Tangled DNA, A Merry Chase: 52 Ancestors

It's a challenge to sort out two men (or women) of the same name. But when you don't know whether there is one man or two men, the research is even more challenging. You have to chase every available piece of evidence, including DNA. When the men are from the same family, evaluating DNA may be very complex.

A recent post to the DNAExplained blog was titled When DNA Leads You Astray. Roberta writes about careful DNA evaluation, using the hard science of FamilyTreeDNA and other companies, as opposed to the warm and fuzzy feel good science of AncestryDNA.

The Tangled DNA series of posts focuses on the Allee family of Alabama and Arkansas. However, if there had been no man named Merrill Allee, there would be no confusion and would be no need for such careful DNA evaluation. This final post of the series will discuss the name, the possibilities, the records and the DNA.

The Name Merrill Allee

My great-uncle, Thomas Merrill Allee, once told me about his name. Passed down through several generations, he pronounced the name as Merle, or phonetically as Murl. His last name, he and my grandfather pronounced as AL-ley. So when you see Merrill Allee, think Merle Alley. One nickname for Merrill/Merle is Merry, pronounced Murray.

The Possible Men

There is no doubt that a man named Merrill Allee was born to John Allee and Mildred Lawrence about 1790. The second person was a child born to Nicholas Allee and Mary Dennis between 1796 and 1799. This child was listed as Merry in the 1808 will of Nicholas. Both of these individuals were born in Virginia and were born within 10 years of each other. There are conflicting family legends, which were discussed in an earlier post about John Allee.

The Records

 

Kentucky 

John Allee moved his family from Virginia to Kentucky about 1806. Merrill Allee first appears in the tax records of Barren County, Kentucky, in 1810, as a male of under 21 years of age. In 1812, he was taxed as being over 21. Those two records pinpoint his year of birth as close to 1790.

Merrill married Sally Stephens on November 9, 1809, and divorced her for desertion three years later. The divorce revealed that there was a daughter born in 1810 and that Merrill did not know where Sally and his daughter had gone (Equity Court Records, Book 1, 1812, Bundle 183). The 1810 census shows the three of them together under the name Merral Ally.

The War of 1812 militia service records report that he briefly served as Murriel Alley, Corporal, Captain David Harding's Company, 3rd Regiment, Kentucky Detached Militia. He is listed on Barren County militia rosters between 1812 and 1816.

Merrill last is found on the Barren County tax rolls in 1819. Monroe County was carved out of Barren County and adjoining counties in 1820. John Allee was taxed in Monroe County beginning in 1820, but Merrill does not appear on the Monroe County tax rolls except for the years 1824 through 1826. John was last taxed in Monroe County in 1827, before moving to Indiana.

Did Merrill move to Indiana with his parents, to Missouri with cousins, to Alabama with aunts and uncles, or elsewhere?

Alabama

Turning to Alabama records, Merrill could be either of the possible men.

The 1820 census of Lawrence County, Alabama, lists Merral Alley with three males under age 21 and one female (a wife?) over age 21. This record would indicate the younger man and that he was only 20 years of age. Could a 30-year old pass for 20? Was there a tax benefit to being under 21? Did the census taker just make a mistake?

The 1830 census lists Mirri Ally with four male children and two female children. Mirri was aged 30-40 and his wife was 40-50.

Merrill bought and sold land in Alabama. The land transactions do not add clarity. 

Arkansas

By 1840, the family had moved to Saline County, Arkansas. Mirrill Allen had three young men, two young women, was aged 40-50 and his wife was 40-50.

Merrill is listed in the Saline County tax rolls with several creative spellings, including Muroil and Muril. He last paid tax in Saline County in 1849. It is possible that he aged out, with tax only being assessed through age 59. If that was the reason he was dropped from the rolls, it would indicate the older man. But there were other reasons to be dropped from the tax roll.

The 1850 census adds some interesting facts. It shows that Merrill was age 53 and was not able to read and write. His wife was age 70, with their marriage having occurred in either 1826 or 1816. It appears that 1826 was the more likely marriage date, which would mean that Ester was not the biological mother of Merrill's children. But could one or more be her children and his step-children? Was Ester a Gamble by birth, as speculated by Gamble descendants? Ester becomes part of the puzzle, as no marriage record has yet been found.

The last census where Merrill is listed is the 1860 census of Saline County. It lists Merrill as age 64 and his wife as age 74. Her age in later years was 84 and 94, so 74 seems correct and the 1850 census was wrong.

If Merrill was 53 in 1850 and 64 in 1860, he was the younger man. But why did he pay no tax after 1849? Census records are not a primary source and are often inaccurate.

Looking at the three presumed children of Merrill, all had stated birthplaces of Alabama: Abraham in 1818, Josiah in 1821, and Margaret Catherine in 1824. The second girl is believed to be a niece, Nancy Jane. The other two boys are unknown to me, though one may have been named Nicholas.

None of the three believed that they were born in Kentucky. However, it is possible that Merrill moved his family multiple times between Kentucky and Alabama, which would account for his absence on the Kentucky tax rolls.

Merrill Allee died between the census years of 1860 and 1870. If he was born in 1790, that would make him 70-80 years old at death. If he was born in 1796, he would have been 64-74 years old at death. The second seems more likely. However, either could be correct.

The DNA Challenge

There are questions and intermarriages that make DNA analysis especially tricky.

Mitochondrial DNA is not useful for Merrill, but could help clarify his wife through female only descendants of presumed daughter Margaret Catherine Allee Gamble.

But what if none of the children were his? What if they were step-children, nieces, nephews or cousins.  Y-DNA for his male Allee descendants could prove the line back to Nicholas Allee of Virginia, but cannot eliminate the possibility that he raised nephews or cousins.

Autosomal DNA matching is needed for this family, with the careful evaluation described in the blog posts at DNAExplained. Autosomal evaluation is needed for matches to the following:

Descendants of Nicholas Allee and Ann Stephens
Descendants of John Allee and Mildred Lawrence
Descendants of siblings of Mildred Lawrence Allee
Descendants of siblings of Mary Dennis Allee
Descendants of Joseph Allee and wives
Descendants of Isaac Allee and Sarah Walden, Isaac Allee and Melinda ____
Descendants of Elizabeth Allee and Elisha Stover
Descendants of Hannah Allee and Samuel Brown
Descendants of Nicholas Alley of Fayette County, Alabama
Descendants of Missouri Ann Allee Hitt

Extra caution must be taken where intermarriages occurred, including with the allied Gamble family:

Descendants of Nancy Jane Allee Grant via Martha Elizabeth Grant Allee
Descendants of Nancy Jane Allee Grant via Nancy Jane Grant Gamble
Descendants of Margaret Catherine Allee Gamble
Descendants of Abraham Allee and Margaret Gamble

The many intermarriages can cause bad conclusions. I would go so far as to propose that descendants of Martha Elizabeth Grant Allee should not be used for any sort of matching within the Allee family tree, as her descendants have the most tangled DNA in the tangled Merrill Allee branch.