Filling in the Feltons and the Edsons of New York in my Family Tree

 

John Felton Martine 

born 15 June 1831 Spencerport, Monroe, New York

died 30 Jan 1907 Orting, Pierce, Washington

My great great grandfather, pictured above,  came from a family that consistently, over several generations, named sons after a maternal grandfather. So when it was discovered that his full name was JOHN FELTON MARTINE, I was hopeful that I could connect his mother MARY EDSON MARTINE, with the family of JOHN FELTON Sr who died about  1820 in Clarence Hollow, Erie County, New York.  My theory was the MARY EDSON MARTINE's mother was likely a daughter of JOHN FELTON Sr who married JOHN EDSON Sr of Genesee County, New York.

I have had great difficulty researching subsequent generations of the FELTON & EDSON families in this area of New York state  because they left few descendants. This is partially due to the fact that both JOHN FELTON Sr and JOHN EDSON Sr and many of their children died during epidemics that spread up into New York state via the Erie Canal. There were several such epidemics, including a devastating Cholera epidemic which swept into the area in 1832. 

So, for many years, I did not add previous generations of either the FELTON or EDSON family to my online tree.  There were just too many unanswered questions. 

Now, however, with the advent of Ancestry's new Sideview feature I have been better able to discern which of matches are maternal. I now have over 36,000 maternal matches.  Recently, I started looking for DNA matches to descendants of both JOHN FELTON Sr and JOHN EDSON Sr, and to  previous generations in their families, knowing that the matches would likely be small in terms of cM, and in the 5th-8th cousin range.

Currently I have found nine DNA matches on AncestryDNA to descendants of JOHN FELTON Sr & his wife PERSIS ROGERS, and also to previous generations of the FELTON family which was originally from Essex County, Massachusetts.   Likewise I have found eight DNA matches to previous generations of the EDSON family, which was originally from Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.  The matches range from 21 cM to 8 cM in length.

These FELTON & EDSON DNA matches are also matching other MARTINE descendants in my maternal AncestryDNA match list, so I am very hopeful that I am on the right track with my theory.  I have yet to find segment data, however, even though I have cross-referenced these FELTON & EDSON  AncestryDNA matches with matches on 23andMe, MyHeritage, FamilyTree DNA and Gedmatch.  I would really like to be able to find segment data so that I can use DNAPainter to verify my theory.

Here is the section of my Ancestry Tree for these families.  I have capitalized the first names of ancestors with whom I have established a DNA connection. 

For more information on my MARTINE, FELTON & EDSON lines,  see my public Ancestry Tree, "Martine of Westchester Co New York and Scofield of Stamford, Fairfield Connecticut"

Have a great day!

Betty

© Betty Tartas  2023