Robert the Emigrant

Robert "the emigrant" left England for America in 1634. He settled in Essex, Massachussetts and many American Kinsman families descend from him. 

Reseach done in the Victorian era gave the opinion that he was either a Robert Kingsman born in Overton in Wiltshire (born in the late 1590s) or he was Robert Kinsman of Broughton, Northamptonshire (born in 1607). 

In fact neither of these are possible as he was recorded as being above 60 years old in 1649 (so born 1589 or earlier). 

The most likely candidate of all the Robert Kin/King/Kings-men found to date is Robert, son of Roger Kinsman, a tailor from Highworth, Wiltshire. Full references to support this probability can be found here. A paper presenting all the facts found to date has been published in the American Genealogist, the editors of which agree that this is the most likely person to have been the emigrant Robert. 

A DNA profile exists for the male line of the descendants of Robert Kinsman and anyone wishing to add their DNA and compare results would be very welcome to do so.  Contact details for doing this are at Family Tree DNA.

This DNA study has shown a definite link between the Kinsman descendants of this line and those of Asa Kinsman of New York, born about 1820 for whom we have not found an earlier paper trail. The closeness of this link (35/36 +2) suggests a most recent common ancestor at about the generation of the great-grandfather of Asa Kinsman.

The same DNA results show a link between this line of Robert the emigrant and the Kingsman descendants of Robert Kingsman of Overton, Wiltshire, England.  This is not a close match, having a genetic distance of 5, but would give an estimate of a common ancestor as recent as the early to mid 1400s. Just a couple of generations before our earliest written records for these families in Wiltshire.

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