If you have an ancestor who is still a mystery despite years of research, you’ll relate to my Cynthia (Dillard) Royston project. I am currently working on phase 5 as part of the Research Like a Pro with DNA study group. Each phase has focused on a specific objective and has eliminated many Dillard candidates. Eventually, I hope to have one man left standing, whom documentary and DNA evidence point to as Cynthia’s father.

As part of a new research phase, we want to include background information reminding us of what previous research phases discovered. I like to break this up by genealogical and DNA background.

Genealogical Background Information

Cynthia (Dillard) Royston was born about 1815 in Georgia and died on 2 August 1882 in Collin County, Texas. Her maiden name is known only from the death certificates of three of her fourteen children. She married Thomas Beverly Royston about 1833 in Georgia or Alabama and first appears by name in the 1850 census of Chambers County, Alabama. Across four research phases, the objective has been to identify her father, who would have been born before 1795, likely in Virginia, and residing in Georgia during the 1820s and 1830s.

Phase 1 tested the hypothesis that George W. Dillard (born about 1781 in Virginia, died 1854 in Lee County, Alabama) was Cynthia’s father. His 1820 and 1830 census households contained females of appropriate age to be Cynthia, and he later resided near the Roystons in Russell and Lee counties, Alabama. This hypothesis was definitively disproven by the discovery of a Mahone Family Bible, which revealed the Dillard female born in 1815 was Mariah L. Dillard, who married James Kivlin on 8 April 1830. 

Phase 2 systematically examined ten additional Dillard candidates from the 1820 Georgia census who had females of appropriate age in their households. All ten — Arthur Dillard, Edmund Dillard, John Dillard, Nathan Dillard, Owen Dillard, Phillip Dillard, Samson Dillard, Thomas Dillard, Theophilus Dillard, and Susan Dillard — were eliminated based on probate records, wills, marriage records, and census analysis. 

Phase 3 turned to DNA analysis. Autosomal DNA testing of Victor Parker, Cynthia’s great-grandson, and Gephi network graph analysis of his matches revealed a distinct cluster that appeared to originate with Elijah Dillard (born about 1814–1816 in Georgia, died 6 September 1886 in Pike County, Alabama), leading to the hypothesis that Elijah was Cynthia’s brother, sharing the same unknown parents. Documentary research traced Elijah’s life through land patents in Macon, Barbour, and Dale counties, his marriage to Winny Grubbs in Pike County (1855), Civil War service (1863), and subsequent census records. The hypothesis was strengthened by the identification of DNA matches descending from two independent lines of Elijah Dillard — his sons Josiah Dillard and James Monroe Dillard.

Phase 4 narrowed the geographic focus to Cass County, Georgia, based on newly discovered evidence that Thomas B. Royston served as a 1st Lieutenant in 1833 and as a deputy sheriff in 1834 in that location. The 1840 census identified four Dillard households there: Elizabeth, John, William, and Elijah. Elizabeth Dillard was traced to Laurens County, South Carolina, and eliminated based on her distinct origins and migration pattern. John Dillard, William Dillard, and Elijah Dillard of Cass County were identified as a family unit from North Carolina who migrated through Monroe County, Tennessee; an 1849 deed and circa 1853 court records named John Dillard’s heirs, and Cynthia was not among them. The Cass County Elijah Dillard (born 1801–1810 in North Carolina) was confirmed to be a different individual from the Elijah Dillard identified through DNA analysis.

 Analysis of the 1832 Gold Lottery identified three Dillard men who drew lots specifically in Cass County — James Dillard of Pulaski County, Joseph B. Dillard of Oglethorpe County, and Roliver (possibly Toliver) Dillard of Burke County — who represent the highest-priority candidates for future investigation. However, documentary research on these three men has not yet been conducted, and the loss of early Cass County deed books limits access to land transactions during the critical period. These three Dillard men will be the subject of my documentary research for phase 5.

DNA Background Information

I currently have 26.3% coverage of Cynthia’s genome on Ancestry.com. I’d like to raise that number to 35% by having a test-taker from each one of her children who had descendants. ThruLines is currently showing matches through eight of her fourteen children. My primary test-taker is Victor Parker, closest generationally to Cynthia. He may have inherited about 12.5% of her DNA, but how much of it is for the Dillard line and how much for her unknown mother’s line?

A network graph created for the Ancestry DNA matches of Victor Parker revealed clear clusters among his DNA matches. However, many of these would not be on the Royston line.

 

Separating out the Royston clusters resulted in a more focused network graph. 

 

 

Analyzing the Royston network graph revealed the peach cluster in the top-right section, with Elijah Dillard as the MRCA among the matches. Elijah is a possible brother of Cynthia with a birth year range of 1816 to 1825. He lived in the southeastern Alabama county of Pike, with two counties separating him from Cynthia’s home in Chambers County.

Victor’s DNA matches in the peach cluster also connect to other Royston descendants. Closest to the peach cluster are the blue and aqua clusters, which contain known descendants of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston through two of her sons, Richard A. and Robert C. Royston. Both Richard and Robert migrated to Texas in the 1870s.

 

With the background information reviewed, I was ready to create a research objective for phase 5. I wanted to clearly state the overall objective and the specific objective for phase 5.

Overall Objective

Through DNA and documentary evidence, discover Cynthia (Dillard) Royston’s biological father. Cynthia was born about 1815 in Georgia and died on 2 August 1882 in Collin County, Texas. Cynthia married Thomas B. Royston about 1833 or 1834, possibly in Cass County, Georgia.

Phase 5 Documentary Research Objective

Seek connections between Cynthia (Dillard) Royston and three men who drew lots in Cass County, Georgia in the 1832 Gold Lottery: James Dillard of Pulaski County, Odams District; Joseph B. Dillard of Oglethorpe County, Hargroves District, and Roliver Dillard of Burke County, 68 District.

Phase 5 DNA Research Objective

Further analyze the DNA network graph for additional Dillard connections and seek additional DNA evidence through Y-DNA testing and expanding DNA coverage for Cynthia’s genome.

I’m excited to share my project and progress in the next few blog posts. Stay tuned!

Best of luck in all your genealogy endeavors!