Golding/Golden on Facebook / My Family History Notes
Golden Family History – Snow Days have value!
Today it snowed in metro Washington DC, shutting down just about everything except Congress … which doesn’t function much even in good weather.
The snow gave me a fine excuse to go through some of the 30+ years of collected family history research.
Over the years I’ve collected boxes of stuff but seldom ever had time to ever sift through it … a full Army career + family life + growing my business kept me all too busy.
>>> Today I was able to push the family back two more generations!! … all the way back to 1576.
I am ever so cheerful to announce that I now know who was the first Golden (of my line) that came to America: William Leftridge Golden, arriving in 1636.
1635 had not been a good year for William as both his father and his wife Dollie Ilene had passed away that year.
>>> Whether these deaths drove William to choose to come to America may never be known. However there is much information available on both William and his late bride — Dollie Ilene — perhaps there is much to know about this Golden.
Regardless as to why he emigrated, William Leftridge Golden (b.1598) left Lincolnshire, England in 1636 and arrived in Virginia at Jamestown. William came with his daughter Dorothy and two sons: John, and William.
William settled in what we now know as Charles City County, and then settled in at what we now know as New Kent, outside of Charles City County towards Richmond. William died in 1673.
Family lore has always been that we were Scots-Irish and had immigrated from Ireland. That turns out to technically true. My grandfather travelled to County Tyrone, Ireland and from there he sailed to America, arriving at Jamestown, Virginia.