My Waitt (Waite) Family from Malden, MA

Week 32 of the 52 Ancestors Challenge: "Youngest"

I started his blog entry back in 2014 but never finished, and as it fits so well with the "youngest" theme​, I will now complete the page.

​While working on my WAITE (ie WAIT, WAITT, WAYTE) line, retracing the names and finding the proper sources for all the data (much of which was handed down to me when I was young), I began to notice a trend. For four generations, my direct ancestor was the youngest born in the household, with their parents being well into their 40's in each case. Viewing it on a pedigree chart, it almost looked like there was a generation missing in between the names. However, after filling in the births of all the other known children in each case, the family data looks more solid, and I just happened to have ancestors who were the last to be born in their households.

My WAITE relatives are as follows:

My third great-grandmother, EMILY AUGUSTA WAITT, was the youngest child of Oliver and Hannah (Elms) Waitt, born on 10 Aug 1840 in Malden, MA [from ME Death Rec, her birth not found in city vr]. At that time, Oliver was 44 years old and wife Hannah was a few months shy of 46. She died in Kittery, Maine on 18 Jan 1919, aged 78 yrs, 5 mos, 8 days.

Emily A. (Waitt) Brown

1850 Malden, MA census

1855 MA State Census, Malden

CHILDREN OF OLIVER AND HANNAH (ELMS) WAITT
i. EBENEZER E WAITT, b. ca 1822; died 27 Mar 1885 in Malden, MA.
ii. EDWARD L WAITT, b. ca 1824 in Chelsea, MA; d. 13 Jan 1892 in Malden.
iii. Unknown "child of Oliver", buried 14 Mar 1825
iv. HANNAH M WAITT, b. ca 1827; d. in Minnesota in 1869. Married 21 June 1849 to RUFUS McALLISTER.
v. JUDITH REBECCA WAITT, b. ca 1828; d. 2 Nov 1831, aged 3 yrs 8 mos
vi. MARY A E WAITT, b. ca 1830;   . Marr. Samuel H Kempton on 2 Nov 1848.
vii. JUDITH REBECCA WAITT, b. ca 1832;    Marr. 10 Feb 1864 in Malden to Henry A Beckford.
viii. GUSTAVUS C WAITT, d. 21 July 1839, aged 5 mos.
ix. EMILY AUGUSTA WAITT, b. 10 Aug 1840 in Malden; Marr. 28 July 1863 to JAMES W BROWN of Kittery, Maine.

Emily's father, OLIVER WAITT (WAITE/WAIT), was himself the youngest child in his family, the only son of Edward and Rebecca (Oliver) Waitt, born in Chelsea, MA on 9 Jan 1796. He married in Scituate on 3 Mar 1821 to HANNAH ELMS (ELLMS/ELMES), who was born 24 Nov 1794 in Scituate, MA. Oliver died in Malden on 27 May 1863 from old age and paralysis. He was 67 yrs, 2 mos old. Hannah died in Malden on 7 May 1881, aged 86 yrs, 5 mos, 12 das.

The Waite Family of Malden, MA, pg 27

EDWARD WAITE, who was born in 1740, didn't marry until he was 42 years of age, with wife REBECCA SALE  being just 20 days shy of her 33rd birthday. When her son Oliver was born, she was 47 years old and her husband was nearing 56. Not sure why they married "so late" in age, but their first child being born five months after their wedding may have had something to do with it. He may have been the Edward of Chelsea who served in numerous enlistments from 1775 to 1782 throughout the Revolutionary War.

ROBERT WAITE, the father of Edward, and son of JOHN and SARAH (MUZZY) WAITE, was also a youngest child. If he was born ca 1695, as the genealogy shows, he was 45 years old when Edward was born. The birth year of his wife MARTHA BREEDEN is not proven, but she may have been the one born 24 Feb 1696/97 [research still needed on this line].

The research continues...

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This family has been in print, in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register in 1878, and as its own book (from the same author as the article) in 1913, both of which are available on archive.org:
​
New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol 32 (April 1878)
Corey, Deloraine P. The Waite Family of Malden, Massachusetts. Malden: 1913.