I found "Grandpa Celie"!

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.

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. 

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.

Ancestry DNA Discoveries

I tested with Ancestry DNA over 4 years ago and it has been an interesting journey. When I bought my test, I bought one for my husband, too. Since then I have picked up 18 additional tests that I manage or collaborate on. My dad, both of my mothers-in-law (current and ex), my three children, several cousins, a great Aunt, two great Uncles and some random people that just asked for my help. I have learned so, so much and made some life-changing discoveries:

Joe Wood
My ex mother-in-law's test was a challenging one to work on. When she was about 50 years old she discovered that her dad wasn't really her dad. On her birth certificate, the father was listed as unknown. Total shocker. Fortunately, her mother was still living then and was able to give her a name and a few clues. His name was Joe Wood, he was from New York or New Jersey, and she met him in California when he was in the service. There are dozens of men named Joe Wood from the two states that served, so until she took a DNA test, we weren't getting anywhere with the research. Even then, it was a long process to track the right man down. I built so many trees for her DNA matches until I started to see some common names and figured out where some of them intersected. It eventually led to a Wood family and a man named Joe, who had passed several years earlier. I tracked down and sent letters to his children, but they never responded. (Probably thought I was crazy!) Then a new match in this family came up on her list, a 1st/2nd cousin match - closer than any of the other matches up to that point. I contacted the match and she reached out to the same children that I had written to. One of them had done a 23andme DNA test and agreed to upload the results to GEDmatch so we could compare them. The results proved a half-sibling match. This half-sister shared a photo of her father and my mother-in-law was able to see the man she'd been wondering about since uncovering the secret of her paternity more than 20 years ago. Facebook is now helping to bridge the gap between the newly discovered siblings.

Joe Wood, cropped from a photo sent by his daughter.

A Raney Sailor
In my family, there has always been a question of paternity for my Dad's brother Mike. The story in the family is that their mom, during a time when she was separated from their dad, was seeing a Sailor and he was the father. My Uncle Mike has passed, but some of his kids and grandkids have tested and I've narrowed down his biological father to one of four sons in a family with the surname Raney. It's so frustrating that I haven't been able to get any closer! Yet, anyway. I keep hoping that a descendant of one of those men will test and a new DNA match will crack the case.

Adoptees Looking for Answers
I have had three people who match me make contact to ask for my help. All were adopted. I have been able to help two of the three find their birth parent and figure out our connection. One of them was bittersweet, as his biological father, my second cousin, had passed away just a few months before we figured it out. My cousin's parents and siblings, though, have enthusiastically welcomed the young man into their family. A happy ending, for sure.

Shocking Family Secrets
DNA doesn't lie and it's helping people find answers when one or both biological parents are unknown. It's also opening some cans of worms in families where a child's parentage was a closely guarded secret. I've been involved in solving two such cases and know just how shocking it can be. I believe that knowing the truth, though, can be healing in many ways and can sometimes answer questions that had always lingered in that person's mind.

Connecting with Unknown Cousins
One of my favorite things about DNA research and the huge Ancestry database is discovering new cousins. With families spread all across the country, those 2nd and 3rd cousins we all have are not always known. I have found and connected with so many over the last 4 years. We have shared family documents, photographs (my favorite), and stories. As a family historian, it doesn't get any better than that. DNA has enriched my family story in more ways than I can count.

Ancestry Lab introduces My Tree Tags and New and Improved DNA Matches!

OMG. Thank you, thank you, thank you Ancestry!

Two new updates to opt into, in beta format, are available today and being announced at RootsTech. One concerns labeling people in your tree, called My Tree Tags, and the other is called New and Improved DNA Matches. When you log in to your Ancestry account, you'll find these options under the "Extras" tab across the top of the page. Go down to "Ancestry Lab" and click to see the new options.

My Tree Tags allows you to tag an ancestor in several ways. Some are already populated for you to choose, but you can add custom tags, too. For example, the following tags are populated in the "Research" category: Actively Researching, Brick Wall, Complete, Hypothesis, Unverified, and Verified. These tags can help you narrow down your research, but can also alert others viewing your tree that this person is Solid or needs some work still. Other categories relate to DNA, relationships, and references.

The New and Improved DNA Matches update can't be used with Chrome extensions. I hesitated because I'm using the medbetter extension because it enabled me to see my notes from the main match page. I decided to give it a go anyway and see what new things were included. I deleted the extension and enabled the Ancestry update. SO glad I did. Now there is so much more information on the match page. 

You can still see your notes, the number of cM shared, and, in addition to the "star" option, you can assign custom colors to categories to sort your matches. 
You can attach multiple categories to a match. 
So, for example, I have a match that I know is on my maternal grandmother's side of the family (because of shared matches) but I don't know how we connect...I use the "star" feature to tag all those unknown connections and now I can add the "maternal grandmother" category, too. 
From the top of the page, you can sort your matches by category - once you get them all tagged. Homework has been assigned!

When you leave your main match page to take a closer look at a match, then go back to match page - it takes you where you left off - not back to the top of the page like it did before. This is a really big deal.

If you have a shared ancestor with a match whose tree is locked, no worries. Ancestry shows you the common ancestor if you click the "shared ancestor leaf". No more messaging people to have them look for the shared ancestor and get back to you. Another really big deal. 

Also, when you click on your #cM match, you now see a list of relationship probabilities ranked by percentages - similar to using the DNApainter tool. It's a one-stop shop now!

Seriously, folks, it's like Christmas morning. I will be busy playing with this for the next several days (weeks, months)... :)