Category Archives: DNA

DNA, North Carolina, Paternal Kin, Photographs

DNAnigma, no. 16: Neighbors.

A plus of growing up in the vicinity of the places your ancestors lived: every once in a while, you’ll discover that your childhood friends (or enemies, ha!) are actually your kinfolk. Just today, I noticed a match with a woman whose name sounded vaguely familiar. I checked her family tree, saw her grandfather’s name, and — bingo! — she’s the first cousin of R., one of my closest childhood friends. R.’s family lived up the street from mine, and I remember my match and her sister, who grew up in Virginia, visiting them. I zapped a message to R.’s sister on Facebook — “We’re COUSINS!” — and she is as stunned as I. I have NO IDEA what our connection is, but I’m about to put my back in this.

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Me, R. and J., 1966. Cousins!

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DNA

DNAnigma: Autosomalgeddon; or, “Them’s that got shall have. Them’s that not shall lose.”

Day 2. Ancestry DNA has rolled out its better “mousetrap.” A new and “improved” way of identifying genetic relationships. I dropped from 80 pages of matches to 17. I lost a known 4th cousin (whom I match at 23andme, FTDNA and Gedmatch). I’ve lost nearly all the distant Euro-descended matches that lent credence to speculation about some of my white ancestors. I’ve lost all but three “shaky leaf” shared ancestor hints. I have no Circles. I’ve gained some new matches. Most have private trees or no tree at all. None have shaky leaves. None share my surnames.

This is not a win.

I knew the new analysis would disproportionately negatively impact non-whites, adoptees or those who otherwise have limited information about their ancestry, and I’m waiting vainly for an authoritative acknowledgment of that fact. All I’m seeing are cheery reassurances that this really is for the greater good, you’ll see. These comments seem blind to the realness of the loss of so-called “false negatives.”  This is privilege on display. For people whose genealogies descend in orderly, documented ranks, free from slavemaster paternity or undocumented marginalized others — onward and upward.

For the rest of us?  This is not a win.

 

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DNA, Maternal Kin, Paternal Kin

DNA Definites: Ancestry (under)estimates.

Of my zillions of matches at Ancestry DNA, to date I’ve able to document 13 of them. Four were cousins I already knew; one was a cousin I conjectured, but couldn’t prove; and two others are from family lines I knew, though I did not know the match. I am related to the remaining six — the most distant matches — via late colonial or early antebellum-era white ancestors previously identified but unproven.

The chart below shows Ancestry DNA’s estimates of my kinship to these 13, as well as our actual relationship. Ancestry tends to underestimate relationship slightly in matches closer than five degrees, and I try to keep this in mind when speculating about my mystery matches.

Match Ancestry Estimate Actual Relationship
W.H. 3rd-4th cousin 2nd cousin, once removed
G.J. 4th-6th cousin 2nd cousin, once removed
H.B. 4th-6th cousin 3rd cousin, once removed
S.D. 4th-6th cousin 3rd cousin
G.P. 5th-8th cousin 3rd cousin, 3x removed
E.G. 5th-8th cousin 4th cousin
B.J. 5th-8th cousin 4th cousin
G.L. 5th-8th cousin 5th cousin, once removed
J.W. 5th-8th cousin 5th cousin, once removed
D.M. 5th-8th cousin 5th cousin, once removed
J.B. 5th-8th cousin 5th cousin, twice removed
E.D 5th-8th cousin 6th cousin, twice removed
L.B. 5th-8th cousin 7th cousin
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DNA, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

DNA Definites, no. 16: Henderson.

Hard on the heels of my first Henderson match* comes another.

K.H.’s family tree shows that he or she is a descendant of Susan Henderson Wynn, half-sister of my great-great-great-grandfather Lewis Henderson. I’ve reached out to the woman who administers K.H.’s account — bizarrely, she’s someone who reached out to me a year or ago about some Artis research she was doing for a friend — to confirm the connection.

*By this, I mean a Henderson who is not also an Aldridge. They are my double-cousins, and much closer on the Aldridge side.

 

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DNA, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

DNA Definites, no. 15: Henderson.

I spotted the match on Ancestry DNA back in February. A German surname. A family tree largely filled with what appeared to be Germans and Frenchmen. But interspersed among the list of ethnic origins — Nigeria, Mali, Ivory Coast/Mali, Senegal …? I examined the tree a little more closely, and — there — could it be? A name I recognized. A rather common name, but one that matched that of a grandson of Ann Elizabeth Henderson Simmons, my great-great-grandmother Loudie Henderson‘s sister.

I reached out.  I also emailed a cousin, the daughter of the named man’s sister, if she thought her uncle had offspring of that age, in that place. It was very possible, she said. This uncle had not been in touch much. He was believed to have assumed a sort of liminal identity — not quite white maybe, but far from black. He had married several times, she thought, and had died in California.

Months passed.

Then, at the beginning of September, I heard back from E.G. He doesn’t know much about his grandfather, the match, but wondered if I did. Yes, I replied, I do. Ancestry (with its usual underestimating) pegged E.G. and I as 5th to 8th cousins, but we are 4th. Our great-great-grandmothers were sisters. He is the first Henderson relative I have matched beyond my double-cousins (whom I match more closely as Aldridges), and the first in my own Lewis line beyond my immediate relatives.

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DNA, Maternal Kin, Paternal Kin

My family haplogroups.

MtDNA Haplogroups

H3 [widespread across Europe, second most common of the H lineages] — My father’s matrilineal haplogroup. Furthest known ancestor: Nancy Balkcum (1807-1854, Duplin County NC), my great-great-great-great-grandmother. Margaret Balkcum Henderson, whom I believe to be her daughter, is my father’s matrilineal ancestor. He is also descended from Mary Eliza Balkcum Aldridge, whom I believe to have been Margaret’s sister, and whose matrilineal descendant has also tested H3.

J1c2 [widespread, but low frequency, across Europe; also Middle East] — The haplogroup of my father’s mother’s father’s mother. Furthest known ancestor: Levisy Hagans Seaberry (~1824-~1875, Wayne County NC), my great-great-great-great-grandmother. (Or, if my conjecture is correct, her mother Leasy Hagans (1800-~1855, Nash County).

L2d1a [relatively uncommon, West African origin, also found in Yemen, Mauritania and Sudan] — My mother’s matrilineal haplogroup. Furthest known ancestor: Margaret McConnaughey Miller (1821-~1875, Rowan County NC), my great-great-great-grandmother.

L1c1a1a1b — The haplogroup of my mother’s father’s mother. Furthest known ancestor: Matilda Holmes (~1840, Charlotte County VA- 1885, Charles City County VA), maiden name unknown.

Y-DNA Haplogroups

J2b1 [southern Balkans and Anatolia] — My father’s patrilineal haplogroup. Furthest known ancestor: Green Taylor (1817-~1885, Nash County NC), my great-great-grandfather.

R1b1b2a1a [R1b1 is the most common of European lineages] — My father’s mother’s mother’s mother’s father’s haplogroup (as derived from a descendant of his brother.) Furthest known ancestor: James Henderson (1815-~1890, Onslow County NC).

R1b1b2a1a1 [ditto] — My mother’s brother’s haplogroup. Furthest known ancestor: John C. Allen Sr. (1876-1953, Charles City County VA), my great-grandfather. [Update, 7/22/2015: FTDNA classifies my uncle’s haplogroup as R-M269.]

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DNA, Free People of Color, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

DNAnigma, no. 2.1: Another Armwood.

I seldom check FTDNA, but last night I moseyed on to study the new My Origins feature. A glance in the corner of the screen showed a  new high match, an estimated 2nd to 4th cousin whom I’ll call L.A. I emailed him, and he quickly responded. We immediately identified Sampson County, North Carolina, as a potential point of commonality, and I asked his grandparents’ names. I looked them up and found that one was the offspring of John Wesley Faircloth and Laura Wynn (or Simmons). A little further research — and consultation with Stephen Maynor, my point man for all things Sampson County — revealed that Wesley Faircloth, born about 1856, was the son of Nancy Armwood. Again with these Armwoods!

Nancy was the daughter of John and Susan Armwood, and her sister Louisa (or Eliza) was my great-great-great-great-grandfather James Henderson‘s second wife. Am I an Armwood though?

While refreshing my recollection about this family — which has always frustrated my efforts to track them properly — I discovered a previously unnoticed tangle of intermarriages between and among the Armwoods, Wynns, Simmonses and a few Hendersons in northern Sampson and Duplin Counties and southern Wayne County.

The base couples:

  • Major Armwood (~1798-??) and wife Eliza [last name unknown] Armwood (~1806-??).
  • Richard Armwood (1832-??) and wife Mary Faircloth Armwood.
  • John Armwood (~1800-??) and wife Susan [maiden name unknown] Armwood (~1820-??).
  • James Simmons (1798-1860) and wife Winnie Medlin Simmons (??-1902).
  • Gray Winn (~1815-1850) and wife Sarah Greenfield Winn (1816-1909).

And the marriages and other relationships that flowed therefrom:

And this is just a generation or two of intermarriage. I’ve asked A.G., my other Armwood match, to test with 23andme so I can compare our matches and see if she matches my known Hendersons. Stay tuned….

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DNA, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

DNA Definites, no. 14: Artis.

Well, I’ll be….

Several months ago, I sent a share request to N.S. on 23andme because he listed Kinston NC as a family location. N.S. is a match to my cousin K.H. Though K.H. and I don’t have ancestors from Lenoir County, it’s close enough to Dudley that I thought it worthwhile to establish contact.

I was skimming through K.H.’s matches yesterday and stopped short at N.S. … Hmmm … Kinston? Speight? Could he …?

I sent a message, “Are you descended from Lemmon Speight?,” and he quickly responded that he is indeed, that Lemmon was his grandfather.

If you remember, I discovered Lemmon Speight a few weeks ago in the Civil War pension application file of Bailham Speight. Speight’s widow Hannah Sauls Speight, several friends and relatives, and Lemmon himself testified that Lemmon, Hannah’s first child, had been fathered by Loderick Artis, whom she had never married. Loderick Artis was the son of Daniel Artis, who was brother of my great-great-great-great-grandmother Vicey Artis Williams.

N.S. and K.H. share .46%, and 23andme estimated their relationship as 3rd-5th cousins. They are, in fact, 4th cousins.

[UPDATE: I was at the North Carolina State Archives last week when my phone rang with an unfamiliar number from area code 202. I stepped out to answer it and found myself talking to N.S.’ brother-in-law, the family historian. We talked in depth later that night, and he told me that the family had long known the identity of Lemmon Speight’s father, that several descendants migrated to Georgia and are holding a reunion here next year, that he himself is also a Greene County Speight, and did I know D.S.? “Are you kidding??? He lives two doors down from my parents! I’ve known him all my life!” They are both descended from Stephen and Fereby Speight and are somehow related to Mr. Kenny!  — LYH, 6 May 2014]

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A wee bit.

It’s Saint Patrick’s Day, and I was asked how much Irish ancestry I have. Surprisingly little, it turns out. Like, less-than-one-percent little. (By Ancestry DNA’s reckoning.) All my “Irish” ancestors — such as my McNeelys — were Scots-Irish and are lumped in with my 19% Great British ancestry.  As far as I can tell, the tiny Irish Irish percentage is attributable to my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Micajah Casey (circa 1745-1799, Wayne County NC) via J. Buckner Martin (1868-1926).

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DNA, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

DNAnigma, no. 15: Barnes?

Barnes is far and away the most common surname in Wilson County. It is the “Smith” of Wilson, so common that two Barneses who meet, without further reason, will not wonder if they are kin. It would not occur to them that they might be. My cousin has a Barnes maternal line, and a Barnes paternal line, and married a Barnes. None are connected. My Wilson County roots are neither wide nor deep, so I only have one Barnes line, and it’s a little iffy. Nonetheless, 23andme has matched my and my father’s chromosomes with W.B. and estimates that they are 3rd to 5th cousins, .58% share. (W.B. doesn’t match my cousin, despite her many Barnes lines.)

W.B.’s patrilineal line is traceable to John Barnes, born about 1860, probably in Wilson County. Shortly before 1880, John married Harriet Batts, daughter of Orange and Mary Batts. I have not found a death certificate for John, but census records indicate that he died before 1920. Is he the connection? If he is, the tie is in an earlier generation, as there is no John Barnes in my files.

W.B. also has an ancestor named Nancy Barnes Horne, daughter of Gray and Bunny Barnes and wife of Simon Horne Jr. Is she the connection? Is the connection a Barnes at all?

W.B. is a 3rd to 5th cousin to my father. I know all kinds of 3rd to 5th cousins. In real life. How can I have NO CLUE what our relationship is this one? 23andme and Ancestry DNA are wonderful tools that have been invaluable in confirming connections, but their deeper impact has been to drive home just how little I know.

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