DNA relationship between Francis Marion Kirwin, Francis Marion Parish/Price and Robert Hill???

~ a work in progress ~ not proved!

NOTE: In 2010 a perfect DNA match was discovered between Francis Martion Kirwin and the DNA cluster for Elijah PRICE of North Carolina, matched to Joseph Albert Price b. 1813, Chautauqua Co., NY. No information has been found regarding the parents of Joseph. Barry Price, who is researching this line, is trying to prove or disprove a family story that one of his colonial ancestors changed his surname to Price to keep his family in England from the knowledge that he supported the Colonists rather that the King. Since in using Y-chromosome DNA, matches can refer to any direct-line male in any family group with a common patriarch, I expanded the search to look at this surname related to relevant geography. Our family has multiple ties to North Carolina in this line. Since Joseph was part of the DNA cluster for Elijah Price I went looking for his lineage. In North Carolina in the correct timeframe, the were two Elijah's, one in Anson County and one in Martin County. The DNA match is for the cluster of Elijah of Martin County who was married to Nancy Ross, so I began researching their family group looking for anyone who went to Missouri where Martha Jane Mills lived as a child. That research is charted below while Barry and Clint try to find the common ancestor.

In 2011, another perfect match was found for Grandpa Frank's DNA to a HILL line out of Randolph County, North Carolina which already has matched another HILL line as follows:

KIT 9661: GUY HILL, b/date unk, place unk, d/about 1775 probably in Chowan Co, NC, m/Sarah Hobbs. Children : (1) Guy Hill b/unk, d/before Aug 1787, m/Mary Bond on May 14, 1780, (2) John Hill b/unk, d/unk, m/unk, (3) Kedar Hill, b/about 1760, probably in Chowan Co, NC, d/ bef 1790 in Gates County, NC, m1/unk, m2/Cealah Trotman on Sep 10, 1789. Notes: (1) While several of the above dates are uncertain as indicated, the connection with the contributor is well documented; (2) Gates County was part of Chowan County until 1779.

Direct paternal lineage of DNA participant 9661:

1. Guy HILL (unk-abt 1775)
2. Kedar HILL (abt 1760 - abt 1789)
3. Robert HILL (unk - abt 1844)
4. Robert Riddick HILL (abt 1810 - 1863)
5. John Robert HILL (1832 - 1895)
6. Leonidas Rosser (L.R) HILL (1868 - 1944)
7. Julian Lee HILL (1900 - 1963)
8. Calvin Belmont HILL (1927 -- )
9. Ronald Calvin HILL (1949 -- )

KIT 185410: Generations 1, 2, and 3 above are accurate and well documented as are generations 7, 8, and 9. There are new questions among long time researchers (not me) about generations 5, and 6 since there are multiple Sion and Green Hills in NC at this time. There is also an issue of proof of parentage between generations 4 and 3. Almost all public trees have Ezekiel L. Hill as one of Sion and Orpha Starage Hill's 10 children. There is a family Bible beginning with Ezekiel and Ezekiel's will, but neither shed any light on Ezekiel's parents.

Direct paternal lineage of DNA participant 185410:

1. Robert Hill, b. 1615, Northumberland, England, d. 1682, Surry, County, A. M. 02/09/1642 Mary Webb, B. 1621, d. 1684.
2. Sion Hill, b. 1654, Isle of Wight VA, d. 1705 Surry County, VA, m. 07/31/1679, Elizabeth Splitimber Smith, b. 1662, d. 1705
3. Robert Hill, b. 1678, Isle of Wight County, VA, d. 06/18/1762, Halifax County NC. M. Tabitha Brown Green 1721, b. Isle of Wight Va.
4. Sion Hill, b. 1718 Halifax County, NC, d. 03/29/1780, Wake County, NC. M. Sarah Brown, 1742, b. 1720, d. 1792
5. Green Hill, b. abt 1752, NC, M. Sally Lee, 1799, Johnston County, NC.
6. Sion Hill, b. 1773, Wake, County, d. 1863, Randolph County, NC,  M. Orpha Starage Lee, 10/21//1800, Johnston, County NC.
7. Ezekiel (Ezekiel) L. Hill b. 09/15/1820, Wake County, NC (?), d. 12/27/1893, Randolph County, NC. M. Mary Polly Thompson b. 09/22/1816, d. 12/02/1863. M Eliza Elizure Hill 09/18/1865, M. Beersheba Hinshaw 03/06/1879, b. 1837, d. 11/19/1915
8. Rufus McCager Hill b. 11/26/1882, Randolph County, NC, d. 11/24/1955, Stanley County, NC. M. Ella Mae Cranford, b. 09/06/1879, d. 01/09/58. 
9. Ogress Milton Hill b. 11/5/1908 Randolph County, NC, d. 02/26/1988, Salisbury NC. m. 1936, Wilma Sager,  b. 1917,Dickson county TN, d; 2005, Greenville SC.

For more info on this research contact: James Hill jclint@erols.com.

Clint has further said: "Bottom line, my connection to Robert Hill and Mary Webb is very uncertain. I have been working the Guy Hill connection from the DNA match with Ron Hill. Guy Hill's father was Moses Hill, son of William Hill who married Mary Spivey. Two major sources that I have used are William Wade Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy and "Hill family of Chowan County North Carolina" by Anne L. McCarthy. There are some errors in her book particularly as it concerns Guy Hill. She refers to him as Gray and has very little info on him but she has a lot of good data on the Hills. There is plenty of supporting evidence for Guy from land records and wills. The European connection for this group of Hills may be from Samuel Hill who was a treasurer for Oliver Cromwell in Ireland. With the fall of Cromwell he decided that the new world would be a better environment. There he became a Quaker and migrated from Nansemond County VA to Chowan County, NC. We will be keeping in touch. If we are related directly to a HILL line, it would likely be from a child of either (6) Sion Hill (a name that is very common in the Price/Parish line, interestingly) who had children from 1800 to 1872, or from (7) Ezekiel L. Hill who married three times, having children from 1856 to 1884 ... those closest to Martha Jane would be: Sion's son James (1827) or Ezekiel's son, Elisha Whit (1845)."

For Grandpa Frank to be born February 1855, he would have likely been conceived in or near Barry County, MO about May of 1854 by his mother, Martha Jane and his biological father. Family oral history says Martha Jane met Patrick Kirwin while she was "visiting kin" in Indiana. Martha's likely mother, Edith Mankins Mills (wife of Enos Mills who d. in 1849 in Dade County, MO) married neighbor John R. Williams after his wife also died in the early 1850s. The two combined their families, sold both farms in Dade County and moved to property John already owned in Flat Creek Twnshp., Barry County, MO. Together they had one daughter named Narcissa b. abt. 1855, the same year Martha gave birth to her son, Francis Marion, which was probably a "complicating factor" that could explain why Martha was sent to Indiana to "visit kin." John and Eady remained in Barry County until abt. 1862 when Eady apparently died. John married Elizabeth Roberson and moved to Greene County. Meanwhile, in July of 1855, 17 year old Martha, with her 5 month old son, married 54 year old Patrick Kirwin, an Irish Famine immigrant who likely had left a deceased family in Ireland. Patrick always treated Frank as his own and as far as Frank was concerned Patrick *was* his father.

Here is the known genealogy for Elijah Price of Martin County, North Carolina:

Family of Elijah Price and Nancy Ross

[1] Elijah Jr. went to Texas by 1846. Children of this couple were: Cornelia Ginette Price, 1822-1873; Albert Galatin Price, 1824-1877; Benjamin Franklin Price, 1827-1867; Mary Thomas Price, 1830-1882; Susan Alice Price, 1835-1907; James Henry Clay Price, 1838-1852; Temperance Price 1840-; Virginia Wallace Price, 1842-1876; Elizabeth Betty Price, 1844-1867; Elijah Price, 1846-1903; Archelaus Price, 1848-1874.

None of these children seem to have any logical connection in geography or anything else to have had a connection with our family. In order for the DNA to match, there has to be a historical male connection between these men in about 4 generations. There seems to be nothing known of Elijah's parentage or siblings, so this search is stopped for now. It is suggested by some that Elijah Sr. is the son of a man named Price who was b. abt. 1733 in Maryland - but no proof.

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As I researced the Price lines, I found evidence in some family lines suggesting that the surnames Price and Parish were interchangable. So, I took a look in Barry County for families with this surname - BINGO! Living in a very nearby farm in Flat Creek, Barry County where Martha Jane, her mother, siblings and step-family lived was a Parish family. The father was Jeremiah, born in North Carolina and more to the point, he had a son named Francis Marion Parish who was the same age as our Martha Jane Mills ... Researching this line, I learned that Jeremiah was hung abt. 24 Dec 1862 in Springfield, Missouri, during the Civil War, after being arrested on charges of "being a rebel sympathizer."

In the 1850, Francis Marion is enumerated as "Francis M," while in 1860 he is enumerated as "Marion." Put the two together and you have his full name, Francis Marion Parish. Although some have mistakenly transcribed his name as "Francis N" and claimed this person is female, a look at the actual census shows the initial is "M" and he is Male. There are two Francis Marion Parish's who enlisted in the Civil War, but neither were born in TN. In 1862, a Marion Parish enlisted in the Union Army in Indiana; 22nd Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company B as a Captain and was mustered out as a Corporal, 24 Jul 1865 at Washington, DC - he appears to show up with a wife in 1870 in Jackson County, IN and was b. in Ohio. Interesting as there are Mills living in the same area.

In the 1870 Census, there is one Marion Parrish b. in TN, but he is 5 years younger than this man. This man appears to have served on the Confederate side in the 26th Regiment, Arkansas Infantry, Company C. Two other men of the same name exist; 2nd Regiment, Iowa Infantry, Company H and 8th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry, Company E. Essentially, nothing fits. I did find one record of a Francis M Parish dying in the Civil War, but the information is too sketchy to make any concrete conclusions. There are no F. Marion or FM Parish's registered in the Civil War. My conclusion, given what happened to his father is that either Marion Parish died, went underground, or took off after his fasther weas hung. Brother Sion, is shown as enlisting 1 September 1862 on the Confederate side, 8th Regiment, Missouri Infantry and serving in both Company G & I, then Paroled at Alexandria, VA 7 June 1865.

In 1880, I still find no man listed who could be the same man.

I have contacted the Parish family DNA Project ot see if they have any submissions from this line and if they will include Grandpa Frank's DNA results as unassigned within their project. Choosing to give this man the benefit of the doubt, for now, I am going to leap to an educated conclusion suggesting he was Grandpa Frank's father and died in the Civil War. Here is his ancestry:

Family of Anselm Parish and Mildred Atkins

[1] Mildred Atkins was b. abt. 1735 Goochland, Goochland County, Virginia and d. 1774 Goochland, Goochland County, Virginia

Family of Claiborne Parish and Mary Wallace

[1] Mary Wallace was b. 1770 Goochland, Goochland County, Virginia and d. 1838 Granville County, North Carolina

Family of John Sion Parish and Celia Robards/Roberts

Family of Jeremiah Parish and Mary ??Hishaw??

[1] Jeremiah Parish Sr. is discussed in "State of Missouri" - Barry County War Incidents pg 634: "Joel F Mitchell, an old Baptist minister of Roller's Ridge near Keetsville, at one time a slave owner, but during the war accused of sundry illegal and unchristian acts, came into Washburn and surrendered, the mob and soldiers showed him no mercy, and so he fell dead ...." (follows a list of men who were with him - some were shot on the spot and others were taken to Springfield) ..." Jeremiah Parish was arrested on the charge of being a rebel sympathizer, was also taken to Springfield where he died." This info came to me from a woman whose grandfather was with him and said, "the way they died was by hanging."

[2] Mary is listed as wife to Jeremiah in the 1860 census - she was b. abt. 1812 in Tennessee, likely Carroll County. It is not known where she was when the 1850 census was enumerated.

[3] In the 1850 Census, District 5, Barry County, Missouri, Francis appears to have the middle initial "N," but in 1860, Flat Creek Township (same place), Barry County, Missouri, he is called "Marion" - putting the two together, I have deduced his name was actually Francis Marion Parish. In 1860, the Parish family is on Sheet 973, pg 167 enum # 1115/1090 and the Williams family is on Sheet 975 pg 169 enum # 1126/1102. There are only 12 farms enumerated between them and a census taker in a rural area is not going to go only up one side of the road at a time... probably a nice country walk for a couple of kids interested in looking at stars or rolling in the hay???

[4] In the 1860 census a nine year old son is listed. Reading the census there appears to be a comma after Morris so it is hard to know if the name is "Morris, James aka James Morris" or "Morris James... I do not find this person after 1860.

Francis Marion Price and my g grandfather, Francis Marion Kirwin have matching DNA... I am trying to figure out if they are father and son... see info here:

homepages dot rootsweb dot ancestry dot com/~jmbhome/1grandpafrank.html]