Wires, Artemis

Submitted by Debbie Gambrell

I am the mother of Leonard Lee 'Len' Ingram III and do most of his genealogy research. This past year I have really been trying to get more information on his Wires line.

Here is what we know:

1. Len's great-great-great grandmother was Artemis Wires who married James McDonald / McDaniel. Artemis is listed in the book "Bibb County, Alabama: The First Hundred Years" by Rhoda C. Ellison as a FPOC and on some census records as mulatto. We know from census records and family history that she and James had a couple of children before they married. James was already married to a wife named Charlotte who had serious health issues. Artemis is shown on census records living next door to them and the history is that she cared for Charlotte until ther death and then she and James married and had more children.

2. Artemis' mother Ephia (Wires) Kinard is said to have been the daughter of Joseph Wires and Elizabeth (Morris?). Elizabeth Wires was living with John and Ephia (Wires) Kinard on the Bibb County 1850 Census. Elizabeth is listed as 70 years old. Artemis is listed as Artemitta on that census.

3. Family tradition is that Ephia and Artemis were slaves in South Carolina who were brought to Alabama by the Kinards. Ephia married a John Kinard and had children who bore the Kinard name but Artemis always went by the surname Wires. I believe John was her stepfather since she is the only child on the 1850 census listed as 'M' for mulatto.

Here is what we don't know:

1. The Wires and Kinard people Artemis and her mother are connected to by paper trail and DNA matches on Ancestry ThruLines don't seem to have been enslaved. So the burning question is how was Artemis a FPOC and why are so many of her descendants clearly of mixed ethnicity and even show to be so on census records and yet we can't find where that came into the line? Was it possibly through the wife of Joseph Whyer / Wires and/or his parents?

2. Len's Y-DNA results have been confusing for us because the vast majority of his Y-DNA matches on FTNDA have the surname Belcher. We had never heard the surname and have had no idea why they're the bulk of Len's Y-DNA matches. Then I saw on this site that the article was by the late Herman Belcher! I still don't have a clue how Len is matching them so strongly, but at least now we know how they tie in to Len's ancestry; i.e. somehow through the Wires line obviously. But that in itself is confusing since Len's Y-DNA is for the surname Ingram which. Artemis Wires McDonald's daughter Ellen Alice aka Queenie married 1) J. D. Ingram (Len's line) and 2) Hastings Shipp. So, how the Belchers on the Wires connections relate to Len's Y-DNA Ingrams is still a mystery.

3. Artemis wasn't included on the site as one of the children of Joseph and Elizabeth. I'm unsure if Mr. Belcher just didn't have her info or why she was omitted.

Any further information you have on these families would be greatly appreciated. We have a public tree on Ancestry - Gambrell-Ingram Combine Tree and Len is also on Geni and his gedmatch kit # is posted on his page there:

https://www.geni.com/people/Len-Ingram-gedmatch-DM7033472/5699079720870125925?through=6000000018540091223

I have put notes in the profiles up Len's lines on these folks on Geni and added what documentation I could find. Anything I could document is under the Media tab on their individual Geni profiles.

Wires, Artemis

Kynard Marriage

Book Excerpt

Artemitta Kinard Census Record 1850

John Kinard Census Record 1850

ALGenWeb

USGenWeb

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