Lazarus P. Stewart - Lazarus P. probably is NOT Martin Lafayette's father

Thomas Scott Stewart PRO

4/27/2023 at 10:22 AM

I originally developed this theory.

Over 30 years ago, my cousin Mitchell Oliphant shared with me some of his correspondence with Eula Stewart Oster (Thomas Otto Stewart's daughter). In a 1957 letter to Mitchell, Eula relates some Family Lore on Martin Lafayette: the story goes that he was born in Georgia or Alabama. His mother died when he was a "youngster", so his father sent him to Mississippi with another family (intending to join him later). Martin Lafayette made it, but the father never showed up.

I never found records to support any of this, so I discarded the Family Lore as false and began searching far and wide for Martin Lafayette -- in pretty much every state east of the Mississippi River. Eventually, I happened upon this Lazarus P. in Illinois who had a son Martin L. (born just two years before my Martin Lafayette). RIght before the Civil War, Lazarus P. moved his family to Sebastian County, Arkansas and, not long after that, Martin Lafayette enlisted with the Confederates in Corinth, MS. My imagination filled in the gaps: concluding that this Illinois Martin L. MUST be my Martin Lafayette. Embarrassed by his Yankee heritage -- so my backstory became -- he must have concocted this white lie that he was an orphaned Georgia boy for his friends and family. Soon after I linked Lazarus P. to the Tribe of Lazarus (in Pennsylvania) and I was off and running.

Both the 1850 and 1860 federal census reports show a Martin L. to have been born in Illinois to Lazarus and an unknown wife. These two records -- coupled with the history of this Stewart branch making their way from PA to NC to TN to IL and (finally) to AR just before the Civil War -- combined with the known fact that Martin Lafayette settled in Yell County, AR after the Civil War -- became the foundation for my theory that Martin Lafayette was a Tribe of Lazarus descendant.

But my recent FTDNA Big Y-700 and autosomal test results have blown this theory out of the water. Also, I recently learned, from Jacob Stewart (via David Stewart), that when Martin Lafayette enlisted in Corinth, MS at age 18, he gave Newton Station, MS as his residence.

In light of all this, I recommend disconnecting Martin Lafayette from Lazarus P.

Gary Allen Singleton PRO

4/27/2023 at 3:56 PM

Thank you, Thomas, for your resolving this matter. Yes, I see the issue there that Martin L. is found reported born in Georgia and yet census records show that Lazarus P's son Martin was born in Illinois. Then later their locations do not agree with each other like you showed us here. Finally the conflict remains in the YDNA with your Y chromosome being R-Z17581 and Lazarus' line is FT74278. Now both haplogroups have been attached to Lazarus and that is a major conflict with the two haplogroups coming from two separate sons of King of Scots Robert II in the mid 1300s. They should have the same pathways from FTT46. So we have learned what should be done about the mix-up there in the two haplogroups. thanks to your research. The past week I have checked out as much as is possible the birth and marriage records from Donegal and Derry Counties in Ireland for the years 1650-1701 searching for a possible birth record for Lazarus in 1683 or near it. It does not show up. The real problem is the lack of preservation of the birth and marriage records in especially the outer counties like Donegal. I have been told that nearly all of the Stewart records of that time for NW Ireland are found in the St. Columb's Cathedral in Londonderry. That church was Protestant and Stewarts should be expected to be found in that church. I checked several on-line search indexes and also paid for a short time subscription to the Irish Family History Foundation. I searched Donegal where the George and Margaret Stewart came from during that period and then I searched all of Derry including St. Columb's and came up with no results and no records even of the well known established Stewart families which were there in the 1650-1701 period. I was hoping to find Lararus connected by birth to the Ft. Stewart branch of the family descended from Sir John Stewart of Bonkyl born several generations before Robert II. It is obvious now that Ft. Stewart in Donegal is not the connection. I only found that a daughter of the Ft. Stewart family MARRIED a son from the Stewart/Bute family. That is stated in the Stewart Clan magazine of 1928 March. So that is why they called the Butes and "of Bonkyl" branches related, that is "by marriage only, not by the male chromosome after Bonkyl". I am glad it turned out that way because those descended from Lazarus still have his wife's line to claim. Margaret and her brother George of Donegal, Ireland are directly related to the Ft. Stewart branch because their lines both come from Archibald Stewart b1550 of Culgruff and Barclye who descended from Bobnkyl. And that means descending from consecutive sons and the same YDNA path. So we are safe with Lazarus's wife's line complete with every previous generation known to Bonkyl and before(the High Stewards of Scotland). That leaves us with Lazarus being in the YDNA line only of the Stewart Bute family. However, we are left with no known father for Lazarus.

So now, since I agree with you, which one of us will disconnect your Martin Lafayette from Lazarus P.? You could do it and then clean up your Martin by changing his date of birth and whatever else should be changed if anything (like Illinois birth?) Go to Edit Martin Lafayette and to his relationships. Ignore the top which states his parents. Just go to the bottom where you can easily REMOVE Lazarus P as his father. Any problems just let me know. That will automatically then, I believe, remove your R-Z17581 from all of the line of Lazarus. Thank you so much for dealing with this. I am so sorry it happened this way. The haplogroup FT74278 I think only developed recently on the Royal Stewart Project and that has established the separate branches of the sons of Robert II. At least we still have descent from him through Stewart and the Lazarus branch also has the Stewart/Bonkyl link.

Thomas Scott Stewart PRO

4/27/2023 at 6:58 PM

Wow. You've been busy, my man.

Ah well. My apologies for the miscue with Martin Lafayette and Lazarus P. It was one of those "assumptions" I'd made so far back I no longer questioned it. Lesson learned ...

I'll take a crack at disconnecting the two and cleaning it up. Will let you know if I need any help.

Lazarus P. Stewart - Lazarus P. probably is NOT Martin Lafayette's father

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