This Genealogist's Dream: Chester Fritz Library (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 19 Theme: "At the Library")

Accessing Norwegian bygdebøker (farm books) had been high on my wish list for many years. Farm books were compiled by respected historians over a century ago, using numerous sources, including kirkebøker (church parish registers), census, probate, tax, land and court records. Local residents were also interviewed at the time of the compilations. The result is a series of books (in the Norwegian dialect of each community) providing valuable information about the people living on farms in the various communities throughout Norway.

University of North Dakota
17 August 2017 photo by author

These treasured books are not easily obtained or accessed. Interlibrary loan is not an option. Although there are digitization projects that will make access easier in future, for my purposes in the early 2000's, a visit a brick and mortar library was required. The American libraries that include bygdebøker in their collections are few in number and are located in communities that had a sizeable settlement by Norwegian immigrants. It always appeared that the best bet for me was the Chester Fritz Library (Arne Brekke Collection) at the University of North Dakota.

Arne Brekke Collection in the Chester Fritz Library
photo 17 August 2017 by author

A road trip to observe the total solar eclipse in Grand Island, Nebraska in August of 2017 provided the perfect opportunity for a detour to Grand Forks, N.D. 

After determining my preferred date for a visit, I called the Library's archivist to discuss access. I didn't want to show up and discover that the library was closed or inaccessible to me for any reason. He was very helpful, assuring me that although he himself would be away, the library would indeed be open for business. I described what I had done to prepare for the visit and he confirmed my plan and advised me of opening hours and parking.

As for my preparation, I knew that I would need to know county, parish and farm names for any ancestors I wished to research in the farm books. That would be relatively easy if you just had one or two farms to investigate. With Norwegian ancestors on both my father's 100% Norwegian background and my mother's 38% Norwegian background,  I had dozens that I knew of from four counties (Buskerud, Nordland, Oppland, Telemark). But I had just one day allocated for research! (There are limits to how patient a husband might be left to explore Grand Forks on his own!)

Preparation for the visit included: 

• reviewing the bygdebøker information available on the Family Search research wiki
• printing reports from my database for the families to be researched for each Norwegian county, including parish and farm names as well as names and dates for relevant individuals 
• reviewing the information available on the Chester Fritz Library site and printing off the lists of relevant authors/titles/call numbers to enable efficient access
• purchase of a good USB memory stick for storing the documents scanned at the library

My husband dropped me off at 8:00 A.M. on 17 August 2017. A very helpful librarian gave me a quick orientation to the books and the scanner and I was off to the races! I was so fortunate that I was the only patron there all day and had lots of table space and immediate access to the high-quality scanner. I stopped for a quick lunch in the cafeteria to keep me energized. In truth, my success was feeding on itself to build momentum as the day went on.

Accessing the Farm Books photo by author 17 August 2017

When my husband picked me up at the end of the day, I felt very satisfied that I had found and saved everything I had hoped to find that day. He captured this picture of me getting into the car which speaks for itself about the kind of day I had had!

Photo of author after a day at the Chester Fritz Library
by Graham Barnard

Civil War Volunteer George W. Payton, Sr. (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 21 Theme: "Military")

(George relates to my family through his marriage to my great great grandmother Barbara Hoover Edwards, making him stepfather to her 4 children including my great grandfather Charles Edwards.)

George W. Payton, Sr. Civil War Pension File

George W. Payton, Sr. was born in Ohio in about 1821; his first marriage was to Melvina Dunnahue in 1840 in Morgan, Indiana. The couple had several children, most born in Keokuk County, Iowa. 

On 18 August 1873 widower George married my widowed 2nd great grandmother Barbara at What Cheer, Keokuk Co., Kansas. Strangely, the marriage certificate gives Barbara's name as "Margaret A. Edwards" with a given age of 36 and I doubted it to be the correct record when I found it on microfilm in 2009. Later I learned that this was the right person and the record had been accepted for all purposes over the years as being the same person as Barbara.

My Research Log from 2009 when I located their marriage certificate on microfilm

From George's Civil War Pension File

When the Civil War broke out, George was in his early 40's (and still in his first marriage to Melvina). On 9 August 1862, he enrolled for military service as a Private with Company B of the 33rd Regiment of Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He was honorably discharged at New Orleans, Louisiana on 17 July 1865. During the War, the Regiment suffered the loss of 284 men, with 216 of them dying of disease.

During the 5 year period of the Civil War, nearly 19,000 Union troops were reported with smallpox. There had been a vaccine available for this and the troops were expected to be vaccinated before serving, but complacency and hurry led to many reporting for duty unprotected,

George did not escape disease himself. Near the beginning of those three years of military service, he contracted smallpox. According to documents in his Civil War Pension file, he contracted it at St. Louis, Missouri in October/November  1862. It settled in his eyes; twenty years later while seeking an invalid pension, he said he had never recovered from that and was still disabled.

He said he had been treated in hospital on an island 5 miles below St. Louis called "Bluddy Island" or "Smallpox Island" from October 1862 until about 1 January 1863. He was admitted to hospital just as his Regiment was ordered to Columbus, Kentucky. (Date given on the National Park Service website for the 33rd Regiment leaving for Kentucky was 4 November 1862. Also, the point was made by the Surgeon General's Office that the relevant hospital called "Pest Hospital" was located on Duncan's Island rather than Bluddy/Bloody Island.) Upon his release from hospital he joined his unit at Helena, Arkansas.

Aside from time in hospital, he was present with his unit. It seems that his eye problems had resulted in his assignment to light duty at headquarters. He acted as an orderly for General Rice until Rice's death and as an ambulance driver. Some of the Regiment's files are missing, making his record incomplete. 

From his medical reports, we learn that George was 5 ft. 11 1/2 inches tall, sandy hair, gray eyes and weighed about 200 pounds. We also learn hat he was illiterate. Dr. Hatton, the examining physician, found him to have chronic conjunctivitis and inflamed lids interfering with his eyesight.

His Civil War file is about an inch thick, full of Affidavits by various doctors and others who knew him after the War. Many of the people who would have had more personal or medical knowledge about him at the time of his illness and service were dead by the time he was making his application for a pension. 

One of the Affidavits was sworn by George and Kate Leffler on 22 February 1887. George's mother was Barbara Payton's sister (and therefore related to George Payton by marriage) but this relationship was never mentioned. Kate swore that she had known George for 22 years as she had been living with George's wife when he returned from the War in 1865, sick and almost totally blind.  She said that his face and hands bore the marks of smallpox. She went on to say that she had waited on him until some time after his wife died when she married and lived as a near neighbor in Sigourney, Iowa and in Kansas. She said that, in Iowa, he had to secure the services of someone to lead him from place to place as he was unable to see. Both Lefflers said that George was unable to do any work at all and was sick and confined to bed for weeks at a time. 

Another Affidavit was sworn by Christian Hoover who had become Payton's father-in-law by the time of the Affidavit. Again, no mention is made of  their relationship. Hoover had been an eclectic physician for 30 years and said he had known Payton since 1866 or 1867 when he had treated his eyes. He indicated that Payton had been unable to perform more than 25-50% of the work of an able-bodied man. "I did the best I could for him but had no faith in my ability to fully restore his sight permanently on account of its being an aggrieved case."

Payton was granted a pension of $8 per month, later increased to $10. His request for further increase on the basis of heart disease was rejected as being unrelated to the smallpox contracted during his service.

Life after the War

Based on the Affidavits filed in support of his pension applications, one might think that George was quite incapacitated. Yet, his life after the war reveals him to be a robust active man who apparently enjoyed life immensely. 

He returned home to his family in 1865. Based on the 1870 census in which his wife is listed as Lydia, age 43, he may have married a second time by then as his first wife was Melvina who would have been 48. Perhaps these are just discrepancies in the census. In any event, he fathered 3 more sons after his return. 

In 1873 he married Barbara. With Barbara well into her 40s, they didn't have any children together but certainly led active lives in the community. The 1880 US Census finds them in Howard, Elk, Kansas where George is working as a butcher. The local newspapers give a much fuller description of their lives there. Although George is listed as the business owner, quite probably Barbara was doing much of the work.

The Howard Courant 3 May 1876 from Newspapers.com

The Howard Courant 20 December 1877

The Howard Courant 13 February 1879

Another hotel! The Howard Courant  28 April 1881

Clearly, George was not doing all this himself. Finally, Barbara was acknowledged; after this she was usually the one listed as proprietor in her own right when new businesses are opened. 

 

George played his part too!

The Howard Courant 23 Feb 1882

Apparently he was still considered a formidable opponent: 

Tough Great-Grandpa!

His life in the military was not forgotten. Payton had been General Rice's orderly for much of the Civil War and was visited by Rice's son in 1883.

The Citizen 26 September 1883

Barbara's children Charles, Minnie and Grace Edwards often adopted the Payton surname while living in Howard. The following article indicates that Minnie had made a trip with her step-father. It also indicates George's penchant to be a word-coiner!

Incuperated?

I wish we had more examples of words George had coined! He sounds a rather delightful man. It would have been nice to have pictures of him to share, but none have been located.

It seems he and wife Barbara had parted company by the time of her death in 1890. George himself died a few years later.

George Payton died 27 November 1893. His headstone was supplied by the US Government and references his Regiment from his part in the  Civil War.

George Payton's gravestone in Burlingame, KS Cemetery photo courtesy Jean Pinick on Findagrave.com

Some Resources:

• George W. Payton (Pvt., Co. B, 33th Ia. Vol. Inf., Civil War), pension no. S.C, . 368.111, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications …, 1861 – 1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C. The National Archives Soldier’s Certificate No. 368.111 Veteran: George Payton Sr. Rank: Pvt. Service: Co. B. 33rd Ia. Vol. Inf. Can No. 7727, Bundle No. 33
• National Museum of Civil War Medicine website loc at https://www.civilwarmed.org/surgeons-call/small_pox/
• Newspapers.com website for all articles from The Citizen,  the Howard Courant of Howard, Kansas; the Osage County Chronicle of Burlingame, Kansas.
• Union Iowa Volunteers: 33rd Regiment, Iowa Infantry from the National Park Service website located at https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UIA0033RI

Ancestral Connections to University of Cambridge (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025, Week 18 Theme: "Institutions")

My English-born husband punted us on the River Cam on my first visit to Cambridge, England. (Punting is a means of propelling a flat-bottomed boat with a single pole and is definitely a learned art.) The Queen Mother flew in on a helicopter and landed near us, but I felt I was the only Queen on earth that idyllic day! At the time, I didn't realize that I had ancestral lines affiliated with the iconic University there.

Graham Barnard punting on the River Cam 1997 - photos by delighted author from her comfy seat

The University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England is an educational institution associated with at least four members of my Cudworth and Denison families in the 16th to 17th centuries before those families moved to New England. 

1. Ralph Cudworth (1572-1624)

My 9th great grandfather Ralph Cudworth was father of my immigrant ancestor General James Cudworth.

Church at Aller, Somerset
photo by author

Although Ralph had been born in Werneth, Lancashire in 1572, his primary connections are to Cambridge University, the court of King James I and the church at Aller, Somerset. He was considered a brilliant scholar, entering Cambridge at the age of 16 and receiving a BA in 1592, MA in 1596, BD (Oxford) 1610 and DD in 1619. He was a Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and was also minister at St. Andrew's.

c.1870 by unknown photographer (a couple of centuries after Cudworth's time there!)

 Emmanuel College, Cambridge University. Image taken from original albumen print from a bound album of 58 Cambridge University photographs. album of 58 Cambridge University photographs. Original 19th century album in the possession of Kimberly Blaker, New Boston Fine and Rare Books.

It was his long-time association with Emmanuel College, Cambridge that led to his being awarded his living as rector in Aller in 1609.

Rectors of Aller - Ralph Cudworth STB (Bachelor of Sacred Theology), third from bottom
photo by author

A prestigious appointment occurred in 1603 when King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England after the death of Queen Elizabeth I. Through friends who had contacts at court, Ralph became chaplain to the King. This is the same King James who authorized the new translation of the Bible (1604-1611) generally known as the "King James Version". Although not credited as being directly involved in the translation, one might suppose that as King's chaplain, Ralph would have been in the inner circle of religious leaders involved in the project.

Ralph retained his position at Aller until his death in 1624. He would have been just in his early 50's and left his widow Mary with quite young children. 

2. Ralph Cudworth (1617-1688)

My 8th great granduncle Ralph was one of those young children left fatherless in 1624 on the death of Ralph senior. He had a very illustrious career as a philosopher at Cambridge spanning the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. He was a leading member of the 17th century theologians known as the Cambridge Platonists. All were educated at Cambridge and drew on the philosophy of Plato. They insisted on the importance of reason in religion and had a relatively tolerant religious outlook. 

In 1632 at the age of 15 he was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where his father had been a Fellow. He received his BA in 1635, his MA in 1639 and his DD in 1651. He followed in his father's footsteps becoming a Fellow of Emmanuel in 1639 and he remained at Cambridge for life. 

The Civil War (1642-1651) was a major disruptive event during the early part of his career. He preached a sermon to the House of Commons in 1647 and was appointed Master of Clare Hall and Regius Professor of Hebrew. In 1654 he became Master of Christ's College. He managed to keep his appointments and to secure advisory positions in the time of Cromwell and later after the Restoration of the monarchy. Still, his liberal leanings were not in tune with the Church hierarchy after the Restoration. (His brother James Cudworth, my 8th great grandfather, had migrated to Plymouth Colony in about 1632 as part of the Puritan group seeking greater religious freedom, indicative of the family's leanings!)

His only major publication during his lifetime was "The True Intellectual System of the Universe" in 1678. 

A picture of him (engraving) can be found on his Wikipedia page.

He married Damaris Craddock c. 1642 and had several sons and one daughter. Only the daughter (my first cousin 9X removed) survived him - Damaris Cudworth, later Lady Masham. She inherited not only his papers but also his philosophical flair, being a recognized philosopher in her own right. Not much is known of her education but she lived in a home with many books and stimulating conversation. Had she been born a few centuries later, she almost certainly would have attended the University of Cambridge herself. That was not an option for women at the time, She was a close friend of philosopher John Locke and it was this friendship that resulted in the posthumous publication of her father's  "Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality" and "A Treatise of Freewill". 

Ralph Cudworth's Magnum Opus
photo by author

Ralph had not finalized the content of these prior to his death and there had been many developments in history and philosophy between his death in 1688 and the publication of his Treatise in 1731. Still, his thoughts were considered relevant decades after his death, perhaps because his philosophy of morality contemplated matters being "eternal" and "immutable". One excerpt from Book I, Chapter II, for example, says:

Wherefore in the first place, it is a thing which we shall very easily demonstrate, that moral good and evil, just and unjust, honest and dishonest . . . cannot possibly be arbitrary things, made by will without nature; because it is universally true, that things are what they are, not by will but by nature. 

3. John Denison (1605-1683)

When my 10th great grandfather William Denison moved his family from Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1631, the only family member left behind in England was oldest son John who had already established his own family there. 

John was the first of the Denisons to attend the University of Cambridge, entering in 1620 at age 15, receiving his BA in 1623-24 and his MA in 1627. He was ordained deacon 22 February 1629-30, priest at Ely 17 March 1632-33, Rector of Quendon 1650 and Vicar of Standon, Hertfordshire until his death in 1670. 

Ely Cathedral where John was a priest 1632-33
Photo by the author 1998

 

John's son Richard Denison was also at Cambridge starting 26 June 1654; Richard held various clerical roles but there is no record of his having attained a degree.

4. Daniel Denison (1612-1682)   

My 9th great granduncle Daniel Denison, older brother to my ancestor George Denison, was attending the University of Cambridge when his father decided in 1631 to uproot the family and transplant them to New England. He recalled Daniel from university to make the move. Daniel had entered King's College in 1625, transferred to Emmanuel in 1626 and received his BA in 1829-30.

In 1632 he married Patience, daughter to Governor Thomas Dudley. (As an aside, one of Governor Dudley's claims to fame relates to his role in the founding of Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Also, in the following generation, Daniel and Patience's daughter Elizabeth married John Rogers who served as president of Harvard.)

Daniel lived from 1632-35 in Cambridge, a town of the same name as the one he had left in England. By 1635 he had relocated his family to Ipswich, Massachusetts. As an intelligent and well-educated man, he played a prominent part in the affairs of the community. For instance, he was a military leader acting as commissioner to negotiate with the French commander at Penobscot in 1646 and again in 1653 and was Major General of the colonial forces for 10 years. He was Assistant Commissioner and sometimes the Commissioner of the United Colonies for about 3 decades from 1653 to 1682. 

He represented Ipswich for several years in the general court, was Speaker of the House for the colony of Massachusetts in 1649, 1651 and 1652, acted as Secretary of the colony and also as justice of the quarterly court.

When he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Massachusetts's troops in 1675, he was prevented from taking the field due to illness. He died in 1682 and is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Stone for Major-General Daniel Denison in Old Burying Ground Ipswich, Massachusetts
photo credit bmay on Findagrave.com website

Final Thoughts on Connections

Although the Denisons and Cudworths were not related to one another, it is quite likely that the three youngest of these men had paths that crossed at the University of Cambridge in England in the 1620s and 30s. But it wouldn't be until 1859 on the marriage of George Garner Wescott (a descendant of the Denisons) and Sarah Catherine Bullen (a descendant of the Cudworths) that the two family branches connected again in my family tree, enabling me to enjoy punting on the River Cam beside the University of Cambridge which had played such a prominent role in their lives.

Smug grin on author's face captured by Graham Barnard 1997

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some Sources:

• Anderson, Robert Charles The Great Migration Begins 1995, The New England Historic Genealogical Society,  volume 1, pages 521-524
• "Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900" accessed 21 November 2012 via AncestryLibrary.com
• Cudworth, Dan, "An Autobiography of the Life of Daniel Boyden Cudworth, Jr.", 1993 (copy accessed 1999 in the Scituate Historical Library)
• Cudworth, Ralph, A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, London, 1731; modern edition, S. Hutton (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996
• Denison, Daniel, Autobiography of Major-General Daniel Denison, manuscript  to his grandchildren written in 1672, "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register," Volume 46 (1892), pages 127-133 (in the public domain and reprinted in full in the Findagrave.com memorial site 155666707 for Daniel Denison)

George Wheeler of Concord (1605-1687), 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 20 theme: "Wheels"

Unless there is duplication, we have 1024 sets of 10th great grandparents. This overwhelming number explains why my 10th great grandfather George Wheeler had obtained so little of my attention until I tried to find something in my database pertaining to "wheels" for this week's story. A close connection to his surname was the best I could come up with, but I enjoyed the opportunity to get to learn more about this forgotten ancestral family. It turns out that the Wheelers were indeed what is colloquially known as "big wheels" in early Concord.

George was born around 1605/06 at Wharley End, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England. He married Katherine Pinn on 8 June 1630 and had three children born there between 1631 and  January of 1636. Fourth child Sarah was born in January 1640 after the family had moved to New England, indicating that the family migrated between those dates with 1638 being most often cited. My 9th great grandmother Ruth Wheeler was born in 1642. In all, George and Katherine had 8 children.

Google Earth Map showing Wharley End and Cranfield in Bedfordshire 

Several Wheelers were among the earliest settlers of Concord. It is not clear if they were all related, but it seems likely that at least two of George's brothers, Captain Timothy Wheeler and Captain Thomas Wheeler, migrated to New England at about the same time as George.  All settled at Concord, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.

Concord had been so named in 1635, just a couple of years before their arrival, to commemorate the peaceful acquisition of the lands from the Pennacock-Algonquin peoples. However, since about 90% of those peoples had been wiped out by disease brought from Europe, they might have had a far different name than Concord for the resulting English settlement! Perhaps, as has been suggested, Concord was more expressive of the intended harmony among the English settlers themselves.

 

Concord has many associations in American history relating to the beginning of the American Revolution and for its vibrant literary community including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. But those all came many years after the Wheelers were among its earliest English inhabitants. (Another set of my 10th great grandparents, William and Jazan Hartwell, were also early settlers in Concord; their son Samuel would grow up to marry Ruth Wheeler, daughter of George and Katherine Wheeler.)

 

George and Timothy Wheeler were close business associates as well as brothers. The men were holders of large parcels of land in Concord and appeared frequently in the early records for serving in official capacities, being included among those considered having integrity and good judgment. Among the properties owned by the brothers was the original part of what is still being run as The Colonial Inn in Concord, Massachusetts. Although the following image is from nearly 300 years after the Wheelers' time, it is certainly evocative of an earlier era:

Interior of The Colonial Inn c1922, owned in the 1600s by George Wheeler and his brother
Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

Although not known  if any of them were related to George Wheeler or his descendants, the Concord homes pictured below have some affiliation with the Wheeler name:

 

Wheeler-Merriam House, Concord, MA photo by John Phelan

           This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.  

Wheeler House - Concord Academy photo by Daderot This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Deacon John Wheeler - Captain Jonas Minot Farmhouse, Concord, MA photo by John Phelan This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Katherine died 6 January 1685 and George followed her on 2 June 1687; both are buried in unmarked graves at the Old Hill Burying Ground in Concord, two of the 32 Wheelers buried there. 

Old Hill Burying Ground, Concord, MA
photo courtesy Suzy&Rob of Findagrave.com

Some Resources:

• "A Short History of Concord" website located at https://concordma.info/concord-mass-history.html
• Hudson, Alfred Sereno, The History of Concord, Massachusetts, Erudite Press: Concord, Mass., 1904,  accessed through Internet Archive  at https://archive.org/details/historyofconcord01huds/page/n5/mode/2up
• "The Mythical Twelve First Families of Concord", Concord Journal, 16 December 1954 accessed online at https://concordlibrary.org/special-collections/ruth-wheeler-concord-articles/12-16-1954-the-mythical-twelve-first-families-of-concord
• Walcott, Charles H., Concord in the Colonial Period, Estes and Lauriat: Boston, 1884, accessed online through Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/concordincolonia1884walc/page/n1/mode/2up

Finding the Birth Father for Charles Edwards (Updated), 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025, Week 17 theme: "DNA"

 (Minor revisions and simplification of a story originally published on 16 February 2023)

BACKGROUND EXPLANATION

My great grandfather Charles Francis Edwards was born in Keokuk, Iowa on 22 February 1869. He claimed he was orphaned at a young age. His Montana marriage license to wed Mary Jane Wescott in 1896 indicated that his parents were Louis Edwards and Martha Hoover.

Investigations undertaken on my behalf by Alice Veen of Prairie Roots Genealogy in Iowa led to the establishment of his mother and her ancestry. She was Barbara (not Martha) Hoover (c.1832-1890). Barbara married three times, first in 1855 to a Hoover cousin named William. After William’s untimely death in 1858, she married Louis Edwards in Illinois in 1861. Louis soon left to take part in the American Civil War, became very ill and came home to die in Illinois on 18 February 1866, a full 3 years before the birth of Barbara’s son Charles. Barbara married her third husband, George Payton, in What Cheer, Keokuk, Iowa in 1873. Clearly, Charles was born between marriages for his mother.

Who then was Charles’s father?

Traditional genealogical records proved useless for determining this well-guarded family secret. Recent developments in genetic genealogy were the only hope for finding a father for Charles; his living descendants would contain valuable information in their genetic makeup.

Y CHROMOSOME ANALYSIS

The Y chromosome is passed down virtually unchanged from father to son down the line, enabling determination of male inheritance quite clearly. This usually means following the family surname back up the male line, only broken where the supposed father was not the actual biological father of the son.  Charles Edwards certainly did NOT inherit the Edwards Y chromosome. His Y chromosome would have come from his unknown father who somehow encountered Barbara in the spring of 1868 when she became pregnant with Charles.  Of course, both Charles and his unknown father (“UF”) have long since passed away so traditional paternity testing is out of the question.

The next best thing is to have a male child of Charles submit a DNA sample for determining his Y chromosome haplogroup and locating any close living matches who have also tested and share similar Y chromosome DNA.  The two sons of Charles are also deceased, but both had sons who would have inherited that same Y chromosome from UF.  One of them graciously agreed to be tested through FamilytreeDNA at the 67 marker level. (To protect his privacy, I am going to call him “YEdwards”.)

When YEdwards’ results came back with Haplogroup R-M269 (as of April 2025 classified as R-P312), not surprisingly there were no matches with the Edwards surname. Although this haplogroup is common in Central Europe, Spain, Portugal, France and the British Isles, there were just 2 matches (here called “LS” and “RN”, again to protect their privacy) leading to 2 surnames: Saum(s) and Nagle/Nagell.

Match Name	Genetic distance	Most distant male ancestor	Haplogroup	Final SNP
LS	3	(Saum)	R-M269	-
RN	7	Hans Nagell b1615 Germany	R-FGC8158 (he has done a more advanced test leading to greater differentiation)	R-FGC8158

When the results were first posted, LS had a couple generations of his tree online. From LS’s parents’ names, I was able to construct his family tree going back an additional four generations to Adam Saum (1785-1855) and his wife Margaret Miller (1792-1856) who had a family of some 14 children including no fewer than 11 sons! Later, I determined two additional generations to Nicholas Saum, German immigrant to Saumsville, Virginia, in the 1700s. Nicholas had numerous children by 3 wives. This was not going to be simple.

RN did not post a tree, but he did list his most distant known male ancestor as Hans Nagell of Germany.

The Genetic Distance is indicative of how much mutation has occurred in the Y chromosome; the lower the number, the closer the relationship. FamilytreeDNA gives tips for the likelihood that two men share a common male ancestor within a certain number of generations.

Comparing RN to YEdwards, with a Genetic Distance of 7, the likelihood of a shared male ancestor looks like this for Nagle:

Within 4 generations	3.74%
Within 8 generations	31.56%
Within 12 generations	67.02%
Within 16 generations	88.1%
Within 20 generations	96.49%
Within 24 generations	99.1%

 Comparing LS to YEdwards, with a Genetic Distance of 3, the table looks like this for Saum:

Within 4 generations	44.6%
Within 8 generations	84.25%
Within 12 generations	96.64%
Within 16 generations	99.38%
Within 20 generations	99.9%

As of April 2025 the FamilytreeDNA website is using a time chart showing that LS and YEdwards likely share a common ancestor between 1300 and 1850 CE, while for RN it would be 400-1600 CE. Clearly, it is more likely that UF for Charles Edwards will be found more recently in the Saum family tree of LS.

Next step was to build the Saum family tree from that determined for LS, starting with the most distant male ancestor found for him, namely Nicholas Saum. 6 generations separate LS from Nicholas Saum. This could be a promising lead and well worth the time and effort to build out the extended family tree of Nicholas Saum and his descendants.

The Y chromosome test has given us a possible surname for the UF for Charles Edwards, but on its own cannot give us the name of a specific man.

AUTOSOMAL DNA ANALYSIS

The autosomal (family finder) test is another genetic test that can determine ancestry based on the other 22 (non-sex-determining) sets of chromosomes.

We all inherit 50% of our DNA from our mothers and 50% from our fathers (one chromosome from each parent of each of the 22 chromosomes in the nucleii of all our cells), about 25% from each grandparent, 12.5% from great grandparents, etc. The exact amount varies because of recombination of the chromosomes. As you go back more and more generations, the amount diminishes and some ancestors are not represented at all in a person’s genetic makeup. The more family members who have their autosomal DNA tested, the more of the family’s overall genetic background becomes apparent.

My mother Elinor had her autosomal DNA tested in her later years. She is one generation closer to the UF for Charles Edwards than I am. Charles was my mother’s grandfather so UF would be her great grandfather and we might expect that about 12.5% of her DNA came from him (although that could vary). Similarly, YEdwards is of the same generation and would also expect about 12.5% of his autosomal DNA (as well as 100% of his Y chromosome) to have come from UF.  Since I have access to the DNA results for both YEdwards and Elinor, these are the best results for me to use to analyze their matches who come from within the Saum tree that I have built. (I subsequently obtained access to the Ancestry DNA results of another of Elinor and YEdwards’ first cousins (LM) and will discuss LM’s results later.)

Because comparisons can be made only to DNA matches who have tested at the same company, I took advantage of every opportunity, when granted permission by the original test taker, to upload raw DNA data from the testing companies to other sites such as GEDMATCH and My Heritage. I have also done additional tests myself with Ancestry DNA and 23&Me (recently withdrawn) and have uploaded my own raw DNA results to Living DNA.  Every site has yielded more Saum connections.

Finally, some patterns began to emerge that gave me an additional clue. I had a lot of matches that were to the Henderson family, which was otherwise unknown to me. (I had a well built-out tree on all known branches of my tree other than the mystery line for UF.) Frequently, the Hendersons also fit into the Saum tree through descendants of a marriage between George Adam Saum and Susannah Henderson. Sometimes matches were just to Saums and sometimes just to Hendersons, leading me to investigate this family further since we could be matching our DNA matches through either the Saum or Henderson line. But, for our family, it seemed we had to be descending from both, most likely from a marriage of the two. I did exhaustive research to ensure there were no other Saum-Henderson marriages that could also be the source of my family having inherited DNA from both those families. There was one, but it was for a male Henderson to a female Saum, which would not have given the Y chromosome results obtained for YEdwards.

The one marriage between a male Saum and female Henderson is the one of George Adam Saum and Susannah Henderson whose children were all born within a few years of Barbara (c. 1832).

George Adam Saum (b. Saumsville, VA 1797, d. Highland, OH 1836) married in 1819 to Susannah Henderson (b. 1805, d. 1855) – 7 children, including 3 daughters and 4 sons:

1.     Charles Frederick Saum (b. 1821, Ohio, d. 1886 Lawrence, Douglas, KS)

2.    Jacob Saum (b. 1822, d. 1861 (after being shot by neighbours for being an abolitionist and Lincoln supporter – several years before Charles was conceived)

3.     George Thompson Saum (1824-d. 1912 Kellogg, Jasper, Iowa)

4.     Stephen Adam Saum (1834-d. 1927 in FL but had farmed most of his life Kellogg, Jasper, Iowa)

Conducting thorough research on the three possibilities from this family for UF first led me to focus on the third and fourth sons since both spent most of their lives in Iowa, which is likely where Barbara was living when she conceived Charles. A map shows that the distance between Kellogg and What Cheer where Barbara’s parents were living was about 50 miles, not exactly next door but certainly closer than the 280 miles to Lawrence, Kansas where oldest brother Charles lived. These people moved around more than we might think and certainly maintained connections with family members who might not live nearby. As will be seen later, the connection was most likely through Barbara's sister who lived near two of the Saum brothers. 

 

Google Earth image of Iowa and Kansas showing locations of Barbara’s parents and the Saum brothers

THREE BROTHERS POSSIBLE AS CHARLES'S FATHER

 1.      Charles Frederick Saum (1821-1888)

Charles Frederick Saum was born in Dodsonville, Highland, Ohio in 1821. He had one daughter born in 1844 to his first wife Mary Elizabeth Shawver before her death in 1846. His next marriage was in 1847 to Mary Bardell; the couple had nine children born between 1849 and 1869.

Threatened along with his next-younger brother Jacob N. Saum in a poster in 1861 for being an abolitionist supporter of Abraham Lincoln, he survived when Jacob was shot later that year by neighbors. This provided the impetus for Charles to make a hasty departure to Lawrence, Douglas, Kansas with Lane’s army in 1861. He lived in the area until 1878 when he moved to Mt. Ayr, Osborne, Kansas. He was a farmer, carpenter, and notary public. He wrote several articles for newspapers about farming and about his journey to Mt. Ayr. He was interested in politics and served as a delegate in 1880.

An obituary for his daughter Emma in 1910 contains more information about him as described in another story. 

Of the three brothers, Charles Frederick Saum lived the farthest distance from where widowed Barbara Hoover Edwards was living in the spring of 1868 when she became pregnant (somewhere in Iowa, possibly at What Cheer with her parents which is where she was living at the time of the next census in 1870).  Still, the similarity in his name to Charles Francis Edwards (and the ambiguous DNA match results to be discussed later) keep him well in contention as a potential father.

 2.      George Thompson Saum (1824-1912)

Born in Dodsonville, Highland, Ohio 4 January 1824, George married first wife Sarah Roush in 1847 and, after her death, Marieta Boatright in 1855; she died in 1867. He purchased land and moved to Buena Vista Twp., Jasper County, Iowa about 1854-55. He married his third wife Ella Wilson 2 March 1869. He had a total of 9 children (2 each from first and third marriages and five from the second).

His land in Buena Vista Township, Jasper County Iowa was located at section 1, Twp.79 Rge.18 W5M, and he had nearby land in sections 5 and 6 of Twp.79, Rge.17 W5M in Richland Township. The History of Jasper County gives his landholdings as 1000 acres. This land was just south of Kellogg, Iowa which was also his postal address at the time. Kellogg was a new town in 1865, being laid out in anticipation of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad being built through the area. The population never exceeded 800 people.

The next township north of Buena Vista is Kellogg Township, which happened to be the home of Barbara Hoover’s sister Susan Anna Hoover Bleakney. The Bleakney land was located just north of the town of Kellogg at section 14, Twp.80 Rge.18 W5M. When Barbara gave birth to her twin daughters Minnie and Grace in 1865 or 1866, she did so at the Bleakney home. One can assume Barbara could have been a regular visitor or perhaps was even living at the Bleakney home at the time she became pregnant in the spring of 1868. She would have been very near the home of the widowed George Thompson Saum at the time. The distance is only about 3 ½ miles. The two would definitely have known each other in this small rural community. However, if George was aware of her pregnancy and the birth of a son Charles at her parents’ home at What Cheer, Iowa, on 22 February 1869, it would seem a real slap in Barbara’s face for him to have married Ella Wilson only about a week later!

Google Earth map showing locations of George Thompson Saum property, Saums cemetery and the Clark and Susan Anna Bleakney home near Kellogg, Iowa about 3 to 4 miles away

George Thompson Saum died 19 September 1912 when his car was hit by a train while he was driving from Waukee to Des Moines. (His stone is in the Saums Cemetery located on his original section of land as shown above.) 

His obituary indicates that “Mr. Saum was not a church man nor a member of any secret order however he was a man of very pronounced opinions even in politics and the democratic party to which he belonged. He was a careful business man and regarded his word as his best asset and was the kind of a man whose word was as good as his bond.” He does not sound like the sort of man who would abandon a woman pregnant by him to her own devices - assuming, of course, that he ever knew of her situation.

3.      Stephen Adam Saum (1834-1927)

Like the other brothers, he was born in Dodsonville, Highland, Ohio. In 1853 he was living in Knox, Illinois where he married Rachel Ellis 21 December 1856. By 1860 he had joined his older brother George Thompson Saum in Jasper County, Iowa. Like George, Stephen had land in the vicinity of Kellogg and would have been neighbors to Barbara’s sister Susan Anna and her husband Clark Bleakney.

Stephen joined the Union army 3 August 1862 where he served as a Private in Company K of the Iowa 28^th Infantry. By 1864 he had been promoted to full 6^th corporal. He mustered out 31 July 1865. By the time of the 1870 census he was living in Buena Vista Township, Jasper County, putting him equally well situated as brother George to have had a relationship with Barbara Hoover Edwards in the spring of 1868.

Stephen was a manufacturer of pumps and a businessman in Kellogg Township, often acting as a travelling salesman (presumably on behalf of his company Saum, David & Co.) He died in Florida in 1927.

Stephen and Ella had three children, two of whom did not survive childhood. Stephen’s medical records indicate that he contracted mumps in 1863 during his Civil War service, leading to atrophy of his left testicle. He did not father any additional children with his wife after the Civil War, making him the least likely of the three brothers to have fathered Charles Edwards.

ANALYSIS OF AUTOSOMAL MATCHES TO THE SAUM FAMILY

Several or my family members have had DNA tests done with a variety of the popular testing companies: Familytree DNA, My Heritage and Ancestry DNA. Some of these results have also been uploaded to GEDMATCH. I have tried to take advantage of every clue leading to the family that Charles Edwards’ father came from. The tools on the various sites vary significantly in terms of the information provided and the tools available to narrow down matches.

Except for Ancestry DNA, the testing sites provide chromosome information for where a test taker and a match share DNA on a particular chromosome and the amount of such match expressed in centimorgans (cM). This enabled me to make a spreadsheet for overlap areas on chromosomes where the same DNA was shared by one or more matches, meaning that it was likely inherited from the same ancestor some distance up all their trees.

Portion of Spreadsheet for Elinor’s DNA matches by Chromosome - portion C6
test co.	tester	match		chromosome	start position	end position	cM
FTDNA	ELINOR	Richard		6	88.5	102.3	12.2
MH	ELINOR	Norma		6	88.5	105	15.3
FTDNA	ELINOR	Oneil		6	88.5	106.3	16.7
FTDNA	ELINOR	Rachel		6	88.5	108.5	20
MH	ELINOR	Marvin		6	88.5	109	21
FTDNA	ELINOR	Scott		6	89.1	104.9	13.8
FTDNA	ELINOR	ayla		6	90.4	108.5	17
FTDNA	ELINOR	John Joseph		6	91.7	125.1	28.8
FTDNA	ELINOR	Scott (5)		6	93	109.1	15
FTDNA	ELINOR	Murray		6	98.8	110	12
Ancestry	ELINOR	BL	Gedmatch	6	99.9	125.7	22.4
Ancestry	ELINOR	Norton	Gedmatch	6	107.3	125.7	14.9
FTDNA	ELINOR	Vancil		6	108.1	125.5	13.7
FTDNA	ELINOR	Elizabeth		6	110.9	125.1	11.2

The above section of my spreadsheet shows a portion of my mother’s chromosome #6 and shows several matches in the area from 88.5 to 125.7 (these numbers have been truncated for ease of use.) These people all relate through the Saum family tree. The amount of shared DNA is not large but this is just for one segment of one chromosome, varying from a low of 11.2 for the match called Elizabeth to a high of 28.8 for a match named John Joseph. Not everyone posts a family tree on their DNA sites, but fortunately John Joseph had an extensive tree that enabled me to see that he was indeed a part of the Saum/Henderson family as a descendant of oldest brother Charles Frederick Saum.

The Shared cM Tool is a well-researched and generally accepted tool developed by Blaine Bettinger and accessible on the DNA Painter website. It is used for ascertaining the potential relationships that two test takers could have based on the number of cM of DNA that they share. Using the total 45 cM shared by Elinor and John Joseph over all their chromosomes gives this result:

Blaine T. Bettinger

www.thegeneticgenealogist.com

CC 4.0 Attribution License

YEdwards also matched John Joseph on FTDNA and shared 52 cM with him. Relationship possibilities according to this amount are shown in this chart:

 

Blaine T. Bettinger

www.thegeneticgenealogist.com

CC 4.0 Attribution License

 

John Joseph (a descendant of Charles Frederick Saum), Elinor and YEdwards would be either half second cousins once removed (Half 2C1R) (if Charles Frederick Saum is UF) or third cousins (3C) (if one of the other two brothers is UF).

The foregoing analysis is just an example of the methods that can be used. Using a variety of tools enabled me to find dozens of Saum/Henderson matches for various of my family members and to add all these “new” family members to my own tree so that I could determine potential relationships. Consistently, the Shared cM tool indicated that these matches could arise if any of the three Saum brothers was indeed Charles Edwards’ UF.

My Heritage and Ancestry DNA both added tools for suggesting how a tester and a match might share ancestors. For this to work, the tester must have a genealogy family tree associated with their DNA results. Adding a hypothetical UF where you think he might belong in your tree is a necessity. For my trees, I had added Charles Frederick Saum as the hypothetical father for Charles Edwards. 

Having uploaded my mother Elinor’s family tree along with her raw DNA data from FamilytreeDNA to My Heritage enabled me to view their tools called “Theory of Family Relativity” and “Smart Matches”. One of her Saum/Henderson matches found this way on My Heritage was L.P., a descendant of Charles Frederick Saum. L.P. would be either a half 2^nd Cousin once removed or a Third Cousin of Elinor’s depending on which of the brothers is the UF of Charles Edwards.  (It might not immediately be obvious, but a half 2^nd cousin and a 3rd cousin are equivalent.) Once again, the Shared cM Tool indicates these are quite probable relationships for this amount of shared DNA (40.6cM).  (There are many other DNA matches on My Heritage for Elinor to members of the extended Saum/Henderson family, most often through the two older brothers.)

Turning now to the tools at Ancestry, their “ThruLines” tool is one of the most useful in that it sets out possible trees showing exactly how all the DNA tested cousins relate to a shared ancestor. 

I have access on Ancestry to DNA results for three family members of my own generation plus one for a younger generation and was able to see dozens of Saum/Henderson DNA matches with exactly how we might relate.  But testing an older generation is even better as the relationship to UF is one generation closer and therefore more of UF’s DNA is likely still in evidence. Fortunately, another first cousin of my mother’s, L.M., has granted me access to his DNA on Ancestry. L.M.’s ThruLines to the Saum/Henderson families have proven very useful. To give you an idea of the number of matches that show up for L.M.’s DNA and how certain this makes me that I have found the right family for UF:

·        Of the 8 great grandparents of L.M., hypothetical Charles Frederick Saum has the most DNA matches for L.M. (excluding descendants of Charles Edwards himself) – 87 compared to just 3 for Barbara Hoover who we know to have been Charles Edwards’ mother!

·        Of the sixteen 2^nd great grandparents of L.M., the parental couple for the three brothers (George Adam Saum and Susannah Henderson) again have significantly more than the other 2^nd great grandparents. This Saum/Henderson couple have a total of 102 DNA matches to L.M. compared to just 16 for Barbara Hoover’s parents (again excluding those of us who descend from Charles Edwards himself).

·        The pattern continues back for the next couple of generations with significant DNA matches for all branches going back from the Saum/Henderson families.

L.M.’s closest matches have shared DNA with him in amounts up to 112 cM that he shares with “Linda”, a descendant of Charles Frederick Saum. She would be either a half second cousin twice removed (half 2C2R) or a third cousin once removed (3C1R) to L.M., again falling well within the range of possible relationships according to Blaine Bettinger’s Shared cM Tool:

Blaine T. Bettinger

www.thegeneticgenealogist.com

CC 4.0 Attribution License

from the DNA Painter Website

 

"What are the Odds?" Tool

A tool developed by Jonny Perl available on his DNA Painter Website is called “What are the Odds?” (WATO) located at https://dnapainter.com/tools/probability. This tool allows you to upload your family tree and include DNA matches in that tree along with the amount of shared DNA. A question is asked, in my case “Who is the father of Charles Edwards?”, the test taker’s name is added and then hypotheses are posed or suggested by the website. If the odds come back as “0”, the hypothesis is an impossibility. Anything from “1” up is possible, with the highest number being deemed the most likely. Even Jonny Perl will admit that just because one hypothesis is deemed most likely does not necessarily make it the right answer.

So, what happens when I pose various hypotheses for UF based on different test takers’ DNA matches? I will use only the oldest generation of testers available to me – namely Elinor, YEdwards and L.M.

1.      YEdwards as the Tester

-        Charles Frederick Saum most likely

-        George Thompson Saum second most likely

-        Abraham Henderson third (but can be eliminated as not fitting with Y chromosome Saum result)

-        Asa Henderson (a descendant of the other Saum/Henderson marriage mentioned earlier, but also can be eliminated as not fitting with the Y chromosome Saum result)

-        Stephen Adam Saum possible, score of 1, remains a possibility

2.      L.M. as the Tester

-        George Thompson Saum most likely

-        Charles Frederick Saum second most likely

-        Stephen Adam Saum a possibility again with a score of just 1

3.      Elinor as the Tester

-        Charles Frederick Saum most likely

-        George Thompson Saum second most likely

-        Stephen Adam Saum third most likely

The foregoing results are therefore inconclusive but it does seem that both Charles Frederick and George Thompson Saum are the likeliest candidates as father for Charles Edwards but Stephen Adam Saum remains a possibility.

CONCLUSIONS

In my opinion, the least likely father for Charles is youngest brother Stephen Adam Saum because of his damaged testicle after suffering from mumps during the Civil War. As between the two older brothers, it is really a toss-up (George Thompson Saum for his geographic proximity to Barbara’s sister’s Bleakney family or Charles Frederick Saum for the similarity in name and the huge number of DNA matches among his descendants to our family).

One possible way to pinpoint one of the brothers would be by chromosome analysis to determine if any specific DNA segment(s) could have been passed to us by only one of the brothers, but I don't have enough data (nor perhaps enough patience!) to make this a viable option. We may never be able to identify the father with certainty. However, it is certain that the Saum family is our family; we are related to these people.

I welcome any additional information that may come to light working to either prove or disprove my theory. I remain hopeful that as testing increases and additional tools become available, one or other of the brothers may be claimed with certainty.

 

Reference DNA Sites:

Ancestry: https://www.ancestry.com

DNA Painter website: https://dnapainter.com

My Heritage: https://www.myheritage.com/

Familytree DNA: https://www.familytreedna.com/

GEDMATCH: https://www.gedmatch.com/

(Sources for genealogical data provided for family members can be obtained through the author.)