Who are the parents of Mina Wilson, wife of Obed Sisco? It wasn’t until I started playing with clusters of DNA that an answer appeared!
Like most women of the early 19th Century, Mina didn’t have opportunities to leave much of a paper trail to give us hints about her origins and family roots. In fact, only one document – her marriage record – has been found that lists her name.1
Mina appears to have died in the prime of her life. In 1850, the census taker lists Obed with his second wife, Mrs. Emeline ( ) Lincoln in Moira, Franklin County, New York.1
But let’s back up a bit.
Location, location, location!
Going back to Obed and Mina’s marriage record, the obvious place to look for her relatives was in the town of her residence: Jay, Orleans County, Vermont. There were no individuals with the Wilson surname listed in that area on any censuses until 1830, when Asa Wilson appears on the scene. Enumerated with him is a large family: two boys under 5 years of age; 2 males between the ages of 20-29, and one male, presumably Asa, aged 40-49. Likely daughters include two young girls, aged 5- 9 years, two girls aged 10-14, and one female, probably Asa’s wife Mariam, aged 40-49.2
While Obed and Mina are not in Jay in 1830, they are still found with family: Mina’s presumed sister, Mariah, and her husband, Joseph Stanhope, enumerated in Richmond, Franklin County, Vermont.3 Obed is listed four entries after Joseph, but because this census is arranged alphabetically by the first letter of the last name, we don’t know how close the two families lived in proximity to each other.
Thankfully, the 1840 census is a bit more helpful. Here we find Obed Sisco and family nearby Asa Wilson in Jay; in fact, he is just five entries above his presumed father-in-law!4
After Mina’s presumed death sometime between 1840 and 1850, there is no further correlation of residences between the Wilson and Sisco households.
Naming Conventions
Mina and Obed are not common names! However, Mariah (Wilson) Stanhope, Mina’s presumed sister, gave not just one but BOTH names to her children. The use of the abbreviated form of Amina was found in Mariah’s obituary which mentioned she died at the home of her daughter, “Mrs. Mina Avery, Jan. 17, 1902 aged 87 years, 3 months, 7 days.”6
DNA Connections
DNA – oh how I love it! In a search for my Simpson ancestors (remember Achsa Sisco married into the Simpson family), I began analyzing clusters of DNA matches that shared at least 20 cMs with my aunt. Since these matches were in common with my known Simpson ancestors, I originally assumed they were from my Simpson line. However, it turned out that it was actually Achsa that passed these genes down to my family, NOT her husband George W. Simpson! I’ll try to keep this simple, and have a diagram to help.
Depicted below is a cluster of 27 individuals testing through AncestryDNA and MyHeritage who match my Aunt Suzi’s DNA with a range from 21 cMs up to 101 cMs. (For those not into the science of DNA, cMs = centimorgans, a measurement of how much DNA two people share. The higher the number, the closer the relationship.).
As you can see, all of the individuals mapped in beige (DNA testers) on the far right descend from Joseph Hadlock and his wife, Betty Pettee. Thankfully, after many hours spent analyzing public family trees, it became apparent that the match was through my Sisco line (represented in gold boxes), and leading up to Mina Wilson, wife of my 3rd great grandfather, Obed Sisco.
Noted in orange in this diagram are marriages between first cousins. These double-cousin relationships completely skew the DNA findings, and originally caused a false conclusion that my most recent common ancestor was much closer. However, as this diagram shows, some of the matches are 5th cousins to my Aunt Suzi, whose DNA I used due to the larger pool of matches. The remainder range from 5C1R (fifth cousins once removed) to 5C3R (fifth cousins three times removed). That more distant match still shares 24 cMs of DNA with my aunt. Using DNA Painter, an awesome site for analyzing DNA matches and mapping chromosomes, I was able to test my theory and make sure my conclusion was statistically possible. To do this, I ONLY compared matches that did NOT have marriages between cousins, and feel very confident in the results. (Note: DNA Painter specifically states that it’s conclusions are most accurate when comparing matches of at least 40 cMs or greater, but given the sheer number of matches, I cannot come up with any other conclusion than the one above.
Conclusion
Given the overwhelming connections to Asa Wilson and his wife, Mariam Hadlock, both in location, naming conventions, and DNA, I’ve concluded that Mina Wilson, the wife of Obed Sisco, is the daughter of Asa Wilson and Mariam Hadlock.
References:
[1] Vermont, Orleans, Westfield, Vital records, ca. 1800-1872, Obed Sisco of Westfield to Mina Wilson of Jay, m. 5 Feb 1827; digital images online, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 2 December 2022); citing FHL film image 49 of 64.
[2] 1850 U.S. Census, Franklin County, New York, town of Moira, population schedule, p. 102 (penned), dwelling 175, family 177, Obed and Emeline Sisco with children George (16 y.o.), Elizabeth (11 y.o.), Emily P. (9 y.o.), William S. (3 y.o.), Maria (5/12 y.o.) and step-son, Henry Lincoln (11 y.o.); digital images online, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 December 2022); citing NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 505.
[3] 1830 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, town of Jay, population schedule, p. 229 (penned) line 3, Asa Wilson; digital images online, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 December 2022); citing NARA microfilm publication M19, roll 183.
[4] 1830 U.S. Census, Franklin County, Vermont, town of Richford, population schedule, p. 157 (penned) line 12, Joseph Stanhope; digital images online, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 December 2022); citing NARA microfilm publication M19, roll 183.
[5] 1840 U.S. Census, Orleans County, Vermont, town of Jay, population schedule, p. 338 (stamped) line 18, “Obede Scisco”; digital images online, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 December 2022); citing NARA microfilm publication M704, roll 544.
[6] Profile page for Maria Wilson, person no. 28MK-QDV, with attached newspaper clipping, posted as public memory by FamilySearch.org by user JoAnn C. Hall on 27 August 2018 citing Melrose (Wisconsin) Chronicle, 24 January 1902, p. not noted.