Sunset at Gowanus Bay

Sunset at Gowanus Bay
Sunset at Gowanus Bay, Henry Gritten, 1851

Friday, May 5, 2017

Our Unplaced Genetic Descendants of Adam Brouwer Continued

This continuation of the May 4th post adds five more earliest known but unplaced ancestors of members of the Brewer DNA Project's Adam Brouwer Sub-Group. Can you help our Project members break through their brick walls?

The Ten Continued

     6. William Brewer is found in Southwark, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania in 1820, 1830, 1840 and 1850 and may be the William Brewer whose death on 23 December 1867, age 73 (so born about 1794) is recorded in Philadelphia. The 1850 U. S. census gives his age as 73, placing his birth at about 1777, but the 1850 census may be overstating his age. The 1820, 1830 and 1840 census records are inline with the death record, and William was likely born between 1794 and 1805. His four known children were born between 1826 and 1835, and so this too would favor the later birth date for William. The 1850 census gives his place of birth as New Jersey. William's wife was named Ann. Her family name is not known. She appears to be the Ann Brewer who died on 17 May 1850, age 60. She nonetheless appears on the 1850 census, age 60, born in New Jersey. Both William and Ann are buried at the Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church cemetery in Philadelphia. Southwark is today a neighborhood in the South Philadelphia section of Philadelphia. Our one Y-DNA tested descendant is a descendant of William and Ann's son Joseph whose name is recorded as BREWER in 1850 and 1860, but then as BROWER in 1870, 1880 and 1900. He was born in September 1828 according to the 1900 census. His wife was Elizabeth McGregor and they are found in Philadelphia from 1850 through 1880, while the 1900 census has Joseph at Ocean City, Cape May County, New Jersey. Joseph died on 3 May 1908 in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama. His son Joseph Brower, Jr. (1856-1926) had relocated to Jefferson County, Alabama by 1900. Elizabeth had died 23 February 1900 at Ocean City, New Jersey. See the posts of October 29, 2013 and November 3, 2013.
     7. Jeremiah John Brower was, as calculated from his age at death, born 27 August 1815 (died 2 April 1887, age 71y 7m 6d). His enumerations on the 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 U. S. census records consistently record that he was born in New York. Jeremiah married Sarah Jane Woods on 4 February 1849 in Cass County, Indiana. The 1850 census at Clinton, Cass County, Indiana mistakenly records him as "James Brown" or Brower, but the appearance of wife Sarah and one year old son John W., point to this being Jeremiah. The family moved to Lucas County, Iowa in about 1853 and lived there in Jackson Township for the remainder of Jeremiah and Sarah's lives. Sarah died in 1891, and was a daughter of John Woods and Susannah Buffington. The couple had seven children and our one Y-DNA tested descendant is a descendant of their son James Allen Brower, born 20 January 1862. He too remained in Lucas County until his death in 1920. It is suspected that Jeremiah is a son of a John Brower who is found in Cass County, Indiana on the 1840 U. S. census age 70-80 (so born 1760-1770). The remaining household consists of one male aged 20-30 (which would fit Jeremiah) and one female aged 20-30. The given name, Jeremiah, is only found, during the colonial period, among the descendants of Adam Brouwer's sons Nicholas and Abraham, and we believe he would be a descendant of one of the two. A John Brower, age 60-70 (born 1760-1770) is found on the 1830 U. S. census in Petersburg, Rensselaer County, New York. His household includes a male age 10-15 which again matches Jeremiah's age at the time. Although found at Petersburg in 1800, 1810 and 1820, John Brower is not found at Petersburg in 1840. Jeremiah Brower of Highgate, Vermont died at Petersburg in 1822 and his son, Jeremiah, lived at Petersburg through 1840 before moving to Green County, Wisconsin. Could John Brower be an unknown son, or nephew, of Jeremiah Brower? See the posts of 29 January 2012 and 24 December 2013.
     8. Jacob Brewer married Lavinia Smith on 14 March 1815 at Chatham, Lower Canada, on the north side of the Ottawa River. Today, Chatham is in the Argenteuil R. C. M., Laurentides Region of the Provence of Quebec. The dates of his birth and death are not known but he likely died about 1824 as his wife is called "widow of Jacob Brewer" on the 1825 census of Lower Canada. Lavinia was born about 1794 or 1795 in Vermont, so perhaps Jacob was born about that time or a bit earlier. Four children have been identified. Born between 1816 and 1823, three were sons who have numerous descendants. 34 grandchildren of Jacob the Brewer surname. Our one Y-DNA tested descendant is a descendant of Jacob and Lavinia's son John Alexander Brewer who was married twice and had sixteen children. John lived at Renfrew, Canada West/Ontario, Canada and relocated to Seattle, King County, Washington by 1904. Descendants are numerous in the Pacific northwest. Lavinia Smith was remarried to Samuel Dodge (probably about 1825) and had at least two children, but possibly more. She married for a third time to John Shoswood Donaldson and had two Donaldson children (born in 1837 and 1839). Other than his marriage and the census mention of his widow in 1825, we only have a record of a grant of land to a Jacob Brower at Barnston, Stanstead, which is in Quebec across the international border from Derby, Orleans County, Vermont. It is not near Chatham, and the record may belong to a different Jacob Brower/Brewer. See the post of February 26, 2013.
     9. John G. Brewer, said to have been born in 1795 at Trenton, New Jersey, died 27 January 1886, age 91, in Greene County, Ohio. His gravestone with the same date of death gives his age at death as 91y 5m 8d which calculates to a date of birth of 19 August 1794. The 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 census records all agree in stating his place of birth as New Jersey. He was at Miami, Greene County, Ohio on the 1830 U. S. census and his marriage to Sarah Miller on 6 March 1823 is recorded in Greene County. John and Sarah had nine children born between about 1824 and 1847. Our one Y-DNA tested descendant is a descendant of their son Charles Brewer (1836-1897) who remained in Greene County through his entire life. Charles was married to Rosanna Nevius whose surname will be recognized by anyone familiar with the families of the greater New York City area during the colonial period (her surname is also recorded as Nevis, Neves and Nevins). Middle names, as we know them and how they are used today, were not common at the time John was born. A middle initial (such as John's "G") usually referred to the name of the individual's father. Sort of a remnant from the days of patronymics. Could John's father have been named George? John and Sarah named their eldest son, born about 1824, George A. Brewer. Other sons were named William H., John G. and David Russell Brewer. Middle names were more popular as the 1800s progressed. The daughters were Rebecca, Paulina G., Sarah E., and Martha L. See the post of July 10, 2014.
    10. John Brewer, of Broadalbin, New York, died 13 August 1849, age 53y 10d. His calculated date of birth is 3 August 1796. He was likely born in New York, but exactly where is not known. His wife was Elsie Mosher who is found as a head of household on the 1850 U. S. census at Broadalbin. In 1860 she is in the household of her daughter Mary and son-in-law David Carson at Victor, DeKalb County, Illinois. She died in 1878 or 1879 in Chariton County, Missouri where she is buried. John was originally buried in the North Broadalbin Cemetery and then removed in 1930 to Union Mills Cemetery when the Great Sacandaga Lake was created. Our one Y-DNA tested descendant is a descendant of John and Elsie's son James Brewer, born about 1825 in New York and died in 1877, presumably in Chariton County, Missouri where he was living in 1870. James Brewer's first wife was Sarah Reeves. Broadalbin was formed out of the town of Caughnawaga, Montgomery County, in 1770. Johnstown and Mayfield were created from Broadalbin in 1793 and Fulton County was set off from Montgomery County in 1838. Present day Broadalbin is in Fulton County, New York. The area around Broadalbin saw a large migration of families to it in the years following the Revolutionary War. The rise of the manufacturing of leather goods, particularly gloves, attracted people from other parts of New York, New Jersey and New England. James Brewer died prior to 1880 when the birth places of parents were first recorded on the U. S. census. However, his brother John Brewer did live long enough to be recorded in both 1880 and 1900. The census records for both of these years give John's parent's places of birth as "New York." The larger Mosher family, whose origins were in Rhode Island, did have branches found in Dutchess County during the second half of the 1700s. Elsie, a daughter of a Samuel Mosher, is said to have been born in Saratoga County, New York. See the post of March 15, 2017.

Insight and factual information into the origins, and identity of the parents of any of the above is welcomed and hoped for. Please use the Comments option below or send an e-mail to Brouwer Genealogy's new e-mail address.

In addition, of the ten mentioned above and in the previous post, four descendants have taken the advanced Big-Y test with Family Tree DNA. The four are the descendant of John G. Brewer, and three of the descendants of Peter Brewer. We are also awaiting Big-Y test results for the descendant of John Brewer of Broadalbin. Our use of the Big-Y test for potentially identifying lines of descent from Adam Brouwer has been hindered by the fact that (to date) we have a Big-Y test from only one member who can prove his complete ancestry back to Adam. That member is a descendant of Adam's son Abraham Brouwer. The Project very much needs other previously tested descendants of Adam Brouwer's sons Pieter, Jacob and Nicholas, to step up and take the Big-Y test. If we can get enough tests from those proved descendants, we may be able to help out their cousins who are still looking to complete their ancestries. For more info on Big-Y, please contact the administrators of the Brewer DNA Project.

Photo by Pawal Wozniak, Wikimedia Commons


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