The exact dates for Sophronia and Reuben have not yet been traced to an original family, church or civil record. Their deaths occurred in the same year, but no evidence establishes a shared illness.

Caroline’s death is placed on 15 March 1903. Her obituary, published on Friday 20 March, says she died Sunday; that agrees with her memorial entry and differs from the 19 March date found in some family accounts.

Matilda’s birth year is 1823. Her son Eugene’s biography gives 10 February 1823. The will attributed to her was written in 1875 and entered probate in 1879; neither date should replace her reported 1876 death.

The younger Ahiel Eugene Guthrie (1894–1960) was a son of James Reuben and Carrie Guthrie, making him the founding couple’s great-grandson. He should not be added to their children.

George W. Cowles, Landmarks of Wayne County, New York (1895), pp. 364–365, distinguishes a school at Jessup’s Corners in 1806 from a log school built in 1810, later enlarged. Ahiel’s five-year tenure and the roll of 106 pupils are described in this account. The passage does not supply exact years for his employment.

The 1877 county history, p. 63, also remembers him as an early instructor. A retrospective article in The Newark Union, 7 September 1907, p. 2, repeats the teaching tradition. These later accounts should be compared rather than merged into a precise building or employment chronology.

Landmarks of Wayne County · History of Wayne County, 1789–1877.

Y-DNA kit 1002095: Ahiel Guthrie and Diantha Bullock → William Goodwill Guthrie and Sarah Roberts → James Reuben Guthrie and Carrie Stophel → William John Guthrie and Grace Maude DeVol → later generations.

Autosomal kit 1012151: the recorded pedigree also descends through William Goodwill and James Reuben. Participation is therefore represented in William’s row above.

The Y-DNA match supports the paternal group assignment. Autosomal comparisons may provide additional family clues, but a descendant pedigree alone does not identify which ancestral couple contributed a particular matching segment. Neither type of evidence, as currently presented, identifies Martha Goodwill as Ahiel’s mother.

A Big Y upgrade in the represented paternal line could identify downstream SNPs shared with other GFG2A participants. Comparisons with well-documented Branch F lines would help assess the proposed closer relationship.

Additional father-to-son descendants through different sons of James Reuben could help distinguish variants shared across that family from those arising later in a particular line. These descendants share James Reuben as an ancestor; they do not provide separate surviving-son lines from Ahiel.

Genetic comparisons can narrow the search, but may not distinguish individual candidate fathers without informative comparison lines and supporting records. Descendants through daughters can contribute family documents and autosomal evidence.

Choosing a DNA Test · Joining the Guthrie DNA Project

A family report, preserved in a note crediting Cheryl Lee and an unnamed cousin, states that “Patta” Goodwill presented Ahiel for adoption at Stafford, Tolland County, Connecticut, in 1793. No original placement or court record has yet been identified.

The report does not establish who Ahiel’s biological or adoptive parents were. Even if a placement record is found, the role of the woman presenting him must be read from that document rather than assumed.

The 1895 Pierce biography says Ahiel’s parents died while he was young and that a younger sister died at five. It supplies no parental names and does not describe an adoption. These accounts remain separate pieces of evidence to reconcile.

The Wilbraham register records Martha Goodwill, daughter of John and Hannah, born 24 November 1773. The date 6 January 1772 belongs to Nathaniel on the same handwritten page and has been misindexed under Martha’s name.

A death entry records Patty Goodwill on 28 December 1831, aged 57. Neither entry names Ahiel. Connecting this woman to the “Patta” in the placement story, and then identifying her as his mother, requires additional evidence.

Her 1831 death would have occurred when Ahiel was an adult, which also requires reconciliation with the account that his parents died during his youth. The suggestion that different biological and adoptive parents were meant is possible, but unproved.

Wilbraham birth and death register images and transcripts; birth transcript p. 37 and death transcript p. 188, reproduced in the family research collection.

Earlier research proposed a connection to the family of John Guthrie and Abigail Coe, particularly the descendants of their son James Guthrie and Abigail Betts. Geographic associations in Connecticut and Massachusetts prompted consideration of men including Joseph Guthrie, J.P., Dr. Samuel Guthrie and Abel Guthrie.

These names are research leads, not an established shortlist of possible fathers. The Goodwill connection itself remains unproved, and geographic opportunity cannot identify a parent. No candidate should be inserted into Ahiel’s pedigree without a documented connection.

A closer genetic placement within GFG2A could improve the search. It would still need to be connected to named people through records.

Ahiel’s birth: the reported grave age points to about 1788–1789, while the 1830 and 1840 age brackets and his age 57 in 1850 suggest the 1790s. The exact 7 March 1787 date appearing in trees has no identified birth record. Massachusetts is recorded in 1850; Longmeadow remains the reported locality.

Diantha’s birth and death: her later census ages support about 1784, while her 1850 age conflicts. The reported 21 December 1784 birth needs its underlying source. The 1895 biography gives 30 January 1873 as her death; the memorial’s September date conflicts with that account and the apparent inscription.

Ahiel Eugene Guthrie, born in 1894, was a great-grandson. His 1917 marriage to Blanche Ford names his parents as James Guthrie and Carrie Stophel. The lineage is Ahiel → William Goodwill → James Reuben → Ahiel Eugene. Memorial labels “Sr.” and “Jr.” do not establish a father-son relationship.

• Federal censuses: the tentative 1820 Canajoharie entry; Ahiel’s 1830 Williamson, 1840 Huron and 1850 Huron households; Diantha in the Pierce households in Huron in 1860 and 1870.
• George W. Cowles, Landmarks of Wayne County, New York (1895): pp. 364–365 for the school history; Part III, p. 92, Eugene Herbert Pierce biography, for the family relationships and recollections.
• History of Wayne County, New York, 1789–1877: p. 63, early schoolmasters. The Newark Union, 7 September 1907, p. 2, provides a later school-history account.
• Wilbraham vital records: Goodwill birth and death entries. These establish events in the Goodwill family, not Ahiel’s maternity.
• Wayne County marriage register: entry 3735, Ahiel Guthrie and Blanche Ford, 20 May 1917, names James Guthrie and Carrie Stophel as his parents.
• Matilda B. Pierce’s will: recorded will locator, reported execution 7 July 1875 and probate 8 May 1879. The complete file remains important for review.
• Cemetery evidence: Ahiel and Diantha, Huron Evergreen Cemetery. Compare photographed inscriptions with separately entered dates and family links.

The Guthrie Research Tree assembles the family reconstruction and source leads. An index, a family recollection, a later biography and an original record each contribute differently to the evidence.

The Sodus Record, Friday 20 March 1903, p. 3, describes Caroline’s death on Sunday. This supports 15 March 1903. The clipping remains part of the family’s source collection.

The grantor and grantee indexes help locate the instruments summarized in the timeline. Index entries and collected abstracts should be checked against the complete deeds, including signatures and acknowledgments.

Priority comparisons are the 1853 deeds, Book 58, pp. 568–569, for the Pierce/Milne discrepancy, and Book 13, pp. 33–34, for the acreage variation. Land described at different dates should not simply be added to calculate a single estate.

1. The reported 1793 Stafford placement: the original source behind the family account, followed by relevant town, guardianship, poor-relief, court or binding-out records.
2. Ahiel’s birth and parentage: a birth, baptism, court entry or family paper connecting him to named parents. Goodwill records need to be linked to Ahiel directly.
3. The 1818 marriage and Bullock family evidence: records establishing the marriage’s exact date and place, Diantha’s birth and her parents.
4. Full-size cemetery photographs and burial registers: evidence resolving Ahiel’s exact death day and the conflicting memorial dates for Diantha.
5. The complete 1853 family deeds: Book 58, pp. 568–569, including acknowledgments, to resolve the names and family conveyances.
6. Sophronia’s and Reuben’s original vital evidence: a family Bible, church record, notice or cemetery entry supporting their exact dates and identifying their burials.
7. James Reuben and Carrie’s marriage: original records to resolve the marriage year, plus James’s 1918 death certificate and the cited 1919 Onondaga Conference memoir.

Documents from any child’s family may preserve information about the earlier generations. Please include the source, repository and surrounding pages when available.