Henry Brown (c. 1843- c. 1888)

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Don Taylor

52 Ancestors # 13 – William Henry Brown (1842-c. 1888)

Henry Brown is one of the most challenging of my ancestors to follow and figure out. Through the years I have confused him with others on several cases, establishing lines that weren’t correct. There are many researchers that have linked him as the son of Benjamin Brown and Eliza Fowler.  I agreed with that assessment for a long time, however, recently I’ve begun to think he was the son of Barney and Mary Brown. I am hoping that by writing this biography I will be able to solidify in my mind key relationships and provide the mechanism to provide proof for some of my assumptions.  

Biography – William Henry Brown (c. 1843- c. 1888)

With a name as common as Henry Brown, finding the right Henry Brown has always been a challenge.  
W. H. Brown (Henry) and his wife Marion are in the 1885 Census in Jamestown, Stutsman county, Dakota Territories. Their youngest son, Edward, was born in Dakota Territory about 1884  and their youngest daughter, Ada, was born in Michigan about 1882, so it appears they located to Dakota Territory about 1883.  I have been unsuccessful finding anything about Henry or Marion after 1885.  By 1900 their children appear to be scattered throughout the upper midwest with Arthur in Crow Wing county Minnesota, Charles in Montana, Clifford in Wisconsin, Clyde in Wells, ND, and Edward in Kidder county, ND. Tracking their other children may yield further results.  Henry & Marion don’t seem to appear in Find-a-Grave or any of the ND newspapers I’ve been able to search.  They just sort of vanish.
Property that Henry Brown probably rented.
Map courtesy of University of Michigan,
Digital Library Production Services 
The 1880 census shows Henry in Saline, Washtenaw county, Michigan. He was a 37 year-old farmer. With him is Marian and eight of his children, Arthur, Charles, Mary, Ahmond, Clifford, William, Clyde, & Addison. Of interest, his oldest, Nettie, does not appear with them in the 1880 Census, however, she does in the 1885 Dakota Census.  Frederick who shows in the 1885 census shows in the 1880 census as Addison. The 1880 census also indicates that his parents were both from New York.  Also, based upon the 1880 census and the neighbors and the 1870 census and his neighbors then, it appears that he was farming land owned by either Ezra Sanford (uncle of Marion) or possibly property of J. Perry (unknown relationship) as shown in an 1874 map of the Saline Village and area. You can also see that Chester Parson, Marian’s grandfather, owns a lot of the land in the area.
The 1870 census shows Henry in Saline with wife Marian and children Nettie and Arthur, as we would expect. Henry is 25 years old and his wife is 23.  Son Arthur is 7 months old, which confirms the December 1869 birth (Census was taken 2 Aug 1870). Neighbors included William Sanford (Marian’s father) and Peter Trim (P.E. Trim’s Est on the map). 
The 1860 census has long been problematic for me. For a long time I had believed that Henry was with his father Benjamin and mother Eliza (Fowler) in Vernon, Shiawassee county about 60 miles away from Saline.  I often wondered how Henry and Marian could have met — 60 miles is a long ways – but not impossible.  
After more research, I found another candidate for Henry in the 1860 Census in Saline.  17 year-old Henry W Brown shows up in the 1860 census living with Daney  and Mary E Brown. The age and place are right but the parents were born in the wrong states. As I mentioned  before the 1880 census indicates his parents were born in New York.  This 1860 census indicates his father born in New Hampshire and mother in New Jersey. Hummm — Not good. I had initially dismissed this family unit out of hand.  The conflict is mitigated in the 1850 census and find “Daney” as “Barney” and mother Mary born in New York instead of New Jersey. Also, the name of the child Henry W. changes to William H., which puts Henry’s name into the proper order and the W. H. Brown of the 1885 census makes sense. The 1870 Census doen’t show Barney/Daney, however, there is a Mary Brown (born in New York) of the right age living alone. So I think Barney/Daney passed between 1860 and 1970. 
If Henry was the child of Barney/Daney and Marion he would have several siblings, apparently a brother Myron O, sister Alice C, and brother David V.  His paternal grandmother would have been Jane.   
If Henry’s parentage was Barney/Daney and Mary instead of Benjamin and Eliza, he would have been born between July 5th and September 6th, 1842 (He was 8 on 6 Sep 1850 and 17 on 5 Jul 1960.) In 1870 he was 25 and in 1880 census he was 37 in 1885 and those dates I’m sure of.
Returning to the previously assumed Benjamin & Eliza parentage, we would find Henry as 7 years old in 1850 and 16 years old in 1860.  Again this doesn’t reconcile itself with his being 25 and 35 in 1870 and 1880. If correct that would put his birthdate between 15 June and 8 August 1843. 
Now the 1870 enumeration date was 2 August says Henry was 25 and the 1880 enumeration was 9 June and finds Henry as 37. 
So, If I consider the 1870 census incorrect, then the Henry whose childhood was in Saline fits and is the most likely.  
I’d love to hear from anyone who has more information or can otherwise can help me untangle these conflicts. Please feel free to comment below.

Short Bio – William Henry Brown (1842- c 1888)

William Henry Brown (Henry) was born between July 5th and September 6th, 1842 of Barney/Daney and Mary Brown in Saline, Washtenaw county, Michigan; He was the oldest of at least four children. 
By First Presbyterian Church (Saline, Mich.),
Nehemiah P. Stanton [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons
He married Marian Sanford about 1866.  They lived in Saline, having at least 10 children there. 
About 1883 they moved to North Dakota and had one more child there. Both he and his wife probably died before 1900. It is unknown where they are buried.

Future Research

Switch William Henry Brown to indicate different/parents in all my records. 
Flesh out the Barney/Daney Brown family unit.
Do a “deep dive” into William Henry Brown.
Sources: 
1850 Census – Barney Brown.
1850 Census – Benjamin Brown.
1860 Census – Daney Brown.
1860 Census – Benjamin Brown.
1870 Census – Saline, Washtenaw, Michigan – Henry Brown.
1880 Census – Saline, Washtenaw, Michigan – Henry Brown.
1885 Census – Dakota Territory, NDSU Archives, Page 44-018. Brown, W. H., et al.
Minnesota, Death Certificate #2215, Arthur D Brown.
University of Michigan’s Digital Library Production Services. – Pictorial History of Ann Arbor – Map of Saline Township. T.P. No. 4 S. Range No. 5 E [plat]; 1874
Wikimedia – First Presbyterian Church Saline 

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Bio – Mary Lillian Hobbs (Howell) (1885 – bef 1964)

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Don Taylor

52 Ancestors # 12 – Mary Lillian Hobbs (Howell) (1885-1964)

Sometimes one simple fact, one vital fact, can be incredibly difficult to trace down. This is the case for the death of Mary Lillian Hobbs Howell. From her husband’s death certificate I’ve learned that she preceded him in death but I have been unable to find her in any of the death records or indexes. I’m not seeing her death on Ancestry, Family Search, Mocavo, Vital Records, Genealogy Bank, or Newspapers.com. Family recollection indicates that died in the Washington, DC area (Virginia, Maryland, or the District).  I’ve contacted several relatives and received several “don’t know” responses. Several others that I’ve attempted to contact have been completely silent (non-responsive to my emails). And sadly enough, when I tried to contact several others that I thought would definitely know for certain, in the process of trying to contact them I learned of their passing.

I recall seeing something once but figured I’d find it again. That perceived missed opportunity has prompted me to use Evernote to help organize and track such findings. I use Chrome as my browser for genealogical work for several reasons. One of them is the very handy plugin, Evernote Web Clipper, which allows you to capture a web page into Evernote with just a couple clicks. Click the button, decide which format you want to save the item in – Usually simplified web for me, but article text, full page, and highlighted text are also options. Decide which folder to put it in and apply any tags to the file as appropriate. I usually put it into my “Action Genea” folder and tag the file with the individual’s name. I can then later go through my “Action Genea” folder, process the information into my Ancestry Family Tree for Mac tree, and then file the record into an appropriate Research folder, in this case it would have been my “Howell-Hobbs” folder.

Using Evernote as the foundation of collecting and organizing my research has revolutionized my work process. If you haven’t tried Evernote, give it a try.

Bio – Mary Lillian Hobs (Howell)

Mary Hobbs
Thanks to Debby Ziegler & Flickr

Mary Lillian Hobbs was born 28 March, 1885 in Hamilton, Martin County, North Carolina. She was the youngest of 10 children born to James Ashley Hobbs and Ann Debora Long.

She grew up in Hamilton and in 1898 her father was elected clerk of court for Martin County so the family moved to the county seat, Williamston. The 1900 census reports living in a house with her father, mother, older brother James Floyd Hobbs and attending school. The 1910 census shows her still at home with her father and mother.

She married James Dallas Howell on April 27th, 1910, in Williamston.

Her mother lived long enough to see her youngest daughter have her first child, James Dallas Howell, Jr. on December 31st, 1911. Her mother died in May 1913. In September, 1913, she gave birth to a second son, Ashley Long.

It must have been a difficult time as her husband was a Baptist minister which caused her to move many times. In 1916, her third son, Frank Armstrong Howell, was born in Brown Marsh, Bladen County. A fourth son, Clarence Fletcher Howell, was born in 1918 in Beulaville, Duplin County.

The 1920 Census reports Mary living in Plymouth, Washington county with her husband and her four sons. Her father died later in the year at Hobgood, Martin county.

Finally, in 1925, while living in Onslow county, she gave birth to a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Howell.

The 1930 Census shows the entire family together, Mary, her Baptist preacher husband, her four sons and one daughter renting a house in Ansonville, Anson County,

Mary Lillian Howell

In the 1940 Census, her husband J. D., as he was often called, was still preaching and their two youngest children, Clarence and Mary Elizabeth were still living with them.

I don’t know when, or even where, Mary Lillian died. It was was before her husband died in 1964. I have been unable to find her in any death indexes not a record of her burial.

This week is the 129th anniversary of her birth; we remember Mary Lillian Hobbs Howell and her life…

Further Research
Determine Mary’s death date and place.
Research more of James Dallas Howell ministry and see if there are any mentions of her in church bulletins, etc.

Sources:
Ancestry.Com – 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940 Censuses.
Martin County Heritage published 1980 by The Martin County Historical Society https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7138421
Maryland, Dept. of Health, Death Certificate, James Dallas Howell – 2 Sep 1979 – 18 Dec 1964
North Carolina, Marriages, 1759-1979, Family Search, J. D. Howell & Mary Lillian Hobbs – Accessed 2013-12-07.

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Bio – Ida Mae Barber (1874-1953)

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Don Taylor

Brown-Montran-Barber

Ancestor #11 – Ida Mae (Barber) Montran Fisher Holdsworth Knight (1874-1953)

When I decided to look at Ida Mae’s life, I realized that my source work regarding Ida Mae was woefully inadequate.  Most of the work I did regarding Ida Mae was done several years ago, and I wasn’t as good about creating source records that were complete and stood on their own. Some of the source citations were entirely in my Family Tree Maker for Mac and were corrupted during various upgrades (FTM 4 Mac 2 to FTM 4 Mac 3 was particularly painful).

I decided to redo everything regarding Ida, that is to say, pull together my physical copies/printouts, look through my computer for relevant files, confirm sources in FTM & Ancestry and build new source citations and documents.

One thing I did realize in this process is that when you attach media to a source, FTM allows you to link to existing media or to copy the media into FTM.  I was inconsistent in my approach.  I did both.  I found that over the years where I linked to existing files the linkage was often broken. I know that copying it into FTM duplicates the file and my “duplicate file finder” will spit out long lists of duplicates, but, it will be worth doing so in the future.

After I cleaned up my sources for Ida, I did some new research and found several items regarding Ida’s early marriages.

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Bio – Ida Mae Barber (1874-1953)

Ida Mae Barber was born on March 24, 1874, in Michigan, the first of two daughters of Franklin (Frank) and Sarah Blackhurst Barber.

Albion College, founded in 1835, 
would have been an influence on
 young Ida’s upbringing.

She grew up in Albion, Calhoun County, Michigan, which is a small town about 100 miles west of Detroit which is the home to Albion College. In the 1880 Census, she is six years old living with her parents and her younger sister Eva.

I believe that sometime in 1892 Ida married John Montran.  John is identified by name several times and when Ida marries the second time she indicates that she had been married before and that her name was Ida Barber Montrani.  The “Montrani” name is new in my research (I had always looked for Montran and Montram previously) so, it gives me a new area of research.) I had long believed that Ida had Madonna out of wedlock, but now I suspect that she did marry John.

Ida’s daughter, Madonna, was born 20 Feb 1893.

Ida married her second husband, Max E. Fisher on 21 May 1897 in Detroit Michigan. Fred E. DeGaw, J. P. performed the wedding; Frederick Mullau and Herman Schcontt, both of Detroit were the witnesses. According to the marriage register, Ida was from Albion and Max was from Detroit so, their marrying in Detroit makes sense.

Oddly enough, the 1900 Census shows Max, Ida, and Madonna Fisher living at 374 Third Street. Manistee, Michigan.  I say “oddly” because Manistee is on the opposite side of the state from Detroit; it’s on the coast of Lake Michigan. Google Maps does not have street views of Manistee, so I can’t tell if where they lived is still there.  Also, Google Maps doesn’t indicate the address in Manistee but rather that 374 Third Street is across Manistee Lake in East Lake.

Photo by C Hanchey via Flickr - Some rights reserved.

The former Essex County Courthouse, built in 1855. This is where Ida & Joseph would have been married.

Her husband, Max, apparently died because Ida married Jos (Joseph) A Holdsworth in Essex, Ontario, Canada on 16 Aug 1904.  Essex is a small town about 20 miles across the river from Detroit. The marriage information indicates that Holdsworth was from Minneapolis.  The record shows Ida as a “ditto” for where she lived, so it may be that she spent some time in Minneapolis before they were married. The record also indicates that she was a widow.  (I’d like to find a death record for Max to confirm that.) Ida divorced Holdsworth before the 1910 census was taken in April.  In the 1910 census, Ida was the head of the household with 17-year-old daughter Madonna and her 62-year-old mother Sarah Barber living with her.  It appears that Ida wasn’t working, but Madonna was a saleswoman at a dry goods store.  Living with them was a “boarder,” Harvey Knight. They lived at 418 Clay Ave, near Russell Street.  Detroit renumbered many of its streets a few years later, so it is difficult to determine if the building they lived in is still there.  Most likely not, The intersection of where Clay and Russell would meet is now taken by the Chrysler Freeway (I75).

Ida and Harvey Watson Knight were married on 27 Aug 1910 in Detroit.  It is interesting to note that the marriage performed by Justice Fred E DeGaw, the same person who performed her marriage to Max Fisher. Frank G Schilling and Winnifred Andrews both of Detroit as witnesses.

Ida & Harvey moved to a new home at 628 Lawndale in 1914.  I assume that they built the house and were the first owners.

Harvey Milton Knight died at ten months from mercury dichloride.

Ida and Harvey’s only child together, Harvey Milton Knight, was born on 20 November 1915.  Sadly, Harvey Milton died at ten months of age from accidental poisoning of mercury dichloride. Oral history indicated that Milton died from getting poison from under the sink and ingesting it. His story is a reminder that children need to be protected from access to dangerous chemicals.

In 1917, Ida’s only sibling, sister Eva, died from
tuberculosis.  Eva was married to Adelbert
Goff and lived in Farmington, MI.  Ida’s
grandchildren recall visiting an “Uncle Del” when they went to Walled Lake in the 1930s and 1940s.  Farmington would have been about a half-mile off the highway to Walled Lake.  Both of Ida’s grandchildren assumed that “Uncle Del” was just a friend that was called “Uncle.”  I believe A-DEL-bert was “Uncle Del” as location, names, and oral history all fit.

In 1918, Harvey registered for the draft.  That document shows still living at 628 Lawndale.

The 1920 census finds Ida and Harvey living along at the Lawndale house.  Daughter Madonna is on the road in the vaudeville comedy show “Chin Chin.” However, Madonna is listed in the Census living in an apartment in New York with her widowed grandmother, Sarah.

1456 Lawndale Today – Screenshot courtesy Google Maps

In February of 1923, Madonna, now “Donna” registers a song with Variety.  In that registration, she indicates her address as 1456 Lawndale. I was at first confused by that as it is unusual for people to move eight blocks up the street, particularly from a new (only nine years old at that time) home. A comparison of neighbors showed that the Knights had the same neighbors in the 1920 and the 1930 censuses. Without a doubt, they didn’t move; rather the street was renumbered to fit a larger system sometime between 1920 and 1923.

In 1930, the 47-year-old Ida was still living at 1456 Lawndale with her husband, Harvey. Ida and Harvey remained in that house until Harvey’s death in May of 1942.  The 68-year-old Ida would have been left alone, except that her 14-year-old grandson came to live with her and help out.

Knight Marker – Harvey & Ida (Milton is on right side) Photo by Don Taylor

Ida died of an acute coronary thrombosis at her home of nearly 40 years on 13 Oct 1953.  She was buried with her husband Harvey Watson Knight and her son Harvey Milton in Plot 154, Oak Ridge Section, Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit.

Because this is my mother’s mother’s mother I carry Ida’s as well as her mother, Sarah Blackhurst, and her mother, Fanny Taylor’s Mitochondrial DNA.  My sister’s daughter is the only person who will carry their mtDNA (Haplogroup T2b) on to future generations.

       [Disclaimer]

Areas for New Research

  • Search for Montrani instead of Montran in the usual places.
  • Research what may have been at 374 Third Street, Manistee.
  • Research actual date for street renumbering in Detroit.

Sources:

  • Ancestry.Com – Census Records 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930,
    & 1940.
  • Ancestry.Com – World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,
  • Ancestry.Com – Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928 – Jos
    A Holdsworth – Ida Fisher.
  • Ancestry.Com – Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928
  • Family Search – Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925 – Harvey Knight
  • Family Search – Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925 – Max E Fisher
  • Michigan, Department Of Heath, Certificate of Death, Ida Mae
    Knight. Wayne County, Michigan, Detroit. (Personal copy in my possession)
  • Social Security Application – Donna Montran Kees, Form SS-5  (Personal copy of document)

(Originally published 18 March 2014.)

page formatting updated
12 May 2019

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My DNA Status – March 2014

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Don Taylor

Where I am at on my DNA Projects?

My Y-DNA

Ancestry.Com

I began my DNA based research with Ancestry.Com’s Y-DNA.  Initially, I was disappointed because the closest match to me was one where our Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) was ten generations away.  He had his tree going back seven generations, not quite enough.  Sigh.  
My Y-DNA Lineage from Ancestry.Com
After several months another person matched with me.  This time our MRCA was supposedly only three generations away.  Very cool.  This was a line I could possibly follow.  I figured, If I could follow his tree up the seven generations that he had and then followed all of the male descendants down, I might find one that was in the right place at the right time to be my paternal father.  I’ve gone up four or five generations and followed all of the male descendants; I still haven’t figured a potential candidate. That is to say no one at the right place at the right time.

Then I was talking to a friend is is extremely knowledgable about DNA testing and results. He was telling me that the person I was looking at might be much further away.  He and I matched 30 of 30 overlapping markers. I had taken a Y-46 marker test and he had taken a Y-33 marker test.  My friend indicated he has seen many cases where 30-40 markers were matched up fine but when the test was expanded to more markers the matches fell apart and the MRCA jumped much higher.  I will need to see if my close match there will take an expanded test (even if I pay for it).

My Wife’s Y-DNA – Ancestry

My wife’s brother’s ancestry per Y-DNA from Amazon.Com 
Of course my wife couldn’t supply a Y-DNA sample. So far, we have had one of our biggest brick walls on her paternal side.  I had really hoped that DNA could open a gap.  We asked one of her her brothers to help and he supplied the sample.  Of course, we had to explain our actions and desires several times to my wife’s mother who thought we were in some way suggesting she had slept with the milkman or some such thing. On my brother-in-law’s test we had an immediate hit on Ancestry.  All the markers but one matched and Ancestry suggested a MRCA at six generations.

We only have four generations on my wife’s paternal line.  The potential matching cousin has seven generations identified on his paternal side. So, if we can’t trace up to his tree, possibly we can trace down from his tree to a common ancestor.  I have a lot of work to do to do that tracing and see if I can trace from his top person back down to find my wife’s ancestor.

Family Tree DNA

My haplogroup’s migration from Family Tree DNA

I used my Ancestry Y-DNA test results and purchased a transfer kit from my.familyTreeDNA.com to transfer my results to their system. 


I emailed the closest hit to my DNA (89% likelihood a common ancestor in 8 generations).  No answer.  I emailed him again, no answer. Then I did some on-line research on him, it appears that he died.  I found someone who appeared to be his sister and emailed her.  No response.  Again frustration.  My second closest hit was to the same person that I had matched before on Ancestry ten generations from a MRCA (88.85% for a match in 8 generations in the My Family Tree DNA parlance.)
I have not had any new matches or other contacts on my Y-DNA.  It seems like no one is doing the Y-DNA test any longer, or at least it appears to have dropped significantly in favor of autosomal DNA testing.

My Autosomal Results

Ancestry.Com

I was part of the Beta testing for Ancestry.Com’s autosomal testing. The “ethnicity estimate” didn’t have any surprises.  I’ve received quite a few “matches” on Ancestry, but they don’t tell you how or where the match occurred.  All my matches there have been “possible range 4th to 6th cousins and nothing of significance has been found there.

23 & Me

CCGS

I was attending a Genealogy Special Interest Group meeting of the Genealogy Society of Cobb County Georgia and was talking with the resident DNA Expert.  He suggested that I do autosomal testing of both myself and my mother, who is still living.  I thought to myself, “Duh” or maybe I actually used my out loud voice.  In any event, have both myself and my mother’s DNA in the same system would conclusively prove a connection went through her or through my unknown father.  If a person matches on me and my mother, the linkage must be through her.  If a person matches on me and NOT my mother, the connection must be through my unknown father.  

My Ancestry Composition per 23 and Me

I decided to go with 23 & Me because they provided the best price.  They were actually low enough in price that I could get the testing there and transfer the results to Family Tree DNA as a lower price than testing only Family Tree DNA.  (That isn’t the case currently.)  Besides, with 23 & Me I would receive health risks results. (That isn’t the case currently either because the government thinks that telling people about possible risks is somehow practicing medicine.  New customers will need to wait until 23 & Me’s appeal makes it through the court system.) 

The results were amazing.  Immediately, I connected with someone that matched with both my mother and me.  Because of that connection I was able to sort out some problems I had tracing my 2nd great grandmother (my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother).  I was also able to push that line back another generation.  I wrote about it at length at http://dontaylorgenealogy.com/2013/08/23-me-blackhurst-line-exploration/
After that initial success frustration again. The next three matches matched against me and not my mother, so I knew they were matches against my unknown father.  I contacted them and no responses.  It is really frustrating when there is no response from people.   

GEDMatch.Com

I learned about another service that is free called GEDMatch.com.  It is a very cool site and it is free.  They give instructions on how to export your autosomal DNA test results from Ancestry.Com, Family Tree DNA, and 23&Me and import the results into their system. Their system is agonizingly slow as they take a few weeks to process your data and then eventually it is populated into their system.  As I mentioned, it is free, so you really can’t complain about the speed.  After a few weeks your results become available and they are really nicely portrayed.  You can do one to one matches, one to many matches and actually see which chromosome you match on and how long of a segment matches. It gives you the ability to see exactly what is going on.  Because I’ve uploaded both mine and my mother’s results I can tell easily if a match is on my maternal or paternal side.  I really like the system. Contact with potential cousins is through regular email so it is easy to keep track of correspondence with people on different systems.

More recently I have had several matches with people on my unknown father’s side. The wonderful people have shared their trees with me and I will try bringing their information into my “Notional Tree” as cousins in a potential relationship.  We’ll see what it may find.

Conclusion

I think that in the end, DNA is a helpful tool. It has the potential to break down some brick walls, like it did for my Blackhurst tree.  However, it is not likely to magically solve a problem or give answers to difficult questions.

In my opinion, the best system I’ve used for analysis of autosomal data has been GEDMatch.  I really like what they are doing.  I noticed that today their website is down due to a server failure. That is really sad.  Once their system is back up I will definitely send them a donation to help them keep their system operational.

Because GEDMatch doesn’t test themselves, rather they allow you to upload from many different testing results, it really doesn’t matter which of the many autosomal DNA testing companies you use.  I think that MyFTDNA has been the best for Y-DNA.  

————Disclaimer ————-

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David Swayze (1762-1838)

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Don Taylor

52 Ancestors #10 – Judge David Swayze (1762-1838)

David Swayze is a great example of an individual that I know I have so much more research to work on. His life was pretty amazing.

Birth: I am fairly certain that he was born on March 4th, 1762, to Amos and Ida
Swayze in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. There are a couple sources that indicate he may have been born on March 11th, which I would like to investigate further.  Another area is that his is the only child I know that Amos and Ida had. I would need to investigate further and determine if he had any siblings.

Military: We also know that he was a patriot.  He served as a private for New Jersey during the Revolution. According to DAR and SAR records he served under Capt. McKinney, Hazlet, Henry, Bonnel & Ribble. His service is an area that I really need to do much more research. What actions might he have seen.  He also received a pension for his service and it appears that he received a land grant for his service. 

Family:  He married Alice Mulligan on January 20th, 1792.   They had five children that I
know of.

  • David (Jr.) born in 1796
  • Sarah born in 1800
  • Evan Thomas born in 1802
  • Elizabeth born in 1804
  • William Marsh born in 1814

Sometime between 1796 and 1817, David moved to Ohio. Because in 1817, David was a Justice of the Peace in Fairfield County, Ohio, where he married his son David to Catherine Walter. 

Marker – David Swayze – Photo by John Bailey via Find-a-Grave Memorial #7656916

According to an entry on Find A Grave, “David Swayze was one of the founders of New Salem,
Ohio. It may have been named after the town of Salem, Mass. It was laid out by Abraham Hashbarger/Hershberger and David Swayze.”

David Swayze died on 2 Mar 1838 in New Salem, Fairfield county, Ohio at the age of 75. 

He is buried New Salem Methodist Episcopal Cemetery in Salem, Perry County, Ohio, USA.

I remember my wife’s 4th great-grandfather, David Swayze, today, on the 252nd
anniversary of his birth. 

The Great Ancestors

1st – 12.  Rufus Harry Darling (1857-1917)
2nd – 25.  Elizabeth Jane Swayze Wiseman Darling (1818-1881)
3rd – 50.  David Swayze (1796-1850)
4th – 100.  David Swayze (1762-1838)
5th – 200.  Amos Swayze (1739-1813)*
6th – 400.  Mathias Swayze (1701-…)*
7th – 800.  Samuel Swayze (1653-1738)*
8th – 1600.  John Swayze (1619..1692)*

* = Tentative ancestor – I have not had the opportunity to independently confirm this ancestor — Yet.

Further Research: 

  • Investigate various sources for David’s birthdate.
  • Investigate Amos & Ida Swayze for additional children.
  • Further document David’s Military Service.
  • Follow David’s move to Ohio better.
  • Find/acquire a better image of David Swayze’s marker where the writing is legible.

Sources:

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