John Trumbull

Just like with my sixth great grandfather, Caleb Jones (who I posted about yesterday), I also see lots of researchers making the same mistake of attributing an incorrect father to my fourth great grandmother, Susanna Trumbull (born 26 Jul 1783), who married John Seaver. Her father was John Trumbull, who married Abigail Upham. Many people have attributed him as being the famous painter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Trumbull), noted for his historical paintings during the Revolutionary War period. This is not correct on account of a couple of things:

1) The painter John Trumbull’s only wife was Sarah Hope Harvey. They married in 1800 and did not have any children together.

2) John Trumbull had one illegitimate child, a son named John Trumbull Ray, who he fathered from an affair with a woman named Temperance Ray.

Sources:

http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=6050

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsmss/umich-wcl-M-270tru?view=text

http://www.oxforddnb.com/templates/article.jsp?articleid=68303&back=

As with my post yesterday, my hope is that other researchers may come across this post, read through the source information presented, and not continue to make the same mistakes many others have made of attributing the father of my sixth great grandmother, Susanna Trumbull, as being John Trumbull the painter. If any contradictory evidence is discovered, I would be very appreciative of being made aware of it.

Col. Jonathan Jones

While researching my sixth great grandfather, Caleb Jones, I’ve come across many trees which have attributed him as being the son of Col. Jonathan Jones, Nov 1738 – 26 Sep 1782 (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=49714814). Col. Jones served with note during the Revolutionary War, and at one point was an escort to Martha Washington. He would be a great addition to anyone’s family tree, but unfortunately, he is not the father of the Caleb Jones in my line. I base this conclusion on a couple of things:

1) In the book Genealogy of David Jones by Mrs. Ellen M. Beale (http://books.google.com/books?id=LB5WAAAAMAAJ), there is an extensive list of descendants of Col. Jones contained in the chapter on him (page 33). While he did have a son named Caleb Jones among his eleven children, further reading shows that Caleb died single and a lifelong bachelor.

2) When the wife of Col. Jones, Margaret Davis, passed away in September of 1819, it was at the house of her son, Caleb, who lived at the time at the foot of the Welsh Mountain near Morgantown, Pennsylvania. My sixth great grandfather, Caleb, lived in Ohio at this time.

Many family trees also attribute this same Col. Jones to being the father of Lieut. Edward Jones, who is buried in Old Four Mile Run Cemetery, Austintown, Mahoning County, Ohio (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=28923887). Austintown is where my Jones ancestors did live, and Lieut. Jones could very possibly be the brother of my sixth great grandfather, Caleb. Lieut. Jones is not the son of Col. Jonathan Jones, however. Going back to the Genealogy of David Jones book, there is not an Edward Jones listed among the children of Jonathan Jones. The year of birth on Edward’s military headstone (1779) is the same birth year as Hannah Jones, the youngest child of Col. Jones. No mention is made anywhere of Col. Jones having been the father of twins, if Edward was in fact one of his children.

My hope is that other researchers may come across this post, read through the information in the book on David Jones, and not continue to make the same mistakes many others have made of attributing the father of my sixth great grandfather, Caleb Jones, and the father of Lieut. Edward Jones buried in Austintown, as being Col. Jonathan Jones. If any contradictory evidence is discovered, I would be very appreciative of being made aware of it.

Oyster Bay Wright Line DNA Testing

As I’ve posted previously, I believe there’s a possibility my Wright line may be descended from the Wright family who were some of the first European settlers of Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York. The Y-DNA test of my uncle has a match with a descendant of Peter Wright of Oyster Bay, as well as a match with a descendant of Johnathan Wright of Flushing. In order to try to clarify which family my line descends from, or whether there is a possibility the Wright lines of Oyster Bay and Flushing are actually related, it has been hoped another descendant of either line would test. I believe I have located a couple of descendants of the Oyster Bay Wright line, and have contacted them to see if they may have already tested, or are interested in testing. Hopefully, there may soon be some resolution in regards to sorting these two lines out.

New DNA Results

My GEDmatch.com DNA test uploads have finished, and I now have lots of new results to go through. Already, I’ve had a few people contact me who have had me show up on their list of matches. There is a lot of data to sort out, but I’ve been some luck, including finding another close Egbert cousin. This makes three Egbert descendants, so far, I’ve been able to confirm through DNA.

Website Update

I have made changes to my family history website (http://www.danstone.info), not the least of which is adding some photos. It has taken awhile for me to make photos available, as I wanted to exclude photos of living people and needed to come up with an easy to manage way for doing so. After much experimentation, I have finally come up with a system that seems to do exactly what I hoped to accomplish. Now that I have the system in place, I will gradually start adding more of the family photos I have accumulated. I would welcome any family related photos or documents anyone has that they would like to make available to be displayed on my website.