“A Genealogy of the Descendants of John, Christopher and William Osgood” compiled by Ira Osgood contains certain English history about our emigrant ancestors, but it does not explain how they are related.

Recent research of church records and the records of decedent’s wills in England, has given us some important additional information, but it also stops short of factually explaining how these emigrants were related. It does, however, add to the possible scenarios of relationship.

We know for a fact that there were two branches of Osgoods in England during the sixteenth century. One branch resided in the Test River Valley District of Hampton County. The Towns in which they resided were the Wallops (Upper, Middle and Lower); and Wherwell (sometimes called Horell). The latter is where Robert Osgood (died 1630) had his Cottingworth farm, that we believe was the home of his son, John Osgood, the emigrant.

The second branch resided in Newton Tony, Wiltshire County, which is located only a few miles distance from the Test District. We know that this branch resulted in a lineage that began with a John Osgood (died in 1552) and produced Christopher Osgood, the emigrant, who was his grandson.

We further believe that the two emigrants, John and William Osgood, were closely related since William journeyed to this country with the family of John Osgood in 1638. We have no evidence that they were brothers, but it is possible that they were cousins. Support for this possibility involves an uncle of John Osgood, also named John, who may have married Jane Osgood of Newton Tony . She happened to be an aunt of Christopher Osgood, the emigrant. The couple was married in 1595, and it is also possible that William Osgood was a son of this marriage in 1609. If this is true, then William would have been a cousin of both John and Christopher Osgood.

We cannot prove these relationships with fact. Nor can we prove that the two Osgood branches located in the Wallops and Newton Tony were related. With regard to the latter, we do see a repetition of certain names in both of the branches such as the name Peter. We also have Wallop Osgoods witnessing wills of Newton Tony Osgoods. These facts, together with the close proximity of the two Towns, leads us to believe, that the branches were related and, that they shared a common fifteenth century ancestor.