The Mystery of Giles County

This information is presented by Johnathan J. Clayborn.

Background

I first became involved with the Claiborne-Clyborn DNA Project in the early 2000s. I was a very active genealogy researcher on the internet at the time and Dr. Alex Waldrop III, who was the original project administrator, reached out to me and asked if I would participate. I agreed, I sent in my DNA sample, and I waited. The results were surprising. Although my Haplogroup was R1b, the same as the Westmorland group, the DNA showed that I was a direct descendant - not a match. Somewhere along the line my biological ancestor was not a Clayborn.

After the initial shock set in, we went back to the records. Where could it be? How long ago was the break? After much digging and careful examination, we ended up in Giles Co, VA. There is zero doubt that I am the son of Kevin, and that Kevin is the son of Marris, and that Marris is the son of Bascom (Grandpa Bas we called him). There is also no doubt whatsoever that Bas was the son of John Harvey Clayborn (1880-1962) and that John Harvey was the son of "Grandpa Willy", who on paper turns out to be James William Clayborn (1854-1930). There are photos of everyone in that sequence and the family resemblance is undeniable.

So that brings us back one generation - to Elemuel B. Cliburn. Elemuel, who also shows up as Lemuel in half the records, fought in the Civil War. His tombstone lists him as Elemuel Clyburn. He death certificate lists Lemuel B. Clyburn. His civil war muster rolls list him as Lemuel Clyburn. The 1900, 1880, 1870, and 1860 census all list him as either Lemuel B. Cliburn or L. B. Cliburn. By this point there was little reason to doubt the connection.

Until the 1850 Census. Here we have dwelling #498, District 20, Giles County, VA. In the house is one W. Clyburn, whom we know to be William, aged 57. Also listed in the home is one Christina Croy, aged 50, and one "Samuel B." (who is really Lemuel) aged 16, and Sarah E. J., aged 9. Since we knew that Lemuel B. Clyburn lived and died in Giles, it was no surprise to find him in the house of William Clyburn. I had always thought it strange that they listed the mom's birth name on the census. After the DNA results, however, I realized that the children would have had the same surname as the preceding adult. So it was really Lemuel B. Croy, and Sarah E. J. Croy. Mystery solved, the biological ancestor must be a Croy.

Naturally, the next thing I did was compare my DNA to Croy. It did not match that either. Peculiar. Back to the records.

In the 1840 Census I find Christina Croy again. She is listed as the head of household in a residence where she is the sole adult, living with 6 children.
1 male under 5
2 males between 5-10
1 male between 10-15
1 female between 5-10
1 female between 15-20
1 female between 40-50

From this list we know that the one adult woman is Christina, who should be about 40, and Lemuel should be one of the two males between 5-10. But who in the world are all the rest of children?

Lack of records

Digging further into this problem there is a complete lack of records for this situation.

Initially I had thought that Christina might have been a widow and moved in with Mr Clyburn. However, as previously mentioned, my Y-DNA doesnt match Croy, so Croy is definitely not the father. Additionally, I can find no evidence of any marriage records for Christina Croy. There is a Christina Croy who married a Thomas Harris in nearby Montgomery County, but they married before the 1840 Census and eventually moved to Tennessee, so thats definitely not the right Christina. The non-matching Y-DNA and the lack of a marriage record strongly suggest that Christina was not a widow. This is also supported by an apparent lack of chancery court cases proving any wills or probates where Christina would have been the beneficiary.

In addition to Christina apparently never having been married, there are no birth certificates that I have been able to find for Lemuel or Sarah. Lemuel's death record lists William Clyburn as the father,but we now know this to be false, genetically speaking. I have also been unable to find any baptism records for the children.

In summary; the death records list the adoptive father, there is no marriage record, no birth records, no will or probate, and no baptism records for this family.

Hypothesis #1

Given the complete lack of other records and the mysterious situation surrounding this family there are a number of possibilities that could exist, all of these being more or less equally likely.

Hypothesis #1 - Christina may have been someone's mistress.

This hypothesis would explain the lack of a marriage record - the children's father may have already been married. It may also explain the lack of baptism records - no one wants to explain that to the preacher.

At this point this is merely a hypothesis that I would be remiss to ignore. I do not have any direct evidence one way or the other and this seems just as likely as it is unlikely.

I am approaching this hypothesis with several avenues of research.

DNA - for me, these matches would be my 6th cousins, which are too numerous to work with. I have access to my Father's test, for him they are 5th cousins, which is still a high quantity. My grandfather would yield 4th cousin results, but he will not participate in this test. I am currently comparing all of my Father's 5th Cousin matches against the list of households in the 1840 census and lookfor families that appear on both lists but that I cannot tie to my tree in any known connection.

Land Records - Christina was listed as head of household, which is unusual for a woman of that time who was not a widow. And she was in the house with 6 children. Since 3 people are employed in agriculture on the census, I believe that someone else may be the landowner for the house Christina lives in. If I can recreate the path the census taker physically tool throughout the county, then I can narrow down exactly where Christina lived and go to the deeds and see who owned the land.

Hypothesis #2

Another possibility is that Lemuel is really the son of William Clyburn, but William himself may not be the son of Thomas. That may be where the break in DNA occurs. I am 100% certain that the DNA change occurried with either Lemuel or William as everyone down from Lemuel is known to be a direct descendant, and other people who descend from Thomas's other sons match the large pool of DNA samples from Westmorland.

One thing to support this hypothesis is that William had an uncle named Lemuel Clybern. Lemuel is an unusual name and the fact that William Clyburn had an uncle named Lemuel who also lived in Giles County is a rather large coincidence.

One piece of unknown information is that William was married to Mary at the time when Lemuel and Sarah were born. They also dont appear to have close to each other (but that may be wrong based on actual land records).

In an attempt to prove or disprove this and narrow down specifically which generation had the DNA break I wanted to track down a male descendant of Addison Clyburn, William's son from Mary, to see if they would do the Y-DNA test. If they matched me, then Lemuel is not the biological son of Thomas. If they did not match me, then Lemuel is not the biological son of William. I have since exhausted this avenue and unfortunately, this option is not longer possible. Addison's last male descendant passed away in 1943 with no sons.