It's been 240 years, do you know who your 1776 Ancestor is?

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It's been 240 years, do you know who your 1776 Ancestor is?

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4 July 1776. Thirteen American Colonies declared themselves free and independent of their British rulers but they had to win a war to make that declaration a reality.

4 July 2016 marks the 240th Anniversary of that declaration which impacted many thousands of lives that were American, British, Hessian, French and otherwise embroiled in settling that bold path to freedom.

This weekend, many of you will be seeking new ancestors or getting reacquainted with old favorites.

No matter which side your ancestor participated on, the 1776 Project seeks to recognize those who participated in this great struggle that established the United States of America.

Have you found your American Revolutionary War Ancestor?

Would you like to spend time helping us identify and honor these ancestors?

Yes!? Then celebrate this weekend by joining the 1776 Project and making a few new contributions.

asked Jul 2, 2016 in Requests for Project Volunteers by Michael Stills G2G6 Pilot (543k points)

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While the Revolutionary War had begun three years earlier, my 4th-great-grandfather, American patriot Henry McDaniel Jr. (McDaniel-1056), enlisted for service as soon as he was able. The year was 1779 and some months before his 16th birthday. He stated in an 1832 affidavit : "Sometime in the latter part of spring, or beginning of summer in 1779, I enlisted in Bedford County, Virginia, in the company commanded by Capt. Thomas Arthur in the Regiment commanded by Col. Lynch commonly called Lynches Rangers, Lynches Light Horse. Our Lieutenant who died was Moses Green and his successor was George Turnbull. We were reviewed in New London (then Bedford Court House) from thence we were marched to Blackwater to rout the Tories which had then embodied, from thence we went into Carolina, May 21 from thence to a place called the Hawfields on the river Yadkin, when we put to flight another body of Tories and took several prisoners and some deserters. In the winter of 1780 we went to a place called Moravian Town in North Carolina and were there quartered during the cold weather in the winter. After the winter had broken we were continually scouring the country, some of the time on the Yadkin and sometimes on the head waters of New River. From thence we went to a place called King's Mountain where we had a severe skirmish with the Tories, in which I received a wound in my thigh. After this skirmish we were employed in scouting as heretofore until the Battle of Guilford when the company to which I was attached, was dispatched from Regiment to attend upon the sick and wounded soldiers. When our services were no longer required here, we were called back to our Regiment and employed as heretofore until the taking of Cornwallis which I think was in October, 1781. When I was discharged at Camden I returned to Greenbrier Co., Va., where my parents had moved after my enlistment. I was born in Pittsylvania Co., Va., in Nov., 1763 I have no record of my age. I continued to live in Greenbrier until 1810, when I removed to Walnut Township in the County of Gallia and State of Ohio, where I have ever since resided." The battle in which Henry was wounded is considered the turning point in the southern fighting of the American Revolution.

commented Jul 21, 2016 by Loretta Layman G2G6 Mach 4 (46.4k points)

I my lineage, I have John Apperson who in New Kent county during the Revolution, but was too young. Listed as John Apperson (Junior) in the 1782 Muster List, followed by owning property in York County later in 1784.

I am working on who his father maybe. There is a John Apperson (Senior) listed in the same Muster List. But there is a misunderstanding in a reference to Elizabeth Apperson who has John Apperson (Senior) the son of Samuel Apperson as passing away in 1768. In fact, the John Apperson Jr., who passes away was a resident of Halifax county and was the son of John Apperson Sr., who was living in Spotsylvania county.

In reference to Elizabeth Apperson, I have found that she was adopted by Samuel Appersson on July 4, 1764 in Charles City County

commented Mar 11, 2018 by anonymous G2G Rookie (100 points)

I would like to point out this profile: Carroll-1582

John Carroll is the man who, while in battle against British dragoons in 1780 in York district SC, shot Capt. Christian Huck in the head and killed him. Huck was a Philadelphia lawyer and commander of British forces in the battle, and he was notorious for (among other things) holding a reaping hook to the throat of Martha Bratton while trying to force her to give up the location of her husband, Col. William Bratton.

By the way, Col. Bratton has a Wikitree profile: Bratton-30 but curiously his wife Martha does not. Martha not only refused to give up her husband, but when the British were attempting to seize a supply of gunpowder stashed in her home, she blew the gunpowder (and the house) sky-high.

commented Mar 12, 2018 by Jessica Key G2G6 Pilot (329k points)

34 Answers

Page:

anonymous · Answer 1 · 2016-07-02T02:56:31+0000

Thank you for the message here, Michael. I sent you a private message explaining that I read the 1776 Project numerous time and still was not sure that I am doing it correctly. I see where you looked at the profile but you did not say whether I was doing it right or not. A template is usually something that one fills in. I do not actually see what you are referring to with regard to a template on the 1776 Project. Are you referring to the part that we copy and paste on to the ancestor's profile biography which results in the icon for the 1776 Project or the NSSAR or DAR info appearing on it? The term template usually refers to a sample document that has already some details in place; those can be adapted, that is added/completed, removed or changed, I see only those in the 1776 Project. I want to make sure I am doing the correct thing for any other ancrstors that I will add to this project. Thanks.

commented Jul 10, 2016 by Living Davis G2G1 (1.6k points)
edited Jul 10, 2016 by Living Davis

Answer 2 · 2016-07-02T17:09:17+0000

I have identified quite a few of my ancestors as having the NSSAR designation, the most famous of which is Hendrick Fisher who was my 6th great grandfather. More information is on his profile. His son, Jeremias Fisher also was involved in the Revolution. On my mother's side are Taber ancestors- Lemuel Taber (4th GG) and his brother, Ichabod. I am so proud to be a descendent of these brave men.

Answer 3 · 2016-07-02T17:40:24+0000

My 6th great-grandfather, Lewis Adkins, fought a long and very hard seven years service in the Revolutionary War.Only a VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE of the soldiers in this war fought as long as seven years. He suffered through the early defeats and retreats at Brandywine and Germantown. He also went through the terrible winter at Valley Forge with General George Washington. At the fall of Charleston, SC. he was one of only a handful of men from his brigade who escaped capture and prison for the rest of the war, on the right flank in the first line, a very exposed and dangerous position call "Post of Honor". His decimated regiment then became part of the group that went to South Carolina and Georgia to fight the rest of the war. He was wounded in Georgia in 1782. He was a "chip off the old block" of his GGGrandfather, Richard Adkins, who had fought in Bacon's Rebellion, the first armed revolt against the British in 1676,exactly 100 years before Lewis enlisted in the Revolutionary War in 1776.

Answer 4 · 2016-07-03T00:56:31+0000

Samuel Gladney (abt. 1737 - 1799) - 5th great grand father

Richard Gladney (1741 - 1793) Rev. War Soldier. Private of South Carolina - 5th great grand uncle

Thomas Gladney (1749 - 1820) Rev. War “Patriot” 5th great grand uncle

John Gillespie - VIRGINIA

Andrew Heck - Patriot - 6th great grand father

HANS JORG CONRAD KURTZ - CAVALRY MILITIA 1782, - 6th great grand father

ROBERT MCFARLAND - great, great, great, great, great, great, great grand father - Lieutenant-Captain, North Carolina Militia,

John McGuire (1756 - 1837)

Willis Odom - Private Militia - Served under Captain James Hicks - 6th great grand father

William Michael Rader - Major - Virginia Militia - 5th great grand father

Johan Frederick (Wolff) Wolf - PATRIOTIC SERVICE - 6th great grand father

Adolph Reep Sr. - great, great, great, great, great grand father - Killed by Tories in 1784

Adam Reep - Fourth great grand uncle - Service Description: 1) CAPT ABRAHAM FORNEY, COL JOSEPH MCDOWELL 2) PRISONER OF WAR

John Michael Reep - Service: NORTH CAROLINA Rank: PRIVATE Service Description: 1) CAPT JOHN BARBER

MARGARET MARGARET

JAMES ODOM

JOHN HUTTON

YOST HECK

LUDWIG HECK

Answer 5 · 2016-07-03T03:51:17+0000

We have indeed. Martin DuBois, at the age of 17, was a Bugler in Colonel Frederick Weissenfels Levies, serving under Captain Gilbert Livingston. Out of Ulster County, NY, Martin used a conch shell as a bugle, which he saved and passed down to family in Michigan. Happy Fourth everyone!

Answer 6 · 2016-07-04T22:39:15+0000

John Ashton
Robert Washington
Sweet Briggs
At last count, another 15 I am working on papers for.

Answer 7 · 2016-07-04T23:02:00+0000

Johann Mathias Dreher: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dreher-241

2d battalion of Berks county militia, Capt. Henry Christ's company, under Col. Samuel Miles, enlisting on April 10, 1776, and continuing in same until late fall of the same year.

Answer 8 · 2016-07-06T12:51:47+0000

Daniel Gill born 1756 or 1757, signed up for the British Army in 1777. He was a private in the English 54th Regiment of Foot for the rest of the war.

After the war ended and for several years the unit was stationed in Canada. In 1787 after an altercation with an officer, Daniel deserted and relocated to upstate New York where he became a schoolmaster.

Answer 9 · 2016-07-06T12:55:14+0000

Prince Skiff was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He first enlisted in Dukes County, MA, in Benjamin Smith's Company in 1776 as a private from June 1, 1776 to Sept. 1, 1776. The company was stationed at Martha's Vineyard for defence of seacost; also, Corporal, same co.; service from Sept. 1, 1776 to Nov. 21, 1776; company stationed at Martha's Vineyard. In 1777 he moved to Williamsburg, MA where he enlisted in Samuel Fairfield's Company, June 1777. He held rank of Corporal and was engaged in the battles of Bennington and Saratoga. He moved to Cambridge, N.Y. and then to Madison, where he died. Written information on Prince Skiff refers to him as a jovial man who liked children. He had 5 daughters and three sons.The was was a financial hardship for many and Prince died in the poorhouse.

He had four brothers who also served in the war. They are James, Obadiah, Valentine and Sanders Skiff.

Answer 10 · 2016-07-06T12:59:27+0000

Joel MARSH : 4 * 3 * 3 * 0 * 0 * 10 (p. 36) Jane Elizabeth Marsh's grandfather and American revolutionary war Colonel. My mother, Elizabeth Marsh Bell, b. 1920 is named after Jane Elizabeth Marsh.

Bethel Mills, one of the nation's oldest building material suppliers...Over 220 years in business!

Our story began during the Revolutionary War when the founding fathers of Bethel offered 550 acres and a mill site on the river to a Colonel named Joel Marsh. The conditions of this offer stated that Colonel Marsh was to build a saw and gristmill by the Fall of 1780 in order to provide employment and supplies for the new town. The building of the mill was delayed a bit when most of the villagers fled as a neighboring town was being raided and burned by Indians. When the threat of attack diminished construction resumed and by 1781 Bethel Mills was open for business. A good business it was, often grinding corn and sawing timber into the night to meet the local demand.

For nearly the next 100 years the mill was operated continuously by the Marsh family; continuously except for the flood of 1830 that destroyed all but the Tontine building (shown above). After rebuilding, the mill continued as both a social and economic hub of Bethel,...

Answer 11 · 2016-07-06T13:01:02+0000

Daniel Hemenway (1719-94) was a minute man at the Lexington Alarm and a delegate to the convention that framed the State Constitution. He was born in Framingham; died in Shrewsbury.
Also No. 54003.

He was born at Framingham and died at Shrewsbury.
Reference: Daughters of the American Revolution. p. 230 Mrs. Sarah Emily Wheeler Bunge, descendant.

Daniel, was a soldier who fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill during the revolutionary war (HEMENWAY, Daniel of Framingham.
Listed under Non-Commissioned Officers & Privates. SOURCE: [8] A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, page 160).
Also, Asa, one of Daniel's sons, was at Bunker Hill in 1775 as well.

Hemenway Soldiers in the American Revolution:

HEMENWAY, Daniel of Framingham. Listed under Non-Commissioned Officers & Privates. SOURCE: [8] A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, page 160.

HEMENWAY, Ebenezer of Framingham. Listed under Non-Commissioned Officers & Privates; A Return of Capt. Nixon's Company of Minute Men, Framingham, Feb. 13, 1775; Clerk. SOURCE: [8] A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, page 160, 161.

HEMENWAY, Isaac of Framingham. (prob. d.); Listed under Non-Commissioned Officers & Privates; A Return of Capt. Nixon's Company of Minute Men, Framingham, Feb. 13, 1775; Drummer. SOURCE: [8] A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, page 160.

HEMENWAY, Jno. of Framingham. A Return of Capt. Nixon's Company of Minute Men, Framingham, Feb. 13, 1775; Private. SOURCE: [8] A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, page 161.

HEMENWAY, Jona. of Framingham. Listed under Non-Commissioned Officers & Privates; A Return of Capt. Nixon's Company of Minute Men, Framingham, Feb. 13, 1775; Private. Received pension. SOURCE: [8] A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, pages 160 and 161.

HEMENWAY, Nathan of Framingham. A Return of Capt. Nixon's Company of Minute Men, Framingham, Feb. 13, 1775; Private. SOURCE: [8] A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, page 161.

HEMENWAY, Samuel of Framingham. Listed under Non-Commissioned Officers & Privates. SOURCE: [8] A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, page 160.

HEMENWAY, Thaddeus of Framingham. Listed under Non-Commissioned Officers & Privates. SOURCE: [8] A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, page 160.

HEMENWAY, William of Framingham. Listed under Non-Commissioned Officers & Privates. SOURCE: [8] A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, page 160.

HEMMENWAY, Adam of Worcester. Capt. Timothy Bigelow's Company. Colony Service on the Alarm of April 19, 1775. SOURCE: [11] Worcester's Revolutionary Soldiers.

HEMMENWAY, Jeffrey of Worcester. Raised agreeably to Resolve of June, 1780; Six Months. 1780, returned Dec. 27, 1781. SOURCE: [11] Worcester's Revolutionary Soldiers.

HEMMENWAY, Samuel of Worcester. Capt. Timothy Bigelow's Company. Colony Service on the Alarm of April 19, 1775. Capt. William Gates' Company, Col. Jonathan Holman's Regiment in Chelsea Camp, New York, Sept. 4, 1776. Capt. David Chadwick's Company that marched to Hadley on an alarm at Bennington, under command of Lieut. Col. Benjamin Flagg, by desire of Brigadier General Warner, August 28, 1777. SOURCE: [11] Worcester's Revolutionary Soldiers.

HEMMINGWAY, Joshua of Royalston. SOURCE: [5] Royalston Rev War Soldiers.

HEMMINGWAY, Thomas of Royalston. SOURCE: [5] Royalston Rev War Soldiers.

Answer 12 · 2016-07-06T13:07:11+0000

Silvanus Conant served in the American Revolutionary War.

Lineage book - National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Volumes 55-56
By Daughters of the American Revolution

MISS GRACE ALTHEA HAYWARD. 55196

Born in Salina, Kans.

Descendant of Sergt. Silvanus Conant.

Daughter of James Taylor Hayward and Laura Matthews, his wife.

Granddaughter of Joseph Lyman Hayward and Mary Caroline Selah, his wife.

Gr-granddaughter of Joseph Hayward and Sylvia Conant, his wife.

Gr-gr-granddaughter of Silvanus Conant and Silvia Conant, his wife.

Silvanus Conant (1741-1828) served several enlistments under different commands, 1775-78; Massachusetts troops.
His widow received a pension for his service as private and sergeant. He was born in Bridgewater, Mass.; died in
Turner, Maine.

Answer 13 · 2016-07-06T14:04:18+0000

Henry Lyons (Lyons-1081)

1750-1780, He enlisted in 1777, for three years in Capt. Bruen's company, Col. Baldwin's regiment of Artificers, Continental troops. He had the rank of Private. He died July 1780, of smallpox three weeks after his discharge from the Army in Orange County, New York.

Answer 14 · 2016-07-06T14:14:47+0000

Bryan Ward Nowlin was the first Rev. War patriot found while searching for documentation for D. A. R. Since then I have found:

Lovell Harrison, John Watson, Thomas Townsend, Nathaniel FitzRandolph, Jacob Blocher, Charles Hutcheson, John Strother, William Harding, William Neill, Allen Leeper, John Johnston, Edward Wade and Gregory Clark. Still looking.

Now, I understand why DNA shows me to be more English than the average present-day Englishman even though I sort of hoped for at least a tiny bit of something more exotic.

Answer 15 · 2016-07-06T20:14:26+0000

I have three ancestors that are recognized by the DAR... two were soldiers for Spanish Controlled Louisiana when they fought against the British.

Pierre Antoine Fruge, my 3x great grandfather fought with the Opelousas Militia under General Bernardo Galvez and was at the capture of Fort Bute at Bayou Manchac, Battle of Baton Rouge, Battle of Fort Charlotte, and the capture of Fort George in Pensacola.

Louis Romain DeLaFosse, my 4x great grandfather, also fought with the Opelousas Militiar under Gen. Galvez, but he isn't on as many of the muster rolls so it's more difficult to figure out exactly where he was when.

Edward Forman, my 5x great grandfather, didn't fight but he is recognized by the DAR for taking an oath against the British.

When I joined the DAR, I had to educate my local chapter (in Oregon) on the importance of Spanish-Controlled Louisiana during the Revolutionary War. If they had allowed the British to take control of New Orleans they'd be in control of the mouth of the Mississippi River. This would have given them a back door into the colonies.

Answer 16 · 2016-07-07T00:31:46+0000

I am a member of the DAR and have verified 25 ancestors who provided either military or civl service to the patriot cause during the Revolutionary War. How can I make contributions to this project?

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