New DNA Discovery: Babb and Duffey Descendants of Henry County, Georgia

I've been making lots of progress in the last few months with Genetic Genealogy. My mother has a predicted 3rd cousin on AncestryDNA. This particular match shares 80 centimorgans across 7 DNA segments with my mom. Today, this DNA cousin responded to an inbox that I sent her last month. Of course, I'd given her as much info as I could to see if any surnames or locations were familiar to her. The only info that she shared with me was that her grandmother may have been from Clayton County, Georgia. Ah, I thought! Clayton County is where my mom spent most of her childhood and currently lives 5 minutes away. I then asked the DNA cousin for the name of her grandmother. Today, December 27, 2015, she responded with more than her grandmother's name but also with the name of her great-grandmother. Her grandmother was Annie Babb(born c. 1922) and Annie's mother was Nancy Craine(born c. 1900)!

I recognize both surnames. Babb is the surname of my mother's father, Napoleon Babb and Craine is a family that I knew some relatives married into. Since I didnt know who Annie Babb's father was I immediately searched for her mother, Nancy Craine. I found Nancy living in the 1910 U.S. Census with her father and step-mother. *An interesting tid-bid is that Nancy's step-mother Arvella Curtis Crane is my maternal grandmother's aunt. Arvella and her husband John had children but they died as babies. Nancy is the child of John and his first wife NOT Arvella.*

I decided to search marriage records to see who Nancy married. I found the marriage record for Nancy Craine and Samuel Babb who married in 1914 in Clayton County, Georgia. I found Samuel and Nancy living in Clayton Georgia in the 1920 Census. By this time, Samuel was listed as Robert. Was Robert the first name or middle name? Hmm... By 1930 they were living in Cleveland, Ohio with their children: James, Robert, Annie(the grandmother of DNA cousin) and Ralph. I felt right away that our connection was through the Samuel/Robert Babb but who were his parents? Since Samuel/Robert was born around 1895, I started with the 1900 U.S. Census to see what I could find. Low and behold, I find Samuel/Robert with his parents Henry Babb (born c. 1868) and Josephine Babb née Duffey (born c. 1871) who are my mother's great-grandparents! I'd actually had Samuel Babb in the family tree all along but hadn't gotten around to finding out more about him.

Shared DNA Matches

The 3rd cousin mentioned above who I will call Dee, also shares DNA with another confirmed 3rd cousin named Wanda. Wanda and I confirmed our relationship a couple of months ago but I had not written about it until now. Wanda is related to my mom through Gilbert (born c. 1841) and Arena Duffey (born c. 1846) of Henry County, Georgia. They are the parents of the Josephine Duffey Babb listed above who is the wife of Henry Babb. So, this new found information is confirmation of how Dee, Wanda and my mom are related.

:)