Whitmore Surname Project: Hypotheses

Participants in this project have different objectives as they first send for a kit, but as results come in our questions multiply! I will list here some comments I have had so far.

From Chuck Whitmer, a suggestion we will find four groups of families:

Here's how I would categorize the families that I know

1. WETMORE / WHITMORE: An English line of pilgrims that arrived in the early 1600's.
2. WITMER / WHITMER / WHITMORE: A line of Mennonites that originated in Switzerland, but stayed in Germany for a generation or two before coming to America in the early 1700's. A few of them went to France instead of Germany, and finally came to America in the 1800's.
3. WITMER / WHITMER: A line of Lutherans from Germany, possibly related to the Mennonite line, who arrived in the mid-1700's. (It's my opinion that this is where you find the WITMER's who participated in the Revolutionary War. The Mennonites were pacifists.)
4. WIDMER / WHITMER: A line of Swiss immigrants to Iowa, Ohio, and the Northwest, who arrived in the mid-1800's.

From Kevin Wetmore:

I do not have any original source documentation regarding John or Francis Whitmore and their relationship to Thomas Whitmore. I would love to have DNA help finally resolve the issues. I am using as a working hypothesis that Francis was Thomas' brother and John was their father (it appears there was also another brother - John). But at this point I can not prove or disprove it but, all the information I have seen to date tends to support the hypothesis. I will pass along a few of the secondary resources.

From Andreas Widmer

I know from my father that there are two lines of Widmer in Switzerland. One in central Switzerland (cities like Lucerne, Langnau) and another from northern Switzerland (cities like Zurich and Bern). This is what I hear, but I've never seen any proof of it..."

From Hal Whitmore:

Several of us working on this line believe that Joseph Wetmore the father of Peleg is Joseph because he is the best candidate among the several Joseph Wetmores in J. C. Wetmore's genealogy. But there is no certainty about this and this is my primary interest in the DNA study.

There are three lines of interest to me:

• the Wetmore line descended from Thomas Whitmore of Middletown,
• the line from Francis Whitmore of Cambridge,
• and a third from a Thomas Whittemore of Charlestown.

There are some claims that all of these are from a Whittamore family of Hitchen, county Hertford, England, and it would certainly be great if we could find representatives of all three. I will be trying to do so in the near future...more