Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Mohican Genealogy: Correct Lineage of "King Ben" through John W. Quinney Revealed

genealogy

In one of my first posts about genealogy, I cautioned people to approach the topic with care, I warned people that even good genealogical sources are usually not quite reliable.

In that same post was an error that went unnoticed for five years.

In that 2009 post I stated that in 1740 the
...Chief Sachem was Benjamin Kokhkewenaunaunt, or King Ben for short. Patrick Frazier tells us that King Ben was David Naunauneekanuk’s father (see pages 55 and 254). Naunauneekanuk was John W. Quinney’s grandfather (Quinney said so in front of the United States Congress)

I've since made some corrections to that part of the old blogpost. I'd like to thank Robert Shubinski for catching my error.  When he read that post he remembered from his own research that there were two David Naunauneekanuks (a father and son).

So there is an additional generation in there. As Dr. Shubinski puts it
Naunauneekanuk the elder was the son of the King Ben and the great grandfather of JWQ. His son, Naunauneekanuk the younger was the grandfather of JWQ. The proof is 1) Frazier book: the index shows references to both David Naunauneekanuks the elder and the younger. The elder could not have been JWQ's grandfather since the John W Quinney Memorial includes an affadavit by John Haddocks who identifies this grandfather for the congress of the US and states this man died in 1821. Frazier tells us that David N the elder was in his 60s at the time of the French Indian war so he could not be that David who died in 1821.

To confirm this, you may want to check out page 214 of The Mohicans of Stockbridge, where Patrick Frazier mentions "David Naunauneekanuk, the younger. He mentions both the elder and the younger in the index. Also thanks to Robert Shubinski for this link to John W. Quinney's congressional testimony.

3 comments:

  1. I am a direct descendant of J.W.Quinney. We are trying to make up our family tree and are trying to find the names of all the wives after Jane. Can you help us?

    ReplyDelete
  2. siemerscreek@yahoo.comJune 16, 2014 at 6:46 AM

    I doubt that I can help you Penny - but here are my thoughts:

    Have you already 1) talked to Sheila Powless, 2) used the book *Genealogy of the New York Indians in Wisconsin and Elsewhere,* and 3) asked around about a possible family Bible? I know two Citizen Party family Bibles that have proved to be very helpful in genealogical work.

    Although I have a book of marriages in Shawano County, it doesn't start until after John W. died. And I believe that some (if not many), of his descendants stayed "down below" in Calumet County. As you may know, not all of the sources that you'll find will be reliable - so you'll have to be really careful in drawing conclusions.

    ReplyDelete
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