Marlow, New Hampshire & the Missing Squidoo

Silly title, because -- my source for this post has been taken down.

There was a very informative Squidoo lens, which apparently had to be locked due to spam infiltration.  I hope they didn't mean me....

Here's the link in case it comes back up...

http://www.squidoo.com/marlowhistorynh

So, the lens was a very interesting page from "owlperson" -- here's owlperson -- http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/owlperson

They had a lot of good local history about Marlow, New Hampshire and a lot of it related to the Mack family.  I will keep checking the link to see if it comes back up.  Anyway, a good chunk of it had to do with the Mack family, which as previous blog posts indicate, intrigue me due to the relationship to Joseph Smith.  I posed the question to owlperson about the possibility of African ancestry coming from the Mack line.  I received this reply, and I am posting it here because it's very informative and has new leads for me to follow:

owlperson said:
Hi, I'm really sorry that the Marlow-Lyme lens had to be withdrawn because of spammers coming through links to a Forum which turned out to be spam-heaven; however, I found your last message still intact. 

 I wouldn't be in the least surprised to find African blood in any of the descendants of the Marlow folk for exactly the reason you state. I looked up some members of the Mack family in one of the Carolinas (I think) and found them to of quite dark skin tone. I believe Macks had plantations on Barbados. I suspect that Aaron Huntley I of Lyme, related to the Macks, had an alternative family in the Carolinas. I would not be surprised if they were people of color. 

Also, although Solomon Gee, one of our early settlers from Lyme and also related to the Mack family, was apparently a clothier, that would have involved, at the least, importation of cotton and exotic fibers, but probably also cotton cultivation. The related DeWofe family of Lyme and RI was involved in every sort of trade you can imagine, including slave trade. I have a puzzle here in Marlow, a fellow living with or beside Lois Huntley (" called a widow" before the death of her husband Christopher Ayers) called Libares Aries (Libares Ayers?). Doesn't it sort of make you wonder who he was, what his role was, what his ancestry was, and what he looked like??

Joseph Smith and Jewish Privateers

I have been accumulating some interesting sources about the possibility of Sephardic Jewish ancestry for Joseph Smith.  I didn't want to just let the cat out of the bag, but I have to start somewhere.

First of all, there is the fact of Balthazar DeWolf.  I was quick to research him, because I like his name.  He is a great grandfather (exact greats presently unknown)  to Joseph Smith, through Solomon Mack.   Also, my 10th great grandparent.  You can find a lot of information about him and his family on the web. 

First off, the DeWolf family is supposed to  be responsible for funding around 25% of the slave trade in North America.  Beyond embarrassing.  The internets tell me there was a tradition of privateering in the family, which basically amounts to government-sanctioned piracy. 

And several sites have indicated the DeWolfs and others involved in the Triangle Trade were crypto- Sephardic Jews.  One of these sources was even the Rhode Island Jewish Community Center. They are facing facts, so why shouldn't we?

I found a new article today from a Dr Elizabeth Hirschman that cites there is DNA evidence for a group of Crypto- Jews in England who were involved in naval activity and privateering. 

She says:

The research to be presented argues that a large, but largely unacknowledged, group of crypto-Jewish Britons of Sephardic descent was present in England from the reign of Henry VIII onward to that of his daughter Elizabeth I, and that this community played a key role in guiding Britain’s naval development and New World colonization efforts. In particular, the new data source of DNA will be introduced as a way to support efforts of historical revision.

http://h06.cgpublisher.com/proposals/343/index_html

She does give some names of which the names of my family units are not mentioned, so the link is through occupation, place and intimation of religion. 

I found this particularly interesting:

Among the most prominent of this set of mariners were Sir Walter Ralegh, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Phillip Sidney, Robert Cavendish, John Hawkins, Richard Grenville and Martin Frobisher. This group was united by its origins in southwestern England (Cornwall and Devon), its fervent Protestantism and marked anti-Catholicism, and its antipathy for Spain. Less known, but perhaps of even greater importance, is that the group of privateers was also bonded closely by marriage, kinship and business dealings – in some cases spanning several generations.

This gives me something to check for when looking at individuals surrounding the DeWolf line. I have noticed some strong intermarriage tendencies in other lines neighboring the Mack/Smith connection but I do not believe they originate from Southwestern England. 

Hutterite Cousins Possible?

23andme sent me an automated email today, saying my daughter had fifteen new cousins. 

I have ceased actively trying to make new genetic connections, since the searching is often futile and I am not sure what my real objective in looking is, or should be. 

However, I found something interesting in the new cousins which I am not going to use to make grandiose religious genealogies.  It's just cool to learn about new people. 

Anyhoo, some of these new cousins have the rare mitochondrial DNA of X2C1. I found out this gene, which is rare in Europeans is found commonly in the friendly-sounding German religion known as Hutterites. Apparently they are Anabaptists and as such have a link to the Amish and the Mennonites. 

23andme article can be found here.

 

I think this is most likely a link to my husband.  He has members in his family tree who were Amish or Mennonite.   At some point at least one, maybe more, became Mormon.  Also this individual has J man-DNA. Which is interesting since I have also heard there may be a Jewish link to Mennonites. ( Need more sources.)

Confusingly, the J grandpa is an adoptive grandparent. So we aren't sure if my husband has a genetic link to the Anabaptists or not. 

Maybe this piece of information indicates that he does.  Or maybe it is just a fun and fabulous coincidence, further illustrating the connectivity of the human family. 

William Wines Phelps --

One thing I did like growing up in the LDS church was the music.  I enjoyed singing with a group and the feeling of belonging that brings.  I am sure many people stay in their respective churches more from the spiritual feeling you get from singing as part of a group than from the rhetoric and tall tales you are expected to digest as reality.  I think I probably stayed in church longer than most persons with a similar agnostic bent, because I accompanied the singing on the piano frequently during various church meetings.

One of the songs I actually really liked that my husband informed me just now is "creepy" is one of the songs written by William Wines Phelps,  a man with a pretty interesting life story, who went in and out of allegiance to Mormonism.  (I still like the song and do not feel it is at all dogmatic -- just full of friendly wonder.)

The song is called "If You Could Hie to Kolob".  Kolob being the planet God lives on, according to Mormon theology as dictated by Joseph Smith.  Rereading the lyrics while thinking about the possible genetic origins of  Mormons gave new life to the tune for me:

There is no end to matter

There is no end to space

There is no end to spirit

There is no end to race. 

There is no end to glory

There is no end to love

There is no end to being

There is no death above


Husband thinks I am reading too much into the "race", and must think that means we are all little hamsters on our running wheel, forever trying to get ahead of everyone else.  Well, Mormonism sometimes feels like that, but I don't think that's what the line means.

Here's a photo of the author of those lines:

I am interested in his pheno-genotype just based on his picture, and also on his biography.  I was chatting with a poster on a 23andme forum with a fellow of mostly British origins who studied genealogy and DNA for a career, and who lives in Canada with the Mohawk nation.  While I was wildly speculating about the genetic origins of Mormons, I brought up a photo of W.W. Phelps.  He informed me that there was an individual by the last name of Phelps who temporarily joined the Mohawks in Canada, but then returned to English society in America.  Whether there is a true link there or not, I do not know.  But, I can tell you some interesting facts I learned about him reading Wikipedia.

Born in Hanover Township, New Jersey, his father Enon Phelps and mother Mehitable Goldsmith moved the family to Homer, New York, in 1800. 

In 1827 he relocated to Canandaigua, New York, where he began publishing and edited the anti-Masonic newspaper Ontario Phoenix through 1828. Phelps has been referred to by Dean Jessee as "one of [the] founders" of the anti-Masonic movement in New York.<sup>[1]:650-51

(Interesting that he is anti-Masonic, given the presumed Masonic bent of the Mormon faith.)

 a I suppose I am just highlighting these facts and omitting other details because they hint more at ideological, political, genetic and religious identity.  I am interested in the synergistic nature of Mormonism, and I believe that can be evidenced through struggles between conflicting ideology.  I'm curious about the name Goldsmith.  I wonder why he's Anti-Masonic.  I know he has mostly English heritage.  And I am continuing to explore the tension that gives rise to the formation of a "new race", if such a thing is possible, or was desired by early Mormon pioneers.  Curious why people feel the need to break away, and why others decide to join them......</sup>

Photo-- Almira Mack Scobey Covey

This is my 4th great grandmother, Almira Mack.  She was Joseph Smith's first cousin.  

23andMe Voted me off the Native American Island

So, I first got tested with 23 and Me.

I am happy with their service, for all the information I learned from a very talented and informed group of commenters in their community forums.  I still would recommend them, despite the fact that they appeared to make a decision, based on my chatter on aforementioned forums about the possibility of Native ancestry for Joseph Smith.  There could be some other explanation, but since they didn't provide me with one, I'm not going to bother to have them explain themselves.

They originally assigned me a Native American segment on chromosome 17.  The same segment appears on my dad's Doug McDonald painting.  It also appears on my daughter's 23 and Me painting.

So they assigned it to me, and then they took it away, and I have screenshots to prove it.    I do feel I was targeted, since they failed to remove it from my daughter.  It seems pretty silly, because I am asking these questions out of genuine curiosity, motivated by questions brought up from growing up Mormon, and not out of disrespect for anyone.  I know there could be some other explanation, but if the other explanation is about new information found, then they are a bit remiss in their thoroughness.  To wit, my daughter's DNA.

Original painting --

New chromosome painting, no longer showing 0.1% Native American:

It looks like I now have more Scandinavian.....They also seem less certain about my Southern European.  Maybe they were trying to give me credit somehow for what I found out about my dad's 8th chromosome being Finnish.  The problem is, I was talking about the 8th chromosome segment on my dad who was tested with Family Tree DNA, not the segment three generations share on chromosome 17 that has yet to be fully explored.

Oh well.....I don't suppose any of this is "gospel" just yet....that includes all of my speculation and all of theirs.  This was the "speculative" view.

Photo -- Another Smith

JFS