DNA Monday: Stuff, random and otherwise

My DNA test results from 23andMe are continuing to work to connect me to new DNA cousins. And some interesting projects are in progress over on GEDmatch. Additionally, a tip off from the medical results from 23andMe.com has helped me solve a personal medical mystery. These are exciting times, my friend!

DAR soon to accept DNA: Hey, check this blog post out from The Legal Genealogist, Judy G. Russell about the big news that the DAR is going to be accepting DNA evidence for membership approval... along with the other usual stuff they want. As Judy sharply points out, they are only taking Y-DNA, which is a guy thing. Please read her blog post because this is a very big deal (at least to me) and marks our changing times.

The Basics of DNA testing for genealogy: If you are wondering about DNA for genealogy, here's a wonderful blog post by DNAeXplained - Genetic Genealogy, and you can see it here. Here is a lovely beginner's guide to the topic and while I know a bunch of stuff covered in this post, it was really good to have a re-check to make sure my understanding was clear. Thanks, Roberta!

A new GEDmatch project: Got an email from someone named Vivian because we matched through GEDmatch and 23andMe. She sent the same email out to a couple of hundred people telling them about their shared connection and letting us know that if we were interested in participating, to reply to the email. I replied, of course. Why wouldn't you want to?
In a couple of days she sent a rather long email letting us know that she'd found a sub-group of participants who all had Quaker ancestors. One of Mom's brick wall ancestors married a mystery man named Waggoner and that was one of the surnames included in the list. I just about stumbled over myself in crafting a quick reply!
This Waggoner guy has us stumped, but good. Sarah Wooden (1810 - 1870) married the mysterious Mr. Waggoner, had a daughter from whom we descend, that being Sarah (Waggoner) Whetstone (1825 - 1880). Presumably Mr. Waggoner died or otherwise made himself scarce such that Sarah Wooten then married Peter Yeast (1808 - 1851) in 1829. On his passing she married Phillip "Major" Durst (1817-1888) and they owned a whole big bunch of land together in what is now Garrett County, Maryland.
We know nothing about Mr. Waggoner and it's about to drive us (Mom and I) crazy! Maybe this DNA study group will give us a hint. There were very few Waggoners in what was then Allegany County around 1825 when Sarah Jr. was born and most of those were residing a ways east of where Sarah lived. Other researchers have suggested to Mom that Sarah wasn't married to Mr. Waggoner at all and that she was a "grass widow", meaning left in the grass where he lay with her. What Mom has found is that her marriage record to Peter Yeast states that her name was at the time of the marriage "Sarah Waggoner".

My medical mystery: I feel like one of the older ladies sitting on the porch chatting about their aches and pains in writing this:) Just to say that a clue for the 23andMe DNA test has uncovered a medical mystery that has been bothering me for a very long time. K304E: that's my mismatched gene. That was all I needed to get going and do a lot of googling to find what ails me. Science is amazing!!

Yours truly and Grandma Williams, Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams (1897-1956)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/10/dna-monday-stuff-random-and-otherwise.html

Surname Saturday: Wooden / Wooten and Waggoner, a "2-fer"

It's time for this week's version of one of my favorite blogging prompts from GeneaBloggers called Surname Saturday. And it's a two-for-one, or 2-fer. This line ends in a jumble right here at Sarah Wooden/Wooten Waggoner Yeast Durst. And if you've been doing this a while, you can probably detect where the problem is by looking at that name! What was her maiden name: Wooden or Wooten, or even Woodin? And who are the misters Waggoner, Yeast, and Durst? Mom and I have some answers and a couple dozen questions, right here, right now.

We're up in Garrett County, the most Western county of the state of Maryland and the location of a patch of one of the early roads west. It's still a place where the citizens are hearty and rugged and love to brag about how high the snow drift was last winter on the road in front of their house. I've personally seen a 20-foot drift! Fun and dangerous.

And again this week, I'm including all the names back from the great grands so as to better attract any cousins out there searching randomly;) So here we go!


1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly 1916 - 2007
3. Virginia Williams, living and loving it

6. Cambria Williams 1897 - 1960
7. Emma Susan Whetstone 1897 - 1956

14. Joseph Hampton Whetstone 1858 - 1938
15. Catherine Elizabeth House 1865 - 1947
They had 12 children in all and they are:
1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly 1916 - 2007
3. Virginia Williams, living and loving it

6. Cambria Williams 1897 - 1960
7. Emma Susan Whetstone 1897 - 1956

14. Joseph Hampton Whetstone 1858 - 1938
15. Catherine Elizabeth House 1865 - 1947
Joseph Hampton Whetstone followed his father's chosen occupation as a stone mason in a time when even the streets were cobble stones and needed to be set by hand. They lived just on the outer edged of the town of Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland.
Catherine Elizabeth kept a garden and was often seen working in it sporting her large sunbonnet. Joseph turned a portion of the basement into a cold cellar with his masonry skills so that what Catherine grew would be well kept over the winter.
When Mom's mother, Emma, was small and maybe less than 8 or 10 years old, their house in town burned to the ground. The entire family was left in the middle of January with only the clothes on their backs. Afterward, Joseph did two things: he joined the Frostburg Fire Department, all volunteers, and built for his family a fine house on the outer edges of town, the one with the big garden and cold cellar in the basement.
Joseph H. and Catherine were the love birds in this line-up. Mom has letters they wrote back and forth while he was away working as a stone mason. They are sweet and tender. Interestingly, she was his housekeeper after his first wife, Amanda Dennison, died. They eventually married.
They had 12 children in all and they are:
Charles Albert Whetstone 1887 - 1965
James Franklin Whetstone 1889 - 1960
Clarance Hampton 1891 - 1976
Grace Elizabeth 1893 - 1959
Peter Whetstone 1895 - 1906
7. Emma Susan Whetstone 1897 - 1956
Edna Whetstone 1900 - 1922
Margaret Ann Whetstone 1902 - 1996
Joseph Edward 1903 - 1972
Leslie Laurance Whetstone 1905 - 1995
Viola Whetstone 1906 - 1997
George Washington Whetstone 1911 - 1975

28. Joseph Edward Whetstone 1816 - 1897
29. Sarah Waggoner 1825 - 1880
Joseph Edward and wife Sarah were born and died in Garrett County Maryland in and around the tiny community of Grantsville. He was a stonemason. The winters are harsh here and my guess is that daily life then was not easy. I blogged not too long ago about a letter Sarah received from her mother, also named Sarah, just before she died and you can read it here to get a feel for the times.
They had these 13 children:
Elizabeth Jane Whetstone 1842 - 1896
Susan Emily Whetstone 1844 - 1877
Peter Yeast Whetstone 1847 - 1918
William Whetstone 1850 - ?
Charles Whetstone 1851 - 1880
Charlotte "Lottie" Whetstone 1852 - 1872
Mary Alice Whetstone 1856 - 1862
14. Joseph Hampton Whetstone 1858 - 1938
G. O. Theodore Whetstone 1860 - 1861
John Edward Whetstone 1862 - 1896
Bradford Whetstone ?
Zoe Violet Whetstone 1864 - 1948
Frank Whetstone 1869 - 1959 1887 - 1965

58. Unknown Waggoner
59. Sarah Wooden 1810 - 1870
Sarah, mother of Sarah Waggoner Whetstone, full name was Sarah Wooden Waggoner Yeast Durst. Her maiden name was Wooden, sometimes seen as Wooten, or even Woodin. Her first husband was a mister Waggoner, but this was the frontier and there are no clear records. Who exactly Mr. Waggoner was, we don't know, but hold that thought for a paragraph or two.
Sarah married Peter Yeast (1808 - 1851) before 1830. He's an interesting person and we might just as well talk about him right here because there doesn't seem to be any other spot to do it on Surname Saturday. Peter Yeast ran a roadhouse tavern on the old National Road. The Old Pike at this time was the main way west, before the railroads opened the county for easy travel to western territories. Running a roadhouse and inn was a position that gave one access to many people, both local and passing through, so in 1842 Peter Yeast was elected to County Commissioner. During that time his son-in-law and my 2nd GGF, Joseph Edward Whetstone, who was working as a blacksmith and living close to the inn, took over running the road house.
When Peter Yeast died in 1851, Sarah married Phillip "Major" Durst (1817 - 1888), a prominent landed man of the area. Frankly, I still haven't figured out why they called him Major, so that goes on my to-do list.
But here's something that has my attention of late. On the Allegany County message board I met a woman who was also researching her Waggoners of the area. Long story short, we are going to compare our DNA to see if there might be a Waggoner connection. She's just purchased the kit so it will be a while. She pointed out that there is a whole thing about the spelling of the Waggoner name that might be a clue that our Waggoner people are connected. She knows a lot about this line so we're hopeful, and if there is no trace of a match that connection can be set aside.
Sarah and Mr. Waggoner only had the one child:
29. Sarah Waggoner 1825 - 1880
Sarah and Peter Yeast had a bunch of kids, and some of the boys served in the Civil War:
William B. Yeast (1828 - ?)
John Yeast ( 1830 - ?)
Alfred Yeast (1834 - ?)
Thomas Yeast (1836 - ?) He died in Filmore County, Minnesota.
F. F. Yeast (1837 - ?)
Elizabeth Yeast (1840 - ?)
James Michael Yeast (1842 - ?)
Sarah and Major Durst had no children together. He had children from a previous marriage.

William Wooden (1777 - 1834)
Sarah Sally (1782 - 1843)
We don't know too much about this couple, except that he was born in Prince George's County, Maryland and died in what's now Garrett County, Maryland. He was a slave owner, sad to say. That still creeps me out. He had four slaves in 1830.
Poor Sarah Sally. Not 100% sure that was her name and no surname. Not a lot to go on there. My to-do list at this juncture on the tree is gigantic.

William Woodin (Wooden) on Find A Grave,

memorial number  81802114

The URL of this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/07/surname-saturday-wooden-wooten-and.html

 

Surname Saturday: That's Waggoner with Two Gs

Off we go on an adventure for Surname Saturday, the blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers! I just love writing up these posts because it's another occassion to review what's known and what is yet to be discovered! We're in the 2nd great grandmothers and this time we'll be checking out the Waggoner line. Recently, while on a message board for Allegany County, MD., I happened across someone who is also researching some Waggoners from there. We haven't found a match yet and her people are from a more easterly location in the county, but there just aren't very many Waggoners so we're suspicious!

Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly (1916 - 2007)
3. Virginia Williams, living and loving it

6. Cambria Williams (1897 - 1960)
7. Emma Susan Whetstone (1897 - 1956)

14. Joseph Hampton Whetstone (1858 - 1938)
15. Catherine Elizabeth House (1865 - 1947)

28. Joseph Edward Whetstone (1816 - 1897)
29. Sarah Waggoner (1825 - 1880)
Joseph Edward and wife Sarah Waggoner were born and died in Garrett County, Maryland in and around the tiny community of Grantsville. He was a stonemason but for a time around 1840 - 45 took care of the inn and roadhouse his father-in-law's managed on the way west, The National Pike. In the 1850 US census Joseph E. Whetstone reports that he's a blacksmith and he and Sarah are living in close proximity to the Inn.
The winters are harsh here and my guess is that daily life then was not easy. I blogged not too long ago about a letter Sarah received from her mother, also named Sarah, just before she died and you can read it here to get a feel for the times.
Sarah is the start of the Waggoner line for Mom and me.
They had these 13 children:
Elizabeth Jane Whetstone 1842 - 1896
Susan Emily Whetstone 1844 - 1877
Peter Yeast Whetstone 1847 - 1918
William Whetstone 1850 - ?
Charles Whetstone 1851 - 1880
Charlotte "Lottie" Whetstone 1852 - 1872
Mary Alice Whetstone 1856 - 1862
14. Joseph Hampton Whetstone 1858 - 1938
G. O. Theodore Whetstone 1860 - 1861
John Edward Whetstone 1862 - 1896
Bradford Whetstone ?
Zoe Violet Whetstone 1864 - 1948
Frank Whetstone 1869 - 1959

58. FNU (first name unknown) Waggoner (dates unknown)
59. Sarah Wooden, then Waggoner, then Yeast, and finally Durst (1810 - 1870)
Sarah was born Sarah Wooden. She had my 2nd great grandmother by a Mr. Waggoner, and we frankly do not know if they were married or not because Mom has found no record. Next she married Peter Yeast (1808 - 1851) and had seven children with him. When he died she married Phillip "Major" Durst (1817 - 1888) presumably after 1851. Major Durst had  two adult children at that time.
She had just one child with the elusive Mr. Waggoner:
29. Sarah Waggoner (1825 - 1880)

It's funny how information comes to you. When I write these posts I invariably recheck Mom's Big Tree on Ancestry.com to see what's what and look at member trees too. This time I reached out to two people who looked like they knew what they were doing and one replied back with information that might be promising. From looking at her tree she has plenty of folks on it from the geographical area most of my peeps come from... so who knows, maybe we're cousins!

Looking towards Grantsville, about 1910.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/surname-saturday-thats-waggoner-with.html