Kindred Souls

The moral for today is one that I have heard over and over: Don't just research your direct-line ancestors but also their siblings (and sometimes even their friends and neighbors.) I've even followed this advice a few times and made some great discoveries. However, if I had followed it in this case, I would have made this interesting discovery a long time ago. 

I have to give the credit to Ancestry's Thru-Lines. I was looking at the descendant lines of the siblings of my 3rd great-grandmother, Priscilla Souls/Soles. Under her sister Elizabeth Soles Faulk, I found the name of a descendant that I have seen for years as a DNA match to me on Ancestry and Gedmatch. 

Here's why I overlooked the discovery I finally made this week. I am always looking for DNA matches that will help me find the parents of my 2nd great-grandfather, John Smith, and this particular match had the surname Smith. I know it's a long shot, but I always take a second look at my Smith matches. Years ago when I determined that the Smiths in Mr. Smith's tree were not my Smiths, I looked just far enough to realize that our match was not through the Smiths, but through the Soles line. I put a Note to myself that Mr. Smith was a Soles descendant and moved right on.

As I said above, this week I was looking at Thru-Lines, and this time I clicked on Mr. Smith's profile pic and looked a little closer at our match comparison. Thru-Lines had highlighted our shared surnames, which included Smith, Soles, and Harris. The Harris made me look a little closer, and that is the lucky part because the Harris surname is not even on the Smith side of my tree. However, it is my grandfather's middle name, and I have always wondered where it came from.

My 3rd great-grandmother's sister, Elizabeth Soles, married Phillip Lemuel Faulk in Columbus County, NC, in 1814. (Again, it's always good to research siblings, especially if you are into DNA matching. This explains why I have so many DNA matches with the surname Faulk in their family trees.) Their daughter, Mary Ann, born 1826, married Edward Harris on 10 January 1843 in Pike County, AL. (My Soles and Simmons ancestors also moved from Columbus County NC to Pike County AL in this time period.) 

Edward and Mary Ann's son, Joseph Warren Harris, born 1847, married Nancy Jane Hinson on 5 December 1867 in Troy, Pike County, AL. Nancy's parents were William Hinson and Martha Ann Pugh. And now you have all the names you need to know in order to understand the significance they had for me. 

On the 1860 census of the Eastern Division, Pike County AL, my 2nd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Simmons Mansell, is enumerated as head of household; her husband, John Mansell, had died in 1845. Her name is spelled "Mansill" on the census, and mis-transcribed as "Mansild." Enumerated with her on this census are: her sons, William, Samuel, and Simeon; her daughter Frances (my great-grandmother), age 11; and twins, age 7, named Pugh and Nancy J. 

1860 census, Pike County AL, Mansill family

More than one mystery is attached to this census record. The most significant one for me is: Who is Frances's father? Since she was born in 1849, four years after John Mansell's death in 1845, he can't be her father--even though she used the Mansell surname on her marriage license. Even the identity of Simeon's father can be questioned; he was born the same year that John Mansell died. However, the big one is: Who were Pugh and Nancy and what happened to them? 

As far as I can tell, neither of the twins ever appear again on any census, including the 1870, in which they would have been 17 and young enough to still be living with Elizabeth. Some explanations come to mind, and I have tried to eliminate each of them through research over the years. Nancy could have married before the 1870 census. Either or both of them could have died. They could have been Elizabeth's grandchildren and enumerated on the 187o census with their parents. Or maybe their surname wasn't Mansell at all, and they appear later under other surnames. Of course, Nancy J. has such a common name that she could be anywhere, but Pugh Mansell, if that was his name, should show up somewhere. He doesn't.

Then--my discovery this week, which gives me even more options. Could Nancy J. and Pugh have some connection to the Harris/Hinson family of Pike County? 

Possible avenues for research:

• The most obvious explanation is that the Nancy J. on the 1860 census with the Mansell family IS the Nancy J. Hinson who married Joseph Warren Harris. Who else would be likely to have a twin brother whose given name Pugh is Nancy's mother's maiden name? Maybe she and her brother were visiting their cousins and got enumerated as Mansills by mistake. However, a couple of facts make this unlikely. The dates are a little off--Nancy J. on the census was born in 1853; Nancy J. Hinson was born in 1849. Her marriage in 1867 makes it unlikely, although not impossible, that the 1853 date is the right one. Another fact makes this explanation even more unlikely. "Jane" Hinson, age 11, appears on the 1860 census with her parents, William and Martha (Pugh) Hinson--no twin brother and no brother named Pugh. Too bad this couldn't be the answer, because I thought I had finally solved the mystery of Nancy J. and Pugh!

1860 census, Pike Co. AL, Hinson family

• Perhaps Nancy J. and Pugh were visiting cousins with a connection to the Hinsons--again, accidentally enumerated as members of the Mansell family. This will require researching other Pugh descendants who could have children of the right age to be the twins.

• They could be Elizabeth Mansell's own children. She would have been 40 at their birth. We still have the problem of who their father was. And why would she give them names more significant for her cousins than for herself? Looking closely at that relationship, exactly how was she related to the Hinson/Harris family? Elizabeth's mother Priscilla and Elizabeth Soles were sisters. It doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to conclude that Elizabeth Simmons Mansell was named for her aunt, Elizabeth Soles. Priscilla's daughter Elizabeth and Elizabeth's daughter Mary Ann would have been 1st cousins. Mary Ann's son, Joseph Warren Harris, would have been Elizabeth's 1st cousin, once removed. His wife, Nancy J. Hinson, whose mother was Martha Pugh, would not have been related to Elizabeth Mansell at all. Why would Elizabeth name her daughter for unrelated Nancy Jane Hinson or her son for Nancy's mother, Martha Pugh? How do I even begin to research this?

• Maybe there is an even closer connection between the families than I expected. Don't forget that the naming continues into the next generation with Elizabeth's daughter Frances naming her youngest child Weaver Harris Smith. In fact, in the Smith family's petition to the Dawes Commission for Cherokee citizenship my grandfather is listed as Harris W. Smith. Maybe the connection is with the unknown father of Frances, Nancy J., and Pugh, but who could he possibly be? 

No matter which of these explanations is the right one, or even if Elizabeth and Frances just liked the names Nancy Jane, Pugh, and Harris, there is possibly a much closer relationship between the descendants of Priscilla and Elizabeth Soles than I had previously realized. While Nancy J. and Pugh are still mysteries, at least I now have another direction in which to search.