Edwards · Wilt · Railey · Avent · Brett
Where we come from.
Stories, records and photographs of the families behind the Edwards crew, from Lancashire mill towns and Pennsylvania coal country to the Florida coast and the North Georgia mountains.
671
ancestors and relatives documented
295
families linked together
1576
earliest birth on record, in Groningen, Netherlands
56
living relatives, kept off public pages
Family stories
Chapters from The Edwards Family: A History, each linked to the records behind it.
Wilt line · 1910–1994
The Latin teacher from Brownsville
Mary Kathryn Wilt studied at Wilson College and taught Latin in her Pennsylvania hometown before marrying John Edwards in 1937.
Edwards line · 1904–1976
A Lancashire boy bound for New York
Born in England in 1904, John William Edwards Sr. reached New York in July 1907, at three years old.
Edwards line · 1944–1995
Jack, the twin who lived
Born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, alongside a twin who did not survive, Jack grew up in West Palm Beach and taught at Palm Beach Gardens High School.
Four family lines
Where each branch came from.
Edwards & Bruce
Eccles and Barton upon Irwell, Lancashire, to Pittsburgh, then West Palm Beach.
Wilt & Brown
York County farms in the 1700s, then Somerset and Fayette Counties, Pennsylvania.
Railey & Brett
Southampton, Virginia, and Como in Hertford County, North Carolina, then Jacksonville.
Avent & Mundle
Micanopy, Florida, and Ontario, Canada, by way of Brooklyn, meeting in Jacksonville.
The road south
How the Edwards line moved, generation by generation.
- 1830sEccles, Lancashire, England
- 1907Arrival in New York
- 1910sWashington County, Pennsylvania
- 1950West Palm Beach, Florida
- 1990sBlairsville, Georgia
The full tree is for family
Living relatives never appear on public pages. Family members sign in with a one-time code sent to their email to see the complete, searchable tree.