Hezekiah Hargrave & Ann McMurtry: Dorcas Roi or Hannah McM
IN 1785, Ann McMurtry married Hezekiah Hargrave and in 1786, Ann gave birth to a baby girl that was immediately put out as an indentured servant for 30 years.
A group of us have been working very hard for the past year or so trying to get the DNA evidence that would prove that Dorcas Roi of Morehouse Parish, Louisiana who married Charlot Roi was born Hannah McMurtry in 1786 to her mother Ann McMurtry who had married Hezekiah Hargrave in 1785.
We had a major breakthrough last year when the DNA results of a great grandson of Eldred Glen Hargrave b 1806 (son of Ann McMurtry and Hezekiah Hargrave) was a match with twodescendants of Dorcas Roi.William was also a match for three other descendants of Hezekiah and Ann), and also to descendant of Ann McMurtry's brother Joseph.
Unfortunately, neither of the two Dorcas Roi descendants were a match to any of the other Hargraves or McMurtry samples. So the results were contradictory and inconclusive.
So, in an effort to find samples that have a chance of having a higher percentage of DNA shared with Ann McMurtry, we have just recruited a sample from a McMurtry who is one generation closer to Ann McMurtry than was David McMurtry.We have also searched for a Hargrave descendant that has two lines descended from Ann McMurtry, and discovered that one desc who is a 5th generation desc of Hezekiah through one line and a 6th generation through another line.His sample is in the lab. He has a larger chance of showing a match through the Ann McMurtry.
We also have discovered a 6th generation descendant of Ann McMurtry and Hezekiah Hargarve who is descended in the 5th generation rom two different sons of Eldred Glen Hargrave and should have twice as much Ann McMurtry DNA in her as the other samples for which we have results.
To my surprise, she lives down the street from one of our Hargrave sample donors, so I have asked her is she could help us get a DNA sample from this double Hargarve person.These samples mayprovide the conclusive evidence that Dorcas Roi was Hannah McMurtry.
So keep your fingers crossed and we will hopefully bring this long search to a happy conclusion.
On a side light, we are also trying to determine if Jane King who lived next door to the Roi family might have been a sister of Auguste Roi, son of Dorcas and Charlot Roi.There is a sample in the lab with results due out in 1 to 2 weeks.If Jane King was a sister to Auguste Roi (hence a dau of Dorcas and Charlot Roi), the sample in the lab from a Jane King desc will show as a 3rd cousin 1x removed to the descendant of Auguste Roi. Hence the test should prove that Jane King was a sister to Auguste Roi or prove that she was not.
Stay tuned as we enter the final stages of this long research project!