Descendants of Josiah Dewey

The farthest back that we have been able to trace our direct Dewey ancestors is to Josiah Dewey, who was born in 1455 in Dorsetshire, on the southern coast of England. One of his grandsons, Thomas Dewey II, emigrated to America in 1633 and was one of the original "grantees" of Dorchester in the Massachusetts Bay Colony of British Colonial America.

Our branch of the Dewey family remained in Massachusetts until the early-1800's, when Moses Dewey and his wife, Electa Fowler, moved to Ohio. Their son, Norman, then moved to Monroe County, WI, in about 1852.

One of Norman's daughters, Mary Minerva Dewey, married Ira James Root in 1870 in Adrian Township in Monroe County, Wisconsin. Ira's ancestors are included in another report on this website.