Penelope Cartwright was my great-great-great-great-grandmother. I knew very little about her. She left Rhode Island with her mother and siblings and married Abel Root, Sr., in eastern New York State in the first decade of the 19th century. Among the Root family archives were letters about the Cartwrights, written by Penelope Cartwright Root's great-granddaughters, Alice and Agnes Evans, tracing the Cartwright line of descent back to 17th-century England, from which Edward Cartwright departed (departure date unknown) for the Americas. In the 1980s, while working on other research, I consulted the Library of Congress Genealogical Library for an early history of the Cartwright family. I found a short narrative that described Edward Cartwright's journey from England to Massachusetts, documented his two marriages, listed his children, and explained his move to Nantucket Island.
Edward Cartwright's great-granddaughter-in-law, Bryant Cartwright, Jr.'s widow, Elizabeth, and daughters, Elizabeth and Penelope, and sons, Bryant III, Jabez, William, and Samuel moved into Allegany County, New York between 1817-1822. Penelope and Abel lived briefly in Scio, New York, and relocated to Bolivar, New York by 1824. Penelope's mother and brother, William, settled in Amity Township, Allegany County, New York, with brothers, Bryant III and Samuel, residing in Scio, New York, and Jabez in Wellsville, New York. James Cartwright lived briefly in New York State before exchanging his farm for land in Illinois. Nephews followed from Berlin, New York, where Penelope's brothers, Theodaty, Cyrus, David, and Johnathan resided. The Cartwrights farmed along East Valley Road in Andover and Alfred townships, along Highway 19 between Scio and Belmont, New York, and along Highway 275, connecting Bolivar to Richburg and to Friendship, New York. By the 1850s, Cartwrights were leaving Allegany County, migrating to Illinois and Wisconsin in search of better farming opportunities to support their very large families
Three years ago, I began tracing the Cartwright family history. This became a journey that took much longer than I expected. The Cartwright family numbered eight to twelve children, with most children living in each generation from 1711 to the present. The children's first names across generations were often the same, complicating my research into whether the information indicated a cousin, a sibling, or an unrelated Cartwright.
I began by searching each cemetery in Allegany County, New York, to locate burials under the Cartwright name. I discovered that all Allegany County Cartwrights were related as direct descendants of Bryant Cartwright, Sr., with the exception of Cartwrights residing in Granger and Allen Townships in northern Allegany County. The Granger/Allen Cartwrights were connected by going back three generations to the 17th century to Edward Cartwright's first marriage, while the Cartwrights in this family history were all descended from Edward Cartwright's second marriage. After three years of research, I found Cartwright descendants in both male and female lines in all the townships of Allegany County, New York; in all fifty states; in five Canadian provinces; and in Australia.
During my journey, colleagues continued to tease me, saying that my Cartwright search was an attempt to establish a claim to the Ponderosa, a fictional kingdom in Nevada, and even sent me photographic images of Hoss and Ben Cartwright to include in the book. There were times when I almost gave up the research because it was taking too long. After a month-long break, I resumed my work and finally brought the main text to 1281 pages of genealogical history with 4721 biographies, each one with a bibliography.
