Battles and Battles and Shew and Shew and…
You have to love it when a new cousin pops up in your DNA results.
And then get frustrated as you see the twists and turns that make it impossible to separate out the shared DNA.
Case in point: a new cousin appeared in The Legal Genealogist‘s results just this morning. We’ll call her DM, and she matches me on AncestryDNA.
She also shares two lines of descent that we’ve been fighting to separate out… and that are just getting more and more entwined.
You see, my fourth great grandparents Boston and Elizabeth (Brewer) Shew moved to Cherokee County, Alabama, between 1840 and 1850, bringing with them their sons Simon and Daniel, my third great grandfather.1
Simon and Daniel then met the daughters of another set of fourth great grandparents, William and Ann (Jacobs) Battles.2
Yep.
You can write the rest of this one, can’t you? Sarah Battles married Simon Shew and Margaret Battles married Daniel Shew.3
So, of course, a lot of the cousins who show up in my matches are double cousins, sharing both the Shew and the Battles DNA. And, of course, we’d desperately like to find cousins who only match us in the Shew line or in the Battles line (but not both!!) so we could begin to distinguish between them.
And the cousin who popped up this morning doesn’t help one bit.
Yes, she’s a Shew descendant — via Simon.
That means she’s also a Battles descendant — via Sarah.
And there’s thing more here that makes it even harder.
Because she descends from Simon and Sarah via their son John.
Who married Alice Cranford.4
Whose parents were Jesse Franklin Cranford and Hattie Elizabeth Cranford.5
Hattie Elizabeth (Battles) Cranford.
Sarah’s and Margaret’s sister, Hattie Elizabeth.6
Sigh…
We’re never going to untangle these DNA threads…
SOURCES
- For 1840, see 1840 U.S. census, Grayson County, Virginia, p. 20 (stamped), Boston Shoe; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Sep 2018); citing National Archive microfilm publication M704, roll 555. For 1850, see 1850 U.S. census, Cherokee County, Alabama, population schedule, p. 6 (stamped), dwelling/family 75, Boston Shew; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Sep 2018); citing National Archive microfilm publication M432, roll 3. ↩
- For their marriage, see St. Clair County, Alabama, Marriage Record 1: 53, Battels-Jacobs, 25 Dec 1829; digital images, “Marriage records (St. Clair County, Alabama), 1819-1939,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 29 Sep 2018). ↩
- Daughters “Sallie” and “Peggy” are among the children named in a Southern Claims Commission file focusing on a claim filed by William Battles and later prosecuted by his widow Ann. William Battles, dec’d, v. United States, Court of Claims, Dec. term 1887–1888, Case No. 967-Congressional; Congressional Jurisdiction Case Records; Records of the United States Court of Claims, Record Group 123; National Archives, Washington, D.C. And Sallie Shew, Simon Shew and Margaret Shew signed off on a deed on the William Battles estate, re-recorded in 1884 after the Cherokee County Courthouse burned in 1882. Cherokee County, Alabama, Conveyance Record A: 527-528, William Battles Estate to William Shew, County Court, Centre, Ala. ↩
- John Shew and Alice Cranford are listed as the parents on the death certificate of John Curtis Shew, who died in Alabama in 1954. See “Alabama Deaths, 1908-1974,” database, entry for John Curtis Shew, 27 Jan 1954, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 30 Sep 2018); citing reference 557, Department of Health, Montgomery; FHL microfilm 1,908,886. ↩
- Alice’s parents are listed on her death certificate as Frank Crawford and Elizebeth Battles. Ibid., entry for Alice Shew, 25 Sep 1935; citing reference 23671, Department of Health, Montgomery; FHL microfilm 1,908,535. ↩
- Yep, a daughter “Betsy” is in that Southern Claims file too. And Elizabeth and Franklin Cranford signed that deed… ↩
May I suggest that you listen to Who’s on First and hone up on your separation skills. After that, sorting out your tangle weave should be as easy as finding out who is on first!
One of my all-time favorites… but (alas!) not directly applicable to pedigree collapse…
It makes you wonder sometimes why we try! I have Quaker ancestors with a quadruple pedigree collapse. And, to make it even more fun, there were four Johnson men who married four Johnson women. Of the same two immediate families. Who were, of course, descended from the same couple a few generations back. Or should I say, multiple couples. I consider this the fruit on the very top of a very tall tree. Good luck!
Just wondering where the Shews and the Brewers lived before coming to Wilkes County, North Carolina. Could it have been in Chester County, PA?
We have no solid evidence for the origins of the Shew (or Schuh) or Brewer families before they arrived in North Carolina. The one line we hoped to tie into (from the Ephrata Cloister through Shenandoah County VA) punked out via YDNA.
Was it Brewer Y-DNA?
This is why I always laugh when someone says “At (x) generations back you have (y) grandparents.” This is only true if none of your family lines met up until your parents did.
John’s Y DNA is only from the Shew side. Comparing it to a Battle should identify DNA that is different, helping ID sides. Any matches *should* be coincidental.
DM has X DNA that is only Battle. ME has X DNA that is 2 parts Battle & 1 part ‘other'(GM’s line.)SO… comparing their DNA should yield matches that are from the Battle line & some indeterminate DNA.
This isn’t definitive, but a start to identifying the lines. Comparing other cousins in this manner may lead to an answer.
Hope this helps!
We have secured the YDNA signature of our Shews; unfortunately, those who’ve been available to be YDNA-tested are too distant to be autosomal matches.