Update on Stanges

 I came across a personal ad from The Baltimore Sun on August 22, 1890.

Our ancestor, George W. Stange would have turned twenty-one in 1890. I think there is a good chance that his father was the Jacob Stange who placed this ad. 

Furthermore, there is a George W. Stange buried in the Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Cemetery in Baltimore. There are no dates so we can't be sure that this is our George.

In this same cemetery we find a Jacob and Anna Stange. The stones match so I think it's a pretty fair assumption that they were husband and wife. The dates would also fit to be George's parents.

Note that the stones are inscribed in German. This particular church was the big one in the German community in Baltimore. There are a handful of Stanges buried here but I didn't recognize any of the other names. Also it was very common to use the same first names in a family, for example naming your child after your parents. 

I believe these could be our ancestors. What I need to find to prove it would be a census record showing George born in 1869 and living with Jacob and Anna, his parents. Or a birth certificate for George. Or some kind of record that can tie them to our Jacob Herman Stange. 

Update: I was able to find George on the 1870 census. The last name is spelled Senge. The next page of this record shows a George W Senge born in 1869 in Baltimore, son of Jacob and Anna. That's our family.

Ancestry DNA Results

• Great Britain - 60%
• Iberian Peninsula - 12%
• Scandinavia - 8%
• Ireland - 6%
• Europe East - 5%
• European Jewish - 4%
• Europe West - 3%
• Italy/Greece - <1%
• Asia South (India) - <1%

You may remember from a former post that I expected my results to be mostly central and western European, and clearly this is not what I got. Best I can tell, this is because of migration patterns and the way Ancestry groups the results. An aunt on my mom's side also took the test but with another company - 23 And Me. Here are her results. Note that they are reported in a different way and using different regions:

54% British/Irish (They do not specify how much of each as over time the country-level populations overlapped; so many people moved back and forth between the two)

15% French & German (Again, the overlapping)

24.8% Broadly Northwestern European (Likely more % of German but it's complicated how they break it down)

2.2% Broadly European

1.3% Eastern European

1.2% Scandinavian

1.2% Southern European

0.9% Iberian

0.3% Ashkenazi Jewish

0.2% Sub-Saharan African

Because she is one generation closer to our supposed native American ancestor I was disappointed that nothing showed up in that area. We are working to get my grandmother's results too. If no native shows up there it will almost surely mean that the story that Grandma Wilson (Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson) was 1/4 native was incorrect. I know this is a common error in oral family histories but I gave it more credence since one of her given names was 'Arkansas.' I can't imagine where that would have come from in 1870 if not as a nod to a native ancestor or the place that the ancestor's people had been removed to.

But getting back to my own results, I'm not sure I fully understand why I didn't see more western European. I got hundreds of cousin matches on my dad's side, so the genealogy that we have there must be solid. And I can trace most of his lines back to what is now Germany, eastern France, and Switzerland in the 16th and 17th centuries. Maybe the question can be answered by studying where those people migrated from.

The Iberian peninsula is also kind of a mystery. I haven't uncovered any Spanish or Portuguese ancestors. Again, it must be migration that occurred before the records I have.

The Osterwise line explains the 4% European Jewish. There may have been other lines as well.

The only "genetic communities" they have me in so far involve southwestern Pennsylvania, from my dad's side. No new information there. This is a new feature for Ancestry so hopefully they'll add groups as they compile results.

My cousin matches showed a common ancestor with a Jonathan J Jowers, 1783-1854. He would be my 4th great grandfather. I haven't done a lot of work on the Jowers line yet but that is an important connection which gave us several more generations. The Jowerses appear to have come from England. 

There are also "DNA Circles," which show groups of descendants who share portions of DNA which can be traced back to a common ancestor. I am in circles for Jonathan Jowers, Duncan Henderson, Belinda Stafford, and John Tyler Henderson, all on my mom's side. I have fifteen circles on my dad's side that I haven't really even explored.

I'm not sure if all of the DNA and matching features are available to non Ancestry members. No matter what service you use I would encourage you to load your info and make your tree public so that we can find more common ancestors. 

Updated Info on James Madison Brown

See here for the previous blog on James Madison Brown. He was my great, great grandfather, first husband to Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson (Grandma Wilson) and father to Rena Mae Brown Jowers.

Thanks to my Ancestry membership, I've finally broken this brick wall. The clues lie in two places - the 1870 census for Pulaski county, Georgia, and the cemetery at Antioch Baptist Church in Atkinson county, Georgia.

I have studied the Antioch cemetery because Mae Jowers's brother Harry James Brown (b. Jul. 9, 1898 d. Aug. 31, 1922) is buried there. We also find James Madison Brown (b. Mar. 2, 1865 d. May 2, 1902). Near James Madison's grave is a Martha Ann Brown (b. Nov. 28, 1838 d. Sep. 26, 1904), as well as a John T. Brown (b. Aug. 25, 1862 d. Mar. 8, 1908) and his wife, Belinda Brown (b. Aug. 1, 1866 d. 1955). There is also a William A. Brown (b. 1867 d. 1923) buried in this grouping.

Harry James Brown

James M Brown

Pictures of the additional headstones can be found here. Note that the info listed at find a grave for Martha Ann Brown is (I believe) incorrectly attributed to a Martha Anderson Brown who married a McKinnon. The stone only reads Martha Ann Brown with the dates of birth and death stated above.

Martha Ann Brown

Antioch Baptist Church is located on Highway 82 between Kirkland and Willachoochee, Georgia, between mile marker 9 and 10. Turn north on County Rd 42 (Antioch Church Rd). Cemetery is located at corner of County Rd 42 and County Rd 35 (Sutton Rd). (appro 1 1/2 miles).

The physical proximity of these graves made me suspect a relation, and there was one other family tree at Ancestry that showed our James Madison and John Tyler "Jack" as brothers, with a mother named Martha A Crawford and a father named James M Brown, but I couldn't prove anything until I lined this family up with the 1870 census records.

James M Brown, age 48, planter
Martha A Brown, age 31
Sallie J Brown, age 9
Jonathan, age 7
James M, age 5
William R, age 2

1870 census, Pulaski county, Georgia

The ages of Martha and the boys line up perfectly with the birth years of Martha A., John T. (assuming he was listed as Jonathan on the census), James Madison, and William A. as listed on the grave stones. This is conclusive enough for me to state with reasonable certainty that the family on the census are our ancestors.

One other item of interest is that the Martha A Brown of the 1870 census is listed as a "lunatic." Don't be put off by that word, as back at that time it may have covered a wide variety of conditions, from schizophrenia to post partum depression (she had four children under the age of 9 at this time) to epilepsy and more. The term was not necessarily intended to be pejorative.

Awaiting Autosomal DNA Results From Ancestry DNA

Thanks to my awesome mom, I was finally able to submit the DNA test through Ancestry. I chose their test because it gives results for the widest number of ancestors (although only back to about 6 or 8 generations), and it has the largest number of participants. Hopefully in addition to the information on geographical background we'll be able to connect with some distant cousins and maybe solve some mysteries.

My prediction is that it will show overwhelmingly central and western European. I have a Jewish line on my dad's side (Osterwise) so it's possible we'll see a little Middle Eastern. The question about native American ancestry on Grandma Wilson's line (see post on Mary "Polly" Guest) may or may not be answered. Not all DNA is passed to every generation, and the last full blooded native would have been her grandparent, which would put it at the limit of this particular test. If we don't see any native results I may ask my grandmother to submit a test to see if two generations closer might make a difference. Every family thinks they have native ancestry, but the addition of "Arkansas" as one of my great, great grandmother's names makes me think there might be something to it.

New Ulery Stange Files at WorldConnect

I have uploaded my files to the free site at RootsWeb WorldConnect. They can be accessed here. Click on the last name you're interested in and the rest should be self-explanatory. Note that as you go back in time, the siblings are not part of the files yet. I'll be working on adding all the relevant people in the coming months. Also, there are most certainly errors. I'm trying to go through each person to update info and correct errors as I post here at this blog, but I wanted to have my files accessible in the meantime. The names and dates get confusing. RootsWeb can help you keep it all straight. Enjoy.

Mary "Polly" Guest, 1842 - 1882

Mary "Polly" Guest, 1844-1882, was the first wife of John Tyler "Jack" Henderson (1839 - 1923) and the mother of John's first five (?) children, including our ancestor Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson.

Mary Guest was born around 1844 to Miles Jackson Guest (1810 - 1865) and Hulda Kight (1812 - 1882). She appears as a five-year-old in the 1850 census for Ware county, Georgia.

Miles J. Guest, 41
Huldah, 40
Allen, 18
Hiram, 16
John, 13
James, 11
Elizabeth, 7
Mary, 5
Franklin, 2.

The 1860 census for Ware county lists this household (Mary is listed as 'May', now 15) with four additional children: Dorcas, 9, Willis, 6, Francis, 6, and Candorse, 1.

In 1880 Mary is shown married to John T. Henderson and living in Coffee county, Georgia, with four children, including nine-year-old Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson. See previous post for details.

Mary Guest Henderson is buried at Antioch Baptist Church cemetery in Kirkland, Georgia. Her birth year is 1842 on the stone, but as she was reported to be five years old in the 1850 census, a birth year of 1844 is probably closer.

Her husband, John Tyler Henderson, remarried Mary Overstreet and had ten more children.

Here is the information from Volume I of Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia by Folks Huxford concerning Miles Jackson Guest, father of Mary "Polly" Guest. Note that Huxford lists Mary Guest as having married Andrew Henderson. This is an error, as she actually married John Tyler Henderson.

MILES JACKSON GUEST was born in Barnwell District, South Carolina, March 8, 1810, son of William and Agnes and grandson of John Guest, R.S., who died in that county in 1828. William Guest had a sister, Nancy (or Ann) and her husband, John Rice, who moved to Georgia also and resided in Clinch County. With his parents, M. J. Guest moved to Tattnall County, Georgia, and soon after was married to Miss Hulda Kight who was a sister of Hiram Kight of Clinch County. She was born April 10, 1812, in Georgia and died at her home in Clinch County, September 30, 1882. Their children were:

1. William Allen, b. 1832, m. Eliza Wilkerson 

2. Miles Jackson, b. 1833, died in boyhood.

3. Hiram Walker, b. 1834, m. Annie Waldron.

4. John Powell, b. 1837, m. Sarah Ann Stanfield of Tattnall Co.

5. James, b. 1840, m. Serena miner, daughter of Win. of Ware Co.

6. Elizabeth, b. 1843, m. Kindred C. Cowart.

7. Mary, b. 1845, m. Andrew L Henderson.

8. Benjamin F., b. 1848, m. Mary Waldron.

9. Darkis Matilda, b. 1851, m. David Henderson. 

10. Francis Marion, b. 1854, m. Tobitha Ann Griffis, daughter of Juniper.

About 1834-1836 Mr. Guest removed to Ware County and granted lands from the State, mostly in the 8th district of his county. He built his home on some of these lots, cleared up and operated a large plantation with slave labor, near the present village of Manor, Ware County. In 1861 he exchanged these lands for the holdings of Duncan Giddens in northern Clinch County, consisting of about 3000 acres, plantation, millpond and watermill, etc. He moved there and continued to live there until his death March 7, 1865. He and his wife are buried in the nearby Guest Millpond Cemetery. His widow and Rev. Guilford Lastinger were the administrators on his estate, and sold the Guest holdings except the dower-lands, to Fisher Griffin in 1866. John Moore became the owner of this property at sheriff's sale in 1868, and operated the farm and water mill until the 1880s when he sold same to Francis Marion Guest, youngest son of Miles J. Guest, and who owned the same until his death in 1907.

Mr. Guest served three terms as Sheriff of Ware County: 1836-1838, 1844-1846 and 1850-1852. He was deputy clerk of the superior court a short while, also in the Indian War he served as a private in Capt. David J. Miller's company of Ware county militia in 1838.

Census References: 1830, Tattnall; 1840, 1850, 1860, Ware.

Miles married Hulda Kight. (Hulda Kight was born on 10 Apr 1812 in Georgia 1 and died on 30 Sep 1882 in Clinch County, GA 1.)

Sources:

Folks Huxford Judge, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, Volume I, 12 (Georgia: Folks Huxford, 1951), 1. 

Here are undated pictures of Miles Jackson Guest and his wife Hulda Kight Guest, photocopied from the Huxford books. In exploring the possibility of native American roots, I've considered that both of these ancestors may have had Indian mothers.

I have visited the Guest Millpond cemetery, also known as Langs Church cemetery, on Lang Church Road off Highway 441 between Homerville and Pearson, Georgia. Here is a photo of Miles Jackson Guest and Hulda Kight Guest's gravestone.

There is a William Guist on the 1800 and 1810 census for the Barnwell District of South Carolina, but we can't know for sure that this is our ancestor. These early census records did not include the names of the children,. Note that as you go back in time you will see the name spelled several different ways. 'Guest' and 'Guess' are the most frequent, but variations such as 'Gist' also show up. The census takers and even the families themselves were not always consistent with spellings.

Returning to the Huxford books, we can find out more about William Guess. Keep in mind that this is a secondary source.

William Guest was born in North Carolina in 1778, a son of John Guest (Vol. II). The family removed to Barnwell District, S. C. in his youth, and it was there that he grew up and married. His wife, Agnes, was born 1790 in Barnwell District. Her maiden name so far is unknown. Their known children were as follows;

1. William P., b. 1800, m. Elvira Tanner.

2. Thesley A., b. 1803, m. Elizabeth

3. Allen, b. 1805, m. Elizabeth

4. Miles J., b. 1810, m. Hulda Kight. (Vol: I).

5. Benj. W., b. 1814, m. Georgia Ann -.

Mr. Guest removed to Georgia about 1818, and located in Appling County, being among the first settlers there. He lived in the 3rd land district of Appling when he drew lot 405, 8th district Early County in the 1820 land lottery. He moved to Camden County and granted land there. Some years later he removed to Ware County and settled in the portion cut into Clinch County in 1850.

He lived in the Magnolia district. He dropped dead in his field in June, 1851.

Census Refs: 1800, 1810, Barnwell Dist., S. C.; 1820, Appling; 1830, 1840, Camden; 1850, Ware (Clinch).

William married Agnes. (Agnes was born in 1790 in Barnwell District, S. C.)

Sources

Folks Huxford Judge, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, 12 (Georgia: n.p., n.d.), 3. 

Huxford cites several census records for this information, but I have not been able to find records that would conclusively identify this family. Some genealogies exist online but unless they are sourced they can't be considered reliable.

I continue to work on these lines and will update as I find information. One final note about Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson's possible native heritage - she had been told that she was one quarter Indian. We will later see that her father's line is well established back to its European roots. Her mother's line, detailed in this post, contains more unknowns. We know nothing about the Agnes who married William Guest in South Carolina. We also know nothing about Hulda Kight's mother. (Her father may have been John Cecil Kight.) These areas of South Carolina and Georgia were still part of the frontier at this time. Many Indians were assimilating. It was at least two generations before the mass removal of native peoples in the 1838 Trail of Tears. If both of Mary Guest's grandmothers were Indian women who married white men, which was not uncommon in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, both of her parents, Miles Jackson Guest and Hulda Kight, pictured above, would have been half Indian, and Mary "Polly" Guest herself would have been half Indian. Her marriage to John T. Henderson would have resulted in children with one fourth native blood. It's mathematically elegant but flies in the face of Occam's Razor, which says that the simplest solution - the one with the fewest steps - is more often the correct solution. A simple DNA test of any of the females in this line (must be female all the way down to determine Mary Guest's origins) would possibly provide this answer. I can't afford it but if anyone reading this can do a mitochondrial DNA test, please don't leave me hanging. Let me know what you can find out.

Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson

Ask anyone who does a lot of genealogy and they will tell you that there is one line that, for reasons usually unknown to them, interests them more than the others. For me this is my grandmother Nell Stange's line. Not only is Nell the grandparent I've been closest to, her line is the first one that broke wide open back in the 1990s, when internet genealogy was new. Once you connect your line to a well-documented family you find a wealth of information.

But first things first. Goldie Wynelle Stange's parents were Sam Jones Jowers (1888 - 1963) and Rena Mae Brown (1895 - 1986). Here is an undated photograph of Rena Mae Brown Jowers.

We looked at Rena Mae's father, James Madison Brown (1858 - 1902) in a previous post. Rena Mae's mother was Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson, born April 17, 1870 in Homerville, Georgia, in Clinch county. Her parents were John Tyler Henderson and Mary Guest. This information was given to me by Rena Mae's younger sister, our Aunt Goldie (Etta Goldie Brown Jardine) when I was a kid. She wrote, "Mama's mother was a Guest." I wasn't sure what that meant at the time but she also pointed me to Folks Huxford's seven volume Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia. Eventually I found these volumes at a library somewhere. While historians regard books as secondary rather than primary sources, and the Huxford books have been shown to contain errors, they can be a great starting place for the names which can then be searched in primary sources for verification. The Huxford books gave me the names of Mary Guest and John Tyler Henderson as the parents of Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson, which matched what I had been told by Aunt Goldie.

Oral family tradition also says that Mary Henderson (known to my grandmother as her Grandma Wilson) was one-quarter American Indian. The ongoing joke in genealogy is that every family has a hidden native American ancestor, and that this is almost always untrue. I will expound on Mary's ancestors on her mother's side in the next post, and consider that possibility. I have also wondered if her unusual middle name of 'Arkansas' is a hint to a native ancestor. If anyone knows the source of this name, please let me know. I will have much more to say about Mary's father, John Tyler "Jack" Henderson, in a future post. His line is a gold mine.

Here is an undated photograph of Mary A. E. Henderson Wilson.

Mary Henderson was a baby in the 1870 census, living in Homerville in Clinch county, Georgia.

John L. (sic) Henderson, 27, farmer
Mary, 25
Balinda (sic), 3
Jackson, 2
Mary, 0

For this family as well as John and Mary's families of origin, first names will reappear in every generation. It can be frustrating trying to keep the Johns and Marys straight, especially when each family had so many children, but less common names like Argent, Belinda, Hulda, and Jackson can serve as clues that we may be looking at a cousin.

By 1880 the family was living in Coffee county, and another daughter, Hulda, had been born around 1875. As we saw in the post about James Madison Brown, on Christmas Eve, December 1885, fifteen-year-old Mary married James Madison Brown in Coffee county.

Most of the 1890 census records were destroyed, but in 1900 Mary and James Brown are living in Willacoochee in Coffee (now Atkinson) county, Georgia with their children Henry, 11, Rena Mae, 5, and Harry, 2. See James Madison Brown post for census images.

Mary's husband James M. Brown died around 1902, and she made ends meet by taking in boarders. By 1910 she had remarried Alexander Wilson. Each brought four children to the marriage. The family was living in Broxton, Georgia, in Coffee county. Alex Wilson was a foreman at a shingle mill. Mary was a "hotel propriator." Eula Wilson was two years old.

In 1930 Mary was living with 23-year-old Eula and Eula's son Harry in Douglas. Boarders are also listed. Alex Wilson, now age 70, was listed as head of household but at another address. In 1940 Mary, age 70, was living with Eula and Linton ("Unc") Taylor and their sons on Hicks St. in Waycross. Mary Henderson Wilson died in 1964 and is buried in Jacksonville Memory Gardens.

In the next blog I will look at the family of Mary Henderson's mother, Mary Guest.