Am I Related To Hannah Seeley Morris & Aaron Conarroe/Conrow Uncovering More

 A couple years ago I posted on the blogg. "Am I related to Hannah Seeley Morris?" This is a update to that post. 

For years have searched for this woman, without any luck. Can not find any records of her at all. No marriage, no Quaker records, no death records, haven't found her on a will. Same with Aaron Conrow/ Conarroe as being her husband. 

I have found is this:

There was a Aaron Conrow in Downe Township in Cumberland New Jersey. He shows up on tax records for June 1802, June 1803, Aug 1812, and Aug1815. He was also on the June 1793 Tax record for Chester Township in Burlington Co. New Jersey. I am not able to find him on a census records from 1790-1810. There were other Conrow's in the same town. I do believe they are related to Aaron. One person is Isaac, he was on the 1803 June tax record. There was also a Joseph on the 1803 June tax record and a Darling Conrow on the 1815 Aug tax record. Darling and Aaron was on a record called rateable property on 20 Jun - 20 Aug it shows Darling as a single man and blank for Aaron. 

I found what looks like Inventory amount for Joseph Conrow that died in 1814. looks like a Darling Conrow sworn for it as being adm'r for it.

I don't know how Darling is related to Joseph. Is Darling his brother? Is Joseph, Aaron brother or father? I don't have the answers right now. I haven't found any Quaker records of Aaron, or any stating if Joseph had any children. I did find him on Quaker records, but that is for another post.

 Back to Aaron, I did find that a Aaron went to Troy Athens Ohio, he was a census record for 1820-1840. That stated he was born in New Jersey and was born between 1761-1770. 

Is this the same Aaron Conrow that we have been looking for? I believe so. But there seems to be a twist ( or should I say more to the story) As I was researching for Aaron I kept seeing other researchers have Tabitha Mason as being married to him. I always discounted her, cause I was seeking a Hannah Seeley Morris. I ran across Tabitha in William Mason will and it states Tabitha Conrow 

                   

I am not able to find any marriage record of Tabitha being married to a Conrow/Conarroe. My theory is that Aaron married Tabitha before 1798 and after Joseph Conrow passed away they moved to Ohio. I believe their sons came with them. ( Ephraim, William and Samuel)  DNA on Ancestry has showed matches for their children.

Back to Aaron Conrow, I was able to find online that he signed a petition for Jesse Eldridge for a Tavern License from Feb 1810-May 1811. As I was looking at the other names on the petition I saw William Mason and a few other familiar names. William Mason has a daughter name Sarah Seeley Mason ( Tabitha Mason sister). Seeley is a name of interest to me. Due to the fact that Deliverance Conrow ( the supposed daughter of Hannah Seeley Morris) had a child using the same middle name. Her husband Mnason Bowen mothers maidens name is also Seeley. Sarah Seeley Mason married Jonathan Lore his father & mother is David Lore and Tabitha Sheppard. ( ohh the name Tabitha, which I haven't seen much of in the 1700s) Now the name Sheppard is one of the names that is on the petition. I have many DNA matches to this Sheppard and Lore family lines. I just don't know how I am related to them yet. 

Now lets talk about Hannah Seeley Morris. Has always been a great mystery. I believe now that the name and the story was made up. How do I think of this? Let me tell you. I ran across a story in the newspaper of my great grandmother being related to Robert Morris, that there were a claim for the money that he funded the war with and that the government was being sued. I have been researching this newspaper story to see what happen to the lawsuit. It seems to have started about 1898 maybe even earlier and it continued for many years. 

Here is one of the newspaper articles dated 13 Jan 1898.

Here is another article 10 Mar 1910

After reading some of the articles. It got me thinking that maybe our family may have been bamboozled into think we were related to Robert Morris. It also tells me where the rumors of him being related may have came from. I also found a article dated about 1816 of Levi Bowen ( son of Deliverance Conrow and Mnason Bowen) stating that they were waiting for the claim to go through congress. I haven't found anything that states they gotten the claim or if the relationship was proven. 

 This would certainly explain why I haven't found any proof that we are related to Robert Morris. That Hannah Seeley Morris was made up by others to try to get money from the government. 

One thing I can say is that there is a Hannah Seeley, she was married to Mnason Bowen that was born about 1772, they had a son name Mnason Bowen that was born in 1796 and married Deliverance Conrow. I found a wills and marriage records and found were Hannah Seeley and Mnason Bowen was buried at. I have DNA matches on Ancestry to the Seeleys as well as with the Bowens. They all came from Fairfield, Cumberland, New Jersey, which isn't too far from Downe Township Cumberland Co. I have not found any DNA matches to Robert Morris proven children or their descendants. 

The sad part is now we are back at square one of who is Deliverance Conrow mommy? Is it Tabitha Mason, or someone else? Deliverance was born before 1800 and was married in 1816 in Cumberland Co. 

I am hoping that I can use DNA to figure it out and hoping to find some records stating who is Deliverance mommy. My Mtdna has came up nada, my matches are way too far back into time to figure it out. I will continue using my autosomal DNA matches to try to connect the pieces. 

If anyone is reading this and is related to Deliverance Conrow and Mnason Bowen and Mary Conrow ( Deliverance Conrow sister) that married Ichabod Lore has taken a DNA test on Ancestry, please contact me. I would like to compare our matches. I am looking to see if we might be related to the Sheppards, Lores, Mason's and Milford's of Cumberland Co. New Jersey. 

Am I Related to Hannah Seeley Morris 1773 - 1821? Using DNA To Find Out

Update: 1/29/2017
I broke down and took the MtDNA test. I took the fullsequence test, which includes, HVR1, HVR2 and Coding Region. The results are in. I can say I am related through
 Haplogroup H
HVR1: 16362C, 16519C
HVR2: 263G, 309.1C, 315.1C

I have no real idea what these numbers mean yet. FamilyTreeDNA site wasn't able to tell me much. Their webpages seem to be crashing  a lot lately.

This is what I have figured out so far. The Haplogroup H for MtDNA started a gillon years ago, before Adam and Eve time. Me, my mom, my moms mom and her mom, and every female along this line goes back to where there researchers and people who digging in the dirt around the world were able to find a common ancestors with using DNA. This can be very confusing to try to understand. My female line of the H haplogroup started way back when in the Mediterranean Sea ( according to FamilytreeDNA map) near Italy and Greece. This group migrated 3 different directions, one way is to east towards Asia, and to the west to Portugal and to the north towards Finland.  They say about 40% European MtDNA comes from this group.

With my test result there is a list of matches. Here comes the real fun, the hunt. I always love the hunt. I took a quick look at the list to see if I see anything familiar, Looking for the Morris, Conrow, Bowen lines. Nada. I did not see any matches stating they are descendants of these family line. Now it is the time for the hunt. As my cousin puts it " You gotta hack through the jungle with this one". I was hoping it would be so simple, nope, it isn't. Looks like I am going to have to contact people on my list to compare trees, to see if we can find a common matches, common surnames, common locations within a time period. The good thing is we just have to look at one family female line. That makes it a tad easier. I am hoping to find others who is related closer to me that has taken this test and we can compare notes.

Over and out, until next time...

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All my life I grew up hearing from my mother. We are related to Robert Morris the man who sign the Declaration of Independence. Then again she told we were related to William Randolph Hearst. You know the man who had that big castle home in California who had a daughter name Patti Hearst who was kidnapped. She told some tall tales. Of course I didn't believe her. But when I heard other family members telling me of this Robert Morris. It stirred my curiosity up. In 2011 I decided to do my family tree. I joined up on Ancestry and started my search. I started questioning relatives about this Robert Morris to see how we are related to him. One cousin said they found the proof, but their computer crash and the proof crashed with it. Others say they just know it.

 A relative sent me copies of a letter that was typed written that gave the family tree and talked about we are related through the daughter of Robert Morris named Hannah Seeley Morris and that she was accepted by affiliate by DAR. I decided to pursue this. I went on Ancestry and found no records of her at all. I went on DAR website and nada. I even called DAR and there is nothing of this so called record. I even looked at many trees that was online who claimed they are a descendant of Hannah, but no record of her existed nor her so call husband. I became discouraged. This has became a brick wall for me.

I don't know about anyone else but in the past 5 years I have learned a few things when it comes to researching your family members. I don't always go by what others tell me unless they can back it up with documentation. Give me a birth date,  a death date, a tombstone, Quaker record,  a will, census record, etc. to let me know that person existed.   Usually a brick wall means something isn't right. I need to go back over what I have and make sure it is correct. Keep at it, don't quit. Something is bound to pop up somewhere.

The story goes like this. Hannah married Aaron Henry Conarroe and he was a Quaker and her daddy doesn't like Quakers and he took it upon himself to remove any documentation of her being his daughter. Another version to the tale is that when he got put in jail, he forgave her and they were reunited again.

If Aaron was a Quaker there would be a record of him being born. I have yet to find him in the Quaker records of his birth. If he would have gotten married, there be a Quaker record of it. Quaker are great for keep records. I have yet to find a Quaker record of them being married or death or them moving from one Quaker meeting house to another, or them being kicked out. Also there should be a record of Deliverance and other children being born in the Quaker records, which I have yet to find.

 Many books have been written about Robert Morris. There were letters and journals written by him and his wife. I am surprised that there doesn't seem to anything that written by the wife to any family members stating she had a daughter name Hannah that was removed from the family. I would think there be a letter of her sharing her feelings about the whole ordeal. Or an another family member sharing it. I do find this odd.

So my question is this, was there really a Hannah Seeley Morris? who married a Arron Henry Conarroe? If so, what happen to them?  Where did they died at? Did they have more children? Did they continue to be Quakers or did they step out of the church?

This what we have found:
After Robert Morris died there were newspaper articles of a case where the descendants were  trying to sue the government for the monies that Robert gave to the government to help fund the war. This went on for years. According to a newspaper article from the The Evening Herald (Ottawa Kansas) dated 12 May 1914, It stated that Ella May Loafman Roberts is a great granddaughter of Robert Morris, and English Capitalist who lent a million and a half dollars to the government to finance the war. According to the paper it stated that the claims is now settled. I would like to be able to see this settlement results, and who was awarded. I have not found any newspapers articles that has this information yet.

                                        

Deliverance Conarroe last name is Conrow. That was on the record for Mason Bowen death widows pension.




So we know that we are related to the Conrow family line. Supposedly Aaron Conrow father was Joseph Conrow who married Valerie Moore. Quaker records does show Joseph and Valerie were married.

Mason mother is name Hannah Seeley born abt 1783, about the same time has Hannah Seeley Conarroe. I was wondering if someone who did the family tree research in that past may have mixed up the names?

I took test a DNA with Ancestry, Couple leaf hint matches indicates that I have DNA matches for Conrow family line, Bowen and Seeley family lines. Also I have one DNA match with one of the descendants of Robert Morris and one from his sister family line. But no Mary White ( Roberts Wife)

Ancestry DNA leaf hint match. Through Robert Morris son Robert White Morris. 

 I am planning on doing a mtDNA test which only works along the female side of the tree it might reveal if we are related to Robert Morris wife Mary White and her mother and her mother. It is pretty expensive test. I am saving my money for it. It should be interesting to see the results. It may show or it may not show or it may confuse the heck out of me or be more frustration. I think this might be the only way to know for sure a 100%.