Come on, matchmaker… make me that match!
The Legal Genealogist‘s favorite cartoon of all time is one that perfectly sums up my view of patience.
It shows two vultures sitting on a branch. One of them turns to the other and says: “Patience, my ass. I’m gonna kill something!”
And oh boy does that sum up my attitude this fine Sunday morning.
Because, after all, it’s been a whole 48 hours, give or take a couple, since an Arizona man I sincerely hope turns out to be my cousin dropped his DNA test kit into the mail, priority postage attached, headed for the lab at Family Tree DNA.
And I’m dying to know what the results will show.
One of my most perplexing family history mysteries is the identity of the mother of my third great grandmother Margaret (Battles) Shew.
She married Daniel Shew sometime before 1849, most likely in Cherokee County, Alabama. There’s no record of their marriage; the Cherokee County courthouse burned twice, in 1882 and 1895.1 They had one child, William, by the 1850 census2 and two more — Gilford and Martha Louise — by 1860, when Margaret appeared as head of household on the Cherokee County census, apparently a widow.3
We’re pretty sure of Margaret’s maiden name, but proof is hard to come by. It comes to us really from two sources: oral history passed down to Eula’s daughter Opal;4 and the death certificate of her son William.5
And there was only one Battles family in Cherokee County, Alabama, at any time that could have included Margaret, and that’s the family of William Battles, who was enumerated in Cherokee County in 1840,6 1850,7 1860,8 and 1870.9
It isn’t clear who Margaret’s mother was. William was married twice. His first marriage, to Kiziah Wright, resulted in a messy suit she brought against him for divorce that was finally dismissed in 1829, apparently when Kiziah died.10 His second wife was Ann Jacobs. They were married on Christmas Day 1829, and showed up on the 1830 census with — count ‘em — five children.11 One of whom, I do believe, born well before that December 1829 marriage, was Margaret.
But how could we know for sure?
The answer lies, we hope, in that test kit now on its way to the lab.
You see, I am the daughter of a daughter of a daughter of a daughter of a daughter of Margaret’s. So I have inherited the mitochondrial DNA — mtDNA for short — of whoever Margaret’s mother was. That’s the type of DNA that’s passed down the direct female line from a mother to all of her children but that only her daughters can pass on.12
If Margaret was Ann’s daughter, she would have had — and passed on — Ann’s mtDNA. And any direct female-line descendant of any of Ann’s other daughters would have that same mtDNA.
Exactly how many daughters Ann may have had isn’t certain, but three of them were still living at home and enumerated in the household in that 1850 census: Samantha; Julia; and Charlsie.13
And the test kit now on its way to the lab is that of a man who is a direct female-line descendant of Julia. A man who, since mtDNA is inherited from the mother, has exactly the mtDNA I need: that of his mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s mother — Ann Jacobs Battles.
So if we match… oh, if we match… I will finally know that Margaret’s mother was Ann. And if we don’t, then her mother was most likely Kiziah.
Lord, give me patience.
And I need it right now.
SOURCES
- “Alabama Courthouses Destroyed by Fire,” Alabama Department of Archives and History (http://www.archives.state.al.us : accessed 22 Mar 2014). ↩
- 1850 U.S. census, Cherokee County, Alabama, population schedule, 27th District, p. 136 (back) (stamped), dwelling 1055, family 1055, Danl Shew household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Mar 2014); citing National Archive microfilm publication M432, roll 3. ↩
- 1860 U.S. census, Cherokee County, Alabama, population schedule, p. 315 (stamped), dwelling 829, family 829, Margaret Shoe household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Mar 2014); citing National Archive microfilm publication M653, roll 5. ↩
- Interview with Opal Robertson Cottrell (Kents Store, VA), by granddaughter Bobette Richardson, 1980s; copy of notes privately held by Judy G. Russell (also a granddaughter). ↩
- Texas Department of Health, death certif. no. 10077 (1927), W.W. Shew (10 Mar 1927); Bureau of Vital Statistics, Austin. ↩
- 1840 U.S. census of Cherokee County, AL; 1840 U.S. census, Cherokee County, Alabama, population schedule, p. 116 (stamped), line 17, Wm Battles household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Mar 2014); citing National Archive microfilm publication M704, roll 3. ↩
- 1850 U.S. census, Cherokee Co., Ala., pop. sched., 27th Dist., p. 136 (stamped), dwell. 1052, fam. 1052, Wm Battles household. ↩
- 1860 U.S. census, Cherokee Co., Ala., pop. sched., p. 314-315 (stamped), dwell./fam. 825, Wm Battles household. ↩
- 1870 U.S. census, Cherokee Co., Ala., pop. sched., Leesburg P.O., p. 268(B) (stamped), dwell. 26, fam. 25, W Battles household. ↩
- Transcription, Records of the Blount County Circuit Court, 1824-1829; Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Oneonta, Ala.; transcribed by Bobbie Ferguson; copy provided to J. Russell and held in files. ↩
- 1830 U.S. census, St. Clair County, Alabama, p. 252 (stamped), line 24, William Battles 2nd household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Mar 2014); citing National Archive microfilm publication M19, roll 4. ↩
- ISOGG Wiki (http://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Mitochondrial DNA tests,” rev. 9 July 2014. ↩
- 1850 U.S. census, Cherokee Co., Ala., pop. sched., 27th Dist., p. 136 (stamped), dwell. 1052, fam. 1052, Wm Battles household. ↩
Thank you for that listed chart on your posting, to give understanding.
So even back that far – the/a mothers’ mtDNA will go down the list of daughters (a clear list) children, and once it hits a son stops…but this new cousin will have “something” to give as evidence. WOW, Super!
Exactly right! As long as the line goes from female to female it remains unbroken and very nearly the same even for hundreds or thousands of years. But once you hit a boy that line stops: his children will have their mother’s mtDNA, not their father’s.
Hang in there, you have 6-8weeks to wait. What can you do in the meantime? LOL. I have a similar situation with Sarah Hart Goens/Goings. Sarah is my 3rd great grandmother (maternal side). I believe she might be white and married Lawson Goings (a mulatto) about 1829/30. There is no trail of her yet, except she is the wife, born in Virginia and I know when she died. I tested with African Ancestry and they came back and said, no African up this line, it goes back to a white female. Where they lived and raised their children there are other Hart’s, all mulatto. But nothing connects. Just can’t nail this one down yet-jumping from Loudoun & Jefferson counties Virginia. As Yoda would say-“be patience, what you not know now, you will know later” (I am Yoda in another life). LOL.
You have a lot more patience than I do, Shelley!!!
Good luck! My mtDNA tests took a look time to come back; hope yours goes better!
Do you already have one of Kiziah’s female line mtDNA to know it’s not the same as Ann’s? Not matching as Kiziah’s descendant seems pretty much as important as matching with Ann’s. Of course I’m coming from the perspective of someone with very common mtDNA (over 120 genetic distance 0 matches at FTDNA) where ruling out is pretty much the only value.
We don’t have Kiziah’s for sure, because we’re not sure (and frankly don’t believe) she had any children. If need be, we do have leads to track Kiziah’s maternal lineage though: she had a sister who married another Battles male. At the moment, we’re waiting for these results: we’ve done the full mitochondrial sequence here and only have a handful of close matches so if we do get a hit, I think it’ll be pretty compelling since there’s nothing to tie Kiziah and Ann together at all.
Your presentation at the International Genetic Genealogy Conference was great.
Thanks, Jason! Kind of you to say so.
Judy,
I am doing the same – I collected the sample from a second cousin (daughter to daughter. . .) once removed on my way to FGS and mailed it the Monday prior to the conference. It said 6-8 weeks and now says 2-4 so have hope.
Oddly, a few weeks later I googled my great grandmother’s name and unlike every time before brought up a website from Oldenburg, Germany (of all places)with christenings for 3 Wiedebusch children in Warrenton, Fayette, Texas. I emailed them and asked where they had found these records. The guy wrote back and said his predecessor had put the info in and he was removing it since they were from Brandenburg – not Oldenburg. Fortunately, I had cut and pasted the info because when I got home from the doctor and wrote back asking him not to it was too late.
Lesson learned – keep checking even if you checked before many times – and don’t tell them they weren’t from there! And now, to find the originals instead of transcriptions. So, I may end up with two kinds of proof to give a distant cousin who accused me of trying to connect things to make it be what I wanted. Can’t wait!
Good luck, Carolyn! Hope you get the proof you need too!
Hip Hip…
I hope you can add the Hooray before…
Well, anyway, try using your connections with Bennett Greenspan and the crew.
I hope I can too, John… but even us blogger types have to wait for the results. No special “in” that pushes to the front of the line.
We’re all hanging with you then, waiting for the results.