John Ellsworth Waitt was the father of the four Waitt `super` siblings, namely  Lorraine, Louise, Ronald and Roger.  Captain John Waite (or Wayte) was a sea  captain born in England in 1618 who, with his father-in-law, founded the town  of Malden, MA.  As you will see if you explore this Waittee-site, there is a  very large (some might even say an obese) number of Waite`s.  So how did we  get from Malden to Portland and beyond?

We got an inkling of our origins when in the mid-1950`s a package arrived from  Dad`s cousin Carrie Lawrence.  Carrie, along with her uncle, Joseph E. Waitt,  began compiling and writing down the Waitt family history in 1899.  She was  born and raised in Maine where both Peter and his eldest son, also named  Peter, moved just after 1800 from Marblehead, MA.  It all looked complete and  official so we had no reason to doubt its authenticity.  Her records had us  connected all the way back to Gamaliel Wayte, who was a puritan planter and  fisherman who settled in Boston and Watertown in the Massachusetts Bay Colony  in 1633.

After retirement I entered Carrie`s data into a software package and proceeded  to try to embellish the bare facts by learning more about the ancestors.  All  was well and good; I found lots of interesting tidbits about Gamaliel and  his immediate family.  However, the trail grew cold quickly.  It seems there  was a church fire in Danvers where the town vital statistics were stored, so  we didn`t have spouse`s names or proof of birth and death for a father and his  son.  No matter.  She wrote that she observed the partially burned records in  person.  She also claimed to have proved the connection to Gamaliel by tracing  property deeds at Salem.

Then I got wind of a DNA study from the website www.waitegenealogy.org. Sue  Waite-Langley, who is the Webmaster, was delighted to run across a Gamaliel  descendent.  I sent in my proof and, the first disappointment was that she  didn`t think we were the male heirs of Joseph Willson Waitt since he was  supposed to have died in Canada in 1847!  Once I showed her that he was alive  and well for the 1850 census in Maine, she agreed to accept our DNA for  testing, but would only tentatively assume the Gamaliel connection because of  the church fire episode.  When the test results came back, she didn`t know  what to think because our DNA was so different from the other Waite`s.   Gamaliel had two brothers, Richard and Thomas. Thomas, so the story goes, left  for Portsmouth.  She had several DNA tests back from their descendants and  they are totally different!

So what, I thought; all that proves is that Thomas was not the brother of  Gamaliel.  Then, just lately, the lab announced that they had a perfect match  on all 24 markers with a Terry Waitt.  His mom and sister contacted me and we  began to compare notes.  Their line goes all the way back to Captain John so  my first thought was that Gamaliel and John were related in England before  coming over.  But when I began checking the New England Historical Society  records for Peter Waite I found the connection.  Bingo!  Cousin Carrie was  wrong.  Joseph WAITE (1648-1692) had Joseph and Thomas by one spouse and Peter  and Jonathan by another.  Terry Waitt`s line is descended from Joseph and the  first spouse and our line is descended from Peter and the second spouse.  Our  common ancestor is Joseph, the son of Captain John.  So, down with Gamaliel,  hail to Captain John and welcome our new cousins!

At this writing, June 2004, I have just finished updating names and dates from  a book I purchased called `The Waite Family of Malden, Mass.` by Deloraine P.  Corey published in 1913.  I have connected the Massachusetts group to the  Maine bunch and also included data from our newly-discovered cousins.