Walling Descendants from Plymouth Colony

A Walling cousin kindly shared the results of his Y-DNA test.

He is my father's eighth cousin, once removed. Sometimes you have to travel far in the family tree to find a candidate for the Y-DNA test. Even though he is a distant cousin, his Y chromosome is perfect for tracing our shared Walling ancestry.

The last person in my line named Walling was a great great great grandmother, Sophia T Walling (1835-1906).

The Y-DNA test, offered at Family Tree DNA, traces the direct paternal line. This is the path of the Y chromosome, passed intact from father to son.

The original immigrant of our shared Walling line was Ralph Wallen. He and his wife, Joyce, were passengers on the ship Anne. They arrived in Plymouth Colony in 1623. Scant written records remain. Ralph's family of origin and creation are debated. A scoundrel named Thomas Wallen appears in records slightly later than Ralph and is generally held to be Ralph's son.

We are interested in this test to explore:
-Are the plentiful Wallings alive today all descended from a common ancestor?
-Who were Ralph Wallen's ancestors in England?
-Was Thomas Wallen (1627-1674) the son of Ralph?


The results were pleasantly surprising because all ten matches used a variation of Walling either as their current surname or as their paternal line. (This was not the situation with my other Y-DNA tests. See my one match for Lutter.)

I identified four testers as descendants of Thomas Wallen, the purported son of the Pilgrim immigrant Ralph Wallen.

Plymouth Colony Wallen descendants

The surname project for Walling organizes these testers in three different groups:
-Long Hunter
-Unrelated R1b
-English Walling/Wallen to Walden.

I found that three are descended from Elisha Walling (1708-1783), the "Long Hunter." All five are descended from Thomas Wallen.

The Walling, Wallen, and Walden lines of the six other testers will trace back to a common ancestor, probably Thomas and Ralph of Plymouth Colony.

At this point, we have not genetically shown that Thomas was the son of Ralph. To do so, we need to go a generation or more beyond Ralph and show Y-DNA matches to descendants of Ralph's cousins and/or brothers. But we do not know the parents of Ralph. We need testers who can trace back, on paper, to Wallens in England in the late 1500s and who have matching Y chromosomes to descendants of the Plymouth Wallens.

Records are scarce or non-existent, but with Y-DNA testing, we can possibly uncover the origins of Ralph Wallen of Plymouth.

More DNA from Dunn and Dunlop Ancestors, Plus More?

Family Tree DNA notifies you when a "close" relative is found.  Based on whose account also received this email, I knew that the common ancestors would be in my father's Winterton/Dunn branch.

Family Tree DNA allows you to see the shared segments of DNA with anyone in your Family Finder results.  This person, who displayed his name, shares 13 segments of DNA totaling 323 centimorgans with my paternal grandfather's first cousin, D.W.  A check of the family tree showed the actual relationship between D.W. and this newly tested person as second cousins, once removed.  Their most recent common ancestors were Ezra Dunn (1821-1898) and Hermoin Dunlop (1827-1900) of New Jersey.  My line descends from their daughter, Catherine (1865-1944); the second cousin descends from another daughter, Violet (1873-1931).

Based on this view of the shared DNA, I can identify the mystery cousin from a year ago at 23andMe as a daughter or niece of this new match at Family Tree DNA.

Here are the problems:
1- This is a lot of DNA for second cousins to share.
2- The shared segment on chromosome 7 is shared by a fourth cousin from a different branch- Walling/Dey.

23andMe chromosome browser
Three segments of DNA shared by these fourth cousins, once removed.

Transcribed will of William Walling of Middleton, Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1823.
My line descends from the son William (1803-1870).
The fourth cousin whose DNA is featured above descends from the son Amos.

As I discussed back in 2015 when this Walling/Dey fourth cousin appeared, we need to triangulate these segments of DNA with other matches before we can decide if this is likely Walling/Dey DNA.  We cannot do this with this newly tested cousin because they are spread across companies.  The Walling/Dey cousin is on 23andMe and Ancestry.com (no chromosome browser), while this closer Dunn/Dunlop cousin is at Family Tree DNA.  If they both uploaded to GedMatch (for free!) we could see if they match each other on chromosome 7.  The next-generation cousin at 23andMe has not accepted my request to "share," so we cannot see the matching segments or compare to others.



The excessive DNA is caused by being related to this close Dunn/Dunlop cousin in one or more additional ways.  Possible explanations:

1-  One of his other ancestors not in the straight line of descent from Violet Dunn may be descended from our Walling/Dey branch.

2-  Ezra Dunn or Hermoin Dunlop may themselves have ancestors in common with William Walling and Rebecca Dey.  My inclination to locate this overlap (my first pedigree collapse!) would be in the ancestors of Margaret Combs (1795-1870), the mother of Hermoin Dunlop, because they were living in Monmouth County near Walling and Dey.  Hermoin's father, Joseph Dunlop (1797-1852), was possibly from Pennsylvania, while Ezra Dunn was in Trenton, New Jersey.  Go with a geographical match when trying to figure out these DNA connections.

Photographs in a Series Reunited

A cousin kindly sent me some more family photographs.  (Thank you D.W.!)

A snow scene caught my eye.  My aunt had given me a similar picture a few years ago of a couple standing in snow, the woman holding a snowball.

These people are still unidentified.  Based on who inherited these pictures, they come from the Walling and Winterton branches of the family tree.  They lived in the Keyport area of Monmouth County, New Jersey.

In an earlier article, I compared an identified photograph from a cousin to unidentified photographs I received years ago and determined that they are from the Walling and Winterton branches.

The pictures and heirlooms handed down through the generations are analogous to DNA.  Each child receives different bits of the parent's DNA and passes the different parts down to their descendants.

My branch received some tools from David Uhl (1834-1884), while a cousin received other tools, all marked with UHL to signify the common origin.

Lillian Winterton (1873-1918)

Lillian Winterton (1873-1918) was a sister of my great great grandfather, William Walling Winterton (1863-1932).  I realized that her burial had not been posted to Find A Grave when I visited Green Grove Cemetery in Keyport, Monmouth County, New Jersey, a few days ago.  The prior post examined Sophia, a sister of Lillian and William.

I wish I had a picture of Lillian herself and not just her gravestone.

Lillian was born in Keyport in 1873 to John Winterton (1831-1890) and Sophia Walling (1835-1906).  Her grave marker is shared with her parents.

In the New Jersey State Census for 1905, Lillian is enumerated with her mother in Monmouth County.

I had her death certificate, but had not posted it to the family tree.  Often we forget to pursue siblings of our ancestors, especially when they had no offspring.  But they, too, influence our family history.

According to Lillian's death certificate, she died at the Home for Incurables in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.  The doctor, Sarah R Mead, attended Lillian from 1909 until Lillian's death in 1918.

A book had a description of this institute for the care of women with incurable diseases.  Lillian's death was caused by endocarditis, myocarditis, and arthritis deformans.  Dr Mead was a visiting physician.

The Home for Incurables at 102 Court Street in Newark was enumerated in the 1910 federal census.  "Ellen Winterton," age 36, was a patient.  This is probably Lillian.

Winterton Ellen, Patient, Female, White, age 36, Single.

By the 1905 New Jersey state census, Lillian's brother, William Winterton, had already moved to Newark.  Perhaps the death of Lillian and William's mother in 1906 necessitated Lillian moving into a facility to care for her physically and since brother William had already relocated to Newark, Lillian moved there as well.

We don't know much about this Aunt Lillian.  We can only have a glimpse of her through scant documents to formulate an idea about her life with "incurable" illnesses and the effect on her and the family.

Walling Winterton Photographs

A cousin sent me a photograph that he found.  The back of the photo identifies the people as Joe, Sophia, and Wilbur Walling at 76 South Mentor Avenue in Pasadena, California in June of 1920.

Wilbur Clarence Walling (1891-1963) was the son of Joseph Walling (1859-1957) and Sophia Winterton (1869-1931).  Wilbur married Jennie Terhune Almond (1891-1953) and moved to California from New Jersey.

Wilbur's sister was Mildred Esther Walling (1895-1919).  Perhaps after the death of their daughter, Joseph and Sophia decided to move to California to be with their remaining child.

Sophia Winterton's parents were John Winterton (1831-1890) and Sophia Walling (1835-1906).  I do not know how Sophia's husband, Joseph Walling, was related.  But Sophia's and Joseph's families were living next to each other in the 1880 federal census in Holmdel.

Having an identified picture for Walling and Winterton is very exciting because I have a supposed Winterton Family Album of mostly unidentified people.  A potential match caught my eye.

Could this be Joseph Walling (born 1859), Wilbur Walling (born 1891), Mildred Walling (born 1895), and Sophia Winterton (born 1869)?

Is this an earlier picture of Joseph Walling (born 1859)?

Is this Joseph Walling (born 1859)?  The woman is not his wife because the eyes are too light.

Comparison of the three proposed matches to the identified picture of Joseph Walling.

Comparison of the woman from the older family picture to the identified Sophia Winterton, wife of Joseph Walling.

Is the boy Wilbur Walling?

This postcard from Aunt Sophia was among another photo collection given to me.

It was addressed to William Winterton of Keyport and mailed from Pasadena in 1930.

The sender is probably Sophia Winterton, the sister of William's father.

Mildred Esther Walling (1895-1919)

Daughter of Joseph Walling and Sophia Winterton

Yesterday I returned to Green Grove Cemetery in Keyport, Monmouth County, New Jersey.  One of the Winterton lots was cleaned up.  I found the gravestone for Mildred Walling.  It had been obscured by a large bush.  (There is still a stone face-down.)  Mildred's parents and brother are buried in California.

Surviving Genes of Walling and Dey

I have figured out the most recent common ancestors of a DNA cousin.

A new Shared Ancestor Hint appeared for me at AncestryDNA.  This system compares the family trees of my DNA cousins, looking for the same ancestors from my family tree.

The shared ancestor suggestion was William Walling (1770-1824) of Monmouth County, New Jersey.  He is one of my 5X great grandfathers.  (His transcribed will can be found here.)  I don't know why his wife, Rebecca Dey (born about 1770), my 5X great grandmother, did not appear also.

Based on our family trees, this DNA cousin is a fifth cousin of my father.  AncestryDNA reports that I share some DNA with this fifth cousin.

Here is the step where a lot of people stumble:  this scenario does not prove that William Walling and Rebecca Dey are our biological ancestors; nor does it prove that the DNA we share is from William Walling and Rebecca Dey.

We need to see how much DNA and which segments of DNA are shared with this DNA cousin so that we can triangulate the match.  You cannot triangulate with AncestryDNA.

To triangulate, we need to look at other DNA cousins who match on these same shared segments of DNA and determine if they too trace ancestry back to William Walling and Rebecca Dey, or one of the ancestors of either of William Walling or Rebecca Dey.  With AncestryDNA, you have no information about where any of your other DNA cousins match you, so you cannot know if they match on the same segments as any other DNA cousins.

I remembered the name of this DNA cousin from 23andMe, where we had corresponded two years earlier.  We had discussed the idea that the common ancestors were not too far back in time and were likely in Monmouth County, New Jersey because this DNA cousin matched my father, his siblings, and their father's cousin from the Winterton/Dunn line in Monmouth County.  If this segment can be further identified as a Walling/Dey segment, then we know that the segment came to my father via William Winterton's mother, Sophia Walling.

We can see the shared DNA at 23andMe.

Note that one of the matches, a sibling of my father, shares a very tiny segment of only 5 cM.  Most people would disregard such a small amount, but as you can see in the graph, this small segment is in line with the larger segments shared by other close relations.

Prior exchanges with this DNA cousin at 23andMe did not lead to William Walling and Rebecca Dey because his family tree had not yet grown that many generations back.  Two years later, his family tree at Ancestry was more robust and prompted the discovery.

The next step is to look at the other DNA cousins who share this segment.  I maintain Excel spreadsheets for my closest relatives.

This snippet is from the spreadsheet of my first cousin, twice removed.  I list his DNA cousins by chromosome of where they share identical DNA.  The Walling/Dey cousin shares an identical segment on chromosome 7, starting around 91,000,000 and ending around 127,000,000.

I checked all of these smaller matches against the Walling/Dey cousin to see if they match him as well as my first cousin.  All of them do.  If this shared DNA is from the Walling/Dey couple, then all of these DNA cousins will also descend from Walling/Dey or from one of the ancestors of either William Walling or Rebecca Dey.

This is where you need to depend on others for information.  Some of these DNA cousins offer family tree information; most do not.  I reviewed their surname and location lists and family trees, if they had any, and saw nothing in common with Walling/Dey.  I sent them all a note, describing what we need to look for.

So far, nobody has replied.  Without finding a connection to Walling/Dey in these other matches, we cannot triangulate to declare that this segment of DNA is from Walling/Dey.

Amanuensis Monday: 1823 Will of William Walling of Middletown, New Jersey

WILL OF WILLIAM WALLING

Of Middletown, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States

Signed December 3, 1823

Proved May 18, 1824

Monmouth County Wills Volume B 1816-1826, pages 396-397

I, William Walling, of the township of Middletown, County of Monmouth and State of New Jersey, being of sound mind and memory, do make and publish this for my last will and testament.

First, I do order that all my just debts and funeral expences be paid by my Executors out of my personal Estate immediately after my decease.

Second, I give and bequeath to my wife, Rebecca, the use of my Estate, both real and personal, during her natural life or widowhood, she to maintain and bring up my youngest children untill they arrive to the age of twenty one years, and in case of the marriage or decease of my said wife, I do order my Executors hereinafter named to take charge of my property both real and personal for the purpose of bringing up and supporting my youngest children untill they arrive to the age of twenty one years at their discretion.

Third.  The repairs that may be necessary for my real Estate I do order my Executors to cut and sell wood off of my real Estate, sufficient to pay for said repairs.

Fourth.  In case my wife accepts the said bequest in lieu of her dower, my will is that after her decease, the residue of my Estate (after payment of debts) both real and personal, be equally divided amongst my children, share and share alike, in fee simple.

Fifth.  In case my children cannot agree themselves about the division of my Estate as aforesaid, it is my will and I do order my Executors or the survivor of them to sell All my Estate, both real and personal, and the money then arising to be equally divided among all my children or their lawfull heirs.

And Lastly I do appoint my three sons, Isaac Walling, Amos Walling, and William Walling, Executors of this, my testament and last will.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this third day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty three.  –William Walling—

Signed sealed published and declared by the said William Walling to be his testament and last will in the presence of us, Thos Vanderhoef, Stephen Bedle, Thomas Walling.

Stephen Bedle, one of the witnesses to the foregoing will, being duly sworn according to law, did depose and say that he saw William Walling, the testator therein named, sign and seal the same and heard him publish pronounce and declare the said writing to be his last will and testament and that at the doing thereof the said testator was of sound and disposing mind and memory as far as this deponent knows and as he verily believes and that Thomas Vanderhoef and Thomas Walling, the other subscribing evidences, were present at the same time and signed their names as witnesses to the said will together with this deponent in the presence of the said testator.  –Stephen Bedle—

Sworn and subscribed at Freehold the 18^th day of May 1824 before me .  –P. C. Vanderhoef, Surrogate

Isaac Walling and Amos Walling, two of the Executors in the within testament named, being duly sworn according to law, did severally depose and say that the within writing contains the true last will and testament of William Walling the testator therein named so far as they know and as they verily believe that they will well and truly perform the same by paying first the debts of the said deceased and then the legacies in the said testament specified so far as the goods chattles and credits of the said deceased will thereunto extend and that they will make and exhibit into the Surrogate Office of the County of Monmouth a true and perfect Inventory of all and singular the goods, chattles, and credits of the said deceased as far as shall come to their knowledge or possession or to the possession of any other person or persons for their use and render a just and true account when thereunto lawfully required.  –Isaac Walling, Amos Walling—

Sworn and subscribed at Freehold the 18^th day of May 1824 before me.  –P C Vanderhoef, Surrogate—

I, Peter C Vanderhoef, Surrogate of the County of Monmouth, do certify the annexed to be a true copy of the last will and testament of William Walling, late of the County of Monmouth, deceased, and that Isaac Walling and Amos Walling, the Executors therein named, proved the same before me and are duly authorised to take upon themselves the administration of the Estate of the testator agreeably to the said will.

Witness my hand and seal of office the eighteenth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty four.  –P C Vanderhoef, Surrogate—

Death Knocked Twice

Some people's deaths were never reported to the State.  William Walling's death was reported twice.

William Walling was my 4x great grandfather.  He was born around 1803 in Keyport, Monmouth County, New Jersey to William Walling and Rebecca Dey.  He married Ellen Euphemia Imlay.  I descend from their daughter, Sophia T Walling.

William died in 1870 on July 31st.  A newspaper article four days before his death, described his physical labors constructing a building in Keyport.  I have been seeking documentation on his parents.

William Walling's death appears in the online index of New Jersey Deaths and Burials, 1720-1988 at FamilySearch.org (a free site).  But there seemed to be two entries: 1870 and 1871.  (Remember the past problem with this index:  the year can be off by one because New Jersey's records were not organized based on a calendar year.)

Volume AP is the death ledger for 1869-1870.
Volume AR is the death ledger for 1870-1871.

So I looked up both records.

Volume AP, New Jersey Deaths, Hunterdon-Warren Counties, 1869-1870

Volume AR, New Jersey Deaths, Hunterdon-Warren Counties, 1870-1871

Remember that individual death certificates were not issued until 1878.

Volume AP, page 118, covers deaths in Monmouth County, New Jersey from August 1, 1869 through July 31, 1870.  William Walling died on the last day covered by this ledger book.  Note that his parents are listed as Thomas and Rebecca.

Volume AR, page 111, covers deaths in Monmouth County from August 1, 1870 through September 30, 1871.  However, the first entry is a death on July 25, 1870 and the last is July 26, 1871.  William's parents are listed as William and Rebecca.

William died of stomach cancer in both entries.  Yet he was digging a well a few days before his death.

Also note that another Walling is on both pages.  Wallings are plentiful in the geographic area.

The research point is that a record may be missing completely, appear in duplicate, or appear in a place where it should not be.  So you need to cast a wide net of years and locations when looking for records.

Using Cemeteries to Track Moves

Laura Winterton was one of my great grandparents.  She was born in 1891 in Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey to William Winterton and Catherine Dunn.  Around 1905, her family moved to Newark in Essex County, New Jersey.  In 1910, Laura Winterton married Howard Lutter.  Three generations later, here I am.

Laura died in 1962 in Newark from complications of diabetes and multiple sclerosis.  She was buried in an unmarked grave in Hollywood Cemetery in Union (Union County, New Jersey).  

Recently, I visited family gravesites for the first time in Monmouth County, New Jersey.  Although I do not live far from these cemeteries, I had never visited, probably because these graves were among the few recorded and photographed when genealogy started on the internet.  Visit Interment.net and DistantCousin.com for user-submitted records.  I concentrated on visiting graves that nobody had photographed and posted online, of which there were plenty, and I uploaded my pictures and notes to FindAGrave.

Ancestors of my great grandmother
[Chart created in Excel and modified in Paint]

Green Grove Cemetery in Keyport

William Winterton (1862-1932) and Catherine Dunn (1865-1944), parents of Laura, died in Newark, but are buried in Keyport.

William's parents, John R Winterton (1831-1890) and Sophia T Walling (1835-1906), are buried in a plot shared with Cuttrells, located near the corner of Green Grove Avenue and Hurley Street.

Sophia's parents, William Walling (1803-1870) and Ellen Euphemia Imlay (1807-1895), are also at Green Grove in a family plot.

Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn

John Winterton's parents, Samuel Winterton (1800-1877) and Sally Johnson (1802-1882), relocated to Monmouth County from New York City in the 1850s.  Samuel died in Keyport and Sally in Raritan, but they are both buried at Greenwood Cemetery in New York.  Their burials are searchable at the cemetery's website.

Rose Hill Cemetery in Matawan

At Rose Hill are Laura Winterton's maternal grandparents, Ezra Dunn (1821-1898) and Hermoine Dunlop (1827-1900).  This is a small cemetery.  I was able to find the graves based on the pictures already online.

I marked the GPS location of the graves on FindAGrave.

FindAGrave.com

Google maps, connected by FindAGrave

I am still working on Ezra Dunn's parents.  According to his death certificate, Ezra's parents were Nathaniel Dunn and Sarah.

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Matawan

Hermoine Dunlop's father, Joseph Dunlop, was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.  This trip illustrates why you want to visit grave sites, rather than just look at pictures or transcriptions online.

In memory of Joseph W DUNLOP who died Apr 26, 1852,
aged 55 years, 2 months, and 4 days.

In the 1850 federal census in Raritan (Monmouth County, New Jersey), we have:

Joseph W. Dunlop, age 54, born in Pennsylvania;

Margaret Dunlop, age 53, born in New Jersey;

some of their children and boarders.

I located a marriage record in 1824 in Monmouth County for Joseph Dunlop and Margaret Little.  I need more evidence to decide if this is the marriage record for this couple.  A trip to the cemetery makes this marriage record more plausible for fitting into my tree.

FamilySearch.org
New Jersey, County Marriages, 1682-1956

I did not see a gravestone for Margaret; however, two Little graves and one Dunlop are next to Joseph Dunlop.  This placement could indicate a relationship.  You cannot see this positioning from online transcriptions or individual pictures of the stones.  (Well, now you can with my labeled picture.)

"The grave of William Johnston, son of Joseph W. and Margaret Dunlop,
died Nov 17, 1832, aged 3 years, 7 months, and 24 days."

"Frances, daughter of Robert and Margaret Little,
who departed this life April 30th, 1839,
aged 20 years, 6 months, and 8 days."

"Robert Little, a native of the Billis, near Virginia, County Cavan, Ireland,
who emmigrated to America A.D. 1807,
and departed this life October 29th, 1821,
in the 37 year of his age.  
For many years an active merchant in this place."

If this Little grave has a connection to Margaret, wife of Joseph Dunlop, then I will have a great link to the hometown in Ireland.  This would also be the first Irish ancestor found in my father's tree.