Sources for the Locations of Early Campbell farms in New York

I was recently asked about sources for the locations of Campbell properties in Montgomery and Deerpark, New York.  These properties were farmed by our Campbell relatives during the period 1760-1805.  Many of the records are not easily accessible.  Here is a summary.  Hopefully others will add to it.

First Samuel Campbell Property in New York - purchased about 1760
The sources for determining the location of the original property of Samuel Campbell (b abt 1700) in Wallkill, NY (later renamed Hanover and then Montgomery) are:

1) Samuel's 1773 will (copy also at ancestry.com or familysearch.org).  He bequeathed property to son Daniel...so we know it stayed in the family for awhile.

2) 1779 tax assessment for Hanover Precinct (at NYS Archives and on-line at ancestry.com in my personal tree) that shows Samuel's sons Nathan and Levi living on a farm close to the Wood, Perry, and Haines farms...believed to be the same farm because....

3) The earliest record in Ulster/Orange Counties, New York mentioning any of our Campbells is a deed from Samuel Tuthill of Morris County, New Jersey to John Perry of Wallkill, Ulster County, NY dated 4 Dec 1760. (Ulster Co., NY Deeds vol. GG, page 38)   Daniel Campbell (presumed to be the son of Samuel Campbell) signed as a witness to the deed. This was a deed for 100 acres in what is now Montgomery, Orange County, NY (then Wallkill, Ulster Co.) which was a part of a grant to William Brauser (Brashier). Subsequent deeds for property adjoining John Perry's land mention in the property description that they also bordered land belonging to one "Cammel." (Benjamin Wood to Abraham Wood 2 Feb. 1784 Ulster Co. Deeds, vol. II page 26, Israel Brown to Benjamin Wood 2 Nov 1783, Ulster Co., Deeds, vol II page 23) These "Cammel" lands appears to be part of the 50 acres that Samuel Campbell left to Daniel in his will of 1773. (the deeds are in the Ulster Archives at Kingston)

4) [Authors Note: The conclusion below that the 'Benjamin Haines' property adjacent to John Perry's Farm is the Haines property on Coleman Road is incorrect.  Read more here.] In the 1790 census, Benjamin Haines is listed next to John Perry, Benjamin Wood, and the Campbells.  41°32′4″N 74°11′4″W.  The Haines house is still standing and is likely in the same area as the Campbell Property.  It sits on Coleman Road, west of  Berea Road, north of 17K.  It is in the Brashier grant.

Rt 208 Property - sold in 1793
The second property of Samuel Campbell is pinpointed exactly by the 1793 deed.  The original deed is at the Newburgh Historical Society.  I have placed transcriptions and images in my public folders which are linked to many articles.  (I just noted that this article contains a few errors (new findings since it was written) but is 99% correct.  I will update it soon.) Samuel bequeathed this property to his son Samuel in 1773.  It had a home with multiple rooms.  He bequeathed the choice of any of the  rooms to his wife, Meary (Mary?).  More on this property at this link. 

Looking south from the highest point on the Rt 208 farm.  The highest point is at the northern tip of the farm.  This is where I thought the family burial area might be, but I saw no trace.  There is now a water storage tank there (right behind where I took this picture).  The road leading south in the distance is Rt 208.  It was referred to as "the road to Goodwill Church."  The church still stands about a mile down the road.  Goodwill Church is where Jemima (daughter of Joel) was married and perhaps other Campbells.  (Church records do not exist).  The house on the left is where I think the old Campbell house was.  I spoke to a man who had lived in the house for awhile (it is now unoccupied and is listed as historic and cannot be torn down....so it will probably fall down.) and he thought it had sections dating to the 1700s.  The small barn to the left of the house (not in the picture) has stone work that dates it to the 1700s.  At the base of this hill there is a small stream that flows left to right and passes under Rt. 208.  See below.

This small stream flows west and passes under Rt 208.  In the Hanover Precinct records of the 1700s a "Campbell Bridge" is mentioned.  Because the Campbell property was on both sides of this important "road to Goodwill Church" it is likely that the bridge over this stream was the bridge referred to.  The photo is looking east from Rt 208.

Neversink River Property (farmed by Joel's son Jonathan and perhaps others abt 1795 - 1805)
This property in Deerpark was (once again) not recorded and perhaps never rightfully purchased.  It is in an area that would have flooded often and may have been good for grazing but not for a home or farm.   I determined its location from surveys of adjoining properties done by Peter Gumaer in the 1790-1810 period.  Those surveys are at the Minisink Valley Historical Society and also in the book "A Journal of the Records of Peter E. Gumaer."  I also posted quite a bit about that property on the old Joel Campbell Family website.  I hope to repost it here soon.  A map showing the location is found at this link.

More DNA - Edward Campbell (1746) of North Carolina and Tennessee

A previous blog discussed the Y-DNA signature of a common male ancestor shared by all paternal descendants of Joel Campbell.  Joel was born in about 1735 and is the grandson of Robert Campbell who was banished from Scotland to New Jersey in 1685.

Another previous blog discussed a possible relationship with an Aaron Campbell of Alabama based on the Y-DNA signature of one of his descendants.

This blog discusses another possible relationship based on Y-DNA.

Background:
The Campbell Y-DNA Project contains data from a participant that differs from ours (Joel Campbell - 1735) in three out of the 37 markers tested.  Officially the difference is a "genetic distance of four," which is not that close of a match.  Their most distant known ancestor is "Edward Campbell (1746)."

The software at FamilyTreeDNA puts the probability of  Robert (Joel's grandfather) being a common ancestor at 31% and the probability of Archibald (Joel's great grandfather) being a common ancestor at 44%.

FamilyTreeDNA TiP comparison of "Jay" (8 generations from Joel) with descendant of Edward Campbell (1746)

As a comparison, Aaron Campbell, who was discussed in a previous post, has descendants with whom we have a 52% chance of sharing Robert as a common ancestor, and a 67% of sharing Archibald as a common ancestor.

That said, Edward's descendant shares the unique DYS447 marker with us and perhaps for that reason is grouped with us in the Campbell DNA Project spreadsheet.

Edward's Line

I attempted to contact the descendant of "Edward Campbell (1746)" three years ago.  My e-mail must have been lost into the ether.  When I resent the note a few days ago he responded immediately.

Edward (1746) is located in Cumberland, NC in the 1790 census.  You can see his public ancestry page here:  http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/10174202/person/37920623 From there he moves with his large family to Tennessee in about 1805.  

Edward's whereabouts prior to 1790 is not as clear.  Although ancestry.com  indicates his birthplace as Cumberland, there is conflicting information.  Some of his children state their father was born in NC, others in Scotland.

An Archibald Campbell who is living in Cumberland, NC in 1760, leaves a will in 1763 that names wife Mary, children Alexander, Edward, and Katherine.  This makes it likely that this line goes through Archibald.  

Archibald Campbell is believed to have come from Virginia.  A "Tax Poll" of 1750 in Augusta Co., VA lists the names "Archibald, Alexander, and Edward Campbell."  They match the family described in the 1763 will..

The probability that a Virginia line of 1750 is an offshoot of our Robert Campbell is very low.  We have no evidence that any of Robert's sons moved out of NJ prior to 1750. 

Edward Campbell of New Jersey

There is good justification that we are related to an Edward Campbell who was born in New Jersey and lived in Hanover, NY (now Montgomery) with all of our known Campbell ancestors (who were also born in NJ).  He is not a brother of Joel.  His likely relationship is "cousin to Joel."

Edward served in the local militia along side Joel and Joel's known brothers and sons.  It is believed that he is the Edward Campbell who resided in Wallkill, NY in the 1790 and 1800 census.  [Note that this Wallkill is not the same as the "Wallkill" where Joel lived in 1767.  See my blog on this topic:  http://joelcampbell1735.blogspot.com/2014/05/are-wallkill-hanover-and-montgomery.html]

In the 1810 census only his wife, Mary, is listed.  It is presumed that he died between 1800 and 1810 in Wallkill.  My public ancestry.com page for him is here:  http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/5558856/person/24214566397

Therefore, this Edward is not the same Edward that was living in North Carolina from 1790 to 1805.  

Nonetheless, there could still be a common ancestor between these two lines in the recent past based on the Y-DNA similarities.

More Y-DNA - The Story of Aaron Campbell of Alabama "1765"

A previous blog discussed the Y-DNA signature of a common male ancestor shared by all paternal descendants of Joel Campbell.  Joel was born in about 1735 and is the grandson of Robert Campbell who was banished from Scotland to New Jersey in 1685.

Robert Campbell was known to have two brothers, both of whom are thought to have been banished. Their fate is unknown.  Their paternal line (if it exists) shares the same Y-DNA signature as Robert and his paternal descendants.

Robert had at least four sons.
1) Nathaniel, believed to be the eldest, may have had a son named David.  They lived in the Newark Mountain area of New Jersey in the 1760s.  Paternal descendants have not been identified.
2) John.    A John Campbell Jr, is listed as a member of the Newark Mountain Society and is likely the son of this John.  John Jr married Rebecca Baldwin (the Baldwin family was one of Newark's founding families).  William Shaw's History of Essex County states that John Jr had at least three children, Esther, Charity, and Rebecca.  Esther married Moses Smith.  We know of no paternal descendants.
3) James.   James, John, Nathaniel, and Samuel had farms in the area of Newark Mountain.  Their relationship is assumed from that circumstantial evidence.  (Note that other unrelated Campbells came to the area in about 1760.  The Campbell Mills (see Paper MillPlayhouse at 40.728100, -74.309128) and Campbell Pond (40.737452, -74.304394) at Millburn, NJ are thought to be named after these unrelated Campbells)
4) Samuel.   Samuel is the father of Joel and seven other sons.  He has many paternal descendants.  Of the eight similar Y-DNA signatures in the "Campbell Project" at FamilyTreeDNA.com, seven are known descendants of Samuel.

The previous blog described how very recent paternal ancestors (within the last 10 generations) share very similar Y-DNA signatures.  Participants in the Campbell DNA Project with similar Y-DNA signatures, likely share a common recent ancestor.  If the genealogical paper trail has gone cold,  these leads can point to new avenues of research.

Unfortunately, there has only been one real lead coming out the of Campbell DNA project related to our recent Campbell line.  I had thought there would be tens if not hundreds of paternal ancestors popping up from the other unknown paternal lines (see *).   Why not?  It could be that these lines "daughtered-out," meaning they have no living paternal descendants.  Or it could mean they are not as "into" genealogy (eg. have not submitted DNA samples for testing) as the descendants of Joel, many of whom became genealogically diligent Mormons.

Four Generations of  Paternal lines from Archibald Campbell:
Archibald* (banished?)
Robert (banished)
Samuel
Samuel, Daniel, Nathaniel, Joel, Levi, Nathan, Reuben, Jonathan
John*
John*
Benjamin*? (see story below)
James*
Nathaniel*
David*
John* (banished?)
David* (banished?)

*unknown paternal lines

The "Campbell Project" has produced one interesting result.  Row 2 is the Y-DNA sample from a living paternal descendant of an Aaron Campbell who lived in 1765 in Bibb County, Alabama.  This participant is an exact match to a known descendant of Samuel Campbell, but this participant and Aaron Campbell are not descendants of Samuel.

Once again it is interesting that my Y-DNA signature is closer to this participant's than to one of my known relatives with whom I share a 5th ggfather.  This is just a reminder that the DNA markers do change randomly.  Statistically they seldom change, but they do change.  "When" they change and with "whom" they change are random.

I know that this descendant of Aaron Campbell and I do not share a common ancestor in the last 9 generations (he is not a descendant of Samuel).  Plugging that information into the FTDNA calculator, there is a 52% chance we share Robert as a common ancestor, and a 67% we share Archibald as a common ancestor.

If I had a complete 37 marker match with this descendant of Aaron Campbell the probabilities would be 59% that we share Robert as a common ancestor and 74%  that we  share Archibald as a common ancestor.

I would not pay a lot of attention to the exact numbers.  What the markers suggest is that it is highly likely that we share a recent common paternal ancestor.  Where did Aaron Campbell come from?  How did he get to Alabama?

Interestingly, there was an Aaron Campbell living at Newark Mountain.  On August 3, 1758, Aaron and Moses Campbell were baptized in the Mountain Society.  They were the sons of Benjamin Campbell who was also baptized at the same time.  The other Campbell who had three daughters baptized during that period was John Jr.  Could Benjamin have been John's brother?  The Wickes' list of  "Members in Communion to the Mountain Society prior to 1756," included a John Campbell.  Could this be the patriarch who raised both his sons (John Jr and Benjamin) in the Mountain Society leading to the baptisms of his grandchildren, Aaron, Moses, Esther, Charity, and Rebecca?

Clearly a lot more work needs to be done here, but it suggests Aaron and maybe even Benjamin and his family were led southward, eventually to Alabama.  Although the relationships are not confirmed it is a great example of how Y-DNA testing can lead us to living descendants of common ancestors.

Wickes, Stephen M.D., History of the Oranges in Essex County, NJ from 1666 to 1806, Ward and Tichenor, Newark, 1892 (available at books.google.com)