{"id":28479,"date":"2026-04-18T00:13:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jmhartley.com\/HBlog\/?p=28479"},"modified":"2026-04-18T00:15:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:15:02","slug":"looking-for-my-revolutionary-soldier-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jmhartley.com\/HBlog\/2026\/04\/18\/looking-for-my-revolutionary-soldier-ancestors\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking for My Revolutionary Soldier Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some Potential Revolutionary War Soldiers<\/h2>\n

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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.\u00a0 I am not sure why I did not highlight Stephen Churchill.<\/p>\n

Anthony Snell and DNA<\/h2>\n

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:<\/p>\n

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Let’s look at my Snell DNA\/Genealogy tree to see how that compares:<\/p>\n

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It looks like I am a little light on the Anthony son of Anthony line.<\/p>\n

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Next, I looked at my own ThruLines:<\/p>\n

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It looks like I could improve my Snell family tree if these are correct. Here is Horace’s tree at Ancestry:<\/p>\n

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It looks like I already have Stephen Snell in my Ancestry tree:<\/p>\n

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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:<\/p>\n

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Here is Horace’s birth record:<\/p>\n

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Horace’s obituary summary gives some more information:<\/p>\n

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This shows that Horace ended up in Missouri.<\/p>\n

Viola’s wedding record shows that her father was a fisherman:<\/p>\n

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Horace father and son) were farmers.<\/p>\n

Next I just need to connect Arthur E Snell to Stephen Snell:<\/p>\n

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Here is Arthur and family in 1910:<\/p>\n

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According to this, Arthur was quite a bit older than his wife Nellie. The couple married in 1894 in Tiverton:<\/p>\n

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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!<\/p>\n

Here is the family in New Bedford in 1865:<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

I can also add Horace to my Snell DNA\/Genealogy Tree:<\/p>\n

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Benjamin Luther<\/h2>\n

I have this information at my Luther Web Page:<\/p>\n

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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I see this reference in the Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War:<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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This appears to be where the church is:<\/p>\n

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Here is my Luther DNA Tree:<\/p>\n

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There is some connection here as Betsy Luther married Anthony Snell. I have a match to Lynn at Ancestry.<\/p>\n

Parker<\/h2>\n

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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:<\/p>\n

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I have that William fought at Fort Ticonderoga:<\/p>\n

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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:<\/p>\n

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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:<\/p>\n