In the targeted area above, I posit that my enslaved maternal 3X-great-grandmother, named Lucy, was likely taken away from this area during the Second Middle Passage. This area is in the northern part of Pittsylvania County, Virginia. DNA was the “North Star” that led me to this Virginia county.

The Deep South experienced a great economic boom after Eli Whitney’s 1793 invention of the cotton gin. Subsequently, around one million enslaved African Americans in the Upper South were displaced to points southward. Planters desired free enslaved labor for the booming cotton industry, and thus, the Second Middle Passage began. More family separations occurred when they were sold away, or their enslavers took them “down south” to work laboriously on the new cotton farms and plantations all over the Deep South.

Over the past several years, I noticed that people with immediate ties to southern Virginia share sizeable DNA with my mother on her father’s side. I assert that her great-great-grandmother Lucy, who had been enslaved by William Edwards of Panola County, Mississippi, was most likely from Pittsylvania County, Virginia. I found her in William’s 1850 will and his 1855 probate record. To read more about discovering her, see “Finding Lucy: When Pieces of Indirect Evidence Add Up.” Born about 1795-1800, Lucy likely died before 1870; she was never located in the census. However, her sons were.

In the 1880 Panola County census, the recorded mother’s birthplace for her sons, Prince and Peter Edwards, was Tennessee. William Edwards had indeed moved 15+ enslaved people to Mississippi from Henry County, Tennessee around 1837; he first appears in the Panola County, Mississippi tax rolls in 1837. Therefore, I understood why Tennessee was reported to the census taker.

However, for their older brother Jeffrey “Jeff” Edwards, the census taker recorded UNKNOWN for the mother’s birthplace. See Figure 1 below. Uncle Jeff (or whoever talked to the census taker) did not know where Lucy was born. Apparently, it wasn’t in Tennessee. Georgia was recorded as his father’s birthplace; this appears to be accurate based on DNA and other genealogical findings. This underscores the importance of researching collateral relatives for clues about direct ancestors.

Several great pieces of genetic evidence indicate that Prince and Peter Edwards had strong ties to Pittsylvania County, Virginia, which sits on the Virginia/North Carolina state line. This evidence includes X-chromosome matching and three genetic groups, aka genetic networks, and it all points to their mother Lucy. This case does not involve any hypotheses concerning her relationship to these genetic groups since the specifics of her origins have not been uncovered.

The Harper Genetic Group

A genetic connection to a once-enslaved couple, Joseph & Kitty Harper of Pittsylvania County, was very evident. After several years of DNA sleuthing and researching the family trees of shared DNA matches, I discovered that at least 18 descendants of Joseph & Kitty share DNA with the descendants of Prince and Peter Edwards, from 9 to 42 cM. They are Cousins A to R in Figure 3 below.

I did not locate Joseph & Kitty Harper in the 1870 census, but they were in the 1880, 1900, and 1910 Pittsylvania County, Virginia censuses. The 1910 census taker recorded 100 as their age! See Figure 2 below. In 1900, the census taker recorded that Kitty was the mother of three children with all three living. Virginia marriage records confirmed that their three children were daughters named Nannie, Elvira, and Mary Jane Harper, who all married before 1880.

To my fascination, I discovered that my mother and aunt share 32 cM of DNA on the X-chromosome only with Cousin-E, who is highlighted in green on Figure 3 above. Thankfully, she took the 23andMe DNA test before they temporarily disabled their chromosome browser. 32 cM is more than the minimum reliable DNA (15 cM) to share with someone who is only matching on the X-chromosome.

The X-DNA that my mother and aunt share with Cousin-E apparently came from Prince Edwards, their paternal grandmother Sarah Reed’s father. Men do not inherit any X-DNA from their fathers; therefore, that X-DNA came from Prince’s mother, Lucy. Also, Joseph & Kitty Harper were Cousin-E’s maternal grandmother’s maternal grandparents. She could have indeed inherited X-DNA from them. Read “X Chromosome Master Class” for a scientific explanation about using X-DNA with genealogy research.

Figure 4 below is my mother’s paternal chromosome 12 in DNA Painter. On this chromosome, she shares DNA with five descendants of Uncle Peter Edwards, three other descendants of Prince Edwards, and with Cousins F & M, who are highlighted in green in Figure 3 above and who also took the 23andMe DNA test. This solidly confirmed that the genetic connection to Joseph or Kitty Harper is through Grandma Lucy.

The Saunders Genetic Group

The Harpers were not the only good DNA matches from Pittsylvania County. Cousin-S below was a mouth-dropper!

Cousin-S led me to the Saunders genetic group because of the sizeable amounts of DNA she shares with my mother and my mother’s paternal first cousin. According to AncestryDNA, Cousin-S shares 97 cM with my mother, and 102 cM with my mother’s first cousin. She is also sharing from 36 to 50 cM with my mother’s sister, brother, and two of the great-grandchildren of Uncle Peter Edwards, their third cousins.

My mouth dropped when I learned that Cousin-S was born and raised in Danville, Virginia, an independent city that sits inside Pittsylvania County. I studied her family tree, and all sides of her family had been in Pittsylvania County for at least five generations. Surprisingly, there are no obvious genealogical indications of endogamy, which can make people share more DNA than they normally would. Her connection remains fascinatingly baffling.

After analyzing the family trees of the shared DNA matches with Cousin-S, the connection points to her paternal great-grandfather, Austin Saunders, and his brother, James Saunders of Pittsylvania County. Descendants of Prince and Peter Edwards share DNA with at least 8 descendants of both brothers, from 11 – 57 cM. They are Cousins S to Z in Figure 5 below.

On his 1866 marriage record, Austin Saunders (born c. 1840) reported that his parents were Benjamin Smith and Eliza Graves. On his younger brother James Saunders’s 1867 marriage record, James (born c. 1845) reported that his parents were “James Pasley and Eliza his wife.” Their paternity remains unclear. However, if Austin and James had different fathers, the connection to this genetic group would point to Eliza. Up until 1859, Alfred E. Saunders had been the enslaver of both brothers in Pittsylvania County. Cousin-V’s son, Patrick Watkins, had uncovered this in his research.

The Dickerson Genetic Group

I also discovered that my mother, her siblings, and numerous cousins, i.e., descendants of Prince and Peter Edwards, also share DNA with at least 21 people who descend from Garland Dickerson and his wife, Lucinda Coles of Pittsylvania County, from 8 – 38 cM. They are Cousins 1 to 21 in Figure 6 below. DNA Cousin #8 in the chart, Genealogist Kris Brown, has conducted thorough enslaved ancestral research on the Dickersons. She found that Rev. Griffith Dickerson was the enslaver of Garland up until 1843. He was then sold to William H. Waller. William lived with or adjacent to his father, Robert Clark Waller, who was the enslaver of Garland’s wife and their children. This action kept Garland close to them.

A longtime, elderly couple who reached their late 60s or 70s, Garland and Lucinda Dickerson both died in 1877 in Pittsylvania County. The Virginia Death Registers (1853-1911) reported that Garland’s father was Daniel Dickerson, and Lucinda’s parents were Peter & Lelia Coles. The informant was their son, Henry Dickerson. Grandma Lucy was somehow closely related to one of them.

The Vicinity of the Enslavers

Interestingly, these three genetic families and the enslavers all lived in the same vicinity of Pittsylvania County. In the 1850 census, Robert C. Waller and Walter Coles, Sr., the presumed enslaver of Lucinda Coles Dickerson’s parents or her father Peter, were recorded on the same census page; they lived near each other. Alfred Saunders also lived a short distance away, as he was also enumerated in the northern district of Pittsylvania County in 1850. His wife’s sister married Rev. Griffith Dickerson’s son, Crispen Dickerson. These enslavers and their families were part of the circle of slave-holding families who resided near Gretna and Chatham.

Because of these strong pieces of genetic evidence, as well as many more Pittsylvania County, Virginia DNA matches, I theorize with high certainty that my mother’s 2X-great-grandmother Lucy Edwards had likely come from there. Someone within this circle of slave-holding families was her previous enslaver. Permanently separated from family, she was transported further south and became enslaved by Georgia-born William Edwards by about 1820, when he resided in Henry County, Tennessee. There, she had several children, including Prince and Peter Edwards. Then, by 1837, Edwards brought them to Panola County, Mississippi.

The difficulties of enslaved ancestral research can often be made a little easier with DNA technology. Now, DNA has guided me to a focal point to try to uncover more about Grandma Lucy’s origins and hopefully how she was related to these genetic groups. Stay tuned.