Elizabeth Byrd & the power of DNA.

Elizabeth Byrd was my 3rd Great Grandmother on my paternal grandfathers side. She was born on February 5, 1819, in South Carolina.
I searched through other members family trees but could not locate parents for her.

Genealogy gets so hard once the census get far enough back in time, the only names listed are heads of households. In 1850 other family members names are listed, so I decided to start there.

1850 Dooly County, Georgia. District 24
Burgess Family

(Seriously.. Whoever transcribed this record deserves a medal. How do you read that??)

Here we have my 3rd Great Grandparents and their children plus another child.
Stephen T Burges age 41, Elisabeth Burges age 32, William W Burges age 12, Mary Ann E Burges age 10, Jackson L Burges age 7, Sarah Ann F Burges age 5, Martha J Burges age 3, Dicey Ann Clifton, age 15.

Below on this same page I see the Lockerman Family. 

Stephen T Burgess Jr (not yet born during this census) son of Stephen T Burgess and Elizabeth Byrd, will go on to marry the Daughter of this family, Malinda J. (not yet born during this census). "The girl next door" How sweet is that?

John Lockman age 40, Rebecca Lockman age 38, Britten A Lockman age 18, Willis F Lockman age 15, Aaron J Lockman age 12, Enock W Lockman age 10, John A Lockman age 7, Elizer Lockman age 4, Zada Lockman age 2

Wondering if there are any Byrd or Bird families in the area I continue browsing.

Bam! Next Page

Wiley Bird age 63, Mary Bird age 56

And it just so happens that Stephen & Elizabeth named their 1st son William Wiley Burgess.

OMG!! I found her parents, it has to be them! BUT, I have nothing but coincidence to prove it.

I entered the info anyway and worked through the tree for Wiley Byrd.

Ok, now lets go search these surnames with my DNA matches.. This King Family started in Virginia and moved into North Carolina. They are my 6th and 7th Grandparents so any matches I will have from this family will be 7th cousins range and beyond..

I had 2 pages of distant cousins with King in their family tree's that lived in North Carolina.

One in particular matched at Michael King.

Success!

I am concerned about the Harrell name in her tree as I also have Harrell ancestors... Perhaps we are double cousins? The Harrell family is on my paternal grandmothers line and I have yet to find the parents of my Atha Harrell although id say i'm getting closer. 

More digging.

So here we have the updated tree for my Burgess Family

Funny thing about that 1850 Census is I also found the Wilson family on the next following page

John D Wilson age 40, Nancy Wilson age 36, Joel G Wilson age 11, Mathew M Wilson age 9, Milly H Wilton age 8, Mary C Wilton age 5, John B Wilton age 2

This is the brother of Georgia Rebecca Wilson (married to John Lockerman) and his family. 

More to Delve.....

Delve

According to wordpandit.com 

The word Delve is a verb. It means to carry out some search thoroughly or carefully. It is also used in a physical sense to signify digging, usually with a spade. All of us delve into our memories whenever we are trying to recall something important.

Its first known usage dates back to before 900. It has been derived from the Middle English word delven and the Old English word delfan.