DNA Matching: It's all Relative

The "cousin" that Stella writes to first appeared as a solid green bar on Ancestry.com DNA match system when we did a Howerton search. There are more than thirty matches, but this is a very strong one. We click into this match's family tree then  check to see if and how this tree's Howertons match up with our Howertons.

 Here is where the finger crossing starts and the Search Sisters hope to get lucky.
1.We hope that there are common ancestors easily seen. 2.We hope the tree has some solid research behind it. Lots of trees on ancestry.com are slap dash affairs, or locked and private, or poorly documented with no hints to be found. 3. We hope the creator of the tree is an active, enthusiastic, saavy family history buff who is willing to share.

On the J.S. tree we find this beautiful portrait of Frank Milton Howerton, a good sign. Further inspection tells us that this Frank Milton was born in Oklahoma. Close, but not Arkansas. We look at his parents.... and find James A Howerton.

Frank Milton Howerton 1877-1941

You convince yourself that sending a message might be worth your time, then you put your questions together in a message and send it off. Then double cross your fingers. And wait. Sometimes you wait for months or even years for a response. Stella writes to AM Cooper, owner of this J.S. match:

"Jan 28, 2016: We have a high likelihood 4th? cousin DNA match. Looking at your tree it seems pretty likely that your James A Howerton, father of Frank Milton Howerton, is also our great great grandfather. The information we have about his family was hard won given that he and our great great grandmother never married or lived together."

After a few weeks AM Cooper, tree owner, writes back:

"Feb 13, 2016: My tree should be completely open and visible to you. Frank Milton Howerton is my great grandfather. His daughter is my grandmother who at 92 is still alive. She didn't really know her own mother. She was primarily raised by her aunt Florence."

While our new cousin doesn't have details that give us a definite link, the DNA connection tells us that Search Sisters and AM Cooper, their cousin, have a strong protein match with this Howerton line.  While we can't be sure James Nathan Howerton was Paralee's papa, we can be reasonably certain based on the DNA evidence we all descend from this line of people who call themselves Howertons. 

Finding Paralee's Papa: Now What?

Great grandma Armenta Paralee Howerton Laird was born in 1862 in War Eagle Township Arkansas, a year after the Civil War began. Susan Laird, her mama, would have been about 19 or 20 years old. Stella describes to a cousin where we are in the search for Paralee’s daddy as follows...  

“We were intrigued that both the 1870 and 1880 census listed these kids as being Howertons. After beating the bushes for the father of our great grandmother we discovered a Howerton family living "next door". This family included two young brothers, William born 1843 and James Nathan Howerton born 1845.

William died at the battle of Chickamauga in 1863. And if younger brother, James Nathan fought in the Civil War (at age 16) he appears to have lived through it. Our great grandmother's little brother, James Riley Howerton Laird was born in 1867.  Also the custom of naming first sons after their fathers points to James Nathan as the papa.

Now this might seem like a pretty sketchy info to conclude James Nathan Howerton is our great great grandfather. But once we DNA tested a whole lot of Howerton matches began to come our way.  From DNA testing we feel we have pretty much nailed the Howerton family from which great grandma Armenta Paralee Laird Howerton descended.  Circumstances point to James Nathan Howerton as her father." 

William Howerton: 2nd Mounted Arkansas Rifles Company K

Muster Roll for William Howerton Private.

William Howerton was a seventeen year old farm hand on his Uncle William's homestead when the Civil War began in 1861. Records show that he enlisted on the 22nd of December 1861 at Cantonment Bee, Arkansas. According to civil war researchers this place was not a town, but a military camp. It was located near Fort Smith on the Arkansas River about 80 miles southwest of the Howerton homestead. 

Colonel James McQueen Mackintosh 

commanding officer killed at the 

Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas.

William joined the 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles as a seventeen year old soldier to fight for the Confederates. His Company K consisted of about 100 men from Madison County. 10 companies made up the 2nd Mounted Arkansas Rifles with Colonel James McQueen Mackintosh as the commanding officer. The records show that Martin Howerton, age 22, enlisted in Company K on the same day. Perhaps Martin was a William's cousin.   

Mounted Rifles are essentially soldiers trained to fight as infantry and move on horseback vs. Cavalry units which are trained to ride and fight from horseback. William must have come to the army with strong shooting and riding skills. His skills saw a lot of action. Here is a list of engagements which the 2nd Mounted Rifles fought.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Arkansas_Mounted_Rifles
The unit is entitled to the following Campaign Participation Credits:

• Battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri, August 10, 1861
• Battle of Chustenahlah, Oklahoma, December 26, 1861[21]
• Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March 6–8, 1862
• Siege of Corinth, Mississippi, April to June 1862
• Kentucky Campaign, Kentucky, August–October 1862
◦ Battle of Richmond, Kentucky, August 29–30, 1862
◦ Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, October 8, 1862
• Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, December 31, 1862 to January 3, 1863
• Vicksburg Campaign
◦ Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863
◦ Siege of Jackson, Mississippi, July 5–25, 1863
• Chickamauga Campaign,
◦ Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, September 19–20, 1863
 
After the Battle of Chickamauga the 2nd Arkansas Rifles fought on for two more years in Mississipi, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. The American Civil War claimed in excess of 620,000 men in battle or disease-related deaths, nearly more deaths than all other American wars combined. Nineteen year old William Howerton was one of the casualties. The records of Company K show that William had ridden with his unit for two when he was wounded in Georgia at the battle of Chickamauga. He died of those wounds five days later.

HOWERTON, WILLIAM Pvt - Age 17. Enl 22 Dec 1861 at Cantonment Bee, AR. Wounded 19-20 Sep 1863 at Chickamauga, GA and died 25 Sep 1863.

Photos of the Chickamauga Battlefield :Mathew Brady. 

Because William Howerton was engaged in the war in 1861, it doesn't seem likely he was engaged in the paternity of Armenta Paralee Howerton who was born about 1862. Certainly he was not the father of Paralee's younger Sister Martha Laird born in 1865 or her brother James Riley Laird born in 1871. Perhaps that action was left to his younger brother James Nathan. 

Note:  Martin Howerton, his namesake comrade, on January 5th at Murfreesboro, TN and sent to prison at Camp Morton, Indiana. It is unclear if he ever returned home. 

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Arkansas_Mounted_Rifles

Going the Distance: Homerton to Lairds

When the Search Sisters launch themselves onto a promising thread of research and the messages fly fast and furious.  Stella writes: 

"Dang! I thought I had sent this to you but looks like I didn't.

Jacob and Temperance didn't live in the town of War Eagle, Arkansas, but the township of War Eagle, where deeds show Jacob owned around 400 acres. I plotted the homestead of Jacob Laird indicated on the attached map as #1177.....and the homestead of William Howerton #363 in 1860.

William Howerton is the uncle of the young brothers Nathan and William Howerton. He is a Madison County land owner of record.

Even more exciting is the fact, I have found William Howerton, age 17, living here in the 1860 census and working with his uncle William as a "farm laborer". From there I imagine he went off to war and his death in 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga."

So if the caculations are correct,  it was about a 45 minute walk from the Howerton homestead to the the Lairds.  Less if you met somewhere in between.

Howerton: Proximity Papa

Sometimes answers to questions drop in your lap when you least expect it.

Saturdays sometimes find the Search Sisters spending the afternoon at the California Genealogical Society. The CGS library occupies a beautiful green tiled Art Deco building on Broadway in downtown Oakland.  Sometimes we search a specific item, sometimes we sit in on a seminar to learn a new search skill, and some times we fool around on their computers exploring the online data banks.

This Saturday we were trying out a new tool, one that brought up maps of the first land owners in a particular region.   "Hey, why don't you try War Eagle Arkansas?," I ask.  "Ok", Stella says.  Suddenly we are looking at a plat map that shows the land boundaries with names of the original owners.  Look, there is Jacob Laird.  We both peer at the screen that shows the outline of our 3rd great grandfather's land.

WHOAH!!!  LOOK AT THAT!

A few sections southeast from Jacob S Laird's land is a section marked with the name Howerton. We both instantly jump to the same conclusion.  Howerton is Paralee's papa! Her daddy is "the boy next door." The Search Sisters both have the feeling...the intuition of yes, that comes when the pieces click into to place after a long hard search.  Parenthood proved by proximity.  Perhaps another mystery solved. 

Actually, this piece of geographical evidence clinched for us what we had already suspected.  We had already shaken the Arkansas records pretty hard hoping that a Homerton, or Hameston would fall out as the father of Susan Laird's kids.  Howerton was as close a name match that we had previously found in the record search.  

Since then DNA matching has further confirmed our theory.  Both Search Sisters have a number of DNA Howerton matches, along with our Allison cousin.  Howerton seems like a sure bet for the baby daddy.

Uh oh. New mystery.... which one of the Howerton boys next door?  

Howerton or Laird?

O'Laird. Irish. Potato famine?  Dad fondly remembered his grandma Paralee, but other than recalling she came from Arkansas... he was a blank about her origins. " Oh, I think she might have been from around Mina, Arkansas", Dad said.  (Later I learned the town was spelled Mena, though the Search Sisters have yet to find any evidence of her presence there.)

Searching Paralee's origins was hampered not only by her myriad ways of spelling Armenta Paralee... her surname shifted.  Cannaday was her married name. Paralee grew up in the Laird household, with her mother and grandparents we discovered. Digging deeper we found something puzzling in the census records. Paralee's childhood surname was Homerton or Hameston.

1870 census War Eagle Township, Madison County, Arkansas

Paralee’s mother Susan Laird (spelled Leard here) in the 1870 census of War Eagle Township, Madison County, Arkansas lists her children as Arminta Homerton 8 and her sister Martha Homerton 5.  Susan 30, is living in her father and mother’s Laird household along with her sister Arfita Angalina 23 and two more boys Hugh cc Lard 3, and John F Lard 3.

1880 census War Eagle Township, Madison County, Arkansas

In the next War Eagle Census of 1880 the Laird household (spelled Lard here) includes the parents Jacob and Temperance, Susan E Hameston 40, Parilee Hameston 18, Martha J. Hameston 14 and a brother James Hameston 9.  Arlita has married and moved on taking the boys Hugh and John F into Issac Causeys household. (In this census the Hameston name looks like a mistranscription of Howerton.)

Paralee marries and becomes Armenta P Cannaday of the 1910 census, Hagansport Texas. Martha disappears from the record.  The son James Riley reverts back to the Laird surname for the rest of his life. In the 1900 War Eagle census he is married with a wife and four kids… all Lairds. 

Who was the father of Susan Laird's kids?  Where did the name Homerton, Hameston come from? We searched the records. Was Susan Laird married? No records show this. Was she widowed after the civil war?  No Homertons or Hamestons appear in the records in Madison County.  

Who was Paralees papa? Another mystery for the Search Sisters to solve.

Spell on You: Armenta Paralee Howerton Laird Cannaday

Standardized spelling was not yet invented when Paralee grew up in Arkansas in the 1860's. The Simplified Spelling Board, an effort to standardize American English, was not founded until 1906. Not everyone welcomed standard spelling.  Mark Twain had this to say:

 “...simplified spelling is all right, but, like chastity, you can carry it too far.”

Paralee did not carry this burden of simple spelling far at all. Her various ways of spelling her name have made her almost invisible to her genealogical mad great grand daughters. We have found her in the records as:

Arminta Homerton, 1870 census, War Eagle, Arkansas b. 1862
Parilee Hameston of the 1880 census (mistranscribed Howerton) 
Armenta P Cannaday of the 1910 census, Hagansport Texas
Armentie Canady of the 1920 census, Rusk Texas, b. 1861
Paralee Cannaday of the 1930 census, Arp Texas, b. 1862
Armintia Cannady of the 1940 census, Arp Texas, b. 1862

According to the census of 1880 Paralee could read and write, but her mother Susan Laird could not. Arkansas of her youth did have a Civil War, but did not yet have a school system.  Even if she had learned to spell in school, standard spelling was not the rule.

Consistent spelling would have made our search for Arminta Paralee Cannaday a lot easier. However, Mark Twain, never without an opinion, rues the loss of invented spelling:  

“I never had any large respect for good spelling... Before the spelling-book came with its arbitrary forms, men unconsciously revealed shades of their characters and also added enlightening shades of expression to what they wrote by their spelling, and so it is possible that the spelling-book has been a doubtful benevolence to us."  Mark Twain's Autobiography

On this assessment Grandma Paralee had plenty of character. Her grandson Lewis would have agreed.

Left to right: Lewis Allison, Paralee Laird Cannaday, Harry Allison Circa 1926

Linda Allison / August, 2014