Most Wanted

I have discovered two 1870 US Census reports for William Ball and family both living in the village of Lowell Michigan. The first 1870 US Census report is dated 23 Aug 1870 in the Village of Lowell, Michigan and enumerated by Simon Hunt. Census report of 23 Aug 1870. The following individuals are included in this report: William Ball (40, born in Canada) a Harness Maker, Mary Ball (36, born in Canada) female keeping house, William (16, born in Canada) male, James (14, born in Canada) male, Nathan (12, born in Canada) male, Elizabeth (10, born in Canada) female, Chauncey (8, born in Canada) male, Sarah (4, born in Canada) female. The next 1870 census report dated 27 Aug 1870, enumerated by Simon Hunt Census report of 27 Aug 1870. and has the following individuals included: William Ball (40, born in Canada) a Carriage Trimmer, Mary Ball (38, born in Canada) female keeping house, Jessie (16, born in Canada) female (in 1880 US Census and after along with the Canadian Census, Jessie is listed as male), James (12, born in Canada) male, Nathan (11, born in Canada) male, Elizabeth (9, born in Canada) female, Chauncey (8, born in Canada) male, Elmira (4, born in Canada) female. There are some differences however, the names, ages, place of birth and birth order are so close these beg the question: are these families actually the same family and the enumerator made a mistake in taking the census? What are the odds that there are two families that match so close in the same village in the same year? If these are different families then how does one determine which William Ball age 40 with wife name Mary at about the same age with same size and aged family all from Canada to select to research? With that description it is well to note here that I have only found one Chauncey Ball born about 1862 from Canada to document. This lends more credence to the idea that the enumerator made a census taking mistake. What do you think about this issue? Thanks for your help! Wayne Simmons

I believe that I have just found a photo of either William W. Simmons b. 1816 Troy, NY or his brother Amos Simmons b. 1830 Rotterdam, NY or his brother Abel b. 1832 Rotterdam, NY while searching through an old album that belonged to my grandfather. Because I already have photos of brothers Lyman b. 1821 probably in Schenectady, NY, Leonard b. 1827 Rotterdam, NY and Edward b. 1823 Rotterdam, NY the photo has to be either William W. or Amos or Abel. Or could it possibly be their father William Simmons b. 1796 Troy, NY? Look at the attach picture with portrait cutouts of Lyman, Leonard and Edward with the mystery photo on the right. The photo of Edward was taken from one of the Simmons Kinfolk Newsletters which is why it is so grainy. All the brothers eventually moved their families to Ionia County Michigan. Is there anyone that is a descendant of William Simmons, Amos Simmons, Abel Simmons or any of their siblings that can possibly identify this photo? If you need more individual information please click on the links within this posting. Best Regards, Wayne Simmons

Over the past 8 years one of the most frustrating research items that I have encountered is the search for the parents of William Simmons b. 1796 Troy, Rensselaer, New York. William is my 3^rd Great Grandfather of whom I do not have a photo. I do have quite a bit of information about William however; little of it pointed me in any direction to locate my 4^th Great Grand Parents.

However, in February 2013 I was collaborating with a genealogist located near Rensselaer Counnty, NY when we stumbled upon birth/baptism information for a Wilhelmus Semon with the same birth date and in the same area of NY as William Simmons. After some close examination of this data it was determined that Wilhelmus Semon and William Simmons are the same person!! Also, contained in the information found were the parents of William (Wilhelmus). They are George Semon and Caty. Also found was a sister of William (Wilhelmus), Polly. Now the search has changed to locate the birth records of George and Caty and a possible link to their ancestors.

So, the 40 year old brick wall has been broken to find another brick wall for George and Caty. This has been a very exciting find, which has renewed my family history spirit!

As I think of other information that may be helpful I will post that information here.

Thanks for your help!!

Have not been able to find the parents of Betsey (Ives) Simmons and am looking for some suggestions and/or help in researching her parents. Take a look at the information that I have accumulated so far by clinking on this link. Thanks for your help!

Not long ago I received an email from a genealogist researching a Simmons line in Rensselaer County, New York with a newspaper article attached. She thought the William Simmons in this article was the William Simmons of my website. This article appeared in a Schenectady newspaper giving notice to an estate sale of a house and parcel of land. The article describes the land by the land owners surrounding the parcel. There is a William Simmons and a Peter Simmons with land that borders parts of this parcel of land. The article was found by Laura Conrad of Saratoga County, NY and her follow up research uncovered land deeds involving William Simmons and Peter Simmons. See William Simmons' land events of 1821, 1835 and 1836. From this research and other previous research is it believed that Peter and William could be brothers! Research continues and hope that this will help uncover the parents of William and/or Peter Simmons.

Recently I was introduced to DNA Testing for Genealogy and became quite interested in its possibilities.  So, I read up on this subject and then tried to answer questions as to how it will really help me in my genealogy quest.  Sources for my study were: DNA 101  and Family Tree DNA 

 

Also, through my family history website, I was introduced to three other (Simmons lines) that have submitted their DNA for testing and shared the general results with me.

For this discussion I will label four different Simmons lines as A, B, C and D who are described as follows:

Simmons-A has traced their Simmons line back to about 1794 in Rensselaer County, New York and strongly believes that this Simmons line is of British ancestors.

Simmons-B has traced their Simmons line back to about 1758 in Rensselaer County, New York and very strongly believes that this Simmons line is of Palatine German ancestors.

Simmons-C has traced their Simmons line back to about 1790 in Rensselaer County, New York and is very confident that this Simmons line is of Palatine German ancestors.

Simmons-D has traced their Simmons line back to about 1796 in Rensselaer County, New York and strongly believes that this Simmons line is of British ancestors.

 

Simmons-A, B and C have DNA test results but Simmons-D does not.  Simmons-A and Simmons-B have matched 25 of 25 markers and Simmons-C does not match either A or B.  So, with A and B have a match it seems logical that their ancestors should be of the same general ancestors of either British or German but, they are not.  With this strong match in the DNA markers they would expect to share: an ancestor with a 50% confidence level within 7 generations back; or a 90% confidence level within 23 generations back; or a 95% confidence level within 30 generations back.  Since this is testing the Y-chromosome we only have to look at direct male ancestors.  So, (doing the math) for expecting a common ancestor within 7 generations (using 20 years = 1 generation) that would mean within the last 140 years there could be a common ancestor with 64 male possibilities.  And within 23 generations that would mean within the last 460 years there could be a common ancestor with over 4 million male possibilities.  With each generation back the number of male ancestor possibilities to research doubles.  So you can see at the 95% level of confidence the number of male ancestor possibilities to research would be in the hundreds of millions.  It would seem more likely that Simmons-B and Simmons-C would have a match but they do not.

 

Now with standard investigative research Simmons-A and Simmons-D believe that their Simmons ancestor of Sand Lake, Rensselaer, New York are brothers but still need more information to confirm their independent research that helped them arrive at that conclusion.

 

So, the real questions here are:

1. How does the matching of DNA markers help a Genealogist in his family history quest?

2. Simmons-A and Simmons-B match 25 DNA markers but believe one family line is of British origin and the other of German origin.  Assuming the DNA theory is correct then which data is incorrect, Simmons-A or Simmons-B?

 

Can anyone help me with these questions or assessment?

 

Regards,

Wayne Simmons

There is some question about the parents of Catherine Schuyler and their ancestors. Need some help to pursue this family line beyond Catherine Schuyler.

Why the nickname of Boots?

This photo has appeared a couple of times from different sources but I still do not have all individuals identified yet. This photo is included in Album of Charles Simmons Can you help?