The Palatine Migration Project respects the extensive work of Hank Jones, but he could only base his conclusions on the evidence available at the time. The Project leadersship contacted Hank via email to ask his opinion regarding Trent's justification, based on more recent evidence, for the 1710 emigrant to Ireland and the emigrant from Ireland to America being the same man. We asked and were given permission to post his response on G2G. Here is Hank's very thoughtful reply:
"Thanks for your email. You don't know how much these new discoveries and in-depth back-and-forths on the WikiTree site mean to me, having first discovered the German origins of the Dolmetsch/Dulmage family via spotting the emigrant on the 1698 census of Alzey - and then studying them since I was Stanford in the early 60's. Knowing now that so many of the Camden group came pre-Pery/Perry and showed up in Falmouth in the 1750s is entirely new to me - and what a THRILL it is to finally see a more-correct view of their history and zero-in on a better date for their arrival in colonial America.
As I mentioned in my remarks at a webinar I gave to the Irish Palatine wing of the Ontario Genealogical Society last year, the descendants of the 1709ers who arrived in 1710 in New York have it much easier in their research than those who descend from the Irish Palatines: because the NY group has church records WITH SPONSORSHIPS dating back to 1708 and Kocherthal's ministry, while the Irish settlers church records WITH NO SPONSORS GIVEN only start in 1742! What a challenge! That's why not only in the preface of my The Palatine Families Of Ireland I first mention - and then reinforce it again in the actual Dolmage section of the book. To reiterate:
Due to the repetition of Christian names in this complex family, the gaps in years of coverage for certain church books (some of which are missing completely), and the lack of sponsors in the Rathkeale baptisms to help sort out relationships, a generational study of the Dulmages is extremely difficult to make, and what follows is the best approximation of the Dulmage family structure I can set forth at this time from extant documentary materials.
Trent - I agree with what you have said. I think available evidence points to your conclusions as set forth in your version of the family structure: that Jacob Dolmage b. 1700 and the Jacob who d. after 1781 in America indeed were the same man. My dear pal Eula Lapp's data on this needs to be corrected and updated. Thanks to you all in the WikiTree forum for your hard work and excellent efforts. I'm only sorry that Eula isn't around today to see these new developments - she would have loved all this exciting new material..
Best to you all - keep up the GREAT work!"
Hank
Henry Z Jones, Jr.
Past President & Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, & Fellow of the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society
When Hank sent his permission to use the reply quoted above, he also shared:
'My favorite quote regarding genealogy is: "The mark of a great genealogist is his or her willingness to revise and reevaluate their own work." '