America's 250th birthday, this connection to James Madison highlights the extraordinary diversity of our family's heritage. We are not just descended from New England Puritans, Pennsylvania Quakers, or Virginia statesmen—we are equally tied to the French voyageurs who sang along the riverways of Quebec and the Great Lakes.

In our veins runs the blood of the men who wrote the laws of the Republic, and the men and women who built its frontiers with their hands.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

The Quaker Who Answered Lincoln’s Call: Faith, Freedom, and the Price of Gettysburg

 

As America approaches its Semiquincentennial in 2026, we honor not just the famous names carved into marble, but the deeply personal threads of conviction that bound everyday families to the survival of the Republic.

In our own family tree, two distinct lines converge in the fight to end human slavery and preserve the Union: a distant Welsh-Quaker lineage that connects us as 7th cousins 5x removed to President Abraham Lincoln, and the poignant, tragic story of our 3rd great-grandfather, 2nd Lieutenant Rifford Randolph Hallowell (1816–1864).

Part 1: The Shared Welsh-Quaker Roots with Abraham Lincoln

To understand why a Quaker-descended Pennsylvanian would pick up a rifle in 1861, one must look back to the early Quaker migrations of the late 17th century.

Through our Welsh ancestors—tracing back to the Anwyl, Evans, and Nanney families who settled in the Pennsylvania countryside—our bloodline splits into two distinct paths:

1. One path leads down through Sarah Morris Evans and the Hanks line to Abraham Lincoln.
2. The other path leads through the Nanney, Trump, and Hallowell families down to Rifford Randolph Hallowell and ultimately to us.

                      William Lewis Anwyl (1570–1642)

                     [Common Ancestor in Merioneth, Wales]

                                       │

             ┌────────────┴─────────── ┐

             │                                                   │

  The Presidential Line                                  Our Direct Line

  =====================                                  ===============

  Catherine Lewis Anwyl (1593–1639)                     John Anwyl (1598–1660)

  Katherine Verch Wynn Robert (1629–1704)           Elizabeth Anwyl (b. 1625)

  Cadwalader Evans (1664–1745)                           John Nanney (1664–1716)

  Sarah Morris Evans (1690–1741)                        Rees Nanney (1681–1747)

  John Hanks (1712–1778)                                 Grace Nanney (1716–1799)

  Joseph Hanks (1742–1821)                               Hannah Trump (1751–1809)

  Nancy Hanks (1784–1818)                                Joseph Hallowell (1785–1872)

  

  ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809–1865)             LIUTENANT RIFFORD R. HALLOWELL (1816–1864)

  16th U.S. President                                    Co. K, 28th Pennsylvania Infantry

  [7th Cousin 5x Removed]                                [3rd Great-Grandfather]

Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends) held a foundational testimony that every human soul possessed the "Inner Light"—a belief that made them among the earliest, most resolute abolitionists in North America. While many Quakers remained strict pacifists, the moral crisis of the Civil War forced men like Rifford Hallowell to make a agonizing choice: keep the peace, or lay down one's life to smash the institution of slavery.

Part 2: From Peace to the Front Lines (1861)

Born in Philadelphia in 1816 to a family steeped in the Quaker tradition, Rifford Randolph Hallowell was raised in an environment that abhorred human bondage. His father, Joseph Hallowell, had served in the War of 1812, establishing a tradition of civic duty.

When his distant cousin Abraham Lincoln issued the call for troops to defend the Union, Rifford was 44 years old—a family man with a wife and children. Yet his anti-slavery conviction was so profound that he put aside traditional Quaker pacifism to act.

On July 20, 1861, Rifford enlisted in Company K of the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Recognized for his maturity and leadership, he rose to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

                   Lieutenant Hallowell's Path

                   

 July 1861: Enlists in Co. K, 28th Pennsylvania Infantry

   │

 July 1863: The Terror of Gettysburg (Culp's Hill)

   │   Fought on the extreme right flank of the Union line

   ▼

 Sept 1863: Resigns due to severe battle illness/trauma

   │

 Jan 1864: Dies at home in Frankford, Philadelphia (Aged 47)

Part 3: The Sheer Terror of Gettysburg (July 1863)

In July 1863, the 28th Pennsylvania Infantry marched into the epicenter of the American Civil War: Gettysburg.

Assigned to Geary’s Brigade in the 12th Corps, Lieutenant Hallowell and his men were positioned at Culp's Hill, holding the critical right flank of the Union army. On July 2 and 3, Culp’s Hill became an absolute cauldron of noise and slaughter. For hours, Confederate forces launched relentless night and morning assaults through the dense timber and boulders.

The fighting on Culp's Hill was brutally intense:

• Musket fire was so thick that full-grown oak trees were chopped down by minié balls.
• Smoke hung so heavy in the trees that officers could only guide their men by the flashes of gunfire.
• The 28th Pennsylvania stood their ground in makeshift breastworks, firing until their rifle barrels burned to the touch.

While the Union line held, the physical and psychological toll was catastrophic. Exposed to unrelenting artillery, deafening rifle fire, and the horror of close-quarters combat, Lieutenant Hallowell’s health broke under the extreme stress.

Part 4: The Ultimate Sacrifice

Following the battle at Gettysburg, Lt. Hallowell succumbed to severe illness and trauma brought on by the grueling campaign. On September 13, 1863—just two months after the battle—he was forced to resign his commission.

Rifford returned home to Frankford, Philadelphia, but the physical damage was done. On January 10, 1864, at the age of 47, 2nd Lieutenant Rifford Randolph Hallowell died from the afflictions contracted in service to his country.

Though he did not fall on the field at Culp’s Hill, he gave his life just as surely as if a bullet had struck him there—a casualty of the greatest battle fought on North American soil.

Legacy of the 250th

As we reflect on America’s 250-year journey, the story of Rifford Hallowell reminds us of the moral courage that defines our history:

• A man raised in the anti-slavery tradition of the Quakers.
• A distant cousin of the President whose campaign he marched to fulfill.
• A patriot who paid the ultimate price so that "a new birth of freedom" might endure.

From Rifford’s sacrifice, the family line continued through his daughter Amanda Merrio Hallowell, her daughter Lillian Amanda Pierce, down through the Bailey line, and directly to our family today. We carry his story forward not just as genealogical trivia, but as a living testament to the price paid for human liberty.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

Fort Stanwix, Towanda Creek, and the Road to Ohio: The Journey of Zepheniah Roger

 

The story of the American Republic was written by men and women who cleared the wilderness with a felling axe, stood their ground against imperial armies, and continued pushing the frontier west until they reached the outer edges of the young nation. For the Rogers family, this two-century journey began in the earliest puritan outposts of Massachusetts and Connecticut, moved through the battlefields of the Revolutionary War, anchored for twenty-six years along Towanda Creek in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and concluded in the fertile soil of Franklin County, Ohio.

Part 1: Comprehensive Genealogical & Historical Discoveries

Generation 1 & 2: The Massachusetts Birthplace & The Connecticut Shore

• Zepheniah Rogers (1747–1823): Born out of wedlock in Mendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on March 8, 1747 (recorded March 18 in town records), to Abigail Hayward (daughter of possibly Oliver and Abigail Hayward, but still unproven). Town records noted Abigail as a "transient person." Raised in the rugged New England interior, Zepheniah grew up with a timberman's self-reliance.
• Elizabeth Rood (1753–1838): Daughter of Isaac Rood and Elizabeth Ellsworth, she married Zepheniah on March 7, 1770, in Litchfield, Connecticut. She was the grand-niece of the prominent Ellsworth line of Windsor. Elizabeth braved every leg of her husband’s frontier journey—from Connecticut to Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, and finally Ohio—surviving him by fifteen years and drawing his hard-earned Continental pension until her death in Brown Township, Ohio, in 1838.

Generation 3: The Continental Line & Military Service

• First Enlistment (May 1776 – April 1777): Enlisted as a Private in Capt. William Satterlee’s Company, under Col. Samuel Elmore in the Connecticut Line. Deployed to the northern theater in upstate New York, his unit garrisoned key outposts along the Mohawk Valley, including Fort Stanwix (Fort Schuyler) and Johnstown, securing the western gateway against British forces and frontier raids.
• Second Enlistment (April 1777 – Sept/Oct 1777): Following his initial term, Zepheniah re-enlisted in Capt. Daniel Davis’s Company, continuing under Col. Elmore for another five to six months of active wartime service.

Generation 4: The Bradford County, Pennsylvania Pioneer (1796–1822)

After the war, Zepheniah and Elizabeth raised their family across a nomadic line of frontier settlements: Rupert, Vermont (1773); Torrington and Goshen, Connecticut; and Catskill and Blenheim, New York (1787–1794).

• The Towanda Creek Homestead: In 1796, Zepheniah migrated with his family to Canton Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, settling on Towanda Creek (later known as the Hubbell Manley farm).
• Pioneer Ingenuity: Upon arrival, the family lived in a raw 14x18-foot floorless log cabin. Zepheniah built a "one-legged bedstead"—a forked stick driven into the dirt floor with poles running to the wall logs, woven together with bark for bed-cord.
• The Tub-Mill: To process grain for himself and his neighbors, Zepheniah constructed a primitive "tub-mill" on his property. Utilizing local conglomerate stone from the nearby coal measures, he hand-dressed the millstones. The mill had a capacity of cracking 1.5 to 3 bushels of corn in a 24-hour run.
• The 1818 Pension & Schedule of Property: On May 9, 1818, Zepheniah applied for a pension under the Revolutionary War Veteran's Act, drawing $8 a month ($96/year). His court-filed schedule of property offers a window into late-frontier life in Bradford County:
• Land & Livestock: 77.5 acres of land (25 acres cleared out of forest), 10 sheep, 1 sow, and 4 shoats.
• The Pioneer Kitchen: 1 bread oven, 1 iron trammel, 1 iron pot, 4 kettles, 1 frying pan, 1 spider, 1 tea kettle, flat irons, old pewter (6 plates, 2 platters), 6 teacups and saucers, and 6 iron spoons.
• Craftsman & Household Tools: Carpenter tools, 1 old cross-cut saw, 1 lantern, 1 hoe, 1 big spinning wheel, 1 foot wheel, 3 chairs, a chest, a table, and an old silver watch.

Generation 5: The Final Ohio Migration & The Bailey Connection

• Rosemanty Rogers (1789–1843): Born in Catskill, New York, Rosemanty grew up on the Canton Township homestead in Pennsylvania. Around 1810, she married Smith Bailey (1789–1862), a veteran of the War of 1812 and son of Thomas Bailey and Esther Smith. Rosemanty and Smith carried the family line onward into Ohio in 1821, and ultimately into the Iowa Territory in 1845.
• The Final Westward Push (1822–1823): In 1822, after 26 years of building up his farm in Canton Township, the elderly Zepheniah—alongside his wife Elizabeth and grown children—packed up one last time to join his family on the Ohio frontier. Settling in Washington Township, Franklin County, Ohio, Zepheniah died the following year on October 7, 1823, at the age of 76.

             The Migration Trail of Zepheniah Rogers

             

 1747: Mendon, MASSACHUSETTS (Birth)

   │

 1770: Litchfield, CONNECTICUT (Marriage to Elizabeth Rood)

   │

 1776: Fort Stanwix & Johnstown, NEW YORK (Revolutionary War)

   │

 1787: Catskill & Blenheim, NEW YORK (Birth of Rosemanty & Irvine)

   │

 1796: Canton Twp., Bradford Co., PENNSYLVANIA (26 Years: Tub-Mill & Farm)

   │

 1822: Franklin County, OHIO (Final Homestead)

Part 2: The Standard of Fort Stanwix: Zepheniah Rogers and the Road to Ohio

The story of the American Republic is written in the footsteps of those who marched toward the sound of the war drums, and then kept right on marching toward the setting sun. For Zepheniah Rogers and Elizabeth Rood, that trail spanned three states, two wars, and thousands of miles of wilderness—a journey that transformed raw forest into farms, mills, and communities.

Zepheniah’s life began on March 8, 1747, in Mendon, Massachusetts, born to Abigail Hayward during a period of colonial expansion. Raised in the timbered backwoods of New England, he developed a sharp edge of self-reliance. By 1770, his search for land brought him to Litchfield, Connecticut, where he married Elizabeth Rood—a daughter of the pioneer Rood line and a descendant of the prominent Ellsworth family of Windsor.

When the fire of the American Revolution erupted in 1776, Zepheniah left his young family to answer the call of the Continental Congress. Enlisting as a private in Capt. William Satterlee’s company under Col. Samuel Elmore, he was marched into the perilous northern theater of New York. In the dense wilderness of the Mohawk Valley, Zepheniah stood watch at Fort Stanwix and Johnstown—vital outposts charged with holding the northern frontier against British regulars and border raids. For nearly eighteen months across two enlistments, he endured bitter weather, short rations, and constant alert, holding the northern gateway for the young nation.

With independence won, Zepheniah returned to his family, but the spirit of the frontier would not let them settle. After years spent in Vermont, Connecticut, and the Catskill Mountains of New York, Zepheniah loaded his family and meager possessions into a wagon in 1796 and headed south into the wild interior of northern Pennsylvania.

They settled along Towanda Creek in Canton Township, Bradford County, taking up raw land on what would become the Hubbell Manley farm. There, in a 14 x 18-foot floorless log cabin, Zepheniah built a bedstead out of a forked stick driven into the earth floor, strung with bark cords. To feed his family and neighbors, he built a primitive "tub-mill" from scratch, dressing coarse conglomerate stone from the mountain coal measures to grind corn—a bushel and a half a day—for the early settlers of the valley.

For twenty-six years, Zepheniah and Elizabeth labored in Canton Township. They cleared 25 acres of timber, raised sheep, spun wool on their foot wheels, and built a self-sufficient life. When Zepheniah applied for his veteran's pension in 1818, his court schedule recorded a life lived through honest work: carpenter tools, an old cross-cut saw, a bread oven, iron kettles, and a few cherished pewter plates.

Yet, even in his seventies, Zepheniah was not done moving. In 1822, leaving the Bradford County farm to his children, Zepheniah and Elizabeth made one final journey west, joining their daughter Rosemanty and son-in-law Smith Bailey on the fertile plains of Franklin County, Ohio.

When Zepheniah passed away in Washington Township on October 7, 1823, he was laid to rest in the soil he had helped win and cultivate. Elizabeth lived on for another fifteen years in Brown Township, drawing the pension earned by her husband’s musket at Fort Stanwix.

From a floorless cabin along Towanda Creek to the sunlit fields of Ohio, Zepheniah Rogers and Elizabeth Rood proved that the American frontier was built not by fortune, but by relentless grit, hard work, and unyielding endurance.

Clarification on Mayflower Claims

Genealogical Note: Caution regarding any Mayflower claims is well-founded. While some online trees attempt to link Abigail Hayward or Zepheniah Rogers to Thomas Rogers or John Alden of the Mayflower, there is currently no primary documentation (town, probate, or land records) proving a direct line from Zepheniah to a Mayflower passenger. His primary documented record begins with his birth in the Mendon, Massachusetts vital records as the son of Abigail Hayward.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy