History and lore
Theodore was born at midnight on 27 January 1693/94 and baptized on Wednesday, 28 March 1694, at the French Protestant church in New York, the Église Françoise à la Nouvelle York, later the French Church du Saint-Esprit, by its minister, Pierre Peiret. The register names him “theodore fils de Jean Pierre melot et de marie Melot”; his godparents were Jean Sevenhoven (who signed J. Vanseuenhoue) and Catherine le Mercier, and his father signed as J. P. Melot. His mother, Marie Melot, was Marie Bellemain: the same register names her so at the baptisms of his sisters. (The year then began on 25 March, so his January birth is written 1693/94, which explains the old uncertainty over 1693 or 1694.)
Theodorus was baptized in 1694 as Melot but signed his own name Malot, and both spellings lived on. The descendants of his son John, by his first wife Catherine Maple, became the Mellotts, mainly in Pennsylvania; most of his children by his second wife, Catherine DeLashmutt, carried on the Malott spelling.
Read the full article: Merle, Merlet, Marlatt, Malott: How Our Name Changed
In the Marlatt-Merlet DNA Project, eleven Malott and Mellott men descended from Theodorus, through his sons John, Joseph, Peter and Benjamin, closely match one another. That makes it likely they all share him as a common ancestor. Their Y-DNA differs sharply from the Marlatt lines, however, and Big Y-700 tests have since confirmed that the paternal line broke either between Gedeon and Jean Pierre, or between Jean Pierre and Theodorus (see the research note above).
Read the full report: The Marlatt-Merlet DNA Project: Summary Report
