In my ongoing research to discover the father of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston, I’m exploring a new Dillard group who appeared in Cass County, Georgia, by 1840. In Part 1, I outlined the four previous research projects, including their objectives and conclusions. In this blog post, I’ll share the next step in the Research Like a Pro process: creating a timeline and analyzing the sources and information they hold, along with any evidence they provide.
Research Objective
The research objective I settled on for phase 5 of the Dillard research is concise and includes key identifiers for Cynthia.
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.
Timeline for Cynthia
The timeline step involves gathering the relevant previous research on the ancestor and assembling it in a timeline. I use the database spreadsheet hybrid, Airtable, for the research log and timeline. In the latest template I use, RLP with DNA 4.1 (created by Nicole Elder Dyer), you enter the source information first into the research log, then use an automation feature to automatically copy information over into a new row in the timeline table. This avoids duplication of effort.
I needed to select the relevant sources to include in the timeline from the many sources I’ve assembled through the years on Cynthia and Thomas B. Royston. Because I’m seeking her father, nailing down a probable birth date and place is key. Four censuses provide her inferred birth year and state a birthplace. I included each census in the timeline because I want to have that readily available as I research.
Each census gives her place of birth as Georgia, but her birth year is 1815 in 1850, 1816 in 1860, 1817 in 1870, and 1818 in 1880. Which makes the most sense? This isn’t a huge swing, but Cynthia’s oldest child, Mary Elizabeth, birth on 4 May 1834 or 1835, (depending on the source) helps to make an educated guess.
No marriage record has emerged for Cynthia and Thomas, but a date can be estimated of either 1833 or 1834. If born in 1815, Cynthia would have been 18 or 19 years old when she was married and 19 or 20 at the time of her daughter’s birth. If born in 1818, she would have been 15 at the time of marriage and 16 at the time of her daughter’s birth. The 1815 birth makes more sense.
Airtable Timeline Grouping for Cynthia Dillard’s Birth
Timeline for Elijah Dillard of Alabama
Phase 4 of the search for Cynthia’s father involved DNA and the discovery that Elijah Dillard was a possible brother. I included him in the timeline because I now had two genetically related people to use for comparison to another Dillard group.
I included all the records previously found for Elijah in the timeline: census, land patents, military records, and a death record. His purported age at birth has an even wider swing than Cynthia’s – 1816 to 1825. I reasoned that his birth was probably nearer to the 1816 and 1818 reportings of the 1880 census and the death register. This puts him closer to Cynthia’s birth year estimate. Elijah’s birthplace is consistently named as Georgia.
Airtable Timeline Grouping for Elijah Dillard’s Birth
Timeline for Cass County, Georgia, Dillards
I hadn’t researched the Dillard’s appearing in the 1840 census in Cass County, Georgia, so their entries in the timeline were sparse. I carefully reviewed each of the four individuals’ entries and created a record for both their birth and residence, based on the 1840 census. Two Dillard individuals appear most likely to be a parent for Cynthia and Elijah based on their age in the 1840 census – Elizabeth and John Dillard.
Airtable Timeline Grouping for Elizabeth and John Dillard
An intriguing record is that of an Elijah Dillard among the Cass County, Georgia, group. Could he be the Elijah Dillard genetically related to Cynthia? If so, his age is about ten years too old. Alternatively, could he be a father for both Cynthia and Elijah? Since I have two Elijahs in the timeline and am unsure of their relationship or whether they’re the same person, I added an identifier to each of their names in the timeline. This Elijah is noted as Elijah Dillard of Cass, GA, while the DNA Elijah is Elijah Dillard of AL, since all of his located records are in Alabama.
Airtable Timeline Grouping for Elijah Dillard of Cass
The final Dillard I added to the timeline was William Dillard. Born between 1801 and 1810, he is probably not Cynthia’s father, but could be another relative.
Airtable Timeline Grouping for William Dillard
Source Analysis
The timeline is primarily based on federal census records, so I carefully examined the type of source, information, and evidence in each one. Censuses are original records created at the time of the event, which was an enumeration of the residents of a specific geographical location.
We can derive several pieces of information from each census beyond residence, including household makeup, migration patterns based on children’s birthplaces (after 1840), the ages of each household member, occupation, and more. Since the informant is unknown for the census information, I gave most of those items in the timeline the label of undetermined information. However, those details provided direct evidence of age, birthplace, and residence since they directly answered the question.
The 1840 census for Cass County, Georgia, District 973, page 78, shows John and William Dillard listed next to each other, with Elijah Dillard a few lines down. Their proximity could show a connection. 1
On the other hand, Elizabeth Dillard is listed in District 951. Perhaps she is unrelated to John, William, and Elijah, or the district alignment put her in a different district, but she still resided nearby. More research is needed. 2
Revisiting the timelines for Cynthia and her genetic relative, Elijah of Alabama, helped me remember my reasoning and set the stage for research planning. The initial review of the Cass County Dillards provided some possibilities and the need for additional research. I look forward to learning more about this group! Next up I’ll be studying Cass County, Georgia, and creating a locality guide. Best of luck in all your genealogical research! 
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Thanks for the note!