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Seymour Savage

Seymour Savage was born to Lottie Savage, a former slave in South Carolina during the period of reconstruction following the civil war. One of his male line descendants, Charles Savage, aka Chuck, had his yDNA tested and found that he was a close match to men named Ferguson in the project's R- Z16328 subgroup aka R1b-Scots - Branch II. Two doors away from Lottie Savage in the 1870 census of Saluda, Edgefield county, SC is one Gideon Ferguson, a former overseer. So far as is known Gideon Ferguson never married and had no children. Gideon Ferguson had a brother Lewis E Ferguson who in 1870 also resided in Saluda, Edgefield county, SC. If either fathered Seymour Savage, the family tree would be as shown below. If Gideon Ferguson is the father of Seymour Savage then Chuck and Billy would be 3C (third cousins). If Lewis Ferguson fathered Seymour Savage then Chuck and Billy would be half 2C (half second cousins). The diagram below shows descendants of James Ferguson (1687-1741) that have atDNA tested.

The table below shows the total atDNA shared by representatives of each of the descendant lines in the above diagram. The large number of None is attributed to the fact that the probability of realizing a match between distant cousins is small. [Cousin statistics, ISOGG Wiki].

Name	GEDMATCH ID	Relationship	Shared cM	The Shared cM Project
				Average	Minimum	Maximum
Billy	T545781	Self
Chuck	T918662	3C	169	74	0	217
		Half 2C		117	9	397
	A306032	4C1R	16.3	28	0	417
	A305937	5C	0	25	0	94
	A385421	6C1R	27.7	21	0	79
		6C1R	0	21	0	79
	A119022	6C2R	8.9	17	0	75
	A019814	6C2R	30.9	17	0	75

The relationship chart in The Shared cM Project indicates other relationships can share 169 cM but most are precluded in the present case because nobody in the genealogy fits with the MRCA associated with those relationships. For example, James H. Ferguson died before 02 Jun 1847, he could not have fathered Seymour Savage because he was dead before Seymour was born. Lewis I Ferguson could not have fathered Seymour because he was born after Seymour. Any first cousins of the brothers Gideon and Lewis Ferguson can be ruled out as the father of Seymour since then Chuck and Billy would be fourth cousins and the 169 shared cM is out of range for 4th cousins (0 - 127). The brothers had an uncle John Ferguson about whom the only thing known is that he died after 02 Jun 1847. If he fathered Seymour then Chuck and William would be third cousins once removed. This is possible though improbable given that only 12 of 1736 samples exceeded shared 168 cM in the The Shared cM Project.

Triangulation

Using GEDMATCH tools triangulated groups that include both Chuck and Billy have been found. The groups contain other aliases but how they connect is unknown.

Triangulated Segment Details: 7 cM threshold

Kit1	Kit2		Build 36
Kit Nbr.	Kit Nbr.	Chr	From	To	cM
T918662	T545781	5	116027419	172148739	63.8
T918662	A019814	5	97076298	149218109	45.9
T545781	A019814	5	116027419	149306442	30.9

Kit1	Kit2	Chr	Build 36		cM
Kit Nbr.	Kit Nbr.		From	To
A385421	T545781	22	25059721	42753971	27.7
A385421	T918662	22	25838858	41944545	22.6
T545781	T918662	22	25838858	41905560	22.6

Mourning Ferguson

Here is a triangulated group involving T953936 a descendant of William Jackson Collins (1806-1882) the eldest son of Mourning Ferguson and Thomas Collins. Based on an 1850 census record for Thomas and M Collins living in Chester, SC, Mourning Ferguson was born about 1785 in SC. How Mourning Ferguson is related to the Ferguson in the above family tree is unknown. That census record appears to be the only documentation naming the wife of Thomas Collins and even so only her initial is provided.

Kit1	Kit2	Chr	Build 36		cM
Kit Nbr.	Kit Nbr.		From	To
T545781	T918662	2	30813386	56913635	27.1
T545781	T953936	2	30771239	53657765	25.1
T545781	A613726	2	33484946	57281457	24.9
T918662	T953936	2	30376334	53234478	25.5
T918662	A613726	2	33489861	78943301	48.1
A613726	T953936	2	33395206	53391333	22.4

Mourning Ferguson is said by some to be the of daughter of William Yarborough Ferguson (1774-1846) and Anna Robinson (1793-1850). This cannot be so for she would have had to have been born at least 10 years after her mother making her too young to have had a son born in 1806. J. Collins (Chester County Message Board, 03 Oct 2004) says she is the daughter of John Ferguson and that she lived 1781-1854.

Regina Holler Perry (Chester County Message Board, 27 Oct 2011) speaks of a Collins bible naming her parents as Elizabeth Finley and Adams Ferguson. The will of Adams Ferguson written in Jan 1820 names daughters: Pricilla Edwards, Agnes Stroud, Anney Junkin and Betsey Lee, there is no mention of Mourning. He may have not mentioned all his daughters for he apparently did not mention all his sons, just the six oldest including William Yarborough Ferguson (1774-1846).

Some public trees say Mourning is the daughter of John Ferguson Jr. and wife Becky whose will was proved 29 Jan 1822 in Chester County, SC. That cannot be correct either since.the will indicates that his daughter Mourning has yet to marry or attain the of age 21, she would have been too young or unmarried when son William Jackson Collins was born in 1806.

Matches To Chuck At Ancestry.com

Ancestry ID	Ancestor	Shared cM (as reported by Ancestry)
M.C.	William Ferguson b. 1736, VA and Ann Henderson	92
jay2971	William Ferguson b. 1736, VA and Ann Henderson	22.8

Big Y

Chuck and FTDNA Kit are a match at R-BY23079. They are not known to be related and differ at the STR DYS448 which seems to sperate one small group of Ferguson from the remainder in the common subgroup to which they belong. At this point there are no subclades identified within the R- Z16328 Ferguson

References

1. Blaine Bettinger in a post Aug 9 2017 to the Facebook group Genetic Genealogy Tips & Techniques pointed out that Lewis Ferguson may have fathered Seymour and this was overlooked in the paper The Paternity of Seymour Savage, by Chuck, John T Ferguson and Colin R Ferguson, Journal of Genetic Genealogy 9:15-19, 2017