The Hindman Family
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The story

What we know about this family, told in their own words.

Verbatim excerpts from the source memoirs and interview notes, organized chronologically. Each citation points back to the page in the original.

  1. 1594 to 1663

    Edmund Rice's crossing: Suffolk to Sudbury, 1638

    Edmund Rice was almost 44 years old when he stepped off the boat in Massachusetts Bay. His wife Thomasine Frost was 38. They had been married 20 years, had buried one infant son, and had eight surviving children, the youngest of whom was Joseph, four months old. The family had been moving for a decade already, from Thomasine's home of Stanstead in Suffolk to Great Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. In 1638 they kept moving, this time across the Atlantic. They settled briefly at Watertown, then moved inland in 1639 to a brand-new plantation called Sudbury, where their first New World child, Benjamin, was born in 1640. Edmund became Sudbury's selectman by 1644, deacon of the Sudbury church by 1648, and in 1656 petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for a new plantation further west. The Court granted it; the new town was named Marlborough. Edmund moved there in 1660, received a 50-acre house lot, and died there 3 May 1663. The Edmund Rice Association would build a slate monument over his grave at North Cemetery in Wayland 251 years later, with an inscription that called him a deacon from Buckinghamshire even though the documentary record places his birth in Suffolk. Twelve generations of Brant Hindman's mother's-mother's-mother's line descend from Edmund and Thomasine.

    Anchored to Edmund Rice · Place: Sudbury, Massachusetts, United StatesSource: WikiTree profile Rice-52: Edmund Rice (abt.1594-abt.1663)Research lead: Confirm Edmund's birthplace from a 1594 English parish register. Suffolk per WikiTree research notes; Buckinghamshire per the 1914 Association monument; Hertfordshire per the 1858 Ward genealogy. None has been corroborated by a primary baptismal record.

  2. 1607 to 1666

    Sliocht Airt at Killadrey: a Tyrone hearth in 1666

    Fifty-six years after the Flight of the Earls scattered the Gaelic nobility of Ulster, a tax collector walked the parishes of Omagh Barony recording who still had a fire burning. In Killadrey townland, Parish of Termonmagork, he wrote down the name Artt O'Neill. The name itself is the link.

    Anchored to Hugh O'Neil · Place: Killadrey townland, Termonmagork Parish, Northern Ireland

  3. 1709 to 1793

    The Canadian chapter: Ebenezer Rice Jr. moves the family to Nova Scotia, 1760

    By 1760 the Rice family had been in Massachusetts for four generations. Ebenezer Rice Jr., born in Sudbury in 1709, was 51 years old, married 17 years to Anna, and the father of seven children, the youngest just a few years past her birth in Westborough. That summer the British Crown opened up the former Acadian lands of Nova Scotia to New England settlers, the so-called Planters, and Ebenezer Jr. took the offer. He moved the household north to Annapolis Royal. The 1768 Nova Scotia census recorded a household of four people with livestock holdings. Anna died there in 1770; Ebenezer Jr. died there around 1793 at age 83. The line easily could have stayed Canadian. But Joseph Rice, Ebenezer Jr.'s twin-born middle son, was already an adult by 1760 and stayed in Massachusetts. The Rice line through Brant Hindman descends from Joseph and the Mass branch; the Canadian branch is a parallel line of cousins still in the Maritimes today.

    Anchored to Ebenezer Rice Jr. · Place: Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, CanadaSource: WikiTree profile Rice-653: Ebenezer Rice Jr. (1709-abt.1793)Research lead: Find descendants of Ebenezer Jr.'s Nova Scotia children (Ebenezer III, William, Sarah Fairn, Elizabeth Whitman, and Anna) and confirm whether any still live in the Annapolis Royal area.

  4. 1720 to about 1790

    Reverend John Hindman crosses from Ireland

    The earliest documented Hindman in Brant's line was the Reverend John Hindman, born about 1720 in Ireland. He almost certainly belonged to the Scots-Irish Presbyterian community of Ulster, the same population that supplied so many of colonial Pennsylvania's western settlers. He married Hannah Knott. Their son Samuel was born 10 September 1762, also in Ireland. Sometime in the years after that birth the family emigrated to Pennsylvania. By 1783 Samuel was living in Hopewell Township in Washington County, on the western Pennsylvania frontier. By 1791 he was back east in Chester County at Faggs Manor, the famous Scots-Irish Presbyterian congregation in Londonderry Township, marrying Lettice Mc Clenahan, the daughter of a McClenahan family already settled there. Samuel and Lettice had nine children, returned west, and died in Elizabeth, Allegheny County, in 1816 and 1854; they are buried side by side in Round Hill Cemetery. The Hindman line is Ulster Scots-Irish Presbyterian, and it carried that identity through three generations of western Pennsylvania frontier before the second Samuel moved west to Schuyler County, Illinois, in the 1830s or 40s.

    Anchored to John Hindman of London Grove · Place: Ireland, IrelandSource: FamilySearch persistent ID 9J7S-GDT: Samuel Hindman Sr. (1762-1816), Brant Hindman's paternal 4th-great-grandfather and the Hindman immigrant ancestorResearch lead: Identify John Hindman's specific Ulster county and congregation. Faggs Manor congregational records and the records of the Presbytery of New Castle would be the natural place to look.

  5. 1610 to 1789

    Reframing the O'Neill question: the Hindmans are Scotch-Irish, not Gaelic

    Family memory carried the story that the Hindmans descended from the O'Neills of Tyrone. The 2026 research pass dissolved that story and replaced it with a more accurate one. The Hindmans are Scotch-Irish Presbyterian planters who arrived in Ulster from Scotland during the Plantation. They lived among the surviving Gaelic O'Neill households but did not descend from them.

    Anchored to John Hindman of London Grove · Place: London Grove Township, USA

  6. 1775 to 1815

    Four patriots: the Hindman tree and the Daughters of the American Revolution

    On 5 June 2026 we ran the Hindman family lines against the DAR Genealogical Research System. Four ancestors returned exact-match Patriot Ancestor records. Brant qualifies for Sons of the American Revolution membership through any of them.

    Anchored to Col. Abel Walker · Place: Charlestown, USA

  7. April 1775

    Joseph Rice answers the Lexington Alarm, April 1775

    Joseph Rice was 30 years old, a twin to his brother Benjamin, a Westborough man through his mother Mary Green's people, married three years to Mary Green, with an infant son Alvan to whom Brant Hindman traces his Rice ancestry. When the Lexington Alarm summoned the Massachusetts militia in April 1775, Joseph turned out under Captain Robert Oliver. He served as a Private in the 18th Massachusetts Bay Provincial Regiment. He returned home. Mary bore him seven more children, then died around 1786 or 1787. He married a second time, Huldah Wilcox, in February 1789 at Conway. He spent the rest of his life in Conway, Hampshire and later Franklin County, and died there 20 February 1826 at age 81. In the 20th century, the Daughters of the American Revolution recognized him as Patriot Ancestor #A095016, and his Lexington Alarm service is the qualifying event that lets every documented descendant of Alvan Rice apply for DAR and SAR membership. Brant qualifies through Alvan, Amasa, Robert Addison, Charles Leslie, Barbara F Rice, Bill, and one more generation.

    Anchored to Joseph RiceSource: DAR Patriot Ancestor #A095016: Joseph Rice (1745-1826), 18th Massachusetts Bay Provincial RegimentResearch lead: Pull Joseph's full DAR service record from services.dar.org and confirm the muster roll details.

  8. 1620 to 2026

    Did a Mayflower passenger walk into our family? The 2026 investigation

    Through the spring of 2026 we ran every plausible Mayflower path back from the Rice trunk. The Mayflower carried 102 passengers on her 1620 voyage; the next two Pilgrim ships were the Fortune (1621) and the Anne (1623); after that the Great Migration brought 21,000 more colonists between 1630 and 1640, but those are not Pilgrims. Four candidate chains were investigated and resolved.

    Anchored to Mary Clapp · Place: Northampton, USA

  9. 1784 to 1857

    Governor Henry Hubbard of New Hampshire, 1842

    Henry Hubbard was the eldest son of a respected Charlestown New Hampshire family, born 3 May 1784 on the upper Connecticut River. Dartmouth Class of 1803. Studied law in Portsmouth under Jeremiah Mason. Admitted to the New Hampshire bar around 1806. He served his town in the New Hampshire House across three terms, was elected Speaker, then sent to Washington for three Congresses as a US Representative, then for one term as a US Senator. In 1842 the New Hampshire Democrats elected him the 18th Governor of New Hampshire. Married Sally Walker Dean on 30 November 1813; five children, the eldest Sarah Dean Hubbard born 8 October 1814. Sarah married Amasa Rice in 1848 and bore Robert Addison Rice; the line passed through Charles Leslie Rice (1879), Barbara F Rice (1912 London), Bill Hindman (1945 Syracuse), and into Brant. Henry died in his birthplace 5 June 1857 and was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Charlestown, under a marble obelisk that still stands. The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and Library of Congress both hold his portrait; the LOC lithograph by Charles Fenderich (drawn from life, c. 1835-1841) is the one we surface as his page portrait.

    Anchored to Henry Hubbard · Place: Charlestown, New Hampshire, United StatesSource: Henry Hubbard (Wikipedia article)Research lead: Pull Henry Hubbard's Senate floor speeches and Governor's messages from the 1830s-40s; they would give a voice to a verified direct ancestor.

  10. 1830s to 1840s

    Amasa Rice's stagecoach, ended by the railroad

    Before he settled in Pittsfield, Brant's great-great-great-great-grandfather Amasa Rice ran a stagecoach line. Springfield to Albany, across the Berkshires. The 1840 and 1841 hay receipts in the Berkshire Athenaeum collection give the timestamp; the curator at the Berkshire Museum's science department confirms the route. The work ended when the Boston and Albany Railroad was built across the same corridor. The stage was obsolete the moment the rails arrived. Amasa stayed in Pittsfield. He married Sarah Dean Hubbard on 6 April 1848. Sarah, born Charlestown New Hampshire 8 October 1814, was the eldest daughter of Henry Hubbard the 18th Governor of New Hampshire. Through Sarah, Brant's family connects to the New Hampshire political establishment of the 1830s and 1840s. Four children with Amasa, the eldest being Robert Addison Rice, born Pittsfield 19 March 1850.

    Anchored to Amasa Rice · Place: Pittsfield, Massachusetts, United StatesSource: Amasa Rice papers, Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, Mass.Research lead: Visit the Berkshire Athenaeum and photograph the Amasa Rice collection items, especially the 1884 Pittsfield land deed.

  11. 1836 to 1904

    The Hardin migration from Kentucky to Lincoln's Illinois

    Brant's Hindman maternal line runs through Kentucky. Alvin Hardin was born 22 August 1836 in Bath County, Kentucky, to Robert Wesley Hardin and Philadelphia Baird. He grew up in Nicholas County, Kentucky. By 1860 the Hardin family had moved north to Menard County, Illinois, the Lincoln country where Abraham Lincoln practiced law on the Eighth Judicial Circuit. On 12 January 1859, in Greenview, Alvin married Minerva Mildred Gaines, who had also been born in Kentucky to Joseph P. Gaines and Eliza Bell Metier. Nine children, the eldest William Wallace Hardin, born 18 November 1859. Alvin spent the rest of his life as a Greenview farmer. He died there 15 February 1904; Minerva died at Sweet Water, in the same county, 16 December 1917. They are buried side by side at Indian Point Cemetery, Athens, in Menard County. William Wallace lived 1859 to 1944; his daughter Bertha Rae Hardin (1883 to 1972) married Boyden Erwin Hindman in 1907; their son Boyden William (1908) married Barbara F Rice in Chicago 11 April 1936, bridging the Hindman and Rice lines.

    Anchored to Alvin Hardin · Place: Greenview, Illinois, United StatesSource: FamilySearch persistent ID LCCW-3HH: Alvin Hardin (1836-1904), Brant Hindman's 3rd-great-grandfather (Hindman maternal side)Research lead: Find Alvin's parents Robert Wesley Hardin and Philadelphia Baird in the 1840 Kentucky census; identify the specific Hardin family group and whether they connect to the famous Hardin frontier family of Kentucky (John Hardin the explorer).

  12. 1879 to 1950

    Charles Leslie Rice's American arc

    Charles Leslie Rice was born 4 August 1879 in Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Third of four children. By age 24 he was in Manhattan, marrying Adelaide Franklin Crist on 11 June 1903. Six children followed: Adelaide Franklin (1904), Carolyn (1906), Robert Alfred (1910 to 1914, died age 4), Barbara F (1912 London), Winifred (1913), and Charles Leslie Jr. (1919, Princeton Class of 1941, Army Captain with a Bronze Star and Cluster). The London 1912 birth of Barbara is one of the open puzzles in the line; the working theory is that Charles Leslie was on an engineering assignment in England that year. By 1940 the family was in Ware District, Gloucester County, Virginia. By 1950 Charles Leslie was in Oak Park, Cook County, Illinois, where he died 15 May 1950 at age 70. He was sent home to Pittsfield Cemetery for burial. His daughter Barbara F Rice married Boyden William Hindman in Chicago 11 April 1936; their son William John 'Bill' Hindman was born 12 December 1945 in Syracuse, NY. Bill was Brant's father.

    Anchored to Charles Leslie RiceSource: FamilySearch persistent ID K4XQ-925: Charles Leslie Rice (1879-1950)Research lead: Order Barbara F Rice's 1912 London birth certificate from the UK General Register Office. About 11 pounds. It will give Charles Leslie's stated occupation and London address in 1912 and resolve why an American Rice was born in London.

  13. 1936 to 1945

    Chicago, Trumbull, Syracuse: Boyden William Hindman and Barbara F Rice, 1936 to 1945

    Boyden William Hindman, born 31 May 1908 in La Salle, Illinois, was 27 years old when he married Barbara Frances Rice in Chicago on 11 April 1936. Barbara was 24, three years out of London by way of the Rice family's Virginia and Illinois moves. The couple began married life in La Grange, Cook County, Illinois, where Boyden's family already lived. By 1940 they had moved to Trumbull, Fairfield County, Connecticut, probably for engineering work. Their first son, Robert W 'Bob' Hindman, was born in Trumbull around January 1940. By December 1945 they had moved again, this time to 201 Ambergate Road in DeWitt, an eastern suburb of Syracuse, NY. There, at Syracuse Memorial Hospital, on 12 December 1945, their second son William John 'Bill' Hindman was born; Boyden was working as an engineer at Precision Casting Co. The third child, a daughter, Brenda, was born sometime later. Boyden William died in April 1972, age 63. Barbara survived him by 25 years; she died in 1997. Their son Bill grew up, became Brant Hindman's father, and died in 2025. Their grandson Brant built the site you are reading.

    Anchored to Boyden William HindmanSource: FamilySearch persistent ID L6LS-87K: Boyden William Hindman (1908-1972), Brant Hindman's paternal grandfatherResearch lead: Identify the engineering firm in Trumbull, Connecticut that employed Boyden William in 1940. Most likely candidates: Sikorsky Aircraft (Stratford), Bridgeport Brass, General Electric (Bridgeport).

  14. 1945 to 2025

    Bill Hindman, 1945 Syracuse to 2025 Fountain Hills

    William John 'Bill' Hindman was born 12 December 1945 at Syracuse Memorial Hospital, Onondaga County, NY. His father Boyden William was a Precision Casting Co. engineer; his mother Barbara F Rice traced back through 12 generations of the Rice line to Edmund Rice, Sudbury 1638. Middle of three siblings: Bob (1940 Connecticut), Bill (1945 Syracuse), Brenda. Bill grew up, lived a life, raised his own family, and ended his days in Fountain Hills, Arizona. He died in 2025. Brant Hindman, his son, is the spearhead of this memorial site, the documented endpoint of the line that runs from a Reverend John Hindman in Ireland around 1720, through Pennsylvania, Illinois, Connecticut, New York, and Arizona, and from Edmund Rice in Sudbury in 1638, through Massachusetts, Pittsfield, Manhattan, Virginia, Oak Park, and the same Arizona endpoint. This site was started in June 2026 to hold all of it in one place.

    Anchored to William John HindmanSource: Brant Hindman spearhead attestations during the 2026-06-04 site-build sessionResearch lead: Brant has the family knowledge that primary documents have not yet captured: Bill's career, his other family details, photographs, stories. This story will grow as Brant adds it.