Research with me: Isiah Spencer Allen (1815-1880) Descendants

The descendancy research for Isiah Spencer Allen (1815-1880) has been interesting and hopefully helpful in placing DNA matches. Descendancy research also reveals family dynamics and movements, which has certainly been true for Isiah Spencer Allen’s family.

Isiah Spencer Allen (1815-1880)

Isaiah Spencer Allen was born about 1815 in South Carolina.1 He married Elizabeth Jane Taylor in about 1840 in South Carolina. He migrated to Mississippi between 1847 and 1850. He had 8 children, 6 boys and 2 girls. He died after 1880.2

Isiah Spencer Allen’s parents and his exact origins in South Carolina are unknown. Some have suggested Chester County, South Carolina. Family documents suggest his full name may have been William Isiah Spencer Allen. Identifying his parents will be a difficult task.

How many descendants?

The more descendants an ancestor has, the number of DNA test-takers and matches is increased. A large pool also means a DNA match may have inherited a portion of DNA that you did not inherit. This increases the ability to rebuild an ancestor’s DNA, at least as much as possible. (A topic for another day).

There are calculators available to determine an average number of descendants, but it is a difficult number to ascertain with any surety. Though you or genealogy software could count the descendants individually to a certain point in time if needed. That number will only stand for a short time because time continues to march forward and new people are born every day.

Puzzilla is a tool that can be used to visualize descendancy. A person born about 1800, could have thousands of descendants, which I have averaged to be about 3,000. To be honest, that number has no basis in reality. Isiah Spencer Allen has significantly less than 3,000 (as of 2024). Some of Isiah’s children never married or had children. In the next generation, several grandchildren never married or had children.

Fewer descendants can make it difficult to place a mystery DNA match. I have a DNA match that points to being connected to the Allen family of Winston County, Mississippi, but I do not know how. This match could be from Isaiah’s yet-to-be-identified siblings or from an aunt or uncle, also unidentified.

Jonathan Floyd Allen

Jonathan Floyd Allen was Isiah Spencer Allen’s fifth child. He was born on 11 December 1856 in Louisville, Winston, Mississippi. He died on 16 February 1929 in Noxapater, Winston, Mississippi.3 He worked as a farmer his whole life. Jonathan never married or had children, but he took care of Mary Elizabeth Krebbs, his niece.

Jonathan Floyd Allen’s Find A Grave Memorial is rather unique.4 Instead of a traditional headstone, his memorial is a metal plaque with the name and dates cut out. His siblings Lucy and Isiah, also buried in the same cemetery have the same types of memorials. This suggests a family member might have made or perhaps paid to add the memorials at a later date. Perhaps it was Mary Elizabeth Krebbs? The memorials were for her mother Lucy, and the two uncles with whom she was especially close.

Edward L. Commer

As the descendancy research for Isiah Spencer Allen carried forward, the next person to research was Edward L. Commer, a grandson. Edward was the son of Mary Jane Allen (1857) and Thomas Wesley Commer (1854-1912). Edward was the third child of this couple and his FamilySearch profile had very little information.

Edward was born July 1879 in Mississippi, most likely in Winston County. His birth date comes from the 1880 U.S. Census which included a column to record the birth month for individuals born in the last year. His age was 10 months in June 1880, when the census was enumerated. This aligns with an approximate birth date of July 1879.

Edward L. Commer (1879), the son of Mary Jane Allen and T. W. Commer and grandson of Isiah Spencer Allen
Edward L. Commer (1879), the son of Mary Jane Allen and T. W. Commer

The 1880 U.S. Census also includes a health column. Typically this column was used to record physical disabilities such as blindness or deafness. But there was also a space to record the disability if it was something different. Edward was noted as having croup.5 Croup is a viral infection that can interfere with normal breathing. Modern cases only lasted a few days, but it could have been a more serious condition in 1880. A severe case could have lead to pneumonia, respiratory failure, or a heart attack. Edward may have died as a child due to croup. I was unable to find any further records for Edward.

Sources

  1. 1860 U.S. Census, Winston County, Mississippi, population schedule, Louisville Post Office, p. 114 (penned), dwelling 749, family 749, Isah Allen household; digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 12 December 2024); citing NARA microfilm publication M653. ↩︎
  2. 1880 U.S. Census, Winston County, Mississippi, population schedule, Beat Five, enumeration district (ED) 25, sheet 69B (stamped), p. 78 (penned), dwelling 137, family 138, Isiah Allen household; digital image, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 12 December 2024); citing NARA microfilm publication T9. ↩︎
  3. Jonathan’s FamilySearch profile has complete birth and death dates with no sources. ↩︎
  4. Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 12 December 2024), memorial 262893992, Jonathan Floyd “Judge” Allen, (1856-1929), gravestone photographed by Searcher 48749520. ↩︎
  5. 1880 U.S. Census, Winston County, Mississippi, population schedule, Beat Five, enumeration district (ED) 25, sheet 73A (stamped), p. 25 (penned), dwelling 195, family 197, T. W. Commer household; digital image, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 12 December 2024); citing NARA microfilm publication T9. ↩︎
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