Sending out a huge thanks to the DNA test taker who shared his AncestryDNA match list with me last week. This person descends from Peter and Amanda’s daughter, Melissa. The U.S. 1870 Census is the only record I’ve found that links the family together. I had a few hypotheses about what happened to her, but was not able to corroborate them with anything concrete.

Thanks to DNA from her descendants, Malissia King of Sullivan County, Missouri, now can be linked to Malissa Moffet of Independence, Kansas, wife of William Moffett and mother to their three boys Guy, Hubert, and Roy.

Source: “1870 U.S. Federal Census,” Missouri > Sullivan > Pleasant Hill, image 13, household of Peter King, entry for Malissia King, database with images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 June 2022); National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M593, page 268A, dwelling 89, Washington, D.C.

Source: “1900 U.S. Federal Census,” Kansas > Montgomery > Independence > District 0139, image 8, household of William Moffett, database with images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 June 2022); National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication 1240491, roll 491, page 4, dwelling 75, Washington, D.C.

This new base test taker increases the coverage of  Peter’s DNA in the project by a few percentage points. But there’s still quite a way to go to reach the goal of 50 percent coverage.