A Little DNA Goes A Long Way - They took the wrong baby!

As noted in the previous post, "A Little DNA Goes a Long Way," the Y-chromosome passes from father to son with remarkable consistency. The working theory was that, since Reuben Johnson's father could not be located in the historical record, it might be possible to identify DNA relatives who possessed better documentation. Our lineage back to Eli Johnson is reasonably well established through recorded documents, the Margaret Rhyne genealogy, and the recollections of living ancestors at the time my research began. With each ancestry test I commissioned, I requested analysis of both my Y-DNA and my mitochondrial DNA. The latter was of particular interest because I have a direct maternal line to Cordelia Lambert Johnson's mother, Oma Mae Howard, who may have been the source of our mixed heritage—a matter referenced in connection with my sister's Behçet's syndrome with neurological involvement. My notes would need to be reviewed to confirm this, but mitochondrial DNA is not copied with the same consistency through the female line as Y-DNA is through the male. Nevertheless, given that the line runs through Hettie Hill Johnson, Stella "Doll" Blanch Johnson Hill, Cordelia Lambert Johnson, and back to Oma Mae Howard Lambert, I was hopeful that it might yield useful clues.

Most of the results were largely as anticipated, reflecting cousins I already knew. The percentages of shared DNA appeared consistent with expectations, and there were no significant surprises—even with CRI Genetics, which analyzes DNA across fifty generations rather than the five typically covered by standard family-finder testing. The test that proved most striking, however, came from FamilyTreeDNA. I had specifically requested Y-lineage tracking in the hope of identifying descendants of Reuben Johnson, who should appear as approximately fifth cousins on my father's—Hugh Martin Johnson's—side. What I received was, to say the least, disconcerting.

My first reaction was to wonder, in jest, whether someone had switched my identification bracelet in the hospital. Something seemed amiss. My father had a full head of black hair until chemotherapy claimed it—and even then, it grew back. I was nearly bald by thirty-two. My father was never one to spare a bald man from good-natured ribbing, so perhaps I was simply reaping what he had sown. Or perhaps my hairline reflected the Hill side of the family in an exaggerated form. Or perhaps, as I jokingly suggested, they had taken the wrong baby. In all seriousness, the three of us always appeared to share characteristics of both parents, though to varying degrees. One need only ask which of us inherited the worst of the Johnson temper—and I suspect no one will need to think long on that question. We all carry our share of it. When pushed beyond a certain point, one loses composure entirely, only to find oneself weak-kneed for the rest of the day and vaguely unsettled the next morning, uncertain of exactly what was said or done. Regardless, the DNA results were decidedly not what I had expected. I intend to add further commentary to this post following the next deposition entry.

To recall the earlier explanation of Y-DNA: if my understanding of the science is correct, to borrow an old expression from Big Gully, there is something unexpected in the family tree.

Upon reviewing the results, I was genuinely disappointed—I had been searching for Johnsons. Instead, at the 37-SNP analysis level, there were zero allelic differences among nearly thirty Ropers, and only a single mutation among another twenty. A one-mutation match is generally considered a strong indicator of shared ancestry within the past several generations. Either I had been swapped at birth, my sample had been compromised, or the result was an anomaly requiring further testing.

It is worth noting that this was before the depositions had been located. At the time, the most logical explanation seemed to be that insufficient data had been analyzed. I proceeded through two additional levels of testing, ultimately comparing 111 SNPs. The result was the same: no Johnsons. A great many Ropers, but no Johnsons. Since most individuals do not test to that level of precision, the reduction in zero and one-mutation matches at higher resolution is likely attributable to the fact that other Roper family members had not tested beyond the 37-marker threshold.

Then the following message arrived from the genealogical testing community:

Dear Brently,

I am the administrator of the Roper DNA Study Group at FamilyTreeDNA. Your recent Y-chromosomal DNA test indicates that you match very closely with a number of test subjects in what we generally describe as the "Majority USA Roper Family." For example, you exactly match all 37 of the first complement of 37 markers (0 genetic distance) with Dr. Leon David Roper, a former administrator of the Roper DNA Study Group, as well as ten other Roper-surnamed test subjects. You and I differ by a single marker on the 37-marker test.

You also differ from Dr. L. David Roper by a single marker on the full 67-marker test—a very close match.

You appear to exactly match three of our Roper-surnamed test subjects on the 67-marker Y-chromosomal DNA test:

• Jerry Benjamin Roper

• Richard Samuel Roper (deceased)

• Nicholas James Roper

(The reason you do not closely match more Roper family members on the 67-marker test is that most members of our study have not been tested to that level of resolution.)

These results suggest that you may share a recent common ancestor with each of these test subjects.

Dr. L. David Roper is from a Burke County, North Carolina, Roper family. Jerry Benjamin Roper is from a Pickens County, South Carolina, Roper family.

Do you have a known lineage to a Roper ancestor? Where are you from, and what is your known lineage, if you are willing to share that information?

Regards, Bill

P.S. — Occasionally, inexplicable exact matches occur by chance alone. For example, I exactly match a Harvey family member from Australia on a 37-marker test, and there appears to be no recent common male patrilineal ancestor between our families within at least ten generations.

Bill was attempting to be helpful, but the possibilities he was implicitly describing—artificial insemination, an extramarital relationship among recent ancestors—did not make for particularly comfortable reading.

By this point, I hope that readers have had the opportunity to review the most recent deposition. I will complete that transcription shortly and add several more depositions which, taken together with the DNA evidence, strongly suggest that our biological paternal ancestor is Benjamin Roper rather than Reuben Johnson. Legally, however, Phoebe's last marriage was to Reuben Johnson, and Eli would therefore have taken his mother's surname. Customs and conventions were considerably different in that era, and I remain cautious about drawing firm conclusions. Before this account is complete, I intend to transcribe the relevant depositions, including Eli Johnson's own deposition, which I believe names four half-siblings—a conclusion supported by the depositions, the timeline, and the DNA evidence considered together.

My father always maintained that "the money"—meaning Reuben's estate—went to Missouri. Margaret Rhyne, in her published genealogy, records that Pem Johnson, whom I remember from childhood, reported the same. There is an Isaac Johnson buried in a Missouri cemetery, though I have not yet been able to determine whether this is Eli's half-brother or an unrelated individual.

Much of what follows is informed speculation, grounded in historical evidence where possible. If Phoebe's maiden name was Dennis, she came from a family of some means. As I understand it, a wife's dower rights functioned as a legal debt against the estate—one she could pursue regardless of what the will stipulated. It is my belief, based on four or five depositions, that only Nancy and Isaac were Reuben's biological children and therefore had standing to challenge his Last Will and Testament. Additional evidence, to be presented in a later post, indicates that in earlier wills Reuben had left Isaac and Nancy substantial bequests, while leaving Mary only a fraction of that amount. He appears to have believed Mary—also known as Polly—might have been his child, though without certainty. She was not cross-eyed, and she appears to have been conceived after Reuben brought the "Quean girl" into the household. Eli, and possibly other half-siblings, do not appear in Reuben's records at all.

I hope these posts continue to hold your interest, and I welcome any information readers may have—particularly regarding Phoebe's maiden name. Once this story has been fully told and these records exhausted, I intend to turn my attention to the Howard and Lambert lines. As noted previously, my genetic profile includes approximately six percent Native American, Iberian Peninsula, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, and North African DNA—a modest but meaningful proportion. Before shifting focus, I hope to write about the Melungeon heritage and why that admixture may be relevant to understanding why my grandmother Cordie Johnson's family was instructed to identify as "Black Dutch" when asked, and why my sister may have inherited what physicians referred to as the "Old Silk Road" genetic marker.

Thank you for reading. Please take care and stay safe.