New family connections!

While looking at the children of Mary and Joseph Swasey, I lucked onto one of those Aha moments.

I knew my ancestor Lt. Jerathmel Swasey (1752-1826)  was buried in the Palmer St. Cemetery in Somerset, MA.  And there was a daughter named Parthenia Swasey Palmer, (1786-1833). The wife of Jerathmel was Sarah Hellon Swasey (1757-1836) who was buried with Lt. Jermathel.

With a name like Parthenia I'd tried to find out more about her before, without any luck. And who was Sarah Hellon anyway?

Jerathmel's sister Hannah married Sabinos (Serbians?) Palmer in 1767.  Sabinos' parents were Edward Palmer and Mary Walker Tisdale Palmer.  Sabinos had several siblings...at least William, Elizabeth, Parthenia, and Edward.

Then I found the will of William Palmer, written in 1756!  He leaves something to Edward, his younger brother who was born in 1738, for when he comes of age. The rest of his estate is left to his wife, Mary Palmer.  William's will is available if you go looking through the microfilm data.  The index lists what page it's on, and there it is, in nice legible handwriting of a scribe...in Maryland.

But wait, my aha goes phglbbbb!  Edward Jr. being born in 1738 (at least according to some trees' data) was born 2 years after the death of their father Edward Palmer in 1736.  Here we go again.  Mom Palmer (maiden name Mary Tisdale Walker Palmer) lived until 1741,  But these trees list more children (about 4 more) even up till 1742.  WHAT?

OK, giving that these parents named a son Sabinos, and a daughter Parthenia, was there also another daughter named Berthany, as one record spells a name??  I give up.

I had hoped to find that Sarah Hellon was the daughter or one of the cousins who married into the Palmer family.   Bethany Palmer married a Ratcliff Helton apparently. But so far they are all just hanging, without any relationships.

Jerathmel Swasey's daughter Parthenia Swasey married a Palmer, probably Richard.  She also is buried in the Palmer St. Cemetery (and I think mentioned on the same memorial stone with her parents).

Anthony Hintz and wife, Jane Hellon Swasey Hintz, on left face.
Jerathmel Bowers Swasey, Sarah Hellon (Swasey), his wife, and their daughter, Parthenia Palmer (Swasey) on right face.

My dear cousin Linda Clark, took this photo, and indicated the monument was erected by Jerathmel and Sarah Swasey’s granddaughter, Jane Walker.

But what a tangled mess.  On the Ancestry site, there is a Anthony Hintz Swasey...grandson of Jerathmel Bowers Swasey!  I think the marker says Anthony Hintz (NO Swasey, on marker) died in 1838.  The other one didn't die until 1879 apparently...and wasn't married to Jane Hellon Swasey, but to...

OK, enough tearing of hairs today.  I don't have enough to pull much more out!

I'm going to look at another branch on the tree...ah, maybe that one will have primary source records, and all will be in apple pie order.  Maybe...

A new (to me) fourth cousin!

Well, I did take this DNA test last year.  And maybe connected with a couple of relations.  It meant I had to make my Ancestry tree public, and that resulted in someone being able to post things to my tree (though I've been reassured time and again that's not possible.)  But not only were a lot of cousins added to my tree, they had photos added as well...and I know I hadn't put them on myself...because I'd never even seen them.  So my tree is again private, with a few relatives invited to have access as guests...and a friend also. Incidentally, I didn't find out a thing about my origins that was news to me with the DNA test results.

But my connections with my cousins seem to come through others seeing my ancestry tree...and maybe this blog.  I've been recently contacted by a fourth cousin, and had so much fun finding out about her family, as well as re-examing our ancestors in common.

Out great great great grandparents are Capt. Alexander Swasey, Sr. and Ruth Woodward.  Cousin Linda visited their graves recently in Newport, Rhode Island and took photos which provided new information on them.  These aren't just the birth and date information kind of news.

 There are 4 graves clustered in a row, and Ruth is next to Alexander.  Then there is another woman buried right next to her.  And the women's markers both say that they were the wife of Alexander!  So he had a second wife, which I'd never known about.

"Capt. Alexander G. Swasey," "Ruth Woodward, wife of Alexander Swasey," "Delany Clark, wife of Alexander Swasey,"  "Joseph D. Swasey, son of Alexander Swasey."  It is very strange to me that both Ruth and Delany only had their maiden names on their graves, though the "wife of..." was there also.  I wonder why. (And now that I think about it, these markers were given these inscriptions based on the memory of a surviving descendent...who we don't know at this point.)

Ancestry gives hints of new information on people, so I don't usually have to go looking for census, birth, marriage, death or city directory data.  But lately I'm having to scratch through many documents, and it's paid off.  The 12 children of Alexander and Ruth had very interesting lives.  I've found one son (William Pitt Swasey) who didn't die in 1843, but in 1890, and he's buried in New Jersey next to his wife.

Georgiana Sterne Swasey and Willliam Pitt Swasey, in Vine NJ cemetery

I found out their (Alex and Ruth Woodward Swasey's) eldest daughter, Delany Swasey, did marry before she died in in St. Mary's Georgia.  She married in St. Augustine FL according to the marriage certificate.

Alexander and Ruth Woodward Swasey had many grandchildren of course. I learned today that their 2 year old granddaughter, Mary Jane Swasey, had not perished at sea with Jerathmel Bowers Swasey and his wife and other daughter. Maybe she had not been on that ship for some reason, and though she was orphaned, she lived at least until she was 19, according to a census where she lived with another family of her mother's maiden name.

I could give you all the details, but I'm too excited today.  Not a good thing when dealing with all these little details.  So I'll just say how glad I am that I got contacted by my cousin Linda.