Ancestry's new ThruLines feature gave me a suggestion that Delila was the sister of an Elizabeth Reed, daughter of Reuben Reed/Reid and Editha Murphree. But these matches are speculative and sometimes based on faulty trees. So I investigated some more.
1. DNA. My father matches at least 6 descendants of a Murphree on MyHeritage. All of these either have a Murphree ancestor in their tree in Alabama, or a 3-way DNA match (triangulation) with another Murphree. Part of the Murphree DNA lines up with a known John Naramore (son of Joseph and Delila) descendant. That is extremely strong evidence for a Murphree ancestor on the Nar(a)more branch of our tree.
2. Delila's presumed parents were named Reuben and Editha. Two of her children were Reuben and Editha. Very strong evidence she is their child, as opposed to a niece or a cousin (which would still be consistent with the DNA, although at a lesser probability).
3. Joseph and Delila's next door neighbors in 1830 were Martin Ward and Elizabeth Reed, who is Delila's presumed sister.
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| DNApainter.com screenshot showing overlap of my father's DNA match with a Murphree descendant (lavender) and a John Naramore descendant (spring green). |
Given these three strong pieces of evidence, I think there is extremely high probability that Ancestry's proposed relationship is correct--that Delila Reid is the daughter of Reuben Reed and Editha Murphree.
Furthermore, there is a Levi Reid that I have long suspected was a relative. He was the sheriff of Jefferson County in 1819 (Joseph was a constable shortly after that). He is also reported to be the first person to ship coal from Walker County. Levi lived just a few houses away from Delila and her second husband John Woodiel in 1850. Also Joseph and Delila had a child named Levi. So I think Levi Reid is very likely a brother of Delila. [I have a note of a DNA match to Levi Reid's family which I need to double-check.]
More on the Murphree family can be found at Bob's Genealogy Filing Cabinet.
