Mom's fourth great grandmother Susan/Susannah or Suzie is proving to be a bit of a genealogical headache. A post from 1998 gave a name for her of Shue. By the time I found the post two years later, the email was no longer valid, and since the writer has died, so no one has been able to see or contact her about her source. Her source was a hand written list from her Aunt or great Aunt, a grandchild I believe of Edley Rogers from the post.
For years I have looked for Shue, Shew, or Shye. The only ones in Virginia, and North Carolina (who are related), all have probate and bible records that conclusively seem to disprove that Susan was a member of their family. I looked at the kids names, and decided to look at Audley or Edley for a clue. I did find some Audley's but again, there was enough documentation to appear to rule out that as well.
So, I have been stuck. Until this week, when an anonymous tester, a Hoskins cousin, accepted my share request. The tester is matching on Chromosome 12 in an area my Mom already had 6 matches with on 23andme, and a few more on gedmatch. Two of those matches were Rogers. Bingo, I thought, but then she didn't match them. But, she matched everyone they matched. I scratched my head, until I figured out, there is a gap between her matches on the 12th, and that's where the Rogers cousins fit, any overlap was too small to be recognized as a match.
I went and contacted the matches, and noticed, there was a Sizemore. Hmm, so I tested her against all 4 Sizemore descendants Mom shares with. She matched all 4. One of those was on the same segment on the 12th. She promptly responded and I looked at her tree. Within a half hour I found who she had in common with the Sizemores, Wiley Jones and Malvina Anderson. Aside from the Sizemore cousin on 12, another lists the surnames Anderson and Jones. Thus far we also have two more who have relatives in Morgan County, Kentucky sharing this segment, and some Wallin family members who have a ydna trail to Elisha Wallen but not a paper trail.
Mom's Sizemore matches are on the X-chromosome to two sisters and their Aunt, and the one on the 12th. She matches two Wallins on the 12th, and 2nd, and another Wallen descendant on 11 and elsewhere.
I knew without looking that the X-chromosomal matches had to come from the Rogers family. It's pretty simple actually. Except for two individuals, all of Mom's maternal X donators were born in England. On her paternal X donators, the Trahern's only have one white, William Riddle who was born in 1760, the DNA from his mother of course who is unknown. That only leaves the Rogers side.
That leads me to two females. Mahala/Mariah and Susan. Studying the trees available, I knew that we didn't have enough information, nor a way to get Mahala up to the area, but we did for Susan, and to be honest, she's just a better fit for this.
I spent several hours looking for and adding a tree for the Sizemore and Hoskins cousin. On the Sizemore I wanted to find the X donators. Ultimately, I did find two that are Anderson and Jones in her line. A Rachel Jones, whose parents I can't find information on (William Jones and Mary Osborne in Clay County, Kentucky) and Nancy Anderson, the wife of Jesse Roberts. Other surnames include Couch, Sizemore, and Napier (a dead end).
I have a theory, which I have to prove, and certainly when I get the data on the Sanders, Eagle, and Wallin cousins who share on the 12th, and contact the other X matches in common, we may prove or disprove the theory, however, my gut instinct, which has so often steered me in the right direction in my genealogy searches, tells me this is on the right track.
I looked for Andersons in Scott County, Virginia. And found out there were several in early Washington County, Virginia, which became Russell, then Scott. This is pretty significant because the Roberts, Wallen, and Rogers family all have roots there too at the same point and time. Since Susan married first Joseph Rogers, a son of Dauswell Rogers, and then James Wallen, a grandson of Elisha Wallen and a son of Elizabeth Roberts.
In my search I found a Capt. John Anderson, whose children are documented in a 1916 publication. Alas, there is no Nancy, Malvina (Vina) or Susannah, but there was an Audley Anderson. Hmm, Susan names her son Edley H. Rogers, and he in turn names a son Edley Anderson Rogers. Coincidence, maybe, but you know, it's a pretty funny one if it is. I need to contact the researcher for this line and find out the source for his children. A bible or probate rules out other children, but if there is no paper source, then it wouldn't be the first case I have run across where an author left off some children.
My theory is, Susan is a paternal cousin or sibling of Nancy and Malvina Anderson. As such she would get the same maternal X chromosome or part of it, from the mutual grandmother on the male side. The women are all about the same age. Jesse Roberts did live in the same area in Virginia before moving to Clay county, Kentucky, so it's not a giant leap to think there may be a link between the three women. Researchers have always said Susan died in Kentucky, a fact I dismissed entirely because there was no documentation.
Now with the addition of the Wallen/Wallin family, a slight wrench is thrown into this theory. Of course, I don't have a complete trail from them yet back to Elisha Wallen, and they may not either, but they theorize that their Thomas Wallin is a descendant of John Wallen and Elizabeth Roberts. This fits with the link to the Sizemore cousins since they have both Jesse Roberts and a female Blevins in their line, but it doesn't yet fit into the other matches. So it's a possibility as well that Susan is a Blevins or a Roberts as well. I don't know why I don't like the Wallen angle, I just don't think she fits with anyone, and they are just better documented than the Roberts, and I honestly don't know enough on the Blevins. If this is true though, we have several other families we have to "get" to that point to match, where the Anderson surname is already present in several of the trees.
On another note, that pesky 11th chromosome conundrum in my Mom's matches. Because she's now matching several Wallen family members, apparently from Susan, it may be a coincidence (IBS segment) or it may be a clue in the match on 11 that a Rutledge cousin (descendant of Joseph Wallen) is matching a small segment with my mom, both Henry Rogers descendants and a descendant of William Rogers (Dauswell's son). Since mom and her closer Rogers cousins also match the Rutledge elsewhere, this may not be a match at all to Dauswell (the most common ancestor). Or it may be that Dauswell is either related to the Wallen or Blevins family (through his mother) or his wife is. Given that Joseph Blevins, Elisha Wallen, and Dauswell all seem to be in the same places at the same time, I am not closed to the theory that he married a relative of Elisha Wallen or his wife.
The pesky part of 11 you ask? Well, mom has a 74 cM match in one segment on this chromosome. The 74 cM match could be anywhere from a first cousin twice removed (impossible by ages) to second cousin once removed, to a third cousin. He's an adoptee. Here is the pesky part. The back half of this segment clearly matches all three Rogers descendants (and the Rutledge portion I just spoke of), but the front half, has several matches, and guess what, none of those matches, match a single one of the Rogers. Among the surnames on that front half, Anderson and Blevins are two I know of off the top of my head.
The theory on this particular segmental match is that the adoptee, let's call him the Barrett cousin (not his real name) got the back half from his Rogers MCA and the front from the other. At present I am looking at the other half possibly being George Washington Adams (mom' s 2nd great grandfather) or Mahala Mariah (mom's 3rd great grandmother). If though, we can connect on the 12th to surnames matching on the 11th, we may just prove that that pesky 11th is actually DNA contributed by Susan.
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