The Dana Family Connection

One of my Congdon families is the Dana branch. The name Dana is prominent in my family, now used as a given name (first or middle). A common story that I heard growing up was that we were related to Richard Henry Dana, Jr., the reknown author of Two Years before the Mast. Since I grew up in Southern California, I was always familiar with Dana Point (named after Richard Henry). When I started researching our family roots, one of my first discoveries was that we are not directly related to him but more like third cousins. This did create some strife with a few of my relatives and I believe cast some doubt on the validity of my research. How could family legend be wrong? (tongue in cheek)

So here is the breakdown of what I found. Our earliest common ancestor is Daniel Dana. Below is the descendent chart starting with Daniel's father Richard:

1. Richard Dana (1617-1690)........................................b. England
m. Ann Bullard (1623-1711)
    2. Daniel Dana (1662-1749)......................................Selectman
    m. Naomi Croswell (1670-1750)
        3. Caleb Dana (1697-1769)...................................Capt.
        m. Phebe Chandler (1706-1772)
            4. George Dana (1741-1787)............................Minuteman
            m. Elizabeth Parks (1748-1811)
                5. James Dana (1780-1860)..........................merchant
                m. Harriet Dwight (1792-1870)
                    6. James Dwight Dana (1813-1895)..........mineralogist
                    6. Harriet Dwight Dana (1820-1882)..my 3G-Grandma
                    m. John Wyman Jones (1822-1904).........industrialist,
        3. Richard Dana (1700-1772)..............................politician
        m. Lydia Trowbridge (1710-1776)
            4. Francis Dana (1743-1811)...........................judge
            m. Elizabeth Ellery (1751-1807)
                5. Richard Henry Dana, Sr. (1787-1879)......poet
                m. Ruth C. Smith (1787-1822)
                    6. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882)...author
                    m. Sarah Watson (1814-1907)

The good news is that my 3rd great grandmother was brothers with someone that I was also familiar with (being a geologist myself), James Dwight Dana, volcanologist, mineralogist and zoologist. Yale University has his letters in storage where he correspondes both with his sister, Harriet, and Charles Darwin.

So James Dwight Dana and Richard Henry Dana, Jr. were 3rd cousins. Interestingly, both James and Richard traveled quite a bit and visited California in its very early stages before the Gold Rush. Richard on his famous Two Years before the Mast voyage in 1835 and James on Captian Wilkes' exploratory expedition of 1838-42. Richard's book was used extensively by the hordes moving to California in the 1850's as one of the only available works with descriptions of the territory. Similarly, James' publications were used for prospecting in the Mount Shasta area as the only available descriptions on the geology of the area.

Harriet, James' sister, went on to marry John Wyman Jones (1822-1904), who I have written about previously. J. Wyman and Harriet were married 36 years before her untimely death at the age of 62. She had 2 sons with him, James Dana Jones and Dwight Arven Jones. James was a District Attorney in NYC and Dwight ran his father's Lead Mining company in Missouri among other things. I am a descendant of James Dana Jones.

I will update with my sources later.