Welcome to the Clemsy (Cline)Weatherford project! I’m Diana Elder, a third great-granddaughter of Clemsy, and I need your help determining her father. I’m looking for other descendants of Clemsy and her potential Cline family to share information and participate in the DNA study. The research to this point has identified a group of Clines as Clemsy’s potential siblings and father. Because of severe record loss in Izard and Fulton County, Arkansas, no county records exist to provide evidence of these relationships. Correlating existing tax and federal land records has provided the following potential family members.

John C. Cline (potential father)
Jacob Cline (potential brother)
John Cline Jr. (potential brother)
Mahala Cline (potential sister)
Annie Cline (potential half-sister)

I am looking for descendants of Clemsy or John C. Cline who are willing to share their DNA results with me in my search for Clemsy’s father. Rest assured that if you do share your DNA results with me, I’ll only be looking for common matches through the Cline/Weatherford families. I won’t publish your name anywhere without your consent.

I am also open to any information you may have on the Clines or Weatherfords through sources or family stories. Below is a preliminary tree of the Cline family. If you see one of your ancestors in the following tree, you may be able to help me with the project!

Objective

The objective of this research project is to use DNA and genealogical records to determine the biological father of Clemsy Cline. She was born about 1817 in Alabama and died after 1880 in Wise County, Texas. Clemsy married Henderson Weatherford in about 1839 in Arkansas.

Previous Research

I’ve completed two research phases for Clemsy.

Phase 1 Objective

This research phase aimed to discover a candidate for the father of Clemsy Cline. She was born about 1817 in Alabama and died after 1880 in Wise County, Texas. Clemsy married Henderson Weatherford in about 1839 in Arkansas.

Phase 1 Conclusion

The objective to find a possible family for Clemsy Cline was met in the discovery of the Izard County Clines – John C. Cline, Mahala Cline, and John Cline in the land and tax records. Mahala is the connecting link with her appearance also in Morgan County, Missouri, in the 1850 household of Jacob Cline. Clemsy (Cline)Weatherford lived nearby and had two Cline children in her household.

Researching Jacob Cline of Morgan County, Missouri, found his 1835 marriage to Telitha Ard and tax records for 1835 and 1836 in Wayne County, Kentucky. No other Clines paid taxes in those years or purchased land. It appears that Jacob Cline appeared in Kentucky briefly, then moved west to Morgan County, Missouri, with his wife’s Ard family. No evidence was found of a Rockingham County, Virginia, connection for Jacob Cline. This likely came from a history about Danial Cline, who moved from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Morgan County, Missouri, in 1875. Perhaps the similarity of surname and the fact that Jacob’s birthplace is listed as Virginia on the 1850 census led to this conclusion.

If Jacob Cline was a son of John C. Cline and a brother to Mahala, Clemsy, and John Cline, perhaps his residence in Morgan County, Missouri, drew them to that same location. Mahala married Thomas Stockley and remained in Missouri until her 1899 death. Clemsey and Henderson Weatherford moved again to Dallas County, Texas, by 1860. They joined a group of Weatherfords that are almost certainly Henderson’s family. John Cline of the 1840 census in Morgan County could be the John Cline who patented land in Izard County in 1849 and 1850. Additional research could shed light on his identity and connection to the Cline group.

Read the complete report here: Clemsy Cline Research Report Dec 2022

Phase 2 Objective

This research phase sought to identify the Cline associates of Clemsy (Cline) Weatherford, who patented land in Izard County, Arkansas, between 1844 and 1850. Clemsy was born about 1817 in Alabama and died after 1880 in Wise County, Texas. She married Henderson Weatherford about 1839 in Arkansas, where he paid taxes in Izard County in 1839 and 1845. The associates to be researched are:
• John C. Cline – 1844 land patents
• Mahaley Cline – 1848 land patents
• John Cline – 1849 and 1850 land patents

Phase 2 Conclusion

This research project successfully met the objective of identifying the three Cline individuals who patented land in Izard County, Arkansas, between 1838 and 1850.

John C. Cline, Sr. first appeared in Izard County, Arkansas, in 1837, applying for a land patent for 40 acres that was finalized in 1838. He went on to patent two additional 40-acre parcels in 1838 and 1844, bringing his total land to 120 acres. When Fulton County was created from Izard, he became a resident of that county. He paid taxes on the Izard County land in 1839 and 1841 but had sold the land by 1850, when the tax lists show George French paying tax on the land originally granted to John C. Cline. John was taxed instead on first one, then two town lots, having sold his 120 acres. John, age 65, headed a household in 1850 in Fulton County, Arkansas, then likely died by 1860, not appearing on that census.

John Cline, Jr. paid a poll tax in Izard County, Arkansas, in 1839, headed a household in Morgan County, Missouri, in 1840, and then applied for three land patents in Izard County, Arkansas, in 1847 and 1848. Those patents state his residence as Fulton County (1847) and Pulaski County (1849). John Cline Jr. left no records in Pulaski County, Arkansas. Still, tax lists of Fulton County reveal his death by 1849 when Absalom Wiseman, administrator for the estate of John Cline, paid the taxes on his patented land. Sally Cline paid the tax for one of the land parcels in 1852 and Sarah Blair for the other two. By 1843, Irvin Blair paid the tax for the two parcels; no mention was made of Sally Cline or the other parcel. Sarah Cline, residing in the household of F. Herron in 1850 in Fulton County, could be the widow of John Cline, Jr. With twins born in 1848, she may have been his second wife and, upon his death, sent his three other children north to Missouri with Mahala Cline and Clemsy (Cline) Weatherford. The twins lived with Ferguson Herron in 1860, but Sarah had possibly died as she is not present on that census. Two other younger girls are listed in the household and could be her daughters or other relations to Ferguson Herron.

Mahala Cline likely applied for her land patents as a young woman in 1844. The 1850 tax list revealed George French paying taxes on land originally patented by her. She then likely moved north to Missouri and was the same Mahala Cline, age 22, who resided in the 1850 Morgan County, Missouri, household of Jacob Cline with Robert, age 5, and married Thomas Shockley in 1854.

The overall research objective to discover a connection between the Missouri and Arkansas Clines and the accompanying research resulted in the hypothesis that John C. Cline, Sr., was the father of Jacob, John Jr., Clemsy, and Mahala. No evidence so far discovered disproves the hypothesis, and in fact, finding that John Cline Jr. died by 1849 provides evidence that the three Cline children found in the 1850 households of Clemsey (Cline) Weatherford and Jacob Cline could indeed be the children of their brother, John Cline Jr.

Read the complete report here: Clemsy Cline Report Nov 2023

DNA Test-Takers

Descendants of Clemsy (Cline) Weatherford

Currently, six descendants of Clemsy have shared their Ancestry DNA results with me providing 16% coverage of her genome. To achieve the best coverage and a higher likelihood of finding DNA matches relevant to her family, more descendants are needed, especially those who descend through children of Clemsy besides Isabella Weatherford and her daughter, Dora Algie Royston.

If you have already had DNA testing through Ancestry, you can follow these steps to add me as a viewer to your DNA. As a viewer, we won’t be able to make any changes to your DNA account but will only be able to view your matches to make our needed analyses. See Ancestry’s article: Sharing AncestryDNA Results. Here are the steps:

- Click the DNA tab from any Ancestry page and select Your DNA Results Summary.
- On your DNA homepage, click Settings in the top-right corner.
- On the DNA Settings page, scroll down to the Sharing Preferences section and click the arrow next to “DNA test sharing.”
- Click the blue “invite” button, then enter my username (delder999), select Viewer, and click Invite. Whether you enter an email address or username, the invitation will be sent by email.
- When your invitation is accepted, you’ll receive an email letting you know.

2. If you have your DNA results on GEDmatch, you can e-mail your kit number to diana@familylocket.com

3. If you have not done your DNA but would like to, you can purchase an Ancestry DNA kit here.

4. If you’re not interested in sharing DNA with us but have genealogical information you’d like to share, e-mail me at diana@familylocket.com

How does it Work?

Autosomal DNA can only help identify ancestors up to 6-8 generations back. When reviewing a DNA match, the testing website will report the amount of DNA shared with a match, but the specific relationship can only be discovered through analyzing pedigrees. Placing matches in genetic networks and tracking the surnames and locations that appear in different pedigrees can help pinpoint a common ancestor between a test taker and a DNA match. This process can help prove family relationships and lead to hypotheses for missing ancestors.

To find a genetic cluster pointing to Clemsy Cline’s father, more DNA needs to be collected for her descendants. Collecting more DNA of the descendants of Clemsy will increase the likelihood that her father’s DNA will be represented in the analysis. The term for this in genetic genealogy is DNA coverage. For example, if the objective of a project was to prove a test-taker’s mother, and only the test-taker’s DNA had been collected, then 50% of the DNA of the research subject (the test-taker’s mother) would be covered in the analysis.

To increase the coverage of Clemsy’s genome, best practices would be to collect DNA from multiple descendants of each of her children. This would ensure that the analysis was not limited to DNA only passed through one child. Keep in mind that if DNA matches increase the DNA coverage of a research subject by more than 5%, it is highly suggested to collect that DNA. To learn more about DNA coverage, you can read Paul Woodbury’s article “Covering Your Bases: Introduction to Autosomal DNA Coverage.”

For any questions, email Diana Elder: Diana@familylocket.com

Learn more about me at FamilyLocket.com.