Category Archives: Hamilton

Descendants of Isaac Hamilton and Abigail Martin.

Am I Related to X Hamilton?

On a social media platform for a non-genealogy interest, someone asked if I was related to William Rowan Hamilton. Below is my answer.

Probably not. I know who he is. My parents got back to Isaac Hamilton born about 1830 in Ohio, and we can’t get past that. My Dad participated in the Hamilton DNA study and we only matched distant cousins from the lines of Isaac’s grandchildren. That is, my paternal grandfather’s cousins.

I’m thinking there is either a name change or a non-paternal event (AKA bastard) that has no paper trail we have not yet found.

I’ve got some DNA matches to the English/Inglis surname DNA study, so that leads me to believe maybe the mother was a Hamilton and the father an English. But I had so little success with that line of reasoning, that until I can travel to courthouses and research primary documents, I may never make the connection.

What About Alexander Hamilton?

People also ask about Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury. Most people who think they are related to him is in name only.

Only two of his children lived long enough to have children who themselves had children.

He has about 250-300 living descendants and they have participated in the Hamilton DNA study. So if you have a living male relative named Hamilton, you can participate and possibly find out who you are related to.

Scottish clans gave their name to the lords and all their subjects, so while some Hamiltons are related to each other, not all Hamilton’s are related to all other Hamiltons.

My Y Chromosome DNA looks like my male ancestors were either Vikings or ancestors of the vikings.

Nearly every other surname in my tree my parents got to the boat or back to Europe.

But my oldest Hamilton is stuck in 1830 Ohio.

Your Family Tree Is Never “Done”

I just found out from my oldest son that I am to be a grandfather.

Time to start adding new branches for the next generation.

No matter if you are going back in time, sideways in time, or keeping current, your family tree is always growing.

The importance of a system for research and organization are critically important.

H is for Hamilton

H

There are lots of stories that people with an ancestor named Hamilton are related to Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

I know that I am not related to him. I also know that 90% plus of families with a story that they are related are wrong.

The man only had two of his children who had children that lived long enough to repeat the process. After a little over 200 years later, he has about 250 known living descendants. It is very unlikely you are descended from the man. A known descendant is a participant in the Hamilton Surname DNA study, so if you have a living male relative with the Hamilton surname, you can quickly determine if you are a descendant or cousin.

Alexander had one brother, James, but there is no record of him every coming to the U.S.

It is possible that you could be distant cousins, but a paper trail is still needed to explain how you are related.

For the majority of people with the Hamilton surname, your relationship to Alexander Hamilton, the one on the ten dollar bill, is that you share the same surname.

Alexander is a very common name among Scottish people and their descendants. You may be descended from AN Alexander Hamilton, but not THE Alexander Hamilton.

Isaac Hamilton & Abigail Martin

My brick wall for my Hamilton’s are my great-great-grandparents. I knew my grandparents Claude Louis and Rowena Merle [Gibson] Hamilton, but both died by the time I was 6 or 7. My great-grandparents William Elmer and Carrie May [Cardwell] Hamilton, both died before I was born. My dad knew his grandmother, Carrie, who only died a few years before I was born. His grandfather, William, died when he was 7. But my grandfather, Claude, was 37 when his father William died, and he at least had information and knowledge, as did his sisters, Leona and Laura.

William Elmer’s parents were Franklin Pierce and Mary Pearl [Hill] Hamilton. Back to this point we are very solid, as family information and census records and death certificates attest. Franklin’s parents were Isaac and Abigail [Martin] Hamilton. We have them on the 1860 census, but they seem to have disappeared after that. Was there an epidemic? Did Isaac get killed in the Civil War? What about Abigail and Franklin’s two younger sisters? There is a Franklin Hamilton of the right age in 1870 in a school in Illinois, was this the right one? Then in 1880 we have Franklin and Mary and two children, one being William Elmer.

From there we have some of the Kansas State censuses, and the 1900 Federal Census. William Elmer and family are found on the 1910, 1920, and 1930 Federal Censuses. However, Franklin and Mary have not been found in 1910. Franklin died in 1912 in Missouri, and Mary died in 1924/5 in Oklahoma. The census takers make it hard to find ancestors, when they use initials for everyone. This seems very prevalent in Kansas for the head of household. In this case F. P. Hamilton. Even with the advances of the internet and indexes, if one keeps looking for Franklin, F. P. gets missed.

The only way to find out what happened to Isaac and family is to find a sibling of Isaac and/or Abigail, and try to track them down. Without some sort of paper trail, like land ownership, this is one brick wall that may never come down.

One high-tech hope was joining the Hamilton Surname DNA project. My dad joined in hopes of finding a distant cousin of a common ancestor. We ended up in Group X. Which means that no one else quite matches us. We did have a hit from someone who might be related within the last 500 years, but without a hint of a researched line with names to connect us, there is no way to know where to go from here.

The key to this is to gather every piece of information available on all the descendants of Isaac and Abigail, which at this point, only Franklin is known to have children, and he and Mary were prolific. As I organize what I have from my parents, I hope to find any hints or clues they may have missed. If they do not have copies of original records, I will have to be prepared to spend money to obtain them.