Looking for Ashbel Green Simonton's relatives
My name is Alderi Matos and I am the official historian of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. Our church was founded by the Rev. ASHBEL GREEN SIMONTON (1833-1867), born in West Hanover, Pennsylvania. This year we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of his arrival in Rio de Janeiro and we would be delighted if we could locate one or more of his living relatives. There are no known descendants of Mr. Simonton himself. His only daughter, Helen Murdoch Simonton (same name as her mother) never married and died in 1952. However, probably there are many living descendants of his several brothers and sisters. Their parents were Dr. William Simonton (1788-1846) and Martha Snodgrass Simonton (1791-1862). They had nine children, of which the missionary to Brazil was the youngest:
(1) MARTHA JAMISON SIMONTON (1816-1848): married Rev. Thomas Davis Bell (1812-1889), a Presbyterian minister; their son William Simonton Bell (1847-1920) was a Congregational minister; he married Mary Amelia Kingsbury and had a daughter, Martha Simonton Bell (b. 1894).
(2) JANE SIMONTON (1818-1886): married Rev. John Hugh Rittenhouse (d. 1853), a Presbyterian minister in St. Paul, Minnesota; three children: (a) Martha Louise (b. 1848), married Joshua Williams (d. 1896); children: Alice Janet (b. 1872), Louis Hudson (1874), Charles Rittenhouse (1876), Rachel Louise (1880). (b) Charles Edwin Rittenhouse (b. 1850), married Grace Hubbell; children: John Hugh (1885), Catherine (1886), David (1894). (c) Mary Frances Rittenhouse (b. 1853), married David Dale Lambie; children: Arthur Dale (1877), Helen R. (1881-1890), Ethel Louise (1884).
(3) WILLIAM SIMONTON(1820-1908), a Presbyterian minister in Pennsylvania (Sunbury, Williamsport) and Maryland (Emmits); married Anna Elizabeth Grier. Children: (a) Mary Alice, married judge Joseph Buffington; child: Joseph Buffington, Jr. (Pittsburgh). (b) Elizabeth, married James Boyd Neal (missionary to China). (c) Sarah Rose Grier, married Elisha Atherton Hancock. (d) Martha Snodgrass. (e)
Thomas Grier Simonton.
(4) ELIZABETH WIGGINS SIMONTON (1822-1879), married Rev. Alexander Latimer Blackford; no children.
(5) ANNA MARY SIMONTON(1824-1852): no children.
(6) JOHN W. SIMONTON(1826-1903): district attorney, presiding judge of 12th Judicial District of Pennsylvania, elder of Pine Street Presbyterian Church (Harrisburg); married Sarah Hoyer Kunkel. Children: John Wiggins (1857-61); Catherine Kunkel (1860-72); Anne Mack (b. 1869), married Gilbert Addams Beaver; child: Katherine Simonton Beaver (b. 1897).
(7) JAMES SNODGRASS SIMONTON(1829-?), married Jane LeMoyne, no children
(8) THOMAS DAVIS SIMONTON (1831-1907), a dentist in St. Paul, Minnesota (elder of Central Presbyterian Church); married Isabelle Chandler (d. 1875), Emma M. Campbell. Children: Alfred, Annie, Willie, Helen, James Carlisle Simonton (b. 1873).
(9) ASHBEL GREEN SIMONTON(1833-1867): married Helen Murdoch, from Baltimore; daughter: Helen Murdoch Simonton (1864-1952), born in Rio de Janeiro.
If you have any information about a descendant(s), please let me know. Thank you for your help.