52 Ancestors challenge Week 5 "Plowing through"

[dragonfly]

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.

Comments

[rainbow]

i don't know if this is the right stephen and elizabeth, of course, but i did find this marriage record that would fit in with son david's age:

Stephen James
Wales, Carmarthenshire, Parish Registers
Name: Stephen James
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 02 Apr 1822
Event Place: Trelech A'r Betws, Carmarthenshire, Wales
Spouse's Name: Elizabeth Thomas
Digital Folder Number: 004182266

[dragonfly]

Both Stephens marry a woman with the maiden name Thomas.

[rainbow]

i noticed that, too. i wonder if the two wives were aunt and niece, too, or cousins.

[rainbow]

check it out, check it out, elizabeth james and jonah morris got married in the same place!

Jonah Morris
Wales, Carmarthenshire, Parish Registers
Name: Jonah Morris
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 06 Nov 1821
Event Place: Trelech A'r Betws, Carmarthenshire, Wales
Spouse's Name: Elizabeth James
Digital Folder Number: 004182266

[rainbow]

Name: Thomas Morris
Gender: Male
Christening Date: 08 Dec 1824
Christening Place: ROCK DISSENTING CONGREGATIONAL OR INDEPENDENT,TRELECH-A'R-BETTWS,CARMARTHEN,WALES
Birth Date: 19 Oct 1824
Father's Name: Jonah Morris
Mother's Name: Elizabeth James
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C10099-1 , System Origin: Wales-ODM , GS Film number: 0815972 (RG4 4024)

Name: Dan Morris
Gender: Male
Christening Date: 12 Jul 1830
Christening Place: ROCK DISSENTING CONGREGATIONAL OR INDEPENDENT,TRELECH-A'R-BETTWS,CARMARTHEN,WALES
Birth Date: 16 May 1830
Father's Name: Jonah Morris
Mother's Name: Elizabeth James
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C10099-1 , System Origin: Wales-ODM , GS Film number: 0815972 (RG4 4024)

Name: Mary Morris
Gender: Female
Christening Date: 20 May 1835
Christening Place: ROCK DISSENTING CONGREGATIONAL OR INDEPENDENT,TRELECH-A'R-BETTWS,CARMARTHEN,WALES
Birth Date: 17 Apr 1835
Father's Name: Jonah Morris
Mother's Name: Elizabeth James
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C10099-1 , System Origin: Wales-ODM , GS Film number: 0815972 (RG4 4024)

Name: Henry Morris
Gender: Male
Christening Date: 05 May 1822
Christening Place: ROCK DISSENTING CONGREGATIONAL OR INDEPENDENT,TRELECH-A'R-BETTWS,CARMARTHEN,WALES
Birth Date: 15 Mar 1822
Father's Name: Jonah Morris
Mother's Name: Elizabeth James
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C10099-1 , System Origin: Wales-ODM , GS Film number: 0815972 (RG4 4024)

eta: mary and dan's ages in the us DO match the ages here

[dragonfly]

Wait, what? Who are the Morris's? What Elizabeth James is this?

[rainbow]

sorry! i got all excited and wasn't very clear when i threw it at you :x

in 1860, i believe it's your william james, father of gad, who's living in washington, des moines, iowa, in the household of jonah and elizabeth morris.

so i just wondered if elizabeth morris MIGHT be a james, since william is usually listed with a family member. i started to look for her, and i found multiple records for elizabeth james and jonah morris, both in wales and in the us, andt he wales marriage is the same place stephen morris and his wife married.

and i think elizabeth might have been the first james (of the ones we know) who came over, because they were in iowa by 1843 (census says they were 13 years in iowa as of 1856 census).

the ones in iowa have children mary, born about 1835, and thomas, born about 1825. (i haven't looks for henry and dan in iowa yet; all i have is their baptismal record).

SO MANY SAME NAMES AND SO TANGLED! i had to start a new family tree maker tree just to keep them straight as i looked!
(which if you want, message me your email and i'll send you the gedcom or the ftm file, whichever you like)

[dragonfly]

Yayay! I can't believe all the Jameses you are turning up! I'm sure that's my William James. Yellow Springs, where he lived with his daughter Mary Roberts was not far from Washington, IA. Given how the census works, he could have even just been visiting when one or the other census captured him at his daughter's or his sister's. 1843! Yes, that does make Elizabeth an early adopter of the emigration bug. I wonder about David, though. He seems to have stayed in Utica, NY. I figured he was the first family scout.

[dragonfly]

If this is the right Stephen and Elizabeth, it's one tangible indication that Stephen, at least, used the name James back in 1822 in Wales.

[rainbow]

YES.