Mary Brower (d.1845), Probable Daughter of Nazareth Brouwer and Bridget Pells

 Nazareth Brouwer/Brewer of Westchester, New York, whose will dated 10 September 1787, named one child, a son, John Brewer, was married to Bridget Pells and is found on the Brouwer Genealogy Database (BGD) here. 

An abstract of Nazareth Brouwer's will can be found in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, volume 55, no. 2, at page 150. The article is titled, "Abstracts of Wills Recorded at White Plains, Westchester County, N. Y., Subsequent to May 1, 1787," by Theresa Hall Bristol (bold type mine). The will is found in Liber A, although no page number is provided. I have not sought out the original copy of the will myself, but anyone interested in this family should do so. The abstract is short, and so I assume the will is as well. "Nazareth Brewer of Westchester," leaves his entire estate, both real and personal, to his son John Brewer, who is also named as an executor along with Nazareth's "friend John Ferris." There is no mention of a wife, or a daughter Mary, or any other children. But that does not mean that Nazareth did not have other children.

In a deed dated 5 April 1806, recorded in New York County, Conveyances, vol. 97, pp. 163-64, John Brewer of Throgs Neck, Westchester County, weaver, conveyed to Abraham Vermilya (sic) of the City and County of New York, for $150, "all my equal undivided half of a piece or parcel of land given by a deed of gift by Benjamin Benson deceased to Mary Vermilya wife of Abraham Vermilya and me the said John Brewer," the parcel being in Harlem Heights in the Out Ward of the City of New York. I am not familiar with this Benjamin Benson, however, on 3 August 1809, the marriage of a Benjamin Benson (note that the Benjamin Benson in the deed is mentioned as deceased) to Maria Vanalst, was witnessed by John Brewer and Catharine Benson (Farrell, Charles. "Marriages Recorded in the Register of the English Lutheran Church, New York City, 1794-1810," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record Vol. 140 (2009):154).

The relationships between the above mentioned individuals need to be worked out (something I do not plan on doing myself), however, the deed certainly is a clue that John Brewer, and Mary, the wife of Abraham Vermilya, are likely related, perhaps brother and sister.

A recent email from a compiler of a Tree found at FamilySearch, who goes by the name of Wayne J. Domes, alerted me to the fact that Abraham Vermilyea's wife was Mary Brouwer (his spelling) a daughter of Nazareth Brouwer and Bridget Pells. The email cites an "elusive Bible record," that he refers to as the "Vermilyea/Kendall Bible." The family of Mary Brouwer and Abraham Vermilyea is found on FamilySearch. Here is the link to Abraham Vermilyea (id no. MP23-KLJ) and the link to Mary Brouwer (id no. LRGH-6MP). Wayne J. Domes is open to being contacted through FamilySearch by anyone interested in this family, and has offered to provide a copy of the "Vermilyea/Kendall Bible," to anyone who asks through the contact link provided on the above page by FamilySearch. I just note here that the couple had eleven children, including a son named Nazareth Brouwer Vermilyea (1787-1845), which is good circumstantial evidence that Mary was a daughter of Nazareth Brouwer. I'll also note that Toler's New Harlem Register, p. 67, lists Mary Brower as the wife of Abraham Vermilye, Abraham being a son of "Abraham Vermilye and Mehitabel ?" The FamilySearch Tree names Mehitable as Mehitable Betts. 

I have not, and have no plans to research this family myself, so any interested party should contact the compiler directly through FamilySearch as mentioned above. Should anyone wish to contribute any additional info please do so using the Comments feature linked to this post below.

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Jan Brouwer Group Y-Tree Update

 Members of the Jan Brouwer group of the Brewer DNA Project (FTDNA) who have taken either the original Big-Y test or the currently available Big-Y 700 test, and then joined and submitted their results to YFull (a company independent of FTDNA) are found on this branch of YFull's public YTree. 

The link I just provided takes you to version 9.01.00 of the YTree which was last updated February 18, 2021. The current "Live" version of the tree, which is accessible via the little button, "live" found on the top bar, includes a new additional sub-branch for the descendants of Jan Brouwer, of Flatlands, Long Island. The newest branch is identified by the SNP, I-FT135755.

To quickly review that what was previously known: The SNP I-Y7214 is common to all descendants of Jan Brouwer. This includes both, those tested individuals who can trace their paternal ancestry completely back to Jan Brouwer using traditional genealogical research, and those who can only trace their direct paternal ancestry back to some ancestor who lived between Jan Brouwer's time and the present. Most of our "brick wall" ancestors for this group lived during either the colonial period, or during the first few decades after the formation of the United States as an independent nation.

The two previously known sub-branches of I-Y7214, were I-Y87452 and I-FT175879. 

The two members who test for the SNP I-Y87452 to Elias Brower/Brewer, who was likely born during the decade of 1725-1735, and whose wife was Elizabeth Palmer. The two were married by a New Jersey license dated 27 January 1753, both being of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Elias Brower's ancestry back to Jan Brouwer remains undetermined. However, based upon his estimated time of birth, he was most likely a great-grandson of Jan Brouwer, and based upon the fact that his name is Elias, a grandson of Jan Brouwer's son, Derck Brouwer whose wife, Hannah Daws, was a daughter of Elias Daws. 

The three members who test for SNP I-FT175879 are descendants of three different men who lived in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. The three ancestors are Wright Brewer, who appears to have been born during the decade of 1755-1765; Phineas Brewer, who was born in New Jersey, about 1769 (age 81 on the 1850 U. S. census at Roaring Creek, Montour County, Pennsylvania), and Richard Brewer, who was born 1810-1813 (his age varies on the different U. S. census records consulted). He was married to Miriam Lundy (ca.1820-1884) daughter of Jesse Lundy and Phebe Bunn. Richard Brewer lived in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, although the census records consistently give his state of birth as Pennsylvania. He died 10 December 1889 at Alexandria, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, age 76 years. Richard may be a son of William Brewer and Anna King. William was aged 60-70 on the 1830 U. S. census at Alexandria, Hunterdon County, so born 1760-1770. It is apparent from the BigY-700 test results that the three ancestors above are closely related. Their presence in Hunterdon County, New Jersey adds some support here. It may be that Wright and Phineas Brewer are brothers, and that Richard is a nephew or perhaps a son of one or the other. If the identification of William Brewer as Richard's father is correct, then William may well be a brother of Wright and Phineas as well. All, are certainly descendants of Jan Brouwer and based upon the range of dates when they were born, are probably 2-great grandsons, or 3-great grandsons of Jan Brouwer. [Please note that the links to the individuals in this sub-group lead to pages at Ancestry.com and a subscription may be needed to view them. They are not found on the Brouwer Genealogy Database (BGD).

The newly identified sub-branch, as stated, is I-FT135755. The Brewer DNA Project at FTDNA has three members here, although the current Live YTree only shows two of them. The three members trace their respective paternal ancestries to three different men. Of the two seen on the YTree, one ancestor is Richard Brower, who was born about 1804 in New York (age 46 on the 1850 U. S. census at Lee, Oneida County, New York). It is believed that this Richard Brower is a son of a David Brower (ca.1771-1845) who lived at Lee in Oneida County, New York and whose wife is said to have been named, Roxie Williams. Please note that we do not have much conclusive evidence here and more documented evidence is sought.  The second member who appears on the YTree is a descendant of John Rose, apparently born in the later half of the 1760s, who died in December 1830 at Madison Twp., Pickaway County, Ohio. Despite his surname, John Rose is a clear genetic descendant of Jan Brouwer (see the post of November 12, 2012). A third member, who has taken the Big-Y 700 test with FTDNA, but who is not represented on YFull's YTree is a descendant of Lewis Brewer, born about 1790 in New York (age 60 on the 1850 U. S. census at Schenectady, New York), whose wife was named Mary (b. ca. 1793, family name not known) and who is also found in Schenectady, New York in 1820 and 1830. This new genetic evidence tells us that the descendant of John Rose is most closely related to the descendants of Richard Brower and Lewis Brewer, both of whom lived their lives in the Mohawk Valley region of New York State. Whether Richard Brower and Lewis Brewer are brothers or first cousins is not clear. The only clue as to John Rose's place of birth is found on the 1880 U. S. census record of his son Solomon Rose (Pleasant Hill, Saline County, Nebraska) which records his father's place of birth as Virginia. None of John Rose's other children lived long enough to be included on the 1880 census, so this record is all we presently have to go on regarding John Rose's place of birth. It should also be remembered that "Virginia," in particular the western part of the state, was in the period just prior to, during, and just after the American Revolutionary War, sparsely populated and in terms of boundary lines, a rather nebulous place. Western Pennsylvania and Virginia both laid claims to lands in the west during that period. The modern state boundaries really were not determined until 1863 with the formation of the state of West Virginia. The Mason-Dixon line of 1767 didn't clarify the situation in the region west of Maryland (here's an interesting webpage regarding this issue). And it should also be kept in mind that 1880 is more than 110 years after John Rose's birth. Solomon (assuming he was the source of the info found on the 1880 census, although even that cannot be certain) may simply have made a best guess. We do, however, know that Jan Brouwer's great-grandson Elias Brouwer (1740-1812) was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, removed to Albany County, New York by 1774, and then to Delaware County, New York by 1800. The link to Jan Brouwer for those of this sub-branch, may lie either with the sons of Elias (1740-1812) or with the descendants of his two brothers, Dirck Brouwer (b. 1732) and David Brouwer (b. 1738) both of whom have unfortunately left us little that has been discovered regarding their descendants. In fact we have nothing more than a baptism record for David. [Please not that the two sons assigned to Dirck Brouwer on the BGD are tentative and may not be correct].

I will add one other piece of information that I think should be of interest to researchers. The 1792 Hunterdon County Militia Roll,  at page 12, which is for Amwell Township, includes Phineas Brewer, William Brewer and Wright Brewer (I-FT175879). Move forward to page 16 and you will also find a John Rose in Amwell in 1792. Now, this may or may not be the John Rose that interests us, his name is common, but if it is, and he would have been of age to be listed on a militia roll in 1792, it would imply that his origins are in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, most likely with one of the brothers of Elias Brouwer (1740-1812), in other words, Dirck or David, rather than with Elias himself. Additionally, we do have a descendant of Elias Brouwer (1740-1812) who has taken the Big-Y 700 test, and is on YFull, and he does not test positive for the SNP I-FT135755.

[An earlier edition of this post incorrectly stated that the YFull YTree sub-branch I-FT135755 included a descendant of Lewis Brewer of Schenectady and that it did not include a descendant of John Rose. That is incorrect. The current "Live" version does include the descendant of John Rose, and does not include the descendant of Lewis Brewer. March 27, 2021.]

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Revised Chart of Hubert Brower's Descendants

 The previous post of January 10, 2021, revised the placement of two pairs of grandsons of Hubert Brower. Mentioned in that post is a descendant chart of Hubert Brower's descendants for a few generations that was generated based on what was known in 2017. This new chart available here, revises and now supersedes the 2017 chart. Please refer to the January 10, 2021 post, researched and contributed by David Schuler, for details. 

Some Descendants of Hubert Brower (Revised Chart)

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A Revised Placement Within the Descendants of Hubert Brower for John Brower of Randolph County and Henry Brewer of Bedford County

 The following is contributed by David Schuler. It was originally posted in the Comments section of the post of  May 21, 2017, "Y-DNA Testing Identifies Another Branch of Descendants of Hubert Brower."

David has also provided an Xcel Spreadsheet mentioned below. It is accessible here. David can be contacted through Ancestry.com's internal messaging service. A link to his "tree" at Ancestry.com is provided below. David's work, which now follows, would revise the "Revised Chart of Descendants Expanded to Five Generations," found beginning on page 2 of this document from 2017.

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Being cooped up during the pandemic has permitted me to devote a ridiculous amount of time to Brower family mystery.  This time I’ve waded into Coventry Township and made a few discoveries using mostly tax lists and deeds. 

 This most significant discovery is that John Brower of Randolph County and Henry Brower of Bedford County could not have been the sons of John Brower (son of Hubert).  However, Christian Brower (son of Hubert) did have sons John and Henry that were of the right age and much more likely to be the John and Henry that went to Randolph County and Bedford counties.  Here is information that support that claim and a few other interesting findings.

 

·         Christian Brower appears in Vincent Township Tax lists in 1734, 1735/6, 1737, 1740.  Henry Brower is in the Vincent Township Tax lists in 1740.  There is a gap in tax records between 1740 and 1747.  All three (Christian, Henry and John) appear in the Coventry township tax list in 1747 and years after.

·         A John Brower Jr appears in the Coventry 1756 Tax List as an inmate (i.e. an adult male married or widowed, landless).  In 1757 “Christian Brower and John Brower his son” are taxed in Coventry.  John Brower Jr appears again in the 1758 Tax List before disappearing.  Assuming he is most likely above the age of 21 in 1756. His birth year is project to be 1735 or earlier.

·         Manual Brower appears in the Coventry 1763 tax list as an inmate. That puts his birth year at about 1742. 

·         The Brower Family Circle has this significant clue.  I was not able to find this record, but with this much detail, I assume it to be valid. 

16 Jan 1773 - The following Legacies paid agreeable to directions of the Will:  To

The Widow -30

Mary Bowman, stepdaughter - 15

John Bowman, stepson -20

John Brower, oldest son -169lbs

Abraham Wenger's wife, eldest dau -169lbs

Henry Brower, second son -169lbs

Emart (Emanual) third son -169lbs

Barbara Miller, second dau -169lbs

Christian Brower, 4th son -169lbs

Peter Brower -169lbs

Enoch Brower -169lbs

Susannah Urmy (Urney) 3rd dau -169lbs

David Brower, youngest son -169lbs

·         According to findagrave, Abraham Wenger’s wife, Anna, was born Mar 1734.  Based on the above, Christian’s second son Henry would have been born between 1735 and 1741.  That fits with the notion that Henry Brower of Bedford County had children beginning about 1760. 

·         Henry Brower is found in the Bedford County tax records (then Cumberland County) in Air Township in 1768-1773 and then in Bethel Township (Bedford County) after that.  

·         We know John Brower (son of Hubert Brower) owned 161 acres from the 21 Apr 1743 Indenture (Chester County Deed Bk V pg 11).  We also know that John and Susannah Brower sell a portion of that land (114a) on 30 May 1770 to son Daniel Brower (Chester County Deed Bk V pg 9).  This is reflected in the tax records as John Brower goes from paying taxes on 153a in 1765 to just 40a (average) between 1766 and 1776.  Daniel Brower (son of John) begins paying taxes in Coventry in 1766 on 100a (some years 120a). 

·         30 May 1777 the inventory of the estate of John Brower indicates the plantation in his possession is worth 300lbs.  While looking for a deed for this “plantation” I came across a 7 Oct 1785 Indenture between Daniel and Catherine Grubb of Coventry and John Bach of Coventry (Chester County Deed Bk F2 Pg 100) that referenced the 21 Apr 1743 indenture between Sebastian and Isabella Wagoner and John Brower for 161a.  It also indicates John Brower died intestate “leaving issue Daniel Brower, John Brower, Henry Brower and Elizabeth the wife of Christian Holderman to whom the above mention tract of land descended”.  It also mentions the following two indentures (neither of which I could find, but no doubt existed). 

o   7 Feb 1781 Indenture where Daniel and Mary Brower, Henry and Elizabeth Brower, and Christian and Elizabeth Holderman release their share of the 46a (part of the 161a) to their brother John Brower. 

o   3 Sep 1783 Indenture where John and Mary Brower sell the 46a to Daniel and Catherine Grubb 

·         Henry (son of John Brower) buys 62a next to John and Henry Brauer in a 27 Oct 1773 Deed.  He appears in the Coventry tax lists beginning in 1774.  

·         John (son of John Brower) appears in tax list for Coventry beginning in 1779.  He is a Freeman (single) in 1779-1780, but is married to Mary by 3 Sep 1783.  Far too late to be the John Brower that had children baptized in York County that eventually went to Randolph County, NC.

·         Henry and John (sons of John Brower) are found in Bedford/Franklin County, Virginia tax lists beginning in 1785. 

·         The children of Christian Brower (son of Hubert) that also went to Franklin County, Virginia include Christian Brower, Barbara (Brower) Miller (wife of Tobias Miller), Enoch Brower, David Brower and stepson John Bowman. 

·         It’s not clear when Christian Brower married the widow Eve Bowman or which children belong to her.  However, her son John Bowman pays tax in 1775 (probably for Eve’s 42a left to her by Christian) which would indicate he was probably born by 1754 and the marriage would have occurred after that.

·         The 23 May 1806 deed selling the 44a (Chester County Deed Bk A3 pg 199) that Christian Brower left to his wife, Eve, only mentioned the surviving children of Christian.  I find it strange that shares did not go to the heirs of John and Henry. 

 Hope this helps others.  Viewing the sources and family relationships from my tree on Ancestry might help make sense of it all.  Attached is a Tax List spreadsheet with 3 tabs (Randolph, Coventry, and Franklin) that I created to help figuring out the families. I was not able to access court records…so there may be some more details waiting to be found for someone with access to those records.

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In effect, what David's work does is switch the two sons (John and Henry) of John Brower (d.1777) and Susannah, of Coventry, Pennsylvania, with the two sons (John and Henry) of Christian Brower (d.1771) who was also of Coventry.

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William B. Bogardus (1929-2020)

This morning I received a note from Perry Brewer from up in New Brunswick, Canada, informing me of the passing of William B. Bogardus. You can find his note in the comments on the post of August 15, 2012. Bill died a few weeks ago on December 5th. An obituary can be found online here. 

 Those who frequent this website would have encountered the mention of Bill's name in many posts. And of course there is the "William B. Bogardus Collection," which bears his name. He didn't give it that name. I did. But I'm sure he didn't mind. Bill very generously gave me physical possession of the very large collection of material he laboriously collected over many years. It consisted of published pieces, notes, and mostly correspondence between Bill and his uncountable "Cousins." His intent was to compile and publish a genealogy of the descendants of Adam Brouwer, of which he was one. However, along about 2008 he came to the realization that he would not be able to complete that quest, and so he passed the material on to me. It was a lot of stuff. In the pages of this blog, somewhere, you might find my comments on just how much. Even with all that, he mentioned to me that it was but a fraction of the material and correspondence that he had collected regarding his foremost mission, a genealogy of the descendants of Anneke Jans through seven generations, which sadly too, he apparently did not get to finally publish. 

  I spent countless hours over many, many months with this material. Much of it was correspondence, and to put it all in context you have to remember that Bill started this work back in the 1960s, long before there was an internet and email and terabits of digitized documents and publications available online. Everything had to be done the "old fashioned way" through handwritten or typed letters, travel to and from libraries and archives and court houses, spending hours over and money on copy machines. You get the idea. I very often found myself stopping in the middle of whatever it was I was looking at to just think about and marvel at how much time, effort and money Bill had to have spent accumulating it all. The most impressive part was the correspondence with his "Cousins." It started in the late 1960s and went right through to the early 2000. Hand written letters with questions and queries, literally hundreds of them. I can imagine that when his Anneke Jans correspondence was added in he had perhaps a few thousand correspondents sending questions and requests from all over. And as far as I can ascertain, he answered everyone of them! And not just with a short note, but with a letter, sometimes a rather lengthy one, typed out on his stationary. I was amazed. I would just try and imagine the amount of time he spent just answering his mail. I don't know that I could have done it. I don't know that too many people out there could have done it. And sometimes the correspondence would go back and forth over a period of months and even years. He always answered. That's what stuck with me the most. He always answered.

  In 1996 Bill published, Dear "Cousin": A Charted Genealogy of the Descendants of Anneke Jans Bogardus (1605-1663) to the 5th Generation. If you are a researcher of Anneke Jans and her descendants it is the place to start (search online and you'll find copies for sale). As mentioned, Bill had hoped to expand this work to seven generations of descendants and to publish it in a traditional journal type format. Bill was also a co-author with Richard Brewer and Scott Kraus on "DNA Analysis: Adam Brouwer Berckhoven, Elias Brouwer of New Jersey and John Brewer of Ohio," which was published in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record in 2007 (Vol. 138, no. 4). This work was groundbreaking in that, as far as I can tell, it was the first article accepted and published by one of the "major" genealogical journals that focused on using DNA analysis to sort out lines of paternal ancestry. It demonstrated that Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, L. I. and Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I. were not in anyway related and that anyone living today who was uncertain as to which one their Brower or Brewer ancestry would lead, could settle the question with a simple Y-DNA test from a direct male ancestor. The article was there as a seminal part of the early years of the Brewer DNA Project, and I also have to mention that Bill was, unsurprisingly, very generous with his time in helping and answering questions of the earliest participants in the Project. Myself included. 

And so, for myself, and I'm sure for many others who have accessed some of Bill's collection through the pages of this website, and who had the chance to correspond or speak to him, I'd just like to thank Bill for all the selfless work and effort he put into solving so many genealogical questions. The fruit of Bill's efforts will hopefully live on.

Merry Christmas Bill.

Merry Christmas everybody.

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BROWER and BREWER in American Biography: A New Cyclopedia

 I may or may not have previously made this file from the William B. Bogardus Collection available online. I came across it again while working on cleaning up and reorganizing all that I've collected over the past two decades. So, in the event that I haven't done this before, here is a link to a twenty-six page PDF of pages from American Biography: A New Cyclopedia. This is a large multi-volume work spanning many years and you can find a bit more, including links to various volumes, online at Hathi Trust Digital Library. Volumes are also probably available through Google Books and the Internet Archive and perhaps other websites. You'll have to poke around.

William B. Bogardus collected the pages pertaining to men named BROWER and BREWER, and I scanned them all into one PDF document with Bill's index card notes at the forefront. There are eight or nine different profiles here. Some also appear in other late 19th and early 20th century works that are similar in scope to American Biography: A New Cyclopedia, but I don't believe any of the others have as many men profiled. The PDF I created is now online and available here with this link. 

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