Chris is a recent DNA match with me and other siblings. He shows as having a common ancestor with me:
Chris’ tree has the common ancestors as Abraham McMaster and Margery Noble:
My tree also goes back to Abraham McMaster, so I’m not sure why this is not reflected at AncestryDNA:
Here is an extensive tree that I have so far based on Genealogy and DNA matches:
Here is an overview of the ThruLines at Ancestry:
One possible issue is that Abraham McMaster and Archibald McMaster both show being born in 1809.
This Abraham is related to another McMaster Branch. I have guessed at the connection here:
This Margaret Frazer Mcmaster on the left side of the chart moved to Ontario with all of her children except for Fanny. Fanny was my ancestor and stayed in Ireland. Just to confuse things, she married another McMaster (James McMaster Sr from the chart above).
Building a Tree for Chris
My building a tree for Chris would give me more confidence of how we are connected. Here is Sadie McMaster’s birth record:
Here is the start of Chris’ tree I am working on:
Mark McMaster’s Marriage record:
This gives his father’s name as Frank. However, the 1881 Census has the father’s name as Mark:
The 1861 Census for Euphemia, Ontario implies that Mark’s parents were Abraham and Eliza:
The 1861 Census Vs What I Have for McMasters
I have a web site on McMasters and the relevant part looks like this:
Here the difference is that Abraham marries Margery rather than the Eliza in Euphemia, Ontario. Also in my genealogy, James is younger than Mark. Also the timing is a bit off. If Mark McMaster was born in 1817, he would be about 44 in 1861, so we are about a generation off. My guess is that the Abraham in the Ontario Census could be the 1817 Mark’s brother. So in my genealogy above, a likely scenario would be that there was an Abraham the son of Abraham and this Abraham had children William James and Mark. That is what Chris’ Tree shows:
That means that I would be happy to add Abraham as an older sibling to William and Mark in the family I have the genealogy for above. The earliest Kilmactranny Church records appear to be in 1817, so Abraham predated this time. Here are some transcriptions I received from a McMaster researcher:
If the records are right, there were two McMaster boys born on the same day. A problem I see with Chris’ tree is that Margery probably was not born in 1775 as I have that her daughter Eleanor was baptized in 1828. That would put Margery at 53 when she had Eleanor:
That means that some adjustment may be necessary for Abraham the father of Mark. I’m guessing he was born some time around 1813 to 1815 (before the start of Kilmactranny birth records in 1817). I would say Margery should have been born around 1785. She would have been 18 or 20 when she had her son Abraham and 43 when she had Eleanor in 1828. Genealogy by biology.
However, now there is a new issue. Here is the tree I had at Ancestry:
If I now move Abraham from 1797 to 1785, that puts a 17 year gap between him and William Briton McMaster. Further, there is this record from an Ancestrty Tree to contend with:
This 1812 record lists an Abraham as son of Abraham which most people take to be the ancestor of Chris. This works also:
Likely Margery was born at some time after 1785 that I have her. If Abraham was named after his grandfather, then by popular naming conventions, he would have been the first son. I’ve adjusted Margery to being born in 1787 in my tree. Fine tuning.
My DNA Match with Chris
I match Chris at 24 cM which is probably more than would be expected for a 5th cousin once removed. First I need to add Chris to my DNA/genealogy tree. That involves squeezing three Abraham McMasters into the tree:
Also note that the younger Abraham born in 1809 would have an uncle who was born the same year. This is of course possible. Also, I have two Abrahams who both married a Margery which is also possible but a little suspicious. However, this is the best I can do with the information that I have. It helps to make these charts as the way I have it, Chris is a 5th cousin two times removed:
If we combined the two Abrahams and Margery’s, that would move Chris up a generation, but as I said the configuration above seems to me to be the better choice.
Shared Matches with Chris
When I checked my shared matches with Chris, I see an interesting trend. The first shared match with Robert. Robert and I have this connection:
Recall above, I had this simplified genealogy tree:
I have ancestors on both sides of this tree via William McMaster and Abraham McMaster. I match Chris on the right side of the tree. However, for Chris to have a common match with Robert, it would have to be on the left side of my proposed tree or go further back to Archibald McMaster born in 1730. Of course, that is assuming my hypothetical tree is correct.
The next shared DNA match between Chris and me is a brother of Robert and matches me at 29 cM. Other matches don’t have much in their trees, so I can’t tell where the match is.
Linda: Shared Match Between Me and Chris
As the other two matches are on the McMaster/Frazer side, I will look at Linda’s match. It turns out that Linda’s tree is the same as Chris’ tree so she is likely as sister or other close relative.
That means that there is a tie of sorts between me matching Chris by DNA and the Shared Matches on the McMaster/Frazer Line.
Summary and Conclusions
- Chris’ AncestryDNA common ancestor seems nearly right. The way I figured it out, it appears that it should be back a generation on his tree from what AncestryDNA has.
- One problem with the tree I have is that is has two Abraham McMasters in a row married to two Margerys.
- There were a lot of McMasters and a lot of vital records are missing.
- I am related to McMasters on two lines
- I have shared matches with Chris on the second line where I match McMaster (on the McMaster/Frazer Line). This could indicate a more ancient DNA match between Chris and me. Most in this family also moved to Canada.
- I mentioned a proposed tree that tries to pull the two McMaster lines together.
- Deed records help in the iterpretation of the genealogies. These typically mentioned three generations. However, they were not always straight father to son lines in the three generations.