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Family of James Reeve of Long Island, New York

Family of James Reeve

Family of James Reeve

Family of James Reeve of Long Island, New York

Image Thomas Reeve and his brother James Reeve arrived here and settled on Long Island, New York (location 1 on the adjacent map) in 1636 after sailing from Barbados to the Chowan area of North Carolina in search of spirits of resin.

The 1658 deposition of James Reeve's brother-in-law Thomas Osman, for a court case in Southold Town, Long Island chronicled this interesting tale. The contents of that deposition are detailed in Study of the 1658 and 1686 Depositions of Thomas Osman. Many of the assertions made in the study of this deposition have since been proven incorrect particularly that Thomas and James were of different Reeve families in that Y-DNA results of descendants of both document the close family connection.

James Reeve and his descendants are recorded in the history of Mattituck, one of the oldest of the second generation of villages in Suffolk County, New York. James Reeve, Jr. inherited the Mattituck farm with all “the dwelling house, lands and meadows” of his maternal grandfather William Purrier. A History of Mattituck... published in 1906 records that six generations descending from the second James Reeve and his descendants retained most of the great farm for at least six generations and also acquired much other valuable property in the town.

The entire story of that adventure can be read in the post A Tale of Adventuring in Chowan Country by Beverley at the Reeves, Reaves, and More Rives blog.

Descendants of the Reeve family of Long Island NY that have participated in DNA testing are members of DNA Group 5 and document that Thomas and James Reeve were related and probably brothers which was previously questioned.

The map and above text both first appeared in May 2017 as part of post entitled "Early Reeves' Families in Colonial America" researched and written by Beverly for the blog Reeves, Reaves, and More Rives she co-authors and is included here with her permission.

Person Pages have been created within TRP for the following descendants of Thomas. Please see footnote [F1] below.

[F1] Family pages within TRP often may not document all of the known descendants of an individual.
For example, Person Pages are not generally created for those who died in childhood.
Please review the individual person pages to see if further offspring are listed there.

If complete branches of this tree are missing, you should first contribute person pages for the missing individuals and then via your Mentor Team talk page ask for this page to be updated.