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Week 23: So Many Descendants #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 Much of the time I spend on genealogy involves me working on my DNA matches to find out how we are related.  It is something I take a great deal of pleasure in and find really rewarding. Among the many thousands of matches I have, I have been able to identify hundreds of them - assigning them initially as a paternal or maternal line match, then to a specific line:


... and hopefully then on to the common ancestor or ancestral couple.

But there is one group which eludes me - for the moment! - since, as yet, I have been unable to find how my tree links into the common ancestors they all share. This is the group whose common ancestral couple have left so many descendants and there is a very good reason for that.

So far, as you can see, I have identified 77 of my matches on Ancestry as belonging to this group, but there are many, many more. I managed to work out that these people match me on the maternal side of my family. Have I managed to find out which line yet? No. Have I managed to find out anything? Yes. All these matches descend from a Scottish couple, Thomas Archibald and Elizabeth Russell. Thomas was born in Inveresk in 1813, Elizabeth in Shotts Parish in 1817.  Should it be easy to find the connection? I thought so! I have family lines in and around Shotts. I also have three different Russell families in my tree, two on my maternal side. A little bit more research around those families, and that of Thomas Archibald too, and I should be able to work it all out. But .... as yet, I haven't.
So .. to return to the topic of "So many descendants", I am going to focus on that 'unknown' couple, especially on Elizabeth Russell. 
Elizabeth Russell 1817-1908
Born on a farm in Shotts Parish, Elizabeth married Thomas Archibald when she was 17. The couple went on to have ten children, one of whom later died. In 1848, having heard the missionaries from the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) preaching in her home area, Elizabeth and Thomas were baptised into that church. Eight years later Thomas died, leaving Elizabeth a widow with nine children. She then made the decision to travel with her children, three of whom were already married, to Utah in America.  After a harsh journey, they all arrived in Utah in 1862.
Her children were also baptised into the LDS Church. In those days, the LDS Church allowed polygamy - men could have more than one wife. Her son William Russell Archibald had two wives - Elizabeth Halliday with whom he had 14 children and Catherine Stewart with whom he had 11 children.  So 24 grand children from one son alone. In actual fact, by the time Elizabeth died at the age of 91 in 1908, she had had 10 children, 118 grand children, 277 great grandchildren and 22 great great grandchildren!!!!! Needless to say a lot has been written about this matriarch.
And.... we mustn't forget that it is her descendants who are my unknown 'Archibald' group DNA matches. Either she or her husband or their parents/grandparents must fit into my tree somehow. If the link is a half-sibling or there is an illegitimacy somewhere, I may never find out how I am related to Elizabeth Russell, a Scotswoman with so many descendants. I will, however, keep trying.


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