Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
We've known for a long time that Absolom Ballengee (1808-1878) had his surname from his mother, Elizabeth Ballengee, daughter of Isaac and Jean Ballengee of West Virginia. We knew there was an illegitimacy; my grandfather Harmon Ballengee (Absolom's grandson) said so. Harmon's niece had heard the aunts mention “that old Maddy affair.” Very early records show that when Henry Maddy and his wife Jane Ballengee Maddy (Elizabeth’s sister) moved to a new town, Elizabeth Ballengee moved at the same time. A letter from a cousin mentions Absolom’s “half-brother, Cape Maddy.”
Great circumstantial evidence – but no proof supported it. DNA testing, however, DOES support it.
About 15 years ago I had a bright student, Loren Maddy, in one of my Cal State Long Beach classes. On a long shot, one day I asked him whether his ancestors had come from West Virginia, and that if so, might we be related. Loren very kindly lent me a book that his family had, on the history of the Maddy family. Henry Maddy (with the right dates) was in the book, but all it said was that he had married Jane Ballengee and moved away.
With the permission of two of Harmon Ballengee's great-grandsons, Michael and Jim Ballengee, and with Loren Maddy’s permission, I recently bought Y-DNA testing kits, and these three men completed them and sent them in. Results of the last of the three came last week.
Loren Maddy and Jim Ballengee are an exact 12-for-12 Y-DNA match.
(Jim’s results were tested against familytreedna’s whole database; Michael’s results went into the “Ballenger” family surname project – no matches resulted. Michael’s results, of course, would be exactly the same as his brother’s, but Michael’s DNA was tested against a much smaller sample.)
So – we have pretty compelling proof now that Henry Maddy fathered Absolom Ballengee – who had a large family – each of whom had a large family – and here we all are.
Incidentally, Henry Maddy’s parents are known – so we can trace back even earlier than before. They were:
James Maddy b:1740 Hereford England d:1783 Rockingham co. Va
Ann Morris b:11-17-1740 orange co. Va d;1840 Monroe co Va
Their children were:
William Maddy b: 1760 Orange co, Va d: Lowden, TN
John Maddy b: Sept. 18, 1764 Orange co, Va d: Monroe co, WV
Matthew Maddy b; 1766 Orange co, Va
James Maddy b: 1768 Orange co, Va d:10-06-1824 Monroe co West Va
HENRY MADDY, B 1770, ORANGE CO, WV
Sarah Maddy b: Oct. 16, 1773 Orange co, Va 12 SEP 1839 in Monroe Co, West Virginia
Jenny Gilsdorf
Notify Administrator about this message?
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/ballengee/messages/34.html | ||
 |
Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|