This web site is intended to be genealogy central for the Popenoe/Popnoe/Poppino family, plus a lot about families with which we had some connection in past centuries. It offers me a chance to share what I have collected with other genealogists and family members and to learn from them.
At the end of the Seventeenth Century, Jean Papineau, a French Huguenot refugee from a merchant family in Niort, came to North America. He married Charlotte Bouniot, another Huguenot. Their two sons, John and Peter, are the patriarchs of the two branches of the family today, the first generally spelled Poppino and the other, Popenoe or Popnoe. Jean died when his sons were infants; his widow married Samuel Seely who brought the boys up, first in Stamford, CT, then in Orange County, NY.
On this web site you will come first to an essay called Frontier Family. Beginning in France in the seventeenth century, it is the story of the first several generations of the family, mostly the Popenoes, down to the mid 1800s. Next is the genealogy from James Popenoe, 1777-1848, down to all living Popenoes today and many of his other descendants. This is followed by The Popnoe family, descendants of Peter III Popenoe, mostly in Texas; and the Descendants of John Poppino. One part of the latter, Sylvester Newton Poppino is broken out to help recent descendants update their line. A biographical sketch of my father, Paul Popenoe, the man associated with the phrase "Can this marriage be saved?", was written by my brother. My mother's ancestry, Stankowitch, includes some teen-age letters from Germany in the 1860s where her father, later a concert pianist and composer, was sent for his musical education. I have also posted a letter from my Popenoe grandfather on his experience in the San Francisco Earthquake.
Going beyond the Popenoes of various spellings, I have extracted and annotated the diary of Charlotte's grandson, Sylvanus Seely which he kept from 1768 to 1821 giving an account of life in adjoining areas of NJ, PA and NY before, during and after the Revolutionary War with lots of details on his relatives. This is followed by a very unusual account of my 4th great grandfather Benjamin Taylor's experience in the French and Indian War, part of a genealogy of the Taylor family, including a detailed letter about him written in 1886 by Benjamin's grandson who knew him before he died. A genealogy of the Williams/Holcomb family contains excerpts from many of their letters written between 1815 and the 1860s.
| Salem County, NJ is about Peter Popino (son of Jean Papineau) and his land which went through many law suits over nearly a century and includes genealogical details on the neighbors who were involved. There are two papers on the settlement of western Virginia and Kentucky in the 18th Century. Some Early Shenandoah Valley Settlers discusses a number of families in old Frederick County, and is particularly concerned with trying to determine if Thomas Morgan, who bought land there in 1741, might have been my ancestor. Settling Along the Monongahela in the 18th Century tells the history of the settlement that became Morgantown, West Virginia, with genealogies of the leading families there. |
A section on NY families contains genealogies of families that were associated with the Poppinos and each other in Warwick and Goshen, Orange County, in the 18th and early to mid 19th centuries. It begins with an Introduction and Maps, then covers the following families: Armstrong, Carr, Dubois, Edsall, Finn, Jackson, Thomas Johnson, Richard Johnson, Minthorn/Minturn, Parkhurst, Roe, Totten, and Wood.
I have tried to go beyond a boring recital of who begat whom to give the context in which people lived and whatever details I could find about them. I have also tried to list sources where possible. Since I started this Web site I have heard from many people who have some connection to people in the various documents above. Often I have been able to help them and they have helped me. Thank you.
Oliver Popenoe, February 2008
PS: Don't take the coat of arms seriously. I am sure it was created by one of the many firms that do that sort of thing for the gullible. Still it does add a little class to the page! Thanks to Trisha Ann Smith, a Popenoe descendant, for the coloring.
For Cris Popenoe see also www.dawn-productions.com
Contact Information
You can reach me at:
Address: 148 Doral Greens Drive West, Rye Brook, NY 10573
e-mail: oliver@popenoe.com