Recently, I saw a segment about Ingersoll wristwatches circa World War I on the PBS television program Antiques Roadshow . It triggered a flashback to my mother telling me that we’re related to the Ingersoll watch family. At the time, images of Bavarian forefathers living deep in the forest and building cuckoo clocks swirled in my head. Before family lore starts spinning out of control, let’s explore the real story. I can trace at least two family lines, the Bryants of Reading, Massachusetts and the Ingersolls of Long Island, New York to early colonial America, through my great-grandfather, Jerome Calvin Bryant. Jerome and his mother, Mary Ellen Ingersoll, are listed on page 494 of A Genealogy of the Ingersoll Family in America 1629-1925 , by Lillian Drake Avery (click here to view a digital version of the book at FamilySearch). Mary Ellen (Henry Jackson 6 , Henry 5 , Ezra 4 , Josiah 3 , John 2 ,John 1 ) was the seventh generation from the immigrant ancestor born in England, Joh...
A forum to share my family history research with family, friends, and fellow genealogy enthusiasts.