GENERATION 0, EIGHTH CHILD OF AMOS AND ZERVIAH BABCOCK

The Third Theory – Benjamin Eaton is Our Ancestor

My Y-DNA results came from FamilyTreeDNA.com in early January 2023. My closest two matches were: 107 markers of 111 in common with David Eaton; and 105 markers of 111 in common with Matthew Eaton. Wow! Eaton? Both were far along on their ancestral trees, and both had identified Mayflower passenger Francis Eaton as their ancestor, so one of my Babcock ancestors must have had a biological father with the surname Eaton.

I was able to trace the movements of the ancestors of David and Matthew Eaton as well as my line beginning with Amos Babcock. Amos and Zerviah Babcock had moved to the Township of Petersburg, New York from Rhode Island about 1768. Benjamin and Sarah Eaton had moved to the Township of Pownal, Vermont about 1772 from Massachusetts. The shared border is illustrated with this map. The scale shows that the Babcocks and Eatons could have lived 10 miles apart or they could have been next door neighbors.

Y-DNA shows David and Matthew Eaton are direct male descendants of Benjamin Eaton (1742-1825) and atDNA shows more than sixty of our cousins are also descendants of Benjamin Eaton. So the well-founded theory three says: we got our surname from Amos Babcock; Zerviah was Benjamin’s mother; and Benjamin Eaton was his biological father. For more detail, please see this 22-page illustrated story entitled Our Paternal Line.

We don’t know the names of all of Benjamin’s children, but Nancy and Betsey are named in Amos’ will. Benjamin Babcock Jr., born about 1801, is enumerated in Petersburg, NY as a farmer with over 160 acres of land in 1850 and 1855.

As explained on the next page (Jehu), DNA evidence points to Benjamin’s wife as a daughter of David and Lydia (Cartwright) Davis.