Georgia/Florida Musgroves: Y-DNA Update

My father, Melvin Musgrove, took the Family Tree Y-DNA (FTDNA) test for the descendants of our great, great grandfather, John 'David' Musgrove, of Pierce County, Georgia. * (see relationship notes below)

Melvin and David Musgrove - 1959

From Musgrove to McMurry: The Journey

The Journey Starts

When I started researching our family in 2014, everything I knew about our history I had learned in primary school.

Second grade Georgia History covered Mary Musgrove, the bi-lingual Yamacraw Indian translator for James Oglethorpe, founder of the Georgia Colony. My father said we weren't descendants. All of Mary's sons with John Musgrove died in childhood.

Further, he said, we may not be Musgroves at all. Rumor had it a Musgrove woman had a child with a McMurry man but, for whatever reason, gave him her maiden name.

So with this knowledge, in 2014, we created an account on Ancestry.com.

Indians and DNA: Keeping It in the Musgrove Family

We blogged last about the search for our ancestor,  James Walter Musgrove, Sr. According to family lore, he was our third great grand-father from Baker County, Georgia. We've not found him; but we're still trying.

David R Moore

In that respect, we're fortunate  to have a DNA researcher in our family; David R Moore. He descends from Laura Janet Musgrove (b 1868 - d 1919 • Waycross, Ware County, Georgia.) 

She married Phillip Eugene Wildes, (b 1869 • d 1919 • Waycross, Ware County, Georgia), an ancestor of the of the Wildes' Family Indian massacre.

If you've been to the main entrance of the Okefenokee Swamp Park you've  seen the Wildes Cabin Museum. According to Gertrude (Wildes) Johnson (her great grandfather John escaped) in her account, "The Wildes Massacre",

Musgrove Y-DNA: We Are Family, Aren't We?

Musgrove Y-DNA

DNA testing is part of our family research. Through ancestry.com's DNA test we've met, online and in person, other Musgrove descendants of our second great grandfather, David. But it was to Family Tree DNA (FTDNA)'s Y-DNA test we turned to answer the question,