| Notes |
- Finding Smith Akerley's Surname
One of the problems we encounter in trying to find the ancestry of Smith Akerley is that we don't know his surname. On this page, we use Akerley as a matter of convenience, not as an established fact. The following is a compilation of the surname of the family as it appears in various records.
Federal Censuses:
1800:Â Â Smith ACKLEY in Coeymans, Albany Co., NY. We know this is our family, because, (1) the head count in age and sex groupings shown in the census matches that of our Smith Akerley's family as shown in the Akerley family Bible, and (2) the 1865 census of Napoli, Cattaraugus Co., NY, shows Samuel Akerley, age 66, Baptist clergyman, born in Albany Co., NY. That description matches our Samuel, son of Smith, and thus places the family in Albany Co., NY, two years before the 1800 census.
1810:Â Â Smith EAKERLY in Mayfield, Montgomery (now Fulton) Co., NY. Deborah Akerley, daughter of Smith and Rachel Akerley married Abraham Allen in Mayfield in 1814. Tabitha (Dorcas) Akerley married James Barton in 1812, no doubt in Mayfield.
1820:Â Â Rachel AKELEY in Orangeville, Genesee Co., NY. This is Rachel, wife of Smith.
1820:Â Â Samuel AKELEY in Orangeville, Genesee Co., NY. This is Samuel, son of Smith, residence next to Rachel's.
 - Note: This part of Orangeville became Wethersfield in 1823. This part of Genesee County became Wyoming County in 1841. Therefore, as of 1841, this was Wethersfield, Wyoming Co., NY.
1820:Â Â Samuel AKERLEY in China, Genesee Co., NY. Believe this is Samuel, brother of Smith. Age, 45 years and up. Wife, 45 years and up. Therefore, born 1775 or earlier.
1820:Â Â John AKERLEY in China, Genesee Co., NY. Believe this is a son of Samuel, residence next to Samuel's. Age, 16 to under 26. Wife 26 to under 45. Therefore, each is about 26 years old.
 - Note: Part of China became Java in 1832. Pending further study, we don't know where in China Samuel and John lived in 1820. This part of Genesee County became Wyoming County in 1841.
Note:Â Samuel AKERLEY contracted with the Holland Land Company to purchase land in Gainesville in 1813 and renewed the contract in 1824. This cannot be Samuel, son of Smith and Rachel, born in 1798 and only 15 years old in 1813, too young to purchase land. Therefore, this must be Samuel, brother of Smith (close to Smith's age in the 1820 census). The name on the land transactions was written as Samuel AKERLEY in 1813 and Samuel ACKERLY in 1824. A possible scenario in which this Samuel contracted to purchase land in Gainesville in 1813, was in China in the 1820 census, and renewed the contract to purchase land in Gainesville in 1824 is as follows. Samuel made the contract to purchase land in Gainesville in 1813, but for some reason settled in China before the 1820 census. Then he moved back to his original contract to purchase land in Gainesville in 1824 (the renewal entry in the land records). In 1824, Sally (Sarah), daughter of Smith, married Joseph Barton (of Java) in Gainesville, perhaps at the home of Samuel. The Baptist Church in Wethersfield met at the home of Daniel Belden. They didn't have a church building until 1837. In 1825, Samuel ACKERLY was a deacon in the Baptist Church. The church meetings were held about one mile from Samuel ACKERLY's home in Gainesville. All of this suggests that Deacon Samuel was the brother of Smith, not Smith's son who became a Baptist minister. The land in Gainesville was 50 acres, purchased for $150, with $7.50 paid down, and no record of further payments on the $142.50 balance.
It is tempting to attribute the variation in spelling of a name to illiteracy, or to the census enumerator writing "what he hears." There is certainly some truth to that in many cases, but an equally valid reason is that it was a way to identify people. They didn't have street addresses and ZIP codes. They had a name and a town, and a county they lived in. When Smith's son Samuel started his own family, there became two families headed by Samuel in the same area. It would have made sense for the younger Samuel to drop the "r" from his name in order to distinguish himself from his uncle Samuel, and Rachel would do the same to avoid confusion.
Akerley Family Bible:
Smith died in 1820, and Rachel married Thomas Fisk in 1822. With the marriage, Rachel acquired the Fisk family Bible, and at some point Rachel or perhaps an older daughter entered the data.The Bible recorded first the Fisk family, then Smith and Rachel and their children, and Rachel's new husband, followed by the family of Smith's son, Smith (Jr.). The Bible was in the hands of a descendant of Smith (Jr.). We can assume that the earliest records were either written by Rachel, wife of Smith Akerley, or by a daughter with the assistance of Rachel. The name is spelled AKERLEY in every entry through 1861, but changes to AKERLY in an 1871 entry, and to ACKERLY in an 1879 entry. Therefore, based only on the family Bible pages, the best estimate of Smith's surname is AKERLEY. But we have to temper that with the realization that all of the Bible entries were made at least two years after Smith's death, and are not consistent with Smith's surname in the earlier censuses while he was alive.
Other Records:
The following is a compilation of documents of the family name as Ackerly - Ackley - Akeley - Akerley - Akerly - Akley
Smith Ackerly:
-Â Akerley Family Bible, last entry, death of Laura E. (Hewitt) Ackerly, 1879.
-Â "The name was spelled 'Ackerly' in an old bible belonging to Lydia Ackerly Bancroft, which is now in the possession of a distant cousin in Calif." Written in a letter dated Jan 10, 1938, from Eula J. Paris (Mrs. C. M. Paris) to Paul A. Barton of La Crosse, WI. Paul added (1939) after the date. Apparently, Mrs. Paris was still writing 1938 by habit in January 1939. Mrs. Paris is a great granddaughter of Harvey and Lydia (Akerley) Bancroft.
-Â Ezra Murray "m abt.1820 To Anna Ackerly b 23 Sept.1801." This is Joana, dau. of Smith and Rachel, born Sep 23, 1800. From The Descendants of Johathan Murray of East Guildford, Connecticut, by William Breed Murray, p. 64.
-Â Samuel Ackerly. See Samuel Akerley below.
Smith Ackley:
-Â 1800 Census, Smith Ackley of Coeymans, Albany Co., NY
-Â Walter Barton, son of Darcas (sic) Ackley Barton, biography of Walter in History of Pottawattamie County, IA, 1907, by H.H. Field and J.R. Reed, 1907, Vol. 2, p. 669/670.*
-Â Stella Barton, grand dau. of Dorcas Ackley Barton and dau of Joseph Barton, letter from Stella to Paul A. Barton, dated Apr 21, 1936.
Smith Akeley:
-Â 1820 Census, Rachel and Samuel Akeley of Orangeville, Genesee Co., NY
-Â Deborah Akeley, dau of Smith & Rachel, in Isaac Allen's biography in History of Wyoming County, N.Y., F.W. Beers & Co., 1880, p. 302.
Smith Akerley:
-Â 1820 Census, Samuel Akerley we think to be the brother of Smith.
-Â Samuel Akerley, Holland Land Record, Sept 13, 1813, probably the above man, but written as Samuel Ackerly in a 1924 entry for the same property.
-Â Akerley Family Bible, entries made starting perhaps in 1822 when Rachel married Thomas Fisk.
-Â Rachel Akerley, dau of Smith and Rachel, m. Charles Randall, Genealogy of a Branch of the Randall Family, 1666 to 1879, by P.K. Randall, ca 1879, p. 139.
Smith Akerly:
-Â Akerley Family Bible, two entries made starting with death of Harriet Akerly in 1861.
-Â Death certificate of James Samuel Barton, son of Sally (Akerly) Barton, Swift Co., MN, 1902.
-Â Death certificate of Betsey Barton, dau of Sally (Akerly) Barton, Fillmore Co., MN, 1906.
-Â Dorcas Akerly, hand copied in 1936 from a hand copy of 1912 from family Bible of Walter Charles Barton, son of Dorcas Akerly.*
-Â Dorcas Akerly and Sally Akerly in "Roger Barton of Westchester Co., NY," by George E. McCracken, NEHGR, Vol 107, Oct 1953, p. 303.**
Smith Akley:
-Â Jane Wright, grand dau of Dorcas (Akley) Barton and dau of Smith Barton, letter from Jane to Paul A. Barton, dated Mar 25, 1930.
-Â Funeral Director's letter to Paul A. Barton re the funeral record of Sylvester Barton, son of Dorcas (Akley) Barton, ltr. dated June 6, 1936.
-Â Sylvester Barton's death certificate of 1913 states his mother is Dorca (sic) Atcley (sic).
-Â A(dolphus) W(alter) Barton, grandson of Dorcas (Akley) Barton and son of Merrills Barton, letter to Paul A. Barton, dated Jul 7, 1930.
* The copied pages from the Bible of Walter Charles Barton indicate his mother's maiden name was Akerly. His biography in the History of Pottawattamie County, IA, says his mother's maiden name was Ackley. The biography was published in 1907, but the material in it was gathered earlier. Walter Charles Barton was alive and 73 years old in 1906, the year before the biography was published. The biography is suspect because although Walter certainly provided the material, he did not himself put it into print. The pages copied from his Bible are a hand copy of a hand copy. The Bible pages are suspect, because either of the two transcribers could have "corrected" the family name according to their own understanding of the family name.
** McCracken's article in the NEHGR used the data copied from the family Bible of Walter Charles Barton, and therefore is not an independent source.
We note above that surname spellings without an "r" dominate in the family of Dorcas Akerley. These are:
Walter Barton, son of Dorcas
Joseph Barton, son of Dorcas, through his daughter Stella Barton
Smith Barton, son of Dorcas, through his daughter Jane Wright
Sylvester Barton, son of Dorcas
Merrills Barton, son of Dorcas, through his son A.W. Barton
Dorcas (Tabitha) was the oldest child, therefore knew her father longer than the other children. She was also the first to leave the family group at Wethersfield, then the first to leave the family group on the border between Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties when her family moved to Wisconsin about 1852. Therefore, she was least likely to change her maiden surname as part of a family group decision. The names without an "r" are most like the first entry of Smith Ackley in the federal census.
The only other surname spellings without an "r" were associated with Deborah, the second oldest child of Smith and Rachel, the spelling used by Rachel and her son Samuel in the 1820 census, and Smith's entry in the 1800 census. One could make a case that Smith's original surname was Ackley. The fact that the descendants of Dorcas (Tabitha) dominate the list of persons using a spelling without an "r" does not mean that all the other descendants spelled the name with an "r." It means that we have much more data about the descendants of Dorcas (Tabitha) than we do about the descendants of Dorcas' siblings. Paul A. Barton of La Crosse, WI, a descendant of Dorcas, and an active family historian, corresponded with his relatives beginning in the early 1930's. His survivors very kindly provided his files to us.
Book Sources:
"The Descendants of Jonathan Murray of East Guilford, Conn.," by William B. Murray, 195?
    Library of Congress Call Number: CS71.M9785 1950z
"History of Pottawattamie County, IA, 1907," by H.H. Field and J.R. Reed, 1907
    Library of Congress Call Number: F627.P8 F4
"History of Wyoming County, N.Y.," F.W. Beers & Co., 1880
    Library of Congress Call Number: F127.W9 H6 1994
"Genealogy of a Branch of the Randall Family, 1666 to 1879," by P.K. Randall
    Library of Congress Call Number: CS71.R19 1998
"And the same year three-and-a-half hundred ships came into the mouth of the Thames, and stormed Canterbury and London, and put to flight Beorhtwulf king of Mercia with his army, and then went south over the Thames into Surrey; and King Æthelwulf and his son Æthelbald with the West Saxon army fought against them at Aclea, and there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen raiding-army that we have heard tell of up to this present day, and there took the victory."
From The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The Winchester Manuscript (A), the Year of Our Lord 851. The translation by Michael Swanton gives the place as "Oak Field" and references Bishop Asser for the translation from Aclea. A map on page 57 of The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings, by John Haywood, 1995, is titled Viking Raids in Western Europe, 840-860. The map shows Aclea on the southern coast of England, somewhere east of Portsmouth in what was then Wessex. For more than you ever wanted to know about ancient Aclea, enter +aclea +asser in www.bing.com
|
1800 - 1872 (71 years)
[3, 4] 
