Ancestor Callings: Georgia and Mississippi Roots

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

My 16 Great Great-Grandparents: 1870 Representation

I consider myself fortunate that I have been able to confirm the names of my sixteen great-grandparents, especially since many 15 of the 16 were born and lived enslaved. The one ancestor who wasn't enslaved was an enslaver and his family is well documented. There is still a lot of research to be done in order to fill out their lives and tell their stories. Here are some basic statics on their lives -- except for landownership and marriages, information is from the 18780 census records.

Paternal Maternal

John W. Williams, Jr. (enslaver) William Barrett, abt 1847

Annie (enslaved) Luraney Raney, abt 1846

Austin Clark, b 1825 Ned Washington, b 1822

Martha Pound, abt 1835 Darkas ? abt 1823

Henry Button, abt 1815 Simon Stamps, abt1845

Nancy Lane, abt 1830 Olly Haley, abt 1845

Asa Carrington, b 1839 Willis Brown, b 1843

Henrietta Davis, abt 1850 Amy ?, abt 1842

Birthplaces Deaths

Virginia - 2 Georgia - 1 (enslaver)

Georgia - 8 Mississippi - 3

Mississippi - 6 Unknown - 12

Marriages (8 couples)

Couples - 5

Unmarried - 1

Enslaved / enslaver - 1

Unknown - 1

Landowners - 2 Occupations (1870 census records)

Farmers - 3

Farm Laborers - 5

Day Laborer - 1

Keeping House - 6

Unknown, enslaved in 1860

Born before the Civil War - 16

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Evelyn Orthelia Brown Williams: Her Final Chapter

Circa 1970s

My beautiful mother made transition on Monday, December 22, 2025. Evelyn Orthelia Brown Williams is now with the Ancestors. I call her name. I will miss her earthly presence more than I can express.

As I entered her information on the Find A Grave site and connected her to immediate family, I felt a sense of peace.

I lovingly wrote her obituary which, of course, only tells a small fraction of her story.

Evelyn Orthelia Williams was born November 30, 1931 in Buffalo, New York to Lucy and Noah Brown. From their union were born three other children -- Verlie, Arthur, and Vivian -- who all preceded Evelyn in death.

During her youth, Evelyn was actively involved in the Sunday School program and other activities at Saints Home Church of God in Christ. She lived her entire life in Buffalo and was a product of the public school system, attending School #31 and Fosdick Masten High School. While in high school, she was president of the Lambda Chi Hi-Y and president of Alpha Pi Eta Sigma Sorority. She worked briefly as secretary at the historic Michigan Avenue YMCA, where she met her future husband.

On September 26, 1952, she and Willis B. Williams were married in the home of the bride's mother. Their marriage lasted 58 years only ending with the transition of her husband in 2011.

The couple became the proud parents of five children: Sandra Ann, Richard Lamonte, Steven Arthur, Willis Barry, and Raymond Louis. And later, they became the loving grandparents of Elizabeth Orthelia.

Evelyn's hobbies have included bowling and painting. She was passionate about her garden, looking forward to planting a wide variety of vegetables every year.

Evelyn was the ultimate mother, opening her home to her children's friends; some of whom continue to call her Mom. She happily called Rickey Butler and Andrew King her sons throughout her life.

Evelyn Orthelia Williams was called home on Monday, December 22, 2025. She leaves to uplift her memory: daughter, Sandra Bush; sons, Steven (Mary) Williams, Willis (Barbara) Williams, Raymond Williams; granddaughter, Elizabeth Orthelia Bonds; dear cousins, Elizabeth Miller, Melvena Tyus and Ohio family; nephew, John Craddock; niece, Heidi Williams and a host of family and friends.

Saturday, November 8, 2025

Vandy Jane Doe: a DNA Cousin

On February 19, 2025, I was contacted by a DNA investigator through Ancestry.com that my mother and I were a DNA matches to an unidentified Jane Doe. The investigator determined our connection through the kits I had uploaded to GEDmatch.

"... we have worked with a couple of matches that match your mother and W that you manage ... RB and DS. RB matches you at 19cm and he matches another kit you manage at 23cms. You and RB share 19cm it says 4th cousins and with W he shares 23cms. On his end it says maternal side, ... an EL you share 111cm with him and RB shares 123cm. Do you have pro tool Ancestry? It shows your shared matches with your match."

On June 18, we connected through a Zoom call, and she told me the heart-breaking story of Vandy Jane Doe. An unidentified woman was found on a rural road near Nashville, Tennessee on September 8, 2018. She was in an advanced state of decomposition but fully dressed in Vanderbilt University clothing -- and that's how she became identified with the name "Vandy Jane Doe".

With advances in DNA, Nashville Police reopened the case. She was exhumed in 2022 to collect DNA for forensic genealogy research. Her DNA indicates that she is 50% African American and 50% Italian. In addition to her ethnicity, she was initially described as 5 ft-5 in tall, 15-25 years old, black hair, and biological female. Her description was revised as 5 ft-9in tall and age 16-35 years old after the police worked with an anthropologist.

Ancestry.com added the enhanced feature Pro Tools in December 2023. It offers several advancements to improving your family tree, including how to better evaluate DNA matches. I started using Pro

Tools mid-2024 -- focusing on one of the features at a time. By the time the DNA investigator contacted me, I had already begun grouping my maternal and paternal DNA matches.

The one match, EL is predicted as a 2nd cousin 1x removed or half 1st cousin 2x removed to me in Ancestry (2% shared DNA: 111cM across 7 segments). He only had six people in his tree. I have built out his tree to three generations and I am meticulously going through each person. And as I looked at the DNA groups of my maternal matches with EL, it appeared that the matches were on my mother's paternal line out of Mississippi.

Vandy Jane Doe has DNA connections to the states of Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee. To date, I don't recognize any of the surnames on the poster that are connected to her.

The most recent poster with information about Vandy Jane Doe shows the 2018 original image that was circulated shortly after Vandy was found. It also has an updated 2025 image as well as an AI version of what she may have looked like. The original photo that was circulated was produced using forensics, because she was unrecognizable due to decomposition.

In the initial investigation, no students, staff, or faculty from Vanderbilt University were missing. Vandy's official cause of death has never been released. She has been featured on Dateline and Facebook. Every time I Google "Vandy Jane Doe" there are more articles and alerts keeping her story in public view.

Everyone has a name. Everyone has familial connections whether they are nurtured or not. Everyone has community connections. It breaks my heart that a once vibrant young woman is unnamed and unidentified in death.