John Thompson - the man of a thousand faces

This is a fools errand. The whole thing really, but especially this track of trying to find John Thompson from Centre Butler PA. Given my options, I thought it would be good to review my notes on John Thompson (listed here as a pioneer of the Pittsburgh area and moving into Butler county from Washington county.)

The reason I picked this one to try to follow up on is (from my last post) I have a couple of genetic relatives with ties to Washington PA and one of them is a Thompson while the other has Allisons. On this particular page of the history I found James Allison along with this description of John Thompson.

"John THOMPSON, also one of the Irish pioneers of the Pittsburg region, came from Washington county in 1796 with his wife and eleven children, and made his home here until death removed him, in 1845. "

Also listed here in a tax roll along with James and Matthew, Matthew has been a focus of mine in the past:

"John THOMPSON, 400, and James and Matthew THOMPSON, no lands taxed. The men named located in this township, while James, George and William MOORE, Lewis WILSON, Henry MONTOOTH, Eliakim ANDERSON and Charles SULLIVAN, who formed part of the company of sixty colonists, located in what is now Franklin township."

I included the next sentence as I've also tried to explore the relationships of Thompsons and Moores as well as trying to follow up on Eliakim Anderson who, if I remember correctly moves on to Indiana with the Coates family that I have also looked into because of genetic relatives. The city of Anderson Indiana where several of my Thompsons lived being named after Chief Anderson, himself from Pennsylvania I believe. Anyway, these are many of the names that swirl around when I start digging around in the past.

On that same page in the Butler county history is James Allison listed just after Nathaniel Stevenson:

"Nathaniel STEVENSON, mentioned in the history of Franklin township, located here with his wife Mary ALLEN in 1797.
James ALLISON, whose name appears on the first records of the county, came, it is said, after the Indian scare subsided. His son, William, improved upon the scythe by converting it into a cradle and leading all the men in the grain field. "

It's interesting to note that the Stevensons do marry into the Thompson family in Butler.

Unfortunately, James Allison doesn't come along with a description of where he came from.

So this one page had enough floating references to get my attention and made me want to check up on John Thompson again. I immediately ran into several problems. This particular John Thompson, or one very similar, is attributed to many families on Ancestry.com. 

 So what do I have for John Thompson, his wife and 11 children. Well, I have a letter from a researcher that attaches John Thompson to Judith Bodine both born around 1752 in Ireland. This family leads to James Marion Thompson and Sarah Gilliland and then on down to a Hogg family which caught my attention because of several Hogg genetic matches. Referenced here on another person's site and in the letter I have. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mooreorless/thompson.htm

This is great except that there is another John Thompson/Judith Bodine pair from New Jersey. They are born about 20 years earlier in 1734 (rather than 1752 listed for John Thompson from Butler PA) and instead of Judith being Irish like John Thompson from Butler, she is Dutch and French..ish. You can see some of this confusion in the file I linked above.

Here is more on the New Jersey Thompson Bodine Family:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bodine/n3956.html

and a tree listing John Thompson who marries Hannah Vansickle:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bodine/f6150.html

So we have two John Thompsons and two Judith Bodines. Ironically either of these scenarios works for me as I definitely have genetic relatives in that New Jersey Thompson family and, it seems, among the Monmouth NJ Dutch community.

James Marion Thompson reported offspring of a John Thompson in Butler has the only reference I could find to a Levi Thompson connection in the 1860 census in that Levi Campbell was living with the Thompson family then. It has been suggested that Levi Campbell could be a case of related families reusing names. 

But that's not all. I see the same John Thompson 1752 to about 1846 in family trees associated with Martha Park also listed at this site which is a text scan of a book on Thompsons:

"John Thomson, born ;
died May-June, 1846, near Butler,

Pa. He was said to be a "man of affairs" in 1824. In the "Thompson
Family" booklet it is stated that he "married and lived in Juniata County;
moved to Butler County, Pa. The Thompsons and Pattersons of Butler
County are his descendants. One of his sons married a sister of David
Allen and moved to Covington, Ind. ? Ky. ? where they lived in 1857."
It is said he owned a store and a tannery. In Book B, p. 383, of Butler
County Wills is recorded the will of John Thompson as probated June
22, 1846. In this will, declared by word to Benjamin Miller and Margaret
Turk on May 12, 1846, he gives his remaining estate to his wife Martha;
his sons and daughters have previously received their shares. — See notes
on deeds to sons 91, 92, and 99. He married Martha Park, daughter of
, of Chester County, Pa. (she was still living at

the time of his death. May, 1848). Issue (i) John Park, (2) James,
(3) Joseph, (4) Samuel, (5) Isabella, (6) Zelia, (7) Frances, (8) Wil-
liam Clinton, (9) Robert W ."

I found this bit in this e-book site:
http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/addams-stratton-mcallister/the-descendants-of-john-thomson-pioneer-scotch-covenanter-genealogical-notes-o-lac/page-23-the-descendants-of-john-thomson-pioneer-scotch-covenanter-genealogical-notes-o-lac.shtml

This one also works for me because it lists a son that may have moved to Indiana after marrying an Allen and it contains the name Frances which seems to be a recurring family name for a few generations of Thompsons (Rena Frances Thompson daughter of Levi and her nephew Francis Pearl Thompson)

But that's not all.  I see a very, very similar John Thompson from the history of Brady Township in Butler PA:

"The pioneers of 1790 included John Thompson, born in Ireland in 1752,
who moved into this township from Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, in
the spring of 1790, and located a mile or so south of the Douglass
cabin. He married Martha Humes, who died in 1861, surviving her
husband fifteen years. James, William and John McJunkin, also natives
of Ireland, arrived in 1790. Daniel Carter came the same year."

found here in a description of Brady Township:
http://history.rays-place.com/pa/brady-pa.htm

I've seen a lot of trees for this John Thompson that contain pretty good accounts of the Thompson/Humes children.
 

So I have many references to John Thompson and circumstantially they would all be good possible leads.

It mentions in the notes on Judith Bodine that her story was read to the historical society at New Brunswick and that she is a huguenot. It also mentions that John Thompson had 11 children even though the story of Juda/Judith Thompson only lists one child for her at the age of 43. I'm not sure if the John Thompson in the notes of Judith listed with 11 children is John Senior or John Thompson of New Jersey who marries Hannah Vansickle.

The only thing that seems to be similar for all the John Thompsons is that they had 11 children and at some point lived and died in Pennsylvania and originated somewhere in the British Isles.

Genetic Thompson Fronts

I have two good Thompson fronts to work on genetically. One is with a person who has Elizabeth Thompson born in the late 1700s who marries Daniel Mickey around 1785 in Washington County PA. The Mickeys end up in Ohio. Unfortunately there is quite a bit of blurriness surrounding these Thompsons and Mickeys as evidenced by this discussion. Fortunately there is a third leg in the stool with possible other people to create even more legs. This link is interesting because in the history of Butler County Pennsylvania, in the section about Centre Township it says "John THOMPSON, also one of the Irish pioneers of the Pittsburg region, came from Washington county in 1796 with his wife and eleven children, and made his home here until death removed him, in 1845".

There is also a genetic link with a person who has a Thompson family coming out of Antrim Ireland. James Almond Thompson born 1789 in Ireland that leaves for New Brunswick Canada. There is a tiny bit of information on the ancestry.com site here. Nicely, there are also other legs for this stool as well. One of them is a person I've worked with before trying to figure out our relationship. She has Thompson relatives from Virginia in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

As always, it's good to keep in mind that DNA relationships seem to be mostly indirect for me. I tend to find people on the side branches who match up. So I have to be aware of entire trees. Also as always I'm so excited by  possible Thompson links that it's hard to focus on anything else.

Another thing to remember is that I have two distinct Thompson families now and these Thompsons (if they are related) could be from either family.

Albert E Thompson and the Silcotts

I recently found a listing for Levi Thompson that had parents assigned to it. Finding a listing for Levi is rare enough, but finding parents was very exciting.

This tree was designed from the perspective of the Silcott branch of the family and had wonderful pictures of Emma/Emily Thompson (Levi Thompson's daughter) her husband John Silcott and her daughter Nina (see the Silcott Puzzle).

Those pictures and the notes on the family were amazing all by themselves, but the icing on the cake was Levi's parents listed as Albert E Thompson and Nancy. The bonus was that Albert came with a baptism record from Pike, Berks Pennsylvania.  The baptism record is from St. Joseph Hill Church, Pike, Berks, PA which is a Lutheran Church. It gets kind of confusing with this church as it's also listed as St John's Church for the German Reformed Congregation. Two congregations used the same log church that generally served the Oley area, a stone church was eventually built replacing the log church.

The baptism record is from 1815 and it also lists names of parents, James Thompson and Elisabeth who had at least one other child baptised in 1812, Thomas Thompson.

I am cautiously optimistic because although there aren't a ton of details for these people and I can't find Albert E Thompson and wife Nancy anywhere else yet, there are enough details to make me think there is a source for this listing, even if it's a family story.

Given the German leaning of my Y DNA I can't ignore the tantalizing possibilities of a Lutheran or German Reformed Thompson family. Although, it may have been the community church serving the area and a good place for British Thompsons to have their children baptised, German Thompsons are definitely not out of the question.

The Slow March to FTDNA

I did it. I finally purchased the switch test to FTDNA from my Ancestry.com results. I ordered the slightly bigger test that adds markers to bring me in line with the standard panel for 37 marker matches. So when I'm finished I'll have more results than the typical 37 marker test, but I'll be better able to match with FTDNA customers using those four or so missing markers.

It took about three weeks but they did post my Ancestry numbers with the FTDNA conversion, presented me with matches and allowed me to upload my results to Ysearch. I already have an account at Ysearch but I went through the process anyway.

One major question was answered for me. It's the 458.2 thing again. I've never been comfortable with my 16.2 being represented well in Ysearch. It turns out it wasn't. I was counseled by Ysearch support to use 17 to represent my 16.2 but FTDNA set it at 16 and my FTDNA generated Ysearch account has 16 in that slot as well.

The good news is that I have a 100% match at Ysearch, the bad news is that it's me.

The list of matches presented at FTDNA goes to the 25 marker test limit as I'm waiting on batch processing for those markers that get me up to 37. It's been interesting to see that the matches there are similar to Ysearch. My Top match at Ysearch has long been the Knowltons, at FTDNA there are Knowltons but my top match is an Elmer. I believe the same Elmer from this posting in November. My other Elmer matches go back to England, but this particular Elmer is stuck in New York in the late 1790s.

My number 2 match, also one "step" away at 25 markers is a Boettcher, not a name I'm familiar with but his profile says it's German. World Family Names says it's very popular in Lower Saxony.

There are also a slew of Damerons and Damrons and a Jarrell who is really a Dameron. They range from one to two "steps" away.

I decided to make a map. I always decide to make a map. The Damerons are from Ipswich, The Elmers seem to be from around Braintree or a little town near Kings Lynn and the Boettcher is from Germany. I don't even have to show this map really because most of these places are in the East Anglia/Essex area and I can't really place "Germany" other than to say the name is popular in Lower Saxony.

Okay. I threw Sutton Hoo in there as "C" just for fun.

Other than those highlights, the bulk of my matches label themselves as English, which could be caused by the overwhelming majority of English world DNA testers. At 12 markers there are a few Danes at 25 they are replaced by Germans.

I have a single Thompson match at 12 none at 25 (if they fall below 2 steps they don't seem to be included).

My batch for 37 is supposed to run in later this summer so I hope to have new and interesting things come up from that. Also I plan to test for Z18 or further down Z14 under R1b-U106 to see if I actually do fit in with either of those groups and or the "cumberland" cluster that seems to match me really well.

All of this helps me identify patterns that may play into finding Levi Thompson's origins.