I’d been building family trees with limited information about my maternal and paternal ancestors. As I looked up census data for 1880 onward, I saw that the oldest people on both my maternal and paternal family had roots in Maryland and Virginia. These elders were all born about 1825. There were people surrounding them on the 1870 and 1880 US census pages who were born in Maryland and Virginia among other places. I wondered if any of these unknown people were family members. I looked at marriage and death records to see if I could find information about the prior generation but had little success.
In 2015 I purchased a DNA test kit from Ancestry.com to ramp up my genealogy research. My mother was my first DNA donor. I mailed off the kit and impatiently waited for the results. The results came back faster than promised by Ancestry.com and I eagerly logged in to check out her matches. Among the results was only 1 last name that was familiar, the name was Provost. I did not immediately know the person with the Provost profile name, but I knew they lived in Iberia Parish. And that Provost profile was a shared match to profiles for 3 people whose names were unknown. Two of those profiles had family trees with people who lived in Calvert County, Maryland. The third profile had only 1 name of the linked family tree. That profile was destinysmom12.
The search for destinysmom12 was a challenge, but I solved it and connected my mother’s DNA to the provost profiles as well as the other two. See how I put the pieces together.
Piecing together my connection to destinymom12 was a challenge that took me about 2 years to complete. Before I could figure out that mystery, I first had to solve my family’s connection to the 2 profiles (CG and her daughter) that were shared matches to my mother’s DNA. The partial tree attached to CG’s profile pointed me to Calvert County, Maryland. But the tree did not go back enough generations to make the connection clear. The tree began with Hester Patterson, wife of Virgil Watts. Both CG and her daughter’s DNA was in another database in which I uploaded my mother’s DNA. From that database I was able to see that my mother’s connection to CG was through 2 shared segments on the X chromosome and 4 segments of autosomal DNA. This information suggested that the connection was handed down woman to woman through several generations. Interesting right?? Going up my mother’s tree on her maternal side, I had only one person born in Maryland. I had already discovered that her great grandmother Charlotte had been born in Maryland about 1828 and that Charlotte’s family name had been Phillips. Her death certificate listed her parents as Joseph Phillips and Charity.
So, I went back to Hester Patterson and looked at the tree linked to the profiles. I saw on the 1900 census a widowed thirty-two (born 1868) Hester Jefferson with several children in her household with the last name of Jefferson. Jefferson? From where had the maiden name Patterson come?
I looked through the 1900 census pages before and after the listing for Hester and found a sixty-seven-year-old Peter Phillips and a forty-six-year-old William Jefferson. Both men were recorded on the same page and 1 page before Hester. This seemed to point out that I was on the right track or at least in the vicinity of connecting Hester to a Phillips!
So, I searched on the 1880 Calvert County census for a Hester born about 1868. Why I didn’t I just search for a Joseph Phillips since I knew that was my Charlotte’s father’s name–I can’t tell you? Perhaps because I didn’t expect to find him in 1870. This was a big mistake–not expecting to find what you’re looking for, so you don’t even look for it!
In any case, when I searched for a Hester born about 1868, the first result was a thirteen-year-old Hester Tayney in the household with Major and Eliza Tayney. In the 2 households following Hester’s were 2 families with the last name of Jefferson.
So, I searched the 1870 Calvert County census for a Hester born about 1868. I found 2, Hester Fawney and Hester Tawney, both born in 1866. When I clicked on the first Hester, I found myself looking at page that listed Mager and Eliza Fawney as well as children: Lloyd, Peter, Thomas, Joseph, Jerry, Moses, James, Rebecca, Hester and Jacob. I scrolled up to look at the other names on the page. And to my great surprise and great joy, I saw the names Joseph Phillips, age 36; Hester Phillips, age 74; Carrity Phillips, age 22; George Phillips, 1; and Joseph Fawney, 14; all in the same household!!
I clicked on the other result for Hester Tawney in 1870. The names listed in the Tawney household were almost exactly the same: Mager, Eliza, Lloyd, Peter, Thomas, Joseph, Jerry, Moses, Betty, Hester and Benjamin as the household with Hester as the Fawney. Because Hester Tawney/Fawney had been counted twice on the 1880 census, I was able to see Hester on the same page with the Phillips family. The addition of Joseph Fawney in the Phillips family, crystallized my understanding that Eliza Tawney’s maiden name was most likely Phillips and that seventy-four-year-old Hester Phillips was most likely Eliza Tawney’s mother and Joseph Phillips was most likely Eliza’s brother.
I found and requested death certificates for Joseph Phillips and Eliza Tawney (Torney). The father’s name on both was Joseph Phillips. The mother’s name was given as Easter on Eliza’s death certificate and left blank on Joseph Phillips’ certificate. I later requested a death certificate for Peter Phillips. The name provided for his father was also Joseph Phillips and the mother’s maiden name was left blank. I think the mother’s maiden name is often left blank because many people don’t understand the question ‘maiden name’ or they don’t know the mother’s maiden name.
I’d undoubtedly found the X chromosome link between my mother and CG’s profile! In addition to the X chromosome segments, we share 4 other long segments on 4 different chromosomes.
Seventy-four-year-old Hester or Easter was the mother of Eliza, who passed X chromosome segments to Hester Torney Jefferson Watts, who passed it on to her daughter Flora Watts, who passed it on to CG. Correspondingly, Hester passed X chromosome segments to Charlotte, who in turn passed those segments to her daughter Amelia, who passed them to her daughter Elzenia, who passed them to her daughter Sarah, who passed them to my mother, who passed them to me!!!
Best,
My Phillips-Torney (Tawney) Branches In Calvert County, Maryland
My Maryland-Louisiana Roots 