After finishing the write-up of my mother’s line, I’ve decided to post some of the information I have about my father’s side of the family.  Growing up, I knew very little about my Dad’s side beyond his siblings and parents, and so almost everything I have now I have had to search out.

Unlike with my mother’s line, I have chosen to skip around quite a bit with my Dad’s, as I have found so many errors in information others have posted online.  This, then, will reflect what documents I have discovered relating to them, as always, and not what I have found that others have posted.

Even with what my Dad told me, I have found discrepancies – evidently the perpetuation of fibs told to him – having to do with his own father, but that will be another post.  For the first Ray post, I have chosen a distant relative, Hezekiah Orton.  The relationship is as follows:  My Dad’s mother was Beatrice Pearl Falconer, her father was John G. Falconer, his mother was Phoebe Cheney, her mother was Luna Orton, Luna’s father was Darius Orton, Sr., and his father was Hezekiah Orton.

Hezekiah Orton was born in Litchfield, Ct. on 29 Apr. 1727, the second son of Capt. Samuel Orton and his wife M. Abigail Smedley.  Ct. town marriage records for Litchfield list Samuel and Abigail’s marriage as 26 Oct 1723.  Her first name is given simply as Abigail, though a later record from the Sons of the American Revolution (S.A.R.) gives this as her middle name, with a first initial M.  During the French and Indian War, Hezekiah fought under Col. Ebenezer Marsh in and around Ft. William Henry.  Hezekiah married Anne Sedgwick in Litchfield on 2 Sept. 1745, and their first son Hezekiah, Jr. was born 3 months later on 2 Dec. 1745.  Another son, Eliada, followed on 29 May 1748.  Sedgewick, another son, was born on 11 Aug. 1750.  Anne, their first daughter, came into the world on 1 Dec. 1752, one day before her oldest brother’s seventh birthday.  The fourth son, Azariah, was born on 25 Sept 1757, and Eleanor, another daughter, arrived on 28 July 1758.   Darius, my ancestor, was born on 18 May 1760.  His sister Rhoda was born on 21 May 1763, and his baby sister Olive was born on 17 Mar. 1765.  All these births occurred in Litchfield, Ct., according to the Ct. town birth records, though I have seen reports others have posted suggesting some were born in Oswego County, New York where several of the children later moved.  A marriage for Rhoda is recorded in Litchfield in 1785, however, suggesting Hezekiah and Anne were certainly still there until that date and that all the children were born in Litchfield.  Siblings Anne, Eleanor, Eliada, and Hezekiah, Jr. also married in Litchfield (1772, 1775, 1770, and 1767, respectively).

The confusion may also be in part attributed to Hezekiah’s military presence at Ft. William Henry, in New York.  This presence would have been at some point during the gap in the births of their children between 1752 and 1757.   History records that the fort was built in 1755, although militia from Connecticut did not arrive until June 1757.  In Aug. 1757 the fort was surrendered to the French and Indians subsequent to a prolonged siege, and the Indians then massacred many of the troops within the fort against the terms of surrender agreed to by the French.  Hezekiah must certainly have been one of the survivors of this massacre, given the dates.  It is impossible to believe that he would have had his then very pregnant wife and 4 small children in the vicinity of the battle.  They were instead safely tucked away in Litchfield, Ct. at their family home awaiting Azariah’s birth the following month.  Readers may recall the book The Last of the Mohicans which discusses the events of the siege and massacre.

I will continue with the line of Darius, my ancestor, in the next post.

© Deborah Ray and archivecookie.com, 2012.