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ahnentafel and citation # display:| |
This page will assume that you have already read 22Charlie Black's main profile page, but to recap, some relevant facts about 22Charlie include:
| • | He was born in east central Georgia in the early to mid-1890's. However, records that provide more specific details about his birth differ in bizarre ways. Johnson County seems to be his most likely birthplace, although Laurens and Montgomery counties are also mentioned. |
| • | His mother is 45Julia (or Julianna or Judia) Black, daughter of 90Benjamin Burton Black and 91Elizabeth Sutton. |
Paper-Trail Evidence
The available paper-trail evidence suggests that
With nowhere else to turn, I next looked for DNA evidence.
Lack of Y-DNA
A Y-DNA test from a male-line descendant of
Although I've had difficulty finding Marvin's sons directly, I did find contact information (with high confidence that it's correct and up-to-date) for his daughter Lawanna Walker, whom I thus attempted to contact in June 2025. Unfortunately, Lawanna did not respond. 
My need for Y-DNA results from a patrilineal descendant of
Autosomal DNA: Round 1
I broke up the analysis of my father's relevant autosomal DNA matches into several steps or "rounds." The goal of round 1 was to identify some plausible MRCA couples who could be related to 22Charlie's unidentified father.
MyHeritageIn February 2025 I attempted to organize my father's autosomal DNA matches on MyHeritage.com to identify the matches most likely to share ancestry with
| MyHeritage User | Shared DNA (cM) |
Segments | MyHeritage AutoCluster Group # |
Tree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth King | 70 | 3 | 1 | link |
| Jade McKenzie Brown | 50.4 | 1 | link | |
| Nancy Jefferson | 52.8 | 4 | 5 | link |
| William Strickland | 52.5 | 3 | link | |
| Edward Hense | 59.2 | 4 | 8 | link |
| ALVIN ANDERSON | 62.5 | 4 | 9 | link |
| Jean "Roy Jean Hooks" Hooks | 75.1 | 3 | 10 | link |
| Samantha Janoski | 102.5 | 6 | link | |
| Mikal Chad Johnson | 55.1 | 3 | 12 | link |
| Lily Bonaventure | 54 | 1 | 14 | link |
| Janet Pauline Maness (Crame) | 51.5 | 4 | 16 | link |
| ROBERT JACKSON | 50.7 | 3 | 18 | link |
| Rebecca Noonan | 58.8 | 3 | link | |
| Wilson Michael Fountain | 55.8 | 3 | 21 | link |
| Nancy Barlow | 71.9 | 3 | 22 | link |
| Virginia Smith | 59.1 | 3 | link | |
| Daniel Edenfield | 58.6 | 1 | link | |
| Michelle Crews Pou | 64.4 | 3 | 28 | link |
Upon further inspection of these matches, I found only one instance of a common ancestor: Both Jean Hooks and Daniel Edenfield allegedly descend from Frederick Tyson (ca. 1754 - ca. 1833) and his wife Bridget Justice (ca. 1754 - ca. 1796). Their alleged lineages are:
| • | Jean Hooks ← Ollie Mae Hooks ← Manning Hooks ← Dennis J. Hooks ← Sarah Anne Hutcheson ← Martha Patsy Tyson ← Stephen Tyson ← Frederick Tyson and Bridget Justice |
| • | Daniel Edenfield ← [Private] Edenfield ← Daniel Edenfield ← Martha McCretha Riner ← Daniel Elijah Riner ← Amos Jasper Riner ← Henrietta Meeks ← Susannah Tyson ← Frederick Tyson and Bridget Justice |
Continuing on, I found other, lower-cM matches on MyHeritage with other descendants of Frederick Tyson and Bridget Justice:
| MyHeritage User | Shared DNA (cM) |
Segments | Alleged Lineage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jerri Rush | 23.3 | 2 | Jerri Rush ← Joyce Scott (1949-2010) ← William Scott (1908-1963) ← Zilpha Marintha Riner ← William Merritt Riner ← Amos Jasper Riner ← Henrietta Meeks ← Susannah Tyson ← Frederick Tyson and Bridget Justice |
| Paul Wright | 26.2 | 2 | Paul Wright ← Dorthy Nell Love ← Johnnie Gordon Love ← John Love ← William Norris Love ← Mary Louisa Tison ← Stephen Tyson ← Frederick Tyson and Bridget Justice |
| John Foskey | 17.9 | 1 | John Foskey ← Dorman Wayne Foskey ← James Arthur Foskey ← John Robert Foskey ← Julia Ann Tyson ← Noah Daniel Tyson ← Frederick Tyson and Bridget Justice |
| "DWH" | 17.5 | 1 | DWH ← Johnnie Lois Youngblood ← Matilda Ann Durden ← John Dennis Durden ← Delila Hutcheson ← Martha Patsy Tyson ← Stephen Tyson ← Frederick Tyson and Bridget Justice |
Since lower-cM matches sometimes reflect remote MRCA's or general endogamy rather than more recent, genealogically relevant MRCA's, to help address this concern I compared the above-named, lower-cM subjects to five other, well-identified comparator subjects who collectively bear DNA from the vast majority of my father's somewhat recent ancestors other than his
Ancestry.com
Using a very similar method, I next searched for relevant matches on Ancestry.com. Because Ancestry had closer, more suitable comparator matches, I could rule out irrelevant matches more reliably, and therefore the matches listed below should reflect
Further analysis of these matches† revealed two notable match clusters: (1) a cluster that I've named "Cluster 1" consisting of Eric Hudson, Garry Morgan, hudsonrobert80, mataylor64, Roberta Mondelli, Shelley Miller, Timothy Hall, and Virginia Lee Hall-Cliver; and (2) a cluster that I've named "Cluster 2" consisting of April Stillwagner, Bailey Chalmers-Vuorensyrja, Janice EVANS, Jesse Hamilton, JILL MASTERS, pawebb0422, rabunj34, V.H. managed by hallrkcj, and wmatt_snellgrove.
For Cluster 1, unfortunately five of the eight members had little or no genealogical information available about themselves. I've messaged these five, requesting further assistance, but I haven't received a reply. Of the three remaining subjects, two subjects—hudsonrobert80 and Virginia Lee Hall-Cliver—had a clear alleged MRCA couple: Francis Marion Silas and his wife Martha Elizabeth Blankenship. I couldn't identify a relationship between these two subjects and the third subject, Garry Morgan, with much certainty, but Garry does have an alleged ancestor with the surname Nichols, and Francis Marion Silas' maternal grandmother was Lettie Nichols, so perhaps the MRCA is another generation or so back. The relevant alleged lineages are summarized below.
| Ancestry User | Relevant Alleged Lineages |
|---|---|
| hudsonrobert80 | "hudsonrobert80" ← Omie Lavonia Graham ← Carrie Elizabeth Silas ← Francis Marion Silas and Martha Elizabeth Blankenship |
| Virginia Lee Hall-Cliver | Virginia ← private father ← Nancy Louise Silas ← Francis Marion Silas and Martha Elizabeth Blankenship |
| Garry Morgan | Garry Morgan ← Charlie Greer ← Edna Lucille Parker ← Samuel C. Parker ← Leonidus Parker ← Elizabeth Nichols |
For Cluster 2, Bailey Chalmers-Vuorensyrja, April Stillwagner, Jesse Hamilton, and wmatt_snellgrove all share a MRCA couple: Calvin Green Powell and his wife Maryann Serena Derriso. Jesse Hamilton also descends from Frederick Tyson and his wife Bridget Justice, discussed earlier for the MyHeritage matches. rabunj34 shares several MRCA's with my father (i.e., 170Renson Rabun, 171Elizabeth Martin, 326John C. Everett, and 327Elizabeth Ellis), so he should be removed from consideration. I was unable to identify a MRCA for JILL MASTERS and pawebb0422, and Janice EVANS and V.H. managed by hallrkcj had insufficient genealogical information available.
| Ancestry User | Alleged Lineages |
|---|---|
| Bailey Chalmers-Vuorensyrja | Bailey ← Patty Crosby Chalmers ← Betty Jo Armstrong Crosby ← Clara Mae Brown ← Elbert D. Brown ← Vandella Powell ← Calvin Green Powell and Maryann Serena Derriso |
| April Stillwagner | April ← private mother ← Elsie P. Coleman ← Dayton Powell ← Manson L. Powell ← Calvin Green Powell and Maryann Serena Derriso |
| Jesse Hamilton | Jesse ← private father ← Cora Lampp ← Houston M. Lampp ← Sylvannah/Savannah Powell ← Calvin Green Powell and Maryann Serena Derriso Jesse ← private father ← Cora Lampp ← Avie Ennis ← Mary Celia Hutchenson ← Zilphia Meeks ← Celia Tyson ← Frederick Tyson and Bridget Justice |
| wmatt_snellgrove | wmatt_snellgrove ← William Lovette Snellgrove ← Rose Mae Brown ← Vandella Powell ← Calvin Green Powell and Maryann Serena Derriso |
Conclusions for autosomal DNA round 1
Calvin Green Powell and his wife Maryann Serena Derriso are the couple most likely related to 22Charlie's unidentified father. Their identification is supported by a robust number of common matches.
As noted above, Frederick Tyson and Bridget Justice emerged as a possible candidate couple, but their identification is significantly weakened by the lack of adequate comparator matches on MyHeritage. It's very possible that they instead reflect some not-yet-identified ancestry for any of several other ancestral branches (as explained in the footnote below*). Furthermore, they did not emerge firmly in subsequent, better-tailored Ancestry.com matches.‡
Francis Marion Silas and Martha Elizabeth Blankenship were weakly identified from just two matches. I see little reason to consider them further. (Indeed, due to a lack of responses from other matches within their cluster, further analysis is effectively impossible anyhow.)
I was unable to identify a common descendant for any two of the three abovenamed couples who would've been born around the same time as 22Charlie's mother 45Julia (i.e., roughly circa 1858).
Autosomal DNA: Round 2
Since round 1 pointed most strongly to Calvin Green Powell and Maryann Serena Derriso as a likely ancestral couple for 22Charlie's unidentified father, the goal of round 2 was to test this possible relationship more thoroughly. To do so, I hoped to cross-compare three different groups:
| • | descendants of Calvin Green Powell (or his siblings); |
| • | descendants of 90Benjamin Burton Black who are not also descended from 22Charlie Black; and |
| • | descendants of 90Benjamin Burton Black who are also descended from 22Charlie Black. |
With enough such matches to compare, one might reliably associate Calvin Green Powell with Charlie Black's ancestral line alone.
Unfortunately, however, for the third intended group (i.e., descendants of both 90Benjamin Burton Black and 22Charlie Black), there was only one such match (other than my father): the aforementioned shawnslg4012, who is my father's first cousin once removed and likewise a descendant of 11Mary Clyde Black (22Charlie's daughter) and 10Curtis Geiger.
Since shawnslg4012 isn't a sufficiently distant match, it's plausible that any Calvin Green Powell association might instead arise from 10Curtis Geiger's ancestral line rather than 11Mary Clyde's and 22Charlie Black's. To address this concern, I did a separate cross-comparison for descendants of 20Joseph Preston Geiger and 21Mattie Copeland (who are not also descended from 22Charlie Black).
I organized the results of these cross-comparisons in this spreadsheet file, which includes separate tabs for each cross-comparison. Details about the subjects included in my analysis are in a footnote below.
As you can see on the spreadsheet, most of the descendants of 90Benjamin Burton Black alone (i.e., those who are not also descended from 22Charlie Black) do not share autosomal DNA with the descendants of Calvin Green Powell. For the few who do, the amount of shared DNA is low and may be explained by other MRCA's. User Timothy Jones is perhaps the only notable outlier: He does share DNA with a few Calvin Green Powell descendants, but less consistently and more weakly than my father or even shawnslg4012, despite shawnslg4012's being one generation further removed from 90Benjamin Black. The DNA evidence thus suggests that Timothy Jones may have some weak relation to Calvin Green Powell, but I suspect to a more remote, unidentified MRCA on some other ancestral line of his. My cross-comparison includes numerous descendants of 46Rhoden Tant (who married 90Benjamin's daughter 47Narcissa), so 46Rhoden's ancestral line would not explain any DNA association between the descendants of 90Benjamin Burton Black and Calvin Green Powell. By comparison, those who descend from both 90Benjamin and 22Charlie have more and stronger autosomal DNA matches with Calvin Green Powell's descendants (albeit with one exception for one low-cM match that can be otherwise explained; see notes on the the spreadsheet).
Similarly, cross-comparison of the 20Joseph Preston Geiger/21Mattie Copeland descendants and the Calvin Green Powell descendants shows no shared autosomal DNA, except for one low-level match that I was unable to otherwise explain.
Conclusions for autosomal DNA round 2
Comparing the amounts of shared autosomal DNA among descendant groups representing Calvin Green Powell (or his siblings), 90Benjamin Burton Black (± 22Charlie Black), and 20Joseph Preston Geiger strongly suggests that 22Charlie Black's unidentified father was closely related to Calvin Green Powell.
Although one cannot completely dismiss the possibility that some other, overlooked relationship or misanalysis might explain the DNA association with Calvin Green Powell's descendants, this round 2 analysis greatly reduces the plausibility of any such oversight or misanalysis.
Back to the Paper Trail
Since we have evidence to suspect that Calvin Green Powell may be closely related to
Living within Calvin Green Powell's household in 1860 in Johnson County, Georgia was a certain James Black, age 50, noted to be "insane."
James Black was actually 45Julia Black's great-uncle and Calvin Powell's stepfather-in-law. The following diagram illustrates their relationships. The yellow letters are citation references; you can see the corresponding citations here. Several of these sources are also cited in the following discussion and/or elsewhere on this website.
As such, 45Julia likely would have been at least somewhat acquainted with Calvin Powell's family. Furthermore, in 1890 (not long before 22Charlie Black was born), both 45Julia's father 90Benjamin Black and Calvin Powell were in Johnson County, albeit in non-adjacent militia districts.
I had hoped to search for DNA matches with any potential Derouzeaux/Deriso siblings of Calvin's wife Serena, but (1) it's not clear that such siblings even exist, and more importantly (2) there is disconcerting evidence that Serena may not have been Stephen Derouzeaux's biological daughter, even though she used Deriso as her maiden name:
Conclusions & Next Steps
The available evidence strongly suggests (but falls short of proving beyond a reasonable doubt) that 22Charlie Black's father was closely related to Calvin Green Powell.
Future Y-DNA results from a 22Charlie Black male-line descendant remains the best course for identifying 22Charlie's father. So far, however, I've been unable to find any such descendant.
Additional autosomal DNA results from someone who descends from 22Charlie Black via someone other than his daughter 11Mary Clyde Black would be helpful.
Potential autosomal DNA matches to descendants of Calvin's siblings could also be helpful, potentially so much so that I might be able to consider 22Charlie's paternal line to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. So far, however, I have struggled to find quality matches that I feel firmly confident in, i.e. matches with well-proven lineages and unaffected by endogamy, etc.
| * | To derive the table of likely matches for MyHeritage, I began with MyHeritage's AutoClusters table for my father's matches. The password to open the 7Z file is open. As you can see, MyHeritage sorted 106 matches into 28 clusters.
Next I used a multi-step process to rule out clusters that are unlikely to reflect
Considered together, these subjects have many of the same ancestors as my father. (Indeed, they inherited DNA from or otherwise share DNA with the vast majority of my father's known ancestors. The exceptions—i.e., my father's known ancestors whose DNA is not reflected in any of these subjects—are 43Sarah Elizabeth Love and her ancestors, 46Rhoden Tant and his ancestors, and 84James H. Copeland and his ancestor.) Importantly, however, these subjects do not descend from For each of the above-named subjects, I next made a list of all of their matches that (1) shared at least 50 cM; and (2) were also matches to my father (of any cM). After making such lists, I then combined them into a "Combined" master list of matches who are likely not related to I next looked through each of the 28 clusters, and I excluded any cluster that included any subject from the "Combined" list. This left 16 clusters of interest. Lastly, I looked for all of my father's matches who met the following criteria: (1) >50 cM of shared DNA; (2) not on the "Combined" list; and (3) not in a cluster that had been ruled out. You can see my working spreadsheet here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| † | To derive the table of likely matches for Ancestry, first I used Ancestry's auto-sort feature to show my father's maternal line only, then I made a list of all such matches down to 41 cM. There were 150 such matches.
Next I selected a few matches with easily identifiable most recent common ancestors (MRCA's) not in
For each of the 150 matches, I next used Ancestry Pro Tools to chart how many centimorgans each shared with the five abovenamed comparators. The matches that shared 0 cM with all five comparators were then separated into a new list, and again I used Ancestry Pro Tools to chart how many centimorgans each of these matches shared with each other. Lastly I sorted the resulting data, resulting in two main groups of matches, plus numerous "loner" matches that had few or no other matches. You can see my working spreadsheet here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ‡ | except for Jesse Hamilton, who descends from both Calvin Green Powell and Frederick Tyson, as noted previously | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| § | The autosomal DNA round 2 results spreadsheet names the subjects included in my analysis. If you want more information about these subjects or want to audit my work, the following tables can guide you to the information that I used to prepare the spreadsheet.
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1: NARA record group 47 / series "Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT)" (identifier 12004494) / file unit "Application (SS-5) Files" (identifier 23845613) / entry for Charlie Black, born 25 December 1893, SSN 260149743 (reference number 65308528062). NARA Access to Archival Databases (AAD), <https://aad.archives.gov/aad/print-record-detail.jsp?dt=3059&mtch=8&cat=all&tf=F&sc=29592,29578,29580,29596,29583,29584,29585,29608,29612&bc=sl,fd&txt_29578=charlie&op_29578=0&nfo_29578=V,15,1900&txt_29596=black&op_29596=0&nfo_29596=V,20,1900&cl_29612=GA&op_29612=null&nfo_29612=V,3,1900&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=3235246&rlst=3125395,3152941,3184030,3184031,3203760,3233477,3235246,5687410>, accessed 20 January 2025.
2: 1900 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). Johnson County, Georgia. Enumeration district 53, sheets 41B and 42A, dwelling 752, family 776, Burton B Black household. NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 207. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-D1K9-F1K?i=81&cc=1325221&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AM3J8-FMP>.
3: Treutlen County, Georgia death certificate 10802 for Charlie Black, who died 11 May 1946. You can see a copy of the document here.
4: 1940 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). Lothair (militia district 1221), Treutlen County, Georgia. Enumeration district 140-1, sheet 6B, family 94, Charlie Black household. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9M1-HJPQ?i=11&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AK7PR-84W>.
5: 1930 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). Lothair (militia district 1221), Treutlen County, Georgia. Enumeration district 142-1, sheet 12B, dwelling 211, family 211, Charlie Black household. NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 388. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9R48-275?i=24&cc=1810731&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3A3ZCB-K6Z>.
6: "Black Funeral at Red Bluff," The Soperton News (Soperton, Georgia), Thursday 16 May 1946, page 1
7: "Marvin E. Black," Clinch County News, Wednesday 23 February 2000, page 4. The obituary names survivors, including "six sons, Phillip Black, Okeechobee, Fla., Ronald Gene Black, Homerville, Gary Black, Eddie Black, Kenny Black and Daryl Black, Stuart, Fla."
8: 1860 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). Johnson County, Georgia. Page 14, dwelling 89, family 88, line 9, James Black, age 50. NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 128. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBT-WR1>, accessed 28 May 2025.
9: Johnson County, Georgia. Inferior and ordinary court minutes book for the years 1859-1873, page 72. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QZ-B9P9-J>, accessed 28 May 2025.
10: Johnson County, Georgia. Inferior and ordinary court minutes book for the years 1859-1873, page 106. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QZ-B9P4-N?lang=en&i=63>, accessed 28 May 2025.
11: Johnson County, Georgia. Inferior and ordinary court minutes book for the years 1859-1873, page 121. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QZ-B9P8-2>, accessed 28 May 2025.
12: Johnson County, Georgia. Tax digest for 1890, militia district 1201, entry for B. B. Black. Ancestry.com (“Georgia Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892” / Johnson / 1890 / images 5 and 6 of 142), accessed 28 May 2025.
13: Johnson County, Georgia. Tax digest for 1890, militia district 1326, entry for Calvin G. Powell Sr. Ancestry.com (“Georgia Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892” / Johnson / 1890 / images 76 and 77 of 142), accessed 28 May 2025.
14: Emanuel County, Georgia. Marriages book A (1817-1860), page 15, entry for Calvin Powell and Sarena Deriso. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BK-YBBD>, accessed 28 May 2025.
15: Jefferson County, Georgia. Superior court records for the years 1823-1837, pages 307-308. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSYZ-W9QC-Q?lang=en&i=186>, accessed 28 May 2025. This is Stephen's petition for divorce, followed by a few related court orders, etc. I've transcribed the petition here.
16: The tombstone of Serena D. Powell (born 3 July 1833, died 7 July 1905), Oaky Grove Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery, Johnson County, Georgia. FindAGrave, <https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69736375/maryann-serena-powell>.
17: Jefferson County, Georgia. Marriages White book A, page 238, entry for James J. Black and Piety Dursezeaux. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GPPX-992B>, accessed 28 May 2025.
18: Jefferson County, Georgia. Inventories and appraisements book E (1832-1842), page 50. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L93L-RKVQ?lang=en&i=377>, accessed 28 May 2025.
