The Durrant name first appeared in our research when we found that Charlotte Hales, Robert Hales' sister, married John Durrant in 1833 in Gorleston with Southtown, Suffolk, England. They arrived in Waupaca County in 1854 when John Durrant "of Winnebago County" purchased 40 acres in the Town of Waupaca. Two years later the John H. Smith family settled in the same township. Robert and Elizabeth Hales and their family arrived in 1856 from England, supposedly upon the urging of his sister. John H. Smith married Harriet Hales in 1860 and they resided on land adjacent to the Hales and Durrant families. Three years later Robert Hales, Jr. married a woman named Rachel Russell.
In 1870 Susanna Smith, John's sister, married Edward Durrant, son of Martin. The Martin Durrant family was in Onondaga County, New York in 1850 and moved to Waupaca County sometime during the following ten years. It seemed interesting that another Durrant family from England had a connection to ours. I recently found a John Durrant in Onondaga County, New York at the time of the 1840 census.
Cheryl Davis placed a query in the WAGS newsletter during the mid-1990s regarding the Russell, Hales and Durrant families, and I responded. We compared notes and I learned that Rachel Russell's sister Sarah had married a Thomas Durrant in 1862. Thomas was the son of a Thomas Durrant who had arrived in Waupaca County from England via Nova Scotia and Massachusetts.
There were three Durrant families living in Waupaca County by 1860, but I never found any records or newspaper articles indicating that they were related. Martin and family were in the Town of St. Lawence at that time. The Thomas Durrant family was two entries away from John and Harriet Smith in 1860, so they were also very near to John and Charlotte Durrant.
That was the extent of my research until Ancestry provided searchable probate files a few years ago. Charlotte Hales Durrant Venner (she remarried after John's death in 1866) left a will! Besides leaving her farm to her brother Robert, she made two other bequests: "$10 to Edward Durrant, son of Martin, deceased" and "$10 to John Durrant, son of Thomas, deceased." This certainly suggested that they were all related. I wrote previously on this blog about that discovery.
Occasionally I return to websites to see whether new information has been added, and I took another look at Charlotte Hales Venner's FindAGrave page recently. The person taking photos at Lakeside Memorial Park is very thorough; she lists all names that appear on grave markers in each plot. Buried in plot 98-O are Olive, Jane, James, Margaret and Thomas Durrant. In the same plot are Thomas Venner, Charlotte Venner and John Durrant! James is a son of Thomas; Jane is his wife. Margaret is the wife of the elder Thomas Durrant. Is there any better proof of family relationships than being buried in the same cemetery plot?
There is a family tree on Ancestry claiming that John and Thomas Durrant are "half-brothers." When I contacted the owner of that tree, he said the information came from FamilySearch, but I have not been able to verify that.
*52 Ancestors: "Challenging"
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