Blakely and Eddins DNA, and what it proves

DNA has proved that our Eddins family is related to the Blakelys.

At both Ancestry, FtDNA, and Gedmatch.com, several of our Eddins DNA kits triangulate with kits of Blakely descendants. Our kits match DNA kits from people descended from other children of John & Zilpha.

In the Eddins family, we can trace our line back through James A. Eddins to John & Zilpha/Sylvia Eddins, both with documents and with DNA. The Blakely kits that we match all trace their lines back to Dionysius Blakely. One researcher in particular, Gary Ray Blakely, has done years of research. I find his research and data quite reliable. He and the kits he administers trace back to Dionysius Blakely. The kits of other Eddins descendants trace back to Anna Obedience Eddins who married Edom Moon and Elizabeth Eddins who married Benjamin Wingard.

There are only a few ways in which my line can be descended from the Blakely family.

1. One of John's parents, grandparents, or ancestors was a Blakely.

Can't prove or disprove this yet. I have no info about John prior to his 1777 enlistment in the SC Volunteers Third Regiment.

http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinearchives/RecordDetail.aspx?RecordId=218748

2. Either Dionysius, Bland, or another Blakely male was the father of James A. Eddins  incestuously.

Actually, this possibility is probably precluded by the fact that the name "Blakely" runs through the Eddins family. In all the records I've seen about Zilpha, as extraordinary as she was, there's never been anything to suggest that she was erratic or demented or abused. Rather, she seems to have been one feisty dudess—selling land, running ads to find her errant flock, and marrying a man much, much younger. Is such a woman likely to name her first son after a relative who "took advantage of her"? Hardly.

3.  One of Zilpha's parents, grandparents, or ancestors was a Blakely.

I have no proven info about Zilpha prior to her being named on an 1806 land plat in Lexington County, SC, though it's 99% likely that she was the female in John's household during the 1790 SC Census. It's just that her name is not listed.

The only thing I can prove is that Zilpha says she is the mother of William D. and James A. Eddins, based on a record from a law case.

"STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA:

Know all men by these presents that I, Zilpha Eddins, of Lexington District and the State aforesaid, widow woman, for and in consideration of the natural love I have and do bear towards my two sons, James A. Eddins and William D. Eddins..."

https://books.google.com/books?id=aqsKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=zilpha+eddins+1831&source=bl&ots=yFcQ69utag&sig=X3KZkIMGGTftVRM60gI_wfuJPDo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGk8q49LvUAhVB4D4KHYPEDnUQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=zilpha%20eddins%201831&f=false

Right now my best theory is that Zilpha was born a Blakely, and that she was John Eddins first and only wife. But all I can prove is:

1. The James A. Eddins line is descended from the Blakelys.

2. Zilpha Eddins was married to John Eddins and the mother of James A.

3. James A. Eddins is related to Anna Obedience and Elizabeth Eddins.

More on my current theory in the next blog.