A Family of the Chesapeake: Edward Simmons of Dorchester County, Maryland, and His Descendants

Drawing on church, family bible, and cemetery records; censuses; legal transactions such as deeds and wills; and memories of current family members, A Family of the Chesapeake explores the life of Edward Simmons and his family. The second half of this book is a genealogical listing of the hundreds of known descendants of Edward's nine children.

Edward Simmons was a farmer who lived on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay when the United States was a new nation. His life story and that of his family is typical for many people living in that period in rural Maryland.

Edward's first wife died when she was thirty-nine, leaving him with eight children to rear. He remarried a young widow with a daughter of her own, and the couple had another child together. The family shopped at the general store for things that they could not produce themselves, e.g. plows, calico, "shugar," tea, and buttons. Edward and his wife were slave owners. Edward's children married neighbors and settled nearby. His daughters were homemakers and mothers, and his sons were farmers like their father. He was a part of the volunteer militia in the War of 1812.

However, Edward's family did not completely follow the norm. In the mid-nineteenth century, many people in the eastern United States headed West with the railroads to homestead new land or to seek gold in California. In contrast, Edward's grandchildren stayed near the Chesapeake Bay; and, many of his great-grandchildren continued to follow in their parents' footsteps. They pursued the same occupations, went to the same churches, and were educated in the same schools. Today, eleven generations after Edward, many of his descendants still live in Dorchester County where Edward Simmons lived more than two hundred years ago.