Abel Root, Sr. of Bolivar, New York and His Descendants

Abel Root, Sr. and His Descendants of Bolivar, New York, and the Allied Families of Barber, Crandall, Evans, Garthwait, Holly, Hulbert, Jewett, Kellogg, Pire, Richardson, Wilcox, and Withey, is a four-hundred-year genealogical narrative that began in Badby, England.Thomas Roote (later Root) migrated to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1637, seeking economic opportunities no longer available to him and his family in England. The search for farmland for ever-larger families led successive Root generations to relocate to Hebron, Connecticut (1705), Unadilla, New York (1774), and eventually to Bolivar, New York (1824). For the next two hundred years, Bolivar remained the home port for the Root family as the local economy transitioned from farming to industrialization with the oil boom of the 1880s and the 1920s. When an economic opportunity in Bolivar declined, Root family members migrated to Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and California to either continue employment in the oil industry or to launch new careers.The Root family was no different than other American families in seeking the American Dream to achieve social mobility, educational opportunities, and increased financial security. The Root family history is typical of immigrant families who came to America, starting with the settlement at Jamestown in 1607.