The Family

The Bennett Line

Six generations of direct descent from Edward Bennett to the present day. Every card is a blood ancestor. Tap the badges below each card to expand the spouse or the siblings who share that parent.

How this works. The center column is the direct line from Edward Bennett down to the present day. Every card that had a spouse shows a small ❤ Spouse button. Every card with siblings shows a + N Siblings button that opens a horizontal row you can scroll through. Tap any card or tile to open its full details.

Generation I

James Bennett

1791 – 1870

Edward's father · Lancashire, England

circa July 31, 1791, Lancashire, England (christening)

1870, Lancashire, England

Foxhill Bank, Lancashire

Twelve, of whom Edward was one

James Bennett I · Elizabeth “Betty” Sewell (paternal grandparents)

Edward's father, remembered in his son's obituary as head of a family of twelve children in Lancashire. James and Sarah did not follow their son to America. Confirmed independently in the Marjorie LaVonn Richards pedigree chart (2011) with his own parents named.

Edward Bennett obituary (Find a Grave Memorial #97544882); Marjorie LaVonn Richards Pedigree Chart, 2011. Confidence: high.

Sarah "Sally" Higgenbottom Bennett

1793 – 1860

Edward's mother · wife of James

November 21, 1793, Lancashire, England

February 9, 1860, Lancashire, England

Higgenbottom

William Higgenbottom · Alice Rothwell (Edward's maternal grandparents)

Edward's mother, named in his obituary and independently confirmed in the Marjorie LaVonn Richards pedigree chart. Her exact dates and parents come from that pedigree. She died four years before her son enlisted in the Union Army.

Edward Bennett obituary (Find a Grave Memorial #97544882); Marjorie LaVonn Richards Pedigree Chart, 2011. Confidence: high.

Joseph Bennett

1812 – ?

1812, Lancashire, England

Eldest of the twelve Bennett siblings. Remained in England.

Find a Grave Memorial #97544882 (Edward's memorial, siblings list). Confidence: medium.

Martha Bennett

1814 – 1880

1814, Lancashire, England

1880

Find a Grave Memorial #97544882 (siblings list). Confidence: medium.

Mary Bennett

1816 – 1892

1816, Lancashire, England

1892

Find a Grave Memorial #97544882 (siblings list). Confidence: medium.

William Bennett

1818 – 1893

1818, Lancashire, England

1893

Find a Grave Memorial #97544882 (siblings list). Confidence: medium.

Thomas Bennett

1820 – 1886

1820, Lancashire, England

1886

Find a Grave Memorial #97544882 (siblings list). Confidence: medium.

James Bennett (jr.)

1822 – 1864

1822, Lancashire, England

1864, Lancashire, England

Died the same year Edward marched south with the Union Army.

Find a Grave Memorial #97544882 (siblings list). Confidence: medium.

David Bennett

1824 – 1902

1824, Lancashire, England

1902

Find a Grave Memorial #103169515. Confidence: medium.

John Bennett

1826 – 1904

1826, Lancashire, England

1904

Find a Grave Memorial #97544882 (siblings list). Confidence: medium.

Robert Bennett

1829 – 1861

1829, Lancashire, England

1861 (age 32)

Find a Grave Memorial #97544882 (siblings list). Confidence: medium.

Edward Bennett ★

1831 – 1922

July 6, 1831, Foxhill Bank, Lancashire, England

1848 (age 17), to New York with brother Benjamin

February 13, 1922, Charles City, IA

The subject of this book. His card is Generation II below. Ninth of the twelve Bennett children. Only Bennett sibling to leave England for good.

Find a Grave Memorial #97544882. Confidence: high.

Benjamin Bennett

1833 – 1912

1833, Lancashire, England

1912

Emigrated to America with Edward in 1848 but did not remain with him. Their paths diverged in New York.

Find a Grave Memorial #119196099. Confidence: medium.

Wilson Bennett

1836 – 1878

1836, Lancashire, England

1878

Youngest of the twelve Bennett siblings.

Find a Grave Memorial #97700122. Confidence: medium.

Generation II

Edward Bennett

1831 – 1922

The soldier · the book's subject

July 6, 1831, Foxhill Bank, Lancashire

ca. 1848, age 17

May 1852, Fox River, Wisconsin

February 20, 1864, Portage, WI

Co. C, 23rd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry

January 1866

February 13, 1922 (age 90), Charles City, IA

Lynwood Cemetery, Clarksville, IA

Elizabeth Ellison (1856–1857) · Janet Hume (1858–1922)

Farmer, husband twice over, Baptist churchman, Sunday school superintendent, town assessor. Married Elizabeth Ellison in Moundville, Wisconsin in 1856; she died within days of their daughter Lizzie's birth. Married Janet Hume in 1858. Marched through the Red River campaign, helped build Bailey's Dam, fought at Fort Blakely on the day of Lee's surrender. Rewrote his war diary in a clean hand at seventy so the record would remain legible. He is the man UNSILENCED brings back to speech.

Book: All chapters

Find a Grave Memorial #97544882; regimental records; April 25 1864 letter. Confidence: high.

Elizabeth Ellison Bennett

1835 – 1857

Edward's first wife · direct ancestor · ★

1835, Whalley, Lancashire, England

May 2, 1856, Moundville, Wisconsin

April 1857, Moundville (age 21)

Moundville Cemetery, Endeavor, Marquette County, WI

Martin Greenhalph Ellison (1808–1878) · Alice Houlker (1806–1882) — both buried at Moundville Cemetery beside Elizabeth

Christopher Ellison — Co. C, 1st Wisconsin Infantry — buried beside his parents at Moundville Cemetery

Mary Ellison Smith (1845–1914) — married Isaac Smith (1846–1922), buried at the adjacent Smith plot at Moundville

James Ellison · Ann Greenhalph

Christopher Houlker · Elizabeth (Betty) Howorth

Both English-born, both from Lancashire. Elizabeth died within days of the birth of her only child, Lizzie — who carried the bloodline forward. Ten days after Elizabeth's death, Edward sat down and wrote a letter to her parents describing the last four days of her life. Read Edward's letter, April 19, 1857 →

The entire Ellison family plot is preserved at Moundville Cemetery in Endeavor, Wisconsin. Doug photographed it on August 4, 2026: Martin, Alice, their son Christopher (a Union Army veteran of the 1st Wisconsin Infantry), and their daughter Mary (buried in the adjacent Smith plot after marrying Isaac Smith) are all clustered within a few paces of Elizabeth. Two more generations of Ellison and Houlker ancestry are documented in the Marjorie LaVonn Richards pedigree chart (2011).

Book: Ch 2, Ch 12 closing

Find a Grave Memorial #102632746; Marjorie LaVonn Richards Pedigree Chart, 2011; Edward Bennett Family Group Record (Legacy software, April 1, 2008); Ellison family gravestones photographed at Moundville Cemetery, August 4, 2026. Confidence: high.

Janet Hume Bennett (Edward's second wife)

Janet Hume Bennett

1839 – 1929

Edward's second wife · "My Dear Wife" of the letters

November 8, 1839, Hamilton, Scotland

1850 (age 10), 8-week voyage to Portage, WI

May 1857, Portage Baptist Church

November 19, 1858

Eleven named, plus one uncertain

1929 (age 89), Charles City, IA

Lynwood Cemetery, Clarksville, IA (beside Edward)

Janet raised her stepdaughter Lizzie as her own and bore eleven more children by Edward. Her obituary says she "cared for five children while Mr. Bennett served his country." She is the wartime wife of the surviving letters. She outlived Edward by seven years. Janet is not in the direct bloodline; she appears in the book because she was Edward's wife during the war years and the addressee of the surviving letters.

Book: Chapters 3–12; letters throughout

Find a Grave Memorial #97544965. Confidence: high.

Elizabeth Ellison Bennett (Edward's first wife)

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bennett Shadbolt

1857 – 1930

April 12, 1857, Moundville, Wisconsin

Elizabeth Ellison (Edward's first wife, died at Lizzie's birth)

March 4, 1880, to Albon Briggs Shadbolt

January 12, 1930, Horton, Bremer Co., IA

Edward's only child by his first wife. Full card is below — click here to expand.

Find a Grave Memorial #67666216. Confidence: high.

James Mathew Bennett

1859 – ?

1859, Wisconsin

Janet Hume Bennett

Charles City, IA (1922)

Edward's first child with Janet Hume. About 5 years old when his father enlisted.

Edward Bennett obituary. Confidence: high.

Sarah Ann Bennett Head

1861 – 1943

1861, Wisconsin

Janet Hume Bennett

to Mr. Head

Plainfield, Iowa

1943

About 3 years old when Edward enlisted. Later Mrs. Sarah Head of Plainfield, Iowa.

Edward Bennett obituary; research file. Confidence: high.

Edward Robert Wilson Bennett

1863 – 1935

1863, Wisconsin

Janet Hume Bennett

Carrville, Iowa (1922)

1935, Charles City, Iowa

About 1 year old when his father enlisted — too young to remember him leaving. Namesake of his father.

Edward Bennett obituary; research file. Confidence: high.

Nellie (Nettie) Bennett

? – ?

Janet Hume Bennett

Charles City, IA (living at home in 1922)

Never married. Lived with her parents until Edward's death and probably until Janet's death in 1929.

Edward Bennett obituary. Confidence: high.

William C. Bennett

? – before 1922

Janet Hume Bennett

Before 1922 (predeceased Edward)

Edward Bennett obituary. Confidence: medium.

Mary Bennett McCoy

? – ?

Janet Hume Bennett

Mr. McCoy

Vesta, Minnesota

Edward Bennett obituary. Confidence: high.

William Carey Bennett

? – ?

Janet Hume Bennett

Endeavor, Wisconsin

The only Bennett child who stayed in the family's original Wisconsin community. Named for Edward's own emigration story or for family tradition.

Edward Bennett obituary. Confidence: high.

Hume J. Bennett

? – ?

Janet Hume Bennett

Charles City, IA (living at home in 1922)

Named for his mother's family. Living at home at his father's death.

Edward Bennett obituary. Confidence: high.

Cora Bennett Holroyd

? – ?

Janet Hume Bennett

Mr. Holroyd

Warner, Canada

The Bennett child who left the United States. Married into a Canadian family.

Edward Bennett obituary. Confidence: high.

Ruth Bennett Jacobs

? – ?

Janet Hume Bennett

Mr. Jacobs

Miranda, California (later San Jose)

The Bennett child who went the farthest west.

Edward Bennett obituary. Confidence: high.

Lu Eva Bennett

? – before 1922

Janet Hume Bennett

Before 1922 (predeceased Edward)

One of two Bennett children who died before Edward.

Edward Bennett obituary. Confidence: high.

Generation III

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bennett Shadbolt

1857 – 1930

Edward's only child by Elizabeth Ellison

Sunday, April 12, 1857 at 3 a.m., Moundville, Marquette County, Wisconsin

1867 (age 10), with parents from Wisconsin to Butler County

March 4, 1880, Shell Rock, Iowa

Methodist (Plainfield Methodist Church)

Farm south of Horton, Bremer County, IA (final 12 years)

Sunday night, January 12, 1930 at 11:30 p.m., Horton, Bremer County, IA (age 72 years, 9 months)

January 14, 1930, Lynwood Cemetery, Jackson Township, Clarksville, Butler Co., IA (Rev. A.S. Watson officiating)

Husband Albon · three children (Mabel, Roland, Jessie) · nineteen grandchildren · four brothers and five sisters

Lizzie was six years old when Edward enlisted. Her biological mother had died within days of her birth; Janet Hume was the only mother she remembered. She was the daughter who had her father's Civil War diary professionally bound circa 1901. Though her father and stepmother were devout Baptists, Lizzie converted to Methodism after marrying Albon Shadbolt in 1880 and was an active member of the Plainfield Methodist Church for the rest of her life. Her funeral began at the Shadbolt home on Tuesday afternoon and continued at the Plainfield Methodist Church at 1 o'clock.

Book: Ch 12 closing (the descent chain)

Find a Grave Memorial #67666216; obituary in the Clarksville Star, January 16, 1930; Family Group Record (Legacy software, April 1, 2008). Confidence: high.

Albert "Albon" Briggs Shadbolt

1858 – 1940

Lizzie's husband · the Shadbolt in-law branch

June 9, 1858, Clarksville, Butler County, Iowa

Albert · Albon · Alban B. · Alvin (1880 census)

March 4, 1880, Clarksville, Iowa

Shoemaker (1880 census), then farmer in Bremer and Butler Counties

Butler Twp (1870) → Marble Rock, Floyd Co. (1880) → Butler Twp (1900) → LaFayette Twp, Bremer Co. (1910) → Polk Twp, Bremer Co. (1920, widowed by 1930)

Friday, November 22, 1940 at 6:30 p.m., Waverly Hospital, Bremer County, IA (following an operation for kidney and bladder trouble on the preceding Wednesday)

Hammel Funeral Home, Monday 2:00 p.m., Rev. Marsh officiating

Lynwood Cemetery, Jackson Township, Clarksville, Butler Co., IA

Jerome Shadbolt (1823–1906, Clarksville IA) · Laura Louisa Main (1829–1918, Butler IA)

Robert Shadbolt (b. 1787) · Abbie Willey (b. 1797)

William Main (1786–1837) · Sophia Briggs (1788–1877)

Mrs. Jessie French of Clarksville, IA

19 grandchildren · 3 great-grandchildren · three grandsons serving in the U.S. Navy (1940)

Iowa farmer. He began as a shoemaker — the 1880 census lists him as "Alvin, shoemaker" in Marble Rock, Floyd County — and moved to full-time farming by 1900. He and Lizzie had three children who lived to adulthood: Mabel Ray of Waterloo, Raleigh "Roland" Ira Shadbolt of Horton, and Jessie Elizabeth Richards of Ionia (the grandmother of the direct line). The Shadbolts were an already-established Iowa family when Lizzie married in. Jerome Shadbolt was born in Stillwater, New York in 1823 and had moved his family to Clarksville, Iowa well before the Bennetts arrived. His wife Laura Louisa Main descended from a deep New England colonial line running back to Thomas Main of New London, Connecticut (1747) and beyond, documented in the Marjorie LaVonn Richards pedigree chart. The Shadbolt line itself traces to New York colonial families through Ezekiel Shadbolt (c. 1707) and Morris Shadbolt (c. 1680), with Ludlam, Townsend, Post and Harcourt branches back to the mid-1600s.

Find a Grave Memorial #67666216; Waverly newspaper obituary; Family Group Record (Legacy software, April 1, 2008); Marjorie LaVonn Richards Pedigree Chart, 2011. Confidence: high.

Mabel E. Shadbolt Ray

1882 – ?

April 26, 1882, Iowa

About 1902, to Frank Leroy Ray (b. 1881)

1121 Linn Street, Waterloo, Iowa (Nov 1940)

Firstborn of Albon and Lizzie. Married Frank Leroy Ray around 1902 and lived out her adult life in Waterloo, Iowa. She is not in the direct line but is an aunt of Jessie's Richards children.

Family Group Record (Legacy software, April 1, 2008); Albon Shadbolt obituary, Waverly newspaper. Confidence: high.

Raleigh "Roland" Ira Shadbolt

1885 – 1968

October 25, 1885, Iowa

February 9, 1911, Shell Rock, Butler Co., IA, to Jessie M. Richards (1892–1980)

Farmer

Horton, Iowa ("Roland Shadbolt of Horton" at his mother's death, 1930)

March 6, 1968, Waverly, Bremer Co., IA (age 82)

Riverside Cemetery, Shell Rock, Butler Co., IA

Second child of Albon and Lizzie. Roland farmed near Horton, Iowa most of his adult life. His marriage to Jessie M. Richards in February 1911 preceded his sister Jessie's marriage to George Harrison Richards by fourteen months — the beginning of the two-Shadbolt-siblings-marrying-two-Richardses pattern that remains a research question. He is not in the direct line but is an uncle of Jessie's Richards children.

Family Group Record (Legacy software, April 1, 2008); Albon Shadbolt obituary, Waverly newspaper; Lizzie Shadbolt obituary, Clarksville Star, Jan 16, 1930. Confidence: high.

Jessie Elizabeth Shadbolt Richards ★

1894 – 1972

September 8, 1894, Clarksville, IA

April 2, 1912, Waverly, Bremer Co., IA, to George Harrison Richards (1888–1979)

Ionia, Iowa ("Jessie Richards of Ionia" at her father's death, 1940)

August 19, 1972, Nashua, Chickasaw Co., IA (age 77)

August 21, 1972, Riverside Cemetery, Shell Rock, Butler Co., IA

Doug's great-grandmother and the direct line forward. Full life details on her Generation IV card below.

Family Group Record (Legacy software, April 1, 2008); Find a Grave Memorial #55583075. Confidence: high.

Generation IV

Jessie Elizabeth Shadbolt Richards

1894 – 1972

Great-grandmother

September 8, 1894, Clarksville, IA

April 2, 1912, to George Harrison Richards

Ten (eight documented on Find a Grave)

August 19, 1972, Nashua, IA

Riverside Cemetery, Shell Rock, IA

Farm life through the middle of the twentieth century. She is remembered by later generations as a quiet elderly woman in a nursing home in Shell Rock. She was one of the women who kept the boxes of Edward's letters through the decades when no one else was asking after them.

Book: Ch 1, "the Jessie I knew"

Find a Grave Memorial #55583075. Confidence: high.

George Harrison Richards

1888 – 1979

Jessie's husband · the Richards surname enters the line

August 30, 1888, Butler County, Iowa

April 2, 1912, Waverly, Bremer County, Iowa

December 20, 1979, Floyd County, Iowa (age 91)

George Thomas Richards (1857–1930, Shell Rock IA) · Emma Ann Little (1861–1954, Waverly IA)

Uriah Richards (b. Nov 1810, England; d. 1882, Lake County, IL) · Elizabeth Ann Ellis (1813, Somerset, England – 1865, IL)

Asa Little (1823, Salina NY – 1898, IL) · Deborah Ann Palmer (1824, NY – 1889, IL)

George's marriage to Jessie is where the Richards surname entered your line. He was born in Butler County, Iowa in 1888 to George Thomas Richards and Emma Ann Little — both Illinois-born. His paternal grandparents Uriah Richards and Elizabeth Ann Ellis were English immigrants from Somerset; they married in Somerset in 1834 and emigrated to Lake County, Illinois. His maternal Little/Palmer line runs back through the Palmers of Fairfield, Connecticut to William Palmer of Parham, Somerset (1615–1661), one of the deepest colonial branches in your ancestry — documented in the Marjorie LaVonn Richards pedigree chart back to the 1500s.

Find a Grave Memorial #55583075; Marjorie LaVonn Richards Pedigree Chart, 2011. Confidence: high.

Clyde Willard Richards

1912 – 1916

1912

1916 (age 4)

The first child of Jessie and George Richards, died at age four.

Find a Grave Memorial #55583075. Confidence: high.

Rual George Richards

1913 – 2001

1913

2001 (age 88)

Second child of Jessie and George.

Find a Grave Memorial #55583075. Confidence: high.

Margaret Alene Richards Moine

1915 – 2006

1915

2006 (age 91)

Third child of Jessie and George.

Find a Grave Memorial #55583075. Confidence: high.

Beryl Duane Richards

1916 – 1935

1916

1935 (age 19)

Fourth child of Jessie and George. Died at age nineteen.

Find a Grave Memorial #55583075. Confidence: high.

Roger Harold Richards

1917 – 1992

1917

1992 (age 75)

Fifth child of Jessie and George.

Find a Grave Memorial #55583075. Confidence: high.

Joyce Maxine Richards Swinton

1919 – 1999

1919

1999 (age 80)

Marian's sister who came with her to Jessie's attic in December 1975 — the "her sister Joyce" of Chapter 1. Together they returned to the Nashua farm that evening with two boxes of letters and a Civil War uniform.

Book: Ch 1, "her sister Joyce"

Find a Grave Memorial #55583075. Confidence: high.

Marian Mae Richards Zwanziger

1920 – 2003

November 2, 1920, Bremer County, IA

March 20, 1941, to Donald Kay Zwanziger

Rural schoolteacher; Nashua Public School lunch program

Don's Ranch House · the Dairy Sweet, Nashua

July 24, 2003, New Hampton, IA

The grandmother of Chapter 1. It was Marian who came back to the farm from Jessie's attic in Shell Rock with two boxes of letters and a Civil War uniform in December 1975, and it was Marian who held the uniform up against a ten-year-old descendant's body. She was the household's introduction to Edward.

Book: Ch 1, the hay-mound scene

Find a Grave Memorial #14518265. Confidence: high.

Donald "Don" Kay Zwanziger

1921 – 2008

Grandfather · husband of Marian

1921

March 20, 1941

2008 (age 87)

Farmer and businessman. Owner of the farm two miles north of the Nashua fairgrounds — the setting of Chapter 1. The hay mound of Chapter 1 was his barn.

Book: Ch 1, the farm

Find a Grave Memorial #14518265 (Marian's memorial). Confidence: high.

Marian's daughters

Janet Kay Zwanziger

1942 – 1961

Marian's elder daughter · died at 19

1942

1961 (age 19)

Marian's elder daughter, the first child of Marian and Don. Died at nineteen, twenty-five years before her sister Donna. She preceded both her mother and her sister in death.

Marian's memorial (Find a Grave #14518265) records both daughters preceded Marian in death. Confidence: high for relationship.

Donna Kathleen Zwanziger Waidelich

1943 – 1986

Mother of the descendant · carries the line

July 9, 1943

October 1986 (age 43), Bettendorf, IA

Sunnyside Memory Gardens, Charles City, IA

The daughter who brought Edward's letters — and the story with them — into the household of the next generation. She predeceased her mother Marian by seventeen years.

Book: Ch 1, "my mother Donna"

Find a Grave Memorial #132446173. Confidence: high.

Robert "Bob" Waidelich

1942 – 2018

Father of the descendant · husband of Donna

1942

2018 (age 76)

Husband of Donna Zwanziger.

Family record (Find a Grave Memorial #132446173). Confidence: high for relationship.

Donna's son

Doug Waidelich

1964 –

The great-great-great-grandson · author of UNSILENCED

December 16, 1964, Nashua, Iowa

Christmas vacation 1975 (age 10)

2026

April 25, 1864 letter

Six generations removed from Edward Bennett. The boy who stood in a Nashua farmhouse kitchen in 1975 with a Union uniform held up against his ten-year-old body, and the man who, fifty years later, finally read what the letters said.

Book: Author · Ch 1 · Acknowledgments · Ch 12 closing

Elizabeth Jeanette "Betty" Richards

1923 – 2013

1923

2013 (age 89)

Youngest of the eight Richards children documented on Find a Grave.

Find a Grave Memorial #55583075. Confidence: high.