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The Common Ancestors of John and Adam Duke

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Location: Conecuh, Alabama, United Statesmap
Surname/tag: Duke
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The Common Ancestors of John and Adam Duke

If you know of direct male descendants of any of the Dukes in Alabama, especially Joel Emerson Duke, John Duke III (the Elder), or Joel Duke from Edgefield, SC, please contact Jonathan Duke.

The descendants of William "Willie" Brinson Duke and Sarah "Sallie" Amanda Ross are descendants of Jack Brinson Duke (through Willie) and Adam Duke (through Sallie), and many have wondered if the two Dukes were related, but no information about that was passed down. Both came to Panola County, Texas around the same time from the same place in Conecuh County, Alabama.

  • Who were Jack's parents, and what happened to them?
  • Could Adam have been Jack's uncle?
  • Were Willie and Sallie actually 2nd cousins?
  • Where did the name "Brinson" come from?

Continued research and DNA testing are starting to unravel some of those mysteries. Jack's parents (and siblings) have now been identified, and it is clear that the two Duke lines connect somewhere between 1660 and 1790—connecting to the Dukes in Isle of Wight, Virginia in the mid-1600s—but we are still trying to fill in the gaps.

Family Members

Likely Ancestors

  • William Duke (ca. 1620, immigrated from England bef. 1639, possibly originally spelled Ducke)
  • John Duke (ca. 1640 - bef. 1689)]] from Isle of Wight, Virginia
    • m. Elizabeth (King?), who married Robert Mercer as a widow
  • John Duke II (ca. 1661 - ca. 1720)
    • m. Bridgett (Askew?)

Possible Ancestors

  • Sons of John Duke III "the Elder"
    • DNA seems to indicate a closer relationship between John's descendants than Robert and William, but they cannot be ruled out yet. Although their brother James is not known to have any descendants, he could also still be a possibility.
    • Of John's sons, the two most likely candidates seem to be:
      • Simon Duke (1725-1824)
      • Joel Duke (1739-1801)
        • If Joel is the father of John R. Duke, his descendants in the DNA group are distant matches but probably not from the same line.
      • There may have also been a younger son named John Duke.[1]
    • Some online trees, including WikiTree, have him identified as John Washington Duke, but his Y-DNA does not match.
  • Joel Duke (living in Conecuh, Alabama ca. 1820-1840)
    • This is based on their proximity in census and GLO records.
    • This could be the same person as the John below if the Smyth book is incorrect about his name.
  • John Duke from Sparta, Georgia
  • Joel Duke (ca. 1790 - aft. 1860) from Edgefield, South Carolina
    • This is not thought to be correct based on DNA, but the Mitchell book lists him as their ancestor.
    • It is thought that this Joel also passed through Conecuh County at the same time as the Joel above, but he later moved on to Coosa County.
  • There is also an autosomal connection between the Duke descendants and Brinson descendants. A personal (unproven) theory is that John and Adam's mother's maiden name could have been Brinson and may be connected to Adam Brinson.

Known Descendants

Possible Descendants

These have not been proven with Y-DNA evidence but seem to be connected based on records.

Evidence

DNA

  • Male descendants of Jack Brinson Duke (who seems likely to be the son of John M. Duke based on records) and Adam Duke are an exact match on 111 markers of Y-DNA.[2]
  • Big Y testing placed both male descendants in the same haplogroup (I-BY62571) along with the other known descendants of John I and II from Isle of Wight, with a mean MRCA date around 1667.
  • No new sub-branch was formed between Jack's descendant and Adam's descendant, but they do match on 657 of the 659 additional STR markers. It is possible that a mutation from 21 to 20 on STR #668 (DYS612u5) could indicate that both descend from John III because they share that same marker with a descendant of Benjamin (through Drury) and also a descendant of John R. Duke.

Land Records

  • GLO records show Adam Duke and his son George owned land right next to land owned by a Joel Duke in Conecuh County (northwest of Evergreen). Also, other potential relatives such as John B. Duke, Nancy (Duke) Tomlinson Overstreet, and Matt Brinson owned land just to the east of them. John M. Duke owned land on the opposite side of Evergreen. Joel Emerson Duke and his in-laws owned land to the northwest of Adam in Monroe County (near Buena Vista), and his father-in-law William Pugh owned land right below Adam in Conecuh County.[3] The post office at Burnt Corn was near the county line between all of the tracts. More research needs to be done, but this could support the theory that they were all related to each other.
Land Owned by Dukes (and Possible Relatives) in Conecuh County, Alabama
Land Owned by Dukes (and Possible Relatives) in Conecuh County, Alabama (source)

Additional Research

  • There is another website with research on Joel Emerson Duke.[4] One researcher provided the following unconfirmed narrative about the connection between his family and the other William J. and son Daniel:[5]
"William appears to have died about 1855, possibly the son of Henry S. Duke. William and Isabell lived in Monroe County being married in 1848. Daniel was born 1849 in Brewton (I believe) a little to the south of Monroe County and a little north of Florida. Brewton was where the Sowell family had also relocated to from Monroe County.
Daniel Henry Duke and family migrated west to Panola County Texas (Relation to following Dukes uncertain) along with a bunch of other Duke members including my great uncle William Jasper Duke after the war. Adam Duke, the brother of Joel Duke (of Buena Vista, Monroe County) - Willaim Jasper Duke's father - was already in Panola County, having died there -in 1860. A lot of the Monroe County Dukes left about the same time 1870s. Looks like they went to join their kinfolk.
I know that my Duke (Rev. L.W.) also went to Texas during that same period but further west to Falls County . When I went to Monroe County a couple of years ago there was nary a Duke to be found. I did find a picture of the 'Old Duke Homestead - now known as the Godbold Place' up near Buena Vista, but no mention of what Duke family resided there .
I met a gentleman who told me about the great clearing out of south-central Alabama during the 1870s. Over 30 thousand Alabamians left for other climes - mainly Texas. (A few went to Brazil - but that's a whole different rather fascinating story) A common sign appeared on many abandoned homes and farms 'Gone to Texas' Basically the whole economy collapsed and to this day has not fully recovered."

Sources

  1. ↑ "Public Member Trees", database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/76461442/person/34524175165/facts : accessed 30 November 2022), profile for John Duke.
  2. ↑ "Duke Y-DNA Results," FamilyTreeDNA, Duke Surname Project (https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/duke/dna-results).
  3. ↑ Duke, Jonathan. "Duke and Ross Land in Alabama (mid-1800s)," published online, 20 Jan 2023 (https://jduke79.com/Alabama-GLO-1800s.pdf : accessed 20 Jan 2023).
  4. ↑ "Duke Family - Monroe County, Alabama and Beyond," personal website (https://palmtreat.wixsite.com/mysite/duke : archived 22 Jul 2024).
  5. ↑ Johnston, Peter. Personal recollection via Ancestry on 6 Jun 2018.




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