Note: This was originally published in the Stickneys of Texas Newsletter in June 2013.

Matthew Adams Stickney (1805-1894) was a collector and one of the most important Stickneys of America. He had an extensive coin collection and I just recently read that he had one of the largest collection of bird’s eggs in America. Most important to me was that he collected ancestors and relatives, or actually facts and information about them and his greatest achievement was to share this information with me and the world with his book The Stickney Family: A Genealogical Memoir of the Descendants of William and Elizabeth Stickney from 1637 to 1869, which he published in 1869. Matthew traveled around and acquired first-hand knowledge of countless Stickney families and researched hundreds of land and probate records for details to the lives of those first American Stickneys. He relates the origin of the name to a location still in existence in Lincolnshire, England.

Matthew chronicles the first, William Stickney immigrating to New England in 1638, along with his wife, Elizabeth and three children. Through five hundred plus pages, he provides deed and probate information on many of the over thirty-five hundred descendants of William Stickney. And yes we do find Edward Lawrence Stickney the first of William’s descendant to come to Texas listed in the book. Every Stickney family should possess a copy of this book, though it has been out of print for quite some time, since it was originally published in 1869, you can get a paperback photo reproduction through Amazon. This book has given me clues to further explore the lives of my ancestors and their related families, discovering what they had to overcome and achieve to get me to where I am today¹.

1. I was fortunate to find a copy that had belonged to a descendant of Samuel Stickney, William’s eldest son, which had additional information on their family branch.