William Barnett Sims, my 3rd great grandfather, lived and died in Weakley County, Tennessee. Most Sims Family researchers believe (as I do) that his father was Alexander Sims who died in Weakley County around 1860. Alexander’s parents, according to these same Sims researchers, are also known. Well, sort of.

From census records, we know that Alexander was born around 1773 in Virginia. His wife “Isabell” was living in his household in the 1850 census. Also captured in the 1850 census mortality schedule was the death of an “Elizabeth” Sims. Now some folks think that Elizabeth and Isabell were the same person but I am not convinced. Frankly, I am having a hard time understanding how she was both dead and alive when the census was taken. Oy.

Our Alexander Sims may the be the same Alexander Sims who married Elizabeth Jordan in Henrico County, Virginia in 1799. If that’s accurate, then Elizabeth might have been his 1st wife and Isabell his 2nd. In reality, folks didn’t mess around when it came to finding a new spouse in those days. Alexander may have been standing at the alter while they were still patting down the dirt on poor Elizabeth. But I digress.

As far as Alexander’s parents are concerned, most researchers have accepted that his father was Thomas Sims and his mother was Mary Nalle. And yet, I can’t find a shred of documented evidence to support this. Making matters worse is that before Thomas died he named a mess of children in his will and Alexander was not one of them. Perhaps he was disowned. Perhaps he’s named in the will under a different name. Who knows?

Why, then, do so many Sims researchers believe his parents were Thomas and Mary? I don’t know but I think they are right. As my geneticist distant cousin put it: DNA does not lie. My father (and I) and his sister have too many DNA matches who are descendants of Mary Nalle’s close relatives for it not to be true. I examined every Nalle DNA match we have on Ancestry.com and organized the data in the table below. In the first column, you’ll find the relative or suspected relative of Mary Nalle as well as the name of his or her spouse – all of them lived in Virginia about the same time. The columns to the right contain the number of unique Nalle descendants who share DNA with either my father, my aunt, or both of them.

As an example, Winifred Nalle in the second row was Mary Nalle’s aunt. Twelve people who share DNA with my father (3), my aunt (6) or both of them (3) are descendants of Winifred Nalle and her husband Thomas Dillard.

You’ll likely notice that I’ve highlighted two rows in gray. Both Elizabeth and Agatha Nalle also married men whose last name was Sims – we might have to toss them because the shared DNA might be Sims DNA.

In any event, thirty-three unique individuals who are Nalle descendants share DNA with my father and his sister. That’s pretty compelling. So perhaps Thomas Sims and Mary Nalle were Alexander’s parents after all. But DNA technology is a modern phenomenon. There must be a reason why Thomas and Mary (Nalle) Sims made sense as Alexander’s parents before the event of DNA matches. Apparently, I just haven’t stumbled across it yet. The research continues…

Kenfolk: Tranthams
Relation: 3rd great grandfather
Common ancestors: William’s parents were Alexander and Elizabell (presumably Jordan) Sims, my 4th great grandparents