DNA Seals the Deal? An Evans Family Connection

Have you taken a DNA test? If so, you’ve probably sorted your matches into people you know, people you don’t know but you do know how you’re related to them, and people for whom you strike out on both counts – you don’t know ‘em and you don’t know how you’re related to ‘em. The more distantly related you are – 3^rd and 4^th cousins and such – the harder it might be to know where and specifically through whom you connect, especially if you have enslaved ancestors. I’ve got more than a few DNA matches in this latter category. 

But I just moved one match out of this category, and, in doing so, I think I’ve made a DNA connection to Daniel Evans and Jennette (aka Anna Jane) Welch, the subjects of most of my recent posts.

The Many Names of Laura Ann Scruggs

In genealogical research, some names are more difficult to track than others. Unique names, ones with a variety of consonants, ones where spelling and pronunciation don’t necessarily seem to match. These all make sense – you’re probably going to have to be creative in your research techniques to find the person or people that you’re looking for. (See my maternal great-great-grandmother Scoatney (Scott) Cooper and her sister Masonia (Scott) Worthen for two examples.)

But I didn’t think “Scruggs” would be one of those names. Sure, maybe the “c” becomes a “k,” maybe there’s one “g” instead of two, maybe the “s” even becomes a “z,” or the “gg” becomes a “ck,” but none of those should make the name particularly difficult to research; how many different ways could people really hear or write the name? 

Finding the Parents of Laura Ann Scruggs: Part 1

In my last Mystery Monday post, I introduced the question of who the parents of one set of my paternal 2x great-grandparents were. The question was asked of me by one of my 3^rd cousins in Alabama – we share (James) Steven Evans and Laura Ann Scruggs as our great-great-grandparents, but neither of us had yet researched beyond that generation. So, the hunt was on.

I spent the next 3 blog posts (1, 2, 3) detailing the results of that hunt, focusing on (James) Steven Evans’ parents, who I now believe to be Daniel Evans and Jennette (aka Anna Jane) Welch. And I threw in a bonus post with some lingering questions about (James) Steven Evans’ siblings. But of course, that was all focused on only one side of the couple my cousin and I wanted to know more about.

Who were the parents of Laura Ann Scruggs?

A Note on (James) Steven Evans’ Siblings

If you were an eagle-eyed reader of my last post, on how researching the potential siblings of my 2x great-grandfather (James) Steven Evans helped me to make stronger connections between him and the people I believe to be his parents, Daniel Evans and Jennette (aka Anna Jane) Welch, you may have noticed two things.

• First, in the snippet of the 1900 Census I shared, showing the household of Daniel and Jennette, there are two numbers on the far right of the image: 3 and 3. Though it’s not visible in the snippet, these numbers are written into the columns headed “Mother of how many children” and “Number of those children living.”
  

• Second, in the snippet of the 1910 Census I shared, illustrating Jennette (as Annah Evans) living with her daughter Sarah and son Nelson, there are again two numbers in the far right columns: 14 and 5. As before, these numbers represent the number of children she has given birth to and the number who are currently living.

Finding the Parents of (James) Steven Evans: Part 3

One of the exciting things about trying to take your tree up another generation is that in addition to extending your tree backwards, you also have the opportunity to expand your tree outwards. That is to say, when you’re looking for parents, you’ll likely also find siblings. And that was absolutely the case in my search for the parents of my paternal 2x-great-grandfather (James) Steven Evans.

(Are you all caught up on this series? If not, start here and then work your way forward. Ready? Let’s go!)

Finding the Parents of (James) Steven Evans: Part 2

If you’ve read my two last posts, you know that I’ve been trying to nail down the parents of my paternal 2x-great-grandfather, (James) Steven Evans. 

I’ve got two, maybe three, good leads: Daniel Evans and Jennette (surname unknown) or Anna Jane Tolliver(?). That question mark is because, as of where we are in the story, I had only found 1 reference to Anna Jane’s maiden name. Perhaps it was correct, perhaps it wasn’t! Take a minute to read the previous posts – Mystery Monday and Part 1 of my research report – if you’re not caught up. Ready? Away we go!

Finding the Parents of (James) Steven Evans: Part 1

Hypothesis: Daniel Evans, born abt. 1844 in Alabama, date and location of death currently unknown, was the father of my 2x-great-grandfather, (James) Steven Evans. And Jennette (aka Anna Jane) Welch, born abt. 1853 in either South Carolina or Alabama and died 22 January 1941 in Montgomery County, Alabama was his mother.

If you read my last post, you know that I was asked by one of my paternal cousins back in mid-2024 if I knew who our shared 3x-great-grandparents were. At the time, I didn’t. Read that post for the set-up; right now I’m diving in!

Mystery Monday: Who Are the Parents of (James) Steven Evans and Laura Ann Scruggs?

Many months ago – perhaps midway through the year - one of my Alabama cousins reached out to ask if I had learned anything about the parents of our great-great- grandparents, (James) Steven Evans* and Laura Ann Scruggs. Unfortunately, my answer at the time was “No.” When I’d been focusing on that branch, I’d really been focusing on their children, including her great-grandmother Jannie Mae and my great-grandfather Steve/Theodore. I was tracing across and down, rather than up. And if you’ve been hanging around the blog for a bit, you know that for the past few years, I’ve really been focused on my maternal line, rather than my paternal – I thought I was working on a quick research project, lol.

But, well, you know what happened next…