PART FORTY-FOUR

The Broughton Gifford (Wiltshire) Line to Connecticut – 1580 to 2000

Updated September 2026

Another large gathering of the Colletts of Broughton Gifford

can be found within Part 35 -The Melksham to Wisconsin & Ontario Line

The update of this file at the end of 2025 provided a link to the new family line Part 87 – The Great Chalfield Wiltshire Line, thanks to some great research carried outby Jonathan Leyland in North Wales

Thanks to information received during 2014 from Carol Lyn Davis of Fort Worth in Texas, a whole branch of a South Wraxall family, previously included here in Part 44 was removed, and inserted in its rightful place within Part 31 – The New Wiltshire-Somerset Line

This file also received two major updates in 2012.  The first in May, following information received from Martin Chapman who confirmed that John and Drinkwater Collett were indeed brothers, and that their grandfather was Thomas Collett (Ref. 44J12).  The second was in October, when it was proved by Martin Collett in New Zealand that William and Joseph were brothers, and not cousins as previously stated, and were the sons of Henry and Martha Collett of Trowbridge. Joseph was therefore removed from this family line and placed within his correct family in Part 62 – The Wiltshire Line to New Zealand and Australia

The primary focus of this family line are the Wiltshire villages of Monkton Farleigh, South Wraxall and Atworth, near Broughton Gifford.  The Colletts of Broughton Gifford are also featured in Part 35 – The Melksham to Wisconsin and Ontario Line, and Part 62 – The Trowbridge to New Zealand Line, while South Wraxall and Atworth feature in Part 31 – The New Wiltshire-Somerset Line

Earlier Collett records, found during the research, that specifically relate to Broughton Gifford, but which have so far not been able to be placed within the main body of this file are:

William and Mary Collet whose son William was baptised on 20^th August 1671 and William, baptised on 27^th July 1677, the son of ‘Will Collet

Edward Collett, whose son Edward, and daughter Jane were both baptised on 15^th October 1666

John Collett, whose son Nicholas was baptised on 22^nd March 1667, whose own daughter Edith was baptised on 2^nd December 1694, who married Wm Gay on 12^th May 1714 at Broughton Gifford.  Edith may have had a sister Ann Collett who married Timothy Gay there on 12^th April 1701

John Collett, whose son John was baptised on 19^th February 1671

Robert and Mary Collett’s daughter Anne was baptised on 28^th December 1686, while their other daughter Mary was baptised on 23^rd December 1688.  After Robert died, his widow Mary Collett, at the age of 50, was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 6^th January 1712

Anthony Collett [87F1] was born at Great Chalfield in 1583, the son of Anthony Collett [87E1], who married Katherine Browne on 12^th November 1610 at Cherhill, a village and civil parish midway between Calne and Avebury, on the road to Marlborough.  Katherine was the daughter of Thomas Browne, and was baptised at Kingston-St-Michael, to the north of Chippenham, on 5^th April 1584.  The couple are known to have lived at Great Chalfield, where their four known children were born, and then baptised at nearby Broughton Gifford.  The two children missing from the list below are sons Anthony Collett [87G2] and Thomas Collett [87G4] whose family lines can now be found in the new Part 87 – The Great Chalfield Wiltshire Line, with son Anthony baptised at Broughton Gifford on the same day as his brother Daniel.

44G1 – John Collett was born circa 1612 at Great Chalford

44G2 – Daniel Collett was born circa 1617 at Great Chalford

John Collett [44G1] was very likely born at Great Chalfield, within a couple of years of his parents’ wedding day near the end of 1610, making him the eldest son of Anthony Collett and Katherine Browne.  He may have been around twenty years of age when he married Amy Barrett at Broughton Gifford on 16^th June 1632.  Their daughter Amy Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford in 1635 and was buried there on 20^th January 1690.  John Collett was also buried at Broughton Gifford, either on 13^th August 1667 or 28^th September 1670

44H1 – Amy Collett was born at Broughton Gifford before 1635

Daniel Collett [44G2] was born either late in 1617 or early in 1618 at the hamlet of Great Chalfield, just one mile from Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 17^th January 1618 in a joint ceremony with his brother Anthony [87G2].  He was another son of Anthony Collett and Katherine Browne of Great Chalfield.  Daniel was married and is known to have had at least two sons who were born and baptised at Broughton Gifford, although no record of his wife’s name has so far been discovered

44H2 – William Collett was born in 1638 at Broughton Gifford

44H3 – Luke Collett was born in 1640 at Broughton Gifford

William Collett [44H2] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1638, the son of Daniel Collett.  He is known to have married Elizabeth at Broughton Gifford in 1663, and it was also there that Elizabeth, who was some years younger than William, presented him with seven children, all of whom were born and baptised at Broughton Gifford.  Elizabeth Collett, the wife of William Collett senior, was buried at Broughton Gifford on 6^th September 1704.  Fifteen years later William Collett, the senior, was buried at Broughton Gifford with his wife on 10^th July 1719

44I1 – William Collett was born in 1665 at Broughton Gifford

44I2 – William Collett was born in 1666 at Broughton Gifford

44I3 – Elizabeth Collett was born in 1667 at Broughton Gifford

44I4 – Thomas Collett was born in 1671 at Broughton Gifford

44I5 – Daniel Collett was born in 1673 at Broughton Gifford

44I6 – William Collett was born in 1677 at Broughton Gifford

44I7 – Francis Collett was born in 1682 at Broughton Gifford

44I8 – Edward Collett was born in 1687 at Broughton Gifford

Luke Collett [44H3] was born at Broughton Gifford and most likely between 1640 and 1645.  He was the second son of Daniel Collett of Great Chalfield and Broughton Gifford

Prior to the January 2010 update of the Collett Family History website, Luke Collett was the first member of the family listed in Part 35 – The Melksham Line.  As a result of the update to this file in January 2010, Part 35 and Part 44 are now known to originate from the same family.  However, the task of combining these two large files would be a major logistical exercise so, for the time being at least, they will be retained as separate files.

Further details of the extension of this family line from Luke Collett (Ref. 35H1) can therefore be found in Part 35 – The Melksham to Wisconsin and Ontario Line

William Collett [44I1] was born at Broughton Gifford during the first half of 1665, the first-born child of William and Elizabeth Collett.  It was also at Broughton Gifford where he was baptised on 11^th June 1665, the parish register confirming that he was the son of William Collett.  Tragically, two months later he died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 3^rd August 1665.  Just over a year later, his mother gave birth to her second child, who was also given the name William

William Collett [44I2] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1666, the son of William and Elizabeth Collett, who was baptised there on 10^th September 1666 and confirmed as the son of William Collett.  William Collett from Broughton Gifford was in his late twenties when he married Sarah Butler of the parish of Westbury on 24^th March 1694 at Westbury in Wiltshire, with whom he had at least four children who were baptised at Broughton Gifford.  The parish register confirmed that the parents were William Collett, a dissenter, and his wife Sarah.  An outbreak of smallpox at Broughton Gifford took the life of dissenter William Collett senior who died there on 17^th April 1725 and was buried there the following day.  The Will, and an Inventory, of William Collett, yeoman of Broughton Gifford, was proved in Wiltshire (Ref. P2/C/1065).  The burial of two Sarah Colletts at Broughton Gifford were recorded there after William died there, with the first of them on 25^th November 1740, and the second on 31^st May 1745

Footnote:  Less than two years before the smallpox death of William Collett, the death of his younger brother Francis Collett (below) from smallpox, resulted in him being buried at Broughton Gifford on 14^th November 1723, when he was described as “not worshipping God”.

44J1 – John Collett was born in 1695 at Broughton Gifford

44J2 – William Collett was born in 1700 at Broughton Gifford

44J3 – Sarah Collett was born in 1703 at Broughton Gifford

44J4 – Isaac Collett was born in 1704 at Broughton Gifford

Elizabeth Collett [44I3] was born at Broughton Gifford during the latter half of 1668 and was baptised there on 27^th January 1669, the only known daughter of William and Elizabeth Collett

Thomas Collett[44I4] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1672 and it was there that he was baptised on 10^th January 1673, another son of William and Elizabeth Collett.  Thomas later married Alice Brind at Marlborough in Wiltshire on 29^th July 1694

Daniel Collett [44I5] was born at Broughton Gifford, either at the end of 1673 or early in 1674, and was baptised there on 15^th March 1674, the son of William and Elizabeth Collett.  He later married Jane Collett (Ref. 23J10), with all their children baptised at Broughton Gifford.  Thanks to David Hankey, towards the end of 2023, we now know that Jane was in fact the daughter of Henry Collett and was baptised at Chiseldon on 14^th October 1673.  Henry Collett (Ref. 23I9) was the second of the five children of yeoman farmer William Collett and Mary Komm (Combe).  When Jane Collett died at Broughton Gifford, where she was buried on 18^th December 1727, she was already a widow

44J5 – Jane Collett was born in 1694 at Broughton Gifford

44J6 – Ann Collett was born in 1696 at Broughton Gifford

44J7 – Margaret Collett was born in 1701 at Broughton Gifford

44J8 – Mary Collett was born in 1704 at Broughton Gifford

William Collett [44I6] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1677, where he was baptised on 27^th July 1677, another child of William and Elizabeth Collett, when his father was referred to simply as Will Collett.  It seems rather odd that he was born eleven years after his older brother of the same name, who was buried at Broughton Gifford on 18^th April 1725.  See William Collett (above).  Which raises the question, was he the son of an alternative William and Elizabeth Collett

Francis Collett[44I7] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1682 and was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 22^nd November 1682, the seventh child of William and Elizabeth Collett.  It was also at Broughton Gifford that he married Joan Hutton on 6^th April 1702, just thirty months before the death of his mother, where all their children were baptised.  At the time of the death of Francis Collett from smallpox, he was described as “not worshipping God” when he was buried at Broughton Gifford on 14^th November 1723 with his one-year-old son Thomas was buried in 1715.  His widow survived him by twenty-eight years, when Joan Collett, nee Hutton, was buried at Broughton Gifford on 14^th September 1751

Footnote: Francis’ older brother William Collett (above), was a dissenter, who also died from the outbreak of smallpox in Broughton Gifford, where he was buried on 17^th April 1725

44J9 – Elizabeth Collett was born in 1704 at Broughton Gifford

44J10 – Ann Collett was born in 1711 at Broughton Gifford

44J11 – Thomas Collett was born in 1714 at Broughton Gifford

44J12 – Thomas Collett was born in 1716 at Broughton Gifford

44J13 – Daniel Collett was born in 1718 at Broughton Gifford

44J14 – Sarah Collett was born in 1722 at Broughton Gifford

Edward Collett [44I8] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1687, where he was baptised on 24^th July 1687, the eighth and last child of William and Elizabeth Collett.  Tragically, only ten days later, Edward Collett, the son of William Collett, was buried at Broughton Gifford on 4^th August 1687

John Collett [44J1] may have been born at Westbury, where his parents were married in 1694, or at Broughton Gifford, the first-born child of William Collett and Sarah Butler.  It is most likely that he was some years old when he was baptised Broughton Gifford on 22^nd November 1698, when he was named as the son of William and Sarah Collett.  John was still in his teenage years when he married Eleanor who was born in Wiltshire around 1695.  They had at least six children, the second of which died very shortly after being born.  The baptism of five of those children named the parents as John and Ellenor Collett.  Sadly, for the family, Eleanor Collett died during the birth of the couple’s last child, and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 16^th December 1722, one week after the child was baptised there.  Seven years after being made a widower, John Collett died and was buried with his wife at Broughton Gifford on 28^th September 1729

44K1 – Isaac Collett was born in 1711 at Broughton Gifford

44K2 – unnamed Collett infant was born in 1714 at Broughton Gifford

44K3 – Martha Collett was born in 1716 at Broughton Gifford

44K4 – Sarah Collett was born in 1720 at Broughton Gifford

44K5 – William Collett was born in 1720 at Broughton Gifford

44K6 – John Collett was born in 1722 at Broughton Gifford

William Collett [44J2] was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 8^th February 1701, another son of dissenter John Collett and his wife Sarah

Sarah Collett [44J3] was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 7^th June 1703, the only known daughter of John Collett, a dissenter, and his wife Sarah.  Daughter Sarah was 13 years old when she died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 14^th April 1716

Isaac Collett [44J4] was baptised at Broughton Gifford 7^th January on 1706, the last known child of John Collett and Sarah Butler.  It is very likely that Isaac was a poorly child, because it was during the following day that he was buried at Broughton Gifford on 8^th January 1706

Jane Collett [44J5] was the first of the four known children of Daniel Collett of Broughton Gifford and Jane Collett of Chiseldon.  She was born at Broughton Gifford and baptised there on 1^st April 1694, the daughter of Daniel and Jane Collett

Ann Collett [44J6] was another daughter of Daniel and Jane Collett who was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 1^st November 1696

Margaret Collett [44J7] was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on 19^th May 1701, one of the four known daughters of Daniel Collett and his wife Jane.  Margaret married (1) William Pocock with whom she had six children, one of which was John Pocock born in 1730.  Upon the death of her husband in 1740, Margaret married (2) William Redman in 1752.  All her life would appear to have been spent at Broughton Gifford, where she was buried in 1767 at the age of 66.  Her son John Pocock went on to marry Sarah Butler whose daughter, Elizabeth married George Freegard at Melksham on 11^th February 1801, George being the 4^th great uncle of David Hankey – a valued contributor to this family line

Footnote.  It was also at Broughton Gifford on 27^th December 1736 that Joseph Collett (Ref. 35J6) married Anne Redman and where Anne was buried on 7^th January 1750, immediately following the birth of the couple’s fifth daughter.  William Collett (Ref. 44K10) also married Hester Redman at Melksham in 1780.  In addition to this, Joseph Collett (Ref. 62K2) was born at Trowbridge around 1750 and he later married Jane Redman at Melksham in 1772

Mary Collett [44J8] was born at Broughton Gifford where she was baptised on 25^th July 1704, the last known child of Daniel Collett and his wife Jane, whose maiden-name was also Collett.  Mary was just short of reaching her fourteenth birthday when she died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 16^th June 1718, when she was again confirmed as the daughter of Daniel Collett

Elizabeth Collett [44J9] was born in 1704 and was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 1^st January 1705, the eldest child of Francis Collett and his wife Joan Hutton

Ann Collett [44J10] was another daughter of Francis and Joan Collett and who was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 21^st October 1711.  There is a chance that she never married, as the death of Ann Collett happened towards the end of 1766, when she was buried at Broughton Gifford on 7^th December 1766.  Unlike other parish records, she was not described as the wife of anyone

Thomas Collett [44J11] was born at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 31^st March 1714, the son of Francis Collett and Joan Hutton, with the record of his baptism only including the name of his father.  Just less than ten months after being baptised, Thomas Collett, the son of Francis Collett, was buried at Broughton Gifford on 23^rd January 1715

Thomas Collett [44J12] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1716, following the premature death of his brother and namesake above.  It may have been the tragic death of his brother that resulted in his father being referred to as ‘not worshipping God’ when he died from smallpox, when Thomas was only six years old.  It was later when Thomas Collett married twenty-year-old Jane Woodman at Melksham on 25^th April 1739.  The couple then settled there, and it was there also that all their children were born and baptised, the baptism records confirming only the father’s name as Thomas Collett.  One month after the death of their eldest son Thomas, at the age of six years, his place in the family was taken by the couple’s next child, also called Thomas, with the father described as Thomas Collett (widow).  This probably indicates that his wife had died during the ordeal of the birth, although no record of her death has been found to confirm this.  After that sad event, when Thomas was only 30, it is likely that he was married for a second time, that second marriage producing the hitherto undiscovered missing son John Collett, who later married Hester Little

Footnote: What is known, from the information provided by Martin Chapman in 2012, and referred to in the introduction, is that one of the sons of Thomas Collett, John Collett (1760-1812), survived well into middle-age and gave birth to possibly five sons.  In 2019, it was confirmed that their known grandsons John and Drinkwater Collett were members of a family of seven children born at South Wraxall to John Collett  (1760-1812) and Hester Little.  Only the eldest sibling Jonathan, together with John and Drinkwater, survived beyond infancy.  In the previous version of this family line, it was incorrectly stated that it was Thomas and Jane’s son William and his wife Hester Redman who were the parents of John and Drinkwater Collett, hence the reason for the non-discovery of the brother’s baptisms, or those of their older siblings

44K7 – Thomas Collett was born in 1740 at Melksham

44K8 – Henry Collett was born in 1741 at Melksham

44K9 – Sarah Collett was born in 1743 at Melksham

44K10 – William Collett was born in 1745 at Melksham

44K11 – Thomas Collett was born in 1746 at Melksham

Below is the ‘missing son’ of Thomas Collett, the father of Thomas’ grandsons John & Drinkwater Collett

44K12 – John Collett was born circa 1760 or earlier, at Melksham

Daniel Collett [44J13] was born in 1718 and was baptised on 23^rd November 1718, at Broughton Gifford, another daughter of Francis and Joan Collett

Sarah Collett [44J14] was the last child born to Francis Collett and Joan Hutton and was baptised on at Broughton Gifford on 27^th May 1722

Isaac Collett [44K1] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1711, the first-born child to John Collett and his wife Eleanor, who was baptised there on 18^th February 1711

An unnamed Collett [44K2] child died before it could be baptised and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 18^th May 1714, the child of John and Eleanor Collett

Martha Collett [44K3] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1716 and was baptised there on 20^th April 1716, the third child of John and Eleanor Collett.  She was 12 years of age when she died, following which Martha was buried at Broughton Gifford on 2^nd May 1728

Sarah Collett [44K4] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1720, where she was baptised on 1^st January 1721 with her twin brother William (below), another two children of John and Eleanor Collett.  One week later, Sarah Collett, daughter of John Collett, was buried at Broughton Gifford on 8^th January 1721

William Collett [44K5] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1720, the twin brother of Sarah (above), who were baptised together at Broughton Gifford in a joint ceremony on 1^st January 1721, the children of John and Eleanor Collett, and also confirmed in the Bishop’s Transcripts

John Collett [44K6] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1722 and was baptised there on 10^th December 1722, the last child John and Eleanor Collett, his mother not surviving the ordeal of his birth.  He later married (1) Anne Suddery at Holt – two miles south-west of Broughton Gifford, on 25^th November 1740, with whom he possibly had four children who were all born and baptised at Broughton Gifford.  The death of John Collett took place at Broughton Gifford, after which he was buried there on 24^th February 1752.  By then three of his four children, Mary, William and Sarah, had suffered infant deaths and, seventeen months later, Anne Collett, the wife of John, was buried at Broughton Gifford on 23^rd September 1753.  Ten years later, and following the death of son John, he too was buried at Broughton Gifford in 1763

44L1 – Mary Collett was born in 1743 at Broughton Gifford

44L2 – William Collett was born in 1745 at Broughton Gifford

44L3 – John Collett was born in 1748 at Broughton Gifford

44L4 – Sarah Collett was born in 1750 at Broughton Gifford

Thomas Collett [44K7] was baptised at Melksham on 30^th April 1740, the eldest of the five children of Thomas Collett and Jane Woodman.  He was six years of age when he died and was buried at Melksham on 14^th September 1746

Henry Collett [44K8] was baptised on at Melksham 20^th December 1741, another son of Thomas and Jane Collett.  Curiously, the burial of Henry Collett took place at Melksham on 6^th February 1747, when he was described as a stranger

Sarah Collett [44K9] was baptised at Melksham on 18^th September 1743, the only daughter and third child of Thomas and Jane Collett.  Although not confirmed, after consulting the parish burial records at Melksham, one source states she was buried there on 12^th October 1746.  If proved to be true, that sad event happened a month after her older brother Thomas (above) had died and four months before the death of her brother Henry (above).  However, at nearby Broughton Gifford on 24^th April 1768, Sarah Collett married Stephen Bevan of North Bradley to the south of Trowbridge

William Collett [44K10] was baptised at Melksham on 2^nd July 1745, the son of Thomas Collett and Jane Woodman, although it was only his father’s name that appeared on the baptism record.  No further record of William has been positively identified, although it is worth mentioning that he was not the William Collett who married Hester Redman at Melksham on 28^th March 1780.  He was the son of Henry and Martha Collett (Ref. 62J1) who starts Part 62 – The Wiltshire Line to New Zealand and Australia.  William (Ref. 62K3) and his older brother Joseph Collett, both married daughters of John Redman and Elizabeth Fox, Esther Redman (Hester), and Jane Redman, respectively

Thomas Collett [44K11] was baptised at Melksham on 26^th October 1746, the youngest son and last child born to Thomas Collett and his wife Jane Woodman.  As with his brother William (above), it was only his father’s name that was recorded at the baptism, but unlike before, on that occasion, the parish register recorded him as Thomas Collett (widow), indicating his mother had died, mostly likely during his birth.  It was at Melksham on 17^th November 1771 that Thomas Collett married the much younger Mary Jones who was born at Trowbridge on 19^th March 1755.  Mary, who was not yet seventeen years old when she married Thomas, was expecting the couple’s first child on their wedding day, who was baptised at Melksham just two months later.  Four more children were added to their family over the following twelve years, and all of them were also born and baptised at Melksham

44L5 – Mary Collett was born in 1772 at Melksham

44L6 – Sarah Collett was born in 1774 at Melksham

44L7 – James Collett was born in 1778 at Melksham

44L8 – Catherine Collett was born in 1781 at Melksham

44L9 – Thomas Collett was born in 1784 at Melksham

John Collett [44K12], born around 1760, whose date and place of birth or baptism has not been determined, must have been the son of Thomas Collett whose known grandchildren were John and Drinkwater Collett of South Wraxall.  It was at Corsham, a few miles north-east of South Wraxall, on 4^th July 1785, that John Collett married Hester Little.  On that day, John Collett was described as a butcher of South Wraxall.  Twenty-three years earlier, as Esther Little, she was baptised at Biddestone, near Corsham, on 23^rd May 1762, the daughter of James Little, who was named as a bondsman, and a yeoman, at the wedding of his daughter to John Collett.  Once married, the couple settled in South Wraxall where their children were born and baptised, and where some of them were buried.  On every occasion bar one, the children’s parish baptism records stated that John’s occupation was a butcher, while on the baptism of his second child he was described as a baker

Upon the occasion of his passing, John Collett was buried at South Wraxall on 19^th June 1812, when he was recorded as being 47 years old, which places his year of birth around 1765, so it may not have been an accurate assessment of his age.  After twelve and a half years as a widow, Hester Collett was living at nearby Atworth, most likely with her married son John when she died, after which she was buried with her later husband and their children at South Wraxall on 13^th February 1825.  The parish burial record noted that she was 62 years of age, confirming her year of birth around 1762, making her slightly older than her husband accounting to his burial record

44L10 – Jonathan Collett was born in 1786 at South Wraxall

44L11 – William Little Collett was born in 1788 at South Wraxall

44L12 – Drinkwater Collett was born in 1790 at South Wraxall

44L13 – Hester Collett was born in 1795 at South Wraxall

44L14 – William Collett was born in 1796 at South Wraxall

44L15 – John Collett was born in 1799 at South Wraxall

44L16 – Drinkwater Collett was born in 1802 at South Wraxall

Mary Collett [44L1] was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on 11^th September 1743, the first-born child of John Collett and Anne Suddery of Holt.  Mary was only three months old when she died at Broughton Gifford, where she was buried on 18^th December 1743

William Collett [44L2] was born at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 19^th April 1745, the second child and eldest son of John and Anne Collett.  Tragically, four days later, the parish register at Broughton Gifford confirmed that he was buried there on 23^rd April 1745

John Collett [44L3] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1748 and was the third child of John and Ann Collett, following which he was baptised there on 4^th April 1748, as confirmed in 2019 with the receipt of the parish register for Broughton Gifford from Stephen Carpenter of the Wiltshire Family History Society.  By the time he was four years old, his father had died, with three of his siblings having already suffered infant deaths and, in the autumn of 1852, John was made an orphan following the death of his mother.  It is not known what happened to John after those tragic incidents except that, within the parish registers for 1763 was recorded the death of John Collett junior at Broughton Gifford on 30^th January 1763.  Unfortunately, perhaps because he was an orphan there was no note to say whose son he was.  The same day that John Collett was buried at Broughton Gifford, so too was Henry Collett [44Mo] who had been baptised there on 5^th July 1761.  He was the only known child of John Collett [44L3a] and his wife Sarah.  Who John Collett and wife Sarah were remains a mystery

It was previously written here that it was believed John was the sole survivor of his family who was twenty-six when he married Elizabeth Knapp on 9^th May 1774 at St James’ Church in Trowbridge, five miles south of Broughton Gifford.  Elizabeth, who was recorded as Betty Knapp, was the eldest of the six children of John Knapp and Mary Tucker and was baptised at Trowbridge on 16^th August 1749 and, on the day of her wedding, Betty would have been with-child.  John and Betty are known to have been living at Trowbridge when their marriage was blessed with the birth of three children.  In addition, the Ahnentafel Report confirms that John Collett and Elizabeth Knapp were the parents of the three children described below.  By the time their daughter was eight years of age, John Collett had died and his widow Betty Collett was married to widower Job Holloway, their wedding taking place at St James’ Church in Trowbridge on 9^th May 1788

44M1 – John Collett was born in 1774 at Trowbridge

44M2 – Thomas Collett was born in 1777 at Trowbridge

44M3 – Mary Collett was born in 1780 at Trowbridge

Sarah Collett [44L4] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1750, and it was there that she was baptised on 26^th December 1750, another daughter of John Collett and Anne Suddery of Holt.  Just seventeen days later she died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 13^th January 1751 with her two older siblings

Mary Collett [44L5] was born at Melksham in 1772 and was baptised there on 12^th January 1772, the first child of Thomas Collett and Mary Jones

Sarah Collett [44L6] was born at Melksham in 1774 where she was baptised on 11^th December 1774, the second of the five known children of Thomas and Mary Collett.  Sarah later married James Gingell at St Michael’s Church in Melksham on 8^th June 1794 with whom she had two daughters, Sarah Gingell and Susannah Gingell, who were born during 1797 and 1799, although both were baptised at Melksham on the same day, that being 14^th April 1799.  It was Susannah Gingell who later married Jacob Silverthorne at Melksham on 16^th October 1821, whose present-day descendent is David Hankey from Leicestershire, who kindly provided these new details, plus further details in 2017 and 2018

James Collett [44L7] was born at Melksham and it was there that he was baptised on 22^nd March 1778t, the third child and eldest son of Thomas and Mary Collett

Catherine Collett [44L8] was born at Melksham in 1781 and was baptised there on 19^th August 1781, the youngest daughter of Thomas and Mary Collett

Thomas Collett [44L9] was born at Melksham in 1784 where he was baptised at the Church of St Michael & All Angels on 21^st March 1784 and confirmed as the son of Thomas Collett in the Bishop’s Transcript.  He was the last known child of Thomas Collett and Mary Jones.  Thomas of Broughton Gifford was married twice, the first time to (1) Maria Spencer at Melksham on 26^th August 1805 at St Michael’s & All Angels Church following the reading of banns.  The witness at their wedding were Harry Collett and Caleb Angel.  Maria was possibly the daughter of Anthony and Elizabeth Spencer, who was born on 3^rd August 1784 and baptised on 19^th December 1784 at Biddestone near Chippenham, to the north of Melksham.  The eight children born to Thomas Collett, a weaver, and his wife Maria, as confirmed in the Bishop’s Transcripts, were Stephen born in 1807 and baptised at Broughton Gifford, as was William at the start of 1809, and then Thomas in 1811, while Harriet who was born in 1813 was baptised at St Michael’s & All Angels Church in Melksham, followed there by John in 1815, Harry in 1816, Henry in 1818, and James in 1920.  When son James was two years old, Maria Collett nee Spencer, died in 1822 and was buried in the churchyard of St Michael & All Angels Church in Melksham on 2^nd June 1822 when she was 38 and recorded as the wife of Thomas Collett.  Prior to that sad event, the family had suffered the loss of son Harry aged one year in 1817, the next son given the name Henry.  He also may have been known as Harry, with the later death of Harry Collett of Melksham recorded there (Ref. 5a 56) during the summer of 1858

Fifteen months later, the second marriage of Thomas Collett, widower, and the much younger (2) Jane Marks, took place at Winsley to the west of Bradford-on-Avon on 16^th September 1823 and was recorded in the Bishop’s Transcripts, when the witnesses were William Bolwell and John Godwin junior.  The bride and groom were both recorded as residing in Winsley, while Jane was the daughter of John and Ann Marks, who had been baptised at St Michael’s & All Angels Church in Melksham on 3^rd May 1795.  It is just under eight miles to Winsley from Melksham, which makes you think the couple may have been secretly married there that day, perhaps without her parents’ consent, with Thomas being eleven years older than Jane, with a large family already.  That second marriage produced a further four children for Thomas, with the first three born at Melksham.  For the baptism of the third of those children at St Michael’s & All Angels Church in Melksham, Thomas Collett was described as an inn keeper, following the earlier occupations of a weaver, and a butcher (?) when he married Jane in 1823.  The couple emigrated to America in 1829 with Thomas’ earlier sons Thomas and Henry, and his and Jane’s three sons, John, Job and Jacob, and it was in America that the last of their four children was born

Looking for a fresh start in life in the New World, the family entered America through New York, following which they resided at Hamden in Connecticut, and Lowell in Massachusetts, before finally settling at Bangor, Maine, in 1845.  And it was there that they founded a file cutting business to serve the local lumber trade.  Nine years prior to that Thomas Collett, his wife, and three children were recorded as attending public worship at the Grace Episcopal Church in Hamden during March in 1836.  It was one year later that another positive sighting of Thomas Collett from England was discovered when he applied for US citizenship at the Superior Court in New Haven County, Connecticut on 1^st April 1837.  Whether or not, that was granted, we do not know.  However, on 28^th February 1843, Thomas Collett from Wiltshire born in 1785, submitted a second application for American Citizenship at the Police Court of Lowell in Middlesex, Massachusetts, signing the form as Thomas Collett junior.  Two supporters signed the form, Jerimiah Bishop, and Bezer Amos, who stated they had known the applicant as living in the State of Connecticut for more than five years, who was now currently residing in Lowell.  Jerimiah Bishop may have been related to Thomas via his eldest son Stephen, whose daughter married a member of the Bishop family.  For Thomas to be the son of Thomas means he must have been Thomas (Ref. 44L9), the son of Thomas Collett (Ref. 44K11)

By 1846, Thomas Collett junior, whose father and grandfather were Thomas Collett, and his own son of the same name, were both living on Pine Street in Bangor, where they were working as file cutters.  The subsequent US Census in 1850 included Thomas Collett from England who was 65 and with no occupation, who was living in the City of Bangor, Penobscot, Maine, with his wife Jane Collett from England who was 54.  Living with the couple was their daughter Emma Collett aged nine and born in Maine, plus Samuel Jordan from England who was 36 and described as having no job of work.  That same day in 1850, Thomas’s two sons, Thomas and half-brother John, were living next door to each other in Hamden, New Haven.  After a further ten years, the census conducted in 1860 identified Thomas and Jane residing in Hamden, New Haven County, Connecticut, where he was 75 and she was 65, when the value of their real estate was $1,000, the same as their personal estate.  Two years later Thomas Collett suffered the death of his second wife Jane at home in Bangor on 23^rd April 1862 at the age of 68.  Just over a year after that, Thomas was visiting relatives at St. Louis in Missouri where he died on 3^rd July 1863, after which he was buried there.  However, his wife Jane and other members of his family were buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, where six Collett memorial headstones are set aside in a family group

44M4 – Stephen Collett was born in 1807 at Broughton Gifford

44M5 – William Collett was born in 1809 at Broughton Gifford

44M6 – Thomas Collett was born in 1811 at Broughton Gifford

44M7 – Harriet Collett was born in 1813 at Melksham

44M8 – John Collett was born in 1815 at Melksham

44M9 – Harry Collett was born in 1816 at Melksham

44M10 – Henry Collett was born in 1818 at Melksham

44M11 – James Collett was born in 1820 at Melksham

The following are the four children of Thomas Collett by his second wife Jane Marks:

44M12 – John Collett was born in 1824 at Melksham

44M13 – Job Collett was born in 1825 at Melksham

44M14 – Jacob Frank Collett was born in 1826 at Melksham

44M15 – Emma Collett was born in 1841 at Maine, USA

Jonathan Collett [44L10] was baptised at South Wraxall on 4^th June 1786, the first-born child of butcher John Collett and Esther Little

William Little Collett [44L11] was baptised at South Wraxall on 24^th February 1788, the second son of baker John and Esther Collett.  Almost exactly seven years later, William Collett, son of John and Hester, was buried at South Wraxall on 20^th February 1795

Drinkwater Collett [44L12] was born at South Wraxall, where he was baptised on 14^th February 1790, another son of John Collett, a butcher, by his wife Esther.  He survived for just under seventeen months, when he died and was buried at South Wraxall on 5^th July 1791

Hester Collett [44L13] was the only daughter of John Collett and his wife Hester Little, and was baptised at South Wraxall on 26^th July 1795.  Tragically, she was fifteen years of age when she died, following which she was buried at South Wraxall on 2^nd August 1810, and again confirmed as the daughter of John and Hester Collett

John Collett [44L15] was baptised at South Wraxall on 4^th August 1799, one of the surviving sons of John and Hester Collett, and one of the known grandsons of Thomas Collett and Jane Woodman.  It is also known that, on 29^th October 1823, at Kington St Michael, John Collett of Bradford-on-Avon married Elizabeth Pinnigar from Kington Langley, just north of Chippenham.  Once married, the couple settled in the village of Atworth, where all their children were born.  Furthermore, the baptism records at Atworth confirm the children’s parents were John and Elizabeth Collett, and that John was a labourer.  It seems highly likely that John’s widowed mother Hester was living with him and his family at Atworth when she passed away in 1825, although she was buried at South Wraxall with other members of the family.  By the time of the Atworth census in 1841 John and Elizabeth had six children living there with them.  The couple’s rounded ages did not reflect their true age, with John being 35 rather than 40, and his wife was 30 when she was also nearer forty.  Their children at that time were Eliza Collett aged 14, John Collett aged 12, Mary Collett who was nine, George Collett who was seven, Alfred Collett who was four, and Henry Collett who was not yet one-year-old.  The couple’s eldest son Thomas Collett had already left home to make his own way in the world in South Wales, where he was later reunited with his younger brother John

The family was still living within the Chapelry of Atworth in 1851 when agricultural labourer John Collett from South Wraxall was 51, his wife Elizabeth from Kington Langley was 50, and their four children on that occasion were Eliza Collett who was 24, John Collett who was 22 and a cabinet maker, Henry Collett aged ten years who was attending the local school, as was his brother Edwin Collett who was five years old.  Sadly, for the family, it would seem the three missing children [Mary, George, and Alfred] did not survive beyond childhood, since no further record of any of them has been found

Elizabeth Collett, nee Pinnigar, died sometime during the next decade, since by 1861 John Collett, aged 60, was a widower living in Atworth with just his youngest child Edwin Collett, aged 15, living there with him.  After a further ten years widower John Collett from South Wraxall was still living at Atworth in 1871 when he was 71 years old and a cottager.  Living there with him was his eldest son Thomas who was a bachelor of 46 and a servant not in employment.  It is interesting to note that at Atworth in 1871 there were three Collett households in a row, with just the elderly Marriott couple separating John and Thomas from Henry Collett [35N64] of Broughton Gifford and his two young children Sarah Ann and Thomas, who were living next door to Rose Cottage, the home of Sarah Halstead Collett, the widow of John Collett [35O17] from Broughton Gifford and her two Atworth born children Sarah and John

Shortly after that John and Thomas moved into the town of Bradford-on-Avon, where they were residing at the time of the next census.  According to the census in 1881, widower John Collett was 81 and was working as a general labourer, while living at Main Street in Bradford-on-Avon.  Living with him was his unmarried son Thomas Collett who was confirmed as having been born at Atworth.  It was the same situation in 1891 except that by then John Collett, aged 91 and living on his own means, was once again living in Atworth at Bath Road with just his eldest son Thomas for company, who was 66 and also living on his own means.  It was one year later that the death of John Collett aged 92, was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 115) during the first quarter of 1892

44M16 – Thomas Collett was born in 1824 at Atworth

44M17 – Eliza Collett was born in 1826 at Atworth

44M18 – John Collett was born in 1828 at Atworth

44M19 – Mary Anne Collett was born in 1831 at Atworth

44M20 – George Collett was born in 1833 at Atworth

44M21 – Alfred Collett was born in 1836 at Atworth

44M22 – Henry Collett was born in 1840 at Atworth

44M23 – Edwin Collett was born in 1845 at Atworth

Drinkwater Collett [44L16] was born at South Wraxall in 1802, the youngest son of John Collett, a butcher, and Hester Little, and was baptised there on 10^th July 1802.  He was certainly the younger brother of John Collett of South Wraxall (above) and the grandson of Thomas Collett and Jane Woodman.  It was at nearby Atworth on 30^th November 1828 that Drinkwater Collett married Ann Reynolds, with whom he had four children, all born at Atworth.  When their first two children were baptised at Atworth, Drinkwater’s occupation was stated to be that of a labourer.  It was also at Atworth, around that time, when the family of Drinkwater’s brother John Collett, and his wife Elizabeth, were living there with their family, the children of both families having similar names

In the Atworth (parish of Great Bradford) census of 1841, Drinkwater Collett was listed with a rounded age of 40, as was his wife Ann, while their children were John Collett aged 14, Hannah Collett who was five, and Thomas Collett who was one year old.  Staying with the family that census day was Jane Reynolds, who was 25 and Ann’s younger sister.  Their son Thomas tragically died during the months shortly after the census day in 1841, and the loss to the family was offset by the birth of another son, William.  However, further tragedy struck the family over the following years when first, the couple’s last child suffered a premature death and, at the end of the decade, Drinkwater’s wife Ann Reynolds passed away and was buried at South Wraxall on 7^th April 1850.  Her death was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 189) during the second quarter of the year

One year later, Drinkwater was incorrectly recorded as being 42 years of age in the Bradford-on-Avon census of 1851, when he would have been around 50, having regard to his given age ten years later in the census of 1861.  The census return for 1851 described Drinkwater Collett as a widower who was working as an agricultural labourer living at Upper Wraxall, when his place of birth was confirmed as South Wraxall.  The only member of his family still living with him at Upper Wraxall was his daughter Hannah who was 17 and born at Atworth, who was described as at home, presumably because she was looking after her father as his housekeeper.  Hannah may have married during the next ten years since in 1861, Drinkwater Collett was a lodger in the home of James Pearce at Lower Street in Chalfield-by-Wraxall.  He was described as a widower of 60 years of age from South Wraxall, at which time he was still working as an agricultural labourer

44M24 – John Collett was born in 1829 at Atworth

44M25 – Hannah Tabitha Collett was born in 1836 at Atworth

44M26 – Thomas Collett was born in 1840 at Atworth

44M27 – William Collett was born in 1841 at Atworth

John Collett [44M1] was born at Trowbridge in 1774, the first-born child of John Collett and Elizabeth (Betty) Knapp who were married at St James’ Church in Trowbridge on 9^th May 1774, where John was baptised on 11^th September 1774.  Thomas Collett [44M2] was born at Trowbridge in 1777, another son of John and Betty Collett, who was baptised there on 10^th August 1777.  Mary Collett [44M3] was born at Trowbridge in 1780, the last of the three children of John Collett and Betty Knapp, where she was baptised during April that year.  When she was twenty-one years of age, Mary married John Watts on 5^th August 1801 at St James’ Church in Trowbridge.  Further work needs to be done to ascertain who was the father of John, Thomas, and Mary, since the John Collett of Broughton Gifford who was born there in 1748, is believed to have died there in 1763

Stephen Collett [44M4] was born in 1807, one year after his parents Thomas Collett and Maria Spencer were married in Melksham, where Stephen later said he was born.  It was at St Mary’s Church in Broughton Gifford that he was baptised on 30^th August 1807.  His mother died in 1822, after which his father was remarried to a much younger second wife who presented Stephen and his siblings with three half-brothers, and a half-sister who was born after the family sailed to America in 1929.  Stephen appears to have been around 18 years old when he married Maria who was of full-age, with whom he had three daughters, all born in Melksham.  Only the baptism for the last child, Harriet Collett, has been found who was baptised on 29^th May 1836 and confirmed by the Bishop’s Transcript for St Michael’s & All Angels Church in Melksham.  For the first national census in June 1841, the family had left the Melksham area and had moved to the Chepstow & Monmouth registration district.  Stephen’s rounded age was 35, while Maria’s was 40, and living with them were their first two daughters Sarah Collett aged 14, and Caroline Collett who was nine years old.  Where the youngest child was that day has not been discovered.  Perhaps Stephen was in poor health that day, since it was that same year that he died.  Ten years later in 1851, Mary was a widow aged 52, when she was living within the area of Usk & Pontypool with her daughters, Sarah who was 23, and Caroline who was 20

On that same day in 1851, Stephen’s daughter, 14-year-old Harriet Collett, was staying with her uncle William Collett (below) and his wife and child in Melksham.  Eight years later the marriage of Harriet Collett aged 23, the daughter of Stephen Collett, and 25-year-old Henry Bishop, the son of John and Rachel Bishop, took place at St Paul’s Church in Worcester on 29^th October 1859.  By 1871 they and their four children were living in the Battersea area of South London.  Henry Bishop from Yeovil in Somerset was 37, Harriet Bishop from Melksham was 35, and their children were Alice M Bishop who was eleven, Henry J Bishop was eight, Louise Bishop was six, and George Bishop was four years of age.  All the children had been born in Worcestershire

44N1 – Sarah Collett was born in 1827 at Melksham

44N2 – Caroline Collett was born in 1830 at Melksham

44N3 – Harriet Collett was born in 1836 at Melksham

William Collett [44M5] was born at Broughton Gifford early in 1809, another son of Thomas and Maria Collett, who was baptised there on 12^th February 1809.  In 1822 his mother died, with his father remarrying not long after.  Sometime after the birth of three half-brothers, they and William’s father and stepmother headed off to a new life in America during 1829.  William remained in Melksham where he married Elizabeth Kendall Gunstone at St Michael’s & All Angels Church in Melksham on 8^th October 1840.  The witnesses were Jane Gunstone and Enoch Isaac, with Elizabth being one of the daughters of John Gunstone and Sarah Kendall, who was baptised at Melksham on 16^th August 1812.  There is a possibility that Elizabeth may have been William’s second wife, since the birth of Mary Collett [44n3a], daughter of William and Catherine happened at Broughton Gifford in 1832, where she was baptised on 29^th April that year.  Further research is needed to look into this

By June 1841, the Wiltshire born couple was living at Town Tything in Melksham where Stephen was 31 and Elizabeth was 28.  That census day Elizabeth was expecting the birth of the couple’s first child and gave birth to daughter Sarah Maria, named after her maternal and paternal grandmothers, who was baptised at Melksham on 17^th September 1841.  In the Melksham census of 1851, the same three members of the family were still living in Melksham where William Collett was 40, Elizabeth K Collett was 38, and Sarah Maria was nine years of age.  Staying with the family that day was niece Harriet Collett who was 14, the youngest of the three daughters of William’s older brother Stephen (above) and his wife Maria

Within the following four months, and ten years after the birth of their daughter, Elizabeth gave birth to a son at Melksham, Thomas William Collett, who was baptised there on 31^st August 1851, when the parish record confirmed he was the son of William Collett and Elizabeth Kendall Collett.  However, when his birth was registered at Melksham (Ref. viii 383) during the third quarter of 1851 his name was recorded at William Thomas Collett.  Tragically, William died four months before his son celebrated his fourth birthday, with the death of William Collett recorded at Melksham on 25^th April 1855 at the age of 46.  Furthermore, thirteen years after being made a widow, Elizabeth suffered the loss of her son when the death of William Thomas Collett aged seventeen was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 60) during the summer of 1868

As regards her daughter, Sarah Maria Collett married George Young at Melksham on 8^th May 1871 when they were both of full-age (Ref. 5a 185).  Sarah was named as the daughter of William Collett, with George the son of Stephen Young, when the witnesses were John Gunstone and Elijah Linger, and two other members of the Gunstone family, Sarah Jane and Mary Jane, were also in attendance, perhaps as bridesmaids.  George and Sarah had two children at Melksham; Henry Charles Young born on 14^th June 1872 and baptised on 10^th July 1872, and Georgina Emily Young born on 14^th March 1874 and baptised on 27^th May 1874

44N4 – Sarah Maria Collett was born in 1841 at Melksham

44N5 – William Thomas Collett was born in 1851 at Melksham

Thomas Collett [44M6] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1811 where he was baptised on 2^nd June 1811, the third son of Thomas Collett, a weaver, and Maria Spencer who died in 1822.  Seven years later, with his father marrying for a second time in 1824, Thomas and new wife Jane emigrated to America, where son Thomas joined after he became a married man.  That happened towards the end of the 1830s when Thomas married Ann, as confirmed in the census of 1841 when they were residing in Broughton Gifford where Thomas had a rounded age of 25, and Ann had a rounded age of 20.  Shortly thereafter, father and son, together with his wife, were reunited in America and were recorded at Bangor in Maine where they founded a file cutting business to serve the local lumber trade.  That was confirmed in the Bangor census of 1845 when they were living in adjacent properties on Pine Street in Bangor where both men were described as file cutters

During the next few years Thomas’ half-brother John (below) was married, most likely in Maine, before moving to Hamden in New Haven, Connecticut.  After that event, Thomas and John ended up having the same occupation at Hamden, where they were living next-door to each other on the day of the census in 1950.  The two half-brothers were both described as butchers, perhaps even working together.  By then Thomas Collett from England was 37, his English wife Ann Collett was 34, and their daughter Harriet A Collett was two years of age and had been born in Connecticut.  The couple’s second child was born at Hamden just a few weeks after that census day, with a second son born there two years later.  Thomas Collett junior was born on 7^th July 1850, although he was later referred to as Daniel Thomas Collett when he died at Hamden in 1922 aged 72 and was buried there in the Central Burying Grounds.  His younger brother Stephen was born at Hamden on 3^rd October 1852 and, in both cases, the parents were confirmed as Thomas and Ann Collett

Ten years later the same five member of the family were recorded in the Hamden census of 1860, by which time half-brother John Collett was no longer living alongside the family.  Thomas was 47 and still a butcher, Ann was 45, Harriet was 12, Daniel was nine, and Stephen was seven.  The census form also stated that Thomas’ real estate was $2,000, with his personal estate valued at $475.  The couple’s daughter and youngest son had moved out of the family home in Hamden during the 1860, with just son Daniel aged 19 still living there with them.  By then Thomas H Collett was 59 and a farmer, having a real estate of $3,500 and a personal estate of $530, when Ann Collett was 55 and keeping house, whose son Stephen Collett was living nearby in Hamden having the same occupation as brother Daniel, both working at an auger shop

44N6 – Harriet Ann Collett was born in 1848 at Hamden, New Haven

44N7 – Daniel Thomas Collett was born in 1850 at Hamden, New Haven

44N8 – Stephen Collett was born in 1852 at Hamden, New Haven

Harriet Collett [44M7] was born in 1813 at Broughton Gifford where she was baptised on 19^th December 1813, the fourth and only daughter of Thomas Collett (1784-1863) and Maria Spencer (1784 -1822)

John Collett [44M8] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1815, another son of Thomas and Maria Collett.  His mother died when he was seven years old, following which his father remarried and, eventually in 1829, the family sailed off to a new life in America.  However, John Collett from Broughton Gifford may have stayed in the village of his birth, where he was a married man in the census returns for 1851 and 1861.  In the first of them, the childless couple was recorded as John Collett who was 36, an inn keeper and a shoemaker, and Jane Collett who was 43 from Wales, when they were living in Bradford-on-Avon, with a servant girl and an elderly gentleman lodger.  Ten years later they were residing at The Common in Holt, two miles from Bradford-on-Avon, when John from Broughton Gifford was 46 and a shoemaker, and Jane from South Wales was 53.  To supplement the income earned by her husband, Jane took in lodgers and, on that census day in 1861 there were three middle-aged boarders staying with the couple.  Nine years later, the death of John Collett, aged 55, was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 96) during the first three months of 1870

Harry Collett [44M9] was born at Broughton Gifford in 1816 and was the sixth child of weaver Thomas and Maria Collett, who was baptised there on 29^th September 1816.  He was one-year-old when he died in 1817 and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 27^th April 1817

Henry Collett [44M10] was named after his late brother ‘Harry’ (above) and may also have been known as Harry in his honour.  He was another son of Thomas and Maria Collett, probably born at Broughton Gifford around 1818 prior to a family moving to Melksham, where he was baptised on 21^st May 1820, when the parish record was mistakenly read and transcribed as ‘the child of James and Maria’.  With poor handwriting, it is easy to misread Thomas as James.  Also baptised with him that same day was his younger brother James (below).  The deciding factor in this, is that the occupation of the father of Henry Collett was confirmed as that of a weaver, which had previously been established as his job of work on the occasion of earlier sibling’s baptisms.  Henry’s mother died in 1822, after which his father married Jane Marks.  Thanks to Laura Swenson Akerman in America, who generously provided lots of details of the life of Henry Collett, we now know that Henry accompanied his father, his stepmother Jane, and his three half-brothers, John, Job, and Jacob (below) to America in 1929.  His older brother Thomas Collett (above) joined them there a few years later

Once in America, and at the age of 21, Henry Collett from England married Maria Maslen (1820-1900) in New York on 2^nd June 1839.  Maria was the daughter of Stephen and Jane Maslen of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire, where Maria was baptised on 24^th December 1820.  The two witnesses were Maria’s sister Jane C Maslen and her future husband Lorenzo Demond.  Two days later, Henry purchased a property in Jackson County, Illinois, where the couple was living in 1841 after the birth of their first child in New York.  A second property was acquired there on 1^st January 1841.  Nine years later the census in 1850 identified the family living at Hamden in New Haven, Connecticut, where Henry purchased two more properties, which he eventually sold to two residents of Hamden.  In the census that year Henry Collett from England was 32 and a mechanic, Maria was 29 and also born in England, and their three sons were Walsingham H Collett aged ten, William M Collett aged eight, both born in Illinois, and Charles C Collett who was two years old and born after the family settled in Hamden

It was later than same year that the couple’s last child was born in Hamden, and when Henry purchased a property at Orono, Penobscot, in Maine on 20^th October 1850.  No record of the family has been found in 1860 but by 1868 the family was residing at Hamden, Centreville, Mount Carmel in New Haven.  However, after a further two years, it was at Buffalo, Prince Edward, Virginia, that they were recorded in the census of 1870 conducted during the month of September that year.  On that occasion Henry was 53 years old and working as a farmer, although the surname was incorrectly recorded as Corlette, when Maria was 48 and keeping house.  Staying with the couple were two of their sons who were married and already each had a child of their own.  They were William M Collett, with his wife and their one-year-old son, and Charles C Collett and his wife with their two-month-old son.  And it was there at Buffalo, nine months later, that Henry purchased a property on 2^nd March 1871.  Seven months later, in October 1871 another property was purchased at Orono, Penobscot

It was only four months after that day when Henry Collett died on 12^th February 1872 at Ware in Hampshire County, Massachusetts.  According to one report, he dropped dead in the street near Mr Addison Sanford who lived several doors down from the house of Henry’s sister-in-law, Jane C Demond nee Maslen, in Ware.  He was buried at the Central Burying Grounds in Hamden, New Haven, with his Will proved there later that same year.  Although not mentioned in the Will, there was known to be an outstanding debt owed to Henry by his half-brother Job Collett (below) of Bangor, Maine, which may account for a death notice being printed in the Bangor Daily Whig & Courier – “In Hamden, Conn., suddenly of a heart decease, Henry Collett aged about 58 years”  His obituary was published in the Massachusetts Spy; Worcester, on Friday February 18^th 1872, under the heading “Our New England Dispatches: Massachusetts – Ware, Feb. 12 – This forenoon Mr Henry Collett dropped dead in the street near the residence of Mr Addison Sanford; cause, heart decease.  Mr Collett formerly resided Iver Station, Conn., and was about fifty years old”

The Will of Henry Collett was made on 18^th November 1871, less than three months before he died, and was proved at New Haven Probate Court on 28^th March 1872:

“Know all men by these present, that I Henry Collett of New Haven County, Connecticut, and now residing in Ware, Mass., being in good health and sound mind and memory, do make this my Last Will and Testament. 

First, I hereby constitute and appoint my wife Maria Collett to be my sole executrix to this my Will, to pay off all just debts and the legacies hereinafter mentioned out of my estate.

To my son, Henry W Collett I give the house and lot in Iverville whereon he now resides, also a note I hold against him for Fourteen Hundred and Fifty Dollars, also Five Hundred Dollars in money.

To my son William M Collett I give Twenty-Five Hundred Dollars to be paid him with interest within five years of my decease the interest to be paid annually until the principal is paid. 

To my son Charles C Collett I  give Twenty-Five Hundred Dollars to be paid him with interest within five years of my decease the interest to be paid annually until the principal is paid

Second, after the above legacies are paid, I give all the remainder to my estate in houses, lands, monies, notes, bonds, stocks and all my valuables, whatsoever to my wife Maria Collett as long as she shall remain unmarried and my widow, with the remainder thereof on her decease or marriage, to my children or their heirs respectively share and share alike

Executed and signed by me at Ware, Massachusetts in the presence of the undersigned witnesses this eighteenth day of November eighteen hundred and seventy one.  Signed by Henry Collett – the three witnesses were Lorenzo Demond, Laura E Maslen, and Mary Craft

Eleven months prior to his death, Henry Collett had placed an advertisement in The Cultivator & Country Gentleman magazine on 2^nd March 1871, relating to the property in which he had been living in 1870, as follows

“Central Virginia – We have here as fine a climate as in the world, midway between mountain and sea; land beautifully undulating; water pure, with clear streams; the finest fruit region on the continent.  Lands are cheap and been badly tilled, but can easily be brought back to great fertility.  Deep plowing and clover will do it.  I have lived in many States east and west, but find none so healthy as here.  Winters are mild, and farming operations on the land go on the whole winter when not too wet.  We are on one of the great thoroughfares from New York to Memphis, Tenn., and this country must soon fill up.  H Collett – Prince Edward County, Va.”

44N9 – Henry Walsingham Collett was born in 1840 at New York

44N10 – William Mortimer Collett was born in 1841 at Jackson County, Illinois

44N11 – Charles C Collett was born in 1848 at Hamden, New Haven

44N12 – Alfred Collett was born in 1850 at Hamden Township

James Collett [44M11] was born at Melksham in 1820 another son of Thomas and Maria Collett, who was baptised at Melksham on 21^st May 1820 in a joint ceremony with his two-year-old brother Henry (above), the last of the eight children of Thomas Collett and Maria Spencer.  He was around two years of age when his mother died at the age of only 38.  It is not known what happened to James after his father married for a second time in 1823 who, six years later, emigrated to America taking some of his children.  Two deaths of James Collett were recorded at Bradford-on-Avon, the first in 1838 (Ref. viii 160), the second in 1839 (Ref. viii 191), but neither gave the age of the deceased

John Collett [44M12] was baptised at St Michael’s Church in Melksham on 21^st November 1824, having been born earlier in that year, and was the eldest of the three sons of butcher Thomas Collett by his second wife Jane Marks, as confirmed by the Bishop’s Transcript.  John was around five or six years of age when his father took the young family to live in America in 1829, accompanied by Henry Collett (above) one of Thomas’ many sons from his first marriage.  Eight years later, they were living at New Haven County in Connecticut in 1837 and after a further eleven years John Collett from England married Ann.  Two years later the couple was residing in Hamden, New Haven on the day of the US Census in 1850.  It is noted that John, and his older brother Thomas, both added a second name while in America, which was used by John upon the registering of the birth of his second child, when he was described himself as John M Collett, as Thomas did in the 1860 US Census when he informed the census enumerator that he was Thomas H Collett.  On the occasion of the 1850 census John Collett from England was 25 years of age and had been married to Ann for around two years, with whom he already had two young children.  That day the family of four was living in Hamden, New Haven in Connecticut, where John was a butcher.  His wife Ann A Collett was also 25 and had been born in Maine.  The couple’s first child Charles H Collett, who was one year old and had also been born in Maine before settling in Connecticut where their second child, baby Jason S Collett, had only just been born.  Staying with the family was mechanic James Simpson 23 and Mercy H Simpson 29, both from Maine, possibly related to John’s wife.  Living in the adjacent dwelling was the family of butcher Thomas Collett from England, who was 37, and his wife Ann who was 34 and from England, and their daughter Harriet A Collett aged two years and born in Connecticut.  Thomas was John’s half-brother from his father’s first marriage, who was Thomas H Collett in 1860

In April 1854 their daughter Emma Jane Collett was born at Hamden, when her parents were confirmed as John Collett and Ann A Collett.  That event was confirmed in the next census of 1860, by which time the family was living at Princeton in Bureau County, Illinois.  The family that year was listed as John Collett, a drover of 35 from England, his wife Ann A Collett who was 36 and from Maine, as was Charles H Collett aged 12.  The next three children had been born in Connecticut and were: Jason S Collett aged 10; Mary E Collett who was eight; and Emma J Collett who was six; with the remaining two children born at Illinois who were John H Collett who was four, and George E Collett who was one-year-old.  On that day the family had Mary Conder from Germany, who was 16 years old, helping Ann with the housekeeping chores.  Shortly after that the family left Princeton and by 1863 was living in Missouri where their seventh and last child was born.  However, prior to that, the family tragically lost their sixth child, when the death of George E Collett was recorded at St Louis City in Missouri, where he was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery

The move to Missouri was a permanent one, as confirmed in all the later records.  The first of them was the census for 1870 when John was a farmer aged 48, wife Ann was 46, daughter Mary was 18, Emma was 16, John H Collett was 14, and latest arrival and replacement for George E Collett, was George Collett who was seven years of age, the only child born in Missouri.  On that day the family was recorded at Bacon Township in Vernon County, Missouri, where John from England was the owner of real estate valued at $3,200, whose personal estate was $500.  Additional information for the September 2026 update of this family line has been kindly provided by David Hankey of Leicestershire in England

According to the next census in 1880, the remaining members of the family were residing at Blue Mound Township, Vernon County in Missouri, when head of the household John Collett, a farmer, was 56 and born in England of English parents, whose wife was Ann A Collett from Maine aged 58 and keeping house.  Three of their children were still living with them that day, and they were Emma A Collett from Connecticut aged 26, John Collett from Illinois aged 24, George D Collett who was 17 and born in Missouri.  All three were described as ‘living at home’, having no job of work, so perhaps helping their parents manage the farm.  Twenty years later John Collett was still living at Blue Mound where he was described in the 1900 Census as being widower who was 76, who had been born in England during October 1824, and who entered America in 1829.  Looking after John in his old age was married couple and servants John and Laura Rupard, who also had with them their one-year old son George Rupard, all three of them born in Missouri.  Just two years later, and still in Vernon County, John Collett was 77 when he died on 6^th July 1902 at Walker in Vernon County, Missouri

44N13 – Charles H Collett was born in 1848 at Bangor, Maine

44N14 – Jason S Collett was born in 1850 at Hamden, New Haven

44N15 – Mary Ella Collett was born in 1852 at Hamden, New Haven

44N16 – Emma Jane Collett was born in 1854 at Hamden, New Haven

44N17 – John H Collett was born in 1856 at Princeton, Illinois

44N18 – George E Collett was born in 1859 at Princeton, Illinois

44N19 – George Dexter Collett was born in 1863 at Bacon Township, Vernon, Missouri

Job Collett [44M13] was born at Melksham on 26^th May 1825, the second son of Thomas and Jane Collett.  Job was four years old when his father took the family to live in America during 1829.  In America the family lived initially at Hamden in Connecticut, then at Lowell in Massachusetts, and finally at Bangor in Maine, where Job eventually lived and worked as a file cutter.  For many years the first column on the front page of the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier promoted the successful file cutting business of Job Collett of Exchange Street in Bangor with the following words.  “Now is the time to sharpen up and get ready for business.  I have on hand 1000 files and am finishing off 150 dozen per week which I am selling at the lowest prices and will warrant them equal to any imported.  Call and see them.  Old files re-cut as usual”.  In 1851 Job was first listed in the Bangor City Directory as being employed at Woodbury & Collett File Factory and Hardware Store at 35 Exchange Street in Bangor, but it was during the following year that he established his very own lucrative file cutting company

Job was twice married, the first time to (1) Julia born in England on 1^st April 1828 who sadly died when she was only 25 years of age on 16^th September 1853, following which she was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor where a tombstone marks her grave.  That first marriage produced one child for Job and Julia who was Jennie M Collett (1850-1872).  Job then married (2) Elizabeth A Sawyer from Old Town, Maine, and their marriage produced a son who was born during January 1856 but who died in March that same year.  Two more children were born into their family before the end of the decade, although only one of them was recorded in the 1860 Census for 6^th Ward Bangor City, Penobscot.  The census return stated that Job Collett was 30 and a file maker, whose real estate was valued at $1,000, as was his personal estate, his wife Elizabeth A Collett was 25, his daughter Jennie Collett was nine and at school, and the couple’s surviving child was Charles J Collett who was two years of age.  Staying with the family were two file makers from Maine; Gershon Robbins 21, and Richard McGrath 15

A further two children were added to their family prior to 1870, with a final child born two years after that census day.  Tragically, the second of those children also died when she was only two months old in 1866.  A joint memorial for Willie and Lille at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor has a sheep resting on the top and is situated in an area of the cemetery set aside for the Collett family.  The Bangor City census in 1870 listed the depleted family as Job Collett 41 from England who was recorded as John – a miscommunication, Eliza Collett from Maine was 33 and keeping house, Jennie Collett was 19 and had completed her education, Charlie Collett was 12 and attending school, as was Carrie Collett who was six years old.  Living with the family that day was 27-year-old Matilda McGauldrick who was employed by Job as a clerk in his file shop, and Bridget McChristall aged 17 who was a servant helping Elizabeth with the household chores

Job Collett died on 26^th July 1894 and was also buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, where his wife was later laid to rest following the death of Elizabeth A Collett nee Sawyer on 4^th November 1906, her birth recorded as 17^th May 1834

Other elaborate memorial stones within the Collett area of Mount Hope Cemetery at Bangor include those of Jane Collett nee Marks, the wife of Thomas Collett and mother of Job, Julia M Collett the first wife of Job Collett, Jennie M Collett the only child Job and Julia M Collett.  Beside the grand memorial for Job Collett is one for Charles T Collett who was born on 26^th December 1857 who died on 16^th November 1913, his third child.  The photograph  here, shows in the background, the large memorial to Job Collett which is built in fine-grained grey granite and stands at the head of a family plot containing six graves, while in the foreground is the smaller memorial stone for his first wife Julia M Collett.  To the left of the latter are the other four gravestones

Following the death of Job Collett the Bangor Daily Whig published an article which read: “The late Mr Job Collett was a pioneer in this city in advertising by a cut of himself.  Many of The Whig readers will remember the ad and the position it occupied for years at the head of the first column on the first page with the injunction - “Files! Files! Now is the time to sharpen up,” while below was a cut of M Collett sitting at a file block in the act of cutting a file.  He used this ad for years and became well known all over the State thereby”.  Sadly, seventeen years after the death of Job Collett, nearly everything he had created over fifty years of hard work and dedication was destroyed during the Great Fire of Bangor in 1911.  In addition to all of this, the name of Job Collett of Bangor was listed in the Will of his older half-brother Henry Collett (above), proved in 1872, which described Job as having an outstanding unpaid debt, and also mentioned in Henry’s obituary published in a Bangor newspaper

44N20 – Jennie M Collett was born in 1850 at Bangor, Maine

The following are the five children of Job Collett by his second wife Elizabeth A Sawyer:

44N21 – Willie Thomas Collett was born in 1856 at Bangor, Maine

44N22 – Charles T Collett was born in 1857 at Bangor, Maine

44N23 – Carrie Collett was born in 1864 at Bangor, Maine

44N24 – Lillie Collett was born in 1866 at Bangor, Maine

44N25 – Henry Eugene Collett was born in 1872 at Bangor, Maine

Jacob Frank Collett [44M14] was born at Melksham on 28^th June 1826, the youngest of the three sons of Thomas Collett, an inn keeper, and his second wife Jane Marks. He was baptised there at the Church of St Michael & All Angels one month later on 23^rd July 1826, as confirmed by the Bishop’s Transcript.  He was three years old when his parents to  the family to America in 1829 with them living in Connecticut by 1837.   What happened to Jacob after that time is not known, with his next appearance in the 1870 census when he was a married man residing in the state of Maine.  Jacob from England was 44 and a merchant tailor, his wife Augusta Collett from New Hampshire was 36, and their children were Frances M Collett who was 17 and born in Massachusetts, as was son Harry A Collett who was 14, with Frank Collett aged 11 born in New Hampshire, while Albert L Collet aged four years had been born after the family had settled in Maine

Thanks to David Hankey (aforementioned) we now know a little more about Jacob, with him spotted by David in the USA Census of 1880.  Again, at that time in his life, 54-year-old Jacob Collett was still working as a merchant tailor who was living with his wife, Hannah Augusta, nee Brown, aged 47, and their two children at Corinna, Penobscot in Maine.  Their son was 15-year-old Albert L Collett, born in 1865, and their daughter was Valentine Ella Collett who was six years of age and born in 1874.  Living with the family that day was the couple’s married daughter Fannie Maria Green 26 and her husband Edgar M Green 23, with the earlier children of Jacob & Hannah being Harry Augustus Collett who was born in 1855, and Frank Arthur Collet who was born in 1858

During his twilight years Jacob returned to Massachusetts and, in the census conducted in 1900 he was 75 and described as a cutter of men’s clothing, living at Somerville City Ward 4 in Middlesex County.  The census form that year described his wife as Hannah A Collett who was 67 who had been born at New Hampshire during October 1833.  Four years earlier, on the tragic occasion of the premature death of their youngest child Valentine aged 22, shortly after she was married, her death certificate revealed that the wife of Jacob F Collett from England was Hannah Augusta Brown who had been born at Concord in New Hampshire.  It was from the record of his own death, at the age of 76, that we know Jacob Frank Collett was living at 75 Marshall Street in Somerville, Middlesex County, when he died on 23th August 1902.  The same record also confirmed that he was the son of Thomas Collett and Jane Marks, both born in England, with the cause of death being hepatic abscess and prostatitis, and after which he was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass

44N26 – Frances M Collett was born in 1853 in Massachusetts

44N27 – Harry A Collett was born in 1856 in Massachusetts

44N28 – Frank Collett was born in 1859 in New Hampshire

44N29 – Albert L Collett was born in 1866 in Maine

44N30 – Valentine E Collett was born in 1874 at Newport, Maine

Emma Collett [44M15] was born in Maine, Massachusetts, around 1841 and was the last child and only daughter of Thomas Collett and Jane Marks.  Emma was nine years old in the City of Bangor, Penobscot, Maine, census in 1950, while no further record of her has so far been found

Thomas Collett [44M16] was born at Atworth in 1824, where he was baptised on 20^th February 1825, the eldest child of John Collett and Elizabeth Pinnigar.  By the time of the census in 1841, Thomas had left the family home in Atworth, possibly to make room in the house for his six younger siblings and, although no actual record of him has been located, he would have been around 16 years of age.  Ten years later, in 1851, he was confirmed as having been born at Atworth and was 26, when he was residing at Maesteg near Bridgend in South Wales.  The only possibly record of Thomas in 1861 was the one who was 36 years of age, who was living alone in the Bath Lansdown registration district.  What is known for sure, is that just after that he was back living at Atworth in 1871, where he was looking after his elderly widowed father John who was 71.  Thomas Collett from Atworth was still a bachelor at the age of 46, when he was described as a servant out of employment

During the next few years Thomas and his father left Atworth and moved into the town of Bradford-on-Avon and it was there, on Main Street, that they were residing in 1881 when Thomas was described as a former domestic servant, perhaps indicating that he had retired from that work to care for the needs of his father.  He was still unmarried by that time when he was 56.  With his father’s advancing years, Thomas and his father may have decided it was time to return to their home village of Atworth since it was there at Bath Road, that they were still living together in 1891, when Thomas was 66 and living on his own means like his father John Collett who was 91.  His father passed away within the next eleven months, with Thomas surviving him by six years.  Like his father, the death of Thomas Collett was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 5a 88) during the first three months of 1898, when he was 73 years old

Eliza Collett [44M17] was born at Atworth near the end of 1826, after which she was baptised there on 18^th February 1827, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett.  Eliza was 14 by the time of the census in 1841, when she was living at Atworth with her family, where she was also living ten years later in 1851 when she was 24.  It is assumed that she was married shortly after that, as no record of her as Eliza Collett has been found in 1861

John Collett [44M18] was born at Atworth, towards the end of 1828, where he was baptised on 22^nd March 1829, another son of John and Elizabeth Collett.  In the Atworth census of 1841 John Collett, aged 12 years, was living there at the home of his parents John and Elizabeth Collett.  He was single and was still living with his family in the Chapelry of Atworth in 1851, when he was a cabinet maker aged 22 and from Atworth.  What happened to John the cabinet maker from Atworth after that census has not been discovered, which also applies to his younger siblings.  However, he should not be confused with another John Collett [44M24] from Atworth who later settled in South Wales, as he was the eldest son of Drinkwater Collett [44L16] and his wife Ann Reynolds, as confirmed by his marriage certificate of 1864 at Bridgend in Glamorganshire.  That John was an agricultural labourer, and later, an iron ore labourer

Mary Anne Collett [44M19] was born at Atworth in 1831 and was baptised there on 21^st August 1831, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett.  She was nine years old in the Atworth census of 1841, but was not living with her family at Atworth in 1851 when she would have been 19.  At that age she may have been too young to be married, so her absence might mean that she did not survive.

George Collett [44M20] was born at Atworth in 1833, where he was baptised on 16^th February 1834, the son of John and Elizabeth Collett.  In the Atworth census of 1841 George was seven years of age, although no further record of him has been found in any later census return

Alfred Collett [44M21] was born at Atworth in 1836, and it was there also that he was baptised on 26^th February 1837, the son of John and Elizabeth Collett.  Like his brother George (above), Alfred was living at Atworth at the age of four in 1841, but was not living there with his family ten years later.  Nor has any record of him been found after that time

Henry Collett [44M22] was born at Atworth in 1840, and baptised there on 7^th March 1841, the son of John and Elizabeth Collett.  Unlike his two older siblings George and Alfred (above), Henry was recorded living with his family at Atworth in two consecutive censuses.  He was under one year old in 1841, and was 10 years of age in 1851.  However, just like his older siblings, no further record has been found for him, so he too may have suffered a childhood death

Edwin Collett [44M23] was born at Atworth where he was baptised on 10^th August 1845, the youngest child born to John and Elizabeth Collett.  By the time of the Atworth census in 1851 Edwin was five years old when he was living there with his family.  During the next decade Edwin’s mother died, so in the census of 1861 he was living with his widowed father John Collett at Atworth at the age of 15.  No further record of Edwin Collett has been found after 1861, who should not be confused with Edwin Collett [31P14] of the same age, who was born at Monkton Farleigh to William Collett and Ellen Cottle

John Collett [44M24] was born at Atworth in 1829, where he was baptised on 9^th August 1829, the eldest of the four known children of Drinkwater Collett and his wife Ann.  He should not be confused another John Collett of Atworth of a similar age who was the son of John Collett and Elizabeth Pinnigar [44M18].  In the Atworth (Bradford-on-Avon) census of 1841 John’s age was incorrectly recorded as 14 years, when he was still living there with his family.  Ten years later John Collett from Atworth was said to be 19 and an agricultural labourer who was living with the family of John and Mary Pickett at their home on Dark Lane in Upper Castle Combe, near Chippenham in Wiltshire.  Perhaps it was the lure of better wages in South Wales, that encouraged John to move to Glamorganshire sometime during the 1850s.  That situation was confirmed in the census conducted in 1861, when John Collett from Atworth in Wiltshire was 31 and unmarried, who was employed as an iron ore labourer.  At that time in his life, he was a lodger at a property on McGard Row in Llangynwyd, Glamorganshire, two miles south of Maesteg

Just before Christmas three years later, John Collett married widow Ann Jones on 13^th December 1864 at Llangynwyd with the event recorded at Bridgend (Ref. 11a 729) during the last quarter of that year.  The record of their wedding day confirmed that John was the son of Drinkwater Collett and that Ann was the daughter of John Jones.  Although not determined, it seems likely that Ann was a widow who already had a daughter from her previous marriage.  That child was living with the couple on the day of the next census in 1871 at Cwn Du, to the east of Maesteg.  John Collett from Atworth was 43 and a haulier, Ann Collett was 48 and her daughter Mary A Collett was 14 years of age, mother and daughter both recorded as having been born at Llancaen Crilwyn in Cardiganshire.  Living with the three of them was William D Jones who was four years old and described as John’s stepchild, and boarder George James from Cheltenham

Sometime during the next decade, perhaps after the wedding of Ann’s daughter, the couple move to 2 Concrete Cottages in Cwmdu, where they were living in April 1881.  John’s occupation was that of a carter and haulier at the age of 52, while Ann was 58.  No place of birth was given for either of them in the 1881 Census, by which time their married daughter Mary Ann Evans was also living nearby at Cwmdu, with her young family.  Not further record of John or Ann has been found after that time

44N31 – Mary Ann Collett – formerly Jones, was born in 1856 at Llancaen Crilwyn

Hannah Tabitha Collett [44M25] was born at Atworth in 1836 and was baptised there on 25^th September 1836, the only daughter of Drinkwater and Ann Collett.  It was as Hannah Collett, aged five years, that she was recorded living with her family at Atworth in 1841.  Over the following years the family was struck by the triple tragedy of the deaths of Hannah’s mother and two of her three brothers so, by 1851 Hannah Collett, aged 17 and from Atworth, was ‘working at home’, keeping house for her widowed father in Upper Wraxall, Bradford-on-Avon

Thomas Collett [44M26] was born at Atworth in 1840 and it was there also that he was baptised on 14^th June 1840.  He was the son of Drinkwater and Ann Collett and was listed with them in the Atworth census of 1841 when he was one year old.  The subsequent death of seven-year-old Thomas Collett at Atworth was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 169) during the third quarter of 1847

William Collett [44M27] was born at Atworth just after the census day in 1841, the last child of Drinkwater Collett and Ann Reynolds.  His mother died in 1850 and William was not living with his widowed father in 1851, so may also have suffered a premature death

Harriet Ann Collett [44N6] was born around 1847/48 at Hamden, a suburb of New Haven, New Haven County in Connecticut, and was the first of the three children of Thomas and Ann Collett.  As Harriet A Collett she was two years old in the Hamden census of 1850 and was 12 in 1860.  Nine years later, when she was 22, her marriage to Frederick E Jacobs was conducted at Hamden on 15^th September 1869, with the groom aged 27.  They had been married for around six years when the premature death of Harriet ‘Hattie’ Ann Collett Jacobs was recorded at North Haven 1875, where she was buried at the Center Cemetery

Daniel Thomas Collett [44N7] was born on 7^th July 1850 at Hamden, but simply as Thomas Collett, the eldest son and second child of butcher Thomas Collett and his wife Ann.  He was more commonly referred to in later records as Daniel Collett, or Daniel T Collett, and it was as Daniel that he was nine years of age in the Hamden census of 1860.  His father was a farmer by 1870 when Daniel was the only child still living with his parents at Hamden, when he was 19 and working at an auger shop, the same as his younger brother Stephen (below), maybe even working alongside each other.  Around four years later Daniel Collett married Adele Jane Bryan the daughter of Henry Bryan and Celestia Smith of Connecticut, who was born on 23^rd September 1856 at Woodmont, Connecticut.  She gave birth to two sons, George in 1875, and Edwin Stephen in 1877 at Hamden, with the latter’s birth registered at New Haven County, confirmed as the son of Thomas Collett and Adele J Bryan.  Both boys were recorded with the couple in the next New Haven census of 1880.  On that day Dan Collett was 29 and a retail grocer, Adele was 23, George was five, and Edwin was two years old

On that same census day, George H Collett aged five years was recorded at the Milford, New Haven County, Connecticut home of his uncle and head of the household, 27-year-old Charles H Bryan a farmer who had taken over his late father’s farm.  Living there with him was his widowed mother Celestia Bryan who was 52, and his unmarried sister Susan M Bryan who was 20, while George Collett was described as nephew and a boarder.  Milford lies ten miles south-west of New Haven.  By the time of the census in 1900 Daniel and Adele were divorced, with the head of the household at 45 Summer Street in the City of New Haven being Adela Collett aged 41 (sic).  Still living there with her, were her two sons whose ages were also incorrect, George aged 22 (his brother’s age), and Edwin was 19.  The two of them were both working as dealers in a bicycle store, with George recorded as born in May 1878, and Edwin in August 1880, which was after the day of the census in 1880.  Their mother was obviously confused since it was George who was born in May 1875, and Edwin in August 1877

Although no record of Daniel, or Dan, has been identified in the US census of 1890, ten years later he was working as a vegetable pedlar who was a lodger at the New Haven home of Charles and Margaret Cooper.  Daniel Thomas Collett was 72 when he died at Hamden in 1922 and was buried there in the Central Burying Grounds.  After eight years as a widow, by 1930, Adela’s son Edwin had moved from Massachusetts, where he was living in 1920, to Florida and to St Petersburg in Pinellas County.  It therefore seems highly likely that shortly after 1930 Adela went to spend some time with her youngest son at his Florida home.  Eight years later Adele Jane Bryan Collett passed away at St Petersburg, Pinellas in Florida on 9^th December 1938 and was buried at Royal Palm Cemetery on 12^th December 1938.  Her last place of residence was 100 20^th Avenue South in St Petersburg.  The record of her death also confirmed she was the former wife of Daniel Collett

44O1 – George Henry Collett was born in 1875 at Hamden, New Haven

44O2 – Edwin Stephen Collett was born in 1877 at Hamden, New Haven

Stephen Collett [44N8] was also born at Hamden in New Haven County on 3^rd October 1852, the youngest child of Thomas and Ann Collett from England.  It would appear from the subsequent census returns that he spent much of his life in Hamden.  He was seven years of age in 1860 and was 17 in 1870, by which time he had left the family home but was still living in Hamden.  That day Stephen was a lodger at the Hamden home of Edward and Angeline Sherman when he was described as working at an auger shop.  During the following decade he married Mary Torpey the daughter of Michael and Anna Torpey from Ireland, with whom the childless couple was living in 1880.  The census that year for Hamden identified them living at Mill River Branch in Hamden where Stephen Collett was 27 and a butcher like his father.  His wife Mary Collett was also 27 when they had a room in the home of Michael A Torpey, aged 55, a stonemason from Ireland and his Irish wife Anna.  Completing the household at 65 Beech, New Haven County, were four of the couple’s unmarried children.  The son of Stephen and Mary was born at Hartford, Connecticut in 1882, on whose behalf an application was made to the Social Program during November 1936, when he was confirmed as the son of Steven Collett and Mary Torpey.  The form stated that he was also known as Fred S Collett

44O3 – Alfred Steven Collett was born in 1882 at Hartford, Connecticut

Henry Walsingham Collett [44N9] was born during September 1840 at Jackson County, Illinois, in a property that his father purchased just after his wedding day.  He was the first of the four sons born to Henry Collett from England and his wife Maria Maslen, also born in England.  In the census of 1850, Walsingham H Collett aged ten years, was living with his family in Hamden, New Haven County, Connecticut.  Although his father is known to have purchased and sold numerous properties across America, on that day he was working as a mechanic.  Twenty years later, his family was living at Buffalo Township, Prince Edward County in Virginia, by which time his father was a farmer, with Henry having already left the family home

It was at Hamden on 4^th June 1863 that Henry W Collett aged 23 and from Jackson, Illinois, married Cynthia Goodyear Dickerman aged 21 and from Hamden, where both were living prior to that day.  Three years later Cynthia gave birth to a daughter, the couple’s only known child who was born at Hamden, where the three of them were still living in 1870.  The census that year recorded them as Henry W Collett who was 29 and a butcher, Cynthia G Collett who was 26 and keeping house, and Josephine Collett who was three years old.  Living with them was Cynthia’s widowed mother Chloe Dickerman aged 64.  It was the same situation in 1880, by which time it was at Meriden, New Haven County, that they were recorded as Henry W Collett from Illinois who was 40 and a cutter in a packing house, Cynthia from Connecticut who was 37, Josephine Collett who was 13, and Chloe Dickerman was 74

Nine years after that census day, daughter Josephine was married and presented her parents with two grandchildren.  No record of Henry and Cynthia has been location in 1890, but the couple was staying with their married daughter at Springfield, Hamden County in Massachusetts in 1900, when Henry W Collett aged 59 and born in September 1840, was a butcher in the meat business, and father-in-law, and Cynthia G Collett was 58, and mother-in-law to the head of the household Fred Webb.  The census return stated that Henry and Cynthia had been married for thirty-seven years, during which time they had given birth to just the one child.  Four years after that census day, Henry Walsingham Collett died at Hartford in Connecticut on 3^rd May 1904 and was buried at the Oak Grove Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts on 4^th May.  The record of his death confirmed that he was a son of Henry and Maria Collett, and that his occupation was that of a salesman, while the informant of his passing was his daughter Josephine Collett Webb of 33 Churchill Street in Springfield.  The cause of death was cerebrospinal meningitis and diabetes

44O4 – Josephine Collett was born in 1866 at Hamden, New Haven

William Mortimer Collett [44N10] was born in Jackson County during September in 1841, another son of Henry and Maria.  It was as William M Collett aged eight years, that he was living with his family in Hamden, New Haven County, on the day of the census in 1850.  No record of any member of his family of six has been found within the census of 1860, but by 1870, two years before his father died, they were residing at Buffalo Township in Virginia, when William M Collett was a recently married man, having a wife and child, who were living there on the farm of his father and mother.  William M Collett from Illinois was 27 and a farmer, his wife Mary was 25 and born in England, with their one-year-old son William H Collett having been born in New York.  The record of his birth confirmed his parents as William Mortimer Collett and Mary Ann Hughes.  Sadly, the couple’s first child, and only daughter, had already died by then at the age of one year.  Curiously, no record of the marriage of William M Collett and Mary A Hughes (or Hughey) has been found.  By 1880, the family residing at 29 Daggett Street in New Haven comprised William M Collett aged 38 and a car painter from Illinois, Mary Collett from England aged 37, William H Collett from New York who was eleven, and nine-year-old Albert E Collett who had been born in Virginia

According to the New Haven census in 1900, William and Mary and two surviving sons were still living there in New Haven Township at 23 Ward Street.  William Collett from Illinois was 58 and a policeman, who had been married to Mary, aged 54, for 30 years.  During that time she had given birth to seven children, with just two still alive, and only four of them identified below.  Their unmarried sons were Albert Collett who was 28 and Frank Collett who was 18, both born in Connecticut (sic).  By the time the next census was conducted in 1910, son Albert was a married man with a wife and two children living at 22 Asylum Street in New Haven, while son Frank was unmarried and a lodger in Bristol, Hartford County.  At that time no record of William or Mary has been found, but it seems likely that they were not together after 1900, although no death record for Mary A Collett has been located.  What is known is that William M Collett died alone in the town of New Haven on 5^th March 1915 at the age of 73, and was buried there two days later.  The coroner’s report read as follows:

“He died from a bullet wound to the head (suicidal), the deceased, a retired policeman, was boarding at 11 Baldwin Street, New Haven.  Since late January, the deceased has failed rapidly in health and became very despondent.  At 3.50 p.m. he arose from the couch in his sitting room and went into the adjoining bedroom.  A few minutes later, Belinda Delabar, the proprietress, heard a noise like someone falling.  She went to the room of the deceased and found him dead on the floor.  Examination shows a bullet wound to the right temple.  On the floor, at the foot of the deceased, was a 32-calibre revolver containing an empty shell.  On the person was found a ten-dollar bill and a cheque for $41.67 (a policeman’ Relief Fund)”

44O5 – Maria Maslen Collett was born in 1867 at Brooklyn, New York

44O6 – Willian Henry Collett was born in 1868 at Brooklyn, New York

44O7 – Albert Edward Collett was born in 1872 at Virginia

44O8 – Frank Collett was born in 1882 at New Haven

Charles C Collett [44N11] was born in 1848, the third of four sons of Henry Collett and Jane Marks.  He was born at Hamden in New Haven, Connecticut, shortly after his family arrived there from Illinois.  And it was at Hamden where the family was recorded in the census of 1850, when Charles C Collett was two years old.  No trace of the family has been found in the next census, while by 1870 Charles was 22 and a blacksmith, his wife was 17-year-old Fannie from Connecticut, and their son Charles W Collett was two months old and born in Virginia where, interestingly, his cousin Albert Edward Collett (above) was also born around the same time.  Curiously, the record of the birth of son Charles at Oakland correctly named his parents as farmer Charles C Collett and his wife Fanny, with Charles senior said to be living at Prince Edward, while the informant of the birth was ‘grandfather Henry Collett’.  New research in 2026 has revealed that Fanny Collett, wife of Charles C Collett, was in fact Sarah Fanny Moss, as confirmed at the birth of son Edgar Howard, and daughter Clara Louise, as follows:

Edgar Howard Collett was born on 21^st March 1877, the son of Charles C Collett of Hamden aged 29, and Sarah F Moss of New Haven County aged 23.  Charles was a blacksmith, and Edgar was Sarah’s fifth child.  Another child of Charles C Collett aged 31, a mechanic, and Sarah F Moss aged 25, was Clara Louise Collett who was born at Hamden on 19^th April 1879, their sixth child, with four of them still living.  When Clara married Arthur N Pinney on 1^st September 1902 at New Haven her parents were confirmed as Charles C Collett and Sarah F Moss

More children were added to their family during the 1870s at Hamden in New Haven County, Connecticut, where the family was still living in 1880.  Charles Collett was 32 and a blacksmith, Fannie Collett was 28, Charles Collett junior was ten, Edgar Collett was three, and Clara L Collett was one year old.  The census form also stated, in error, that every member of the household had been born in Connecticut.  The later death of Charles C Collett was recorded at Hamden in 1899, where he was buried in the Central Burying Grounds, with his wife Sarah confirmed as a widow in the Hamden census of 1900.  Sarah Collett was 46 and had been born in Connecticut during June 1853, had been married for 30 years, and had given birth to 10 children, with eight still alive.  Still living with her that day in 1900 were six children, five of whom were in work providing essential income for the family.  They were: Edgar H Collett 23 and a suspender weaver and his wife Bessie aged 18 adjusted to 15, a winder; Louise C Collett 21 a warper; daughter Jessie N Collett 19 another warper; Frank L Collett 16 a suspender weaver; Emma L Collett 14 a winder; and Lena A Collett who was 12 and attending school

In the adjacent property to widow Sarah’s home in 1900 was her married son Charles, with his wife Nellie and son Robert.  However, by 1910 Sarah’s former home on Washington Avenue had been taken over by her married son Edgar Howard Collett and his family, who still had living next door his older married brother Charles, wife Nellie, and son Robert.  On that census day in 1910 Sarah Collett was 57, a widow who had given birth to ten children, seven of whom were still alive, when she and her youngest child Lena were staying at 22 Dorman Street in New Haven Township, the home of married daughter Eva Hadling and her husband Albert.  Whilst only nine children are listed below, which includes two children who did not survive, the tenth and ‘missing’ child must have been another who did not live beyond infancy

44O9 – Charles William Collett was born in 1870 at Oakland, Virginia

44O10 – a Collett child was born and died in 1872 at Hamden

44O11 – a Collett child was born and died in 1874 at Hamden

44O12 – Edgar Howard Collett was born in 1877 at Hamden, New Haven

44O13 – Clara Louise Collett was born in 1879 at Hamden, New Haven

44O14 – Jessie Florence Collett was born in 1881 at Hamden, New Haven

44O15 – Frank Leslie ‘Howard’ Collett was born in 1884 at Hamden, New Haven

44O16 – Eva Lucy Collett was born in 1886 at Hamden, New Haven

44O17 – Lena Alice Collett was born in 1888 at Hamden, New Haven

Alfred Collett [44N12] was born at Hamden Township in Connecticut on 9^th March 1850, the fourth and last child of Henry Collett and Maria Maslen from England

Charles H Collett [44N13] was born at Bangor in Maine during the month of June 1848, the elder of the two sons of John and Ann Collett, who was two years old in the census of 1850.  After spending a few years at Hamden, New Haven in Connecticut, the family moved to Princeton, Bureau County in Illinois, where they were recorded in 1860, when Charles H Collett from Maine was 12 years old.  After another ten years, Charles Collett from Maine said he was 24, when he was one of two clerks employed at a grocer’s store, who were lodging at the St Clair Township, Illinois home of bar keeper James E Owen from New York who was 30.  The other clerk was Dan Gardside from England aged 30 years.  It was during the following year when Charles H Collett married the much younger Della from New York

Unfortunately, no record of the couple has been found in 1880 or 1890 but, by 1900 when Charles H Collett from Maine was 52 years old, and his wife Della was 36.  On that day they were residing at 2318 La Fayette Street in Precinct 5, Denver City, Arapahoe County in Colorado.  Charles was a clerk with a railroad company who had been born in June 1848, the son of an English father, with Della having been born during the month of February in 1884.  No further record of the couple has been found.  However, a Charles H Collett was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St Louis, Missouri, on the state border with Illinois during 1901, when the year of his birth was recorded as 1849, by which time he would have been 53.  No later record of his wife has been found, and being that much younger than her late husband there is every chance that she remarried and died under a different surname.  In fact, a Della G Collett married Frank E Johnson at Denver, El Paso County, Colorado on 29^th October 1904, three years after Charles H Collett passed away

Jason S Collett [44N14] was born at Hamden in New Haven County, Connecticut on 28^th January 1850, another son of John M Collett and his wife Ann.  He was four months old in the Hamden census for 1850, and by 1860 the family home was at Princeton in Bureau County, where Jason S Collett was 10 years old.  Ten years later Jason was no longer living with his family in 1870, by which time they had settled in Missouri. while in 1880 Jason S Collett from Connecticut was 29 and a married man with a child of his own.  On that census day Jason gave his age as 29, when he was recorded at Belleville in St Clair County, Illinois. With a wife and a daughter, who were boarding at the home of attorney-at-law Thomas Quick and his family. Four years prior to that, the marriage of Jason S Collett, aged 26, and Mary A Hill, aged 18, took place at St Clair Township in St Clair County on 21^st October 1876.  On the day of the census in 1880 Jason’s wife Mary Collett from Illinois was 21, and their daughter Irene Collett was two years of age and had been born in St Clair County, Illinois.  At that time in his life Jason was a conductor on the railroad.  No record of any member has been found in 1890

Six years later the marriage of their daughter Irene Collett, aged 18, and Joseph Howard Goetz, aged 25, was conducted at Freeburg, St Clair County on 12^th August 1896, when her parents were confirmed as Jason S Collett and Mary A Hill.  Joseph was the son of James Gaetz and Susan McFarland.  Tragically, it was possibly during the birth of a second child, that she died on 6^th December 1899 at Belleville in St Clair County and was buried at the Rider Cemetery.  If it was during childbirth that she died, it seems the child also did not survive, while three years earlier Irene had given birth to son Howard Goetz in 1896.  Four years later in 1900, Mary A Collett was 41 and staying at the home of her father Peter Hill, aged 82, a landlord and former farmer, in Smithton Township in St Clair County, where she was working as the house keeper for her elderly father while, at the same time, also caring for her late daughter’s son Howard Goetz.  The details in that census return confirmed Mary had been born during 1859 in St Clair County, and that Howard Goetz had been born there in July 1896.  Where Mary’s husband Jason was on that day has not yet been determined

After Mary’s father passed away, she was reunited with Jason, with the couple and their grandson residing at Smithton in St Clair County for the census in 1910.  Jason S Collett was 60 and a general farmer with his own account, when his wife of 33 years, Mary Collett, was 51 and had given birth to two children, neither of them living.  Still living in the care of Jason and Mary, was their grandson Howard Goetz who was 12 years of age.  Nine years after that census day, Jason S Collett died at Nevada, Vernon County in Missouri on 4^th November 1919 at the age of 69 and was buried at Newton Burial Park in Nevada.  That left his widow Mary Collett, aged 61 still living in Smithton in 1920, when the only other person at that address was her widowed sister Emily, nee Hill, who was 66.  In the Smithton census of 1930 Mary A Collett was 71 and living with her that year was her granddaughter-in-law Ona A Goetz, who was 32 and the wife of absent Howard Goetz, and their only known child and Mary’s great-grandson, Glendon C Goetz, who was nine years of age

In 1940, the widow Mary Ada Collett was 81 and still living in the same house that year that she had occupied ten years earlier.  Living with her, and most likely looking after her, was her grandson Howard Goetz aged 42, as was his wife Ona Goetz, and their son Glendon Goetz who was 18.  Upon the death of her grandson, thirteen years later, his death certificate revealed that Howard McFarland Goetz died on 6^th December 1953 at Alameda in California, that his mother’s maiden-name was Collett, and that he was born on 21^st July 1897.  Six year earlier, Mary Ada Collett, nee Hill, was 88 years old when she passed away at Freeburg on 28^th March 1947 and was buried three days later at the Ryder Cemetery in Belleville, St Clair County.  The record of her death stated she was born on 7^th September 1858 at Freeburg, the daughter of Peter Hill and Emily Thrift, whose late husband was Jason Collett

44O18 – Irene Collett was born on 19^th October 1877 a Belleville, Illinois

Mary Ella Collett [4N15] was born at Hamden, New Haven on 10^th March 1852, the eldest daughter and third child of John Collett, a drover from Melksham and his wife Ann from Maine.  As Mary E Collett she was eight years old in the Princeton census of 1860, and ten years later, when the family was living at Bacon Township, Vernon County, Missouri, within the Nevada Post Office area, Mary Collett was 18 and had attended school in the last twelve months.  It is assumed she never married, since it was as Mary Ella Collett that she died at Walker in Vernon County, Missouri on 11^th December 1936 at the age of 84

Emma Jane Collett [44N16] was born at Hamden in New Haven County on 3^rd April 1854, the fourth child and second daughter of John and Ann Collett.  Emma was six years of age in 1850 and 16 and attending school in 1870, by which time she and her family were residing at Bacon Township in Missouri

John H Collett [44N17] was born at Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois in 1856, the fifth child of John and Ann Collett.  He was four years old in 1860 at Princeton and, by the time he was 14, John H Collett was at school when his family was recorded at Bacon Township in Vernon County, Missouri.  The next census in 1880 placed the family residing at Blue Mound in Vernon County, Missouri, where John Collett from Illinois was still living with his parents, although he was incorrectly recorded as 20 years of age, instead of 24.  Even though no obvious record of him has been found within the 1890 Census, it was three years later that John H Collett married Laura Ida McNair by licence at Fulton Township on 12^th March 1893 when he was 36 and she was 21 who, at the time of their wedding, were both living at Camp in the County of Fulton, six miles north-east of Salem in Arkansas, immediately south of Missouri

Three years later, Laura Ida Collett gave birth to a daughter, the couple’s only known child, with the three members of the family recorded at Benton Township, Fulton County in Arkansas in the census of 1900.  John Collett from Illinois, the son of parents born in England and Maine, was 45 and a farmer with his own account.  On that day his wife of seven years was Ida Collett from Arkansas who was 27, and their Arkansas born daughter Emma Collett was five years old.  The census return also recorded at Ida had given birth to three children with Emma the only one to survive

After a further decade John Collett from Illinois, the son of an English father, whose mother was born in Maine, had returned to Missouri where he said he was 54 years old and a general farmer with his own account, who was residing at Blue Mound Township, in Vernon County.  His wife of seventeen years was Ida Collett aged 37, when their only child was Emma Collett who was 14 and born in Arkansas like her mother.  It was the information contained within the two census returns for 1900 and 1910 that enabled the union of John and Laura to be identified in 1893, as provided above.  They were married for just under twenty years, when the death of John H Collett was recorded at Vernon County in Missouri in 1912 at the age of 56.  His daughter Emma was born at Camp on 2^nd May 1896 with her birth recorded at Benton Township, who was living at Augusta, St Charles County, Missouri, when she died on 25^th January 1984 at the age of 88

44O19 – Emma Collett was born in 1896 at Camp, Arkansas

George E Collett [44N18] was born in 1859 at Princeton, Illinois, the sixth child of John and Ann Collett.  Tragically, he was around four years when he died at Bacon Township in Vernon County, Missouri in 1863, with his mother giving birth to her last child later that same year who was given the same forename (below)

George Dexter Collett [44N19] was born at Bacon Township, Vernon County in Missouri during 1863, just after his elder brother of the same name (above) suffered a child death.  As George Collett he was seven years of age and at school in 1870, one of four children living at Bacon Township with their parents who, by 1880, was 17 and one of only three children “living at home” with their elderly farming parents, but at Blue Mound Township in Vernon County, Missouri.  Even at 17 years of age, George D Collett had no stated occupation.  Nine years later George Dexter Collett married Martha Elizabeth Falkenstein in 1889 at Jackson, Missouri, who were blessed with three children over the next six years, all born in Missouri, with the first two born at Kansas City, and youngest at Blue Mound in Vernon County, north-east of Kansas City.  The three children were Laverne Collett (1891-1908), Lorraine Collett (1892-1983), and Harry Collett (1896-1972) who were with their parents in the next census in 1900 at 1139 North Street, Ward 6 Fresno City in California.  That year the family comprised engineer George D Collett aged 39 and married for 11 years to Mattie Collett who was 43.  Their son Laverne, recorded as Lonnie Collett, was nine years old and at school, as was Lorraine Collett who was eight, and Harry Collett who was four years of age.  All three children had been born in Missouri before settling in California, while curiously, George gave his birth as September 1861, two years before his brother George had died, so the year should have been 1863 as recorded above.  Martha gave her birth as July 1857, so maybe George consciously gave a different aged embarrassed with a six-year gaps in their ages. The children’s births were recorded as January 1891, December 1892, and May 1896

Seven years later the couple’s eldest children suffered a premature death, when Laverne Collett died at Fresno on 12^th February 1908, following which he was buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery, where many members of the family were buried.  It was one year later at Fresno on 17^th February 1909 that George Dexter Collett aged 46 who had been born in 1863, a mechanic, height 5 feet 7 inches, completed his registration form to enable him to vote in future elections for Ward 7, Precinct 4, of the registration area 2317 Mono, Fresno, California.  The next census in the following year, also revealed that George D Collett was residing in Fresno, when he was 48 and a stationery machinist who had not worked for 25 weeks during the previous twelve months.  His wife of twenty years was Mattie Collett from Virginia who was also 48, when their two surviving children were daughter Lorraine Collett who was 17, and son Harry Collett who was 15, both born in Missouri with neither having a stated job of work, so perhaps still at school.  The next census in 1920 confirmed that their surviving son had returned from the war and was living with George and Mattie at 1741 Van Ness Avenue in Pueblo de las Juntas, Fresno, where George D Collett was 59 and employed as a mill-wright with the Wire Association, when Mattie Collett was the same age.  Son Harry was 23 and working for the California Associated Raisin Company, as he had been prior to the war.  On that occasion the family was letting out a room in their home to Robert McKenzie from Michigan

Ten years after that day, the couple was listed at the Judicial Township of Fresno where George D Collett aged 67 was recorded in 1930.  That year his parents were said to have been born in Maine where his mother was born, while his father was born at Melksham in England.  He was married when aged 28 and had been born in Missouri, a farmer who was the owner of his farm.  His family was the same as twenty years earlier, when wife Mattie Collett from West Virginia was 68 and married when she was 28, their daughter Lorraine Collett was 36 and was already a widow who was employed as a saleslady, with son Harry Collett aged 32 and a widower who was a superintendent raisin packer.  Again the two children were confirmed as born in Missouri.  After a further nine years, George Dexter Collett died on 13^th May 1939 and was buried at Reedley, Fresno, California, aged 75, when his wife was confirmed as Martha Collett, and his father was John Collett, Certificate No. 28190

44O20 – Laverne Collett was born in 1891 at Kansas City, Missouri

44O21 – Lorraine Collett was born in 1892 at Kansas City, Missouri

44O22 – Harry Collett was born in 1896 at Blue Mound, Vernon County, Missouri

Jennie M Collett [44N20] was born on 26^th July 1850 at Bangor, Penobscot, Maine, the only child from the first marriage of Job Collett and Julie, who died when Jennie was only three years old.  Just over two years after being widowed, her father remarried, with the new family again living at 6^th Ward Bangor City, Penobscot, where Jennie Collett was nine years old in 1860 and at school.  Again as simply Jennie Collett she was 19 in 1870 and still living with her father and step-mother, and two half-siblings Charles and Carrie.  By that time in her life she had witnessed the deaths of three of her half-siblings.  Two years later Jennie M Collett died at State Street in Bangor City on 22^nd February 1872 aged 21 years and 7 month, the daughter of Job Collett and Julia M Collett, and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, Knox County, Maine

Charles T Collett [44N22] was born at Bangor, Maine on 6^th December 1857, the third known child of Job Collett and his second wife Elizabeth A Sawyer.  He never married and, following the death of his father in 1894, Charles continued to live with his mother at 6 Somerset Street in Bangor, where his younger brother Henry (below) was preparing to be married.  That day Charles was 43 and a nightwatchman.  He was one month short of his sixty-second birthday when Charles T Collett died at Bangor on 16^th November 1919, following which he was buried at the Collett area of the Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, where a memorial stone marks his grave

Henry Eugene Collett [44N25] was born at Bangor, Maine on 20^th April 1872, the last child of Job Collett from Melksham in England and Elizabeth A Sawyer, his second wife.  His father died in 1894 and on the day of the census in 1900 Henry E Collett was 28 and still living with his widowed mother at 6 Somerset Street in Bangor, from where he was working as a clerk at an iron works.  Not long after the start of the new century, Henry married Charlotte Ethel Ray who was born in 1881, who died during 1954, with whom he had five children, including twin sons, although details of only four are currently known.  It was at State Street in Brewer City, Penobscot County, Maine, that the young family was living in 1910, where Henry E Collett was 38, had been married for nine years, and was employed as a secretary.  Charlotte R Collett was 29, Ray Eugene Collett was six, and Floyd L Collett was three years old, whose twin had not survived

The next census in 1920 again recorded the family residing at State Street, when son Lloyd appears to have been recorded using the name of his deceased twin brother (?).  At that time head of the household H Eugene Collett was 47 and working at a bank, Charlotte R Collett was 38, Ray E Collett was 16, Louis E Collett was 13, and baby Janet Collett was just eleven months old.  Ten years later the census in 1930 identified the family living at 86 State Street in Brewer City when H Eugene Collett was 57 and a vice president at the Bank Travel Company.  Charlotte R Collett was 48, and daughter Janet Collett was eleven years old.  A live-in maid and her daughter were listed with the family and they were widow Gertrude M Brown aged 36 and seven-year-old Constance M Brown.  Henry Eugene Collett died on 1^st October 1961 at the age of 89.  He was the great-grandfather of Holly Hendricks from Wakefield in Massachusetts, just north of Boston, who supplied the brief details of her family line back to Thomas Collett of Broughton Gifford who emigrated to America in 1829

44O23 – Eugene Ray Collett was born in 1903 a Bangor, Maine

44O24 – S Loyd Irving Collett was born in 1906 a Bangor, Maine

44O25 – Louis E Collett was born in 1906 a Bangor, Maine

44O26 – a Collett child was born and died at Brewer City

44O27 – Jane Collett was born in 1919 at Brewer City

Frances M Collett [44N26] was born in Massachusetts during 1853, the eldest child of Jacob Frank Collett and Hannah Augusta Brown.  She was 17 in the Maine census of 1870 when she was still living there with her family, and just before the next census in 1880 she married Edgar M Green.  On the day of that census Fannie M Green was 26 and Edgar M Green was 23 when they were living with Frances’ parents at Corinna, Penobscot in Maine

Valentine E Collett [44N30] was born at Newport, Maine in 1874, the youngest child of Jacob F Collett and Hannah Augusta Brown.  In 1880 the family home was at Corinna in Penobscot County, where Valentine E Collett was six years of age.  She later married Gideon W Sevain but, sadly the married was very short-lived, when the death of Valentine E Collett Sevain was recorded in the couple’s home at 22 Bradley Street in Somerville, Massachusetts, on 16^th April 1896, aged just 22 years.  She was then buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Mary Ann Collett [44N31] was born at Llancaen Crilwyn, in Cardiganshire, during 1856 as Mary Ann Jones, the daughter of Ann Jones.  Upon her widowed mother’s marriage to John Collett from Atworth in 1864, the child took up the Collett surname and it was as Mary A Collett, aged 14, that she was living at Cwmdu, east of Maesteg in 1871, with John and Ann Collett.  Just before her twentieth birthday she married coal miner James Evans who was four years older than Mary, who had been born at Carew in Pembroke.  In 1881 the couple was living at 3 MacGregor Row in Cwmdu, where Mary Ann Evans was 24 and her husband was 28.  On that occasion, Mary’s place of birth was said, in error, to be Maesteg.  Their three Maesteg (Cwmdu) born children were Edith Alice Evans who was five, James John Evans who was two, and Eliza Jane Evans who was just six months old

George Henry Collett [44O1] was born at New Haven City in 1875, the eldest of the two sons of Daniel Thomas Collett and Adela John Bryan.  In the census of 1880, five-year-old George H Collett was not recorded with his family, instead he was described as the nephew of Charles Bryan, his mother’s brother, with whom he was boarding at nearby Milford in New Haven County.  Also staying with Charles Bryan and his unmarried sister Susan M Bryan, was George’s widowed grandmother Celestia Bryan.  Over the following years George’s parents were divorced and that may be the reason why no record of him has been found until, twenty years later, in the census of 1900.  That year George H Collett was 22 (sic) and a dealer in bicycles like his younger brother Edwin (below), when both were still living with their divorced mother at New Haven.  George may have already been planning his soon to happen wedding to Adah Florence Wilkinson (1875-1943), which took place in Manhattan, New York, on 23^rd April 1902, when both the bride and the groom were 26 years of age.  George Collett from New Haven was confirmed as the son of Daniel T Collett and Adela J Bryan, while Adah from Meriden, Connecticut, was recorded as the daughter of Dwight Harvey Wilkinson and Emily E Puffer

The following census in 1910 placed him as a married man residing at 217 Ohio Avenue in Providence on Rhode Island, where George H Collett from Connecticut was 34 and employed as a superintendent for a life insurance company.  The census return stated that he and Adah F Collett, also 34, had been married for eight years, having given *birth to two children.  They were Glenna F Collett who was six, and Edwin S Collett who was four years old, all four of them were born in Connecticut.  Employed by the family as a domestic servant was Lucy Brown from Pennsylvania who was 28.  *In conflict with the census return, an alternative source suggests Adah had given birth to a third child, Marshall Collett who died at New Haven on 17^th April 1905 and was buried there at Westville Cemetery.  The one problem with that, is the child’s date of birth was 1^st June 1903, only nineteen days before daughter Glenna was born

It was at 140 Wentworth Avenue, Cranston Ward in Providence, that the family was recorded in the census of 1915, when George and Adah were 39, Glenna was 12 years old, and Edwin was nine years of age.  By that time in his life George was described as a proprietor of an insurance business, who was categorised as an employer, where previously he was a worker.  It was nearly the same situation five years later, when the same family was still living in Providence, but at 184 Elongrove Avenue in 1920, where George H Collett was 44, as was Adah Collett, and was still involved in his own insurance business as an insurance agent.  The other three occupants were daughter Glenna F Collett who was 16, son Edwin A Collett who was 14, and servant Catherine Banahan from Ireland aged 25

The family was still in Providence in 1925, at 20 Upton Avenue, where George H Collett was 48, Adah was 46 (sic), Glenna was 21, and Edwin was 19.  Three years after that census day, George may have been visiting family or friends in the place of his birth since it was at New Haven where his death was recorded on 4^th August 1928 and where he was then buried – see below.  Just prior to that sad event, his wife sailed on board the SS Ile de France across the Atlantic from Le Havre to New York, where she arrived on 30^th May 1928.  The passenger list gave Adah’s date and place of birth as 12^th October 1875 at Meriden in Connecticut, her age as 52, and home address as 20 Upton Avenue, Providence.  Although Adah was passenger number 27 - passport number 2695, passenger number 6 – passport number 2696, was her 24-year-old daughter Glenna Collett whose date and place of birth was 20^th June 1903 at New Haven, Connecticut.  Her home address was simply Providence

Regardless of the death of her husband being recorded at New Haven, and his body buried there, the record of his passing confirmed he had been residing at 20 Upton Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife Adele Florence Collett, when he died at Little Compton Road, Rhode Island on 4^th August 1928 from diphtheria and double pneumonia.  The same record also confirmed he was a son of Daniel T Collett and Adele J Bryan, with his wife named as the informant of his passing and that, during his life, he was a general agent for an insurance company.  After the shock of losing her husband, Adah and son Edwin continued to live in Providence after daughter Glenna moved to New York.  No record of the two of them has been found within the 1930 Census, while during the previous year, Adah travelled with her daughter across the Atlantic for a second time onboard the SS Mauretania which left Cherbourg on 1^st June 1929, arriving in New York on 7^th June.  The passenger list recorded that Adah Collett was 53 who was residing at 529 Industrial Trust Building in Providence

No obvious record of widow Adah Collett, or son Edwin, has been found within the census of 1930, but the census in 1935 identified Adah F Collett aged 59 living at 62 Blackstone Boulevard in Providence, Rhode Island.  Within the census return, Adah’s date of birth was correctly recorded as 12^th October, but the year was clearly written as 1879 which would be at odds with every previous mention of her age and death of birth.  Still living with his mother was Edwin A Collett aged 33 and a life insurance agent whose date of birth was 25^th November 1907.  Five years after, in 1940, they were both still living in Providence but at 292 Wayland Avenue, a property owned by Edwin and valued at $3,000.  On that day, it was Edwin A Collett who was the head of the household, when he was 34 and an agent employed by a life insurance company, when his mother Adah F Collett was 64.  It was just three years later that Adah F Collett passed away on 13^th December 1943 at Providence, Rhode Island, when she was confirmed as the widow of George H Collett, and was laid to rest in the grounds of Swan Point Cemetery

44P1 – Glenna F Collett was born in 1903 at New Haven, Connecticut

44P2 – Edwin Albert Collett was born in 1907 at New Haven, Connecticut

Edwin Stephen Collett [44O2] was born on 6^th August 1877 at Hamden, New Haven County, when he was confirmed as the younger son of Thomas Collett and Adele Jane Bryan.  He was two years old in the New Haven census of 1880, and was 19 (sic) in the New Haven census of 1900 when he and his older brother George were living at 45 Summer Street in the City of New Haven with their mother who, by then was divorced from their father.  Edwin S Collett and George H Collett (above) were working as dealers in bicycles.  During the latter half of the following decade, Edwin married Louise Hyde and by 1910 the pair of them and their only child were living at 1517 Blue Hill Avenue, Boston, Suffolk County in Massachusetts, the third family at the address, Family Visitation No. 203.  Edwin S Collett continued to give the census enumerator incorrect details when he said he was 29 (sic) , Louise Collett was 26, and daughter Elise Collett was five months old.  Edwin was then employed as a mail clerk for the railway, with all three members of his family having been born in Connecticut.  The census return also confirmed the couple had been married for just one year, with Edwin’s Tax Assessment form for 1910 further confirming the same details as in the census return

Ten years after that day, the family was staying at 65 Bank Street, Attleboro City in Bristol County, Mass.  That was the rented home of Eugene A Hyde, a salesman in the retail trade, who was 71 and Edwin’s father-in-law.  Edwin S Collett was 42 and commercial trader in automobiles, Louise H Collett was 36, and Elise G Collett was 10.  Louise’s mother was Ida M Hyde, aged 68, and completing the family group was Louise’s younger unmarried sister Elise Hyde who was 34.  Two years earlier, on 12^th September 1918, Edwin Stephen Collett was 41 when he was living at Tiffany Street in Attleboro when he was described in the US Draft Registration form as being a self-employed farmer, whose next-of-kin was named as Mrs Louise H Collett of the same address

During the 1920s, the family travelled south to Florida where, in 1930, they were recorded at 867 18^th Avenue North, St Petersburg City in Pinellas County, a rented property.  The couple continued to give inaccurate information to the census enumerator, when Edwin said he was 50 (sic) and had married when he was thirty years old (sic).  Louise was 44 (sic) and was twenty-two when she was first married, with their unmarried daughter Elise Collett being 20 years of age.  That day Edwin was not credited with a job of work.  During the following decade Edwin was able to purchase a home for himself and Louise, who was employed as a real estate salesman in the census of 1940 when he was 62 and Louise was 57.  By that time their daughter was no longer living with them.  It was while he was still residing within Pinellas County that he died in 1949.  Louise Collett, nee Hyde, was born in 1883 and survived her husband by twenty-one-years, when she passed away in 1970 at the age of 87

44P3 – Elise G Collett was born in 1910 in Connecticut

Alfred Stephen Collett [44O3] was born at Hartford in Connecticut on 22^nd January 1882, the only known child of Stephen Collett and Mary Torpey.  It is curious that, apart from 1940, no other US Census record for him has been found, only the random information listed below, which indicates that he never married.  Furthermore, nothing is known about his parents after 1880.  On 10^th September 1918 a Draft Registration Card for Stephen Collett was completed at New Haven City, Connecticut, which confirmed his date of birth, as above, when he was residing at the home of Mrs L J Torpey, his nearest relative, at 225 Lloyd Street in New Haven at the age of 36.  At that time in his life, he was working as a stock clerk for the New Haven Clock Company at 131 Hamilton Street in New Haven.  He signed the card in his full name.  He was physically disqualified from military service for the reason his right leg was short

On submission of a Social Program Application during November 1936 for Alfred, both his and his father’s name were recorded as Steven, when his mother was confirmed as Mary Torpey.  The form also confirmed his date and place of birth as indicated above.  Four years later, the census in 1940 revealed 57-year-old Alfred Collett from Connecticut was a lodger with no stated occupation, living with the family of Henry and Lillian Hull with their four young children at 546 Winchester Avenue in New Haven.  By the time the WW2 Draft Registration Card for Alfred Steven Collett was filled out in 1942, he was residing at the Corine Hotel, 6 State Street in New London, Connecticut, at 60 years of age.  His date and place of birth was again repeated exactly as above, when the person who would always know his address was Mrs Hull of 546 Winchester Avenue in New Haven.  His employer’s name was Mr Gould at the U S Submarine Base, Groton, New London.  On that day he signed as Alfred S Collett.  When he died on 2^nd June 1960 at the age of 78, he was living in New Haven City, and described as Alfred S Collett, single

Josephine Collett [44O4] was born during the month of August in 1866 at Hamden, the only child of Henry W Collett from Jackson, Illinois, and Cynthia Goodyear Dickerman aged 21 from Hamden, where they were married in 1863.  Josephine was three and 13 years old in the next two census returns, while it was nine years later that she was married.  The wedding of Josephine Collett and Fred E Webb took place on 6^th June 1889 at Springfield, Massachusetts when the bride was 22 and at home with her parents Henry W and Cynthia Collett, and the groom was 27 and a milk dealer, the son of Edwin and Delia Webb.  The marriage was blessed with two children both born before the end of the century

On the day of the census in 1900 the young family was living at 33 Churchill Street in Springfield, Hamden County in Massachusetts.  Fred Webb was head of the household at the age of 38, when he was still earning a living as a dealer in milk.  His wife Josephine was 33 and had been born in August 1866, while their daughter Maud Webb was nine, and their son Everett Webb was four years of age.  Four others were staying at that address, and they were Josephine’s parents Henry W Collett 59 and Cynthia G Collett 58, confirmed as Fred’s parents-in-law.  Their also had two boarders staying there that day.  Both children were born at Springfield, Maud Collett Webb on 18^th February 1891 and son Everett Terrett Webb on 27^th February 1896, who was baptised there on 6^th April 1896.  Josephine Webb, nee Collett, was still living at 33 Churchill Street when she died on 11^th December 1947, aged 81, when her obituary in the Springfield newspaper recorded her as Mrs Mary Josephine Webb, daughter of Cynthia Goodyear Collett, and the widow of Fred E Webb

Maria Maslen Collett [44O5] was born at Brooklyn, New York on 7^th February 1867, the first of the four known children of William Mortimer Collett and Mary Ann Hughes (or Hughey).  Tragically, she suffered an infant death at the age of one year, when she died at Brooklyn on 10^th April 1868, and was buried there at Cypress Hills Cemetery on 12^th April 1868

William Henry Collett [44O6] was born at Brooklyn, New York on 6^th December 1868, the second child of William and Mary Collett.  Shortly after he was born, his parents moved to Virginia, where they were living at Buffalo Township in 1870, when William was one year old.  By 1880, when he was eleven years of age, the family had settled in New Haven at 29 Daggett Street, but thereafter no record of William Henry Collett has been found

Albert Edward Collett [44O7] was born in Virginia on 5^th April 1871, the second son of William and Mary Collett.  In the census of 1880, Albert E Collett from Virginia was nine years of age when he was living with his family at 29 Daggett Street in New Haven.  Twenty years later, the New Haven census in 1900, identified the family of four living at 23 Ward Street, where Albert E Collett aged 28 was a machinist who was described as born in Connecticut (sic), which was where he was raised.  Just after that census day, the marriage of Albert Edward Collett and Lillian Emma Tower took place and was followed by the birth of their son, the first of two children.  That was confirmed in the next census in 1910 which stated the couple had been married for eleven years (sic), when their son was ten years of age

It was at New Haven City that the family was living in 1910 where Albert E Collett was 38 and had been born in Virginia who was a proprietor of a fish market living at 22 Asylum Street.  Living there with him was his wife Lillian E Collett aged 32 and from Maine, and their two children who were Edward Collett, and Vera Collett who was eight years old.  The census form confirmed that Lilian had given birth to two children, both living.  Less than five years after that census day, Albert E Collett died at New Haven on 13^th January 1915 and was buried there at the Evergreen Cemetery, where the headstone included the date of his birth and passing.  The fact that Lillian had lost her husband was confirmed in the 1920 census for New Haven, when widow Lillian Collett was 42 with no occupation, her son Edward was 20 and a clerk at an optician’s store, and daughter Vera was 18 and a stenographer in manufacturing

44P4 – Albert Edward Collett was born in 1901 at New Haven, Connecticut

44P5 – Vera Collett was born in 1902 at New Haven, Connecticut

Frank Collett [44O8] was born at New Haven during the month of May in 1882 and was the last child of William Mortimer Collett and Mary A Hughes (Hughey).  It was at 23 Ward Street in New Haven Township that 18-year-old Frank Collett was still living with his family in 1900, when he was attending school.  After a further ten years, Frank Collett aged 28 was a salesman and a lodger at Prospect Street, Bristol Town, Hartford County in Connecticut

Charles William Collett [44O9] was born on 2^nd April 1870 at Oakland in Virginia whose birth was reported to the register office by his grandfather Henry Collett.  The details provided confirmed he was the child of Charles C Collett, a farmer living at Prince Edward County, and his wife Fanny.  Only one other Collett was recorded on the same Virginia register and that was Sarah Collett (Ref. 44p6a) the daughter of William Collett (Ref. 44o9a) and his wife Rebecca who was born on 16^th February 1876 at Petersburg.  Charles junior was two months old on the day of the Virginia census in 1870 with his parents moving to Connecticut around the middle of the decade, with them settling at Hamden Town, New Haven County where Charles Collett was ten years of age in 1880

No record of the family has been found in 1890, and two years later Charles William Collett married Nellie C Veull (?).  It was the Hamden census in 1900 that stated the couple had been married for eight years, during which time Nellie S Collett, born in Connecticut during September 1868 (?) had given birth to one child who was living with them.  Both Nellie’s age, and that of husband Charles, were crossed out and not clearly re-written.  Their son Robert M Collett was six years old and born during May 1894.  By that time in his life, Charles William Collett was a butcher.  Living in the dwelling next door to the young Collett family was Charles’ widowed mother together with Charles’ six younger siblings.  Charles, Nellie, and Robert, were still residing in Hamden by 1910, and were recorded at Washington Avenue when, again, they were living next door to the former Collett family home then occupied by Charles’ younger brother Edgar (below) and his family.  That day Charles was 39 and employed as a miller at a grist mill, Nellie was 42, and Robert was 16 and was still at school

44P6 – Robert Merle Collett was born in 1894 at New Haven County

Edgar Howard Collett [44O12] was born on 21^st March 1877 at Hamden, New Haven, the son of Charles C Collett of Hamden aged 29, and Sarah F Moss of New Haven County aged 23.  Charles was a blacksmith, and Edgar was Sarah’s fifth child and was three years of age in the Hamden census of 1880.  No record of the family has been found for 1890, while it was nine years later when Edgar’s father died at Hamden.  Edgar was the eldest of the five children still living with his widowed mother at Hamden in 1900, by which time he was a married man.  Edgar H Collett was 23 and a suspender weaver, when his wife Bessie’s recorded aged of 18 was crossed out and changed to 15, who was working as a winder.  Living in the adjacent property on Washington Avenue that day was Edgar’s married brother Charles (above) with his wife Nellie and their son Robert

Sometime after that day, and within the next ten years, Edgar’s mother, with her youngest child Lena, had left Washington Avenue in Hamden to move in with married daughter Eva Hadling and her husband Albert at Dorman Street in New Haven Township.  That left Edgar Howard Collett living in the former Collett family home at Washington Avenue in Hamden in 1910.  Head of the household Edgar Collett was 33 and a teamster with a grain team, whose wife Bessie Miranda Buell Collett was 36 – an error for 26, who had given birth to three children who were living with their parents, and they were Howard E Collett aged five years, Elmer F Collett aged two, and Charles C Collett who was five months old, all born in Hamden.  Still living next door in the adjacent property was Edgar’s brother Charles, his wife, and their son

On 12^th September 1918 Edgar complete a draft registration form which contained the following details.  His home address was Whitney Avenue, North Haven, New Haven County, he was 41 and born on 21^st March 1877, who was a machine operator for the Marlin Rockwell Corporation of Willow in New Haven, with his nearest relative being Bessie Maria Collett.  By 1920 the extended family was again living at Whitney Avenue in North Haven, when Edgar H Collett was 42 and a labourer at a factory, Bessie was 46, Elmer F Collett was 12, Charles C Collett was 10, George Henry Collett was eight, and Adele F Collett was five years old.  Living in the next road on the census form, Skiff Street, was Thomas Collett [35O47] from England who was 65 and a mechanic at a factory, his wife Julia Collett was 59 and from Connecticut, and their 19-year-old son Harry Collett was a purchasing agent for a local factory.  For further details about this family go to Part 35 – The Melksham to Wisconsin and Ontario Line 1830 1890

By 1930 the extended family was again residing on Whitney Avenue in North Haven Town at number 2185, the property owned by Edgar and valued at $6,000.  That day, Edgar H Collett was 53 with no occupation, Bessie was 57, Elmer Collett was 23, Curtis Collett was 20 and a chauffeur for a private family, George Collett was 18 – both of them gardeners at a nursery, and Adele Collett was 15.  During the next decade Bessie M Collett died, with Edgar a widower in the 1940 Census for North Haven Town.  On that occasion Edgar H Collett aged 63, a deliveryman for a newspaper, was staying at the home of his married son Curtis (Charles Curtis Collett) who was 30 and a mover and haulier driver for a trucking company.  The home address was the same as ten years earlier, 2185 Whitney Avenue in North Haven, where Curtis’ wife was Priscilla Collett who was also 30, and their daughter Barabara Collett was 11 months old.  Three years later Edgar Howard Collett died on 25^th May 1943 at Hamden Town and was buried in the Central Burying Grounds.  On the occasion of the birth of the couple’s fifth and last child at North Haven the father was recorded as Edward Collett (sic) aged 38 who was a mechanic from Hamden, with the mother described as Bessie Buell aged 41 from Chester, daughter Adele being their fifth child, with all five children still living

44P7 – Howard Eugene Collett was born in 1905 at Hamden, New Haven County

44P8 – Elmer Franklin Collett was born in 1907 at Hamden, New Haven County

44P9 – Charles Curtis Collett was born in 1909 at Hamden, New Haven County

44P10 – George Henry Collett was born in 1911 at Hamden, New Haven County

44P11 – Adele Frances Collett was born in 1914 at North Haven, New Haven County

Clara Louise Collett [44O13] was born at Hamden Town in New Haven County, Connecticut, on 19^th April 1879, the sixth of the eight children of Chales C Collett and his wife Sarah Fanny Moss.  The record of her birth confirms the following information.  She was the eldest daughter of Charles C Collett aged 31, a mechanic, and Sarah F Moss aged 25, who was born at Hamden on 19^th April 1879, their sixth child, with four of them still living.  When Clara married Arthur N Pinney on 1^st September 1902 at New Haven her parents were again confirmed as Charles C Collett and Sarah F Moss.  That was nearly two years after her sister Jessie (below) had married Arthur’s brother William Pinney.  The marriage of Clara and Arthur produced a son in 1906 who was living with his parents at 23 Elizabeth Street, a rented property in New Haven City in 1920.  Arthur H Pinney was 47 and a factory worker with a wire company, Clara Pinney was 40, and Arthur H Pinney junior was 14.  Staying with the family was Arthur’s widowed sister-in-law Jessie F Pinney (below) and his niece Eva A Pinney.  Clara Louise Collett Pinney died on 4^th November 1944 at Hamden and was buried at Hamden Plain Cemetery, where her sister Jessie was buried two years after

Jessie Florence Collett [44O14] was born at Hamden, New Haven on 3^rd January 1881 another child of mechanic Charles C Collett aged 33 and Fanny (Sarah) Moss aged 27, the couple’s seventh child, of whom only four were living.  At the age of 19, Jessie was working as a warper when she was preparing for her forthcoming wedding.  And it was later that year, at Hamden, where she married William H Pinney on 28^th November 1900.  Most likely due to that union between the two families, less than two years later, Jessie’s older sister Clara (above) married Arthur Pinney.  Jessie was confirmed as being the 20-year-old daughter of Charles C Collett and Fannie Moss whose mother provided written consent for the wedding to take place.  William aged 22 was a glazier and the son of Samuel H Pinney and Sarah Collins.  Twenty years later, the New Haven City census of 1920 recorded the Pinney family at 23 Elizabeth Street, where the head of the household was Arthur H Pinney, Jessie’s brother-in-law, with Jessie F Pinney already a widow at 38, who had with her, her daughter Eva A Pinney who was 17, both of them employed at a nearby ammunition plant.  Jessie Florence Collett Pinney was nearly 66 when she died at Hamden on 31^st December 1946 and was buried at Hamden Plains Cemetery

Frank Leslie Howard Collett [44O15] was born at Hamden on 15^th March 1884, another son of Charles and Sarah (Fanny) Collett.  The record of his birth as Frank Leslie Collett confirmed he was the eighth child, of whom only five were living, of butcher Charles C Collett aged 37 and Sarah F Moss who was 32.  By 1900 Frank was 16 and a suspender weaver living with his family at Hamden.  Ten years later Frank L Collett was a married man living at 33 Lines Street in New Haven City, where he was 25 and married for three years, a tender (?) at an arms factory.  His first wife Marie Collett was also 25 who had yet to give birth to a child.  The draft registration card for Frank Leslie Collett was completed on 12^th September 1918 as follows.  He was 34 and residing at 274 Park Street, West Haven, New Haven County, whose date of birth was as confirmed above.  His occupation was that of an adjuster at Winchesters of Winchester Avenue, New Haven (aka Repeating Arms Company at Winchester Avenue in New Haven) when his nearest relative was Mrs Frank L Collett of 274 Park Street.  That very likely referred to his second wife Emma, with Marie either having died between 1910 and 1918, or from whom Frank was subsequently divorced

The US Census in 1930 identified Frank with his second wife, when Frank L Collett was 46 and still living at Hamden, but at 1980 Witney Avenue in their own home valued at $7,500, from where Frank was working as a machinist with a wire company.  His wife that day was Emma A Collett who was 49, with the census return stating that she was 36 when she married Frank who was 33.  No record of any children from either marriage has been found.  It was simply as Frank Leslie Collett that he died on 15^th April 1947 and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Kinmundy, Marion County in Illinois.  It may be of interest that no record during his life included the forename Howard, so maybe this may be something the present day family believe that is how he was known

Eva Lucy Collett [44O16] was born at Hamden, New Haven County on 6^th February 1886.  The record of her birth confirmed her father was Charles C Collett who was 39 and a mechanic, and her mother was Sarah F Moss 34, with Eva being their ninth child, when only three were living.  This latter detail was not correct since, two years later, for the birth of sister Lena (below), seven child of the couple’s children were alive.  In the Hamden census of 1900, 14-year-old Eva was employed as a winder.  Upon being married at Albert Hadling, Eva became Eva Lucy Hadling, and it was as Eva Lucy Collett Herdling (sic) that she died at Hamden on 15^th December 1915 when she was 29, and was buried at Hamden Plains Cemetery.  Five years earlier, head of the household at 22 Dorman Street in New Haven Township was Albert Hadling who was 29, married for five year, and employed at a gun shop.  His wife of five years was Eva Hadling aged 24, when living with the childless couple were mother-in-law Sarah Collett 57, and sister-in-law Lena Collett aged 22

Lena Alice Collett [44O17] was born on 16^th April 1888 at Hamden, New Haven and was the last child of Charles and Sarah Collett.  She was the tenth and last child of Charles C Collett 40 aged and a stage driver, and his wife Sarah Fanny Moss aged 34 (sic).  Her birth record also confirmed that only seven of the ten children were still alive by then.  At the age of 12, Lena was attending school in 1900, while ten years later, unmarried Lena Collett aged 22 and a saleswoman at a general shop, was with her widowed mother who was staying at the New Haven Township home of her married sister Eva Hardling (above) and her husband at 22 Dorman Street

Lorraine Collett [44O21] was born at Kansas City, Missouri, on 9^th December 1892, the second daughter of George Dexter Collett and Martha (Mattie) Elizabeth Falkenstein.  Towards the end of the century, and after the birth of her younger brother Harry (below), the family moved to Fresno, California, where they remained for many decades.  In 1900 Lorraine was eight years of age, and in 1910 she was 17.  Although absent for twenty years, during which she was first married, she was back with her parents in 1930 at Judicial Township in Fresno where Lorraine Collett was 36 and a widow, whose brother Harry (below), had also returned to the family home having been widowed after his first wife had died.  It was also during those missing years, that Lorraine had created a name for herself as the Sun-Maid Girl.  That was because, as a model, she was hired to promote raisins

It was during 1915 that Lorraine was attending high school and working part-time as a seeder and packer for the Griffin & Skelley Fruit Packing Company in Fresno, for $15 a week.  In May that year, she was spotted by one of the executives of the raisin cooperative drying her curly brown hair and wearing her mother's red bonnet in the backyard of her family's home.  As a consequence, Lorraine was hired to promote the California Associated Raisin Company by handing out free samples at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, and participating in an unusual promotion that had her dropping raisins from an airplane flying over city

The company later commissioned a watercolor portrait of Lorraine from San Francisco artist Fanny Scafford to use as the basis for the "Sun-Maid" corporate mascot.  Her likeness was trademarked and began appearing on raisin packaging in 1916.  Use of the image was so successful in promoting its products that, by 1920, the company adopted "Sun-Maid Raisin Growers' Association" as its new name.  A revised version of her likeness continued to be featured on all Sun-Maid packaging through to 1960.

In 1974, Lorraine was presented with a commemorative plaque by Sun-Maid's president at a ceremony where she presented Scafford's original portrait and the red bonnet to the company in exchange for $1,700.  Sun-Maid executives donated the bonnet to the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 on the occasion of the company's 75th anniversary.  After modeling for Sun-Maid, Lorraine moved to Hollywood to try to become an actress.  She was successful in securing a small role in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, before returning to Fresno.  At Fresno, Lorraine ran a restaurant for two years and later converted a former hospital into a nursing home.  Some records refer to her as Lorraine Collett Petersen, which may indicate that she was married after 1936.  What is known is that Lorraine Collett died on 30^th March 1983, when she was 90 years of age, with her death recorded at Fresno, with her date of birth confirmed as 9^th December 1892 but at Blue Mound, north-east of Kansas City

Lorraine was laid to rest in the grounds of Odd Fellows Cemetery in McLeansboro, Hamilton, Illinois, where a headstone includes the date of her birth and her passing.  Obituaries were published in Washington and San Francisco in April 1983 when her two children were named as John Petersen, and married daughter Evelyn Roberts.  In the latter obituary Lorraine was named as Lorraine Collett Scafford Petersen, which raises a question.  Was Lorraine first married to a brother, or other member of the family of artist Fanny Scafford

Harry Collett [44O22] was born on 14^th May 1896 at Blue Mound Township, Vernon County, Missouri, where his father had lived as a teenager with Harry’s paternal grandparents prior to the wedding day of his parents George Dexter Collett and Martha (Mattie) Elizabeth Falkenstein at Jackson.  He was their third and last child and by 1900 the completed family was living at 1139 North Street, Ward 6, Fresno City in California, with the census return that year confirming the month and year he was born, when he was four years old.  Following the early death of his older brother Laverne Collett in 1909, Harry and his family were again living in Fresno City at Third Township when he was 15 with no job of work in 1910

His date of birth was confirmed again as 14^th May 1896 when he completed the WW1 Draft Registration Card on 15^th December 1917 at Tranquillity, Fresno, when he was single and his place of his birth was recorded as Nevada, (Vernon County) Missouri, and his home address was 310 Butler Avenue, Fresno City, from where he was working for the California Associated Raisin Company as a superintendent master machinist.  He was described as tall and slender, with brown eyes and dark hair, having no distinguishing marks.  He eventually reached the rank of Sargeant as confirmed by the 1940 Veterans Prior War (WW2) File, by which time Harry Collett was an employee of the Sun-Maid Raisin Company in Fresno

Harry was still a bachelor in the census of 1920 when he was 23 and a superintendent with the raisin company who was still living with his parents but at 1741 Van Ness Avenue in Pueblo de las Juntas, Fresno.  During the following decade Harry was both married and widowed, as confirmed in the 1930 Census when Harry Collett, aged 32 and a superintendent raisin packer with the Sun-Maid Raisin Company in Fresno, had returned to live with his parents at Judicial Township in Fresno where, coincidentally, Harry’s sister Lorraine (above), a widow, was also living after the tragic loss of her first husband.  It is now known that four years earlier Harry Collett aged 30, the son of George D Collett and Mattie Falkenstein, married Alice Switzer aged 24, the daughter of Richard Switzer and Minnie Cameron, at San Joaquin City, California, on 29^th May 1926.  The marriage licence described Alice as a native of Canada and a teacher who was living at Dinuba, Tulare County, California, while Harry, a salesman, was living at 1015 Simpson Street in Fresno.  So far, no record of her premature death has been found

It was at Jenson Avenue in Judicial Township, Fresno, that Harry and his second wife Irene from California, were living on the day of the census in 1940.  The property had a value of $5,000 and was in Harry’s ownership, where he and Irene had been recorded as residing in 1935.  That day Harry Collett from Missouri was 43 and a farmer of his own land working a 50-hour-week, and Irene Collett from California was 32 and working as a dentist’s nurse for 44 hours each week.  Staying with the couple in 1935 and 1940 were two members of their extended family.  They were brothers Paul and William Falkenstein from Oklahoma who, respectively in 1940, was 31 and a married man and a foreman working 44 hours a week, and 23 and an unmarried man who had not been working for a year.  They were the cousins of Harry Collett, being the sons of his mother’s brother

At the age of 45, Harry Collett completed a WW2 Draft Registration Card in 1942 with the following details.  His home address was Jenson Avenue at the junction of Marks and Valentine in Fresno, and his wife was Irene E Collett of the same address.  Harry was once again described as a superintendent, but this time it was with the US Government at Lemoore Air Base, at Lemoore in Kings County, California.  It was twenty years later that Harry Collett died at Clovis, Fresno on 17^th May 1972, three days after celebrating his 76^th birthday, and was buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Fresno.  Prior to that, and sometime between 1942 and 1950, the couple moved to Fowler, seven miles south-east of Fresno, where Harry was still a farmer on his own farm at the age of 53, when Irene was 41 and a farmer’s helper, both of them undertaking a 60 hour working week

Eugene Ray Collett [44O23], perhaps using his mother’s maiden-name, was often recorded as Ray Eugene.  He was born at Bangor, Penobscot, Maine on 25^th September 1903, the first child of Henry Eugene Collett, a clerk, and Charlotte Ethel Ray.  In the Brewer, Penobscot census of 1910, Ray Eugene was six years of age and living with his family at State Street, and was still living with his family at Brewer City in 1920 when he was 16.  On 17^th October 1922, when he was 19 years old and single, Ray Eugene Collett sailed out of Liverpool, England, onboard the S S Chickahominy bound for Boston.  Three years later the marriage of Ray Eugene Collett and Ethelle Mae Cleale was conducted at Quincey, Norfolk County, Massachusetts on 23^rd June 1925.  The bride was 22 and the daughter of Ralph M Cleale and Mae C Dame of 37 Edgemere Road in Quincey, with the groom 21 and a student, the son of Henry E Collett and Charlotte Ray.  Curiously, it was at 37 Edgemere Road that the wedding service was conducted

The following census in 1930 recorded at the family at their own house, valued at $6,000, when Ray E Collett was 27 and the manager at a wood production mill, his wife Mae E Collett was also 21, and their daughter Nancy Collett was two years old.  Employed by the family was a female servant Reata Gillies who was 19.  No more children were added to their family, with the three of them living on Main Street in Brewer City in 1940, by which time Ray E Collett was 36, having no occupation, Ethelle M Collett was 27, and Nancy Collett was 12 years of age.  Ray was still living in the state of Maine when he died on 25^th October 1991 at Houlton, Aroostook County, when he was 88 years old

44P12 – Nancy Collett was born in 1928 at Brewer City, Maine

S Loyd Irving Collett [44O24], known as Lloyd, was a surviving twin of Henry and Charlotte Collett whose birth on 4^th August 1906 was recorded at Bangor as their second child when his father was a bank clerk born at Bangor, whose mother had been born at Brewer City.  While he was three years old in the Bangor census of 1910, it was as Louis E Collett aged 13 that he was living with his family at 86 State Street in Brewer City in 1920, the name of his twin brother.  By 1930 Lloyd was 23 and a salesman in hardware residing at Ohio Street in Bangor, where his first wife was Clemice Collett who was also 23, the couple having married when they were both nineteen years old.  They appear to have had no children and had separated within the next five years

For the census in 1935 Lloyd I Collett was living at 66 Burnett Street in Providence, Rhode Island, at the age of 29 when he was a salesman for a wholesale tyre shop for the US Rubber Company at Valley Street, and had been in full employment for the previous twelve months.  Sometime after that day Lloyd married (2) Janet Shaw, with whom he had a son, as confirmed in the Bangor census of 1940.  Lloyd I Collett was 33 and an executive at a wood products manufacturer.  Janet Collett from Massachusetts was 31, and their son Bruce S Collett was one year and five months old.  Lloyd Irving Collett died in Bangor on 2^nd January 1982 at the age of 76 and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.  Upon being made a widow Janet was recorded at Houlton, Aroostook County, Maine in 1985, perhaps living there at the home of her married son and his wife, and where her brother-in-law Ray Eugene Collett (above) died in 1991.  It was on the last day of the following year that Janet Shaw Collett died at Houlton in Aroostook County on 31^st December 1992 when she was 83, when her date of birth was 5^th January 1909

44P13 – Bruce Shaw Collett was born in 1939 at Bangor, Maine

Janet Collett [44O27] was the last child born to Henry Eugene Collett and Charlotte Ethel Ray and was born at 86 State Street in Brewer City, Maine on 5^th January 1919, and was eleven months old in the Brewer census of 1920.  It was also at 86 State Street that Janet was eleven years of age in 1930, the only child still living with her parents.  The marriage of Janet Collett and James G Pattee took place on 29^th June 1940 at Brewer, Maine.  Janet Collett Pattee was almost 93 when she died on 2012 and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery

Glenna F Collett [44P1] was born at New Haven, Connecticut on 20^th June 1903, the eldest of the two children of George Henry Collett and Adah Florence Wilkinson.  She was recorded with her family at different addresses in Providence, Rhode Island, from 1910 through to 1925, every five years.  During the spring of 1928, Glenna Collett was 24 and accompanying her mother on a trip to and from Europe, eventually leaving La Havre and arriving in New York on 30^th May 1928, when the family’s home address was confirmed as 20 Upton Avenue in Providence.  Her father died at New Haven in August 1928, after which Glenna settled in New York.  During that time in her life Glenna F Collett travelled a great deal and was recorded, alone mostly, on passenger lists, with just the one occasion above, when she accompanied by her mother.  The first of those trips was on board the S S Majesty which sailed from Cherbourg on 15^th July 1925, arriving in New York on 21^st July.  Her next trip was on the SS Munargo from Nassau on 31^st January 1927, arriving in New York on 3^rd February.  By that time 23-year-old Glenna gave her address as 114 East 40^th Street in New York

The reason for so much travelling between Europe and America, was that Glenna was a well-known amateur golfer who initially played baseball and tennis with her brother, who was also an outstanding swimmer and diver.  She was 13 years old when her father took her to the Metacoment Golf Course in East Providence, after which she added golf to her expanding list of activities over the following decades.  In 1922, Glenna Collett won the U S Women's Amateur championship, the first of six championship successes.  A year later, she was successful in winning the Canadian Women's Amateur title.  In 1924, the most noteworthy year of her career, she won 59 out of the 60 events that she entered.  For her next sailing across the Atlantic in 1929 she had her widowed mother with her again who, by then, was described residing at 529 Industrial Trust Building in Providence.  The S S Mauretania left Cherbourg on 1^st June 1929 and arrived in New York on 7^th June.  Once again Glenna F Collett was alone when she sailed from Cherbourg on the S S Aquitania on 7^th June 1930, reaching New York on 13^th June.  It was on that occasion that single lady Glenna Collett, aged 26, was staying at the Chatham Hotel on East 48^th Street in New York

Not long after that, on 24^th June 1931, Glenna F Collett married Edwin H Vare, with whom she had a son Edwin Collett Vare and a daughter Glenna Vare.  Whilst she continued to play and win trophies, she played less often during the following years, but was still playing golf when she was 83.  It was on 3^rd February 1989, at the age of 85, that Glenna Collett Vare passed away at Gulfstream in Florida, after which she was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery West, Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery in Pennsylvania on 6^th February.  Her obituary confirmed the names of her husband and their two children, her daughter being Glenna Vare Kalen, plus the name of her father and her brother

Edwin Albert Collett [44P2] was born at New Haven, Connecticut in 1907 the younger of the two known children of George Henry Collett and Adah Florence Wilkinson.  Edwin Albert Collett was married to the much younger Mary Alison Bedding (1916-2006) who outlived her husband when he died in 1992

Albert Edward Collett [44P4] was born at New Haven, Connecticut in 1900 the first-born child of Albert Edward Collett and Lillian Emma Tower who were married during the previous year.  It was at New Haven that he was living with his parents and younger sister Vera (below) in 1910 when, as Edward Collett, he was ten years of age.  Following the death of his father five years later, at the start of 1915, Albert Edward Collett, completed a military Draft Registration Card on 19^th February 1917, including the details below:

Aged 17, he was still residing at 22 Asylum Street in New Haven (where they were recorded in 1910), whose occupation was that of a clerk at an optician store.  He was 5 feet 9 inches tall and had two people who depended on him (his mother and sister).  He answered no, to every question on the form, but said yes to being able to handle a team (of horses).  In 1950, 50-year-old Albert Edward Collett was an optician in a retail optical store, when with him was his wife Theresa A Collett who was 54

Vera Collett [44P5] was born in 1902 at New Haven, Connecticut, the second child and only daughter of Albert Edward Collett and his wife Lillian Emma Tower, who was eight years old in 1910 when she was living with her family at 22 Asylum Street in New Haven City.  Her father died in 1915 and five years later, eighteen-year-old Vera Collett was working as a stenographer in manufacturing when she was living with her widowed mother at New Haven in 1920.  Vera Collett later married to become Mrs Vera Smith and when she died on 28^th June 1975 the record of her death at Charleston, South Carolina, was reported in the Charleston News & Courier on 29^th June, as follows.  “Mrs Vera Collett Smith was born at New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Albert Edward Collett and Lillian Emma Tower Collett, and wife of George Galbraith Smith was residing at 106 Runnymeade Lane in Charleston North when she died”

Robert Merle Collett [44P6] was born at 115 Fountain Street in New Haven on 28^th May 1894, the only child of Charles William Collett and his wife Nellie C Collett.  On registering his birth at New Haven, the father was recorded as 24-year-old Charlie H Collett of Richmond, Virginia, and the mother was recorded as 28-year-old Nellie C Veull of New Guilford County.  Before the end of the century the family moved the short few miles north to Hamden Town where they were living in 1900 and 1910.  Robert was six years old and 16 years of age when living with his parents at Washington Avenue in Hamden Town.  What happened to the three members of the family during the next decade has still to be discovered, although it is established that Robert Merle Collett was 28 years old when he married 20-year-old Myrtle Louise Wallace in 1922.  By 1930 Robert’s father had already passed away with Robert becoming the owner of the family home at 1 Washington Avenue in Hamden Town which, that year, was valued at $5,000.  During those eight intervening years, Myrtle had given birth to four children, who had her widowed mother-in-law living with them to help her raise her family

That census day Robert Merle Collett was 35 and working as a labourer in a factory.  His wife Myrtle W Collett was 27, and their four children were Florence E Collett who was six, Mildred L Collett who was four years and ten months, Charles J Collett was three years six months, and James R Collett who was just four months old.  Living with the family was Robert’s widowed mother Nellie C Collett who was 63.  The next census in 1940 revealed Robert was 45 and working as an assembler in a nearby factory, when he and his family were again residing at 1 Washington Avenue in Hamden Town.  Myrtle was 37, Florence was 16, Mildred was 15, Charles was 14, and James was 10, with the couple’s next two children listed as Betty J Collett who was nine, and Robert M Collett junior who was seven years old.  Once again Robert’s mother was still living with the family, when Nellie C Collett was 75 to complete the family group

When Robert senior completed the draft registration form for the Second World War in 1941 it provided the following details under Serial No. 1345 – Robert Merle Collett of 1 Washington Avenue, Hamden Town, aged 47 and born at New Haven in Connecticut on May 28 1894, the husband of Myrtle L Collett of the same address, was employed by the Central Burying Grounds Association of Hamden.  The family was again recorded as residing at 1 Washington Avenue in Hamden Town in 1950, when they comprised Robert Merle Collett aged 55 a foreman at a pressing sheet factory, Myrtle W Collett aged 47, Mildred L Collett aged 24 a milling machine operator with a fire-arm company, James R Collett aged 20 a maintenance man for a light company, Robert M J Collett aged 17, married son Charles J Collett aged 23 a utility man with a road constructor, and daughter-in-law Barbara Collett who was 18 and a garment checker at cleaner and dryer.  Completing the household was married daughter Betty Jean la Montagne who was 19 and a waitress at a cafeteria.  Who, or where her husband was, is currently not known.  Robert Merle Collett appears to have lived all his life in New Haven County, since it was there, at North Haven that he died on 20^th February 1975 at the age of 80, with his death recorded at New Haven County, the husband of Myrtle Collett who survived him

44Q1 – Florence Edna Collett was born in 1923 at Hamden Town

44Q2 – Mildred Louise Collett was born in 1925 at Hamden Town

44Q3 – Charles J Collett was born in 1926 at Hamden Town

44Q4 – James Russell Collett was born in 1929 at Hamden Town

44Q5 – Betty Jean Collett was born in 1932 at Hamden Town

44Q6 – Robert Merle Collett junior was born in 1934 at Hamden Town

Howard Eugene Collett [44P7] was the first-born child of Edgar Howard Collett and Bessie Miranda Buell (Maria), who was born at Hamden, New Haven County and was five years old in 1910.  Tragically, he was thirteen years of age when he died at Hamden on 4^th November 1918 and was buried at Hamden’s Central Buring Grounds.  The coroner, looking into his sudden death at the age of 14, reported that “Howard Edgar Collett of the town of Hamden died of heart failure caused by exercise after convalescing from a previous attack of influenza.  On the day he died he was walking up the hill to his residence when he collapsed and died.  He had already been exercising for two or three days prior to that”

Elmer Franklin Collett [44P8] was born at Hamden, New Haven County on 11^th June 1907 another son of Edgar and Bessie Collett.  He was living with his family in 1910, 1920, and 1930.  On 16^th October 1940 Elmer was a married man when he completed a draft registration form at New Haven with the following details.  He was 33, his date and place of birth was as stated above, when he was living at 92 Edwards Street in New Haven, whose wife was Adelaide Collett (at the same address).  His employer was Winchester Repeating Arms Company at Winchester Avenue in New Haven.  Six months prior to completing the form Adelaide Collett, nee Bowman, had given birth to a daughter, with Harriet Andrea Collett born at New Haven on 3^rd April 1940, who was 65 when she died at Durham, Androscoggin County Maine, on 7^th September 2005.  He father Elmer Franklin Collett was 75 when he died at Hamden on 27^th January 1983 and was buried in the Central Burying Grounds in Hamden

44Q7 – Harriet Andrea Collett was born in 1940 at New Haven Township

Charles Curtis Collett [44P9] was born at Hamden Town in New Haven County during 1909 and was five months old in the census of 1901, the third child of Edgar Howard Collett and his wife Bessie Maria.  As Charles and later as Curtis, he was 10 years of age and 20 years old in the North Haven Town census returns, living with his family at 2185 Whitney Avenue by the latter, where he was employed by a private family as their chauffeur.  After his mother died during the 1930, Curtis became head of the household at 2185 Whitney Avenue who, by 1840 was a recently married man with a daughter on the day of the census for North Haven Town in 1940.  Curtis aka Charles Curtis Collett was 30 and a mover and haulier driver for a trucking company, his wife was Priscilla Collett who was also 30, and their daughter Barabara Collett was one month old.  Living with the family was Curtis’ elderly father Edgar H Collett, who passed away three years later

44Q8 – Barbara Collett was born in 1940 at North Haven, New Haven County

George Henry Collett [44P10] was born at Hamden on 13^th September 1911 at Hamden, the fourth son of Edgar and Bessie Collett.  Like his brother Charles (above) George was living at the family home in Hamden in 1920, and then in 1930 when he was 18 and a gardener at a nursery.  It was after that census day that George Henry Collett married Lillian Meigs, the daughter of Arlo and Dorothy Meigs with whom the couple was living, with their daughter, in 1940.  Arlo L Meigs from Oklahoma was 48 and electrical engineer, Dorothy was 43 and from New Hampshire.  Staying with them that day at 1811 State Street in Hamden was their son-in-law George Henry Collett aged 28 and a shipping clerk, their married daughter Lillian Collett who was 27, and their one-month-old granddaughter Dorothy V Collett

On 16^th October 1940 George completed a draft registration form at Hamden with the following information.  George Henry Collett of 1811 State Street, Hamden was 29 born on the date provided above, whose wife was Lillian Josephine Collett of the same address, and was employed by the N Y N H & H Rail Road.  It was the same situation ten years later, when the Hamden census in 1950 identified the young family of three again living with George’s parents-in-law, and in the same home as ten years earlier.  George was 38 and a fireman with the railroad company, Lillian was 36, and daughter Dorothy was ten years old.  George Henry Collett was 81 when he passed away at 20 Kneeland Road, Branford, New Haven County, on 13^th November 1992 and was buried at the Central Burying Grounds in Hamden.  During his life he had been an engineer with Conrail

44Q9 – Dorothy V Collett was born in 1940 at Hamden, New Haven County

Adele Frances Collett [44P11] was born at North Haven, New Haven County in Connecticut, the last child of Edgard Howard Collett aged 38 and Bessie Miranda Buell aged 41.  As Adeli Francis Collett she was born at Whitney Avenue on 22^nd June 1914 and was five years old in the North Haven census of 1920 as Adele F Collett.  It was at 2185 Whitney Avenue that she was living with her family in 1920, and again in 1930 when Adele was 15.  She later married and upon her passing at the age of 95 at New Haven on 10^th April 2020 she was recorded as Adele F Collett Smith.  Her obituary confirmed her parents, as stated above, whose husband was Elton M Smith and their four sons as Howard Smith, Elton Smith, Richard Smith, and Robert Smith.  The daughters-in-law were named as Ann Smith, Elizabeth Smith, Kathy Smith, and Shirley Smith

Bruce Shaw Collett [44P13] was born at Bangor, Maine on 20^th September 1939, the only known child of Lloyd Irving Collett and Janet Shaw, with whom he was living in 1840.  Just over twenty years later, the marriage of Bruce Shaw Collett and Jean E Gerry took place on 1^st August 1963 at Maine.  When his father died in 1982 it seems highly likely that his widow when to live with Bruce and Jean at Houlton, Aroostook County, Maine, where the couple was living when Bruce’s mother died on the last day of 1992.  Subsequent records identified Bruce S Collett at Houlton in 2003, with Jean E Collett at Raymond, Cumberland County Maine in 2008, when her date of birth was recorded as 6^th October 1936

Florence Edna Collett [44Q1] was born at Hamden, New Haven on 24^th November 1923, the eldest child of Robert Merle Collet and Myrtle Louise Wallace.  As Florence E Collett she was six years old in 1930 and was 16 in 1940 when living with her parents at Hamden.  Just under four years after that census day Florence Edna Collett of Hamden married David Farinelli of Santa Fe, New Mexico on 12^th January 1944 at Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  Florence was 20, the daughter of Robert Merle Collett and Myrtle Louise Wallace, and David was 24, the son of Settimio Farinelli and Natalie Schnocetti.  Florence was 71 when she died at Williams, Coconino County, Arizona on 6^th March 1995

Mildred Louise Collett [44Q2] was born at Hamden Town on 4^th June 1925, another daughter of Robert and Myrtle Collett.  She was recorded with her family at 1 Washington Avenue in Hamden Town at four years of age in 1930 and again in 1940 when she was 15.  By 1950 Mildred was still single and living with her family at 1 Washington Avenue when she was 24 and a milling machine operator at a fire-arms company.  It would appear she never married and was very nearly 75 years old when she died on 25^th May 1990

Charles J Collett [44Q3] was born at Hamden Town in New Haven County, Connecticut on 7^th September 1926, the eldest son and the third of the seven known children of Robert Merle Collett and Myrtle L Wallace.  He was listed with his family at 1 Washington Avenue in Hamden in 1930 when he was three and a half years old, and was fourteen at the same address in 1940.  By 1950 Charles was a married man aged 23 and employed as a utility man with a road constructor, when he and his wife Barbara Collett was 18 and a garment checker with a cleaner and dryer shop (dry cleaner).  The childless couple was again living with Charles’ parents at 1 Washington Avenue in Hamden

Known as Charlie, he was 78 years old when he died at Woodford on 23^rd February 2005, having been a deputy sheriff, as reported in his obituary published in the Bennington Banner for Vermont, when he was confirmed as the son of Robert Merle Collett and Myrtle Wallace Collett.  Other members of the extended family included: Betty-Lou Collett; Bob Collett; Edward Collett; Mary Ellen Collett; John Collett; and James Collett.  Also named were: Barbara Neidt; Betty Pageau; Florence Alden; Mildred Conroy; Sue-Ann Roy; and Lena.  It is now known that Charles’ wife was Barbara Neidt, whose daughter was Betty-Lou Collett (Ref. 44R1).  In Charlies obituary, Betty-Lou’s brothers were named as Edward Collett (Ref. 44R2), John Collett (Ref. 44R3), and Bob Collett (Ref. 44R4), with her sister being Sue-Ann Roy (Ref. 44R5).  However, the order in which the five children were born is not known at this time

James Russell Collett [44Q4] was born at 1 Washington Avenue in Hamden Town on 14^th December 1929, the fourth child of Robert and Myrtle Collett with whom he was living at that same address in 1930, 1940, and 1950.  For the latter census, James R Collett was 20 years old and a maintenance man for a light company.  By March 1979 James R Collett who had been born in December 1929 was still residing in Hamden, where he was also living when he died on 2^nd March 2004, and was buried in the Central Burying Grounds in Hamden

Betty Jean Collett [44Q5] was born at 1 Washington Avenue in Hamden 1932, another child of Robert and Myrtle Collett, who was eight years old in 1940.  Towards the end of the decade she was married and was still living with her family at 1 Washington Avenue in 1950, when Betty Jean La Montagne was 19 and a waitress at a local cafeteria in Hamden

Robert Merle Collett junior [44Q6] was born at 1 Washington Avenue in Hamden Town during 1934, the sixth and last child of Robert Merle Cokllett and Myrtle Louise Wallace, who was six in 1940 and 17 in 1950, both times recorded at 1 Washington Avenue with his family.  It was in 1940 that he was named as Robert M Collett junior, while in 1950 it was Robert M J Collett.  On the day he married Joann F Oberle, Robert was living at Clinton, Middlesex County, Connecticut, when Joann was residing in Branford, New Haven County.  It was on 11^th June 1966 that their wedding took place at Hamden Town when Robert was 33, with Joann being 32 and born on 26^th November 1933

Barbara Collett [44Q8] was one month old on 19^th April 1940 the only known children of Charles Curtis Collett and his wife Priscilla of North Haven, New Haven County.  It is currently not known what happened to her parents, because by 1950, when Barbara Collett was ten years of age, she was described as the niece of Henry Shattman and his wife Antionette who had a 17-year-old daughter and three sons, the eldest being six years old, completing the family at Collingwood, Camden County, in New Jersey