John Russell’s Family

My great*6 grandfather, John Russell, was the first-born child of my Russell immigrant ancestor, Robert Russell. He was born in 1756 in Bedford, Westchester, NY. He married in 1774, had 8 children by his first wife, Abigail. Then when she died in 1798, he married again a few months later and had 7 more children from his second wife, Anna.

Although John was illiterate, he did leave behind a will detailing who his heirs would be. Here is a transcript of that will and how each of his wives/children are noted.

[John Russell will]

 

·       First wife – Abigail Isham (1754-1798) – deceased so not listed

o   Caleb Ebenezer (1775-1830) – “residence unknown” (see below)

o   John Jr (1776-1860) – living in Tompkins County (see below)

o   William (1778-1846) – living in Fishkill, Dutchess County

o   Isaac (1780-abt 1840) – living in Tompkins County (see below)

o   Elizabeth [Smalley] (1783-1819) – deceased (see below)

o   Phebe [Wixon] (1788-1857) – believed to be living in Castile, Genesee County with husband John Wixon

o   Robert W (1790-1888) – living in Kent

o   Abigail (1794-1863) – living in Carmel

·       Second wife – Anna Wixon (1769-1848) – widowed living in Kent

o   Lee (1800-1888) – living in Kent

o   Abijah (1801-1881) – living in Kent

o   David (1803-1858) – living in Kent

o   Margaret [Barrett] (1805-1834) – believed to be living in Tioga County with husband Holmes Barrett

o   Sophiah [Robinson] (1809-1847) – living in Kent with husband Adonijah Robinson

o   Naomi [Ganong] (1812-1885) – living in Carmel with husband Jesse Ganong

o   Levi (1813-1896) – living in Kent

 

Notes on Elizabeth

She had passed away in 1819 and her husband Isaac has also passed away in 1812. Thus, their children, John’s grandchildren, were all listed as heirs as follows:

·       Isaac Smalley (1801-1885) – living in Kent

·       Abbey [Cole] (1802-1868) – living in Michigan Territory with husband Levi Cole

·       Zachariah Smalley (1804-1864) – living in Kent

·       John Smalley (1806-1891) – living in Michigan Territory

·       Freeman Smalley (1808-1891) – living in Kent

·       Mary “Polly” [Townsend] (1810-1878) – living in Kent with husband Stephen Townsend

·       James Smalley (1812-1867) – living in Philadelphia

Notes on Ebenezer

Listed in the will as Ebenezer, Caleb Ebenezer was the oldest child of John and Abigail. In the 1800 census he was living just a few houses away from his parents, but shortly thereafter he and his wife, Parmea, moved to the extreme NE corner of Dutchess County in the small town of Dover – about a 30-mile trek. They apparently never came back even to visit. Caleb had passed away three years before John, but the rest of the family was apparently not aware of it.

There is not a lot of documentation regarding Caleb Ebenezer being the Ebenezer listed in John’s will. I mentioned this in an earlier blog Finding Caleb Russell's Family. But in addition, there is now a lot of DNA evidence that connects me through Caleb to other of John’s children (see below notes on DNA Matching).

Notes on John Jr

John’s will notes that John Jr is in Tompkins County, NY. But research showed there were two men with the name John Russell there at that time.

One (whom I’ll refer to as John1) was born about 1783 (based on age in census records), was married to Martha who was 5 years older than he. He lived in Hector along Seneca Lake. He had a couple of children, including a son, Joel. In the 1850 and 1860 census he was living with Joel who by then had moved a bit north to Lodi in Seneca County (note that prior to 1817, Hector was part of Seneca County. In 1817 Tompkins County was created and Hector was part of it until 1854 when it became part of the new Schulyer County. So county name changes also figure in here a little). Martha passed away between 1850 and 1860 and John1 between 1860 and 1870 as he is no longer found in census records. Of interest is that in the 1860 census, both John1 and Joel were declared as having been born in Putnam County (which is where John’s family was located).

The other one (whom I’ll call John2) was born about 1776 and lived in Newfield, about 30 miles away from Hector and close to Ithaca, NY. His wife, Elizabeth, was 10 years younger than he. They had a large family, including a son Jacob and a daughter Esther. In the 1850 census, John2 and Elizabeth are still in Newfield and Jacob (age 18) is the only child at home. In the 1860 census, Jacob has gotten married and moved to Elgin, IL, and taken his aging parents (then 84 and 74) with him. John2 and Elizabeth’s daughter, Esther, had gotten married in 1847 and she and her husband had also moved to Elgin – in the 1860 census Esther and Jacob were only a few pages apart.

So which John is the son of the John back in Putnam County? Joel said that John1 was from there, but a birth year of 1783 is a point against him as that is not only the same year as John’s daughter Elizabeth, but it would have made John1 the 4^th son. Being given the same name as the father is usually not done past the 3^rd son. Also, two of my DNA connections (see below) have a fairly well documented family tree back to Esther, including a consistent migration path from NY to IL, then to KS which is where Esther is buried and where my DNA connections were born. Thus, my DNA connection supports John2 being the needed John Jr in the family.

So, despite the Putnam County listed in John1’s census record, I believe that John2 is the son or John – both because of the fit of the birth year and the relatively consistent tree associated with my DNA connections.

Notes on Isaac

Information on Isaac Russell in Tompkins County, NY is scant. He appears in the 1820 in Covert, Seneca County, then in the 1830 and 1840 census in Hector, Tompkins County. He and his wife appear to have four children. Isaac is 60 years old in the 1840 census and appears to have died before the 1850 census. But as the only individual with that name in the county, there is no reason to doubt that he is the son of John named in John’s will.

Notes on DNA Matching

One of the newer benefits of having your DNA in ancestry.com and linked to your tree is that they will find other people’s DNA that has common segments with yours, and who thus could be relatives of yours, and who also have trees that intersect with yours. So, this gives a sort of confirmation that your tree and theirs are both valid and it can also help you find paths in your tree where you might be having difficulty doing research. This DNA matching is valid back about 6-7 generations as above that the shared segments get too small to be meaningful.

That was certainly true in this case. In addition to 9 matches through Caleb and his descendants, I have a dozen DNA matches to other children of John Russell. This is not only confirmation that the relationship between John and Caleb is correct, but helped to identify the proper John Jr as outlined in the notes above on him. 11 of these 12 matches are as follows: 2 to John Jr, 1 to William, 2 to Elizabeth, 4 to Phebe, and 2 to Robert W.

This leaves one other that I have still not resolved. It purports to be through another Ebenezer Russell who is not the Caleb Ebenezer in my ancestral tree. I have looked at ancestral trees that reference this other Ebenezer and he has been assigned a variety of birth years between 1778-1781 and died in 1821-1831 perhaps in Hartford CT or Steuben NY. In contrast the trees for Caleb Ebenezer all have consistent dates of birth and death.

I tend to trust my research and having so many DNA matches to other children of John Russell backs that up. But this unresolved DNA match is still an outstanding issue to be resolved at a future date.