Week 16 - DNA
Week 16 - DNA
This week I’ll show how my siblings’ DNA has helped with these discoveries when my own DNA might not have been enough to do it. Years ago Melvin Alsager put together a book on the Kirkpatrick side of the family after he and Aunt Mary researched it. I’m sure many of you Kirkpatrick’s have it as he handed them out at one of our family reunions. At the end it says,
“It is now up to each branch of the Kirkpatrick tree to add their own pages to this starter project and to keep the family history current as a continuing memorial to our ancestors. Please feel free to prune and graft onto the older limbs and even re-examine the reliability of the roots.”
When I first got my DNA results, I was surprised to see I had so many Stevens, Carlock, and Canaday matches, but very few Kirkpatrick matches, and wondered if I hadn’t inherited very much Kirkpatrick DNA. This wasn’t the case. Later, I realized that two consecutive generations, who for the time period in which they lived, had fewer children (about 5 where other families would have 10 or more). On top of this, of those five children, only a couple of them would produce children. This being said, I have found a couple Kirkpatrick branches that hadn’t been discovered when Melvin and Mary did their research, and the discovery is due mostly to my siblings’ DNA - not mine.
First we have James John Kirkpatrick (1783-1817) and Ann Gilmer (1786-1833). This couple had five children: John G Kirkpatrick (1807-1846), who is my direct line, and his siblings James Kirkpatrick (born in 1810), William Curry Kirkpatrick (born in 1812), Robert Simpson Kirkpatrick (born 1814), and Juliann Kirkpatrick (born 1817). According to Melvin’s book, “We have no knowledge of whatever happened to their brother James.” And “Juliann later married Peter Bollinger . . . Juliann died in 1845 without children.”
We’ll start with James. According to John’s and Joni’s DNA (but not mine or Jill’s) there is a match on Ancestry at the 5th - 8th cousin level. (This match also matches Kellie Scheffries, one of my “long-lost” cousins who is a Kirkpatrick.) This match descends from Mary Ellen Green, who happened to marry a James Kirkpatrick (born 1810 in Kentucky as was our James) in Warren, Mississippi, and they had the following children: James H (born 1843), Emily M (born 1844), Henry G (born 1847), Mary Ellen O’Brien (born 1851-1922, ancestor to this match), and Louisa Anna (born 1852 in Louisiana). After messaging the match, I learned that she doesn’t know a lot about him, but he died in Tennessee.
The 1850 census shows 40-year-old James living in Vicksburg, Mississippi with his 24-year-old wife and children Emily, James, and Henry, and working as a carpenter. He also has three apprentice carpenters living with him: Alexander Funck, age 20 from Ohio; John Trainer, age 18 from Ireland; and Samuel Stainer, age 18 from England. The 1860 census shows his wife living with some of her Green relatives, but James isn’t there. I can’t locate an 1860 census for him. I did, however, locate another Ancestry member (I don’t know if she had her DNA done, but she descends from James’ son James H.) Her tree has our James’ death date as 1873. Looking at the record being referenced, I’m sceptical. While the person who died in the accident in Kentucky is the right age, in the “name of parents or slave owners” column the listing says James and Mary Kirkpatrick. (Our James’ parents are John and Ann). It also says this James was born in Bourbon, and our James wasn’t. In the 1875 city directory for New Orleans, Mary E Kirkpatrick, widow of James Kirkpatrick, is listed. She is living with James Kirkpatrick and Henry Kirkpatrick (These are the names of her sons.) James’ occupation is “collector” and Henry’s is “G. Clk.” which I assume is a clerk of some kind. This is all I know of the missing James and his family so far.
As far as Juliann Kirkpatrick is concerned, she had a tragically short life, but she did live to produce at least three children. She may have died due to childbirth complications because James Moses Bollinger was born the same year (1845) she died according to Melvin’s book. I believe this match (who barely matches John, Joni, and me) descends from that James Moses Bollinger, which means he would have been Juliann’s child (I just messaged the match to verify and am waiting for an answer). This match has Juliann’s death date as 1849, which leads me to wonder who the mother was of Peter Bollinger’s next child. Julia Elizabeth Bollinger was born April 26th, 1849, so maybe Juliann died in childbirth with her? Peter’s next wife was named Martha Jane Clodfelter, so it doesn’t seem like they’d name the child something so close to the previous wife’s name. Of course there is no evidence that Juliann died in childbirth - that is just my own theory. I did message this match saying that my family was unaware that Juliann had any children, and received this message:
“From what little I understand, there was some sort of family scandal back then. My branch of the Bollinger family moved to Piedmont, Kansas and lost connection with the Missouri Bollingers at that time.”
The children of Juliann Kirkpatrick Bollinger are Cyrus Bollinger (1843-1897), Hanna Jane Bollinger (born around 1844?), probably James Moses Bollinger (born 1845) and maybe Julia Elizabeth Bollinger (1849-1914).
Probably the most distant DNA Kirkpatrick match I have found is Gary White, who descends from John Kirkpatrick (1745-1813) and Martha Perry (1746-1823) through their child Mary Polly Kirkpatrick (1765-1810) who married Daniel Kerr (1764-1837) Gary only matches Joni and Jill.
This goes to show, the more family members who do the DNA, the more discoveries you can make.
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