Saturday, April 29, 2017

The Trahern's in Virginia

This is probably not the right title, because the family of Nehemiah Trahern's brother, William Trahern resided in Loudon County, Virginia, and what I plan on talking about is Nehemiah's family who were in Pittsylvania county. You can find in the Loudon county probate records on Ancestry the will for James Trahern and his sister Sarah Trahern if you are from that branch.

Nehemiah and his sons are listed in the personal property tax lists of Pittsylvania which I detailed in an earlier blog. With the probate records available now, I have found a little more information on his will and his estate.  The will was first presented to the court on September 17, 1804. For some reason it was presented again on October 19, 1812 and that was when it was recorded. Since James Trahern was a non resident of Virginia (he was in Mississippi) and Samuel Hester, who was in Mecklenburg county refused to act as executor, Samuel Trahern and James Patterson were made the executors.

Oddly enough, we don't see any records until 1819 when the estate was inventoried and the sale is listed. Census records for the county are missing for 1810, but we know that in 1810 James Trahern was living in Brunswick County, VA without a family and a male who was 16-25 which is most likely his brother William. James Trahern assigned a deed September 17, 1804 from himself to Cunningham and Trahern, which is when he officially went into a business partnership with Alexander Cunningham.

Alexander Cunningham who was a trader appears to be in partnership with James until 1828. Duke University has a collection containing papers belonging to Alexander Cunningham and several family members which they indicate shows his brother Richard M. Cunningham dealt in cotton with James and William Trahern. They also have a collection of daybooks from the business of James and William Trahern. In 1811 Cunningham and Trahern were involved in a Chancery suit for a recovery of a debt. In 1828 Cunningham and Trahern sell to William Boyd the land that James Trahern sold to the company in 1804.

We know James Trahern was in Mississippi for most of the period between 1810-1819, at which time he had a son, my ancestor James N. Trahern. He is in the census of 1820 in Pittsylvania county with younger males and females, but the deeds of 1820 show no dowager, which appears to indicate that these are his nieces and nephews, and not his children. In 1820 John Trahern, Samuel Trahern, Polly Trahern, William Trahern and Ann Trahern (wife of William I believe), sell to their brother James Trahern their share in the land of their father Nehemiah Trahern. Also in 1820 James buys from the guardians of his sister's children, Elizabeth Hester and Serena Patterson more of the estate.

Although the will lists several more siblings, there is nothing to indicate that they were alive in 1820 because James goes on to sell the land purchased by his father in 1779 to Samuel Harston in 1822. In the sale of the estate of Nehemiah Trahern the purchasers are his children, William, John and Samuel, his son in law, James Patterson, a daughter in law Nancy Trahern (? wife of Samuel), and Edward Murphy, John Ware, James Smith and Stephen Beasley. Leading me to believe that Millie, Hester, and Mary Ann had died prior to 1819. We already know that Serena Trahern Patterson died by 1813, and both Elizabeth Trahern Hester and her husband, Samuel Hester were deceased by 1820.

Chancery cases in Henry county and Lynchburg indicate that John Trahern and his family moved to Tennessee in the 1820's. John Trahern has died by 1832 according to the court records. Wesley Trahern lived in Mississppi from 1808 and may have sold his share of the estate to his brother for part of the $5000 debt he had borrowed and still owed upon his death in 1825. The will of James Trahern written in 1824 and proven in 1831 leaves all of his estate to his brother William.

There is a James Trahern Jr., and a Mary Trahern (his widow), along with William Trahern and his wife Ann who show up in Hinds county, Mississippi between 1824 and 1830. There is also a Joel Trahern born around 1800 who appears in Louisiana around this time. It is quite possible that Joel and James were the sons of Samuel Trahern and his wife Nancy, as their is a complete lack of census records for him due to destruction of them, and his brother James does not have a family based on the evidence. William Trahern was not old enough to have been the father of either James or Joel.

Samuel Trahern has no estate or interstate records for Pittsylvania county. He was last living there in 1850. I have been unable to find any record of a marriage for Polly Trahern.

Jonathan Church the neighbor of Nehemiah Trahern mentioned in the deeds also came to the area from Maryland and was along with Nehemiah an early member of the Methodist Episcopalian Church on the circuit of John Asbury. I have often wondered if perhaps Jonathan is a relative of Amelia who we still have no maiden name for. 


Locating My Pittsylvania County Roots

One of the hardest things over the years has been to trace my Trahern family in Pittsylvania county. Primarily because the only way to find records was to go there in person. Yesterday while looking into the Loudon county Trahern's, I found out that records for Pittsylvania probate are online. Included in these records was deed books, which gave me a much better idea of where my family was located.

Nehemiah Trahern first purchased land in February 1779 from Richard Gritton. The land was 237 acres encompassing both sides of Bean Creek (now McGuff Creek). In 1784 he obtained a land grant for 217 acres that began at the corner of Church's (Jonathan Church) and Davis line on Mobley's mountain. So where was Mobley's mountain?

In 1803 Nehemiah and his wife Amelia sell the land on Mobley's mountain, containing all orchards and woods to Peter Wilson. I found also on a website the following deed information.

Pittsylvania Co VA DB 13

p.510 8 Nov 1803 Robert Price & Sarah his wife to Peter Wilson. 100#'s. 180 acres on Mobley's Mountain. Signed: Robert Price, Sally Price. Wit: Robt Mack, Ro. Harrison, Samuel Trahern. Wm & Ro. Harrison obtained Sally's permission on 10 Dec 1803. 19 Dec 1803, proved by witnesses.
p.541 ___ of ____ 1801 Jonathan M. Church Senr to Robert Price. 100#'s.187 acres. Wilsons & Trahern's line, Davis's line. Signed: Jonathan M. Church Wit: Saml. French, Jonathan M. Church Jr, Wm Cobbs, John Guinn. 20 Jul 1801, proved by two witness; 16 Jan 1804 proved by third.

Mobley Creek which is mentioned in other deeds on this page is now called Trotter Creek. Mcguff (Bean) Creek flows into Trotter Creek and are a tributary to the Dan River. The only mountain near Trotter (Mobley) Creek is Judy Byrd Mountain, which I assume was once named Mobley's Mountain. 

Here is a map with the landmarks for the deeds.






The highway is highway 311. Berryhill, Virginia and Buford, Virginia are the two towns about equidistant from the point where Trotter and McGuff creeks y together.

After nearly 20 years of research, and much more for some of my Trahern cousins, we now have an idea where our family resided in Virginia.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Segment groupings for the Hardy DNA



With the addition of so many testers for the Hardy family on Gedmatch,  and since it lacks the double relationships of the McCurdy family (which would make it so much more complicated), I decided to examine the frequency of matching segments within this family grouping. This comparison includes descendants from three different lines of Gardner Hardy and his wife. Aside from one sibling pair and one grandparent/grandchild relationship, no two are closer than 2nd cousins to each other. Kits not on Gedmatch (several other DNA kits at Ancestry) are excluded from table. I did not include myself (since my father’s in the matches) but did my daughter (out of curiosity). I did not include the nephew and great niece of MW, nor did I include LQ or AJ from Gedmatch. (I forgot to include their numbers in the tag group).

Relationships to Gardner Hardy and wife Harriet
GG granddaughters HH, MW and BO (2 sibling lines)
GGG grandchild CB
GGGG grandchildren AF, CP, LB, JB, and KW (2 sibling lines)
GGGGG Grandchild me (omitted) 
GGGGGG grandchild BM


HH
BO
MW
CB
CP
KW
JB
LB
AF
BM
HH
NA
3C
3C
3C1R
2C1R
2C1R
2C1R
2C1R
3C2R
2C3R
BO
3C
NA
½ 2C
3C1R
3C2R
3C2R
3C2R
3C2R
3C2R
3C4R
MW
3C
½ 2C
NA
3C1R
3C2R
3C2R
3C2R
3C2R
3C2R
3C4R
CB
3C1R
3C1R
3C1R
NA
4C1R
4C1R
4C1R
4C1R
3C1R
4C2R
CP
2C1R
3C2R
3C2R
4C1R
NA
3C
3C
3C
5C
3C2R
KW
2C1R
3C2R
3C2R
4C1R
3C
NA
3C
3C
5C
3C2R
JB
2C1R
3C2R
3C2R
4C1R
3C
3C
NA
S
5C
G
LB
2C1R
3C2R
3C2R
4C1R
3C
3C
S
NA
5C
GA
AF
3C3R
3C2R
3C2R
3C1R
5C
5C
5C
5C
NA
4C2R
BM
2C3R
3C4R
3C4R
4C2R
3C2R
3C2R
G
GA
4C2R
NA


C COUSIN
R REMOVED
G GRANDPARENT/CHILD
GA GREAT AUNT/GREAT NIECE 

KEY
A979331 = HH
A163770= CP
A469842=CB
A479920=AF
A702878=KW
A141915=MW
A294597=LB
A317751=BO
M155722=JB
A935169=BM

Notes on the participants:
AF, LB and JB are related twice (3C1R Brunson) and MW, CP, LB and JB are related twice. (MW is 3C1R for CP and 4C1R for LB and JB Pyburn). CP, LB and JB are also 1/2 1C1R Pyburn. Some of their matches may be indicative of this. 

Because of the close relationships between LB and JB (siblings), JB and BM (grandparent/grandchild) and LB and BM (share more than normal for great Aunt relationship) I omitted their matches to each other from the table.

Segment Details:
Each chromosome block is separated. Matching triangulations are highlighted different colors if more than one per chromosome. Only segments greater than 7 cM were considered.

Chromosome 1 has two segments 1. CB, CP and HH  2. CB, AF and HH.
Chromosome 2 1 segment MW, HH and AF
Chromosome 3 1 segment HH, LB, JB and BM
Chromosome 8 1 segment CP, LB and JB
Chromosome 9 has three segments 1. HH, KW, LB, JB and BM. 2. CP, LB and JB   3. KW, JB, BM and HH
Chromosome 11 has two segments 1. MW, HH, KW and JB and 2. CP, LB and JB
Chromosome 16 has two segments 1. HH, JB, LB and BM and 2. HH, LB and JB
Chromosome 19 1 segment CP, LB, JB and BM
Chromosome 20 has two segments 1. CP, LB, JB and BM 2. CP, LB and JB



Chromosome position
cM

Kit 1
Kit 2

From
To

 Individuals
A979331
A163770
1
26253392
37188856
12.6
HH/CP
 A979331
A469842
1
18395918
34210183
21.3
HH/CB
A979331
A469842
1
37098064
54532654
16.9
HH/CB
A979331
A479920
1
36762623
54857729
17.9
HH/AF
A163770
A469842
1
26399842
34179429
9.0
CP/CB
A317751
A469842
1
235929210
238829389
7.3
BO/CB
A469842
A479920
1
37022675
61739170
28.2
CB/AF
A479920
M155722
1
203145327
221229369
21.4
CB/JB







A141915
A979331
2
5529323
8562151
8.2
MW/HH
A141915
A479920
2
8674
8572032
19.2
MW/AF
A979331
A479920
2
5194520
23025601
34.8
HH/AF







A979331
M155722
3
186275138
194766213
20.8
HH/JB
A294597
A317751
3
195429228
199302161
7.8
LB/BO
A979331
A935169
3
186275138
194369555
19.9
HH/BM
A979331
A294597
3
186275138
194594559
20.4
HH/LB







A163770
M155722
4
14571594
25566249
14.8
CP/JB
A163770
M155722
4
56163242
115532764
51.7
CP/JB
A141915
A317751
4
22783024
44240138
28.1
MW/BO
A141915
A469842
4
11260654
18305690
10.5
MW/CB
A163770
A294597
4
36636831
149210445
96.3
CP/LB
A979331
A317751
4
103425175
154140029
42.1
HH/BO
A163770
A479920
4
183469264
191117403
23.0
CP/AF







A979331
A317751
5
4728355
10647061
14.7
HH/BO
A979331
A317751
5
173884149
180623543
13.0
HH/BO
A979331
A294597
5
91139
5449166
16.6
HH/LB
A141915
A163770
5
43230470
72803922
18.0
MW/CP







A163770
A702878
6
52548929
77341549
13.9
CP/KW
A979331
A163770
6
76685732
94527150
12.6
HH/CP
A141915
A702878
6
90755541
115213539
22.0
MW/KW







A294597
A469842
7
128561006
139626312
17.8
LB/CB
A294597
A469842
7
139638793
147541365
9.6
LB/CB
A979331
A469842
7
100311486
128653625
21.3
HH/CB
A979331
A317751
7
78228236
92915996
13.7
HH/BO
A163770
A294597
7
152062575
155787451
13.0
CP/LB
A979331
A317751
7
140652473
153688926
23.7
HH/BO
A141915
A979331
7
135135332
139333773
7.6
MW/HH
A141915
A317751
7
140018
12976720
22.4
MW/BO







A163770
A294597
8
154984
19761371
36.8
CP/LB
A163770
M155722
8
11837063
19754748
14.2
CP/JB
A979331
A163770
8
141272891
146255887
6.9
HH/CP
A163770
A702878
8
138342832
143900614
12.6
CP/KW







A163770
A294597
9
9820675
22174674
20.6
CP/LB
A163770
A294597
9
74236384
97358747
31.8
CP/LB
A979331
A702878
9
105245648
115447048
13.3
HH/KW
A294597
A702878
9
36787328
75093675
8.9
LB/KW
A141915
A469842
9
77481681
92767566
24.7
MW/CB
A979331
A935169
9
22954237
72864176
22.1
HH/BM
A979331
M155722
9
22933509
76200501
24.0
HH/JB
A294597
A479920
9
91230295
106219930
14.5
LB/AF
A979331
A294597
9
36708368
74710880
8.8
HH/LB
A979331
A469842
9
9691768
18506996
15.5
HH/CB
A979331
A469842
9
92763654
109372390
15.6
HH/CB
A163770
M155722
9
36587
9793954
24.6
CP/JB
A163770
M155722
9
9820675
23077926
22.0
CP/JB
A702878
M155722
9
23029269
76336288
24.1
KW/JB
A702878
M155722
9
77257922
90007008
19.8
KW/JB
A702878
M155722
9
90025409
105812580
16.4
KW/JB
A979331
A702878
9
16831628
77780489
36.5
HH/KW
A935169
A702878
9
22975180
70303655
20.4
BM/KW
A935169
A702878
9
90752686
106321200
15.6
BM/KW
A163770
A294597
9
36587
9790624
24.6
CP/LB







A979331
M155722
10
43432251
58174129
10.1
HH/JB
A141915
A317751
10
78912098
98920382
20.1
MW/BO
A163770
M155722
10
124710874
129852662
11.3
CP/JB
A979331
A317751
10
100231194
117585534
16.7
HH/BO
A979331
A294597
10
131509629
135218153
7.9
HH/LB







A141915
M155722
11
11275540
22024112
19.1
MW/JB
A163770
M155722
11
120412692
131671950
24.6
CP/JB
A141915
A979331
11
12190304
20261673
12.8
MW/HH
A141915
A702878
11
11202952
21681310
18.7
MW/KW
A979331
A702878
11
12190304
20271219
12.8
HH/KW
A702878
M155722
11
6326952
24713901
30.5
KW/JB
A979331
M155722
11
12186013
20390059
13.3
HH/JB
A163770
A294597
11
120412692
131662082
24.5
CP/LB
A141915
A163770
11
21495631
37482970
19.7
MW/CP
A979331
A163770
11
36410807
57927370
10.4
HH/CP







A979331
A469842
12
4423593
11834044
14.8
HH/CB







A163770
A294597
13
45361852
77923366
25.1
CP/LB
A979331
A469842
13
48885869
67933662
8.7
HH/CB
A163770
A317751
14
18325726
22091770
10.8
CP/BO
A141915
A702878
14
18397823
21701057
10.6
MW/KW
A141915
A317751
14
20741156
30042415
17.7
MW/BO
A979331
A702878
14
22240100
36131784
26.5
HH/KW
A141915
A317751
14
67141763
75076130
9.2
MW/BO







A979331
A479920
15
56838189
79980837
29.2
HH/AF







A163770
A294597
16
83114818
86841204
12.4
CP/LB
A979331
M155722
16
12909860
25013707
18.7
HH/JB
A979331
M155722
16
77537248
81711523
13.7
HH/JB
A979331
A935169
16
77506742
79790065
8.1
HH/BM
A979331
A294597
16
12928118
25026271
18.7
HH/LB
A979331
A294597
16
50765270
60842865
17.0
HH/LB
A979331
A294597
16
77537248
81709762
13.7
HH/LB
A141915
A702878
16
63745808
76529684
10.6
MW/KW
A702878
M155722
16
81550330
83371654
7.6
KW/JB







A317751
M155722
17
12598569
15292929
10.9
BO/JB







A163770
A469842
18
10367306
20155913
11.9
CP/CB
A979331
A294597
18
42599978
47731053
7.1
HH/LB







A163770
M155722
19
45423785
55213143
15.6
CP/JB
A163770
A294597
19
3807656
14701575
24.4
CP/LB
A163770
A294597
19
45641512
55169512
15.2
CP/LB
A979331
A317751
19
1663898
10083195
28.0
HH/BO
A163770
A935169
19
45641512
55132371
15.1
CP/BM







A163770
M155722
20
11244
4001254
11.4
CP/JB
A163770
M155722
20
46866922
55987853
19.5
CP/JB
A163770
A935169
20
11799
1860981
7.2
CP/BM
A163770
A294597
20
11799
4001254
11.4
CP/LB
A163770
A294597
20
46866922
55987853
19.5
CP/LB







A979331
A702878
22
23813921
35301903
21.8
HH/KW
A979331
A702878
22
45300798
48499088
14.3
HH/KW







A163770
A469842
23
4638697
12647622
11.8
CP/CB
A163770
A479920
23
112505390
124911727
19.9
CP/AF
A469842
A479920
23
142568145
154886292
26.8
CB/AF