The Wrong Peters Family

In this post, I will discuss how James and Martha Peters were eliminated as potential parents of my 2nd great-grandfather, William Edward Peters via DNA Testing.

William E Peters and Stanley Lark

Pocahontas, Arkansas, c 1940

My 2nd Great-Grandfather, William Edward Peters:

William Edward Peters was the father of my great-grandmother Nova Peters. According to his obituary and death certificate, he was born 10 March 1874 in Thomasville, Oregon Co., Missouri and died 3 February 1948 in Pocahontas, Randolph Co., Arkansas. Unfortunately, his parents’ names were not listed on his death certificate or in his obituary, no family bible has been found containing information on him or his family, and there is no known information about any siblings he might have had. 

William Peters is my brick wall.

According to the Research Report I have written about my William Peters, I was looking for an 1880 census report that had a William Peters on it who was born about 1874 in Missouri when I came across a potential family. I found the 1880 Oregon County, Missouri Census report of Martha Peters with a 7 year old son named William Peters who was born in Missouri. James W and Ella were also enumerated with Martha and William. [1]

1880 Oregon Co., MO Census for Martha Peters

The Family of James and Martha Peters:

I couldn't find anything on Martha, James W., or Ella Peters between 1880 and 1900, nor could I find marriage or death records for Martha and a possible Peters husband in MO. I thought that since Martha was from TN and William's parents were from either  IL, TN or MO, [2] that maybe Martha and Unknown Peters married in TN prior to moving to MO and maybe they passed through IL on their way from TN to MO? I could not find the family of Martha Peters anywhere in Missouri in 1870. 

I did find a family with Martha Peters, born about 1844 in TN on the Anderson Co., TN 1870 Census with husband James Peters and son Elijah Peters. I reached out to the descendants of this family through message boards and learned that James and Martha only had 2 or 3 children, none of whom were the William, James or Ella who were listed on the 1880 MO census report with Martha.

I did not get discouraged though, and tried to find ways to make my William Peters fit in with this James and Martha family. James' father was named Tobias Peters and he also had a grandson named Tobias Peters. This was of interest to me because my great-grandmother's nickname was "Tobe," and no one knows where that nickname came from. I thought this was a plausible explanation.

Also, there is a huge mystery around the family of James and Martha Peters: The story goes that Martha and James left TN and moved to a farm in Arkansas. Then one day James up and disappeared leaving Martha to tend the farm and raise the kids alone. She finally sold the farm and she and her kids moved in with her parents in Sebastian Co., Arkansas. [3] Supposedly the new owners of the farm found a body on the premises which everyone agreed must have belonged to the missing James. However, according to letters written by James' children, several years later his children received a letter from him attached to a substantial amount of cash, indicating he was still alive at that time.

Putting aside the mystery surrounding James' disappearance, and looking at Martha Peters, his widow or spouse, I found that she was also missing. Although her descendants claim that she and her children moved in with her parents in Sebastian Co., AR, only her children were enumerated on the 1880 census report with her parents. This is why I wondered whether the Martha Peters I found on the 1880 Oregon Co., MO census report could have been the same Martha Peters. It seemed feasible to me that maybe she had remarried and had 3 additional children whom she was raising on her own while her parents looked after her older 2 children in Arkansas. The descendants of Martha and James that I corresponded with did not share my suspicions. One descendant did have a letter that mentioned Martha had remarried to a man named Williams, but there was no mention of any additional children.

DNA Doesn't Lie:

I finally put my suspicions aside about my William Peters being connected to the family of James and Martha Peters when I was contacted by another descendant of this family. She had read about my William on my blog and decided to write to me and introduce herself. 

She mentioned that she and her cousin had done the autosomal DNA testing and offered to compare our results to see if we were a match. Me, my mother, and Grandfather tested through ftDNA. She tested with 23AndMe, so she had to upload her test results to Gedmatch.com for us to compare our DNA results since we tested with different companies. We also compared my family’s DNA results to her cousin, the granddaughter of Elijah Peters and great-granddaughter of James and Martha. Their grandmothers were double-cousins (mothers were sisters, fathers were brothers).

Although her cousin tested through ftDNA, she did not show up as a match to my family. I still did a comparision with Gedmatch.com just in case there was a small match that was not big enough to reach the threshold to be considered a match. [4]

In doing the Gedmatch.com comparison, we ran a one-to-one comparison between the first descendant's kit and mine, her kit and my mother, her kit and my grandfather. Then we did the same for her cousin's kit. We set the minimum cM value equal to 1. 

Here are the results: 

1. Descendant vs Me - 0
2. Descendant vs my Mother - 0
3. Descendant vs my Grandfather - 0
4. Descendant's cousin vs me - 4.3cM
5. Descendant's cousin vs Mother - 4.9cM
6. Descendant's cousin vs my Grandfather - 4.7cM
7. X chromosome comparison between Descendant's cousin and my Grandfather - 0
8. X chromosome comparison between Descendant and my Grandfather - 0

The amount of DNA that the descendant's cousin shares with my family is less than 5cM which is not enough to be significant and is probably just noise, therefore there is no connection between our two families. My family does not share any DNA in common with the descendant either, further supporting the conclusion that our two families are not connected. 

Conclusion: 

This is just one example of how DNA can either support or refute a hypothesis. In this case, our hypothesis was that my William Peters is connected to the family of James and Martha Peters. We compared the DNA results of my family  to those of James Peters’ family to determine if this was true. Since the DNA results did not match between descendants of both families, we determined that these two families are NOT connected. 

Next Steps: 

Our next steps would be:

1. Continue looking for the Martha Peters family represented on the 1880 Oregon Co., MO census report. She was in the right place at the right time and is a good candidate to be the mother of my ancestor, William Edward Peters.
2. Continue combing through the DNA results of me, my mother, and grandfather to look for matches with Peters in their list of surnames and connections to Oregon or Howell Counties, MO.
3. Investigate the X matches of my grandfather, since William Peters has been identified as one of his X ancestors.
4. Apply this exercise to other "suspicious" ancestors: It would be nice to find some descendants of Wilzey King’s family to test and compare to as well. This is another line that I am hypothetically connecting my line to, but am not quite sure of.

---

Sources:

[1] 1880 U. S. Federal Census, Oregon Co., MO, p. 330C, Martha Peters; digital image, Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 June 2011); citing NARA Microfilm publication T9, Roll 707, FHL Film 1254707. Martha Peters, 35 yo (b. abt 1845), TN; William Peters, 7 yo (b. abt 1873), MO, both parents born in TN; James W Peters, 3 yo (b. abt 1877), MO, both parents born in TN; Ella Peters, 2 yo (b. abt 1878), MO, both parents born in TN.

[2] Sources providing information that William’s parents were born in IL, MO, or TN include the 1900-1930 census reports for William Peters and the death certificate of William Peters, 1948.

[3] 1880 U. S. Federal Census, Sebastian Co., AR, p.669C; Samuel Martin; digital image, Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 June 2011); citing NARA Microfilm publication T9, Roll 57, FHL Film 1254057.  

[4] With FamilyTreeDNA, the threshold for consideration to be a match is a minimum of 7cM of shared DNA and 700 SNPs.

The Well-Loved Mother, Mrs. Tobitha Watson of Oregon County, Missouri

These newspaper clippings were sent to me by Wanda Watson, a descendant of Tobitha's husband's brother. Here is the transcription of Tobitha's obituary. She died 9 February 1937 in Birch Tree, Missouri: 

"Tobitha Ann-Watson, daughter of Hol and Millie House, was born in Oregon County, March 4, 1846 and died February 9, 1937 at Birch tree, Missouri. Her age was 90 years, 11 months, and 5 days.

She was united in marriage to Robert King in 1870. To this union two children were born; Fletcher and Dora. Mr. King passed away in 1876. On December 28, 1879 she was married to Samuel H. Watson at King Chapel, Missouri. To this union eight children were born; three daughters, Cora Judd, Linda Moore, Ora Brown, and five sons, Henry, Amos, Bob, Lee and Sam.

Mr. Watson preceded her in death on August 10, 1925. Two of her children, Dora and Henry, also have preceded her in death several years ago. 

She leaves to mourn her passing 4 sons, Amos Watson of Thayer, Mo.; Bob, Lee and Sam Watson of Thomasville, Mo.; and 3 daughters, Cora Judd of Rover, Mo., Linda Moore of Thomasville, and Ora Brown of Birch Tree. She is also survived by three brothers, a sister, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends.

She was converted and united with the Methodist Church at King Chapel, Mo., at an early age. She was a devoted Christian, a good kind mother, and a lovable companion.

Funeral services were conducted at Union Hill Church at 3 o’clock Wednesday afternoon on February 10, by Rev. Knight of Mtn. View. A host of relatives and friends were present at the burial at Union Hill Cemetery.

Her toils are past, her work is done

She fought the fight, the victory won

In childhood day her patient smiling face,

Meant more than all the world to us,

There’s nothing here on earth can take her place."

"Card of Thanks

We wish to thank our friends and neighbors who were so kind to us during the illness and death of our mother, Mrs. Watson. And especially do we wish to thank Rev. Knight for his consoling words and those who rendered the music. Also the undertaker and all others who so willingly helped.

The Children."

It has been several years since I have actively done any research on the King or Watson family. This is the first time I've actually noticed that her obituary and death certificate (upcoming post) list her name as Tobitha. I had always thought her name was Tabitha. Most researchers have her listed as Tabitha as well. 

According to her marriage record to her first husband, Robert King, she was listed as what looks to be Tobitha House; according to the marriage record between her and her 2nd husband, Samuel Watson, she is listed as Tolitha King. On her husband, Samuel Watson's death certificate, she is listed twice as Tabitha Watson (once as the wife and once as the informant). However, on her own obituary and death certificate, she is listed as Tobitha Watson and on her headstone, she is listed as Tabitha Watson. I guess I will need to query some of her descendants for clarification. Many of her grandchildren are still living today in Missouri. There is a lot of discrepancy around her date of birth as well, so I am not surprised to see this discrepancy around her name too. 

What is not in question is that Tobitha/Tabitha was the daughter of Hollingsworth HOUSE and Millie THOMAS. I came up as a Family Finder (autosomal DNA) match to a gentleman who also had Thomas as one of his surnames and that prompted me to do some research into my Thomas surname last fall. I learned that my Thomas line supposedly comes from an Ephraim Thomas of Franklin County, Virginia (source: Anne Jobe Brown, via personal email). 

According to the above obituary, and their marriage record, Tabitha House married Robert King July 28, 1870 in Howell County, Missouri. I am in the middle of looking for a notice in one of the local newspapers for their marriage. You can read about my trials and tribulations with historical newspapers here. Her obituary also says that Robert King died in 1876. Again, I have been looking for his death notice to no avail. It could be that the information in this obituary is incorrect. 

Tabitha and Robert King did have two children - Fletcher King and Dora King. Dora was my 2nd great-grandmother who married William Peters. Dora King Peters died of a snake bite around 1912. No record of her death has ever been found. Dora's half-brother Henry Watson, who was mentioned in Tabitha's obituary as the other child who preceded her in death, was shot to death according to Wanda Watson. This obituary contained a lot of very useful information, including the names of the eight children she had with her 2nd husband, Samuel Watson. 

It also states that she was Methodist and was buried in Union Hill cemetery. She was buried beside her 2nd husband, Samuel Watson who died in 1925 and they share a double headstone. Her FindAGrave memorial with photos of her and her headstone is here. This is the second mention of the Methodist affiliation as Tabitha's son Fletcher King was married by a Methodist Circuit Rider named Joseph Martin Willard. 

Next I will see what I can learn from Tabitha/Tobitha's death certificate. Here is a photo of Tabitha when she was older.


Ginger R Smith, "The Well-Loved Mother, Mrs. Tobitha Watson of Oregon County, Missouri" Genealogy by Ginger, posted 22 May 2012 (http://http://genealogybyginger.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). 

Keeping Track of My 2nd Great-Grandparents

I have 8 sets of 2^nd great-grandparents with a total of 16 individuals.

Paternal Line:

Set # 1: Claude Rual Smith (1896 - 1975) and Willie Harriet Riddle (1899 – 1985)

Set # 2: Fred Fox (1884 – 1974) and Melvina West (1882 – 1978)

Set # 3: John Milton Binns (1868 – 1961) and Perthinia “Pert” Eula Brooks (1873 – 1942)

Set # 4: Nathaniel Gustaves Hill (1873 – 1944) and Jessie Inez Barton (1875 – 1950)

Maternal Line:

Set # 1: Alvin Theodore Godwin (1879 – 1950) and Louella Davis (1882 – 1947)

Set # 2: William Edward Peters (1874 – 1948) and Dora King (1875 – 1912)

Set # 3: James Franklin Lasiter (1876 – 1968) and Rosalie Putman (1875 – 1961)

Set # 4: Barney Sheron Benson (1884 – 1952) and Eva Mae Dennis (1889 – 1983)

I was born in 1976. As you can see, two of my paternal 2^nd great-grandfathers died 1 or 2 years before I was born and 2 of my paternal 2^nd great-grandmothers lived to hold me in their arms (The obituary of one of my 2^nd great-grandmothers, Willie Harriet Riddle Smith, mentioned that she had 18 2^nd great-grandchildren!)

One of my maternal 2^nd great-grandmothers lived to hold me. I wasn’t the only one though. She had several other 2^nd great-grandchildren that she travelled around to visit with. Check out my 5-generation photos:

 Back Row: Sue Lasiter (my grandmother), Marilyn Godwin (my mother), Louise Benson Lasiter (my great-grandmother); Front: Eva Dennis Benson (my 2nd great-grandmother), Ginger R. Smith (me!). Taken March 1976, Fort Smith, Arkansas. From personal collection of Ginger R. Smith, inherited from Louise Lasiter. Copyright 2012. 

Back Row: Claude Rual Smith, Jr (my great-grandfather) and Willie Harriet Riddle Smith (my 2nd great-grandmother); Front: Tim D. Smith (my father), Ginger R. Smith (me), Darrel E. Smith (my grandfather). Taken 1976, Fort Smith, Arkansas. From personal collection of Ginger R. Smith, scanned from photo album of Barbara J. Smith, Copyright 2012. 

L to R: Reba Fox Smith (my great-grandmother), Ginger R. Smith (me),  Melvina West Fox (my 2nd great-grandmother), Tim D. Smith (my father), Darrel E. Smith. Taken March 1976, Fort Smith, Arkansas. From personal collection of Ginger R. Smith, scanned from photo album of Barbara J. Smith, Copyright 2012. 

Most all of my sets of 2^nd great-grandparents lived in Arkansas with the exception of the Bensons. I’m pretty lucky because the Arkansas death certificates started about 1914. I can actually probably take my ancestry back another generation to 3^rd or even 4^th great-grandparents just by using death certificate research!

As I said in my last post about requesting death certificates from the Arkansas Department of Health, it can become quite addicting and difficult to keep up with all of the requests and processing of incoming certificates. I try to space them out. I have employed the following two tables to help me with my research. They track my progress in securing and processing death certificates and obituaries. From looking at these tables I can see from a glance what I am missing.

From the tables I have filled out below, I can see that I have the obituaries and death certificates of 8 of my 16 great-grandparents. I am half way there! The obituaries I obtained either from family members or from various newspapers. My cousin, Doris Hamblin Smith, sent me copies of a bunch of Smith family obituaries in 2010 before she passed away.

In order to understand what the headers Scanned?, Transcribed?, FTF Notes?, and FTF Source? refer to, you must first know my genealogy work flow:

1.       Scan and save obituary and death certificate as a PDF, TIF, and JPG file

2.       Transcribe and save to Word document or Notepad File

3.       Copy the Transcript to the notes file for that person in my genealogy software

4.       Enter the Birth, Death, Burial, Occupation, Marital, etc facts into my genealogy software, including the parents' names

5.       Create a source and attach to the Facts (some call these "Events")

Nos. 3 and 4 are included under the FTF Notes heading in the table. FTF stands for “Family Tree File.”

As I collect more obituaries and death certificates, I can  update this table. I already know which death certificate I plan to order next – that of Rosalie Putman. However, since 6 of the remaining 8 died in Arkansas, I can go ahead and order them all at once.

Dora King died in 1912 in Missouri. I have not found a death record for her yet, probably because she died before deaths were required to be recorded. Family stories say she died of a snake bite. I might be able to find a death notice for her in a local newspaper. But I've found this to be difficult; or at least time consuming when you don't know the month and day. 

Barney Benson died while visiting his son in California. I have not yet ordered a death certificate from California, so this will be my first experience.

Obituary Resources
Name	Scanned?	Transcribed?	FTF Notes?	FTF Source?
Claude Smith Sr	yes	yes	yes	yes
Willie Riddle	yes	yes	yes	yes
Fred Fox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Melvina West	No	No	No	No
John M Binns	No	No	No	No
Eula Brooks	No	No	No	No
Gus Hill	No	No	No	No
Jessie Barton	No	No	No	No
Alvin Godwin	No	No	No	No
Louella Davis	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
William E Peters	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dora King	No	No	No	No
James F Lasiter	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rosalie Putman	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Barney Benson	No	No	No	No
Eva Dennis	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Death Certificates
Name	Scanned?	Transcribed?	FTF Notes?	FTF Source?
Claude Smith Sr	yes	yes	yes	yes
Willie Riddle	No	No	No	No
Fred Fox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Melvina West	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
John M Binns	No	No	No	No
Eula Brooks	No	No	No	No
Gus Hill	No	No	No	No
Jessie Barton	No	No	No	No
Alvin Godwin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Louella Davis	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
William E Peters	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dora King	No	No	No	No
James F Lasiter	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rosalie Putman	No	No	No	No
Barney Benson	No	No	No	No
Eva Dennis	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

How do you stay organized? Does your genealogy work flow look like mine? If not, how does it differ? How is it similar? I’m looking forward to hearing how other people process the obituaries and death certificates they receive.