Multiple Richard Cheneys (of Maryland)

Thanks Maven. That is good information. I am following my mDNA line and I am primarily interested in Ann Chaney Jacobs. There is a decent paper trail but no DNA evidence. I am U4b1a1a so she should be close to that but of course there can be no evidence unless I find some of her living descendants. Richard is a minor concern to me since I am tracing the matrilineal line. A correction is welcomed even so. What can you tell me?
Mark Pierce

He's been a Gateway Ancestor for a long time, but if we don't really know who his parents were (and it looks like we don't), then he loses that status (and a lot of people at Geni get very, very upset).

Anne was the daughter of "Mary Charity Wood/ward" Cheney, every bit of whose name and background is highly uncertain until she married the immigrant Richard Cheney and they started producing offspring. "Charity" is what most sources call her - where the "Mary" came from, nobody knows (somebody's bad guess?). It's somewhat likely that Richard and "Charity" married in Virginia, as they immigrated to Maryland from there in the later 1650s and without any children in tow (they were all Maryland-born).

Thanks again Maven. If there are any direct descendants of Ann or Charity out there, I hope you have done the full mitochondrial scan. I would love to hear from you if you are connected to those two women. Haplogroup U4b1a1a or very close to that is my interest.

All this can be a lot of fun if you don't let it get frustrating. I suspect that there are a large number of false leads in all our research when we depend on archival sources.

Mark

Unfortunately my Cheney connection is mixed descent, so it's no help to anybody (no Y, no mT, and too far back for anything but gobbledygook on autosomal). That's how it goes sometimes.

As predicted (repeatedly), nobody wants to get anywhere near this one. It will frag too many family lines.

I'm all for accuracy. I've deleted the profile that was tied to my tree that was erroneous.

All very helpful. The Mary Charity Woodward is now the last connection I can find on the maternal side. I am trying to trace the mitochondrial DNA line from my mother, her mother, her mother, etc. I suspect they were all of Norman origin. I would still love to see some confirming DNA from direct descendants of these women. After doing this for a few years I have learned a few things. 1) We are all cousins. 2) We are all related to kings, queens, and other famous people. That no longer interests me. 3) Surnames are helpful only to a point. 4) There has been a lot of speculation woven into older genealogies. I have a preference for physical evidence when we can get it. I still enjoy the search in spite of the frequent mistakes we all make.