Project Results and Discussion

The first line of Table III-1 is the haplotype of a proven descendent of Andrew Dorsey’s grandson Elisha (son of Andrew's proven son Endymion 2 ^{, 3} ).  Elisha Dorsey was born in 1773 in Rowan or Lincoln County, North Carolina. 4 ^{, 5}   He married Delilah Ashe November 3, 1793 in Lincoln County, North Carolina. 6  

Children of Elisha and Delilah Dorsey were Nancy Dorsey (b. 1796, married Richard Crawley), Dimmon Dorsey (b. unknown, married Elizabeth ?, died 1835 in McMinn County, Tennessee, many from this line moved through Tennessee to Missouri in the early to mid 1800’s), Thomas Alexander Dorsey (b. 1805, married first Nancy Ferree, second Luticia Hall.  He died in Burke County in 1890. ) Mary Wesley Dorsey (b. 1807, married Jake Rudicil), John Wesley Dorsey (born 1811, married Sarah Elmina Walker, died 1899) and Mira Dorsey (b. 1813, married Reuben Walker).  The donor of the DNA sample for this entry is an eighth generation descendant of the Lineage III “Patriarch” ¹Andrew Dorsey through the line of  ⁴John Wesley Dorsey (⁷Winfred Pinkney/ ⁶John Wesley/⁵Pinkney Johnson/⁴John Wesley/³Elisha /²Endymion /¹Andrew).  Information about the descendants of Elisha Dorsey was taken from David Barnett Dorsey’s book, Elisha Dorsey of Burke County, North Carolina and Hi Descendants, A Genealogy of the Dorsey Family From 1773 – 1975. 7  

Data Line 2 is from a descendent of Dimmon Dorsey of North Carolina and Tennessee. A descendant, the late Elmer L. Dorsey, wrote an entry for this Dimmon Dorsey in The Heritage of Burke County in 1981 in which he examined the proposal that this Dimmon was the son of Endymion Dorsey who died in 1778. 8    Though Mr. Dorsey leaned toward this proposal, census records from 1810 to 1870 are inconsistent most placing Dimmon Dorsey’s birth year between 1780 and 1784, all too long after the death of Endymion Dorsey to support that connection.   In fact, Mr. Dorsey pointed out that Dimmon’s own Bible records his birth as occurring in 1783.  Only the 1870 census which suddenly ages Dimmon from age 75 in the 1860 census to age 92 supports the theory that Dimmon was the son of Endymion Dorsey (son of Andrew Dorsey).  Curiously, Dimmon Dorsey (and others) referred to himself as Dimmon Dorsey, Jr well into his later life.  Records from late 18^th and early 19^th century western North Carolina are spotty at best.  There were at least two Dimmon Dorseys (and various spellings) whose records are often indistinguishable.  While it is not unusual to find major discrepancies in reported ages in the census and it was not unusual for people of the late 1700’s and early 1800’s frontier to lose track of their own ages, there is still work to be done to reconcile these differences and identify the parents of this Dimmon Dorsey with certainty.  Nonetheless, DNA of his descendant places him firmly in Lineage III with a 25/25 marker match on all markers tested in common with the descendant of Elisha Dorsey assuring that an ancestor will be found somewhere in the tangle of Lineage III.

¹John H. Dorsey, Sr. Descendants

The next eight lines of Table III-1 are haplotypes for descendents of three proven sons of John H. Dorsey, Sr. who was born c.1772 in North Carolina 9 .  Unfortunately, John Dorsey is not an unusual name.  It is likely, however, from known later associations that John H. Dorsey, Sr. was the same John Dorsey who appears in a variety of records in Lincoln and Burke Counties in North Carolina in the late 1790’s and early 1800’s. 10 .  His name appears on land records with two presumed sons of Andrew Dorsey (Bassell Dorsey and Benjamin Dorsey) and with Andrew’s proven descendent, Elisha Dorsey, suggesting but not defining a relationship with them. 11  By 1830, John Dorsey and his family had moved to Macon County, NC 12  and by 1840 to Pickens County, SC 13  where he died in 1852. 14  The scanty tidbits offered up by the public record suggest that John H. Dorsey, Sr. and Elisha Dorsey’s father, Endymion, were brothers or, possibly, that John and Elisha were brothers.

The settlement of John H. Dorsey Sr.'s estate in 1852 named five sons, William, David, Elisha, Peter, and John H. Dorsey, Jr. 15   William preceded his father in death 20 October 1848. 16    Peter stayed in Pickens County (later Oconee County).  By 1850 David had moved to Habersham County, Georgia 17 , Elisha had moved to Rabun County, Georgia 18  and John H. Dorsey, Jr. had moved to Cass County, Georgia 19 .

 ²William H. Dorsey (¹John)

William H. Dorsey was born in North Carolina according to 1880 census entries for his sons Anderson and John H. Dorsey.  Because his father is enumerated in Burke County, North Carolina in the 1790-1820 censuses 20 ^{, 21 , 22}  it is most probable that an 1823 Burke County, North Carolina marriage bond for the marriage of William H. Dorsey and Patsey Kelly represents his marriage to his wife Martha. 23  The Y-DNA of the descendents of John H. Dorsey Sr.’s son William (Table III-1, rows three, four, and five) are identical on all markers tested in common. 24   They match the Y-DNA of the descendent of Elisha Dorsey, proven grandson of Andrew Dorsey on 24/25 markers, conclusively supporting a recent common ancestor for William H. Dorsey and Elisha (and of Dimmon Dorsey).

²David Dorsey (¹John)

DNA marker values for a eighth generation descendent of John H. Dorsey, Sr. through Joseph Tarpley Dorsey25 , a son of John's proven son David (cited in the settlement of JHD’s estate26 ) (Table III-1, data line six), are an exact match with the markers of Elisha and Dimmon's descendents indicating that there have been no mutations in these markers in their lines and their values represent those of their common ancestor--most likely Andrew Dorsey.  On the other hand, the results in row seven mismatch the descendent of David's son Joseph at three markers though they are those of a descendent of another son of David Dorsey, William Manson Dorsey27 .  This participant mismatches descendents of John Dorsey, Sr.'s sons William and John Henry Dorsey (Table III-1, data lines eight and nine), at four different markers each.  William Manson Dorsey's descendent mismatches both lines at DYS #’s 448, 449, and 464a as well as mismatching William’s line at DYS389ii.

Line one of Table III-2 shows the probability of three mismatches between fourth cousins once removed (the relationship of the two descendents of David Dorsey who mismatch on three of 25

markers).  The mutation calculator28  predicts three mutations between such relatives will occur less than two percent of the time. Because of this occurrence is so rare, I asked Family Tree DNA to recheck the results for this descendent of David Dorsey.  The lab rechecked the results and confirmed that there were indeed three mutations in this line.29    Nevertheless, in spite of this unusual discrepancy, the sharing of the very unusual pattern of values for the remainder of the markers and a very solid paper trail confirms the relationship and we include him in this line.  (In fact, the two participants live in the same community and are known to each other as distant cousins.)  David Dorsey’s line matches more closely (only three mismatches) with the lines of Elisha and Dimmon Dorsey than with those of his brother William’s line. This is due to the loss of on repeat at DYS# 389ii that occurred between William H. Dorsey and his father John H. Dorsey.

²John Henry Dorsey (¹John)

Confusingly, John Henry Dorsey, whose descendants' results are in data lines eight, nine and ten of Table III-1, reported in both the 1880 30  and the 1900 31  census that his father was born in England and his mother was born in Prussia (or Germany).  These reports have understandably left his descendents reluctant to place John Henry into any known Dorsey families in spite of some apparent close associations between the John H. Dorsey, Sr. family and with the family of John Henry Dorsey's first wife who was Sarah Denny. 32   In the 1840 Pickens County, SC census, there is a John Dorsey, of the right age to be John Henry Dorsey, living near William H. Dorsey and next door to Henry Medford and his wife Rachel 33  (William Dorsey’s sister and John H. Dorsey, Sr.’s daughter 34 ).  A few houses down lived Joshua Denny.  John Henry Dorsey and Sarah Denny Dorsey’s first son was Joshua Denny Dorsey. 35    (In the same 1840 census, John H. Dorsey, Sr., above, was listed as John Dossey, Sr. 36   Dossey being one common spelling used by southern census takers trying to record Dorsey.)  By 1850 the younger John Dorsey had disappeared from the SC census.  The settlement of the estate of John H. Dorsey, Sr. in Pickens County, SC (1852) names  John H. Dorsey, Jr. who is “living outside of the state” of South Carolina.37    According to family members and census records (cited above), John Henry Dorsey moved first to Cass County, Georgia then to Pickens County, Georgia.  He fathered 15 children!   

Data Line eight, the DNA results of John Henry Dorsey’s descendant through his son Benjamin Franklin Dorsey’s son Virgil, matches the lines of Elisha and Dimmon Dorsey at all but one marker of the markers tested in common and thus matches the ancestral values markers well.  It would appear that there have been no other mutations (at the markers tested) in his line from the common ancestor of this Lineage.  Data Line nine reports the 12 marker results of a descendant of a second son of Benjamin Dorsey, Jasper Douglas Dorsey.  This descendent of Benjamin Franklin Dorsey has a one step mutation from the ancestral haplotype at DYS #389ii which he shares with the descendants of William H. Dorsey.  This is quite unusual to find the same mutation occurring independently in such closely related lines.  While not out of the question that Jasper Douglas Dorsey could have been a son of William H. Dorsey raised in the household of his brother John H. Dorsey, it seems unlikely to family members.  Data line 10, is the 37 marker results of a second descendant of Jasper Douglas Dorsey 38 .  He matches the ancestral haplotype of Andrew Dorsey at the first 25 markers tested.  In the third panel of markers, at DYS # 570, he shares a value of 18 with several members of Lineage III while other members have a value of 17 for this marker.  As this is a very volatile marker, it is not surprising to find such differences between close relatives and it is not possible at this time to predict which was the value of the common ancestor of this group.

These descendents of John Henry Dorsey share all the unusual marker values that are characteristic of this line, assuring a relationship with them in spite of his conflicting reports for his parents’ birthplaces.  (There is some reason based on vague family rumors to believe that John Dorsey, Sr.'s wife Mary and mother of John Henry Dorsey was of German descent.) 

Who Was Bassell Dorsey and Where Did He Come From?

There is much interest in the origins of Bassell Dorsey, who is first found next to Andrew Dorsey’s widow Patience on the tax rolls of Captain Graham in Rowan County, NC in 178239  and who moved to Franklin County Georgia in the early 1800's.  He is found on the 1807 Tax List for that county 40  and wrote a will dated June 16, 1806 that was proven in Franklin County Court September 7, 1807.41   For many years, this Bassell Dorsey was erroneously believed to be Basil John Dorsey, the son of ³Francis Dorsey (²Edward, ¹Edward).  In fact, many Internet published genealogies still advance that claim.  In recent years, however, close examination of records in the Maryland State Archives have revealed that Basil John Dorsey remained in the Baltimore area his entire life, serving in the Revolutionary War, marrying at least twice42 ,43 .  That he died in Maryland and left a family there is confirmed by the a court case concerning the disposition of his estate including his property Scotchman’s Desire 44  which remained in the possession of his descendents for several generations.  At the same time, Bassell Dorsey, in a parallel but not identical life married, moved to North Carolina from Maryland, served in the militia during the Revolutionary War in North Carolina45 , had children, and died leaving an estate in Franklin County, GA.46     Clearly, these two could not have been the same person. 

This conclusion has left the question, “Who was Bassell Dorsey of North Carolina and Georgia and where did he come from?”  Records in North Carolina and Georgia often show Bassell Dorsey and his descendents associated with members of the Andrew Dorsey family.47   A logical inference is that Bassell was a son of Andrew and Patience.  Results in data lines 10 and 11 of Table III-1 strengthen this conclusion.   Each of these two descendents of Bassell Dorsey’s grandson John Magers Dorsey differs from the deduced haplotype of Andrew Dorsey at only one marker--one by two steps at DYS 464c and the other by one step at DYS 389ii.   

For further comparison, a final row (beneath the marker frequency row) has been added to Table III-1 which represents the haplotype of Edward Darcy/Dorsey which was deduced from the results of his descendents in Lineage I.  Edward Darcy/Dorsey mismatches the deduced haplotype for Andrew Dorsey (and Bassell Dorsey) at ten different markers (highlighted in dark red).  Though both lines share some markers typical of English/Irish origin, their genetic difference precludes their sharing a common ancestor within the time that surnames have been in use.   

These results firmly place Bassell Dorsey in Dorsey Lineage III, the line of Andrew Dorsey, and rule out any patrilineal relationship either with Edward  Dorsey/Darcy or the Anglo/Norman D'Arcys of Lineage V.  

Figure III-1 Lines from Andrew Dorsey to John H. Dorsey and from Endymion Dorsey to Dimmon Dorsey are based on circumstantial evidence and are colored red.

Figure III-1 (above) maps the relationships for this Dorsey family that have been defined by traditional genealogical records and the DNA markers that support them.  In spite of the implications of some records and geographical proximity to other Dorseys in western North Carolina, it has not been clear up until now whether Bassell Dorsey and/or John H. Dorsey, Sr. were a part of the Andrew Dorsey line nor, in fact, whether Andrew Dorsey was a descendant of the Immigrant Edward Dorsey.  These results tell us that Bassell Dorsey, John H. Dorsey, Sr. and Elisha Dorsey shared a common Y chromosome haplotype inherited from a common ancestor.  Interpretation of the scant records available tells us that the ancestor was Andrew Dorsey.  Unfortunately, DNA cannot tell us whether John H. Dorsey, Sr. was a son or grandson of Andrew and his birth year of 1772 (calculated from the 1850 census) makes both a possibility. It is even possible that he was a nephew or cousin. (To signify this, the line connecting Andrew Dorsey and John H. Dorsey has been drawn in red.)  Available records do suggest more strongly that Bassell Dorsey was a son of Andrew and Patience Dorsey and the line connecting him to Andrew Dorsey is drawn in black.  Regardless of the details of the connection, there is no doubt that these Dorseys from western North Carolina (and eventually South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee) are members of the same patrilineal line. 

Yellow boxes represent individuals whose DNA was actually tested.  Values for others have been deduced from those results.  For example, the descendent of John Henry Dorsey’s son James Virgil alone has a value of 10 for DYS 391 that is not shared by any of the others of this group, two descendants of James Virgil’s brother Benjamin Franklin Dorsey. This tells us that the common ancestor of Lineage III passed on a value of 11 with a subsequent loss of one repeat unit for DYS391 somewhere in the line of John Henry Dorsey.  (Further testing of other descendents of James Virgil Dorsey would be necessary to determine where that mutation occurred.)  

Lineage III is also unusual in that it appears that the same mutation has occurred independently in three different lines of this group.  At the beginning of this study, William Dorsey's descendents were unique in sharing a value of 31 for DYS 389ii.  As most descendents of Elisha Dorsey, Dimmon Dorsey, David Dorsey and John Henry Dorsey share the (even more unusual) value of 32, we surmise that their common ancestor passed this value to his sons and that a mutation between John H. Dorsey and William caused a loss of one repeat at DYS 389ii. We know it occurred at that level because it is shared by descendents of two of William's sons. As the study has progressed, the same value for DYS 389ii has also found in a descendents of John Henry Dorsey and of Bassell Dorsey.  Other descendents of both John Henry and Bassell Dorsey do not have this mutation but share the ancestral value of 32.  All three lines are from different geographical areas so we do not, at this time, suspect any non-paternity events such as a child of one of line being raised in a family of the other.  There is little reported in the scientific literature to explain differences in mutation rates among this type of marker.  However, there are reports of an increased tendency to lose units as the length of an STR marker increases. 48  The ancestral value of 32 repeat units for DYS 389-ii is unusually long, found in only about one percent of members of the R1b Haplogroup.  Perhaps some instability related to its length underlies this unusual volatility.

As discussed above, the three mutation differences (DYS #'s 448, 449, and 464a) between the two descendants of the David Dorsey is also quite unusual.  Since the descendent of David’s son Joseph Tarpley shares the ancestral values for all 25 markers in this study, the mutations have occurred somewhere in the line of descent from David’s son William Manson Dorsey.  Attempts to pinpoint each mutation would require extensive testing of other members of this line and would contribute little of genealogical value since most members of the line are known to each other and records are good.

Confirmation of these relationships is found in the uniqueness of the DNA signatures of these project members. Though they share many of the values of the Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype 49 , they also share unusual values for four markers in this 25 marker set.  Until recently, they had no exact or near matches outside of the Dorsey surname in the Family Tree DNA database 50 , no matches in the worldwide population sample of 24,189 in the www.yhrd.org database 51 , and no matches in the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy database.52   Frequency values for each of their markers with the population of the mostly Western European R1b Haplotype are reported in the last line of Table III-1.53  Particularly rare is the value of 32 for DYS389ii.  Other unusual values occur at DYS#’s 390, 459b, and 447.  This is truly an unusual haplotype.  Along with supporting traditional genealogical records, there is no chance that these are spurious matches of unrelated people who happen to share the Dorsey surname (or one of its several variants).

Who Was Andrew Dorsey and Where Did He Come From?

Recent DNA Results combined with some scattered records from Maryland and the Carolinas have given exciting new direction to research into the origins of Andrew Dorsey, earliest known patriarch of Lineage III.  Read about these findings and their implications at Who Was Andrew Dorsey?

Endnotes