3/22/
Relationships via DNA
Testing
Since I know little about the
technical bases for DNA test results, I may be justified in making all
kinds of assumptions. Ha! Who knows, I may stumble onto
something. Therefore, I decided to share some thoughts, but not
necessarily in the order they came to me. And I have attempted to
clearly differentiate between facts (?) and thoughts!
DNA tests reflect the current DNA
string of the person being tested. That result for a male could
be exactly that of all his direct line ancestors. But there could
be mutation(s) of one or more markers over the years and I doubt the
magnitude of the mutation can be quantified with any precision.
Furthermore, not all markers are equally susceptible to mutation.
To further complicate our lives, not all testing organizations test for
the same markers, or even the same number of markers, so results may
not be directly comparable. For example Ancestry provides
guidance that requires, for certain markers determined by FamilyTree,
that the marker name be changed and a specific value be added to its
FamilyTree value. And I do not understand why different specific
markers are tested and others not tested.
During recent months, I have
encountered several people who have had a sample submitted for DNA
analysis or are doing research for a male Carter who has submitted a
sample. The result of these contacts is that I now believe that
my Jesse Carter, born in SC in 1814 probably came from Hardy Jesse
Carter, born ca 1740 in Germany; story has it that he was Scotch.
[Could it be that he was born in Scotland and the boat came via
Bremen!] This Jesse Carter, b 1740, married a Lydia Skipper and
had children. Up to 6 sons have been associated with them, and
their sons’ names, in believed order of birth, are George, Thomas,
Hardy, Charles, Jesse, and Matthew. A Matthew may be traced via
census records to a Judson Carter, and his family believes their
Matthew is a son of Hardy Jesse Carter. DNA marker test results for
Judson agree exactly, where testing of common markers exists, to that
of a Uell Carter.
Uell Carter is being researched by
Judy Freund and she, before DNA testing had been done for Uell,
contacted me believing that Uell’s most distant ancestor, a Jackson
Carter, could be the brother of my Jesse Carter, b 1814. Her bases for
that were 1) Jesse’s household in the 1840 Hall Co., GA. census is
shown with 2 adult males. And 2) her Jackson was married twice in Hall
Co, GA in the 1840s and is shown living in Lumkin Co., GA (a county
adjoining Hall Co.) in 1850. I also noted that a son of Jesse
Carter, b 1814, was named, Thomas Jackson. DNA results subsequently
obtained by Ancestry for Uell were in close agreement with my
FamilyTree markers (32 of 33 common markers were the same). Therefore,
this confirmed a genealogical connection, namely we came from the same
Carter line.
Previously, I had been in contact
with Allan Wilhoit Carter, whose most distant ancestor was also a Jesse
Carter; his Jesse married Sophia Bradshaw. Allan and I both have
submitted samples to FamilyTree and we learned that our agreement was
65 of 67 markers. He also matched 32 of 33 common markers with
Uell Carter, but his variation was not for the same marker as for
me. Therefore, I concluded that one marker for both Allan and me
may have mutated – but a different marker. That could explain the
DNA test results, and supports the conclusion that Uell Carter’s
distant ancestor was either a brother of Jesse or a male relation.
The remaining uncertainty is how
Allan, Uell and I are connected. Accepting the belief that Matthew is a
son of Hardy Jesse, then the answer may well be via Hardy Jesse.
Ideally this would be confirmed by knowing the identity of the male
children of Hardy Jesse, and their children. This is much easier
said than done! There are many Carters identified as living at that
time and in the general area with the common names.
Since Matthew Carter lived most of
his adult life in Greenville, SC (western part of SC) and most of his
children are identified as also living in the Greenville area, I
concluded that I did not come from Matthew.
Allan’s family was from and many
still live in the eastern portion of SC/NC, namely Marion Co, and
Robeson Co. Therefore, his line likely was either son Jesse, or Charles
since both are believed to have lived with families in the vicinity of
Darlington Co, which is adjacent to Marion Co. SC.
Therefore, either Thomas, Hardy or
George may be the likely mid-ancestor to my Jesse, b 1814. Since
neither the name Hardy nor George is found in my line, I currently opt
for son Thomas. And in spite of an apparent direct relationship
of my Jesse to Jackson Carter, I would guess that Jackson came from son
George Carter; the basis for this is that Judy has reported that there
are lots of Georges in Uell’s family. The slight variation in DNA
results also would indicate that we were not from the exact line. Only
time may provide or confirm these guesses.
I will now propose a thought
provoking possibility as to Hardy Jesse Carter’s ancestors. Knowing
that lots of German families that came to America in the early days
were Palatines, I looked quickly at a few of the early immigration
records available on-line and found a name which caused me to
wonder. There were 2 families named, “Härter.” I simply
wonder if “something like” this could be the source of our
“Carter” family name. I am not suggesting that we were part of
the Palatine migration, but pointing out the vagaries of a name. The
recorded name both on the boat and via domestic records usually is what
the recorder heard, and the speaker who seldom could read, much less
English, accepted almost anything.