When I received my DNA results from Ancestry.com, I was amazed to see a high percentage of my heritage was attributed to Great Britain. If Ancestry has my DNA results right, Great Britain is the source of 53% of my heritage. As a little girl, I remember asking many times where my ancestors had come from, and the most common answer I received was, “Germany”. Indeed, I do have many German ancestors especially on my mother’s side of the family. But, here, in this blog on Johan Sprague, I continue my unfolding documentation of my father’s ancestors and I keep learning about my English/ Irish ancestry!
Johan Sprague was my 13th great grandfather. Here is a view of how Johan connects to my father, Robert Lawrence Hess:
13th great-grandfather
son of Johan Sprague
son of Enos Sprague
son of Tristram SPRAGUE
son of Edward SPRAGUE
son of William Sprague Sr.
son of Anthony William Sprague
son of Jeremiah Sprague
son of Knight Sprague
son of Anthony SPRAGUE
daughter of Anthony Sprague Jr
son of Mary “Polly” Sprague
daughter of John Kellogg Bishop
Hess Sr. (1891 – 1969)son of Dorothy (Dora) Bishop
- 1.0 1.1 Family History – The First Three Generations of Sprague’s Family. Written by students of International Training and Education Center, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Ms. Kelly Norman, teacher. It is not clear whether this unsourced material is based on research of the actual lives of persons, or whether it is historical fiction intended to illustrate the religion, politics, and health issues of the eras in which they lived. http://rubikgroup.weebly.com/1/post/2013/10/family-history-the-first-three-generations-of-spragues-family.html. Accessed June 7, 2015.
” On a bitter cold day in 1501, Johan Sprague was born in Dorset, England in a Catholic family. From 1512 to 1516, he was studied in a church near his house, but deep down in his heart, he did not believe in Catholicism. By midsummer in 1516, he was married Marie – a pastor’s daughter in the church who taught him. Nine years later, in 1525, they was has a first son – named Enos Sprague. In 1527, they had twins girls, Ava and Mia, but Ava died when she was two years old because of influenza. Three years later, when Mia was five years old, many people in their village got and died of smallpox, and she also got it, she survived but sadly it made her blind. In 1534, Henry VIII dissolved England’s monasteries because Pope did not allow him to divorces his first wife. “After Henry’s death, England tilted toward Calvinist-infused Protestantism during Edward VI’s six-year reign”[1]. Many evangelical churches springing up, Johan Sprague and his family left Catholicism and became Protestant, but not much people in the village knew about that. He really found his faith in Protestantism. Unfortunately, after Edward died, Mary I (also known as “Bloody Mary”) was crowned, people endured five years of reactionary Catholicism under Mary I, she was beheaded and burned many Protestants, nearly 300 Protestants were burned to death. Governments and Catholics had no evidence of Sprague family were Protestants, therefore they can safe. Unfortunately, in 1556, Sunday morning, Sprague family were be burned at their house, Johan, Marie, Mia and Enos’s children all dead, just Enos and his wife can alive, the neighbors around said it was just an accident, but someone believe that Catholics did.”
telling life stories 