Samuel Doak Porter

1896 - 1966  (69 years)

• Name	Samuel Doak Porter
  Birth	6 Apr 1896	Waterville, Douglas County, Washington
  Gender	Male
  Death	21 Jan 1966	Blissfield, Lenawee County, Michigan
  Notes	Information pertaining to him came from his Sons of the Revolution Application submitted in 1950 and present on Ancestry.com.
  Person ID	I56024	McKenzie Genealogy
  Last Modified	29 Oct 2021

  
  

  Father	Oliver Daniel Porter,   b. 1 Apr 1864, Preston County, West Virginia d. 25 Jun 1944, Ogden, Lenawee County, Michigan (Age 80 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Evaline Lowry,   b. 10 Aug 1866   d. 21 Jun 1942 (Age 75 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Marriage	11 Jul 1894
  Family ID	F14584	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Documents » Slide Show		Letter from Samuel Doak Porter to Col. Gabriel T. MacKenzie November 30, 1962 The letter from Samuel Doak Porter to GTM is dated Nov. 30, 1962 and appears to be the first contact between the two. The date is important because it shows how relatively late in life (and in the course of their research) the two connected. It also shows how much information on the early Porters contained in the Blue Book came from GTM. Recall that the microfilm includes an early draft of SDP's work (ca. 1962) that is relatively vague on the earliest Porters and light on McKenzie information. The final edition of the Blue Book (completed by SDP's daughter after his passing in 1966) more clearly reflects the research documented in the microfilm. The letter is interesting for another reason. SDP references Ann Sloan as an informant and then attributes to her what we now know (and SDP would soon learn) to be inaccurate information on GTM's Porter ancestor. Ann stated to SDP that GTM was from Squire Jack's line while we now (and GTM had known for some time) that he was from Gabriel McKenzie Porter's line. The letter reflects the fact that GTM started with little Porter information and SDP with little McKenzie information and that very late in their work the two were able to fill in blanks for one another. Scott Carter Williams May 2019
  		A Genealogy of the Porter Family by Samuel Doak Porter
  		Letter to the Editor Samuel Doak Porter Email from Alan Williams January 2022: In the 1960’s, Samuel Doak Porter of Michigan researched his Porter line. His work was eventually published as ‘The Bluebook’, “A genealogy of the Porter Family of Maryland, West Virginia and Michigan” in 1970. SDP visited Allegany County repeatedly during his research and his sources included courthouse records, interviews with descendants, published histories of the 19th and 20th century and cemetery visits. He also corresponded with and visited other researchers like Richard Koch (our Boy Scoutmaster!) and G.T. McKenzie. He got a lot right, especially from the 19th century on, and a bit wrong. He put into print some oral history and repeated claims that dog the search for truth this day. Everything he recorded about John Porter (b1693) and an emigrant from England is hearsay and secondhand. To this date, not a single document of any kind has been found to verify a fact of his life. That said, Scott and myself and our family don’t discount the info out of hand, but view it with a highly skeptical eye. There’s a famous portrait of Squire Jack Porter titled “American Independence”. In 1912 the Baltimore Sun ran a story about the painting, which included a claim that Squire’s ancestors were Irish, landing in Boston circa 1717. There is, in fact, a record of a John Porter arriving Boston about that time. With some heat, Jack’s descendant, Glissan Porter responded with a letter to the editor. It included this statement: Squire Jack’s father, is John Porter (1737-1810) The letter writer, Glissan Porter was born in 1849, early enough to have known and spoken with his Grandfather, Squire Jack. This then is the oral tradition. Additionally, SDP attached a wife to ‘John the Emigrant’ who he named as Eleanor Durier. The only basis for that addition is a 20th Century interview SDP had with a woman named Malvinia Barcus, who said she had once seen that in an ‘old family bible’. Bible has never surfaced and no genetic evidence exists to tie John to an Elinor Durier. The woman who is frequently named was a Hugenot, and an unlikely match to a Catholic Jacobin dissenter of 1715. SDP named John’s children’s birthplaces as ‘Carrolton, Carroll County’. Again, no records of that place reference ‘Our Porters’, although many people named Porter are present in Colonial Maryland. As it turns out, DNA evidence not available to SDP does tend to substantiate a portion of Glissan Porter’s assertion. Porter is an extremely common last name. In Maryland many early Porters are descended from an early Virginia colonist, Phillip Porter, whose descendants lodged in Southern Maryland and became prominent in and around Baltimore. In Pennsylvania, the colony made active efforts to bring in ‘Ulster Scots’ who settled the Western frontier (roughy present day Adams County, as least as far as Chambersburg PA) in exchange for free land. These adventurous souls served as a buffer for Philly against both Indians and French forces before the Mason-Dixon was ever drawn. Some served the drawing of that line. Armstrong Porter is such a line, a Porter with a scottish Y chromosome and a recent history in Ulster. These folks were Protestant. We can verify three brothers, Moses,b. 1735, John b.1737 and Henry Porter b. 1740, all sharing the same Y chromosome and very distinct from the other Porters mentioned above. https://www.familytreedna.com/public/porter/default.aspx?section=ycolorized R1b > U152 > L2+, Italo-Celtic All three men had this unique Y, characterized as ‘Italo-Celtic’ which is relatively rare in England, more common in the East than the West, and most common near London. It is said to be sourced in the Italian Alps, which overlaps very conveniently with one of the Roman Legions that occupied Britain about 1500 years before John Porter’s birth in Southeast England. That much, at least, tends to substantiate Glissan’s cradle story. This website also allowed us to find and correspond with Edwin Porter, now nearing 100 years of age in Oregon, who contributed his Y naming Henry as his oldest verified ancestor, 1740-1820. ‘Uncle Ed’ did an incredible job of tracing Henry descendants, and he had a match to him as well. While Moses and John had stayed in Allegany County, Henry headed down the Boonesboro road and was lost to our local history. SDP makes no mention of him at all. This really allowed our family tree to expand, but this is also our brick wall. Three brothers with an identical Y, unique among all Porters tested at this site. They certainly had a father in common! I’ll send a continuation email later to speak on the Pennsylvania connection and a solution to Carrollton. A missing grave helped verify where our boys had been. And why Arnold’s settlement is important. :-)