BACKGROUND EXPLANATION
My great grandfather Charles Francis Edwards was born in
Keokuk, Iowa on 22 February 1869. There are no birth records available for this
time in Iowa, but this is the information he consistently used during his lifetime.
Although he liked to claim he was orphaned at a young age and his version of
his parents’ names varied, in his Montana marriage license when he married Mary
Jane Wescott in 1896 he 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), eldest daughter of
Christian Hoover and Mary Green. Barbara married three times (as Charles had
said), 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 have proven useless for
determining this well-guarded family secret. Recent developments in genetic
genealogy should provide some useful clues for a father for Charles since 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, with only infrequent mutations, enabling determination
of male inheritance quite clearly. This usually means following the family
surname back up the male line, only broken by “non-parental events” 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 met up with 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, not
surprisingly there were no matches with the Edwards surname. 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%
|
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. Only identical twins have the exact same DNA. 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 matches for them who come from within the Saum tree that I have built.
(I have recently 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 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 so he can be eliminated)
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. No documentary evidence has been
located connecting any of the three with Barbara for any reason. These families
were often on the move and it is certainly possible that Barbara and one of the
Saum brothers met somewhere in their travels in the spring of 1868. It may have
been simply a chance encounter and the man may never have known that he had
fathered Charles.
Google Earth image of Iowa and Kansas showing locations of Barbara’s parents and the Saum brothers
HISTORY OF THE THREE BROTHERS
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 subsequently shot that year by
neighbours. This no doubt provided the impetus for Charles to make a hasty
departure from Ohio. Charles came to Lawrence, Douglas, Kansas with Lane’s army
in 1861 and lived in the area until 1878 when he moved to Mt. Ayr, Osborne,
Kansas. He had been a farmer, carpenter, and notary public. He wrote several
articles for the newspapers about farming and about his journey to Mt. Ayr. He was
interested in politics and was quoted as having said that “the democratic party
has been dead and buried hundreds of times but the whisky in it gets to
fermenting and causes it to rise again.” (Abraham Lincoln’s party was
Republican and he obviously continued his support. He served as a delegate in
1880.)
His home formed the first location for the
Christian or Disciples Church. An obituary for his daughter Emma in 1910
contains much information about him. Although not verified by other sources, it
indicates that Charles had been an abolitionist Methodist preacher who had
“stumped” all over Illinois an Indiana. On the morning of 20 August 1863, he
was sick in bed with stomach troubles when the Confederate Quantrill’s raiders
arrived at his door. Although some 150 men and boys were massacred in the Unionist
town of Lawrence that day, the raiders let Saum live saying there were plenty
of healthy men to kill. More details about this raid can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Massacre.
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 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 just 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 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, making this geographically quite
possible. The distance is only about 3 ½ miles. The two would almost 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.”
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 neighbours 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 28th Infantry.
By 1864 he had been promoted to full 6th corporal. He mustered out
31 July 1865. By 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 family members have had DNA tests done with a
variety of the popular testing companies: Familytree DNA, My Heritage, Ancestry
DNA, 23& Me and Living 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 what can be done with
that information 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 would 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). In any case, the shared cM makes it quite possible that any of
the three brothers is the UF for Charles Edwards.
The foregoing analysis is just an example of the methods
that can be used. Using all the early tools available 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.
Over the years the various DNA testing sites have added
interesting new tools to their sites. A couple of the more useful ones have
been those added by My Heritage and Ancestry DNA, both of which involve
programs they have developed 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. (Other family
members have suggested a different Saum brother to try out with their results.)
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 2nd 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 2nd 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 fit into the extended family tree descending
from an ancestor. Ancestry does not allow uploads of raw data from other sites
so I have been unable to have Elinor’s DNA on that site to take advantage of
the ThruLines tool.
However, I do 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 2nd 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 2nd
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 cM. 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.
LM 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, I believe the most likely candidate for UF is George Thompson
Saum for these reasons:
- · Geographic proximity to Barbara’s sister’s
Bleakney family – land within 3 ½ miles of each other, very near the small town
of Kellogg, Jasper County, Iowa whereas older brother Charles was in the next
State of Kansas (always remembering that Charles might have come to Kellogg to visit his brothers in the spring of 1868!)
- ·
Unmarried (widower) at the time of the
conception of Charles
Caveat: The most useful piece of information from which I
have constructed this entire theory is the one Saum Y chromosome test match for
YEdwards. In an ideal world we would find more Saum men from other lines in the
extended tree who might be willing to have their Y chromosome DNA tested. I
have approached a couple of potential candidates, but have not yet had a single
response. Basing an entire theory on one result might be dangerous if there
happened to be a “non-paternal event” in his tree such that he himself is not a
Saum! However, based on the dozens of matches our family has to Saums and
Hendersons in their extended family tree, this is probably an unlikely source
of concern.
Although the autosomal DNA results and analysis are
inconclusive, it consistently shows the 3 brothers as being possible fathers
for Charles Edwards. 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.)
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