NY Bounty Lands

I've lately been working on a study of men named James Gillespy/Gillespie in early Ulster/Orange counties, New York.  Even though at this point, I am not looking for a particular connection to the James Gillespie who appeared with my Michigan pioneers in 1850 Bloomfield, Oakland, MI, I became curious about the men named James Gillespy/Gillespie who served in the American Revolution. It turns out there was much to learn, in particular from the bounty lands that were awarded to Gillespie's in 1790:

• James Gillespy, NY. 4th NY Reg under Walker, listed among the dead.  Sep 1790, 500 acres to heirs.  This land was in Marcellus in Onondaga county, lot #34. The patent was delivered 7 Jul 1790 to C.C. Schoonmaker for W. Gillaspy, adm.  Given that C. C. Schoonmaker was from the Shawangunk area, W. Gillsapy was probably William Gillespy 1737-1813 who was enumerated in Shawangunk in 1790.
• Robert Gillespie. 16 Aug 1807.  200 Acres to Gillespie representatives James, Samuel, William, John, Barbara, Matthew, Jane, Ann, Polly, Olive, Burr, and James Gillespie Jr.  This land was in Sterling, Cayuga county, lot #51.

I followed up by checking on deeds in Onondaga and Cayuga counties, and found two Onondaga deeds selling the land of James Gillespie in Marcellus. These deeds show that the property was divided in fifths, and four Gillespie's were named:  John (wife Sarah), Margaret, Elizabeth (Wallace), and Hanna (Lebolt), all of Ulster or Orange counties, NY. David Gillespie appeared in Marcellus starting in 1801 (tax lists), so I have to presume that he was the fifth heir of James. Given my understanding of who was considered next of kin when someone died intestate, I believe that John and David were brothers of James, Margaret could have been an unmarried sister, and Elizabeth and Hanna were likely daughters of another Gillespie sibling who had died before 1790 (I guess George). See my article for more details.

That leaves the men named James listed as heirs of the bounty land of Robert Gillespie who served in the 5th NY Regiment and died after being captured at Ft. Montgomery in 1777. More research is in process which seems to indicate that Robert's heirs also tie back to Ulster and Orange counties, New York. So much to untangle, and so much to learn, not the least of which is the discovery that bounty land records are a very valuable source of genealogical information!

UPDATE 12/5/2019:  We have an update pertaining to the William Gillespie who was administrator of the bounty land of James Gillespie who served with the NY 4th Regiment.  It turns out that he too was awarded bounty land in Marcellus.  Read all about it.

Welcome to Mamakating

Mamekoting was one of the Hudson Valley native American tribes, which is today the name of a town in Sullivan County, NY, and uses the spelling Mamakating, pronounced "ma-MA-ka-TING".

So now we have another fun-to-pronounce place to add to our family geography, one that is a mere 20 miles from another fun-to-pronounce Gillespie location, Shawangunk.  I stumbled upon Mamakating by tracing Abraham Gillespie who had some land in Mamakating when the town was in Sullivan county. But Sullivan county was not formed until 1809, and so where was Mamakating before that?  Ulster.

In any case, Mamakating Precinct is one place where the 1775 Articles of Allegiance, also called the Revolutionary Pledge, have survived. Four Gillespy names appeared on that list:  John, James, David, and George.  Along with records showing that the Fifth Hanover Company in 1775 had officers Capt. John Gillespie and Ensign Samuel Gillespie, I think we have a good picture of the Gillespie families with strong roots in the Ulster area.  More research is upcoming!

Meanwhile, here is a new article relating more details about my initial research in Sullivan county.

John Gillespy of Shawangunk

In my periodic review of records and DNA matches, I found one very remote match to me and two other of our elder Gillespie relations. This DNA match has a direct ancestor named Martha Jane Gillespie, 1832-1908, daughter of John Gillespie and Maria Klyne, wife of Andrew J Evans. These families lived in the Shawangunk area of Ulster county, which is the general area of New York where our early Gillespie and Greer families lived.

This new John Gillespy deserves some attention. He was born in Orange County around 1803, which means that his family was in America before our relations came around 1812. Who was he? Here is my latest research exploring that question.

It's exciting to think that we have finally found some connection between my Michigan Gillespie family and the Samuel Gillespy families of pre-Revolutionary New York. It means that Michigan Gillespie's are remotely related to all those early New York Gillespy's. The evidence of that connection, however, still only stems from a fairly trivial DNA match. All of this learning about the family group of John Gillespy of Shawangunk still provides no documented tie to the Gillespie's who migrated to Michigan in the 1830s. But, I feel we're getting closer. The better we understand each Gillespy family group, the more likely it is that more connections will surface. Closer and closer.