Proving a connection

 

George Fuller. Turkey pasture in Kentucky, 1878.

In the absence of a paper trail, proving a connection between Nancy Jane Flatt and the mysterious father of her daughter Mary Alice has been a tall challenge. Had it not been for DNA evidence and recent tools provided by Ancestry and MyHeritage, this information might have been lost to time. Thankfully we do have these tools, and the right combination of matches to make a case for the identity of this missing parent. While I've shared previous theories on this blog, I think now I can write with confidence that I've found the right person.

Without the stories or records to link Nancy Jane with this person in south central Kentucky in the late 1870s, I can only guess that Nancy Jane met this man in the Leatherwood District of Adair County, Kentucky while she was visiting her half-brother William B. Flatt. William, and his wife Margaret Coomer Flatt, were raising three young children, William, Mollie and infant Braxton in the 1880 US Census. This is the same district where the Gibson family were living in the 1880 Census. The Coomer family also has a link to the Gibsons.

Nancy Jane lost her father Pleasant Flatt in December 1873, who left his third wife Nancy Hubbard Flatt with debts, lawsuits and her own young children to raise. Nancy Jane and her sisters had to fend for themselves. The ones who survived married young. Martha Flatt married Benjamin Jeffries in neighboring Clay County, Tennessee in October 1876, at the age of 16. Cansada Flatt was working as a domestic servant in the 1880 US Census (age 16), then married Buford Tackett in Metcalfe County in 1888. Mary Flatt married at the age of 15 to Henry Tobe Piper in 1883. When Nancy Jane became pregnant with her daughter Mary Alice in 1877, she was approximately 21 or 22, poor and had few options.

There's no record of a marriage for Nancy Jane from 1876 until her marriage to Pleasant Morgan in Barren County in October 1884. We do not know if Mary Alice and her brother Harl had the same father. We know she gave them both the surname Cain and they were recognized by that name when they were growing up in Barren County.

The links to that name, however tenuous or created back then, faded over time. Perhaps the father did not know Nancy Jane was pregnant. Maybe she kept his identity hidden. These details are lost. Mary Alice might not have known the real identity of her father. The signatures of his DNA remains and has given us a path to restore this side of the tree.

Introducing Robert

Robert Gran Taylor Gibson was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 8 October 1847, the son of James Robert Gibson and Lucy Street. Whatever connection Robert and Nancy Jane may have had in early 1877 was short lived, as there's no record of a marriage. On 10 March 1880, Robert, then a 32 year old farmer, married 15 year old Dora Ann Dehart in Adair County, and on the bond he certified his marriage to Dora was his first. 

Robert and Dora had at least eleven children between 1883 and 1908. From these children, my Mom and her sisters have over 30 DNA matches (and growing). My Mom's results show 111 matches to James Robert Gibson, and 104 matches to Lucy Street.

A grandson of Robert took a DNA test before his death in 2022. He's a DNA match with 162 cM in common with my Mom, 180 cM in common with my Aunt Linda and 193 cM in common with my Aunt Patty. Two of his children tested, and were also high matches (110, 165, 130 cM; 44, 130, 160 cM).

The matches who appeared in the connections for the Hubbard and Dowell families also show up in the Gibson results indicating the multiple family relations in this part of Kentucky and tracing back to Virginia. The Gibson matches all have higher cM counts.

Robert and Dora appear in the 1880 US Census in Leatherwood, Adair County, living next door to Robert's older brother Julius and family.

By 1900, the family had grown, with 7 children still in the household.

1900 US Census. Adair County, Kentucky.

In the 1910 US Census, the family was living in Elroy, Adair County.

1910 US Census. Adair County, Kentucky.

Robert died on 9 June 1914, a victim of heat exhaustion after working in the corn field on a 96 degree day.

Paducah Sun. 12 June 1914.

Dora remarried on 12 March 1928 to local minister Mitchell Albertson, and passed away on 17 June 1928 in Adair County.

I will have more on the DNA connections to Robert and the Gibson family in the next post.

Reflections

Mary Alice Cain Read had a large family of ten children with husband Charlie Read. There are a huge amount of Read-Cain cousins out there, and I am hoping some of them stumble onto the blog.

A lot of things had to fall into place just right to find the information I've been able to locate on this missing side of the tree. It wasn't enough that I had taken an autosomal DNA test in 2012, I needed my Mom's and aunts' results, then I needed the right combination of distant cousins who had tested, and shared enough information in their trees in order to make sufficient connections. I also needed to learn new tools and methods, and apply those through trial and error to sift through the thousands of matches to point to this cluster of family.

I know it also works the other way, that there's a huge set of Gibson cousins who have no idea Robert had another child out there before building his family in 1880, who created this whole other branch of family. Maybe some of them will find this information too.