Putting together Parts I, II, and III, we get this chart, which helps it all make some sense, while laying out some clear challenges for future researchers.

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Research organized by city:

Current Swain Questions:

1. Who was John Swain’s father? Look at actual wedding entry in Hampton/ Hampton Falls for John and Judeth/ Judith Page.
2. Which branch of the Eaton clan did Simeon Eaton hail from?
3. Where were Levi and Salome married? Loudon? Gilmanton? Colrain? Was it Sally Eaton? In 1827? If so, the marriage was in January, and the baby, William Dexter Swain, arrived in April. Whoops.
4. Levi owned some property in Brattleboro, yet we can find no record of similar ownership in Colrain, nor does he appear to have left a will.  This rather suggests a reduction in circumstances.  True?
5. What prompted Wm. Dexter Swain to go to medical school at about 40 years of age?
6. Where were Wm. Dexter Swain and Millicent Niver married? After 1862, before 1868. Near Copake or Niverville, NY? What does that marriage entry say?
7. Did HTS want to put some distance between himself and his roots—possibly because he had a mentally ill uncle wandering about Colrain until 1897?

This, as you will see, is the very definition of a work in progress.

In sum, it is the best attempt on the parts of my cousin Elisha Lee and myself to reconstruct the family’s history from the point where the Transcript article leaves off to Howard T. Swain’s departure from Copake for Exeter, and from there for Boston.

Small moves…

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Part II: Recent History

The Swain family continued to live in the Hampton, NH and Hampton Falls, NH area until the late 1700’s, where we pick up the current trail.

The genealogy during this period is, at this point, conjecture. Once a generation or two is forgotten, you can’t say anything for sure. Certainty only reappears, as we go back from the present.

As of this writing we can go as far back as John Swain and Eunice Rogers Swett, residents of Hampton Falls, NH… THE remaining mystery is nailing down John Swain’s father, who may be either John Swain b. Jan 11, 1685, husband of Martha Tongue, or alternately, William Swain (IV), b. 1724, husband of Judith Gove. If the former, John would have been about 58, with a 37 yo 2^nd wife when he had Levi. If the latter, he would have been younger, but that man has no dates. Once this link is established, we’ll know how to connect the entire line. On the whole, the evidence best suggests the John Swain / Martha Tongue option.

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In the next few posts, I’m going to present what I know, or really, what I think I know, about our branch of the Swain family in America.

There are people out there, today, who have done really good research on this family, and they know a lot more than I’ll be able to present here.

Perhaps at the end of this series, I’ll put up links to some of their work which I have yet to sift through: titles of books I’d like to read, web pages I’d like to spend some time with; if only to point you in the right direction.

I should also add, along similar lines, that what is here is not iron clad. It’s decent research that occasionally involves some conjecture, best guesses, educated hunches, and the like. Please take it all with a pinch of salt.

But…to use an old phrase that the original Nantucket Swains might have recognized, “It’s true in the main.”

Part I: Origins

The following is excerpted from The Swains of Nantucket: Tales and Trails, by Robert H. Swain, 1990, 1994; pp.1-13.  As near as I can tell the book is now out of print, but a digital copy is available for reading, here. There is also a page for it on Amazon, here, but that says the book is unavailable.

The author begins by examining what is known about the founder of our line of Swains in America, one Richard Swayn….

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