Thursday, February 25, 2016

Two Male Line Surnames

We had a family legend (story) that at one time, a McFarland boy was orphaned(?) (indentured?????) to a Hunt family in Wales and took the Hunt name out of gratitude. What proved to be true when cousin Bill Hunt did a Y-DNA (male line DNA) study was that we share no Y-DNA with any other Hunts than cousins from my 1787-1856 Thomas Hunt.

What we share is Y-DNA with McFarlins (McFarland, MacFarlane, etc) particularly a family out of Orange County, NC in the mid to late 1700s. It is possible that the common male ancestor might have occurred in that same time period, or it could have been earlier. Cousin Bill Hunt with the guidance of his wife Susan Kromer Hunt and other researchers have narrowed down the possible switch from the McFarland name to the Hunt surname. Now we are all looking for proof by traditional record methods or DNA to help document what is now believed to be true.

In Orange County, NC in the 1780s a William McFarland and an Elizabeth Hunt were charged with adultery (both being married to others not mentioned here) but fled NC so the case was left open and not further prosecuted as far as records tell us? Also, the Veasey, Duke. and Hunt, and McFarland families had numerous relationships of record in Orange County in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

The other part of the puzzle is that our Thomas Hunt in Rutherford County, NC in the early 1800s lived among three brothers, William "Wat" Hunt, Absalom Hunt, and William "Kinch" Hunt. Like Thomas, descendants of all three "brothers" have DNA tested male line and none are descended from Hunts. Wat descends from a Veasey line, Ab from  a Veasey line, and Kinch from a Duke line. There is a possible link to Brackett and Devinney with Wat and Ab. Did I mention that one generation before my 1787 Thomas Hunt, another Thomas Hunt (relationship unknown) and a Duke (both in Orange Co, NC) were pardoned from hanging in the same proclamation "provided they joined the Continental Army" (ca 1780) which they did and lived on?

This is what is keeping me and other Thomas Hunt descendants, McFarlands, and those of the other Hunts named going in circles right now.   I owe a lot of thanks to cousin Bill and Susan Hunt and other Hunt and McFarland researchers for parts of the information here. As always, if there are errors, it is in my retelling and not their research.