Stop me if you've heard this one... I can trace my Holmes line back to Hiram HOLMES, who was born in Connecticut in 1804 and died in Poolville, Town of Hamilton, Madison County, New York in 1864. Unfortunately I've found next to nothing definite about Hiram's parents and siblings. Over the years, though, I've accumulated a lot of circumstantial evidence suggesting that parents father were Nathan HOLMES and Grace CHAPEL from Montville, Connecticut; that Nathan and Grace's other children included Jabez (b. 1795), Peter (ca. 1798), Eunice (ca. 1806), Henry (1809), Nathan (ca. 1811), and Hannah (ca. 1815), as well as perhaps three more girls; and that Nathan's father was Samuel HOLMES, born 1722 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. If that line is correct then it extends back to John HOLMES of Plymouth, birth place and date unknown but he was in Plymouth by the early 1630s. I consider the line probably correct but not proved. Supporting this are yDNA tests that indicate a fairly close relationship between descendants of Hiram and Peter and three other males who trace their line back to John of Plymouth, but through a different son. On the other hand the yDNA for the Hiram descendant is closer to that of those three males than to that of the Peter descendant, which is a little worrying. There appear to have been at least a couple of other Holmes families in Hamilton in the mid 19th century but no real evidence of a connection between them and Hiram and some evidence against it. Jabez lived most of his life near Poolville, but about 1865 moved to Chautauqua County, New York. He had two wives: Irene DIBBLE and Harriet SMITH. Peter moved to Wyoming County, New York, and later to Cattaraugus County, New York. His wife was Rachel STOWELL. Eunice married Joseph Francis EGGLESTON and move to Cortland, New York. Henry moved first to Verona, Oneida County, New York, and later to Saratoga County, New York; his wife was Louisa J. HODGES. The younger stayed in the Poolville area and married a woman named Ann. Hannah is somewhat speculative but may have been the wife of Edwin F. SMITH of Poolville. I'd be delighted to get any new information on any of these families and their descendants. It'd be especially great to find a male line descendant of Jabez or Henry (I'm pretty sure the younger Nathan has no living descendants) who'd be willing to do a yDNA test. - Rich Holmes