Our tree on the Christian (Spratlin maternal) branch is broad and deep, seven or eight generations deep on every line, except for a single, late brick wall—the father of Anna Belle Foster.
Anna Belle Foster, likely born 3 Mar 1882 in Clarke County, Georgia, is the daughter of Eliza E. Bray, and the 2nd great-grandmother of MKS.
Eliza E. Bray married Juan F. Foster on 3 Sep 1874 in Clarke County, Georgia. We have only found five records that closely bracket Anna Belle’s birth and shed light on Eliza’s family:
- 1874 marriage license and marriage record for Juan and Eliza
- 1880 US Census for Juan and Eliza
- Property Tax Digest for Danielsville, Madison County, Georgia, 1878–1882, for Juan
- 1900 US Census for Eliza
- 1910 US Census for Eliza
Eliza had three daughters: Rosa Foster, Harriet Foster, and Anna Belle Foster. Rosa and Harriet predeceased Eliza, who died on 4 Mar 1919.
In the 1880 US Census for Athens, Clarke County, Georgia, Juan is listed with Eliza, Rosa, and Eliza’s niece Cornelia E. Bray. Juan is listed as age 25, birthplace Georgia. That Anna Belle is not listed supports that she was indeed born after 1880.
Eliza and Juan apparently divorced before 1900, and Eliza then married William Jasper Bradberry after 1900 and before 1910.
Juan F. Foster—that is not a typical Southern name of that era. But his name is spelled that way clearly and consistently in the three records that list him. We have been unable to find any records for Juan prior to 1874.
With the dearth of records for Eliza’s family, the loss of the 1890 US Census (Fire!) is particularly detrimental to our research.
So here is the real problem. We have DNA kits for a grandson and several great-grandchildren of Anna Belle, making them a great-grandson and several 2nd great-grandchildren of Eliza, and presumably Juan. There may be no other records for Juan, but we should be able to find some DNA matches for these kits through Juan’s ancestors.
The probability Anne Belle’s grandson shares a DNA segment with someone that is an actual cousin through a common ancestor in Juan’s line is:
| Common Ancestor | Match Relationship to Grandson | % |
| Great-Grandparents | 5C | 32 |
| Grandparents | 4C | 71 |
| Parents | 3C | 98 |
| Juan and Eliza | 2C | 100 |
Unless Juan is from a multi-generational line of only children, far from the norm of around eight children per family, we’d expect to find many DNA matches through Juan’s ancestors back through at least his great-grandparents. We don’t.
Here is what we do find for Anna Belle’s grandson’s DNA matches.
We clearly see large clusters for three of the four sets of great-grandparents—Spratlin-Crow, O’Kelly-Chandler, and Christian-Moore. And we see two small clusters in the lower right—Bray and Guest.
Guest? Who is Guest? As we lower the cM threshold and look at matches through more distant common ancestors, we find many more Guest matches, many with trees containing a Guest line extending back several generations before our time period of interest. By looking for shared matches through the spouses in this Guest line, we quickly develop a hypothesis for the parents of Anna Belle’s father—Sanford Guest and Frances Salina Stone.
We have at least 7 shared matches through Sanford and Frances, all with shared DNA amounts consistent with the hypothesis. We also have at least 20 shared matches through his parents and grandparents, and 32 through her parents and grandparents.
Eliza, age 23, lived with her parents in 1870 in Militia District 6, Banks County, Georgia, served by the Phi Delta Post Office.
In 1870, Sanford, Frances, two daughters, four sons, and another male Guest, age 17, of unknown relationship, lived in Washington, Banks County, served by the Nails Creek Post Office.
Phi Delta to Nails Creek—8 miles. This is where we invoke Gibbs’ Rule #39.
Sanford and Frances had five sons, born between 1846 and 1859. The first son apparently died before 1860. The other four all lived beyond 1920. It is likely one of these four is the father of Anna Belle.
The records and available DNA kits do not tell us any more at this point.
Anna Belle Foster (1882–1952) is 2nd great-grandmother of MKS in the Spratlin branch.
Eliza E. Bray (1846–1919) is mother of Anna Belle Foster, and 3rd great-grandmother of MKS in the Spratlin branch.
Juan F. Foster (1856–unk) is husband of Eliza E. Bray.
Sanford Guest (1818–1896) and Frances Salina Stone (1820–1897) are likely grandparents of Anna Belle Foster, and 4th great-grandparents of MKS in the Spratlin branch.
William Jasper Bradberry (1849–1930) is husband of Eliza E. Bray.