Finding Matilda Kilgore Adams

While working on my paternal lineage, I ran across a very confusing ancestor. Her name was Matilda, or possibly Malinda, or Linda, or possibly Tildie Kilgore. Or possibly Collinsworth. Or possibly McCarty. Or potentially all of the above. Was Kilgore her married name or maiden name? How many marriages did she have?

I’m sure this seems like a familiar struggle.

I was determined to work out who she was and why the dates and names for her varied. It was obvious that there was more than one woman with the same or similar name. Were they related? Which one is my ancestor?

It was a long haul search through the censuses; marriage, birth, and death records; and trees offered up by other descendants who I could match DNA markers with. Turns out, these are at least three different women!

First, I examined as much evidence as I could find.

I had a DNA match (10.7 cM on chr. 20) with a descendant of Cynthia (Addington) Kilgore’s brother Charles Cromwell Addington, and a 11.1 cM match on chr. 16 with a descendant of Rev. Robert Kilgore, John Kilgore’s uncle, via his daughter Winifred (Kilgore) Broadwater. I also matched with descendants of Cynthia (Roberts) Bays. (The DNA information for Wikitree members and then going to GEDMatch was extremely helpful in this process, which was completed in 2020 before…