Chipping Off the Old Block

 

Despite lacking any actual documentation to tie my third great-grandmother Delaney Townsend to her roots, there is another option we can try: explore her genetic record. While this pushes me to the outer edge of the realm of viable DNA matches, it is possible to find some connections. It's just that those links will be fairly weak, if present at all. Like chipping little shards off the old block of her parentage, the genetic material passed down through the generations—both in my line and that of Delaney Townsend's siblings—will still include a sliver of that inherited Townsend identity.

While I have yet to find a will for Delaney's supposed father in their home county of Marlboro in South Carolina, it was quite obvious that the then-remote place in territorial Florida where she traveled to marry Andrew Charles in 1841 also was home to two Townsend men and their families. Whether they were brothers of hers, I can't yet say. But for a place like Madison County, Florida—which at the time had a population under three thousand people—chances may have been better than average that Benjamin Townsend and Allen Townsend were Delaney's brothers.

This weekend, I decided to see what could be discovered about these possible DNA connections. For Benjamin Townsend's line, I currently have nine matches. For Allen Townsend, there are twelve. Sure, we all share a minor amount of genetic material—we are, after all, talking about relatives who share a set of fourth great-grandparents—but where there is at least some shared genetic material, even of that small amount, there is some sort of family connection.

In the background this month, I'll keep working my way through that set of DNA matches—besides the two Florida Townsend residents, there are one hundred additional Townsend DNA connections yet to review—but my next step is to get back to the paper chase. I'll look closely at the possible collateral lines of Allen and Benjamin Townsend to examine records associated with each of them. Especially in the case of wills or administration of estates, I'll watch for any clues of other Townsend family connections.

Lacking direct documentation, sometimes we can infer relationships based on the appearance of names in key documents: choices of witnesses to wills, or appointment of executors or guardians. This coming week, we'll explore what can be found through the records of these two of Delaney's possible brothers.