England 2006
An Active Society Researching the Hildreth Family History
Welcome
Welcome to the Hildreth Family Association on the web.
The Hildreth Family Association connects Hildreth kin by sponsoring genealogical research, publishing periodicals, hosting reunions, and offering this communication platform. The Hildreth Family Association is a very active organization of people named Hildreth or related to someone named Hildreth. Most Hildreths in America are descended from Richard Hildreth, Thomas Hildreth, and Leonarde Hildrethe. At this time, we do not know their common ancestor (CA) but DNA test results indicate a close relationship.
Richard and Thomas Hildreth
Are believed to have immigrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1635. Richard first settled in what is now Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Thomas traveled on to Southampton New York where he became one of the founders. However, the first absolute written records proving their existence in those respective locations come from records dated 1643. We do not know of their exact relationship, although it is believed to be very close. Leonarde Hildrethe b. abt. 1580 remained in England where he died in 1615. Many of his descendants started coming to America in the late 1860s. Hildreths have spread to all United States and today number in the thousands.
If you are a Hildreth or are related to one by blood or marriage, you are welcome to join the Hildreth Family Association.
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About the Hildreth Family Association
The Hildreth Family Association, the brainchild of Mr. Henry Orin Hildreth, was born on March 6, 1893 at the Parker House in Boston in the presence of fifteen representatives of the Hildreth family in New England. The proud parent, Henry O. Hildreth, was taken sick the very next day and died six days later. However, those who had witnessed the birth assumed the responsibilities of parenthood and guided the association during its formative years. This association is formed for the purpose of organizing into a friendly union and for the common good of all persons in America who have a Hildreth ancestor or who are united in marriage to those who have a Hildreth ancestor, having in mind, but not necessarily limited to, the descendants of the two Puritan forefathers who bore the name of Hildreth: RICHARD HILDRETH, who appeared in Cambridge, Mass., in 1643 as a Freeman in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and who died in Chelmsford, MA and THOMAS HILDRETH who also appeared in 1643 as one of the first settlers of Southampton (Long Island), NY and who died there in 1657.
The first Hildreth Reunion
Historical Site: Richard Hildreth home late 1600’s, 58th Hildreth Street Westford, Massachusetts
Was held on June 16, 1894 in Chelmsford, MA where our ancestor, Richard1, lived for nearly forty years. A paper on "The Early Hildreths of New England" was read by Arthur Hildreth, son of Richard Hildreth, the renowned historian. Exactly ten years later, June 16, 1904, the Second Reunion was held, again in Chelmsford. At this meeting, Mrs. Rowena Hildreth Palmer of Lowell, MA read a paper on "The Dracut Hildreths and the Characteristics of the Hildreths in General."
When it was fourteen years old, the association finally became formally organized. It was at the Third Reunion, held at the Brunswick in Boston on March 16, 1907, that Articles of Association were approved as the rules governing the Association. For the Fourth Reunion, The Hildreths returned to Chelmsford on June 12, 1909. At this meeting, the old slate gravestone of Richard1(1605–1693), which had been mounted in a block of granite and placed over his grave in the old Forefathers' Burying Ground, was dedicated with appropriate exercises. The memorial is the third oldest in Chelmsford's original burying ground, dating back to 1655.
The New England
Weather proved to be too much for even the hardy Hildreths on the day of the Fifth Reunion in Malden, MA. It is reported that "the day was fearfully cold and rainy. Tables were set for fifty but only fourteen were present for dinner." The papers that were to have been read were omitted but were given at the Sixth Reunion, held at Chelmsford on June 8, 1912, at which some forty Hildreths were present. The main business at the Seventh Reunion on March 27, 1915 in Boston was the revision of the Articles of Association and the By-Laws.
During the next fifteen years (1916–30), at least ten family gatherings were held in Boston, Westford, Harvard, and Salem, Massachusetts. Following the heydays of the Hildreth Family Association prior to 1930, the Association fell into inactivity for a period of nearly fifty years until it was reorganized in the late 1970s. Since 1977, the Hildreth Family Association has been a vital organization in service to the descendants of both Richard1 Hildreth of Cambridge and Chelmsford, MA and Thomas1 Hildreth of Long Island, New York. Today, in keeping with the advances of communication technology, the Hildreth Family Association has adopted "HildrethFamilyAssociation.com" as yet another communications forum with which to serve the interests and needs of Hildreth cousins worldwide.