The Rebecca Swaim Jones family account includes a lot of information. Some major points are as follows:
1. Parents of this Michael Swaim were Anthony Swaim and Maria Drageau.
2. Michael’s middle name was ‘Anthony’.
3. This Michael was born in 1711 in New Utrecht, NY. However this was written by Sarah about her ggg
grandfather. I have to wonder how much Sarah knew of details such as his birth date. Rebecca did not
write down Michael’s birth date in her information. It is also possible that Sarah got his date of birth (not
his name and the other information) from some other source.
4. Michael and his first wife Elizabeth Cortelyou had their first child in 1730. If this is true this makes
Michael’s birth in 1711 more likely than 1715.
5. Michael’s 2nd wife was Martha Worthington. Martha was a good preacher.
6. Michael had three brothers, William, John and Matthias, and twin sisters named Maria and Elizabeth.
7. Michael’s brother John Swaim married Charity Teague, daughter of William Teague.
8. Michael and his brother John played the fiddle and “made a fiddle jump”.
9. There is no record listed of a son named John by Michael and Martha Swaim.
10. John Swaim (1748) could not have been a child of this Michael Anthony Swaim because the family
information states that Michael had sons Abraham and William born in 1747 and 1748, respectively.
11. Michael was severely injured by a fall involving a horse that fell on him. Michael recovered but walked
with a limp and could no longer work.
The birth date listed for Michael Swaim in this account is 1711. I’m not aware of any baptismal records for a
Michael Swaim (or similar name) in this area for 1711. They may exist but I have not seen them. Perhaps the
baptism of this Michael (1711) was recorded elsewhere such as the Huguenot Church.
The Swaim-Tysen Family book and other research indicates that this Michael Swaim (1715) married Martha
Worthington.
There are two obvious possibilities:
1. Michael Swaim, born 1715, is the same Michael Anthony Swaim described in the Sarah Florence Swaim
account, however, some information such as Michael’s birth and parents names are in error.
2. The Michael Swaim, born 1715, is a different Michael Swaim from the Michael Anthony Swaim described
in the Rebecca Swaim Jones account.
The possibility that Michael’s birth could be in error is not farfetched. Rebecca Swaim Jones’ account says Michael
married when he was 18 and said their first child was born in 1730. A birth of 1711 for Michael means their first
child was born when he was 15. This is possible but not likely.
The Swaim Family of Indiana and Oklahoma including ancestry in the Netherlands January 7, 2021
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With the exception of the very old information such as Michael’s birth date and names of his parents the rest of the
story seems to line up with other research. It is possible that some of Michael’s ancestry information may have been
mixed up. The Van Pelt / Swaim connection has certainly been disproven by the 2007 Y-DNA study.
However the rest of the family information involves family information that Rebecca Swaim Jones would have
experienced and/or heard first hand so I tend to give it a high probability of being accurate. Rebecca would have
known specifics about her own brothers and sisters.
Michael Swaim was a surveyor and builder. When he worked with his brother John they would divide the labor
such that John would clear the land and Michael would handle the construction. George Washington did survey
work for Michael Swaim in 1751 in Frederick County, Virginia based on Papers of George Washington, Colonial
Series Vol. 1, 1748-1755.
“6–8 April 1751. For Michael Sweim. 131 acres on Evitts Run. Granted to Alexander Vance, 10 October 1754.”826
Michael Swaim was first married to Elizabeth Cortelyou according to the family information provided earlier
through descendents of Rebecca (Swaim) Jones. Michael’s wife Elizabeth died in 1737 during a severe winter in
which their son John also died.
Michael Swaim then married Martha Worthington in 1747. Martha Worthington was the daughter of Samuel
Worthington and Sarah Simcock. Samuel Worthington was a Quaker who had migrated from England via Ireland to
Salem, New Jersey in 1712. Samuel’s father and rest of the family followed a year later.827 They were married in
the Frederick City, Virginia area.
Michael migrated to North Carolina sometime before 1758 and perhaps as early as the winter of 1751. The
particular area of Rowan County where they settled is now known as Yadkin County. Rowan County in this time
period was a large county that eventually became subdivided into the present day counties of Wilkes, Yadkin,
Stokes, Surry, Guilford, Randolph, Davidson, etc.
Michael Swem is listed in the 1761 List of Taxables for Rowan County taken by Thomas Stillwell in 1761. The
1761 list also included John Vickrey, Marmaduke Vickrey, William Robins, Richard Robins, Elizabeth Lamb and
Christopher Nation. This information comes to us from historical records found in the walls of the Rowan County
courthouse in 1944 during renovations. The records were in poor shape but some of them were transcribed. 828
Michael’s brother John also migrated to North Carolina.
“Michael’s brother John remained in the original area that became Yadkin, Stokes and Surry counties, whereas Michael
moved further eastward and settled in the general area of what is today Guilford County, North Carolina.” 829
Michael Swaim supposedly settled about 15 miles east of John Swaim based on Worthington Family information.
Michael Swaim was a Baptist preacher830. There is also information that Michael’s wife Martha also preached.
Michael Swaim (1715) died sometime before 1782 since his widow Martha is listed as a widow in the 1782 North
Carolina Census (Guilford County).
