genealogy | 52 Ancestors challenge Week 5 "Plowing through"

My "plowing through" ancestor actually has a bit of a mystery to him. He and his family seem to have changed their name when they emigrated from Wales. And they didn't tell anyone. In fact, of his descendants (and there are many) I and my mom are the only ones who know this, at the moment.

Gad James plowed through Iowa prairie--backbreaking work--and planted wheat. For three years straight, chinch-bugs (and what exactly are those?) destroyed his crops, until he threw it all over and went off to Montana in 1864 when gold was discovered there. Apparently he was wildly successful as a mining contractor because he returned to Iowa with a lot of money. The family story is that he and his business partner didn't travel the usual roads, because "49ers" were being robbed on their way back from the gold fields. Instead, they crossed the border north into Canada, traveled east there, and came back into the U.S. through Minnesota. He bought huge tracts of land, married, helped found West Liberty, Iowa, got better at farming (*g*) and established a dynasty of children and grandchildren who all farmed adjacent parcels of his original land. Many of them still live there and they have periodic family reunions. My grandmother took me to one once.

So that's the "plowing through." Now for the peculiar part. I blogged, not too long ago, my original complaint, that some family on ancestry.com had decided Gad was their own ancestor's long lost brother, even though Gad's family name was James, and their ancestor's family name was Evans. I was annoyed that they would invent this narrative on what was very sketchy evidence (like pictures of the two men, and how much they "looked alike") and so "Evans" started coming up in searches for "James" at ancestry.com and vice versa. Their story was that John Evans, who was recruited by the Mormons in Wales and subsequently hied off to Salt Lake City, preserved his correct surname, but brother Gad and family changed their names to James when they later emigrated to Iowa. Hmph, I thought. That tight-knit family in east Iowa would know if that had happened, and they have no such story. So, I scoffed.

Um, DNA.

Yeah. I did AncestryDNA, and I am a fourth cousin match to not just one, but ~~two~~ now three people who descend from John Evans of Salt Lake City. I was kind of stunned.

I can find Gad James on the passenger list of immigrants on a ship from England. He's there with his father William James and his sister Mary James. Also four other people with the surname James who don't seem to be relations at all (though I'm still working on that). But back in Wales, in the census, I get bupkis. I can't find them. So they all gave the name James on the ship, and never looked back. Why? If the reason was innocuous, they would mention that fact to their numerous offspring, but apparently, the three of them took this secret to their graves.

In fact, three years ago I visited the people who used to organize the James family reunion, and I cautiously floated this idea to them (this was before it had been DNA confirmed, when it was just some crazy rumor from some crazy people out in Utah). They looked blank. Nothing. But, they did tell me an interesting family story that can be interpreted in exact opposite ways. Once upon a time, when Gad James was alive, the outlaw Jesse James came through town (in fact, I found a newspaper article about how he stopped at a barber shop and got his hair cut in Muscatine. Anyway ...). One of Gad's six sons brought up the common family name and suggested to the family that they ought to find out if they were related to the outlaw. Gad shut him down quickly, saying positively that no, they were not, don't waste your time researching that. This story was told to me with a twinkle, and the suspicion was given that Gad knew they were related, but wasn't proud of that fact.

Or, the exact opposite. He knew they were not related, because their family's name had never really been James, and Gad didn't want his sons to find that out.

So, that's where I've left it. I don't know how to let the more direct family know about this. But man, I'd love to know what happened to make them change their name.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Date: 2015-02-06 10:45 am (UTC)

From:

rainbow

no subject

oh wow, that's fascinating!

I wonder if there was some massive falling out over property or religion...

i have a uk ancestry account; if you'd like me to try looking up records, feel free to post here or message me.

Date: 2015-02-06 06:26 pm (UTC)

From:

dragonfly

no subject

Thanks! I'll take you up on that with some simple searches.

Personally, I wonder about a crime. Gad was 19 when they emigrated; I suppose he could have been fleeing the law. Somehow more likely, to me, is that his father might have needed to flee the country. IDK. From what I know of the family and the legacy of Gad, it seems more likely they would change their name out of shame than to dodge the law. They were a strict, church-going, hard-working bunch. Very moral and high minded. Gad was a patriarch. He parceled his land out in his will in very fair ways, and my grandmother (who was an in-law) expressed surprise that the family didn't fight over the will. Heaven knows her own family would have. Her mother-in-law was shocked. "No one would dream of questioning Daddy's word," she said. Somehow seeing him as a fugitive from the law doesn't work for me. But avoiding something shameful might work.

Anyway, I've tried, but if you can find a family in the 1851 or 1841 census named either James or Evans (there are way too many Evans's) that looks like this: Father William, mother Eliza or Elizabeth, son Gad born 1833, daughter Mary born 1826, son John and possibly son Stephen, it would be a huge answer to the question of which surname they were using. The Browns believe they came from Carmarthenshire, but that's tentative. Nothing in Britain after 1852, since it's fairly clear that's when they emigrated. Thanks for looking!

Date: 2015-02-06 10:04 pm (UTC)

From:

rainbow

no subject

first a couple questions: is the bio from muscatine the correct gad? (http://iagenweb.org/muscatine/biographies1911/jamesg.htm)

i tend to poke and tug at all the strings i can find as i move backwards, hence these questions.

if the bio is correct on mary's husband's name, is the william james here a match?
Name: William James
Age in 1870: 75
Birth Year: abt 1795
Birthplace: Wales
Home in 1870: Yellow Springs, Des Moines, Iowa
Race: White
Gender: Male
Post Office: Dodgeville
Value of real estate: View image
Household Members:
Name Age
Wm L Roberts 41
Mary Roberts 44
Mary Ann Roberts 10
Jane Ann Roberts 8
William P Roberts 6
Lucelin Roberts 2
William James 75

because i think the same family minus william james IS in macon in 1880:
Name: William Roberts
Age: 53
Birth Year: abt 1827
Birthplace: Wales
Home in 1880: Russell, Macon, Missouri
Race: White
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Self (Head)
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Mary Roberts
Father's Birthplace: Wales
Mother's Birthplace: Wales
Neighbors: View others on page
Occupation: Farmer

Household Members:
Name Age
William Roberts 53
Mary Roberts 53
Mary E. Roberts 20
Jane Roberts 17
William Roberts 16
Gwesyn Roberts 12

If that's the right william, it gives me a tentative age to be looking for in wales)

and anotehr question: is there no question at all that it was william and the kids who used james who changed their name vs john evans who changed his surname when he left wales?

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