When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Do Genealogy
Well, we made it past the neighborhood bully that was 2020 into the safety and warmth of Mother's arms: 2021! But is it really okay here? For me, 2021 hasn't quite made me feel at home just yet. Already our family has been hit with terrible news more consistent with 2020's hard knocks. If I'm being honest, it doesn't feel like a new start, but more of the same!
Except, it won't be the same for me when it comes to genealogy. This year will be GREAT!
I am confessing to a not-so-hot year for my go-to diversion. Aside from an early success using DNA to reasonably make a case in identifying a great-great-grandfather, my genealogy front in 2020 was rather bleak and de-motivating. There was an issue with not having enough time (apparently a side effect of not being independently wealthy), but I also just felt scattered and non-productive, clicking on the usual websites without inspiration or purpose. I was in a fog, the cloud of COVID avoidance peskily blocking my vision.
You know what, friends? This girl has a new eye prescription!
I did some cool research this past week, and I'm ready to share my latest adventure! Grab some snacks -- we're off to Westchester County, New York!
How did I get to Westchester County, home to Sleepy Hollow, the setting of one of my favorite literary stories (hint: a headless horseman makes an appearance), and Lyndhurst Castle in Tarrytown, where I once fantasized I would have an evening wedding in late fall, the mansion's spires lit up moodily behind us as we stepped down to greet our guests from our horse and carriage? I got here by starting in Salem, Massachusetts, an equally delightful haunt, and then detoured to Long Island!! This journey was courtesy of a pair of elusive ancestors, Lawrence and Hester Conklin.
Lawrence and Hester (born about 1784 and 1797, respectively) were my 3rd-great-grandparents. I have very limited documentation on these two. (I'll provide a summary of what I know about each of them at the end of this post.) Suffice it to say that they are two of my brick walls.
Lawrence and Hester were born in New York State, according to the scarce records I have found. But it's not only the paper sources indicating NY, it's DNA, folks!! My mom, my maternal half-sister, my maternal cousins and I all have lots of genetic cousins who descend from Conklins out of New York (especially Rockland County), as well as New Jersey (and when I say NJ, I mean Passaic and Bergen Counties, which border Rockland County, NY). The trouble is, most of these wonderful genetic cousins also have Conklin brick walls. So, I got curious about Conklin descendants who had managed to trace their lineage back further and took a spin down the information superhighway.
You know, every time I think that I'm the only nerd who cares about tracing family lines back in time, I run into others who have been doing it for a lot longer and a lot better than me. I felt a wash of relief, hope, and giddiness as I came upon three miraculous hits in a Google search of "Conklin genealogy." A ton of amazing work has already been done on Conklins in New York! Hooray!!
First, a genealogist by the name of Conklin Mann documented his efforts in tracing the NY Conklin lineage at length. These published studies were a great find.
Second, Y-DNA testing of several Conklin male descendants was done in 2008/9, the results of which put to rest a question proposed by Conklin Mann (and others) about the relationship between two major Conklin groups in New York.
Finally, a 2016 follow-up paper was published by two more genealogists (and Conklin descendants) seeking to further tie up Conklin-related loose ends, and it's like icing on the cake.
Of course, there are always going to be questions that go unanswered in genealogical research, and these three items that I found do not address everything; in fact, my brick walls are still there. However, I found it all super fascinating. Wanna hear about it? Well, here it goes!
Conklin Mann
If it isn't already obvious by his given name, Conklin Mann was a Conklin descendant. As a genealogist, he spent considerable time reviewing records on the earliest known Conklin ancestors who came to colonial America in the mid-1600s. What he found was that there were two Conklin glassmakers, John and Ananias (A-what?!), who emigrated in 1638 from Nottinghamshire, England, to Salem, Massachusetts, recruited by the MA governor to establish a glass house. When the glass-making business failed a few years later, the men (who were either brothers or cousins) took off to Long Island, New York. Meanwhile, some other Conklin folks, likely all siblings, started being movers and shakers (signing land deeds and executing wills and such) in Westchester County, New York. Throw into the mix a John Conklin from Flushing who signed a 1665 deed to land in Rye, New York (at that time part of the Connecticut colony), and the theory emerged that perhaps John Conklin of Flushing was also John Conklin the glassmaker. Conklin Mann theorized that possibly John Conklin of Flushing was the father of the Westchester County siblings, but it couldn't be proven that they were all related to the Conklins who had first come to Salem before settling in Long Island.
With me so far?
Y-DNA Studies
Several male Conklin descendants were given Y-DNA tests starting in 2008. Because the Y chromosome is inherited pretty much unchanged from father to son, this type of test is especially effective in sorting out genealogical relationships on the paternal side. These tests essentially proved that the Westchester County Conklins were not related to the Long Island Conklins.
2016 Article
In 2016, two more Conklin researchers published an article establishing the identity of John Conklin of the Rye deed as being independent of the Long Island former glassmaker John Conklin. This was done with the disclosure of a power of attorney that someone happened upon while looking at Rhode Island records in 2013. The document not only confirmed the Westchester County siblings were, in fact, siblings, but it also named their parents as John and Elinor (unknown maiden name) Conklin. This, together with the Y-DNA study's suggestion that the Long Island Conklins are unrelated to the Westchester County Conklins, would seem to prove out Conklin Mann's theory that John of Flushing/Rye was the progenitor of the Westchester County group.
All of this is supremely satisfying to me! Conklin Mann was writing and researching in the mid-1940s. We now have DNA technology to support and disprove questions being considered generations ago. How cool is that?!
What does all of this mean for me in my quest to discover who Lawrence and Hester Conklin were?
Over time, I have been sorting through DNA matches, placing them in various research trees. In my research tree for Conklin matches, those with fairly well-documented lines so far point to me being a descendant of the Westchester County bunch. It's helpful to know this as I search through records. As an example, I once spent an afternoon perusing images of early First Presbyterian Church records of Southold (Long Island), NY. While this was entertaining (confessions, y'all!) and educational (one early 1777 baptism record contained an editorial by the pastor, who exclaimed that the "awful hand of God" had caused dispersion of the membership -- obviously a reference to the havoc of the Revolutionary War), I probably wouldn't have devoted time looking at this database had I then known about the genetic distinction between the two Conklin groups. The Westchester County Conklins were apparently members of the Reformed Dutch Church, so that is where I should concentrate my research.
Side note: a maternal cousin just days ago found evidence in the church records in Ulster County, New York, that seem likely to identify Hester and her family (and she was a Conklin, too). Woo hoo!
Here's an example of how my mom matches with descendants of Nicholas Conklin, a son of John and Elinor born about 1661 (with special thanks to Nancy O'Connor Evans, who shared with me not only how to create these charts, but also the idea of note-taking and research logging using Google Drive tools):
Close up on a section:
Keep in mind that many DNA matches, like me, don't have enough documentation to show how their lines connect to these early Westchester County ancestors, so this represents a small portion of relevant DNA matches.
Now, for some housekeeping: please, I urge you, check the sources yourself if you are interested. I tried to drill down to the most basic finds in these studies/reports, and I've no doubt left out something significant. Below are the source citations for what I've mentioned above (and let me just say that the Y-DNA report is a jewel -- in it are summaries of the work/theories of each genealogist who collaborated with Conklin Mann and/or contributed to this area of Conklin research, as well as detailed endnotes involving 239 sources).
- Conklin Mann, “Two Daughters of Ananias Concklyne,” The American Genealogist 11, no. 3 (January 1935): 139-143
- Conklin Mann, “The Family of Conckelyne, Conklin and Conkling in America,” The American Genealogist 21, no. 1 (July 1944): 48-58; 21, no. 2 (October 1944): 133-147
- Conklin Mann, “The Line of John Concklyne of Southold and Huntington,” The American Genealogist 21, no. 3 (January 1945): 210-215; 21, no. 4 (April 1945): 246-253; 22, no. 2 (October 1945): 111-121; 22, no. 4 (April 1946): 226-236
- Conklin Mann, “John Concklin of Flushing and Rye, New York,” The American Genealogist 26, no. 3 (July 1950): 129-143; 26, no. 4 (October 1950): 234-248.
- Honor Conklin, "Two Colonial Conklin Families in America: Y-DNA Analysis of the 'Long Island Conklins' and the 'Pre-1700 Westchester Conklins,' Including the Origins of the 'John Concklin of Flushing and Rye' Theory (typescript, 2011, 124 pp.) (online, longislandgenealogy.com)
- Agnes Ellish and Sharon S. Iamele, "John Conklin of Flushing, Rye, and Fordham Manor, New York: Finding an Elusive Patriarch," The American Genealogist 88, no. 3 (July 2016): 161-174
Finally, below is a summary of what I know about Lawrence and Hester based on records. I know that there is more out there to discover. Persistence is everything! After all, that 1701 power of attorney sat there for more than 300 years before someone took notice of it and applied it to the current body of Conklin genealogical research.
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