----- Original Message ----- From: "Marilyn O'Leary" <olear15@attglobal.net> To: <CT-RIVER-VALLEY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 8:39 PM Subject: [CRV] How do you know he's your John Dwight? > Warren and Cynthia, > > I guess this is a question of how to do accurate research. Since my > husband's line has Dwights (Nathaniel Dwight and Mehitable Partridge > line), the Dwight name in Watertown also caught my eye. However, since > I'd no known connection there, I let it pass. > > My question is - if you don't know that your ancestor lived there and > you only have a name and no additional info to connect to - how can you > assure that this is your John Dwight and not another one? Could you give > me some of your mental play which would have brought you to that > conclusion? Why could this not be another John Dwight? > > Sorry if this sounds amateurish, but this has puzzled me and I'm still > relatively new at this researching. > > Marilyn in MI Hi, Marilyn: Put it this way -- DWIGHT is an exceedingly rare surname even today. Which is a strong indicator, though not dispositive, that the family is monoancestral -- as my WETMOREs are, and possibly my STOWs and, in a more roundabout fashion, my HAVILANDs (the Irish branch probably descends from the originals on the Island of Guernsey, FWIW). Or BIancestral, since John's bro Timothy also came to MBC and had sons. And Savage has John DWIGHT first in Watertown, I now see: vol. 2, p. 85. All of the DWIGHTs in Savage are related. My suspicion is that they came from Co. Essex, ENG, though that has never been proven. Your husband is my double cuz -- Nathaniel's bro Rev. Josiah m. Mehitable's sis Mary. Josiah and Mary were my 6th G-GPs; their dau Anna m. the Rev. James WETMORE and was a double first cousin to your husband's ancestor (I don't know which if the chn of Nathaniel and Mehitable he desc from). I know of three or four other descendants of N&M on line. N&M were G-GPs of the Rev. Dr. Timothy D, prez of Yale. Famous guy in his time, and a maternal GS of the Rev. Jonathan EDWARDS and first cuz to Aaron BURR. I'm also kin to Dr. Tim via the STOWs. Your husband also descends from Mehitable's brother Cotton PARTRIDGE, I believe. At least I have him thus in my PARTRIDGE cuz file. I have the entire PARTRIDGE line (actually WHITE-GOODWIN-CROW-PARTRIDGE) as well as the lines of Nathaniel's mother Anna FLYNT (FLYNT-HOAR-HINCKSMAN). Yrs aye, Warren Wetmore