Susannah Haddon, at age 15, was torn from her farm life in England, married off to a man she had scarcely met, and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to a new life in America. Vision of the Heart - Susannah's Story is the inspirational story of her journey, and that of other real people who left religious persecution in England and sailed to the New World with Winthrop's Fleet in 1630. The few journals of the time tell of storms, illness, death, wolves, snakes, religious wars, commercial contracts, depression; all from the man's point of view. Yet, women accompanied these men. These stories, then, are about being among the first settlers of a new land, as a Puritan woman could have lived it. What kind of faith must it have taken for such a woman to survive the life-threatening ordeals of such a sailing journey, and the challenges of survival in the New World? What was life like for these bold pioneers? This book brings these characters to life, and allows us to catch a glimpse of their world, fraught with danger, heart-wrenching sorrow, simple pleasures, and joy. As nearly as possible, historical events are accurate, at times contrary to popular ideas of the history of the years 1630-1650. The characters are based on real people, although their specific personalities may not be known, and some of their ancestry particulars may have been proven wrong through subsequent research. But these events happened, and these people survived (or not) in a place and time where such events occurred. Were it not for their ability to survive and eventually thrive in America, many of us would not be here today. Reading this book may help you understand just how this might have happened.
About the Author: Carolin Colby Troescher Janzen was born November 3, 1926, to Col. Franklin H. "Pappy" Colby and Mildred Colby, in Lima, OH, USA. She grew up in New Jersey and used to visit her grandfather, Franklin Greene Colby, at The Tamaracks, outside of Andover, NJ. He built the estate in 1880 and expanded it into an ornate compound featured in House & Garden and Architecture Magazines in 1919. She lived throughout the United States, as her father's work demanded the travel of first a salesman, then a military man. She married Annapolis graduate Lt. j.g. Fred Troescher, Jr., and had two sons with him before he tragically perished while on a military flight out of Guam in 1953. The following year, she married Jake Janzen of Kingsburg, CA, with whom she had a daughter. She now (in 2015) has 6 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. Carolin is descended from Thomas Colby, born in 1650 to Anthony and Susannah, through Jacob Colby, b. 1688, Zaccheus Colby, b. 1735, Ephraim Colby, b. 1747, Dr. Zaccheus Colby, b. 1775, Hall Colby, b. 1800, Salmon Barrett Colby, b.1822, Franklin Green Colby, b. 1858, and father Franklin Horner Colby, b.1901 in Liverpool, England, and their respective wives. She became interested in genealogy, enhancing and expanding the work of her aunt, Emily Colby. She traveled to New England and Great Britain numerous times with husband Jake to gather information on her ancestors and the way of life of these pioneers of the New World. She also traveled to Salt Lake City for additional genealogical research. Carolin was the Society Editor of The Kingsburg Recorder, Kingsburg, CA, and wrote and published a book on Basic Christianity designed to teach the religion to newly immigrated families in Central California. She completed her first edition of Vision of the Heart: Susannah's Story, in 1999. A publisher suggested it was too long, and she needed to break it in the middle and add more material to make it a two-book set, which she did. This is the first book of that set. Carolin Janzen passed away on August 28, 2015.