Over the last few months, while juggling a new job and dealing with COVID-19 lockdown, I’ve been able to really dig into the autosomal DNA information we have for our Smith group. The findings are quite surprising.

I want to start out with again looking at the family of Henry Smith and Elizabeth Ledford. We know from Henry’s RevWar pension application that he enlisted under Captain Andrew Jeter in Brunswick Co, VA. For notes, Henry had two brothers. A John and George Smith are mentioned in Henry’s RevWar pension file. They enlisted under Capt. Andrew Jeter as well. Let’s take a look at Andrew Jeter’s family.

Andrew Jeter married a Mary Smith, daughter of Eades/Eaids Smith. Eaids also had a daughter Olive Smith who married a Nathaniel Harrison. They had a daughter Olive Harrison who married a Stephen Smith, son of Cuthbert Smith and Elizabeth Chamberlayne.

While I find no paper trail evidence to directly link Henry Smith to Cuthbert Smith or Eaids Smith (son of a Roger Smith d. 1735 in Brunswick Co, VA), I find it interesting that we see Cuthbert Smith in proximity to this story. Here’s why.

Using GEDmatch.com to identify common DNA segments shared among descendants of Stephen Smith and Nancy Rainwater, I have identified DNA on Cr9 that is common to both descendants of Stephen and Nancy AND descendants of William Norwood who married Susannah Smith, daughter of Josiah Smith who married Elizabeth Collier. I have this research documented and available to share, but will refrain from posting it on the blog as it is lengthy. If you’d like to examine my findings, please drop me a comment.

The DNA segments are shared with both descendants of Charles Nathaniel Norwood and his sister Elizabeth Ann Norwood.

We run into an issue with this finding, however. A Smith group R-M269-7 on SmithsWorldWide.org already claims this Josiah Smith’s family as theirs. That said, I have engaged Gaylord and Quentin Smith and successfully countered their claims of relatedness to this Josiah Smith of Brunswick Co, VA. Their main group admin conceded that I was correct in my rebuttal. I have e-mails I can share if you wish to examine them.

So with this latest autosomal DNA finding, we now find the family trees of Eaids Smith and Cuthbert Smith (can’t prove they were related at the moment) a bit more interesting. It suggests that our larger Smith group is closely related to William Smith who married Ann Isham.

This conclusion is also, however, obstructed by the published information of SmithsWorldWide.org group R-M269-32 AND R-M269-7. Here’s why.

Here is the SmithsWorldWide.org page for Cuthbert Smith
https://www.smithsworldwide.org/tng/getperson.php?personID=I24829&tree=tree1

Here is the SmithsWorldWide.org page for Benjamin Smith, a brother of Josiah and Cuthbert’s
https://www.smithsworldwide.org/tng/getperson.php?personID=I40572&tree=tree1

Notice that these are not the same yDNA lines. Either one or both of these research groups is incorrect.

Unfortunately, and this is one of the main reasons I strongly dislike the SmithsWorldWide.org project, is that despite my having contacted the group admins and proven my cases with them, there is no means for a formal dispute or resolution of conflict to occur if action is not taken afterward. I personally ENJOY using WikiTree.com and Geni.com and collaborating with researchers there much more. I recommend using SmithsWorldWide.org as a jumping point for source material, but DO NOT trust the conclusions the various groups have published about their colonial origins. Being the official site of the FamilyTreeDNA.com’s “Smith ALL” project, I expected more from SmithsWorldWide.org. Many of these groups used books for sources that were later found to be fabricated (see works of Linda G. Cheek) and others either do not understand autosomal DNA analysis or, in one case, fudged how to do an analysis by lowering SNP and cM matching threshold to an unrealistic value and then slapped the resulting info into a spreadsheet to try to bolster his claim that he was related to George Smith who married Elizabeth Earls. No, you don’t share 1500cM with a 9th cousin.

Oh yes, it is ironic that at one time I found George Smith m. Elizabeth Earls among the trees of group R-M269-7. There were multiple Abner Smiths that had been confused with each other and thanks to the work of Gary O. Hodges, the confusion was sorted out.

George Smith and Elizabeth are the ancestors of the Hatley/Crowder yDNA groups in our Smith group.

George Smith and Elizabeth are linked to a place called Smiths Creek in Granville Co, NC (not named for my Smith group). Also living here was a family of a John King, Sr. who married Hannah House. John had a brother Charles King who witnessed a land transaction between Cuthbert Smith and John Langley on 1 Aug 1745. John and Charles also had family living on Stoney Creek in Orange Co, NC. John and Edward King, relatives of Baxter King, lived close to, but not immediately next to, my Andrew Smith and his family on Back Creek. John King is also described as “of St. Mathew’s Parish”, the same as old Robert Smith, father of Andrew Smith.

If we look at the family of William Smith and Anne Isham again, we can find that Josiah and Cuthbert’s grandmother, Elizabeth Flood Smith was also married to a Thomas King. Perhaps this is how these families became acquainted?

In addition to the above information, I am in the midst of sorting out some “brand new” stuff related to our Benton Co, TN and Greenville, SC cousin lines. I will post this information once I have it organized.

Thanks for reading!

– Chris