Eileen Chapman Brown seeks information on a mid-19th century Chapman couple from Tompkins County. I gather their son James married a Haines.

I regret I do not have any useful information, but the Brown-Haines-Tompkins county association drew my interest.

The Haines name, spelled with an "i", tends to be associated with Quaker families in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania and South New Jersey, not with New York state. I have a south Jersey ancestor, John Kelly Brown, born in Tompkins County, who named his son Howard Haines Brown. John's parents (Benjamin Webb Brown and Elizabeth VanZant), lived in Tompkins County until Elizabeth died in 1838.

There are three Tompkins Country-New Jersey links here. Elizabeth VanZant does not seem to have been descended from the Albany VanZant people, as one would expect, but the Northern New Jersen VanZant/VanSant people.

Second, it is interesting to find a marriage of a Haines, which is typically a South Jersey name, in Tompkins County.

Third, Benjamin Webb Brown apparently worked on a Cayuga Lake steamboat, and in 1838 transferred his skills to become an engineer on the Camden-Philadelphia ferry.

I'm anxious to learn more of these connections. Why does the Haines name show up in Tompkins County? What specific connection does this Elizabeth VanZant have with the New Jersey VanSants? Was there any connection between the Delaware River and the Cayuga Lake steamboats?

Sorry for not being able to address your own needs.