Eddie Daugherty (1892-19??)
2023-06-03 Followed Illinois death records on Edward Daugherty to a history of Pin Oak Township where he died. In 1819 an anti-slavery planter from Virginia settled a portion of the township with his emancipated slaves who were each given acreage to farm. Among these was a Henry Daugherty who I'm speculating was the grandfather of Edward. The death record is 1917 so could not be my grandfather but could be his father if The Eddie was a Jr. So looks like Henry, could be the first free black american in my ancestry and possibly my great-great-great grandfather. The Edward Daugherty that died in 1917 was listed as male negro so unlike the ones which are wild speculation based on the name below he is likely actually related. The Pin Oak Colony was noted for having "products of free black and native intermarriage were recorded as "mulatto," the same as lighter-skinned blacks and products of black and white parents" so this is another piece falling into place.
Ray, Edna, and Stella were known since childhood. 'Eddie Daugherty' is the shadowy 4th I learned of in '06.
Possible common ancestor between him or Stella and Ray or Edna, there's some 23andMe info to support that.
An image, the summary reasoning posted here once I've tracked him down.
The 1920 census shows an "Ed W Daugherty"
Actual name is 'William Edward Daugherty' (1879-1945), wife 'Sterling Stella Boyer' (1879-1961)
Daugherty is a very common name in the region so it's just a start since it's the right area, Morgan Co., IL.
Or so I thought until 2022 when it became known that Eddie and Stella
were supposed to be in Edwardsville when their son
Robert C. was born. As I said, very common name.
I deleted speculation based the Morgan Co. individual.
In any case the combination of archival and genetic info will ultimately reveal the truth.
For purposes here, "white" means that a DNA ancestry report has assigned 95% or greater european ancestry.
Skin color is a big part of this story. My father and one of his brothers were fairly dark skinned but his other siblings and mother were not.
I once met the Burns in the East St. Louis area (1965) and they were quite dark, darker than my father or uncle, more like Jimmy and Erlene in pic.
That pic shows Stella and her sister were lighter skinned which I didn realize till seeing a clearer pic of her in '06.
As genetic ancestry resolution improves and becomes more pervasive, more data points should tell the story.
Current info indicates that I have 3 white grandparents more or less but the error could move it one direction or the other which would affect the sleuthing.
If surmise above correct and Stella was around ¼ european ancestry, then the figure for me should converge to significantly over ¾.
OTOH, LaVerne's having < ⅓ european ancestry would be closer to the << ⅔ for me I presumed before getting the result indicating he in fact had 48%.
However, 'Eddie Daugherty' being white per the above definition requires Stella to have been near zero % european.
Withal, at this point he appears to be a bigamist who passed for white from an early age, had a white wife with the same name (Stella) and family in addition to one with Stella Burns,and/or considered himself white from birth but was closer to what I am which has been called 'caucasoid' and definitely does not fit the definition above.
Nothing other than the genetic facts about him are clear yet though and these remain sparse.
Not that hard to clear up, only blocked by the cost so ... . It is likely I will do so if I survive long enough, this individual is probably the most important of my ancestors
as far as setting in motion forces that would result in my conception.
