Searching for Heritage

Introduction:  Before I proceed with analyzing the autosomal DNA of more Abbeville Weems descendants, I'd like to address one of the biggest ongoing mysteries encountered during my research so far - the parentage of John Weems, who first appeared in Orange County, NC around 1767 with his wife Catherine or "Kitty", and then moved to Greene County, TN with all of their children in the 1790s. Neither John nor Kitty's exact birth years or family origins are known for certain, but family tradition says John was born between 1740 and 1745. Their oldest child is believed to have been born around 1765, so these birth years are certainly plausible, although John also could have been slightly older. The identity of John's parents and exactly how or if he might be related to the Abbeville Weems family has long been the subject of arduous research and speculation. Notably, both Y-DNA and autosomal DNA test results in recent years seem to prove there was in fact a relatively c...

  Background: When I first ordered a DNA test from Ancestry in 2017, one of my main goals was to learn more about my great-grandfather McDuffie Weams (1876 - 1943). He was the oldest of my great-grandparents by almost 20 years, and his background was always a bit of a family mystery. Supposedly, he was adopted as an orphaned child along with his brother by the Weams family, who lived near the town of Central in Pickens County, South Carolina. This simple explanation was basically all that was passed down about his family history, and it would turn out to be the beginning of a long, gradual process of filling in countless details through historical records and DNA evidence. Early on in my research, I learned that this particular Weams family consisted of Andrew Weams (1800 - 1870) and his wife Martha Neal (1805 - 1885), who were married in 1834 in Pickens District, SC. They had four children born between 1835 and 1842: Thomas H. Weams, Margaret Jane Weams, John A. Weams, and Martha ...

Much like my last post on the descendants of the Abbeville, SC Weems family, I thought it would also be helpful to put together a basic summary of the known descendants of the Greene County, TN Weems family . This will be a starting point for further exploration and speculation about the common history the two families might share, which is genetically and historically distinct from other known Weems/Wemyss families. John Weems was born around 1741 or 1745 according to family historians of the 20th century, although it is important to note that none of the historical records from Orange County, NC or Greene County, TN provide his exact age or birth year. He first appeared in Orange County, North Carolina around 1767 and settled in Greene County, Tennessee with his nine children around 1792. He died in 1812. His wife went by the name Kitty, which was a nickname for Catherine, but her maiden name is unknown. Aside from these basic facts, not much else is known about John's origins. ...