Do you have a branch of your tree that is hanging on by a thread? I’m not talking about a brick wall, but a branch with ancestors identified but finding documentation has proven to be difficult.

That’s my situation with the ancestors of Rachel Harris Currey. To be honest, I don’t have a lot of documentation supporting Rachel Harris as the mother of my 2nd great grandfather, Hiram Currey (1835-1901). While I had identified Rachel Harris as the wife of Hiram Currey of Peoria, Illinois, it wasn’t until I transcribed the papers for a land dispute that I realized those papers helped document Rachel Harris as the wife of Hiram Currey.

In those documents, Harris Whitaker is a witness to a statement indicating that Hiram M. Currey “raised a crop in the south west fractional qr of Sec 5 in town 10 North of Range 9 East.” Later in the documents, a statement by William M C Bogardus identifies either Harris Whitaker or James Cannon as a son of Hiram Currey

and further one of the witnesses is Curry’s own son;

https://heartlandgenealogy.org/2022/10/04/land-dispute-2/

In 1824, a Hiram M. Curry married a Rachel Whitaker in Edgar County, Illinois.

I John W. McReynolds a licensed Minister of
the gospel of the Methodist Episcopal Church do here
by certify that by virtue of a license issued by the
Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Edgar County I
joined together in the holy state of Matrimony Hiram
M. Curry and Rachel Whitaker on the twenty eighth
day of September 1824 – given under my hand
and seal the 4th day of October 1824
J S McReynolds (seal)
Licensed Minister

Edgar County Illinois, marriage no. Book, LA page 2 (28 September 1824), Hiram M. Curry and Rachel Whitaker; Clerk of the Commissioner’s Court, Paris, Illinois.

I believe that the Rachel Whitaker of the Edgar County, Illinois marriage license was a widow at the time of the above marriage and that her married name was Harris. In 1820, a Rachel Harris married Andrew Miller in Switzerland County, Indiana.

March 22 1820 Granted marriage license to Miller Whittaker and Rachel Harris, Joseph Taque’s being first sworn who was a subscribing witness to Peter Harris’ consent

“Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019,” database with images, FamilySearch (familysearch.org : viewed online July 2017), Miller Whitaker – Rachel Harris.

These marriage records in combination with the statements in the land dispute point to Hiram Currey’s wife being Rachel Harris, daughter of Peter Harris. And that’s where the documentation holding this branch of my tree together gets even thinner. So far, I haven’t found anything connecting Peter to Rachel beyond the marriage record. Nor, have I found anything connecting Peter to parents or siblings.

However, other trees, including the FamilySearch tree have identified Peter’s wife and the ancestors of Rachel Harris Whitaker Currey.

That small thread connecting Hiram Currey of Peoria to Rachel Harris Whitaker opened up a treasure trove of potential ancestors. While I need to locate documentation to support all of these ancestors, I do have evidence that supports my relationship to Rachel and her ancestors: DNA.

When I searched my matches for the BANTA surname, one of my matches shares 29 cm with me. Thus, I was hoping to see a BANTA in her tree leading to a common ancestor. Instead, the CRAWFORD surname jumped out at me. When I scrolled down, I found that we share quite a few surnames with SMITH and THOMPSON being on the list.

Because my tree is heavily colonial, I often encounter this multitude of potential connections. While I may connect with the above match on the BANTA line, that is one of quite a few possible connections. Thus, I rely on Ancestry’s ThruLines to help find those common ancestors.

Since I have added Rachel’s parents and grandparents to my tree, Ancestry’s ThruLines has uncovered DNA matches to descendants of her grandparents. Below is a chart showing the number of matches from other lines to these potential ancestors.

Ancestor	My Line	Branches
Rachel Harris	7 thru Hiram Currey (1835-1901)	7 thru Caroline Currey
Peter Harris	13 thru Rachel Harris
Rachel S. VanArsdale	13 thru Rachel Harris
Daniel Harris	7 thru Peter Harris	3 thru Annie Harris; 2 thru Samuel N. Harris and 2 thru Ellen Harris
Elizaeth Demaree	7 thru Peter Harris	3 thru Annie Harris; 2 thru Samuel N. Harris and 2 thru Ellen Harris
Simon G. VarArsdale	7 thru my line	1 thru Jane VanArsdale; 11 thru Jacob V Osdol; 3 thru Lucretia Van Ausdall; 16 thru Eleanor S V Arsdaele; 3 thru Theodore W. Vanosdol and 10 thru Anna Van Arsdale
Rachel Banta	7 thru my line	1 thru Jane VanArsdale; 11 thru Jacob V Osdol; 3 thru Lucretia Van Ausdall; 16 thru Eleanor S V Arsdaele; 3 thru Theodore W. Vanosdol and 10 thru Anna Van Arsdale 6 thru Maria H Williamson (child of 1st marriage)

Below are images from Ancestry’s ThruLines showing the potential DNA connections for Rachel’s ancestors using my DNA results.

I realize that without a chromosome browser to compare all of these results, I cannot use DNA to prove that I am related to these potential ancestors. In the meantime, I have a lot of ancestors to document!