The Families of Swan's Island
From the Late 1700s To Present

We at the Swan’s Island Historical Society have been gathering family history or 'Genealogy' information based upon the work of Dr. Hermon W. Small's 'History of Swan's Island' and the work of Grace Bishoff, a former summer resident of the Island. Ms. Bishof traced connections of many Island families to Mayflower and Revolutionary ancestors.

We will periodically assemble and add portions of this huge work for presentation on the Swan's Island Web Site. The initial information provides ancestor roots and descendant trees of some of the earliest settlers of the Swan's Island group of Islands.

• We ask all viewers to please provide us details about any detected errors, and information to more completely cover all related people and additions about people not currently documented.
• Also, if you'd like to ask for specific family information, please contact us and every effort will be made to satisfy your request.
• We provide on this site, files you can download to print blank forms to submit additional family information for which we will be most grateful.

We have now added descendant reports for families who settled on Swan’s Island after those Dr. Small recorded in his book. Mostly those arriving until the early Twentieth Century.

PDF copies of blank genealogical documents are available to download here.
Download Blank Family Group Sheet

Download Blank Pedigree Chart

Many early settlers came after the Revolutionary War and were former soldiers. A lot were enticed by Colonel Swan, also a former soldier, to work on his Island and take up a lot of land for their own. Others later came for the same purpose but perhaps not with the soldier background.

See Explanations to find out about what is and is not included in the reports available here.

Email Swan's Island Historical Society with any questions you may have about this genealogy information.

The Early Settlers

Person	Approximate Arrival	Comments
Thomas Kench	About 1777	Harbor Island
‘King’ David Smith His Ancestors	About 1791	Employed at Swan's Mills
Joseph Toothaker His Ancestors	About 1791	No known descendents
Moses Staples His Ancestors	About 1793
Joshua Grindle His Ancestors	1794
John Rich	1794
William Davis	1794	Went to Frenchboro in 1797
Alexander Nutter	1796	At Irish Point
William Nutter (See Alexander Nutter’s descendents)	About 1800
John Finney	1803
Samuel Kent	1805	At Irish Point
James Joyce His Ancestors	1806
Benjamin Stinson His Ancestors	About 1810
Courtney Babbidge His Ancestors	Before 1812
Jeptha Benson	After 1812	Marshall's Island
Levi Torrey His Ancestors	About 1814
William Stanley His Ancestors	After 1814
Robert Mitchell	1814
Rev. Bryant Lennan	1814
John Stockbridge His Ancestors	About 1816
Thomas Dunbar	1819
Peter Gott His Ancestors	Before 1820
James T. Sprague His Ancestors	About 1820
Israel Conary His Ancestors	1820
Zachariah Kempton His & Seth’s Ancestors	1821
Seth Kempton	1821
Cushing Stewart His Ancestors	1822
Thomas Colomy	1823
Silas Hardy His Ancestors	1825	Harbor Island
Joshua Trask	1825
Enoch Billings His Ancestors	1826
Elias Morey, Jr.	1832
Joshua, Thomas and Moses Sadler Their Ancestors	1834
Hardy Lane His & Oliver’s Ancestors	About 1835	Harbor Island
Oliver B. Lane, Jr.	About 1835	Harbor Island
Abram Holbrook His Ancestors	1836
Kimball Herrick His Ancestors	1839	At Irish Point
John Adams	1840
Alexander Kiff	1841
Solomon Barbour His Ancestors	1843
Jacob S. Reed His Ancestors	1845
Moses Bridges His Ancestors	1847

The Settlers of the Intermediate years

Several of these settlers were likely living on Swan’s Island before or at the same time as Dr. Small, but he didn’t mention them in his book. Perhaps because he was focusing on families from the earliest times of settlement and their descendents.

Person	Approximate Arrival	Comments
James Rowe	Before 1847
Curtis Robinson	Before 1852
Alexander Gross	Before 1870
Dana Burns	Before 1873
David McKay	Before 1878
Sylvester Morse	About 1880
Nelson Carter	About 1880
Fred Turner	After 1883
John Scott	Before 1890
William Martin	About 1891
George G. Lawson	After 1892
Addison Parker	Before 1895
Alfred Orcutt	Before 1895
Walter H. Stinson	About 1901
Charles White	After 1901
Maroni Harvey	Before 1902
Capt. Abram Johnson	Before 1904
Ralph Grant	Before 1905
Edward Wheaton	Before 1913
John T. LeMoine	About 1915
Everett Carter	Between 1916 & 1919
Elbridge Simmons	Before 1920
Elden Colbeth	After 1920
Axel Carlson	Before 1926
Peter Powers	Unknown	Which Peter?
Genealogy Reports about ancestors are being prepared for some of the above early settlers