A Century of Smiths in Alabama

Traditional genealogy provided all the information to make this post possible, but the motivation for it came from a DNA match. I had contacted him many months ago because our DNA match of 158 cM was one of my largest 3rd-4th cousin matches, according to Ancestry.com. I could see his tree there, but I still had no idea how we were connected. He had responded to me, and we determined that we had a place in common: Coffee County, Alabama, but I still didn't recognize any of the Coffee-related names in his tree. We let it go, until he emailed me last week to ask if I had made any progress in discovering our connection. I went back to the trees and the Coffee Co. censuses to see if I could. I still haven't made a definite connection between the two of us, but the research inspired me to take a close look at several generations of my Alabama Smiths on the U.S. Census. I actually found one census that I have been searching for for years!

The 1850 census of Coffee County, Alabama, has always been the starting point for my Smith family research. It lists Mary E. Smith, age 37, as the head of household, with her children Synthia A., age 18; John, age 16; Jackson A., age 9; Minor J., age 7; and Stephen A., age 4. Stephen A. (Albert) is my great-grandfather. Family tradition said that John Smith was his father (later confirmed by a son's death certificate), but unfortunately, John was apparently dead before the 1850 census. Smith researchers could never identify which John Smith, even among those in Alabama, was the father of this family. 

This time, using a combination of Ancestry.com and HistoryGeo, I think I might have found the right John Smith. First, I did a little research into the origins of Coffee County. I discovered that Coffee County was created in 1841 from Dale County. Thinking that possibly the Smiths lived in the part of 1840 Dale County that became Coffee County in 1841, I compared the four John Smiths that I found on the census in 1840 Dale County. 

One John Smith was 30-39, had a wife 20-29, a son under 5, and another 5-9. No daughter who would have been Cynthia's age in 1840.

Another John Smith was a male 80-89 with a wife 70-79.

Another John Smith was 50-59, had a wife 40-49, and one male 15-19. No children who would have been Cynthia or John, Jr. in 1850.

The fourth John Smith seemed more likely than the others. He was, surprisingly, age 60-69 (more about that later), and in his household were a female 20-29 (his wife?), who was in the age range that Mary would be; a male under 5 and a male 5-9--either could have been John, depending on birth dates, census dates, or faulty memories--and a female 5-9, who could have been Cynthia. If this is our family, one of the sons is missing in our trees; he could have died before the 1850 census or if he was the boy 5-9 in 1840, he could have been old enough to be out on his own by 1850. (We only have six children listed in our trees for this family--Moses C. comes along after 1850--but on the 1900 census Mary says that she had 7 children, so an extra son is a possibility.) 

I decided to utilize HistoryGeo to see if I could try to prove that this is our John and his family. I couldn't find a John Smith as first landowner in Dale or Coffee counties. Using names that were listed on the same page with the probable John Smith on the 1840 census, I looked for them as landowners in Coffee County in the same area where Mary E. Smith lived in 1850. I found Desire Tilman, Allen Lightfoot, Sampson Carpenter, and James Harrell living in Township 7N, Range 20E. I found Mary's neighbors on the 1850 census--Prescoats, Donaldsons, Richburgs, and Lindseys-- living in adjoining Township 6N, Range 19E.

Landowners in area where John Smith lived on 1840 census

John Smith's neighbors on 1840 census (7N 20E) adjacent to
Mary Smith's neighbors on 1850 census (6N 19E)

So, I think it's definitely possible this John Smith on the 1840 census in Dale, soon to be Coffee, County is my John Smith. However, it's also possible the Smiths were not living in Alabama at all in 1840 or that the match-up of adult female and children's ages is a coincidence. And what do I get out of finding John Smith on the 1840 census, since there is so little information there? Well, for one thing, I get his age and a revised birth date, and along with those, some things to ponder. 

Did Mary really marry a man 35-40 years her senior? John's death date is iffy; the only date I have found was from an application that Cynthia made for her husband's Civil War pension in which she stated her father died in 1845. (Cynthia would have been 13, so old enough to remember.) All we really know for sure is that he does not appear as head of household on the 1850 census. Mary was born about 1812; if John was born even as early as 1800, he would have been only 45-50 at his death. Not impossible, but I wasn't really surprised by the fact that he could have been much older. While I doubt I'll be able to follow my John Smith back to his state of origin even with a new birth date, if I find a likely candidate, I won't necessarily eliminate one that could have been born as early as 1775. It's also possible that a man of this age had a first family, with whom I would have a half-relationship, possibly shown by DNA. I also toyed with the idea that this John Smith is Mary's father-in-law. Another option to ponder. 

In 1860 Mary still appears to be living in Coffee Co., Township 6N, Range 19E, with Prescoats and Donaldsons as neighbors. Another possible clue as to her family origin occurs with this census. Next door to Mary's family is Miner J. Williams, age 42, born South Carolina, with wife Martha, age 40, and six children. On this census Mary's second oldest son is Jefferson, age 17; on the 1850 census he was listed as Miner J. For years I wondered if Miner could be Mary's brother and her son Miner's namesake. At that time I didn't even know what Mary's maiden name was; later I would find it listed on her son Andrew Jackson Smith's death certificate as Williams. I still have no proof that Miner was Mary's brother, just a message from another Ancestry user that stated that many Prescott, Donaldson, and Williams families migrated to Alabama from South Carolina at the same time.

1860 census of Coffee Co. AL
Mary Smith next door to Miner J. Williams

I can't find Mary on the 1870 census. One of my Alabama cousins who still lives in the area recently told me that he thinks a small area in the Dale/Coffee border area was missed in some census records, but he didn't say in what years. Another possibility is that she had married and is listed with her husband, but that seems unlikely. I don't find her again until the 1880 census in Pike County, living with Cynthia. (More about that later.)

The 1870 census of Pike County is the first one in which Cynthia uses the surname Linsy (spelled many different ways even in the same area--Linzy, Linsey, Lindsey, Lindsay), and later her children, Amanda and Willis, use it also. On the same pension document in which she gives her father's death date as 1845, she also claims to have been married to Jordan Lindsey. It seems unlikely that she was. 

Jordan Lindsey Sr. was born about 1806 in Georgia and appears on the censuses of 1830 and 1840 in Dale Co. and on the 1850 and 1860 in Coffee Co. with his wife Elizabeth. (Amanda was born in 1850 and Willis in 1853.) Elizabeth didn't die until 1860. Jordan died sometime during or immediately after the Civil War. One of his sons, also Jordan Lindsey, was born about 1840, too young to have been Cynthia's husband or the father of Amanda and Willis. Jordan Sr. claimed the late Jordan Jr.'s "arrears of pay" as a Private in the 18th Alabama, C.S.A., stating that he died "without leaving widow or child" that would be entitled to his pay. It seems likely that Cynthia, whether having had a relationship with Jordan Lindsey or not, claimed his name for her children after his death and after her move to Pike County.

On the 1870 Pike Co. census Cynthia, age 35, is head of household #263. She gives her name as Smithy Linsy, and her children's names as Amanda, age 15, and Willis, age 13. They all appear younger here than they should be, as the ages given on the 1860 census were 28, 7, and 6. I know no reason for the move from Coffee to Pike County, but this is where they will remain. Next door to Cynthia at household #264 is John T. Harrel/Harvill, age 63, with his wife Nancy (Duck), age 51, and children, including a widowed daughter and her children. Their daughter Jane, age 14, will eventually marry Willis Lindsey. At household #265 is Alford Harrel, probably son of John and Nancy. Remember my DNA match at the beginning of this post? These are probably his ancestors, but that doesn't explain our DNA match, since as far as we know, the families are only connected by the marriage of Willis and Jane, neither of whom are our direct line ancestors.

Cynthia Lindsey on 1870 Pike Co. census

I have concentrated on Cynthia's family up until this point because Mary always lived with them, as she will on the 1880, 1900, and 1910 censuses. However, of course, John and Mary Smith had other children, including my great-grandfather, Stephen Albert. In 1870 he was also living in Pike Co. with his wife, Frances, and a daughter, age 1, Sarah. I couldn't find him for the longest time because he is enumerated as Samuel A. Smith. I might not have found him at all, but he is living next door to his mother-in-law, Elizabeth, her husband, William W. Cotton, and the head of household, her son, William A. Mansel. 

The 1880 census Pike Co. census finds Mary back with Cynthia's family. Cinthia Lindsay, age 49, is listed as the head of household #513. And what a household it was--four generations worth. It included her son, Willis Lindsay, age 24; his wife Jane (Sarah Jane Harvill); and their children Lizzie, Thomas, and Malissia; her daughter, Mandy King, age 30; and her children, Cinthia, Jordan, and Willis; and her mother, Mary, age 70. Willis and Jane had married 22 December 1874. Mandy (Amanda) had married Melvin King in 1872. I'm not sure where he had disappeared to by 1880, but in 1891 Amanda will marry William J. Register, her next-door neighbor on the 1880 census at household #512. In 1882 Cynthia will marry James King, probable father of Melvin. Stephen Albert and his family have moved to Lauderdale County. Three of their children, Marry, Willice/Willis, and Martha, never appear on another census, and Sarah, who was age 1 on the 1870 census does not appear either.

Twenty years later and this family dynamic really hasn't changed that much. Cynthia's daughter Amanda has died and Cynthia is raising two of her children, and Willis and his wife have had a few more children. As a matter of fact, by this census Willis and Sarah Jane (enumerated as Sally J.) have been married 25 years. Sally reports that she has had 11 children and 11 are still alive. Almost all are listed with Willis and Sally at household #120: John Thomas, 22; Susy Malissia, 20; Francis, 18; Willis C., 14; William H., 12; Lilla G., 10; Hilary, 8; Archy, 5; Nancy A., 3; and David, 1. Their oldest, Elizabeth, had married George Grantham in 1891. 

Next door at household #121 Sinthy A. King (Cynthia), widow, age 68, is living with her mother Mary, age 90, and two granddaughters, Addie King, age 26; and Mandy L. Register, age 7. Mary reports, as I mentioned above, that she has given birth to 7 children and 2 are still alive. This is interesting as she has 3 living children at this point: Cynthia, Stephen Albert, and Alexander Jackson, who is living in Jefferson County, AL, with his wife, Mary C. (Breggs), and children, Willis, Albert F., Noah W., Mary, and George C. I wonder which one of her children Mary has lost track of. AND WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE NAME WILLIS? At this point I have counted 5 of them in the families of three of the original Smith siblings: Cynthia, Alexander, and Stephen. *Stay tuned for a future post about Willis Smith, above, son of Alexander and Mary. 

The 1900 census shows that Willis P. Lindsey owns his own farm. HistoryGeo shows him as first landowner in Section 22, Township 11N, Range 20E which he purchased in 1888. In 1901 HistoryGeo lists Cynthia A. King as the purchaser of a parcel in Section 15, Township 11N, Range 20E, and patentees as Amanda Register, Willis P. King, Cynthia A. King, and William J. King. (Remember Willis and William J. (Jordan) King from way back in the 1880 census? They are sons of Cynthia's daughter, Amanda, who married Melvin King.) Cynthia and Willis's neighbors are George Grantham, Jackson W. Register, father of Amanda Lindsey's second husband, William; and William R. Catrett, father of William M. Cartrette, Amanda Register's first husband. People really did marry their neighbors back in those days. 

Land ownership of Lindseys, Kings, and Register
11N Township, 20E Range, Pike Co. AL

Household #87 on the 1910 Pike Co. census, District #0169, Orion P.O., is still multi-generational. Will P. Lindsay is head of household at age 56, with his wife Sarah J., age 54, and children Susie (Susan Malissia), age 30; William H. (Haynes), age 22; Lenna (Lilla), age 19; Hillory, age 17; Arch, age 15; Nancy A. (Addie), age 13; and David, age 10. Puss (Emily Pearl), age 9, and Mary J., age 1, are apparently Susie's children, as becomes evident on the 1920 census. Also included in Will's household are his mother, Smth King, age 81, and his mother-in-law, Nancy (Duck) Harwill, age 92. At household #89 are his daughter, Lizzie (Elizabeth) Grantham, her husband George, their seven children, and hired man, Grady Register. And at household #90--I almost missed them--is Amanda (Register), age 17; her husband, William Cartrette, whom she had married in 1908; Amanda's half-sister, Cynthia King; and Cynthia's daughter, Bertha King, age 5.

In 1910 Stephen Albert, whose wife had died in 1905, is heading his own multi-generational family--children and grandchildren--while running a boarding house in Collinsville, Oklahoma. Alexander Jackson, his wife, a daughter and a niece, are living in Jefferson County, Alabama.

By the 1920 census Willis Lindsay has passed away. A couple of census records in Pike Co. in 1920 show where some of his family members have gone. His son, David Lindsay, just 20, is head of household #66 in Little Oak. Living with him are his mother, Sarah J., age 63; his sister, Susie M., age 38; and Susie's three children, Pearl, Mary J., and J.P. I have not found any marriage records to indicate who the father of Susie's children are, and they go by the surname Lindsay. Next door to them at household #67 is David's sister, Addie, her husband, Charlie Watts, their three children, and Charlie's brother. Also in Pike Co. in 1920 is Cynthia (King), who married Andrew Shaderick Walker in 1914. In their household are their three children, Emie (Emily), Shade, and Willis/Willie, and grandmother Cynthia King, age 92.

I promised you a century of Smiths in Alabama, so we have a couple of censuses yet to go. By 1930 the only one of the original children of John and Mary Smith that is still living is my great-grandfather, Stephen Albert Smith. His sister Cynthia had died in 1922, and his brother Alexander Jackson in 1924. Stephen will live until 1938 and die at age 92 in Oklahoma. 

But there are definitely still Smiths in Alabama, just farther down the line. In the 30's and 40's I found many of Willis Lindsey's children still living in Pike County. Susie, at age 60, is living with her daughter Pearl (Kelly) in 1940. Lenna, who married the hired man, Henry Grady Register, is on the 1940 census. Hillary and wife Katie (Mitchell) are living in Pike in 1930. David, who married Faxie Lee McLeod in 1926, is in Pike on the 1940 census with daughter Mary, son Willis, and twins Herman and Fermon. Addie, her husband, and three children are living in Montgomery. Cynthia King Walker, age 68, is living with her daughter Emmie and husband W.T. Watkins in Pike Co. in 1940. Amanda Register Catrett remarried to I.C. Killingsworth in 1944. I can't find her on the 1930 or 1940 censuses under any of her names, but she lives until 1973. She is buried under the name Amanda Killingsworth in Phenix City, Russell County, Alabama. Alexander Jackson Smith's sons, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Franklin, and Noah Washington, are living in Jefferson County, Alabama, in 1930 and 1940. 

Mary E. Smith, the mother of this expanding brood, died in 1901 and is buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery 12 miles north and west of Troy, Alabama. I've been there. What I wish I had known at the time was that I was only a couple of section lines away from Willis Lindsay's land. I also didn't realize that so many people related to the Smiths are buried in that cemetery. 

Willis Lindsey's land in relation to Mount Moriah Cemetery

Mary E. Smith's headstone, Mount M

Mary E. Smith  1 Mar 1810 -- 17 Sep 1901
Cynthia A. King  Nov 1830 -- Sep 1922
W. P. Lindsey (Willis)  Oct. 8 1953 -- Aug. 2 1911
Sarah Jane Harvill Wife of W.P. Lindsey  Feb. 1855 -- Mar. 5 1930
Cynthia King Walker  Dec. 31 1875 -- Dec. 15 1966 (and dau. Bertha, buried as Walker)
Andrew S. Walker  Mar. 16 1886 -- Aug. 28 1939
Mary W. "Emmie" Walker Watkins (and husband Wiley T.) 9 Apr 1911 -- 15 Jul 2005 
Susie M. Lindsey Grandmother of Daphne Kelly Randall (no dates) 
Pearl Kelly (w/husband Will)  29 July 1900 -- 24 May 1989
Lenna Lindsey Register (and husband Henry Grady Register)  1890-1977
Hilary Lindsey (and wife Katie)  14 Jun 1892 -- 16 Oct 1970
Addie Watts 1896 -- 1945
Dave Lindsey (and wife Faxie Lee)  24 May 1899 -- 18 Mar 1971

Plus Catretts (William M.'s mother and father), many Linzeys (any relation?) and Registers (including Jackson W. and William J.)


Probably everybody's tree is this complicated, but I have my doubts. 

What's in a Name?

A friend of mine recently got her DNA results from Ancestry.com and was showing me her Ethnicity Estimate. I remembered that Ancestry had come out with a whole new version of ethnicity results last fall, and I had never really looked at mine since the new version appeared on their website. So I did.

On a previous post, "Where in the World Am I From?" I reported the results from my first ethnicity profile on Ancestry. I was 44% Central European, 33% British Isles, 21% Scandinavian, and 2% Uncertain. I knew that Ancestry got a lot of flak from experts in the field of DNA genealogy for the high proportion of Scandinavian ancestry in a large number of people who wouldn't be expected to have it. I wasn't especially skeptical of my Scandinavian numbers, because first of all, it's cool to be a Viking, and second, I figured my Irish and Scots forefathers probably did have some Scandinavian ancestry.

Well, now they don't. My new Ethnicity Estimate is 79% Great Britain, 15% Ireland, and 6% Trace Regions. These include 3% Europe East, 1% Europe West, 1% Italy/Greece, <1% Scandinavian, and <1% Iberian Peninsula. I've gone from 21% Scandinavian to less than 1%. However, I'm not really surprised at my overwhelmingly English/Scots/Irish roots, as I would be hard-pressed to find a surname in my tree that can't be traced to those regions.

I thought it might be fun to do a little survey of the surnames in my tree--where they come from and what they mean. Since none of my ancestors are recent immigrants and I haven't been able to trace very many of them conclusively to their mother country, surnames are the only evidence I have for country of origin. Let's see if my surname origins match up with the origins that Ancestry.com estimated from my DNA.

FYI: Surnames did not come about until the Middle Ages, when populations grew large enough that individuals with the same given names had to be differentiated from each other. There are four major ways in which surnames were given: based on the father's name (for example, Johnson, "son of John"); based on the occupation of the individual (John the Baker, John the Carpenter, etc.); based on a place (John Hill, John Meadows, John London); or based on a characteristic (John Little, John Brown.)

On my dad's dad's side, I have Smith, Williams, Simmons, and Soles. Just for fun, let's throw in Banks and Perkins, the surnames belonging to my brother's y-DNA matches. We know they are related to us--we just don't know how. I'm using Ancestry.com's surname information, which can be found at www.ancestry.com/learn/facts.

SMITH--English: occupational name for a worker in metal
WILLIAMS--English (also very common in Wales): son of William
SIMMONS--English (southern): son of Simon, or Anglo-Norman: son of Simund
SOLES--Old English; from sol, a muddy place, or possibly from Middle English (Latin solus), "single" or "unmarried", or if spelled
SOULE or SOULES--uncertain origin; perhaps derived from "soul" as a term of affection
BANKS--English or Scottish: name for someone who lived on the slope of a hill or by a riverbank
PERKINS--English (also mid and south Wales): son of Perkin

On my dad's mom's side, surnames include Castle, Sargent, Bays, Day, Lewis, Reed, Horton, Kendrick, Lea, Oney, McGrady, Cock, Patrick, and Henson.

CASTLE--English: someone who lived or worked at the castle (However, if the original spelling was Kassell or Cassell, as many Castle genealogists have speculated, my Jacob "the Longhunter" would have had a German, not English, origin.)
SARGENT--English and French: originally, an occupational name for a servant
BAYS--English: son of Bay
DAY--English: a pet form of David or other personal name; or, from a root word meaning "to knead" (related to dough), name for a dairy maid or servant of either sex
LEWIS--English (but most common in Wales): from the Norman personal name Ludovicus, or from the Welsh Llywelyn, or from the Irish/Scots Lughaidh
REED--English: nickname for a person with red hair or a ruddy complexion
HORTON--English: from one of many places in England with this name; from Old English horh "dirt" + tun "enclosure" or "settlement"
KENDRICK--Welsh, Scottish, or English: from the Welsh personal name Cynrig; shortened version of the Scots MacKendrick; or from the English Cyneric, meaning "royal power"
LEA--English: someone who lived near a meadow
ONEY--English: probably originally Olney, from two different places in England. One meant "Olla's island"; one was originally Onley, "single" + "clearing"
MCGRADY--Irish: son of Bradach, "proud"
COCK--English: "male bird or fowl," originally someone who struts like a rooster, then became generalized to "youth" and incorporated in names such as Alcock and Hancock
PATRICK--Scottish and Irish: son of Padraig, originally Latin Patricius, "son of a noble father"; popularized, of course, by St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland
HENSON--English: son of Henne (short for Henry), Hayne, or Hendy

On my mom's dad's side, I have Wheat, Farris, Stephenson, Whitley, Ming, Beasley, Fullen, Bordley, and Logan.

WHEAT--English: grower or seller of wheat, from hwit, meaning "white" because of its use in making white flour
FARRIS--Scottish: son of Fergus; in southeast England, possibly variant of Farrar, "worker in iron," "shoer of  horses" 
STEPHENSON--English and Scottish: son of Stephen; sometimes shortened to Stinson. My Stephensons are supposed to be Scottish.
WHITLEY--English: place name, from hwit "white" + leah "wood"
MING--English: of uncertain origin; perhaps from shortened version of personal name, Dominick
BEASLEY--English: from a place in Lancashire; perhaps beos, meaning "bent grass" + leah, meaning "woodland clearing"
FULLEN--English: same origin as Fuller, an occupational name for a person who helped make cloth by wetting and walking on it
BORDLEY--English: place name, originally bord, "board" + leah, "woodland clearing"
LOGAN--Scottish or northern Irish: from a place name, originally lagan, "hollow"

And finally, from my mom's mom's side of the family: Bell, Roberts, Powell, Fowler, Crudup, Cooper, Battle, Dixon, and Huff. DNA evidence also points to Pharris, Broyles, and Wilhoit.

BELL--Scottish or northern English: bell maker, or someone who lived near the bell
ROBERTS--English: son of Robert. Very frequent in Wales and west central England.
POWELL--English (of Welsh origin): Anglicized form of Welsh ap Hywel, "son of Hywel," a personal name meaning "eminent"
FOWLER--English: occupational name for a bird-catcher (a common medieval occupation)
CRUDUP--Probably an Americanized version of North German Gratop, a nickname for an old man. From German gra (gray) + top (braid)
COOPER--English: occupational name for a maker and repairer of wooden barrels
BATTLE--English and Scottish (of Norman origin): habitational name from the place of a battle
DIXON--Northern English: son of Dick
HUFF--English: habitational name, meaning "spur of a hill." German: from the personal name Hufo. My Huffs were Dutch, so probably the German meaning.
PHARRIS--Irish variant of Farris. I'm still not completely certain that my Farris and Pharris ancestors weren't originally the same family.
BROYLES--American form of German Breuhl (one of my Germanna families)
WILHOIT and various spellings--German: from Willeit, wil "small settlement" + leite "slope" (another Germanna family)

Kindof fascinating, isn't it? Certainly bears out the ethnicity estimate of almost 95% Great Britain and Ireland. It's also fun to see what characteristics distinguished a person or place back then and to compare medieval occupations to those we have today. Can you imagine having a job that required you to walk on wet cloth or catch birds?

Try this little exercise with your own list of surnames. What does it tell you about the origins and occupations of your ancestors?

Old Questions with New Answers

My Smith great-grandparents, Stephen and Fannie, came to Oklahoma in 1894, bringing most of their children with them from Alabama, even those that were already adults. One adult daughter, Ella, stayed behind in Alabama with her husband. The youngest Smith sibling, my grandfather Weaver, was born in Indian Territory in 1895.

Both of my Smith great-grandparents have been a pain, genealogically speaking. I spent years thinking that Fannie's maiden name was Cotton, then I thought it was Mansell, then I found out that it was probably neither. Her paternal line is a mystery because I don't know who her father was--and may never know. I have a few more clues with her maternal line, enough that I may someday figure out who her grandparents were. At least, through the years, there has been some movement on her side of the family.

Not so with Stephen. I know that his mother was named Mary E. and that from 1850 on, she was the single parent of Stephen, his sister Cynthia, and his brothers John, Alexander Jackson, Minor Jefferson, and Moses Calvin. I know a little about Stephen's siblings and their future lives. I long suspected that Mary's maiden name was Williams, and that finally was confirmed by the death certificate of her son Alexander Jackson. I know that Stephen's father was probably named John Smith. And that's it. I don't even know for sure where John and Mary came from before they came to Alabama. In fact, I don't have solid evidence that John ever lived in Alabama.

1850 Coffee Co. AL census
Mary E. Smith and children: Synthia A., John, Jackson A.,
Minor J., and Stephen A.

Then in the last month it seems like every genealogical clue I've been given is about the Smiths. First, I got an email from a Perkins descendant. In my post, "Will the Real Ancestor Please Stand Up?" I talked about the fact that my brother's y-DNA test results show matches, not to Smiths, but to men named Banks and Perkins. (Not only did John Smith have to have a difficult paper trail, he had to have difficult DNA, too.) She related that she had also corresponded with a Banks descendant; all three of us were looking for a connection among our Smith, Perkins, and Banks ancestors.

James Washington Perkins, the oldest known ancestor of the Perkins descendants, was born in Georgia and died in Texas. My Smith family, as far as I know, never lived in those states. The Banks descendant that matches my brother on 37 markers was from Bulloch County, Georgia, where his family has lived for 8 generations. After having their y-DNA tested and results compared, several Banks descendants believe their oldest known ancestor is Charles Banks of Edgefield County, South Carolina.

John Smith was supposed to have been born in Virginia, but I always wondered where he met his wife Mary. On several censuses Mary E. Williams Smith reported her place of birth as South Carolina. A little research on the Perkins family revealed that they also had a connection to South Carolina. The grandparents of James Washington Perkins, James and Rebecca (Corley) Smelley, were from Edgefield County, South Carolina. So I might not have found a person that ties the Banks, Perkins, and Smith families together, but I might have found a place. At the very least, I thought I could narrow my search for Williams and Smith families to Edgefield County, South Carolina, where there are several to choose from.

Next, out of the blue, I got a message on Ancestry.com from a new match who turned out to be a 2nd cousin on my Smith side. His grandmother, Barbara Smith, was the sister of my grandfather Weaver. I asked him to upload his results to Gedmatch, which he did in short order, and I now have a Smith family member to compare matches against. It's also really interesting to compare our DNA on Gedmatch. He is now my largest match, next to my brother, with a whopping 312.8 cM's. He has even more in common with my brother--389.6 cM's.

Using the Triangulation feature on Gedmatch, I found a list of people that match both my Smith cousin and me. I contacted a few of them and heard from one--let's call him Mr. F. I actually realized later that he had once contacted me but we couldn't find the ancestor we had in common. This time I had just researched the Perkins family, so my email to him asked if he had an ancestor by that name. He did; his Ann Perkins (or Parkins), born 1800, married William Orr. Their daughter Rachel Orr was his great-great-grandmother. I compared Mr. F. and several of his relatives on the FTDNA Chromosome Browser and found that they all matched in a certain segment of Chromosome 7. Then I switched over to Gedmatch and compared my Smith cousin to them. (He tested on Ancestry.com so is available on Gedmatch but not FTDNA.) And guess what? He lines up in a great big segment at the same place on Chromosome 7 as Mr. F. and his relatives.

Then within a week--I am serious--I got another message on Ancestry.com, this time from a lady who just wanted to help me with my great-grandmother Fannie's maiden name. I explained that even though Fannie listed Mansil as her last name on her marriage license, she couldn't really be the daughter of John Mansell. I was curious if she was a relative, so I asked why she had been looking at my tree.

Fannie and Stephen's marriage license

It turns out that she also has Smith ancestors in Coffee Co., AL. We determined that we are not related--her family has had y-DNA testing done and they are descended from a known Smith. But what she told me next kindof rocked my world. Her ancestors in Coffee Co., who were next-door neighbors of my Mary E. Williams Smith, were Prescotts and Donaldsons--and they moved there from Edgefield Co., SC, along with several other families, including the Williamses.

1860 Coffee Co. census
Mary E. living near Prescotts, Williamses, and Donaldsons

In light of all this new information, I am completely revisiting what I think I know about John A. Smith. The death certificate of Andrew Jackson Smith, Stephen's brother, lists his parents as John Smith and Mary E. Williams. So at least as far as Andrew Jackson knew, his father's name was John Smith. I think the erroneous information starts with a marriage license issued in Chesterfield, Virginia, in 1828 for a John A. Smith and an Elizabeth Williams. I think people assumed that this was our John Smith and that he came from Virginia. A lot of people on Ancestry.com, and even genealogists in my own family, have listed his birthdate as 1805, but it couldn't be if he is the John Smith in Chesterfield, VA, who was listed on the 1820 census. He would only have been 15 years old.

In 1840 there is a John A. Smith in Pike Co., AL, whose census information has been attached to my John Smith. But again, he couldn't be my John Smith. He has way too many children, and I hate to say, I didn't even question this, but--the Smiths didn't live in Pike Co. in 1840. They didn't move there until sometime between 1860 and 1880. He also is supposed to be buried in the same place as Mary--in Pike Co.--but again he wasn't living in Pike Co. around 1850 when he was supposed to have died.

For this reason, one researcher on Ancestry.com thinks that John Smith, the husband of Mary E. and father of Stephen, is the completely different, and much older John W. Smith, who is listed on the 1850 Census Mortality Schedule with a death date of February 1850 at the age of 87. She has compared the census records of two John A. Smiths in Coffee Co. and concluded that neither of them could be the father of my Smith family. I don't know if I agree with all her conclusions, but she has certainly given me something to think about. It just makes sense to question everything when years of research have gotten you no closer to an answer. What do I know? John Smith may have really been born a Perkins.