Some time ago, I was autosomally matched with a number of folks who all appeared to share significant amount of DNA with my dad and his 3rd cousin on Cr3 and Cr7.

After an initial research effort, it was determined that all A722601, A720645, and T245759 descended from Clement Whitaker Purcell who married Julia Ann Smith Aug 6 1832 in Lawrence Co, IN. This has since become an anchor population for my Salt Creeker Smiths when doing autosomal comparisons.

If my memory serves me correctly, based on my prior research, Clement and Julia were married by a David Beck.

For notes, Isaac Smith, Sr. was in Jackson Co, IN by 1820:

2 sons, b. between 1820 and 1810

1 son b. between 1810 and 1804

1 man b. between 1794 and 1775 (Isaac Smith, Sr.)

2 daughters, b. between 1820 and 1810

1 daughter, b. between 1804 and 1794

1 woman, b. between 1794 and 1775 (Nancy Hendricks b. 1793).

It should be noted that Samuel Rice Smith was born in 1819 in Rockcastle Co, KY, just outside of Mt. Vernon. This suggests that most, if not all of Isaac’s children who were alive in 1820 were born in Kentucky.

In the 1830 Lawrence Co, IN census, we find David Beck 4 houses away from the family of Isaac Smith and Nancy Hendricks.

In the 1840 Jackson Co, IN census, we find Clement and family on pg 28/115 on Ancestry.com:

This entry next to David Waggoner is important because David had a brother Frederick Waggoner who was the boyfriend/fiancee’ (consort) of an Elizabeth Smith who was the sister of Samuel Rice Smith. Futher, an Elizabeth Waggoner, a daughter of George Waggoner, David’s father, was the wife of a William Smith who was a brother to Samuel Rice Smith. This 1840 census record places Clement Purcell and family in immediate temporal, social, and geographic proximity to the family of Isaac Smith and Nancy Hendricks Bridgewater.

In the 1850 Jackson Co, IN census, we find the families of Samuel Rice Smith and Isaac Smith, Sr. on pg 14/28.

Clement and Julia are on pg 12/28 enumerated next to, again, George Waggoner and Elizabeth Phillips.

This being the first census that provides a clear age for Julia, we see she says she was born in 1816 in Kentucky.

In 1860, we find Clement and Julia in the Washington Twp, Putnam Co, IN census. Their neighbors are not all that surprising. Thomas Hill and Lavina Smith, a sister of Samuel Rice Smith.

To supplement this paper trail that shows the long-term temporal, social, and geographic associations of Julia Ann Smith Purcell with the children of Isaac Smith and Nancy Hendricks, I will provide an autosomal analysis of some of Julia’s descendants.

The confusion comes into play when we examine the currently published information about Julia Ann Smith. Most online trees have her as a daughter of a Reuben Smith and Hannah Warford. This association, in my opinion, is only made via the presence of the name “Warford” or “Wolford” in the descendants of Clement Purcell. There is only one problem with this theory: Reuben and Hannah were never in the right places at the right times to be Julia’s parents.

Here is the when/where for Reuben and Hannah:

Found on Ancestry.com, posted by “C_Warner789” on 20 Feb 2013:

The Reuben Smith and Maximilllian Robinson family were members of a covered wagon train that left Shelbyville, Kentucky and ultimately settled in Putnam County, Indiana.  They arrived in Marion township, Putnam Co. on October 6, 1822.  They found the country comparatively unsettled with white people but well inhabited with Indians.  The first few years there were difficult, as it was for all early day settlers.  The family was very religious.  The children were baptized as babies and began receiving religious training early in life.  Joe Warford, Reuben’s brother-in-law, organized the first church in the community, the First Methodist Church.  One of Reuben Smith’s daughters died in April 1821, leaving a small son who was raised by the family.  In 1832, another sister died (Mary Ann Owen) leaving three small children who were also reared by Reuben and his wife.

1830 – Putnam Co, IN

For the 1830 info, we have to ask ourselves, “Why would Julia’s parents be 72 miles to the north while their daughter was still an unwed minor?” This doesn’t make sense.

1840 – Putnam Co, IN
1850 – Floyd Twp, Putnam Co, IN

My alternative hypothesis is that Julia Ann Smith Purcell was a daughter of Isaac Smith and Nancy Hendricks. It is likely not a coincidence that Nancy Hendricks’ mother’s name was Julia Ann Rice (wife of Coonrod Hendricks).

I will present an additional bit of autosomal evidence for this hypothesis.

Let’s examine this segment of DNA shared by A475724 (descendant of Samuel Rice Smith) and A722601 (descendant of Julia Ann Smith Purcell).

Running a matching segment search and then a triangulation report yields the following:

We find among the triangulated matches a “Skip” (A987059) and a “Granddaddy Lantz” (A852771). “Skip” is George Robert Jungerman, Jr. He is a documented descendant of Clement and Julia (same as A722601). A852771 was a new find and a bit of research yielded that this person is a documented descendant of Coonrod Hendricks and Julia Ann Rice, parents of Nancy Hendricks Smith Bridgewater. Additionally, there is a Charles E. Hendrix (NU4969811) that also matches at this location, however I have not confirmed if Charles is a descendant of Coonrod and Julia.

I believe the match between 1) two descendants of Clement and Julia (Skip and Jeanne), 2) a descendant of Samuel Rice Smith (Ray), and 3) a descendant of Coonrod and Julia Rice Hendricks (Lantz) is sufficient to demonstrate that Julia Ann Smith was a descendant of Coonrod Hendricks and Julia Ann Rice, as the above paper trail suggests.

Thanks for reading!

-Chris