Handy And Curd Family Connection

It's said that good things comes to those who wait. This may be true in DNA Genealogy as I have stumbled upon another discovery that was made on the Handy side of my family. This discovery was, not surprisingly, confirmed via DNA Genealogy. The difference being in this case, the new DNA Genealogical services of Ancestry.com lent a helping hand. Recently, Ancestry.com have entered the DNA Genealogical arms race with their new product - AncestryDNA. Let's take a look!!!!!

It appears that the Handys have Scottish ancestry.

Recently I took an interest in uncovering some of my surname ancestry. My last name is Handy. It was known that the Handy lineage, for which I am descended from, hail out of Nashville Tennessee. The earliest male Handy that was known was William Henry Handy (1881-1947). Shown in the picture toward your right are my uncles, father, and grandfather - William Ernest Handy Sr (1921-1994) shown far right. William Sr's brother, Clarence Handy (1922-1992), is shown in center with tie. William Henry Handy was the father of both Clarence and William Sr.

William Henry Handy (1881-1947)

Shown toward your left is William Henry Handy (1881-1947). Not to much was known about Henry Handy. Henry was born in Nashville Tennessee. Henry eventually migrated to Chicago, Illinois and worked for Chicago Steel Mills. Early in life, Henry Handy met and married Alberta Woodard in 1918. Other than that, not to much was known about Henry Handy. I was determined to gather information about Henry Handy's past. Therefore I turned to his SSN application.

SSN Application of William Henry Handy

The eFOIA act is a wonderful law. Called the Freedom Of Information Act - it ensures public access to government records. When a person becomes deceased, their respective SSN is released into the public. You can then order the deceased SSN application. The reason for this is to get the parents of the deceased. Toward the right, is the SSN application of William Henry Handy. If you notice, Henry Handy gave the identities of his parents - Owen Handy (1862-1916) and Emma (1865 - ?). 

Notice that Henry Handy didn't give the last name of his mother. This is likely due to the fact that Emma's last name wasn't known at the time. It's actually Emma, and her ancestry, is what this blog article is about. Let's take a look!!!!

DC of Owen Handy (1862-1916)

The original goal was to uncover the strict paternal Handy ancestry. In other words, I was trying to discover the earliest known Handy male ancestor in my surname lineage. This has changed because currently, I don't have any information on Owen Handy's parents. That's okay because valuable information was learned in the process.  Shown toward your left is the DC of Owen Handy, The informant was his daughter - Hannah Handy-Hudgkins. Henry Handy apparently had siblings. There was Hannah (1892-1945), Ira (1896-1910), and Jim (1902-1944). 

Marriage Cert of Owen Handy and Emma Lanius.

Determined to gather history on Owen Handy, I did a search on Owen Handy on Ancestry.com. What I found out was that there was only a single marriage certificate associated to Owen Handy. Owen Handy married a woman named Emma Lanius. 

If you remember - on Henry Handy's SSN Application, Henry Handy apparently could not recall the last name of his mother Emma. I then came to the conclusion that the Emma mentioned in the SSN application and the Emma mentioned the above marriage certificate, were the same woman. (As a side note, on both Ira and Jim Handy's DCs - Emma's last name of Lanius is fully stated). As we are going to see, the DNA evidence is going to help confirm Emma Lanius as an ancestor. Now let's look at Emma Lanius and her ancestry.

Emma Lanius aged 16 and Family

Shown toward the left is Emma Lanius, her siblings, and her parents. This was shown in the 1880 Census. Emma was 16 years old. The snapshot photo was taken from Ancestry.com. The actual photo is information on Emma Lanius's mother - Jane Curd. More on that in a second. Not much is known on Emma Lanius outside of her marriage to Owen Handy in 1882 and the children she bore by Owen Handy. One interesting fact is that Emma Lanius's younger sister, Mary Lavinia Lanius, did meet and marry a man named William Bridge. They both migrated to Texas where their descendants reside today.  

Emma's parents were Matthew Lanius and Jane Curd. The maiden name of Curd is confirmed by the 1865 marriage certificate of Mattew Lanius and Jane Curd in the Tennessee Wilson County Area. (I will post it on the bottom of the blog)

Notice two things before we move on. First - Jane Curd-Lanius was designated as being mulatto. In the old days back in the south, the term "mulatto" loosely meant that your father was European and mother was Negro. Second - Jane Curd's father was born in Tennessee. We will see why that's important shortly. As a side note, Matthew Lanius's mother - Sallie Lanius (aged 50) is shown as well. 

Curd Relatives and Neighbors 

Before the DNA evidence came along, a valuable trick commonly used is to view and investigate the neighbors that lived near known ancestors and relatives. In the old days, many relatives near next door to each. In the 1880 census photo shown toward the right, there is a James A. Curd (1809-1876) and his family living one door from Jane Curd-Lanius. This same James A. Curd is present in the 1870 Census, living a few doors from Jane Curd. 

It turns out that James A Curd was a known slave owner in the Wilson area at that time. In fact, his brother Price Curd (1808-1883), was an even bigger slave owner. I was coming to the conclusion that Price Curd was the father of Jane Curd. James A. Curd could be ruled out because he was born in Virginia, whereas Price Curd was born in Tennessee. In addition, James Curd only has a record of owning two male slaves in the 1840 Census. (At one point - Price Curd owned over 19 slaves in one year)

If you remember from above that Jane Curd's father was noted as being born in Tennessee. Both James and Price Curd had siblings. Their sisters can easily be ruled out as a parent to Jane Curd. The younger brothers of James and Price Curd were either deceased before Jane Curd's birth in 1845 or much too young (1833) to be a parent. This leaves Price Curd as the likely parent of Jane Curd. In fact, let's take a look at the DNA evidence which confirms the connection between the Curd and Handy families.

DNA Evidence linking Curd and Handy Families

AncestryDNA is newest autosomal DNA testing service that's currently on the market. It's owned by Ancestry.com. I submitted a sample of my DNA. AncestryDNA provides matches who are essentially cousins. One of my matches is woman who goes by the username of MidgeEstes. Shown on the left is the DNA match. One of the nicest features with AncestryDNA is that you can link your DNA account to a pedigree tree. 

As you can see, one of the shared common surnames is Curd.


 One of MidgeEstes ancestors was Elizabeth "Betsy" Curd (1738-1821). Elizabeth Curd was the great-grand aunt of Price Curd. Price Curd's great-grand father, John Curd, and Elizabeth Curd, were siblings. This means that their father - Edward Curd (Bet 1650-1670) is the common ancestor to MidgeEstes and myself. 

Pedigree Of Edward Curd 

It appears that Edward Curd was born around 1650 in Scotland. He died in Henrico, Virginia in 1742. The amazing thing about this is the area of autosomal DNA that these DNA tests look at - generally isn't expectant to retain DNA from a 400 year period!!! Each generation you go back, you lose a percentage of DNA due to a natural biological process called - recombination. 

For MidgeEstes and myself to possess these type of autosomal DNA segments from an ancestor that lived over a 400 year period is amazing.

1860 Slave Census Record of Price Curd

Shown below and toward the right are slave census records of my presumed ancestor - Price Curd (1808-1883). It appears that Price Curd owned many slaves. In the Wilson District Area of Tennessee between the years of 1840-1880s, there were many recorded African-American Curds - whom he and his brother James A Curd are likely the fathers.

In this photo shown toward the right, Price Curd owned 19 slaves alone.

1840 Slave Census Record of Price Curd

Shown toward the left is the 1840 Slave Census record of Price Curd. In this record is likely the mother of Jane Curd (1840 - ?). In this photo, there are two African-American females are at or near age of 23. 

As a side note - Price Curd's In-Laws were the Eatherlys. Price Curd's daughter - Emily Curd, married a James J Eartherly. On the 1882 marriage certificate of Owen Handy and Emma Lanius, there is a John Eatherly whom married and signed the certificate. It's very likely both James and John Eartherly were related.  

As always - it has been a pleasure. Please leave all comments below. 

Marriage Certificate Of Matthew Lanius and Jane Curd

Thanks - Steve Handy