Rebecca Pitman (Wood) - Was Rebecca Pitman really a Clevenger? What evidence is there?

Erica Howton, calling you in.

It's too bad there isn't a more formal way to handle disputed parentage in GENI that would allow the computation of relationships!

I've reviewed the line of descent from Ephraim to my Wood DNA match, and there is no chance of any other way the Wood DNA could have gotten in there. There are other mystery people I can research deeper for this match but none of them look good at this time. The confluence of place and time with the Woods is quite compelling for a Rebecca Wood.

I note that the evidence of a Clevenger marriage is still not based on any formal record - but DAR, to which trees have been submitted. So it's all just web trees still! Without a record, or at least a document, or a book reference, or a recollection of a close descendant, a Clevenger marriage remains in the realm of hypothesis as far as I can see. Where did this come from?, it's fair to ask. The fact that there are multiple choices of Clevenger parent for her also seems to point at lack of evidence a Rebecca Clevenger ever existed. I was hoping for something slightly more definitive here.

Still, there's no requirement that what's in GENi, or DAR for that matter, be 100% accurate.

And, yes, I'd take DNA evidence of a Clevenger relationship here as well. But that's harder.

For the record, these are my digested notes for this particular chromosome overlap:

Private (135763071 - 151974719)
-David Wood hypothesized descendant via Hannah Hildreth
Private (138614699 - 155016307)
-Proven descent from John Wood, proven via mother's line
Private (138614699 - 153718969)
-Proven descent from John Wood, mother of Glenda
Private (142411868 - 153718969)
-Proven descent from John Noah Mellott son of Amelia "daughter of Jacob"
Private (135763071 - 147329204)
-Hypothesized descent from John Noah Mellott via Fergusons
Private (137789970 - 154128067)
-Hypothesized descent from John Noah Mellott via Collins
Private (143344074 - 154128067)
-David Wood hypothesized descendant via Betsey Bemis
Private
-Evidence that Martha Roberds is really Martha Wood, via Martha Roberds
Private (142411868 - 153718969)
-Evidence that Rebecca "Clevenger" is really Rebecca Wood, via Rebecca Pitman

These matches come in three flavors: (1) descendants of John Wood, born 1739 in "New York City", died in Leeds County, Ontario; (2) descendants of early residents of Bedford County, PA - the "Mellot - Pittman - Roberds - Truax - Palmer - Clevenger" group, who emigrated together and intermarried together for at least three generations; (3) marriages to wives of known Wood or unknown surname in the vicinity of Grafton, VT.

Thanks, this is confirmation of a sort of the Clevenger relationship. It doesn't explain the DNA but it does put a firm basis on Rebecca being a Clevenger.

As for sibling matches: I can't go seeking for matches that confirm a picture easily, but if I get a DNA match that goes via a sibling of Ephraim, or even Ephraim himself, you'll be the first to know. I'm just making the best use I can of the DNA match information I have currently.

I think leaving Rebecca parentless makes complete sense. Not sure about Jonathan. I mean, he's definitely a Pitman of New Jersey and that does restrict things a lot.

On second thought, there's enough confusion about who Jonathan's parents are that you are probably right.

I wouldn't peel off his children as of yet though. On the other hand it would be interesting to find out that Ephraim was not actually a son of this family. He's in the right place at the right time, but so are a number of other Pitmans, seems to me. Maybe that is the answer to this riddle.

So if the next thing for me is to dig into the ancestry of Ephraim Clevenger Pitman , then should I open a discussion for him? I note that he's said to be born in Hamilton, Butler County, OH, and married to a McClelland from Pennsylvania - which usually doesn't mean New Jersey for McClellands, so that probably rules them out. But if he's a son of another son of William Pittman a Wood marriage might possible. I'll look into it.

I've looked at Ephraim Clevenger Pitman in great detail; he was born not in Butler County, OH but rather Hamilton County, OH. There is a marriage record for him dated 1818 there. This is the county that Jonathan and Rebecca died in, so everything lines up.

Other Pittmans that could be Ephraim's father might include William Pittman, Jr. , who seemingly was mentioned in a will. If he'd gone to Hamilton County also, and he married a Wood granddaughter, this could explain the DNA. But we'd something more real for him before going that far. Early census might tell us.

I looked for Pitmans that lived in Hamilton County OH in 1800 and 1810. Only one: Jonathan.

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=3567&a...

I did stumble over evidence that the Pitmans who went to Ohio did not do so all in one wave. Here is one of the New Jersey Pitmans who was born in 1810, in New Jersey:

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/19807290:8054?tid...

So it looks like the Pitman clan arrived in Ohio after 1800, but between then and 1820 or so, and not all at once.

Yes indeed, could be stepson. If so, Rebecca was not born a Clevenger after all. Wow, this is great, because I've been pulling my hair out one at a time trying to find another descent from Wood.

It's written more clearly than I'd gotten on first reading. "Beloved friend" does not sound like "stepson" I fear. Let me look and find out when Amos might have been born. He's certainly not a son-in-law.

Amos Clevenger is thought to have been born 1796, in Pennsylvania (e.g. Bedford County):

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/154847596/person/1...

He lived in Hamilton County OH in 1830, and according to census was born no earlier than 1790.

So he is too young to have been a stepson. Wife's nephew, perhaps. :-(

So, without Rebecca being a Wood, these are the people I'm left with as possible links:

Lana Jackson (Husband is immigrant from England; from census; only web tree disagrees that Lana is parent)

First Wife of William Johnson

Elizabeth Harvey (Canadian from Ontario, married an Englishman, Catholic apparently)

Lucy Hungerford

Wife of Nathan Bennett (Close to Claverack NY so plausible for that reason)

I can't just go looking, although I can revisit the DNA match's tree and look for possible errors. In this case, she's actually a Pitman, so at the moment she appears to be a direct descendant of Jonathan. But it's entirely possible there's an error. That will be the next thing to look at, since all the other possibilities are remote and I'd have a hard time choosing between them either.

In the meantime I'm researching another match on the same stretch of DNA. The match is quite interesting and is an adopted half African American / half Sullivan County NY English / Dutch / German. The African American half is from Calvert County, MD, and can be traced only back to about 1810 - and it's missing huge chunks that seem difficult to surmount. The Sullivan County NY one has been more amenable, but no Wood connection, but a definite Person of Interest here: John Witheral . If I can find any mention of a Staten Island or Hempstead-area Witheral, this would be our guy, or rather his wife would be, I'd guess.

And, yes, Bedford County PA is a huge "tell" that we're on the right track. I still cannot tell if the Woods ended up there because the people their daughters married are sometimes unstuck badly in place. Example: Theodoreus Mellott . His place of birth in web trees is given variously as New Jersey, Little Egg Harbor NJ, or Bedford County PA (where his early children appear to have been born). His (locked) place of birth is none of these. His GENi mother was born in Monmouth County, NJ. His GENI father was born in Maryland. Jim Wile said that his parents had married in Maryland and then gone north into Pennsylvania - and yet he's one of a number of Mellots all associated with Bedford County. So I believe his history is much more likely to be one of being born in or around Middlesex County NJ and following the standard migration path to Bedford County PA. And I think his Maryland father is just name confusion among two different persons. But I can't fix any of that myself :-(.