The Make Up of Me

    I don't have any family history to share today but I have been wanting to share my DNA Painter image. This image has many colors. It has more empty areas than it has colored areas, for now. I am ever so slowly adding to it bit by tiny bit.  I have been working on this off and on for almost three years. This is a visual representation of my DNA make up. The numbers down the left side represent my chromosomes: 22 and X. The background lines of pale blue and pink represent my maternal and paternal lines on each chromosome. The different colored bars represent the DNA I have from a specific individual ancestor or ancestral couple. Each of these colored bars represents a piece of the most complex jigsaw puzzle ever put into place with hours of researching until my eyes are crossing.

I am a Wash-Tub Woodson

Are you a Wash-tub Woodson or a Potato-hole Woodson? Although it sounds like a nonsensical question, it was a common one at Woodson gatherings in years gone by and for a good reason. There are many writings of this story throughout history, many available online and almost all guaranteed to be written better than what I can do but I am going to give it a try.

John Woodson was born in 1586 to John and Alice Hammon Woodson in Dorset, Dorsetshire, England. He went to school at St. Johns College, Oxford, England and graduated a doctor in 1604. He began working for Sir George Yeardley as a surgeon. Years later, in 1619, John married Sarah Winston. Yeardley had been appointed lord governor of Virginia in the fall of 1618 after the unexpected death of the incumbent governor and so he gathered a group of soldier and recruited John and his new bride and set sail on the ship "George" to Virginia in early 1619 and landed in Jamestown, Virginia in April 1619. (Over a year and a half before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock!) John and Sarah eventually settled at Flowerdew Hundred near what is now Richmond, VA

Photo by Elaine Hatfield Powell. She her post and photos
 about John Woodson here

and had two sons, John and Robert. 

 

On April 18, 1644 the Powhatan attacked the Virginian settlers in a third attempt to drive them from their land. On the second day of this raid, a group attacked the Woodson's home. Dr. Woodson was returning home from visiting patients when the attack began. Sarah Woodson and her two boys were home alone with the exception of a man named Ligon. (Sources are all over the place about who Ligon was: schoolmaster, indentured servant, shoemaker, friend.) The only weapon they had was a huge fowler that hung over the door. Ligon was a good shot and able to use the gun effectively against the Indians. Sarah frantically searched for a place to hide her boys. She told Robert to hide under the potatoes in the hole where they were stored and John to get under the washtub. Sarah watched out the window as her husband, John, was killed. Sarah and Ligon fought hard and in the end nine of the attackers were dead and the rest ran back into the woods. Her sons crawled out of their hiding places unscathed and from then on were called "washtub" and "potato hole". 

English Long Fowler (“Woodson” musket), mid 17th century, Barrel; about 1750, Lock; about 1800, Stock, VHS accession number: 1929.8 (On loan from Charles Granville Scott and conserved with gifts from Woodson descendants). By Woodson family tradition, the oldest part of the gun was used by Lt. Col. Thomas Ligon, who helped Sara Woodson defend her Prince George County home from an Indian attack on April 18, 1644

Both John "Washtub" and Robert "Potato-hole" went on to have large families. 

John (1632) married Mary Pleasant and had son John (1655)

John (1655) married Mary Tucker and had daughter Christian

Christian married Thomas Hodges and had son Edmund

Edmund married Nephany Walker and had daughter Susannah

Susannah married John Slayden and had daughter Martha

Martha married William Bourland and had daughter Martha

Martha married Buckner Williams and had son Plummer

Plummer married Malinda Mills and had son Sanders

Sanders married Agnes Lewis and had son James 

James married Mollie Savannah Conway and they gave birth to my great-grandfather, Sanders

John and Sarah Winston Woodson are my 12th great-grandparents.

You've heard of at least one other Woodson, outlaw Jesse Woodson James. He was a potato-hole Woodson. 

Notes:

1.  Flowerdew Hundred Plantation was probably named after Sir George Yeardley's wife, Temperance Flowerdew. 
2. There are probably over a hundred sources for this story and hundreds of stories and blogs about it. If you want to read more, and trust me, there is more, do a Google search for Dr. John Woodson Jamestown or the Powhatan Wars. 
3. The Woodson DNA must be of stout stuff because, even though they are fairly distant ancestors of mine, I have found many, many DNA cousins (13th cousins!) with the Woodson as MRCA (most recent common ancestor). This is very surprising considering I have a few 4th and 5th great-grandparents whom I have almost no cousins through. 

Sources: 

• Woodson,  Henry Morton. Historical Genealogy of the Woodsons and Their Connections.1915
• Hood, John. "Hidden in a Potato Hole." Carolina Journal, 19 Oct. 2012
• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900. Yates Publishing. Ancestry.com Operation Inc. 2004. Provo, UT
• Yawkey, C.C.. "Yawkey, Richardson and allied families; a genealogical study with biographical notes.". 1939. N.Y. American Historical Co. 
• Deetz, James. Flowerdew Hundred: the archaeology of a Virginia plantation, 1619-1864. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995
• Stebbins, Sarah J. "Chronology of Powhatan Indian Activity." National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, May 2009. 
• Dorman, John Frederick. Adventures of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1907-1624/5 4th Ed. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 2007
• Bogan, Dallas. "Progenitor of Family Here Died In Indian Battle" LaFollette Press. 

A Connection to Yale University

    Elihu Yale was a prominent merchant and trader in the second half of the 17th century. He was

born in Boston in 1649 to David and Ursula Yale. When he was just three years old the Yale family returned to England where he was educated and served the East India Company eventually becoming the first president of the company's post in Chennai (then called Madras), India.
    Elihu became very wealthy and influential during his time as president. In 1718, a founder of the Collegiate School of Connecticut contacted Yale and asked for donation towards a new building. Yale sent 417 books, a variety of goods and a portrait of King George I. The bales of goods were sold and the money was put toward a new building. In a show of gratitude, the building was named Yale. Eventually the college was renamed in his honor.
     In his later years, Yale split his time between his home in London and his family's ancestral home of Plas Grono in Wrexham in the north of Wales.
    Elihu Yale was my first cousin 13x's removed.

Thomas Yale and Anne Lloyd

Thomas II (1616-1683) m. Rebecca Gibbards                 David (1613-1690) m. Ursula  

Thomas Yale  (1679-1750) m.  Mary Benham                 Elihu Yale  (1649-1721)   

Benjamin Yale (1714-1781) m. Ruth Ives                                                                          

Job Yale (1738-1799) m. Elizabeth Hendrick                                   

Ozias Yale (1766-1853) m. Hannah Hotchkiss          

Isabella Yale (1792-1871) m. Ransom Woodruff

Hannah Woodruff (1811-1881) m. Milo Caldwell

Adaline Caldwell (1834-?) m. Noah Wirt

Esther Jane Wirt (1856-?)  m. Newell Birkett Spees

Beulah Mae Spees (1882-1945) m.  W.F. Smith

Oda Zelle Smith (1908-1975) m. Clovis Spearman

My grandfather                            

Sources:

• Encylopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elihu-Yale
• Wikipedia, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elihu-Yale
• Dodd, A. H., (1959). YALE family, of Plâs yn Iâl and Plas Grono Wrexham. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020, from https://biography.wales/article/s-YALE-PLA-1500

Alexander Kelly - A Man Who Made America

           Alexander Kelly led a truely fascinating life. He had a part in the foundation of America in many ways. Born in Ireland, his family immigrated to the colony of Virginia when he was very young. He fought in the war for independence as a private in Capt. Thomas Parramorre's company, 9th VA Regiment, commanded by Col. Thomas Flemings and later by Col. George Matthews. He married Nancy Robinson in what is now West Virgina and together they had at least six children. At some point he moved to Tennessse in the Chattanooga area and opened a ferry on the Tennessee River. You can still drive down Kelly Ferry Road and visit the Kelly Ferry Cemetery. He was a farmer and a miller. He was the first senator of Blount county. He fought Indians. He was a charter trustee of Blount College which would later become the University of Tennessee. This is just a brief, parred-down description of his interesting life. If you a would like to know more, I have included a story about him that ran in The Chattanoogan. I just didn't think that I could do a better job than this author did a telling the story of Alexander Kelly.

Alexander Kelly is my 6th great grandfather.
Alexander Kelly - John Kelly - Nancy Kelly - Adeline Hoge - James Murphy Looney - Susan Irene Looney

      DAR To Honor Revolutionary War Captain Alexander Kelly

   Thursday, May 5, 2016

Descendants of one of Marion County’s earliest pioneers and members of the Daughters of the American Revolution from across the state of Tennessee will gather at Pine Grove Cemetery in Jasper on Saturday afternoon, May 21, for a grave marking ceremony to honor Alexander Kelly, a captain in the Virginia Militia during the American Revolution. 

Mr. Kelly, whose family became residents of the Sequatchie Valley in the earliest days of its settlement as part of the state of Tennessee, was one of the commissioners who acquired property from Betsy Pack that became the town of Jasper, and determined that it would be the county seat town of the newly formed Marion County. Prior to his arrival in the newly opened settlement area of present-day Marion County, Mr. Kelly had been an active participant in the establishment of settlements in several areas of east Tennessee.  

Born about 1755 in County Armagh, Ireland, Mr. Kelly was brought to the American colonies as a young child. By the time of the Declaration of Independence, he was living in the Greenbrier area of Virginia, which is now a part of West Virginia, in the Allegheny Mountains, a scenic area of the United States whose natural setting might be called to mind when one views the Sequatchie Valley. Mr. Kelly enlisted in the Revolutionary forces on July 9, 1776, only five days after the Declaration of Independence. 

 An article in the University of Tennessee’s UT Alumnus (Winter, 1975), entitled Alexander Kelly: Frontier Lawmaker, Indian Fighter, recounts that Mr. Kelly’s son, John Kelly was born in Greenbrier County, Va. on June 2, 1779, but that some time between 1779 and 1783, Mr. Kelly “took his family southward into Tennessee country. Old records reveal that Mr. Kelly was appointed as assessor in Greene County, N.C. (Tennessee) in April, 1783; and two years later he was named a major of Greene County militia in the short-lived State of Franklin.”  

Mr. Kelly was married to Nancy Robinson, by whom he had at least six children, all of whom became pioneer settlers of the Sequatchie Valley. John Kelly, the eldest son, married Nancy Mayo, and became the first clerk of Marion County when the new county was formed in 1817. He also later owned and operated Kelly’s Ferry on the Tennessee River near the county line between Hamilton and Marion Counties. Captain Kelly’s son, Alexander Kelly, Jr., married Sally Prigmore on Feb. 17, 1817, in Roane County, Tenn., and they were also early Marion County settlers and farmers. William Kelly married Ruth Prigmore (daughter of Joseph and Kizziah Prigmore) in Nov., 1809, in Roane County, Tenn., and they also became early residents of Marion County, with many of their descendants also settling in Bledsoe County and Sequatchie County. Viny Kelly married Adam Lamb in 1815, and they became residents of the part of Bledsoe County which intersects with present-day Sequatchie County. Margaret Kelly, known as Peggy, married Ephraim Prigmore (son of Joseph and Kizziah Moore Prigmore) on Nov. 9, 1809, in Roane County, Tenn., and they became pioneer residents of the part of Marion County near the present-day Prentice Cooper State Forest, where they farmed and began a grist mill operation later owned by their Ketner descendants and still known today as Ketner’s Mill. Annie Kelly married Richard Stone, and they lived in Marion County. 

The following accounts are taken from the article about Alexander Kelly in the UT Alumnus:  “By 1792, Kelly had moved his family to Knox County, where he became a farmer and miller. He was appointed a colonel of Knox County militia, and in 1793, he took part in the expedition against the Indians who had attacked outlying stations and threatened the territorial capitol of Knoxville.  

“Under John Sevier, the military pursued the Indians into Georgia and defeated them at the forks of the Coosa and Hightower Rivers, near the present site of Rome, Georgia. 

 “In that battle, Colonel Kelly led a maneuver that settled the issue in the militia’s favor. Finding the river ford obstructed by Indians entrenched on the opposite shore, Sevier sent Kelly’s party downstream to make a crossing. Kelly and some of his men swam the river, thus getting the attention of the Indians who ‘left their entrenchments and ran down the river to oppose their passage.’ The main force of militia quickly forded the river and routed the Indians.  

“When the territorial legislators were elected in 1793, Alexander Kelly was chosen a representative from Knox County. 

 “In 1795 Knox County was divided and Blount County was formed. Kelly was one of seven Commissioners named to find a site for the county seat and to erect county buildings. The site of Maryville was chosen, and the town was named in honor of Governor William Blount’s wife, Mary Grainger Blount. 

 “Kelly moved his residence to Blount County about that time, settling in the vicinity of present-day Louisville and building a mill on Lackey’s Creek. 

 “Appointed commandant of the county militia, Kelly lost no time in fulfilling his responsibility to protect the settlers of Blount County. 

 “Early in 1795 Indians came out of their mountain towns and raided isolated homes in the new county. Kelly raised about fifty men and marched across Chilhowee Mountain to Tallassee Old Town. Upon reaching the river and seeing smoke rising from the opposite shore, he sent a detachment across the stream to attack from the rear – a maneuver employed so effectively at Hightower. The surprised Indians were routed from the river bluffs, with eight being killed. Kelly’s company suffered no injuries. 

 “The swift action brought peace to the new county.”  

When the first Legislature of Tennessee met on March 28, 1796, 11 counties were represented. Mr. Kelly was the senator from Blount County, serving in that role in the first and second General Assemblies. He was one of the two members appointed to “wait on his Excellency John Sevier” at his inauguration as governor of Tennessee. According to the Congressional ordinance, for the United States South of the Ohio River the Territorial Legislature was to consist of the governor, Legislative Council, and the House of Representatives.  

The General Assembly met at Knoxville Aug. 25, 1794. William Blount was the governor. The Legislative Council was composed of Griffith Rutherford, John Sevier, James Winchester, Stokley Donelson, and Parmenas Taylor. The Honorable Griffith Rutherford was unanimously elected president; George Roulstone, clerk; and Christopher Shoat, doorkeeper. The House of Representatives was composed of David Wilson, James White, James Ford, William Cocke, Joseph Harden, George Doherty, Samuel Wear, John Baird, and Alexander Kelly.  

According to the UT Alumnus article:  “Sometimes a ‘conflict of interest’ arose, and Alexander Kelly had to choose between sitting in the legislative chamber and riding against marauding Indians. In those rare instances, military duty took precedence. “For example, while the territorial legislature of which he was a member was meeting at Knoxville on Aug. 28, 1794, ‘on motion of Mr. Kelly, seconded by Mr. Hardin, ordered that Mr. Kelly and Mr. Beard have leave of absence to go on a scout against the Indians.’ 

 “A threatened incursion of hostile Cherokees made it necessary for the two militia officers to put aside their legislative duties for days of hard riding through the neighboring hills and valleys.“A week later, ‘Mr. Kelly returned and took his seat’ in the legislative hall – just in time to vote on the resolution to create Blount College.” 

 Mr. Kelly was a charter trustee of Blount College, which was the forerunner to the University of Tennessee, thus making Mr. Kelly, in the words of the UT Alumnus article, “a champion of education in the infant State of Tennessee.”  

Mr. Kelly’s experience in the settlement of counties in east Tennessee made him well-suited to assist other pioneer settlers in the establishment of Marion County when it was formed. After his participation in locating and naming Jasper as the county seat town, and determining where the courthouse would be located, he was apparently satisfied to have his son, John Kelly, and other descendants take on the duties of civic office. Others of his children and grandchildren became prominent farmers, mill operators, merchants, landowners, and political figures in the parts of the Sequatchie Valley where they lived. Most of them also became active participants and leaders in their churches, particularly the Cumberland Presbyterian churches in the Sequatchie Valley. Although Mr. Kelly’s descendants have spread throughout the United States and other parts of the world, many of them still live in the Sequatchie Valley.  

Some time after settling in Marion County, Mr. Kelly drowned in the Sequatchie River, and his remains were apparently lost. Although Mr. Kelly's descendants are buried in family burial grounds and other cemeteries throughout the Sequatchie Valley, Mr. Kelly, Revolutionary War captain and leader of early Tennessee, has had no monument to mark his life until the present day. 

 Recently, one of Mr. Kelly descendant, Edwin Zachariah Kelly, Jr., a retired attorney and lifelong resident of Jasper, instituted a project for Kelly descendants to place a monument at Pine Grove Cemetery, where many Kelly descendants are buried, to honor the life of Mr. Kelly. The monument will be inscribed with information about Mr. Kelly’s life in the history of Tennessee. The National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, have authorized the Judge David Campbell Chapter of that organization to place a DAR marker at Pine Grove to honor Mr. Kelly’s service as a captain in America’s Revolutionary War.  

The ceremony to dedicate the markers and to honor the life of Mr. Kelly will take place on Saturday, May 21, at 3 p.m., Central time, at Pine Grove Cemetery in Jasper, at the intersection of Valley View Highway and Mel Dixon Lane. The Sequatchie River, where Mr. Kelly died, runs through Marion County near that place. All interested people are cordially invited to attend.

Sources and More:

• DAR To Honor Revolutionary War Captain Alexander Kelly, The Chattanoogan, Chattanooga, TN, May 5, 2016
• Kelly Kaleidoscope, http://akellydesc.com/alexander-kelly.html
• Kelly's Ferry Cemetery Wikipedia page
• From Armagh to America, Kelly Ancestry, kellyancestry.com

Bandits in Disguise

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. (1853). Elisabeth Grace and Rachel Martin. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/965e7df4-d4d5-d510-e040-e00a180671b7

Sometimes when I hit a brick wall in researching, I simply pick another line and see how far I can take it. Today that method payed off in a big way. I ended up looking at the Martin line on my mother's maternal side and was able to click through the family on Wikitree all the way back to 800 AD! Granted, I haven't personally verified this research but anything that old is usually well documented. It was fun to click through all the generations but for this post I want to focus on Elizabeth "Betty" Marshall Martin. Elizabeth was born in Virginia in 1727. She married Abram Martin in 1744 and together they had 8 sons and 1 daughter. 

During the Revolutionary War, Betty's husband, Abram, and all eight of their sons fought for freedom. The wives of the two eldest sons stayed with their mother-in-law at the family's farm in Edgefield County, South Carolina while their husbands were on the front. Betty would have been in her early 40s and the girls only in their 20s.

One evening they were alerted that a British courier with two guards would be passing by transporting important dispatches. All of the men were fighting so there was no one to stop them. The women hatched a plan. Rachel and Grace dressed in their husbands' clothes and loaded their pistols. According to sources, the British soldiers were so completely surprised that they never even drew their weapons. they surrendered their dispatches and rode off at a gallop, probably glad to escape with their lives!

Rachel and Grace delivered the dispatches to a trusted courier who delivered them to Major Greene. They went back home to the farm and changed clothes in the barn. When they entered the house, who was there but the same soldiers they themselves had attacked just hours before! The three British soldiers had gone to Betty's home and asked for lodging for the night. Of course they didn't recognize Rachel and Grace as the "men" who had attacked them. 

On it on this is an exciting and amazing story but to top it off in 1853, artist F.O.C. Darley did a depiction of the event. That is the image that I have included at the top of this post. 

This story has been told over and over by better writers and storytellers than myself. A simple search for "Elizabeth, Rachel, and Grace Martin"  will reveal pages and pages written about their story. There is even a video series! I am so proud to have these women in my family. Elizabeth "Betty" Marshall Martin is my 8th great grandmother. Her son George Martin - Anne E Martin - Rachel Clay Finch - Edward Scruggs - Henry Scruggs - Beulah Scruggs - Sula Plunkett, my great grandmother. 

Martin

Settlement of Abram and Elizabeth Marshall Martin

About 1769

Near This Spot Their Daughters In Law

Sally Grace and Rachel

During American Revolution

Captured Important Dispatches From

British Soldiers on Their Way From

Augusta to Ninety Six

Erected By Martin Descendants

1953

Sons of
Abram and Elizabeth Marshall
Martin
Who were soldiers in the American
Army of the War of the RevolutionWilliam
James
John
George
Barclay
Edmund
Marshall
Matthew

Sources:

• Logan, Mrs. John A., (1912). The Part was Taken by Women in American History. Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware.
• Elizabeth, Grace and Rachel Martin, AmericanRevolution.org

Also, there is a video series produced by Idella Bodie's South Carolina Women hosted on knowitall.org. It is made for 3rd-8th graders but we can all learn from it.

Like Something From Dickens

    The story I am about to attempt to tell is one I have wanted to share for a while. I think it is a fascinating story, like something from the Masterpiece Theater. There are so many historical details that are important that I will never be able to cover it all in this short story format but I will do my best to hit the highlights. I have learned so much about history through my genealogy research but the politics of Western Europe during the 15th -17th centuries is over my head.

     The Home/Hume family is one of the oldest families in Scotland. They are descended from the Saxon

Clan Home Tartan

kings of England who ruled from about 800-1100 A.D. The Homes had a very turbulent time, falling in and out of favor with rulers of their time. George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar (1556-1611) was the most prominent and most influential Scotsman in England. He was the chief Scottish advisor to King James.

     In 1715 there was an attempt to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the House of Stuart later to be called the Jacobite Rising of 1715. James Hume, son of Charles, 6th Earl of Hume, was "true to his religion" and took part in the rebellion and consequently was forced to forfeit his estate.

     Forced to flea religious persecution, James, his wife, Marjorie, and their daughter, Barbara, set sail on the ship Caledonia for New York City. They had plans to stay with Marjorie's aunt and uncle. Disease broke out on the ship and James and Marjorie died leaving Barbara in the care of a family friend, William Hoge. William left young Barbara with her relatives in New York City and went to make his home in New Jersey.

    William eventually married Barbara and they went on to have 9 children who were leaders in the Shenandoah frontier.

    Maybe I am romanticizing it. The wealthy family that loses everything for fighting for what they believe; the parents dying on the ship and never reaching American and their second chance; the young girl, left in the care of a young man who eventually becomes her husband. It just sounds like something Charles Dickens would have written.

     James Hume is my 9th great-grandfather. I suppose that also means that I am descended from the Saxon kings.


Sources:

• Taylor, James. The Great Historic Families of Scotland. Vol. 1, J.S. Virtue & Co, London, 1887, http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hume/histfaml.htm
• Johnston, David E. A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory. Standard PTC. & PUB. Co., Huntington, West Virgina. 1906. p 412-414
• Kendall, Hazel May Middleton. The descendants of William Gregg, the Friend immigrant to Delaware, 1682: from which nucleus disseminated nests of Greggs to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. Anderson, Indiana: H.M. Kendall, 1944, pp. 26-28. Note: This is a link to download the whole book in PDF format.
• SR James Hume (1639-1682) - Find A Grave Memorial.” Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/171262969/james-hume.
• Clan Home. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Home

My First NPE Case - "Tonya"

This post is going to be a little bit different than my usual family history posts. One thing I spend a lot of time doing is identifying where my DNA matches fit into my tree. DNA matches are other Ancestry.com user who I share DNA with. I currently have 115,477 DNA matches. That's a lot of cousins! Only about 4200 of those are 4th cousins or closer. Since I began working with my DNA matches I have had a goal of finding the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) for all of my 2nd - 3rd cousins. I don't have any matches closer that 2nd cousin- once removed (2C1R).  Since 3rd cousins share great great grandparents and I know all of my 2nd great grandparents this should have been a fairly easy task. However, there are a few that have given me trouble. One of these is a lady we'll call Tonya. Ancestry guesses our relationship to be 3rd-4th cousins. We share 93cM (centimorgans) or about 0.5% of our DNA.

Tonya has a large tree. All of the lines go back several generations so I was stumped when we had no ancestor in common. When this happens my first step is to look at our common matches. I saw that all of our common matches were on the Watson/Brown/Oswalt line. Another interesting thing is that she had no ancestors in the South. All of my ancestors, with the exception of one line, were in the South. At this point, I sent Tonya a message asking her if she could pin point how we were related.  My next step is to build a mirror tree. This is simply a tree I build that is identical to Tonya's tree, this way I can change it and add to it as I figure out how we are connected. This helped me decide that I was definitely not connected to anyone in her tree. Maybe her tree was wrong? But how?

I started adding our shared matches to the mirror tree and quickly realized that our MRCA were John Calvin Brown and Julia Ann Oswalt. I had figured it out! But that is not where this story ends.

A few weeks after I had found the connection, Tonya messaged me back. She said that she had no matches on her father's side and had no idea how we were connected. She asked me where we go from here. I could tell she had had a lot to process since getting her results. I can't imagine finding out that way that your dad is not your father! I was glad to be able to message her back that I knew how we were related and that I would be happy to share my mirror tree with her. We messaged back and forth a few more times and I eventually offered to help her find her father. I have always wanted to solve an NPE (Non-paternity Event) but I wanted to be sensitive to her and her family. She said she had no idea how to go about it and would appreciate the help. I started right then! Tonya gave me access to her DNA matches and I saw that she had several 1st-2nd cousin matches so I felt pretty sure I would be able to solve this! 

It took me about 7 hours over 3 days but I did it! I found a man that fit perfectly. He was the right age, in the right place at the right time. It was such a fun puzzle to solve. I even think they look a little bit alike.

Unfortunately he passed away when she would have been very young. I shared all of this information with Tonya last week but haven't heard from her since then. It is up to her what she does with the information. I do hope she eventually gets to meet her half siblings and that everything works out. 

One other thing that was interesting about this case was the family line we share intermarried with the same families and sometimes their own family many times. I mentioned earlier that Tonya and I share 93 cM of DNA. She and I are 3C1R. The upper limit for this relationship is 75 cM and the average is 30 cM. There was so much endogamy that we had 18 more cM than we should have been able to! That is crazy!