Finding Fannie

24/08/2022

Still no response to the letter I sent to a descendant of Fannie's 1860 poorhouse-keeping neighbor, but Keith Burgess is making progress! Below is his most recent email regarding his Fannie Fleming research (I apologize for formatting issues. Facebook doesn't seem to like copies pasted from my email) :

"I have found what appears to be another DNA connection to Fannie Fleming (the geography does not fit with John Love). There are several testers who descend from the Cooper line of Williamsburg SC that are matching many Fannie Fleming descendant testers. The shared match list is so many that it
looks like there is a common ancestor in the 1700s. Below is the list of descendants if anyone wants to look at them in their Ancestry DNA results.

Rick Wilson (Jerry/dad) - Mary Ann Cooper/George Washington Martin & Hugh Graham/Jannet Cooper

Caroline Goodwin - William J Cooper/Mary J Thomas - Daniel Evander

bishop Flowers (Jerry/dad) Mary Eliza Cooper/John Leonard Blakely - Margaret Jane Cooper

James Jordan(38Kasey) William Brown Floyd/Susannah Jane Cooper - William J Cooper/Mary J Thomas

William Brown(tippydance1) John Aaron Cooper/Mary Holmes - William Allen

James Ramp - Benjamin P Cooper/eagert - William J Cooper/Mary J Thomas

Paige Whalen - John Aaron Cooper/Mary Holmes - Samuel Peter Cooper/Susan Flowers

kaypdot (ScLadyLinks) - William J Cooper/Mary J Thomas - William Erving Cooper

ilikegrits william wesley moree/susannah jane cooper (margaret jane??)

Patricia Ross - william wesley moree/susannah jane cooper - Mary Moree/Henry james Lambert

Gerald Moree - william wesley moree/susannah jane cooper (margaret jane??)

James Kircher - William J Cooper/Mary J Thomas - Daniel Evander

I have gotten access to Rick Wilson’s data and he has 3 segments matching to my dad and they are all on Fannie Fleming/Love DNA segments.

Right now, I have 2 possible explanations for these results.

1. Fannie was really a Cooper and married a Williamsburg SC Fleming who died shortly after the marriage and she just kept utilizing her married Fleming name.
2. There is a will from John Fleming died 3/23/1768 who gives part of his estate to his sister Agnes Cooper. The Cooper matches all descend from this marriage and Agnes is contributing the “Fleming DNA” that is matching. This John Fleming looks to be connected to the Williamsburg Fleming/Witherspoon line but it doesn’t seem to connect properly based on other wills.


Note the Agnes Fleming I mentioned in the previous email below is the wife of John James McClary 1792-1868 and not the Agnes in the #2 item above.

I have discovered that those trees also have a Cooper line in them.

I feel like I am getting close but the puzzle pieces just may not exist any more to figure this out completely.

Keith Burgess

***

I have joined the Love DNA and have become a co-administrator. The father of Fannie Flemings children matches very well into group 3 of the project. That group has many matches and a researched

that researched for 20 years believe they trace the line back to Nigelli/Nigellus Luiff/Luf who died ~1492 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. So we match into a Love group with a lot of history.

We also have MtDNA results (direct maternal line from Fannie’s mother which looks to indicate it is of Scottish ancestry.

I am using the DNA match list from a descendant of Carloty Caroline Fleming (Starling) to do most of my analysis on Fannie Fleming. This line did not migrate to Shelby County so it avoids all of the noise that you get from the Shelby County families which tend to connect to each other in many different ways. I have finally picked up a possible lead on Fannie’s ancestral line.


I have found a DNA match, brandonconway0024, who matches 12 other descendants of Fannie Fleming, and at least 3 of them come from different lines than Carloty Caroline. His line is believed to be below

Margaret Mont Fleming 1835-1930

John Dickey Fleming 1792/Margaret Mcconnell Williams

James Fleming 1757/Mary Frierson

James Richard Fleming 1722-1796/janet Stewart

John Fleming 1695-1750/Janet witherspoon


There is a 2nd match, William Brown's test is managed by: tippydance1, that matches to 7 Fannie Fleming descendants, 3 from different lines. His line descends from Agnes Fleming 1796-1868/john james jack McClary.

Agnes is believed to also be a descendant of John Fleming 1695-1750

This line lived in Williamsburg District SC. There is a 1750 will for John Williams identifying his children but for the most part, I can find no more information on most of them. But this may be where Fannie’s Fleming line descends from. There are other matches to descendants of Agnes Fleming, but there are not enough shared matches to make any conclusion.



Finally, there is also one match descending from Jane M Fleming married in TN to a Jacob Faulkenberry born 1805 GA

that matches into these Fleming match groups. I noticed the Faulkenberry name when I worked on my dad’s DNA.

But I have not found any further connection to this line so it could easily be a false.



Enjoy July 4th,

Keith



******





I have found research on the Robert Lowe/Ann Dowdle children and they had 4 sons that are the candidate for F***y’s partner

Andrew Pickens Love – census records shows he was in Pike County Al at correct time and was never married
William Mille Love – was married and had several children so seems very unlikely he would also be fathering F***y’s children
Robert Dowdle Love - moved to Texas and had 3 kids in Texas in 1850 census, Was not in Pike County to father F***y’s children
John Love – was known to be in Pike County from 1832 to 1844. At some point, joined his brother in Texas. Never married. Could be F***y’s partner


Census records support that all the Lawrence County Love’s married in 1820s and 1830s could be John Love’s boen 1770-1780 children. In looking at the research

on Robert Love, I found that he was reported to have a brother Joseph Love in Morgan County AL (next to Lawrence County AL) in 1820 and

a brother Thomas Love who died in 1814 in SC. Since I believe John love in Lawrence County was likely his brother, I found the following document

that identifies who his father is – John “that tailor” Love 1732-1802 that married Martha Drennard in Query number 5 in the link below.


https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61266/images/41904_539863-00047?pId=237975



My dad has 2 autosomal match to Robert Love’s brother (if this line is correct) James Love b 1763 (married Janet Lockert) incuding one that is the

niece or daughter of a y chromosome tester that matches into our Y chromosome match group.



There was a Joseph (T or L) Love born ~1790 NC in the Lawrence County 1850 and 1860 census. I tried to have Ancestry identify any matches to this

line and none were found that looked like “Love DNA matches). It’s unlikely that he is a close relative of Robert Love of Pike County Al.





*********



We now have FTDNA Y chromosome test results from a direct male descendant of F***y Fleming and it

matches in to group 3 in the Love FTDNA DNA project. This confirms that at least John Edward Fleming and

James Monroe Fleming descend from a Love Paternal line.



I have been looking at my dad’s DNA (from Mary Ann Fleming) and Annette’s DNA (form Carloty caroline Fleming)

and I can identify a set of Love descendants that mostly match each other and match other Frances Fleming

descendants. That give pretty strong proof the a both those lines descend from a Love partner of Frances Fleming.



Interestingly, most of the Love descendants in the match group come from a group of Lawrence County Alabama

Loves. I get many matches from descendants of Rebecca Love 1817-1889 (married Joe Terry Lawrence County AL),

Cynthia Mary Love 1808-bef 1860 (married Jonathan Copernicus Carpenter Lawrence Cty AL), and John William Love

1831-1894 (believed born in Lawrence Cty AL moved to TX). There is evidence that John William Love is the son

of Adam Pool Love who I believe is the son of John Love born 1770 to 1780.



Finally my dad has an X chromosome match to a mostly African line. The X chromosome has a link to Pike County

Alabama and I think that is where the slave resided before she was freed. I have now found that person in an

1870 census as the cook for Ann Love Thompson sister of Andrew Pickens Love. She took the surname Thompson

when she was freed.



Finally, I found a land grant for Ann Dowdle Lover and it is in the same location as Talton Faulk’s relatives. So that

connects how Mary Ann Fleming could have met her husband Talton Faulk.



I have high confidence that Frances Fleming’s partner was a son of Ann Dowdle and Robert Love. I also think that

Robert Love and John Love born 1770-1780 lived in Lawrence County Alabama were brothers.



Be happy to answer any questions.



Keith



******



Ancestry is process the ancestral tree changes much faster than it used to. It has identified 7 distant cousins that

descend from Ann Dowdle’s parents Robert Dowdle and Jane Clemens. Almost all of them match a couple of

Fannie Fleming descendants. One matches 8 Fannie Fleming descendants.



It also identified 5 Robert Love/Ann Dowdle descendants. I don’t think there are many known survivors down this

line. One of the 4th-6th cousins matches 13 Fleming descendants along with a couple of other Love and Dowdle decendants.

The other 4th-6th doesn’t seem to match any. The 3 distant cousins match the 2 non-distant cousins, one also matches a

couple of Fleming descendants



This certainly helps support the theory that a son of Robert Love and Ann Dowdle is the father of Fannie’s kids.

In researching the Love/Dowdle line, I came across a couple of other interesting items. One of their granddaughters married
Hansford Dewitt Boyd. The name Hansford gets passed down the Fleming line – first time I have seen it used by someone else.

Also, land that Robert and Ann Love was patented for (given to their son-in-law in 1854) is in the same sector where Timothy, Joseph, and William Faulk have land patents.


Keith Burgess"

01/08/2022

Here's the shot-in-the-dark letter I sent last week:

Dear X,

I am doing genealogical research on my 4th great-grandmother, Fannie Fleming, and wonder if you might be able to help me.
Per the 1860 Census, Fannie was living next door to Martha Jane Garrett Simmons, whose husband was keeper of the poor house in Pike County, Alabama. I believe Martha Jane was the older sister of your [relative], Sarah Ann Garrett.

It seems Sarah had moved with her parents to Wayne, Mississippi by 1860. Census records indicate Sarah and Martha could read and write, so my hope is that Martha wrote to her sister and/or parents after they moved away. And since Martha’s neighbor in 1860 must have seemed rather notorious (Fannie was an u***d mother, and there is some evidence the father of all five of her children was the local sheriff), my hope is that Martha mentioned Fannie in her letters. As you may have guessed, I also hope those letters still exist.

I realize I am grasping at straws, but if you would be kind enough to let me know if you or any of your relatives might have family keepsakes such as letters or journals from the 1800s, I would be most grateful.

Sincerely,

[Me]

Would you respond to that sort of letter? Or (assuming you did a little research yourself on Fannie) would you be too turned off by the fact that I said Fannie had 5 children instead of 6? (Insert forehead slap here.) Is it creepy to get a letter from a stranger who has been digging on your family tree? I included a SASE, but I've done this sort of thing before and have never received a response, so I think I'm turning people off somehow...

25/07/2022

25/07/2022

If you scroll to the top of the Finding Fannie page and click on the cover photo (that black and white census image), you'll notice Frances R. Fleming was living next to the poor house. T. S., who is married to a descendent of Fannie, told me this:

"[My husband's] grandmother Fleta Fleming told him once that her name should be Love. Evidently, her grandfather knew his real dad was Andrew Love. She said they were so poor and the children (her grandfather) hardly had clothes to wear."

Did Fannie and her children ever get meals or clothing at the poor house? Or was she too ashamed to beg? This week I'm sending a letter to a descendent of the sister of Mrs. Martha J. Simmons, the poor house keeper's wife. It's possible Martha wrote to her sister living in Mississippi and mentioned her neighbor Fannie, don't you think? And it's possible those letters survive. Certainly it's worth the cost of a few stamps to find out. Fingers crossed I get a response!

25/07/2022

My husband and I are both of Anglo-European descent, so when I was exploring his family tree and found an ancestor who was born a fair-skinned slave just before the U.S. Civil War, it occurred to me: maybe Fannie was of mixed race! That would explain some things about her circumstances.

I am a maternal line descendent of Fannie's, so I took an mitochondrial DNA test in 2021. (Mitochondrial DNA is passed with very little change from mother to child, thus providing an ancient record of the maternal line and its origins. You carry your mom's mtDNA, but you won't pass it on to your children unless you're a woman.)

A couple months and a couple hundred bucks later I discover...no African Ancestry. No exact matches, either. Apparently my mtDNA has mutated a bit somewhat recently. Fannie's maternal line likely immigrated to the colonies with the typical British crowd of the colonial era. But there are some close matches I'm exploring. Mitochondrial DNA isn't famous for brick wall break throughs, but it's worth a shot. Will keep you posted!

30/06/2022

Frances in Pike County, AL with three children, 1850

30/06/2022

Fannie in Troy, AL with only her daughter Elizabeth (age 13) left at home, 1870.

30/06/2022

Here she is in 1900 (4th from the bottom) living with her daughter Mary Ann FLEMING Faulk in Center, TX

30/06/2022

Here's what we know (or think we know) about Fannie:

1. She was born 10 January 1818 in South Carolina and died 3 December 1909 in Texas ~https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28124177/frances-fleming

2. Her children were born in Alabama (probably Pike County) ~see 1850 and 1860 census photos, courtesy of FamilySearch.org: accessed 30 June 2022

3. The amazing Keith Burgess has collected evidence suggesting Andrew Pickens Love was the father of Fannie's children.
[Andrew Pickens Love, merchant, was born October 12, 1818, in Anderson District, S. C., and died September 19, 1896, at China Grove, Pike County; son of James and Ann (Dowdell) Love, natives of South Carolina, the former of whom was born in Anderson District, and became a tanner, moved to Alabama, and lived in Tuscaloosa County, in Greene County, at Pleasant Hill, Dallas County, at Monticello, Pike County, and finally at Wetumpka, where he died. His education was limited to the old log cabin country school at Monticello, and he became a merchant, dealing in general merchandise in Troy, Linwood, and China Grove. He was elected sheriff of Pike County in 1850, and was a delegate to the secession convention in 1861. During the War of Secession, he became captain of Co. I, Twenty-second Alabama infantry regiment, organized at Troy, and later was made captain of Co. I, Fourth battalion of Alabama cavalry. As senior captain, he commanded the Fourth battalion, which joined Phillip's legion, Hampton's cavalry. He was an old line Whig, and a strong Union man, but went with the state when Alabama seceded. He was a Methodist, and was worshipful master of his lodge of Masons. He was never married. Last residence: China Grove, Pike County. Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer ~Alabama Genealogy Trails: accessed 30 June 2022 http://genealogytrails.com/ala/pike/bios.html)]

4. Per the 1900 Census, Fannie had moved to Shelby County, Texas, where she lived with her widowed daughter, Mary Ann Fleming Faulk along with some of Mary's children and grandchildren.

If you have information to share about F***y or any of her descendants, please post to the Finding F***y page!

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