Abram Williams,

Abram Williams is the farthest back I've gotten on my Williams line. However, thanks to a cousin Pauline who contacted me with handwritten notes from her great-grandmother, I've gotten some new information. Abram was married to Sarah Cronk or Cronkhite and he had a brother, Thomas, who married Sarah's sister Rachel. To make it very Lannister-like, Thomas's son, Solomon, married his cousin, Abram's daughter, Rachel. Whew!
Our line actually comes down from Abram and Sarah (Cronk) Williams thru their son Squire (he's mentioned in the document that Minnie (Solomon and Rachel's daughter) wrote and passed down to Pauline.
The Williams line still ends with Abram and Thomas, but there's a Francis mixed in there also who moved to Indiana (DNA matches with our line).
Sarah Cronk or Cronkhite's line goes much further back to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and on her great-great-grandmother's side to Captain John Conklin who came from New Haven and settled the town of Southold, Long Island. He was originally from Nottingham, England and his line can be traced back even further.

John Concklyne's heavy flat-topped tomb at Southold is in an excellent state of preservation. It's inscription reads: "Here Lyeth the Body of Captain John Conkelyne borne in Nottinghamshire in England who departed this life the Sext Day of April att Southold on Long Island in the Sixty fourth year of his age. Anno Dom 1694."

Sophia Cowling Bailey, wife of John Bailey

Sophia Cowling has long been one of my brickwalls. She is the mother of Calista Bailey, who was the wife of Richard Williams, my father's great-grandparents. All I knew was that her mother's name was Peggy and that she is buried with most of her family in the Methodist Cemetery in Brewster. There was a David Cowling and a G.W.Cowling buried near John Bailey's parents, but I couldn't find a connection.

Recently, I was able to find out that David Cowling's wife's name was Margeret (or Peggy). Using this information I was able to determine that David was Sophia Cowling's father. I still don't know who G.W. Cowling is, but I'm working on it.

Apparently, only in Putnam county is the name spelled Cowling. David was probably born in Barnstable, Mass. as David Cowen or MacCowen, the son of James MacCowen and Priscilla Robbins. James MacCowen was Scottish and married Priscilla, from an old Barnstable family, in 1736. 

Priscilla was the daughter of Samuel Robbins and Desire Chase. On her father's side she goes back to the early settlers of Cape Cod. On her mother's side she goes back to illustrious Quakers, including the Rev Francis Marbury. Priscilla is descended from his daughter, Katherine, who married Richard Scott, who were adherents of Roger Williams and settled Rhode Island. Katherine's sister, Anne Hutchinson, is more famous as she was put on trial as a Quaker by the Massachusetts Colony. Eventually, she moved to New Amsterdam with her family where she and most of her family were killed by Indians. The Hutchinson Parkway is named after her.

The Marbury family tree is well documented and goes back to William the Conqueror.

Williams lines/DNA

My brother Kenny kindly volunteered his DNA to see if we could match to any other Williams families. We did find matches to two other Williams lines, a degree away so we share a common ancestor probably 8-12 generations back. One of the Williams family was from Carmel, as far as he could trace the line, and the other was from nearby Kent, New York.
From the records I've traced our line also comes from Kent, New York. There is a lot of Williams family members that helped settle Kent, but I have not been able to tie our Williams line to the others in records. The DNA shows that we are connected in some way, so I've started to trace those lines back in hope that I can find some relationship to our line in the records.
My grandfather was Anson Levi Williams, the son of Anson S Williams and Charlotte Burdick.
Anson S Williams was born June 1, 1854 in Brewster, New York, the son of Richard Williams and Calista Bailey.
Richard Williams was born August 26, 1832 in Carmel or Kent, New York, the son of Squire Williams and Mary Ann Baxter. His first wife, Calista, was from the Bailey family who helped settle Southeast. Anson S was their oldest son, then daughter Sophia J, son Charles E, son James Henry, son William Roger, and youngest daughter Lillian M. They eventually moved to Danbury where Calista died. Richard married Sarah March and died in Bethel, Connecticut.
Squire Williams was born about 1789 in New York, the son of Abram Williams and Sarah.
Squire Williams was called this in every record, except the 1860 census which says Squire and has a small notation that looks like Eli, so it's possible that Squire was a title. But Squire Williams was also a name used by descendants of Roger Williams of Rhode Island, so it's equally possible that Squire was his name. A hint might be that his grandson Anson S Williams had a middle name of S if he was named for his grandfather and that his other grandson was named William Roger.
Squire Williams settled in Kent, New York between 1830-1840 and lived there for many years. He and Mary Ann had three children, a daughter Sarah J who never married, a daughter Nancy (this always shocks me that I have an ancestress named Nancy Williams) who married Ebenezer Barrett who died in the Civil War, and their son, Richard, our direct ancestor. They eventually all moved to Southeast, New York and died there.
I know very little of Abram and Sarah, Squire Williams' parents. They also lived in Kent and it's possible that Abram was born in Connecticut, according to one record.