Monday, September 9, 2019

The Martin County Swayzes


A couple of years ago several of us (all great great grandchildren) researching Rev. Richard Wright and his descendants found that our GG grandfather had been married twice, the first time to Malinda Ann Swayze, a member of the Obediah Swayze family of Vermillion County, Indiana.

About a year ago Frank Helton, one of the Wright researchers, spotted a photo said to show the Martin Co. Indiana home of a John Swayze with some members of his family, including a daughter Dovie, dated “About 1889.” Of course we wondered if the Martin Co. Swayzes and the Vermillion Co. Swayzes were related. Another fellow Wright researcher, Pat Shade, who is always good with details has now written us:

“The date on the pic is wrong as Dovie wasn't born until 1894. So, this pic is probably c: 1900 but hard to tell how young the girls might be. Father, John Swayze, appears to have died in Martin Co, IN in 1897. If existing ancestry trees are accurate, it looks like John Swayze goes back thru a John Drake, Richard, Andrew, etc to Sussex Co., NJ. So, I suspect there is a distant match between this line and the Obediah Swayze line that went to Vermillion Co, IN.”


Now if only we could uncover Rev. Richard’s parentage. But we have found a male Wright descendant of Rev. Richard Wright from his first marriage whose DNA tests may finally provide the evidence we need.