William Branch was the first of the BRANCH surname ancestors, to my knowledge, to come to Canada.

Where did he came from? That is the questions that I asked myself for more than 15 years. I always thought that he was from England, but I still can't prove it 100%. We have many leads, but nothing solid. Evelyn Hodgson, Lawrence Lizotte, and myself, have something in common. Me and Lawrence are from the same William Branch. We don't know where he came from and Evelyn Hodgson has a William Branch, from England, that she lost trace of in the early 1800's.

There is a first mention of William for a land that he petitioned for in 1829. That land was in the Bathurst, NB CANADA area, but no mention of where he came from.

As you can see, in the data base, descendant of William Branch were name after their parents and grandparents. That’s why a lot of names repeat themselves. William, Richard, Angus to name just a few. But what puzzled us was that William had a grandchild with the name of William Walcraft Maria (or Mona) Branch. It was a custom for the English to give the name or last name of their parent to their child. Walcroft was probably the surname of his, great grandmother on his father side.

Evelyn Hodgson has an ancestor, Richard Branch, who was married to a Anna Walcraft. They had sons and daughter. Their children came to America in the early 1800's. They all went to the US except she, Evelyn, can’t find where her William went. So, we both have a William we can't place in the early 1800's.

Lawrence, for his part, did research for William in England. He found one that fitted the time frame and he also concluded that, with the repetition of the names and that middle name for William grandson, Walcraft, that he was the one Evelyn Hodgson, had lost trace of. We concluded that William Branch might be from indeed from England and that he might be the son of Richard Branch and Anne Walcraft.

We're still trying to prove that theory and hope will find the answers soon.