John Sweet (1767-1813) & First 4 Children

John Sweet is my 4th Great Grandfather and with two years of general research I am not able to find who his parents were. I have been on several genealogy sites, as well as, the most popular, Ancestry. But here is what I have found in my research:

John Sweet was born 18 Mar 1767 - majority of researchers have him born in New York, but there has also been a few other states that he was born in. So I feel if I can get a concrete fact on this that it would help tremendously. I would also, like any other, would like to see or obtain a copy of the fact. John married Alpha Lewis 7 Dec 1786 in New York. From this immediate family it seems to me they had to get married due to the first born was brought into the world in 1785.
John and Alpha had 11 children: Cynthia, Allen Miner, Jared Lewis, Lydia, Elijah "Eli" Taylor, Anna, John Fredrick, William S., Abijah, Clarrisa, and Hiram Norton. From 1807 to the time of John's death, he along with his family resided in the Leeds & Landsdowne, Rear of Leeds Twp., Ontario, Canada. John Sweet died 5th of April 1813 in Sweets Corner, Leeds, Ontario, Canada West.

To obtain more information on this secretive family will take some work and hopefully to obtain a picture of my 4th Greatfather would be a blessing. In this post I have started with the first 4 children of John and Alpha.

Now of all the children, Cynthia Sweet is very hard to research. Most of the time you can get a bit more information from a spouse, but he is a mystery also. Cynthia was born in 1785 in New York. Researchers put her born in Oswego, New York but with the research I have done at the Genealogy Library - Oswego was not a town during that time period. The article written in the magazine by a relative was written after the fact and when written at the time, Oswego was obviously a town then. My research also showed Cynthia residing in Leeds & Landsdowne, Rear of Leeds Twp., Ontario, Canada in 1807 and 1811. Cynthia Sweet married Knapp McKittrick. Now Knapp could be his given name or possibly he went by his middle name. But unfortunately I am coming up empty handed on both of them. Maybe someone who reads this post possibly could provide some information.

Allen Miner Sweet was born May 12th 1787 in New York and resided with his family in 1807 (Leeds & Landsdowne, Rear of Leeds Twp., Ontario, Canada).Allen married Rachel Knapp January 28th 1810. They had one child, Lorinda who was born February 4th 1811 and died March 31st 1811. To my belief, whatever or however Lorinda died, Rachel was either devasted, possibly fallen into depression, as she died July 17th 1811. I am only assuming as there could of been an outbreak of disease during Rachel's pregnancy also.I have done some Internet searching to see if there was any outbreak at that time but could not find any information. This does intrigue me to find out what did happen, especially since they were only married for a little over a year.During the War of 1812 Allen Miner Sweet was a Sergeant in the 2nd Flank Company of the Leeds Militia and served at Gananoque; prominent in local polities, he represented the area at the Gourlay meeting in 1818. In later years he was appointed a Justice of the Peace; he was also an active Methodist and served as a Lay Preacher for many years.August 16th 1815, Allen remarried to Desiree Sly. They had 9 children: Telmond Edna, Rachel, Ira Tibbet, Amos Tibbet "Little", Electa "Runy", Lecy Ann, Allen Healy, Hester Ann, and Parthena. Allen remained residing in Canada.Allen Miner is buried at Lillie's Baptist Cemetery in Sweets Corner, Leeds County, Ontario, Canada. Lillie's Baptist Cemetery is on Highway 15.

Jared Lewis Sweet was born 3rd of March 1790 in New York and was residing with his family from 1807-1811 in Leeds & Landsdowne, Rear of Leeds Twp., Ontario, Canada.Although Jared Lewis moved to Canada in 1807 with his parents, I believe he he was militia man during 1812-1815. The year of Arrival, records show is 1871, age 81. In 1813 Jared Lewis married Margaret Martha Purdy. They had 7 children: Lydia, Mary Ann, Nancy Ann, Elizabeth "Eliza", Hiram, William Arthur, and Belinda C.They resided in Haldimand Township, Northcumberland, Ontario, Canada from 1816 through 1871. In 1816, Jared and Ziba Marcus Phillips leased Lot 5, Concession VII, Leeds. In 1871 records show Jared's occupation as a Minister, E. Methodist. During my research I found an comment that during the War of 1812 some militia men were not treated correctly which led to some of the militia men to immigrate to Canada. I only found one comment on this and could not back it up. I would also like to get confirmation on when Jared died. I believe it would have to be from 1875 on.

Lydia Sweet was born 10th of May 1796 in New York. She resided with her family between 1800-1807 and resided with them until 1816 in Leeds & Landsdowne, Rear of Leeds Twp., Ontario, Canada.She married Walter Davies and they had 3 children: Alcena, Abijah S., and Adelia Clarrisa. Not sure when Lydia and Walter were married but I am going to assume 1821 since their first child was born August 1822.Female siblings are very hard to track for information and sometimes we rely not only on other genealogists but possible from the spouse research. In either case right now, I have not been successful in my research with Lydia.