Britton or Button

My great-great grandfather was William B. Stoutenburg. I did not know what the initial B represented. Then about 20 years ago, I came across family trees on the Internet that gave William B. a middle name. That name was Britton.

As the years passed and I continued my research, I began to think that Britton made no sense to me. It wasn't Britain to honor the British colony in which Luke Stoutenburgh and Elizabeth Case settled about 1800.

So who was Britton? After perusing over many records, I could find no connection, strong or loose, to someone named Britton.

William's uncle Martin was married to Sarah Elizabeth Button. She was the daughter of Major John Button, the founder of Buttonville, York County, Ontario, Canada.

John Button and his wife married in Dutchess County, New York and moved to Canada in 1799. Button's wife was a Quaker. Such a coincidence! Luke Stoutenburg's wife, Elizabeth Case, was also a Quaker living in Dutchess County and moving to Ontario about that same time.

John Button and his family lived in Markham Township at the same time that Luke Stoutenburg and his family were living there. John Button was a war hero in Upper Canada (Ontario Province). As I pieced these events and dates together, I was convinced that William B. Stoutenburg was not William Britton Stoutenburg but William Button Stoutenburg.

I had not found any record in which William B. Stoutenburg's full name was recorded. That is until now. William Button Stoutenburg applied for a land grant in Alberta, Canada. His son, Dill Stoutenburg, applied for a delayed birth certificate in which he named his father, William Button Stoutenburg.

As an aside Dill was born James Scott Stoutenburg. James at some point decided to be known as Dill James Stoutenburg.