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The 1926 Census – Part 4

In my previous 3 Blogs on the 1926 Census, I looked mostly at my Frazer relatives who came from Ballindoon descending from George William Frazer and Margaret McMaster. In this Blog, I will check to see if I have missed any other relatives.

McMaster

Of these, all the siblings of my second great-grandmother Margaret died before 1926 except Hubert. In 1911, Hubert was living in Culnagneragh:

I think this was called Clarkwood in English.

Here is Hubert and family 15 years later:

Hubert is now 77 and his wife has died. There are still three children living on the farm. I assume that George and Mary J are married to each other. Unfortunately, I cannot make out where Mary J was born.

Here is my best guess:

This was likely not far from where my Clarke ancestors lived in Carrownacarrick:

I have that George had 4 children, but they must have been born after the 1926 Census:

When I compare the 1911 with 1926, this is what I get:

Eliza dies in 1923.

Here is a record for James:

James enlists in Sydney, Australia for World War I. According to someone else’s tree at Ancestry, James dies in WWI in France.

I am not sure what happened to Robert William. Here is a different Robert William – perhaps named after the earlier Robert William.

I think that I have met Dorothy before in England. It is tricky to keep track of all these relationships. This Robert William is the grandson of Jane who was a brother of the elder Hubert.

Margaret Lillie McMaster

I have that he married my great-grandfather’s youngest brother John Edward Frazer in 1917. I also have that she died in 1918.

John Edward had much tragedy in his life as his daughter dies at about age 1. These records were transcribed and sent to me from the Kilmactranny Church:

Add to this James McMaster who died in WWI in 1917:

McMaster DNA

I have built a McMaster DNA tree for DNA matches with many McMaster descendants:

I am not sure if this is up to date. From the yellow image above, I have matches with two descendants of George Ernest McMaster born 1894:

For my own ThruLines at Ancestry, I also match Karen and Matthew:

I did not put them on my McMaster DNA Chart because they are more closely related on my Frazer side.

I see my brother Jon has a match with Melissa:

This is a confusing one also as William McMaster who was my great-grandfather’s uncle, married my great-grandfather’s sister Catherine Clarke. That means that I cannot tell if I am related to Melissa on the Clarke or McMaster side!

What is interesting here is that William names Frances his daughter after his mother Fanny. Then Frances gives her daughter Joan as her middle name, the maiden name of her mother (Clarke).

Back to McMaster Genealogy

I wonder if Robert Hyde was any relation to Douglas Hyde, the first President of The Republic of Ireland?

Here is the family in 1901 in Cashty, Baronscourt, Tyrone, Ireland:

So soon after their marriage. I have this note from a researcher friend in Ireland:

Aug 06, 1899   Edward Wynne Frazer (Widower), of Carrondargrey, son of Archie Frazer

                                         Emma Martha Thompson of Carrandargrey, daughter of George Thompson

                                             Witnesses:  Robert Hyde, James McCormick (his mark).    Robert Hyde (from Cork) was recently appointed manager of the newly established Kilmactranny Dairy Co-operative with which the McMaster families were closely associated.     On June 29, 1899 he had married Frances Jane McMaster of Clarkwood who died the following year.

However, I do not think that the note is right concerning Frances Jane as she appears to be in the 1901 Census.

I wonder who the McMaster visitor was:

This must be Frances’ younger sister Margaret Lillie visiting. Here is Cashty:

Robert is listed as a Creamery Manager in 1901.

Here is the family in 1911, still on the move:

Frances Jane appears to rely heavily on her McMaster side for naming her sons (George Ernest, Hubert). Robert is still a creamery manager, now in St. Johnstown, County Donegal:

Robert and Frances stay put through 1926 and have another child:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to review, consolidate and expand my knowledge of the McMaster family of the Kilmactranny, Count Sligo area
  • I was able to expand my knowldege of the Robert Hyde family. He married Frances Jane McMaster. A former researcher had thought that she died soon after marriage, but apparently not.
  • Expanding the net could result in more information, but what I have is already a bit overwhelming.
  • Robert Hyde was probably not a relative of Douglas Hyde. as Robert was born in County Cork. Douglas Hyde, the first president of the Republic of Ireland was the son of the Church of Ireland Rector who married my 2nd great grandparents George Frazer and Margaret McMaster.

 

 

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1926 Irish Census – Part 3

I’m not sure how many parts this Blog will have. So far I have:

  • Looked at my second great-grandfather, Geoge Frazer, who was quite old in 1926
  • Looked at one of his sons William, his wife and family. William moved to the Boston area and married but moved back to the family homestead after a fireworks accident.
  • I thien looked at his daughter Violet Frazer and family.

George, Son of George William Frazer

Next, I will look at George:

George stays in Irleand. His son George A is shown as living but this cannot be right. In fact, I suspect that all his children likely have passed away. I wonder if I have a photo of George.  In a previous Blog, my best guess was that this was George to the right of “Old George”:

In that Blog, I guessed that the photo was taken in 1899 and that George would have been about 20 years old. From that previous Blog, I mention that George lived at his grandfather’s farm in Derrycashel. I wrote this in that Blog:

George (1879) – He moved in with his Aunt Isabella and worked his grandfather’s farm in Derrycashel, County Roscommon. He married Annie Craig in 1915 and had one girl and three boys and died in 1960.

Let’s start with the 1926 Census as that is new:

The first thing of interest I note is that George is down as being born in Derrycashel. I would have thought that he would have been born where his parents lived in Ballindoon. I do have a record of him being baptized in Kilmactranny which was the Church of Ireland Parish Church for Ballindoon.

At the age of 19, George was living with his unmarried Aunt in Derrycashel. At that time, his birthplace was Sligo, so it must have been Ballindoon.

The 1911 Census is pretty much the same information 10 years later:

The next big event was George’s marriage to Annie Craig:

Annie was born in County Sligo:

Here is Hollybrook:

It is quite close to Mullaghfarna. Here is the Craig family in 1901:

Here is the same family in 1911:

Now we see Richard E who married Martha Fairbanks from my previous Blog. Martha would be George Frazer’s niece, if I have it right.

Violet Frazer Born 1916

Violet marries at the Kilbryan church George Alexander Warren:

Here is the Kilbran Church which I understand is now a private dwelling:

George Warren dies in 1976 and Violet in 2009:

If I have the Drumcliffe Church Yard location right, this is also the burial place of W. B. Yeats:

Here is the Ardtrasna mentioned on the grave stone even further North:

I don’t have a lot of information on Violet’s siblings.

Susan Jane Frazer Born 1887, Ballindoon, County Sligo

Here is what I have now:

 

Here is a DNA relative from Ancestry:

Faye is my third cousin. It looks as if I am better using Faye’s information:

Here is Faye’s timeline:

From this, it would appear that I could find the family in the 1926 Census. Here is what I find in Doreenasoo:

For some reason, the names do not match up. Did the family move away briefly during the Census? Here is the problem. When I search for all of Dooreenasoo, I see this:

A ‘w’ can look like an ‘n’. However, with all the other Crawfords around, common sense would determine that it should have been Crawford.

I do admit that some surnames look like Cranford and some like Crawford.

Here is Dereenasoo:

Here is Faye’s grandfather, George Musgrave Crawford (Susan’s son):

I have to say that genealogy with photos is more fun than without them.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I looked at George, son of George William Frazer who lived at his granfather’s house. The grandfather was James Frazer of Derrycashel, County Roscommon.
  • I looked at George’s daughter Violet who married George Alexander Warren. I believe that family also lived for a while in Derrycashel, but George Warren was buried to the North of Sligo in the same cemetery as W. B. Yeats.
  • I looked at Susan Jane Frazer. She was the youngest daughter of Old George Frazer. She marries Stuart Edward Crawford of Dooreenasoo, County Roscommon and has several children.
  • I was able with the help of one of my DNA matches, Faye, to correct and add to that family’s genealogy in my Ancestry Tree.

 

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1926 Irish Census – Part 2

In my previous Blog, I started looking at the 1926 Census for Ireland. Here is the household where my 2nd great-grandfather lived:

In the last Blog, I looked into George, who was listed at 94. He was my 2nd great-grandfather.

George is on the left in this photo.

Some Chronology for William

  • 1868 – birth in Ballindoon and baptism at Kilmactranny Church
  • 1890 – Arrives in Boston at age 22
  • 1896 – Brings back brother Richard to Boston at age 28
  • 1900 – Working and living at a hotel as a cook with brother Richard in Portland, New Hampshire
  • 1901 – Brings back brother Hubert (aged 24) when William is 33
  • 1908 – Brings back brother David (listed as 23) when William is 40
  • 1909 – Listed as a chef living in Newton, Massachusetts
  • April 1910 – Listed as 41 and working at a hotel in Newton with brother David. A 19 year old Mandy Skoog is listed as working there also in the Census.
  • November 1910 – Age 42 marries Amanda Skoog in Boston. William is listed as living at 35 Alaska Street, Boston, the address of my great-grandfather James Frazer.
  • 1911 – son Edward George Frazer born in Mansfield, MA
  • 1913 – son Albert William Frazer born in Mansfield
  • 1914 – daughter Elsie Marguerite Frazer born in Mansfield
  • 1915 – lived at 86 Pleasant St., Mansfield, MA
  • 1919 – Following a fireworks accident, William and family leave for Ireland by way of Portland, Maine and Liverpool. William apparently returns to the family farm.
  • 1922 – William’s mother Margaret dies
  • 1924 – Son Walter Stanley Frazer born in Ballindoon
  • 1925 – Son Edward George dies at age 14
  • 1926 – Census in Ballindoon
  • 1927 – James Robert Frazer born Ballindoon
  • 1928 – William’s father George dies
  • 1930 – daughter Audrey Elizabeth born
  • 1934 – sister Violet Frances dies
  • 1950 – William dies at age 82 in Ballindoon

Here is 60 South Main Street where William lived at the time of the birth of his first child in 1911.

This is taken from an Irish local history book and should be around 1919 if taken before the family leaves the US for Ireland.

Some Frazer/McMaster DNA

I am related to the William Frazer branch through common ancestors George Frazer and Margaret McMaster. Here is how I am related to two people in William’s Line:

At Ancestry, I am a third cousin to Karen and her son Matthew.

Here are some other matches:

These all descend from James Robert born 1927. I don’t know if there is other family out there that have tested at other places.

Amanda Skoog

Amanda was originally Amanda Skog, I assume prounced Skoog:

I haven’t done much with Swedish birth records.

Amanda was born in Sweden the same year William moved to the US from Ballindoon, Ireland.

Here is when Amanda left Sweden:

Sadly, Amanda traveled alone at age 15 from Sweden to the US:

I appears she lived in Glimarkra when she left:

It looks like Amanada had $10 and was planning to stay with a cousin, Betsy Johnson, in Quncy, Massachusetts:

 

I assume that Amanda was being courted by William in 1910 when they worked and lived in the same Hotel in Newton, Massachusetts:

Mandy is listed as 19 and William as 41.

When they marry later that year, Amanda is listed at 21 years old:

Here is 25 Langdon Street, if I have it right:

William was listed as living at 35 Alaska Street where William’s brother James had a home:

Here is some more chronology from my Ancestry Tree:

Daughter Elsie must be named after Amanda’s mother. Amanda must have visited her mother Elsa in 1912. Here  is Amanda’s ship record:

Amanda is buried in Ballindoon Abbey across the street from her father-in-law’s house where William later lived and farmed the land.

I feel if I get more into William’s family, I may be bumping into privacy issues so I will stop here on this line.

Other Children of George William Frazer

These are just some of the children. Some of these and other not show above went to the US.

Violet Frances Frazer Born 1872

I was told by one of Violet’s descendants that this is her photo with her husband’s arm around her:

She is wearing a white blouse. She marries James Fairbanks in 1901 but he dies in 1912. Here is Violet in 1901:

If I have it right, Drumdoney where they lived is quite close to Ballindoon:

Here they are in 1911 living in the same place:

Off screen, it shows that James had 5 children, but 4 are living now. Here is the timeline I have for Violet:

The big question is what happens in 1911? Violet has four children and no father:

Violet was still farming the same farm in 1926 with the help of three out of four of her children:

The three younger siblings are all helping out on the farm. Where is Martha Frances? This could be her in Dublin:

Martha is listed as a nurse at Adelaide Hospital:

Now Martha is listed as belonging to the Church of Ireland while her mother and siblings are listed as Episcopal.

Martha marries Richard Edward Craig the next year in 1927. Here is Richard Craig and family in 1926:

Here is a map of Mullaghfarna across Lough Arrow from Ballindoon (near Derry on the map):

DNA Matches on Violet’s Line

Here are three people who have had their DNA tested that I match on Violet’s Line:

They descend from the youngest daughter, Susan Fairbanks. Susan marries William John Craig. By the way, Ancestry must be working fast as they now have a link to the 1926 Irish Census which they didn’t have when I first starting working on these Blogs:

Summary and Conclusions

  • The Census is a great genealogical tool and gives a snapshot in time and place of a family, what they were doing and there relationships to each other.
  • I completed my chronology of William Frazer which I started in my previoius Blog
  • I wrote a short chronolog for his wife, Amanda Skoog
  • I then started to look at other children of my 2nd great-grandfather George Frazer. I started with Violet Frazer and wrote a chronology for her
  • Violet Frazer husband, James Fairbanks dies when Violet is 40 and leaves her and the children to farm the land. The eldest girl, Martha Frances Fairbanks, is a nurse in Dublin in 1926 but comes back to Sligo to marry Richard Edward Craig in 1927. He is a farmer in Mullaghfarna, County Sligo.

 

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1926 Irish Census – Woohoo!

The big news recently for genealogists is the 1926 Irish Census is out. Right away I go to see what my 2nd great-grandfather and family are doing in Balindoon, County Sligo:

Here is George, my great grandfather’s father. My great grandfather had moved to Boston as had most of his brothers at this time. This is the left hand side of the Census.

Here is what I have at one of my Frazer web pages:

George Frazer

When I went to Ireland, I was told he was known as old George. He is 94 in the Census which would put his birth roughly at 1832. Above, I have him born in 1836.

1901 Census – he is listed as 64, so that would be a birth date of about 1837

1911 Census – he is listed as 75 so that is a birth date of about about 1836.

The reason it makes a difference is that in the 1834 Tithe Applotment, there is a James Frazer – assumed to be the father of George Frazer who lived in Derrycashel. As a result, I have assumed that George was born in Derrycashel. In the 1926 Census, George is said to have been born in Kilbrian, County Roscommon. If George were born in Kilbrian, the family may have lived there at the time and moved to Derrycashel. However, my guess is that George was baptized at the Kilbryan Church as this was likely closer to Derrycashel.

Here is the Tithe Applotment for Derrycashel:

As for my theory that Kilbryan was closer than Ardcarn, that does not appear to be right:

Another interesting fact is that it appears that George’s sister Sidney was also born in Kilbryan:

I apparently got this from the 1911 Oxfordshire Census:

Sidney was living there as a widower with her stepson. Again, this could refer to the Parish of Kilbryan or they even may have been in the Parish of Ardcarn and mistakenly thought they were in Kilbryan?

When I look at the Tithe Applotments, there are either two James Frazers or one who had land in two places:

Unfortunately, I cannot find a place in Roscommon or Ardcarn called Culticonnor. But I did find some information when I searched for Culticonnor in association with Ardcarn Parish:

Here are Cootehall and Oakport:

Here is Ardconra:

Here is Errironagh:

So truthfully, I do not know if this James was my ancestor or another James Frazer. I also could not find a Townland called Culfaghna.

William Frazer

Let’s move on to the head of household, William:

William was a farmer of 30 statute acres. He was quite a bit older than his wife. His wife’s occupation was listed as domestic duties, but I can recall seeing a picture of her working on the farm also. William was my great-grandfather’s younger brother by one year.

Here is William on the left with my great-grandfather in the middle and another brother on the right. At one time there were four Frazer brothers living in the Boston, Massachusetts area. I should be able to put a little sketch together about William.

William was born in Ballindoon on 14 March 1868. He came to Boston in 1898. From what I understand, my great-grandfather helped to pay to bring his brothers over to Boston from Ballindoon. My great-grandfather came to Boston in 1887. William came to Boston in 1898 or 11 years later.

William was a cook in 1896 when he sailed from Queenstown to Boston. Queenstown was in County Cork.

I see, William brings his younger brother with him:

There is a lot of information in here and it is somewhat difficult to line up the information. It appears that William had been to Boston before for what appears to be 5 years. So maybe between 1890 and 1895. He is staying with James his brother at 51 Westminster St. Richard’s ticket was perhaps paid for by his brother (James?). I assume that William had saved up money before as it is said he paid for his own ticket. Confusingly, the 1910 Census says that William came to the US in 1870 which cannot be right. I am thiinking that it should have said 1890.

I just found William in the 1900 Census with his brother in Portsmouth, New Hampshire:

He was one of three cooks at a hotel. The third cook was Mary Feeney. This confirms my suspicion that William first came to Boston in 1890, so about three years after my great-grandfather came to Boston.

This may be where they probably worked at 96 State Street in Portsmouth, NH:

Of course, it would have looked a bit different 126 years ago.

Now I may have to revise the timeline already. Let’s look for a passenger list from 1890.

I did find this record:

This time William is bringing David to Boston in 1908:

This ship lands in New York City and the brothers travel on to Boston from there. William is listed as a non-immigrant alien:

I suppose this is because he immigrated already in 1890. I guess William did not mind making trans-Atlantic voyages. This must have been his 5th crossing.

Another Trans-Atlantic Trip in 1901

So perhaps Richard is homesick for the family after being in the US for 5 years. On this trip, William brings his brother Richard to collect another brother Hubert. That means that we are up to 7 trans-Atlantic crossings for William. I believe that this trip was from Queenstown to Boston.

This appears to be the ship:

This ship would have been quite new at the time and took about 7 days to cross the Atlantic:

Finally, here is William in 1890, with some of his traveling companions, but not relatives:

Looks like the ship name was Pavonia:

Some Pavonia passengers:

An Updated Timeline for William

I have this on my Frazer Web Page:

I was interested in his time in Mansfield as that is where my wife lived when I met her. Here is another issue from the 1926 Census:

Amanda Frazer is listed as having had 6 children. William is listed as having 4 living children. That means that I must be missing two children who died young.

Here are the four children: Albert, Elisie, Ruth and Walter. Ruth and Walter are born in Ballindoon. But actually, the eldest son, Edward George died in Ballindoon in 1925 at age 11. That means that I am only missing one child.

I will spend more time on the 1926 Census in a subsequent Blog.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Looking at the 1926 Census lead me to review a lot of information I had
  • It looks like William made 8 transatlantic crossings, many more than I had realized
  • The family had an additional child that I did not know about. I did not find that additional child yet, but perhaps the child was born in Ireland after the family moved there.
  • I was a little surprised that my 2nd great-grandfather gave his birthplace as Kilbrian. My thinking is that he was baptized at the Kilbryan church but was likely born in Derrycashel, but there are other possibilities. His sister Sidney gave the same place for her birth in a Census after she moved to England.
  • I found out a bit more about Amanda Skoog (originally Skog) but have not written about that yet.
  • I found a photo of building which was likely the hotel that William and brother Richard were cooks at in 1900 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

 

 

 

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My Family’s Match with Francis at MyHeritage and Likely McMaster Connection

I have a long title for this Blog. I see in a recent email that some in my family have a match with Francis at MyHeritage Here is Francis’ match with my second cousin Paul:

Here is the maternal side of Francis’ Tree:

I can look at my McMaster DNA Tree to see what I have there. My guess is that the connection is through James and Frances (Fanny) McMaster. Here is my Ancestry Tree:

Francis’ tree matches with my McMaster Web Page:

My McMaster DNA Tree

This tree already has Francis’ ancestor Jane McMaster:

It looks like I already have Francis’ mother on my Ancestry tree, so I just need to add Francis. That should be easy. I think that I even met Francis’ parents in England one year. I believe that his father was a shepherd in Ireland and had a collection of shepherd staffs.

I’ll add Francis to my chart above:

Francis is Paul’s third cousin once removed as predicted by MyHeritage.

DNAPainter

I can ‘paint’ Francis onto Pauls DNA profile using DNAPainter. Here is the DNA match between Paul and Francis:

By default, DNAPainter does not use the matches under 7 cM. So that leaves matches on Chromosomes 6, 11, 12, and 16. All the small matches probably indicate matches on multiple family lines. We know there are two McMaster Lines connecting Francis and Paul (James and Fanny).

Here is the match on Chromosome 6:

Note that the match overlaps with the Abe McMaster Line. That tells me that the match is actually from James McMaster and not Fanny McMaster. That is because James was a son of Abraham McMaster. Fanny was a daughter of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer (more little DNA segments).

Francis adds new DNA to Chromosome 11. On Chromosome 12, the DNA must be from Fanny as she is the daughter of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer (shown in orange).

The match on Chromosome 16 is new also.

My Sister Lori, My Brother Jim, and Francis

Lori and Jim show up on Paul and Francis’ shared match list. My sister Lori has this one match with Francis that Paul and Francis do not have:

I suspect that Francis and Jim share the same segment.

Here is what Lori has currently on her Chromosome 13 – paternal side:

 

Here is the new segment painted onto Lori’s DNA profile:

As James is the son of Abraham McMaster and Margery, the match between Lori and Francis must represent James McMaster’s DNA. This is true because the matches overlap. Note also, that I didn’t have James and Fanny McMaster on Lori’s profile previously, so I added it here.

It looks like I haven’t mapped as much for my brother Jim:

Here is Francis’ match with Jim painted on Jim’s DNA profile:

This shows that Jim’s matches with Emily and Faye are on the Margaret McMaster side rather than the Frazer side. Further, the same should be true as with Lori, that the McMaster match with Francis should be on the James McMaster side rather than the Fanny side. My assumption is that this is true because Lori and Jim are siblings. The reason it doesn’t show that way is that I have not mapped as many matches for Jim.

For example, here is how Jim matches Ronald:

The overlapping segments are what is called triangulation.

Summary and Conclusions

  • A new match that showed up sounded like a familiar name.
  • It is likely that I should be able to identify a third cousin DNA match and I usually can.
  • Due to the intermarriage of the Church of Ireland minority families in Ireland, the DNA relatioinships can be complicated.
  • It is helpful having the results from my 2nd cousin Paul who is a generation older than me in the Frazer Line.
  • In areas of overlap in DNA Painter, it is possible to tell more exactly where the DNA comes from. For example, instead of knowing the match is from one of the couple, it is possible to identify which spouse the DNA match comes from.
  • It is important to test different siblings if possible. Jim and Lori had matches that I do not have with Francis. This is due to the way that DNA is inherited.

Here is a map of how my siblings and I inherited our DNA on Chromosome 13:

Note that Jim and Lori show Frazer DNA (blue) while the other siblings inherited Hartley DNA (orange) on the paternal side of their Chromosome 13 in the are of the DNA match with Francis.

 

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Part 2 of My Revolutionary War Soldier Ancestors

In my previous Blog, I looked at 4 of my ancestral lines with potential Revolutionary War Soldiers. One who was Nathaniel Hatch from Falmouth, Massachusetts. He probably served the least time at 3 days, but those were important days, including April 19, 1775.

The Ancestors

  • The younger Anthony Snell served. The elder Anthony died before the War
  • Like Anthony, he was from Dighton, Massachusetts. He served locally and in Rhode Island. He also served 3 months in support of the Continental Army. The appears to be a younger Benjamin Luther from the same area who also served.
  • William Parker had extensive service including fighting at Fort Ticonderoga. He got sick during the war and died not long after his service. I am not sure if his son Isaac served or not, there were a lot of Isaac Parkers from his area who apparently served. There appears to be an Isaac Parker of Barnstable and one of Falmouth, but I believe that my Isaac was living in Nantucket when the other two Isaac’s had legal papers filed for Pensions.
  • Nathaniel Hatch was serving April 19, 1775. Perhaps he never went to Lexington or Concord but was there for backup.

Bradford

My ancestor Samuel Bradford of Plymouth, Massachusetts was born in 1755, so of an age where he could have been involved. However, my Bradford web pages have him born 1761, so the same age as Anthony Snell who served in the Revolutionary War from Dighton.

I see that in the definitive book on Bradford from the Mayflower Society, there is no birth date for Samuel, but he is listed between Josiah born in 1754 and Charles born 1756. If the birth order is correct, it is likely that he was indeed born in 1755. Unfortunately, the main line in the Mayflower Book stops with Samuel’s father Josiah who died in 1777.

Here is a guess:.

However, there are many Soldiers listed in the Massachusetts book of Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War. In addition, if my ancestor Samuel Bradford was born in 1755, he would have been 25 in 1780. Perhaps he was born in 1761, or that there was another Samuel Bradford born in 1761. I also note that Samuel’s father Josiah was listed as a mariner from Plymouth in 1770. Much earlier in his life, he was listed as a cordwainer.

I have looked through the Mayflower Families Bradford Book and did not see any obvious Samuel Bradford born around 1761 from Plymouth, so that is a bit confusing. The closest that I could find was a Samuel Bradford born 9 August 1761 in Duxbury and baptized at New North Church, Boston. His father was a Captain of a schooner. However, the Revolutionary War Soldiers and Sailors mentions that Samuel Bradford was from Plymouth. One possibility is that Samuel, son of Job went off to live on his own and moved to Plymouth. I am thinking that I assumed that he was the seaman listed above and that is where I got the birth date of 1761. Bottom line is that now I am not sure that this is our man or not.

Stephen Churchill Born 1743

This is likely my ancestor Stephen Churchill:

That first statement is quite interesting: “Lieutenant, in command of a company of Minutemen, which marched April 20, 1775, in response to the alarm of April 19, 1775, to Marshfield.” Based on a recent talk I heard at my local historical society, this is what happened. There were some loyalists in Marshfield and some British troops were sent there to protect them. A ton of American troops marched up to Marshfield and the greatly outnumbered British troops fled.

Here is an AI overview which is concise but clumsily worded in sections:

On April 20, 1775, one day after the battles of Lexington and Concord, British troops stationed in Marshfield, MA, evacuated by boat, avoiding an “almost-battle” with gathering local militia. Over 600 patriot militiamen from nearby towns had gathered to confront the ~100 British soldiers of the 4th Regiment (King’s Own) stationed to protect Loyalists.

      • The Evacuation: British troops, under Captain Balfour, had been in town for weeks. Knowing the patriots were mobilizing, they successfully escaped by boats up the Green Harbor River on April 20 to return to Boston, preventing a direct confrontation, say and.
      • The Alarm: On April 20th, Patriot militia in Marshfield signaled a full-scale mobilization, with Capt. William Thomas firing a pre-arranged alarm gun three times.
      • The Context: Marshfield was a Loyalist stronghold and one of the only towns other than Boston occupied by British forces.
      • The Aftermath: By April 21, hundreds of Patriot militiamen from Plymouth County had taken control of the town, but the British were already gone, resulting in the “almost-battle” described by.

I think that this is a different Stephen Churchill, but I am not sure:

I found this record:

This is confusing as I have Stephen born in Plymouth. Here is a different record or abstract:

David Hathaway Born 1744

Ancestry has a record for the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) for this David:

However, I think this is mistaken as the Soldiers and Sailors Book of the American Revolution has that David Hathaway as being from Dartmouth:

It is possible that my David Hathawy ancestor from Wareham could have been a Quaker. I do not see a military record for him from the Revolutionary War. I’ll remove the SAR reference from my Hathaway Ancestor.

Seth Cowing Born 1834 Rochester

Again, I have an SAR application record:

Here is another record:

This cemetery looks to be off the beaten path.

The Soliders and Sailors book seems to agree with the SAR application:

Summary and Conclusions

  • Of the eight lines I looked at some Revolutionary War service was normal.
  • The only line which apparently did not serve in my ancestry was Hathaway. This may have been due to religious beliefs.
  • Some service was difficult to determine due to similar names living in similar areas.
  • I would assume that those who served in the military were indeed convinced that they were doing the right thing.

 

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Looking for My Revolutionary Soldier Ancestors

I recently joined the Historical Society for the Town I grew up in and there was a talk that night on Revolutionary War ancestors. Or in this case, one of the local ancestors of the President of the Historical Society. I know that I have at least one ancestor who served in the Revolutionary war and he lived in the Dighton, Massachusetts area. He was Anthony Snell and his story can be found here.

Some Potential Revolutionary War Soldiers

I did not highlight the elder Anthony Snell as I have that he died fairly young on my web site. A source at Ancestry has his death in 1767.  I am not sure why I did not highlight Stephen Churchill.

Anthony Snell and DNA

I am not highlighting Anthony Snell here but I would like to mention his DNA as this is a DNA and Genealogy Blog. At a family reunion, I got the DNA from one of my father’s many 1st cousins. Here is Joyce’s connection to Anthony Snell according to ThruLines at Ancestry:

Let’s look at my Snell DNA/Genealogy tree to see how that compares:

It looks like I am a little light on the Anthony son of Anthony line.

Next, I looked at my own ThruLines:

It looks like I could improve my Snell family tree if these are correct. Here is Horace’s tree at Ancestry:

It looks like I already have Stephen Snell in my Ancestry tree:

The best way to add Horace is to add him as a floating tree and then attach him to my tree if it works out. This must be Horace’s draft card:

Here is Horace’s birth record:

Horace’s obituary summary gives some more information:

This shows that Horace ended up in Missouri.

Viola’s wedding record shows that her father was a fisherman:

Horace father and son) were farmers.

Next I just need to connect Arthur E Snell to Stephen Snell:

Here is Arthur and family in 1910:

According to this, Arthur was quite a bit older than his wife Nellie. The couple married in 1894 in Tiverton:

Next, I connect Horace’s line with my Ancestry tree to make it match what is shown on the ThurLines. All this to say that it is very likely that Horace and I share common DNA from Anthony Snell (or his wife Betsy Luther). I have pretty old DNA!

Here is the family in New Bedford in 1865:

This tells a potentially sad story. I believe that Stephen’s father Anthony died earlier in 1865 so is not shown. Elizabeth would be Stepen’s mother. I see no wife for Stephen, so she likely had passed away at this point.

I can also add Horace to my Snell DNA/Genealogy Tree:

Benjamin Luther

I have this information at my Luther Web Page:

According to the Luther Genealogy, “Benjamin Luther resided in Dighton, was of a family of seamen, and had four master mariners in his family. He was said to have always been spoken of as ‘Captain Benjamin of Dighton.’ He was a Revolutionary soldier, enlisting in Capt. Ephraim Hathaway’s Co., Co. Popes’ Reg’t., on the Alarms of Dec. 8, 1776 and Aug. 1780.”

I see this reference in the Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War:

I don’t have much more on this Benjamin Luther. He died in 1834. Apparently there was another Revolutionary War Veteran named Benjamin Luther that lived longer.

This 1835 Pension Roll Call is apparently my ancestor based on his age at the time – even though he died in 1834, this probably went to publication before they had knowledge of his death.

This appears to be where the church is:

Here is my Luther DNA Tree:

There is some connection here as Betsy Luther married Anthony Snell. I have a match to Lynn at Ancestry.

Parker

This family was from Falmouth. Theoretically William and Isaac could have served in the Revolutionary War. However, he died in 1778 at age 49. This must be William:

I have that William fought at Fort Ticonderoga:

It looks like William was a Patriot and gave the last years of his life for his country – even when ill. I am curious as to how and where he died. This adds a lot of information as I knew very little about William Parker. I see that in 1772, his father Thomas left him one dollar in his will:

William’s father Thomas was quite wealthy. I wonder what a dollar would have meant at this time as the currency was in British Pounds. According to the internet:

    • The Spanish Piece-of-Eight: The most common “dollar” was the Spanish dollar, which served as the unofficial, widely accepted currency. It held consistent value due to its silver content, unlike local, often depreciated, paper money.
    • Value in Shillings: While England used pounds, Massachusetts used a local pound system. Often, one Spanish dollar was valued at 6 shillings in Massachusetts.

This seems strange to leave your eldest son such a small amount as his estate was worth over 1300 pounds.

I see here the family connection with Rochester as Thomas owned a cedar swamp lot there.

Did William’s Son Isaac Serve in the Revolutionary War?

This is a difficult one. There are many Isaac Parkers listed in the American Soldiers and Sailors book. These seem to be two different Isaac Parkers:

 

There are many other Isaac Parkers listed in the Revolutionary Soldier Book, but the above seem to be the most likely. It is possible that Isaac stayed behind while his father fought in the war.

My father’s cousin Joyce has four matches with these likely descendants of Thomas Parker:

 

The two from Thomas Landers are closer matches on other lines:

Nathaniel Hatch Jr.

 

Nathaniel was Isaac Parker’s father-in-law.

As Nathaniel was from Falmouth, this seems promising. I see that Nathaniel was busy having children during this time:

I am not sure if this is the same person:

Here are some Hatch DNA connections:

I will look at more potential Revolutionary War soldier ancestors in an upcoming Blog.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I am surprised that I have never highlighted my Revolutionary War ancestors before. The 250th anniversary of our nation has helped me focus on the topic
  • Each of the four lines that I looked at had at least some Revolutionary War experience. My Hatch ancestor appears to have had as little as 3 days service.
  • We know so little about our ancestors at this time, the service in the War gives us at least a glimpse into what they were doing in support of our Country.
  • There appears to be DNA connection to each of my four lines that served in the Revolutionary War. Those lines being Snell, Luther, Parker and Hatch.
  • Looking at these lines has helped me to add to, update and correct my family tree at Ancestry
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Who Is My Wife’s Cousin Adria?

I recently had a notification that my wife had a close relative match named Adria:

Adria has two Boggy trees and one Butler tree, so I assume the match is on the Butler side:

Fortunately, I had tested my wife’s Aunts before they passed away. When I check the Aunt with the biggest match I see that Adria is likely a grand niece. When I check Lorraine’s shared matches with the closest match to Adria, I find Jasmine:

This could be a short Blog, because the two people icon near Jasmine means that Ancestry likely knows how Lorraine and Jasmine are related:

 

That meansn that the private box above Jasmine must be Adrai. The John Butler above was my wife’s Uncle Jake. Adria apparently lives in Illinois which is perhaps why my wife had lost touch.

Updating Jake

This would be a good time to update Jake in my Anestry tree:

I don’t even have his wife.

I added some information to my Tree. I see now that Jasmine, her mother and grandfather John have all tested at Ancestry. Here is a photo of Uncle Jake from Findagrave:

Summary and Conclusions

  • My wife’s match with Adria was a bit of a mystery at first
  • Shared matches solved that problem as Adria’s daugther Jasmine had a good tree
  • I was able to update my Ancestry tree for John “Jake” Butler and his children, most of whom are still living.

 

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More of My Sister Heidi’s Common Ancestors at Ancestry

In my previous post, I had good luck at looking at one of my sister Heidi’s DNA matches with a proposed common ancestor at Ancestry. Heidi and Sonja went back to Nicholson ancestry. Sonja’s Nicholson ancestor moved to Hartford while my her ancestor’s brother, my ancestor moved to Philadelphia.

Heidi and Thelma

Going down the list of Heidi’s unviewed distant relatives with proposed common ancestors at Ancestry, I see:

Here is the proposal:

Based on a new theory, I have suggested that my ancestor Robert Hartley could have been an Ann. This has turned up some Halstead genealogy. Here is Thelma’s tree:

Thelma has Alice Halstead from Didsbury:

I think that this is the place:

Another tree has this:

Heidi and Mike

This connection also leads to a possible Halstead connection:

This connection leads to two Halstead families on Mike’s tree:

There seems to be something going on with this Halstead connection. However, I would prefer to look at this in a separate Blog.

Heidi and Mr

MR has a private tree with 4 people in it. Shared matches between MR and Heidi are inconclusive. However, MR’s mother is in the shared match list. MR’s mother has a shared match with Carolyn who is a known relative on the Nicholson side:

Further, it appears that the proposed John Nicholson in Ancestry’s common ancestor tree was living right next to his sister in 1860 Hartford. I talked about her in my previous Blog:

John and his brother-in-law Thomas were both hardware dealers at the time. Sarah A is likely Sarah Ann Nicholson Hield. Interesting. That means that the Mary shown above could be the Mary in the Ancestry Common Ancestor Tree. However, if this is right, then my tree may be inaccurate:

I have John marrying Margaret Reaney.

Ancestry suggests this for the 1851 Census in Sheffield:

Mary was born outside Yorkshire. It appears that this is the correct marriage record:

Here is my corrected tree:

It appears that the elder John Nicholson died young in 1863:

I won’t go through all the genealogy, but I expect that this connection should work out. Here is a Social Security extract:

Heidi and Robert

Here is another potential Halstead connection:

My Nicholson DNA Tree

I’ll just update this tree:

This is a large tree and above is only part of it. Actually, I need to go up a generation:

This Matthew Nicholson had a lot of children and died at the age of 41:

My DNA Tree above only represents three of these children.

Here are my sister Heidi’s ThruLines:

That means I need to add the John and Sarah Lines. Here is the John Line:

MR’s great-grandmother was Ruah which is an interesting name. Apparently her son moved to Little Rock, Arkansas:

The Sarah Ann Line

Sonja was the subject of my previous Blog. Here the two Connecticut Nicholson Lines are added:

I was previously unaware of these two Lines coming forward. I probably would have otherwise assumed that these families remained in England.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I found a few of my sister Heidi’s DNA matches with proposed common ancestors
  • Those ancestors were Nicholson and Halstead
  • Halstead is more problematic as this is based on a new theory. I decided to wait on those matches.
  • The Nicholson match was interesting as two siblings of my Nicholson 2nd great-grandfather were living next door to each other in Hartford, CT in the 1860 Census
  • I added the two lines descending from the two siblings of my Nicholson 2nd great-grandfather to my Nicholson DNA Tree

 

 

 

 

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A Nicholson Line Connected by Ancestry’s Common Ancestors

Right now I am looking at my sister Heidi’s DNA matches with Common Ancestors.

These 7 matches could keep me busy for a while. Three maternal. Three paternal and one unassigned. These are all listed under distant relatives.

Heidi and Sonja:

Sonja has her Hield ancestor as being from Connecticut, so no obvious connection there. I need to know if Sarah married a HIeld and moved to Connecticut. I do know that Sarah was living in Sheffiled in 1851:

Sarah’s father had died young and her mother was a beerhouse keeper to make ends meet. Here is Sarah Hield in Hartford, Connecticut in 1860:

We can see that Sarah’s daughter Sarah was born in Connecticut, so that puts the move from England between 1855 and 1858. Sonja has that Esther was born in 1861 so that explains why she does not appear on the 1860 Census.

Here is the possible marriage:

Unfortunately, the father’s name were “dead” which is not very helpful. However, I do know that ‘my’ Sarah’s father was dead. Here is PIttlsmoor:

Sonja’s DNA Connection: Shared Matches

Here are some of Sonja and Heidi’s shared matches:

Melinda is my maternal 1st cousin’s daughter. Carolyn is my mother’s second cousin on the Nicholson side. The other matches seem to be related on the Nicholson side or Clayton side. The DNA indicates that the Common Ancestor clue from Ancestry is probably right. This gives encouragement to continue along the lines of the Common Ancestor match.

Nicholson ThruLines

Here are Heidi’s ThruLines:

Back to the Genealogy

The Hield family seem to move around a bit. The first son, John William, was born in the Wicker, Sheffleld:

The name John Willam also gives circumstantial evidence to relation to the Nicholson family:

William was Sarah’s younger brother. John was her grandfather. We are not sure of Thomas Hield’s ancestry, but Sarah’s second son was named Thomas. As a guess, Esther could have been Thomas’ mother:

Let’s look at the proposed timing.

  • Sarah Ann marries Thomas Hield in 1852
  • They have children and move to Hartford, CT around 1856 or 1857
  • Sarah’s younger brother William arrives in the US about 1868 with his family and settles in Philadelphia.

I’ll add Sonja to my tree as floating tree and likely connect her later.

Sonja’s great-grandfather was an interior decorator in 1920 in West Hartford, CT.

Here is the family in 1900. There were a lot of Russels:

This Russel was a stock broker. However, at this point, it is Esther that I am interested in. From the Census, it appears that Esther married about 1880.

Here is ab obituary from August 11, 1928:

Recall above that Esther had a brother named Thomas. Circumstantial evidence again. This leads us back to Brooklyn:

Sarah A HIeld is 39 in 1870 which means she was born about 1861.

Here is the Sarah Ann in my tree:

I’ll say that is close enough for a match. I just need to merge the two trees. Here is part of my new tree:

My ancestor William Nicholson was about 5 years younger than Sarah Ann. I wonder if William and Sarah Ann ever connected in the US.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I started at looking at my sister Heidi’s unviewed Common Ancestors at Ancestry
  • Heidi’s first match with possible common ancestors was Sonja
  • Sonja’s tree went back to Connecticut with her ancestor Esther Hield
  • Ancestry suggested that Esther Hield’s mother was Sarah Ann Nicholson, the sister of one of my Nicholson ancestors
  • Based on Shared DNA matches between Heidi and Sonja, as well as genealogical clues, the match appeared to be right
  • It would still be nice to find the smoking gun genealogical clear evidence, but the inferred evidence from the DNA and genealogy was enough for me to agree that Ancestry’s proposed common ancestors were correct.
  • That leaves 6 other proposed comon ancestors that Heidi has at Ancestry to investigate