Beware False DNA

I have noticed a new trend on Facebook that is really starting to get to me. I love the little quizzes and things like that too, but some of them have GONE too far for my liking. 

WhittyBunny's opinion 

WhittyBunny’s “DNA test” says they can tell you what your genetic makeup is based off of their “facial analysis." I believe that games like these are dangerous because people will take it at face value, although it’s far from the truth. I thought I would try it out just to see how it varied. The difference between my actual DNA test results from ancestry.com and the results from WhittyBunny are laughable! The fake test tells me that sixty-two percent of DNA is a collection of genes from regions which none of my ancestors hail. 

The real deal, from Ancestry.com 

 I thought it would be fun to see what both of my parents and my full-blooded sister would come up with as well. The results were again laughable. This test shows that I share none of the same origins with either of my parents. 

My father's

My mother's

My sister's 

Some may wonder why this matters if I know that there is no truth in this kind of thing. Well,  the issue at hand is that there are people out there who will believe it, and they will tell their family about the test and then there will be people that will take it as genealogy gospel, causing more family lore than ever before. 

 I take DNA testing very seriously as should everyone else. These kinds of tests are an insult to the study of genealogy and science in general. 

John B. Cornwell: Man of Mystery part II

Lately I’ve been thinking about my father’s direct paternal line. I soon hit a brick wall… My father’s  G-G-G-Grandfather was John Burl Cornwell. Near the start of my genealogy blogging journey I talked about John and his interesting life.  (https://wbcornwellgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/06/john-b-cornwell-man-of-mystery.html) This post is a little bit of an update on my search for John’s past. 

John B Cornwell 

Using ancestry.com's DNA I have found scores of cousins, most distant, others pretty close, even a 2nd cousin (but more on that later). I found a member with something that really caught my attention. From the 1840 census I knew that John’s mother was Lucinda Cornwell, and when I looked at this DNA match I saw that they had one Cornwell in their tree, a Lucinda Cornwell that married Alfred Denham. In the 1850 census we find Alfred, Lucinda and a handful of children including a son named John, listed as a Denahm which was common practice in the day. So the dilemma at hand is I need to find if John was the son of a Mr. Cornwell that left a widow to remarry or if John was born to a Miss Cornwell that didn’t marry until Mr. Denham came along. I need to do a sweep of the county in which they lived to see if I can find any man by the name of Cornwell that married a woman named Lucinda to help unlock this mystery… 

One thing that did surprise me was that Mr. Denham was black, and Lucinda was white. I wonder what all this mix-raced couple had to endure in their marriage. I am not Denham but I do have Lucinda’s blood in my vines and I’m proud to come from a woman who married the man she loved despite the time. 

The last census in which I find Lucinda in the 1870 census, she is 62 and indexed as Lucy, a widow with her children and other young children whom I believe to be her grandchildren. There is still many mysteries about John and his family that I have to unlock, but I'm thrilled to have discovered what I have. 

Nancy Scotton-Skinner:A Hoosier Pioneer

With celebrating Mother’s Day last weekend I was curious to see what info I could find on my direct maternal line. I know a lot about my own mom, and her mom (my wonderful grandma), her mother and even her mother and her mother as well, that takes me to my g-g-g-grandmother Martha Ellen “Mattie” Parsell-Brewer, her mother was Sarah Skinner-Parsell and her mother was Nancy Scotton-Skinner, my g-g-g-g-g-grandmother. I know very little of Nancy and her life. So I will see what I can discover!

Sarah Skinner-Parsell, Jessie Brewer-Bishop with son Clarence and Mattie Parsell-Brewer. 

I consider myself lucky to know the maiden name of my g-g-g-g-g-grandmother, Nancy Scotton. The name was listed on the death certificate of her daughter, Sarah Skinner-Parsell, the informant being Sarah’s daughter, Mattie Parsell-Brewer. 

The 1850 census shows us a farmer named Daniel Skinner living in Hancock county Indiana, with his wife Nancy and their children Elizabeth, Susan, and Ebenezer. I know from other family records that my g-g-g-g-grandmother Sarah had a sister named Susan and brother Ebb. This Elizabeth is a new name for me. Further proof that this is the right Daniel and Nancy is that they are living next to John and Sarah Parsell with their daughters, Mattie and Mary.

One of my favorite parts of Nancy’s paper trail is that her eldest daughter, Sarah was born in Indiana on the 12^th of November, 1816. For those of you who don’t know, Indiana officially became a state on the 11^th of December, 1816, so Daniel and Nancy Skinner were settled in Indiana before it gained its statehood!

So where did Nancy come from before she made her way to Indiana? She was born in either Delaware or Maryland, based on census records. I was lucky enough to find the headstone of Nancy on find-a- grave.com and confirm her birth and death dates. Nancy was born 12- Nov- 1797 and died 14-Apr-1868. 

I am without a lead as to who were the parents of Nancy, but I believe that I have found a brother. Nancy is buried in the Scotton (or Scotten) cemetery in Hancock County, Indiana. Also in the cemetery is an Emery Scotton.  

Celebrating the life of Rev. W. B. Smith.

This month rather than diving deep into a family mystery that I’ve solved, I’m going to do something a little different, I want to honor the birth of one of my ancestors. On St. Patrick’s 1905 my Great-Grandpa William Byus Smith was born in Elwood Indiana to Ara Smith and Eliza Olive (Bright)Grandstaff-Smith. He was their 5^th child together; I’m sure that if you would have asked his parents they never would have guessed that they would end up with eight more! (Let’s not forget that Eliza had a daughter named Bertha from her first marriage as well.) 

Rev. William Byus Smith 

Bill(as he was called) married for the first time in 1924 to Anna O. Balser(who I wrote about on my blog in November 2016 in a piece called “The Two Anna’s”) Anna and Bill’s marriage sadly ended in 1940 when Anna died. In 1941 (around the time he became a pastor) Bill married a widow and mother of three young daughters named Mary Melissia (Webb)Eurick. Mary and Bill had two children together: William Arthur Smith in 1942 and Nettie Bea Smith in 1947.

Bill died on the 18^th of November, 1970. There is a lot to tell about Bill’s life but today I just want to share some photos.        

William B Smith (the youngest known photo of him)

Bill at age 19

Anna and Bill Smith (the only know photo of Anna)

Bill Smith taken in the 1930's on South R. st Elwood, Indiana

 

Mary and Bill with their son Billy

Bill cutting one of his last birthday cakes.

Bill and Mary Smith

Lottie's Letters

A of the post cards from Lottie dating from 1906 to 1920

Soon after I got into genealogy, I started reading old letters and going through postcards that my mom’s mom had that belonged to her mom, Mildred Sarah Bishop-Hunter. I found over a dozen postcards and many letters from “Cousin Lottie.” There was one problem she had no known cousin named Lottie. Of course I looked for Charlottes and any “L” name happened to be. Mildred had many female cousins. On her mother’s side there were four and on her father’s side there were seven, none of them fit the bill. As I looked them over again I realized this “Cousin Lottie” often spoke of a Carson. The postcards were postmarked Kokomo, Indiana. Those hints helped but lead me nowhere.  

Then it happened! I found a letter in the envelope marked Mrs. F. Delon, sure enough the letter was signed “Cousin Lottie” and she spoken of her son Carson.  Now the task at hand was to find out if cousin Lottie or this F. Delon was the true relation and who married into the family.

I looked for a marriage record for a Lottie that married a F. Delon.  Thankfully I knew that they lived in Kokomo. I looked in Howard County and I was pleased to find on the 22^nd of September 1908 Lottie Patterson married Frances Delon. Sadly the Patterson surname meant nothing to me at the time. So I knew my next step was to find the maiden names of their mothers.

I was able to locate a marriage record for Lottie and Frances and found that her name Patterson was the name from her first marriage, her maiden name was McAlpin. That name was important. Mildred (the recipient of the letters) was the daughter of Jessie Brewer-Bishop, her mother was Martha Ellen Parcell-Brewer. Martha’s only sister was Mary Elizabeth Parcell-McAlpin. I had not yet traced Mary’s family, but sure enough this Lottie Delon was born Charlotta H. McAlpin, the first cousin once removed from Mildred, my great-grandmother.

Lottie and Carson at home

Since I found out who Cousin Lottie was I looked into her family, her only child was Carson born in 1898. He married and became a druggist moving to Connecticut where he raised his three daughters.

Carson and his wife Leah in 1924 

Lottie stayed in Kokomo until her death in 1936, she was 61.

Lottie in 1894 (age 20)

Lottie’s Letters reminded me of how close I am with my cousins; first, second, third and everything in between as well as some that are farther down. This was just another lesson in the importance of researching the marriages and the children of our aunts and uncle no matter how far back they are in the family tree.

From Lottie, 1914 

Carrie Bishop: A Lady of Class

Looking at family trees I have noticed a sad reoccurring trend with unmarried siblings of ancestors; they are too often forgotten. Their legacy is ours to keep alive. One woman in my tree that lived an interesting life was Carrie Bishop. Carrie Bishop was born on the 20^th of April, 1885 in Greenwood, Indiana, the daughter of John Jacob Bishop and Eliza Ellen Wilson-Bishop. She was the sixth of seven children. Her father came to Indiana from Virginia and her mother from Kentucky.

Carrie Bishop 

Carrie had a life of “rural privilege” her father was an industrial man; he had been a store clerk in his younger days and became a prosperous farmer and served as the town’s postmaster general for many years.

The Bishop children front l-r Jacob, Fred and Frank. Back l-r Mable, Carrie and Flora

In 1907, at the age of twenty-two, Carrie began work at the Greenwood Bell Telephone company as an operator and their bookkeeper.  

She truly was a woman ahead of her time, quickly becoming the manager of the telephone company. She retired in 1950 after 43 years of service. A ceremonial dinner was held in her honor at which time she was gifted an orchid and a diamond pin. 

Carrie hard at work

Carrie was a lady of great class; she was known for dressing up and attending the local opera, and she often traveled across the country to visit family and friends. 

After the death of her parents she had a home built next to her brother Jacob’s home, it was a Cape Cod design, when it was finished in 1936 it was wrote about in the newspaper calling it “lovely.” It seems that everything Carrie did was noteworthy. Her home was full of antiques and other fine things.

Although Carrie never married or had children of her own she took great joy in her nieces and nephews and her great-nieces and great-nephews, shown in the many letters she sent.

Carrie went to her heavenly home on the 15^th of December, 1961 at the age of 76. She is buried next to her parents and many of her brothers and sisters in the Greenwood City Cemetery. 

Carrie

The most important message I have to fellow genealogists is to take the time to trace the aunts and uncles in your tree that never married or had children, you may be surprised by what you find!

   

There is now a children’s book about Carrie! “A Day at Aunt Carrie’s” written by my cousin Amelia N. Williams and myself, it is our first children’s book! It is based off of the stories that we heard growing up from our grandmother Bernice E. Smith, about her mother’s aunt, Carrie Bishop. It takes place in 1948 in Greenwood, Indiana. Not only does the book have eleven fully colored illustrated pages, it also features a biography of the real Carrie Bishop, photographs of her, and genealogy notes about the Bishop family as well.