The Common Ancestors of John and Adam Duke

Location: Conecuh, Alabama, United States
Surname/tag: Duke

Contents 1 The Common Ancestors of John and Adam Duke 2 Family Members 2.1 Likely Ancestors 2.2 Possible Ancestors 2.3 Known Descendants 2.4 Possible Descendants 3 Evidence 3.1 DNA 3.2 Land Records 4 Sources

The Common Ancestors of John and Adam Duke

If you know of direct male descendants of any of the Dukes in Alabama, especially Joel Emerson Duke, John Duke III (the Elder), or Joel Duke from Edgefield, SC, please contact Jonathan Duke.

The descendants of William "Willie" Brinson Duke and Sarah "Sallie" Amanda Ross are descendants of Jack Brinson Duke (through Willie) and Adam Duke (through Sallie), and many have wondered if the two Dukes were related, but no information about that was passed down. Both came to Panola County, Texas around the same time from the same place in Conecuh County, Alabama.

• Who were Jack's parents, and what happened to them?
• Could Adam have been Jack's uncle?
• Were Willie and Sallie actually 2nd cousins?
• Where did the name "Brinson" come from?

Continued research and DNA testing are starting to unravel some of those mysteries. Jack's parents (and siblings) have now been identified, and it is clear that the two Duke lines connect somewhere between 1660 and 1790—connecting to the Dukes in Isle of Wight, Virginia in the mid-1600s—but we are still trying to fill in the gaps.

Family Members

Likely Ancestors

• William Duke (ca. 1620, immigrated from England bef. 1639, possibly originally spelled Ducke)
• John Duke (ca. 1640 - bef. 1689)]] from Isle of Wight, Virginia
  • m. Elizabeth (King?), who married Robert Mercer as a widow
• John Duke II (ca. 1661 - ca. 1720)
  • m. Bridgett (Askew?)

Possible Ancestors

• Sons of John Duke III "the Elder"
  • DNA seems to indicate a closer relationship between John's descendants than Robert and William, but they cannot be ruled out yet. Although their brother James is not known to have any descendants, he could also still be a possibility.
  • Of John's sons, the two most likely candidates seem to be:
    • Simon Duke (1725-1824)
    • Joel Duke (1739-1801)
      • If Joel is the father of John R. Duke, his descendants in the DNA group are distant matches but probably not from the same line.
    • There may have also been a younger son named John Duke.^[1]
  • Some online trees, including WikiTree, have him identified as John Washington Duke, but his yDNA does not match.
• Joel Duke (living in Conecuh, Alabama ca. 1820-1840)
  • This is based on their proximity in census and GLO records.
  • This could be the same person as the John below if the Smyth book is incorrect about his name.
• John Duke from Sparta, Georgia
  • This possibility is based on the Smyth book and assumes that Joel Emerson Duke was their younger brother.
• Joel Duke (ca. 1790 - aft. 1860) from Edgefield, South Carolina
  • This is not thought to be correct based on DNA, but the Mitchell book lists him as their ancestor.
  • It is thought that this Joel also passed through Conecuh County at the same time as the Joel above, but he later moved on to Coosa County.
• There is also an autosomal connection between the Duke descendants and Brinson descendants. A personal (unproven) theory is that John and Adam's mother's maiden name could have been Brinson and may be connected to Adam Brinson.

Known Descendants

• John M. Duke (ca. 1793 - aft. 1860)
  • John "Jack" Brinson Duke (1832 - 1926)
    • William "Willie" Brinson Duke (1864-1935) m. Sarah Amanda Ross
• Adam Duke (ca. 1794 - 1860)
  • George Lewis Duke (abt.1827 - 1894)
    • George A. Duke (1853 - aft.1888)
    • Robert Washington Duke (1866-1921)
  • Sarah Amanda (Duke) Ross (1829 - 1868)
    • Sarah "Sallie" Amanda (Ross) Duke (1868 - 1945) m. William Brinson Duke
  • possibly Elizabeth Duke (abt.1831 - 1903)
    • Adeline Elizabeth (Duke) Pierce (1852 - 1906)
    • Brinson "Tobe" Duke (abt.1863 - 1905)

Possible Descendants

• Henry Duke
  • possibly William J. Duke (abt. 1828 - abt. 1855; not the same as William Jasper Duke)
    • Daniel Henry Duke (1849 - 1939) m. Marietta Duke (1861 - 1940)
    • She was the daughter of Jack Brinson Duke, and they were thought to be "cousins."
• Joel Emerson Duke (1800 - 1881)
  • William Jasper Duke (1828 - 1900)
  • Lafayette Washington Duke (1843 - 1925)
• Mrs. Hopkins (of Allentown)
• Mrs. [Nancy?] Lewis (of Greenville)
• Mrs. Taylor (of Belmont)

Evidence

DNA

• Male descendants of Jack Brinson Duke (who seems likely to be the son of John M. Duke based on records) and Adam Duke are an exact match on 111 markers of yDNA.^[2]
• Big Y testing placed a descendant of Jack Brinson Duke in the same haplogroup (I-BY62571) as other known descendants of the John Dukes from Isle of Wight, with a mean MRCA date of 1659.

Land Records

• GLO records show Adam Duke and his son George owned land right next to land owned by a Joel Duke in Conecuh County (northwest of Evergreen). Also, other potential relatives such as John B. Duke, Nancy (Duke) Tomlinson Overstreet, and Matt Brinson owned land just to the east of them. John M. Duke owned land on the opposite side of Evergreen. Joel Emerson Duke and his in-laws owned land to the northwest of Adam in Monroe County (near Buena Vista), and his father-in-law William Pugh owned land right below Adam in Conecuh County.^[3] The post office at Burnt Corn was near the county line between all of the tracts. More research needs to be done, but this could support the theory that they were all related to each other.

Land Owned by Dukes (and Possible Relatives) in Conecuh County, Alabama (source)

Sources

1. ↑ "Public Member Trees", database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/76461442/person/34524175165/facts : accessed 30 November 2022), profile for John Duke.
2. ↑ "Duke Y-DNA Results," FamilyTreeDNA, Duke Surname Project (https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/duke/dna-results).
3. ↑ Duke, Jonathan. "Duke and Ross Land in Alabama (mid-1800s)," published online, 20 Jan 2023 (https://jduke79.com/Alabama-GLO-1800s.pdf : accessed 20 Jan 2023).