Another DNA Success Story

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Don Taylor

Cousins figure out relationship.

One of my early atDNA matches was on Family Tree DNA. Family Tree DNA suggested that GV and I were probably 4th cousins. He had some Roberts in his tree, but I figured that there was only a one in 32 chance that our match was on his Roberts ancestor. There was another person, MA, who shared the exact same segment of DNA with GV and me. If I could find the common ancestor between GV and MA, because of triangulation of the same segment matching, we’d know the common ancestor they share with me. I worked to help MA develop his tree further but never found a connection for him to GV and consequently never determined a common ancestor to me.

Then, I did determine who my biological father is, connected with new half-siblings and have been exploring my new family tree. I thought back to my connections with GV and MA and wondered if I could find the link now.

I took a look at the surnames I’ve been researching and compared them with the names in GV’s tree. Sure enough, we both had a John Roberts marrying an Elizabeth Blackwell. We found our common ancestor.

His tree had my “Asa” as “Acy” but otherwise, it fit my ancestors entirely. The generations are:

GV’s Roberts Line
Relationship
My Roberts Line
John Calvin & Elizabeth
3rd Great
John Calvin & Elizabeth
Elijah Josiah Roberts
2nd Great  
Asa Ellis Roberts
John Roberts
Great
Hugh Ellis Roberts
Myrtle Roberts
Grandparent
Bert Allen Roberts
[Living]
Parent
[Name Suppressed]
[GV]
Us
Me

Our common ancestors are our third great-grandparents, and we are of the same generation, so we are 4th cousins (sharing 59cM). That fits the amount of DNA we share perfectly.

GV and I have long known we are related genetically. It is just so fulfilling to finally confirm the relationship with a paper trail.

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DNA Testing and Shared Research on my Darling Line.

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Don Taylor

I just can’t express how important I find genetic genealogy. I often hear others talk about learning more about ancestors and finding other living relatives who might have information on your family that you don’t know. But, there is more to it than just that. Recent communications with a distant cousin of my mother-in-law reminded me of the importance of connecting with these distant DNA Cousins.

Claudine Boerner and my mother-in-law are a distant match, 4th to 6th cousins on Ancestry DNA. That means that they are likely to share a common 3rd, 4th, or 5th great grandparent. I often don’t expect much on matches that distant. In my mother-in-law’s case of the 32 possible surnames, she would have among her 3rd great-grandparents, we only know 15 of them. So, the odds of finding a common ancestor between 5th or 6th can be even more daunting. In my case, having only 15 of 64 (4th great) or 15 of 128 (5th great) possible surnames the odds of finding a common ancestor seems very remote. 
However, in the case of Claudine, she and my mother-in-law share one common surname that we know of, Darling. We don’t know if that is the genetic connection or not, but we do know that we are both researching the Darlings in upstate New York during the 1700s and early 1800s. As she was doing her research, she came across an individual, Rufus H. Darling, whose name she remembered was in my Darling tree. She sent me a note that she had seen some information that included Rufus in the “Beekman Patent.” She mentioned some material was in a book, Dennis Darling: of Braintree and Mendon and some of his descendants 1662-1800 by William Albert Martin and Lou Ella Johnson Martin. I was able to locate a copy and found the entry where Rufus is mentioned along with his parents, whom I had determined previously (unbeknownst to Claudine). It also had the names of several of Rufus’ siblings, whose names I didn’t have previously. It included the names of Rufus’ father (Abner), siblings and his father’s name. Another Abner, and his father’s name, Ebenezer. The book has a reasonable amount of footnoting (sources) so I am able to use those to validate what I find.

1776 map showing the Beekman Patent
A 1776 map showing the Beekman Patent [i]
I was also able to find a website regarding “The Settlers of the Beekman Patent” Dutchess County, New York. It includes “An Historical & Genealogical Study of all 18th Century Inhabitants of the Patent.” I then contacted the author, Frank J. Doherty, of the material and asked if “The Darling Family – 12 pages” included information regarding Rufus H Darling and his father, Abner Darling (1780-1839). He replied that it did and I ordered a copy of it. I quickly received a copy of it electronically. It too is excellent. It is a 12-page document regarding the Darlings of the Beekman Patent plus another 12 pages indicating the sources of the information. It also indicates that Ebenezer’s name was Benjamin and his father’s name was Dennis. I was a little disappointed that some of the material in the Dennis Darling: of Braintree is verbatim from the Beekman Patent pages, but still, the information provided is well worth the modest fee Mr. Doherty charges.

With the information in the book and Doherty’s Darling Family pages and the sources provided I have hundreds of hours of work to review, analyze, document, and verify the information, but the information, the source suggestions are invaluable.

With me possibly pushing back another two to four generations on my Darling line and Claudine’s continued research, it is possible we will find our shared common ancestor. Then again, maybe that ancestor is one of the other 128 fifth great-grandparents. Either way, one significant benefit of connecting with distant cousins are the important clues they can provide to your research.

ENDNOTES:

[i]  Source: Our Hoxie Heritage. 
      https://web.ncf.ca/dc253/Hoxie/OUR%20HOXIE%20HERITAGE.htm

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Barber – Surname Lost?

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Don Taylor
Barber

Surname Saturday

Name Origin:

A barber cutting hair - Source: Pixabay Barber is an occupational name for a barber. Barbers of old not only cut hair and shaved beards, but also practiced surgery and pulled teeth.[i]

Today (2014 data), there are 86,641 people with the Barber surname in the United States, the most of any nation. In terms of rank within a nation, there are proportionally more people with the Barber surname in England, Wales, and Australia.[ii]

My Earliest Ancestor:

My earliest known Barber ancestor is my 2nd great grandfather, Franklin E Barber. Frank, as he was known, was born December, 1836 in Ohio.[iii]


In most of the census records Frank’s occupation was a painter. According to Ancestry.Com there were 147 Barber families enumerated in the 1840 Census. From the 1880 Census, we know his father was born in New York and his mother was born in Vermont.

I know nothing of his early life and only recently found him as Elisha F Barber in the 1870 Census living Trumbull county, Ohio. I need to confirm this finding though, because it appears that he and Sarah Blackhurst married in Albion, Michigan in 1869 and located in Ohio immediately after the marriage. Then they apparently moved back to Albion to be there during the 1880 Census.

Franklin and Sarah had two daughters, Ida Mae and Eva Louisa. With them the Barber name was lost from Frank’s descendants.

I still have not determined who Frank’s parents were. With only 147 Barber families in Ohio in 1840, I believe it may be possible to determine his family in Ohio. If I can, it may be that he will have siblings that carried the Barber name on.

Frank died on April 7, 1917 at the Grand Rapids Veterans Home. His is buried at the Grand Rapids Veterans Home Cemetery at plot 7, row 10, grave 13.

My Direct Barber Ancestors

#30 – Franklin Elisha Barber (1836-1917) – 2nd Great Grandfather.
#15 – Ida Mae Barber (1875-1953) – Great grandmother.
# 7 – Madonna Mae Montran (1893-1976) – Grandmother.
# 3 – My mother.
# 1 – Me.

My known relatives.


My records have 31 direct-line descendants identified over eight generations, which is less than 1% of my known Brown/Montran family tree. 

Endnotes

[i] Ancestry.Com – Barber Family History – https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=Barber
[ii] Forebears – Surname Meaning & Statistics, Internet website – https://forebears.io/surnames/barber | accessed 3 Apr 2016.
[iii] 1900 Census – Frank Barber – Inmate, Soldier’s Home, ED 148, Sheet 4A.
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Play With Dolls To Banish Fatigue?

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Don Taylor
There was an amazing article in the Boston Sunday Post, regarding “Grown Women Who Play With Dolls To Banish Fatigue – Stars of Stage and Screen Enthuse Over Their New ‘Back-to-Nature’ Stunt That Gives Rest and Relaxation From Wearisome Work.”[i]
The article begins with:
All work and no play makes Jill a dull girl.
Jill in this instance is the professional girl of the stage.
She works hard—a great deal harder than her public may believe.
It is not the physical exertion that makes her yearn to play; it is the never-ending strain of the artificial – the make-believe.
So that when the stage girl does play she goes to the antithesis of the artificial—the natural. And that is the reason why her trunks are so apt to contain dolls, teddy bears, stuffed doggies, piggies and monkeys and what-not of children’s playthings.
—–
The average individual, on beholding a stage girl sitting on the floor, rocking a doll to sleep or tossing a teddy bear up and down, is apt to pronounce the whole proceeding as absurd….
The article continues on with a story about Effie Hartwell and her playing with dolls as a means of relaxation. The amazing part of the article tells us about Donna’s personal life.
Newspaper Photo of Donna Montran sitting astride a wooden horse.
Now when another photographer wended his way to make pictures of Donna Montran the Boston model and Singer and found the beauty sitting a-straddle on the floor of the studio he was not all surprised.
“Taking it easy?” the photographer asked.
“Right! The very first guess,” replied the model. “This business of posing is one that tests endurance to the limit as any artist will tell you. Physically and mentally you’re exhausted at the end of the working day.
“My own idea of resting up is going back to childhood times and playing as one did when a child. I know it sounds perfectly silly to say so but the remedy sure is a cure-all. And if one can have the children at hand to play with, why its value is increased a thousand times over.  Don’t argue about it; just go ahead and try the experiment once and let me know hit it works out.”
This story of models, actresses, and singers playing with toys as a means to cope with the hectic lives they lead is great material to fill in details about the lives of the famous. Should you play with dolls or toys for rest and relaxation?  Follow Donna’s advice and give it a try.

[i] “Grown Women Who Play With Dolls To Banish Fatigue”, Boston Sunday Post, January 27, 1918, Page 29; Online Archive, Newspaperarchive.com, accessed 2015.
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Not a Real McCoy nor a “Real” Hatfield either.

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Don Taylor

I finally had a chance to get back to my Hatfield Project. The question my friend asked was her Hatfield family related to the infamous Hatfields of West Virginia/Kentucky fame.

In previous work I had found that my friend’s great-grandfather was Arthur R. Hatfield (1868-1931) – See “Not everything is on the Internet – Arthur R Hatfield.” I had hit a small snag and asked my friend to order a copy of Arthur’s death certificate in hopes it would provide his parents names. She did and it answered the questions. Also, in some of her family documentation, she found a couple obituaries for Arthur which provide more detail about the family in 1931.
According to his death certificate, Arthur’s parents were Nathan Hatfield and “Delfa” Bird. Further research would indicate that Arthur’s mother name was actually Delphia Bird. 

Nathan Hatfield was born on 26 December 1831 in Wayne County, Indiana. He grew up in Wayne County (per 1840 & 1850 Censuses). He married Delphia in Wayne County. After his marriage to Delphia the family moved around Indiana several times and ended up in Mound City, MO before 1910 where he died in 1910. 

Nathan’s father was Jonas Hatfield. Jonas was born about 1798 in Kentucky. Jonas’ father was also Jonas Hatfield, however, that Jonas was born in 1764 in Yorkshire, England.

The Hatfield Clan of the Hatfield-McCoy-feud.
William Anderson Hatfield is second from left sitting with gun.
Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia.Commons
William Anderson Hatfield (aka Devil Anse Hatfield) was the patriarch of the Hatfield family during the infamous feud. His pedigree is fairly well known and available on the internet. Apparently Devil Anse’s immigrant ancestor was Matthias Hatfield who was born in Prussia.

So, I let my friend know that her Hatfields came from England in the late 1700s and Devil Anse Hatfield’s ancestors came from Prussia in the mid-1600s. No apparent relationship on this side of the pond. Could she still be related? Sure, there is over 100 years of history for the Hatfields in Europe that can still be explored and connections found, but for now, her family’s oral tradition about being related to THE Hatfields does not appear to stand up to modest research. Sorry, my friend.

[Caveat: I did not do an in-depth study of each of the individuals in the family line. Such a study could reveal mistakes or errors in my thought processes or facts.]

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