If you’ve been following the saga of my research into Cynthia (Dillard) Royston’s father, you may be wondering if I’ve made any progress lately. I’m happy to report that, after four focused projects and taking a break for a few years, I have a new lead and am back on the quest. I’m tackling the Dillards again as part of the Research Like a Pro 11 Study Group and will share each step of the research process in a blog series. For this blog post, we’ll look at the past research phases and my objective for this phase.

Phase 1: Is George W. Dillard the Father of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston?

Cynthia and Thomas Royston settled in Chambers County, Alabama, by 1842, and I reasoned that George W. Dillard, who had dealings in that area, could be her father.

Objective:

The objective of this research project is to determine if George W. Dillard, born in 1781 in Virginia and died in 1854 in Lee County, Alabama, was the father of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Cynthia was born about 1815 in Georgia. She married Thomas Beverly Royston about 1833 in Georgia or Alabama and died on 2 August 1882 in Collin County, Texas.

Conclusion:

This research project sought to establish connections between George W. Dillard and Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Without a marriage record for Thomas B. Royston and Cynthia, Cynthia’s maiden name of “Dillard” appears only in three of her children’s death certificates. The census records from 1850-1880 provide evidence of her birth in about 1815 in Georgia. 

Because of the proximity of George W. Dillard to Cynthia (Dillard) Royston in Chambers County, Alabama, his life was studied as a candidate for her father. The 1820 and 1830 census households for George W. Dillard show a female of appropriate age to be Cynthia. His presence in Muscogee County, Georgia, from 1828 to 1840 is well documented in newspaper articles. A land record puts Thomas B. Royston in Lee County, Georgia, near Muscogee in 1831, making a meeting between him and Cynthia Dillard possible. A courthouse fire in 1838 could explain the lack of a marriage record for Cynthia and Thomas B. Royston.

The move of both George W. Dillard and Thomas B and Cynthia Royston into Alabama by 1840 also points to a possible connection, with families often migrating together. George W. Dillard patented land in three different Alabama counties, including Chambers County, where Thomas and Cynthia settled by 1850. Studying the land transactions of Thomas B. Royston revealed no connections to the land George W. Dillard patented.

The presence of a “Leonidas” in both the Dillard and Royston households also points to a possible connection. Future research could examine the descendants of George W. Dillard for other similar naming patterns. Although, evidence continues to point to George W. Dillard as the possible father for Cynthia (Dillard) Royston, further research should be done to eliminate other candidates.

Phase 2: Identifying Alternate Dillard Candidates

With no direct evidence connecting Cynthia to George W. Dillard, I decided to focus next on identifying other Dillard men who could be her father. The research would focus on the Dillard household heads in Georgia censuses of 1820 and 1830, with a female Cynthia’s age.

Objective:

The objective of this research project is to identify and eliminate candidates for the father of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Cynthia was born about 1815 in Georgia and died 2 August 1882 in Collin County, Texas. Cynthia married Thomas Beverly Royston about 1833 in Georgia or Alabama. Her father was born before 1795, likely in Virginia.

Conclusion:

This research project was very successful in identifying and researching ten Dillard individuals who were candidates for the parent of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Cynthia and her husband, Thomas Beverly Royston, had been researched extensively, and clues to her parentage came in the records of her later life: born in Georgia about 1815, maiden name of Dillard. A previous research project had focused on George W. Dillard of Muscogee County, Georgia, and Russell County, Alabama, as a likely father for Cynthia. Without direct evidence of that relationship, however, eliminating other possible candidates could strengthen that hypothesis.

A candidate for the parent of Cynthia had to meet the criteria of having a female of appropriate age to be Cynthia in the 1820 and 1830 census enumerations, prior to her marriage about 1834. The following table details the findings.

Of the ten candidates for the parent of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston, all were eliminated based on the research, except for Susan Dillard of Muscogee County, Georgia, 1830. George W. Dillard, also appearing on the Muscogee County census of 1830, remains the strongest possibility for the father of Cynthia. Further research could explore all of the Dillards of Muscogee County from its creation in 1826 to about 1850, seeking further connections for Cynthia.

After writing about this research, a descendant of George W. Dillard contacted me with the news that she had the bible pages for George’s family. We found that the female from the censuses whom I had hypothesized could be Cynthia was actually Mariah Dillard, who married James Kivlin. Cynthia was not a daughter in this Dillard family.

Phase 3: Testing a ThruLine Hypothesis

After phase 2, I took a break from the Dillard research and worked on other brick wall ancestors. One day, I noticed a new possible father for Cynthia appear in my AncestryDNA ThruLines. The next phase of research centered on proving or disproving this hypothesis.

Objective:

Test the Thruline hypothesis that Hopson Milner was the father of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Hopson Milner was born about 1794 in Virginia and died in October 1872 in Harris County, Georgia. He married Nancy Meadows on 30 September 1812 in Jasper County, Georgia. Cynthia Dillard Royston was born about 1815 in Georgia and died in 1882 in Collin County, Texas. She married Thomas Beverly Royston about 1833 in Georgia or Alabama.

Conclusion:

This research project successfully tested the hypothesis that Hopson Milner was the father of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston and found it to be false. The Ancestry DNA Thrulines that suggested this relationship for three of Cynthia’s descendants were analyzed, and it was found that the majority of DNA connections were only for Cynthia, not connecting her to Hopson Milner.

Documentary research identified a Cynthia Milner who married a William E. Milner in Harris County, Georgia, in 1833, as the probable source of the confusion. A researcher likely discovered Cynthia married to Thomas B. Royston on the 1850 census and assumed this was a second marriage for Cynthia Milner. No marriage record has been found for the Dillard-Royston marriage, and the evidence for Cynthia’s maiden name of Dillard comes from death certificates of three of her children.

If the maiden name of Dillard were unknown to researchers, attaching Cynthia Milner to Thomas B. Royston could have seemed reasonable. Research in the census records, however, revealed that Cynthia and William E. Milner resided in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, in 1850 and 1860. During this same time period, Cynthia and Thomas B. Royston resided in neighboring Chambers County. Cynthia Milner and Cynthia (Dillard) Royston were two separate individuals, both residing in the households of their respective husbands in 1850 and 1860.

With Hopson Milner disproved as the father of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston, research can now continue to explore both DNA and documents in hopes of discovering her father.

Phase 4: Adding DNA to the Research

With still no good leads for Cynthia’s father, I turned to DNA. Through a DNA network graph, I had discovered a cluster of matches with the MRCA (most recent common ancestor) of Elijah Dillard.

Objective:

The objective of this research phase is to test the hypothesized biological sibling connection between Elijah Dillard and Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Elijah Dillard was born about 1816 in Georgia and died on 6 September 1886 in Coffee County, Alabama. Cynthia was born about 1816 in Georgia and died in 1882 in Collin County, Texas. Cynthia married Thomas Beverly Royston about 1833 in Georgia or Alabama.

Conclusion:

With documentary research not providing clues to the origins of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston, DNA analysis discovered a possible brother candidate in Elijah Dillard. Victor Parker, a great-grandson of Cynthia, tested his DNA at Ancestry and shared DNA with more than 63,000 people. Some of those matches would have also received a portion of DNA from Cynthia that could reveal clues to her parents. A Gephi network graph clustered Victor’s matches into groups, and analysis revealed a cluster that seemed to originate with Elijah Dillard. If he were Cynthia’s brother, the shared DNA would come from Elijah and Cynthia’s unknown parents.

Documentary research explored Macon County, Alabama, court, probate, and land records for Dillards. Elijah Dillard was the subject of three deeds, and other Dillards mentioned in the records were sons of George W. Dillard. Although previous research discounted George W. Dillard as Cynthia’s father, the Macon County research suggests that Elijah and Cynthia Dillard may be connected to the George W. Dillard family in some way – perhaps he was an uncle or cousin.

Searching Pike County, Alabama, records resulted in the death register entry for Elijah Dillard. No parents were named, but the record did name a specific death date, place, and burial for Elijah.

Returning to explore Victor Parker’s DNA matches in the network graph’s peach cluster,  found a new match descending from a different son of Elijah Dillard: James Monroe Dillard. This adds an independent line and further evidence that Elijah Dillard is the MRCA of the cluster and that he could be a brother to Cynthia (Dillard) Royston.

James Monroe Dillard lived in Escambia County, Florida, on the southern Alabama border in the 1930s. Perhaps he kept in touch with his probable first cousin, Mariah (Royston) Lovelady, and her reporting of Florida as Cynthia’s birthplace stemmed from this connection. Further research in both documentary records and DNA is needed to continue exploring the connection between Cynthia and Elijah Dillard.

Phase 5: The Cass County, Georgia, Dillards

After researching Elijah Dillard, my attention turned to the Cline and Weatherford family for the next two years. I made excellent progress on those lines and was glad of the break from the Dillards!

When I returned to the conundrum of Cynthia’s father, FamilySearch had launched its full-text search, and I discovered a new migration path for Thomas B. Royston, Cynthia’s husband.  This new research found him residing in Cass County (now Bartow), Georgia, in 1832 and 1833.

Cass is located near the Alabama-Georgia border and is just across the border from DeKalb County, Alabama, where the couple resided by 1837. This new location provided several Dillard families to research and a plausible reason for the lack of a marriage record in the county. Like many Georgia counties, most of the early Cass/Bartow records were burned in a courthouse fire. No marriages from 1833-1834 are extant, the likely time of the Dillard-Royston marriage.

Objective:

Discover a candidate for Cynthia (Dillard) Royston’s father residing in Cass County, Georgia, during the 1830s. Cynthia was born about 1815 in Georgia and died on 22 August 1882 in Collin County, Texas. Cynthia married Thomas B. Royston about 1833 or 1834, possibly in Cass County, Georgia.

With this new objective in place, I’m excited to see what the records will reveal. Next, we’ll examine the timeline and source analysis phase. If you’ve been struggling with a brick wall, perhaps following the project will give you new ideas.

Best of luck in all your genealogical research!