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Samuel Moses, died 1833, Monroe County, Tennessee
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Samuel Moses, died 1833, Monroe County, Tennessee
Gary B. Sanders
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Replies: 9
Posted: 05 Jan 2013 11:17 AM
Classification: Query
Surnames: Moses, Tallent
Joshua Moses, the Revolutionary War patriot who died in 1836 in Whitley County, Kentucky, stated in his pension application that he was born in 1748 near the Yadkin River in North Carolina. DNA tests show that he was closely related to Samuel Moses who died in 1833 in Monroe County, Tennessee, and to John Moses who died in 1809 in Georgia. Most recent researchers think that Joshua, John, and Samuel were children of John and Sarah Moses who baptized three sons named Joshua, John, and Samuel on the same day in 1753 at the Prince Frederick Winyah Church in South Carolina.
Family tradition among the descendants of Joshua is that he had a brother named Samuel, and there is some fragmentary tradition about Joshua’s first marriage to a woman named Deberry and his child by that union, yet there is almost nothing in the tradition about the parents or ancestors of Joshua. Basically, all we know from the Whitley County tradition about origins or siblings is that Joshua was from North Carolina and had a brother named Samuel.
It is curious, however, that there appears to be an elaborate tradition among the descendants of Samuel Moses of Monroe County, Tennessee, regarding Samuel’s ancestors, and this account differs substantially from what we know about the origins of Joshua Moses of Whitley County. I was recently given a copy of a pamphlet written in 1995 by James R. Setliffe with the title "Moses: Twigs and Branches." The author states that his material is based on two earlier works: "A Little Before, a Little After: the Families of Robert Lee and Sarah Dorcas Hunt Moses," by Ruby Lee Tidwell Hranicky; and "The Moses Family of Tennessee: Its Origin and History," by William Robert Moses.
Setliffe states that William Robert Moses (who is apparently still living) obtained information from his grandfather, David James Martin Moses (1891-1956), that the Moses family of Monroe County once lived in Byzantium, then Russia, and eventually in Germany, where Samuel and Joshua were born in Aachen in the Rhineland region. Samuel Moses of Monroe County was the third great grandfather of David James Martin Moses, according to family tradition.
Further, the claim is made that the family was Jewish and that Samuel’s real name was Samuel Joshua (or Jahue) Moses (his brother was supposedly named Joshua Samuel Moses). The author states that Samuel first came to America in 1767, after having been an apprentice in England, where he married an Irish woman. Samuel’s brother Joshua is said to have come to America in the same year. The book contains a great deal of information and vivid anecdotes about family strife, violence, transgressions, and conflicts, including mention of a final meeting between Samuel and his brother Joshua in 1805 on the banks of the Pee Dee River in North Carolina. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, the book does not give the specific individuals, either living or dead, who are the sources of these anecdotes and stories, especial those about the Moses family in Germany.
Setliffe continues as follows: “When the Revolutionary War was over, Samuel rejected United States citizenship because he was set on returning to the Old Country. He was sure he would get the money that was needed to get him and his family back to Germany. It is known that Samuel signed a paper to the effect that he wanted to retain his German citizenship. He did, in fact, reject U.S. citizenship…This could lead one to conclude that Samuel Joshua Moses was, and remained, an illegal alien in the United States. Samuel Joshua Moses used to list his birthplace as Georgia.”
I am somewhat confused by the preceding paragraph. Before the 1870s, a five year residency was usually all anyone needed to obtain American citizenship, and restrictions on freedom of movement for an individual between this country and others were few. And, of course, there was no “German citizenship” in those days, merely citizenship of the petty kingdoms, principalities, and free cities that would later become Germany. Nor is it clear why Samuel would want people to think he was born in Georgia if he was really born elsewhere.
In light of Joshua Moses’ statement that he was born in North Carolina, I find it highly improbable that he had a younger brother who was born in Germany. I suppose one could argue that there were two unrelated Moses families in Anson County, North Carolina, and in some unknown way or marriage the DNA from the Whitley County Moses group got passed down in the family of the Monroe group. As this would require two sets of brothers named Joshua and Samuel, I think we can rule out this double brother theory. The DNA tests of the descendant of Joshua and the descendant of Samuel reveal a haplogroup that is common in northern Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, but DNA testing cannot determine the exact country or origin. The Y-DNA haplogroup of this Moses family is not common among the Ashkenazi Jews of Germany.
I do not know the answers to the questions posed here, but I am posting to see what opinions others may have about the provenance of the theory of a German-Jewish origin of this Moses family. Were these traditions derived from Samuel Moses who died in 1833 and from his children or from the interpretations of a family member who lived several generations later? Where did all this detail about the Moses family in Germany, England, and America come from? Perhaps some descendants of the Monroe County Moses family may want to describe family traditions they may have about their origins. It would be even more helpful if Mr. Setliffe or the two authors that he quotes could provide further information.
Ancestry tree manager has:
Samuel Joshua Moses
B:1748 Jewish Community, Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
D:Feb 1833 Monroe, Tennessee, United States
son of
John Joshua Moses
B:Nov 1716 Kloster Malchow, Muritz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
D:1748 South Carolina, United States
and
Rachel Klein Stein
B:1705 Berlin, Germany
D:1751 Aachen, Germany