James Rainey (1814-bef 1870), Our 3rd Great-grandfather

 Woodboat crew by George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879)

Why would our 3rd great-grandfather James Rainey (1814 KY - bef 1870 Pike Co., IN) migrate with his family from Pulaski County, Kentucky, north to southern Indiana in the early 1850s? I've asked myself over and over. Why not Missouri, easier to travel to than Indiana?

Pulaski County, Kentucky

I realize now that James was born in Pulaski County in 1814, the son of James Rainey, Sr., who had married Martha Parham in 1800 in Sussex County, Virginia, and settled with his family in Pulaski County before 1810. James had been farming in Pulaski County since his marriage to Millie (given name possibly Milla) Roberts (c1810-after1880) twenty years earlier in 1832. No doubt his land had given out, the yields of corn and grain less than in previous years, barely enough to feed his large family, the hogs and milk cow.  It had never been good land, not like the rich bluegrass of middle Kentucky, already widely settled. Hilly country, too, along the Cumberland, easily eroded.

Cumberland River showing Cumberland Falls upriver from where James Rainey lived

Buck Creek now used for recreation

I'd imagined James and his family isolated on their farm in Kentucky, but that wasn't true. His farm lay on the banks of Buck Creek, a sizable stream a short canter away from the town of Somerset. The Cumberland River flowed nearby, navigable to within six miles of Somerset by small steamboats plowing upstream from Nashville in the spring when the river was high. Any tobacco James raised was easily shipped downstream to Nashville.

Steamboat on the Cumberland with a load of hogsheads of tobacco.

Having been born there, James stayed longer than most men who'd tried farming in Pulaski County. Each ten-year-census reflected the surrounding land sub-divided and sold to newcomers, but these fiddle-footed neighbors soon departed - except for his father-in-law, John Roberts, who farmed nearby.

Surrounded by sons and daughters and their families, by 1850 Roberts was pushing 80 and wife Jane was 72. James' wife Millie must have chafed when contemplating leaving her old parents, knowing she'd never see them again. But their boys' futures had to be considered. In 1850 Millie was about 33 or 40 - illiterate and never quite certain of her age when the census taker came around - and James was 36. Also illiterate, but he knew his birth year, but apparently not where he was born. They were young enough to start over James told her. The boys would soon be grown. Absolom, named for her brother, was 15; James 13, Larkin 11 and Sarah 10. Cynthy Ann was 8, Everett 6, Serena 5 and Elizabeth 3. Melvina would be born in 1852. James didn't value his farm at much in 1850 - only $200 - but he owned it outright. His father-in-law valued his real property at $8,000.00. How he arrived at that figure is questionable because he possessed no slaves. Perhaps the census taker meant $800.

James and his family planned to depart before spring planting, hoping to plant a crop when they found land up north. They would not be journeying alone.  James had convinced his brother-in-law, John Roberts, Jr. (1803-before1860), to come along. John was married to Matilda Raney (1800-before 1870). James and his sister-in-law Matilda might have thought themselves distant cousins, but she appears to have come out of an unrelated line of Raneys, who settled in Pulaski County. Our family has no DNA matches with descendants of that Raney family. Besides James Rainey and John Roberts, Jr., their nephew Sebern, son of James Roberts, just turned 20, was eager to join them. He would marry in Indiana, produce children, join the Union cause and, at age 31, be killed at the Battle of Stones River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on December 31, 1862.

They would journey by either steamboat or flatboat down the winding Cumberland to Nashville, Tennessee; then float the river back into Kentucky until reaching the Ohio River. If they took livestock, it's more likely they went by flatboat or keelboat.

The rivers united early America, allowing for communication and commerce. James would know that crops raised in southern Indiana and Illinois were shipped all the way to New Orleans. In  an old description of early White River Township and nearby Hazelton, in southern Indiana near the Ohio River,  I read:

Numerous cargoes of corn, wheat and pork were shipped from Hazelton every week. New Orleans was then the best market for farm products raised at that date, around Hazelton. The highway of travel was via the Patoka. Wabash. Ohio and Mississippi rivers and five or six weeks were required to make the round trip. A complement of five men was the usual number required with each boat. And it was no trouble to get hands, as many young men were anxious to make the trip and would do it for little pay.

It took 16 days to pole from the Ohio River up the Cumberland to Nashville, more days if the flatboat went on to Somerset, "all hands walking their boat into the current for hours on end, shoulders braced against heavy poles and feet treadmilling from bow to stern down a cleated gangway - or else going over the side to drag her through the shallows at the end of a cordelle." Ibid.

Keelboat floating downstream

So, it was in the spring of 1851 or maybe 1852, our little band of Kentucky families had an easy time floating the Cumberland downstream on leased flatboats with crew provided until reaching Smithland, Kentucky, and the Ohio River.

Where the Cumberland meets the Ohio River

They might simply have crossed the Ohio River to land on the Illinois shore and then, with livestock and goods, moved north overland through Illinois. Perhaps they tarried in Saline County, Illinois, and here's why. 

Saline County, Illinois

The Robert Evans family, also from Pulaski County, possibly traveled north with them, but put down roots in Saline County, Illinois. James' and Millie's son Larkin Rainey (b1838) either married daughter Mary Allen (b.1835), although I haven't located a marriage license, or got her pregnant without nuptials, because in April 1852, Mary Allen gave birth to his son, George F. Rainey, but died shortly thereafter. Whatever the circumstance, Larkin went on to Pike County, Indiana, but baby George Rainey was reared by his Evans family in Saline County. In the 1860 census, when George was nine, his birth was listed as 1851 in Kentucky. Later, he claimed Tennessee and a birth date of 1853 . . . so, who really knows?

We do know the Rainey family was in Monroe Township, Pike County, Indiana by the summer of 1853, because oldest son Absalom Rainey married Mary Ann Riddle there in September.

Pike County, Indiana

James Rainey was there for the 1860 census, his land valued at $250 (probably what he paid for it), his personal property valued at $350 (livestock, tools, furniture). Although in the the 1850 census he told the census taker he was born in Kentucky, this time he claimed Virginia as his birth place, which made my search for our male family line confusing.  He died before the 1870 census. I've been unable to find any information on the year or cause of his death. His widow, our third great-grandmother Millie Roberts Rainey, continued to farm with the help of her children. In the 1870 census the census taker listed her real estate value at $800 and her personal wealth at $400. She still had daughters Susan (16), Cynthia (14), Elizabeth (10) and Melvina (7) living with her. The daughters had been to school. In the 1880 census, Millie was living with daughter Melvina Rainey Hanover and her family in Pike County, and had suffered a stroke . . . "struck with thunder" the census taker wrote. She must have died shortly thereafter.

Jolly Flatboatman by George Caleb Bingham (1846)

To honor the journey the Rainey family took, which allowed us to be born, we'll end with the song The Boatman's Dance, by Old Cremona, a minstrel song credited to Dan Emmitt in 1843. A celebration of the Ohio River boatmen, bawdy and wily, recognizable by its repeated cry, "Hey, ho, the boatman row, floatin' down the river on the Ohio." HERE

Aaron Copland arranged a modern version the song in 1950. Here is a lovely version, in which you can better understand the lyrics, sung by Thomas Hampson.  HERE

Just Plain Folk: Close Living & Distant Erstwhile Cousins

Michele, Kerry, Quinn and Erin

A few weeks ago our cousins Michele Raney Betts, daughter of Paul Raney, Erin Raney, daughter of Pat and granddaughter of Paul Raney, and Erin's son Quinn, stayed with us a few days. It was a lovely visit. 

As I search for our 4th great-grandfather Rainey's identity down one collateral Rainey rabbit hole after another, hoping to discover the direct line, I'll take a break to share some interesting photos with you of distant erstwhile cousins. I like old photos and hope you do, too.

According to my research, Susan C. Rainey (b 1815) was the daughter of James Rainey, who was born in Sussex County, Virginia, who settled early in the 1800s in Pulaski County, Kentucky.  Susan was a sister to our 3rd g-grandfather James. We have lots of DNA matches with her descendants. Susan married Robert Parsley and they moved down to Tennessee, to Missouri and finally to Arkansas.  She's wearing heavy driving gloves, odd for a formal photograph. If photographed about 1860, she would have been 45, but considering the way women aged then, she looks younger. And her husband was a farmer, so life wouldn't have been easy.  It's always possible the person who contributed the photo on Ancestry was wrong as to her identity.

Elisha Franklin Rainey

Elisha Franklin Rainey (1834-1879) was born in Tennessee and died in Tennessee. Like so many of our relatives, he served in the Confederacy during the Civil War, a member of the 11th Tennessee Cavalry. I'm pretty sure this photograph was taken just after he joined up. His grandfather John Rainey (1775-1854) came out of Virginia and died in Rutherford County, Tennessee. We have a match to John through one of his daughters, so Elisha is definitely a distant cousin. 

Dennis E. Roberts

 We are doubly related to Dennis E. Roberts (1828-1879). He was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky, the nephew of our 3rd great-grandmother Millie Roberts (wife of 3rd great-grandfather James Rainey).  Dennis' mother was Mary "Polly" Turpin, probably an aunt or cousin to our 3rd great-grandfather Moses Turpin, who was born 1814 in Pulaski County, later moving with his family to Indiana. 

 And while we're on the Turpins, this is Delilah Kent Turpin, born 1802 in what became Greenbrier, West Virginia, died 1873 in Morgan County, Indiana. She was sister to our 4th great-grandfather Moses Hosey Turpin II (1782-1838), who served in the War of 1812 with Dollarhide's Battalion of Mounted Kentucky Volunteers out of Pulaski County. Moses Turpin's daughter Ella was married in 1858 in Indiana to Whitman Hill Dyson (1836-1914) our great-great grandfather, and was Nancy Ann Dyson's mother. Delilah's photo was taken in the early1850s. Here's her husband, Lewis Coffee (1796-1854)

But, back to the Raineys. 

John Francis Rainey (1800-1886) was born in Virginia and died in Hickman County, Tennessee. He's a distant cousin. His sunk-in cheeks are probably due to his having had his teeth pulled years before. His wife was Mary Giles Rainey, a sturdy-looking woman. Note that she has laid a hand on his knee rather than keeping her hands folded; it certainly connects them and gives some animation to the photo.

James Henry Rainey  was born in 1850 in DeKalb County, Tennessee. His father, William Rainey, born in North Carolina in 1805, who died in 1885 in DeKalb County, Tennessee, was the older brother of our 3rd great-grandfather, James Rainey. So, this is James' nephew, probably named for him. And what was our James' middle name anyway? I've never discovered. The person who provided this photo to Ancestry thought it was taken in the 1890s, but I think he looks younger than 40. I didn't realize men wore patterned shirts then - with a collar no less. Most shirts were made without collars and men wore celluloid collars. But a farmer had little reason to dress up.

More to come.

DNA and the Search for Our 4th Great-grandmother, Jane Patton

Shenandoah Valley

When I began building our Raney family tree on Ancestry.com, I confidently put in our 3rd great-grandfather James Rainey (1814-c1869) and his wife, Milla "Millie" Roberts (c1808- after 1880) because our cousin Pat and Uncle Paul knew they had married in Pulaski County, Kentucky, in 1832, although I'm not certain how Uncle Paul knew that. After visiting Princeton, Indiana, to see the old house, they drove down to Somerset, Kentucky, went to the Pulaski County courthouse and found the original entry for James Rainey and Millie Roberts' marriage

Pulaski County, Kentucky

Then they hunted up what may have been the Rainey farm on Buck Creek outside of Somerset. There is a Rainey Road accessing Buck Creek, now used for summer water sports.

Buck Creek, Pulaski County, Kentucky

 I'm still not certain of the identity of James Rainey's father, but will do a future post on two possibilities I've found. Today I want to tell you how I identified Millie Roberts' mother.

Millie's father was John Roberts (c1771-1857). Initially, the only clue I found regarding his wife was the 1850 Pulaski County census. In 1850, in addition to the name of head of household, for the first time the wives and children were listed with their ages and in which state they were born.  John was age 80 and Jane 73. The census-taker wrote their place of birth as Georgia, which I'm certain is wrong. Jane Roberts, widowed for the 1860 census in Pulaski County, is listed as head of household, age 85, born in North Carolina, which makes sense for what I later discovered. 

When I checked the family trees of other descendants of John and Jane Roberts, as though in lock-step they listed John Roberts' wife as Jane West. Jane West, a Quaker, married a John Roberts in Montgomery County, Virginia, in 1798.

Montgomery County, Virginia

Only a few persons who claimed Jane as an ancestor left her surname blank. Most just copied Jane West and her family from other persons' trees. Assuming the majority was correct, I built a wonderful line of ancestry for Jane West and her illustrious Quaker family. Who wouldn't want to claim them as ancestors? Her uncle was the famous American painter Benjamin West (1738-1820). 
 

Benjamin West self-portrait

I read Jane West's mother's published letters written home to relatives in Pennsylvania from the wilds of Virginia. This was a literate family with strong Quaker beliefs. Was John Roberts a Quaker? I doubted it. And something didn't ring true. John Roberts' family had settled across the Appalachians in what would become Hawkins County, Tennessee, quite a trek over the mountains back to Montgomery County, Virginia, to claim a wife. 

Present-day Hawkins County, Tennessee

We know he was from Hawkins County because when he died in 1857, the death entry for Pulaski County states his father was William Roberts of Hawkins County, Tennessee. No doubt his widow Jane supplied that information. Why would a backwoods boy travel to Virginia to meet and marry an educated Quaker when there were girls in his own settlement, girls whose work habits he could observe first-hand? I contacted a couple of people who claimed descent from Jane West and John Roberts to express my doubts about Jane Roberts' family lineage. They felt strongly about her identity and said to look at the DNA matches. Of course, if a body of relatives claim the same ancestor and match one another, it certainly will reinforce that belief.

Another marriage took place, this one closer to John Roberts' home, in Jefferson County, Tennessee. The previous year, 1797, a John Roberts married Jennie Patton on 9 November. 

Present-day Jefferson County, Tennessee

Jefferson County also appears a goodly distance from Hawkins County on a modern Tennessee county map, so I studied some east Tennessee history. What would become Tennessee belonged to North Carolina, just as Kentucky belonged to Virginia. After the American Revolution, North Carolina gave its Revolutionary War veterans land bounties in Tennessee. In 1780, when east Tennessee called itself the short-lived State of Franklin, the counties looked like the map below. Then the green Spencer county became Hawkins and part of the brown Caswell County became modern-day Jefferson County.

When John Roberts and Jane "Jennie" Patton married in 1797, Hawkins County (formed in 1787) and Jefferson County (formed in 1792) had a common border. 

Holston River, northeast Tennessee

I believe their families lived near each other on the Holston River. 

A clue arose regarding the correct wife for John Roberts when I viewed John Roberts' first appearance in the Pulaski County census in 1810. Near the Roberts homestead is Robert Patton and his family, probably Jennie's brother. People migrated in family groups - safety in numbers on the frontier.

A second clue was when I searched DNA matches for Pat and Jack Raney and myself. When I searched the surname West, I found no matches for descendants of what should have been Jane West's brothers or uncles. But when I did a DNA match search for Patton - oh, my! Descendants of what must have been Jane "Jennie" Patton's brothers and uncles popped up. 

So, what about the Patton family? Are we distantly related to General George Smith Patton of World War II fame?

Patton pins a Silver Star medal on Private Ernest A. Jenkins, a soldier under his command, October 1944.

If we are, the mutual ancestor must be far back in time in Scotland.The surname Patton is derived from the Christian name Patrick.

Modern Midlothian, Scotland (smaller than the original county).

General Patton's ancestors came directly from Midlothian, Scotland to Virginia in the 1750s or '60s. 

Our Pattons probably emigrated from Fife, Scotland, to Ulster (Northern Ireland) in the 17th century, settling first in Newton Lemavaddy, County Derry. William Patton fought for the successful Prince William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland against the deposed King James II in 1690 and was granted an estate.

County Derry (Londonderry), modern Northern Ireland

William Patton's estate of Crogann (Groghan) in Clondevaddock, Donegal, Ireland, lies in the far north on the Fanad Peninsula (on the map below to the right of Lough Swilly). His son Henry Patton was a Presbyterian minister there.

You'll recall the Dougans of North Carolina also came out of County Donegal (but from the southern part), and like the Pattons were Presbyterian. Their story is HERE. Numerous sons of Henry Patton came to America through the port of Philadelphia, and initially settled in Lancaster and Chester counties, Pennsylvania. At the moment I'm unsure which of those brothers was Jennie Patton's grandfather, and so I can't be certain who her father was.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Most of the brothers moved down into the Shenandoah Valley to Augusta County, Virginia, originally so vast, it included modern West Virginia, Kentucky and beyond. 

Shenandoah Valley

Some Pattons moved  farther south to Orange County, North Carolina, where Jane Patton allegedly was born in 1775. (It's the "Or" in the map below)
Jane Patton's family resettled in east Tennessee sometime after the American Revolution. I will tell their story in the near future when I've done more research.

Jefferson County, Tennessee

And so, John Roberts married Jane "Jennie" Patton in November of 1797 in Jefferson County, Tennessee. They had a few children in Tennessee and then more after moving up to Pulaski County, Kentucky, one of whom was our 3rd great-grandmother Millie Roberts (born about 1808), who married our 3rd great-grandfather James Rainey (born about 1814). They migrated up to southern Indiana in the early 1850s and so our family story entered the modern age where it's much easier to track. 

We'll close with "Fair and Tender Ladies," sung by Anita Carter of the Carter Family HERE

Our Cousins of African-American Descent

During Thomas Jefferson's lifetime, a visitor to his Monticello plantation in Virginia observed a youth of about twelve, light-skinned and red-haired. "Who is that boy?" he asked. The answer was that he was a "child of the plantation." For generations, Jefferson's descendants by his slave, Sally Hemings, half-sister to his late wife Martha, knew Jefferson was their ancestor, but his white descendants denied the relationship . . . until along came DNA. If you've a mind to, you can read about that controversy HERE  
It's through DNA that I've come across two of our cousins of African-American descent. I don't mean my son Donovan.

Donovan 1994 before he went bald and entered middle age.

And I don't mean our cousin Erin's and her husband's adopted son Quinn.  

Quinn and the Windy Day

I mean that until James Rainey (1814-c1870) and Milla (Roberts) Rainey (c1808 - c1880) moved their family from Pulaski County, Kentucky, to the free state of Indiana in the early 1850s, our ancestors and their kin resided in the South. Some, although not all, possessed enslaved men, women and children. This blog is about a branch of Milla Roberts' family and their African-American descendants. 

Milla's father was John Roberts (1771 Virginia - 1857 Pulaski Co. Kentucky). And John's father was William Roberts, likely born about 1735 in Virginia and settled in Hawkins County, Tennessee. 

Hawkins County, Tennessee

After living a short time in Pulaski County, Kentucky, William Roberts got it into his head to join his cousin George Roberts down in what was then called West Florida (a part of Spanish Florida), and died in St. Tammany Parish in 1810. That same year President Madison annexed West Florida to Louisiana Territory.

St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana

Now this cousin George Roberts was born in 1745, probably in Virginia, and died about 1810 in Washington Parish, Louisiana.

Washington Parish, Louisiana

He had nine sons and two daughters with his wife Rhoda Payne (1750-1811). Oddly, Rhoda was allegedly reared a Quaker, a religious group that abhorred slavery. 

George made out his will in 1804, claiming citizenship in Hawkins County, Tennessee, so perhaps creating it before departing for Louisiana. He deposited the will with the local commandant in Washington Parish where he settled.  We know he was a slave-owner because after naming his "beloved wife Rhoda Roberts" and his children, and making bequests, he states:

. . and as for my negro woman Lettis and her child Catherine to Belong to my wife as long as she lives and at her death Both to be free. If my wife should dy [sic] before the child is twenty seven years of age she may give it to one of the children to have tel [sic] she is of that age and to be free.

The usual reason for a slave-owner to free a female slave and her child was because he had sired that child. However, it's possible he did so out of consideration for his wife's views.

Of George's and Rhoda's many children, we'll focus on Elisha Roberts, born in 1775 in the Watauga Settlement on the Holston River, in what became Hawkins County, Tennessee. I earlier wrote about the killings by Indians of some of the Roberts family there. HERE

Elisha Roberts left Tennessee for Kentucky, where he married Martha "Patsy" Gill in Green County in 1800. He remained there about ten years, even purchasing land from his father-in-law in 1803. His father and some brothers and sisters having already removed to Louisiana, Elisha and his young family, including three slaves, finally did, also, in 1811, settling in the southern part of Washington Parish. After participating in the War of 1812 as a 1st lieutenant, he purchased more slaves and established a large cotton plantation. His daughter Mahala allegedly was born in this plantation house in 1816.

Elisha Roberts Washington Parish plantation house

In the 1820 census he possessed two adult male slaves, two adult female slaves, six male slaves under age 14 and six female slaves under age 14. 

The family story is that while running down an escaped slave whose wife had been carried to Texas by another master, Elisha rode into east Texas. The land looked good to him and, in January, 1824, he settled his family and his slaves on a large piece of land in what would become San Augustine County in east Texas, on the road to San Antonio. He'd traded a slave to a Spaniard for that land.

San Augustine County, Texas

Race is difficult to write about. I've puzzled over how I would tell the story of our distant cousins' white ancestors. Do we abhor the sin, but love the sinner? I suppose Elisha Roberts would be the first to protest that he was no sinner, but a good businessman, who took advantage of the economic and social conditions of the time. Slavery is wrong at any time, in any place.

Elisha's descendants on Ancestry.com, both black and white, appear to honor his accomplishments. His 30 slaves dredged out a creek in San Augustine County and erected a cotton gin there in 1825. Elisha was an alcalde for the Ayish Bayou District in 1831, holding court on his broad front gallery. You'll recall that Texas was still governed by Mexico. He was a delegate to the 2nd convention of Texas in 1833. He gave hospitality to Davy Crockett, Stephen Austin, Sam Houston and others who fought for Texas independence. A Texas Centennial marker with a bronze plaque was placed at Elisha and Patsy's grave-site in 1936. His descendants decided not to clear the site, hidden from the highway, in order to protect it from vandals.

Grave-sites of Elisha (left foreground) and Martha "Patsy" Gill Roberts (right) near their home-site.

When he died in 1844, Elisha possessed 51 enslaved people. In his will he desired that his land be divided into small tracts so that his eight children could draw lots for them. As for the enslaved: 

It is my Will and desire that all the slaves of which I may be posses[s]ed of at my death . . . shall be divided into lots or parcels as nearly equal in value as possible and that all of my children . . . shall cast lots in a manner to be prescribed by my said Executors . . . for the first, second and third choices and so on of said lots or parcels of slaves . . . so as to make as equal distribution of my negroes according to their value among my children as named in the Will as can conveniently be done without disposing any of said negroes to public sale.

Did wanting to avoid the selling of these people at public auction show benevolence, or was it a practical solution to avoid breaking up families, resulting in possible retaliation?

Elisha's daughter Anna Roberts, born  in 1800, married Bryant Daughtrey from North Carolina in Washington Parish in 1818. 

Bryant Daughtrey

Anna and Bryant, their children and four slaves, accompanied Elisha and Patsy Roberts, their family, and 30 slaves to Texas. They appear on Stephen Austin's 1829 Register of Families.

It is Bryant and Anna Daughtrey's son Edward (1825-1904), who in 1855 had a daughter by the enslaved girl Peggy, age 21. Their daughter was named Cynthia. Peggy died about 1860, but Cynthia, known as "Balmer" because her mother allegedly was born in Alabama, appears that year as a five-year-old female on Edward Daughtrey's1860 slave census. She was emancipated in 1865 in Austin County, Texas, where the Daughtreys lived. In 1872 Cynthia Daughtrey married Brister Fedford, a farmer.  They had nine children. Both were literate, as were their children. She is described as "mulatto" on the 1880 census. Cynthia died in 1940 in Washington County, Texas. She is our 4th cousin, 3x removed.

Cynthia Daughtrey Fedford holding her Bible with daughter Ida Ellie

Her descendant Roy, a lawyer in Hartford, Connecticut, claims Edward Daughtrey as his great-great grandfather, and Anna Roberts Daughtrey as his 3rd great-grandmother. I don't doubt him. DNA is seldom wrong. That makes Roy our 7th cousin.                       

We aren't finished with Elisha Roberts' family down there in Texas. Among his many children, Elisha had a daughter Mahala Roberts, born 1816 in Washington County, Louisiana.  

Mahala Roberts Sharp

 Mahala married John Sharp in San Augustine, Texas, in 1838. They had Samuel Houston Sharp in 1839. John Sharp died in 1846, and Mahala remarried a man named Hall, but he died in 1871. In the 1880 census in Crockett, Houston County, Texas, Mahala, now 63, is living with her son Samuel Houston Sharp who, at age 41, is a bookkeeper and a widower. His six children are in the household. Also listed is Fannie Bass, a 25-year-old black servant, and her one-year-old daughter Florence. We don't know what became of Fannie's husband, but we know from the census that she was illiterate. The following year, 1881, Maounzie "Andy" Sharp was born to Fannie. Fannie, Maounzie and their descendants claimed Sam Houston Sharp was his father and DNA now proves it so.

Maounzie "Andy" Sharp (1881-1955)

 Maounzie, who also is our 4th cousin, 3x removed, attended school, married, had children and died in 1955 in Texas.

Descended from Maounzie, Dorothy, a retired human resources professional in Texas, claims Mahala Roberts as her great-great-great grandmother and is our 6th cousin 1x removed (7th cousin, I suppose). It was Dorothy, in an email to me, who described her great-grandmother Fannie as an "enslaved girl." Not that she was still legally enslaved, but found herself in a difficult situation, having to maintain her employment with Mahala Sharp and stay in the good graces of Mahala's son Samuel, in order to care for herself and her child Florence.

If I'm to make a point, I think it must be that we, who have ancestral lines trailing back into the South, shouldn't be surprised to discover that we have ancestors, direct and collateral who, out of a greed for wealth, kept men, women and children enslaved and powerless, used and misused them, and that we are related to their descendants by blood and genes.

DNA matches allowed me locate Roy and Dorothy. I want to thank them for permitting me to post their photos and tell these episodes from their family histories. For me, and I hope for you, DNA is demonstrating how we Americans really are one large extended family