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Joseph Smith's Ancestors

Richard Lloyd Anderson

Joseph Smith's family lines all run through New England, where ancestors were typically community leaders in various locations. Progenitors several steps from Joseph Smith closely fit Christine Leigh Heyrman's profile of the New England norm: "their lives [were] defined by the seasonal rhythms of agriculture, the bonds of family, church, and local community, and a fundamentally religious outlook" (in Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, editors, Reader's Companion to American History, 789). The family predecessors of the Prophet were generally active in church and in the New England towns, the self-governing area units that do not appear on ordinary maps unless a municipality of the same name developed.

The roots of Joseph Smith's father were north of Boston. His grandfather was Samuel Smith, Jr., born in Topsfield, Massachusetts, to a family living there since ancestor Robert Smith came from England during the Puritan "great migration." The younger Samuel Smith was a revolutionary patriot and active Congregationalist who regularly represented Topsfield in the state legislature and in local positions as selectman or town clerk. He married Priscilla Gould, of a family going back to the town's founding which produced many prominent public servants.

The second son of this couple was the Prophet's grandfather, Asael Smith. He married Mary Duty, born in the nearby town of Rowley, Massachusetts. Her parents, Moses Duty and Mary Palmer, had generational roots there--records show religious involvement and revolutionary patriotism. Mary and Asael Smith lived for a time at Topsfield, but the second son did not normally inherit, so the couple settled for years in southern New Hampshire, mainly in the towns of Windham and Derryfield, now the town of Manchester. After service in the Revolutionary War, Asael was elected seven times as town clerk at Derryfield, but he returned to Topsfield to salvage his father's honor by settling a complicated estate in difficult economic times. Two main residences followed. Asael first pioneered uncleared land and developed family farms at Tunbridge, Vermont, continuing his pattern of prominence in town and church affairs, though he was a dissenter. He served three terms as selectman, one of the three town managers.

Asael and Mary Smith moved once again in their older age, leaving Vermont for the New York lands that beckoned their children. They were at the town of Stockholm, in upper New York, during the censuses of 1820 and 1830. In 1830, Asael Smith died after receiving a visit from his son Joseph Smith, Sr., and believing the Book of Mormon. Widow Mary Duty Smith also believed, and applied for baptism after migrating to Kirtland, Ohio, before her death in 1836.

The Prophet's maternal ancestors also have familiar New England origins. His mother's mother was Lydia Gates Mack, a teacher with profound Christian faith, born and raised in East Haddam, Connecticut. Her father was Daniel Gates, sometime selectman of the town and also deacon. He married Lydia Fuller, born at East Haddam to a family prominent in the area.