As we’ve seen, the early Swains are actually somewhat well-documented, but after branches of the family left the coast and traveled inland towards western New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, multiplying like rabbits as they went, genealogical chaos more or less set in.
With poor record keeping, and an annoying tendency of parents to all give their children the same five or six first names, it can be quite difficult to discern one early 19th century line from another.
Imposing some sort of provisional order on things was this 109 year-old article, reproduced from The Boston Evening Transcript, November 16, 1908.
At the time I obtained it, from a terrible Xerox featuring positively minute typeface, it took a good bit of work to simply put it in the readable format you see here.
Since then, the full set of Boston Evening Transcript articles have happily become available in digital format. I just haven’t accessed them yet.
FWIW…
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Kinsmen and Kinswomen 
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing this. My husband is a descendant of Jonathon Swain. He is also a descendant of his daughters Mary Swain Gordon and Hannah Swain Gordon. This article is great. I have only seen some of this information in bits and pieces in other publications.
Hey, terrific!
Glad it was helpful!
Not sure if it matters to you or not (looks like you have stopped this blog 😦 ) BUT – Jonathon Swain – 4th generation – the information regarding his son Levi’s will does not match the actual will on file. His will is dated 1839, not 1822 as stated in the article. He left the bulk of his estate to his wife Sarah, and he did leave $1 to his sisters: Lydia Poor, Mary Gordon, Elizabeth Brown. He left $20 to his sister Sarah Nay. He further left $1 to Mary Gordon, Betsy Gordon, Thomas Gordon, and Hannah Judd. These people were not identified with a relationship in the will. (My husband is a descendant of Thomas Gordon and Jonathon Swain and so I recognized these people as the children of Levi’s deceased sister, Hannah, and her husband William Gilman Gordon) Levi left all the remaining estate to his nephew Jonathon Swain Brown who was also the executor of the estate. The images of the will are available on family search at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9WH-9RHX?i=899&wc=M7MB-2TG%3A383109101%2C383730601&cc=2040042
Hi! You have done an amazing job with this research project! I have been trying to find my 5th great grandfather, Walter Swain, for over a year now. I know he married Abigail Kittredge on June 13,1796 in Tewksbury, MA. They had four children: Levi (born 1797), Sally (born 1798), William (born 1800), and Benjamin (born 1802). This information was obtained via MA Vital Records, US Census, etc. I can’t find Walter’s birth, death, or parents. Family search has so many variations of dates and places, with no sources!!! Many members say he is the son of Nathan Swan and Phebe, but their son Walter (born 1776) died at 21 years old, no children! They say his birth was in 1770, 1771, 1772, 1776, with no sources! They say born in Arlington, Tewksbury, and Gilmanton. I do know that Levi’s death record says his father Walter’s place of birth was Gilmanton. And a US Census for Levi has father born in NH. BUT Walter’s son Benjamin’s death record says Walter was born in Tewksbury, MA. Two Vital Records put his birth in NH, so my daughter and I went to the Concord State Library, and looked thru film, but no record of Walter. He is not on the NH birth record. there is not a marriage certificate, but a VR record. There is no death record for Walter, but US Census puts him in Tewksbury in 1800. They lost records from 1824 to 1854?? in a fire. Family Search folks have said he died in 1806, but no source! I have called Tewksbury, Wilmington, and Lowell (part of Tewksbury was annexed to Lowell) cemeteries, and I can’t find Walter or Abigail. Then, in your articles, I see that John Swain and Eunice Rogers Sweat had “John, Theophilus, and Levi (maybe others)”!!! Also, “Record could be incomplete as to the later children” !!! They went from Hampton Falls, to VT, to Gilmanton!! I have tried to go back and sideways with potential family members, to no avail. Do you think it is possible for Walter to have been born to John and Eunice? Their son Levi was born in1777, and that is around that date that Walter was born. Walter married in 1796…if he was maybe married at 18, that would put his birth in 1778. That is the same time frame as Levi! What do you think?
Hi Robin,
You have already done an excellent job researching Walter. I found the entry on FamilySearch, btw, and it’s actually very good. Thirteen sources! That said, I empathize with your frustration at not being able to push this back a generation to reveal his parents. I can tell you from experience ALL these Swains are very difficult, and easily confused, one for the other, as they inhabited relatively rural areas, left few records, moved around a huge amount to just a handful of small towns, and all gave their children the same few names! What’s worse, if this had happened later, DNA might offer an aid in untangling them, but now so much time has passed that the connections to the present generation are all weak and muddied by other shared New England relatives. My best advice to you is to simply give this time. Who knows? Maybe a family bible will emerge, or other records will be digitized. Or maybe not? I have my own family history dead ends to contend with, and I think about them often, but other than waiting and hoping, options – sadly – are few.
Thanks for writing, and good luck!
Thank you for getting back to me! I hope we both get the answers we are looking for!!!
Hello! Since you mentioned it, the blog is not stopped, just on hiatus while I gather more material… 😉 Thank you for your corrections to the article. BTW, We have a Levi in our family as well. At first I thought you were talking about him, and then I reminded myself how many Swains recycled the same family names, over and over again! FWIW, it looks like Family Search is lacking much of your scholarship. Just to give you an anchor, here is Hannah’s page: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KF5B-4FM Thanks again for the update! All best, LS