When Neighbors Have a Familiar Name

Have you ever read another genealogist's blog and wondered whether your families might somehow be connected?

I've followed fellow geneablogger Linda Stufflebeam and her blog, Empty Branches on the Family Tree, for quite some time. Since several of Linda's posts about her Stufflebeam research have mentioned Warren County, Indiana, I've occasionally wondered whether our families might cross paths somewhere in that county.

It wasn't until I received an abstract of title for land originally purchased by my ancestor Richard Foster that I had a reason to look more closely.

A Familiar Name on the Map

Richard Foster purchased land in Section 10, Township 21 North, Range 9 West in Warren County, Indiana, in 1828.

While looking at a map of the first landowners in the area, I noticed something interesting.

John E. Stufflebeam owned land nearby.

Stufflebeam!

Since I recognized the surname from Linda's blog, that immediately caught my attention. Then I checked my own genealogy database and discovered something even more interesting.

I already had John E. Stufflebeam in my files.

The Foster-Stufflebeam Connection

John E. Stufflebeam's wife was Harriet Ostrander.

Harriet was a sister of Caroline Ostrander, wife of Richard Foster's son Zebulon Foster.

Thus, the neighboring families weren't just neighbors. They were connected by marriage.

That also meant that I shouldn't be surprised to find DNA matches to descendants of John E. Stufflebeam and Harriet Ostrander on my paternal side.

And I do.

But then things became more complicated.

Stufflebeam Matches on Both Sides

When I searched my Ancestry DNA matches for people with Stufflebeam in their trees, I found 15 matches.

Some were identified as paternal matches, which made sense given the Foster-Ostrander-Stufflebeam connection.

However, I also had several maternal matches with Stufflebeam ancestors.

That was unexpected.

When I began looking through some of those trees, I found surnames associated with my maternal ancestry, including Thompson and Reed.

But that didn't necessarily solve the mystery.

Some of the matches identified as maternal also had surnames from my paternal ancestry in their trees.

So which ancestral line accounts for the shared DNA?

At this point, I don't know.

The Challenge of a Colonial Family Tree

This is a good example of one of the challenges I face when working with my DNA matches.

Much of my ancestry extends back into colonial America. Families lived in the same regions, migrated along similar routes, intermarried, and sometimes became connected through more than one ancestral line.

That means a surname appearing in a DNA match's tree can be a clue—but it isn't necessarily the explanation for the DNA match.

What do I know so far?

• I have Stufflebeam cousins connected to my paternal family.
• I found 15 DNA matches with Stufflebeam in their Ancestry trees.
• Those matches include both paternal and maternal matches.
• Some maternal Stufflebeam matches also have surnames associated with my paternal ancestry in their trees.
• Some of their trees contain surnames from my maternal ancestry, including Thompson and Reed.

What I don't know is how—or whether—the Stufflebeam surname itself connects those maternal matches to me.

That's a question for another day.

From a Land Map to a DNA Mystery

What I find fascinating is how this little research detour started.

I wasn't researching the Stufflebeam family.

I was studying an abstract of title for Richard Foster's land. That led me to a first-landowners map. On that map, I happened to notice a surname I recognized from another genealogist's blog.

That surname led me back to my own database, where I discovered the Ostrander connection. And that, in turn, sent me searching my DNA matches.

Now I have another research question to explore:

Why do I have Stufflebeam-associated DNA matches on both sides of my family?

I don't have the answer yet.

But thanks to a land abstract, a map, another genealogist's blog, and my DNA matches, I now know there's a question worth asking.