John Eads & Polly Massey Family Reunion

I am organizing a reunion for descendants of John Eads and Mary Polly Massey. The tentative date is Saturday October 7, 2017 near Branson, Mo. If you descend from this couple you are more than welcome to attend. I'm hoping to make this an annual event. I realize this is over a year from now but I'm hoping to reach out to as many descendants as we can. If you are interested please message me and I will give you the link to our closed group.

Alice May Johnson-Hartline Parents-Mystery Solved

Today I am finally happy to report that I have located the real parents of my Great Grandmother Alice Mae Johnson-Hartline. Any prior posts on this blog or elsewhere written by me should be officially discarded as of the date of this entry.

I had originally been lead to believe her parents might have been Isaac Johnson and Mary Otelia Horton. I was wrong, I stand corrected. Never assume anything without having all the facts before you. 

Ancestry recently began loading more indepth information from the Original Social Security Death Index with regards to adding parents names. It is my understanding that not all indivduals records have been loaded and you may or may not find the names of your ancestors parents on such document. It was like winning the lottery when I logged on and found her application which listed not only her fathers name, which I already gleaned from the Death Certificate. But there was her Mothers name as well!! My 2nd Great Grandparents are Isaac W. JOHNSON and Elizabeth "Lizzie " LOUDER (CRAIN-JOHNSON). 

Grandmother Lizzie was first married to a man named John W CRAIN. They were married 25 June, 1876 in Butler County, Missouri. 

Their son Silas Marion CRAIN married my 3rd Great Grand Aunt Minnie Viola HARTLINE. Her brother John Newman "Lack" HARTLINE married Alice Mae JOHNSON my Great Grandmother. So I am connected  to Lizzie through both her children. 

Grandmother Lizzie and Grandfather Issac were married 22 September, 1889 in Stoddard County, Missouri. It was her second marriage. I am unsure whether he had been previously married or not at this point.

I am in the early stages of my research into this line. I hope to add more info soon as I learn more about my 2nd Great Grandparents. If you are related to these folks Id love to hear from you as well. Stay tuned!!!

Polly Hobday Tinker Death Record Found

Today I made a discovery that I hope will finally set the record straight.

There is so much mystery and drama surrounding Polly HOBDAY-TINKER. What it all boils down to is its easier to grab somebody elses information and copy it to your own family tree than to do the work yourself. With that being said for years folks have tried and merged Edward TINKER Jr & Polly HOBDAY into Abraham Sr TINKER and his wife the Elusive Polly. Nowhere have I ever seen Abraham referred to with even so much as the initial E. Im sorry but Abraham TINKER and Edward Jr TINKER are two entirely different individuals. Are they related? Quite possibly, but more on that later. The purpose of this post is to give you the information on Polly HOBDAY-TINKER. Polly was born about 1775, nobody knows for certain her exact date of birth so this is just a guesstimate. On 21 July, 1803 in Craven County, North Carolina she married one Edward TINKER Jr. The marriage record specifically refers to the man she married as being named Edward TINKER Jr.  On 8 July, 1805 the above Death Entry was made in the Raleigh Register and if you notice it states the following:

TINKER, Mrs. Edward, Jr-Je.26. Newbern, R.R Jly.8.1805

Description

Section: Deaths, 1799-1825

Source Information

Marriage and Death Notices from Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette, 1799-1825 [database on-line].

Edward TINKER remarries on 5 December, 1805 in Craven County, North Carolina to a Miss Betsy DRUREY as evidenced in their marriage record appearing on Ancestry website. 

This information tells us that Edward and his wives lived in Craven County North Carolina and were never in Greasy Cove or Unicoi/Washington County, Tennessee where Abraham Sr TINKER and his wife Polly lived. Abraham and Pollys oldest Child John P TINKER was born in 1801 in Washington County, Tennessee some two years before Edward even married Polly HOBDAY.  Questions? Leave them in the Comment box on this page. I will share more information on these two families at a later date.

Solving a Mystery

Yesterday my sons DNA results came in on Ancestry DNA site. I have spent the past 24 hours pouring over them. I am very pleased with how their DNA program is laid out. If you are new to Genetic Genealogy and not well versed in the aspects of it then Ancestry is a good starting portal for you. I like all three companies but feel that Gedmatch (albiet it free) offers the most tools along with Family Tree DNA.
I have heard both good and bad with Ancestry's recent changes to their site; however I myself am one very pleased customer. I love the new additions to the site. I may do a more in depth review of some of my favorite features in a future post.

I have only had his results one day and have already made a couple major breakthroughs.
 I will share those here very soon. In a prior post I discussed the connections that my husband had to the Poteet family. We were waiting on our sons results to see if he had similar matches as well and turns out he does. These connections appear to be about the 5-8th cousin level according to Ancestry results for our son. Stay tuned as I will be sharing a few of his matches and trying to unravel the pieces soon

ISO Poteet, Standifer, Jones, Echols Baltmore Maryland, Connections

I am currently looking for connections between the following families. I am mainly looking for marriages between those with the surnames STANDIFER, JONES & ECHOLS into the POTEET family. The POTEET line is a huge family from Baltimore Maryland area. I am just beginning my research into this family. My husbands DNA connects him to the POTEET line. If you read my last post you know that I have found a huge chunk of DNA on Chromosome 2 shared with a lot of people. I suspect that particular DNA might be from POTEET ancestry. I am currently aware of only two marriages between the STANDIFER and the POTEET lines and they are as follows:
Lucinda Senaly STANDIFER
(b) abt Aug 1846 in Jonesville, Lee, Virginia
married to William H POTEET a son of David POTEET and Susannah SOUTHERN. Now Lucinda`s parents were Joseph Lee STANDIFER and Mary RUNNELS. It appears as though David POTEET might have married Lucinda`s Sister one Nancy POTEET after he married to Susannah. Note, this is just prelimenary research on my part I have not verified anything into this family as I am just beginning the research so by all means correct me if I am wrong.
I want to hear from others who are delving into these particular lines or who are more knowledgeable about them than I. If you know of anything that might aid me in my research please leave me a message in the contact box on this blog. Thanks in advance!

Fleshing out Hidden Ancestors

I hope this post finds everyone well and having had a great weekend. I spent my weekend doing some heavy research into my husbands line using his DNA results. Right when I happened to stumble upon this huge connection Family Tree DNA has been bitten by some sort of bug. My husband along with a few more folks has had all of his matches just up and disappear. I checked my own account and all my matches are still there. So I am sure it is some sort of bug with the software. I have submitted a support ticket and I hope it gets fixed soon. It has hampered my research efforts a little bit but I have been using the tools over at Gedmatch and also comparing using Genome Mate and 23andMe.
This past week I discovered that my husband shares a huge chunk of DNA on Chromosome 2 with several people. Some segments are overlapping. One of his DNA Cousins was generous enough to send me some screen shots and information she had compiled to start me off on the search. Below is just one of the screen shots where you can see how he matches.

Ive blacked out the names and photos for privacy reasons. As you can see there are several overlapping matches within the same segments on this particular Chromosome. If you have followed my blog for any length of time you will know that my husband has what I like to call a Non Paternal Event, some would term it an Undocumented Adoption.  I have been absolutely frustrated for some time and felt like I was butting my head against a brick wall. When that happens to me I tend to put a project away and take a good much needed break, then come back to it when my mind is clear and I can refocus my energies. That is just what I did. My blog has been inactive for a bit due to some things going on in my personal life and because I just needed a break.

From what I believe the DNA is telling me it appears as though my husband's Paternal Grandfather was either born Illegitimate or Adopted. This particular set of matches is very significant to me uncovering who his Great Grandfather was because it ties directly into the Birth Family`s tree! This has been one of the biggest brick walls I have had for some time. I only have one chance to get this right. This is my Children and my Grandchildren`s heritage. I want them to know the good, the bad and the ugly. They have a right to know from whom they descend and that is the main motivating factor that keeps me plugging on day after day.

I will be working on this all week in my spare time and will be updating my blog as I uncover more of the mystery.

Some of the surnames that are turning up thus far are: Poteet, Standifer, Taylor and Jones as well as Brown. Locations turning up are Overton County, Tennessee and Virginia. The Birth Family has roots in Overton County, Tennessee. I know the answer to finding his Great Grandfather is lying right within his DNA results and I just have to follow the trail and connect the dots. I am by no means an Expert Genetic Genealogist, I am just learning as I go. The whole purpose of this blog is to share what I learn as I go along. Ive made mistakes along the route but life is all about learning from ones mistakes and keeping on keeping on. Stay tuned for more updates as I flesh out Great Grandfather Fancher. Until next time.....

Catching Up

Hello everyone. Its been quite some time since I have blogged here. I have had quite a lot going on in my life and just sat aside my research. If you have followed my blog for any length of time you know we lost two grandchildren last year. Its been a rough year for our family. We still have a lot going on but I am slowly finding the time to pick my research back up.
I thank you for all the comments and messages that I have gotten from my readers. This evening I am going to make a couple posts to sort of let you all know where I am currently in my research process. As always I welcome any input from you all and if you think we might be related please message me. I hope everyone is having a wonderful spring!