Captain Ephraim Deuel

2. Ruiter. Another large family, several are UEL, again many records for this family in
Missisquoi and Brome Counties. I would consider these areas, as well as Huntingdon,
Beauharnois, Chateaugay, and St. Jean Counties in Quebec and Cornwall in Ontario as "in the
vicinity of Montreal" in that they are all within say, 60 miles or so. I get the impression that, if
you are looking for any "English" family in Quebec around 1800, the only likely places are to
the south of Montreal and not in other directions.

3. Ephraim Dewell had a daughter, Sarah White Deuel, b. 1818 who married a Seneca
Robinson, a lawyer, who shows up in the 1850 census for Chittenden Co., VT. They had a
son named Henry, I note.

4. Odd pronunciations. I note that there was a William Duellyea who shows up in a history
of Simcoe County ca. 1850, that's where a lot of Wilbur6's descendants lived, it just struck
me as an oddity.

5. Ephraim4. (I use the more conventional enumeration of starting with the first generation in
America as #1, in England the most recent generation is A, the next B, etc. going backward,
so to translate me into DRD enumeration you have to add 2). He was born in 1724 or 1725, so
he's too old, but it could be his descendants or those of a brother. The odd thing is if you look
at Dartmouth VR the first six children are all listed in the birth records --- but none of the last
six children of Jeremiah3 are, which indicates to me that they were not born in Dartmouth.
DRD seems to indicate, if I remember correctly, that these children were born in "Bristol Co.
RI," I'll have to look in Bristol VR to see if there's anything. Ephraim4 is still alive as of 1753,
when he is named in Jeremiah3's will, so he reached adulthood.

6. The powder horn mystery. How did they know that Ephraim was from RI, aside from his
accent and his liking coffee cabinets, stuffies and chourico pizza? There should be a record
somewhere of people who served in the French & Indian War. If he can be traced to RI that
is a helpful clue, although offhand I don't have any record that indicates where in RI an
Ephraim Duel could have been from. There is an Ephraim Dowly in the 1790 census for
Washington Co., RI, I suppose he's possible.

7. Ephraim6 (Wilbur5, Silas4, Jeremiah3, etc.) I think in my very first message I said to put
Wilbur5 aside, but maybe it's time to bring him back, he had a son Ephraim who was born
roughly around the right time (say 1770) who could be the guy. (Here, Wilbur5 would be
naming his son after his uncle). There are not a lot of other Ephraims to look at.

Off the subject, I was looking at my notes and see a Jay Duel in the 1860 census for Hebron,
Washington Co. (where there was a too-young Henry Duel in the same census). He is age 11,
so born say 1849. It looks like his line would be Jay8 (Abner["Abiner" in census]7-6,
Jonathan5, William4, Jonathan3-2, William1). (I have no proof that Abner7 was the son of
Abner6, I am assuming this for the present). This is the wrong birth year, judging from your
message on Jay in the 1910 census, but I see that in the remainder of your message you
calculate the wife's birth and their marriage from 1900, not 1910, which if the age of 51 is
applied to Jay Clarence would indicate a birth year of 1849, which would be consistent with
this Jay Duel. Do you think this could be him? I think Moonshine Henry was originally from
Cambridge or Hebron in Washington Co., again I don't have firm proof but it seems that some
of the names I see in the 1860 Tompkins Co. census seem to compare well with the names of
the 1820/30 census in Washington Co.

Richard Gifford
January 20, 2002

Chapter 3 - Heroic Speculations