Timelines & ThruLines: Untangling 2 Elizabeth Butlers in Ohio

by Nancy Gilbride Casey

In her excellent article "How to Evaluate an Ancestry ThruLine," author Nicole Dyer of the Family Locket team offers several practical methods to use when reviewing a ThruLine.¹ ThruLines suggests possible ancestors who are in both a user's and their DNA matches' linked family trees. 

Ms. Dyer's methods include noting red flags (such as too little shared DNA), as well as signs of reliability (correctly noted on maternal or paternal side of family, for example), to help determine if a suggested lineage is plausible.² Her helpful list, as well as the use of a timeline analysis, were useful while disentangling two women named Elizabeth Butler born in the early 1830s in Ohio.

The parents of the ancestor of interest—Elizabeth Butler of Defiance, Ohio—are yet unidentified. However, many Ancestry trees have identified them as Abner Butler and Tabitha Moredock of Clermont, Ohio. The Butler couple was also a suggested as JC's 4x great grandparents in Ancestry ThruLines.

To untangle the confusion, I first created a timeline for the women, noting some key events in their lives. Immediately the differences began to be drawn:

Though not an exhaustive timeline, these few details clarified that there were two distinctly different women named Elizabeth Butler living in relative proximity to each other in Ohio during this time.⁹

So why did the ThruLines suggest Abner and Tabitha Butler of Clermont as the parents of Elizabeth Butler of Defiance in the first place? ThruLines made the suggestion based on JC's DNA matches who also have an Elizabeth Butler in their trees. In this case, Tabitha Moredock and Abner Butler were suggested as parents to Defiance Elizabeth Butler:

 

 

 

 

In viewing the ThruLines to Abner and Tabitha Butler, I immediately noted one of Ms. Dyer's ThruLines red flags - a lack of matches to siblings of a known ancestor. Dyer writes, "...if the only matches descend through your known ancestor, the most recent common ancestor of the matches is not the ancestor in the Thruline estimate."¹⁰ For this ThruLine, there are no siblings listed alongside Elizabeth to also connect to the Butler couple, though they had seven other children.

 

In a contrasting example, consider Defiance Elizabeth Butler's ThruLine: There are 11 different matches among three of her children. Reviewing the shared match pages of each suggested DNA match, the vast majority also match each other, an indication of a genetic network among these descendants. 

In another tip, Dyer notes the amount of shared DNA among matches in a proposed
ThruLine may also indicate a more reliable suggestion. Matches sharing over 15cM may be considered more dependable and less likely to be a false match.¹¹ In the ThruLine for Elizabeth Butler above, JC shares 3465-9cM of DNA with the matches. Of the 11 matches, only four share less than 15cM, with most falling in the 20-36cM range (JC's parent is the high outlier at 3465cM). 

Dyer suggests another test of whether the ThruLine is reliable: If matches are listed appropriately on Mother's Side or Father's Side.¹² (This method applies if either or both of the parents of the test taker have also tested on Ancestry.) In this case, JC's father has also tested. Of the 10 matches listed in this ThruLines, six have the "Father's Side" designation. Interestingly, the ones that do not have this designation are the matches sharing less than 15cM, and for good reason: Ancestry does not apply the Mother's Side or Father's Side label to matches under 20cM. However, a review of their shared match pages indicates that even those matches under 20cM in this ThruLine match others labelled Father's Side.

 

Though the search for the parents of Elizabeth Butler of Defiance continues, the use of a timeline to compare the two Elizabeth Butlers helped distinguish the woman from Defiance from the woman in Clermont, Ohio. Applying Ms. Dyer's evaluative tools helped show that the suggestion of Abner Butler and Tabitha Moredock as parents of Defiance Elizabeth Butler was unreliable. In contrast, using the analysis on Elizabeth Butler's ThruLine indicated hers was much more promising, and worthy of further research.

 

Both a timeline and a thorough ThruLines analysis are great tools to pack into your genealogy toolbox.

Until next time...

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NOTES

¹ Nicole Dyer, "How to Evaluate an AncestryDNA Thrulines Hypothesis," Family Locket, 15 Nov. 2021 (https://familylocket.com/how-to-evaluate-an-ancestrydna-thrulines-hypothesis/ : accessed 27 May 2021). 

 

² Dyer, "How to Evaluate an AncestryDNA Thrulines Hypothesis," Family Locket, paragraphs 4-5.

³ Certificate of Marriage, 16 December 1895, Elizabeth Blackmon, widow Dewit S. Blackmon, widow's pension application no. 1065349, certificate no. 428941; service of Dewitt S. Blackmon (Pvt. Co. B, 47th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Civil War); Case Files of Approved Pension Applications..., 1861-1910; Civil War and Later Pension Files, Record Group 15: records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives, Washington, D.C. 

⁴ Clermont County, Marriage Record, Volume 8, p. 118, marriage of R.P. Ulery and Elizabeth B. Bulter (1861); digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939K-BJ3P-X1 : accessed 7 June 2021); citing FHL film 004260295, image 94; Clermont County Courthouse, Batavia.

⁵ 1860 United States Census, Ohio, population schedule, Defiance County, Corporation of Defiance, p. 24 (inked), line 28, Elizabeth Blackman, 25, in the D.S. Blackman household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7667/images/4282495_00028 : accessed 16 May 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication M653, Washington, D.C.

⁶ 1860 United States Census, Ohio, population schedule, Clermont County, Township of Pierce, p. 3 (inked), line 11, Elizabeth Butler, 26, in the Abner Butler household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7667/images/4282493_00174 : accessed 16 May 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication M653, Washington, D.C.

⁷ 1870 United States Census, Ohio, population schedule, Defiance County, Corporation of Defiance, p. 13 (inked), line 21, dwelling 93, family 95, Elizabeth Blackman, 28, in the Dewitt Blackman household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4277787_00339 : accessed 16 May 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication M653, Washington, D.C.

⁸ 1870 United States Census, Ohio, population schedule, Clermont County, Township of Pierce, p. 7 (inked), line 11, Elizabeth Ulrey, 36, in the Abner Butler household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7667/images/4282493_00174 : accessed 16 May 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication M653, Washington, D.C.

⁹ Defiance, located in Defiance County, is approximately 190 miles from Clermont County, situated to the east of Cincinnati, Ohio.

¹⁰ Dyer, "How to Evaluate an AncestryDNA Thrulines Hypothesis," Family Locket, paragraph 5. 

¹¹ Ibid, paragraph 4. 

¹² Ibid.