We can turn to DNA to try to uncover the parents of Jonas Long, my 5th great grandfather. We are looking for the identities of 6th great grandparents who lived in the 1700s. We will be working with very tiny amounts of shared DNA.
Spoiler alert: I have not identified the parents of Jonas Long as of this writing.
Jonas resided in Middlesex County, New Jersey and Richmond County, New York, so this is our target geographic area for matches.
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| Three generations of Long and Merrell |
The approach is to identify the descendants of Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrell (1800-186x) who have tested their DNA. For purposes of this article, we will use the testers at the website Ancestry. Ancestry has a "Shared Matches" feature. The idea is that the matches in common will hail from either the Long side or the Merrell side. The family trees of the possible Long matches will be analyzed for overlap, pointing to ancestors of Jonas Long.
My line descends from Susan Long (1818-1882) from her marriage to Eliakim Marsh (1816-1881). Susan and Eliakim have many descendants among my DNA matches. We can use these cousins to find Long matches, but we must extract the overlapping Marsh and Willis cousins who match through the ancestors of Eliakim Marsh and not Jonas Long.
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| My closest Long/Merrell cousins also share Marsh/Willis ancestry |
Connection to Nearby New Jersey Long
Of note is a descendant of Israel B Long (1794-1886) and Mary Polly Brown (1804-18xx). They lived in New Providence, Essex County (now Union County), New Jersey.
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| 1850 federal census New Providence Township, Essex County, New Jersey. Household of Israel B Long. Note "his W" next to the name of Mary. This enumerator noted the wives, even though relationships were not a question. |
From a book by John Littell published in 1852, we are provided Israel's parents as John Long (1758-1820) and Susannah Valentine (1761-1812).
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| John Littell, Family Records, or, Genealogies of the First Settlers of Passaic Valley (and Vicinity,) Above Chatham, with Their Ancestors and Descendants as Far as Can Now Be Ascertained (Feltville, N.J.: Stationers' Hall Press, 1852), page 262, accessed July 9, 2026, Google Books. Feltville is now in Berkeley Heights, Union County, New Jersey. |
Jonas Long was probably born in the early 1790s. More research is needed into Israel and his parents to see if Israel and Jonas could have been brothers.
Connections to a Cluster of Long in Pennsylvania
Israel Long's descendant and many of the descendants of Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrell have matches with a cluster of individuals who trace back to John George Long (1764-1850) and Catherine Barbara Conrad (1771-1832). John George was from The Rhine area of what is now Germany. He and Catherine made their home and family in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.
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| Find A Grave memorial page for John George Long (1770-1850) Buried at Zion Lutheran Reformed Church Cemetery in Augustaville, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. |
The descendants of John George Long and Catherine Conrad intermarried often. The surnames Haupt and Henninger are often encountered. This may be why they are strongly represented in the Shared Matches.
John George Long of The Rhineland is probably in the generation of the parents of Israel B Long and my Jonas Long. If the Longs originated from The Rhineland, the records connecting Jonas, Israel, and the Pennsylvania Longs will be in Germany, but a more precise location is needed. The name was probably spelled Lang or a variant.
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