Southern Branch information regarding Azariah Lewis
Dave Lewis
The Curious Case of Azariah Lewis
or
How
I Survived the COVID Pandemic
Hi,
all. It’s been a while. I hope each of you is well and staying an
arm’s length from the pandemic. My wife and I received our first
vaccination in early February and are due our second shortly. Perhaps
we are heading back to normalcy. I will be attaching a couple of documents to a reply email as I am unable to access the accompanying Google drive repository.
I
am writing now because it
is possible my life is
going to get quite hectic for the next few months. I
want to share with you
what I have been working on for several months relevant to the
Southern Branch and its members based on discovered matches to a
single family who trace their lineage to a contemporary of the
Samuel Lewis we believe is
our ancestor and was in
Edgefield County, South Carolina following the Revolutionary War. I
won’t go into a great detail now, but will try to later on, if it
is appropriate. For the time being, I am not going to mention names
of matches as I know some of them do not want to be bothered with
this specific lineage. I will attach some documents as I can to go
along with this. First, some background.
When
I first took my Y-DNA test and posted the results to FTDNA in 2007, I
started meeting up with members on that list. When
I came into contact with Whit
Athey he
sent me a document put together by a researcher and descendant of an
Azariah Lewis, who was in Edgefield County, South Carolina, just
before and after the Revolutionary War. His time there overlapped
with that of the Samuel Lewis we strongly believe is the father of
Asa Lewis and Zerah Lewis, who are ancestors to members on this
board, as well as the father to Reu Lewis and Uriah H. Lewis who have
a few matches at least me on various genetic genealogy sites. This
research, compiled by an Andrew L. Moore of Pennsylvania, is dated 22
Oct 2001. In this, Mr. Moore concludes that Azariah Lewis, an Issac
Lewis, a Benjamin Lewis and the Samuel Lewis in question here
were siblings. Azariah and
his family moved to Kentucky in the mid-1790s and he died there in
1808. While we have found no direct evidence to support Mr. Moore’s
conclusions, we have kept our eyes open for such evidence as time
passed. The relevant story of Azariah’s descendants for this
writing is his son William Berry Lewis, whose mother was Mary Ann
Berry Lewis. William Berry Lewis is said to have migrated to Illinois
in the 1830s and is found there in the census records. He died there
in 1843.
Last
spring or early summer,
I had a match on Ancestry.com with a woman who is a member of a
Missouri family that traces its descent from an Ann Lewis, reported
to be the daughter of William Berry Lewis. This match, if proven to
be of proper Lewis origin, would confirm a relationship between our
Samuel Lewis and their Azariah Lewis. It would also help confirm our
Lewis relationship to their contemporary in Edgefield County, the
Benjamin Lewis mentioned
above. Our match
on the Y-DNA list
at FTDNA of John Hiram
Lewis III, now deceased, is a descendant of this Benjamin Lewis,
according to correspondences I had with him before he passed. John
Hiram Lewis III is a close Y-DNA match to the members of the Southern
Branch, which confirms
that Benjamin and Samuel were closely
related. John actually
indicated in one correspondence that Azariah was Benjamin’s father,
but I have found no
confirmation of this
claim, and it is an open question. He did claim to have seen
or was informed of family
Bible records for his
lineage.
Before
I go into further detail, I will say my confidence level for this
match being of Lewis origin is very high and would fall within the 90
percent range. I am far from a DNA expert, and there are some things
that happen within my analysis which I do not understand, and that is
one of the reasons I am
not declaring this match a
certain Lewis match at
this time. It may very
well be a case of me not being able to sort out the appropriate
details because of the DNA clutter surrounding the
matches; the old forest
for the trees conundrum.
Document
Search
I did a document search as best I could on Ancestry.com. in the South Carolina online historical archives and elsewhere to 1) get a historical picture of what Edgefield County was like back at the time Samuel and Azariah were there, 2) verify the lineages of William Berry Lewis and Ann Lewis, and 3) to sort through the events of Azariah’s and Samuel’s lives in South Carolina as recorded in these old documents. (I will make this document available to the board.) This is what I found:
1.
Samuel Lewis and Azariah
Lewis knew each other. In fact, nearly all the Lewises who were in
Edgefield County during this time period received land grants or
bought land in a
relatively small area of early Edgefield County, or at least what
became Edgefield County. This
includes Joseph Lewis of the colonial Georgia family I researched
earlier who relocated to Edgefield County following the Revolutionary
War. A Samuel Lewis, presumably ours, witnessed land transactions
made by both Azariah and Joseph, at least once each. (Please note,
the deed records I have for Azariah and Joseph are incomplete.) As an
aside, Samuel’s first land
grant award on little
Stevens Creek was adjacent to land owned by Garrett Buckelew, the
brother of Whit’s fifth great grandfather Richard Buckelew, Jr.,
through his paternal Athey line. Jane McCorkle Buckelew (b. 1813),
married William Athey (b. 1805), Whit’s second great grandfather.
Whit related this
to me in a correspondence and it is also reflected in his
Ancestry.com family tree.
2.
A William or W.B. Lewis is definitely in Illinois where he is
supposed to be based on the matching family’s records, He died
there in 1843 before the census records recorded a
person’s place of birth
and listed only the head
of household. Further, I could not verify with certainty the lineage
of Azariah to the Missouri family. First, I found no document stating
William Berry Lewis was the son of Azariah Lewis, nor did I find a
document stating Ann Lewis was the daughter of William Berry Lewis.
Azariah’s wife was Mary Ann Berry, and that
William Berry Lewis was
Azariah’s son is commonly cited. Ann Lewis married in 1838 before
the names of all household members were listed in the census records,
so I was unable to attach her name to William Berry Lewis. During my
research, I came across and communicated with a
second cousin to the Missouri family.
This cousin also cites the lineage of Azariah Lewis>William Berry
Lewis>Ann Lewis in his tree. Whether the two families were
building upon each other’s work or reached their conclusions
independently, I don’t know. So the findings so far leave
a hole in the document
evidence as I was able to
find them on the Internet.
Members of this lineage
may have records that confirm this lineage as it is a common
acknowledged to be correct.
DNA
Analysis
1. As I stated, the DNA evidence can be a bit confusing to me. This is my first attempt at triangulation, and some things happened that I have not been able to find, or rationalize, an answer for. There are three sisters and one daughter/niece who match me on various DNA sites. My primary match with these individuals is on chromosome 7 of 20 cM in length (it does vary slightly among the matches). Well over 50 matches triangulate with me and two sisters on 23andMe and the daughter/niece on MyHeritage for this primary segment. I actually have two matching segments chromosome 7 with these individuals, but the second matching segment has only a few other matches for comparison, and I am unable to get a good read on it. I know a few of those sharing the primary segment as definite Lewis matches, and I strongly suspect others are also Lewis matches based on our shared match lists. These known matches trace their ancestry to both Zerah Lewis and Asa Lewis, which means the primary segment could only come from either their father or mother. Since the match in question is based on Lewis lineages, it is easy to assume we share common Lewis DNA with the Missouri family.
2.
One of the sisters also matches Whit Athey, Whit’s sister and a man
in Arkansas descended from Asa on chromosome 19. This matching sister
is on 23andMe. Whit and his sister are descended from Asa’s son Ira
H. Lewis while the
Arkansas man is descended from Asa’s daughter Letitia.
Whit traced
this segment on chromosome 19 to his paternal grandmother, whose
mother is Whit’s closest Lewis ancestor. Whit also said he shares
this segment with a cousin
descended from their common ancestor Dixon Hillman Lewis, who was the
grandson of Asa Lewis.
3.
My dilemma with the DNA
match is this: As I mentioned I have several matches on my list who
also match and triangulate with the members of the Missouri family.
On MyHeritage, one of these is my sister (Zerah Lewis descendant),
who shares and triangulates with the daughter/niece over the full 20
cM of the primary segment I share with the daughter/niece on
chromosome 7. I have a fourth cousin descended from Asa Lewis through
his son Eldred S. Lewis who shares and triangulates on 12.5 cM of my
20 cM matching segment
with the daughter/niece. So, my sister should match the Asa
descendant on the 12.5 cM triangulated segment, since she
triangulates for full 20 cM shared segment with me and overlaps with
the Asa descendant on 12.5 cM. Correct? Well, no, that’s
not the case. The Asa
descendant does not appear on my sister’s match list and vise
versa, and when I place both my sister and the Asa descendant on the
triangulation list with me and the daughter/niece, the triangulation
breaks. I have a second cousin with whom this also happens.
Separately they triangulate to
the Azariah descendant;
together with certain matches they do not. What’s the answer? To
me it defies logic.
So,
assuming in three weeks (one until by second vaccination and two more
for it to kick in properly) I will be somewhat immune to the
coronavirus, unless a wild variant finds me. Here’s hoping everyone
who wants it, and all should, can get vaccinated soon and we can
return to an almost normal life.
Dave
P.S.
We do have two new Y-DNA matches on FTDNA. The tree of one indicates
he shares lineage with Daniel Cushman Lewis and the other appears to
be closest to Ron Durrett. This second match’s tree may jump to the
wrong tree at some point going back in time, but he’s working on
it. He has tested Big Y, so we may have clarity soon. Both were born
and raised in the northeast.
Michael Lewis
I'll have to do some research on this triangulation business. I don't understand how that works and what it tells me about DNA relationships.
No news on the northern front. Lots of Samuels about, no clear documentation of connections with the southern group.
Hope all are well!
Michael Alan Lewis
Dave Lewis
Attached are the two documents referenced below, of my research
and that of Mr. Moore.
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Daniel C. Lewis
Dave Lewis
Michael, I don't think you can see the block tree on FTDNA as
you've not tested Big Y. In my block tree Daniel is in the block
with Roger (R.A. Lewis). Because it is his account, his name
doesn't appear with Roger. Both do not have a tested Big Y match
below BY42599 and are, therefore, lumped together under BY42599.
Jackie's nephew and I match below BY42599 as do Ron and Geoff,
thus each pair shares a block.
BY42599 likely is not later than Edmund because Ron and Geoff
have it and test differently from Jackie's nephew and myself below
that marker. Plus the difference in the STR results indicate a
likely different course of evolution on the Y chromosome. BY42599
could have first appeared in Edmund but more than likely it could
have arose in one of Edmund's ancestors, either his father or
grandfather, possibly even his great grandfather. But in any case
it is all speculation based on the level of knowledge we have at
this time. BY42599 could possibly represent only Edmund in North
America, depending on whether or not he had brothers or cousins
who also migrated to the North America.
Whether or not all of us in the Lewis Surname Project are
descended from Edmund for our Y-DNA is an open question, to my
thinking, depending on whether or not Edmund had brothers or
cousins who also came to North America. I'm open to the
possibility that some of us in the surname project could have a
different North American ancestor, but I have zero evidence to
argue it one way or the other.
There are a few things to discuss but I don't have the time right now. My time should free up after the new year.
Dave
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