owers urname
enealogy
Contact:  Kenneth Roy Powers Last Modified:  March 29, 2008

 

Michael Powers Research

(speculations as to his origin)

Michael Powers was born in 1727 in Ireland and immigrated to the United States sometime before the year 1755 at which time he married Hannah Fox in New London, Connecticut.  At this point, I can find absolutely no mention of him in any colonial records prior to the year 1755. 

The first mention of him is in the diary of Joshua Hempstead where he writes: "Jan 22 1755 -- Wednsd 22 fair mostly Some Scatering Rain. I Rid out to ye Cornfield to fodder the Cattle & Mended up Some fence the & in Crossman lot &c. in the Eve I Rid out to the widow Susanna Foxes & maried Michael Powers, (an old Countryman) & Hannah fox Datr of Benja Fox Decd." (pg 643)  There has been some debate as to the interpretation of an old Countryman by fellow researchers.  I believe this to mean that Michael came from the Old Country.  New London Vital Statistics says the following: "Michael Powers from the old country & Hannah Fox - dau - Benjamin - my cousin - Jan. 22 - 1755."  This record seems to confirm my suspicions regarding Michael's origins.

You might ask yourself at this point to which country are these records referring and why would I assume it to be Ireland?  There are several reasons for my assumption.
  1. Joshua Hempstead defines his use of the term an old Countryman on page 601 and 602 of his famous diary during the year 1753.  The passage recites as follows:

    Tuesd 23 fair & warm. I was at home foren & at noon Set out for Abraham Morgans & maried his Sister Anna Morgan unto James Tool an old Countryman, alias Irish. a New Comer into Town about 3 months.
  2. The Powers surname was extremely common in Ireland during this time period.  In fact, it was and still is the most frequently occurring name in County Waterford, Ireland.  It is also in the top 60 occurring names in the country of Ireland.

  3. Nearly all of the Powers families I have researched in the Connecticut and Rhode Island areas during this particular time frame originated in Ireland.
     
  4. There is no genetic evidence to prove that my family line is in any way related to the British-originated Powers families which, for the most part, descended from Walter Power and Trial Sheppard in the colonies.  In fact, all evidence definitively points to the contrary.  My DNA has proven to be not related to the Walter Power line's DNA markers contributed by several of their descendants.

  5. Genetic evidence indicates that my family line is most closely related to other Powers family lines that seem to originate in Ireland.
     
  6. Analysis of Family Tree DNA's data indicates that my 25 marker DNA test most commonly matches with the DNA of Ireland-originating descendants based upon their Recent Ethnic Origins comparisons.
Based upon the above data, I have no choice but to assume Ireland as the birth place for Michael Powers.  We know from his gravestone record that he was born in 1727.  Exactly where remains a mystery at this time.

With the assumption being made that Michael Powers was born in Ireland, what motivators existed at the time that might prompt his immigration to America?  To understand this, we must look at the happenings occurring in Ireland prior to 1755.

Between 1717 and the American Revolutionary War an estimated quarter of a million Irish settlers left Ireland for the new lands across the Atlantic. They travelled in extremely hazardous conditions, in simple wooden sailing ships for Boston, Philadelphia, New Castle (Delaware), Charleston, Baltimore, and New York. Huddled together with the most meagre of belongings and money, they were forced to move because of religious restrictions, economic deprivations, and several bouts of famine brought about by weather and disease.

There were five great waves of emigration to America from Ireland in the 18th century: 1717-18; 1725-29; 1740-41; 1754-55; and 1771-75. In order to understand Michael Powers' possible motivations for immigration, we must look at  the three periods of emmigration that occurred during his lifetime previous to the first mentionings of him in America.

The first wave in 1725-1729 I will neglect to cover in detail simply because Joshua Hempstead would not refer to Michael as an Old Countryman if he  had come to America when he was 1 year old and had lived there until he was 28 when he married Hannah Fox.  He simply wouldn't be from the Old Country at this point.

The "forgotten" Irish famine of 1740-41 led to the second great wave of immigration to America during the life of Michael Powers. An estimated 400,000 people perished in that famine.  Michael would have been approximately 13 or 14 years old during this wave of migration.  He would have lived in the colonies for 15 years before he married Hannah Fox. This would definitely have been a possible time of his immigration but I doubt once again that Joshua Hempstead would have called him an Old Countryman if he had been living in the colonies for fifteen years. There are plenty of people in Hempstead's diary who had been born or lived in the area for over fifteen years and they are never described as being an Old Countryman. Because I can find no records of Michael Powers' existence in America prior to 1755, I have to assume that the third period of immigration is a far more likely time frame for Michael's trip to America.

The 1754-55 exodus resulted from a mass propaganda effort by politicians in America promising land and a better way of life and relief from another calamitous drought in Ireland. As drought ravaged the countryside and bad harvests were the result, testimony of Irish success in America struck a particularly responsive chord in hearts back in Ireland.

I believe that it was in 1754 that Michael made his trek to America.  He was most likely driven by the onslaught of the prevailing famine and probably arrived at Boston, Charleston, New York, or New London.  An old family tale indicates that he and a brother may have stowed away aboard a ship headed for America from Ireland.

 The first mention of Michael Powers occurs in the writings of Joshua Hempstead on 22 January 1755 and is a record of his marriage to Hannah Fox. I can find very little to indicate that he was a man of means and the first land transactions I find for him don't occur until the year 1769. This is fourteen years after his arrival to the colonies. It may be a possibility that he entered the country under the bonds of indentured servitude due to the fact that the journey from Ireland to America was not a cheap one.

I find it particularly interesting that several of the Powers family lines that are living in the Connecticut and Rhode Island areas at the time of Michael's immigration seem to possess great wealth.  Several are slave owners and ship Captains.  There are a considerable number of land transactions that occur within these families.  Curiously, there are not any land transactions between these families of the same name and the line of Michael Powers.

Another strange occurrence is the fact that Michael Powers is buried in New London, Connecticut very near the graves of Joseph Powers and his wife and in close proximity to several of the children of Joseph.  Some people in the past have concluded that Joseph must be his father. I disagree as Joseph's father, Joshua, entered the colonies in 1674 and in 1679 fathered Joseph. Joseph, therefore, was living in New London, Connecticut and owned land in Kingston, Rhode Island during the time of Michael's birth.  If Joseph was Michael's father, Michael could not be from the Old Country as New London vital records indicate.  In addition to this there is no mention of Michael in any of the documents that describe the members of Joseph's family and Michael does not appear to be granted land by Joseph like Joseph's other children.  I instead believe that the relationship between Michael and Joseph could be one of a different sort.  At this time, however, I don't know what that relationship might have been. Perhaps one day our DNA research will crack this puzzle.

If I were to speculate as to the name of the father of Michael at this point, I would be drawn to the name Nicholas which is also the name of Michael's first son.  Although they are not followed by all Irish, Irish naming conventions for the time indicate the following:

  1. 1st son named after the father's father.

  2. 2nd son named after the mother's father.

  3. 3rd son named after the father.

or

  1. 1st son named after the father's father.

  2. 2nd son named after the father's grandfather.

  3. 3rd son named after the father.

If these rules hold true, we can make an assumption that the name of Michael's Father's Father could perhaps be Joseph as well.  Only time will tell if these assumptions prove to be correct.

If I were to speculate as to the name of the mother of Michael, I would suggest Mary. Once again, Irish naming conventions suggest the following:

  1. 1st daughter named after the mother's mother or father's mother.

  2. 2nd daughter named after the father's mother or mother's mother.

  3. 3rd daughter named after the mother.

or

  1. 1st daughter named after the mother's mother or father's mother.

  2. 2nd daughter named after the mother's eldest sister.

  3. 3rd daughter named after the mother.

Since Michael's second daughter was named Naomi and Hannah's eldest sister was named Naomi (after her father's first wife who passed away), I have to conclude that Michael's first daughter, Mary, was named after his own mother.  In both of the above instances, the third child of a given sex was named after the appropriate parent.  This seems to follow the naming conventions in the second group of each of the above sets of rules.

To further substantiate this theory, we can look at the naming convention used by Hannah Fox's father, Benjamin, and his first wife Naomi Rogers.  He, in fact, uses this same naming convention for the males in his family.  The female naming convention differs but the first daughter is still named after his mother.  A diagram of the relationships can be found here.

As the above information indicates, I am looking for the following:
  1. Passenger manifest records from approximately 1754 for Michael Powers from Ireland to the colonies.
  2. The parents of Michael Powers in Ireland.  They are possibly named Nicholas and Mary.
  3. The area of Ireland from which Michael originates.  I currently suspect Waterford because the Powers surname was very common there and many men by the name of Nicholas Powers were living there during this particular time frame.
If you run across any information that can aid in my quest or if you suspect I am way off base regarding my suppositions, please contact me at:  Kenneth Roy Powers.  I would love to discuss other theories or additional information regarding this particular ancestor.
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