For almost 30 years, I’ve puzzled through the descendants of a HUFFORD man who was born in 1903. He was orphaned young. His life was never easy. He was a distant cousin to me — 3rd cousin twice-removed, with our most recent common ancestors being Casper HOFFERT (1762-1825) and Catharine STIHLI (1767-1840), my five-greats-grandparents.

This is a “get a cup of tea” post. I’d like to share some of the 30 years of puzzle-solving that resulted in a long, friendly phone call about a week ago. I’ll attempt the telling without revealing identifying bits and pieces:
In about 1995, an email came from a woman who wanted to know about her HUFFORD lineage. This was in the early days of email. She had found a “tree” that I had submitted in gedcom file format to the LDS (Latter Day Saints/Mormons).

AN ASIDE: At the time, LDS Family History Center maintained a database, the name of which I no longer recall. It was a collection of submitted ancestral trees. There was no attempt by LDS to verify the submitted data. Back then, I helped at the local LDS Family History Center library and would teach others how to do research in the library. When I would explain the database of submitted pedigrees, my description was, “The info you’ll find in this collection may be correct, or it may be incorrect. It’s a collection of submitted info. Someone could submit info saying that Mickey Mouse married Minnie Mouse and their children were the Seven Dwarfs.” That database was, however, a way for a genealogical researcher to put his/her work in public, with the hope that years of research might survive. I was using an old software program called “PAF” (“Personal Ancestral File”). The software was a DOS program. (Ask an old person what “DOS” was.) My entry into the computer world was that old PAF software. Until then, I kept data on stacks of individual family group sheets, arranged in paper file folders that were then filed in plastic milk cartons, along with accompanying ancestral charts. Keeping track of many people with such a system would border on the impossible. These days, my main database (“HUFFORDS AND OTHERS”) has over 85,000 individuals. And I have another 120 trees/databases, created for specific research purposes. That level of genealogical research could not be done with paper and pencil.

Back in the mid-1990s when I submitted the gedcom file created from my personal database, I included my email address. And that is how a granddaughter of the HUFFORD man born in 1903 was able to contact me back in 1995.

Her message was simple: “My maternal grandfather’s name was such-and-such HUFFORD. He lived in this place in this time period. Married to so-and-so. Had these children. Can you tell me if/how I connect to the HUFFORDs whom you research?” It was a typical request. And, no, it was not unusual that she did not know the names of the parents of her grandfather. Many people do not know the names of their great-grandparents. I gave her the information, providing info on her HUFFORD great-grandfather, her two-greats grandfather, her three-greats-grandfather, her four greats-grandfather (Casper HOFFERT), and her five-greats-grandfather Christian HOFFARTH (1716-1788), the immigrant who arrived in Philadelphia in 1729 when he was 13 years old.

This woman and I are 5th cousins once-removed. I’ll call her “Ann.”

After learning how she connected to the HUFFORD tree, Ann did research using the usual documents. She filled me in on some family details of those more closely related to her. Our communication was usually by email, but occasionally by phone. About two years in, she explained that she was adopted, that her HUFFORD mother had given her up for adoption within days after her birth in 1953. Ann had learned the name of her mother when she was about 20. She’d hired a lawyer and sued to have the court release the names of her parents. She learned her mother’s name. Her father’s name was not on the records. She said she had hesitated sharing that she was adopted because some genealogists will not help adoptees-in-search.

In those days, the only thing genealogists had to work with were records, recorded history: wills, land transfer records, birth/death/marriage/divorce records, military records, church records, grave stones, cemetery records, court records, Social Security applications/claims, school records, city directories, newspaper stories, local histories, handwritten records in old family Bibles, handwriting on the backs of old photos, census records.

That changed in about 2010 with autosomal DNA tests, available for purchase by anyone and affordable for most. By 2015, test prices had dropped to about $100.

Ann first did an autosomal DNA test in about 2014. She allowed me to see her results because she wanted help in trying to figure out her biological-father. (I finally solved that puzzle a year or so ago.) Ann’s DNA allowed me to solve more HUFFORD puzzles.

In January 2019, DNA showed that Ann had a half-1st-cousin, the son of a son of Ann’s grandfather’s 2nd marriage. This newly found man was born in 1977. I recall when that revelation jumped up at me from Ann’s DNA test results, and I remember some of the early communication with that man. That story is HERE.

In April 2020, Ann’s DNA matches showed another surprise. This surprise involved a woman born in 1974. Her father was another son of Ann’s grandfather’s 2nd marriage. As a child, the woman born in 1974 had believed that her father was a HUFFORD, but when she was 20 years old, faulty lab results claimed he was not her father. They lost 26 years because of a failed test. That story is HERE. Her HUFFORD father was 74 years old when I phoned and explained that the woman he’d believed was his daughter for the first 20 years of her life really was his daughter.

In February 2023, I phoned that man again with some more surprising news. He was 77 years old when he learned that he had a 57-year-old daughter. He’d had no idea: High-school lovers conceived a child. Soon after, they broke up and never again saw one another. She married another young man and passed off the baby as the other man’s child. That marriage did not last long. The little girl grew up, and, eventually, the man she had believed was her father told her, “I’m not your father. Talk to your mother.” The mother would not talk, but the DNA talked, and I could hear what the DNA had to say. The 57-year-old woman was by then a grandmother. She sounded like an excited little girl to hear that I knew who her father was and that I was pretty sure that her father would respond appropriately, which he did. I made sure that he was safely seated and had no heart problems before I gave him the news. He was stunned, but his response was all positive.

Then, in December 2023 there was another new match among Ann’s DNA matches. It was another daughter of one of those two brothers. This woman was 43 and the half-sister of the man whose DNA appeared in January 2019. She had been adopted by loving parents. When an adoptee wonders about “roots,” it does not mean that the parents are not loving or that the child does not love them. It just means that we all search for our “roots.”

Finally, the woman born in 1965 who learned who her father was when she was 57 years old took the lead and got all of the siblings, half-siblings, and first cousins talking via social media. And, after a few months of talking, the chance presented that they could gather at the home of the woman born in 1965. I’d had no idea they were in regular communication or that they planned to gather. When they got together, someone said, “Let’s phone Alice and thank her.” It was a delightful and surprising hour-long conversation with people who have connected, in part, because of my genealogical research.

These words are framed and on a wall in my dining room:
“Before you this day there is set good and evil, life and death.
Choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”
Deuteronomy 30:19

DNA worked its magic again! It’s Saturday night. Late Thursday night a new match popped for me at ancestryDOTcom: Female. Share of 26 cM of DNA across three segments. Eighteen shared DNA matches, and I could ID everyone of them, but I could not ID her. Of the shared matches, ALL are HUFFORD descendants. For one, the connection is back at Abraham HUFFORD (b. 1788) and Elizabeth PLANK (b. 1792). For three, the connection is one generation closer, at Andrew HUFFORD (b. 1827) and Sarah Catherine CRIPE (b. 1833). For 14, the connection is closer one more generation, at Elizabeth HUFFORD (b. 1851) and George HOOKER (b. 1844). … (Elizabeth Hufford, b. 1851, is on page 81 of the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY.)

I reached out via ancestryDOTcom’s message service.

She knew her mother, but she did not know her father. It could be determine easily that our connection is on her father’s side. She said she was born and raised in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. I had never heard of the place. I told her that I could help her narrow her search if she would allow me to see her DNA matches, and she let me see matches.

In less than two hours, I knew that her father was one of three brothers, sons of Roberta Doreen HOOKER (1937-2021) and her husband. Roberta was a great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Hufford and George Hooker. (Elizabeth Hufford was daughter of Andrew Hufford, son of Abraham Hufford, son of Casper Hoffert, son of Christian Hoffart, b 1716, d. 1788).

THAT is how good autosomal DNA testing is!

My newly found cousin and I are 3rd cousins once-removed.

A cousin more closely related to her reached out this evening to the daughter of one of the brothers, and we should have more information in about four months. The Hooker/Hufford descendants are an unusually cooperative and family-like group.

Autosomal DNA is good stuff! If you are doing genealogical research and have not yet done an autosomal test, you are missing out on the best resource of the 21st century. And my recommendation is pretty specific: Have your test done at ancestryDOTcom. Why? Because it has the biggest database around, and what you are hunting for with autosomal DNA testing are DNA matches — people with whom you share DNA.

Two days ago, a new match popped for me at ancestryDOTcom: A female. The photo showed a young woman, and she said she lived in San Antonio, Texas. We share 34 centimorgans (cM) of DNA across three segments. And we have 26 shared matches. Of those 26, twenty-two are positively identified. Four descend from my HUFFORD/CRIPE ancestors. Ten descend from the next generation up — my HUFFORD/PLANK ancestors. Six descend from the next generation above that: my HOFFERT/STIHLI ancestors. And two are from my CRIPE/DANIELS ancestors (intermarried with my HUFFORD/PLANK ancestor). The four who are unidentified are obvious — but unknown — HUFFORD descendants.

That told me that my new DNA match descended from Abraham HUFFORD (son of Casper, son of Christian) and his wife Elizabeth PLANK.

And the CRIPE/DANIELS info told me that my new DNA match almost certainly descended from one of two children of Abraham Hufford and Elizabeth Plank — either from their son John or from their daughter Margaret Rebecca.

How could I tell that? Because son John married a CRIPE and daughter Margaret Rebecca married a Cripe.

The DNA said that, absolutely, the descent had to be from the Hufford/Plank couple, and the DNA also made clear that the descent could not be from my ancestor (son Andrew). Instead, the descent had to be from a sibling of my ancestor Andrew. And that dose of CRIPE ancestry pointed to Andrew’s siblings John or Margaret Rebecca.

Only 34 cM of DNA shared, and I knew all of that less than 30 seconds after looking at the DNA matches. To give you an idea of how small a 34-cM share is, consider that a parent and child share 3,400 cM; that first cousins share 850 cM (on average); that second cousins share 212 cM.

I made contact with the young lady, wondering if she knew who her HUFFORD ancestor was. She had no idea. She thinks of herself as a “southerner” but remembered hearing that there were some Hoosier ancestors on her father’s side. She didn’t know much about them. Some basic looking found those ancestors in Porter County, Indiana, a place that was not home to many HUFFORD/PLANK descendants. “Home” for Hufford/Plank folks would be Carroll County, Clinton County, or Tippecanoe County. But I looked. And I found no connection.

Then I began searching on her mother’s side. After some difficulties because of multiple marriages and early maternal deaths, a name popped: Ida FISHEL. And I remembered another puzzle that I’d solved back in 2016:
610 S. 11th St., Tacoma, Washington

Ida Fishel is named on page 61 of the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY. However, the editor of the book made a slight goof: He spelled the surname “Fisher.”

If the autosomal DNA says that you are a HUFFORD descendant, believe it!

Abraham HUFFORD, son of Abraham HUFFORD and Elizabeth PLANK, and grandson of Casper HOFFERT (b. 1762) died in 1893 in Clinton County, Indiana.

According to his gravestone, he died Dec. 26, 1893. You can see a photo of that gravestone at his findagrave page, here:
www.findagrave.com/memorial/33310352/

I saw that gravestone with my own eyes, a decade or so back. It’s located in a small cemetery that is framed by wire fencing and behind a big, metal swinging gate. It’s set back from a side road in Clay Township, Carroll County, Indiana, behind an area where cows are allowed to graze. Visiting the cemetery means walking with care to avoid cow patties, but I’ve seen that gravestone with my own eyes.

And I’ve seen the entry for the man in the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY. It’s on page 72, in the lower right corner. There is a photo of Abraham with his wife. Beneath the photo are the clear words, “Died December 26, 1893.”

Yesterday I saw the following, in the December 19, 1893, issue of THE GOSPEL MESSENGER, on page 799:

The gravestone got it wrong. The 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY got it wrong. Presumably, the newspaper story published seven days before the date carved in stone on his gravestone got it right, but for sure the man was dead before the date that shows on his gravestone. One-hundred twenty-seven years, and the correct date is back in play.