Tracking the Baxter Family Using DNA Evidence

Tracking the Baxter Family Using DNA Evidence

By Deborah Baxter Fink

The following is a compilation gathered from e-mail correspondence Deborah Baxter Fink wrote to Ray Huffstutter and Connie Graves. It is a very personal journeyof the search from 1977 to 2016 to trace her Baxter ancestry.

DBF to RH 31 December 2015

I took my DNA in June of 2014 and have had several matches to John Baxter and Elizabeth Sappington descendants. I believe my William Baxter born about 1769/1770 is the son of John Baxter and Elizabeth Sappington. He is the right age to be their child and in the Maryland
Baxter's papers they list a son named William with no other info attached. William’s Last will and testament does not list any parents just 8 children. My line is the son James. I created a group of the descendants of William Baxter and Elizabeth Brampton on FaceBook. Since then I have 105 members now and several have DNA tested and have shared their match list with me on Ancestry. Many have Sappington matches. I also use Jeff Snavely's Ancestry DNA extension for the Chrome browser. It is a tool I use all of the time. DNA has proved that my James is the brother to 7 of the children listed in the will. I am still searching for the one brother's descendants to see if he too is a match. I have a GedMatch account my kit number is A551019. I am searching for other proof that my William is the child of John and Elizabeth. My tree is public on Ancestry named DeborahBaxter. I have been adding pictures of my matches to my tree. I am hoping Someone can help me find the proof that William is their son. DNA has been my only tool that has led me to finding his parents. I have matches to Greenberry and Patience Baxter's descendants as well as John Baxter and Mary Brown and also John Baxter and Mary Bowen. I also have matches to Margaret Baxter and the McQueens.

CG to DBF 31 December 2015
We were delighted to hear from you and thank-you for sharing the information on your Baxter DNA and the lineage of your family. You have done a terrific job matching the DNA between the various descendants of John Baxter and Elizabeth Sappington and it certainly looks as though your William does belong among their children.
As I am sure you know because of the unsettled events along the American frontier around the time of your William’s birth it is frequently very difficult to make connections between generations when family Bibles are missing and wills don’t specifically name all the children. While your DNA matches are a treasure trove it would still be nice to locate a piece of paper naming William that ties it all together.

While I don’t have any documents to offer you I think there might some very good places to look that have not been explored by previous researchers. Since I don’t know how extensive your search has been in the earlyrecords I will just mention a few things that came to my mind on where to look for a connection that might name William. I have also reviewed the pages in Some Maryland Baxters by Humphreys that pertain to John & Elizabeth and while they are detailed I think there may be more information to be gleaned looking deeper into the Virginia records and those in Kentucky. What documents have you found concerning the death and estate of John Baxter? Tax lists, deeds, estate settlement & sale bill, etc? How about for his wife Elizabeth Sappington? John owned land-- what happened to it? Was it divided among the heirs? Have you looked for deeds among/between the heirs? Have you looked for court cases (county, state, federal) between the heirs over their father's estate? Elizabeth remarried after John's death. Have you checked for records under her second husband's name that might pertain to the Baxter heirs? What about Elizabeth's parents--did they leave a will or other documents naming her or her children?

Before I go off the deep end on questions it might be better for me to just wait until you let me know where you are in your search. Exactly what items have you found for your William, John Baxter and Elizabeth Sappington?

DBF to CG 31 December 2015

I have been researching my family since 1977. I really started to fill in my oldest daughters baby book the family tree in it. I never anticipated that I would still be doing it so many years later. The day I got that baby book was the same day my grandmother died when it was my baby shower and my daughter would be born 2 weeks exactly later. So I know the exact date I started my family research. My grandmother dying prompted me to figuring out my lineage, with her gone it made me realize I should have paid attention when she was telling me about her family. My dad being a Baxter did not really know much about his family history his father had died in 1964 at age 59 and his mother only married a Baxter so she had no idea and she said why did it really matter so asking her anything was pointless. My dad's uncle Ray Baxter was a jokester hesaidthe Baxter's were kicked out of Scotland and booted out of Tennessee. So I have always kept that in mind not really knowing if there was any truth in that saying. He also said that someone in the family had been hung for horsethievingway back. I still have not found anyone of the Baxter's that did that. He also saidan uncle went to Texas and our line went to California. I found family in Texas and also one a town was named after, that would be John J. Baxter my James Baxter's brother, John was killed in a land dispute in Baxter Springs, Kansas (the town for which was named after him).

You mentioned that Elizabeth Sappington married after John Baxter died, does your site have that information so I can look it up? I don't have a whole lot of information on John or Elizabeth, yougaveme many clues and I will post them to my group so we can all help. I did add John and Elizabeth as my William's parents. When I first got my results back I would post all of my Baxter matches and the group would bring back what they found on that person. Patience Baxter was the first clue to the Maryland Baxter's and someone in the group uploaded the Maryland Baxter documents. That is where I saw John and Elizabeth had a son named William. Of course there is one naysayer in the group who thinks DNA is like attaching those shared hints to the tree he was basically calling it junk because his last name is Baxter and he took the Y67 test and the last name did not come back as Baxter after 7 years all he has is 7 matches and none of them are that close and the last name came back as MacLaren or a variation of that name and he said he wrote to all 7 of the matches and none had written him back, so he has not said anything nice about DNA testing since.

I have checked out the DAR records and posted that to the group he said he did not see a William listed there either. Last night I was searching for anything on St. Thomas Parish in Baltimore County to see if they had any documents online that I could look at. I did download a pdf file it had some church pictures and some info about the church and gave some names, but I did not see any reference in that document about John or Elizabeth. Then I went to Ancestry to see if there were any birth records. Found a few children listed I don't recall which ones at this time. My memory is not what it used to be since over the past 2 years I have had 5 strokes the one last year left my right peripheral vision gone so I see half and no it will never get better, I am getting used to seeing this way it is a brain injury, fixing my eyes will not fix how I see, it is the way my brain perceives things now. It could be worse I am just grateful I can see at all. My doctors keep telling me I am lucky.

I have the 1850 Census for William age 80 and Elizabeth age 77, I believe it says he is from Virginia and she Kentucky living in Blue, Jackson County, Missouri, it appears his son William Jr's family is living in the same house listed as farmers. This William is the one son I have yet to find descendants of. I have the last will and testament, my 2nd cousin before she died paid for a professional genealogist to trace our Baxter family so she could be a DAR member but the only relative she found was on a different line, she gave me all of the info she found in a packet. I found land records on William, nothing listed John Baxter or Elizabeth Sappington. With such common names it is hard telling if I have the right ones when searching. Maybe someone in my group will have better luck. I thinkbecausetheir last name is not Baxter maybe they are not as interested as I might be.If the name had been an unusual name it might be easier finding info. I was able to trace his descendant because of Jerome, William's grandson. I also have the Marriage transcription for William and Elizabeth in Lincoln County, Kentucky. I also have William on the 1810, 1830 and 1840 census, so I have his birth at 1769/1770 and I see that John Baxter and Elizabeth married in 1768 so that would make sense if he was born in 1769. The one cousin who says he is all about documenting everything has William listed with a middle initial of P. Yet I have no documents naming him with a middle initial at all, I have asked for anything he can show me and he has yet to produce anything with that, yet he still uses that. I have posted that in the group too and no one has showed me anything. I do not list him with the P. Someone said they heard that was his name from someone that wrote a book, but I guess this person was sick or something and they never produced the proof.

CG to DBF 1 January 2016

Elizabeth Sappington married second William Tippings.
Some Maryland Baxters and their Descendants, Allan Sparrow Humphries, (Fayetteville, Arkansas, John A. Swift Co., Inc., 1948), p 6."After the death of John Baxter, his widow Elizabeth married William Tippings, of Washington Co PA...... On 7 May 1793 Edmund Baxter, acting under power of attorney from Elizabeth Tippings and John Sappington, sold John Baxter's Rich Hill Plantation on Harmen's Creek, Ohio Co VA to Asa Owings of Baltimore Co., MD. Elizabeth Tippings relinquished her right of dower in the land." Source: Deed Book B, p 432 Madison Co KY.

DBF to CG 1 January 2016

(Re: birth date for William Baxter)We have his DOB at about 1769/1770 I lean more towards 1769, just because of the census, you know the ones that were before 1850 how they had ages and how many people under each setting, his wife Elizabeth Brampton was 3 years younger in 1850 William is listed as 80 and she is 77, but some prior might be in a lower category leaving me tobelievehe may be closer to 49 for example than say 40 or 50…..For so many years I had no clue that William was even myJames father, and then my 2nd cousin paid that genealogist to search our family. I think I would have eventually figured out that they were because they showed up in census. But with names like James and William and so many in the same family it is hard sorting them all out.

DBF to CG 2 January 2016

Here is my proof I had to go on when I started doing my family history. My dad Warren Baxter was born in 1935 he has a baby book with the family tree in the back that his mother filled out. I am sure she obtained that information from her husband orin laws. Mygrandfather Ernest Lewis Baxter born in 1904 Humboldt County, California, his father was William Riley Baxter also born in Humboldt County California. The family lived in Humboldt County a long time. The baby book which I scanned a picture of the tree and I will attach so you can see it. Ok I attached it, she did not add any dates just names and it ends at James and Hannah. So my first source is this page out of my dads baby book and its not much to go on as far as dates go other than my dad having his military records he was stationed in Alameda County California where I was born. My mom met him at a dance in Oakland at a place called Sweet's ballroom. so I found my father in the 1940 census living with his parents. His mother and father both graduated at UC Berkeley with Bachelors degrees, that is where they met, Him inForestryand my grandmother inreforestation, that is where burned downtrees to promote new growth and my grandfather was one of 7 young men who designed an air water tanker to put out forest fires. I can see why they would both go into that field norther California redwoods they must have seen many fires over the years.

1st document 1940 census found my father with his parents living in Nevada City, Nevada, California. My father was born in Medford, Oregon. Whenaskingmy grandmother at the time of my father's birth they had only owned a horse and buggy and the closesthospital was in Medford. My grandfather from the time he left college was always working with the Fire Dept. in Northern California. I have many newspaper articles my grandmother saved mentioning him in the paper..

So going back looking for my paper trail, I have my grandparents marriage certificate. Basically my family knows if it is family history they will even ask me if I want it. So I get anything you think might qualify. My grandparents married on a leap day 29 Feb 1928 in Stockton, San Joaquin California. They only celebrated it every 4 years too. My grandfather died in 1964, I was not quite 7 and I attended his funeral service, it was the first time I seen my father cry.

The 1930 Census my grandparents were married and on

12 Apr 1930•Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara, California this is where they lived.

I copied and pasted that is why the font is different. My grandpa's dad died in January of 1930 so I don't have him on a census for then. He is buried in Humboldt County California, I have been to his gravesite where many of the Baxter Family are buried between 3 different cemeteries in that area. A 2nd cousin took my father and I on a tour of the area where our family lived even visiting a home that was her grandmother's that was built in 1900, the newest owner turned it into a Bed and Breakfast, but they no longer offer that service anymore.

So I am still looking back trying to find the documentation to prove John Baxter is my Rev. War. Ancestor. My great grandfather William Riley , I know where he is buried, He is not on the 1930 Census, so the 1920 Census my grandfather Ernest Baxter is living with his parents and including my grandfather 5 children. Their oldest daughter whom my grandfather according to my dad said they did not talk about her she got married and moved out. I know her name was Flossie and I did find some records on her but never found her grave. In the 1920 Census William and Gertrude and 5 of their 6 children are living in Rohnerville Twp., Fortuna, Humboldt County, California. My grandmother had William's wife listed as Mary because that is what they called her, her name was Gertrude Mary Mathison. Her parents were from Denmark. Her mother had a story written about her for Mother's day in the Humboldt Times she was 99 and what a story that was, she died not long after that story not quite making it to her 100th birthday.

Next to find William's parents Jerome Baxter and Sarah Nowlin. Jerome and Sarah are both buried in Humboldt County California too. I have a transcribed version of Jerome B. Baxter's last will and testament. This may seem like a silly question but I have always felt stupid of not knowing when the will says it was probated on a certain date is that date later than the death or is that the death date? Jerome signed his will with just a mark on 4 Oct 1888, names children and appoints guardian for the younger children. Apparently he did this on his death bed just the way it was worded that is the impression I got.

So the 1910 and 1900 Census I know that both my great and Great Great grandfather's are dead the only ones I could find would be the wife's and since there is no 1890 I have to look for clues in 1880. The Headstone for Jerome and Sarah are really worn and weathered. Since Jerome's father is named as James I found it easier to look for Jerome and hope I could find the rest of the family. California has a Great tax Register and Voter registration. where I found them. Especially since the Gold Rush they wanted to keep track of that money heheheheh Jerome was listed on the Voter Registration in 1888 probably 6 months before he died. According to the Great Reg. Jerome was born in Missouri, but his children that were old enough on that list said they were born in California. I only know this to be true because on the trip from Missouri to California by horse and buggy Jerome's wife Sarah gave birth to her first child while in the Sierra Nevada mountains they named their daughter Sierra Nevada Baxter. Can you imagine giving birth on a horse and buggy, I bet many did.