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There are two lines our family has long been in the dark about, that lead to Darke County Ohio. (pun alert) Lately we have found some new info that may shed more light on them. While I cannot see any common ancestors yet I’m seeing many surname connections at this specific time/location.
Our first line that brick-walls in Darke County is the Potters. Thomas G Potter born 1800 in PA, and died 3 Feb 1872 Darke Co is a brick-wall. He married Amelia/Emila/Emily Beeler born 1810 in Butler Co OH. Their son Julius J Potter was born 1836/37 in Darke County. He married Christena Stainbrook – her second husband was Robert Cooley. While I have not found Thomas Potter’s parents I have found another person who shares these Potters. They list other Potters including a Simon (Heffner) Potter born 1757 in Germany who came to PA and changed his name to Potter.
We are related to multiple Heffners on 23andMe. Using five DNA samples we can identify three separate lines in our family; Brower/Bechtel/Gates/Heaton, Marshall/Coppock, and Potter/Stainbrook. The Heffners are on the Potter/Stainbrook line as are all the cousins we share. However there are two cousins (Parrish and Jenkins) related on both the Potter/Stainbrook and Marshall/Coppock lines. Our Marshall/Coppock line is the line I am cousins with Linda and others on – that ties to Bunch as in-laws
Another line that oral history says is Blackfoot is Benjamin Brower b.1817 Ohio (brick-wall) and Elizabeth Bechtel b. 1819 Wayne Co IN. Benjamin married again in the 1870s to Isabel Buck. Isabel Buck shows up in only one earlier census. In the 1860 Federal Census she is in Jackson Township, Darke County Ohio. She is 37 at the time and her birthplace is listed as OH. Her husband is listed as a laborer – Theron Buck 43 (born PA), children Samuel Buck 14 (born OH) Nancy Buck 10 (Born IN) and Morning Wiley 65 born in VA (Isabel or Theron’s mother?)
Out of the 300 or so names on the 1860 Jackson Township census there are several I know to be Saponi-related through my own genealogy or through this forum including Baily(Bayley/Bailey), Bowlin(Boling), Bunch, Cullins(Collins), Miller, Skinner, Smith and White.
The posts I have seen here with surname/location connections to this are:
Photos…have seen surnames on saponitown
Sammaroq started this thread – several of her surnames are on the 1860 Jackson Township Darke County census: Adkins, Anderson, Brown, Daniel, Davis, Douglass, Johnson, Smith, and Thomas. The post links to an article by Heinegg and Hoff – Hoff is another associated family name. Eleigh40 mentions Darke County and neighboring Randolph/Wayne County Indiana (have many family members in these counties) – and shares the Cassels, James, and Miller surnames on the 1860 Jackson Twp census. Stacey.23 mentions Darke County and the Jones which is a name that marries into these lines of my family. Daniel_bingamon comments and shares these names on the Jackson Co census: Fleming, Miller, Smith, Wiley, and Williamson. He also has these names similar to census names: Ferree(Ferrell?), Fry(Fryer?), Nichols(Nicholas?), Woodson(Woods?), Gardner(Gard?), Bowles(Boulin, Bowler, Bowlin, Bowze, Boze?). His Gates and Sellards(Sellare/Sellaire/Zeller) are other associated names we share that are not on the 1860 census.
to be continued…
Other forum topics that seem to be connected:
Techteach mentions she is possibly a distant relation to her husband. The Heffner cousin we are related to on 23andMe has parents who are distantly related. Our shared Jenkins and Parrish cousins also seem to be related on two lines. TechTeach shares Collins(Cullins), Davis, and French names on the 1860 census and Cooley and Potter names with our family. Bbennett comments and mentions Reaves and Degnen names– Bennett and Reeves are on the 1860 census, and there are names similar to Degnen(Dugan,Dunman?). Debpayne mentions Darke County and possible matches to the 1860 census are Markley(Marquis?) and Thompson(Thompon?). Markley as Marquis makes sense as she mentions some of her other ancestors went by French versions of their names.
Tom mentions Heffner is one of his surnames and has Castle(Cassel), Howard, and Martin in common with the 1860 census, and possibly Gearheart(Gebhart?)
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– From Darke County Genealogical Researchers http://www.dcoweb.org/land/1857/jack57.htm
This township is right on the border with Randolph County Indiana. Which would seem to explain how my Buck/Wiley household has one child born in Ohio and one in Indiana. (Buck is not listed but Wiley is listed for section 9 in Jackson Township)
The 1857 Jackson Township map also notes a few names not listed in the 1860 census – which could also be Saponi-related – Butt, Carter and Porter(Potter?). The Teegarden (Tegarden/Teagarden) name listed here is another one associated with my ancestors from Westmoreland PA. Which I mentioned in the Senecas of the Sandusky thread – where TechTeach also notes Butt as one of her surnames.
– from http://dcoweb.org/1875/washington.jpg Washington Township borders Jackson Township to the South and both border Wayne Township, Randolph County Indiana.
In this hand-drawn map there are yet more names that have been mentioned in this forum:
Skidmore – mentioned by Sammarroq and Kadasup in questions on souian Indians and other threads – also mentioned by Koreana and Sheree in Day, Williams, Turner, Howard, Ledford, Number9Coal in COLLINS on various rolls (Part 1) and at least a dozen other threads.
Hendricks – mentioned in several threads including A Big Sandy family – a thread started by Tom which I mentioned above.
Green and Sink(Sinkey?) – two more of TechTeach’s names.
Jeffries(Jeffer) another Saponi-related name.
This is the 1857 map of Washington Township. There is a Huffer(Heffner?) here. There are also several Snell’s – a variant of my name. However I have no known relation to these folks.OK, in my humble opinion, DNA is not right here concerning the Potters, if you also have the Cooleys. The coincedence is too great. I think we must be connected with both the Potter and Cooley name shared (And I am not related to my husband. Since that posting, I tested his German mother, and our predicted common ancestor is over 7 generations back. Even his Danish father was closer to me!). It is probably the randomness of DNA inheritance at work. I just subscribed to the triangulation feature of gedmatch. What is your kit number again? I only slightly understand triangulation, though, and maybe it is not what is needed here. The new circle feature on Ancestry, if you belong, might cough up a connection? You don’t have to be a DNA match, just a match to a match to become a circle member.
My Potters were in Licking County with the Cooleys (and Sinkeys and Greens). I don’t have the Blackfoot story in that line, but I do have Indian in that line. A U Cincinatti researcher tied through DNA the Sinkeys who marry into the Potter line as Shawnee. I just met a Licking County historian whose wife is a Potter. They live in Croton (formerly Crowtown), Ohio which was the Indian town. He said growing up, you always knew a Potter – black hair, dark eyes, dark skin. They lived in a house that had rifle slits and is still standing. He sent me a history with one Potter identified as someone who was killed in the round-up leading to the trail of tears. He took one look at my Mary Lovina Potter who was born in IA and said, “Yep, she’s a Potter. Dark hair, dark eyes, Indian features.” His wife’s line is not related to the Sinkeys, so that Potter line is also Indian.
I can’t do much searching right now. I am at a hotel with Internet that sucks!
Techteach
And, as far as genealogists are concerned, Sinkey and Sankey are interchangeable, not Sink to my knowledge. However, my cousin Deb who was on here for a short time and is the Sinkey whose father’s DNA we tested, and I, are skeptical of that.
And yes, Butt is in my family.
And, Jackson Township, PA is where the Sinkeys were (and Hustons, I believe, another hidden Indian line), and Jackson County, IA is where they settled.
Techteach
The thing with DNA and Mendelian Inheritance is that one of four grandparents DNA is not passed to their grandkids. A father only passes a copy of his mother’s DNA to his daughters, and only passes his father’s DNA to sons.
By that logic my Potter grandmother would not have DNA from Julius J Potter – that was her father’s father. So to me it still makes sense that we could be related and not have it show up in DNA.
The GedMatch kit numbers for my uncle, my mom, my sister and me are: M026223, M103622, M217791, and M223631.
If you send me your kit number I will compare it to other DNA cousins I know to be on our Potter/Stainbrook line.
The Stainbrooks (formerly Steinbruchel) came to Darke County from Muskingum County (Brush Creek Township) which is next to Licking County. Before that they were in Berks Co PA.
It is hard to know what names are variants of each other and which are different. I used to think they were all different unless spelled exactly the same – but the more research I do the more variants I see. The Sink-Sinkey one is a question mark to me.
I messed with the default settings on Gedmatch, lowering cm to 5 and SNP threshold to 500 and got a match on Chromosome 13 between Mom and the first and second kit numbers. Mom’s kit is A231339
Techteach
Well hey cuz! Reading your posts I always figured there were too many similarities to chalk up to coincidence. Now we know.
Well, the DNA purists would disagree, that changing defaults results in noise that means nothing, but I suspect that they are wrong here. Potter is common, but when you added Cooley, it was too much of a coincidence. I don’t have Cooleys but I know that they were with the group.
This list of lost pioneers in Licking County OH may be helpful: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohlcgs2/lostpioneer.htm
On this list, I am related to the Deuells, Hustons, Greens, McCartneys, and Sinkeys (written here as Sinkley). Many moved to Iowa and are buried in Hickory Grove Cemetery near Canton and Emeline, Iowa. Asa Cooley certainly is buried there, and I did tell the website manager, but it has never been changed. It is believed that they were
Shawnee and/or Tuscarora. A Cincinatti genealogist has linked DNA from the Sinkeys to Blue Jacket of the Shawnee. A town in Iowa where they might have crossed the river, Shawandasse, is only 20 miles from where my gggrandmother was born in Emeline. Linda’s family were in WI not far from there.
The Duells and Cooleys came from New York where the Iroquois were from. Allegedley, my Potter line was English, with the first Potter being sent to Baltimore, MD as an indentured servent after stealing something. I have always doubted that story. We are not sure where the Sinkeys originally came from, but they were in Huntingdon, PA. The Butts and Greens were in Berkeley County, WV. I believe the Hustons were with the Sinkeys. The McCartneys originated in Baltimore also, and moved to PA near the Sinkeys and then to OH and then IA.
Techteach
Maybe it doesn’t rise to the 7cm threshold, but given all the other evidence I don’t see how it could be chalked up to statistical noise. Especially since the way the males/females in this line go I wasn’t expecting to find a match like that. I also have ancestors from Berkeley Co WV. These are the ones who I am cousins to Linda through and who tie to Bunch. The other locations are very similar if not exactly the same – other than the Iowa part.
I used to think I understood DNA well, but the more I read on a couple of Facebook pages, the more I learn about what I don’t know.
The purists would be OK with lowering it to 5. That seems to be the lowest they accept. I am not sure about how they would feel in the lowering of the SNP, but that is the only way to cough up the match.
As far as I know, neither the Potters nor the Cooleys were in Berkeley County, WV. This was my Green and Butt lines. However, I have come to believe that they were also in Huntingdon, PA with my Sinkeys, as Richard Sinkey is buried in a cemetery filled with Greens. I have also come to believe that the Hustons were in Huntingdon, PA. There are Hustons on the Rev. War roster with the Sinkeys. I kind of feel the Potters were running around with them too.
Techteach
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