Baker Brick Wall

In Genealogy, a "brick wall" is a line that you've searched and searched and the documents just aren't there or you can't find them.  DNA has helped with some of my brick walls.  Although the documentation may still be lacking, I know several lines through "leaps of faith".

One of those brick walls was my 3 great grandmother Susannah Baker who married Thomas Long in Kentucky 14 Dec. 1816. That was the only documentation I had for her.  I thought maybe she was related to Milton Baker in Jefferson Co. Mo (where they lived) and who attended church with my relatives:  Bethlehem Baptist Church. My g-g grandfather was even named Milton Long, but I couldn't find her in documentation or on anyone's family tree.  

So, I decided to look at the 1810 census in Warren Co. KY where the Longs were living.  The census that far back only has the head of the household named with a tally of how many lived with him (by age and gender).  Knowing how my family generally married people in the neighborhood that they went to church with, I was looking for a Baker living nearby who was Baptist.  I quickly found Elijah Baker with daughters the right age. He was on the page with many of the early Jefferson County residents or people who had married into my family:  Browns, Longs, Dinwiddys, Gambels, Mitchells, Mothershead, Pinson. 

I added Elijah Baker to my family tree with lots of ?????? indicating to anyone seeing my tree, that I'm unsure of the link. Well, that lead to his father Rev. Andrew Baker and BINGO---dna matches were appearing from others who were related to Rev. Andrew Baker.  Googling him I found that he was a Baptist preacher.  https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/8652620  I felt like I was on the right track.

Robert Bolling

But it wasn't until I discovered a Bolling that I felt certain enough to put it all in writing.  For several years I'd noticed a lot of people in my DNA matches who were Bollings (my daughter's mother-in-law's maiden name).  I also knew that some Bollings descended from Pocahontas.  Well, we are not THOSE Bollings but we do share the same father with THOSE Bollings.  Robert Bolling was first married to Jane Rolfe (Pocahontas' granddaughter).  His second wife was Ann Stith with whom he had 9 more children, one of whom was Rev. Andrew Baker's mother Mary.  Click here for more information.

So here is the ??? lineage, starting with my grandfather:

Roy Long grandfather

Thomas Henry Long

Milton Long

Susannah Baker

Elijah Baker

Rev. Andrew Baker

Mary Molly Bolling

Robert Bolling 7 great grandfather

Note:  Susannah Baker and Rev. Andrew Baker are in that line.  But, I now believe her father is James and his mother is also Susannah.  Oddly Susannah (mother of Andrew) did have a child named Bolling Baker.  Was her maiden name Bolling or her mother's?  Unlikely that Robert Bolling is in this line though.