Pages

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Connection Fail: When an inferential link doesn't pan out

Sarah Campbell's daughter Elizabeth Wray


Reviewing my DNA test results based on some advice from my cousin Nan I collected up all my matches with a 10cM and 1000 SNPs segment matches. I attempted to find an ancestral link. I found someone who lived in an area where many of my cousins families settled. I contacted that match by email, and exchanged familly surnames, but we never were able to establish a link. It must be coincidence that the Forgey cousins settle in the same area? Looking at another close match predicted to be 4 generations by Family Tree DNA I found a match; but, instead of at 4 generations it was 11 generations. I found another match also predicted to be 4 generations which is more likely 7 generations. I decided I would need to make a push to solve some of my Brickwalls and get these tree lines at least one more generation back in order to find out where the matches might connect. Although I don't believe I can ever get back as far as 11 generations on every line. I think 6-7 generations may be as far as I can take some lines?
The close match I exchanged emails with this week has ancestors who were Tennessee pioneers. I decided to work on a brickwall which might lead from Indiana to Tennessee. My ancestor Sarah Campbell's family was thought to have came from Tennessee. Her daughter Polly Thurman Hall stated on several US Censuses that her mother was born in Tennessee. Unfortunately my ancestor Sarah Campbell died before 1850. Very little information was recorded about her. Her common name, Campbell, also makes research difficult.
The first mention we have of her in any records is for her marriage to Anderson Wray in Jackson County, Indiana in 1832. This is the only place I've found her name recorded. We then find her unnamed with her husband  listed only as a female in his household on the 1840 Census. By the 1850 Census we find Anderson Wray remarried with a new 19 year old wife Elizabeth Jackson. Anderson Wray married Elizabeth Jackson in August of 1849 so we know Sarah was dead by then. 
Anderson Wray Household 1850
For years I inferred that Sarah Campbell was likely the daughter of William Campbell and Mary Gilless of Lawrence County, Indiana based on the fact Anderson Wray's family initially settled in Lawrence County, Indiana, and that was the only family I found there at the same time. Well this inferences has fallen apart since I found out William Campbell and Mary Gilless did indeed have a daughter named Sarah but she married a George Dougherty the same year my Sarah married Anderson Wray. So my years of research on this family is all for naught.
Another possible connection I had considered was Balaam Campbell as Sarah's brother which is now looking more likely. Sarah and Balaam both married in Jackson County, IN. According to several trees I've seen  posted on the internet Balaam is the son of John Campbell and Sarah Brooks of Clark County, IN. The Campbells of Clark County, IN are promising possibilities. One of Sarah Campbell's daughter's was Charlotte Temple Wray and there was a Charlotte Temple living in Jeffersonville, Clark County, IN who would have been a contemporary if Sarah Campbell.
There is also a Campbell family living in Jennings County, IN. According to someone Sarah's full name was Sarah Cloud O'Briant Campbell. Her daughter Polly Wray-Hall had a son named Bryant. The Jennings' Campbells lived near a Rolla Bryant. May be a link?
So the primary clues I have to work with now are:
  1. Daughter named Charlotte Temple Wray may be named after relative?
  2. Balaam Campbell living in Jackson County, IN may be brother?
  3. John Campbell and Sarah Brooks may be her parents plus I matched several Brooks families on my Autosomal DNA.
My fear is Sarah's father may have died when she was young and her mother may have remarried?

No comments:

Post a Comment