Back on August 7th, 2017, FamilyTreeDNA notified my Smith matches and me of a new 67/67 yDNA match! I never expected to find another unknown (to me) Smith line that matched this closely. We are all very excited about this discovery and I will attempt to provide the details and their significance here.
The match descends from a Thaddeous Smith. This “Thad” Smith is a descendant of Jeptha Vinen Smith [online genealogy info] who married Nancy Dickson. They were wed in 1824 in Fayette Co, GA. Nancy Dickson was a daughter of militia General David Dickson or Dixon (Captain in The Revolutionary War).
[ An interesting bit to note about Nancy Dickson: in her marriage records, her name is written multiple times as “Discon”. ]
After doing some preliminary digging on Ancestry.com, I was amazed to find a two page hand written letter that was written by a granddaughter of Jeptha’s in Lineville, AL in the 1960’s. To quote the Ancestry.com user’s page: “Written by Eugie Dobson, daughter of Joseph and Nancy Adalee Smith Dobson. Relayed to her by her uncle Andrew [Jackson] Smith, the son of Jeptha and Nancy Smith.”
I will present here my best attempt at transcribing the contents of these two pages. They’re a wealth of info about the early origins of our Smiths in North Carolina.
Page 1
[Page 1]
Genealogy of Jeptha V. Smith.-
Jeptha Vinen Smith, born in Hancock County
Ga., Dec 1795, died in Glendale Miss, Sept
25 1863, and is buried there. was a son of Wm Smith and
wife Mary Smith, his Bros and Sisters: Jno Browder,
born 1783, died 1868, married Caroline Kilgore,
James McDonald married Martha Bankston, settled
in Maury Co, Tenn., Elizabeth married Jos Wheeler.
Jemina married William Belcher.
Nancy [married] James Dickson.
Mary [married] Judge Jospeh Benton
Louise [married] Ransome Kitchens. Wm
Smith, a Revolutionary Soldier. [father of
Jeptha V Smith) was born about 1755, and died
at Smith Mills on red oak creek, in Merri-
weather Co, Ga. in 1830. Had one bro., Peter, and one
sister who married a Mr. Lambert, also a half
bros who went to Kentucky*, he (Wm Smith) was
a son of Nicholas Smith and his wife Polly
Smith. Nicholas Smith (father of Wm) was
born in Caswell Co, N.C. and was of English
descent. Polly Smith, mother of Wm was born in
Dublin Ireland, and her maiden name was Burke.
Mary Smith (Wife Wm and Mother of Jeptha V.) was
the daughter of Jno Powell and his wife Peggy Powell.
Mary Powell Smith’s bros., and sisters were James, Charles,
Judeth, Peggy, Nancy, and Martha. One sister married
Joseph McLane another Wm Seals. Jno Powell
(father of Mary Smith) was born in Caswell
Page 2
[Page 2]
Co. N.C. and he was a son of John Powell (of VA who
was a cousin of Geo Washington, Peggy Powell
(mother of Mary Smith) was born in Doublin
Ireland, her maiden name was Peggy Mc-
Donald. Uncle Andrews story of Peggy
Powell. Peggy Powell, the wife of Jno Powell of
Caswell Co, N.C. and the mother of Mary Smith (who
was the mother of Jeptha V Smith) was born in
Dublin Ireland. her maiden name was Peggy
McDonald. she, with other school children girls
of Dublin were [invited ?] by a Captain of a large
ship. “to a ball to or g were of the ship.” [?] When
the party was underway the ship quietly sailed
away, pirates they proved to be, and the girls
were brought to America (Virginia seaport)
and sold as slaves. Peggy was bought by one
John Powell, who beft and reared her care-
fully. His son fell in love with her and
married her, and much to their surprise their
there were no parental objections.
John Powell, the father of Mary “Smith” and her bros.,
& sisters: James, Charles, John, Judith, Nancy, Peggy.
& Martha was the son of Jno Powell of Virginia
who was first coz of Geo Washington first
Pres. of U.S.
So here we have a narrative of migration from Caswell Co, NC to Hancock Co, GA and then later to (Randolph Co, AL) and Glendale Co, MS. I wish to point out that Caswell Co, NC is very close to Orange Co, NC (if not formed from a part of it).
Orange County was formed from Granville, Johnston, and Bladen Counties in 1752. Guilford, Chatham, and Wake were all formed from a large portion of Orange County in 1770. Caswell County was formed from the north half of what remained of Orange County in 1777.
Upon further investigation, we can find David Dickson/Dixon in the 1803, 1805, and 1806 Franklin County, GA tax lists (Thanks to Blake Smith for this find. Invaluable!)
[Additional find regarding Smiths of Jackson County, Georiga and militia General David Dickson/Dixon. I do not know if all of the Smiths listed here are related to Jeptha, but I believe the population deserves a study.]
1803 Franklin Co, GA Tax List
1805 Franklin Co, GA Tax List
1806 Franklin Co, GA Tax List
I will be posting more about Jeptha V. Smith’s line as I hammer out the details. (Jeptha was related to a late Governor of Alabama and I want to thoroughly go through this info before I post anything.)
For the time being, I will retract my conclusions about Nicholas Smith (m. Polly Burke) regarding the Nathan Smith Settlement. I have looked into the paper trail and because Owen Carpenter is present in the migrations, I believe that Nathan Smith of the settlement’s namesake is not related to my group’s Nicholas Smith.
Again, please verify all of this on your own. Thanks.
Thanks for reading!
Chris Smith
Tracing my Smiths - by Christopher A. Smith - © 2021 
Chris
Good information! I have been at a dead end with my Smith line. I have had my Uncle’s Ydna tested (he is the last of our male Smith line) and he is from the line of Nicholas. I have searched every branch I can find and have not been able to find the link to my 3rd Great Grandfather Benjamin P Smith (b in GA 1815). I have tried comparing the name of his children (Emmett, Charley, Barnum, Lily, Martha(Bennie), Joseph, Thomas, Erie) and still to no avail.
What caught my interest on your article was the middle name of your Jeptha, the first born son of my Benjamin was Emmett V and I have no idea what the V is (as I don’t know what the P is in Benjamin’s name either). This was as close to someone in the Nicholas line with a V in their name.
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Charlene,
You say your Benjamin P Smith is from the line of Nicholas? Which Nicholas? If your uncle has had yDNA done at FTDNA, he would be a match to my group. I can’t say that I’ve seen his kit show up in my match list. Do you know his kit number? Have you joined the Smiths-All project?
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My Uncle is listed as J Smith and his kit # is B213792, he is in grp rm269-32. I originally joined with my autosomal dna my kit # is B97076. Any contact has to be through my kit on the Smith project since is kit is linked to my account. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Hey C Nelson,
So sorry, but our group is different from R-M269. I see where your group has listed Nicholas Smith and Elizabeth Flood as their MRCA. Interesting. I’d like to examine the paper trail for that. The problem with the SmithsWorldWide.org website is that someone can (mis)attribute an ancestor with little paper trail to back it up. Only complicates things in the long run really. If I were you, I’d gather all the paper trail records for all of your yDNA matches to group R-M269-32 and plot it all out of mymaps.google.com. If you don’t have a gMail account, they’re free and totally worth it!
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Thank you. The group contact was a Gaylord Smith, whom by the way was a 1 step generation match on my Uncles Ydna. When I contacted him he stated it wasn’t his line. I have also used his autosomal which was curious as well because he had matches to Span’s and Furr’s. When contacting them, they were all just getting started on their searches and had no information.
I plan on taking a trip to Ft Gaines in the near future and visit the local library and courthouse.
But, to give you a little history when I started this journey all I had to go on was my G Grandfather’s name Thomas (T.R.) Smith and his brother Joe. My Mother and Uncle knew no other members of the Smith family past them. No name to go on made it difficult so I started working backwards and found on a SS death document for Joe his father was B.P. Smith and his mother was S. E. Smith. It listed his father from Kentucky and his mother from Georgia. I found BP and SE in the census in Clay county GA; however, ALL the census show BP from GA . So I didn’t know which to believe but couldn’t find anything in KY for a BP or Benjamin. (I found his name listed as Benjamin on one of the census). I also found their graves online which happened to be in a family cemetery that was on the old “home place” my mother and uncle grew up on. It amazes me they never paid attention to the names on the headstones but she said their grandparents always told them to stay away because of rattle snakes. I have continued my search based on the Ydna being grouped with Nicholas, which has been very confusing because no one has the same information concerning him or Nathan.
The other thing that makes the search confusing is TR Smith’s wife was a Shaw and she is from a line of Smith’s descended from Hans Schmidt.
Thank you so much for your time.
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Feel free to post the paper trail for your yDNA match to Nicholas Smith and Elizabeth Flood. I’d be interested to examine that. Sounds like you’ve had quite an experience with your research. Glad to see you’ve made at least some headway.
Also, have you examined _all_ of the names on the earliest paper records for all of your yDNA matches?
Have you submitted an autosomal test to AncestryDNA or FTDNA? If so, take a look at GeneticAffairs.com for a free (for the most part) Leeds Method grouping analysis of your autosomal matches.
Chris
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Also, Gaylord’s yDNA line has been attached, on WikiTree, to that of Arthur Smith of Isle of Wight Co, VA and previously Blackmore, Essex, England. I can assure you that your yDNA line does not stem from this population.
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Thanks. I guess I figured the lower a step on the ydna matches, the closer the relation…obviously this is proving to be incorrect.I also contacted a Marvin Smith who was a step 1 as well and knows of no connection.
Since I have his dna on Ancestry I will try running it through Morley and see if I get anything else that pops up.
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For reference, the line of Bennett Smith of McNairy Co, TN in my group was initially thought to be a 66/67 yDNA match, suggesting a TMRCA of around 6 to 7 generations, but then a sibling of the tester tested and it was found the line was a 67/67 match. This brought the TMRCA estimate down to 4 to 5 generations. However, we know through paper trail research that the actual TMRCA is more like 9 to 10 generations!
https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/dna-basics/ydna/ <- grain of salt suggested
I also can say that I've seen autosomal DNA show up ICW (IBD) between two 65/67 yDNA matches that isn't showing up in 67/67 yDNA matched individuals!
The estimates need refining, and hopefully AncestryDNA will lead the way.
The MorelyDNA tool is a fantastic resource and I'll encourage you to get others onboard in using it.
Ultimately, your best bet is to independently verify everything you read about your yDNA matches. Leave no room for speculation or error. I'd even go so far as to verify the trees of your yDNA matches on SmithsWorldWide.org. In doing so, you'll have the paper trail handy and know the names and places. Integrate this into mymaps.google.com and you'll have yourself a really great resource, imo.
Best of luck!
Chris
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I grew up in Randolph County, AL. Jeptha Vinen Smith was my great, great, great grandfather. As you mentioned, Jeptha Vinen was the father of William Hugh Smith, governor of Alabama after the Civil War. I also have copies of a few photos of the Smiths–including Jeptha’s daughter, Nancy Louisa (who was my great, great grandmother), several of his sons including Governor Smith, of Jeptha’s wife, and one which may be of Jeptha Vinen (the note written on the back says “Jeptha Vinen Smith or his son.”
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Wow! So glad you were able to find the blog! Do you have an Ancestry.com account? I think it’d be neat to see those photos. I’ve found that there is a quintessential Smith appearance that is present in every Smith line I’ve found. It appears to maybe skip a generation, but my great grandpa strongly resembles a Thad Smith who is descended from Jeptha as well. Jeptha’s grandfather and my 6th great grandfather Robert Smith may have been as close as first cousins, but the paper trail remains to be rediscovered for now. I’ve got my eyes on Brunswick Co, VA c.1730. Glad we could connect on here!
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My 3G grandfather was Jeptha Vining Smith.
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Hey Roy! Terribly sorry for taking so long to get back to you. You must be related to Eugie Dobson? Very glad to make your acquaintance on here. Hope you enjoy the page. I’m just about to make another posting about Jep’s early family in Caswell Co, NC, so stay tuned!
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In researching the Powell family involved in the narrative, I have discovered that Judith Powell and William Seals were ancestors of President Jimmy Carter.
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