You know, I think it's this man's father (Sir Miles Button??) that people keep insisting is one of my ancestors. Not that I wouldn't love it to be true (the more the better, I say--speaking of Welsh ancestors!!), but my Matthias Button was from Merrie Olde England, not Wales, and I think people are just figuring they're related because of similar names/time periods. But my Matthias was born in Harrold, Bedfordshire, and while I know people did travel more than you'd think during the 16th/17th centuries, it seems that my Buttons were of old English stock. (Oh well, you can't have everything, lol!).But I will definitely read up on Sir Thomas (the Welsh one, not the one from Bedfordshire!) since all this to-and-fro about the various Buttons has got me interested in the Welsh Button family too.And who knows, maybe they were 1st cousins 12 times removed or something!!

Sir Thomas Button is considered to the be the first Welshman to arrive in Canada and is most famous for "exploring and securing the west coast of Hudson Bay for [Britain] country he named the area New North Wales and New South Wales". In 1612, Sir Thomas commanded the ships Resolution and Discovery in a search for the fabled NW Passage, which didn't exist but his voyage mapped and explored Hudson's Bay and went on to a long naval career. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Button http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=98 http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/button_t.shtml

updated by @gaabi: 11/11/15 10:37:14PM