Adrean Norcross

John Bland Smith, our immigrant ancestor was born in England to Anthony and Adrian Bland.  Anthony must have died for we find Adrian married second to a James Smith which John took on the name of Smith for much of his life until later which will be explained.

Adrian was married a third time to Jeremy Norcross who was of noble birth from London.  We know that John probably lived in this area for a time.  However in all of the records in the New World it says that John at the time of coming to America was from Colchester, England.

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Adrean's name was Smith when she married Jeremiah Norcross. Her maiden name may have been Chadwick. Adrian was first married to a man named Smith and had one child, John, who was mentioned in Jeremiah's will. (note: actually it seems that John was the son of ?? Bland, Adrean's 1st husband, and used the name Smith, his 1st stepfather, when 1st settling in America.)

"John Bland,alias John Smith was living at Edgartown, on Martha's Vineyard, in 1646, undoubtedly the John Smith [in] association with the Mayhews in the first movement from Watertown to the Island, where he was always 'Bland'. In Watertown, lived his mother Adrian, 2nd wife of Jeremiah Norcross and there is a recorded "Isabel" wife of John Smith, bur 12 July 1639, age 60. [source: Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and NH, Noyes, Libby & Davis. p.96]

Links

• http://jacquesancestry.com/ancestors-histories/s/john-bland-smithis...

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According to the Bland Heritage Organization,

Adam Bland and wife Joane Atkyns did not have a son named Anthony.

This fellow is from a different line of Blands than the family who emigrated to Virginia.

If we follow the wife, Adrian (Adrean), also called Audrey in some texts,

we find that she married twice more after Anthony's death.

She married a Mr. Smith and then Jeremiah Norcross.

Jeremiah Norcross of Watertown, MA, had a step-son named John Bland alias Smith.

Supposedly, Jeremiah's wife Audrey was married first to a Bland,

then to a Smith and her son used the surname of his Smith step-father.

This explains a long list of New England Blands also known as Smiths.

It also helps to prove that Anthony was not the son of Adam Bland,

whose descendants emigrated to Virginia, and not to Massachusetts.

See also:

http://www.pcez.com/~bigshoe/du/Stub/bland.html http://www.blandheritage.org/GENEALOGY/Family_Lines/group1.pdf