Benjamin Adsit in the Revolution

I have decided to write one post for each of the remaining months this year on a Revolutionary War Ancestor. (Thank you to Heather at Nutfield Genealogy for the idea.)

Benjamin Adsit, my 5th great-grandfather, was born 26 October 1728 in Lyme, Connecticut, and was in Dutchess County, New York, by about 1768 according to The Settlers of the Beekman Patent, Dutchess County, New York by Frank J. Doherty. He was initially working as a "path master, " someone responsible for overseeing and maintaining roads and pathways in Crum Elbow, Dutchess County, New York. (It appears that Crum Elbow was in what is now Hyde Park, New York.)

Benjamin Adsit was living in Washington, Dutchess County, New York, at the time of the 1790 federal census. 

Between 1768 (at the age of 40) and 1790, he observed a significant turning point in his life, as well as in his country, as the British Colonies became the United States of America. 

The DAR Genealogical Research Database indicates that Benjamin (DAR Ancestor# A000824) served as a private under Captain Chamberlain and Colonel Lewis DuBois. 

Service: 
New York; Rank(s): Private
Service Source: 
Fernow, Docs Rel to the Col Hist of State of NY, "NY in the Rev," Vol 15, p. 312; Roberts, NY in the Rev, p. 77.
Service Description:
1) Capt Chamberlain, Col Lewis Du Bois
2) The Levies 

Berthold Fernow's Documents relative to the colonial history of the state of New York (vol. 15, p. 312) is at Archive.org and includes an alphabetical roster of state troops. 

There appears to be a corporal Benjn. Adsill as well as a private Benjn. Adsits. The New York State Archives Index to the Revolutionary War accounts and claims suggests that there was only one Benjamin Adsit (and no Adsill), so I would guess that these are the same man, and he received a promotion at some point. (The NY Archives is only an online index; in-person research is needed to local the original muster and pay rolls.) 

Ancestry has a U.S., Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, but Benjamin Adsit's name must be dramatically misindexed and I haven't been able to locate him in this database.

Libby: Least Number of Cousins ~ 52 Ancestors #40

My paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Adsit, known as Libby, is the grandparent with the least number of close family, specifically first cousins. I have no first cousins, second cousins, or third cousins on this specific ancestral line. I showed this graphically at  Descendants of my Great-Grandparents and in a list at Counting Third Cousins.

Elizabeth Adsit, circa 1913, about 16 years old

End of the Line - Charles Chapin Adsit Jr. ~ 52 Ancestors #31

Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr. was born in 1892, to Charles Chapin Adsit and Mary Bowman Ashby. His father and his grandfather, James, had been prominent businessmen in Chicago for many decades. He was four years old when his sister, Elizabeth, was born. He is the end of this particular ancestral line of men with the Adsit surname as can be seen at Surname Saturday:Adsit. See a photo of him and his sister at 1904 Car.

By 1917, he was a stock and bond broker, working in his father's office at The Rookery Building, an historic office building at 209 South LaSalle Street, as reported in his World War I Draft Registration Card.

This is one section of his registration. All men were required to register for the draft, but not all men served in the military.

From the WWI Draft Registration Card for Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr., June 5, 1917

However, one week after he registered for the draft, he enlisted in the navy.

Taking Care of Business: Martin Adsit ~ 52 Ancestors #20

My second great grandfather, James Monroe Adsit, was born in Spencertown, Columbia County, New York, and was in Chicago, Illinois by 1838, becoming one of its earliest bankers. I previously shared his photograph and I share it again here.

James Monroe Adsit (1809-1894)

His younger brother, Martin Noah Adsit, also born in Spencertown, was in Hornellsville, Steuben County, New York by 1826 (according to obituaries) with his uncle Ira Davenport (brother of my third great-grandmother, Fanny (Davenport) (Adsit) Davis). He remained in Hornellsville until his death in December 1903, just shy of his 91st birthday.

Hornellsville is about 300 miles west of Spencertown.

I found great information about this third great uncle in New York newspapers.

Heirlooms: The Chapin Genealogy ~ 52 Ancestors #8

 

This week's theme is Heirlooms, and the heirloom I am sharing is a copy of The Chapin Genealogy compiled by Orange Chapin and published in 1862. Exploring this book about 35 years ago, I was fascinated by the fact that through my father's mother, we could trace our ancestry back to one of the founders of Springfield, Massachusetts!

It is this book that started my interest in genealogy.

The 1862 book is not under copyright and can be found online in many places including the Internet Archive, FamilySearch Books, and Ancestry.com, among others. 

However, the one that I have is an heirloom because there were slips of paper bookmarking the pages of one line from Orramel Chapin (1791-1866) back to Samuel Chapin with handwritten notes on those pages. This book has likely been handed down in my family for 125-150 years!

Deacon Samuel Chapin is noted G. G. G. G. G. Grandfather (no. 1), but the line that has been tracked in the book, he should have been noted as the note-taker's 4th great-grandfather. (Depending on which line is traced, he is also a 5th great-grandfather.)

Witness to History: James Adsit and the Great Chicago Fire ~ 52 Ancestors #4

This week's theme is "Witness to History."

I have written about my second great grandfather, James Monroe Adsit a few times, at First Chicago Banker; when I shared his death certificate; about his New York roots; and also when I listed his children. (He had seven children, three grandchildren, and only one great-grandchild, my dad.)

A biography from Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois: with portraits (1899) states that he arrived in Chicago on April 2, 1838. He was definitely there by 1839 when he is listed in a city directory.

James Monroe Adsit
Born February 5, 1809, Spencertown, Columbia County, New York
Died September 4, 1894, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois

62-year-old James was a witness to the Great Chicago Fire in October 1871. In fact, he was right in the middle of it!

Currier & Ives lithograph from Library of Congress

Handed down in the family is a worn and torn newspaper clipping that had been saved in an envelope for many years. I now keep the paper unfolded, in an acid-free folder in an archival box.

Mr Adsit / Chicago Fire - 1871

Unfortunately, I don't know whose handwriting this is but the envelope and the enclosed newspaper were so important that it has been handed down in the family for over a century!

Stories From the Census ~ Libby in 1950

My paternal grandmother (born Elizabeth Adsit) was called by her nickname, Libby, even by her grandchildren. I found her under the name Elizabeth A. Rust relatively easily in the 1950 census using the National Archives index.

She and her (second) husband, Edgar C. Rust, lived in Newton, Massachusetts.

Not all their information in the census is accurate, making me wonder who provided the details to the census enumerator. Perhaps Libby provided the information and didn't want to be truthful because she was about 15 years younger than her husband. The census reported that they were five years apart in age.

1950 U.S. census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Newton, ED 26-89, sheet 8, lines 1-5, household 51 (Edgar C Rust & family); U.S. National Archives, 1950 Census (https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

Edgar C. Rust, age 65 [actually 67], and Elizabeth A. Rust, age 60 [actually 52], both born in Massachusetts [actually Libby was born in Illinois], lived at 22 Gatehouse Rd. in Newton. (Not quite the right address - more about that below.)

Edgar worked 45 hours the previous week as an Executor in a Banking Firm. Libby is listed as "H" (keeping house). Three maids lived with them: 65-year-old Katherine M. Fannon, a widow, born in Ireland; 50-year-old Theresa Walsh, never married, born in Ireland; and 45-year-old Susan H. MacWhister, never married, born in Scotland. These women worked 60 (!) hours during the previous week as maids for a private family. (Libby's "keeping house" was likely telling the maids what needed to be done.)

The 1950 census included space either at the top or the bottom of each page for the enumerator to write additional notes about the households on that page. Be sure to take a look at any notes on the page.

1903 Photo Mary Adsit ~ 52 Ancestors #2

I am hoping to blog more, using Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks themes, and this week's theme is Favorite Photo. (And, no, you didn't miss post #1; I didn't post last week.)

I am very lucky to have many family photos and I have many favorites. See my many posts with the tag Wordless Wednesday.

Here is a portrait of my great-grandmother, Mary Bowman (Ashby) Adsit, taken in July 1903 according to a penciled notation on the back.

She would have been 40 years old.

Mary Bowman Ashby was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, in 1863 (though for most of her life, she lied about her age). She married Charles Chapin Adsit in 1890.  They settled in Chicago, where she gave birth to her son in July 1892 and to her daughter (my grandmother, Libby) in June 1897. I shared a photo of her with her son at M. B. Adsit and C. C. Adsit Jr. Circa 1893.

I also shared a photo of brother and sister at Wordless Wednesday ~ 1904 Car.

I have several portraits and photographs of Mary Adsit throughout her long life and she always looked very stylish.

Counting Third Cousins

Summer 1982; see
Throwback Thursday-Cousins Day

My current project (which I have spent many months on) has been to identify all the descendants of my eight sets of second great-grandparents. This is to help me identify my DNA matches on the several genetic genealogy testing sites where my results connect me to cousins. Smaller amounts of shared DNA suggests more distant relationships and knowing my third cousins might help identify those relationships.

I have identified 49 second cousins and over 180 third cousins. Note that on my father's mother's side (Adsit-Ashby), I have no known first cousins, second cousins, or third cousins. This makes it difficult to confirm more distant, colonial New England cousins on this side because I've got lots of other colonial New England in other ancestral lines.

Some families were more difficult to track forward than others; it depended on where they lived and whether I could find useful obituaries in online newspapers (among other resources). Then there are families with common names: Bailey, Hunter, Murphy, Smith, Walsh, as well as branches of cousins who moved abroad, making it harder to find them.

Notes:
* The couple's name in bold are my second great-grandparents.
*  In many cases, the number of third cousins is an estimate (especially McAlpin-Rose, Greeley half-third cousins, and Hunter-Freeland).
*  I refer to 3 siblings under my maternal lines and 4 siblings under my paternal lines as I have one sibling with whom I share my father and not my mother.
*  The colors are based on my long-time color-coding system.

PATERNAL-PATERNAL
James Pyle (1823-1900) and Esther Abigail Whitman (1828-1921) had:
   7 children (only 2 had children)
   9 grandchildren
  10 great-grandchildren
  40 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 4 siblings, no first cousins, my 31 second cousins, and 4 third cousins)

David Hunter McAlpin (1816-1901) and Frances Adelaide Rose (1829-1870) had:
  10 children
  23 grandchildren
  48 great-grandchildren
(at least) 139 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 4 siblings, no first cousins, my 31 second cousins, and (at least) 103 third cousins)


PATERNAL-MATERNAL
James Monroe Adsit (1809-1894) and Susan Arville Chapin (1820-1906) had:
   7 children
   4 grandchildren
   1 great-grandson (my dad)
   5 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 4 siblings, no first cousins, second cousins, or third cousins)

Daniel Morgan Ashby (1828-1907) and Mary Elizabeth Gorin (1833-1891) had:
   6 children
   3 grandchildren
   1 great-grandson (my dad)
   5 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 4 siblings, no first cousins, second cousins, or third cousins)


MATERNAL-PATERNAL
Henry Clay Copeland (1832-1912) and Sarah Lowell (1833-1916) had:
   3 children
   6 grandchildren
   7 great-grandchildren
  20 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 3 siblings, my 5 first cousins, my 11 second cousins, no third cousins)

Samuel Sewall Greeley (1824-1916) and his first wife Anne Morris Larned (1828-1864) had:
   4 children
  10 grandchildren
  27 great-grandchildren
  (at least) 57 great-great-grandchildren (my half-third cousins)

Samuel Sewall Greeley (1824-1916) and his second wife Eliza May Wells (1839-1880) had:
   5 children
   3 grandchildren
   7 great-grandchildren
  20 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 3 siblings, my 5 first cousins, my 11 second cousins, no third cousins)


MATERNAL-MATERNAL
James Hunter (1844-1902) and Mary Freeland (1850-1902) had:
  10 children
  10 grandchildren
  16 great-grandchildren
  (at least) 28 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 3 siblings, my 5 first cousins, my 7 second cousins, my (at least) 12 third cousins)  (Some with the surname Hunter are very difficult to trace, as the names are somewhat common.)

George Lysle, Jr. (1845-1900) and his first wife Marion Helen Alston (1850-1885) had:
   2 children
   7 grandchildren
   7 great-grandchildren
   21 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 3 siblings, my 5 first cousins, my 7 second cousins, my 5 third cousins)

George Lysle, Jr. (1845-1900) and his second wife Edith O. Hadly (1869-1933) had:
   2 children. One son died young and the other married, but didn't have any children. No half-third cousins here.

I have added these third cousins to my tree in Family Tree Maker and plan to upload it to Ancestry, MyHeritage (and perhaps other sites) to help connect me to more cousins. I have added many surnames to my tree and have already identified several cousins on the DNA testing sites while doing this project.

The Grandparents of My Grandparents

Dana at DanaLeeds.com and Jen at JenGenX Files both recently wrote blog posts to answer the question:

How many grandparents did their grandparents likely know?

This question intrigued me and I decided to figure it out while also looking for photographs of my grandparents when they were children.

PATERNAL GRANDFATHER, CHARLES MCALPIN PYLE:

Paternal Grandfather, Charles McAlpin Pyle

Charlie was born in 1893. He knew three of his four grandparents because they were all part of the same social circle in New York City and Morristown, New Jersey:
   James Pyle died in 1900, when Charlie was six and a half.
   His wife, Esther Abigail (Whitman) Pyle, died in 1921, when he was 28, two years after Charlie married.
   David Hunter McAlpin died in 1901, when Charlie was seven and a half.
   (His first wife, Frances Adelaide Rose, died in 1870.)

~~~~~~~~~

Great-Grandmother was a Golfer ~ 52 Ancestors #41

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and this week's writing prompt is Sports.

I have previously written about the athletes in my dad's family at Sports Center Saturday ~ Dad and golf and about his mother at Libby Was a Tennis Player.

One of my brothers mentioned to me that Libby's mother, Mary Bowman (Ashby) Adsit (1863-1956) was a very good golfer as a young woman. I had never heard this story, which goes to show that genealogists should interview everyone, even younger relatives, who might know something about the family.

My great-grandmother is found only as Mrs. Adsit or Mrs. C. C. Adsit in the nine or ten newspaper articles in which she is mentioned as playing in or winning golf tournaments.

According to this September 1898 Chicago Tribune article, the first women's golf tournament "in the west" was held at Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, Illinois, and Mrs. Adsit placed 19th. At the time, she was about 35 years old and had a six-year-old son and a 15-month-old daughter (my grandmother).

     "Women's Golf Tourney," The Chicago Tribune, 8 September 1898, p. 8, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/349853896/ : accessed 11 October 2018).

Mrs. Adsit's home club, the Onwentsia Club, was formally organized at its present location in 1895, hosted the U.S. Amateur in 1899, and hosted the U.S. Open in 1906. (See History - Onwentsia Club.)

How My Interest in Genealogy Got Started ~ 52 Ancestors #1

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. (I also participated in 2015.) Each week has an optional writing prompt and I may not necessarily write about a direct ancestor, as there are so many interesting people in my extended family tree!

This week's writing prompt is "Start," and as some readers may know, my interest in genealogy started with finding the copy of Orange Chapin's The Chapin Genealogy: Containing a Very Large Proportion of the Descendants of Dea. Samuel Chapin (Northampton, Massachusetts: Metcalf & Company, 1862) in my parents' library. My father was an only child and inherited lots of great family history material from his mother.

Now this is an 1862 genealogy - a secondary source (with many errors). However, there are several "Family Record" pages at the end and they include birth, marriage, and death dates for my grandmother's family.

This is one of those end pages:

The left-hand page includes births for the following:
James M. Adsit
Spencertown, Columbia Co.
New York, Feb. 5, 1809
  [my second great-grandfather]

Arville S. Chapin
Ludlow, Massachusetts,
June 9, 1820
  [my second great-grandmother]

Florence Wheeler 1878-1883
  [my grandmother's cousin]

Charles Chapin Adsit Jr.
Chicago July 3rd, 1892
  [my great-uncle]

Elizabeth Adsit
Chicago, June 18th, 1897
  [my grandmother]

Charles McAlpin Pyle Jr.
New York, June 16, 1924
  [my father in my grandmother's handwriting]

The right-hand page includes marriages for the following:
James M. Adsit
Arville S. Chapin
Chicago, Ill. Jan 21,
1841
  [my second great-grandparents]

Ezra I. Wheeler
Belle F. Adsit
Chicago Jan 7, 1868
  [she is a second great-aunt of mine]

Charles C. Adsit
Mary B. Ashby
Louisville. Married Oct 30, 1890
  [my great-grandparents]

Charles McAlpin Pyle
Elizabeth Adsit
Chicago, March 1, 1919
  [my paternal grandparents in my grandmother's handwriting]

I have written a Surname Saturday post showing my four lines of descent from Deacon Samuel Chapin.

Searching for Adsit in The Courier-Journal

Newspapers.com just updated its collection of issues from The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY). (Click on the image to go right to searching this newspaper. This is a subscription website.) My great-grandmother was born in Kentucky and I have found her in this newspaper in the past. (See Bowmie Ashby's 1890 Wedding.)

The update includes issues into the 21st century with the Newspapers.com Plus subscription, but I haven't found any close relatives much past the following 1918 find.

Since I am easily distracted into doing newspaper research, I decided to see what I could find by searching on Adsit, one of my more unusual ancestral surnames.

Wordless Wednesday ~ M. B. Adsit and C. C. Adsit Jr. Circa 1893

The back has my grandmother's distinctive handwriting:

M. B. Adsit (Mary Bowman (Ashby) Adsit)
C. C. Adsit Jr. (Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr.)

(The very light penciled handwriting in the upper right-hand corner is my handwriting, clarifying that this is Mary B. A. Adsit (1866-1956), though since I wrote that, I learned that she was older than she said. See Matrilineal Monday ~ My Kentucky Great Grandmother.)

This is the older brother and mother of Elizabeth Adsit (1897-1983), my paternal grandmother. Charles, Jr. was born in July 1892, so this photograph was taken before his younger sister was born, likely in late 1893.

Max Platz was a well-known Chicago photographer in the late 19th century. He died in early 1894 and his studio was continued by a business associate, according to his obituary.

Photo Collage for Facebook

Several months ago, I updated the cover photo on my Facebook page.

There have been a couple of questions about who are in the photos, so here are the answers. If I have blogged about the photo previously, I include a link to that post.

These photographs come from all branches of my ancestry and from the 1850s to 1928.

Top row left is Hunter Sisters 1911. My maternal grandmother is the youngest one standing on something in the back.

Top row middle is second great grand uncle James M. Lysle, a soldier who died in the Civil War.

At right is my father in a wagon with his pet goat. I'm guessing about 1928.

Bottom row left is an ambrotype of my third great grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Gorin.

Next is my second great grandmother, Susan Arville (Chapin) Adsit.

Next is a third great aunt Caroline (Carrie) Lysle (1841-1914).

Next is my great-grandmother, Marguerite Lysle (1876-1967).

Second from right is my great grandmother, Mary Bowman (Ashby) Adsit (1863-1956).

Bottom row right is a portrait of my paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Adsit with my dad on her lap.

By the way, I used BeFunky's Collage Maker to create this. If you search for "Facebook cover photo collage" or something equivalent, you will find all sorts of websites that will help you create a collage for your Facebook cover. (The white space at the bottom left is where my profile photo covers this collage.)

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Arville S. Chapin Adsit

Arville S. Chapin

Wife of

James M. Adsit

June 9, 1820 - May 6, 1906

Arville Susan Chapin was born in Massachusetts, moved with her family to Chicago in 1838 (according to her obituary), where she married James M. Adsit, and where she died.

She is buried in the Adsit family plot at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, where I visited for the first time last September.

I descend from Arville Chapin as follows:

Arville Susan Chapin

|

Charles Chapin Adsit

|

Elizabeth Adsit

|

Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr.

|

Me

Wedding Wednesday ~ St James Church, Chicago

97 years ago today, on Sunday, March 2, 1919, there were wedding announcements for my paternal grandparents' wedding, which had occurred the previous day at St. James Episcopal Church in Chicago.

We visited Chicago last September and although the church was undergoing some renovation, we talked our way in and here is a photograph of the inside of the church, taken by my husband.

Here is the wedding announcement from page 5 of the Chicago Sunday Tribune.

Very early in my blog, I shared a scan of the other part of the announcement, with photographs. Now I know it's from the Chicago Sunday Tribune.

Wedding announcement of my grandparents

Naughty Charles C. Adsit - 52 Ancestors #50

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is Naughty: we all have an ancestor who probably received coal in his stocking.

The following isn't really that "naughty," but was rather negative news to be published in newspapers across the country.

First a summary: my great-grandfather, Charles Chapin Adsit, lived in Chicago, Illinois.  I have written about him a few times:

• Tuesday's Tip ~ City Directories (confirming the family's residence in 1900)
• The Adsit Family in Chicago (1910 and 1920 U.S. Census and city directories)
• Tuesday's Tip ~ International Passenger Lists (Why the family is not in the 1900 U.S. Census)
• Wordless Wednesday ~ Charles Chapin Adsit
• More on the Adsit Family (I list the seven children of James and Susan Adsit: Charles' parents)

He was born on July 14, 1853, to James Monroe Adsit and Susan Arville Chapin. His father, James, is considered the first banker in Chicago. Both Charles and his brother, James, Jr. followed in their father's footsteps and became active in Chicago's financial industry.

He married, first, Hattie L. Webster, on November 22, 1881, in Evanston, Illinois. She died less than a year later, in childbirth, and is buried with their unnamed child in Chicago's beautiful Graceland Cemetery.

It took Charles a few years before he was ready to marry again: he married Mary Bowman Ashby (known as "Bowmie") on October 30, 1890, in Louisville, Kentucky. See a lovely description of their wedding here.

Charles and Bowmie had two children, Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr. (b. 1892) and Elizabeth Adsit, my grandmother (b. 1897), known as Libby, who had quite a society wedding in 1919.

After Libby had been married for just a few months, it appears that her father had a bit of financial trouble.

Leonard Adsit - 52 Ancestors #41

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, I am sharing the little bit I know about the short life of my third great-grandfather, Leonard Adsit.

Leonard was born to Martin Adsit and Rhoda Haight on September 4, 1783, in Spencertown, Columbia County, New York, as the second of eleven children. (From the secondary source: Descendants of John Adsit of Lyme Connecticut, by Newman Ward Adsit, privately published about 1959. A digitized copy of this book can be found at FamilySearch.org.)

The only census I have found him in is the 1810 U.S. Census. In 1790 and 1800, he would have been just a tick mark in his father's household; he was dead before the 1820 census.

1810 U.S. Federal Census. Hillsdale, Columbia, New York; Roll: 31; Page: 666; Line: 20.

I previously shared my analysis of this census record at James Adsit's Parents in New York State, where I also shared an abstract of Leonard's probate record.

With the addition of lots of probate records at Ancestry.com, I found the probate record for Leonard Adsit.

Martin Adsit Fought for Independence - 52 Ancestors #27

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is Independent, as in Independence Day! Which ancestor fought for America’s independence?

I have several Revolutionary War ancestors. I have previously blogged about 4th great grandfather, John Gorin (my DAR patriot), 4th great grandfather, Noah Davenport and 5th great grandfather, John Willet.

Another 4th great grandfather who served in the Revolution is Martin Adsit.

The NSDAR (National Society Daughters of the American Revolution) Genealogical Research System Ancestor Search summarizes Martin Adsit's service as:

Service Source: Roberts, NY in the Rev, p 70
Service Description: 1) Col Wessenfield [sic: should read Weissenfels]

New York in the Revolution as Colony and State can be found at Google Books with Martin Adsit listed as an enlisted man in "The Levies" under Colonel Frederick Weissenfels (page 54). (Col. Weissenfels has an article at Wikipedia.) The Weissenfels' Regiment of Levies (1781–82) was a militia unit from New York which fought in support of the American cause.

At Ancestry.com, there is an index for the Muster and Pay Rolls of the War of the Revolution, 1775-1783 indicating that Martin Adsit, serving under [Frederick] Wissenfells, was listed as a patient in the General Hospital at Albany between October 31, 1781 and November 7, 1781, with a fever.

I have not been able to determine if Martin participated in any battles. It appears that "Levies" were a group of soldiers selected from the ranks of the militia for additional training. These troops were then used to fill in the ranks of regular troops or as independent units. Often Levies served in the forts along the frontier counties in New York in order to stop raids carried out by Indian forces and Loyalists led by British officers.