Two hundred years from now genealogists will be scouring Ancestry.com’s fully indexed Facebook archive to figure out what their 4th great grandmothers “liked”. Or what they ate for breakfast on a particular day. I envy them a little I think. Maybe they’ll uncover more than they wanted to know. But, they’ll also have unlimited access to “selfies” as well as historic Candy Crush levels achieved. By then, the Daughters of the American Candy Crushers will have formed and will be taking applications. Now I really envy them.

Since Facebook is a recent phenomenon, genealogists today, however, must look elsewhere for clues about things their ancestors “liked”. Surprisingly, court house minutes often provide insight.

For example, Jesse Trantham, my 4th great grandfather, liked Jesse Dunlap’s gray horse. So much so, he and two friends decided to purchase it. Deciding to pay for it in full, however, was altogether a different matter. Naturally, that didn’t sit well with the horse’s previous owner who took Grandpa Jesse and his two co-defendants to court in 1838. They lost the case and were ordered to repay Jesse Dunlap. Grandpa Jesse’s co-defendant, Jason Myrick, eventually paid off the remaining balance of thirteen dollars and twenty seven cents.That is, he paid it off after the Sheriff of Henry County was later ordered to recover the money one way or another.

I have no idea why Grandpa Jesse would purchase a single horse with two other men. Perhaps Jason and his brother James Myrick were his business partners or they farmed together. Or, it occurred to me that they might also be family. Could there be Myrick DNA coursing through my veins?

Yup. My father, my aunt and I all have several DNA matches who descend from Myricks who lived in North and South Carolina. B-I-N-G-O! Two of them are in the 4th to 6th cousin range and match both my father and my aunt. That’s very promising.

The maiden name of Jesse Trantham’s mother is unknown. She signed deeds “Massey” according to other researchers. That could very well have been her first name. One of her granddaughters was named “Massey Holladay” after her. Is it possible that I may have just stumbled upon her maiden name or a connection to the Myricks and that Jason and James Myrick were cousins to Jesse on his mother’s side? Yes, but proving it is going to be the hard part. No documents exist recording Massey’s full name. Nevertheless, there IS a Myrick connection in there somewhere methinks.

And to think I might never have known this had the three of them not tried to cheat poor Jesse Dunlap!

(You may be thinking to yourself, blogger, couldn’t Jason and James have been related to Jesse on his father’s side? Yes, but Lewis Peach pretty much identified the children of Betsy (Eppinger) and Martin Trantham in his 1884 letter and there were no Myricks listed among them!)

Kenfolk: Tranthams
Relation: 4th great grandfather
Common ancestors: Jesse and I might just be descendants of the Myricks. We’ll see.