DNA vs. Paper Trail

52 Ancestors Week 48

When DNA and the Paper Trail Disagree
 by Myra Vanderpool Gormley (C) 2018

 This week’s prompt “Next to Last” stumped me, so I chose to write about “When DNA and the Paper Trail Disagree.” 

Finding a new clue to the ancestry of the Rev. Wilson Henderson (1762-1847) sent me off in several directions trying to prove or disprove the claim that he was the son of an Edward Henderson who left a will in 1790 in Chester County, South Carolina. 

A number of online trees provided bits and pieces of information and cited their source as “Will” or "Abstract of SC Will” or “Ancestry.com—Chester County, SC Will.” Eventually, I found the latter, which actually is from a book of abstracts of South Carolina Wills, that also had been microfilmed at some point. 

I found the “Will of Edward Henderson” which was, according to the source, “Probated Dec. 3, 1790; Recorded in Book A, page 60. It is typewritten. Since the typewriter was not commercially available until about 1878 — nearly 100 years after the Will was written, obviously this was a derivative source. But one thing was clear, my ancestor, the Rev. Wilson Henderson, was not mentioned in that abstracted Will. 

A bit more digging and I learned that these abstracts were “Verbatim Copies of Old Wills Recorded in Will Book A” (South Carolina) and were a C. W.A. Project #3342. C.W.A. stands for Civil Works Administration and that was a Depression-era temporary jobs endeavor. I almost forgot about this information, thinking that the father of my Wilson Henderson had not yet been identified, and so I put the project on the back burner — temporarily. Then a DNA discussion in re the Henderson Clan caught my eye and someone remarked that it was strange that the Henderson DNA line from Wilson to Edward matches, but the paper trail doesn’t. 

I decided to see if I could find the original Will and read it for myself. Using the catalog at FamilySearch.org, I was able to find the Family History Film 23308 listing this will and there was a digitized version (DGS4753542) available online. 

Off I went, and Images 47 and 48 were my reward. Following the request that “my lawful debts to be paid and my estate as follows: Item. I give and bequeath to my son Wilson Henderson one shilling sterling . . . “ 

So my ancestor is mentioned in Edward’s Will. He apparently is the eldest son, but it impossible to ascertain the order of birth of the 12 children mentioned in the Will. I was gratified to find the evidence that makes the DNA and paper trails agree in this instance. 

Of course, what happens now that I know Edward Henderson (ca 1739-1790) is the father, and I have the name of the purported mother — Johanna Ferguson— is that I’ll put some other genealogy quest on the back burner and dig some more in pursuit of my Henderson Clan.