September 2023 – My Maryland-Louisiana Roots

Haplogroups, What Are They?

According to TwentyThreeAndMe, haplogroups allow you to trace your maternal or paternal ancestors back in time “to a mutation in a particular place and time” and to follow the migration of people to different regions and track the mutations to their DNA. Haplogroups are a combination of letters and numbers. Haplogroups do not necessarily provide you with the genetic mutation of your most distant maternal or paternal ancestors. Every person inherits mitochondrial DNA, but Y DNA is only inherited by men from their fathers. Accordingly, the mitochondrial haplogroup that men belong is only inherited from their mother, who inherited it from her mother and so on.

The mitochondrial DNA of North American natives was one of the first DNA groups to be studied intensively. And as such, the first maternal haplogroups begin with the letters A, B, C and D to include North American natives and their more distant ancestors. African mitochondrial DNA was studied much later and by that time haplogroups naming nomenclature was at the letter L. Most Africans and African Americans belong to the maternal haplogroup L. My mother’s haplogroup is L2a1f. H is largest maternal haplogroup for people with European ancestry.

Y haplogroups were created after mitochondrial DNA was studied and began in African where human life began. Y haplogroups therefore begin with the letter A and reference people with African Ancestry. E-P252 is the haplogroup of most of my cousins with predominantly African ancestry. Somewhere along the line, European male ancestry was introduced into my family tree. The haplogroup of most of those current male DNA cousins begins with R and more specifically R-CTS??

How important are haplogroups? I am still looking for answers to that.

Trying to Unlock the Mysteries of Chromosome 23 Matches

When I began looking at my mother’s DNA matches in TwentyThreeAndMe I initially focused on the last names and on the states or regions that people listed as the birthplace for the grandparents. I have been most interested in finding the connection between a large group of people whose known ancestry includes Monroe County, Alabama and another large group of people whose ancestry traces to Drew County, Arkansas. What those 2 groups have in common is that at the top of the maternal family trees are women who were born in Maryland. So, I’ve been trying to connect the 3 women at the top of our known family trees: Charlotte Phillips, born 1835 in Calvert County, Maryland; Rosetta Fleming Goodwin born about 1830 in Maryland and Flora Matilda, born about 1846 in Maryland.

A large number of people from both groups had taken the Ancestry.com DNA test and I could see how many centimorgans and how many DNA segments that we matched. What I could not see was on which chromosomes the match occurred. Several of those Drew County, Arkansas DNA matches had profiles in Gedmatch.com where I could finally see the location of the DNA matches. Half of the Drew County, Arkansas profiles matches were on the 23rd chromosome, which indicated that a woman was the connection. Three women matched on a segment that began at 113,295, 113,036,398 and 112,757,116. The corresponding matching segments ended at 120,270,432, 121,091,867 and 121,028,128. Two of these women were 2 sisters and the third a child of one.

Each also had a shared match on chromosome 4, beginning at 182,854,996 and ending at 190,915,650. Their brother’s profile also matched on chromosome 4, beginning at 180,023,943 and ending at 190,915,650. Their chromosome 4 segment match reflected the match with a Calvert County, Maryland women that we knew to be a direct DNA cousin. The direct DNA cousin match on chromosome 4 spanned 182,195,518-190,915,950.

So, I began looking for 23 chromosome matches in TwentyThreeAndMe. What I found were 2 more women from Drew County, Arkansas with segments that began and ended surprisingly similar to the first 3 women. Their segments also began at about 113,xxx,xxx, but each ended at about 139,xxx,xxx. The only match these 2 had with each other was on the 23rd chromosome. One shared a small amount DNA on their sixteenth chromosome with my mother.

Because TwentyThreeAndMe provided haplogroup information, I checked to see if those matched for the 6 women. They didn’t. The ethnicity profile was significantly European for one of the profiles. So, I began to think differently about what the significance of the 23rd chromosome match meant. I am tempted to dismiss the match as just a distantly related woman from Africa whose descendant landed in Drew County, Arkansas. Perhaps that explains the fifteen or more descendants of Flora Matilda in Monroe County, Alabama as well. But the fact that there is a Maryland born woman at the top of all 3 of our trees keeps me looking to find Flora Matilda and Rosetta on a ship leaving Maryland or Virginia as I had found my 4th great grandmother Charlotte Phillips!

So, I’ll be scouring the Slave Voyages database to see if I can find them!! Perhaps I’ll find answers to my 23rd chromosome questions.

Best,

Finding What You Don’t Know When You Aren’t Even Looking For It

I recently returned from a visit to Calvert County, Maryland. I found that the courthouse had burned down in 1882 and that any possible hopes of finding probates listing the names of my Phillips, Watts and Torney enslaved ancestors were most likely lost in that fire. I spoke with an historian by the name of Michael Kent while there and after my return to Texas. He told me a story about a group of Maryland slaves who had been freed during the Civil War and enlisted with the Union troops. He mentioned that a group of those men served in Texas. I had stumbled on some mention of one of those men a few years ago but had not followed up on it. That is, until yesterday! I searched in Ancestry for the names of men who enlisted from Calvert County and to my great surprise I found 2 names of special importance. The first was Peter Kent.

My 4th great grandmother Charlotte Phillips was born about 1835 in Calvert County to Joseph Phillips Sr and Hester. She was separated from her family and shipped to New Orleans. She’d left behind a daughter, Charity Gross. I’d found Charity on the 1870 Calvert County census in the household of her grandmother Hester Phillips and uncle Joseph Phillips. In the household was a 1-year-old child named George. His last name was recorded as Phillips. By 1880 George was listed in the household with Peter and Rhoda Kent as George W. Kent, 9 years old. Charity was married and living nearby with husband Samuel Cook. George Wesely Kent’s 1904 death certificate listed his mother as Charity Gross and his father as Washington Kent. Washington Kent was the informant on George’s death certificate.

So, why was George in the household of Peter Kent instead of his father’s for 1880 and 1900? I still have not found out the answer to that question. As a matter of fact, I am not even searching for any answers now, because what I found about Peter Kent is got my complete attention. Civil War records on Peter Kent detail how he enlisted in 1863 and was manumitted by Basil Sewell Dixon in 1864. Dr. Dixon attested to coming into ownership of Peter Kent, Thomas Torney, Samuel Key and John Ross after his marriage in 1858. A little research uncovered Dixon’s wife’s name as Rebecca H Laveille. Her father James Laveille owned several slaves, some of whom were the correct ages to be my Torney and Kent family members in 1850. Basil Dixon and family as well as James Lavielle Sr and Jr and Rebecca were recorded on the same page of 1850 US Census living in Calvert County. A widowed Basil Dixon was also listed on the 1870 and 1880 US Census within pages of my family!

Through death certificates, I later figured out that Washington Kent was actually named Henry Washington Kent born about 1857 and that Peter Kent’s name was William Peter Kent, born abou5 1837. Both men and their families were recorded on the same page within houses one another on the 1900 US Census for Calvert County. Peter was old enough to have been Henry’s father. Unfortunately, the parent’s names were recorded as unknown on death certificates for both men.

Peter’s wife Rhoda applied for his veteran’s pension in 1922. I have requested the related papers from NARA and so have begun the long wait to learn more about William Peter and perhaps more about his enslaved life, wife, children and items that might help in my quest!

So, a search into a seemingly unconnected story has possibly led me to something that I was not able to find in deed and probate records lost in the 1882 courthouse fire!! Who could have guessed!!!

Best,