The Father of Michael Oliver Jenkins

Our ancestors once believed they would take their secrets to the grave. I guess the jokes on them because little did they know that they were leaving pieces of the answers behind in DNA that would be passed to each of us to be unlocked generations later.

It's been a long journey trying to solve the mystery of the parentage of Michael Oliver Jenkins. To follow the research, please read my previous posts from the last several months.

Many years ago, M.O. Jenkins was interviewed by a granddaughter where he recounts that his grandfather was Joseph Jenkins and that he had an Aunt Margarett "Peggy" Froneberger who helped raise him. With a great deal of research, I found these family members and started putting the paper trail together, but what we didn't know at the time is whether the Jenkins were his paternal or maternal family. Though many of us suspected and assumed that since he was raised by the Jenkins, it was more likely that his mother was a Jenkins. About ten years ago I wrote a book based on this paper trail and ending with my research that Hugh Jenkins was the father of Joseph Jenkins and my belief that the Jenkins were the same Jenkins family from Lancaster County, PA and possibly descended from a Jenkins believed to be from Wales. I'll get back to that research soon. 

Backing up to the mystery. Knowing who the grandparents of M.O. were allowed me to take the line back to Pennsylvania, but I still didn't have an answer as to who the parents of M.O. were, and it would take DNA to solve that mystery. 

Fast forward to 2022. I was contacted by a distant cousin who had just done her DNA and discovered that she was related to my father on his Jenkins line. We started comparing notes and I suddenly wanted to do the happy dance because her father was still alive and was a direct male descendant of M.O. Jenkins. After years of searching and being unsuccessful, I finally had a living male descendant of M.O. Jenkins and even better, he was willing to do a Y-DNA test for us. I anxiously waited for his results to come back, and when I was finally able to talk to her about the result, I was more confused than anything.

After a while this newfound cousin shared the login information with me so that I could see her dad's test firsthand. Well, that helped some, but I still wasn't certain. Though there were some matches with the surname of Jenkins, we were also seeing matches with other surnames like Wiggington and Williams. Though I'm sure with a great deal of work and sorting through these matches, I would have solved this on my own, I was impatient; so I upgraded his test to the Big Y DNA test. Viola! We had an answer. It was very clear then when I could see where he fell in the block tree and that he is a part of a new immerging variant Haplogroup, that he was most certainly a Jenkins! But wait! That meant his father was a Jenkins! I swear M.O. must be truly trying to keep us in suspense. How on earth am I going to solve who his mother is? Oh, someday I will! 

First things first. I need to now focus on his paternal line and strengthen my paper trail with the DNA. One of the ways I did that was by looking at Joseph's wife, Elizabeth Hambright, the daughter of Fredrick Hambright. If Elizabeth is an ancestor of M.O. then her siblings' descendants should show up as DNA matches to my father, and boy did they ever. We have many very strong DNA matches to Fredrick Hambright and his descendants. This further solidified Joseph Jenkins and Elizabeth Hambright as the grandparents of M.O. Jenkins. 

Now that we know from Y-DNA that M.O. is a Jenkins through his paternal line and we know that Joseph Jenkins and Elizabeth Hambright of Lincoln, NC are his confirmed grandparents by DNA, we need to determine which one of Joseph and Elizabeth's sons are the father of M.O. Jenkins. This should be easy as they only had two sons, David and Hugh, right? Think again. M.O. I'm convinced you were a joker in life because this joke never ends!

I started with David's line and traced down each descending line and matched up all DNA matches to my father. As the saga continues every one that has done a DNA test came in around the same cm's shared with my father as any who descended from the other children of Joesph and Elizabeth. Oh, wait there were two descendants of Susan Jenkins whose cm's were about double that of any of the other cousins. That threw me off for a while, until I did some triangulation to their other matches, to discover that these two matches also shared matches with my dad's Hoyle and Swofford line, which married into my dad's Jenkins line after M.O. Endogamy sure can make this DNA fun, but at least it gave me an answer to that anomaly that made sense. 

Now that David seems to be ruled out, that leaves only Hugh Jenkins as the possible father of M.O. This is where the joke is on me, Hugh had no known children by which we can compare the DNA of his descendants. But then that brings me to his father's will. I just can't stop thinking about the words in his father's will..... "to my son Hugh......if he has children born in lawful wedlock." He never said anything like this of any of the other children. Was this Joseph's way of saying that M.O. was Hugh's son and he was aware of him, but that this child due to no fault of his own, would not be entitled to inherit from his estate because he was a bastard child. We may never know 100% for certain if Hugh was the father of M.O. but all the pieces seem to be pointing to the father of Michael Oliver Jenkins being Hugh Jenkins the son of Joseph Jenkins and Elizabeth Hambright. 

Ok, so the jokes still on us to some degree, but I'm sure that with technology and time, we will unlock the final pieces of the puzzle. Now, will it ever be possible to discover who M.O.'s mother was? Only time will tell, but I'll keep working at this.

Which son of Joseph Jenkins was the Father of M.O. Jenkins

 

After looking at the grandmother of M.O. Jenkins, Elizabeth Hambright, and seeing the strong DNA connections between other descendants of Elizabeth’s Father, Fredrick Hambright. I am convinced that Joseph and Elizabeth Jenkins are the paternal grandparents of M.O. Jenkins. Now I must look at their sons as the possible father of M.O. Jenkins. This shouldn’t be too hard. They only had two sons, Hugh and David.

David was born in 1786 in North Carolina. There are two marriage records involving a David Jenkins in Lincoln County, NC.

A marriage record can be found for David Jenkins and Nancy Carpenter in Oct 1811.

From the wills of Hugh, David’s brother, and Hugh their grandfather, we can conclude that David and Nancy had at least three children; Margaret, Mary, and William. This also rules out the other marriage record as not connected to our David.

In Hugh’s will he leaves several pieces of property to his wife Susannah, and to his brother’s two youngest children William and Mary. No mention that he ever had children. His will was written in 1835. If he was the father of M.O. he doesn’t even mention him.

I went back to the will of Joseph Jenkins in 1821. It’s clear by that will that Hugh had no children at the time of his dad’s will in 1821. He leaves to his two sons David and Hugh the following:

I can’t help but notice something I had never realized before. To Hugh he leaves this property “during the term of his natural life and if he has children born in lawful wedlock then to him his heirs………and if he has no heirs………” But to David he leaves property and simply states to him and his heirs. It would appear that by 1821 David must have had children, which would make sense if he were married to Nancy in 1811, and that Hugh as of this point, did not have any children “born in lawful wedlock.” Is this a clue that Hugh had a son? Was Joseph purposely leaving him out of the will, if he were Hugh’s child because he was not born in lawful wedlock? Was this a way of saying that though he knew that Hugh may have had an illegitimate child, that child was not entitled to an inheritance because he was illegitimate?

I can’t help but notice that M.O. Jenkins was born in 1820 and raised in and among this family but is never mentioned in any of these wills. DNA also now confirms he was a Jenkins. How he must have felt to be so rejected in such a blatant way by his family because he was conceived, obviously by no fault of his own, out of wedlock.

I’ve researched both Hugh and David Jenkins lines. All hope of finding a male descendant to provide a useful Y-DNA test is lost. The only line that may have male descendants may also have endogamy, as Richard L Jenkins, the grandson of David Jenkins married another Jenkins. I have not yet proven their relationship, but it’s very likely since all the Jenkins in Gaston County (where David and is following four generations settled) and Lincoln County so far have all appeared to be related and can trace their ancestry back to Hugh Jenkins (Joseph’s father) or one of his brother.

In looking for male descendants of David, here is where the lines lead:

David and Nancy had one son, William Jenkins born 1817 in North Carolina. William married Lavinia Eaker. They had two sons, Christy (Christohper) and Phillip. Phillips line ends with one daughter. Chrisopher married Eliza O’Brien and they had one son, Richard L Jenkins. Richard married Cora Jenkins, the daughter of Jonas Grier Jenkins and Sarah Jane Bell. Though they had two boys, the likely endogamy on this line is not ideal. They did have three sons, James, Phillip, and Ruben. Ruben died young leaving only one daughter. Phillip died tragically when he was shot in the heart by his father at the age of 20, leaving no children. That’s a story I’d like to dig into deeper someday, but for now I’m on a mission. James had two sons, James and Robert. The potential endogamy may affect autosomal DNA research in the amount of shared centimorgans, however, I'm not sure how it will affect the Y-DNA which only follows from father to father. I will continue on and see if I can find a direct male descendant of David Jenkins.

I would also be remiss if I did not address the possible endogamy regarding Richard Jenkins and Cora Jenkins. I did trace Cora's line back to a Harrison Jenkins born in Lincoln County, NC. This is very concerning. It's very possible that Richard and Cora were as much as 3rd or 4th cousins. At this time I cannot quiet connect Harrison her great grandfather to my Jenkins line, but considering they are all from the same place in North Caroline, it's not far fetched that they possibly be related. This will skew the DNA a bit, but I will continue on with that possibility in mind.