Digging Deeper in Monroe County, Alabama

My mother’s initial 2015 DNA matches in Ancestry.com included high matches among people whose ancestors lived in Monroe County, Alabama immediately following the end of slavery. She also had 4 or more matching profiles whose enslaved ancestors lived in Drew County, Arkansas. These profiles also matched those Monroe County, Alabama profiles. These Alabama and Arkansas profiles in turn matched her Calvert County, Maryland and Iberia Parish profiles. This led me to prematurely jump to the conclusion that the Maryland women at the top of the family trees of both the Alabama and Arkansas profiels were the connection among all of these people. Those women were Flora Matilda Tucker Stallworth born about 1846 in Maryland, who lived in Monroe County, Alabama and Rosetta Fleming Goodwin born about 1830 in Maryland who lived in Drew County, Arkansas.

I have since discovered that while Flora Matilda Tucker may indeed be a connection to our Calvert County ancestors, she is but part of the explanation for the connection. In 2022 and 2023, I found an additional 6 profiles with Monroe County, Alabama ancestors and 8 more profiles with Drew County, Arkansas ancestors that match my Calvert County, Maryland direct lineage. Among these new Monroe County profiles, 3 or more profiles have no currently known descendancy from Flora Matilda. These 3 profiles have Jeff Malden and his wife Ella Salter as direct ancestors. Jeff Malden’s mother was Mary Tucker who was born about 1825 in Alabama. These DNA profiles: Longmire, Carpenter and Gant, also match the Drew County, Arkansas and Calvert County, Maryland DNA profiles as well as my mother’s.

Flora Matilda’s maiden name was noted to have been ‘Tucker’ by several people who include her on their family tree. I have not been able to find any definitive document to validate this as her maiden name. I have been told that she was shipped out of Maryland and initially lived in New Orleans before she was sold and brought to Alabama. Her descendants recount how Anderson Stallworth met Flora Matilda, who had lived on a different plantation, once they both were freed. The exact name of the plantation on which she lived does not seem to have been passed down in the telling of her story.

So, I am taking a deeper dive into Monroe County, Alabama to unravel what seems to be a more complicated DNA connection. A connection that may include a Maryland component as well as a South Carolina and maybe Kentucky component. Salter, Longmire, Malden and Tucker are names on which I will be focusing.

Best,