John Moss IV 1720-1770

John Moss IV
b. 1720 Jamaica, Long Island, New York, 
d. 3 Feb 1770 New Haven, New Haven CT

On the Booth family tree, John Moss IV MAY BE my 6th great grandfather. His daughter Elizabeth,(1756-1841) married Isaac Booth (1755-1841), and their son, Isaac Booth (1795-1836)  married Jane McElhany (1794-1833). We looked at her parents (William and Betsy McElhany) in the last few days. 

To say again... Betsy and William McElhaney's daughter, Jane McElhaney (see HERE for her post)  married Isaac Booth Jr, who had his blog post HERE.  And their son William Lewis Booth, was my grandmother's great grandfather, and he is honored in his son's posting, Richard R. Booth, (richard-r-booth-my-murdered-great-grand)

I admit I've added the "IV" to John Moss' name, because he's the fourth in the line, all of whom lived in the New Haven CT area. Many of the stories are confused about who was important there, but the John Mosses were certainly doing a lot.

Mr. John Moss who departed this life Octo 5th, 1770 in the 50th year of his age.

So I've got a question.   John IV was born in Jamaica, Long Island, NY, while the rest of the  family was all born in Wallingford CT?  (I never found a good explanation for this.)

I spent hours looking along his mother's family and grandparents on both sides trees, to find nobody else born/died in Jamaica NY.  So I'm beginning to think this is a glitch, since it doesn't even have any primary source behind it.  Ah, that's the clue.  Not having a source.

OK, I continue to re-read the information that is shared at Ancestry, and at Find A Grave, I see a grave for his wife Sarah Moss, and that her maiden name was Thompson, not Salmon.  That changes all the tree before her, if I've got the wrong wife!

Her grave does exist, as "Sarah wife of John Moss, who died Jan...[illegible]9th 1777, in [illigible] of her [illigible]"  It doesn't say her maiden name.

Someone has decided since they can read the 9 and 1777, it was Jan 9th.  I think that big space means there was another digit.  But it is unimportant now that I have to determine if she was a Thompson or a Salmon.

And I found 788 pages of a microfilmed book, where John Moss was born Nov. 1720, and married Lydia Roberts then Sarah Thompson. (on pg 195 of the collection, but the page number is 15 of the "chapter" John Moss Four Generatioins. I don't know the actual source, because the link says "Morse Genealogy: comprising the descendants of Samuel Anthony, William and Joseph Morse and..." (cut off and no more given).

OK, this is one of those times where I think to myself, I know an Elizabeth Moss married Isaac Booth.  I don't know who her parents were for sure.  After all, this John Moss IV was living in Wallingford, CT and Elizabeth Moss Booth was born 01 APR 1756 in Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut, and died ABT. 1841 in Ontario County, New York.

So whether Sarah and John IV Moss were her parents or not is something I'm going to let go of for today.  There they sit in my family.  If I remove them from the tree, so goes lots of other possible ancestors.  What would you do?   I did remove the Salmon family at this point, and gave Sarah Moss an "unknown" maiden name.

I think I'll go down the tree, rather than up, at this point.

Today's Quote:

The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.

Abraham H. Maslow