B. about 1742 in Essex County, New Jersey
M. (1) before 14 Jun 1779 in (probably) New Jersey
Wife: Nellie ________
M. (2) after Aug 1801 in (probably) Kentucky
Wife: Ann Trotter
D. after Aug 1801 in Kentucky or Ohio
John “Jesse” Hand left a trail of adventures during his life, but unfortunately not much of a trail of paper. Most of what we know about him (or think we know) comes from stories passed down through his son Eli. Without documents, a lot of his saga is speculative, but one thing seems certain: I inherited a significant amount of DNA from Jesse and his wife, and this has led me to draw my own conclusions (see below).
There is some uncertainty as to what his name actually was. Eli Hand’s descendants used the name Jesse, so that’s what I will call him here, but they also admitted that his real name might have been John. If you consider that it was, he appears to have been the youngest child of Nehemiah and Lydia Hand of Essex County, New Jersey, and was born in about 1742. Nehemiah’s will written in 1772 mentions a son named John, but it seems that his older brothers got all of their father’s land.
Eli Hand’s descendants claimed that Jesse had worked on a boat up and down the Delaware River, but this is unproven. If it was true, this may be how he came to marry a young woman who was “a Swede” named Nellie. According to family stories, Nellie had children, named Hannah, Eli and George, but my DNA suggests they also had a daughter who was the mother of my 4G grandmother Mary Fleming (1819-1907), and two sons named Aaron and Jeremiah. There may also have been a son James, but he’s too speculative to include here. At least three of the children were probably born in Essex County and possibly Scotch Plains, and the youngest child, George, was probably born in Virginia.
Jesse seems to have moved to Kentucky shortly after the American Revolution, just as land opportunities were opening up. The few documents where Jesse’s name seems to have appeared were on Kentucky tax lists, first in Washington County, then in Bourbon County. The tax lists refer to a “John Hand,” not Jesse Hand, so if these lists really show Jesse, he seems to have been in Washington County from 1792 to 1800, and in Bourbon County from 1801 to 1804. His farm ranged in size from 50 to 100 acres, and in the later years he was shown to have owned a couple of slaves.
One of the most colorful anecdotes about Jesse concerned his “religious conversion” at an event called the Cane Ridge Revival Meeting. In 1801, a large tent was pitched in a Bourbon County field, and people came from miles around to attend. Jesse and Nellie were among them, and as the story goes, Jesse was at first reluctant to join in. After the first day of the revival, he said to Nellie that if she “shouted,” he would, too. To shout from the audience meant that a person embraced the religious message. The next day, Nellie shouted, so they were both now believers. A modern-day way to say this was that they were born again.
Nellie died within a couple of years, and Jesse was said to have remarried to a woman named Anne Trotter. Sometime around 1810, several members of the Hand family left Kentucky for a location in Ohio near Chillicothe, and this was where Jesse likely passed away. His widow, known to the family as Granny Ann, was remembered fondly by Jesse’s grandchildren, and so survived him by many years.
DNA that ties the Hands together
My connection to John “Jesse” Hand has no paper trail, and there are also no documents leading to the families of Aaron or Jeremiah. But I determined the relationship by doing a deep dive into one long shared segment of over 75 cM on chromosome 5. I’ve detailed this in my report, Joining Hands: Using my DNA to Reunite a Midwest Family Named Hand. This segment is shared with me by descendants of Eli, George, Jeremiah and Aaron, and has a recombination line roughly in the middle of it that was created by one of my ancestors. The descendants of the four Hand men do not cross the line, and many matches butt up against it, with Eli, Jeremiah and Aaron on one side, and George on the other. In my report I give a detailed explanation why I think this can only mean they are brothers, and that my Hand ancestor and Hannah are their sisters.
Debunking Jeremiah Hand’s incorrect pedigree
Some researchers have erroneously identified Jeremiah Hand who died in Greene County, Illinois in 1851 as being the son of David and Martha Hand of Cape May, New Jersey. The assumption was made purely on the fact that Jeremiah was born in New Jersey, and his birth year matches his rough age as reported on the 1850 census. The name “Jeremiah Hand” appeared as the oldest son on the will of David Hand, written on May 16, 1796 at Cape May, New Jersey. The will was probated with Jeremiah being sworn in as one of the executors on April 10, 1804 in Cape May.
A biography of one of the descendants of our Jeremiah written in 1905 said that Jeremiah was “reared in Hardy County, Virginia.” That doesn’t jive with the story of David and Martha Hand who lived their entire lives in Cape May. Jeremiah’s wife was Mary Badgley, born December 14, 1775 in Hardy County, Virginia, and died before the 1850 census. She was the daughter of Reverend David Badgley, who was a minister and one of the first non-French white settlers of what is now Illinois. The 1850 census showed that Jeremiah’s son Solomon was born in Illinois in about 1802, so Jeremiah appears to have been living way out west by the time his supposed father died in 1804.
This is where the context of history plays into identifying a false genealogical claim. It’s highly unlikely that our Jeremiah could have travelled back to Cape May to act as executor on his father’s will. In an era before railroads, to get from Illinois to the east coast at that time was very difficult. Communication was slow, too, and someone out in Illinois wouldn’t even get the news about a family member’s death for months.
For all of these reasons, supported by what I have found in my DNA, Jeremiah Hand of Greene County, Illinois was definitely not the son of David and Martha Hand of Cape May, New Jersey. This link should be removed from all genealogy data on the Internet.
Children (all by Nellie ______):
1. Aaron Hand — B. before 1770, (probably) Essex County,New Jersey; D. before 1840, (probably) Jackson County, Indiana; M. Ruth Benjamin, before Apr 1820
2. Jeremiah Hand — B. about 1772, (probably) Essex County, New Jersey; D. Nov 1851, Greenfield, Greene County, Illinois; M. Mary Badgley (1775-?), before about 1796, (probably) Hardy County, Virginia (now West Virginia)
3. Hannah Hand — B. before 1779, (probably) Essex County, New Jersey; D. before 1850, (probably) Crawford County, Illinois; M. Jacob Smith (~1767-1860), before 2 Jul 1795, (probably) Hardy County, Virginia
4. Eli Hand — B. 14 Jun 1779, Scotch Plains, New Jersey; D. 26 Mar 1857, Crawford County, Illinois; M. Jane Fleming (~1779-1854), 14 Jul 1804, Washington County, Kentucky
5. ________ Hand — B. about 1780, (probably) Essex County, New Jersey; D. after 1830, (probably) Parke County, Indiana; M. “James” Fleming (~1780-?), before 24 Jan 1802, (probably) Washington County, Kentucky
6. George Callahan Hand — B. about 1789, (probably) Hardy County, Virginia; D. 25 Sep 1845, McLean County, Illinois; M. Barbara Ann Crose (1787-1870), 7 Jun 1808, Ross County, Ohio
Sources:
