What happened to John Powell? Part 1

In genealogy circles, they are referred to as "Brick Walls" -  genealogical puzzles that refuse to be solved, no matter how much research you do.  I have one that has plagued me for several years now - my 2nd great-grandfather on my Powell line.  He married my 2nd great-grandmother, Hattie Gregory, sometime around 1890, fathered my great-grandfather, James Edward Powell, who was born in 1891, and then seemingly dropped off the face of the earth.

He never appears in a census record with Hattie and James Edward - thanks, in large part, to the almost complete destruction of the 1890 US census records.  Hattie and her son (listed as "Edward") appear in the 1900 census living with her widowed mother, Lavinia Lybrand Gregory.  The census taker notates Hattie as having been married for 10 years, but there is no husband listed living with her.

1900 Census, District 025, Gregg, Aiken, South Carolina

By the following census in 1910, Hattie has been remarried for 2 years to John Preston Hatcher, and they have a 3-month-old daughter, Francis Cornelia Hatcher.  Hattie's mother, Lavinia (or "Vincie") is still living with Hattie and her family.

1910 Census, District 0023, Wards, Aiken, South Carolina

Hattie's son, James Edward, is a newlywed living with his new wife, my great-grandmother, Lois Bell Powell.

1910 Census, District 0007, Gregg, Aiken, South Carolina

I have no birth records for my great-grandfather James Edward that might lead to information about his father.  I have no marriage record for the marriage of Hattie and James' father.  I have no hint at all of his existence, except, of course, MY existence, and his name written in two places - (1) my Grandma Eva's family Bible, and (2) on my great-grandfather's death certificate.  John Powell.  And let me just tell you how many John Powells there were around in those days...

I have researched several of the John Powells from the area of Aiken and Edgefield, South Carolina, where Hattie and James Edward Powell lived.  There is one John Powell - we'll call him John Powell #1 - who was an extremely interesting prospect.  He was committed to the state hospital in Columbia, South Carolina and was enumerated there on the 1920 census, listed as "inmate" and "divorced."  Hmmm...sounds promising.  Being an inmate at the state hospital would certainly explain why he wasn't around to be enumerated with his family.  However, my John Powell is missing at least as early as the 1900 census, and the census where John Powell #1 is listed as an inmate is a full 20 years later.  Still, the idea is certainly worth pursuing.  When I began researching John Powell #1's family and background, I found that he had a horrible disease called Huntington's Chorea, and that at least one of his brothers also had this disease.  In fact, they were both committed to the state hospital at the same time, and the disease was the ultimate cause of death for both.  There was also another brother who committed suicide at age 45, which leads me to suspect that he may have also had the disease.

This would make for quite an interesting family story.  But, alas, it was not to be.  After hours of research, I ultimately discovered that John Powell #1 was happily married to another woman elsewhere in the state around the same time that my John Powell married Hattie and fathered James Edward.

Bam.  Another brick wall thrown up in front of me.

So...what now?  I have pursued many, many, many other avenues for trying to hunt down John Powell, but EVERY SINGLE ONE of them has been met with the same result - a brick wall, thrown up right in my face at every turn.  Due to the nature of my job, my options are limited with taking time off to travel to the lower part of the state to search courthouse records (although that is my plan in the near future, as soon as I can work out the logistics).  In the meantime, though, there is one more option...

Ah, yes - DNA.  First, a short biology lesson.  I know, I know...but bear with me here.  I promise it will be short and painless.

Okay, so as humans, we have 23 pairs of chromosomes.  Pairs 1-22 are comprised of a random combination of the DNA that we received from our mother and father - 50% inherited from each.  When a parent passes DNA on to their children in chromosomes 1-22, that DNA goes through a process called recombination whereby it essentially scrambles itself up.  We'll look at that process in a later post.  But for now, let's focus on the last pair of chromosomes, the 23rd pair, which determines our sex.  Females have two "X" chromosomes, while males have both an "X" and a "Y" chromosome.  Below is a succinct explanation of the inheritance patterns of X- and Y-DNA from http://www.genie1.com.au/blog/63-x-dna by Louise Coakley:

Take a closer look at that Y-DNA that the male child inherited from his father.  The father passed his entire Y chromosome to his son, intact and unchanged.  Do y'all realize what that means??  Every male child in your (and my) family inherited his father's Y-chromosome, and his father inherited his grandfather's Y-chromosome, his grandfather inherited his great-grandfather's Y-chromosome, and so on and so forth.  The Y-chromosome is passed down through the male lines of families for hundreds of years with little to no mutation.

So, back to my current brick wall.  How exactly does this help me with regard to finding my 2nd great-grandfather, John Powell?  Well, it means that there is still a huge, intact piece of my 2nd great-grandfather John Powell's DNA walking around this earth today.  In fact, there are several.  Each of these pieces lives within a surviving male of the Powell family line.

John Powell passed his Y-chromosome on to my great-grandfather James Edward Powell, who in turn passed it on to each of his sons - James Edward Powell, Jr., Eldridge Cecil Powell, Everett Frank Powell (my grandfather), and Albert Harold Powell.  Each of these men, if he had a son, also passed down an exact copy of that same Y-chromosome.  However, there were only a total of three boys born to these men* - James ("Jimmy") Powell, son of my great-uncle Eldridge, Jack Powell, son of my great-uncle Albert, and my dad, Michael ("Mike") Powell, son of my grandfather Everett Powell.  Jimmy Powell also has a son, Nicholas, who carries that same Y-chromosome.  That's it - only four men that are known to me to carry the Powell Y-chromosome.

*James Edward Powell did have two other grandsons, but they are the sons of his daughter Ellie Lois Powell Barnes.  Because they were born to a female descendant, they would have inherited the Y chromosome of their father, Frank Leroy Barnes, and not that of James Edward Powell.

But does this mean that these four men are the only ones to carry the Powell Y-chromosome?  If so, what's the point?  After all, I already know about them, and they don't really help at all in the search for John Powell.  However, didn't John Powell have to inherit his Y-chromosome from somewhere - namely, from his father, who is currently unknown to me?  And didn't this unknown father inherit the Powell Y-chromosome from his (also unknown) father?  Also, what if John Powell had brothers?  Or other sons?  Wouldn't they have carried the same Y-chromosome that he had?  And if those brothers or sons had sons, who also had sons, who also had sons?  Wouldn't that mean that there are also other, unknown (to me) copies of that same Y-chromosome walking the earth today?

Enter the Y-DNA test from Family Tree DNA.  This type of specialized DNA test is a bit pricier than the more common autosomal DNA test (offered by Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23andMe, and Family Tree DNA).  Currently, Family Tree DNA is the only company that offers a test for the Y-chromosome (and also for mitochondrial DNA, but that's for another post and another time).  Until recently, this test has been out of my price range.  However, FTDNA had a sweet Christmas/year-end sale, and my precious husband, who knows how important this is to me, gifted me with the funds to purchase one at the sale price.  In addition, my dad agreed to be the test subject.

So last weekend, I went to my parents' house and administered the Y-DNA test (which is painless and consists only of a couple of cheek swabs) to my dad.  I mailed it in to Family Tree DNA on Monday, January 7.  So now, I wait.  And wait.  It can take 6-8 weeks for the results of a DNA test to come in, so I am forced - very much against my will - to be patient.  But when the results do finally arrive, if there are any matches at all aside from Jimmy, Jack, or Nicholas Powell, then I have found a direct lead to solving the mystery of who John Powell was and what ultimately happened to him.  After 10+ years of family history research, that is definitely worth waiting for.

To be continued...

For Part 2, click here.