My niece and I’d recently documented that Thomas Merimee of Nelson County, Kentucky was the father our 4th and 3rd great grandfather Joseph Smith who went by Young Smith. We are now on the quest to find Joseph’s mother. Was she the female slave between the ages of 10 and 23 who was listed on the 1830 and 1840 census in Thomas Merimee’s household? If she was Joseph’s mother, where was Joseph? The only slave listed in Thomas Merimee’s household for both the 1830 Jefferson County, KY and 1840 Nelson County, KY census was a female slave between the ages 10-23.
By 1850 Thomas Merimee had 4 slaves: a 25-year-old male; a 20-year-old female; 2 girls, ages 4 and 2; and a 2-month male child. The female slave who we theorized to have been Joseph’s mother was not seemingly among this group of slaves in Thomas’ household. Was the 25-year-old male Joseph? If so, in whose household had he been in 1840? According to Iberia Parish, Louisiana census records, Joseph Smith was born in 1835. Which means that he should have been included on the 1840 Kentucky slave schedule if not also on the 1830 schedule.
So, Joseph seemingly was not counted in Thomas Merimee’s household. Perhaps the female slave in Thomas’ home was not Joseph’s mother. Thomas Merimee and Maria Eliza Gardiner were married 1825 in Nelson County. Maria Eliza Gardiner’s family had lived since the 1700s in Maryland. Names on her family tree included: Clements, Edelin, Elder, Spaulding, Boone, Hamilton and Coomes. Could that young female slave have been a wedding gift? Who were her people? Did her relatives live in Nelson County, KY or in a neighboring county?
I searched in Ancestry for DNA relatives that lived in counties neighboring Nelson County. I found 6 DNA profiles, some who had family trees for people that lived in Marion County, KY. Four of those DNA 4 profiles belonged to people who were 1st and 2nd cousins to one another and included a father and daughter. These 4 profiles had shared DNA with my mother and also with 2 other direct descendants of Joseph Smith. One surname included in the family trees of 3 of the 4 DNA profiles was ‘Young’. Another surname that was included in the family trees of 3 of the 4 DNA matches was O’Daniel.
Four of the 6 DNA profiles that matched my mother and other Joseph Smith descendants have Alex O’Daniel who was born about 1838 at the top of their family tree. Three of the 4 have Robert Young, born about 1850, at the top of their family tree.
Two of the 6 Marion County, KY DNA profiles, don’t have family trees attached. Both DNA-profiled people are 2nd cousins to the previously identified 4 profiles that have O’Daniel-Young family members. I was able to make a partial family trees for both women using their profile names, obituaries and newspaper articles. The 2 women grew up in Marion County, Kentucky.
An interesting thing about the 2 DNA profiles is that they share DNA with my mother, the other Marion County, KY profiles and many more direct Joseph Smith descendants than the other 4 profiles. The 2 additionally share DNA with a key DNA match for whom we have been attempting to connect to our Smith-Phillips tree since 2015. This key profile person shares DNA with my mother and with her Merimee descendant cousins and a select group of Joseph Smith descendants. That select group of descendants have a family tree that includes Philip Eglin. Philip’s family traces back to Maryland. And although the family name in Louisiana was always written as Eglin, I think the original name may have been Edelin or Edelen instead.
And because I always look for patterns within patterns inside of patterns, I looked for Edelins that lived in Marion County 1830-1860s. I found a Leonard Edelen born about 1801 in Kentucky. He had 3 slaves in 1840 and 6 slaves in 1850. He died about 1865 in Lebanon, Marion County, KY. I found his son Leonard Edelin (sp) living in Rolling Fork, Casey County, KY in 1870. Casey County borders Marion County to the south. Listed in Leonard Edelin Jr.’s household was 50-year-old Catherine Young, sixteen-year-old Joseph Young and twenty-five-year-old Coulter W Young. In the next household was Robert Young, his wife Mary, and children: Catherine, Hannah and Alice D. Robert Young is the man at the top of 3 of the 4 matching DNA profiles mentioned above. The race of Robert and all the other Youngs on the page was listed as Black.
Is the Young family from Marion County, Kentucky related to Joseph ‘Young’ Smith mother? Three of the 6 profiles have family trees that include the surname, Young. Four profiles include the surname O’Daniel. The remaining 2 profiles do not include a family tree, but the tree that I sussed-out so far does not include either Young or O’Daniel. None of the 6 profiles seem to share DNA with Merimee profiles.
So, this group of 6 from Marion County, Kentucky is my base camp for looking for Joseph ‘Young’ Smith’s mother. These 6 profiles match many more Ancestry profiles. I will have to continue and search deeper so see if and how they connect to Jospeh ‘AKA Young’ Smith.
Best,
My Maryland-Louisiana Roots 