A Lost Sheep of Shenandoah

DNA Reveals Imposter: Charles Edwin Rinker Changed His Name to Harry Bernard King
One Man, Four Families: DNA Reveals Harry Bernard King aka Charles Edwin Rinker
Why would a young man leave the beautiful blue ridge mountains of Virginia and move to the flat fields of Iowa, by himself, without any apparent relatives nearby? Harry Bernard King appeared in Worth County, Iowa, in 1894, about 27 years old. He married there in 1896 and had five children. His obituary in 1919 said he was born and raised in Virginia, but no documentary evidence was found for him in that state despite thirty-five years of research by nationally recognized genealogists. Thanks to DNA that linked Harry to his Virginia origins under another name, Charles Edwin Rinker, along with two additional marriages and an illegitimate son, Harry was really Charlie, a lost sheep of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Shenandoah, Virginia. Charlie could change his identity, but he could not change his DNA!