|
a.
|
Continued: Hannah KEYES is linked to her assumed mother Abigail Chaffee by DNA which matches at parents Ephraim Keyes & Abigail Chaffee, grandparents Jonathan Chaffee and Abigail Lyon, and great grandparents Jonathan Chaffee & Hannah Carpenter, great great grandparents Nathaniel Chaffee & Experience BLISS. On March 2016 this writer received a genetic match from Ancestry that indicates Abigail Chaffee is descended from Jonathan Chaffee and Hannah Carpenter, they being Abigail's grandparents. The next day I received a match on her parents. Later the family had matches to Sally Mariah Carpenter, daughter of Hannah Keyes and Levi Carpenter who married Andrew Daily. Based on these results this researcher concluded that the daughter of Jonathan Chaffee and Abigail Lyon is the Abigail who married Ephraim Keyes. The old CHAFFEE genealogy had indicated this Abigail CHAFFEE had died young. <u>A will for her father was located in 2018 which listed all five of the children.
</u>Reasoning prior to the above DNA test:
The preparer of this information had believed for some time that Hannah Keyes was likely the daughter of Ephraim and Abigail Keyes, and with more certainty the granddaughter of Ephraim KEYES and Sarah WADKINS of Ashford, Connecticut. However, there was an alternate possible placement in the last paragraph. I did not find this convincing and now it has been proved incorrect by the will of Ephraim Keyes born 1738 (will 30 May 1772; proved 1 Mar 1774)
The similarity of names, the repeated use of name Ephraim in succeeding generations, location in Ashford, CT, etc. made it a strong possibility that Hannah belonged to the family of Ephraim Keyes and Abigail Chaffee. Why all children of Ephraim Keyes, Jr. and Abigail Chaffee would not be listed if there were children other than Zilpha, Miriam, and Marashal/Marshall is unknown, but this is not uncommon in family records of those times. The marriage of Hannah Keyes to Levi Carpenter is listed in the Barbour records of Connecticut without the year.
Several years ago I had tentatively linked Hannah to the Ephraim Keyes--Abigail Chaffee family with the notation of "possible parents" so that others might be prompted to search further and make further attempts to verify her parentage. Ephraim Keyes and Sarah Wadkins had sons William, Jonah and Frederick in addition to Ephraim and I had supposed they could be possible parents for Hannah as well, but after careful consideration of all possible family placements, my tentative placement continued to be the most likely. This conclusion ad been strengthened by the fact Abigail named her first son Ephraim Keyes Carpenter.
If Hannah KEYES were not the daughter of one of the sons, one might speculate that she was an illegitimate daughter of one of the daughters of Ephraim Keyes and Sarah Wadkins, but since she had a brother in Ephraim Keyes born 1770 (called uncle by her son Ephraim Keyes Carpenter) who also ended up in Lorain County, Ohio, it seemed unlikely this would be the explanation.
In March 2016 I had reason to look at the <u>Solomon Keyes and Sarah Sumner family</u>, believing it a possibility Hannah could have been their youngest child. <u>Solomon's oldest brother was Lt. Ephraim KEYES who married Sarah WADKINS.</u> Some of the same argument's could be used about the males named Ephraim in this line of KEYES families. With this latter scenario Elias Keyes (b 1692) and wife Mary would be Hannah's grandparents rather than her great grandparents.
|
|
b.
|
Continued: Hannah's birth was not recorded in Ashford, Windham County, Connecticut. Possibly she was born in Number Five, Berkshire County, Massachusetts and her mother and siblings returned to Ashford after the death of her father Ephraim Keyes. Per Barbour vital records she married in Ashford, Connecticut.
|
|
c.
|
Continued: Barbour volume lists marriage date as Jan 13, 17[ ] and references vol. 4 p. 7 of Ashford vital records. Looking at the original record book in the Connecticut State Library in Hartford does not lend any further information or clues.
The family of the younger Ephraim Keyes (1770-1852) left a small town in MA (likely Tyringham, Berkshire, MA) around the time of the War of 1812 and arrived in Avon, Lorain, OH about 1815. It is assumed that Levi and Hannah Keyes Carpenter and family were part of a group of families that went West together probably including her brother Ephraim. I originally assumed that Ephraim Keyes (1770-1852) and Hannah Keyes were siblings. Eventually documentation of the family'five children was found in their father's 30 May 1772 will in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts.
No records have been found of the deaths of Hannah (Keyes) Carpenter and Levi Carpenter and burial, but in the 1830 Federal census there are two people -- a male and female each between 50 and 60 years of age living in one household in Avon, Lorain, Ohio.
|
