Some Lines are Long . . .

 

There are some lines in my family tree which extend through multiple researched generations—my matriline, for instance, where I've managed to trace that mother's mother's line just over the divide from the 1700s to the last quarter century of the 1600s. On the other hand, some family lines are, well, frustratingly stunted.

One branch off my matriline falls in that latter category. While it was a bit of a struggle, I was able to figure out the parents of my orphaned second great-grandmother Mary Elizabeth Rainey, using the mitochondrial DNA test in tandem with the usual autosomal test available at so many genetic genealogy companies. From that step onward, progress on researching my matriline went smoothly.

Her father's line? Well, that's another story.

That story, as it turned out, left me with a name, a few dates and locations, and not much else. Mary Elizabeth's father was likely a Virginia man named Thomas Firth Rainey, who made it to Oglethorpe County, Georgia, by early adulthood. There, in 1818, he married Mary Elizabeth's mother, a Georgia-born Taliaferro descendant for whom Mary Elizabeth was named.

After that date followed several children, last of whom was Mary Elizabeth, herself. Most of those collateral lines I have not been able to trace, but thankfully, there have been a few which have yielded confirmation through autosomal DNA test results that I am on the right track for this orphaned baby sister's line.

As for her father, Thomas Firth Rainey, I still don't know much more about him than his date of death in Coweta County, Georgia. What I would like to know about this third selection of my Twelve Most Wanted for 2026 is the identity of his own parents. Since Thomas was born about 1796, this search—if successful—will put me on a trail to wander back through the years of the American Revolution to records regarding his parents, possibly even during the British colonial era. If the door opens in this brick wall Rainey line, it may also lead me to collateral lines whose descendants number among my unexplained DNA matches.

For this March's research focus for my Twelve Most Wanted, Thomas Firth Rainey will either be a brick wall stubbornly refusing to yield to probing, or be one ancestor whose life's opened door will lead to multiple additional discoveries. With the many new tools technology has gifted us, I suspect research on Thomas Rainey's ancestors may see that more successful latter result.