William Noel was not a Battles
DNA doesn’t always make our research lives easier.
It often sends us down really complicated rabbit holes.
But, even in a worst case scenario, it can keep us from going down the wrong rabbit hole.
Case in point: yesterday on Facebook a poster asked if anyone on that platform was descended from William Noel Battles.
Yup.
The Legal Genealogist‘s fifth great grandfather, born in Virginia mostly likely in the 1750s and died in Alabama in 1840.
The question the poster had was one that’s plagued Battles researchers for years: who were his parents?
One thing we know for sure: they weren’t the people usually listed as his parents in all those online family trees. He was most definitively not the son of John and Sarah Battle of Virginia.
Folks latch onto these parents for two reasons beyond the usual “the-name’s-the-same” claim: first, they had a son named William who they had baptized in Albemarle Parish, Virginia, in 1757,1 and, second, William Noel Battles lived in and enlisted in the Revolutionary War forces from Albemarle County, Virginia, some 13 miles from Charlottesville.2
Now… we could go into the minor little issue here of geography, and review the fact that Albemarle Parish in Virginia wasn’t in Albemarle County in Virginia. It was clear across the state in what was then Sussex County (and had been Surry County).3
That by itself would be a good reason for caution in going with the usual “the-name’s-the-same” bit.
Or we could note that the John Battle family had moved to North Carolina before our William Noel enlisted in the 10th Virginia Regiment in Virginia — John’s will, naming his wife and children, including his son William, was executed in North Carolina in 1776.4
But there’s a singularly compelling reason for noting that John Battle is not the father of William Noel Battles.
Plain and simple, William Noel was not a Battles.
His YDNA, passed down through the lines of at least two of his sons, shows that his father wasn’t a Battles at all.
His descendants don’t match anybody named Battle or Battles.
But they do match descendants of another very well-documented Virginia family.
They match the descendants of one Richard Cottrell, who died in Virginia in 1715.5
Yep. A male from my maternal grandfather’s side was the daddy of a male from my grandmother’s side back in the 1700s. Thoroughly documented by YDNA testing out to the Big-Y level.
Sigh…
So here’s a case where DNA doesn’t make my research life any easier — there were at least six Cottrell men, Thomas and his five sons (only three of whom were named in his will, darn it!6 in the area where William Noel Battles was born who all appear to be of an age to be the father so there are plenty of rabbit holes to investigate here.
But in this case, reviewing why (YDNA!) we know what we know, it should at least keep us all from going down the wrong rabbit hole.
We can all stop trying to chase William Noel Battles of Albemarle County down into the rabbit hole of the family of John and Sarah Battle of Albemarle Parish.
Image: adapted from Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, The Newberry Library (https://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/ : accessed 24 Oct 2021).
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Y we know what we know,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 24 Oct 2021).
SOURCES
- See “Parish register of Albemarle Parish of Surry and Sussex counties, 1739-1778,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/film/007893694), digital film 007893694, image 134, entry for William Battle, born 2 January 1757. ↩
- See Declaration of soldier, 8 November 1832, Noel Battles, no. S.12960 (Pvt., Capt. Shelton’s Company, 10th Va. Reg.); Revolutionary War Pensions and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, microfilm publication M804, 2670 rolls (Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Service, 1974); digital images, Fold3 (http://www.Fold3.com : accessed 24 Oct 2021). ↩
- See FamilySearch Research Wiki (https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/), “Albemarle Parish, Sussex, Virginia Genealogy,” rev. 8 Apr 2019. Note particularly the admonition: “Albemarle Parish should not be confused with Albemarle County.” ↩
- See Fred A. Olds, compiler, An Abstract of North Carolina Wills (Oxford, N.C. : p.p., 1925), 283. ↩
- See Richard Cottrell, compiler, “Richard and Mary (Anderson) Cottrell of New Kent Co., VA, Male Descendants Y-DNA Results,” RichardCottrell.org via Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/ : accessed 24 Oct 2021). ↩
- See Amherst County, Virginia, Will Book 1:21-22, Will of Thomas Cottrell, probated 2 May 1763; FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 24 Oct 2021). ↩
After over a decade of researching the Bierman family we believed was my mother’s birth family, DNA revealed that not only wasn’t she related to any Biermans, she also not Jewish as Grandpa had been told when they adopted her. Turned out her birth mother’s name was Bramley, so I’m thinking she was simply mixed up with another kid in the orphanage. So much for that decade of research.
You share a connection with my husband who is descended from 4 generations of Richard Cottrells (born 1662 to 1738). They are on his mother’s side so his Y won’t help you. He also has lots of crossing lines in his family around Charlottesville so I know how challenging that area is and how much bad information there is in trees.
Say hi to my cousin for me — on both sides! 🙂
Oh wow, I feel your pain. Do you have autosomal matches to the Cottrell name?
Enough to know we’re on the right track — but remember this is far enough back that these are in the “very likely not to share atDNA” category.
Have you or anyone else attempted a match with descendants of Shadrach Battles? They enlisted in the same unit at the same time, so there must be some connection. Living in Albemarle County, I’ve done a ton of research on the Battles family.
I’d love to locate a documented male line descendant of Shadrach to YDNA test (Shelley Murphy has mentioned this to you, I believe!), but remember: it doesn’t appear that Sarah was married to Shadrach’s father, and even if these are both her sons (not proved, of course), they could have different fathers. For autosomal testing, it’s a crap shoot, because we’d be talking sixth cousins or so.
Judy,
Did you or have you seen anywhere where Shadrach had a son named Edward? I am to believe Shadrach Battles was just William’s half-brother if you do a follow up article/blog on this please let me know! Best of wishes.
Hi, Darrell! Yes, Shadrach did have a son (or he’s supposed to have had a son) named Edward. I agree that Noel and Shadrach are likely half-brothers, but it’d sure be nice to have a tester from Shadrach’s line…
My Dad’s Y-line showed us he was adopted. He has over 10 matches of a single surname. FTDNA indicates these individuals have had autosomal tests, yet my dad has no matches with them in his list. This all happened in the 1920’s, any ideas on how his Y-surname may have morphed into another surname?
When you say “this all happened in the 1920s” what do you mean?
Part of the problem is that people don’t always have access to autosomal or YDNA results that disprove the paper trail. Bad research aside, I don’t get too upset when I see family trees that aren’t genetically correct as long as the paper trail is sound. It’s entirely likely the submitter just has no idea. The only way for these things to get sorted out is to make the knowledge widely available. So, thanks, Judy, for doing that for your ancestor.
This certainly clears up the disparity between the Battles who went to NC and those who ended up in Alabama. They never seemed connected. He is my 5th grandfather. I have the rebuilt remains of an alabaster mantel clock he gave his wife that was delivered to Virginia from England. Thanks for all your work!
Thanks are due to the DNA testers from both the Battles and Cottrell families.
There is also a Dr. Andrew Battle line out of NC that ended up in Troup County Georgia and of no relation, that I can discern.