The Mystery of Hugh Forgey's land

 Land records in Knox County, Tennessee had been key to establishing possible relationships in Lucille Wallace's book A genealogical history of the Forgy, Forgey and Forgie families in America. She located a land grant for a James Forgey which was for 500 acres on Flat Creek in Knox County, TN.

She assumed that this 500 acres was sold and split between Alexander Forgey, Andrew Forgey, and Hugh Forgey. Below is a snip from the book. 

Actually the land was split between Alexander and Andrew Forgey. Hugh did witness one of the deeds which may have led to the misunderstanding. 

Adding even more confusion was the fact Hugh Forgey sold 250 acres of land on Flat Creek also. 

All of this led Lucille Wallace to assume James Forgey was the father of Alexander, Andrew, and Hugh. It would have been unusual for a father to sell land to his sons. It's most likely this James was the son of Andrew Forgey and Margaret Reynolds. He appears to have bought land as a speculator in several areas. His Reynolds cousins owned land on Flat Creek so he had family ties there. 

Alexander and Andrew were likely brothers. Alexander Forgey, James Forgey's uncle, could have been their father. 

Examining land records we discover Hugh Forgey owned 400 acres on Flat Creek well before the sale of  the 250 acres by James. He was living on Flat Creek in the 1780s. He was definitely much older than Alexander Forgey who was said to have been born in 1780. Hugh Forgey was likely born in the 1760s. 

Hugh Forgey was a chain bearer in Knox County, Tennessee in 1786, again pointing to the fact he was much older than Andrew and Alexander. Both of those men didn't own any land until they bought the land from James in 1802. 

Hugh Forgey actually owned 400 acres on Flat Creek. Hugh Forgey shared a property line with Robert Reynolds. Likely his cousin. He sold off 150 acres in 1798. By coincidence leaving 250 acres. He sold off the remaining 250 acres, on Flat Creek, in 1806.

I have not been able to find a grant or purchase deed for the land Hugh Forgey sold off? The lack of a deed misled Lucille Wallace. 

Recently I have found references to this land in other grants at the NORTH CAROLINA LAND GRANT IMAGES AND DATA website. It appears he likely purchased this grant from William McBroom. or survey. 

Here Hugh Forgey is described as living on William McBroom's survey on Flat Creek in 1793. 

It states Hugh Forgey lives on McBroom's survey. There was a 400 acre grant to McBroom on Flat Creek in 1789. 

I would like to find out when Hugh purchased the 400 acres. I have an index with page numbers for additional deeds but have not located the books these page numbers refer to?

We do know Hugh was living on 400 acres on the west fork of Flat Creek in 1791, according to Robert Reynolds land patent. This entry below, from 1791, refers to Hugh Forgey's 400 acre survey. I have not found a 400 acre survey for Hugh, however. 

As the old deed books began to fade and fall apart deeds were copied into new books. It's possible Hugh Forgey's purchase deed never made it into the newer books? Notations for book and page numbers of other books are often recorded in the margins of the deeds. Below is an example. 

Some of the page numbers I found might refer to an older volume that no longer exists or isn't at the McClung library in Knoxville? 

Hugh and John Forgey were chainbearers for James Reynolds in 1788. We know the Reynolds family is related through Andrew Forgey's wife Margaret Reynolds. 

John is kind of a mystery because he was said to have died in 1793 and James Forgey of Hawkins County, Tennessee was the administrator of his estate. According to Andrew Forgey's, husband of Margaret Reynolds, will John was still alive when Andrew Forgey wrote his will leaving John land in 1809. 

According to Andrew's will Hugh Forgey was living on some of John's land in 1809. There appeared to be a close relationship between Hugh and John. I surmise they were together in Knox County in the 1780s. I see no sign of another John in the records. Maybe John didn't really die in 1793? Hugh was accused of perjury for his testimony in the case regarding the estate of John Forgey. Another John Forgey could also have joined the family, coming out from Ireland. or he could have been Andrew and Alexander's brother? 

Hugh Crawford, son of Nancy Forgey, did mention John and Hugh Forgey in his journal. He remembered seeing John and the fact he lived in Middle Tennessee. His uncle Hugh Forgey died when he was very young and he didn't know much about him. Below is a passage from his journal stating his uncle Hugh Forgey lived in Knox County, Tennessee at one time not far from where he was then living.

 We can with reasonable certainty surmise John and Hugh Forgey were sons of Andrew Forgey and Margaret Reynolds. Andrew and Alexander might be sons of Alexander Forgey, brother of Andrew, who lived in Washington County, Virginia. 

More deed books will eventually come online for Knox County, Tennessee. I might be able to find the deed of sale for Hugh's 400 acres when more books come online? 

Knox County, Tennessee Researchers

The McClung library sent me this list of researchers who specialize in research in Knox County, Tennessee. Personally I'm not interested in hiring a professional, but this might be of help to someone else. 

Native American DNA/Tall Tale or True?

 Many Americans claim Native American ancestry who aren't tribal members. Stories are often passed down in families about Native American ancestors. In some cases the stories are true. Many Americans have turned to DNA to verify these stories. Few people who have tested actually find any traces of Native American DNA in their results. 

When these testers are so confident they have Native American ancestry why isn't it showing up in their results? Here are a few possibilities:

1. The Native American ancestor is too many generations removed from the test taker. It's always best to have someone test who is closer generation wise because we lose portions of our distant ancestors DNA with every generation. 
2. We share a very small trace amount that the companies aren't picking up. If you test with multiple companies there is a chance one will detect this small percentage, which could be less than 1%.
3. Your Native American ancestor was mixed and not 100% Native American leading you to inherit only a trace amount. 

My impression, after many years of genealogy research, is Americans, those living in today's United States, didn't marry Native Americans very often. This is because the European population of Colonial America was large, with a larger population of women than in Central America, South America, and Canada. Most DNA testers in the United States do not have substantial amounts of Native American DNA, most actually don't have any Native American results. 

Fewer women came to the new world from Spain and Portugal. This led to more mixing between Iberian males and  Native Americans. 

There likely would have been more mixing between the  British colonists and Native Americans in the early 17th century, when the population was small, when there were fewer European women in the colonies.

If a person has family from Oklahoma, where eastern tribes were resettled, the chances of having Native American ancestry would be greater.  

The DNA companies get many questions and angry comments from people who are certain they have Native American ancestry which didn't show up in their DNA results. When they tell people it's possible the ancestor lived too far back for this to show up they are being truthful. Another explanation thrown out is the companies don't have good reference populations for Eastern North American Native Americans. This is because the tribal leadership is often against DNA testing. Is this true? Is that why this DNA admixture isn't showing up?

Let's look at my French Canadian DNA matches. Many of these matches still live in Canada and are French speaking even today. If it isn't possible to identify Eastern North American Native in the DNA samples then this admixture wouldn't show up in those living in Eastern Canada either. There was migration and mixing between the Canadian tribes and those south of them. 

Here we see one of my French Canadian matches has 0.80% Native American DNA. Because this is less than 1% I wouldn't look at this as strong proof of Native American ancestry. He does, however, have a Native American mtDNA haplogroup, A2i, proving his direct maternal line is in fact Native American. So the trace amount of Native American DNA is in fact correct. (The haplogroup A2i is found in the following groups:"USA (Hispanic, etc.), Canada (Ojibwa, Prince Edward Island, Pabos in Quebec)".  According to the Wikipedia article "Haplogroup A (mtDNA)" )

Looking at more French Canadian matches I find many with traces of Native American DNA. Here is another case. This match currently lives in Canada and has over 1% Native American DNA. He doesn't however have Native American ancestry in his direct male of female lines, because he has European haplogroups, unlike the previous example. 

Yes, in most cases North Eastern Native American DNA can be detected if present. 

The colonial population of Quebec was very small. They had difficulty attracting French women to settle in Quebec. Also many of the Quebecois were fur traders who would have had close contact with Native Americans. There is definitely more detectable Native American in the French Canadian population than those who settled the United States. 

Basically if your ancestors were from south of the United States border it's nearly certain you have Native American ancestry. If you have French Canadian ancestry you might find traces of Native American admixture. If you have American, United States, ancestry your chances of having Native American ancestry are much lower, unless you are a tribal member. 

 If you're positive the stories in your family are true and would like to prove that with DNA, but you don't have any trace in your results, I would suggest testing at more of the major testing companies or testing more relatives. Check the Y and mtDNA haplogroups of your matches at 23andMe and Family Tree DNA. It's possible, if your ancestors were among the earliest arriving in Virginia, for instance. that you might indeed have Native American ancestry. However, that far back any trace of these ancestors' DNA is probably no longer discernible. If your Native American ancestor was said to have been born in the 19th or 20th centuries you should find traces of their DNA in your results. In a case of a supposed closer ancestor not showing up then the story you were told is just another tall tale. 

Problems With The Browning Lineage/New Information has Surfaced

 My research on my great-grandmother Isis Browning-Forgey's line began in May of 1999 when FamilySearch.org first went online. When that site first went online I tried searching all of my family names but the only line I got a hit on was for Isis Browning's family. I didn't know at the time this information wasn't verified and there weren't any source citations. It didn't occur to me that someone would post information that hadn't been thoroughly researched with documented sources. I had just begun researching my family in 1998 and didn't know that some people drew conclusions without proof. 

Actually the Browning lineage I found posted turned out to be mostly correct. I copied the family group sheets for the Browning family as far back as the links would take me. Below is the group sheet for Edward Browning's family. I copied this sheet on June 8th, 1999. 

The information on the sheets turned out to be very good going back to Edward Browning. When we go back a generation to his parents that's where we run into problems. According to this sheet Francis Browning and Rachel Marriot were the parents of Edward Browning. 

In 1999 there weren't many original documents online. If I wanted to verify the Browning lineage myself I would have to travel to Maryland to view the original documents or write the repositories asking for them to mail me copies, or order microfilms from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. 

Doing some research online I was able to eventually find the reasoning and sources behind the information provided in the group sheets.. Someone had written a book about the Browning family and this information was copied from the book. Wills, land records, and census records were the bulk of the sources used. Looking at the sources used I felt confident the Browning researchers had done a good job and I didn't need to do anything else except collect the original sources either online or by ordering microfilms from my local Family History Center.

The reasoning behind the parentage attribution for Edward Browning was based on the fact Francis Browning, of Virginia, named an Edmund in his will. The names look similar when handwritten; it was thought someone mistook the name Edward for Edmund. I thought that could be a possibility and found no proof it wasn't. On the other hand Edward doesn't appear to have any sons named Francis or daughter's named Rachel. He lived in Maryland and Francis lived in Virginia. 

Where Edward is the man mistakenly identified as Edmund completely falls apart is there was a man named Edmund who was the son of Francis and Rachel. Edmund Browning can be found in several 18th Century records for Culpeper County, Virginia, the same area Francis and Rachel settled. Below is a power of attorney given to Edmund in 1770 from his brother John witnessed by brother Caleb Browning. These are all children of Francis and Rachel Browning. 

I had thought that atDNA test results at Ancestry supported a link between the Browning family of Culpeper County, Virginia and our Maryland Browning family. Looking at Ancestry's Thrulines a Nicholas Browning is shown as a son of Edward. He didn't have a son named Nicholas, but Francis Browning and Rachel Marriot did. 

I assumed this was pointing to a relationship with the Virginia family even though someone had an error in their tree. Doing some more research I discovered this family didn't descend from Nicholas or the Virginia Brownings, They also descended from the Maryland Brownings. 

It appears that as in the case of Edmund becoming Edward, Edward's son Nathan became Nicholas. Maybe because they both start with N? Looking at the names in the tree of the supposed Nicholas I spotted the name Verlinda. That was the name of Nathan's wife. Also this Nicholas was said to have died and been married in Maryland. 

Doing more research on the ancestors of these matches I discovered not only was the name Verlinda passed down in the family Elias was the son of Nathan Browning and Verlinda. My DNA connection to the Culpeper County, Virginia Browning family had now disappeared. 

Edward Browning origins mystery

The Edward Browning, of Maryland, origins mystery continued until someone commented on a blog post with information from a book he wrote.

George Arthur Trail IV, author of the book "David's Industry" discovered some new information about Edward Browning while researching original documents at the Maryland State Archives. He found Edward Browning named in a court case. He had been convicted for stealing a cow. The court case occurred in 1722, in Prince George's County, Maryland. Edward Browning is described as a former servant of John Rothery in the entry below from the book K page 484 of Prince George's County, Maryland court records. 

It's a little difficult to read the old faded record but we can make out that Edward Browning was sold by the court to Richard Isaac for a term of 3 and a half years. 

I believe this Edward Browning is more likely than not our Edward Browning. Part of Prince George's County, Maryland later became Montgomery County, Maryland where Edward's will was filed. He was also the right age to have been the father of children born in the 1720s when many of our Edward's children were born. 

Maryland was settled by many indentured servants who couldn't afford the cost of transporting themselves to America. They instead entered into service contracts with masters for a certain number of years to pay for their passage to this country. I believe Edward Browning could have been serving a set number of years as an indentured servant. Apparently John Rothery no longer wanted his service or the court thought that arrangement wasn't in the best interest of the parties because he was sold to someone else by the court. Three and a half years could be the remainder of his contract with Rothery? 

Another scenario that George Trail believes is the case is a ship captain named William Browning is the father of Edward Browning. This man was captain of the "Chester Merchant". Naval logs name a Potomac River captain by the name of William Browning. The entries in the logs were in 1689 and 1690. Our Edward Browning's eldest son's name was William. It's also likely that Edward Browning was born in the 1690s. Edward could have been a free man sold by the court for stealing the cow? Instead of a newly arrived indentured servant. 

There was an Edward Browning who is listed as living in Baltimore's Spes Utiz Hundred in 1706. This could point to our Edward's family being in Maryland well before the 1720s. Edward could haven been a name passed down in the family. 

Maybe more information will surface to establish whether Edward came to America as an indentured servant or he was born in America? 

Roger Browning of Tennessee loose ends

My line goes back to Isis Browning-Forgey of Indiana. Her father Richard Washington Browning was the son of another Nathan Browning and Obedience McPike of Greene County, Tennessee. Our connection to the Browning family of Maryland hinges on a deed naming a Roger Browning as the son of Benjamin Browning who in turn was the son of Edward Browning whose story I presented above. 

Benjamin was named in Edward's Montgomery County, Maryland will. Roger was named in a deed after Benjamin's death as the eldest son of Benjamin in a Frederick County, Maryland deed. The Brownings lived in both Montgomery County, Maryland and neighboring Frederick County. 

We don't have anything specifically stating that Roger Browning of Greene County, Tennessee and Roger of Maryland are the same person. We don't have any documents stating where he was born. We do have census records for a couple of his children. One child states his father was born in Virginia, while another states he was born in Maryland. Roger had a son named Benjamin who may have been named after his father. Nathan could have been named after an uncle? 

How common was the first name Roger in 18th Century America? Comparing the incidence of Roger to John in the 1810 US Census we see Roger is much less common than the name John. There were 87,284 Johns and 484 Rogers. This would support the fact the name Roger Browning wouldn't be very common. I have not found any other Roger Brownings on census records contemporary with our Roger. Doing a general search on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org I haven't found any either. 

Looking at Thrulines, at AncestryDNA we do have matches with descendants of confirmed children of both Edward Browning and his son Benjamin. 

One of these lines had to be dismissed, however, because we also share another German related line with this family. Nancy Browning descendants are disregarded because of our relationship on two different lines. If I could see the segments in a chromosome browser I might be able to determine which side they came from? Since only one segment is shared with Nancy's matches, looking at common matches it looks like this segment comes from our shared Zirkle Roller line. 

This leaves us with 3 matches related to the possible brother of our Roger. We have 3 matches with descendants of Benjamin Sr.'s son Benjamin. We have 36 matches with descendants of our ancestor Roger. Our connection to Roger is firmly established, not only with all of these DNA matches, but also with Roger's will and census records. 

Where we run into some conflicting information trying to prove our ties to the Maryland family has to do with a Roger Browning that is listed with a Maryland Browning family member named Basil in Pennsylvania. Basil is listed on records with the family in Maryland and then relocates to Pennsylvania. There is disagreement regarding who his father was. 

We first find Roger Browning on a muster roll in 1781 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. 

Since the name Roger is generally uncommon this Pennsylvania man may be Roger Browning from Pennsylvania? A William Browning and an Ephraim Browning are also named as living in Bedford County, Pennsylvania around the time Roger lived there. 

There is other evidence, however. There may have been more than one man named Roger Browning living in Pennsylvania. Descendants of the other Browning lines in Pennsylvania believe that their ancestors were originally from Maryland. The name Roger looks to be more common in the area of Maryland where the Brownings lived than in other areas. The name Basil, who Roger is associated with, is also used in that area. So there could have been more Roger Browning cousins living in Pennsylvania. 

In 1783 Roger Brownen was listed on a Bedford County, Pennsylvania tax list. There are 6 people in his household. He has one cabin. 

 

In 1785 we see a Roger Brownen listed as a single freeman non-resident runaway. Sounds like a different man than the one named above. The name Roger may have been used by other branches of the Maryland Browning family? 

If this Pennsylvania Roger is the son of Benjamin Browning he makes a trip back to Frederick County, Maryland after the death of his father in 1787. His father died intestate and the only child mentioned was Roger who inherited the land because he was the eldest son. A likely brother did appear on Benjamin's inventory. Roger sold the land he inherited to Jeremiah Browning. He could have been a brother, a cousin. or his uncle. 

After selling the land he apparently would have returned to Pennsylvania joining Basil in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. 

In 1788 we find Basil and Roger on a militia list for Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. 

They both appear on a 1788 tax list for Huntingdon, PA. Roger drops off the Pennsylvania tax lists in 1789 when he either dies or most likely moved to Tennessee. 

In 1789 our Roger Browning bought land in Sullivan County, Tennessee.. An Amsy Browning was serving in the militia in Tennessee in the 1790s, and is believed to be related to Roger due to the fact the name Amzi was used by Roger's descendants. It's possible he was another brother of Roger or his son?

There is a Browning DNA project with two descendants of the Maryland Brownings in it. The best way for our family to confirm our relationship with the Maryland Brownings would be for a male descendant of Roger Browning to take a Y-DNA test to compare with the Maryland Brownings. More research in Pennsylvania and Maryland court records would also help. 

AncestryDNA SideView/New at Ancestry.com

I've been interested in seeing how accurate our ethnicity results become as the technology advances. It's difficult to gage accuracy without separating the results by parent. 23andMe has been separating the results by parent if at least one parent has tested with them. 

Since 23andMe phases your results with an actual parent, or parents, their ethnicity results are more accurate. Separating the results by parent is called phasing. 

Ancestry.com phases results by guessing the phase based on strings of letters that make up our DNA code, A (adenine), G (guanine), C (cytosine), and T (thymine). These appear in base pairs, such as A-T, one letter for each parent. In order to separate the base pairs according to parent strings of letters are separated by parent using your matches in their database. It's an accurate process but errors can occur. A phase can turn out to be wrong, which will cause your ethnicity to be incorrectly estimated.

(For a better explanation by a professional genetic genealogist read: "AncestryDNA SideView | Ethnicity Inheritance | What is Phasing?" by Diahan Southard.")

How accurate is SlideView for my mother and me? 

Looking at my mother Edna Forgey-Kapple's SideView gives us a good idea regarding how accurate Ancestry.com's phased results are. My mother's father's ancestry is 100% Colonial American. His ancestors originally settled in the mid-Atlantic and Southern part of the United States. there is no New England ancestry I have been able to find. Settlers of those areas were heavily Scots-Irish and German. Those two ethnicities make up the bulk of his ancestry. There is also likely some English and Welsh ancestry. 

My mother's mother, Graciela (Lucresia) Del Castillo, was Nicaraguan. Nicaraguans are a mix of Spanish, Indian, and African. My grandmother lived in Granada, Nicaragua in an area that was a segregated area where people who were primarily of Spanish/European ancestry lived. Granada had a line drawn in the city separating the indigenous population from those who looked more European. However, all Nicaraguans are a mix of the 3 ethnicities because there was never a large migration of Europeans into Nicaragua.

Now let's look at the split between my mother's parents in her results.

Looking at parent 1 and parent 2 on the parent chart, and the ethnicity breakdown, I can easily tell which parent is which. The breakdown looks fairly accurate. If a person's parents were both from the same places, they wouldn't be able to identify which parent is 1, and which 2. We see parent 1, Graciela Del Castillo, has much more color in her chart representing the fact she isn't 100% European, and she has more trace regions. 

Maternal Parent 1 Graciela Del Castillo-Forgey

It's definitely obvious Graciela is parent 1. 

Below you see African admixtures represented in the chart as coming from the Graciela Del Castillo side. Tracing my grandfather's ancestry, I haven't found any African ancestry. Our mtDNA is L, which is African, and would support this result. Europeans in the United States generally married other Europeans. 

Now looking at the indigenous Indian admixture we see that share is larger than the African representing the fact they were more numerous being native to the area. 

Ancestry estimates that my mother received a 25% admixture share of Spanish from her mother Graciela. 

Below we see Basque, and Portugal represented which would make sense because they reflect the Iberian Peninsula ancestry. The surname Lacayo on my grandmother's side is Basque. 

Some French is showing up on Graciela's side. This could be French Basque or it could be a phasing error? 

Below we see a sliver of Irish on Graciela's side. I don't believe she had any Irish and believe this is a phasing error. 

90% of this so far looks accurate for Graciela Del Castillo. She said she had some German ancestry which is not showing up in my mother's results. 

Maternal Parent 2 Charles Forgey

As I said Charles Forgey had American Colonial ancestry which was a mix of British Isles and German. 

Since many of his ancestors were Scots-Irish we would expect to see this reflected on his side. We do see Irish, and Scottish, represented in the parent chart below. 

England and Northwest Europe below helps fill this Colonial American admixture. Obviously this portion of DNA isn't pointing to anything more specific. 

I would say Charles Forgey was about 1/4 German on paper. According to his breakdown my mother received 8% Germanic admixture from him. 

My mother is said to have received 2% Sweden and Denmark admixture which I believe isn't accurate. That is probably Germanic. 

This again, is very accurate. I think it's accurate because my mother's parents were from such different ethnicities, and their ancestors married people from the same ethnic groups for generations. 

My parents

On my father's side I'm 1/4 Austo-Hungarian, 1/8 Irish, 1/16 French Canadian, and the remainder of my 50% share from my father would be a Colonial American mix which would mainly be a British Isles mixture. On my mother's side I'm 1/4 Nicaraguan and 1/4 Colonial American British Isles, and German mix. On paper that is. That doesn't mean I inherited these amounts of DNA admixture.

Parent 1 Edna Forgey-Kapple

I can identify my mother Edna immediately by clicking on all of the ethnicities associated with Nicaragua. She is definitely parent 1 as we see below with the Iberian and Indigenous. Those ethnicities cover about a quarter of the chart as expected. 

The ethnicities I would associate with my mother's father's side, my grandfather, looks to be over represented. Maybe I did receive more DNA from my grandfather's side? 

I found what is apparently a phasing error. My breakdown shows Welsh and Norwegian admixture on my mother's side. My mother doesn't have those ethnicities in her results? If she doesn't have it she couldn't give those to me. 

Since I'm more Heinz57 than Ivory soap pure my results aren't as accurate. As families spend more time in America they mix with other ethnicities jumbling the letters in our DNA up. 

Parent 2 Robert Kapple

Since my Kapple grandfather Rudolph was Austro-Hungarian and my grandmother Dorothy Maon-Kapple Colonial American, Irish, and French Canadian it's again fairly easy to figure out which quarter share of parent 2 represents each grandparent. 

Paternal Grandfather

The Germanic and Eastern European on the parent 2 side represents my Kapple Austro-Hungarian grandfather. When I first tested 8 years ago I didn't see him represented in my ethnicity results. It's nice to see him represented. These admixtures don't cover a 1/4 of the chart but are getting closer to correct. 

Paternal Grandmother

My grandmother Dorothy Mason-Kapple was a mixture of Irish, French Canadian, and Colonial American is showing up correctly on parent 2 my father's side.

Clearly, we see my great-grandmother Helen Mullen-Mason's Irish showing up. She was born in Ireland in 1880. According to this breakdown I received 23% of my Irish from her. The Scottish could have come from early American Scottish ancestors? 

What's missing from my maternal grandmother's side is French. My grandmother was 1/4 French Canadian. I have many French-Canadian DNA matches so I believe I have some of that admixture. 

I would say the breakdown by parent for me isn't as accurate as it was for my mother. I believe it's because I'm more ethnically mixed and it's confusing their algorithms. Some of my ethnic groups are underrepresented in the database which also makes identifying my ethnicities difficult. The closer someone is to a particular ethnic group the better the results, meaning your family has been in one place for centuries and haven't mixed much recently with other ethnic groups. 

I know where my ancestors lived in the past few hundred years, so the ethnicity results are less important to me (although ethnicity results can help sort our DNA matches). If someone doesn't know where their ancestors are from the accuracy of these results are important to them. 

So how accurate is the Ancestry.com SideView for us? I would say it's in the 90'% range for my mother and about 80% accurate for me. So, I would infer the ethnicity results overall accuracy are in those ranges. 

 

My Experience With the 1950 Census/ How I've found hard to find people

 I live in Southern California so when the 1950 Census became available on April 1st just after midnight eastern time it was only 9pm  in California. I was able to search the census while still reasonably lucid. It was still a learning process. Searching by name often didn't bring up the correct person. The machine generated index does a fairly good job but you have to play with it sometimes. You can get thousands of possible matches when searching the index, or the right one may appear on top or on page 1.

How to search while waiting for the better indexes

Until a better index is ready, basically going through the 1950 Census and manually indexing it, the machine generated index is all that is available if you don't want to patiently wait.  

The NARA site recommends using a place and name of the head of household to search their index for the best results. That didn't always work for me. It didn't work for my Forgey family or my Kapple family in California. I did find my grandfather Kapple that way. 

Below you can see my grandfather Rudolph Kapple's first name isn't spelled correctly, but the last name was indexed correctly. His 2nd wife's last name is indexed as Kappu. 

I found out that if you use both the enumeration district and a name the search results can be much better.

For me anyway I've found the best technique for searching is to find the Enumeration District, or ED, using Ancestry.com's ED finder. This works well if you have the exact address for the family in 1950. 

My Forgey family didn't come up in the search results, or not in the first few pages, not by just searching on my grandfather's name, and place. Using the enumeration district it did appear at the top. 

Going through the ED district page by page I discovered no one was at home when the census taker came to the Forgey family door. 

Going to sheet 75 line 23, as noted, I did find my mother Edna and her family listed.

I didn't have the exact address of my great-great uncle Thomas Mullin who lived in Phoenix, Arizona in 1950. Searching on his name brought up the wrong Thomas Mullin. It brought up a man who was born in California and my Thomas was born in Ireland. I had his obituary and I used his place of death address to find an ED District. He died in a nursing home, but I figured he probably didn't live far away. I used the Steve Morse 1950 ED finder to look for the ED districts around the address. I tried 3 or 4 with the name Mullin in the search box, and eventually his name popped up at the top of the page. 

If nothing works just search the ED districts page by page. 

What did I find on the Census of Interest? 

I found the occupations the most interesting. I knew some of my family's occupations. I didn't know my great-uncle Edwin Mason worked in shipping for the railroad. Great Aunt Mary worked at a window manufacturing company. My aunt Dorothy June worked as a file clerk at an auto insurance company, and aunt Gloria was a typist at a life insurance company. 

My grandfather Rudolph Kapple was still working a Pullman, as his father before him did. 

It was sad to see Belle Kappel and her son Ronald living without William Kappel, Belle's husband and Ronald's father. William was killed in WWII Germany. A reminder of the war that was over only 5 years before the Census. 

Information that will lead to more research

My Kapple grandparents, Dorothy Mason and Rudolph Kapple, divorced in the 1940s. After the divorce my grandmother Dorothy decided to move to California with her 7 children. Her brother Frank already lived in California. Their brother Edwin also made the move along with their sister Mary Mason-Greene. Some members of the family flew out to California and other family members took the train. My father Robert J. Kapple came out to California by train with his aunt Mary. He loved the train ride out to California with the interesting views from the train. 

I used a postcard from 1948, sent by my aunt Diane (Daine in the census lol), to get the address of the family in Los Angeles. Apparently in mid 1948 only part of the family had arrived at their new home in California, but Diane said the family was coming soon in her message postcard. 

My grandmother made out the address and my young aunt wrote the message. 

I assumed those family members would include my great-grandmother Helen Mullen-Mason. When I didn't see her with the rest of the family on the 1950 Census I assumed she was visiting family or friends. 

I was very surprised to find Helen living in the basement of the former family home in Chicago. She had not come out to California in 1948 with the family. 

I thought my grandparents sold the house after they divorced? Did they continue to own it and rent out the upstairs and downstairs? Or did the new owners rent the basement to my great-grandmother? Francis Regan and his family lived downstairs, and Rosina Feehan and her children lived upstairs, in 1950. 

My Helen had family and friends living in Chicago and probably would have preferred to stay there. 

The basement had windows, thankfully, but the current windows don't seem to open. Hopefully they did open when my great-great grandmother lived there. Helen may have lived in a basement before? When she came to Chicago in 1899 she worked as a servant, possibly living in a basement? Living in the basement with water and electricity was likely better than living in the rural village in Ireland she was raised in. In 1950 her Irish relatives still had no electricity. 

The house as it currently looks with glass blocks as basement windows. 

I plan on doing some research on the house to find out when it was sold by my grandparents. I might have to visit Chicago to do that? 

Since my moneysaving great-great grandmother remained in Chicago a little longer, my family could keep the light bulb in the refrigerator a little longer and turn the heat up when it was cold. She definitely ruled the house when she lived with the family. 

Here we see my great-great grandmother is finally out of the basement and in California

 

The 1950 Census research was more interesting than I expected.