Was My Fifth Great Grandmother Mary Coleman?

In my blog yesterday (“Is There Any Hope I Might Find the Missing Names of My Female Ancestors in My Vick Line?”), I said that I would discuss some of the clues I am finding using 23andMe’s Relative Finder to help identify the missing names of females in my pedigree. My fifth great grandmother in my Vick line is one of those elusive females. As I mentioned yesterday, page 90 of Joseph Vick of Lower Parish, Isle of Wight County, Virginia and His Descendants, says she may have been Mary Coleman of Anson County, North Carolina. Mary [ ] Vick witnessed property records involving Colemans in the 1770’s in Anson Co.

Interestingly, my second highest match in Relative Finder is a man whose surname is Coleman. This match may be unrelated to my missing fifth great grandmother, but it may also be a significant clue. The match seems worth pursuing. He didn’t find any of my surnames in his pedigree.

My match’s Coleman ancestor came to America from Ireland in the 1880s. I don’t know when the Anson Co., NC, Colemans’ ancestor came to America, but it had to be before the 1772. I also don’t even know if the ancestor of the Anson Co. Colemans was Irish.

We would both have to extend our research to see if we have a shared Coleman ancestor in Ireland. I know nothing about Irish records, and I doubt I could even trace the Anson Co. Coleman’s back far enough to make a connection (if there is one). I do know that my match has paternal haplogroup R1b1b2a1a2f . There are Colemans in that project who have paternal haplogroup R1b1b2a1a. They may need a little more testing to see if they are R1b1b2a1a2f (my matching Coleman’s haplogroup). Since this is such a common haplogroup, it looks like my match would need the traditional Y-DNA genealogical test to learn much more from the Y-DNA project members’ results.

Maybe I will get lucky and have other matches with Coleman descendants. I will also try to find out if any of the other Vicks who have been tested at 23andMe and who share this line have matches with Coleman descendants. This reminds me of fishing. I have a lot of lines in the water, and I must wait patiently for the big tug. Maybe another researcher has a theory about who this Mary was.

Tomorrow, I will discuss another clue from Relative Finder about yet another female Vick line ancestor whose name I don’t know.