52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Page 5

Alexander Rose Hendry: Epic Road (and River) Trips Bring New Yorker to Louisiana

This entry is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. This week’s prompt is Road Trip. To see other posts in this series, view my 52 Ancestors in 2019 index.

I love a good road trip. In fact, I’ve taken several family history road trips with my sons and father. But the trips we’ve taken cannot compare to the epic journey my 4x-great-grandfather Alexander Rose Hendry took between his native New York and Louisiana, where he settled in the 1830s.

Elisha Thomas Horn: Primitive Baptist at Worship

This entry is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. This week’s prompt is At Worship. To see other posts in this series, view my 52 Ancestors in 2019 index.

My family has a strong Baptist heritage dating back many generations and almost 200 years. On my paternal line, this heritage begins with my earliest known Horne ancestor, my 3x-great-grandfather Elisha Thomas — “Preacher Tommy” — Horn.

Photograph of Elisha Thomas Horn, ca. 1880, digital image, privately held by Thomas Ayres, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Texas. Thomas obtained the photo from Raymond L. Horne of Mississippi who found it among the items of Emmett Horne’s estate.

Joshua Lawrence Horn: Out of Place Events Reveal a Well-Traveled Life

This entry is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. This week’s prompt is Out of Place. To see other posts in this series, view my 52 Ancestors in 2019 index.

When I think of my ancestors who lived before convenient modes of transportation, I often assume they lived in small geographic areas. With only wagons to navigate primitive dirt roads and boats or barges to cross rivers, who would stray too far from home?

My 2x-great-grandfather Joshua Lawrence Horn breaks all my assumptions. Several events in his life occur “out of place” from the expected, providing evidence Joshua traveled between Mississippi and Texas several times. Some of his travels were voluntary; others were not.

I’ve written about Joshua previously — a blog post commemorating his birthday back in 2016 — so I won’t recount all the details of his life again. Instead, I’d like to discuss the “out of place” records I’ve found for him, along with two new discoveries that confirm family oral tradition about this outlaw ancestor and some of the places he lived.

James Farquhar: How Are We Related? Only DNA Knows

This entry is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. This week’s prompt is DNA. To see other posts in this series, view my 52 Ancestors in 2019 index.

Analyzing my father’s DNA has given me many insights into our family. It’s helped me sort out pedigree collapse and formulate theories about the brick walls on these lines. I wrote a four-part series about my paternal DNA super clusters earlier this year, and during that analysis one small cluster stood out among the interrelated mess:

**Paternal Cluster 21 among “Super Clusters” A-D, as interpreted from results of Genetic Affairs Auto-Cluster Tool**, run date of 3 Jan 2019

UFO conspiracy theorists have Area 51; I have Cluster 21.

My study of Cluster 21 has led me to James Farquhar — an ancestor completely unknown to me and one I’m still not sure how we’re related.

John McMurry: Another Brick Wall in Winn Parish

This entry is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. This week’s prompt is Brick Wall. To see other posts in this series, view my 52 Ancestors in 2019 index.

Brick walls? Every genealogist has a few. They’re the difficult ancestors who seem to appear out of (or disappear into) thin air, leaving few records and stumping us for years. These family members are our greatest challenges, but — if we make a breakthrough — are our greatest victories.

John McMurry, my 2x-great-grandfather, is one of my long-standing brick walls. Like my challenging Smart family, John lived in Winn Parish, Louisiana, in the 1880s. The courthouse and all its records were destroyed by an arsonist’s fire on November 26, 1886.¹ (The courthouse had previously burned in 1868, and was again destroyed by fire in 1917.²) Records that could answer my questions about John McMurry were likely lost in these fires.

But courthouse disasters don’t mean the end of the road for genealogy research. It just means we must look for evidence from other sources.