This is a continuing story of my search for the parents of my 3^rd great-grandmother Maretta Williams. No single item of evidence proves who the parents of Maretta Williams were. However, the combination of vital records, burial locations, grave markers, DNA matching, similar migration times, geographic proximity, and naming patterns strongly point to the conclusion that Maretta Williams Church was the daughter of Elisha Williams of Huron, NY, and the granddaughter of Israel Williams of Pownal, VT.

The areas that the families in this story moved through were just opening up to settlement. There was little in the way of an organized governmental structure and associated record keeping. Due to a lack of documentation, rebuilding the family back from Maretta requires analyzing proximity and relationships through censuses and deeds, matching DNA with cousins, and recognizing family naming patterns.

This part of my continuing search started with DNA cousins that descend from an orphan girl that was listed on the 1850 Albion Michigan census in the vicinity of other relatives. Looking at their family trees I realized we possibly descend from a common Williams ancestor.

Proposed Lineage

Israel Williams – b. 1757, Pownal, VT, to his son:

Elisha Williams – b. 11 Feb 1783, Pownal, VT; d. 7 Mar 1852, Huron, NY, to his proposed children:

Maretta Williams – b. 1816, d. 1877, m. Isaac Church by 1834.

Israel S. Williams -b. 1805, d. 1890.

George Williams – b. say 1804 to his daughter:

Fanny Williams daughter of George – b. 1834; m. Lyman Humphrey, 1852.

Note: Maretta Williams (b. 1816), Israel S. Williams (b. 1805), and George Williams, (b. say 1804), are all within appropriate ages in the records to have been children of Elisha Williams (b. 1783).

Initial Process

In continuing my research into my 3rd great-grandmother’s ancestry, I queried AncestryDNA.com’s ThruLines for DNA cousins with the Williams surname in their family tree. I was particularly interested in cousins who relate to descendants of Isaac Church and Maretta Williams. This document presents the evidence – DNA, documents, geographic proximity, and naming patterns that support the conclusion that Maretta Williams Church was the probable daughter of Elisha Williams of Huron, NY, and granddaughter of Israel Williams of Pownal, VT.

Background

Israel and Hannah Williams, the progenitors of this New York Williams family, had numerous children documented in the Pownal, VT, vital records. Among these were sons Amos, Benjamin, and Elisha, all born in the late 1770s – 1780s in Pownal, VT. Israel Williams’ son Elisha ultimately settled in Huron, NY, where he died in 1852.

**Elisha Williams Birth Record, Pownal, VT**

Elisha Williams’ grave marker states his age at death on March 7, 1852 as 69 years and 26 days, establishing a birth date of about 11 February 1783.^[1] This birth date matches almost precisely the record of Elisha Williams, son of Israel and Hannah Williams, in the Pownal, VT, vital records.^[2] An online search of Wayne and Cayuga County, NY, probate and deed records was made but no probate record for Elisha Williams of Huron was found. Similarly no deed was found naming descendants of Elisha Williams.

Elisha Williams and his proposed son Israel S. Williams both appear in Mentz, NY, on the same 1830 Mentz, NY, Census page.^[3] Elisha Williams subsequently appears in Huron, NY, on the 1840 Huron, NY, Census.^[4] By 1850, Elisha was living in Huron with his wife Jemima and several young people surnamed Howard in his household.^[5] Elisha died in Huron in 1852 and was buried there.

Maretta Williams’ husband Isaac Church also lived in Huron (1840 census).^[6] Many members of the Wright family lived in nearby Wolcott.^[7] Frederick Wright, my 3rd great-granduncle, lived in nearby Port Bay, NY, in 1830.^[8] In 1844 Isaac Church was documented about 30 miles from Huron in Palmyra, NY, on a certificate of election.^[9] Maretta Williams married Isaac Church by 1834, when their oldest surviving child was born. The marriage likely took place in Mentz or Huron, NY, where Elisha Williams was living per the 1830 and 1840 censuses.

Migration and Proximity of the Williams, Gibbs, Wright, and Decker Families

Israel S. Williams and Ebenezer Gibbs Families

Elisha’s proposed son Israel S. Williams moved from Murray, Orleans County, NY, and settled in Parma, MI, around 1836, about the same time as the Wright family. An 1836 Parma deed identifies Israel S. Williams as a resident of Murray, Orleans County, NY.^[10] He relocated to Parma, MI, shortly thereafter, appearing on the 1840 census next to the Gibbs family with his wife Elizabeth (Betsy), daughter of Ebenezer and Elizabeth Gibbs. ^[11] ^[12]

The Ebenezer Gibbs family relocated to Parma from Murray, NY, at the same time as Israel S. Williams. Significantly, Ebenezer and Elizabeth Gibbs are buried in the Wright family cemetery in Parma, indicating probable family relations between the Gibbs and Wright families.^[13]

An 1848 Parma, MI deed to Israel S. Williams was witnessed by my cousin D.E. Wright and my 3rd great-grandfather Solomon Wright, who at the time was 20 years old.^[14] Israel S. Williams died at age 85 in 1890 in Palmyra Township, Douglas County, KS, where his family had moved by 1870.^[15] In 1880 he is living there next to his son George S. Williams.^[16] His wife Elizabeth died a year later at age 79. Israel S. Williams’ probated Will in 1890 does not provide a direct link to his siblings.^[17]

The Maretta and Isaac Church Family

Maretta Williams Church moved to Michigan with her husband Isaac Church in 1841, per the account of Isaac Church Jr.^[18] By 1850, the Church family lived in Tekonsha MI roughly 27 miles from Parma, 18 miles from Albion, 18 miles from Sheridan, and 20 miles from Concord.^[19] Their daughter Louisa Church married Solomon Wright in 1855.^[20]

The Wright Family

The Thompson and Jane Wright family migrated from the Wolcott, NY, area to Sheridan Township, Michigan, which is adjacent to Albion, around 1839.^[21] By 1850 the family was in Concord Township next to Parma.^[22] These locations place the Wright family as near neighbors to Israel S. Williams and other Wright family members (Parma), Ebenezer Gibbs (Parma), Fanny Williams (Albion) and Isaac Church (Tekonsha).

Fanny Williams: Granddaughter of Elisha Williams?

In 1852 Fanny married Lyman Humphrey.^[23] Fanny Williams Humphrey’s death record states her parents as George Williams and Betta Jones.^[24] In 1850, at age 16, Fanny was living in Albion, MI, with Benjamin Decker and Lydia Decker.^[25] A search for her parents George Williams and Betta Jones did not locate them in any surviving records. They were likely deceased by 1850 which could explain Fanny’s residence with the Deckers.

Fanny’s father George Williams is placed as a son of Elisha Williams for the following reasons: (1) his daughter Fanny resided in Albion, near the rest of the Wright, Gibbs, Church, and Williams families in the area; (2) Israel S. Williams named one of his own sons George, suggesting the name had family significance, ^[26] (3) the close geographic proximity of the Williams family connected individuals is consistent with a shared Elisha Williams ancestry. 4. Fanny’s DNA descendants match some of Maretta Williams Church’s descendants.

An added fact showing potential connectedness between the Wright family and the Fanny and the George Williams family is that in 1860, Benjamin Decker – the man with whom Fanny Williams had been living in 1850 – sold a parcel of land in Albion, MI to Jane Wright, the widow of Thompson J. Wright.^[27] Thompson and Jane Wright were the parents of Solomon Wright, who married Louisa Church in 1855, the daughter of Isaac Church and Maretta Williams. This land transaction potentially ties the Decker, Wright, and Williams families together.

Summary of Proximity

In 1850, these probable relations to Elisha Williams’ family were all located within 27 miles of one another in Michigan:

Fanny Williams: Albion, MI.
Israel S. Williams: Parma, MI.
Maretta Williams Church: Tekonsha, MI.
Solomon Wright, Maretta Williams future husband: Concord, MI.

Six independent connections show proximity and DNA connectedness and tie these families together:

The 1848 Parma deed for Israel S. Williams was witnessed by Solomon Wright and his cousin Deodatus Wright – Solomon later becoming the son-in-law of Maretta Williams Church.
The Israel S. Williams family, the Ebenezer Gibbs family, and the Wright family all relocated to the Parma area at about the same time.
The Gibbs family (in-laws to Israel S. Williams) are buried in the Wright family cemetery in Parma.
Benjamin Decker, with whom Fanny Williams resided in 1850, sold land in Albion, MI, in 1860 to Jane Wright, widow of Thompson J. Wright and mother of Solomon Wright.
Israel and Hannah Williams’ other documented sons (Amos and Benjamin) do not appear on censuses near Parma, MI in 1840 or 1850, distinguishing Elisha’s line as the probable origin of this Michigan family group.
Shared-match DNA matching among Fanny Williams’ descendants, Maretta Williams Church’s descendants, and myself is consistent with a common ancestral source.

Autosomal DNA Evidence-Matches to All Three Brothers

AncestryDNA ThruLines identified DNA cousins descended from three of Israel Williams of Pownal’s documented sons, Amos, Benjamin, and Elisha, who match me. I validated each cousin’s descent from the appropriate brother using documentary evidence.

DNA is measured in segments and centimorgans (cM) much like a meter is broken down into centimeters and millimeters. Both parents contribute to autosomal DNA passed down to their children. As time goes by less and less autosomal DNA is inherited from a single ancestor.

AncestryDNA does not have a chromosome browser, but just lists cM values and segments between matched individuals. A browser would show if the matched DNA between people falls on the same segment, which is additional evidence of a match.

Overall DNA Evidence

Every match in the table immediately below exceeds the 6 cM threshold identified in Table 2 below from FamilyTree.com as the point at which false positive rates drop below 20%. Six of the seven matches are at 9 cM or above, each carrying better than a 96% probability of being a genuine Identity by Descent (IBD) segment. The weakest individual match, B1 at 8 cM, still carries a 93.55% probability of true IBD.

The combined probability that all seven matches are simultaneously false positives is negligible. Multiplying the independent false positive rates: 0.0061 × 0.0136 × 0.0136 × 0.0333 × 0.0055 × 0.0645 × 0.0136 produces a result that is effectively zero. Even accounting for the fact that these matches are not fully statistically independent, the cumulative probability that this pattern is coincidental is vanishingly small.

Beyond the individual match probabilities, the matching pattern adds a dimension that cM values alone cannot capture. All four Elisha-line matches (E1–E4) share DNA not only with the researcher but also with known descendants of Isaac Church and Maretta Williams Church. No match from the Amos or Benjamin lines produces this same cross-match.

Seven matches across three brothers within a single late-18th-century ancestral family constitutes strong evidence of descent from Israel Williams. The table below provides details:

Elisha’s Line Is Distinguished by Matching with Maretta Williams Descendants

The critical distinction in the DNA analysis lies not in the individual match sizes but in the cousin groups, overlapping or matching each other. When I examined the matches I share with descendants of each of the three brothers, a clear pattern emerged – The descendants of Israel Williams of Pownal share matches with me that connect specifically to descendants of Isaac Church and Maretta Williams.

Descendants of Amos and Benjamin Williams do not produce this same matching with the Church-Williams line. More specifically, four of my DNA cousins descending from Lyman and Fanny Williams Humphrey match me and also match other descendants of Maretta Williams Church. By contrast, the three direct DNA matches through Elisha’s brothers (Amos and Benjamin) do not match Maretta’s DNA descendants. Elisha’s line matching Maretta’s descendants, but his brothers’ lines not matching, points specifically to Elisha as Maretta’s probable father and not merely to Israel Williams as a more distant ancestor.

The table below from FamilyTree.com provides more explanation about cM segment length in relation to the chance of the person’s familial relationship being a false positive.

Naming Patterns

Naming conventions in 19th-century American families frequently honored grandparents and parents by bestowing their names on the next generation. The naming patterns in these families provide an important corroborating line of evidence.

Importantly, the name Elisha appears twice in the Maretta Church family. Isaac and Maretta Church’s children were: Louisa, Juliette, Isaac, Elisha, Willard, George, Harriet, and Franklin. The couple named a second son Elisha after the first died. This deliberate repetition is a strong indication that Maretta wished to honor her father Elisha. The name Elisha does not appear anywhere in Isaac Church’s known recent ancestry. The couple also named two sons Isaac, naming a second son Isaac after the first died, confirming their practice of honoring both paternal and maternal lines.

Israel S. Williams named his children: Alvira, George, Tenis, Marion, Margaret, Ann, Charles F., Fremont J., and Fanny I. The names Fanny and George appear here as well, consistent with a connection to Fanny Williams Humphrey, further suggesting these families knew and honored one another.

Fanny Williams Humphrey’s children were: Charles L., Samuel W., Rosemond M., George Otto, and Lydia. The name George again appears in this generation, consistent with the family naming tradition observed above.

The chart below summarizes the naming pattern between the families:

**Naming Patterns Between Williams, Church & Wright Families**

Acknowledged Documentary Gaps

Despite a diligent online search, no helpful marriage record with their parents names has been found in relevant Michigan counties, or in Wayne or Cayuga County, NY, recording the marriage of Maretta Williams and Isaac Church, nor George and Betta Jones. Similarly, no direct documentary record, such as a deed, will, or bible record, has been located that explicitly names Maretta Williams, Israel S. Williams or George Williams as children of Elisha Williams.

These gaps are addressed by the convergence of the independent lines of evidence detailed in this document. No single piece of evidence is conclusive in isolation. The case rests on the cumulative weight of documentary records, DNA matching, geographic proximity, and naming patterns.

Conclusion

The combination of multiple independent lines of evidence strongly indicates that Maretta Williams Church was the daughter of Elisha Williams of Huron, NY, and the granddaughter of Israel Williams of Pownal, VT. The four independent lines of evidence are:

Vital records and gravestone: Elisha Williams’ birth date from his grave marker matches within one day the Pownal, VT, vital record for the son of Israel and Hannah Williams, anchoring Elisha firmly within Israel’s family.
DNA matching: Seven DNA matches across descendants of three brothers confirm descent from Israel Williams. Critically, descendants of Elisha’s line share matches with descendants of Maretta Williams Church while descendants of Amos and Benjamin do not. Four cousins descending from Fanny Williams (Lyman Humphrey line) match both myself and Maretta Williams Church’s descendants, while Elisha’s brothers lines produce no such cross-match with the Church family.
Geographic proximity and similar migration times: The Church, Williams, Wright, and Gibbs families shared proximity in New York, migrated to Michigan near the same time, and settled within 27 miles of one another. Deeds, census records, and burial locations document strong family ties among these groups.
Naming patterns: The name Elisha is absent from Isaac Church’s known ancestry but was given twice to sons of Isaac and Maretta Church, strongly suggesting Maretta honored her father’s name. This pattern is consistent across multiple generations of the extended family.

No single item of evidence rises to the level of direct documentary proof that Maretta Williams was the daughter of Elisha Williams. However pending the discovery of any contradicting evidence the confluence of four independent evidence streams each pointing to the same conclusion raises the strong probability that Maretta Williams Church was the daughter of Elisha Williams of Huron, NY, and granddaughter of Israel Williams of Pownal, VT.

A Short Note on Artificial intelligence:

Artificial intelligence (AI) made online record searching much more productive. FamilySearch.com recently indexed many records that exist in its online databases. Rather than looking through items like deeds and wills one at a time, records can be word-searched with its AI program.

I used AI in the research and writing of this article. After running my initial draft through AI it quickly recognized errors, pointed out weaknesses and strengths and made suggestions for new searches and improvements.

I used the AI’s named Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. I ran the drafts of the article through all of the AI’s and it was useful to get an evaluation back from each one. AI is an incredible technology and it is astounding to see how fast they all respond to questions.

^[1] Evergreen NY Cemetery Record. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSV7-V99L-J?view=fullText

^[2] Elisha Williams in Vermont Vital Records. Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/4661/records/406582?tid=&pid=&queryId=965a1ab3-49f0-4751-8d47-44816814dc13&_phsrc=KVb8&_phstart=successSource

^[3] Israel and Elisha Williams in 1830 Mentz NY Census. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8058/images/4409681_00774?pId=1506694

^[4] Elisha Williams in 1840 Huron NY Census. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8057/images/4410816_00232?pId=1629526

^[5] Elisha Williams in 1850 Huron NY census. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4181067_00202?pId=8801461

^[6] Isaac Church in 1840 Huron Census. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8057/images/4410816_00236?pId=1629590

^[7] A Genealogy Trip to Wolcott and Cato New York. https://theboatinggenealogists.com/2023/10/03/a-genealogy-trip-to-wolcott-and-cato-new-york/

^[8] Federick Wright in 1830 Port Bay NY Census.Censushttps://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8058/images/4410717_00365?pId=166195

^{^[9]} Isaac Church in Palmyra NY Election Record. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BP-3Q7S-4?view=fullText&keywords=Isaac%20Church&lang=en&groupId=M99R-7NC

^[10] Israel S. Williams in Parma MI Deed. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4K-8SX7-F?view=fullText&keywords=Israel%20S%2CWilliams&lang=en&groupId=

^[11] Israel S. Williams next to Ebenezer Gibbs family in 1840 Parma Census. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8057/images/4410665_00920?pId=3580289

^[12] Israel S. Williams of Murry Orleans NY deed to Parma land. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4K-8SX7-F?view=fullText&keywords=Israel%20S%2CWilliams&lang=en&groupId=