A Look Back

One of the Lee Boys

The origin of the Lees of South Carolina has been difficult to tie down. In this case YDNA testing hasn’t proven to be beneficial in determining the origin of Jordan Lee and his descendants. However, it is a work in progress and more people are testing; therefore, one day there may be a breakthrough for the Jordan Lee line. The Benjamin Lee line has been proven down through the generations to my grandmother. My grandmother was a Lee and that I am confident of since she was living up to 1961, and there was firsthand knowledge of her origin.

Possibilities for Jordan Lee’s origin is that he received his surname from one of the three other Lee lines in South Carolina who were living there at the same time. There are trees on Ancestry that show them coming from Scotland; however, there are no sources to prove their claim. There are also family trees that show the father of Jordan Lee is John Lee and his mother is Elizabeth. Once again there are no sources to link them to Jordan Lee. The records haven’t been found by this researcher online to prove the parentage of Jordan Lee. There most likely are records in repositories that will prove the parentage of Jordan Lee or records that will link him to a parent; however, until those records are found to prove his parentage, he will be in my family tree without parents. The search continues, and the focus is on other Lee ancestors.

Information that I have learned about the Lee family from YDNA testing is helpful. I will know what Lee lines not to waste time researching. That means more time for research for other possibilities. One of my male second cousins  on the paternal line volunteered to submit his DNA for the YDNA test with Family Tree DNA. The test was the sixty-seven marker YDNA test. The results show the Haplogroup for this unnamed Lee group is R-M269 the largest haplogroup for males of the Western European heritage. Which means this is a common haplogroup.

There are many defined subgroups of Lees. There are the Lees of Virginia, the John Lee group from Nansemond which is a large group. There are the Hugh Lee group, the Mary Lee of Maryland group, the Richmond County, Virginia Lees, the Lees from Middlesex County, Virginia, the Leas of Leasburgh and our Lee group will have a subgroup since there are two of us in the group now. For a researcher who has been researching the Lee family line for over fifteen years now, I know there are many many Lees and they came through Virginia and North Carolina. They were all unrelated biologically. Possibly with the Jordan Lee of South Carolina there is a non-paternal event or misattributed parentage event that happened. Or a surname switch event. If that is the case then, unless a male who is from the line where the  event happened is DNA tested, I will never find the parents of Jordan Lee. In the meantime, our Jordan Lee group will have a subgroup of its own since this group doesn’t match the others. There are no matches to these groups and the hunt continues.

Rumor has it that our Lee family is related to the famous Lees from Virginia. Robert E. Lee. Everyone wants to be related to a famous person or every family claims Native American heritage. That is the great thing about DNA testing for genealogy, those stories can be proven or disproven. The Lees from Virginia are from another haplogroup and our group doesn’t match. The John Lee, Esq. group from Johnston County, North Carolina is a group that our Lee male group does most closely match, however, it is forty to sixty generations back and before surnames began to be used; and that makes it impossible to name a common ancestor for our Jordan Lee group. Our group doesn’t match the John Lee, Esq. group’s profile.

Another possibility is the father of Jordan Lee was the only son who immigrated and there are no other Lee branches to match Jordan. Another possibility is Jordan Lee is a son of one of the three Lee men who originally settled in South Carolina.

There are Lee family members who are known, and the origin is documented and proven; therefore, the focus will be on them. But, the research on the Jordan Lee line and proving his parentage will continue as an ongoing research plan. One of the Lee men that I am familiar with through researching and family stories is William Alfred Lee a descendant of Jordan Lee through his son Benjamin from South Carolina. William is a paternal great grandfather. William and Emma lived in Oak Grove in West Carroll Parish where my father grew up.

On September 1, 1869 Druciller Lee signed a surety note stating, “September the 1 1869 This is to scailyly that thear is a Marige contract Between my son William Lee and Emer Meadows.” The note here is written as she wrote it with the original spelling exactly noted by Druciller Lee. What Druciller is saying is this is to certify that there is marriage contract between her son William Lee and Emer Meadows. William Alfred would have been about twenty-two years old at the time of the writing of the note. This note is a treasure for a family historian, since Druciller names her son William Lee and his future wife Emer Meadows. That is proof Druciller is William’s mother. Some folks would say this isn’t proof and you need at least two more documents for proof. There are census records that link Druciller to William. This is proof for me along with family stories.

This note was found three years ago on the Family Search database when I was looking for the marriage record for William Alfred Lee and Emma Meadows. The marriage bond and marriage license were on Family Search as well. Those can be found here. There is also a note for her son Henry to marry Sarah Ann Black.

The note for Drusila Lee’s son Henry Lee and his future wife Sarah Ann Black. This note is proof of her being the mother to Henry Lee, Benjamin William Henry.

The note from J. C. Meaders is also a treasure for a family historian because it links J. C. Meaders to his daughter Emer. There is a post on Friday, April 3, 2015 from my blog that shows the marriage information for William Alfred Lee and Sophronia Emma Meadows.

William Alfred Lee and his wife Emma were living in Newsite, Tallapoosa County, Alabama in 1880 with their two children James W. and Dolly O. Lee. Emma was expecting when she and William married so James W. was nine years old by the 1880 census taking and Dolly O. was one. There is a eight year span between James and Dolly. On the 1900 census Emma says she is the mother of nine children, five living. Those children most likely died during that eight-year span. The missing child born between Dollie and Robert has been identified as Flora.

Willie and Emma were married twenty-nine years by the time the 1900 census was taken. There was a twenty-year span from the 1880 census to the next census since the 1890 census was destroyed. The 1900 census shows two other children were born during that twenty-year span – Robert and Alice. Robert was born Sep 1882 and was seventeen and Alice was born Nov 1887 and was twelve years old. Willie was a farmer, however, previously in 1880 he was a blacksmith. The family is living in Channahatchee in Elmore County, Alabama. Emma was the mother of nine children and five were living. Three of the children were living elsewhere, probably married. The oldest James W. would have been thirty-one years old by the 1900 census taking. Flora would have been twenty-five years old, Dolly O. twenty-one years old, and they are all were at the age for marriage. The year of the 1900 census changes were made in the information required of the citizens. The data is more helpful and gives a snapshot of a family, and names the relationship of the head of the house to the people named in the household.

The William Lee family migrated to Louisiana about 1903 and lived on Pine Bluff and Columbia Road in District 53, Ward 1, Jackson Parish, Louisiana. Several families migrated with the Lee family. The Axiom Winn family lives nearby William A. Lee and Emma. The John Houston Edwards family lives nearby. John Houston married William and Emma’s oldest daughter Dollie Ophelia. Also, James W. Lee, William and Emma’s oldest son lives nearby. The Axiom Winn family is related to Nannie, James’ wife. She was Nancy Winn (Wynn) before she married. Families migrated as a group and often their intentions were to permanently settle in the new location. There probably were family members or related families already in the area where the Lees settled. The Lees and related families were looking for a better way of life. In 1900 six percent of people born in Alabama lived in other states in the South. The Lee, Edwards, and Wynn families were included in the six percent of the people who left Alabama and settled in the south, Louisiana.

Louisiana is where William Alfred Lee and Emma Meadows made their home until their deaths. Their descendants live in Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and parts unknown.