My name is Stephen Ranson Stanley.  I started this STANLEY profile in January 2021.  Although my STANLEY research on my American and English STANLEY line began in the 1970's, my research is still a work, work, work in progress, not likely to be "finished" in my lifetime!

For a brief historical overview of my five decades of this inherited family research, I would begin with my own New England  ancestor and STANLEY historian, Robert Remington Stanley's extensive research of his 80 page STANLEY ancestry and several collateral family lines, completed about 1917. Robert Remington Stanley’s 1917 STANLEY/BOARDMAN Family History traces our American STANLEY ancestry several collateral branches related to the 17th C. English immigrant, Matthew Stanley (1628-1686, variant spellings), but my Great-Uncle Robert also passed on a confession of  his unfulfilled quest to discover our STANLEY ancestor's English place of origin, and wisely refused to be subsumed by  many rampant, anecdotal, and unsourced speculations of the same, some by members of his own family.

Robert's younger brother, my Grandfather Herbert Wines STANLEY, duplicated and distributed his brother's research, and distributed it to various members, representing sixteen branches of our family, in 1964. This is the inherited family research that I started with, in the early 1970's. My Great Uncle Robert also invented and drafted a STANLEY Fan Chart, which may have been unprecedented, over 100 years ago. 

My decades-long challenge has been to find what my Great Uncle Robert could not find, and several stuffy relatives and librarians said I would never find, the English origin of our immigrant progenitor, the above named Matthew Stanley/Standley (1628-1686), who probably was indentured out, at about age 13, as one of many "bound boys" from London, around 1643, during the English Civil War. These boys (and some girls) were sent off to the Colonies, as young, indentured apprentices. My first American STANLEY ancestor left no known record of his English ancestry, and may have not wished to have done so.

I have documented at least seven Matthew STANLEYS, who lived in various parts of England in that time, including Matthew STANLEYs of Suffolk, Surrey, Plymouth, Yorkshire, and Middlesex, and one Matthew, in Scotland. No records have shown any documented connection to the famous STANLEY Earls of Derby or the three older and more prominent Stanley brothers, of Ashford/Tenterden Kent, Thomas, Timothy, and John (who died en route to America), sailing in 1634 and settled in Hartford, Connecticut. A number of Stanley research sites claim that our Matthew of Massachusetts, was a son of this line of Kent STANLEYS, based on incorrectly merged family records in the International Genealogy Index, which allege that Matthew was the grandson of the John Stanley from Kent by his son John, Jr. (b.1624) and Sarah Scott, with Matthew being born in 1640, in Topsfield MA (before it was established, in 1650!) Other records incorrectly identify this John Stanley of Ashford, Kent as the same lost-at-sea immigrant John Stanley, who married Ruth Weedon/Weeden, in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, and who both died there, in 1636/1637.   

This cannot be the same young Matthew, who arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony before 1647 and married Ruth Andrewes/Andrus, in Lynn, MA in 1649 (certainly not at age 9!) Nor has any documented connection been made with Boston immigrant Christopher and Susanna Stanley who arrived there, in 1634. Others speculate that Matthew Stanley was a relation of George Stanley, 17^th Century immigrant to Beverly, Massachusetts, whose line continued in Maine. No proof of these deviant STANLEY connections have been produced, however widely reproduced in family trees. But this research does show other contemporary STANLEY lines to be explored, who may have some common English origins, which might be affirmed by further historical and Y-DNA research.

However, by doing ancestral and collateral/allied family research, I have found significant traces of other, allied immigrant families with STANLEY connections in England and then again, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, of the mid-17th Century. See my STANLEY Connections Chart, posted in Media. 

I have published an attached article, "Friend, Is This The Way to Tame?" in the Oxfordshire Family Historian, a year ago, (December 2019, p. 204), documenting the 1628/1629 Baptism of a Mathew STANLY in Thame, Oxfordshire, and the collateral/allied families of Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire, who may have immigrated with Matthew STANLEY and settled, in close proximity with him, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Also, I have documented English and American familial intermarriages with GOULD, KINNE, WEEDON, ANDREWS and other Midlands immigrant families, who show STANLEY connections in English historical, marriage, geographic and immigration records, such as PORTER and PUTNAM, who migrated about the same time in the 1630's -1640's, who settled in the Lynn, Ipswich, Salem and Topsfield villages of early Massachusetts, and who were known to my Matthew STANLEY there. That research article, if any care to read it, is attached in my ONS Media File. I have also created an illustrated version of Matthew Stanley's 1686 Last Will & Testament. Their connections are also found in my media files. 

More recently, I have been exploring the connections to be found from my genetic ancestry, particularly my paternal Y-DNA. I have an 111 marker Y-DNA profile, posted on Ancestry.com and Family Tree DNA.  On FTDNA, I have found one STANLEY identified only as Kit# N7218, John Stanley, 1716-1803, (Quainton/Waddesdon) BUCKS, United Kingdom, R-M269, which is just 12 markers, but a near match for my own Y-DNA. I tried several times to contact the owner of this site, with no success, seeking further testing for more markers. He may have passed away, since posting his results and apparently he wanted to remain anonymous. However, that STANLEY line does continue, down to the present time, with direct male STANLEY descendants, who can be identified, but who have apparently not been DNA tested, as of yet. (Update: As of April, 2021 the source of FTDNA Kit#N7218 has been identified, and a living male cousin of his, and a descendant of the Buckinghamshire Stanley Line has been Y-DNA tested, and the results have been shared with me.) Sadly, this Y-DNA did not closely match my own. 

I have posted summaries of my findings on my MyHeritage webpage, and also have Family Trees and stored sources and research correspondence on Ancestry.com.  I am a member of the New England Historic and Genealogy Society, and have membership subscriptions on Geneanet, Family Search, GENI, Family Tree DNA, FindMyPast, WikiTrees, and other sites over the years. I have canvassed almost the entire range of typical online genealogy resources in my studies, and have made three study tours in England, since 1990.  I am now seeking primary and digitally unpublished Oxfordshire records, from English archives, including the Bodleian Special Collections Library.  I have been assisted in this search for documents by several highly regarded professional genealogists in the UK, including Cathy Soughton, Sue Honoré, and Anne Holmes. I am also a contributing member of the Oxfordshire Family History Society and the Topsfield Massachusetts Historical Society.

My hope, in the One-Name Study is to connect, by correspondence, with other English STANLEY historians, who may possess collaborative and even corrective research and records, dating back to the 17 Century, and who possibly could share Y-DNA testing results from their own STANLEY lines. I continue to aspire to be what is called a "deep roots genealogist," seeking the primary documentation, historical context and allied connections of my family line. I am NOT a seeker of "Coat of Arms" nobility in my family line, which appears, by all reckoning,  to be of immigrant commoner stock. My grandfather once told me, "If you find any Stanleys with any money, they're not related to us!"

Please post comments and queries, on your STANLEY connections, as I am now on the ONS Facebook and Mailing List registers. I will update this Profile, as warranted.

I conclude with this wry and lovely old verse, found in the pages some old dusty tome:

"I went searching for an ancestor. I cannot find him still.
He moved around from place to place and did not leave a will.
He married where a courthouse burned. He mended all his fences.
He avoided any man who came to take the Census.

He always kept his luggage packed, this man who had no fame.
And every 20 years or so, this rascal changed his name.
His parents came from Europe. They should be on some list
Of passengers to the U.S., but somehow they got missed.

And no one else in this world is searching for this man.
So, I play genea-solitaire to find him if I can.
I'm told he's buried in a plot, with a tombstone he was blessed;
but the weather took engraving, and some vandals took the rest."

Best Regards and Happy Hunting,  Stephen Stanley

OFHS Tame Stanleys PDF

Illustrated Estate of Mathew Stanley (Autosaved)