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My Paternal Grandmother's Descent from Swiss Kinsey Family Through A Branch of The Family That Had African Ancestry


Last year, I learned that my paternal grandmother Mary Alice Gaines descended from a Kinsey family that immigrated to New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina from Switzerland in 1710. She descended from John Ripley Kinsey who was born in 1693 in Switzerland.  He was one of the few of the Kinsey family that survived the Massacre of 1710 by The Tuscarora Indigenous Americans. The Kinseys were not the ancestors of Grandma Mary's maternal grandfather's European American father James P. Cross who was the son of  English American plantation owner Benjamin Cross who was born in Gates County, North Carolina and 3/4 Acadian woman Anastasia Bourgeois who was born in Assumption Parish in the Acadiana region in Southern Louisiana.  They had to be the ancestors of one of Grandma Mary's African American great grandparents.  All of them were slaves in the Acadiana region.  

The only one of Grandma Mary's great grandparents that was recorded as being born in the Carolinas was her paternal grandmother's father Edward Riley who was recorded as being born in 1823 in South Carolina in 1880 Census. He, his wife Dolly Jackson, and their children lived in Assumption Parish. Aunt Carrie told me that a couple of  Great Grandpa Lawrence's siblings were half-white looking. She even told me that one of his sisters was named Pinkie because of her skin color.  One of Great Grandpa Lawrence's double first cousin Gustave Riley was described as having red hair and gray eyes in an Army Draft Registration record. 

https://diversegenes.blogspot.com/2023/07/discovery-of-swiss-immigrant-ancestors.html


 Going through my father's maternal half sister/my Aunt Carrie's matches and my matches at AncestryDNA and Gedmatch and checking out family trees and matching chromosome segments,  I found out that John Ripley Kinsey had descendants that were listed as mulatto and white in US Censuses before the Civil War. One of them was Lewis Kinsey who was born in 1795. His father was Jesse W. Kinsey (b. 1762) who was the son of Joseph Antoine Kinsey (b.1740) who was the son of John Ripley Kinsey (b. 1693).  He lived in Colleton County, South Carolina and Barnwell County, South Carolina.  He and his children were recorded as white and mulatto in US Censuses. He owned slaves.  

Aunt Carrie and I have DNA relative matches that descend from him.  One of them is European American  K. McAlhany (her AncestryDNA ethnicity estimate shows her as 100% European) matches both Aunt Carrie and me on Chromosome 2 in a location that is African and not European. There are other European Americans and African Americans that match in that chromosome location. 

K. McAlhany and six of her cousins (3rd Cousins, 2nd Cousins,Once Removed) are descendants of Joseph McAlhany and Georgianne Kinsey. Lewis Kinsey's son Elzey Kinsey was Georgianne's father. He and his children were recorded as being white and mulatto in Censuses.  He owned a slave.  Aunt Carrie has all seven as DNA relative matches. She also has other DNA matches that descend from Lewis Kinsey as well as many other matches that descend from Joseph Antoine Kinsey.


Information about John Ripley Kinsey's descendants

https://www.colletongenealogysociety.org/Newsletters/Rice-planter-2014-Volume-22-Issue-4.pdf






























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