Thomas Fine, Sr.

DNA Y results: R1b1a2

There is a shared mutation in 3 descendants of Thomas Fine. They all descend from Thomas' son, Vinett.

Thomas Fine was born about 1727 in New Jersey.

Parents: Possibly John Fine and Mercy Skillman. Others suggest Phillip Fine. (1. PHILIP PETER1 FEIN , SR. was born Abt. 1698 in Holland, and died Abt. 1807 in Finesville, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/r/a/Ronald-Alan-Gray/G...)

Married

1. abt. 1750 in Monmouth New Jersey to Agnes Merchant (1730-1794). Her parents are not known.

Thomas and Agnes had the following children in Norfolk, Virginia: Vinet, Andres, Thomas II, Philip, Peter, John, Weden, Euphemeus, Elizabeth, Jacob, and David.

Notes

• from http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/FINE/2008-03/1206382462 FINE-L Archives -

Who has seen this: Johannes Fine] 2008

In 1725, Johannis’s surviving family was living in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. His son, John Fine, married before 1725 in New Jersey to Mercy Skillman. He probably lived in a Swedish build log cabin, common of the New Jersey area. In 1725, Johannis’s son, John Fine, fathered a son named Thomas Fine within the year of their marriage. John died in 1739 in Flatbush, Queens, NY, before witnessing his daughter Antje marry.

Thomas Fine married Agnes Merchant in 1725.

Two years after his sister Antje was married, Thomas Fine, moved to Norfolk, Va in 1750 with his family where he had a son named, Vinet Fine. His father’s recent death the year before could have been a deciding factor in his discussion to move. Thomas and Agnes had the following children in Norfolk, Virginia: Vinet, Andres, Thomas II, Philip, Peter, John, Weden, Euphenus, Elizabeth, Jacob, and David.

Discussion

• Results to date (3-4-10) prove that all Fines in Group 1 share a common ancestor and the ancestry is German. The common ancestor is by YDNA supported by research documents. German ancestry is by research documentation and is supported by YDNA Haplogroup. (http://www.myheritage.com/dna-surname-project/Fine)

I collected a lot of information about the Fine families around Finesville, New Jersey including Philip Fine, founder of Finesville. These people were consistently recorded as Fein in church records and as Fine in civil records. The Feins in this region are regarded as Germans. It seems safe to assume that all Feins/Fines in this region are related. The name was not common and population in the mid 1700s was sparse. [1]

I administer the Fine DNA project at familytreedna.com. We have documented descendents of Thomas Fine of Virginia who are dna matches for each other. We have one documented Fine descendent of Johann Fine(Fein) of NC who matches another NC Fine descendant and also matches the descendents of Thomas.

We have not had dna testing of any known descendents of Johannes Fine (Fyn) of New York - we have not yet seen any documented descendents of the New York Fine(Fyn) family.

The research I've done leaves me with the firm conclusion that Thomas Fine of Virginia was of German descent. His family came to Colonial America before the country,Germany, was established. But, in Colonial America, the immigrants who spoke the German language were called Germans. They may have come from a variety of Germanic regions, such as Switzerland - but the majority of the early German immigrants came from areas now part of modern Germany (the palatines for example). [2]

Links

1. Rootweb - Fine List updated November 2005 see document attached
2. http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/FINE/2008-03/1206853545
3. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hcpd/norman/FINE.htm
4. http://news.rootsweb.com/th/read/FINE/2008-03/1206457955
5. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/227244920/thomas-fine (no sources)