Doty Genealogy Research

Member Lineage Form & Instructions

Members are requested to add their Doty lineages – as best as they know them – to the Edward Doty Tree.

Doty Genealogies

Mayflower Families Through Five Generations
General Society of Mayflower Descendants

Mayflower Families Through Five Generations

The authoritative genealogy for Edward Doty and his earliest descendants is Mayflower Families Through Five Generations – Edward Doty – Vol. 11 – Parts 1-3 (the “MF5Gs”). This compilation was published in stages by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (“GSMD”). It was researched and compiled by professional genealogists whom they retained. The GSMD is planning now to commence work on the Sixth Generation.

The MF5Gs are copyright-protected, so we may not post their contents – in whole or in large part – on our Edward Doty Tree. Nor may we accept Member trees that clearly have infringed upon this work. However, copyright does not protect facts or ideas, only the original presentation or expression of ideas. So, you are free to use the same information as in the MF5Gs, if you verify it in other, uncopyrighted sources, and if you cite those sources. Think of the MF5Gs as providing clues for your further research.

Here is an excerpt of the Author’s Note in Part 3:

Readers who are familiar with other volumes of the Mayflower Families Series will recognize that the three-part volume on Edward Doty is far poorer in primary references than the volumes for other Mayflower passengers. This is not for want of trying . . .

As one member of the Pilgrim Edward Doty Society told me, “It’s almost as if Edward Doty and all his family went into a Witness Protection Program, never to be heard from again.”

The principal reason for this scarcity of primary sources is that Doty descendants were inclined to move to frontier areas where records were not kept at all, or were subsequently lost or destroyed . . .

The principal non-primary source I have used is Ethan Allen Doty’s The Doty-Doten Family, which has repeatedly proved to be accurate . . . Ethan Allen Doty wrote his book over 100 years ago, largely on the basis of questionnaires that he had sent out to Doty family members in his extensive travels around the country . . .

This collection of questionnaires would constitute a priceless source of evidence [emphasis supplied], much of it covering events within the lifetimes of the respondents, but it has vanished. Concerted efforts by Ethan Allen Doty’s own family, and my attempts to locate it in libraries near where he had lived, as well as using manuscript location services, have been unsuccessful.

GSMD, which endorses our Society, sells copies of the MF5Gs on its Website bookstore. These sales generate revenue for its further research on Mayflower descendants, including those of Edward Doty. We hope that you will support them.

Doty-Doten Family in America
Ethan Allen Doty – 1897

Doty-Doten Family in America

As described above, another important Doty genealogy is Doty-Doten Family in America (1897) (“EAD”), compiled and self-published by Ethan Allen Doty, an accomplished amateur genealogist of his day. Although some of EAD’s information has been superseded by subsequent research – notably, by the MF5Gs – it has held up remarkably well for over a century. Also, EAD traces the Doty family almost to the end of the 19th Century, while generally the MF5Gs do not extend much beyond the end of the 18th Century. EAD is in the public domain, so it may be copied and cited freely. Click here for one of the best copies of EAD on the Internet.

Here is the preface of Doty-Doten Family in America

INTRODUCTORY AND PERSONAL

In the early Autumn of 1871 I received from the late Rev. Silas Ketchum, of Bristol, N. H., a circular stating that he was soliciting records of the family of Doty, and desiring all of that name to send him all the statistics possible, with a view to the history of the family. He stated also that his mother was Cynthia, daughter of Edmond, who was a son of Captain Barnabas Doty, who was born in Rochester, Mass., in 1740.

Until that time my interest in such matters had been but slight; but remembering that I had in my boyhood secured a statement from my grandfather, which I still preserved, I sent a copy of it to Mr. Ketchum, saying to him that I would write to the other relatives for such additions as they could make to the record. This led to a considerable correspondence with him, as I secured records from a number of relatives, and at my suggestion, but with his approval, I interviewed the various families of the name in New York City, Brooklyn, Newark and the vicinity. In the course of a few months Mr. Ketchum called upon me in New York, and stated that I was collecting the statistics faster than he could get them from any other source, and in view of his failing health and much needed rest from his literary labors, he suggested that I should continue the work, he transferring to me such papers as had already come into his possession.
Without much idea of what this involved I consented, and since that time I have collected on my own account such statistics as I could, giving such time to its classification as I could spare from a very busy mercantile life, mainly in the evenings, holidays and vacations from business. I find I have written over 5,000 letters, have received about 2,200 replies and in the course of my investigations have traversed the country from one end to the other. I have searched the records of almost every county of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and more or less in all the other Northern States as far west as Illinois, while I have interviewed members of the family in almost every State of the Union. I have made many pleasant friends and acquaintances, have met with uniform courtesy from Town and County Clerks and State officers everywhere, have had amusing adventures, and have seen more of the beautiful scenery and the quiet village home life of our country than I could have seen probably in any other way.

I have no apologies to make for the imperfections that may be found in this history. I presume all genealogists have found it impossible to get replies from any considerable number of those addressed. This failure to secure the desired information was at times disheartening; at others it led me to make long Journeys and in a personal interview obtain what I could.

THE DOTY-DOTEN FAMILY.

To those, however, who have furnished such records as they could, in many cases of great value in unraveling the tangled clues of ancestry, I can only express my cordial thanks, and assure them that their encouragement and their desire to see the history in print has kept my courage good and led me to persevere to that end. The Rev. Silas Ketchum, to whom we are indebted for the inception of this work, passed away in 1880, and many others who have contributed their information have not lived to see the work published. I hold their memory in deep respect. I cannot fail here to express my great sense of gratitude to Hon. William T. Davis, of Plymouth, Mass., who rendered me very valuable service in connection with the records and antiquities of that locality, and to the Rev. Irwin P. McCurdy, of Harmony Grove, Md., whose great interest and energetic researches have enabled him to unearth valuable records in fields that I had more than once trodden over.

In the arrangement of the work I have considered each child of Edward Doty, the emigrant, as the ancestor of a distinct branch of the fundly. Other than this, I have endeavored to number the descendants consecutively.

In conclusion,I commend this, with my best wishes, to the family of Doty in America.

ETHAN ALLEN DOTY.
Brooklyn, N.Y.,
July, 1897.

Ancestry.com: PilgrimEdwardDoty Tree

The ongoing development of the Edward Doty Tree is being done on Ancestry.com, in the public tree entitled PilgrimEdwardDoty. At or about the beginning of each calendar quarter, the then-current PilgrimEdwardDoty tree will be imported to the Edward Doty Tree here, via a GEDCOM file. This approach takes advantage of Ancestry’s excellent and easy-to-use research tools and large community of Doty researchers. As a result, you have access on this site to a better family tree. If you are an Ancestry subscriber, then at any time you also may view the companion tree posted there. Minor differences between the two family trees are caused by 1) the imperfect transfer of information to the Edward Doty Tree using the GEDCOM file format, and 2) media uploads, etc. to the Edward Doty Tree that are not “backfilled” to Ancestry.

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