What About The Massachusetts Parkers

By Melanie Dewsnup

For many decades, our Parker family tree has taken a wrong turn.   My grandfather, John Leon Parker, his grandfather Fredrick Albion Parker, and his great aunt Mary Melissa Parker (Summerhays), all traced our family back through a Parker family line that had their American roots in Massachusetts.  In the days of snail mail and lack of accessibility to records, our family genealogists used information and circumstantial evidence from the book, “The Genes of Abraham Parker” to trace our line.  The names and dates of this Massachusetts line were close enough to what we knew about our Parker family, that my grandfather John Leon Parker (particularly) felt this was the correct line.

However, recent DNA discoveries have shown that our Parker line is not a match with descendants of this Massachusetts Parker line.  Also, record/source evidence has proven that we are also not linked to this family.  We have worked diligently on Family Search/Tree to correct this mistake.

Below is the pedigree of the Massachusetts family that we have been linked to for ages – we wanted you to have the correct information, so you could see how this is not our New York Parker line.

From "The Genes of Abraham Parker 1612-1685" (p. 2)

Joshua Parker (b. 1740) married Mary Boynton (m. Mar. 15, 1764 in Westford, MA).

He had a son with Mary Boynton: Joshua, b. 1764 in Westford, Massachusetts.

They also had: Patty, Mary, and lastly Jeremiah (christened 1771).

Mary Boynton died in Westford, MA, on Nov. 30, 1771.

Joshua Sr. (b. 1740) then married Hannah Kidder (2nd Wife) of Cambridge, in Westford, on  March 8, 1774.

They had the following children: Amaziah Fassett, Hannah, Dorothy (Dolly), and Benjamin.

The source says he (Joshua b. 1740) "resided sometime in Cavendish, Vermont, then moved to Gouverneur, New York, where his daughter Dorothy (Dolly) resided and he died there about 1831."

His son, Joshua (b. 1764 in Westford, MA --“Deacon Joshua”) married Hannah Jackman of Lunenburg in 1790, and had the following children, Mary (Polly), Betsey, Levi, Joshua (b.1803), Abner, John W.

The source says, "Deacon Joshua died Dec. 22, 1827. Joshua and Hannah are buried in Cavendish, Vermont."

His son Joshua (b. 1803,) married Eunice Conant. This source says, "Joshua born April 17, 1803, married February 1830 to Eunice Conant, daughter of Jonathan and Hannah (Shaw) Conant who was born, June 22, 1797, and died May 18, 1882 (almost 85) in Cavendish, with Joshua dying there Aug. 22, 1879, at age 76.

He had the following succession: Charles D, grandson Charles C, great grandson Richard P." (From "The Genes of Abraham Parker" page 2.)