Hardy and Pyburn DNA what I hope to learn

Today I sent off four kits for autosomal DNA. Three of the tester's are descendants of a Hardy, Pyburn or both. This time I used Ancestrydna, mainly because it was on sale, and if I need to I can transfer tests to FTDNA an option no longer available for 23andme. (Though I hope it will be again someday). I know I want to send the fourth test off there, because it's my maternal grandfather's first cousin and is Choctaw DNA that I would like to get some more matches for.

Note to protect the privacy of individuals I am using the following format, their names are abbreviated to initials, first maiden married names. Thus if I were talking about my grandmother, Evelyne Hardy Barnes she would be EHB.

The tester's I am testing all descend from Gardner Hardy and his wife Harriet, last name unknown. We have some small matches presently with my father and fourth cousins, descendants of their daughter Rebecca. This time I am testing two descendants of  William Shepard "Shep" Hardy Sr and one from Robert Hardy. The first tester, MWE is a great granddaughter of Robert Hardy via his son George Gardner Hardy. MWE is also a descendant of the Pyburn's as George Gardner's maternal grandmother was Nicy Pyburn, a sister of my ancestor Benjamin Jacob Pyburn. The second tester, CPB is a great granddaughter of Benjamin Jacob Pyburn through her paternal grandfather and through her paternal grandmother she is a great great granddaughter of Shep Hardy Sr. There is more to why she's an invaluable tester, but as for my father's dna, her father was his grandmother's half brother, so they should have a good chunk of Pyburn DNA in common. The third tester, HHA is a great granddaughter of Shep Hardy Sr.

Tester	Siblings	Sibs/1st	1st/2nd	2nd/3rd	Once removed
HHA	Shep Hardy Sr	Robert Hardy	WS Hardy	HHA
CPR	Shep Hardy Sr	Rebecca Hardy	Hattie Campbell	Carlton Pyburn	CPR
JRB	Shep Hardy SR	WS Hardy Jr	Robert Hardy	Evelyne Hardy	JRB
MWE	Robert Hardy	George G Hardy	Mattie Hardy	MWE

Thus in the above table HHA and MWE are third cousins, HHA and CPR and my father 2^nd cousins once removed, and MWE and CPR and my father are 3^rd cousins once removed. It is important to note that genetic distance for a second cousin once removed and 3^rd cousin as for percent shared is in the same range.

For the Pyburn side we have the following

Tester	Siblings	Same/1st	Sibs/2nd	1sr/3rd	Once removed
CPR	Benjamin Jacob Pyburn	Archie Pyburn	Carlton Pyburn	CPR
JRB	Benjamin Jacob Pyburn	Archie Pyburn	Lula Pyburn	Evelyne Hardy	JRB
MWE	Nicy Pyburn	Elizabeth Fleming	George G Hardy	Mattie Hardy	MWE

So in the above table CPR and my father are half 1st cousins once removed and MWE and CPR are 3^rd cousins once removed.

So what is it I hope to find out? Well for starter's, we need DNA to another Hardy group to link Gardner Hardy to his parents and we have no idea as to the maiden name of Harriet. I have a tree for Sally Nelson, but I am not sure of it, so links there will be beneficial as well. On the Pyburn side, the rumor that either the Pyburn's, the Chitty's or both are native American has been in the family for decades (and is much stronger in my humble opinion than that rumor associated with Barbara Sunday). CPR may in fact show a higher percentage of native ancestry than my father's modest 0.1 percent and help answer that question. It's a long shot for sure, as we are talking CPR's ggg grandmother, but we still have no idea who the mother of Jacob Pyburn 2 is, only that she is from the Tensaw area, but in theory 3 percent of CPR's dna comes from this woman, so maybe we will get an answer.

In addition however, Hattie Viola Campbell is the granddaughter of Neil Campbell and Sarah Bowen. The common thought is that Sarah’s mother Nancy is a McCurdy because in 1870 she is living with Thomas Sunday and his wife, Anna McCurdy.  However we know believe that Anna is the daughter of Mattie Bowen and Elijah McCurdy, and because of this, Nancy was the aunt by marriage of Anna through her husband Joshua Bowen. The question remains still though, is Nancy a McCurdy.

With the plethora of testers now available, I hope to find out. We have enough double McCurdy’s running around that even a small amount of DNA should match. However, it is also complicated. If CPR matches three of the testers, SSM, CRB or PR then we can’t definitively say since all three descend from Joseph McCurdy, Elijah’s son by Mattie Bowen. If however they match one of the other (I believe we are at 10 or 11) testers, we can jump for joy, because CPR’s mother is in no way connected to the Panhandle DNA, and I pretty much have her paternal side nailed down.

To give you an idea on how the Bowen and the McCurdy side works, I will give you tables for the Bowen connected, my father and the doubles who share the most DNA with the other testers.

Tester	1st gen	2nd gen	3rd Gen	4th Gen	5th Gen	6th Gen
CPR	Joshua Bowen and Nancy McCurdy	Sarah Bowen	Wash Campbell	Hattie Campbell	Carlton Pyburn	CPR
SSM	Elijah McCurdy and Mattie Bowen	Anna McCurdy	Joseph Sunday	John Sunday	Sidney Sunday	SSM
CRB and her sister PR	Elijah McCurdy and Mattie Bowen	Joseph McCurdy	Anna McCurdy	Andrew Robinson	James Robinson	CRB and PR
JRB	Elijah McCurdy and Barbara Sunday	William McCurdy	Plina McCurdy	Lula Pyburn	Evelyne Hardy	JRB
SFM	Elijah McCurdy and Barbara Sunday	George W and William McCurdy	Charlotte McCurdy and Katie McCurdy	Florence McCurdy and DMF	Katie McCurdy and SFM	DMF (SFM would be next box to right)
GPK	Elijah McCurdy and Barbara Sunday	George W McCurdy	Elizabeth and Charlotte McCurdy	Admiral and Ola Morris	Blanche Morris	GPK
JVM/VMM	Elijah McCurdy and Barbara Sunday	George and William McCurdy	Jack and Carrie McCurdy	Child	JVM/VMM