David Oliver - Sarah Pedrick Family Group

What We Know About This Family

An Overview of Their Lives

Sarah Pedrick (Pederick) was the daughter of one of Marblehead's earliest families. She was one of nine known children, and her siblings, Agnes and John, are also our direct ancestors. She married her first husband Henry Brentnall, and by him had three children before his early death. I could find nothing about these three children except that Henry fell from the shrouds of a ship in 1707 and was injured. Since Sarah Brentnall Oliver had a second daughter named Sarah and a second daughter named Miriam, it's probable that Sarah and Miriam Brentnall both died before the birth of Sarah and Miriam Oliver.

David Oliver's parents had sought refuge in Marblehead during the Indian Wars and returned to Maine when the danger subsided, but David Jr. remained in Marblehead. He married the widow Sarah Brentnall, and together they had seven children, all of whom were born in Marblehead and married there except for David III who married in nearby Lynn.

David Oliver III and his wife, Hannah Stacey, came to Georgetown from Lynn, Massachusetts. He and his father with Thomas Trafton built their first lumber mill on the eastern branch of the Cove on what is now the Indian Point Road. Later they built a second lumber mill on the west branch of the Cove. Thomas Trafton also had a gristmill on the west bank of the western branch, near the former old Post Office at the bottom of the hill in Georgetown Center. According to the 1759 map, Trafton had Lot #19 and Oliver Lot #20. Both built log cabins nearby. Oliver's cabin was on the road and Tafton’s was farther down the slope nearer the water. The fourth generation David Oliver (son of David and Hannah Stacy) "lived in a log cabin near the marsh." David 4 and his wife Agnes Campbell are buried on the Trafton farm at Georgetown Center (site of the Georgetown Central School), their graves marked by small black slate stones. (Georgetown,Historical Society, A History of Georgetown). David and Hannah are the direct ancestors of the 20th-century actress Ruby Stevens aka Barbara Stanwyck. Information about that ancestry can be found in the Documents section.

Proof of Relationship

The vital records and genealogical records are our best proof of relationship for our direct ancestors in this family.

What Else We Need to Learn

The goal of this project is to trace every line of ancestry to the arrival of its first immigrant to America. The basic information of each couple is considered complete when we know the dates of birth, marriage, and death for both spouses. their parents' names (or whether they were the immigrant), and the child or children in our ancestry line.

The research on this family is complete.