Elemuel B. Cliburn
As of 4 Aug 2023 there has been a major breakthrough in the research for this line in our efforts to uncover the Genetic Ancestor of Elemuel B. Cliburn of Giles County, VA. The data presented herein is still a work in progress and every effort will be made to clearly identify what information is fact, and what information may be speculation.
Background
In 2005, Dr. Alex Waldrop III approached Johnathan Clayborn via email about participating in the Y-DNA Surname Study to attempt to answer, once and for all, the question of whether or not all Clayborns, regardless of spelling were related. Johnathan agreed and the sample was sent in. The results revealed that Johnathan was an anomaly. Not only did he not match anyone else in the group, the differences in the DNA sequence put his most recent common ancestor (MRCA) back several thousand years, thus precluding him as a Clayborn by genetics.
There is no doubt of Johnathan's descent from his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, or 2nd great-grandfather as there is a very strong family resemblance. We meticulously checked and rechecked the records, and eventually uncovered our error in Elemuel, Johnathan's 5th Great-Grandfather. Elemuel served in the Civil War and his death records and tombstone list him as Elemuel B. Cliburn, so we had the assumption that he was always a Cliburn. However, on the 1850 US Census Elemuel is clearly listed as a Croy.
The above image is the excerpt from the 1850 Giles County, VA Census. "W. Clyburn" is listed on the first line, age 57. Underneath him is "Christian Croy", aged 50. This is Christina Croy. Directly under her is listed "Samuel B.", aged 16, working as a Farmer on William's farm. Now, we were working backwards and later in life Elemuel's last name is Clyburn, just like William. However, on the census records it is understood that any children listed without a surname have the same surname as the preceding adult. Hence, it really says "Samuel B. Croy". Likewise, his sister, Sarah, is also a Croy.
Initially we had thought that Christina was a widow, but there is no record of any marriages in any of the surrounding area that fit this idea. Furthermore, Johnathan compared his Y-DNA sample against known Croy samples and they do not match either. This effectively eliminates any possibility that Elemuel was the son of an unknown Croy.
Since 2005 we have been stuck there, knowing that genetically, our ancestor was not originally a Clayborn, but not knowing which family held the answers. It is useful to uncover the identity of the Genetic Ancestor because that information can help their descendants know if they are potentially at risk for rare health conditions that may be passed on genetically.
To date, no one has been able to locate any birth records for Elemuel or his sister Sarah, so there's no birth certificate to reference with the father's name on it. Searches were conducted for both Elemuel Croy (Since his name appears as Elemuel in later documents) and also for Samuel Croy (since that is how he first appears in the records), but no results are found for either search.
Hypothesis 1 & 2
Johnathan has since taken over the Claiborne Y-DNA Surname Study and we know two things from the complete data-set. The descendants of the Uncles of William Clyburn all have DNA that is congruent to each other and to the old Westmorland Modal sample. This means that those people are all definitely descended from each other and share a common ancestor that originated in Westmorland.
This leaves only two possibilities:
1. William Clyburn is not the genetic father of Elemuel Croy and adopted this young man as his own.
2. William Clyburn is the genetic father of Elemuel and is not the son of Thomas & Louisa.
The only definitive way to tell for certain which of these two hypothesis is correct is to do more Y-DNA Testing. William Clyburn was previously married and had a son named Addison Clyburn. William and his wife divorced in the 1840s and the mother took Addison across the state to live with her family. Later descendants of Addison moved down to Missouri, where they live today. In theory, if a male descendant of Addison has Y-DNA that matches the rest of the Westmorland group, this would confirm that William is the son of Thomas & Louisa. Unfortunately, Addison's male line is now extinct; no living male descendants of Addison exist. There are still living descendants of Addison, but the family had a lot of women descendants who cannot take the Y-DNA test.
With no way to prove the ancestry definitively, we are left only to make the best educated guess possible determining all of the relevant facts and information. Based on all of these facts, which I will lay out in the subsequent sections, my professional opinion is that Hypothesis 1 is the most statistically likely; William is the son of Thomas & Louisa, but not the genetic ancestor of Elemuel. The rest of the data presented herein will operate on the assumption that Hypothesis 1 is the correct one, unless otherwise explicitly stated.
DNA Results
Although Johnathan has completed both a Y-DNA test and an Autosomal DNA test, the data was not useful. The initial Y-DNA test was only a 25-marker test and only revealed a single match at 25-Markers. This match had a MRCA that lived 300 years before and the match's family never lived in the United States. There were no known persons with that match's surname in the vicinity of Christina Croy, so it was a dead end.
The Autosomal DNA was worse. The results yielded many matches, but we were looking for some unknown 5th Cousins. Unfortunately, none of the DNA sites that the test results were uploaded to (Ancestry, MyHeritage, Family Tree DNA) provided any useful or meaningful way of sorting and filtering the results, so it was death by too many matches. Johnathan also had access to his father's test results, and performed the same tests there, but 4th cousins were still too many to work with. Johnathan's Grandfather and his great-uncle are the only ones left who could do a DNA test that would prove useful, but both have declined.
In Jul 2023 Johnathan upgraded his Y-DNA test from the 25-Marker test to the 37-Marker test. The results came back on 4 August and revealed much new information. At the 37-Marker range there were 18 matches to explore.
1. Shafer - There is a single match to Shafer with a genetic distance of 3. When looking through the Shafer DNA results I am unable to ascertain which of the 350 members it is that FTDNA is reporting as match. The one member who seems like they should be a match based on the results has more than 3 markers difference.
2. Meggison - There is a single match to Meggison with a genetic distance of 4. There is no Meggison Y-DNA group project, so there is no way to compare the DNA results directly, but this result seems safe to rule out as this match has a linked tree and during the 19th Century they were living in Prince Edward Island, Canada, having migrated there directly from England. That precludes them directly from being Elemuel's direct genetic ancestor, and as you will see, there are more promising results yet.
3. Crrawford - There is a single match to Crrawford with a genetic distance of 4. Although this match does match some important markers, I am regarding him as an outlier because he does not the bulk of the Crrawford DNA samples, suggesting that he may be in a similar situation.
4. Dodds - There is a single Dodds match that has a genetic distance of 3. He is a promising match and undoubtedly shares a MRCA at some point in the past, but like some of the others, he is an outlier within the Dodds group and doesn't match any of them, which is suggestive that he might not be a Dodds.
That concludes all of the single-person matches. The rest of the results are in groups of more than 1 person who share a surname or a variant.
5. Calvert - Interestingly, this is one of the original families that Dr. Waldrop had initially suggested, but in talking with the Calvert Y-DNA Administrator, it seems unlikely. Although there is a match in the study with a distance of 4 steps, this match does not match any other known Calverts. As of this writing there are 374 Calverts, and the only other person to match this Calvert is the next result, but he's not in the study. In any event, 2 of 347 doesn't make a strong case for connection. This Calvert seems to be an outlier.
6. Colvert - This family is included in the Calvert Y-DNA study, but this specific participant is not, so I have no way to compare his specific markers. FTDNA reports a genetic distance of 4.
7. Clark - there is a single Clark match, but this Clark states that he was originally descended from a Milburn.
8. Milburn - Genetic distance of 3
9. Milburn - Genetic distance of 3
10. Milburn - Genetic distance of 4
As promising a lead as the Milburn results are, there is an even more prominent result:
11. Thompson - Genetic distance of 3
12. Thompson - Genetic distance of 3
13. Thompson - Genetic distance of 3
14. Thompson - Genetic distance of 3
15. Thompson - Genetic distance of 3
16. Thompson - Genetic distance of 3
17. Thompson - Genetic distance of 4
18. Thompson - Genetic distance of 4
Based on these results, the statistically likely result in that Elemuel's Genetic Ancestor is a Thompson. Indeed, in looking in Giles County, Virginia, there are no Dodds, no Calverts, and no Milburns, but there are Thompsons, which lends some weight to this hypothesis.
Elemuel's Family
- Christina G. Croy (1804-1875)
- She did eventually marry William Clyborn, but he is not known if he is the father.
- Elemuel B. Clyborn (1834-1902) m. Eliza Taylor
- James William Clayborn (1854-1924) m. A. J. Mollie Pruitt.
- William Franklin Clayborn (1878-1954) m. Mary Ollie Cordell
- John Harvey Clayborn (1880-1962) m. Lealer Mae Cordell - DNA sample obtained from descendant of this line.
- Henry Clayborn (1886- )
- Lou Clayborn (1888- )
- Gratton Clayborn (1890-1959)
- Sarah Clayborn (1893- )
- Lois Clayborn (1893- )
- Abbigail "Abbie" Clayborn (1896-1995) m. Looney
- Marion Clayborn (1898-)
- Viney Clayborn (1899- )
- Elizabeth Clayborn (1859-)
- Eva Clayborn (1860-)
- Addison L. Clayborn (1856-) m Dixie
- Jospeh Clayborn (1862-)
- Henley C. Clayborn (1867-) m. Nancy
- Jonas Clayborn (1871-) m. Elizabeth
- James William Clayborn (1854-1924) m. A. J. Mollie Pruitt.
- Sarah E. J. Croy-Clyborn m. James Taylor