TOPSHAM — I am pleased and proud to be able to share the history of one of my family bloodlines that has not only played a significant role in my life but also that of an entire region of Maine.

This story is about a family named Giveen and their impact along the Mid-coast region.

The Giveen family is broad, diverse and quite large. The patriarch, David Giveen, brought his wife and children from Londonderry, Ireland, in 1719 and landed on the shores of Mid-coast Maine, along with many other Scotch-Irish families.

One can only speculate why such a dramatic relocation was prompted, but certainly providing a better life for his family had to be the most important reason.

The Giveens, along with many more Scotch-Irish, fled an increasingly abusive British rule. Apparently, King James ll was not a very nice guy and had it out for the Scotch-Irish and their faith of choice. Starting in 1718, entire communities of Scotch-Irish made their way to America, particularly the New England region.

In my research for this story, I was provided considerable information from people who had already done the heavy lifting. One document traced the Giveen clan to ancient Ireland and Scotland more than 1,000 years ago. My interest is much simpler as I am starting with the arrival of my ancestors in Maine and to trace the bloodline to current day.

This story’s title, “Three miles and 300 years,” reflects distance from my home to the grave of David Giveen and the length of time the Giveens and their ancestors have inhabited Maine. For accuracy purposes, it has been 293 years and his grave is 4.4 miles from my home, but those just don’t have the ring.

David Giveen, born in Ireland in 1685, his wife, Mary, and their children came to Maine in 1719 aboard a ship sponsored by Capt. Robert Temple. Upon arrival, the family settled in Brunswick on property near what is today called Middle Bay.

Around 1738, David Giveen purchased 300 acres along the shores of Middle Bay for $48. He soon made his home there.

In subsequent years, David and other Scotch-Irish settlers started purchasing additional properties along Mere Point, Middle Bay and Simpson’s Point in Brunswick. From this land rose several shipbuilding operations.

The Giveen family was credited with building two dozen ships, with later generation of Giveens becoming sea captains.

David Giveen died in Brunswick in 1763. I always wonder if he knew what he and Mary started those many years ago.

According to available records, David Giveen was held in high esteem and became a deacon in the local Presbyterian church. David and his wife were subsequently buried in the cemetery next to the Old Presbyterian Meeting House on Mere Point Road in Brunswick.

It is important to note that all records reflect the family name as Giveen. Later generations shortened the name by dropping one letter “E.” From this point forward I will be referring to the name as Given.

The child of David who fronted my family and the beginning of the next generation is Robert Given. He and his twin brother John were born in 1718 in Londonderry, Ireland. Records reveal these twin boys were mere infants when they made the crossing across the Atlantic aboard wooden ships no doubt built in Maine.

Robert married Jane McFederis in Boston in 1738, and the two brought forth seven children. Two aspects of the Given clan presented themselves to me during this composition that I want to share. First, they were a fertile bunch. Six and seven children were the norm, with these and subsequent generations with some producing as many as 12 children.

The second unusual aspect of the Givens was their longevity. With an average lifespan probably in the 40s and 50s around that time, most of the Givens lived well into their 70s and 80s. The patriarch, David, lived to 78, with his three sons living to 92, 91 and 81 years of age.

On a local historical note, Robert and his twin brother John, at age 17, signed the petition to incorporate Brunswick as a town in 1735. Robert died in 1810 and was buried in the same cemetery as his father in Brunswick.

Next in my specific bloodline and the beginning of the third generation was the third child to Robert and Jane, John Given, born in Topsham in 1743. John married Mary Winchell in Topsham in 1771, and the two produced 12 offspring; eight girls and four boys.

John’s association with Topsham is heartening as I have called Topsham my home for more than 30 years. John died in 1819 and was buried in Topsham.

John and his brother Robert each served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, with seven members of the next generation serving in the military during the War of 1812. Service to their community was also in their blood, as Givens were an almost constant presence on the Brunswick Board of Selectmen for 130 years — from 1740 to 1869.

Daniel Given served as Brunswick town clerk from 1810 to 1820. Two Givens also served terms in the Maine Legislature during the 1800s.

The next in my bloodline and the beginning of generation number four was John’s third child of 12 and firstborn son William Given, born in 1774 in Brunswick. William married Mary Whitmore in Topsham in 1799.

William and Mary went the conservative route and only had nine children between 1800 and 1846. Yes, he was 72 at the time of the birth of his youngest child. William died in 1852 at the age of 78.

William’s fourth child and the beginning of generation number five was William Given Jr., born in 1806. Here lies one of the many gaps in information as I do not know where William was born other than to assume it was in the immediate area, as a majority of his siblings were born in either Topsham or Bowdoinham.

St. Vincent Given

I want to deviate for a moment from my direct bloodline and speak briefly about William’s brother, St. Vincent Given. St. Vincent was born a year and a half before William in Bowdoinham. If you think St. Vincent an odd choice for a name, you would not be too far off, given the rather ordinary names to this point. Perhaps you may recognize the name St. Vincent as part of the name of the famous poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay.

It is believed by some and disputed by others that Edna was named after my ancestor, St. Vincent Given, who went on to become a successful shipbuilder in Bowdoinham.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland in 1892, so I assume there was some connection and familiarity between the Given and Millay families.

Another interesting note on St. Vincent. He was born in Bowdoinham in 1804, married Maria Sanford in Bowdoinham in 1827 and died in Bowdoinham in 1861.

St. Vincent built a beautiful home in Bowdoinham overlooking the river, where his shipbuilding operation stood. The irony of this particular house reveals itself later.

He and Maria started to deviate from the conventional names for their children. Perhaps being named St. Vincent was the impetus.

Of their eight children, one son was named George Washington Given and a daughter grew up as Josephine Bonaparte Given. Maybe he was a fan of historical figures.

Two of St. Vincent’s daughters, the aforementioned Josephine Bonaparte and Mary Louise, each married brothers, William and Joshua Grozier, respectively.

This generation of Givens that started to venture outside Maine, more likely than not on the open seas. The previously mentioned George Washington Given was married in Lima, Peru. Two of Mary Louise’s children were born at sea in 1858 and 1859.

Josephine had terrible misfortune when it came to children. Josephine gave birth to twin boys at sea in 1873, only to have one die within days with the other dying two years later. Josephine lived a long and fruitful life, having sailed around Cape Horn 17 times, as well as having sailed onto all seven seas. She died in Denver, Colo., in 1925.

An obituary that appeared in a Denver newspaper indicated her father, St. Vincent Given, was at one time one of the richest men in Maine.

Late-life children

Returning to my bloodline and the aforementioned William Given Jr., records reveal he married Abigail Holmes who died in 1861 before having any children. William later married Emma Jane Fisher in 1862. It wasn’t until he married Emma at the age of 56 that he fathered three children with her at the ripe ages of 59, 63 and 69.

An interesting fact about Emma is that her grandmother, Jane White, is a descendant of Thomas White, one of the passengers on the Mayflower.

The middle child of William and Emma and the beginning of generation number six was a daughter they named Annie. Annie was born in 1869, probably in Bowdoinham. Annie married Selden Williams, but with no date available.

This is the point of the Given family tree where I lose the Given name. Five previous male Givens kept the name going in my bloodline until now. Annie and Selden produced eight children between 1891 and 1913.

My mother tells me I had the pleasure of meeting Annie who was my great-great grandmother. Annie died in 1957, a year after my birth, when she was 88 years old.

Annie and Selden’s third child was Helen May Williams, born 1895 and the beginning of generation number seven. Helen married my great-grandfather, Tom Wildes, and gave birth to seven children before dying at the age of 30 in 1926.

Those of you familiar with Bowdoinham will recognize the name Wildes. The Wildes Road in East Bowdoinham was named after my great-grandfather, as he lived at the end of the road for many years on his farm. I had the honor of being a pall bearer at his funeral in 1977.

One of Tom and Helen’s children was my grandmother, Vera Wildes, born in 1913 in Bowdoinham. Nanny, as we grew up calling her, married my grandfather, Milton Baker. Nanny and Gramp had seven children who survived childbirth, with all but one being born in their Bowdoinham farmhouse.

I was fortunate to have spent a great deal of time with Nanny over the years, both as a child and even in her later years. I took great pleasure in bringing my daughters to see her so they could know their great-grandmother.

Nanny was one tough woman. Giving birth in her bedroom with nothing but a midwife and no modern drugs, raising seven children, all of whom grew up to be successful and self-sufficient, and living and working on a family farm.

Nanny later became a nurse and worked in one of the local hospitals. Nanny died in 1998 at the age of 85.

Navy Mom

Generation number nine began with my mom, Sylvia Baker, an adventurous young woman for her time. Mom was born in a small farmhouse in Bowdoinham and never left Maine until she graduated from high school.

Mom did something that was rare for most men at that time, let alone women, when she enlisted in the Navy in 1952. After boot camp, Mom was stationed at the Naval Security Station in Washington, D.C.

It is during this time that Mom met her future husband, Richard Edmondson, who also happened to be in the Navy at the time, living in Washington. After Mom concluded her military obligation, she and Dad wed in 1955, with me making an appearance a year later.

My birth at Bethesda Naval Hospital provides fodder for the ongoing debate about who is considered a true Mainer. I am the product of four separate bloodlines that go back as much as nine generations of Maine born ancestors. But because my mother chose to join the military and live in Washington, D.C., at the time of my birth, many would not consider me a native Mainer. Thank goodness my wife, daughters and grandchildren were all born in Maine so they won’t have to defend their credentials.

My parents eventually made their way to Maine when I was a child and we settled here after years of a nomadic military life. Dad fell in love with Maine and we moved into an apartment in Bowdoinham. Later, after Dad retired, we built our home where Mom lives today. A note about that apartment is worth mentioning.

Documentation found some years later showed the apartment building we called home in Bowdoinham was the same family home built by St. Vincent Given, brother to William Given of my blood line.

The maxim “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” usually can be applied to a person’s characteristics, but in my case, it also refers to geography.

In 1979, I married a local girl from Brunswick, Dotty Cousineau. We first lived in a small house in Bowdoinham before buying our home in neighboring Topsham a year later. The location of our house was completely coincidental at that time but proved to be somewhat prophetic in later years.

I like to think I maintained the dedication to serving my community as displayed by my ancestors in the Given family. Aside from serving a term on the Topsham Board of Selectmen, I am now in my 34th year as a law enforcement officer.

Being a detective, finding and searching available resources were simpler than I thought. Reading that John Given, my great-(times 5)-grandfather was born, died and buried in Topsham, I began my search at the Topsham Public Library.

I was told they had comprehensive cemetery records, so I hoped to find documentation on which cemetery he was buried. Topsham has several old cemeteries where no internments have taken place for some time. Thankfully each of the books had an index with the names listed.

I found a book that listed several Givens and began digging, no pun intended. Sure enough, I found the Given I was looking for.

Not only did it list the names, but this book had a map that pinpointed where in the cemetery each grave is located. It was dead of winter when I found this, so I decided to wait for spring to conduct the actual search.

My wife and I drove to the listed cemetery and began the search. Knowing the approximate location, we quickly found the site. In a small grouping in the center of the cemetery were the grave markers of several Givens.

It turns out the location of the cemetery that is the final resting place of my great-(times 5)-grandfather is a mere half mile from my home.

Last spring, my wife and I drove to the Old Meetinghouse Cemetery in Brunswick. With only a drawing of the grave marker, we searched the entire cemetery looking at each stone for that of David Giveen. After considerable knee-bending searching, I was beginning to lose hope after seeing several broken and crumbling stones. Many were so weather-beaten and worn we could not read the inscriptions.

During our search we did find the grave markers of Robert Giveen, my great-(times 6)-grandfather and son of David, plus some other Givens. That gave us hope.

With increasing doubt the stone remained intact or legible, there it was. Just as it looked in the diagram, David Giveen’s headstone was attached to that of his wife Mary. It looked as though someone had taken the time and effort to salvage this stone, as both were encased in an aluminum frame with concrete.

I knelt in front of this stone for some time, just letting it soak in that I was kneeling in front of the grave of my great-(times 7)-grandfather. It was a strange sensation, one that I cannot put into words.

I took a moment to try and sense this connection. I recognize that David Giveen’s contribution to my DNA is mighty slim considering the separation of time and remaining ancestors. But at this place and at this moment, it did not matter. I was in the presence of a man and woman who risked much to bring their family to Maine to make a better life.

Maybe I am living proof they were successful. I and the several hundred people around this country owe our existence, to some degree, to David and Mary Giveen — my daughters and granddaughters, generations 11 and 12 included.

Three miles and three hundred years and I thank you both.

news@timesrecord.com

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