Kennedy's young family in Russell County VA received a report that he had been taken ill during his travels and died suddenly. According to family lore, he was buried where he died, although the exact location has never been determined. Only a few months later his wife, Elizabeth Conway Kennedy, was killed in a dispute with a neighbor, leaving a young son and daughter orphaned. I wrote about that incident in a previous blog post.
We know very little about David Kennedy, but recent DNA testing has disproved the family tradition connecting him to the Augusta County VA family of Captain Joseph Kennedy (or, in fact, to any Kennedys currently participating in the Surname Project)
So I'm coming at the puzzle from both directions in time.
First I connected with modern Kennedy cousins to collaborate and share information on generations from the period of Kennedy's untimely death to the present. That work is ongoing and we will continue to pull together to try to discover the origin of our common ancestor.
Next I connected with Kennedy Surname and DNA Project Administrator James Kennedy to review the current results of the Kennedy Y-DNA tests to see if those could be of any assistance in identifying possible ancestors of our David Kennedy. After communicating with Jim Kennedy, it became clear that no comparisons could be made because no one from our Kennedy family had submitted a DNA test! Kennedy cousin Laura Smith identified three potential direct-line male testers and raised funds to pay for the tests, and after the typical delay of 10-12 weeks we had our answer. No matches. While this was discouraging news in one respect, it allowed us to sweep away decades of erroneous research and start with a fresh slate.
In the mean time, I have been plugging away at creating an interactive map (on Google) to help me sort out various clusters of Kennedys that I run across in my research. Who knew Kennedy was such a prolific surname!? The plotted points on the map are the results of logging the many random references in old books, stray Kennedys found in online data, already-researched Kennedy family groups from Ancestry and similar sites, and Kennedys whose locations can be discerned from the current chart of DNA test results.
The map will always be a work in progress, as there are still very likely hundreds (if not thousands) of markers to be added (I've charted less than 20% of the identifiable DNA tests at this point, for instance).
Bear in mind that this is a project intended to help my extended Kennedy family weed through, identify, and confirm or discard potential connections to our specific line. Therefore many of the comments that I've made in the plotted entries may not seem helpful to all Kennedy lines, however, it is my hope that just making a start at identifying and categorizing some of the known groups may be better than having no map at all.
Although the map is called "18th Century Mid-Atlantic Kennedy Groups" it has suffered from scope creep as descendants scattered to the wind and new immigrants arrived over the span of decades. In general though, I have tried to keep things contained the 18th century and the mid-Atlantic. There is an obvious focus on the families of PA/MD/VA/NC/SC, which is most relevant to my David Kennedy family project.
On the lefthand side of the live map you will see a key. I have tried to color-code the groups where possible to identify clusters that appear to be related. Dots indicate paper-trail research and teardrop-shaped markers mean we have a confirmed DNA test for the individual. So for instance, the light blue markers in the western NC area (refer to live map) are a mixture of dots and teardrops since we have several DNA tests for that line, but we also have a paper trail that allows us to identify additional individuals who are related to that same cluster.
Pale gray dots or teardrops indicate that the individual is not yet identified and/or matched with any other group.
An "X" before an individual's name means I have ruled that line out as being a potential match for my Kennedy family. The star-shaped markers indicate individuals that I feel may be strong leads for our group.
Again, this is a work in progress which is strongly tilted towards assisting descendants of David and Elizabeth Conway Kennedy of Russell County VA, but hopefully it can be of assistance to other families at the same time.
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| Click here to visit the live map on Google |
4 comments:
I like your map, and am interested in your Kennedy research. I have been connecting up several Kennedy families with connections to Frederick, VA, and SW PA and Ohio in the late 18th/early 19th centuries. Unfortunately, I've not been able to persuade any male descendants from these lines to do a Y DNA test.
I was curious if you had looked at the David Kennedy, who was sheriff of Frederick County, VA 1793-1795: http://www.co.frederick.va.us/departments/o-z/sheriff-s-office/archives/list-of-sheriffs.
Hi Jonathan, thanks for getting in touch. Yes, I have done extensive research into the David Kennedy who was a sheriff in Frederick County. That David Kennedy was born about 1731 in Argyll, Scotland. I have just about concluded that he died a bachelor, without issue. There is nothing to prove that, but there is a bit of circumstantial evidence that indicates that he had no wife or children. He became indebted to George Washington (unpaid rents) and although Washington tried for years to collect, he was unsuccessful. Eventually Washington's factor told him to forget about the money because Kennedy was impoverished, having been taken advantage of by an unscrupulous housekeeper (which indicates no wife/children to keep house for him). Although he was indebted, he apparently had sole interest in an estate in Scotland which he attempted to monetize. I do not know if he was ever successful in this attempt. I lose track of him in his old age in the first decade of the 1800's.
Our Kennedy family wrongly claimed this David Kennedy as an ancestor for decades, and so I decided a couple of years ago that I'd either rule him in or out once and for all. I feel that I can rule him out with about a 98% probability. I had hoped to find records signed the same day and year by the two David Kennedys in the two different counties (which would have been physically impossible). While I was not able to do that, I do feel that I've found records in both counties for both men close enough in time that would have made it highly unlikely that they were the same man. The David Kennedy of Scotland and Frederick County VA was probably about 20-30 years older than my line's ancestor by the same name.
At any rate, I did keep notes on David Kennedy of Argyll SCT and Frederick County VA. You can see them here.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eGtPIOgEQskXlWcfmV8qDmhOHyDDVsy-oiAkddrqYiA/edit?usp=sharing
Thanks Laura,
So based upon autosomal DNA, I appear to be related to a Jane Kennedy who married James Morford in 1790 in Frederick County. That's why I was curious about David. It also seems that we and Jane are also related to a James and Jesse Kennedy with VA, Ohio and PA connections, listed below. Do you have any thoughts as to a possible common ancestor for these individuals? I have contacted some male Kennedy descendants of these lines but not been able to persuade them to test.
Autosomal DNA evidence suggests that our family may be connected to a group of Kennedy descendants, specially, from four lineages:
Jane Kennedy born about Nov 1775 and married to James Morford 12 Oct 1790 in Frederick County, Virginia, resided in Greene County, PA after 1802 (Whiteley Township in 1810, Aleppo in 1820 and 1830). We have a mitochondrial DNA result for a descendant of Jane.
James Kennedy born between 1770 and 1775 and wife Elizabeth--see http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bart/Canaday2.htm for a full account of the family, who resided in Licking County, Ohio after 1806. Children include Rachel Kennedy, wife of John Richter, and Daniel Kennedy, husband of Ruth Smith.
Jesse Kennedy (born between 1751 and 1775) who married (2nd) to Elizabeth Leach circa 1821. Jesse appears to have lived in Cumberland twp, Greene County PA between 1810 and 1830, after which he moved to Morgan County, Ohio. His daughter Rachel Kennedy (by 1st wife) married Emanuel Leach 1 Dec 1831 • Morgan,Ohio, http://person.ancestry.com/tree/2050607/person/430023779826/facts
John Canaday BIRTH: 22 Apr 1816 DEATH: 30 Oct 1895 - Ohio MARRIAGE: 3 Aug 1844 - Muskingum County(Muskingum), Ohio SPOUSE: Mary Osmond. This John might well be a son of James Kennedy and Elizabeth (above), as 1880 census shows parents both born in VA.
The working hypothesis is that the first three individuals were siblings, as they appear to have been born about the same time, likely in Frederick County, VA (based upon Jane's marriage there).
At this point I've only found what you see on the map. I did a lot of work on Sherrif David Kennedy because I wanted to prove or disprove his connection to my line, but I've collected most of my other work on the map here. There is a cluster of pins in and around Frederick County which may relate to the group you mention.
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