Are there many Bordens in Fall River now?

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Matt1979
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2012 6:32 pm
Real Name: Matt Mills

Are there many Bordens in Fall River now?

Post by Matt1979 »

I was wondering if many members of the Borden family still live in Fall River? I was unsure if many descendants had moved away and the tour guides at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast didn't mention any relatives. I saw on the B.M.C. Durfee High School website that one or two of the students had the last name of Borden, so I can imagine they mist be relatives, given the large number of Bordens in Fall River.

I have been reading Parallel Lives and I have found the information on the very wealthy branch of the Borden family fascinating, especially the sections on M.C.D. Borden and Spencer Borden. I am not sure if Andrew Borden really saw these wealthy distant cousins or if he even properly knew them.
Austin023
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Jul 10, 2013 9:26 pm
Real Name: A. W. Ballard
Location: Northfield, Mass.

Re: Are there many Bordens in Fall River now?

Post by Austin023 »

There are still quite a few, though not as many as there would had been in Lizzie's time.
And any that are still in the area today would be descendants of more distant relations to Lizzie and Emma.
Andrew Borden was already something like a 7th or 8th generation descendant from the first settlers who came to the area in the 1600s--so by the 1890s there was a good amount of Bordens in the area who could claim decent from these 17th century Borden settlers, though many would by that point already be distant relations (ie 4th, 5th cousins) to one another. Many also left the area, went west, etc.

The industrialist, Gail Borden, who invented condensed milk was born in NY state in 1801--he too is descended from early Bordens of Fall River--though his branch of the family left for NY State sometime in the late 1700s.
But there certainly are plenty left in the Fall River/New bedford area today who can claim decent from the early Borden settlers....in fact, my former partner, his father's family was descended from Bordens there as well...he lives on a farm not too far from Fall River, in a house which has been in the family since it was built around 1800.
I myself am largely descended from early English and Dutch New England settlers, though not to any Bordens :)
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