0 matches with 37 markers

[octk]

My great grandfather Charles B. GRAY was born in 1858. The story goes that he ran away from home when he was about 16. This was about 1874. He was married in Madison Co., Indiana in 1888. According to ALL census records, he was always born in MO. His father was always born in KY or VA and his mom in Indiana. According to family and his death cert. his dad was John and mom was Mary. When his daughter married at age 15, he signed his name and on the application, he states he was born in Tipton Co., Indiana with Indiana marked out and replaced with Missouri. Tipton Co., MO doesn't exist. When his oldest son was born, Charles' birth place was Ripley Co., MO. When my grandfather was born, Charles is listed as being born in White Co., Kansas, which doesn't exist. All other children's births and marriages state Missouri. One other point of fact is that the story goes that Charles' real name was Mozarish <sic> and his first girlfriend couldn't pronounce it so she named him Charley. I did my 37 markers for YDNA and have 0 matches, 0 for GRAYS and 0 for anyone. I added my markers to a few other databases with the same result.
A side note, I have checked in about every census 1860 1870 for any of these names and nothing. I fear he changed his name.

Any thoughts on future DNA testing that could help? I really thought this would solve the mystery. My Ysearch id is 4RXXA if that would help.

[darroll]

I hope you know that some county names changed over the years.
Your 37 point marker would of picked up a surname.
I would go for the FF test.

[Jim Barrett]

If Y-DNA didn't find a match with your paternal line I don't see how FF would find a match with your paternal line.

I assume that you did have matches with some surname at 12 and 25 markers. Had those matches tested to 37 markers? It is very possible that no one with your paternal line has been tested yet.

I have a man in one of my projects who has 0 12 marker matches, 0 25 marker matches, 0 37 marker matches and 0 67 marker matches. He is comparing against the entire database and has checked both Ybase and Ysearch with no matches.

[Yaffa]

A Family Finder test could help him "IF" he got a very close match to a line he did not know. His Charles Gray could have had siblings and their descendants could be out there somewhere. He could only hope to get a close match that might lead him to paper.

Name Change- Very easy to do back then. My cousin's line said to have been wanted by the law and change their surname. Back then if you wrote your linage in a bible it was "GOSPEL" proof of who you and your family were. Make up a name and add it to your bible.

PS-did your ancestor own land? Try to find as as many court records on your ancestor as you can. These wont be on line but county courthouses, county deed offices or State archive history records,

[EdwardRHill]

I just spent a hour trying different tricks of mine and had no luck until I tried a search for John Gray living in Missouri during 1860. I found at lease two with a wife named Mary. One had a son John age 4 another John and Mary had a son that was born in 1858 MO I think the name was Charles. If you have a Ancestry account try this. Place the point over "search tab" and wait for the drop box to come down. Than click "census and voter list". The next page over on the right there is a "narrow by category" you will want to click the "US Federal Census Collection" link. Scroll down the page tell you see "Included Data Collection" and search for the 1860 census link. Click it and type this info in only John Gray living in Missouri, USA and you will get a list of John's living in Missouri. I than would compare what you find with what you know. Look for names of Charles kids to see if you have a family for example that shares a name like Peleg. I think Peleg is a name from the bible. Odd name not a lot of them out there even back then. If you find a John and Mary with children name Thomas, Elizabeth and Peleg and Charles had Thomas, Elizabeth and Peleg you just found a clue. Also FF could help you, you might find a match that has Gray in their surname list and their Gray could have lived in Missouri which could be another clue. But it is a 250 dollar gamble that might not lead you to a answer about you Gray's line. Good luck

[Peacock100]

37 markers and 0 matches

I would NOT recommend doing more genetic tests to figure out this mystery. I think more paper trail seaching is needed, for now, and realize that that is frustrating. I agree with Edward Hill on this. I also did a search at Ancestry.com this morning and came up with a possible person who could have been your Charles Gray. Father was John b. KY and mother a mangled name, not Mary, but from her name, Mary could have been a nickname, b. IN. These people were living in Ripley Co, IN in 1860. DNA testing CANNOT replace paper work and advancing from Y-DNA to a FF test will only further complicate things for you. If you don

[octk]

Thank you all for your replies. I have been on Ancestry daily all summer and have tried to track down Charles for over 18 years. He has a grandson living who would ask him about his people and he would shut him down and tell him it wasn't his concern.
I also checked the names that you guys came up with and those Charles GRAY's lived , married and died somewhere else, sadly.

I am glad that I didn't try another test, since it isn't a good idea. I may just have to wait until some male from that line decides to get tested.

Thanks Again,

Shawn GRAY

[EdwardRHill]

Sorry my ideas were of no help but better to try than not. So try this go to Ancestry and manually put your FTDNA results into Ancestry data base. I had no FTDNA matches but at Ancestry I had three. Also try Y-search and there is another site like Y-search but I can't think of the name. I'm sure someone will come along and give that name both are free and you might get lucky. Good luck

[Jim Barrett]

there is another site like Y-search but I can't think of the name.

Ybase might be what you are thinking of.

[octk]

I will try the DNA at Ancestry. I have tried some of the other sites like YSearch and Ybase and get 8/8, 10/10 but nothing that I can use. I even spent some time tracing the surnames of some of those to no avail.
I did get a 25/25 on GeneTree, but.....it was an anonymous user, no email or even the link to join GeneTree. I set up a chat with the company and they said if there are no contact info, then nothing can be done, sigh...

There is a very prominent GRAY group in Tipton, Moniteau, Missouri and, years back, I even sent Charles' picture to that town to see if he resembled any of the GRAY there, nothing. LOL.

Thank you all for all of your suggestions. I know something eventually will materialize.

Shawn

[Yaffa]

I will try the DNA at Ancestry. I have tried some of the other sites like YSearch and Ybase and get 8/8, 10/10 but nothing that I can use. I even spent some time tracing the surnames of some of those to no avail.
I did get a 25/25 on GeneTree, but.....it was an anonymous user, no email or even the link to join GeneTree. I set up a chat with the company and they said if there are no contact info, then nothing can be done, sigh...

There is a very prominent GRAY group in Tipton, Moniteau, Missouri and, years back, I even sent Charles' picture to that town to see if he resembled any of the GRAY there, nothing. LOL.

Thank you all for all of your suggestions. I know something eventually will materialize.

Shawn

A lot of entries in Gentree came from SMGF. You need to see if this 25/25 match is on SMGF and see if SMGF will contact the anonymous tester. I believe they will do 3rd party contact.

[PDHOTLEN]

Bird Watching Gray

I saw on eBird that a LT Gray was at Biebrza National Park in Poland on 6/28/10. I was just browsing around, and was curious about a species in Poland.

http://ebird.org/content/ebird

Well, so much for my two cents worth, ha ha.

[Yaffa]

Are you trying to hint that he might be related to LT Gray or the Bird? LOL!