DNA again

 

AncestryDNA Thrulines.

In trying to look for elusive clues to untangle the branches connected to my 3rd-great-grandmother Nancy Jane Flatt, I'm revisiting the DNA results for my Mom and her sisters. There are also discrepancies among the related trees, and differences of opinion on whose mother was who for the children of Pleasant Morgan, later husband of Nancy Jane from their marriage in October 1884.

Above is a screen shot for the AncestryDNA Thrulines from my Aunt Patty's test, descending from Nancy Jane Flatt. The two connections to evaluate are already in my tree with different spellings for their names, and different dates of birth - Frank Morgan and Viola T. Morgan. On my Aunt Patty's results, she has three matches descending from Frank and one from Viola. When comparing against my Mom's results, she has four matches from Frank and two from Viola. My Aunt Linda's results only show 4 matches for Frank, none for Viola. 

It seems pretty clear Frank and Viola were half-siblings of Mary Alice Cain. None of our test results show any matches to descendants of Harl P. Cain. The resemblance is pretty strong in the photo of Mary Alice and Harl, perhaps no descendants of Harl have taken a DNA test yet.

This brings me back to Frank. His birth date shows up in records as either 18 January 1881, 1883, both dates are before the marriage of Pleasant and Nancy Jane on October 1884. If Frank was born in 1881, then Pleasant and Nancy Jane would have been together from around April or May 1880, or if in 1883 from April or May 1882. Nancy Jane does not appear in the 1880 US Census (as far as I can tell currently) in Metcalfe, Barren or Adair Counties in Kentucky. Shown below, Pleasant appears in Glasgow, Barren County, as a widower with 8 children from his previous marriage and mother-in-law Mary Hendrick Browning.

Ancestry. 1880 US Census. Glasgow, Kentucky.

In the 1900 US Census, Frank is listed as born in January 1885.

Ancestry. 1900 US Census. Glasgow, Kentucky.

By 1910, Frank had gotten married and was living in neighboring Hart County. He still listed his birth year as 1885. The 1920 Census shows his birth year as 1886, but by 1930, the entry says 1882. The 1940 Census again lists his birth year as 1886, but the 1950 entry says 1881.

Frank's WWI draft card lists his date of birth as 18 January 1883, but his WWII draft card lists his date of birth as 25 January 1885. Frank's headstone shows his birth year as 1881.

Returning to Pleasant and Nancy Jane. Did they connect in 1880, while Pleasant was juggling a house of eight young children?

Something else apparent is that no matches appear for descendants of Eva L. Morgan, who was born 24 February 1890. Her obituary states that she was the daughter of Pleasant Morgan and Josie Pointer, but Nancy Jane was still living when Eva was born. Pleasant and Josie were married on 7 December 1892, while Nancy was alive and Pleasant was as far as I can tell, still legally married to her. The Kentucky Archives have no record of a divorce for Pleasant and Nancy Jane, and news articles of the time indicate Nancy Jane died in 1894.

There's a lot of confusion in the records, perhaps some of it was intentional. The next post takes us back to the Civil War pension file of Pleasant Morgan.