An Unexpected Breakthrough

[keigh]

For quite awhile I've been researching my mother's grandfather, Charles Gregory Sutton, and thought I'd pretty well pegged who his parents were. Then came DNA testing and I've found out that I was very wrong.

I did the autosomal DNA test at Ancestry and FTDNA. I've found the results of my Ancestry test to be very interesting. As I said, I'd thought I'd found my great grandfather's father. My Sutton line goes back from Rachael Melvina Sutton daughter of Charles Gregory Sutton, born 1838 in Ohio. Many of the Ancestry trees had Charles G. as the son on Henry and Laurinda Sackett Sutton who lived in Huron Co. Ohio and had a Charles Sutton. However, DNA shows that that Charles wasn't my Charles.

My DNA test, along with the DNA tests of my first cousins, have revealed a connection to a Benjamin and Jemima Van Wart Sutton. I have no DNA matches to any descendant of Henry and Laurinda Sutton, but well over 80 to the sons and daughters of Benjamin and Jemima Sutton. I even had some matches showing Van Wart connections before Ancestry changed how they were going to list shared DNA matches. Now my first cousins and I, who are all descendants of Rachel M Sutton need to figure out is which of Benjamin Sutton's boys is our great great grandfather. It seems to be a strong possibility that it is Nehemiah Sutton, as he lived in Ohio for awhile at the right time, and moved to Texas and died there. Charles Gregory Sutton also moved to Texas about the same time. And Nehemiah's descendants that I match to seem to share a larger portion of DNA cM over more segments than those matches who descend from his siblings.

My cousins and I are currently trying to organize our info on our shared Sutton matches to establish and confirm a paternal relationship between Nehemiah or one of his brothers and Charles Gregory Sutton.

I should mention that I'm sharing matches with some of Charles Gregory Sutton's other children, but none of the other descendants of Henry and Luarinda who have taken the DNA test. Ancestry has a program called ThruLines and it can very neatly place people who have some information on their tree with other shared DNA matches.

[Jim Barrett]

ThruLines is based entirely on the trees of your matches, not on facts. If there is an error in the trees there can be an error in the information provided by ThruLines. It is up to you to verify any information presented by ThruLines. It can be very helpful, just be very careful.

[keigh]

Thanks for the comment, Jim. I'm trying very hard to back up what ThruLines is telling me with records showing what is actually going on. Much of what I started with on the Benjamin and Jamima Van Wart Sutton family has been compiled by Dr. Richard L Johnson in a couple of books on different Sutton Lines. What I've done is create a floating branch using this info as a starting point and compiling a series of records to confirm what was in the books, even past the points where the books left off. One of the books was sent to me by a descendant of Benjamin and Jamima Sutton as I have him as a DNA match.

How this all came about was that I'd run into information on Benjamin and Jamima Sutton in trying to match someone who was showing up as a 3rd cousin with 99cm across 6 segments. She had a Sutton on her tree linked to B and J Sutton, so I started looking into them. The more of their tree that developed the more I was able to link to people who shared DNA with my 3rd cousin match. And so one of my 1st cousins down the Sutton line linked her tree to Nehemiah and so back to Benjamin. His Thru line came up with over 80 DNA matches. All of which I am trying to document.

[keigh]

I think I've actually found the connection between Nehemiah Sutton and his wife, Eleanor Settle Sutton. Nehemiah had two daughters who passed away in Michigan. One died in 1899 and her obit gave surviving brothers' name and places of residence. One of James D Sutton from Alma Michigan and one was Charles D Sutton from Paris, Texas. My Charles G Sutton was living in Paris, Texas on the 1900 Census. The other sister died in 1914 and her obit mentioned a brother, Charles (no initial) Sutton living in Texas. My great grandfather was now living in Bowie Co. Texas. The sister whose obit gave the Paris, Texas info was Rachael Melvina Sutton Andrews. Charles G Sutton's daughter, my grandmother, was a Rachael Melvina Sutton.

[raspchide]

Good to know that you've found and cleared the connection. Satisfied with what you've found?

[loobster]

I think I've actually found the connection between Nehemiah Sutton and his wife, Eleanor Settle Sutton. Nehemiah had two daughters who passed away in Michigan. One died in 1899 and her obit gave surviving brothers' name and places of residence. One of James D Sutton from Alma Michigan and one was Charles D Sutton from Paris, Texas. My Charles G Sutton was living in Paris, Texas on the 1900 Census. The other sister died in 1914 and her obit mentioned a brother, Charles (no initial) Sutton living in Texas. My great grandfather was now living in Bowie Co. Texas. The sister whose obit gave the Paris, Texas info was Rachael Melvina Sutton Andrews. Charles G Sutton's daughter, my grandmother, was a Rachael Melvina Sutton.

Very, very nice!

[keigh]

ThruLines is based entirely on the trees of your matches, not on facts. If there is an error in the trees there can be an error in the information provided by ThruLines. It is up to you to verify any information presented by ThruLines. It can be very helpful, just be very careful.

Jim Barrett, I did a double check on the ThruLines I got for Henry and Laurinda Sackett Sutton that I first thought were my Charles' parents. The only people who showed up on that ThruLines were shared matches to my great grandfather as they were all his descendants. I checked to see if other descendants of Henry and Laurinda had done the DNA testing, and found out that Yes, there were a number who had tested and that I shared No DNA with them. They had their own ThruLines for Henry and Laurinda Sutton, but I wasn't on their ThruLines. I shared NO DNA with that group of Suttons.

When I changed my tree and put Nehemiah Sutton on as my 2nd great grandfather and Benjamin Sutton as my 3rd great grandparents, the ThruLines populated like crazy with shared matches through Nehemiah Sutton's children, and Benjamin and Jemima Sutton other children. I have a total of 84 shared matches with them. I'm now going through and filling in the blanks (missing records) to make sure that everyone of the 84 matches is truly a possible match through this Sutton Family.

I don't think that this time I'll have to delete dozens and dozens of false relatives from my tree as I did with Henry Sutton's family. I traced down all of his kids, their kids, etc and so on...............

[raspchide]

Jim Barrett, I did a double check on the ThruLines I got for Henry and Laurinda Sackett Sutton that I first thought were my Charles' parents. The only people who showed up on that ThruLines were shared matches to my great grandfather as they were all his descendants. I checked to see if other descendants of Henry and Laurinda had done the DNA testing, and found out that Yes, there were a number who had tested and that I shared No DNA with them. They had their own ThruLines for Henry and Laurinda Sutton, but I wasn't on their ThruLines. I shared NO DNA with that group of Suttons.

When I changed my tree and put Nehemiah Sutton on as my 2nd great grandfather and Benjamin Sutton as my 3rd great grandparents, the ThruLines populated like crazy with shared matches through Nehemiah Sutton's children, and Benjamin and Jemima Sutton other children. I have a total of 84 shared matches with them. I'm now going through and filling in the blanks (missing records) to make sure that everyone of the 84 matches is truly a possible match through this Sutton Family.

I don't think that this time I'll have to delete dozens and dozens of false relatives from my tree as I did with Henry Sutton's family. I traced down all of his kids, their kids, etc and so on...............

Geez! Thats overwhelming! From the 84, how many will you still fill-in?

[keigh]

Geez! Thats overwhelming! From the 84, how many will you still fill-in?

I'm taking the filling in of my shared DNA matches through Benjamin Sutton starting with my great great grandfather's descendants. I have 14 matches with just his children's descendants. Using Ancestry's records and what the shared matches have on their tree, I've managed to connect with most of this section. Next will be Benjamin Sutton's oldest daughter's descendants. The challenge is growing, too, as I now have 87 matches to Benjamin Sutton. Eep!