Jonas Long: His Estate 23 Years Later

Jonas Long was my my fifth great grandfather. His parents are a mystery.

Family tree of Jonas Long (died 1837) and Elizabeth Merrell (1800-186x)

In 1816 Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrill, my fifth great grandmother, married in Northfield, Richmond County, New York.

Typed transcript
Marriages Reformed Protestant Dutch Church on Staten Island
Northfield, New York

By the time the 1850 census was recorded, Elizabeth had remarried to William Owen or Owens (1788-1852). William is listed on Find A Grave at the now defunct Merrell Family Cemetery in Bulls Head, Richmond County, New York. Elizabeth herself and Jonas Long are not listed in online transcripts of the missing headstones. I do not know where they were buried.

For years, the only other record easily available for Jonas Long was an index of probate records of Richmond County. In 1860, action was made in Richmond County on the estates of Elizabeth's two husbands. These entries appeared in a typed index at Ancestry. This typed index provided a date of death for Jonas Long as August 13, 1837.

Index to Probate Records for Richmond County, New York.

Jonas Long's children as listed in this index were consistent with other records: Richard, Susan, Letitia, John, Jacob, Catherine, and Abraham.

William Owens' children were from his first marriage to Mary Delinda Whitlock: Albert, Frendl, Ashley, Fanny, Pauline, Arnesia, Sabrina.

I sought the originals. There could be more information in these files. Always seek the underlying record instead of relying on information in an index.

As far as I could find, these files for Richmond County are not scanned online for this time period. I emailed the court, called them, and sent them snail mail. The physical letter produced a response. The procedure is that the files are located, the pages counted, and a total cost calculated at 25 cents per page. I sent in a money order for $1.50 for six pages. The money order cost more than the $1.50 court fee.

Statement by Elizabeth Owens dated February 27, 1860
to become administrator of the estate of her late husband, Jonas Long

Statement by Elizabeth Owens dated February 27, 1860
to become administrator of the estate of her late husband, William Owen(s)

Did the contents of the files provide any additional information? No, I don't think so. I am amazed that the transcriber was able to read the names of the children.

Why did Elizabeth file in 1860? I don't know. We don't know when she died, only that she predeceased her father, Richard Merrell, who died in 1864. Maybe she was sick and advised to put her affairs in order?

Elizabeth's children were named in the estate papers of their grandfather
because Elizabeth had died.
Six of her seven children signed this release on October 4, 1865.

From Richard Merrell's estate papers, we see the names of the children of Elizabeth. (Richard, the oldest, was omitted because they were not able to reach him in Virginia during the Civil War.) These names, save for the missing Richard, match the names in Jonas' sparse estate papers.

The month after Elizabeth filed to become administrator of the estate of Jonas Long, dead over 22 years, she filed a claim for $50 for equipment he used in the War of 1812. I ordered a copy from the New York State Archives. Images are also now available at Ancestry (New York, War of 1812 Certificates and Applications of Claim and Related Records, 1858-1869).

Elizabeth's affidavit seeking reimbursement for equipment
used by Jonas Long in the War of 1812

In the next article, we will look at Elizabeth's application for bounty land based on Jonas Long's service in the War of 1812.

Pending Orders

 Below is the list of records not available online that were ordered and not yet fulfilled.

The last published list was on June 22, 2024.

Death certificate of James Cummings, 1912

Requested of the New York State Department of Health. Form DOH-4384 mailed February 9, 2024.

$22 check. (Died in Catskill, Greene County, New York March 11, 1912.) Check cleared July 30, 2024.

Death certificate of Jane Cummings, 1899

Requested of the New York State Department of Health. Form DOH-4384 mailed February 9, 2024.

$22 check. (Died in Catskill, Greene County, New York July 7, 1899.) Check cleared July 30, 2024.

Death certificate of John Grant, 1882

Requested of the New York State Department of Health. Form DOH-4384 mailed February 9, 2024.

$22 check. (Died in Catskill, Greene County, New York December 27, 1882.) Check cleared July 30, 2024.

Probate records of Jonas Long, 1837, and William Owens, 1853

Requested of the Richmond County, New York Surrogate's Court. Email dated June 25, 2023.

No fee at this time.

Death certificate of Mollie Schwartz, 1925

Requested from City of Bridgeport and State of Connecticut. Forms VS-39DST mailed April 6, 2023. (Same form number on both town and state forms.)

$20 each via money orders.

Update: April 20, 2024 received document from State of Connecticut. Still waiting for the copy from the City of Bridgeport.

Death certificate of Edward Sheeby [Edmond Sheehy], 1893

Requested of the New York State Department of Health. Form DOH-4384 mailed March 1, 2022.

$22 check cleared April 2, 2022.

Originally requested in 2015.

Town of Amenia provided an obscure ledger entry in 2023.

Photograph from 100 Years Ago

A cousin surfaced in the DNA database at 23andMe and kindly shared a picture of my great great great grandmother, Susan Jane Marsh.

This picture was probably taken around 1910.
The child, Bessie Gulick, was born May 19, 1908 in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey.
Susan Jane Marsh married William Reuben Bishop.
My line descends from their daughter, Minnie Caroline Bishop.
The newly discovered cousin descends from another daughter, Bessie, pictured above.

The bearer of this century-old image is a second cousin, once removed of my father. Their common ancestors were William Reuben Bishop (1842-1915) and Susan Jane Marsh (1848-1932).

The shared DNA ranges from 49 centimorgans to 105 centimorgans among my father and his three siblings. This is within the expected amount for second cousins, once removed.

Two of the segments can be attributed to the parents of Susan Jane Marsh: Eliakim Marsh (1816-1881) or Susan Long (1819-1882). How do I know this? Because of the DNA test of a descendant of Susan's sister, Elizabeth Marsh (1835-1914).

The rest of the segments can belong to either William Bishop or Susan Marsh. The relationships of the other DNA matches on these segments will demonstrate the origins of the segments.

A Marriage Found

For years the union of my fifth great grandparents, Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrill, circa 1816, has eluded researchers- until now.

Thanks to cousin Chris G, we have a record of this marriage. The couple was not married in Middlesex County, New Jersey, as was popularly claimed. They were married in Staten Island/Richmond County, New York, at Saint Andrew's Church, on October 13, 1816.

Chris G found this entry in the transcript of the records (viewable at a Family History Library) of Saint Andrew's Church, Staten Island, New York, which still exists.

Merrills were abundant in Northfield in this time period. The Longs were not. Jonas Long was probably from neighboring Middlesex County, New Jersey. His parentage is still a mystery, but a clue is in the naming of a son Jacob Van Pelt Long.

DNA of Marsh and Long Ancestors

This article discusses the DNA shared by Cousin Chris G, who reached out to me as a descendant of Eliakim Marsh (1816-1881) and Susan Long (1819-1882) of Westfield, (now in Union County), New Jersey.

Chris G's father is a third cousin, once removed to my father and his siblings.  As we approach the third cousin level, DNA may or may not be shared.  We checked for shared DNA at GedMatch.com so that we could see all the shared segments.

One of my uncles shares only a tiny segment (3 cM) of DNA with Chris G's father.  This would not have been reported as a match at the three major testing companies (23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, and AncestryDNA), but GedMatch allows you to see tiny segments.

When we look at segments above 5 cM, the other siblings share larger segments with this third cousin:
My father shares two segments totaling 42.3 cM.
My aunt shares two segments totaling 46.9 cM.
My uncle shares one segment of 17.7 cM.

Next we looked at other people who also share these same segments.  Anyone who matches my father and Chris G's father on the same segment will descend from Eliakim Marsh and Susan Long, or one of the ancestors of Eliakim or Susan.

My father and Chris G's father share a segment of 25 cM on chromosome 5.  Someone who tested at FamilyTreeDNA matched both men on this same spot with a slightly smaller segment of 15 cM.

We had to travel back in this distant DNA cousin's tree many generations until we were in New Jersey.  The common ancestors are the 3rd great grandparents of Eliakim Marsh:  John Marsh (1661-1744) and Elizabeth Clarke (1664-1739).  They lived in Rahway and Elizabeth.

But- we may also have Denman ancestors in common.  I have not confidently traced back beyond Eliakim Marsh's great grandfather, Philip Denman.  This distant cousin also has Denman ancestors in Westfield, New Jersey.

Plus, Eliakim's mother, Abigail Willis, is another tail.  She could share some ancestral lines with her husband.

We may end up with a situation seen with the Morris County DNA cousins, where we share multiple lines of ancestry and cannot isolate the DNA to a particular ancestor.

My question is:  would this DNA cousin, who is probably a seventh or eighth cousin through these Marsh or Denman lines, share a segment of DNA 15 cM long?  Shouldn't the segment have broken up into smaller, and perhaps not distinguishable, fragments?  Is it possible that someone who was born in the 1660s still has a large segment of their DNA detectable in their descendants?

Thanks to everyone who participated in this effort through DNA testing and/or researching.

Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrell: A Union Documented in Death

With the collaboration of other researchers, we can answer the question I asked last year:  Who were the parents of Susan Long (1818-1882)?

They were Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrell.  Estate records were the key in this mystery.


The Background

Susan Long of E Town [Elizabethtown] married Eliakim Marsh in Essex County, New Jersey in 1839.  No parents were listed, which is not unusual for such records in this time period.  Susan died in Elizabeth in 1882.  [Elizabeth was in the newly created Union County by this time.]  The death certificate listed her parents as Jonas Long and Elizabeth.

1839 July 4  Eliakim Marsh of N Y city [New York City] to Susan Long of E Town [Elizabethtown, New Jersey]

Online trees and webpages provided an unsourced marriage for Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrell in 1816 in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey, and even provided birth and death dates for Jonas.  Nobody who answered my inquiries could tell me where this information was found.  This couple was also listed as parents of Richard Merrell, born around 1817 in New Jersey, who relocated to Virginia, married Elizabeth Culpepper, and died in 1861.  Nobody could explain why Richard carried his mother's surname of Merrell.

So my tree looked like this:

Susan's only connection to Merrell was in the 1870 census in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey.  Phebe Merton, age 70, was living in Susan's household.  Phebe was a daughter of Richard I Merrell (1774-1864) and Nancy Ann Cole (1776-1861).


The Impetus

Chris G, a descendant of Susan Long and Eliakim Marsh reached out to me.  His DNA test at Ancestry.com matched him to a descendant of Richard Merrell (1817-1861) of Virginia, the supposed brother of our shared ancestor, Susan Long.  [I will discuss the DNA in a separate article.]  He asked if I had made any progress on locating records to better identify the origins of Susan Long.

Well, no progress.  But I did visit the Merrell grave on November 1, 2015 in Edison, though when they were buried it was Piscataway.

I could not find Elizabeth Merrell, wife of Jonas Long, in this cemetery.  Among those buried here were Elizabeth's likely parents, Nancy Ann Cole (1776-1861) and Richard I Merrell (1774-1864).


The Strategy and Results

Richard I Merrell died after his wife and without a will in 1864.  His estate was probated in Middlesex County, New Jersey.  These papers are available (free) at FamilySearch.org.  [Note that Ancestry.com provides an index, but not for every page associated with an estate.  You need to go to FamilySearch.org and look at the court's docket and then locate the proceedings index, then locate all these files.]

At first I was disappointed because Elizabeth was not among the signatures of Richard's children.  Phebe "Murton" was.

Some more digging through the estate papers produced a big piece of the puzzle.  Elizabeth [Culpepper] Merrell of Norfolk County, Virginia, through her attorney-in-fact Abraham LONG of Elizabethport, New Jersey, petitioned for her three children to receive a part of Richard I Merrell's estate.  She stated that their father was Richard Merrell, deceased; he was the son of Mrs Elizabeth Owens, deceased, and she was the daughter of Richard I Merrell whose estate was in probate.

The family tree now looked like this:

Elizabeth Merrell had remarried to a Mr Owens after Jonas Long died.

Chris G located Mrs Elizabeth Owens not in New Jersey, but in Northfield, Richmond County, New York- Staten Island.

The oysterman, Abram Long, living with Elizabeth looks like the attorney-in-fact for the Merrell family in Virginia.  The 1850 census revealed Catherine Cook, another child of Elizabeth Merrell/Mrs Owens.  Why were Elizabeth's children not in the estate papers of their grandfather?

I needed the distribution of the estate to see if the Long children inherited anything.  This was not in the index, but I caught a mention of its location when carefully reading papers.

In the Releases and Discharges, "six of the children of Elizabeth Long a deceased daughter of Richard I Merrill late deceased" were listed:

Abram M Long

John M Long

Jacob V P Long

Susanna Marsh, wife of Eliakim Marsh

Catharine A Cook, widow

Letitia F Birch, wife of Edward Birch

Elizabeth Merrell's first son, Richard Merrell, who died in 1861 in Virginia, was not listed.  This omission could be why Richard's widow placed a claim in 1866 for her three children.

So Elizabeth Merrell and Mr Long were the parents of my Susan Long and she had six siblings!

Chris G again turned to Staten Island to provide some insight into Elizabeth Merrell's two husbands.

In 1860, Elizabeth filed in Richmond County, New York to administer the estates of her two husbands:

Jonas Long, who died August 13, 1837; and

William Owens, who died October 1, 1853.

Seven children are listed for both men.  Richard is listed as the first child of Jonas Long.

I don't know why Elizabeth waited to probate these estates.  She died sometime between the 1860 census and her father's death in 1864.

Future Research

Who were the parents of Jonas Long (died 1837)?  The discovery of five more of his children provide opportunities to uncover interactions with the Long side of the family.  If Jonas' son Jacob V P Long was named for Jacob Van Pelt, this could be a generation back on the Long line.

Where are Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrell buried?  When did Elizabeth die?  Elizabeth's (second) husband, William Owens, is supposedly buried at the Merrell Cemetery in Bulls Head, Staten Island.  FindAGrave provides a date of death in 1852 with no picture of a headstone, while the estate index has 1853.

Why did Richard Merrell who died in Virginia in 1861 use his mother's surname and not his father's?  Why did he move to Virginia?  Were his children initially omitted from their great grandfather's estate?  Was contact lost because of the Civil War, or does their possible omission indicate that Richard Merrell was not a full sibling to the six Long children?

Thank you to the other researchers who helped bring this fractured branch together.

Who were the Parents of Susan Long (1818-1882)?

Who were the parents of Susan Long (1818-1882)?

She was my fourth great grandmother and married Eliakim Marsh (1816-1881) in 1839.  Their marriage was recorded in Essex County in the early New Jersey marriages collection at FamilySearch.  Eliakim was from NY City [New York City, New York] and Susan was from E Town [now Elizabeth in Union County, New Jersey].  No parents were listed, which was standard for these marriage records.

Eliakim and Susan are in New Jersey in the census from 1850-1880.
1850:  Elizabeth Township, Essex County
1860:  Newark, Essex County
1870:  New Brunswick, Middlesex County
1880:  Elizabeth, Union County

Susan died in Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey on December 28, 1882.  She is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Hillside, Union County.

Her death certificate lists her parents as Jonas Long and Elizabeth.

There are a few references online for a marriage of Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrell/Merrill.  No further information for Jonas Long.  A few times in the 1820s in newspapers, Jonas Long is on the list of people who have letters at the post office.

Elizabeth appears often as the daughter of Richard Merrell (1775-1864) and Ann/Nancy Cole (1776-1861), born in 1797 in Staten Island, New York.  Richard and Ann are buried at the Piscatawaytown Burial Ground in Edison, Middlesex County.  If I have the correct family, Elizabeth Merrell was the 3x great granddaughter of Richard Merrell and Sarah Wells, who arrived on Staten Island, New York around 1675.  (And my 10x great grandparents.)

What confuses me is why Richard Merrell (1817-1861) is listed as the child of Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrell.  At least the creator of the above tree from RootsWeb noted that Richard Merrell used his mother's surname and not his father's.  No mention of my Susan, who ended up using the surname of her husband, Marsh.  But she used the surname "Long" on her marriage record, and the informant for her death certificate knew her father's name was Long.

The Richard Merrell born in New Jersey in 1817, the possible brother of Susan Long, moved to Virginia, married Elizabeth Culpepper (1824-1892), and had issue.

I'm not sure that Richard Merrell (1817-1861) is properly placed as a child of Elizabeth Merrell and Jonas Long.  Other online family trees repeat this relation, still without another child named Susan, but list Elizabeth as the father and Jonas as the mother.  Entering the information this way into a tree program would trigger children to carry Elizabeth's surname, Merrell.

I have found a trace of Merrell to Susan Long.  In the 1870 federal census, an older woman named Phebe Merton is living with Susan and her family.  In the 1880 census, Phebe Merton is living with her brother, Abraham Merrell.  Phebe and Abraham may have been siblings of Susan's mother, Elizabeth.

When Susan's maternal grandfather, Richard Merrell, died in 1864, Samuel R Marsh was named as an administrator.  I do not know how this Marsh fits into the Marsh family that Susan married into, but demonstrates a connection to the family.

If anyone is studying these lines, or has any additional insight, please reach out to me.  Thank you.

1850 Census

In trying to sort out my Merrell and Long lines of New Jersey, this helpful census entry popped up from 1850.  (At this point I don't know what connection, if any, this family has to do with my lines.)

(Springfield is now in Union County, but was in Essex County in 1850, so we use the place name description accurate for that period of time.  Union County was not created until 1857.  Parts of Springfield Township remained in Essex County and became Millburn, which is where this family is found in the 1860 census.)

Beginning in 1850, the federal census listed all members of a household- not just the head of the household.  This is great, except that the relationship of each member to the head is omitted.  This feature was not added until 1880.

This census taker went above and beyond, recording little tidbits of information along with the names.  In the above entry, the older ladies of the household, Catherine Meeker and Elizabeth Long, are listed as "wid" or widowed.  (As a word of caution:  a woman enumerated without a husband was not always a widow, even if indicated in her social condition from 1880 forward.)

Harriet Meeker (born Long), age 22, is listed as "his W," indicating that she is the spouse of John Meeker, and not a daughter of Catherine Meeker.  When viewing a census from 1850, 1860, or 1870, it is very easy to mistake the wife of a son as a daughter of the head of household, as the daughter-in-law may be intermingled with the other children of the same age.

Genetic Genealogy: Fourth Cousins

Another successful match in my genetic genealogy pursuits at 23andMe!  This time we have my father's fourth cousin.  The most recent common ancestors were my father's great great great grandparents:  Eliakim Marsh and Susan Long.  They were born in the 1810s and lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  [Elizabeth is currently in Union County, but the area was Essex County until 1857.]  Eliakim died in 1881 and Susan in 1882.

ISOGG.org

With an autosomal DNA test, you have slightly less than a 1 in 2 chance of sharing any identical DNA with a fourth cousin.  My father and his three siblings all share DNA with this fourth cousin.  The amount of DNA shared ranges from 0.66% to 1.18%, which is on the high side for a fourth cousin match.  This could indicate that we are related on more than one line, or that Eliakim and Susan were related to each other.  Additional research will yield more information.

Of special note is a match to my aunt and uncle on the X chromosome.  This is a 23 cM segment from either Eliakim or Susan- we cannot tell which one at this point.  The X chromosome has a specific inheritance pattern.  The chain is broken in any father to son descent.  A father passes on his only X chromosome to a daughter- an exact copy.  A mother has two X chromosomes that are recombined, likely into two or three segments, and passed on to her children.  Thus, large segments on the X chromosome may travel intact for many more generations than autosomal segments (the other 22 chromosomes).

By identifying the ancestors responsible for an area of a chromosome, we can specifically use that one branch as we look at the other DNA cousins who match on this same segment.

The path of inheritance for this segment of the X chromosome for my aunt and uncle was:
1.  Eliakim Marsh or Susan Long
2.  Susan Marsh
3.  Minnie Bishop
4.  Eugene Cook
5.  Beulah Cook
6.  Jody's aunt and uncle

How did we figure out the relationship and the most recent common ancestors?  Geography.  We looked in our family trees and identified people living in the same area of the world at the same time.  New Jersey, United States, 1800s.  Then we compared surnames.  In reviewing my notes on Marsh and Long, I realized that we had first corresponded years ago on these same people, where the relation had already been figured out.  Here we are, connecting again, because we share identical DNA from our common ancestors born 200 years ago.