My maternal grandmother, Goldie

I realized that I haven’t written much on this blog about my Mom’s mother’s line, other than my previous post about my maternal haplogroup.  My maternal grandmother, Goldie Elizabeth Wilson, was born July 9, 1919.  She was the youngest child for John Thomas Wilson and Bertie Maud (Slucher) Wilson.  My great-grandmother, Bertie was first married to a man named Marion Moore Sargent (3/15/1872-8/27/1893) on Dec. 24, 1891.  They had one child:

• John Erbin Sargent (11/28/1892-10/29/1974)

Bertie would’ve only been 15 years old when John Erbin was born and less than one year later, her first husband would die.  I haven’t been able to locate the cause of death for Marion, who was only 21 years old.

After Marion’s death, Bertie married my great-grandfather, John Thomas Wilson (1874?-11/11/1945).  I don’t have an exact marriage date for them, but I’m guessing it was around 1898.  According to my mother, John Thomas didn’t want to raise his step-son Erbin, so he was sent to Bertie’s Slucher relatives to raise.  John Thomas and Bertie had 8 children:

• Hallie Wilson (8/3/1899-9/15/1983) – Married George Scott and resided in Georgetown, Ky
• John William Wilson (2/17/1901-3/14/1978) – Married Agnes Gooch
• Herman Thomas Wilson (1/23/1905-1/2/1987) – Married Arie Harlow; Served in the military during WWII
• Mildred Frances Wilson (11/21/1907-9/11/1999) – Married William Riester
• Woodrow Wilson (7/11/1912-7/14/1982) – Married Louise Hill
• Ruby Wilson (7/9/1915?-1990s?)
• Bertie Maude Wilson (4/15/1918-5/3/1918) – died in infancy
• Goldie Elizabeth Wilson (7/9/1919-5/23/2004) – my grandmother

Here’s some pictures of Goldie and her family:

Wilson family – (L-R) John T. Wilson, Herman Wilson, Woodrow Wilson, Francis Wilson, Hallie Wilson, and Bertie (Slucher) Wilson – ca. 1910

Goldie – ca. 1940

John T. Wilson – Goldie’s Dad

John T. Wilson – Goldie’s Dad

Bertie (Slucher) Wilson – Goldie’s mother

Goldie Wilson (standing far left), Francis Wilson (center standing), Bertie Wilson (right standing), Herman Wilson (front left), John William Wilson (center front), Woodrow Wilson (right front)

Joann(Goldie’s niece) and Ruby (Goldie sister)

Maternal haplogroup

Well, I took my birthday money and decided to get my DNA tested through a site called 23andme.  One of my 2nd cousins had done this a while back and shared his results with me, so I thought it would be cool to do my own DNA.  For this post, I wanted to share my maternal haplogroup information, also know as mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is passed down by the mother unchanged, to all children.  In other words, mtDNA is passed down from your mother’s mother, and her mother’s mother and so on.  Haplogroups of those sharing similar mtDNA can be traced back to specific regions of the world.

According to my DNA, my maternal haplogroup is H.  Here’s some more information about this haplogroup:

Haplogroup H dominates in Europe, reaching peak concentrations along the Atlantic coast. It is also common in many parts of the Near East and Caucusus Mountains, where the haplogroup can reach levels of 50% in some populations. H originated about 40,000 years ago in the Near East, where favorable climate conditions allowed it to flourish. About 10,000 years later it spread westward all the way to the Atlantic coast and east into central Asia as far as the Altay Mountains.

About 21,000 years ago an intensification of Ice Age conditions blanketed much of Eurasia with mile-thick glaciers and squeezed people into a handful of ice-free refuges in Iberia, Italy, the Balkans and the Caucasus. Several branches of haplogroup H arose during that time, and after the glaciers began receding about 15,000 years ago most of them played a prominent role in the repopulation of the continent.

H1 and H3 expanded dramatically from the Iberian Peninsula, along the Atlantic coast and into central and northern Europe. Other branches, such as H5a and H13a1, expanded from the Near East into southern Europe. After a 1,000-year return to Ice Age conditions about 12,000 years ago, yet another migration carried haplogroup H4 from the Near East northward into Russia and eastern Europe.

Haplogroup H achieved an even wider distribution later one with the spread of agriculture and the rise of organized military campaigns. It is now found throughout Europe and at lower levels in Asia, reaching as far south as Arabia and eastward to the western fringes of Siberia.

Royal Lines

Because it is so common in the general European population, haplogroup H also appears quite frequently in the continent’s royal houses. Marie Antoinette, an Austrian Hapsburg who married into the French royal family, inherited the haplogroup from her maternal ancestors. So did Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, whose recorded genealogy traces his female line to Bavaria.

At this point, here’s as far back as I’ve been able to verify on this maternal line:

• My mother, Wanda (Cinnamond) Stivers (1949-)

Goldie (Wilson) Cinnamond with my mother, Wanda (Cinnamond) Stivers – ca. 1951

• My mother’s mother – Goldie (Wilson) Cinnamond (1919-2004)

Bertie (Slucher) Sargent Wilson – ca. 1885

• Goldie’s mother – Bertie (Slucher) Wilson (1877-1964)
• Bertie’s mother – Mildred Francis (Hudson) Slucher (1857-1917)

Mildred Francis (Hudson) Slucher tombstone – located at Grafenburg Baptist church

• Mildred’s mother – Nancy (Cline) Hudson (ca. 1825-before 1880)

I’ve found additional information, but haven’t verified any of the following:

• Nancy’s mother – Levina (Jones) Cline (1790-1855)
• Levina’s mother – Susanna (Denmark) Jones (1765-1821)
• Susanna’s mother – Anna (Moye) Denmark  (1742-1806)

I haven’t been able to locate information about Anna’s mother, so this is where the trail ends at this point.