Whiting Part 3 – FAN Clubs

What we know, so far:

1. K.I. and the S.F. Whiting descendant siblings share DNA centiMorgans (cM) indicative of 2C-3C relationship¹, and the shared matches limit our shared relationship to the Whiting family, and may include S.F. Whiting’s first wife’s family, the Wades, in some manner.
2. GEDmatch analysis indicates K.I. has a 2C-3C relationship with descendants of the Williams-Cain family, both in shared cM reported and tree data presented.
3. K.I. reports a maternal grandfather’s name as “James Whiting,” ca. 1919-1986.
4. K.I.’s maternal-maternal line was traced by K.I.; GEDmatch tree analysis indicates what has been reported is substantially correct, and, there are no maternal-line matches which can be traced forward to the S.F. Whiting descendant siblings.
5. The location of the K.I. grandparent-couple relationship is presumed to be Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio (persistently the residence area of tested K.I. closely related, per documentation and social media research, matches).

FAN is a long-used investigatory process (though my recollection is first hearing it as “FNA – Friends, Neighbors, Associates,” from my father) that considers the currently-required physical requirements for completion of a process, and who else might have information about that process.  If the suspected burglar has absconded via automobile, who might know what type of auto is involved? The relative who recently sold it to the suspect? The mechanic who worked on it and might know what condition the auto is in? The neighbor who may notice the vehicle’s presence or absence? And, who is in their network to whom the burglar might look for refuge? etc.

Prior to in-vitro fertilization, both parties needed to be in the same location to achieve a fertilized egg. Except, perhaps, in the case of assault (which should never not be considered or discounted), the parties may have had some in-common friends or associates. How would they know one another? Was it likely, or even possible, to travel between their locations in the pertinent timeframe? Some neighborhoods may even reveal a Gladys Kravitz-type who acted as an instigator, witness, storyteller, or community news agent!

The Whiting Family

Samuel E Whiting (1776-1856) and his wife, Sarah Lancaster (1781-1826), were born and married in Sussex County, England. They’d had six children when they immigrated to America, arriving in New York on 12 May 1823:

It has been reported for many years (with no documentation located) that they remained in the New York area for a couple of years, then made their way to Gilmer County, West Virginia (no documentation of this initial foray has been located, either), before moving to the Bath County, Virginia, area. That Sarah Lancaster “died in her chair” at Elk Mountain in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, is only documented in family biographies². Samuel then married Jane Hannah in Pocahontas County, in 1831.

Samuel and Sarah’s daughter Ann Whiting (b. 1809) is presumed to have died sometime between their arrival in New York and prior to the 1840 census when one male age 20-29, and one female 15-19, are living with Samuel and Jane. Son Ebenezer is known to have remained in Pocahontas County with Samuel, and would match the age range for the male 20-29; daughter Mary may have been over 20, by some accounts, and because she did not marry Thomas Sleeth until, reportedly, 1851, we presume she is the younger female reported in the household.

By the mid-1850s, four of the five surviving children (and spouses, if married) were present in the central West Virginia area: Mercy, who married Elias Varner; Samuel, who married Mary Susanna Varner; Robert, who married Sarah Jane McCray; and, Mary, who married Thomas J Sleeth.

Based on the cM matches with K.I., upon review of the shared cM estimates in the literature, particularly the Shared cM Tool (and subsequent revisions), it seems our shared MRCA – Most Recent Common Ancestor – would be among the children of Robert Whiting/Sarah Jane McCray, and, even more likely, one of their grandchildren considering our average shared cM of 125, which fits quite nicely next to the average of 123 cM for 2C1R:

	K.I.	Sib 1	Sib 2	Sib 3	Sib 4
K.I.		178.6	126.4	104.0	93.5
Sib 1	178.6		2524.0	2677.2	2670.0
Sib 2	126.4	2524.0		2696.1	2488.5
Sib 3	104.0	2677.2	2696.1		2680.6
Sib 4	93.5	2670.0	2488.5	2680.6

So, our focus narrowed to the children of Robert Whiting and Sarah McCray. Given the Whiting surname in the query from K.I., and a potential birth date in the early 20th century, we focused on the Whiting-McCray sons – Samuel (1851-1910), Robert (1853-1944), and Mathew (1860-?) – and their sons, first.

Whiting-McCray Sons

No record was located of a relationship or marriage for the youngest son, Mathew. In fact, the biographies written of the family indicate that in his 20s, Mathew, “…went west and was never heard from again.” He had served on a jury in Gilmer County in 1884,³ and in 1890, his siblings quit-claim to him the deed on 140 acres on Cedar Creek, Gilmer County, West Virginia, as heirs to the estate of their father, Robert Whiting.⁴ By 1895, however, M.H. Whiting is surrendering this property to trustee John Withers in debtor’s proceedings.⁵

Mathew is not found in the Gilmer County 1900 census record. The available evidence directs us to a Mathew Whiting who was found in a 1900 census record from Webster County, West Virginia (not west of the Gilmer area; did someone mis-speak or was mis-heard as west for Webster?). This record indicates Mathew — who matches our Mathew’s description as having been born January 1860, single, with a father born in England and mother in West Virginia — was working as a log camp manager.⁶

In August 1900, “M.H. Whiting” is appointed as an estimator in a timber dispute⁷ in Webster County; Mathew, brother Samuel F., and father Robert were all heavily involved in the timber business in Gilmer County and along the Little Kanawha River so this would have been an area of extensive experience for Mathew H. Whiting.

Then, “M.H. Whiting” sold his horses, gear, camp set-up, and other household goods to Henry Spies in Webster County, on 9 April 1902,⁸ and no further records are located, either in West Virginia or a general nationwide search, that can be confidently associated with the West Virginia Mathew H Whiting.

Robert and Sarah’s middle son, Robert Stuart Whiting (1853-1944), married Mary Jane Davis and had a family of ten children, with only one reported childhood death; six sons and three daughters survived to adulthood. Their eldest, John Edward, was born in 1873, and their youngest child, Clark Mathew Whiting, was born in 1892.

After Mary Jane died in 1895, Robert Stuart had a short, unsuccessful marriage which produced no children. The census records indicate he resumed his status as a widower (though the second wife survived) by 1910. He was likely physically capable of procreation in 1910-1920, being 57-67 years of age, and listed as working on his own farm in the 1920 census, but no reference to or record of fathering any children after Clark is located.

All of Robert’s sons except Clark would have been adults by 1910, so let’s scroll back to that 1910 census record…and check where Robert’s sons were at the time.

Eldest son John Edward married Gay Danley, of another DeKalb family, in 1905 and they had made their home in Camden-on-Gauley, Webster Counter, through the 1920 census.

David Ivan Whiting was in Brooklyn in 1900, working as a bookkeeper and living on Lafayette Avenue (one block from DeKalb Street!). He married in New York in 1904 and his two sons were born there, in 1906 and 1907. A 1910 census record has not yet been located, but by the date of his World War I registration card (12 Sep 1918), David, his wife Sadie, and their sons Stuart and Morison had relocated to Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia, where David was a foreman in the glass plant. He remained in the Clarksburg area.

Charles Franklin Whiting, in 1910, is a 33-year-old father of one, married and living in Clarksburg, Harrison County, as a tanner. He and wife Bertha Beall (another DeKalb family) had lost their eldest child, Ruby, sometime between her Jan 1905 birth and the census date.

Meanwhile, back in Gilmer county, in DeKalb household 323 (family 325) is Robert’s son, Everett French Whiting, who, in 1910, was a twenty-six year old head of family who has been married for two years to Nora Curry. French and Nora on 13 May 1910 are residing with Nora’s mother, Sarah Curry (66). Also included in the household is their daughter, Virginia, who is reported to be 1-3/12 years old.

Five households away from Everett French Whiting’s place, in household 318, is the Harvey Williams family, including daughter Demma, age 19, and newborn grandson, Roy Williams.

Roy Williams : James Whiting

K.I. inquired about, and reported in an Ancestry tree, James R Whiting with a birth year of 1919. His death was reported in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1986, but he apparently died in Weston, Lewis County, West Virginia. (Death certificates from 1986 are not yet available to researchers; a cemetery card on K.I.’s tree indicates James was cremated in Washington, Pennsylvania, which may have been the nearest crematorium to Lewis County in 1986.) Still, we ask: Is Roy, James? Is James, Roy?

We returned to our research, moved on to 1920, and re-checked the family listings.

Everett French Whiting is now a 36-year-old farmer, with wife Nora (33), as well as mother-in-law Sarah Curry living in the household. (Amazingly, Sarah has aged 20 years in the ten-year-timespan between the 1910 and 1920 census – now reported as 87 years old and reminding us how fluid ages can be on census records!) Little Virginia named on the 1910 census had not survived, but by 1920, French and Nora had added Floy Kathleen (1911), James Almond (1914), Robert Curry (1916), and Raymond Marie (1918) to their family.

Oh, wait! What’s that? James Almond Whiting born in 1914? Let’s check that out!

French reported James Almond’s birth as having occurred on 7 Feb 1914, and Eda Nora (Curry) Whiting as the mother. It is noted there are no other Whiting births reported in Gilmer County during 1914, a time when birth reports were dependent upon doctors or midwives (if used), but usually family members, making the report to the County Clerk’s office.

Regardless, at this point, James Almond Whiting, born 1914, seems the most similar possibility within the known Whiting descendants to the James Whiting, born ca. 1919, being sought by K.I. So, a forward record search commenced.

On his 16 Oct 1940 registration with the Department of Selective Service, James Almond Whiting is residing in Laurel, Howard County, Maryland, working at Highland Farms, and lists as his contact his brother Raymond M Whiting who is also in Laurel: James A Whiting is employed by Highland Farmes [sic], reported as 5′ 11″ in height, 175 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.

James had married Pauline P Ash, a native of Doddridge County, West Virginia, in Richmond with a Frederick County, Virginia, license, on 27 April 1940. At that time, he reported his occupation at the time as “laborer.” Raymond is listed with their father, French, in Doddridge County, on the 1940 U.S. census report of April, but, James and Pauline have not been located in Doddridge County or Howard County, Maryland, or surrounding areas in the 1940 census.

Continuing our forward search, we learn that James Almond Whiting and Pauline Ash had several children, and remained in Maryland for the duration of their married life. James, his father, and his brother Raymond all report being employed in racing; James and his father are residing next door to each other in 1950. The occupation, familial, and residential history do not support James Almond being able to be involved with another family located a 10-12 hour drive away in the mid-late 1950s to early 1970s time period, but stranger things have happened (and do!).

In another interesting twist of events, James Almond Whiting also expired in 1986 (cited by K.I. as the year-of-death for the James Whiting in their search), but in November of that year, and in Olney, Maryland. This does not match the April 5, 1986, death in Lewis County, West Virginia, reported by K.I..

Despite the obvious similarities, these are significant discrepancies, and no evidence to indicate that James Almond Whiting was the James R Whiting who allegedly fathered a child in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1950s.

But wait, there’s more!

During the study of James Almond Whiting, a 1940 census report for another West Virginia-native James Whiting was uncovered.

Line 29, page 3 of 28 of the census made at the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond, Virginia, on April 23, 1940, reads:

  NAME         RELA.  S  R  AGE MS SCH GRD  POB   RESIDENCE, APRIL 1, 1935
Whiting, James 39926  M  W  25  S   No  3   W.Va. Moundsville  West Virginia

This is the first “other” James Whiting to have such similar demographics, so the research into there being a real, second James — not James A, nor Roy B — started up.

I admit that my imagination concocted all sorts of connections and stories.

Perhaps French and Nora, particularly in light of the loss of Virginia – and a mother-in-law living with them <spoken as a mother-in-law!> – had some troubles. Did French seek comfort elsewhere and find both his wife and his paramour expecting sons in the same month?

Is this James found in the Virginia penitentiary even related to K.I.’s James? Can we find a Whiting family in Moundsville or the general area in the 1930 census or 1935 directory who had a 15-year-old son named James? Moundsville, being in the Ohio-Pennsylvania panhandle of West Virginia, is certainly nearer the Cleveland area that might lead to contacts and connections. It is also home to the West Virginia State Penitentiary.

Have we eliminated the possibility of Roy Williams later using the name James? Where are Roy and the James-es between 1910 and 1940? Are there enough testers in the extended family to include or exclude French as the potential ancestor to K.I. within the match list limitations at Ancestry or My Heritage?

At this point, it’s been over four years since the initial K.I. correspondence was received and responded to, with lots of changes at the testing and research sites, as well as the launch, and occasional demise, of DNA-tool sites — and new, related, but as-of-yet-unidentified, testers. But, attempts to reconnect with K.I. to share research strategies have been left unanswered.

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Footnotes

1. Blaine T. Bettinger, JD, PhD, “The Shared cM Project 4.0 tool v4,” DNA Painter (https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4).
   Bettinger provided the Shared cM data, self-reported by (and likely to contain some errors) from actual test taker data. Blaine T. Bettinger, “The Shared cM Project, Version 4.0 (March 2020),” The Genetic Genealogist, PDF online (https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Shared-cM-Project-Version-4.pdf). Also see “AncestryDNA Matching White Paper,” AncestryDNA, 31 March 2016 (https://www.ancestry.com/dna/resource/whitePaper/AncestryDNA-Matching-White-Paper). ↩︎
2. Bicentennial Biographies, Gilmer County, West Virginia. Edited by The Gilmer County Historical Society, Copyright 1976: Gilmer County Historical Society,
   Glenville, W.Va. Samuel Whiting submission by Clay Whiting, descendant: Samuel, Sr. and his wife, Sarah, moved to Jackson River in Bath County, Virginia, and then to Elk near Big Springs where Mrs. Whiting died unexpectedly. ↩︎
3. “Gilmer, West Virginia, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C34Z-Q341-Q?view=explore : Dec 18, 2025), image 612 of 778; .
   Image Group Number: 008614418 ↩︎
4. “Gilmer, West Virginia, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSR7-8QZJ-6?view=explore : Dec 18, 2025), image 381 of 555; .
   Image Group Number: 008293329 ↩︎
5. “Gilmer, West Virginia, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C37T-LTV?view=explore : Dec 19, 2025), image 86 of 559; .
   Image Group Number: 008589434 ↩︎
6. Year: 1900; Census Place: Hacker Valley, Webster, West Virginia; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0136; FHL microfilm: 1241776 ↩︎
7. “Webster, West Virginia, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89VT-CKNH?view=explore : Dec 19, 2025), image 369 of 824; .
   Image Group Number: 007616858 ↩︎
8. “Webster, West Virginia, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C37T-9K6M?view=explore : Dec 19, 2025), image 124 of 289; .
   Image Group Number: 008589058 ↩︎