Last year I wrote a blog post about the mystery surrounding "Grandpa Celie". Thanks to genetic genealogy I can now put a name to my fourth great-grandfather, Andrew C. Kelley.
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| Photo from a Davis distant cousin who said "Grandpa Celie" is written on the back. |
Meet Andrew C. Kelley
There remains much to learn about this man, but I do know that he and his first wife Mary, known as Polly, had at least five children:
- James Wesley Kelley, born about 1829 in Wayne County, Missouri
- my ancestor, Theresa Jane "Thursa" Kelley, born about 1833 probably in Arkansas.
- Martha Kelley, born about 1834 in Missouri
- Rebecca Massy Kelley, born 16 March 1836 in Arkansas
- son Kelley, born about 1838
The family was living in Wayne County, Missouri, in the southeast corner of the state, from at least 1829. In as early as 1837 a record is found for Andrew in Ripley County, Missouri naming him Postmaster. Ripley County was formed in 1833 from part of Wayne County, so the family probably didn't move. They remained in Ripley County for the 1840 census.
The son born about 1838 is only found on the 1840 census as a tick mark. Polly was living in 1840 but died sometime soon after. Neither can be found after 1840 where the family is listed as living in Ripley County, Missouri.
The marriage of Andrew C Kelley to Mary Wallis in 1842 took place in Randolph County, Arkansas. Randolph County, Arkansas neighbors Ripley County, Missouri to the south. In 1847 the couple welcomed a son, Thomas D. Kelley. Sadly, this Mary Kelley is believed to have died in 1849.
Andrew married Lucy Ann McManus in 1849, soon after the death of his second wife. The 1850 census for Ripley County, Missouri shows the newlywed couple with his daughter Martha, his son Thomas, and her daughter Elender Meders. Eldest son James is living in a household as a laborer. Andrew's daughter Thursa has married John Davis and has her younger sister Rebecca living with them.
I found a listing in the 1860 census for A. C. Kelly in Ripley County, Missouri. He is the right age and in the right place, but has three females in his household who do not match any of Andrew's known female relatives. I have found him listed in other family trees with a death date of 1859, but because of this census record and its possibility of being Andrew, I think that death date may be wrong. I haven't found any proof of death or any solid records beyond the 1850 census.
So how do I know Andrew Kelley is "Grandpa Celie"?
A few years ago my great-aunt Joan took an Ancestry DNA test and has allowed me access to her results in order to research the family. At 91, she is the oldest living person in this branch of my family. Using her DNA matches and Ancestry's ThruLines I have been able to connect her to multiple descendants of Andrew C Kelley through his son James Wesley Kelley (17 matches) and his daughter Rebecca Massy Kelley (3 matches). These only include matches that have their DNA connected to a tree that includes these same people in the Kelley line. There are many other shared matches whose trees are not connected to their DNA, are private trees, or who don't have trees at all.
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| Joan's ThruLines for ancestor Andrew C Kelley. |
For Ancestry to populate the ThruLines connections with potential relatives, I had to first add Andrew to my tree. I had stumbled on a few of Joan's matches who had him in their trees, so I added him to mine, tagged as an Unverified Hypothesis. It took a few days for the ThruLines connections to populate. I was so excited to see the 17 matches with descendants of James Wesley Kelley. I already knew that Rebecca was Thursa's sister, but James was not verified. These matches that have come up in the ThruLines feature match at the right amount of DNA and are shared matches with other known matches to this family line. Because of this, I'm confident that Andrew C. Kelley is Thursa's father and my fourth great-grandfather.
Without Joan's DNA, this would have been much harder to prove. I'm two generations further away and only match a few of her Kelley DNA matches and at very small amounts. I am excited to share this information even though I've just begun digging into the research of these new additions to the family tree.
