Brick Wall. Caleb Seaman 1766-1836

Question

I've hit a brick wall in my family tree. Caleb Seaman (Seaman-1896)  does not appear in any of the authoritative Seaman genealogies, and I'm trying to identify his parents.   There is not much to go on.  He married Rosanna Hamilton who was from New Windsor, Orange County, NY., probably 1799. The Hamiltons were a very well established family in the Newburgh-New Windsor area. I think I can see this Caleb in the 1790 census in Haverstraw and again in 1820 in New Windsor.   He does not appear in any other censuses, but I discovered he migrated to Cayuga County, NY and settled in Mentz around 1820.  There are numerous Cayuga land transfers from the 1820's and 1830s in his own and his wife's names.  Connected families are Hamilton, Belknap, McDowell, Forshee, and Blauvelt.  He was probably born in Orange County, several of his older children definitely were.   Caleb is likely an unrecorded grandchild of one of the Long Island Seamans who migrated to Kakiat-on-Hudson.  Looking for sources, or ideas for sources.  Are there any good online resources for early Orange/Rockland church registries?

Answer 1

Hi James! Have you tried the book, The Seaman Family In American As Descended From Captain John Seaman Of Hempstead, Long Island Compiled by Mary Thomas Seaman born 1879? I didn't notice it in your references and thought I'd ask.

Comments

Yes indeed I have her book in paperback and I refer to it all the time, but my Caleb is not in there. Believe me when I tell you I've looked, and my copy is very well thumbed.

I've made some progress since I started this thread. My subsequent research indicates our Caleb is not the Caleb Seaman mentioned down in Haverstraw, NY from the 1790 census.  The one and only census he appears in is the 1820 US Census as a head of household in New Windsor shortly before he migrated to Cayuga County.  The earliest confirmed record I can find for him is dated 1795 in New Windsor where he is named a path master.  I've also come to doubt he migrated up river from Kakiat.  I'm more inclined to believe this Caleb Seaman was born on the other side of the Hudson in Westchester or Dutchess county. My recent Y-DNA results also make me think he is from one of Capt John Seaman's sons by his second wife Martha which prunes the tree I need to climb backwards considerably.

The complete lack of any record of parents or siblings makes me speculate the rest of his family were among the loyalists exiled to Nova Scotia in 1783, and for some reason he was separated from them. Perhaps his presence in New Windsor 12 years after the war is a hint that he was in the army and lingered in the area to be found still living there 12-years after Washington disbanded the army from its encampment there.  He would have been only 17 years old in 1783 at the end of the war, but there are documented teenagers who served in the Continental Army and the Militia forces.

I've tapped out all the possible Seaman connections on the west side of the Hudson, so now I'm exploring the east side. I also think there is a Jackson family connection, so Mary Thomas Seaman's book is still very handy to me. Thanks.

Answer 2

NY State Historical Marker #1324 (located at Wantagh Ave. about 1/2 mile north of Jerusalem Ave., Wantagh, Nassau Co., NY) "MEETING HOUSE BUILT 1827 BY RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS FIRST MEETING IN JERUSALEM HELD AT HOME OF BENJAMIN SEAMAN, 1699"

Were they Qakers?

He might be in the town records

Records of the Towns of North and South Hempstead, Long Island, ...

https://books.google.com/books?id...

Benjamin D. Hicks - 1901 - ‎Read - ‎More editions

... Sons afore Named Viz Nathaniel Seaman Jacob Seaman Thomas Seaman & Samuel Seaman Are Now Seized and possessed of the premises Last Mentioned in Manner following Viz Nathaniel and Thomas Each of them one Sixth part and ...

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There are over 30 Semans  on the 1698 Hempstead census.including 2 Thomases, Isaac, John,Beneamen(sic), Jacob, Jeems,  

Seanan wills in Orange County. At sampubco.com

SEAMAN, ANNA                            NY-36-V-100
SEAMAN, LEVI B.                         NY-36-65-451
SEAMAN, SAMUEL                          NY-36-K-1
SEAMAN, SAMUEL                          NY-36-2-210
SEAMAN, SARAH                           NY-36-G-223
SEAMAN, SILAS                           NY-36-P-338
SEAMAN, THOMAS                          NY-36-O-539
SEAMAN, VALENTINE                       NY-36-54-275

Comments

It's possible, but I think he is at least two generations removed from Long Island. Interestingly I see you highlighted the name Jacob Seaman in the Google link above, but I have not mentioned a Jacob in the bio I compiled for Caleb.  The Jacob in the link is a generation too early to have been Caleb's father.  In any case, the plot thickens.

For the past 100-years, my family genealogy always began with Issac Seaman who was born in Orange County in 1805.  My grandfather remembered his grandfather (b.1850) mentioning an ancestor named "Jake" as the father of Issac.  I initially began my search for that missing Jake, and was very surprised to turn up a Caleb as Isaac's father.  I thought perhaps that Jacob was somebody's mistake, but then I came to believe he could have been from an earlier generation.  

I'm investigating Jacomiah Seaman who apparently was also known as Jacob Seaman.  He was a son of Hezekiah Seaman who lived near New Rochelle in Westchester County.  Jacomiah was one of the loyalist refugees from Westchester who fled to Nova Scotia in 1783.  The records of the United Empire Loyalists list four sons of Jacomiah/Jacob Seaman who moved with him, but my Caleb is not there.  Neither does his probate record and will mention a Caleb.  There could be several explanations for this.  

I think there is strong evidence pointing to Jacomiah because unlike all the other Jacob Seamans, he fits the time period and proximity almost perfectly to have been Caleb's father. All of Jacomiah's sons carried biblical names, his grandmother was born a Jackson, and he remains an obscure figure lacking very much background research. Mary Thomas Seaman mentions him only as a name with no details, but the UEL records in Canada have a bit more of a biography on him and list him as both Jacomiah and Jacob. There are at least a couple of other possibilities, but Jacomiah has become my focus at the moment.

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Thanks, and I forgot to mention I previously located the wills for those Seaman's you listed in Orange County, and found no mention of Caleb and they don't seem to be direct relations. The lack of evidence, siblings, or anything before 1795 (when he was 29) make me think he had no ancestral connection to Orange/Ulster and came to there from elsewhere.

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"I, JACOB SEAMAN, of Jerusalem, in Hempsted, in Queens 

Dated May 26, 1766. Witnesses, Jonathan Rowland, Thomas Seaman, Richard Jackson, Jr. Proved, March 27, 1767, before Thomas Braine, Esq. Confirmed August 30, 1769. [NOTE: the original abstract gave the name as ISAAC Seaman but in the corrections it is listed as JACOB Seaman and the Johnson name at the bottom is corrected to read Richard JACKSON, Jr.]

Answer 3

I accepted a connection from another member's tree on ancestory that shows samual as caleb's father...from Wiki tree samuel leads to samuel leads samuel leads to Captain John Seaman.

Samuel Seaman

1735–1782

BIRTH 1735 • Westchester Co., NY

DEATH 1782 • Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York, USA

4th great-grandfather 

Becuase I am no longer a paying ancestry member I can no longer see where the hint or fact I accepted came from (it may have just been another members tree.

Wikitree does not show caleb as samuel's son

Comments

That connection to Capt. John thru Samuel has been proven wrong.   Unfortunately I am the one responsible that creating error several years ago which is now being perpetuated by people who simply copy each other's trees. I feel guilty about starting that error, and accept all appropriate shame.  There was another Caleb Seaman living in Dutchess during that period who MAY have been a missing son of Samuel, but I believe he moved to New Paltz after the Revolution.

My branch of the Seaman family has enough info to document a patrilineal line from me back to my 3x great-grandfather Isaac Seaman (b.1805) in Newburgh, NY. Through my own research, I was able to discover his parents were Caleb Seaman and Rosanna Hamilton of Newburgh and New Windsor.   

Our family has always had an oral history of an earlier ancestor called Jake and my father and grandfather before him spent decades search for a missing Jacob.  I've come to believe our Caleb is a missing son of Jecomiah Seaman who lived in Rockland County.  Jecomiah is poorly documented, but he was a grandson of Jonathan Seaman who moved to Kakiat on the west side of the Hudson. That would connect us to Capt John through his son Jonathan's line.