Wedge Family History and Genealogy

By Douglas M. Dubrish

The Wedge Family History and Genealogy book is an informative and engaging resource that offers a comprehensive look at the Wedge family's history, culture, and traditions. From the family's earliest roots in the Grand River Six Nations Reserve to the present day, this book provides a fascinating look at the Wedge family's legacy, offering insights into the family's customs, values, and beliefs. Whether you are a seasoned genealogist or a newcomer to family history research, this book is an invaluable tool for exploring your ancestral roots and uncovering your family's story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Douglas M. Dubrish
• Release date: Mar 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215235065

Douglas M. Dubrish

An author, researcher, and biographer, Douglas M. Dubrish was born in Michigan, U.S.A. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science from The U of NY Excelsior College. He is a veteran Air Traffic Controller of the U.S. Air Force; and the U.S. Department of Commerce, N.O.A.A., National Weather Service where he issued media warnings and statements, briefed pilots, and provided weather observations. As a historian, culture writer, and biographer he has authored many family histories and an increasing number of New Age books with compelling subjects.

Book preview

Wedge Family

HISTORY AND GENEALOGY

1765 - 1920

New York – Cayuga Tribe

Ontario – Upper Canada

First Published July 2010

Revised 2020

Copyright © 2010 by Douglas M. Dubrish

All rights reserved

Created in the U.S.A.

Very special thanks to my cousins:

Nola Wedge–Tooker 6th cousin

Lana Hurley-Hieftje6th cousin

Peter Whitehead5th cousin once removed

Muriel Steinack-Trendell3rd cousin once removed

Connie Searles6th cousin

And Diane Koobas

Introduction

Chapter 1 Family Oral Tradition

Chapter 2 Generation No.1

Chapter 3 Generation No. 2

Chapter 4 Generation No. 3

Chapter 5 Generation No. 4

Chapter 6 Generation No. 5

Chapter 7 Generation No. 6

Chapter 8 Generation No. 7

Chapter 9 Ancestral Letters

Chapter 10 Ahnentafel Report – Family Tree

Other Books

Introduction

Over the last 20 years a great deal has changed as the World Wide Web expands to include and ever increasing population. With this availability reaching distant corners of the globe laws have been enacted in a multitude of countries to protect people’s right to privacy. In publishing a family history book where living persons reside in various countries, protecting privacy becomes difficult when the laws are forever changing and unknown to the author. In the U.S.A., where many states post drivers licenses of residents which include vital dates for living individuals (i.e. citing that driver’s licenses are public information), an individuals privacy is seriously compromised. This has perpetuated identity theft of which this author has been a victim.

It is still customary in the U.S.A. to publish in newspapers: birth announcements, weddings, and obituaries making available to the public at large the vital dates of countless individuals. These local newspapers articles, which are compiled on computers, are then made readily available on the World Wide Web for anyone anywhere with an internet connection. Therefore, information from various sources can be obtained for living individuals. However, this author will refrain from providing vital dates on living descendants in this publication, and would request that the family historian contact their circle of living relatives to provide any necessary genealogical information on living members of their families.

In an effort to curtail identity theft I have omitted the years for vital dates after 1920, which would likely apply to living persons. I have provided the month, and day when known, that would perhaps be valuable to the family historian when interviewing an elderly family member regarding genealogical information. Unfortunately, to provide this privacy to the living, by replacing the known years in the edit mode on my computer with the word private, will also result in the omission of the year of death for many individuals in the Ahnentafel report. The Ahnentafel report contains thousands of descendants, and it would take many long days to edit these individual dates manually one by one.

I have been researching different branches of my family tree for over 30 years. Although the internet has made research a bit easier in the last decade, I have spent countless hours in correspondence, ordering documentation from various sources, making road trips near and far to cemeteries, court houses, and libraries. It occurred to me that all the information I have compiled would just sit in my computer should something happen to me, and I wanted to stop and provide what information I had compiled to be available to descendants on the World Wide Web in a convenient eBook form.

Throughout my research I have used either a simple accumulation of direct evidence that strongly supports one conclusion or an assemblage of indirect or circumstantial evidence that may indirectly suggest one particular solution. This process being the fundamentals of analysis as suggested by Elizabeth Shown Mills in her book Evidence! The case is never closed on a genealogical conclusion because a record’s custodial history often times affects its trustworthiness. None the less, at some point a person needs to stop and make available what information they have compiled before it is lost. I reached that point.

A person can upload their donated information to a dot com (i.e. Ancestry, et cetera) who will compile it to be readily available to those who pay their monthly fee for membership, or you can provide it to interested descendants just as I’m doing here. Over the years I have donated my research to many people all over the globe, and to many genealogical societies for the benefit of others. I have learned from publishing my other family lines, that descendants are spread out not only across the U.S.A. but also in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, England, Afghanistan and Spain. In another 5 to 10 years descendants will likely migrate to other locations across the globe, and in time become interested in their family heritage particularly when they have families of their own. It is for the future that I stop and compile this work so that you will gain a sense of your bonding to history.

The Author

Chapter 1

Family Oral Tradition

When researching family history we often discover family oral tradition that has been passed on from generation to generation. In the present day this is magnified by the World Wide Web where researchers review information obtained by family historians, with many identifying names, and dates, in postings on the many online family discussion boards. Suddenly, we have a lot of people that have heard this, and that, via the discussion boards. This is a good thing that can eventually establish compelling evidence to isolate a particular ancestor, at a particular location, at a particular time in the past.

Researching family history is detective work which includes: direct evidence, indirect evidence, and circumstantial evidence. Family oral traditions would best be documented as circumstantial evidence. If the family tradition is widespread there would likely be some truth to the story, and authenticating that truth may be very difficult if written records were traditionally never kept. This can certainly be the case with researching Native Americans. We may never find a document that states directly what we need to know, although we may find multiple pieces of quality evidence that indirectly suggest one particular solution, with no inherent contradictions. If so, then we may build a case upon an assemblage of indirect or circumstantial evidence.

Even with that being said, we must still keep in mind that common knowledge can also be flawed. Seriously flawed. Here’s a case in point.

The United States was established on July 4, 1776. George Washington was inaugurated president thirteen years later, on April 30, 1789. During the intervening years, the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia drew up the Articles of Confederation (the first American constitution). In 1781, Maryland representative John Hanson was elected the first President of the Congress of the Confederation. His official title was President of the United States in Congress Assembled. After Hanson, seven other men served as President: Elias Boudinot, Thomas Mifflin, Richard Henry Lee, John Hancock, Nathaniel Gorham, Arthur St. Clair, and Cyrus Griffin. Then in 1787, Congress held a constitutional convention. The delegates wrote the current constitution, which was ratified by the States in 1788. The following year, the ratifying states elected Washington our nation’s ninth president (but the first president under the new constitution). So, who was the first President?

It has been said that: any decision we make today could be changed tomorrow by the discovery of a new record. Also that, the case is never closed on a genealogical conclusion." So, as we compile the evidence, and build our mosaic of an ancestral life, we might well keep these two statements in mind.

In compiling this information it is with hope that it will help others who are pursuing the Wedge family history, especially along our Native American family lines. Here’s what I know, and I wish I knew more.

Above are a few famous Native Americans during the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, which were well recognized during the time of our earliest known Wedge ancestors.

Chapter 2

Generation No. 1

1. JOHN WEDGE was born about 1760 in Knowlton, Sussex County, New Jersey in the British held American Colonies. It is in New Jersey that his first son Andrew was born. During research there was unconfirmed evidence that his father’s name may have been Joshua Wedge and another unconfirmed source stated that the family may have originated from Wales, where the distant ancestors owned a tin mine.

It is family legend that John was a farmer, and loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution. During and following the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, Loyalists (especially soldiers and former officials) could choose evacuation. Loyalists were subject to confiscation of their property by the new American government. This seems to be a very well known family tradition, but solid evidence to document any military service for John Wedge has not been found to date (2010).

At least by the year 1800 he had migrated to Ontario, Canada, where he eventually received a Crown Land Grant in Barton Township of lots 10 and 11, Concession IV, which was patented on the 17th of May 1802. Prior to receiving the patent (final property deed), Crown Grant recipients had to complete settlement duties which included clearing land for cultivation, and building a home no less than 16 feet by 20 feet in size. Settlers were given two years to complete their duties, [although] extensions were often granted. This would point to John Wedge being in the area around 1800. A voters list also shows him [John] living on lot 10, Concession III, in 1808, this is according to an email from one distant cousin who was unable to provide any hard copy evidence. Another descendant has provided the oral tradition that the land was said to be about 200 acres, and referred to as on top of the mountain. A copy of the actual Crown Land Grant itself would likely verify much of our family legend. However, an actual copy of the Crown Land Grant has not been obtainable as of this writing. Family legend of other Wedge loyalists that moved to Ontario include: William Wedge, Thomas Wedge, James Wedge, and Joshua Wedge. At about the age of 27, around the year 1787, a long standing family legend suggests that John married a Native American woman named ANNIE PERSOON. Indeed, many genealogical surname boards on various internet web sites support her name as Annie Persoon, or a close variation of her maiden name. Unsubstantiated reports, handed down through various family descendants, indicate that his wife was born about the year 1768 in New York State. Family tradition is that John’s wife was a Native American, who was most likely born in the Cayuga Village, which was located on the tribes’ ancient land surrounding Cayuga Lake located in New York State. This birth date would be prior to the American Revolution. However, Native Americans have informed us that Annie Paarson is not an Indian name. With that being said, it is speculated that Annie Paarson, or Persoon, may actually have been John’s second wife, and not his first as many web site forums have indicated. Another family legend, that is far more compelling, is that John Wedge first married a Native American by the name of TAWANGA. It is suspected that this marriage would be around the year 1787, and that the wedding occurred at the Grand River Reservation, Six Nations Reserve, Brant County, Ontario, Canada. Again, family legend is that Tawanga was the daughter of an Indian Chief of the CAYUGA Tribe, and she is purportedly to have had a very renowned dark, and rich, tone to her skin. Being the daughter of a Cayuga Chief, this 19 year old Indian maiden would have been known as a Noble Woman according to Cayuga custom. After their union the couple likely made their home on the Six Nations reserve. Living on the Reserve was permitted for John, since he had married into the tribe. Marriage customs were simple, and marriage was not necessarily a union for life, but might be dissolved by either party. Ignorance of this ancient law on the part of whites who have been connected with the Indians officially, or as missionaries, has undoubtedly been the cause of a great deal of difficulty, misunderstanding, and mischief. Polygamy, commonly allowed in other Indian nations, was not permitted among the Iroquois Nation13. If they were married by the ancient Longhouse custom a written record of the union is not likely to be found. Therefore, the closest estimate of when this union may have occurred would be to subtract nine months prior to the birth of their first child. In this case that would be the year 1787. Any decision we make today could be changed tomorrow by the discovery of a new record, such as a journal which might contain compelling indirect evidence to some degree. As mentioned, Tawanga’s status would have been in accordance with Longhouse custom where: The lineal descent of the people of the Five Nations shall run in the female line. Women shall be considered the progenitors of the Nation. They shall own the land, and the soil. Men and women shall follow the status of their mothers14. The Cayuga are known by Native Americans as the Haudenosaunee or Hodinoshone, which refers to People of the Longhouse, People of the Marsh, and Keepers of the Great Pipe. The Cayuga people became involved in fur trade with the French during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and they went to war over trapping territories as far south as Virginia. During the American Revolutionary War, the Cayuga’s alliance was split with loyalty between the British and anti-British factions. However, most Cayuga sided with the English. After the British defeat many Cayuga moved to Canada where they were given land in recognition of their loyalty to the Crown.The original reserve [Grand River Six Nations] was granted by Frederick Haldimand under the Haldimand Proclamation of October 1784 to Joseph Brant [War Chief] and his Iroquois followers in appreciation of their support for the Crown during the American Revolution. In 1785 a census showed that 1,843 Natives lived there, which included: 448 Mohawk, 381 Cayuga, 245 Onondaga, 162 Oneida 129 Tuscarora, and 78 Seneca. There were also 400 from other tribes including Delawares, Nanticokes, Tutelos, and even some Creeks and Cherokees (i.e. Regarding Chief Pigeon, no Chippewa were indicated). Joseph Brant also invited several white families to live on the grant [land], particularly former members of Brant's Volunteers and Butler's Rangers. To date no evidence has been found to link John Wedge with either Brant’s Volunteers or Butler’s Rangers. However, the likelihood of this connection certainly still remains. There was an oral tradition among one branch of the Wedge family that