I recently joined the Historical Society for the Town I grew up in and there was a talk that night on Revolutionary War ancestors. Or in this case, one of the local ancestors of the President of the Historical Society. I know that I have at least one ancestor who served in the Revolutionary war and he lived in the Dighton, Massachusetts area. He was Anthony Snell and his story can be found here.
Some Potential Revolutionary War Soldiers
I did not highlight the elder Anthony Snell as I have that he died fairly young on my web site. A source at Ancestry has his death in 1767. I am not sure why I did not highlight Stephen Churchill.
Anthony Snell and DNA
I am not highlighting Anthony Snell here but I would like to mention his DNA as this is a DNA and Genealogy Blog. At a family reunion, I got the DNA from one of my father’s many 1st cousins. Here is Joyce’s connection to Anthony Snell according to ThruLines at Ancestry:
Let’s look at my Snell DNA/Genealogy tree to see how that compares:
It looks like I am a little light on the Anthony son of Anthony line.
Next, I looked at my own ThruLines:
It looks like I could improve my Snell family tree if these are correct. Here is Horace’s tree at Ancestry:
It looks like I already have Stephen Snell in my Ancestry tree:
The best way to add Horace is to add him as a floating tree and then attach him to my tree if it works out. This must be Horace’s draft card:
Here is Horace’s birth record:
Horace’s obituary summary gives some more information:
This shows that Horace ended up in Missouri.
Viola’s wedding record shows that her father was a fisherman:
Horace father and son) were farmers.
Next I just need to connect Arthur E Snell to Stephen Snell:
Here is Arthur and family in 1910:
According to this, Arthur was quite a bit older than his wife Nellie. The couple married in 1894 in Tiverton:
Next, I connect Horace’s line with my Ancestry tree to make it match what is shown on the ThurLines. All this to say that it is very likely that Horace and I share common DNA from Anthony Snell (or his wife Betsy Luther). I have pretty old DNA!
Here is the family in New Bedford in 1865:
This tells a potentially sad story. I believe that Stephen’s father Anthony died earlier in 1865 so is not shown. Elizabeth would be Stepen’s mother. I see no wife for Stephen, so she likely had passed away at this point.
I can also add Horace to my Snell DNA/Genealogy Tree:
Benjamin Luther
I have this information at my Luther Web Page:
According to the Luther Genealogy, “Benjamin Luther resided in Dighton, was of a family of seamen, and had four master mariners in his family. He was said to have always been spoken of as ‘Captain Benjamin of Dighton.’ He was a Revolutionary soldier, enlisting in Capt. Ephraim Hathaway’s Co., Co. Popes’ Reg’t., on the Alarms of Dec. 8, 1776 and Aug. 1780.”
I see this reference in the Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War:
I don’t have much more on this Benjamin Luther. He died in 1834. Apparently there was another Revolutionary War Veteran named Benjamin Luther that lived longer.
This 1835 Pension Roll Call is apparently my ancestor based on his age at the time – even though he died in 1834, this probably went to publication before they had knowledge of his death.
This appears to be where the church is:
Here is my Luther DNA Tree:
There is some connection here as Betsy Luther married Anthony Snell. I have a match to Lynn at Ancestry.
Parker
This family was from Falmouth. Theoretically William and Isaac could have served in the Revolutionary War. However, he died in 1778 at age 49. This must be William:
I have that William fought at Fort Ticonderoga:
It looks like William was a Patriot and gave the last years of his life for his country – even when ill. I am curious as to how and where he died. This adds a lot of information as I knew very little about William Parker. I see that in 1772, his father Thomas left him one dollar in his will:
William’s father Thomas was quite wealthy. I wonder what a dollar would have meant at this time as the currency was in British Pounds. According to the internet:
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- The Spanish Piece-of-Eight: The most common “dollar” was the Spanish dollar, which served as the unofficial, widely accepted currency. It held consistent value due to its silver content, unlike local, often depreciated, paper money.
- Value in Shillings: While England used pounds, Massachusetts used a local pound system. Often, one Spanish dollar was valued at 6 shillings in Massachusetts.
This seems strange to leave your eldest son such a small amount as his estate was worth over 1300 pounds.
I see here the family connection with Rochester as Thomas owned a cedar swamp lot there.
Did William’s Son Isaac Serve in the Revolutionary War?
This is a difficult one. There are many Isaac Parkers listed in the American Soldiers and Sailors book. These seem to be two different Isaac Parkers:
There are many other Isaac Parkers listed in the Revolutionary Soldier Book, but the above seem to be the most likely. It is possible that Isaac stayed behind while his father fought in the war.
My father’s cousin Joyce has four matches with these likely descendants of Thomas Parker:
The two from Thomas Landers are closer matches on other lines:
Nathaniel Hatch Jr.
Nathaniel was Isaac Parker’s father-in-law.
As Nathaniel was from Falmouth, this seems promising. I see that Nathaniel was busy having children during this time:
I am not sure if this is the same person:
Here are some Hatch DNA connections:
I will look at more potential Revolutionary War soldier ancestors in an upcoming Blog.
Summary and Conclusions
- I am surprised that I have never highlighted my Revolutionary War ancestors before. The 250th anniversary of our nation has helped me focus on the topic
- Each of the four lines that I looked at had at least some Revolutionary War experience. My Hatch ancestor appears to have had as little as 3 days service.
- We know so little about our ancestors at this time, the service in the War gives us at least a glimpse into what they were doing in support of our Country.
- There appears to be DNA connection to each of my four lines that served in the Revolutionary War. Those lines being Snell, Luther, Parker and Hatch.
- Looking at these lines has helped me to add to, update and correct my family tree at Ancestry