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.)
