George Austin Readyhough came from Leeds, Yorkshire, anglicized his name to Readio. Back home the spelling, which had several forms, was already changing to conform to modern English spelling; most often spelled something like Reddyhoff or Reddyoff (both) on contemporary Leeds records.
George Readio married Mary Elizabeth Allen, daughter of Amzi Allen, and Mary Sizer, in Rhode Island, where he was lving at the time. I have wondered if there were any connections between Amzi Allen and George Readio, and the slave importing background of Amzi's wife. However, it appears that descendants in my line have exaggerated the accomplishments of these two. George Readio was not a supplier of the Union Army, but a textile mill worker and salesman who may have worked for a supplier of the Union army, and I cannot substantiate the notion that Amzi Allen was captain of a boat on the Connecticut River and along the Atlantic coast. Censuses and city directories and the family traditions of the rest of his descendants, and his own autobiographical book, consistently describe him as a factory worker, most often employed in textile mills.
George Readyhough probably followed relatives of his mother's from Yorkshire, who were in the textile industry in Massachusetts, to America. Their names were Mitchell and Cooper. My aunt's story is that he followed his brother William, who later sent letters to him from Yorkshire, and who had several sons return to the U.S. The family story is that he was a supplier of Union troops, and he died when his ship, which was carrying supplies to the Union troops, during the Civil War, sank off the coast of Cape Hattaras in North Carolina. As above, while he was on that ship, he almost certainly did not have such an exalted position, and the fate of his family does not reflect the managerial status of his mother's kin either. The lived with the widow's brother, and his two oldest boys, who were both teenagers, joined their uncle as iron moulders. Only one of George Readyhough's sons and one son in law made it out of the laboring class. I was told my own great grandfather was a manager, and he was first an iron moulder, than a janitor.
Pictures that my mother had, and disposed of, that she THOUGHT were likely to be of George Readyhough and his wife Mary Elizabeth Allen, and they definately cannot be attributed to anybody else and certainly the man looks nothing at all like Amzi Allen, show a regal looking man in some sort of military-like uniform, with a full face but NO chin, and a tall, stout woman with a large hairdo of dark, very curly hair and a rectangular face. Teh dark curly hair are likely to have been a Sizer feature. The ugly face was a DeWolf feature.
I have since had cause to wonder if actually this photo was of George Allen Readio and his wife, who had kinky hair, which is a feature Mary Allen does not appear to have had.
Lucy's father was of purportedly, according to a story originated by Anthony himself and his children, of French and Puertoguese descent. Anthony Sizer's story doesn't add up, and it resembles a story commonly adopted by mulatto freed slaves and their offspring in New England at that time. What is more, as people on the Azores genealogy list were quick to point out amid general laughter, if Anthony dos Azores were pronounced to a New Englander it would sound like De Socieur and morph into Sizer. The second most plausible explanation has Anthony's name actually De Sousa, a common name in the Azores that sounds like De Zocieur does in French as the people of the Azores pronounce it, and his ancestors were in reality Puertoguese. His physical appearance was consistent with Black ancestry, despite blue eyes, and so was that of Mary Sizer Allen and of a number of the Readio children and grandchildren, who have rather Mediterranean coloring - and both Mary Sizer Allen, and several of her descendants, have distinctly African looking eyes. I once had a good friend, a white woman with brown hair and brown eyes, who had two children by a black man - and one of them had blue eyes. It is possible for two brown eyed parents to each have a blue eyed gene. I think it most likely that Anthony Sizer was a Mulatto.
Nearly all of the towns in this genealogy but those in Rhode Island are on the Connecticut River. Lyme is on the coast at the mouth of the river.
Map of Connecticut River and towns DeWolf line family groups, with link to Dewolf family history on-line, a sample DeWolf trading voyage, and discussions of DeWolf slave running and privateering activities Amzi Allen's wife's father was nephew and first cousin of this country's most notorious slave runners and 2nd most wealthy man during the early to mid 19th century. One has to wonder whether the son who was sent back to Connecticut played no part in this story. For closely related Tuttle, Doolittle et. al. groups, Go to my Tuttle page . The Tuttles were an extremely intense family, feudal in character; the Doolittles were of aristocratic descent and well educated and upper middle class in New England; these families and the Chapins formed much of the character of Joseph Allen's branch of the Allen family (Amzi's father). The Tuttles were Black Sheep qualifiers; I am directly descended from the family several of whom had psychotic episodes and brutally murdered family members. I am within two degrees of relationship to the famous Rev. Jonathan Edwards. Some interesting myth and emotional history of the Allen family, Go to Allen history I incorporated the known descendants of Amzi Allen, including those of George Readio, as well as George Readio's kin from Yorkshire, into my databases on my mother's ancestry at my rootsweb site. Readyhough family history, immediate relatives in Yorkshire Letters written by Amzi Allen and his father in law, Daniel (I think) Sizer Letters from William Readyhough in Yorkshire to his brother, George Austin Readyhough I have these letters identified as from Gary Readio's shoebox; actually I think he got them from one of the Philip Readios. This is about four dozen mostly unlabelled very old photos that came out of Gary Readio's shoebox. It includes atleast one picture of Amzi Allen, and a photo of several non-Readio Amzi Allen descendants at a family gathering. I added photos of my grandmother; one can see a strong family resemblance through the whole group. If anyone can identify any of them for me, I would much appreciate it; it could conceivably contain photos of one or both of my great grandparents! Go to Dora Smith's home page Contact Dora Smith at tiggernut24@yahoo.com Get your own free 11 mB of web space at <"http://www.oocities.org">