Tretower Genealogy Research

Well, after Bill Willard’s 67 marker test came in and then we received Phillip Ray Vaughan’s test, we were delighted to see that both men match 67 out of 67 markers.  Phillip Ray was a descendant of Ben Vaughan who married Cherubia Harp.  Now it is looking like either Ben Vaughan’s father was a Willard, or else his father, James Vaughan, was not the son of John Vaughan but himself a Willard.  We know it could not be James’s father, John, that was the Willard, as John’s other sons’ Y-DNA matches descendants of William Vaughan.  So we have a two generation possibility.  As Bill’s line came from Prince Edward County, Virginia, where James Vaughan’s mother, Nancy Callicott was born and spent much of her childhood, I’m suspecting that it was Nancy who had a relationship with a Willard and produced James.  I’m not sure John Vaughan even know that James was not his son.  Of course they could have adopted an orphan from the area where they lived, who took their name, but I don’t think this was what happened.

First, John and Nancy had only been married a year when James was born.  He was their oldest son, and I don’t think a young, newly married couple without children would adopt a child before they had produced one themselves.  Nancy was only 17 or 18 when James was born, and I really don’t think she was an adopted mother at that age.  Of course to verify or disprove this, we’d need to test the Y-DNA of some of James and Martha’s other son’s descendants.  If all of their sons’ DNA matched Ben’s, then it was James who was probably the Willard child.  If Ben’s was the only one of the sons with different DNA, then it was he who had been adopted or born out of wedlock.

Nancy and John tried in 1792 to marry, but they didn’t go through with it, though they filed the legal paperwork to get a license.  Nancy was only 15 then, and I now wonder if she was pregnant by a Willard boy and John Vaughan had just stepped in to save her, but maybe she changed her mind or her family didn’t disown her as she’d feared.  At either rate, they “ran away” in 1794 to neighboring Halifax county to wed.  Maybe James was not born  in 1795 as the records claim, but 1792 or 93. This is just speculation, of course, but certainly the Willard family of Bill Vaughan matches closely Ben Vaughan’s family.  The mystery continues….

Eddie Davis

As 2008 begins, it always seems appropriate to look forward to the upcoming year and figure out what goals to pursue.  Our Vaughan Pioneer group has steadily grown over the past 9 years and have launched many projects.  Our goals for the upcoming year have yet to be determined as a group, but personally, I’d like to see our group continue in it’s sponsoring of DNA testing.  We are still trying to locate a descendant of one of James and Martha Vaughan’s sons to compare their Y-DNA to the descendants of Ben Vaughan that we have already tested.

We may need to concentrate on looking at seemingly unrelated Vaughans in hopes of possibly determining a connection to William and John Vaughan.  As always, I’m trying to enter into my Vaughan database as many descendants of William and John that I can find.  Our group’s letter writing project had some results, but there are, I feel, many more descendants of William and John that have not been contacted.  I’ve mentioned to our group the idea of trying to contact some of the many descendants of Thomas and Nancy (Ford) Vaughan.  This oldest son of William and Fereby often is forgotten as research has focused mainly on the Arkansas branch of their family.  Many of Thomas’ descendants moved to Oregon in the 1800s.  I wonder how many family stories may still be unrecorded from this branch of the family.

My hope is that as DNA testing becomes more and more a part of Genealogical research, more Vaughans will have their DNA tested to help further the database of DNA that cane be used to determine ancestry.  I also hope that a close look at the DNA of Bill Willard, who’s Y-DNA matches descendants of Ben Vaughan very closely, will maybe help us solve the mystery of Ben’s Y-DNA mismatch to William and John’s Y-DNA.

As always, if you are reading this posting and are a descendant of William and Fereby Vaughan and/or John and Nancy Vaughan, contact me and I’d be glad to share information.

Eddie Davis