When do you decide you've got the wrong set of parents for your ancestor?

Question

I am seeking the parents and birth location for my fifth great-grandfather, Joseph Friend.  According to his death information, he was born in 1775 Ireland and died in 1843 in Elkton, Washington County, Illinois, according to this lead.

There is no immigration record that I can find to prove he came here from another country. Many of my family members insist he belongs to the line of Israel Frande Friend. I have run down a few potential parents from this line, including Israel, himself. Nothing is panning out. I thought I found a hot lead, so I created a tree to try to prove it. The problem is, I ran into a huge snag when I realized 8 of the 9 kids had been born either in VA or MD. Mine was born in NC.

Answer 1

Hi April, great question!  Do you have a link to any of your Friend relatives that I can follow?

If not, my suggestion is to start with who you have proven and work back from there, entering solid sources as you go.

If you get stuck (no primary source), start a == Research Notes == section with your beliefs and links to what ever you are stuck on.

Best of luck April.

Comments

I suppose I can add more to this tree. I've got a much fuller tree over on Ancestry. I just don't have a clue as to who his parents are. Very hard to go forward when you can't even find a record of Joseph's birth.

Answer 2

I have found the limited profile for Joseph Friend and through a search have found his marriage license to Elon (Eleanor?) Matheson on 2 May 1803 in surry County, NC.

ancestry share image (free)

ancestry link (subscription)

I hope these start your discoveries April.

Comments

Hi. Thank you for the information. I have a much fuller tree over on Ancestry in which I have three sources for his marriage to Elon Ellender Matthison. Still, I can find nothing on his family other than the scanty information on the Find-A-Grave.  It is his parents I'm seeking.

Answer 3

Look for Y Dna descendants on branches from his children

Comments

Unfortunately, we didn't carry the Friend surname. There is no Y-DNA from my line to be had.  I descend from his daughter, Anna.

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ok, then mtdna. this might not be fantastic, but if you can show that your mtdna is different than other descendants of his daughter, then you can work back and see where the break might be

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Thank you for the suggestions, but the Friend line is on my later father's side. the mtDNA would be from my mother's side. As you can see I'm up a DNA creek without a paddle.  I have to rely on source records. I'm also in a quandary, since Geni does the pathway to your connection to certain profiles, when you click the button. Apparently it showed I was a 16th cousin so many times removed to one of the Maryland Friend lines. :O I have no clue what to make of that.

Again, thank you for responding.