HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE HUNTINGTON FAMILY GENEALOGY

The Huntington family, of North America, is unique because of its long documented history. Family members were early prominent settlers in the colonies, played key roles in the Revolutionary War, and went westward to settle new lands. The Huntington Family Association (HFA) was one of the first ever formed (1907) with family reunions happening every five years for many decades..

It all started when several Huntington men met on December 30, 1856, in Norwich, CT, to determine the likelihood of a big family reunion. Shortly afterward an invitation was sent by E. B. Huntington to Huntington families, near and far,. The first gathering of the very large family network (nearly 500 in attendance) was on September 3, 1857 in Norwich.

During this reunion a committee was formed to gather family data. After several years of this research project, a letter campaign, and reviews of official city, and parish, records, the first Genealogical Memoir was published by E. B. Huntington in 1863. This book documented the family history of all known Huntingtons in America since 1633, including information on those who married Huntingtons, with brief biographies.

Later, Henry Edwards Huntington hired a purported genealogist, Gustav Anjou, to research, and document, in England, the ancestry of Simon Huntington and Margaret Barrett. The results of Anjou’s efforts are reflected in the official family genealogy published in 1915.

It was later discovered that many of Anjou’s genealogical assertions that are in print, and on the Internet, were incorrect and/or cleverly fabricated. As a result, all of the genealogical work done by him, on many American families, has been discredited. Unfortunately much of his work is still reflected in many online genealogies today.

In the late 1990s the Huntington Family Association commissioned reputable genealogists, in England, to verify previous findings. Unfortunately Simon Huntington’s birth, and ancestry, could not be confirmed, and therefore should not be used going forward. In fact, subsequent research suggests it is highly probable that the immigrant, Simon Huntington Sr. may have been related to the Huntingtons of Battisford, Suffolk, England. As data continues to become available online our hope is that someday soon we will know Simon’s true ancestry.

A complete Huntington Genealogical Memoir was published in 1915. This book includes all data published from the 1863 Memoir as well as new family data gathered. Additional books, considered supplements, documenting the Huntington family were published in 1962, 1987, and 2013. These books continued the tradition of providing basic family data, with biographies, sourced from family submissions and public records. These supplements also include families missed in previous publications as well as any corrections to previously published data. They do not repeat previously published family data. Only the 1915 and 1962 books are currently available. See this site’s store for purchasing info.

Last Updated: January 2026