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| Excerpt from the will of Thomas Pettit |
I am very pleased and excited to add new, and important, Y-DNA information to my ongoing efforts to set the record straight on the Rosell/Rozell line of early New York, New Jersey and Virginia. Please review the first findings after my Roselle cousin had his Y-DNA tested with FTDNA on the previous post Setting the Record Straight. Part Two. What Y-DNA Proves.
Since that post, I have been able to research the lines of most of the men whose Y-DNA matches my Roselle cousin and this, along with deeper Y-DNA results revealed, I am quite confident in stating that our immigrant ancestor, as my research led me to believe all along, was John Rosell of Newtown, Long Island. My Roselle cousin's Y-DNA haplogroup is E-FT248568 - a haplogroup that, so far with those males tested, is quite unique. At this point, my Roselle cousin's Y-DNA matches on FTDNA who share this haplogroup can be traced back (on the paper trail) to (1) the brothers Joseph & Charles Roszel of Sussex County, New Jersey (Charles leaves New Jersey for Ontario, Canada after the Revolutionary War), (2) Peter Rozell of New Jersey and Loudoun County, Virginia, and (3) John Rosell of early Newtown, Long Island (the immigrant ancestor).
I want to thank Don Branch, not only for being my Roselle cousin's closest match, but for allowing me to dig into his Branch line and discover the records that so strongly suggest exactly what his Y-DNA proves - he descends from John Rosell of early Newtown, Long Island. Don's haplogroup is also E-FT248568 and his earliest confirmed Branch ancestor was Daniel Branch born 1724 in Massachusetts. Here is a summary of my research that led me to Newtown, Long Island and John Rosell:
John Rosell was in Newtown, Long Island by 1676. Also there by that time were the Pettit family who had connections to Boston and Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Daniel Branch was born 1724 in Charlestown, Massachusetts and died in Rhode Island in 1804. Church records prove he and his siblings were the children of Daniel Branch and Abigail Mallet who married in Charlestown, Massachusetts. I have researched this couple and based upon records and the Y-DNA, I know that this Daniel Branch (who married Abigail Mallet) is not connected to the Peter Branch line as previously supposed by Branch researchers.
My research has revealed who this Daniel Branch (who married Abigail Mallet) probably was - and Don Branch's Y-DNA proves my research. The "Town Records of Newtown Long Island" published in the New York Genealogical & Biological Record Vol. 64 (1) p. 34 list "The ages of the children of Thomas Pettet, sen." and the line directly above this entry reads "Daniel Branch b. 31 Dec. 1697." This Thomas Pettit appears in a marriage license with Catherine Branch dated 26 November 1698 in New York City [New England Marriages Prior to 1700]. Thomas & Catherine Pettit purchased land in New Rochelle (Westchester County, New York) from Theophile Forrester (Fourestier) in 1715. Thomas Pettit's will was probated there 13 September 1715 [NY Wills Vol. 008, 1710-1716]. His will has been repeatedly misunderstood to state that Daniel Branch was married to Thomas' daughter Christian. If you read the will carefull, you will notice a comma between his named daughters Christian and Branch. Thomas refers to Daniel Branch as his "son-in-law" a term in those times that meant only that he was related to Daniel Branch by marriage. Since Thomas had married Catherine Branch slightly less than a year after her son Daniel was born the use of "son-in-law" can be the equivalent of what we now say is his "stepson." In any case, according to the birth records mentioned above ["Town Records of Newtown Long Island"] Christian Pettit was far too young to be married to anyone.
Nathaniel Pettit, probably the brother of Thomas, moved from Newtown, Long Island to Hopewell, New Jersey and lived on land that adjoined Joshua Ely. Nathaniel Rosell of Newtown, Long Island and the son of immigrant John Rosell, was in Hopewell, New Jersey by 1705 where he was granted land via Joshua Ely's estate that was next to Nathaniel Pettit's land. Jane Pettit, the daughter of Nathaniel Pettit, married George Ely, the son of Joshua Ely. So, we can easily see the connection between the Rosell family of both Newtown, Long Island and Hopewell, New Jersey and the Petit family of the same locations. This connection between the two families goes further with shared locations in Westchester County, New York: Eastchester and New Rochelle.
So, who was Catherine Branch, the mother of Daniel Branch born 1697 and wife of Thomas Pettit? In a note from the witchcraft trials of Fairfield County, Connecticut I learned that there was a Catherine Branch born about 1675 and the maid servant of Daniel and Abigail Westcott. In Connecticut Witch Trials by Cynthia Wolfe Boynton the author states that Catherine was French. Until her marriage to Thomas Pettit, I cannot find Catherine Branch in any records. However, there are strong connections between families of Fairfield County, Connecticut and Westchester County, New York including the marriage of Charles Rosell (son of the immigrant John Rosell and who lived in Westchester County) to Evis Sherwood, the daughter of Thomas Sherwood who moved there from Fairfield County, Connecticut.
My theory is that Catherine Branch left Fairfield County, Connecticut and ended up in Newtown, Long Island where she became pregnant by either John Rosell or one of his sons. Within a year after her son, Daniel Branch, is born she marries Thomas Pettit of Newtown who, as I've shown above, has ties with the Rosell family. I have also documented evidence of the close connections between the Mallet family, the Angevine family and the Fourestier family - tying them together in Westchester County, New York where both Thomas Pettit and John Rosell's sons have connections.
According to FTDNA, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of E-FT248568 was born about 1638. This puts him at the same estimated birth year I have for the immigrant John Rosell of Newtown, Long Island.
The Y-DNA haplogroup branch just below E-FT248568 is E-FT247870. The matches for this haplogroup can be tracked back to Peter Rozell of New Jersey and Loudoun County, Virginia - confirming that Peter also is a descendant of John Rosell of Newtown, Long Island. Below this branch are the haplogroups E-FT248002 and E-FT249798 - a Knighton line that can be also be traced to the line of Peter Rozell of New Jersey and Loudoun County, Virginia.
I would like to thank Marolyn Russell, FTDNA Russell Project Administrator, for her insight and encouragement with my Roselle Y-DNA project. Below are a few of her insights:
What we know is that the Knighting/Knighton group and the Simpson/Morris men share a common patriarch who originated Haplogroup E-FT247870. The geneticists estimate that he was born about 1700. Prior to that, the more distant patriarch that all of you share who originated Haplogroup E-FT248568 is estimated to have been born about 1650. All the men currently assigned to this haplogroup designator are no more closely related to each other than they are to Knighting, Knighton, Simpson, or Morris. We just don't know their lower-level branches yet, the way we know Knighting, Knighton, Simpson, and Morris...Thus, we can be sure that the men who have tested positive for Haplogroup E-FT247870 (Knighting, Knighton, Simpson, Morris) share a patriarch who is closer in time than the patriarch they share with the men above them in the Block Tree. However, whether "Mr E-FT247870" was the son or grandson or great grandson of "Mr E-FT248568" is impossible to say with absolute certainty based on genetic results so far. By putting together your knowledge of the paper trails with these genetic results, perhaps you can deduce more.
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Please let me know if you have questions. Again, I continue to encourage males with this surname (Rosell/Rozell/etc) to have their Y-DNA tested at FTDNA.
