As the above graphic indicates, June's mother was Ida Davis (1874-1900). By the time Ida passed at age 26, she had two daughters : Pansy and June. June was my great-grandmother. Both of these girls were raised by their grandmother, Mary Ellen (Swafford) Davis Gilliland (1854-193) and her 2nd husband, Robert F. Gilliland. Both girls used the Gilliland surname.
While I continue to search for paper records to document clues as to June's father, when autosomal DNA testing came on the scene I had renewed hope that a nearly 120 year-old mystery might be able to be solved. I've tested myself and my mother at all the major DNA databases, hoping to utilize the tools to find a connection.
Utilizing the Shared Matching tools at AncestryDNA, I was able to sort my mother's matches with her male cousin "L" on her mother's side. Because mom and "L" share grandparents, all of their shared matches have to be on either through the genetic upline of either Clemon Lambertson or June Gilliland. Because I have a rather robust tree, I was able to look at their shared matches and identify several right away and group them into clusters.
The shared matches that I couldn't identify became the ones that I looked more closely at. One match in particular (M.W.) shared by my mom and Cousin L shares 168cm across 8 segments with mom. AncestryDNA predicts her in the 3rd-4th cousin range. Looking at the matches shared with mom and M.W. were many names that were unidentifable.
I began working on building out Quick & Dirty Trees for each of these matches, hoping to find commonality. Many of these matches only had one or two names in their tree, others were a bit more detailed. I have scoured them looking for clues in common places and names, hoping to tie them together. Eventually I was able to tie a couple of them together with common ancestry.
In addition, mom has tested at 23andMe and I was able to find a couple of matches there who also tie into the family tree of the matches at Ancestry. These matches are distant cousins to each other, but did not know of their connections.
At AncestryDNA, matches M.W., K.H., P.B, and A.S. appear to tie into common ancestry through James Wesley Harris (1862-1926) and Laura Alice Livingston (1860-1942) of Monroe County, Indiana. Additionally, at 23andMe, matches T.F., K.S. & K.A. also have common ancestry to this couple.
Additional matches at Ancestry further up the line from Harris-Livingston connection include the Vint and Stine families, all of whom have Monroe County, Indiana connections - right in the hotbed of where June's family was living. I have identified additional matches of mom from these lines on both the Stine and the Vint families. In the Q&D tree of James Wesley Harris, his mother, Martha Ellen Vint (1840-1918) was the daughter of Wiliam Henry Vint & Sarah Stine.
Recently I was able to have additional cousins test who descend from Clemon and June at AncestryDNA. They also share common DNA with this cluster of matches. Cousin A and Cousin B are both my 2nd cousins.
If my Q&D trees are correct, M.W. and K.H. are sisters and P.B. is their 1st cousin. A.S. is the nephew of P.B. From 23andMe, T.F. is a 2nd cousin to M.W., K.H. & P.B. K.S. is the son of T.F, and K.A. would be 1st cousin twice removed.
I have worked this tree out using the WATO tool at DNA Painter, trying to figure out a hypothesis. I need more data, and will be reaching out to other descendants, including those who descend from June's sister, Pansy, to see if we can make the connections work.
While I don't have access to mom's Cousin L's matches to these individuals, I am encouraged by the amount of DNA shared and continue to work the Q&D Tree for more clues to tie in additional matches. Eventually I will solve the mystery of June's ancestry.
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