Y DNA results on William Graham

 

Margaret Graham Blake

Dwight, grandson of Margaret Graham Blake, wrote the following after getting the results back on our cousin Joe's Y-DNA (R-M269).  Y DNA traces the paternal line back for many generations.  We were surprised to see that we match Henry and Thomas Parks DNA---we were expecting Graham or Grimes (they are both the same name---just spelling differences).  So, Dwight went back to the autosomal DNA results we had gathered from about 12 William Graham descendants using primarily GEDmatch.  Autosomal or atDNA analyzes all of a person's DNA but only goes back 5 generations accurately.  What we wanted was information on7 generations back.  To do that with atDNA, we had to lower threshold from 7cM to 4cM and we could only do that on GEDmatch.  We were able to find several among the dozen of William Graham's descendants who were able to match Henry Parks and Henry Grimes family members barely below the 7cM threshold and several above that threshold.  For more on DNA and genealogy, click here.

For more on R-M269, click here

"I think just Y chromosome test, and tables showing correlation of us with Henry Parks and with John Grimes... we then learn three things.

1. Our Y chromosome matches that of Henry Parks (b.1758 in Albermarle County). Henry Parks Y chromosome is a sub-variant type of that for the other Parks of Albermarle County. It can not be conclude that Henry Parks is a male descendant of the Thomas Park family of Albermarle, as the difference in Y chromosomes has about 8 mutations. But, he did migrate with the family of Thomas Parks to Wilkes County NC, after his birth.
2. The atDNA analysis of our WmGraham group compared to 4 Henry Parks descendants shows high cM correlation values for that many generations back. This is consistent with the data demonstrating the matching of our Y chromosome to that family
3. The atDNA analysis of our WmGraham group with the descendants of John Grimes (b. 1758, Hannover County VA) shows an equally high, if not higher, cM correlation value. John Grimes, and his brother Henry Grimes, obtained early land Patents in Washington County TN, along with our James [Graham], in 1777. Our family name Graham probably comes from this family. John and Henry Grimes are known sons of Capt. William Grimes (with his 1^st wife). Captain William Grimes was killed in the Service of our young Country in Philadelphia in July 1777, under the command of General Washington.

This information together has provided us with windows into our shared heritage. We think we now know the lineages, but are not for sure which line is James Graham's father and which his mother. Unfortunately, the Court House in Guilford NC was destroyed in the Revolution, and the Court Houses in Hanover and Albermarle Counties of Virginia were destroyed in the Civil War. With the loss of these Court houses, and with the fact that DNA matching decreases effectiveness quickly with increasing number of generations, identification of our shared heritage has been difficult. It was only because of the large number of people on our side that had DNA tests done that we were able to draw these conclusions. It was the large number of people working together that was able to give confidence."

Thank you for all who helped us try to solve this puzzle.  We are still working on it, so stay tuned.

Ancestry Thru-lines

Ancestry.com has been rolling out a wonderful tool called "Thru-lines".  It combines DNA with family trees and sometimes projects who the mutual ancestor is.

So, each of these children of James ? Graham has a DNA match for me.  The only thing "for sure" is that each of us matches DNA (I've blurred some of the photos for privacy reasons) and we have a common ancestor.  Several of us have speculated that James ? Graham is our ancestor, so Ancestry pulled us all together.  Now whether that common ancestor is James would require us all to match James' siblings.  Since we all only match at about a 5th-6th cousin level, that isn't really possible at this time unless we find a very strong strand of DNA. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

 That we all match at all,  is a miracle since I don't really have strong Graham genes.  His wife Sarah Broyles is where my strength is---I match her family for several more generations back.  James has a ?? because I was never very sure about him.

Also note that I am the only William Graham descendant on this and yet I know there are 31 of his descendants who match William.  Here are his children's descendants who have DNA matches:  Margaret (8), Theodore (2), Susan (5), James Madison (3), Mary Polly (11) and Thomas (2).

This means that the strand I match all of these under James, is not shared by the other 30 descendants of William.  They probably have different matches than I do.  DNA is so fickle.

McCarrell Bible

Dwight received a note from Margaret McCarrell who owned the Bible which helped us break through our brick wall of Margaret Carroll (Margaret McCarroll Graham).  Click here for information from that Bible.  Here are photos of that note and a transcription.

Hi Cousin

On 10/13/16 I donated the James McCarrell Bible to:  The E. Tenn. Historical Society located @ 601 Gay St. in downtown Knoxville---It's just blocks from Interstate 40. From I-40 follow Downtown/local traffic signs to downtown Knoxville---P.O. Box 1629 Knoxville, TN 37902 www.easttnhistorycenter.org 865-215-8824
[Steve Cotham accepted the Bible]

It's right across from the Tennessee Theater on Gay St.  They have the Bible Room in the basement.  In order to see it (along with all of the loose papers found in the Bible) call them before you arrive.  They are on the 3rd floor.  They will get the Bible, and it will be on the 3rd floor when you arrive.  I believe I did the right thing.  I took it out of the Bank's lock Box and carried it to the McClung Historical Collection on same day.

I copied those direction from I-40 from a pamphlet I read in 2009 " The East Tennessee History Center Bringing History to Life".  They have security at the door (When I got off the elevator on the 3rd floor--I have to put my pocketbook in a locked box---when you leave, you get your pocket book back)

They are open:  Mon Tues 9Am-8:30 PM   Wed-Fri 9 AM-5:30 PM  Sat. 9AM-5PM  Sun. 1-5PM

The first floor has a gift shop, the last street car that went down Gay St, Ellis and Ernest Drug Store that closed on Cumberland Ave. many years ago etc. 

Now, I don't worry about it. The front cover (made for me) reads:
McCarrell Bible
James McCarrell Sr. Bible
Edington: Printed by Mark and Charles Kerr. His Majesty's

Printers
MDCCLXXXIX (1789)
and loose papers from the Bible
The original Bible was donated to the McClung Historical Collection in 10/16. It is very fragile and the title page is missing pages with family entries and the loose pages were scanned.  A copy of all scans was placed in the McCarrell Genealogy vertical file in 2016.  Use these copies to make copies from.  (This is the front page to me)

Steve Cotham has been a friend a long time.  He had some info on the McCarrell Bible already on file.  And they copied all of the hand written minutes of our Mt. Olive Baptist Church.  I did alot of copying of records years ago for my brother Jack.  At that time, records were in the basement of our local library 4 or 5 blocks from Gay St.  This new building is attached to our Old Post Office Building.  TVA at one time was in this old Post Office Building.  This new building cost several millions in 2004.

Before they accepted the bible and made the above notes for me, Steve sad it was printed in 1782 in 10/9/16.  On 10/13/16 the notes say it is dated 1789. Steve said he couldn't believe the Bible still had the cover.

Margaret (over)

In 2009 I picked up this pamphlet "Bringing History to Live"  East Tennessee History Center (has no date).  I wish you had a copy and wonder if you could order one on the internet.  If not, I can make you a copy.  This center was founded in 1834.  This pamphlet has so much information----not very big----M

Lead Mining and William Graham

We haven't made much headway in figuring out where William Graham is from and who his parents are, but we feel we are making some progress.  We have known for some time that he was involved in Lead.  Click here for an earlier post on his lead business

William Graham's Jefferson County Farm

As Dwight says, the Graham farm was in the heart of lead mining.  Click here for a court case involving William Graham with mining being the topic.  Click here for what the area to the right looks like today.

Nearby in Washington County, Mo were Grahams also in the lead mining industry. Click here for a document on that area.  Note that it mentions Moses Austin who is buried in Potosi, Mo (capital of Missouri's leadbelt)  which is in Washington Co. not far from the Graham farm in Jefferson County. Moses Austin went broke in Wythe County, VA and fled to the other major lead district which was in Missouri. After that time, the Major Robert Graham family of Wythe County VA became the dominate lead mining family in the USA. Is it possible that they sent one of their poorer relatives to Washington County MO to work with Moses Austin?

We do know William Graham lived in Knox County, TN before coming to MO because he was involved in a lawsuit there.  The lawsuit was for infringement on property between James McCarrell, Wm Graham and B. McGhee against McClellan. Click here for the link to the document.

Dwight hypothesizes: "I always asked, what does Barclay McGhee have to do with this...

When I learned last week that he had a Ferry business, I put 1+x, together in an algebraic equation and solved for x. Margaret McCarrell told me that there were two lawsuits between the two parties for infingement (I have only seen one). One that we won, and one the other side (McClellan) won. Interestingly, she said the lands were across the river from each other". And this was also possibly lead country.  The ferry that Barclay McGhee operated was out of Vonore or Von (from) Ore when one of the town leaders renamed it with hopes they would become a mining town.

So, we are going to try to follow the Lead Belt to find our roots, or we may just let DNA help us out thanks to a cousin we have located in Canada!

The Daughters of James McCarrell and Margret McKibbon

We have been fortunate to have made contact with members of the McCarrell family who have sent us some documents which were gathered by Ray McCarrell several years ago.  Some of this information is from the James McCarrell family bible, and "loose papers found in McCarrell's Old Family Bible"

I assume the photos on the left and below were information on "undated loose papers". Combining the two sources, here: 

James McCarrell Sr (1728-1813) was born in Ireland, married twice Mary Bohanan and Margaret McKibbon in Fincastle Boutetourt Co., Va.  Margaret McKibbon (1758-1819) was born in Pennsylvania and died in Knox Co. TN.

The McKibbon and McCarrell 


marriage resulted in seven daughters (11 children):

Lettis McCarrell (8 Sept 1779-April 1863) who married William Prather in 1795 in Fincastle Va. Later lived in Indiana Jennings County

Mary (Polly) McCarrell(9 Nov. 1780) who might have married a Blake lived in Virginia.  But another note says she married Theopheus Gillaspia and lives in 1819 in Virginia six miles below the mouth of the Elk on the bank of the river[I cannot read the name of the county but it would be Kanawha County today].  Their older son is named Samuel Gillapsia.

Nancy McCarrell(8 Nov. 1782)who is listed as marrying John Blake living in Ohio (Galla County) But another document says she is Nancy Gillespy living in Jasper County Indiana.

Hannah McCarrell(18 Mar 1785) married first John Eddington and second Stephen Wells.  Hannah Wells is listed as living in Missouri and attended Mt. Olive Baptist Church until 1846 when they asked for dismission.

Margaret McCarrell (17 Aug 1787)married William Graham "lives in Missouri at or near the Old Mines.  Her oldest son is named Jefferson Graham."

Janey (Tancy) McCarrell(9 May 1795-20 Dec. 1838/9)married John B. Carter in 1811

Salley McCarrell(21 Oct. 1797- 24 Jan. 1884)married James Robertson 12-14 March 1824.

Although there are many William Grahams in the early 1800's, there shouldn't be that many Margaret McCarrells who are the daughters of James McCarrell and yet we found one who was married to William Williams.  We think the two Margarets were probably related. We think that James McCarrell is the son of our ancestor by the first wife.

We may not know much about William Graham and Margaret McCarrell but we do know they were married (although we can't find the records which might have been in a courthouse which burned) due to a Family Bible belonging to. . . .a 21st century Margaret McCarrell.

I have also seen documents stating that William Graham married Hannah McCarrell which family records don't corroborate.

William Graham's signatures

Cousin Dwight has been communicating with one of our McCarrell relatives who had a document with William Graham's signature as well as our ancestor James McCarrell (William's father-in-law).  "The document settles a lawsuit. On "our side" was James McCarrell, William Graham and B(arclay) McGee. On the other side was William McClellan. Our side won, and McClellan paid 250$ in settlement to end the dispute. If I remember correctly from Margaret McCarrell talking with me that this was a dispute over land.... Barclay McGee from what I had seen always signed his name B. McGee..."

Although it is very hard to read what this is about, it was Jan. 7, 1805 in Blount Co TN which pre-dates William Graham and Margaret McCarrell marriage but establishes a relationship of the Graham and McCarrell families. Those witnessing this document are James McCarrell, William Graham, B. McGhee and Enoch Parsons.

We know this is the same William Graham because we have his signature on a Jefferson County Missouri document (along with other relatives).  His is on the upper right side with Mothershead, Bakers and Browns.  Notice how similar the signature below is to the one above.  Samuel Graham (not sure how he is related) is shown as a comparison.


http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mojchs/Courts/PetitionList_1826.htm

William McClellan also sold property in Pennsylvania to a John Graham (whom we believe to be a relative).  It is also possible that a McClellan in St. Charles Co. married a Graham.  Not sure if all of these are of the same McClellan family.

Another name was B. McGhee which we believe to be Barclay McGhee who was an Indian agent.  Which is interesting since we believe the John Graham family was associated with Ft. Bellefontaine near the confluence of Missouri and Mississippi Rivers
http://wardepartmentpapers.org/searchresults.php?searchClass=fulltextSearch&fulltextQuery=Barclay+McGhee

Finally Enoch Parsons was one of the first lawyers in Tennessee and ran for governor in 1819.  So, although I can't read all of the details of the document, there is a lot of history in just the names.

Bethlehem Baptist Blog

I haven't totally neglected this blog, but I did want to finish posting photos and documents for this blog.  This lovely country church in Jefferson County, Missouri has been the worship place for many of my ancestors.  Although the early records are lost, I feel very deeply that I have ancestors buried here going back to my g-g-g-g grandmother Margaret McCarroll Graham.  Someday, I hope to find some evidence of this. 

Her husband William Graham died in the St. Louis area---we can't find any evidence of his burial either, but click here for a really good possibility.  He died near here, Carondolet,  in 1835.

Frumet and Big River

This is the 1898 Township map (double click to enlarge) showing my great-grandfather's farm on the far right (Thomas Long), but this blog is about the area to the left by the Big River wending it's way up the map.

My Graham ancestors are often said to be from Frumet (seen above on the map--where their land was is outlined in yellow) Almost all of my ancestors on Grandpa Roy Long's side of the family are from Big River Township---the Longs, Reiters, Tyreys, Browns and Grahams. As children, my cousins and I played in the Big River at Uncle Lawrence's club house.

The Quest to Find William Graham's Land

Looking west toward Big River near Highway H in Missouri

On genealogy web-sites William Graham and Margaret [Mc] Carroll (my 4 greats) were said to live in Fremont which is supposed to be Frumet Missouri. But, we never really knew where they lived until Dwight carefully read an article on the Jefferson County Historical Society web site. Scroll down to the Dugan Cemetery and begin reading on the second page:

28th June 1825 we find deed from William Graham to Stephen Lamarque of Washington County, 640 acres, for $426.26, being the settlement right of Elijah Benton and by him conveyed to Burnell J. Thompson who sold it to William Clinton who sold it to William Graham, as recorded in Book B Page 214.

Scroll down a bit more to see where the red crosses are on the maps which Dave Halleman has provided. Independently, Dwight and I agreed where the land was on a Google map. With the GPS co-ordinates, my husband and I headed to Frumet, Missouri.

I was concerned that I might not be able to find a place to explore on the west side of Big River, so my first plan was to go down Hidden Valley Ranch Lane to see if I could photograph the hill side across the river.

I met two young men who were "processing" a deer they'd just shot. They told me that Norm Valle owned the land---they warmed up a bit when I told them I was related to Norm and had talked to his aunt a few months ago. So, they looked at my maps and pointed me in the right direction.

McCarroll-McKibben

Someone (LM) on Ancestry.com contacted me with information on Margaret McCarroll, my g-g-g-g grandmother. We had thought for many years that her maiden name was Carroll, but another cousin(LL) had information it was really McCarroll or McCarrell. Here is what LM wrote me:

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Jaclyn: I began to research my McCarroll ancestry back in the seventies, knowing only that my GGGrandfather John McCarroll came to Louisiana in the early 1800s from Tennessee and in my search I exchange letters with one Margaret McCarroll-McCarrell of McCarrell Lane Rt. 3, Knoxville Tennessee. She wrote the following:

John Graham's Probate I

We were pretty excited when David M. found this at the Carondelet Historical Society. I included a lot of the page so others can see the names listed on this same page: Chouteau, DeMun, Labaddie, St. Cyr, Soulard,Valle, Howdershell---all names of places, streets in the St. Louis area.
I was little nervous that this wasn't really our William Graham, but the document below convinced me---who else would be living around Big River in Jefferson County?

Jacob Stein and William Graham

There are several hints that William Graham was a well-respected member of his community. But, having Jacob Stein /Stine as the executor of his estate is the best one. Although we don't know why William Graham died in Carondelet rather than in Jefferson County where his farm was, we have recently found a possible clue.

Jacob Stein (Click here for more information on him) and William Graham lived in Carondelet which was separate from St. Louis at that time.
It was a French river town. Although we don't know where William Graham lived, we do know where Jacob Stein lived in the 1840's.

William Graham's Will

William and Margaret Graham are perhaps my most interesting ancestors (4 greats). They are Catherine Caroline Brown Long's (Milton's wife) grandparents. Their daughter (Catherine's mother)was Mary (Polly) Graham Brown who was born in Missouri around 1811.

Originally they were just names, but I gradually began to realize that almost everyone with Jefferson County pioneer blood is related to them (some, like cousin Rick, is related to them three or four ways). Although we aren't sure where they came from, they were definitely early settlers since Missouri wasn't a state until 1821.

At first, we thought William had died before 1830 because Margaret is the head of the household in the census (above). But, then we found William's will dated 1835: