Back in 1993, when I began researching my family, my mother’s oldest living first cousin told me that their grandfather, Bill Reed, had a sister named Aunt Hattie Whiting. Another family elder corroborated his claim. My mother even remembered her only son Prince Whiting as a cousin “some kind of way.”

But there was a problem. Aunt Hattie’s maiden name was Edwards, and she was the daughter of Prince & Leanna Edwards of Panola County, Mississippi. Grandpa Bill Reed was originally from Abbeville, South Carolina. So, for many years, I wondered why family elders claimed her as a blood aunt. I kept the Edwards surname in the back of my mind for over 20 years. This oral history confused me, but I knew there had to be a reason why my family was claiming close kinship to Aunt Hattie.

Let’s fast forward to 25 June 2015. I received my mother’s first significant DNA match to an Edwards (87 cM); Kem descends from Prince’s brother, Peter Edwards. Many more followed. Peter and his children left northern Mississippi around 1907 and migrated to Wewoka, Oklahoma. Kem and the others that followed were clearly related to the descendants of Bill Reed. Then, I finally figured it out!

Aunt Hattie Edwards Whiting and my mother’s grandmother, Sarah Partee Reed (1852-1923), wife of Bill, were half-sisters born to the same father, Prince Edwards. Even Y-DNA testing from FamilyTreeDNA evidenced it. The Y-DNA (67 markers) of two direct male descendants of Peter, from his sons Jeff and Moses, is a match to a direct male descendant of Grandma Sarah’s brother, Uncle Square Partee. Their mother, Polly Partee, had children with Prince Edwards, who was enslaved by Squire Boone Partee’s former father-in-law, William Edwards, Sr. He lived nearby. Polly’s children kept the Partee surname after slavery. I had found Grandma Sarah’s father!

Descendants of Peter started the Edwards Family Reunion in 1987 in Bakersfield, California. I attended the 2017 and 2019 reunions, and this past weekend, I also attended the 2023 reunion in Oklahoma City. It was another one for the books!