Subject: Re: Merrill family Charles Sumner
Date: Fri, August 10, 2007 11:04a

Question: Charles Sumner Merrill III wrote:

I traded e-mails with you a couple of years ago and am now working with Deane Merrill on his DNA chart. I am scaning two documents regarding my family tree put together by my grandfather, Charles Sumner Merrill, and his brother, Thomas Russel Merrill. At the time we last conversed, you were interested in that information. Is that still the case?

Answer: Chuck:

Sorry we didn't recognize that we had previously corresponded when we sent you our DNA group welcome letter.  With three file drawers of correspondence, it's easy to forget who we have written to, especially at our age.  We are still actively collecting Merrill data, now over 56,000 individuals in our known descendants of Nathaniel, not including any of the Merrill daughters kids, our own daughters excepted of course. Then there are those descended from other Merrill immigrants, and all those who we haven't yet tied to any immigrant.

Yes, by all means, we would be interested in the scanned documents, provided they are not too large a file, we are still on dial-up so downloads are slow. If they are too big, our snail mail is 5045 Sequoia Dr, Baton Rouge, LA 70814.

I hope you are considering having your DNA tested, since you joined the DNA discussion group.  The results are very interesting, and sometimes very surprising.  Although our line is well documented back to Nathaniel, when my DNA was tested it showed I could not be a descendant of Nathaniel. It has caused me to look very critically at each step in my lineage. We can't prove it yet, but we think the break comes with my great grandfather, who was b. a month before his "parents" were m.  We suspect my great great grandmother was pregnant by her nephew, who of course, she couldn't marry, and my great great grandfather saved the day by accepting her and her newborn son.  We are searching for descendants of their other sons, whose DNA would prove that is where the break is.  Or if we could find descendants of the nephew, that would help, for they should match mine if our hypothesis is correct.

Howard and Jean Merrill

Subject: Re: Merrill family Nicholas Merrill
Date: Mon, August 27, 2007 9:15p

Question: -

Answer: Cheryl:

Unfortunately, we still can't prove that the lineage we proposed to you
as a possibility for Nicholas and Rebecca Swisher is correct. It is the
same as the one in our Genforum answer, in which we were much too
positive in stating "We believe" this to be the lineage. You can never
put in enough qualifiers.

This lineage assumes that Andrew (4) son of Nicholas (3) [Philip (2),
Richard (1)] and Lydia had a brother Nicholas, b. ? ca 1760? of which we
have no record.  It also assumes that this Nicholas (4) was the Nicholas
in Loudon Co VA in the period after the Rev. War. We cannot rule out
that this Nicholas in Loudon Co VA might be Andrew's father, perhaps
with a second wife. Since your Nicholas was b. in Loudon Co VA it seems
reasonable that he probably was the was son of the Nicholas recorded
there in the tax records. But whether he was Nicholas (4) or Nicholas
(5) we can't be sure. Nicholas is not a popular Merrill name and all the
Nicholas' in this area [VA, MD, PA, KY, OH] seem to be descended from
Nicholas (3) and Lydia.

Don't know what happened to your query of  8-17-07. We printed it out,
but now can't find it in our inbox, trash or recycle bin. Good thing I
printed it out.

Sorry for the confusion,

Howard and Jean Merrill