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The following is a chapter from:
Trace Your Roots with DNA
by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak and Ann Turner
(reprinted with permission)
mtDNA: A SOLDIER'S TAIL
Now let's shift gears slightly and look at an mtDNA case that one of us researched for the U.S. Army. African-American soldier Cleveland Payne was born in 1912 in Illinois and lists his life in Korea in 1950. The Army wanted to find his family today, including relatives who could potentially provide mtDNA sample to compare against any remains that might be located. Due to a fire in 1973, Cleveland's personnel record had been destroyed, so details were skimpy.
The hung began with the 1920 and 1930 census in order to learn the names of Cleveland's parents and siblings. Since he had obviously received his mtDNA from his mother, she was the ancestor of interest. Fortunately, Cleveland had come from a large family and had four brothers and five sisters, so there were many leads to follow.
Because the name Payne is relatively common, however, a search of the SSDI turned up only one individual who could be clearly identified as a brother. With no other obvious options, the brother's death certificate was ordered. But the document led to another roadblock because the brother had apparently died unmarried and without children, and the information was a hospital employee, rather than a relative. Luckily, the certificate yielded another clue - the name of the funeral home that had handled the burial. A call to the funeral parlor resulted in the married names of three sisters who survived their brother as of 1977 - a significant leap forward!
Figure 8-3: Following the mtDNA trail - All those shaded, without slashes, are testing candidates. 
Returning to the SSDI with the sisters' names revealed that at least two of the three had since died. A check of online newspaper archives quickly produced the full text of both their obituaries, but one proved to be another dead end because the sister had only one child, who had predeceased her, leaving not mtDNA lines to follow. The obituary for the other sister was only slightly more helpful. She apparently had a daughter, but the daughter had married into the name of Smith, meaning that she could be very difficult to pinpoint.
Once again, a funeral home (mentioned in the obituary) moved the case forward by providing contact information for the Smith daughter as of 1996, but the phone number had been disconnected. A reverse lookup of the address at an online phone directory produced dozens of hits, suggesting an apartment complex. Scanning them, a number for the management company was located. The person who answered the phone indicated that Ms. Smith had moved 2 years ago but still lived in the area. She agreed to take the Army's contact information and ask around for this niece of the soldier.
The niece mustn't have moved far because she called the next day and provided the names of seven mtDNA-eligible people in the family. Typical of mtDNA cases and our society today, the seven candidates now sported six different surnames through marriage (none of which was Payne), and the family one situated in Illinois was now scattered in Oregon, California, and Arizona. And while Cleveland Payne's story is still incomplete, it's hoped that he, like some of his compatriots who served in Korea more than 50 years ago, will finally be identified and properly interred with the honors and recognition due for their sacrifice.
As you've probably realized, mtDNA searches tend to proceed much like Y-DNA ones, except for the additional challenge of dealing with names changes each generation. For this reason they usually involve heavier reliance on the documents that might divulge a woman's married names, such as obituaries, wills, marriage records (with brides' indexes) and death certificates. But the same reverse genealogy approach can be used with both Y- and mtDNA situations.
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North American office: P.O. Box 160, Carmine, TX 78932-0160 USA tel/fax: Toll free 866-7-DNA-DNA |
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