More Wright DNA Test Results

Two more Wright DNA test results (http://www.danstone.info/wrightdna.htm) have come back:

1) Test 293820, a descendant of Hosea Wright (http://www.danstone.info/g2/p2666.htm) through his son, Caleb Wright (brother of my fourth great grandfather, Hiram Wright), was upgraded from twelve markers to sixty-seven markers. This upgraded test result matches my uncle’s test on sixty-four out of the sixty-seven markers, well within the range to be considered related. Matching at the sixty-seven marker level means that it is very highly probable both of our paper trail lineages back to Hosea Wright are likely accurate.

The match also helps to verify that the Wright bible pages which are posted online (http://glennfletcher.com/?page_id=734) are indeed referring to my fifth great grandparents, Hosea Wright and Sarah Ladd Crew/Crews (http://www.danstone.info/g2/p2663.htm), and their children. This is important because many family trees I have come across attribute Hosea and Sarah’s son, Hosea Wright (http://www.danstone.info/g3/p3225.htm), as being born in 1802 and marrying Mary Rankin (http://www.danstone.info/g5/p5716.htm). Looking at the bible pages shows that he was actually born on February 11, 1820. This means the Hosea Wright who married Mary Rankin on April 23, 1820 (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XZLY-6HD) was not the son of Hosea Wright and Sarah Ladd Crew. Instead, the Hosea Wright who married Mary Rankin is believed to be the son of Job/Joab/Jobe Wright (http://www.danstone.info/g2/p2914.htm), who was the son of Gabriel Wright and brother of the Hosea Wright who married Sarah Ladd Crew. A DNA test of a descendant of the Hosea Wright who married Mary Rankin is currently pending. With there being at least four men named Hosea Wright located in early 1800s Ohio, it’s easy to understand how they can get interchanged.

2) The DNA test results of the descendant of Samuel B. Wright (https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/2030248) have come back and show, even at just the basic twelve marker level, that there is not a close relationship between his line and my line. Out of the twelve markers, three of them are different, with one of the three being two steps off. This is simply too great of a distance to be considered a match and closely related. While the information found at the link for Samuel cited above sounded extremely promising, especially as several generations of men named Gabriel Wright are mentioned, the DNA shows that further research of Samuel’s line is in all likelihood a dead end for locating the ancestors of my ancestor, Gabriel Wright. Helping to refine which lines to further explore, and which lines not to, is one of the big benefits of genealogical DNA testing.

Hosea Wright (Maternal 5th Great Grandfather) Discovery

Although I had checked the Ohio Probate Records database at FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/) a couple months ago, I decided to take another look for anything I could find related to Hosea Wright. This time, I was able to locate a record of the appointment of administrators for his estate. The discovery is very exciting as it provides the thinnest of strings with which to tie Hiram Wright to Gabriel Wright.

The bible pages (http://glennfletcher.com/?page_id=460) which are supposed to be a record of the family of Hiram’s parents show that Hosea married Sarah Crews, which matches the name of Hosea’s wife recorded in the document I just found. The Hosea who is Gabriel Wright’s son is recorded in a couple books as having died in 1837 in Clinton County, Ohio, which matches the newly discovered document. The bible pages for Hosea Wright and Sarah Crews record them having a son, Hiram, who was born on July 1, 1807. As mentioned in a previous post here, this is not the same date of birth recorded on Hiram Wright’s headstone, but the source of the date on the headstone is unknown and the headstone does not appear to be contemporary to the time of his death. While none of this is absolutely conclusive, there is also nothing found which rules out the likely possibility that the Hiram Wright, who is my 4th great grandfather, is the grandson of Gabriel Wright.

In a related development, I received an email from a descendant of Hosea’s (with a line of descent other than through Hiram) tentatively agreeing to move forward with DNA testing. Their line has a solid paper trail leading back to one of the children of the Hosea Wright family recorded in the bible pages. A match with them would make the link back to Gabriel Wright an almost certainty for both of our lines, and would shift my focus to trying to discover exactly where the connection is between Gabriel and the Wright families of Long Island, New York, as indicated by the 37 marker DNA matches with my uncle.

Hiram Wright (Maternal 4th Great Grandfather)

As prompted by the new Wright line DNA results from my uncle’s test, I’m reviewing the line from my uncle back to Gabriel Wright. The paper trail going back to William Riley Wright (my maternal 2nd great grandfather) is very solid. His obituary lists his parents as Joseph and Nancy Wright, and a half brother as Talbert Gragg [Tolbert Gragg]. Based on census records, I feel quite confident the correct parents of William have been located. Making the connection from Joseph Wright back to Gabriel Wright is not as straightforward, however. It is in these couple of generations that I’m trying to doublecheck to see if there could be any possibility of an incorrect father/son pairing having taken place in previous research. One of the first things that jumps out at me is something that has caused me concern in the past.

Hiram Wright’s father is attributed as being Hosea Wright, son of Gabriel Wright. While I have yet to locate any documents directly supporting this relationship, there is circumstantial information which supports it. There are copies of bible pages (http://glennfletcher.com/?page_id=460) which record the name and births of the children of Hosea Wright and Sarah Crews. They had a son, Hiram, who is listed as being born 1 Jul 1807. The Hiram Wright who is believed to be the father of Joseph Wright has a headstone (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=40533145) on which his birthdate is inscribed as 1 Feb 1805, although the headstone does not look contemporary to the time of his death (11 Jul 1890). Why the discrepancy? While errors on headstones are not unheard of, this is certainly something to examine further to make sure these two Hiram Wrights are indeed the same person.

My plan is to see if any documents can be found to substantiate either of these dates, or the parents of Hiram Wright. If a death certificate can be located, it would hopefully provide answers to both his birthdate and his parents. I will also be seeking additional direct Wright male descendants of the line for further DNA test comparisons to verify the lineage is correct. Should anybody reading this know of any of these descendants, please ask them to get in touch with me.