52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #51 Thomas Jefferson Alexander of Weakley County, Tennessee

The birthplace of my great-great-grandfather is a puzzle. His death certificate shows that he was born on January 29, 1829, to Sampson Alexander and Beulah Ann Nix. Following the census records over time, his birthplace is stated as both South Carolina and Tennessee. Consistently, his parents are listed as having been born in South Carolina, except on his death record.

The whereabouts of the family in 1830 would appear to be Union County, South Carolina, except that the count of three young boys doesn't match the anticipated four sons. It's one short, which would be our subject. Additionally Sampson's age is too high, so it may be the wrong family. What is known is that the Alexander family tended to have a lot of twins and the related men who lived in Weakley County, Tennessee, came from Union County, South Carolina.

Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Alexander was the fourth of five known children born to Sampson Alexander. Jeff was a farmer and was a son of a farmer. Sampson had arrived in Weakley County by 1838 and had purchased 195 acres in that county in 1848.

On February 20, 1855, Jeff married the fifteen-year-old Rebecca Ann Maynard in Weakley County. By 1870, he was growing corn on his 36 acres of land. Rebecca bore two sets of twins, along with eight other children, for an even dozen.

Template and elements from Memoirs, ClubScrap

Jeff continued to acquire land throughout his life. He lived on and ran his farm, with help, until at least 1920. He died on September 10, 1922, and is buried with his wife in Jolley Springs Cemetery in Weakley County. His widow, Rebecca, was the informant on his death certificate and was inaccurate in her answers. Unpuzzling this man truly requires collecting and assessing records.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #36 Rebecca Ann Maynard Alexander

Finding the parents of Rebecca Ann Maynard Alexander provided a gateway to the storied past of the Ragland family of the United States, England and Wales. Her mother, Judith Ragland, was the gateway ancestor.

Rebecca was born in Virginia to Judith and Evan Maynard of Halifax County. Her tombstone states her birth as February 13, 1840, while her death certificate says April 5, 1840. Her mother's birthday was April 5, so I believe the February 13 date is the accurate one.

Rebecca was the eighth of nine children born to the Maynard family. Sometime between 1848 and 1850, the family moved from Virginia to Weakley County, Tennessee. It was there that Rebecca married Thomas Jefferson Alexander on February 20, 1855, just a week after her 15th birthday.

The Alexander family had a legacy of twins. Rebecca bore two sets of twins, along with eight other children, for an even dozen.

Quick drop page from Memoirs by ClubScrap

Rebecca Ann Maynard Alexander was widowed in 1922. She died in Dresden, Tennessee, on August 9, 1931. She was buried with her husband in the Jolley Springs cemetery in Weakley County.

Rebecca and the entire Maynard family were mentioned in the Goodspeed's biography of her eldest brother, John Maynard, who founded the town of Maynard, Arkansas. That 1891 biography is an important piece of information for all descendants of Judith Ragland and Evan Maynard.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #15 Mollydine Alexander Cole and Twin

We don't talk much about the family of my maternal grandfather. Most of what I know has been gleaned from records, newspapers and very distant cousins. But I do recall one conversation about my great-grandmother, Mollydine Alexander Cole.

My Mom was telling me that only her mother's stubbornness stood between herself and the name Mollydine. She  was grateful that she had been named Molly, rather than Mollydine after her grandmother. I didn't ask about the spelling. Instead I wrote the name down as Molly Dean, thinking it was a clue to another ancestral line.

Quick drop page from ArtPlay Palette Family by AnnaAspnesDesigns
for Digital Scrapper, March, 2012

When I saw the 1880 census for Weakley County, Tennessee, I figured out how the unusual name came to be. Mollydine had a twin, Josephine. Can't you just see their parents trying to rhyme a name with Josephine? Give it a try -- I did!

The exact date of the twins' birth is fuzzy. Mollydine and Josephine were born on January 31, 1873, according to Molly's obituary. Josephine's typed death record gives a birth date of January 13, 1873, but I suspect that is a typographical error. Josephine Alexander Stacks showed a birthdate of February, 1875, in the 1900 Weakley County census. Molly showed January, 1874, for her birthdate in the 1900 census taken in Clay County, Arkansas. The twins never had identical ages in any census after 1880. Based on all the evidence, I believe that their most likely birthdate is January 31, 1873.

The twins were born to Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Alexander and Rebecca Ann Maynard. Josephine's death certificate says that they were born in Weakley County.  They grew to womanhood there and were also married there. Mollydine married William J. Cole on December 6, 1891. Josephine married William Edward Stacks on January 19, 1899. Their lives diverged when Mollydine and her family moved to Clay County, Arkansas, leaving her twin behind in Tennessee.

Mollydine gave birth to four sons: Carlos, Noble, Clifford and Seborn. She and William apparently had marital problems. In the 1930 census, "widowed" Molly and son Seborn were living in Michigan, near her sons Noble and Clifford, while "widowed" William was living in Arkansas with son Carlos.

Mollydine Alexander Cole died in Arkansas on January 24, 1956, and was buried in Piggott Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Piggott, Arkansas. She was buried in a different cemetery and even a different town from William J. Cole, who had predeceased her.

Josephine Alexander Stacks died on July 19, 1948, in Hardeman County, Tennessee. Her place of burial was not given on her death certificate.

Double the Fun with Double Cousins

Do you have any double cousins in your family tree? They are absolutely worth identifying and tracing forward.

I've got three places where double cousins appear in my tree that I know of, two of which are in my direct line. In one branch the parallel line has disappeared, but the other two are still going strong. If you look up at my header photos, part of the Maddox/Lake double cousins are at the far left, while the Allee/Lucas double cousins are in the very large family group. That just struck me rather funny, since I'm not writing about any of them today.

Double cousins are where siblings from one family marry siblings from a second family, with the resulting children being first cousins on both mother's and father's lines and having the same four grandparents. The cousins are often very close and share many of their family stories, which come down the line to their descendants.

Here's an example from my favorite confusing family, the Alexanders, who intermarried with the Maynards. There were more children in each and every one of these branches, but I just want to show the relationships.

My ancestor, Mollydine Alexander, was a double cousin to Patience Alexander and her siblings, as well as to John Maynard and his full siblings. It's called a double cousin because, for example, Molly was a cousin to Patience on the Alexander side as well as on the Maynard side.

In genealogy, the descendants of these double cousins are great partners when working on the brick walls. In the DNA world, it's very exciting to match with one. Double cousins share about as much DNA as a half-sibling, so it amps up the match potential.

I had reached out to Lenora, one of the descendants from this tree, to see if she had done a DNA test. I was hoping she would help my second cousin and me sort out some of our match information. Her email bounced, and so I lost her since our last contact several years ago.

But I'm doing the happy dance anyway. While exploring the new tools at Family Tree DNA, I found a match who is a descendant of Patience Alexander. Charlotte and I are fourth cousins who share those four people at the top of the tree. Although she's not doing genealogy, her willingness to contribute to the DNA pool will help me sort out my own matches.

The orange shows all the bits of our matching DNA at the 1cM level and above. The challenge will be to assign each of those areas to the right surname.

 

And I've updated my DNA fan chart recently -- you can see Charlotte's red marks in the right center. That's far closer in time than being outside the fan and will be of far more use than the distant cousins.

Double cousins are double the DNA, double the research opportunities -- and double the genealogy fun!

Organizing AncestryDNA Matches with My Sixteen

If you're working with AncestryDNA results, you have what is called a heap in computer terms. It's a pile of data that can't be easily searched.

So I've decided to do some of my own organization, using my sixteen great-great-grandparents as a starting point. I'm using Excel to list the matches, but other spreadsheet programs could be used as well. In fact, any method that works for you is better than no method.

I sorted my matches in relationship order and then filtered to see only those with common ancestor hints. For each match, I capture enough information to be able to know how the person relates to me and I color-code it to match the colors I assigned to my sixteen.

I include the great-great-grandparent number (1-16) where the common ancestor can be found. For very close matches, there are multiple choices -- I just chose one. I also note that there is a match and the degree of the match (2nd cousin, 4th, 6th, etc). The Ancestry user name and the administered by name, the tree name, and the surnames that match also go into the spreadsheet. I also add any notes from reviewing their tree. In the future I will add a column for chromosome matches once I start working with that data from Gedmatch.com.

After including all the matches with hints, I changed the filter to show all matches and began working down the list in relationship order. I assign possible numbers and colors where I think there is a possible match. I  finished all estimated 4th-6th cousins with available trees and had about 70 matches in the list. I have now started into the 5th-8th moderate confidence matches.

Notice the little down arrows in each column. I've added Excel filters so that I can select and review a set of data by family branch, surname, or even words in my notes.

As an example, using the filter on surname, I can see just my matches with the surname Alexander in their ancestor list.

I hope this gives you some ideas about managing your own AncestryDNA match list.

Simple Saturday

It's just simple to pick Simpson. 

That was the gist of a tongue-in-cheek email comment I received on my previous post. Unfortunately, when researching family history, simple is not always right. With the two-men / same-name problem, simple is a word that just does not apply. Interestingly, we also learn far more about our families when the research is difficult and we delve deeply into time and place.

If you have this sort of problem, it's essential to examine every piece of evidence and try to assign it to the right man.

If I were to ignore the Ancestry users who chose Simpson Alexander as the father of Thomas Jefferson Alexander, I would not be doing thorough research myself. Although I've studied this problem for over 10 years, it was important to see what everyone else has found.

Revisiting the Ancestry public trees, I looked at the sources cited for Jeff, Simpson and other family members. I found not one shred of evidence that was new to me. The most often cited sources were "that person said so" and census records.

Using a census record is acceptable, but when there are two conflicting census records, choosing one and ignoring the other is incorrect. You can't just ignore it as an inconvenient truth. Also, remember that a census record is not a primary source. So by disregarding census records and other users as sources, there is no evidence. None.

What evidence does exist?

One key record has recently come online for our use. Jefferson Alexander's error-filled death certificate names his parents as Sampson Alexander and Beulah Ann Nix.

You say, well there's your proof -- no need for further debate!

Did you know that a death certificate is not considered a primary record for the birth of the deceased? If the informant is a parent, it's more likely to be accurate than when the informant is a child, sibling or spouse.

In this case, the informant is his wife, Rebecca. The errors on the death certificate include Jeff's first name and his birthplace. Those glaring errors then make the entire document suspect and leave his parents names still open to debate.

In the absence of any other evidence, this is the one record we have found to rely on. Interestingly, a few of the Ancestry users had attached this death certificate as a source, yet kept Simpson and Delilah as the parents.

Now we learn that Sampson is the simpler choice, but is he the right choice?
 

DNA Endgame? Maybe Not!

There's a lot of buzz in the genealogy community right now about DNA and that trend is not going away. A recent technology article at The Verge predicts that DNA will end genealogy research, as we know it, within the next twenty years. It makes sense that DNA genealogy will change how we research and document our family history, but I don't see it ending the hard research.

Picture my granddaughter, 40 years from now, deciding she wants to know about her heritage. She gives a DNA sample to the premier testing company and within minutes she receives a pretty printout of her family tree. But think about what's on that chart. Where did the information come from?

That's right. You got it. The family tree of tomorrow is born from the research that we and our cousins are doing today and sharing with companies and organizations such as Ancestry, Family Search, My Heritage, and many more. The accuracy and completeness of our research will be critical to future generations.

I decided today to gather some statistics on one of my longest-standing puzzles. The two-men / same-name puzzle is often very hard to solve and this one is made even more difficult by the previous generation.

We have two cousins named (Thomas) Jefferson Alexander born a year apart, with fathers Simpson and Sampson. The fathers may have been twins, brothers or cousins. My ancestor married Rebecca. But who were his parents? Jeff and Rebecca had many children, but not a one was named for grandparents.

On Ancestry.com today there are 30 public trees and 8 private trees showing Jeff with wife Rebecca and the right death date. There are perhaps 20 others with a death date and no wife, or with no death date.

Focusing only on the first 38 trees, 39% have no parents for Jeff. I applaud those researchers for not taking the easy route!

By far, most researchers have chosen Simpson as the father. Only one has chosen Sampson.There is one record that strongly suggests Sampson is the correct father, but it's a secondary document. Yet it is the best source known today. My own "no parents" is changing to "Sampson".

What tree will my granddaughter receive in 40 years? Will it be Simpson based on "votes"?

DNA may definitively solve this puzzle someday, based on the wives of Simpson and Sampson. For now, continued research in obscure record sets is the only way to unravel this tangled tree.

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy, Week 18, Historical Books

One of my favorite types of historical book is the 19th-century county history book, or mug book. Some are indexed, some are not, but all are worth investigating. If you find one that contains a biography about your ancestor, the information gained can be invaluable. The subject of each biographical sketch generally provided the information himself, so the accuracy and truthfulness is variable. It is important to search the book for collateral relatives, as your ancestor may be discussed in the biography of a brother, grandson or son-in-law.

One of the books in my collection is the 1878 History of Morgan County, Illinois. This book is 768 unindexed pages, of which 300 pages contain biographies. 150 pages describe the history of Illinois and 40 pages contain abstracts of state laws. With multiple branches of my family passing through that state, this information may be of use beyond the Morgan County families. The remainder of the book discusses the formation of the county, towns, early settlers, organizations, military history, businesses and churches. 

This book has two biographies of great interest to me. My third great-grandfather had a short biography that lists his birth date and birth place and that of his wife, the names and birth dates of all their children, the death dates of their children who died, his father's name and, last but certainly not least, the names of each of his father's seven wives. My second great-grandfather did not have a biography in the book, but his older brother had one. This biography was similar in listing his parents and also includes the names of his brothers who served in the Union Army, along with the unit in which they served.

Portions of 19th century mug books are increasingly found online as the copyrights have expired. Indexes to the biographies are often found at the USGenWeb county pages. Sometimes there is a look-up volunteer who will transcribe a biography of interest.

A cousin found and shared a biography that is the best I've seen for my family's genealogical data. Imagine finding such a gem as follows for your family.

My ancestor, Clifford Cole, was the grandson of Rebecca Ann Maynard Alexander. Rebecca's oldest brother had a biography with these paragraphs (and more) published in 1891.

Milestones digital kit from Club Scrap, Tree from Scrapper's Guide

GOODSPEED'S BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL MEMOIRS
OF NORTHEASTERN ARKANSAS
1891

John Maynard
 ... He was born in the Old Dominion in 1823, and is a son of Evan and Judith (Ragland) Maynard, both of whom were born in Halifax County, of that State, the former's birth occurring March 3, 1793, and the latter's April 5, 1803, and their deaths in 1881 and February 16, 1874, respectively. Their marriage was celebrated July 13, 1820, and in 1847 they came to the State of Tennessee, where the father entered upon the practice of medicine, and he continued this occupation until his death, although he had previously been a farmer.
 

He and his wife were of French-English origin, and he was a soldier in the War of 1812. They were members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and became the parents of eleven children, nine of whom lived to be grown: Harriet (wife of Chris Adams), John, Judith F. (wife of Robert Hart. of Tennessee), Mary A. (wife of Bluford Alexander, a resident of this State), Stith, Patience (wife of Austin Simmons, a resident of Washington County, Ark.), Even (a resident of Missouri), Rebecca A. (wife of Jeff. Alexander, of Weakley County, [p.415] Tenn.) and Thomas (who is a resident of Randolph County). ...

What Did I Learn?

From this brief biography I have learned the names of the men that Rebecca's sisters married and that my great-great-grandfather went by the name of Jeff. More importantly, I've learned my 3rd-great-grandparent's names, birth dates, birth locations, marriage date, death dates, occupations, church affiliation, ethnic heritage, military service and migration year. Some of the items may not be accurate, but all are clues to my heritage.

Check out the mug books for the areas your ancestors lived. You may find some jewels.