Large

 

Autosomal DNA is "THE" topic most genealogists are talking about these days, albeit by ZOOM instead of in person.  

As a data analyst by profession, I am most excited about the opportunities to apply all the Excel sorting and filtering tools that I use in my "real world" workplace.  

The latest such opportunity is "clustering," whereby you dump all of your DNA matches into a data file and convert them into color-coded groups based on who is related to each other.  Basically, this is an amplification of the "LEEDS METHOD," developed a few years ago by researcher Dana Leeds.  (Read all about it at https://www.danaleeds.com/the-leeds-method.)

Anyway, I bring all this up because of this week's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" blogging prompt: LARGE.

In examining all of my clusters, I noticed the matches I find from my dad's side of the family outnumber the matches from my mom's side by about a 3-to-1 ratio.  And I wondered why that number was so relatively LARGE . . . pun definitely intended.

Drilling down further, I notice I have at least 7 identifiable matches for each of Dad's 32 third-great grandparents.  But one couple has a disproportionately LARGE number of matches at 126 each: Isaac Timmons and his wife Sarah Davis, who lived at Mount Croghan, South Carolina, in the decades leading up to the Civil War.

If YOU find this sort of disproportionality in your own results, fret not.  This is typical.  There are two main reasons why this happens:

1. Fertility rates.  One side of your family may consistently have LARGE numbers of children, while another side has a history of only one or two children per generation.  The lines with multiple generations of multiple births will obviously produce more potential living matches, but that doesn't mean you inherited more DNA from your most recent common ancestors.
2. Who is taking tests?  Common sense tells us if you have a bunch of cousins from one branch of the family who are testing while very few cousins from another branch are submitting their DNA, the totals are going to be lopsided.  Many factors come into play here.  One group of cousins may be more interested in genealogy because their branch of the family belongs to the LDS church, while another group may have an aversion to DNA testing due to privacy concerns.  But varying participation rates do not mean you have more DNA from one pair of ancestors over another.

These apply to my own results.  In the case of Isaac and Sarah Timmons, they had a LARGE family of thirteen children.  All of these children survived to adulthood (a rare achievement in that era) and all but the youngest boy (who marched off to fight in the Civil War and never returned) went on to marry and produce large families of their own.  By my count, Isaac and Sarah had no fewer than 115 grandchildren!

The Old Country

 

If my latest Ancestry.com DNA results are accurate . . . and that's a BIG IF, since they seem to update their algorithms every couple of months . . . my ethnic origins are in Northwest Europe, and primarily in the British Isles.  More specifically, they currently say I am 48% Irish, 43% English, 4% Scots, 2% Welsh, and (randomly) 3% Swedish/Danish.

While "DNA don't lie," the trick is documenting just how this genetic material hopped the pond and ended up with me.

Given this week's blogging prompt, I thought I'd put together a list of my known immigrant ancestors and group them by origin to see if the list mirrors Ancestry.com's current calculations.  Here's what I found:

ENGLAND

• John and Mary Andrews - by 1654
• Joseph Austin - by 1649
• Thomas Ballard - by 1652
• Edward Barker - by 1650
• Robert Barnard - by 1638
• Thomas Barnard - by 1639
• Lancelot Bathurst - by 1680
• Thomas Batte - 1649
• Francis Bell - by 1640
• Sarah Bell - by 1638
• Andrew Benton - by 1644
• John Bidwell - by 1639
• Samuel Blakeslee - 1635
• Robert Bolling - 1660
• William Bradley - by 1638
• John Buckner - by 1655
• John and Sarah Butterworth - by 1652
• Edward Cartwright - by 1671
• Abraham and Jane (Howard) Childress - by 1643
• James Clark - 1637
• Tristram and Dionis (Stevens) Coffin - by 1645
• John Curtis, Jr. - ca 1637
• Samuel Eddy - 1630
• Peter Folger - 1635
• Richard Gardner - 1624
• Nicholas Gassaway - by 1650
• Phillip Goffe - by 1649
• Jane (Drury) Gregory - by 1655
• Roger Groce - by 1650
• Simon Hancock - 1637
• Captain Thomas Harris - 1611
• Joan Harvey - by 1642
• Audrey Hoare - 1621
• Sarah Hopcott - by 1640
• Anthony Howkins - by 1644
• John Hubbard - by 1668
• John Ingersoll - by 1651
• Robert Irving - 1849
• Thomas and Elizabeth Judd - 1634
• Mary Kinsman - 1635
• Abraham Lighthall - by 1719
• Thomas Ligon - by 1649
• Dorothy Lord - 1635
• Samuel and Elizabeth (Scudder) Lothrop - by 1644
• Thomas Macy - by 1639
• Thomas Meakins - 1633
• Nathaniel Merriman - 1632
• Mary Morrill - 1635
• Arthur Moseley - 1649
• John Moss - by 1639
• Thomas Munson - by 1635
• Thomas Newell - by 1644
• Rebecca Olmstead - 1632
• Paul and Martha (Hale) Peck - by 1639
• Phineas Pratt - 1622
• Mary Priest - 1623
• Alice Pritchard - by 1640
• Thomas Purnell - by 1663
• John Selman - about 1668
• John and Abigail (Kimball) Severance - by 1637
• Sarah Shattuck - by 1642
• Sarah Starbuck - 1635
• John Stith - by 1656
• Hannah Stocking - by 1634
• William Thomas - by 1659
• William and Elizabeth Tuttle - 1635
• Moses and Grace (Graves) Ventrus - by 1646
• William and Elizabeth (Warren) Walker = 1658
• William and Alice (Pyce) Wardwell - 1633
• Sarah Wilcox - about 1635
• Abraham Wood - 1620
• William Worsham - by 1640

FRANCE

• Antoine Bonneau - 1690
• Benoit Brasseur - by 1638
• Rev. Paul and Francoise (Durosel) L'Escot - 1701
• Marie Richford - by 1645
• Benjamin and Marie Esther (Dupre) Simons - by 1692
• John Timmons - by 1700
• Jeanne Elizabeth Videau - by 1697
• Pierre Villepontoux - 1693

GERMANY

• Jacob Michael Ittich - by 1710
• Johann Friedrich and Mary Margaret (Metz) Schlemp - 1767
• Johannes Spanknabel - by 1770

IRELAND

• James Cameron - 1767
• Thomas and Bridget (Seery) Conner - by 1856
• Thomas and Catherine (Cloonan) Daley - 1850
• James and Catherine (Cully) Gleeson - 1867
• Elizabeth (Gallagher) Lynch - 1844
• Michael Lynch - by 1841
• Patrick Norton - 1880
• Catherine O'Rourke - by 1849
• Robert and Mary (Holmes) Paddock - 1631

NETHERLANDS

• Harmen Myndertsen van der Bogart - 1631
• Cornelis Anthonisen van Schlick - 1634
• Jillisje Claese Schouw - by 1626

SCOTLAND

• John Hunter - by 1745

WALES

• Thomas and Blanche (Kemis) Gaines - by 1634

Newsworthy

 

How many of you have been admonished about life being more than the two dates that appear on your tombstone, that "it's the dash that's important?"

Trite, yes.  Nonetheless, true.  The stuff that happens between your date of birth and your date of death are certainly more interesting to most consumers of biographical information.

Sometimes, we genealogists forget that as we obsessively track down and record names, vital dates, geographic jurisdictions, and source citations.   We NEEED these to make our nice little pedigree charts and family group sheets look neat and tidy.

But, if that's all we focus on, we miss the whole point and the real joy of genealogy, which is learning about who our ancestors really were.

What were their day-to-day lives like compared to our own?  How did they confront life's challenges, much less unusual circumstances like the one we are currently facing with the COVID-19 pandemic?  Can we learn anything from what they went thru to apply to our own lives?

That's why I love newspapers.com.  This site has really helped me flesh-out my family's unique story.  

Some of the best items I've discovered would hardly be considered "newsworthy" by most folks' standards--like the article above that I snipped about my dad's run-in with a black widow spider at age 11.  But these little details certainly mean something to me, and hopefully will to future generations.  

At least that's what I keep telling myself as I digitally "snip" tidbits like this until the wee hours of the morning . . . 

Happy hunting!

Multiple

 

Tracing a female ancestor can be difficult when she assumes the surname of her husband.  The challenge is greater when she marries multiple times.  Such was the case with my great aunt Hattie Macy Baxter (1874-1954).  After years of research, I have found that she married no fewer than six times.

Hattie was born at Orlando, Florida, on 22 March 1874 or 1876, depending on which source you believe.  Her grave marker says 1874, her death certificate 1876.  Census records are ambiguous, do not confirm the date and vary depending on the enumeration; but do agree she was a younger daughter of my ancestors William and Martha (Twyford) Macy.  Following is a timeline of her life that I have been able to piece together from surviving documents:

• 1880 - Hattie was enumerated as the 6-year-old daughter (thus born about 1874) of machinist W.H. Macy and his wife Mrs. M.J. Macy in the US Census, Precinct 3, Orange County, Florida, page 432d.  She had four older sisters (Nellie, Maria, Kate, and Annie), an older brother Paul (my ancestor), and a younger brother Charles.  Her father and eldest sister Nellie were born in New York, her mother in Tennessee.  She and all the other children were natives of Florida.
• 1885 - Hattie was enumerated as the 11-year-old daughter (again, born about 1874) of machinist W.H. MACEY (note variant spelling of surname) of Pine Castle in the Florida state census of Orange County.  Her eldest sister Nellie had moved out by that time but was living two houses away with her new husband Ed Miller.  Her younger brother Charles had died, and a younger sister Eunice had been born.
• 28 Nov 1889 - Hattie married her first husband George W. Kuhn, Jr., in neighboring Osceola County, Florida.  Depending on the correct year of her birth, she was either 13 or 15 years of age.  Mr. Kuhn, an immigrant farmer from Switzerland, was 31 years old.  This was not a happy marriage, doubtless due in large part to their age difference.  But it did produce one child.
• 3 Dec 1895 - Hattie gave birth in Kissimmee, Florida, to her only known child: Gertrude Pearl Kuhn.  Soon after this, Hattie and George divorced and quickly remarried--George in 1900 to another teen bride, settled in Plant City, Florida.
• 13 Apr 1898 - Hattie (age about 24) married her second husband Charles M. Hansel of Pine Castle.  He was about 40 years old at the time.
• 16 Jun 1900 - Hattie was numerated at Pine Castle as the 25-year-old wife of Mr. Hansel, who was working as a "wood chopper."  Both she and her daughter Gertrude had assumed the Hansel surname.  But this marriage also ended in divorce, soon after the census enumeration.
• 12 Oct 1903 - Hattie (age about 29) married in Orange County to her third husband James Andrew Byrd (age about 68), a man old enough to be her father, if not her grandfather!
• 21 Apr 1904 - Hattie Byrd relinquished dower rights to property her new third husband Andrew BIRD (note his surname was misspelled, hers wasn't) sold in Orange County.  [See Official Records Book 117, page 405.]
• 25 Mar 1905 - "Hattie A. Byrd" was gifted 2.5 acres of land on Lake Conway in Pine Castle by her widowed mother Martha J. Macy.
• 23 Jan 1909 - Mr. Byrd, her third husband, died at age 73 and is buried at the Conway Cemetery in Orange County, Florida.
• 9 Jun 1909 - Less than 5 months after her third husband's death, Hattie (age about 34) married in Orange County to her fourth husband Nicholas J. Evans (age about 57).  According to E.H. Gore's History of Orlando (1949), Mr. Evans came to this area in 1880 and planted an oak grove on the old Macy family property on South Street.  So, Hattie must have known him since childhood.
• 1910 - Neither Hattie nor Mr. Evans have yet been found in the US census enumeration.  Where were they?  Perhaps their surname has been indexed incorrectly . . .
• 30 Jan 1911 - "Hattie A. Evans and N.J. Evans, her husband" sold the 2.5 acres on Lake Conway that she had received from her mother in 1905.  The well-known blind poet Harvey Austin Fuller bought it from them for $285 (worth about $8,000 in today's money).  [See Orange County Official Records, Book 151, page 235.]
• 19 Sep 1913 - The Orlando Sentinel reported N.J. Evans had arrived from Tullahoma, Tennessee, "to rejoin his family here."  No mention was made of Hattie, though she was later known to live at Tullahoma herself (see 1920).
• 5 Mar 1914 - The same paper reported, "Miss Gertrude Kuhn of Orlando is visiting her mother Mrs. Hattie Evans [of Pine Castle] who is ill."  No mention was made of Mr. Evans.
• 1920 - Hattie (age 45) was enumerated as the WIDOWED housekeeper of merchant Holbert Dodd and family of Tullahoma, Tennessee.  Mr. Evans was also living at Tullahoma that year, but alone and also "widowed."  Clearly, they were living separately and may have even been divorced but didn't want to admit it to the census taker?!
• 2 Jul 1928 - Hattie is not mentioned in the Orlando Morning Sentinel obituary of her half-brother George Macy.  The obit only mentions two other half-sisters (Nellie and Annie) and omits not only Hattie but also two other half-siblings Paul and Eunice.  Was this just a poorly prepared obituary, or were these half-siblings purposely omitted due to some rift in the family?
• 1930 - Hattie (age 54) had remarried and was enumerated with her fifth husband Alfred Chastain (age 62), a farmer in Franklin County, Tennessee.
• 6 Mar 1937 - Mr. Chastain died at their Franklin County farm, of "unknown causes."  
• 1940 - Mrs. Hattie CHASTIN (age 66) was enumerated as a widow, still living on her late husband's farm in Franklin County.  Living with her was her "daughter" [?!?] Area CHASTIN (age 12), probably a stepdaughter.  Note misspelled surname.
• 3 Oct 1941 - Hattie is not mentioned as a survivor in the Orlando Morning Sentinel obituary of her sister Nellie Sparkman, indicating they were estranged or had at least lost contact.
• 26 Mar 1942 - Hattie (age 67) married in Franklin County, Tennessee, to her sixth (and last known) husband B.R. Baxter (age 75).
• 27 Nov 1948 - "Mrs. Hattie Evans of Tennessee" was mentioned as a survivor in the Orlando Morning Sentinel obituary of her brother Paul Macy.  She had not been married to Mr. Evans for about twenty years by that point and had since remarried two other men.  This is further indication of Hattie's estrangement from her Florida relatives.
• 11 Jan 1953 - Hattie is not mentioned as a survivor in the Fort Pierce News-Tribune obituary of her sister Annie Ralls, another indication of estrangement from her Florida family.
• 3 Feb 1954 - Hattie died of bronchopneumonia at McMinnville, Tennessee, age 76, according to her official death certificate.  She had been living about an hour away at Lynchburg, Tennessee, until a few months before her death.  This information was provided by her daughter Mrs. Gertrude Bowen of St. Petersburg, Florida.
• 4 Feb 1954 - A very brief death notice was published in the Nashville Banner, naming no survivors, only that "Mrs. Hattie Baxter, 77" of Winchester and McMinnville had died.  She was buried the same day at the City Cemetery in Winchester, Tennessee.

It has taken me years to piece together this timeline of Hattie's life due to her multiple marriages.  Records had to be searched and re-searched not only for her maiden name of MACY, but for all of her husbands' surnames as they were discovered: KUHN, HANSEL, BYRD, EVANS, CHASTAIN, and BAXTER.  Many of these names were prone to variant spellings, which added to the challenge: MACEY, KUEHN, HANSELL, BIRD, and CHASTIN.  The usual "FAN" (friends, associates, and neighbors) research tactics were thwarted by some estrangement from her birth family after her removal to Tennessee.

I may never know the details behind the apparent estrangement.  But a year or so ago, I was able to visit Hattie's final resting place at Winchester--or, should I say, the general vicinity.  I arrived on a Saturday afternoon when no one was available to assist me in finding the exact spot.  Typical, I thought.  Aunt Hattie is still playing games with me, still making it tough to track her down!

Solo

(Or, "How a Strategically-placed Red Solo Cup Led Me to My Revolutionary War Ancestor")

This week's blogging prompt brought to mind one of my favorite genealogy road trip tales.

Back in 2012, when the National Genealogical Society held their annual conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, we stayed just across the state line in the casino resort town of Lawrenceburg, Indiana.  This not only provided some non-genealogy recreational time, but also happened to be a stone's throw from the known resting place of my Revolutionary War patriot ancestor Job Judd (1755-1846).  So, before heading over to the convention center, I was able to get a picture of myself posing with his grave marker.  (Note, it includes a more modern plaque added by the DAR during the bicentennial era.)

Anyway, while we were lurking around the sleepy town square, the local barber approached me to find out what all the hubbub was about.

As it turned out, he was the head of the local historical society and had a bunch of material in his shop that he graciously offered me to review.

I was most interested to know why Job's widow Mary (Andrews) Judd was not buried by his side.  Or, was she buried there without a marker?

The barber knew the answer off the top of his head.  "Oh, she's not buried here," he explained.  "She moved in with one of her children after Job's death and is buried at a church near their old family farm."

I asked him if he could supply me with directions, and he gladly obliged:

1. Take the paved road out of town until it dead-ends, then turn left.
2. Follow the signs to the town of Napoleon, but don't blink when you get there or you'll miss it.
3. The road forks on the other side of Napoleon, stay on the south fork.
4. That'll put you across the county line into Ripley.
5. Keep your eyes peeled for County Road 900.  There is no stop sign, so be careful.  Turn left.
6. The road will be paved for a fair piece, but then it turns to gravel.
7. Then it turns to dirt.
8. Then it cuts down to one lane and you'll think you're lost.
9. Just before you're ready to give up and turn around, you'll see a RED SOLO CUP tacked to a tree.
10. That's where you'll turn left down a rutted path.  It'll look like the ruts end at a creek, but keep on driving.  The water's shallow.
11. When you get to the other side, keep driving a short distance until you see a pretty little church at the foot of a hill.
12. The cemetery sits atop that hill, where the original church once stood.

Challenge accepted,

Turns out, the church was so hard to find because it was once part of the Underground Railroad.  After hiking up the imposing steps to the site of the original church (founded in 1843), the reward was this magnificent view:

And, after wandering around a bit, we did find Mary's final resting place:

Mission Accomplished (courtesy of a genie angel and one red solo cup)!

#52Ancestors