All My Ancestors

I know I’m late to this topic, but the two phrases that keep repeating in my head came at the end of the show.

For those of you who didn’t see it, it’s the story of two people who discover through DNA testing that they are related. One is Vy Higginson, an African American woman from Harlem, and the other is Marion West, a white rancher from Poplar Bluff, Missouri. There have been lots of these sorts of stories lately–even Henry Louis Gates, Jr. discovered his own heritage was 50% European when he was hosting the show about Oprah’s roots. I loved his wry response–what impact this might have on his career.

At the end of 60 Minutes, Vy and Marion are talking about what this find means. Marion says something like, “This is real life” and Vy says “It’s like learning history through my life.”

Despite the condescension to those of us who use DNA as not really knowing its limitations (see Megan Smolenyak’s post), I found the re-run episode enjoyable. Probably because of Marion and Vy’s responses–they had visited back and forth in each other homes and lives and had embraced their connection.

If you’re going to go hunting ancestors, you have to be ready for what you find. It’s part of the grand adventure.

One of the first things I saw in Ireland was this:

Who knew there were palm trees in Ireland? I certainly didn’t.

And then one of our side trips took us to Newgrange. What a wonderful site. I’m so glad my traveling companions made arrangements for this excursion.  This mound is older than the pyramids and I got to go inside!

On the way to Newgrange, our terrific tour guide Mary read us an article from the Irish Times entitled “No Petty People, the Ulster Presbyterians,” published 15 May 2007. She read it to us as we traveled through the Boyne Valley, beside and across the River Boyne, scene of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. One of those battles I’d probably read about in some history class, but it only came alive to me when I was there and hearing about the Ulster Presbyterians, aka the Scots-Irish, in the article.

These folks came to America in the early 1700s, were largely Protestant, particularly Presbyterian, and worked the land. I’ve come to believe that Christopher Osborne was probably Scots-Irish–he’s found in western North Carolina before 1750, he’s Presbyterian, and he worked hard to acquire land. That, of course, does not prove the issue, but it does provide some clues. I think I remember my dad saying some of his family were Scots (he said “Scotch”) Irish–honestly, I don’t know if he was talking about his father’s Osborne line or his mother’s Cooper and Landrum lines. I do believe the Landrums were from Scotland, however, not necessarily via Ireland, according to the research of others that I’ve read. The earliest Coopers we’ve found in our line were in Hampshire County, WV and Maryland.

I have read both James Leyburn’s The Scotch Irish: A Social History (1962) and David Hackett Fischer’s Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: a cultural history). The latter uses the term “borderers” rather an “Scots Irish,” and notes that these folks have substantial Anglo-Saxon and Viking and/or Scandinavian heritage–again, this matches what the Christopher Osborne DNA test reveals. Fischer says,

Some historians describe these immigrants as “Ulster Irish” or “Northern Irish.” It is true that many sailed from the province of Ulster… part of much larger flow which drew from the lowlands of Scotland, the north of England, and every side of the Irish Sea. Many scholars call these people “Scotch-Irish.” That expression is an Americanism, rarely used in Britain and much resented by the people to whom it was attached. …”

So I have more work to do–learning more about the “borderers,” the Scots Irish, and determining what, if any records exist of their migration. The better I understand the people and their history, the more clues I’ll find in the pitifully small amount of information known about Christopher.

Despite finding palm trees in Ireland and learning more about what I don’t know, I think I can move on.

I know enough about the nature of information to know that the more you know, the more you want to know–sort of a variation on the genealogist’s old saw, “You get one question answered and then you have at least 2 more.”

Today I was reading Kimberley Powell’s posting of the same title.

My first thought goes to the irksome Christopher Osborne. He’s the one that I can’t get beyond. He may be my immigrant ancestor, but I can’t find his origins so I don’t know for sure. I’ve written about him before, including what I found by going with the DNA test.

But I’d also like to talk to my 3rd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Landrum Cooper. I’d like to know more about her mother and father, and I also would like to talk to her about her losing 4 sons in the Civil War. Would knowing about her descendants and their admiration for her provide any comfort? What was the impetus for her and her family to pull up fairly deep roots in Tennessee and move to Texas in 1841?

And then there are those enigmatic Germans from Russia–the person from that line who I’d most like to talk to is probably my great-grandmother Matilda Amanda Buller Unruh. Yes, she’s the one who shot herself, and I do have some questions for her about that violent act. But I’d also like to know some more about her family and their journey from Russia to Philadelphia to Kansas to Oklahoma. She wasn’t on the original voyage, but her parents were and I guess I think talking to her would be the “most efficient” way to find out about her and her ancestors. And maybe knowing more about her descendants would bring her some peace as well.

The bottom line is there are too many I’d like to talk to. And while it’s not perfect, searching for details about their lives is the only way I know to converse with them. I’m determined that Christopher will give up his secrets.

We’ll see.

Do you have any ancestors you’d like to meet?

I got notification of another DNA match.

Remember the guy I said I matched on 36 out of 37 markers? The one whose last name — Hamilton — was not any where near “Osborne” but whose ancestors did live in Wake County, North Carolina, in the same neighborhood during the same time period as my ancestor Christopher Osborne? The one whose ancestor had 3 sons out of wedlock? Well, this match is another one of that family, and their surname matches his — Hamilton — and we match 25 markers out of 25. Supposedly, this means that we have about an 85% chance of sharing a common ancestor within 8 generations. Christopher Osborne, my earliest known ancestor, is my 4th great-grandfather, which I think means he is 7 generations from me. I don’t know if he fathered those children, or one of his brothers or other relatives did–but I sure would like to know.

As I said in my original DNA post, my hope was that DNA testing would answer some of these long standing questions, but it has instead generated more. There are some other matches with differing surnames, and I may be off the track by believing that this Hamilton match merits more attention because of the geographical proximity. But I had the opportunity to ask geneatology guru Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak when she was here last year and she said it was worth pursuing if the haplotypes matched and we matched at the 37 marker level. My guess is she would say we should go ahead and pursue the now-available 67 marker test available. It’s only money. (She wouldn’t say that last part–she’s much too nice.)

For over 50 years, my Osborne family has been looking for information about Christopher Osborne (c 1732-1789). I have copies of my great Aunt Fannie’s correspondence with her “Cousin Fred” from the 1950s. I’ve been searching almost 20 years myself.

We have a copy of Christopher’s will and we know he died in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, but where did he come from? There are lots of Osborne families, of various spellings, in western North Carolina at the same time as Christopher and his son Jonathan. When DNA tests became available, I thought this would help provide the link that we’d been struggling with for so long. There were other Osborne families in the area who had similar naming patterns–Jonathan had 10 sons and there were several families with the same names–Enoch, Ephraim, John–even a Sherwood or two–who were well documented. Surely we could link up with one of those Osborne family’s who knew the path of their immigrant ancestor.

I persuaded my brother to submit a cheek scraping–he was a little paranoid since his fingerprints are on file from doing a grad school internship at a state prison–but I assured him it would be safe.

Relatively soon, I got a notification of a match with a man with a different surname. We match on 36 out of 37 markers. The literature says there’s probably no close relationship with a person who doesn’t share a surname or a similar name, but this man’s relative was in the same area of Wake County, North Carolina, at the same time as mine, so I think there’s probably a relationship. He says they know his ancestor had 3 children out of wedlock (as they say) so I think there’s a strong possibility that we’re related–that sort of puts a new spin on surnames not matching for this case, I think. My results were posted at the Ausburn/Osborne DNA website for almost a year and a half before I got another hit. About 6 weeks ago, I got a perfect match with someone on 12 markers–her family name was Ausburn. When we corresponded, I encouraged her to upgrade her test to 37, hoping against hope that we’d have a match on those markers. Sure enough, all 37 markers match–we’re among the closest matches in the family project. That means, I think, that we have about a 97% chance of sharing a common ancestor within 8 generations. I’m the 7th generation from Christopher.

The bad news, so to speak, is that Rhonda can only track her line back to 1875. Her great-grandfather appears in south Georgia from North Carolina about this time, marries in Decatur County, has a son, leaves to build some railroad depots, and doesn’t return. That’s the family story.

She and I have consulted on how to verify these stories and to try to track her great-grandfather. I’m lamenting that I’ll have to learn to research another state. (Not seriously lamenting, you understand, but I’ve not known I had family in Georgia until now. AND, not only Georgia, but right down on the Georgia-Florida line, so you know what that means!)

Part of me is thrilled to have found a match–it’s a whole new day. Great Aunt Fannie and/or Cousin Fred had a story devised about how the Osborne name came to be spelled with an “e” on the end. Something about Aunt Hattie adding it when she came back from boarding school. What would they say if they knew the DNA shows a perfect match between an Osborne and an Ausburn? Those of us who do genealogical research know that how a name is spelled is not all that important, but Fannie and Fred lived in a different day and I doubt they had an understanding that fixed spellings of surnames is really a fairly recent phenomenon.

Rhonda and I have lots of research to do. I’ve posted much of what we know at my All My Ancestors site. Rhonda had always heard her great-grandfather’s name as James F. Ausburn, but when she got her grandfather’s death certificate (James Alexander Ausburn, the son of her great-grandfather), the name for his father was given as John A. We all know the problems that can arise from the information on a death certificate, but this “new” twist on the given name has to be considered. It was provided in 1937 by James Alexender’s wife–the daughter-in-law of the man who appears in south Georgia about 1875. We should be able to find him living in a household in 1870 or 1860 or maybe even 1850, right? Evidently, that’s too easy. We have some possibilities, but with such common names, we need more evidence to be able to narrow down the field.

So, despite the great hope for the problem-solving potential of the DNA test, we have instead lots more questions. It’s the nature of information, though, isn’t it? Answer one question and at least two more emerge. Tell people what they want to know, and they’ll want to know more. We know we have a match, we know we have a common ancestor, but the question remains, who is that ancestor? And where does Christopher fit?