Brick Wall Broken By Shared DNA Part 2

Please Note: This is Part 2 of a Two Part Post

You can Read Part 1 Here: Brick Wall Broken By Shared DNA-Part 1

http://micsxchromosome.micbarnette.com/brick-wall-broken-shared-dna-success-story-part-1/

While conducting one of my online searches I came across a message on Genealogy.com. John Arnold, a descendant of Willis Arnold, son of “our” James J Arnold had posted a query seeking information on James and he had a reply from a man named Jeff stating “our” James J Arnold could not be the one we felt he was because it was “his” ancestor and “his” James J Arnold did not die until the 1890’s. To prove his point, he sent a news article from the 1890’s to prove his point. Not only was that, James’ father, Isom/Isham Arnold, identified in the article.
As Jeff continued, he said “ his” James J. Arnold had married in Milley Slatton in Kentucky and was enumerated on the 1880 census in Cumberland County, Kentucky with three children all born in Kentucky: Isham R age 6, Annie C age 5 and Mahala age 2. It was this Mahala spoken of in the newspaper as being kidnapped.
Here is the story:
AFTER A LONG SEARCH

Romantic Story of a Little Southern Girl Who was Kidnapped

About five years ago Mr. James J. Arnold, a son of old Parson Arnold, well known in Shelby and adjoining counties in Alabama, while visiting his stepmother, Mrs. Nancy Arnold of Calera, Shelby County, had a 4-year old daughter, Mahala J., stolen from him. Mr. Arnold learned that his child had been seen with a woman who called herself Sarah J. Colbert, and who had undoubtedly taken the girl away. Inquiry at the railroad office at Calera revealed no hint as to the direction gone or the objective point of the child stealer. The child’s mother had died when the former was an infant, but there was a small brother and sister still living, home companions at the time of the abduction of the girl.

A search for the stolen daughter proved fruitless, and five years had elapsed. In the meantime the father had moved to Mississippi and returned again to Tuscaloosa County, where he lived when his daughter was stolen, and where he has resided for the last two years since his return from Mississippi. In 1887 John C. Arnold, who had assisted his brother in the search for the lost child, received a postal card, dated January 14, from Key, Ala., and signed by “J.M. Bridges,” informing him “the parties” he had inquired about got their mail at that office. From this clue only the brother continued the search by inquiries and correspondence in the effort to discover the whereabouts of his lost niece.

Nearly three more years were thus spent in trying to unravel the mystery of the stolen child, when at last what appeared to be a fruitless effort was rewarded by a substantial clue to the girl’s probable whereabouts. The father recently set out from his home, nearly twenty miles south of Tuscaloosa City, to trace up the information he had obtained. On reaching St. Clair he followed the windings of the Coosa, via Greensport and Hoke’s Bluff, entering Cherokee — the county he set out for. He learned that a little waif girl had been left with a McAlva in Cherokee, about fifteen to eighteen miles above Coloma. A description of the child convinced Mr. Arnold that she was his lost daughter. On reaching McAlva’s his convictions were confirmed as soon as his eyes looked upon her features.

McAlva said the girl had been left at his place by a woman calling herself Sal Wheeler, who was found to go also by the alias Sal Colbert, and who afterwards came back after the child, he refusing to give her up, but let her have the latter’s clothes which she demanded. The girl has been called Emma by the woman who stole her, but retained the memory of her real name. Mahala is now about 9 years old, and of pleasant features, bright and intelligent face, and by no means of unprepossessing appearance. — Ashville Aegis

[This story ran in early 1890 in the Syracuse, New York Daily Courier. It was also picked up by the Kamloops Inland Sentinel (Kamloops, B.C. Canada) in the January 18, 1890 edition, page 3. It was reprinted in the Alabama Genealogical Society Magazine, Vol. 32, Fall/Winter 2000, p. 10.]
This article caused me to sit back and rethink all the stories and research I had done over the years. Maybe we were wrong about the James J. Arnold we felt was “ours”. There were other James J Arnolds out there who were from Alabama and who had fought in the Civil War. I looked at my research and tried to verify or disprove what I believed. I could show all the other James J Arnolds I was aware of were not “ours” but I could not prove Jeff’s James J. Arnold was “ours”. And the newspaper article proved to me Jeff’s James J Arnold was “his” correct ancestor.
So, what if Jeff’s James J Arnold really was “ours” and he had not died in 1870 as we had believed for decades? If this man was marrying a lady in Kentucky as Jeff suggested maybe there was a divorce in Georgia. I hired a genealogist to search for one. Nothing turned up.
So, if James J Arnold was Jeff’s ancestor AND he was “ours”, then James J Arnold was a bigamist, a skeleton in our family closet.
After several years of prodding, I was finally able to convince my Arnold cousin to take the Y-DNA test through Family Tree DNA. He had some matches which were not real close, but they did give an indication on which Arnold families we should be looking at. The men he matches have ancestry in Benton County, Tennessee. Their ancestor came from North Carolina to Tennessee. I have contacted them on a couple different occasions requesting them to take the Family Finder test. Some never answered and those that did have not taken the test to this date. So, there we were. We had Y-DNA matches of my Arnold cousin but none of those Arnolds testing with Autosomal DNA.
My Arnold cousin had never taken the Family Finder test and since we had no known Arnold in the Autosomal DNA database for him to match there was no real urgency to suggest to him to take the test.
I had never thought about having my siblings tested and no one in my immediate family was interested and I really had no money to offer to pay for the test, so, basically the Autosomal testing in my family remained dormant.
About two years ago I had a first cousin take the Family Finder test. Several months later I had a second first cousin take the test. Then I decided to have my brother tested. When I saw how different my brother and my own results were I had my sister take the test. In addition I have two first cousins of my father who have taken the test-a total of seven. Of the seven, five of us descend from “our” James J Arnold.
A couple years ago I contacted Jeff, the man who is known to be descended from THE James J Arnold. He apparently was not interested in testing. Then, a few months ago I contacted him again and he said he had taken the test with Ancestry. I got him to transfer his raw data to one of the projects I administer.
NOW, I contacted my Arnold cousin and he agreed to take the Family Finder.
I was real disappointed when Jeff’s results came in. I did not match him. Then, my Arnold cousin’s results came in. He did not match Jeff either. It was about the same time I was working on my Shared Chromosome ideas and composed the articles on my blog called Shared Chromosomes. I checked my other relatives. My sister, Fran, and one of my first cousins, Peggy, matched Jeff.
I knew of three other people with Arnold ancestry in the FTDNA database, let’s call them Harold, Mary Ann and Liz. Both Harold and Mary Ann matched me in Family Finder but Liz does not. In fact, Liz does not match anyone in our test group including Jeff. If someone did match Liz it would be good as she descends from Mahala Jane, wife of Andrew Pennington and a sister of James J Arnold.
Mary Ann matches me on her Knox County, Tennessee Arnold line, we assume.
And Harold has Barnett ancestry unrelated to the Arnolds, as well as a suspicious Arnold line originating from Spartanburg County, SC who moved to Mississippi. I added these two new people in our Shared Chromosomes group.
I was disappointed Liz had not contacted me so I was checking through the shared match list of each of our matches and saw someone, named Dell who had an Arnold and a Pennington in their ancestral surnames. Dell had no tree but he was matching Cousin John.
I wrote Dell and guess what? Dell descends from Mahala Jane, sister of James J Arnold!
While I feel “pretty?” confident we have collectively made the connection knocking down the brick wall showing James J. Arnold, son of Isham Arnold and the soldier of Company G 4th Alabama Infantry is the same James J. Arnold who married Aminda Clemintine Brawner in September 1862 in Spring Place, Georgia.
Since the evidence was not as overwhelming as I would like I do have some reservations, yet am quite optimistic further research will hold up our current research.
With DNA we are using Family Finder, Family Tree DNA’s Autosomal DNA test. FTDNA says they stand behind the Family Finder five to six generations back. Nearly everyone in our test group is at least five generations from ourselves back to James J. Arnold and his sister Mahala Jane who married Andrew Pennington. We are stretched to about the maximum generationally and that is reflected in the cousin relationships in our results. Peggy and Jeff are stated to be 2nd to 4th cousins while my sister Fran, is stated to be 5th cousin remote. Apparently Peggy may have another cousinship with Jeff as the Arnold connection would be too far back to show a 2nd or even 3rd cousin relationship. The cousinship of Dell and John, my Arnold cousin, is fourth cousin remote.
One of the things we have done trying to verify or disprove Jeff’s James J Arnold was the same James Arnold we believed him to be has been to create a Shared Chromosome Excel Chart. The Shared Chromosome chart was created using the downloaded data from the matches each of the people in the study.
At this time I have not counted the number of matches each person in the group has nor have I counted how many matches each person has with the other people in the group. I can say there were 12,614 (twelve thousand six hundred fourteen) total matches downloaded for Jeff, myself, my brother, my sister, Cousin Peggy, Cousin Chuck, and Cousin John plus Harold and Mary Ann.
I have not counted the number of match segments where Jeff matches with one or more of the rest of us. I can say the number is much higher than reflected in the matches shown on the match page of any of our personal pages. For instance, on my own personal matches pages Jeff and I do not match at all. Consequently, he and I are unable to compare one another. However, when the matches are downloaded and sorted alphabetically by the name of the person matching each of the people in the group there are massive amounts of matches for each person in the group.
Another problem with James J Arnold and those of us descended from Aminda Brawner is that James was married twice. We are descended from James and Aminda while Jeff is descended from James and his second wife, Millie.
However…….when we factor in traditional research techniques we have some help with naming practices.
James J Arnold had a full sister named Permelia who married Martin Sims. James J Arnold and Aminda Brawner had a daughter, my ancestress, Sarah Permelia born 1865 in Prince Edward Island Canada.
James J Arnold and his wife, Millie Statton, had a daughter Annie C (onway) born in 1875 in Whitley County, Kentucky. James J Arnold and Aminda Brawner had a daughter Annie C (I do not know her middle name. Could it possibly be Conway?) born 1869 in Atlanta, Georgia.
The sole son of James J. Arnold and Aminda Brawner was Willis Roberson Arnold. There were Robersons in both South Carolina and Alabama (really, everywhere). There, also was a Willis Arnold associated with Arnolds who were in Spartanburg, SC Henderson County, Tennessee and Tippah County, Mississippi.
Stay tuned! As we find more I will post updates to this project.