52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Scott line DNA Research

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I have been trying to break through many lines for many years, including my Scott line. Out of curiosity, I was looking through my ancestor DNA connections, and I saw something promising for the first time in my matches. So come along with me as I give you a front-seat view of how I think through my DNA research.

What I Know

The screenshot above shows all of the lines that descend from Emily Lutitia Scott. Most of these descendants I knew before we even started doing DNA, so the research back to my 3x great-grandmother Emily is pretty solid. We have all been in search of her paternal grandparents. Many of us have researched many Scotts in Missouri, Kansas, and Indiana. We knew George had lived in Missouri and Kansas, and he was born in Indiana, but no matter how many Scotts I researched, I never could find one with a son named George that fit my George.

Fast forward to today, and out of curiosity, I was looking through my mom's matches by ancestor and scrolled down to her 5th great-grandparents, and for the first time, I saw William Harrison Scott in that generation. Oh shoot, here I go again getting too excited. I need to go back a generation. The problem is that the connection between William Harrison Scott and my George is still missing. In my tree, and apparently in other trees as well, that generation is just labeled as "Scott" - not helpful, right?

But there is something interesting - the Harrison name. That rings a bell. That's right, Emily named her third son Henry Harrison Hoard. Those middle names are important, and I think we are on to something here.

The DNA Discovery Process

Now, I needed to research William Harrison Scott and the DNA matches that tie back to him. Well, there I went down the rabbit hole. I've spent the last two days researching each of my matches and building their trees.

I've connected two matches who are 5th cousins to each other, both descending from William Harrison Scott. One descends from Margaret A. (Scott) Solomon, and the other from her brother John Houston Scott, both children of William Harrison Scott.

Narrowing Down the Possibilities

I suspect that George is a sibling or a nephew of Margaret and her three known brothers. Their births range from 1805 to 1828, which leaves a lot of room for possible missing siblings that we don't know about because they weren't captured in the records we have found.

Looking at the timeline, I think I can rule out John as a father, since he did not marry Sarah Jackman until 1833 and my George was born 1828. Smith was born in 1823, so he's too young to be George's father.

That leaves Thomas to review or consider that John had a wife before Sarah. If George were a sibling rather than a nephew, Ann would have been 42 in 1827/28, so it's possible she could have been George's mother. However, there's no mention of him in the Will of William Scott.

They are all in Indiana in the early days of that state so the records are few, and it would be easy for a child to be missed in the records that are available online.

The Plot Thickens

After further review, Thomas didn't marry Susan Dieter until 1842, and he also married Mary Houge in 1833, but she must have died early because he built his family with Susan. All of Thomas's children, at least the ones that show in the 1850 or later census, were all born after his marriage to Susan. This still rules Thomas out as a possible father for George.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that DNA research still requires a great deal of traditional genealogy. After working on this for two days, I'm closer to an answer, but I still don't have an answer, not even when reviewing ThruLines. In this case, ThruLines helps to point me to a recurring family in my matches, but so far, I don't know how that couple (William Harrison Scott and Ann Houston) relates to my George Scott.

But this is probably the closest I've ever been to solving this line. The combination of the "Harrison" middle name pattern in my family and DNA evidence pointing to William Harrison Scott suggests I'm on the right track.

To solve this mystery I will need to roll up my sleeves, dust off my BanyanDNA and other such tools and dig into this for a while, so it looks like you will have to come back another day for the conclusion of this post. Sorry, but there are only so many hours in a day and I still don't have that time machine that would fix all of this.




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