Saturday, July 28, 2012

Surname Saturday - MORRISON (???? > New Jersey)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week.  I am up to number 507: Martha Morrison (ca 1739-????). [Note: The 6th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts] 

My ancestral line back to Martha Morrison is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) 


6.  Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976)
7.  Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977)


14.  Charles Auble (1849-1916)
15.  Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952) 


30.  James Abram Kemp (1831-1902)
31.  Mary Jane Sovereen (1840-1874) 


62.  Alexander Sovereign (1814-1907)
63.  Eliza Putman (1820-1895) 


126.  John Putman (1785-1863)
127.  Sarah Martin (1792-1860)

252.  Peter Victorse Putman (1760-1835)
253.  Sarah Mary Kinnan (1761-1841)


506.  John Kinnan, born about 1736 in New Jersey, United States; died 1784 in Wantage, Sussex, New Jersey, United States.  He married before 1756 in New Jersey, United States.
507.  Martha Morrison, born about 1739 in New Jersey, United States.

Children of John Kinnan and Martha Morrison are:
i. John Kinnan, born 1756 in Sussex, New Jersey, United States; died 12 June 1809 in Sandyston, Sussex, New Jersey, United States.
ii. Sarah Mary Kinnan, born June 1761 in Wantage, Sussex, New Jersey, United States; died 22 November 1841 in Springwater, Livingston, New York, United States; married Peter Victorse Putman 20 March 1780 in Wantage, Sussex, New Jersey, United States.
iii. Mary Kinnan, born about 1765 in New Jersey, United States; married Isaac Bedell.

That's all I know about Martha Morrison!  I don't know who her parents were.  I don't know if she had siblings.  There are 76 Public Member Trees on Ancestry.com for a Martha Morrison who married a John Kinnan. Some of them are for a daughter of Daniel Morrison and Hannah Griffin, born in 1693 in Massachusetts.  The others don't list a birth date, but do list the children listed above.  Several trees show Martha's parents to be John and Margaret (-----) Morrison.  

The above conjectures are repeated in most of the matches to a Google Search for their names.  One interesting online message board post by Mark Putman (a cousin of mine) is found here, which implies that Martha's name might have been Mowerson.  Another possibly useful message board thread about the Morrison family of northern New Jersey is here. One of the message replies, by Betty Clingman, refers to a will of John Morrison, saying:

"In his will dated 17 June 1751 and proved 25 Oct 1753 in Somerset Co., NY, the father John Morrison names his wife Margrete and nine children, James, Sarah, Marey, Martha, Margrete, Agnes, David, Isaac and John. David, Isaac and John were minors at the time of their father's death and guardianship records were filed in Somerset Co."

There is, of course, no Somerset County, New York...it probably means New Jersey.

Needless to say, this is Kinnan/Morrison family line is one that I have not performed any original research on, and have relied on published information from other researchers.

If you have more information about this Martha Morrison (is that really her surname?), I would appreciate hearing from you.

The URL for this post is:  
http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/surname-saturday-morrison-new-jersey.html 

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

2 comments:

Sharon said...

I think the John Morrison from Somerset Co. bears further investigation.

His son David was underage when the will was probated in 1753.

In 1759 there is a reference David, (age 17) son of John of Basking Ridge. There was a bond by his guardian, Joseph KINNAN of Basking Ridge.

NJ Abstracts of Wills for this period are online at Ancestry.

http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2793

Ancestry's index will only find the name on the estate. However, there is an index in each volume to locate other people named within each estate abstract.

Mark R. Putnam said...

Peter Putman who married Sarah Kinnan and lived in Porter's Corners in 1820 bought land that now includes the town of Porter's Corner with William Norris. William married a Charity whose last name is unknown. William and Charity Norris' second child was named John Morrison Norris. I think that Charity was a related of Sarah Kinnan and was a descendant of John and Margaret Morrison, too. Sarah Kinnans' mother was likely Martha Morrison the daughter of John and Margaret Morrison of early Somerset Co., NJ.