Hawkins in Pike County, Missouri

I heard from Willetta Heising this morning telling me a bit about her Hawkins ancestors.  Willetta has done a good deal of autosomal DNA testing and has joined out autosomal group.  Here is her note:

Marsha,

So happy to hear from you. I've printed a copy of your message and will follow those instructions tomorrow. Meanwhile, my HAWKINS line is fairly brief at present. My maternal great-grandmother is Beulah Belle HAWKINS (1882-1959). Her parents were John M. HAWKINS (1854-1922) and Amelia SHUTT (1862-after 1922). John M's parents were John R. HAWKINS (born 1801 KY) and Harriet HARDIN (1802-1870). Pike County, Missouri figures prominently in this line. Beulah Belle was born there and her parents were married there.

This is the first surname project I have joined. I have taken the autosomal test at Ancestry and 23 and Me, along with the mtDNA test at Family Tree.......
Thanks again for reaching out. .....

Best,
Willetta Heising

Hawkins Family Group #1 autosomal Match

When it rains, it pours!  Very happy autosomal match that led to a connection between the Short Mountain subgroup of Family Group #1 and a Hawkins group in Illinois!

Erin e-mailed me that detective work on an ancestor named Mary/Polly Tinney who married a John Hawkins led to discovery of an autosomal match on Ancestry which connected her results to a Hawkins male's kit in Illinois.  This led Erin to do some research that clarifies many questions about the Hawkins family that is found in Madison County, Kentucky after the Revolutionary War.  The family moves to Warren County, TN between 1807 and 1810 where some of them are still living to this day.  However part of them moved instead to Illinois.

Here are two older blog posts that I wrote last year with the help of several of the Short Mountain TN subgroup of Family Group #1:

http://hawkinsdna.blogspot.com/2017/01/family-group-1-short-mountain-subgroup.html

http://hawkinsdna.blogspot.pe/2017/01/hawkins-autosomal-dna-matches-in-family.html

The following is information sent to Erin by her autosomal matches' wife:

The HAWKINS Journey

This was a very complicated journey and I want to walk you through it the best that I can.

We knew that John Hawkins children: Reuben T, Griffith T, John D, Joshua and Bathsheba were born in Tennessee but where?
Several years ago I took a blank 1820 and 1830 census form and filled them out with John and his children. Then I checked the whole state of TN for a John and family that would fit. I only found 2 and they were both in Warren Co., TN. I looked at the 1820 first and they could fit in with both John’s but in the 1830 census they could only fit with one and almost perfect except we are missing one son.
I started checking this John out and found that he was born in Virginia and moved to Madison Co., Kentucky and then moved to Warren Co., TN with his Mother, brother’s and sister’s between 1807 and 1810. They were all there by 1812. I think they moved in two groups.

His father Joseph SR was born in 1747 in Spotsylvania, VA. and died in 1803 in Madison Co., KY.
I have a copy of his will.
His mother Susannah Petty born 1848 and died May 1823 in TN
Children:
Martha Patsy 1772-1845 md Richard Boucher (Butcher)
John 1771-1840’s md Polly Tinney
Joseph JR 1773-1820 md Charity Miller 


Susannah 1775-1853 md William Campbell
Sarah 1781-1830 md John Pitts​
Reuben 1785-1851 never married
They were all married in Madison Co., KY.
They all appear in the census records for Warren and Cannon Co’s. , TN. I don’t think that they moved, the boundaries just changed. Cannon was formed in 1836 from Warren and other counties.
I could not find any more about John and his family so I just put everything away. I was sure that I had the right family but could not prove it.I decided to go back and do more research on the Moore line. Mary Elizabeth Moore is the grandmother of Ida Mae Beach Hawkins who married William Rasmus Hawkins 2 Dec 1903. I was checking the information about her brother, Emery G Moore 1833-1912.

His second marriage was to a Elizabeth Williams (Maiden name Biggs) born 1836 in Illinois.
I remembered that John Dillard Hawkins ( Griffith’s brother) in the 1850 census had some Biggs children living with him. Jonathan 19 born 1831, Elizabeth 13 born 1837 and Sarah Ann 11 born 1839. I always wondered who they belong to.
I found out that their father was Bennett Biggs 1793-1849
Mother was Elizabeth Hawkins born 3 Nov 1802 Kentucky - died 16 Oct 1846 Fayette Co., IL. Buried in the Pratt Cemetery. She was from Warren County, Tenn. and her father’s name was John Hawkins.
I had just found another daughter for our John, his first child Elizabeth, who married Bennett Biggs in Warren Co., TN. probably about 1820 or 1821.

Bennett Biggs was the key that opened the door.

He lived by Richard Butcher, William Campbell and John Hawkins in 1830 in Warren Co., TN census.
He moved with John Hawkins and family to Clinton Co., IL about 1833.
He married Reuben T Hawkins in 1834 in Clinton Co., IL*****
He married Griffith T Hawkins in 1834 in Clinton Co., IL******
He lived next to Joshua Hawkins and Griffith Hawkins in the 1840 Fayette Co., IL Census.
( I think that the male living with Joshua (70-80) is our John Hawkins)
He died 30 Oct. 1849 Fayette Co., IL. Buried in Pratt Cemetery, Fayette Co., IL
His 3 children went to live with their Uncle John Dillard Hawkins

I told Karen, my niece, what I had found and we started looking again. There were 3 John Hawkins in Madison Co., KY at the same time. One was married to a Polly Finney 12 Mar. 1801 but we did not know if this was the right one or not. We ruled out the one married to a Rhoda Crook.

One day I was looking through the Land Records again for Griffith T Hawkins in Fayette Co., IL and I saw in the 1840 and the 1844 record’s they have his name as Griffith Tinney Hawkins . I had always thought this just was a mistake. In rechecking I thought, the Land records should be correct and they both were showing the same thing 4 years apart. I told Karen that Tinney and Finney were really close. As I was talking to Karen I was going through a folder and a found a record from Family Search that had a John Hawkins and a Polly Turner married 11 Mar 1801 in Madison Co., KY. I told her that I had checked this Polly Turner out and did not find anything. Karen went on Family Search and put in John Hawkins and Polly Tinney and there was their marriage record showing they got married Mar 12, 1801 in Madison Co., KY.
We believe that Griffith’s middle name was Tinney and not Tomey and that he was named after his mother Mary (Polly) Tinney. We know that she was still alive in 1834 when Reuben was married by Bennett Biggs because she gave her consent.

We feel that all this proves at long last, that John Hawkins and Polly Carney who were married in Maury Co., TN in 1816 and had one child in the 1820 Maury Co., TN census is not our John, the father of our Reuben T, Griffith T, John D, Joshua, and Bathsheba. 

We are still missing 4 sons and maybe 1 daughter from the 1820 Warren Co., TN census

If you are having trouble following all this just imagine trying to find it all.
Have fun looking all this up and see what your conclusions are.

(Signature of author of above withheld until permission to use name)

Erin's Ancestry match's line:  Ronald Harold Hawkins, William Harold Hawkins, William Rasmus Hawkins, Lewis Foster Hawkins, Griffith Tinney Hawkins, John Hawkins, Joseph Hawkins , etc.

I would add that we have at least two yDNA participants who represent this Hawkins family line:  Bret Hawkins and Mike Hawkins (I paid for Mike's kit many years ago and he graciously did the test to prove that Elaine and I were looking at the same Hawkins family line).  Both are part of Hawkins yDNA family group #1.

Autosomal DNA match to Family Group #1

As luck would have it, the very week that I would work on trying to find a way to help Hawkins autosomal DNA matches make better use of their matches, I heard from Lena.  Lena has agreed to my making her information public.  I will add it to the Family Finder page today even though it is actually an Ancestry site kit.  She has also given me her gedmatch number.  Lena says that her Ancestry circle is  the Benjamin Hawkins and Hannah Chambers DNA Circle.

We know from yDNA results of the son of Dot Hawkins that Benjamin and Hannah Chambers Hawkins of Buncombe County, NC were a part of Family Group #1.  We think it likely that Benjamin descends from one of the orphans of John and Elizabeth Hawkins who died in Richmond County, Virginia in what was probably an epidemic.  Lucky for us John made a last minute will in which he named all six of his orphans:  William, Benjamin, John and James and two daughters Elizabeth and Sarah.  Dot's daughter has been working on proving the connection of her ancestor Benjamin of Buncombe to William Hawkins found in Bedford/Campbell County, Virginia and then back perhaps to the oldest of John and Elizabeth's orphans, William.  We in family group #1 have taken to call him William the plasterer because his father asks in his will for Henry Wood to teach him the trade of plasterer.  We have no reason to believe that he actually learned the trade nor practiced the trade in his adulthood.  But it is a way to sort this man out from all of the William Hawkins who existed in this time frame.  I don't know where Dot's daughter is in her research at this point.  I have sent out an e-mail asking Dot to put me in touch with her.

Autosomal DNA tests

I find that the Hawkins yDNA project has absolutely no way to help those of us who have taken the autosomal test at FTDNA (Family Finder) or Ancestry or any of the other companies that offer this test.  I should also mention Gedmatch.  So I am asking those of you who joined the Hawkins yDNA project but don't have a yDNA match to anyone with the Hawkins surname to go to the FTDNA site and Choose projects on one's sign in page.  Then choose manage projects from the pull down menu at the top of the page, and then beside the Hawkins project choice, choose Leave the project.  Then we as a group will try to find a way for the Hawkins DNA blog site (which is where you are right now) to work to help us all find our autosomal matches who have Hawkins connections.

I have some ideas on possibilities on how to do this, but I don't know if they will work until we try them.  I have added a tab at the top of this page that says:  Family Finder Participants.  However, I am happy to add all autosomal kit identifications that anyone wants to send me on any of the sites including Ancestry and Gedmatch.  If you don't mind sharing your contact information publicly, I will put it on the blog.  Then I will try to put links to blog posts on which we can discuss how we believe that we connect to each other.  Please only send me kit information for people who believe that they connect to a Hawkins family.  If you know which family group to which you connect, send me that as well.  If you don't know to which family group your Hawkins line connects, I'll put you in a unmatched group.  Please help me figure out the best way to make this work.  We'll chip away until we get something to work.

Ok I am updating this message a few days later.  A very nice man has left the project because he is not yDNA.  I want to write and thank him.  And I also want to see what I can do to help him with his autosomal matches with Hawkins connections.  What I forgot is that once he leaves the project I can no longer look up his e-mail.  So don't forget to e-mail me if you have any questions etc when you leave the project.