I’m very excited to report on the progress of our Smith
Y-DNA results!
The DNA Journey
As you are probably aware, researching the Smith Surname
has its challenges. It is, after all, the most common surname in America! [1]
Wikipedia.com - Smith is the No. 1 Surname in America
In order to gain insight into our Smith ancestry, my
grandfather took the Y-DNA test back in 2005 with Family Tree DNA. He went
several years without a single match. He transferred his results to
Ancestry.com a couple of years later and got a match to two people with
different surnames. I found it very surprising that he had no matches to anyone
with the Smith surname since the Smith Surname Project was boasting to have
well over 2000 members at the time. I began to wonder if we
really were Smiths after all.
Then one day he got a couple of matches through Ancestry.com – one to an A. Smith in Perry
County, Kentucky and one to an M. Smith in Utah. Mr. M. Smith, however, claimed
he was a Smith from an adoption that happened a couple of generations back. (I
will come back to this later).
M. Smith was a missionary at the time that I contacted
him, so he was unavailable to discuss our match further. I was able to exchange
information with A. Smith from Kentucky though. Unfortunately, I was not able
to find a connection. And how in the world were we able to find an exact match
to a man in Kentucky at the same time as finding one to a man in Utah? These
two locations are no where close to each other!
Google Maps – says it would take 27 hours to drive from
Kentucky to Utah
The Genealogy
According to the 1850 Johnson County, Arkansas census
report, my ancestor, Richard Smith, was living with his parents, David and
Sarah Smith. David Smith was born about 1789 in Tennessee. His wife Sarah Smith
was born about 1790 in TN. [2]
1850 Johnson Co., AR census report showing David Smith and his family
The Cherokee Citizenship Application file of their daughter Sarah Smith Grider indicated that David’s
father’s name was James Smith and that he was a Cherokee
Indian. It also listed her mother’s name as Sarah Gallymore, daughter of “Jennie
Gallymore, nee Lee.” [3], [4]
According to my grandfather, Richard Smith was born about
18 December 1838 in Blue Springs Cove, Jackson County, Alabama. Unfortunately, I
have been able to find any source to prove this and we have been unable to
identify either a David Smith or James Smith living in Jackson Co., AL during
the 1830s and 40s who fits our family.[5] You can check out my research
endeavors in my Alabama
Smith References blog post.
Here is a summary of what we are looking for:
·
James Smith born ca 1760
·
James Smith who was in TN about 1790 with a wife
and new born son David Smith
·
James Smith who was a Cherokee Indian
·
James and/or David Smith who was in Jackson Co.,
AL between 1830-1840
The Y-DNA
Bandwagon
Fast forward to the future and now we have 3 additional
matches on the Y-DNA with Family Tree DNA. Unfortunately, Ancestry.com has
decided to throw
away all of their Y-DNA kits, so unless my grandfather’s two matches from
Ancestry.com (M Smith and A Smith) transfer their results to Family
Tree DNA before September 5th, we are out of luck in using their
results to help us determine our Smith ancestry. We managed to get M Smith’s
results transferred over, but still waiting for A Smith to make the transfer.
In a way, Ancestry’s decision to shut down their Y-DNA support is actually
beneficial to us in that now all of our Y-DNA results will be in one place
(ftDNA), making management of the results much easier for the Project Administrators.
If A Smith transfers his results from Ancestry to Family
Tree DNA, we will have a total of 6 Y-DNA results to compare and use in
determining our Smith ancestry. Here is the breakdown of the Smith testees and
their genealogies:
#s 1 and 2 are from Alabama
#s 3 and 4 represent the Mormon population, but they
disagree somewhat on their origins from Kentucky
#s 5 and 6 are from Kentucky, but they too disagree
somewhat
1. Darrel Smith (my grandfather) - descends from
David Edison Smith, b. abt 1789 in TN; was probably residing in Jackson Co., AL
between 1830-1840; Was in Johnson Co., AR by 1850. His father was listed as
James Smith on his daughter's Cherokee Application.
2. Descendant of Patrick Smith, b. abt 1788 AL married a female
Lindsay. Possible parentage from James Smith.
3. Descendant of Thomas Smith and Leah Agee - (unproven
- many people claim this is George Thomas Smith from NC but this testee
disagrees with this)
1. Richard
Smith married to Diana Braswell - I believe this line moved to Utah?
He is the brother of James Agee
Smith who moved to Utah and who is the ancestor of M Smith (# 4 below)
4. M Smith – Descendant of John W Stephens, though
he was given the Smith surname through adoption a couple of generations back. Here
is what he claims his ancestry to be: [6]
1. Joshua Stephens
2. Hesekiah Stephens md
Margaret Love; (Margaret married also to James Agee Smith)
3. Wm G Stephens md Susan
Reynolds
4. John W Stephens*
Margaret was married to both Hesekiah
Stephens and James Agee Smith
with Hesekiah Stephens, she had
son Wm G Stephens
with James Agee Smith, she had son
Thomas Washington Smith
Therefore Wm G Stephens and
Thomas Washington Smith are HALF BROTHERS (same mother)
Supposedly, Wm G Stephens died,
leaving his widow Susan Reynolds.
Thomas Washington Smith then
marries Susan Reynolds who had 3 children with previous husband Wm Stephens.
(he was also married to Sarah Bolen)
Thomas adopts the 3 children,
thus giving them the Smith surname.
So M Smith is named as a Smith,
but he claims he's really a Stephens.
However, he matches my
grandfather and he matches to # 3 above!
I did some research and learned
that Thomas W Smith was polygamous and was living with 4 wives in 1880.
· I think that either Thomas Smith and Susan
Reynolds really were the parents of John Stephens Smith
OR
· James Agee Smith and Margaret Love really were
the parents of Wm G Stephens.
5. Descendant of William Smith and Elizabeth Eunice
Ritchie – KY born and bred:
1. Willam Smith - Elizabeth
Eunice Ritchie
2. Richard Smith b. 1771 KY -
Alicia Combs
3. William Smith
4. William Med Smith, etc.
6.
Descendant of Samuel Smith and Eunice Joliff –
KY born and bred:
1. Samuel
Smith and Eunice Joliff - He refutes # 5s line 1 above and claims William was
NOT the father of Richard Smith. He has good proof that Samuel Smith was the
father and that Eunice JOLIFF was the mother. I agree with his documentation
and conclusions and wrote about them in my “Will
of Richard Joliff” blog post on my Smith and Fox blog.
2. Richard
Smith, b. 1771 KY - Etiticia Combs - # 5 above had Richard’s wife as Alicia
Combs
Conclusion
So it looks like the Y-DNA is matching up except two of
these lines are arguing with each other :-) and the other two (David and
Patrick) are kind of left out in the wind. I guess they decided they didn't
want to go to Utah to become Mormons or stay behind in Kentucky arguing over
whether their ancestor was Samuel or William (I have yet to find a shred of
proof of William being said ancestor except that Richard named his first son
William).
I am very excited by these results. Even though we have not yet tied these 3 lines together, I am confident that we will find the connection somewhere. Researching the Smith surname is hard enough, but adding James to the mix makes it even more challenging.
These results are also helping me narrow my research focus in the following ways:
- Looking for a connection between the Alabama Smiths (David and Patrick) and their Kentucky roots
- Looking for a connection between the Alabama Smiths (David and Patrick)
- Looking more closely at the records in Utah to solve the Smith-Stephens conundrum
- Looking for more Smiths to test in these 3 geographical areas
This is just a start!
I'm sure you are wondering if we have started incorporating autosomal DNA to our research and the answer is YES! we are. The key to using autosomal DNA is ORGANIZATION. Check back for updates on this endeavor.
Sources:
[1] Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com),
“List
of most common surnames in North America,” rev. 30 Jun 2014.
[2] 1850 US Federal Census, Johnson County, Arkansas,
population schedule, Horsehead Township, Page 268 (penned), dwelling 98, family
100, David Smith; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : downloaded 2
May 2010); NARA Film M432, Roll 27.
[3] Cherokee Citizenship Application of Sarah Smith
Grider, 1896, Arkansas, National Archives. Copies mailed to me by Mike Freels,
2008.
[4] Surprisingly enough, the surname of the two men that
my grandfather initially matched to on the Y-DNA in Ancestry.com was “Lee.”
[5] Personal correspondence with Darrel Smith, 2008. He said
his date and place of birth were recorded in Richard Smith’s enlistment files
but I have been unable to locate them.
[6] Mark Smith, [email withheld for privacy], to Ginger R
Smith, grs3275[at]yahoo.com, Email, “Smith DNA,” 15 April 2011.
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