the genealogy book

, on my maternal great-grandmother, Mary Caroline Cassidy Swain (1886-1985), and her American roots,

[my small self with great grandmother]

Seeking clarification and confirmation on my maternal grandmother’s mother, always referred to as Pennsylvania Dutch, including by my own mother. It was Mary Caroline Cassidy (1886-1985), born in Grand Forks, South Dakota, who married Joseph John Swain (1888-1976) of Kemptville, Ontario, where they raised a family and lived out the rest of their days. How did she get here from there? To realize that it was her father, born in Ontario, who headed south and then west for some reason, to marry a local girl in the American Midwest before returning home. What was her father doing there? Philip Service Cassidy (1871-1930), with a name offering a variety of inconsistent spellings throughout family archive: sometimes Sarvise, Service or even Jarvis; sometimes Cassidy, sometimes Cassady, and maybe even Cassaday. Born in Richmond, Canada West (although this, too, uncertain), he moved to South Dakota, and returned, with wife and four children. Philip and Annie Irene Watters (1866-1953) were married in Michigan City, North Dakota, with the first four of their eventual dozen or so children born in Grand Forks. Their fourth child, also named Philip, was born in 1889, but the next one along, Delmer, was born in Jock River, Ontario, some three years later, which helps pinpoint their move. A year beyond that, their daughter Isabella was born in Leeds-Grenville, Ontario.

I’ve been wondering if it was through Mary’s mother, Annie, born in South Dakota to parents born in Philadelphia, that the presumption of German ancestry lay. But from both sides of her own parentage, lines that passed through Pennsylvania and even across New England but back into Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Two generations or more in Philadelphia, from Annie on back: is this where this presumption originated? As far as I can find: not a German among them.

Although some of her lines extend quite a ways through those United States. Annie’s grandparents, my fourth great grandparents, were County Antrim, Ireland-born James Watters (1811-1888) and Ulster, Ireland-born Mary Ann Lowery (1818-1899), both of whom died in Butler, Pennsylvania. It’s through Annie’s mother, Mary’s maternal grandmother, where we begin to go back a bit. My third great grandmother, Isabella Elizabeth Marshall Watters (1842-1924), was born in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, as were her parents, Hugh Marshall (1810-1854) and Sarah Agnes Powell (1815-1906). From there, each of their own parents, my fifth great grandparents, also born in Pennsylvania. Just how far back can I track? Sarah’s maternal grandfather, George Hosack (1767-1825), was born in Ireland, and died in Pennsylvania. Hugh’s grandparents, David Marshall (1722-1812) and Elizabeth Flower (1738-1823), both born and died in England, although they had their son, Samuel (1786-1864), David’s father, if my information is correct, in Butler, Pennsylvania. Hugh’s maternal grandfather, my sixth great grandfather, William Leslie (1759-1850), does get a mention through Jane Curdi’s Genealogy.com page, of him serving in the Revolutionary War from Chester County (July-August 1776), including five months “taking supplies to Fort Pitt” in 1779. As she writes:

He entered the services of the US under the following named officers and served as follows:
Milita of Chester Co. (last of July or 1st of Aug. 1776) under Captain John McDowell, Lieut. James Hughes
William Montgomery was Colonel of he regiment to which his company belonged, Lieut. Col. Evey Evens, Ramsey was the Major, Allen Cunningham Standard Bearer, James Wilson Clergeyman.
In the fall of the year 1777 to the best of his knowledge and belief about the beginning of December in that year he served another tour of two months as a substitute for his father GEORGE LESLIE.

Larry Pearce’s genealogical website (e-gen.info), “Our Leslie Family Tree,” offers that William’s father, George Willocks Leslie Sr. (1736-1821) was born in “Scotland, Northern Ireland or Eastern PA” (none of which seems particularly helpful) but does mention that he “Served as deputy constable for Common Pleas Court of New London Twp. 1767 when he got in trouble for not turning over confiscated property to the court.” He is also listed in “The Town of Fairfax, Vermont land grants copied from the New Hampshire Land Grants being transcripts of the Charters of Townships and minor grants of lands made by the Provincial Government of New Hampshire, within the present boundaries of the State of Vermont, from 1749 to 1764.” There is a curious document that the internet provides, a National Register of Historic Places Registration Form from 1991 on the Readington Village Historic District, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, offering that “Readington is the earliest village of Readington Township. George Willocks, an important East and West New Jersey Proprietor, who owned the northeastern quarter of the township, bought the Indian title to the site of Readington Village.”

How do George Willocks Leslie and George Willocks connect, if at all? A bit further on in this extensive document: “Leslie’s Brook marked the southern boundary of a very large tract: of land known as Lesleyland — some 500 to 600 acres of land also extending east to the Province Line — that was inherited by George Willocks Leslie, grand-nephew of the land investor after whom he was named. The name appears in many 18th-century records. A place called Leslie’s Ridge was sometimes identified as Readington.” Apparently Scottish-born settler George Willocks (1664-1729), great uncle to my seventh great grandfather, George Willocks Leslie, was one of the founders of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. According to Bob Makin’s article “Walking guide to Perth Amboy’s Colonial, Revolutionary War history” (June 28, 2018) in the Courier News and Home News Tribune, Willock’s house at 228 Water Street still stands. “Perth Amboy’s oldest dwelling was built in 1720 by Willocks, an East Jersey proprietor from Scotland who helped settle the city in the 17th century. Willocks was a controversial colonist until his death in 1729.” Controversial, he says, although he doesn’t explain why. I’d suspect those Loyalist leanings sit at the core of it. Further on in his article, Makin writes:

Settled by Scots in 1683, Perth Amboy is one of the state’s oldest towns, which means its full of fascinating historic sites that often get overlooked compared to similar historic towns, such as Cape May, Trenton, Morristown, Freehold, Princeton, Bound Brook and Scotch Plains.

The reason it may get overlooked is because the city was Loyalist, with Colonists on the wrong side of the Revolutionary War, reasoned a city historian Anton Massopust, our guide, along with his childhood friend, local developer and history buff Barry Rosengarten, and the “Old Perth Amboy Walking Guide” by William S. Pavlovsky and the city Historic Preservation Commission.

The wrong side, as they say. So shall we agree to disagree. Another thread I could pull involves my fourth great grandmother Sarah Agnes Powell Marshall’s grandfather (and my sixth great grandfather) Pvt. Malachi Powell (1741-1826), who was born in Powells Valley, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I’d love to know more about Powells Valley, something that Wikipedia offers as “named for a Quaker family from York County who settled near the mouth of Powells Creek around 1760.” Over at Wikitree, they provide a description of Malachi: “He was a Private in Jan. 1777 in Capt. John Reed’s Company, Col. James Burd Esq.’s 4th Battalion of the Lancaster County Militia of Pennsylvania. He also appears as a 4th Class Private in the 3rd Company, 10th Battalion of the Lancaster County Militia in 1782.” Malachi’s father, John Powell (1706-1748), was born in Philadelphia, Colonial America. J. I. Mombert’s An Authentic History of Lancaster County in the State of Pennsylvania (1869) provides a lengthy stretch on the family, that opens:

In 1749, (Liver at a time Piqua on the Susquehanna) near Lancaster, This year John Powel/Powell Dies. My Ancestor Trader and son of William first purchaser, one of the Welsh founders of Philadelphia. This John having a ferry at Spring Garden street of Philadelphia. To move up the Susquehanna to be Trader and Interpreter. Will to be executed by Thomas Mckee, a veteran of King George’s War and the French and Indian War, son Alexander McKee (c. 1735–1799), an important official in the British Indian Department. His wife Nonhelema, was a Shawnee chief nicknamed “The Grenadier Squaw.” She was the sister of Chief Cornstalk and supported peace with the young United States.

John’s father, presuming my research is correct, would be my eight great grandfather, William Powell Jr. (1675-1733), who was a cooper and born in Breconshire, Wales (or Surrey, England, depending on which source one believes), who landed in Philadelphia and married a local girl, born in England. After she died, he married another local Philadelphia girl, born in England. Not a German among them. Either way, I’m curious to realize this array of ancestors, through my mother’s maternal grandmother’s American roots, who fought on the other side of the American Revolution as Patriots. How different is this, from the threads across my birth mother’s roots, from the Whittekers to the Adams to the Roses, moving north from New England during those Revolutionary days as United Empire Loyalists. The question which forms into accusation: which side are you on.

[my great grandfather, myself, Aunt Pat]

There is so much more I would like to understand about my great grandparents Swain; so much yet uncovered. I remember them, but only in fragments. The front room of their house. Their piano, that sits in our living room.

My third great grandmother, Annie Irene Watters Cassidy, and the realization of her middle name, from whom my mother most likely gained hers. Which we borrowed for Rose.