Douglass of Delaware County, New York

[Dorothey L Sherman]

My 3rd great grandfather, James Douglass was born in September, 1798, in Delaware County, New York. He later lived in Caroline, Tompkins Co., New York. And later kept moving west until he died in Otoe Co., Nebraska in 1886.

In 1798, there does not appear to be any other Douglass family in Delaware Co., except those who descended from James Douglass, b1723 and died in 1809, in Harpersfield. Later, after 1800, other Douglass families moved to the county, but, my line does not connect with them.

In Tompkins County, there were other Douglass families, but, through DNA testing, we have determined that we are not related to William Douglass, who had a very large family. The other family was in the Dryden area, and came there from New Jersey. I am still trying to find more information relating to them.

I believe that the father of my James, could be William Douglass in Caroline after 1800, and who appears in the 1830 census, but not in the 1835 census, or after. My theory is that he is the William Douglass in the 1800 census in Kortright, Delaware Co., and is also the William Douglass mentioned in the will of James Douglass, b 1723.

Information that could prove or disprove my theory would be greatly appreciated. Also, where was James, b 1723, born and what was the maiden name of his wife Elizabeth, b 1728?

I look forward to hearing from you.


Dorothey

[Linda Hildebrand]

P.S. Two of those censuses show that James and Flora raised two Arnold children. The names of the boy, Franklin Douglass Arnold, leads me to think James/Flora may have had an older daughter married to an Arnold.

Multiple CT and NJ Douglasses and Arnolds married. Several Franklin Douglasses in my tree all seem to descend from Asa, who shares my GG Robert's father William, 1610-1682. William is the go-to  given name for the hundreds of American families descended from William 1610.

Benajah and Martha (1762-1818) Arnold Douglass had a son, Dr Beriah, who had a son, Dr Franklin Douglass b about 1827 in New York. I don't know what became of him, but they all moved from various NY towns to Appleton WI. Could Beriah have had a son James and a daughter who married an Arnold cousin of his grandmother?  

I haven't figured out all of these cousin clan yet, in part because of adoptions in central NJ (probably  smallpox epidemic) and a murder in Knox County OH that left others orphaned and adopted out again. Certain religious non-conformities may have caused generational gaps, too.