Updating My McMaster DNA Matches

I recently noticed a new McMaster match at MyHeritage. This match came up the strongest for my second cousin Paul as he is a generation closer to the common ancestors. Here is how the match shows:

I cannot see how Geoffrey and Paul match specifically on each chromosome as that information appears to be blocked. Geoffrey’s tree was aslo private but he shared it with me. Here is a DNA/Generalogy Chart I already have for part of the McMaster family:

I circled my family and the Meehan Line where Geoffrey is. I’ll add in Geoffrey:

Paul and Geoffrey are 4th cousins. My family and I are 4th cousins once removed to Geoffrey.

McMaster ThruLines

Here is what I have for Abraham McMaster ThruLines:

This points out an error on my Chart:

The two Abrahams I have pointed to above should be the same person. As the third Abraham was born 1809, that line should be mnoved to the right. The Chris at the bottom of that line corresponds with the Chris on my ThruLines:

Checking Tamara’s McMaster Connection

I would like to build out a tree for Tamara. This is one of those human vs. computer challenge, to see if I can verify what the Ancestry Computers came up with. Tamara’s tree is small, but seems to be workable. I’ve never done a floating tree before and the consensus seems to be that is the way to do these. I just watched a video on how to do this. I have to connect a person to my tree and then disconnect that person.

I’ll add Tamara as a daughter to my grandmother and then disconnect her. I did this, and then I removed her fake parents (who were my grandparents). Now she is floating. I put Tamara in under her maiden name, so I want to add a married name, so she will be easier to find if I need to.

Now Tamara has the first ‘floating tree’ in my AJoelHartley Tree. I had to rename my tree AJoelHartley previously because I had so many non-floating trees. So far, Tamara’s tree matches up with the ThruLines Tree. However, that is as far as Tamara went on her paternal side.

My best guess is that this is Warren Stirling in the 1931 Ontario Census:

This shows that the family lived in Enniskillen, Ontario at the time. Also, Stirling’s father was born in Ontario and named Herbert Tims. According to this record, Herbert’s parents were both born in Ireland.

This obiturary ties the father and son together also – especially as Tamara has her father buried in Wyoming, Ontario. If I have the right place, Enniskillen is close to the US:

Here is a portion of the marriage record for Herbert George Tims:

This gives his mother’s name as Mary Ann McMaster. Mary Ann’s death record gives helpful information:

I expect Eliza Johnson is meant to be Eliza Johnston. The reference to Roscommon is interesting. Most McMasters were from Sligo. However, I believe that the Johnston family was from Roscommon. Both families lived near the border between Roscommon and Sligo. I feel that this is enough evidence for me to add Tamara to my McMaster DNA/Genealogy Tree:

The relationship appears to check out. Tamara is my 4th cousin once removed. This information needs to be reconciled with my McMaster Website:

One possible explanation is that Abraham remarried Eliza Johnston and had more children. On another of my McMaster Web Pages, I mention 3 Abraham McMasters as referred to in a lease for William McMaster from 1812. Or, on a current reading, there could only be two Abrahams mentioned in the Lease. That means that it could be that the Abraham McMaster who married Margery was different from the Abraham McMaster who married Eliza or Elizabeth Johnston. One interesting possibility is that the William McMaster who is the subject of the lease is my ancestor born around 1790 who married Margaret Frazer.

This is the tree I proposed in a previoius Blog:

Adding Mary Ann McMaster to My Tree

This was fairly easy. I just chose Abraham McMaster in my tree and added a daughter. I picked choose from tree and chose Mary Ann McMaster:

Now I see why the floating tree method is preferable. By the way, ThruLines is showing these relationships to be half relationships. My assumption is that they are full relationships. The confusion is perhaps about who the wife of elder Abraham McMaster was.

A Floating Tree for Eliot

My assumption is that Elliot belongs in the tree. In fact, it looks like the family married back into the Johnston Line. This is the only information that Elliot has on his paternal grandfather:

The ThruLines could be right, but I do not have enough information to go on.

My Sister Lori’s ThruLines

My sister Lori has more than the average amount of McMaster ThruLines compared to her siblings.

Lori has 7 potential matches under Abraham, son of Abraham McMaster. When I open up Lori’s Mark McMaster matches, I see Chris who is already on my McMaster DNA/Genealogy Tree:

A Floating Tree for Jean

Jean and Lori have Chris as a shared match as well as two McMasters, So that is a good sign. Jean has a small tree including her father who was born in Ontario:

Otto’s death record is helpful:

This gives both his parents’ names. The 1921 Census has Otto’s grandfather born in Ireland which is a good sign:

Here is George and his father Mark (transcribed as Mary by Anncestry) in 1891:

Here is Mark in 1861 with his family living in a log home which was the usual residence for the area and timea:

This is helpful as it gives the children of Abraham and Eliza McMaster. On my McMaster DNA/Genealogy tree, I already have Mary Ann and Mark:

I’ll add Otto under Mark:

My Sister Lori and HH

Adding HH would add antoher child of Abraham. The ThruLines has William H McMaster born in 1831. However, the 1861 Census above has William at 23 in 1861 which would mean William was born closer to 1838 or 1839.

First, I have to create a floating tree for HH:

It looks like HH’s mother Annie needed a birth cerificate and got a delayed one in 1970. Here is the family in 1921:

The family is listed as Methodist and father Thomas works on a farm.

Here are a few McMaster families living next to each other in 1891:

My guess is that the Eliza is Eliza Johnston McMaster. Next, I just need to associate this William with the William in the 1861 Census. Here is Bothwell, where William lived in 1891:

I see that in 1871, William was also in Zone, Bothwell:

He appears to be still single, but head of household with his (assumed) parents, Abram and Eliza. Next door, is assumed brother George and more family. I feel like this is enough evindence to add HH to my McMaster/DNA tree and to my Ancestry Tree. When I added William McMaster to my tree, I had a duplicate Elizabeth Johnston, so I had to merge the two into one at Ancestry.

What I notice is that all these matches are at Ancestry, so I don’t have the specific area where on my family’s chromosomes where this line matches.

Lori and Christina

I looked on MyHeritage for Lori and saw this match:

Christina must be the sister of Jean from Ancestry. I’ll add Christina to Lori’s DNAPainter Profile:

The red indicates DNA from Abraham McMaster at the top of my chart or his wife. This just further confirms that these matches go back to Abraham McMaster in the 1700’s (or his wife):

This also confirms the relationship of the three brothers: Robert, James and Abraham McMaster.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I looked at a match Geoffrey on the Meehan Line of McMasters and added him to my McMaster DNA/Genealogy Chart
  • I looked at some McMaster ThruLines at Ancestry
  • These ThruLines that I looked at descended from Abraham McMaster born 1809. He is probably the one who is mentioned in an 1812 Lease by William McMaster
  • Abraham moved to Ontario as did my other William Branch of McMasters
  • I employed the floating tree method for those who I added to my Ancestry Tree while verifying the ThruLines.
  • I found a match at MyHeritage on the Abraham line. I was able to add this match to my sister Lori’s DNA Painter Profile. This further solidified the connections between the elder Abraham McMaster family (born perhaps in 1764.

 

 

 

A New Clarke DNA Match at Ancestry

I have very few DNA matches at Ancestry on the Clarke side. For that reason, I was glad to see that I have a match with Melissa. Ancestry also shows that Melissa and I have the likely common ancestor of Thomas Clarke:

One interesting thing that I see is that Melissa’s great-grandmother died 57 years after my great-grandmother. Melissa has a very nice tree at Ancestry:

This shows her paternal line going back to Thomas Clarke and Jane Henderson. Whereas, I am descended from Thomas’ first wife who was Jane Spratt.

Clarke DNA

According to Ancestry, Melissa and I are likely half 3rd cousins. That can be a good thing as that means that I am related to Melissa on her Clarke side only and not the Henderson side or Spratt side (assuming Thomas’s two wives were not related). My match of 22 cM fits in well with the expected relationship:

Shared DNA Matches with Melissa

I notice that two of the matches I have with Melissa have Lougheed in their ancestry. That name has come up a lot in my matches in the past. Here I started to look at shared DNA matches and put them into a spreadsheet:

At first I tried to look at whether the shared matches were shared with my siblings that tested at Ancestry (Heidi, Jon, Lori and Sharon). Then I looked at shared matches with DE who was the largest shared DNA match between myself and Melissa. I only looked at my own shared matches . with DE. This would take a long time to go through all the permutations, but I did come up with a lot of Lougheed or Loughead ancestors. This suggests to me that Thomas Clarke has a Loughead ancestor. This is actually helpful as that makes me think that my Spratt ancestor Jane who married Thomas Clarke may not have Loughead ancestors.

Mapping Clarke DNA

It has been difficult to map the Clarke DNA. That is because until now, my Clarke DNA matches have aslo been McMaster matches in earlier generations. This is what I have for myself at DNAPainter:

It would be helpful to map my match with Melissa also, but her match is at AncestryDNA and AncestryDNA does not show where the matches are o the Chromosome. If Melissa were to upload her results to Gedmatch, FTDNA or MyHeritage, I would be able to see where we match on the specific chromosomes.

More on the Genealogy

I feel no need to check on Melissa’s genealogy as we have a DNA match and the connection from her grandfather to our shared 2nd great grandfather seems clear. I have Melissa’s great-grandmother Susan as the eldest of the second wife of Thomas Clarke:

That means that my great-grandmother, Margaret Clarke would have been about 3 yeaers older than Susan Clarke. The 1911 Census turns out to be important for Susan Clarke:

This shows Melissa’s grandfather, Hubert bell with Hubert’s parents. Here are Susan and Henry’s memorial stone:

Here is where the Carrownanty Cemetery is outside of Ballymote:

Susan and the Clarke family was from near Collaney and my great-grandfather was from near Derry on the map be Lough Arrow. It is interesting that my great-grandparents apparently met in Boston. Here is Tonaponra where the Bell family was in 1911:

I find it interesting that Henry Bell has Tiraree on his memorial stone as that was not too far from Ballindoon where my Frazers were from:

I am guessing that these two places are about 4 miles apart.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I found what I believe to be my first DNA  match from the Clarke/Henderson Line
  • As Thomas Clarke married first Jane Spratt who died young and then Jane Henderson, any shared matches between Melissa and myself must be from the Clarke side only
  • Looking at the shared matches at Ancestry, makes it look like Thomas Clarke could have Lougheed or Loughead ancestry from County Sligo.
  • If Melissa uploads her AncestryDNA results to Gedmatch, MyHeritage or FTDNA, I will be able to see on which Chromosomes she matches with my siblings and myself and perhaps other DNA matches.
  • I have learned some more about another line of Clarkes which is always interesting.

 

 

Updating My Hartley Bradford DNA Connections at Ancestry

I had previously looked at Josiah Bradford in a Blog in 2019. At that time, my father’s cousin Joyce’s ThruLines for Josiah Bradford looked like this:

Now, in addition to the two matches on the Jesse Bradford Line, Joyce shows two additional matches:

I like to draw trees for the people that I believe are true DNA matches and match by genealogy, but my Bradford tree is quite out of date:

I had previously looked at this connection with Joyce in 2019:

My Bradford DNA/Genealogy Chart is starting to shape up.

My Match with Rollie

If I could confirm Rollie’s genealogy, that would firm up the Stephen Bradford connection. Rollie has a nice tree which I have no reason to doubt:

Rollie has Stephen, son of Stephen moving to Illinois at some point:

This 1870 Census seems to confirm that:

1850:

1860:

That means that Stephen went from Engraver in New Hampshire to a farmer in Illinois around the age of 50. I feel like the rest of the line should fall into place – I’m a bit lazy today.

Here is the connection I come up with:

Note that brothers Stepen and Alexander were born 1815 and 1838. They are first and last born in the family.

Back to Josiah

From the review of my 2019 Blog, I think that I thought that the Jesse Line would be OK. Here is the William to Jesse Bradford Line added:

New Matches on the William to Josiah Line

I had this image earlier in the Blog for my father’s cousin Joyce’s ThruLines:

This is interesting as I also match Joe. Unfortunately, Joe’s tree does not support this ThruLine:

The other match in pink shows a Bradford connection:

I’ll start with this Howard connection and build out a tree. Here is Glenn Deforest’s birth’s record from Waltham, MA:

It looks like Glenn’s father was a machinist. I get his parents names also from Social Security. Here is Everett’s aka Everard’s marriage record:

Looks like I need the second page:

 

 

The good news is that Evererett’s father had an unusual name. The bad news is that people messed up the name in the records. Here are two Maltiah’s in the 1860 Plymouth Census:

Unfortunately, the child I saw on the Census as Josiah, got transcribed as Jonah. I take him to be named for Josiah Bradford.

Here is the marriage record:

This is the tree so far:

According to North America, Family HIstories:

I note here that the name Josiah is correct. Josiah Bradford apparently married a Polly Robbins in 1803:

FindaGrave appears to confirm that Josiah’s father was William Bradford:

I take Polley to be the same as Mary Bradford, but I may be wrong. I see the trees at Ancestry have her as the same person. Molly is a derivative of Mary and Polly is a derivative of Molly.

This matches up with my own tree:

William’s wife was Ruth Dunham.

The ancestors with large families such as William Bradford’s above born in 1749 were more likely to pass down DNA to subsequent generations.

My Brother Jon and the Matilda Bradford Line

My brother Jon has these three matches:

None of these trees lead to Bradfords. I can make my own tree for Joe to try to see if his tree is wrong or if Ancestry is wrong.

Here is Joe and mother Doris in 1940:

Interestingly, Doris’ mother was the head of the household and not the husband. Here is Doris’ birth record:

Doris’ dad was an embalmer born in Plymouth. Based on this record, I accepted the Ancestry hints for Doris’ parents.

Arthur was born in Plymouth, though his parents were living in New Bedford at the time:

I think I see the problem. Joe’s tree does go back to our common ancestor who was Josiah Bradford:

However, Ancestry seems to be missing Weston Vaughan and Ella May Stephens in the tree. Based on the above birth record, I will accept Ancestry’s clue for Arthur’s parents and follow on Weston Vaughan:

Weston’s marriage record has his mother as Matilda. She is the one I’d like to follow:

Unfortunately, Arthur’s birth record does not give his mother’s maiden name either. Here is the family in 1870 in Plymouth:

We see Matilda’s maiden name on her marriage record:

I have set out to prove either Ancestry’s tree wrong or Joe’s tree wrong. It looks like Joe’s tree is right and Ancestry’s tree is partially wrong. The key is that Matilda married young and had her son Weston at a young age. Her marriage record says she was 18 when she married. The 1870 Census suggests she could have been 17 when Weston Jr. was born. That is what Ancestry did not have for some reason.

Here is Matilda’s death record:

Matilda’s father was a clergyman based on the 1850 Census in Plymouth:

Matilda is mentioned in FindAGrave:

This should bring me back to my own tree and close the loop:

Here is some more information from Ancestry:

The Ruth here would be Ruth Dunham from my tree.

I’ll add Joe into my Bradford DNA/Genealogy Tree:

Joseph is 5th cousin twice removed to Joyce and 6th cousin once removed to my family.

Bradford ThruLine to Barbara

Oddly, when I check my brother’s ThruLines now, they no longer have Joe. Perhaps the ThruLines were recalculated:

However, it doesn’t matter as I have what I believe to be right on my Bradford DNA/Genealogy Chart.

It shouldbe easy to check Barbara’s tree as I just need to get up to Matilda Bradford. Barbara has a small tree:

The other interesting thing is that this tree apparently goes through the Ransom side and not the Vaughan side. I found Etta’s birth record, so accepted the hint for her parents:

The hint for George Ransom’s mother is Rev Mary S Faunce. Here is the marriage record for George and Ida:

Here is George’s birth record:

I am skeptical that Mary was a Reverend. Here she is in Pembroke in 1880 keeping house:

I guess I was wrong. Here is her obituary:

This gets us back to Matilda Bradford born 1813. So I see the Ancestry ThruLine was correct this time.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to show genealogical connections and probale DNA connections between my family and many other Bradford families going back to Josiah Bradford born 1724 and his wife Hannah Rider.
  • There was one generation missing on the ThruLines for Joe Vaughan, but I was able to find that and add it in.
  • These ThruLines change often. The one for Joe was changing as I was writing this Blog.
  • My Bradford DNA/Genealogy Tree was quite out of date and I was able to add two generations to it going back from Harvey Bradford on my family’s side.
  • The DNA matches appear to confirm the previous genealogy work that I have done.

 

 

 

 

 

Playing with Gedmatch Tier 1 2024 Finding Common Ancestors

I have one of my many colds this winter, so I’ll take some time and sign up for Tier 1 of Gedmatch.

MRCA Search Tool

I don’t remember using this tool before. Before I used it, I had to make sure my Kit# was associated with my family tree. My famiy tree was uploaded in 2014, so it is quite old. I suppose that I should update my tree at Ancestry. I’ll look at what I got, and then update my gedcom at Gedmatch.

This is the first part of my list:

What I first noted was that the path to the primary kit (mine) was very long. I am seeing 6-13 genertaions. After watching a video on this utility, I see that the last column is important. It gives a score of how accurate it thinks the matching is out of 10. So the first on my list, Hannah Bartlett has a match of 2 out of 10 which is not good. John Spooner, further down, gets a 7 out of 10.

Our Path to John Spooner

Here is the path column:

I have not checked this Wilhelm Line, but it does not look unreasonable. I would like to see what the DNA match looks like, but I do not see a link to find this on this utility. I ran a one-to-one match between myself and my match with Spooner ancestry:

The match shows on Chromosome 11. To make sure this was a paternal match, I ran my paternal phased kit against this match and got the same results. Here is my Chromosome 5 mapped by DNA Painter:

I have an arrow where the possible Spooner DNA would be. I say possible because at 9 generations away, a lot could have happened. I think that SImone tested at 23andMe.  I am tempted to add this match just for fun. All the green matches are my second cousins. A few are first cousins once removed. Here is what I have for John Spooner on my tree:

Here I added in Spence on DNA Painter under SImone:

James Hartley was born in 1862, so the gap between him and John Spooner is over 200 years.

Updating My Tree at Gedmatch

First, I need to download my tree from Ancestry:

Before I got here, I had to choose Export Tree. When I chose download your Gedcom file, I ended up with two files as the Export already created one. First, I deleted my old Gedcom at Gedmatch. I’m not sure if this was the right way to do it.

When I uploaded the Gedcom, I got some errors based on not putting down the sex of the person:

There were other errors, but I just let the software do what it did.

Running a New MRCA Report from Gedmatch

This time I will use a minimum match score of 3 as recommended in a video I saw. This report is taking a while to run – perhaps because the gedcom I have now is larger. The report gave me 84 potential MRCA’s:

Here is a name on my list that catches my eye:

William Bradford gets a score of 8 which is very good.

However, I see an issue as there are two William Bradfords born 11 Mar 1654. I show to be 9th cousin once removed to this match. However, it appears that these two William Bradfords are the same which would move our connection closer by one generation. However, there is a disconnect. The death date of my William Bradford is very clear as he died in a carting accident in 1687. That means that he could not have had a daughter named Bethia born in 1692. Perhaps the Gedmatch scoring system is not the best.

Hiller MRCA?

Fifth on my list of 83 ancestors is a Hiller:

I recognize the match name (not shown here) from Ancestry. Here is the path:

I am a mere 7th cousin to this Hadaway on paper – and a DNA match. Here is where I match Hadaway:

My family seems to be related to other Hillers at Ancestry, so I think that this is a good match for me. I’ll add this person to DNA Painter:

My belief is that Hadaway (shown in purple) shares Hiller DNA on my Chromosome 2 with myself and my father’s first cousin Maury. This is likely shared with some of my other siblings.

Elizabeth Warren

The second match on my list is Elizabeth Warren:

This match is different as only the wife is mentioned in the match.

I assume that it came out this way as she descended from one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. To keep this consistent, I’ll enter this in DNA Painter under the husband who was Josiah Finney:

This is a fairly large match at Gedmatch:

Here as in other of my Hartley areas, this has connected my 1860’s common ancestor 2nd cousins, shown in green above, with my 1660’s cousin (seen in a bronze color).

So far, I have added to my colonial side on Chromosomes 2, 5 and 10:

The genealogy is fairly easy for these colonial matches. These matches are also helpful as it tell where my Hartley DNA from Lancashire, England is not.

Edward Richmond – Out 11 or 12 Generations

All this DNA has to come from somewhere. This is my first MRCA match:

I do show an Abigail Richmond in my tree. I also show that Edward Richmond married Abilgail Davis. I’m am liking Gedmatch’s MRCA utility as it is so easy to use. Next, I’ll map this match with Audrey:

However, this match with Audrey is showing a problem as there is an overlap with one of my Frazer relatives, Brenda. Further, when I have mapped my Chromosome 22, it has come out as being all Frazer, so this Hartley match cannot be right here. Let’s try to figure out what went wrong here.

When I look at Audrey’s tree, she has matches from County Sligo. My guess is that her match is on my Clarke side that I have not found many ancestors for. Or it could be on the Frazer side where I have some missing wives. Some of these names and places in Audrey’s tree have come up before, but I have not been able to place them within the genealogy:

 

In addition, some of my McMaster ancestors were from Dromore, County Sligo. That could be the best explanation for the connection. I have deleted Audrey from my Chromosome 22 as a Colonial American match, but she likely matches my McMaster ancestry. Interestingly, my fourth potential MRCA is with Dave. He matches on Chromosome 22 also. He must be related to Audrey.

An Almy Connection?

Matches 6 and 7 on my list have this connection:

 

I don’t have the inclination to check out the genealogy here. The DNA match is here:

I already have Debra in that spot. I had our conection on the Hatch side. From a Blog I wrote, I see that there was also a Palmer connection in Rhode Island. This connection is certainly on the Rhode Island side. Actually Debra is match #7, so is the same person. Match #6 must be her son.

I’ll just change the ancestors to Almy at DNA Painter. At 1601, that would likely be my oldest painted DNA and perhaps the most suspect for that reason!

Resolved White 1615

This match goes back to the Pilgrims.

First, I’ll check the DNA:

This is Chromosome 19 which is Frazer territory for me:

My Frazer ancestry is Irish, so clearly not Pilgrim material. It is possible that I have this Pilgrim connection, but not based on the shared DNA.

Benjamin Bartlett with a Score of 6

I’ll be sure to check the DNA match:

The match is out on the right side of the paternal copy of my Chromosome 7:

I have a lot of Frazer DNA on that Chromosome, but room for some Hartley on the right side.

I don’t show Ichabod Bartlett in my tree, but my tree may be incomplete. A book I have shows that Benjamin Bartlett had three wives and 6 children. The first three children were born from Sarah Brewster (including Rebecca Bartlett). The first wife apparently had no children. The last three children including Ichabod may have been from a third wife named Sisilla.

I’ll add Blair and Bartlett in pink to my DNA Painter profile:

It is not a large match and I could not put two ancestors down as I am only sure of the Bartlett ancestry.

One More? Joseph Sylvester

Joseph gets a rating of 5, but that is just on the genealogy match. I have checked the DNA to confirm that the match is on my Hartley side.

Joseph is on the Pilgrim side, born in Plymouth Colony. I do see an Amos on my genealogy tree, so that is good. I’ll add this match into DNA Painter.

Here i have added a small clump of DNA to my profile which I have said is either from Joseph Sylvester or Mary Barstow.

Summary and Conclusions

  • This is an easy tool to use
  • I needed to check my DNA matches to make sure that they were in the right area and right side – in this case paternal side.
  • I have a lot of colonial genealogy. Many others likely do too, so the bias is to match on those genealogies.
  • I did not go through the whole list, but I would guess that at least half of the matches would not pan out due to genealogy, DNA matches in the wrong area or other problems.
  • It is easier to disprove that a DNA match could not go with the shared genealogy than to prove that it does.

 

 

 

A New MacMaster DNA Match at Gedmatch with Clarke and Spratt Ancestry

I have a new MacMaster DNA match at Gedmatch. However, this match is also at Ancestry DNA and MyHeritage. Here is what Ancestry shows:

We are third cousins, but we are also related on the McMaster side:

As shown above, Ron and I are fourth cousins once removed on the McMaster side. This makes sorting out the DNA difficult. However, I am more interested in the Clarke connection as I have a lot of missing information on my Clarek and Spratt ancestry.

MacMaster DNA

I am really interested in the Clarke DNA. However, it would seem that anyone that I have a known Clarke DNA match with could also have McMaster DNA.  Here is where I match this MacMaster according to Gedmatch:

I had previously used DNA Painter to show where this match was Here is the paternal side of my Chromosome 4:

The green and yellow matches are on my Hartley side. However, the blue DNA should represent either Thomas Clarke or Jane Spratt:

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However, there is a more distant amount of McMaster in there because Ron’s great-grandmother Celia Clarke married Edward McMaster:

This shows that Ron is my 4th cousinn once removed and Stephen is my 5th cousin on the McMaster side. Still, the chances are that matches with MacMaster represent Clarke or Spratt more than McMaster.

More Clues from Ancestry

I feel like Ancestry has the most matches, so it is a good place to look for clues. As the McMaster who is the subject of this Blog is my largest match, I’ll start with him at Ancestry. It would make sense to try to sort out those matches between Spratt and Clarke as those are the two most recent ancestors that this McMaster and I have in common.

Clarke or Spratt?

I should have shared matches with my good MacMaster match that are either Clark or Spratt. By using a spreadsheet, I can separate those matches by color. This is a variation of the Leeds Method:

I’m trying to come up with a spreadsheet that will work well. I’ll use a blue color for Clarke and a different one for Spratt.

I’ll start with Lori and Nina:

Nina appears to be a Spratt and is a shared match with my MacMaster match:

My Leeds Chart is a little compicated as it includes 5 siblings. My assumptions are:

  • shared matches between my siblings and me and Nina will be on the Spratt side
  • Spratt is not related to Clarke
  • Clarke is related to McMaster so those shared matches could have McMaster also
  • Ideally, there should be a group of Clarke DNA matches that match me and each other and a group of Spratt DNA matches that match me and my siblings and each other.

My Shared Matches with Nina

Here are a summary of my findings:

I decided to go with just my matches for now as it was too messy having all the siblings there. There were similarities in the trees when the trees were givien. Note that I have not yet identified any Clarke matches.

I decided to add the strength of the match in cm:

Looking for the Clarke Side

I don’t see any matches that are obviously Clarke. That means that I need to find matches that are not in common with the ‘in common’ matches to Nina and the above Spratt matches.

I’ll start with Cheryl. She is a shared match with MacMaster and matches me. Here shared matches do not seem to coincide with Nina’s, so I will make an assumption that she matches me on the Clarke side. Unfortunately, she does not have a tree at Ancestry.

Here is what I am guessing is the Clarke side:

The problem is that none of the DNA matches that have trees have Clarkes in them. The common name in the trees that match the blue side appears to be Lougheed or Loughead.

Here is the tree I have for my great-grandmother:

My knowledge of this branch of the family does not go back very far. Here my assumption based on family trees is that the Spratt side is represented by my orange matches and Clarke by the blue. But where would Lougheed fit in? Assuming that Whitesides is right, that would leave the mother of John Clarke or the mother of Catherine Whitesides.

A Blue Side DNA Match at 23andMe

I made a note at Ancestry that my blue side match, L.S., also tested at 23andMe. I hope the match is still there. That match had this person in his tree:

Unfortunately, I cannot get into 23andMe. The Company instituted extra security on their website and it is creating a problem for me to get to that site.

More Lougheads

Here is Ballybrennan::

This location is interesting to me as Ballybrennan is South of Collaney which is the area that my Clarkes were from and West of Kilmactranny where my Frazers were from.  However, Frazers should not be related as the connection between Frazer and Clarke was in Boston, Massachusetts.

Cheryl has many what I call blue matches.

Here I have also added some shared matches from D.E. The last match is interesting as there is a connection with Hugh Lougheed from 1750. He appears to be the same Hugh said to be born 1752. Here is what jreaton’s tree shows:

From the trees and the DNA matches, it is likely that this Hugh Lougheed could be an ancestor of mine, but I cannot tell where the connection is. It is possible that this Hugh had another daughter who married and stayed in Ireland.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Based on my most recent common ancestors with MacMaster, I should have matches on the Clarke side and the Spratt side
  • I found DNA matches with a group of people who have Spratt ancestry
  • I found another group of DNA matches who do not match the Spratt matches but have Lougheed in their genealogy.
  • I found a Lougheed side match that was also at 23andMe
  • It would be interesting to find out which chromosomes are Lougheed and which are Spratt.

Luther DNA/Genealogy Tree and ThruLines

I have been building DNA/Genealogy Trees for my ancestors that have ThruLines that i have verified. On my Hartley side, I have looked at:

  • Hartley
  • Hathaway
  • Snell
  • Parker
  • Hatch
  • Howorth
  • Churchill
  • Cowen

I do not think that I have looked at Luther.

My Luther Genealogy

My great-grandmother Annie Snell was the daughter of a Bradford and a Snell. Luther is on the Snell side. Benjamin Luther and Rebecca Trafton were my 5th great-grandparents. They lived in Dighton, Massachusetts.

Luther ThruLines

I’ll start with my own:

ThurLines think that I match up with Lynn via Lynn’s ancestor Polly Luther. Polly is in white which means that she is already in my Tree. However, it seems as Polly may have married a Simmons:

A few of my siblings have the same ThruLine with Lynn.

Joyce’s Luther ThruLines

Because my father’s cousin Joyce is a generation back, she should have more Luther ThruLines and she does:

Joyce even has a ThruLine going back a generation:

I checked on my father’s other 1st cousin Maury’s ThruLines, but he doesn’t show any on the Luther side.

Joyce and DVanderzell

I’ll start on the oldest ThruLine. DVanderzell’s Tree matches the ThruLine conclusions:

The tree above has Susannah and the ThruLine has Sukey which I take to be the same person.

I’ll start a quick tree to check DVanderzell’s Tree. Winston was born in Taunton, MA. From Winston’s birth record, his father was from Dighton, MA:

The family soon moved to Montclair, NJ:

Here is the previous generation in Dighton, MA:

So far, the tree is checking out:

I am now looking for Jonathan Hathaway:

The family was in Dighton in 1850:

Jonathan to Susannah Sukey Talbot

From Jonathan’s death record, we see his mother is Susan:

At this point, I may want to attack the question from both ends. By that, I mean from the Jonathan end as well as the Sarah Luther side. I do have that Sarah married in 1773. I could go out on a limb and guess that she may have been born around 1753.

One reference to Susannah had this:

Here is the record for Sukey Talbot:

So there are two Jonathan Hathaways.

Sukey Talbot to Sarah Luther

The female connections are more difficult due to the name changes. I have this record from Dighton:

That means that all I am missing is a birth record for Susannah or Sukey Talbot. Here is the missing link:

A First Luther DNA/Genealogy Tree

Here Joyce and DVanerzell show as 6th cousins which agrees with the Ancestry ThruLines.

Joyce and Pat (Sally Luther Line)

Pat has a good tree, but the line diverges at Polly Sartwell:

Pat has her mother as Martha Goodenough. In addition, in my own tree, I have that Sally Luther married James Spooner. I am tempted to pull the plug on Pat for now.

Joyce and RWU12 (Gardner Luther)

RW’s tree diverges before Gardner Luther II:

Here are the Dighton records:

I am trying to figure out how to interpret this. It appears that Gardner Luther in my tree married a Nancy Horton in 1803. He then dies in 1825. Then there is a second Gardner Luther in Dighton. He dies in 1809. I am guessing that he is the son of the other Gardner and that this Gardner was born in 1807 and died in 1809. Then there appears to be a question as to whether the first Gardner Luther married a Nancy Horton or a Nancy Kelton.

I am now cutting corners to save time:

This Gardner is interesting because his parents were Gardner and Nancy Luther. He dies in 1875 on November 6, so would be born around 1809. Also this:

All this leads to the possibility that the ThruLine could be right.

I’ll start a quick tree for RW:

RW’s mother’s birth record was amended, so is not yet available. I’ll have to assume that RW knew who his grandparents were. Here is RW’s 15 year old grandfather in 1900 in Swansea:

At this point, I am checking into Elizabeth from the above Census.

Here is a 1907 North Attleborough Marriage record for William giving his mother’s name as Elizabeth Willmarth:

Here is a good hint. In 1880, Elizabeth was listed as the granddaughter of a Luther:

I got this 1906 Swansea marriage from RW’s tree:

I’ll just take it on face value. My tree is following RW’s so far:

Here is Mary’s marriage record:

Turns out Clement was quite a bit older than Mary and this was her second marriage.

Here two Luthers married.

Here is the family in 1850 in Swansea:

This could be Mary’s first marriage:

Here is the family in 1855:

This proves that the marriage between Mary Luther and Josiah Tucker above was correct.

Gardner dies in 1886 in Swansea and gives the names of Gardner and Mary Luther for his parents who are both said to have been born in Swansea:

Now we have come full circle, however, I had Gardner Sr. marrying a Nancy, so the death record could be wrong?

I have shown a connection from this Gardner to the elder Gardner and that the younger Gardner lived in Swansea most of his life.

Updating the Luther Tree

I gave the chart some color so it wouldn’t just be boring gray. RWU shows as a 5th cousin once removed to Joyce. This is also what the ThruLine suggested, so it checks out. The only thing I didn’t check into was who was the Charlotte Luther who married Gardner Luther?

Joyce and Lynn (Polly Luther Line)

Now we are back to Lynn:

The maternal side of Lynn’s tree agrees with the ThruLine – going back to our common ancestors:

All I need to do now is to build a parallel tree to Lynn’s to see if it checks out. This tree is starting out in Arkansas. I am having a little trouble finding Leatrice. I would think that she would be easy to find, but sometimes with a different name, the name is miss-spelled. Here is the 1930 Census:

I found this in the hints on the ThruLines. Leatrice is here transcribed as Leatrei. In addition, the last name is transcribed as Tolbert. The father was a school instructor and his family was from Mississippi.

Here is Marcus in 1900 in Mississippi:

Marcus’ father was a farmer (I don’t show but he was on the previous page). His father was from Massachusetts. Bingo.

 

The transcriber gives the father’s first name as Allen which I can now see. The mother is Telisia or something similar. I have seen that name before.

The Census records help me quickly build a parallel tree for Lynn:

Here is Allen with his family in 1850:

I don’t know much about Mississippi, but Marshall County where they lived is not too far from Memphis:

I am guessing Ephraim moved South before marrying as his wife was from Tennessee.

Talbot to Luther?

We are trying to figure out if Ephraim’s mother was Polly Luther. This record from Dighton is helpful:

Next, I just have to figure out if Marcy is the same as Polly. She is:

I assume that I got the name Polly from a genealogy book. It is confusing and I should put her name back to Mary. My understandiing is that Molly is a nickname for Mary which sometimes was changed to Polly.

Last Tree Update – for Now

Here is the new and improved Luther Tree:

Summary and Conclusions

  • Out of the 4 Luther Lines I looked into, I was able to make connections on three
  • The Luther Line has a rich heritage and history in the part of Massachusetts around Swansea and Dighton.
  • This is my first Luther DNA/Genealogy Tree and verifies the Ancestry ThruLines
  • Using DNA plus genealogy is a powerful tool in creating surname trees.

 

 

My Churchill ThruLines

I have been going through my ThruLines and updating or creating DNA/Genealogy Charts for them. In this Blog, I’ll look at my Churchill ThruLines. The people who have tested in my family are:

  • my three sisters, one brother and me
  • my father’s cousin Joyce
  • my father’s cousin Maury

My Churchill Genealogy

The Churchills are related to my Pilgrim Bradford genealogy:

My great-grandmother Annie Snell had the Pilgrim ancestry on her mother’s side. Lucy Churchill married Samuel Bradford who was a descendant of Governor Bradford of the Mayflower. Lucy lived in Plymouth, MA. Her parents were Stephen Churchill and Lucy Burbank. As I recall, Stephen Churchill was a cooper by trade or a barrel maker in the Colonial Town of Plymouth. According to Wikipedia:

 Churchill ThruLines

My sister Lori has the most Churchill ThruLines with two, though the level of DNA matches are low:

The names Peleg and Heman are in white which means they are already in my tree.

Stephen had a big family which is good for producing descendants and ThruLines.

Lori and Herb

Ancestry wants me to evaluae Herb’s connection. Here is what Herb shows for his paternal side tree:

Herb shows the father being from Plymouth, so hopefully that will be easy to track. There appears to be some confusion in herb’s father already. The ThruLines have Elmer C P Chandler and herb’s tree has Elmer Carlton Paul. I did find this record from WWII:

The 1930 Census for Kingston, MA could give an explanation:

Elmer is living with his grandparents and their last name is Paul.

The Social Security record is helpful:

It appears that Eva may have married a Gomes based on the 1945 record above. Of the trees that I have found, this one seems to make the most sense to me:

Here we have the three generations of Elmes Chandlers.

In support of the genealogy, I notice that my father’s 1st cousin Joyce also has a small match with herb:

With that in mind, I continue. This is the Tree I have so far that I would like to get up to Peleg Churchill:

James Chandler to Eliza Churchill

James Chandler was living in Duxbury, MA as a shoemaker in 1860:

Here is Eliza in 1850 in Duxbury, MA:

Her husband appears to be a Hatter.

Eliza Churchill to Peleg Churchill

I am having trouble finding a record to connect these two people. I did find this under a Mayflower Application:

This application was approved in 1921. That genealogy check did not go as smoothly as I had hoped.

My First Churchill DNA/Genealogy Tree

Churchill gets overshadowed due to the Bradford connection. I have tended to focus in more on the Bradford Lines in the past.

Lori and Butterflies on the Heman Churchill Line

That is an interesting heading name. My goal is to prove or disprove this connection:

This is the extent of butterflies’ maternal line in the direction I an interested in:

I will likely be looking for the wife of William Evans on the top right of her tree. I’ll start my own tree for butterflies to see if I can verify the 200 years of genealogy back to our common ancestors.

Beverly’s father Roger was a printer in New London, CT:

It is helpful to now have the 1950 Census to look at.

Roger’s father William was born in New York and was a caretaker at New London Parks:

I next want to follow Ruby or Ruba:

Based on this, I’m willing to accept the Ancestry hints:

Evans to Churchill

Here is someone’s transcription of a newpaper article:

Here Theodore is said to be the son of Jane A Churchill. However, my Ancestry hint has this:

However, the 1850 Census has Theodore’s father from Wales:

I accepted the Ancestry hint for William Evans and Jane Churchill.

Jane to Heman Churchill

This connection is mentioned in many genealogies, but what is the evidence? In Heman’s will, he only mentions two daughters, but not Jane:

That did not mean that he did not have other children. It turns out that Heman who was also a cooper owed a lot of people a lot of money and was also insolvent like his brother Peleg.

It appears that Haman had a lot of deaths in the family:

This was from:

Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016).

https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/14012/503/253533102

Heman apparently belonged to the Baptist Church. I don’t know if that makes finding the records more difficult.

This Ancestry Tree has this summary for Heman Churchill:

Unfortunately, at this point, I am stuck. Jane Churchill Evans has that she was born in New York. The Jane Churchill I am looking for should have been born in Massachusetts as that is where Heman Churchill lived to my knowledge. So I have not proved or disproved the connection.

Joyce and Patricia

I’ll take a look at this ThruLine:

Joyce and Patricia share a pretty good DNA match for 5th cousins. I will try to prove or disprove Patricia’s connection to my family via Jocye:

Here is what Patricia shows on her paternal side:

The ThruLines want me to head toward Ellen Augusta Leach. I see from the 1920 Census that John’s mother’s parents were born in Massachusetts:

Also the name Earle comes up in that Census.

Here is the family in 1880 in San Francisco:

I’m cutting corners a little, but I feel like Patricia’s tree is right and plus Slade above was born in Massachusetts. However, it is really his wife Ellen that I am interested in.

Now my tree looks a little more like Patricia’s:

I need to see if the Churchill connection is right. Slade and Ellen married in 1864 in Lynn, MA:

Ellen was from Plymouth originally and her mother was also an Ellen. Here is a summary of the Leach family in 1850:

Here is the marriage from 1830:

At this point, I am on track with the ThruLines:

Fortunately, Ellen’s father left a will where he clearly states that Eleanor was his daughter:

This Daniel was also a cooper.

I already have Daniel in my family tree, so I’ll add him to my Churchill DNA/Genealogy Chart:

So now I have gone up the genealogy and back down again. Patricia matches Joyce and I don’t have her on my chart. Also I need to fix my side of the chart:

Joyce and Laura

Joyce and Ashley have a large match, because the major match is on Joyce’s paternal side. That is the side that she is not related to me. So I’ll go with Laura. Laura has a large tree:

Unfortunately, her tree diverges at the point of her paternal grandmother. That could make the connection difficult as I would think that Laura would know her grandmother.

Here is the family in 1920 in Penobsctot, ME:

It looks like there was anothegenr Joseph Fernald Leach born in Abington, MA. That appears to be the confusion in the trees, so I will not bother to pursue this further.

Other Churchill ThruLinMes

Maury is my father’s 1st cousin (like Joyce). As such, his Churchill ThruLines go back an additional generation. However, my second cousin manages his DNA and does not have the Churchills in his ancestry. So he doesn’t show any Churchill ThruLines.

I’ll show Joyce’s ThruLines going back one generation:

This family did not hold back on the obscure names. How many people can say they have a Zadock in their ancestry?

Joyce and L.B

I’ll give this a shot. James shows a possible 6th cousin to Joyce on Joyce’s paternal side also – the side I am not related on.

LB’s tree is mostly filled out in the direction of Bathsheba Churchill. As usual, I will build out a tree, to see if I can get to Bathsheba and Zadock Churchill.

I found a birth record for Florence:

Her mom checks out as Annie L. Nelson.

Here is the marriage record for Annie:

Here is the family in 1880 in Androscoggin, ME:

That Census also gave me an approximate birthdate for Sally or Sarah:

Sarah’s death record gives her father’s name:

Here is the family in 1850 in Buckfield, ME:

There is also a Thankful on the next page. Miles was born in Massachusetts which is a good sign. Miles was born in Middleborough, MA:

This Thomas ended up in Buckfield, ME:

I see they have a Zadoc and a Bathsheba Churchilll Bearce in the family which is a good sign.

From Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775:

Bathsheba to Zadock

Here is an approved Mayflower application from 1929:

This seems to tie the loose ends together.

Here is the amended and corrected Churchill DNA/Genealogy Tree:

I previously had Stephen Churchill born 1743 married to Hannah Barnes, so I corrected that mistake.

Do Joyce and Diana Have Churchill Common Ancestors?

ThruLines has Diana going back to a Polly Churchill. I do not appear to have Polly in my tree. Diana shows her paternal grandfather being from Plymouth County, Massachusetts:

I’ll create my own tree to see if the ThruLines make sense.

Here is Edwin’s birth record in Middleborough, MA:

His mother is recorded as Mary Dixon, born in Plymouth. Here is the family in Plymouth:

Jacob’s marriage record gives his father’s name:

In 1850 Plymouth, Samuel was a cooper:

According to Samuel’s death record, his mother was Mary Churchill:

Here is part of Stephen Churchill’s will from 1821:

In it, he names Stephen Jr., Lucy, Hannah, Meriah, Nancy, Sally, Polly and Betsy, Heman and Daniel. I have that Peleg died in 1810 which would be why I don’t see him here.

Finishing the Churchill DNA/Genealogy Tree (for Now)

Here my Churchill Tree is filling out nicely:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to add three lines under Stephen Churchill born 1743
  • I previously did not have the Line of Polly Churchill born 1786
  • I tried to connect a proposed descendant of Heman Churchill, but that proved tooo difficult
  • I add one Zadock Line. Zadock was the son of an earlier Stephen Churchill born 1717 in Plymouth.
  • My father’s cousin Joyce was helpful in most of these matches

My Cowen/Cowing ThruLines

My Massachusetts genealogy has two sides. One side is my Pilgrim ancestors and the other side is my non-Pilgrim ancestors:

My great-grandmother Annie Louisa Snell was the source of my Massachusetts heritage. Her maternal side was the non-pilgrim ancestry and the bottom side or maternal side of the tree above was the Pilgrim ancestry lead off my Harvey Bradford.

DNA/Genealogy Trees

Looking through my files I see these Trees:

  • Snell
  • Parker
  • Hatch
  • Bradford
  • Hathaway

What I don’t see for trees:

  • Luther
  • Churchill
  • Cowing

I would like to update my old trees and add trees where necessary. The last time I started looking at this subject, I looked at Hathaway and realized I had a lot of people in that tree and more to add. This time, I would like to look at Luther, Churchill and Cowing.

Cowing

I know this name from my home town as Cowen. However, the more historical spelling is Cowing or Cowin. I don’t recall writing about any ThruLines for Cowing. Here are some from Joyce, my father’s first cousin:

Joyce and my family are under Experience Cowing. Joyce has no additional ThruLines under Israel Cowing, but she has three ThruLines through Jonathan and Patience Cowing. First, I’ll loo at Christine:

This has happened before. When I choose Kristine from the ThruLines and then check her common ancestors, I come out with a different line. I am curious to see if the Cowen connection is correct.

Here is Kristen’s paternal side from her own tree:

Here is the family in Middleborough, MA in 1930:

Philip was a chauffer for the Town. Philip was born in Westport, but his birth record shows that his father was born in Mattapoisett:

Here is Philip and his father Sanford and family in Westport, MA in 1900:

Sandford was a farmer.

Here is my tree for Kristine:

Mattapoisett became a Town in 1857, the year before Sanford was born. I just need to show that the Ruth above was Ruth Cowen.

Here is the 1865 Census for Mattapoisett:

Findagrave shows this for Ruth:

My tree now suggests that Kristine does go back to Seth Cowen:

My understanding is that Kristine should be a 5th cousin to Joyce. So that is a little closer than the 5th cousin once removed on the Hathaway side. The DNA match would be either from the Cowen side or the Hathaway side. There is no easy way of knowing.

A First Cowen DNA/Genealogy Tree

That line was relatively easy to trace as the family stayed fairly local.

Helen and Joyce

The next family is fun because it involves a genealogy friend, Helen, who lives down the street from me:

If I can show that Helen matches  Joyce by DNA, it gives creedence to our genealogical research. I trust Helen’s research, so feel no need to evaluate it. Here is her tree:

Helen’s line goes to Seth Cowing Hiller, then to Patience Cowing and then to our most recents common ancestors, Seth Cowing and Penelope Crapo.

I’ll add Frances and Helen to the Tree:

A few interesting things about this tree:

  • These three lines represent three Cowing children born within about 4 years
  • These families mostly stayed in the same part of Massachusetts for about 300 years and if you look at the Mayflower ancestors, that would have our families here for 400 years, so we have deep roots in this part of SE Massachusetts.

Jon and Shaun

My sister Heidi and I have no Cowing ThruLines from Seth Cowing, but my brother Jon has one:

Shaun has a modest tree, but has more on his maternal side. I don’t have a tree for Shaun, so I will create one. Shaun does show that his maternal great-grandfather was from New Bedford:

This obituary ties Stacey Smith to Francis Swift:

Francis was born in Utah and wed in Wyoming:

Here is the 1930 Census for Salt Lake City:

Here is my tree so far:

I forgot to mention, that when I look at the specific match for Jon and Shaun, a Hathaway connection shows up. It is likely that Jon and Shaun are connected on both lines:

This comes up now because there is a Hathaway in Shaun’s Line.

The marriage record for Francis and Amanda has a lot of information:

This has Francis born in Sandwich rather than New Bedford. It also has their parents’ names.  Here is a tree update:

Where Hattaway is likely a transcription error for Hathaway.

Here is the book transcription of the marriage of Nathan Swift and Pamelia Cowing:

And here is her birth record:

So it is pretty clear where this is going as Israel is the son of Seth Cowing.

Here I have the connection between my brother Jon and Shaun:

I did not check out the Hathaway connection, but that one is likely also. That means, that it is unclear as to whether the actual DNA that Jon and Shaun share are from the Hathaway side or Cowing side.

Lori and Gretchen

I see that my sister Lori has a potential Cowing connection with Gretchen:

The good news is that I already have Matthew Hiller in my tree, so I just need to get Gretchen back to Matthew instead of to the colonial Seth Cowing. I am having trouble finding Seth from the information that Gretchen has:

Gretchen has that Seth died in New York City. I found this draft card:

The only problem is that the tree I got this from has Seth’s wife as Grace Appel:

Gretchen’s tree suggests a Webster as the wife.

Looking at Helen’s ThruLines

I thought of another way to substantiate Gretchen. I have access to Helen’s ThruLines:

Clearly, Gretchen has a large match to Helen and is related. Here is Helen’s tree:

The other three that show as children of Matthew Hiller could not be from Beuretta Webster Hammon if Helen’s tree is right as Beuretta dies in 1880.

Here is the family in 1900:

Charles is apparently out of the house, but George, David and Jennie from Helen’s ThruLines are there. This seems to be a good enough of a connection for me.

I’ll add Gretchen to the tree:

Gretchen and my brother Jon are 5th cousins once removed.

My sister Lori also matches Gretchen. Also my sister Sharon matches Shaun.

Cousin Maury’s ThruLines

My father’s cousin Maury has also tested at Ancestry. He has these ThruLines to Cowing:

Maury and my family are under Experience Cowing. The Hiller family is under Patience Cowing. Here are Maury’s ThruLines on the Hiller side:

Maury and P.S.

Since I last wrote, I see another ThruLine for Maury. It is on a different Cowing Line that I would like to investigate:

Mary is the oldest child of Seth Cowing on the ThruLines. Mary is on my tree. She must have married Philipp Briggs:

We are trying to go from the Wing back to the Nye family:

Here is Addie’s birth record from 1864 in Sandwich:

Addie’s father, George B. was a butcher.

Here is the family in 1870:

Next, I just need to find George’s mother. George’s death record gives his mother’s name and birthplace:

Here the Cowing Tree is filling out:

Co

This is not as far as I could go, but it is as far as I would like to go for now.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able, with not too much difficulty, to pretty good Cowing DNA/Genealogy Tree thanks to my father’s cousins Joyce and Maury and my brother Jon
  • In some cases the common ancestors also came up as Hathaway. That is probably partly because my ancestor Experience Cowing married Joseph Hathaway. However, the matches would have had to have had Hathaways in their ancestry also
  • In other cases where Hathawy did not show up in the ThruLine matches, I assume that Hathaway ancestry was not there in the DNA match – at least during the time period that we are looking at.
  • I am ready to move on to more DNA/Genealogy Trees

 

 

My Emmet ThruLines

I am interested in looking into Emmet ThruLines. Just for fun, to see what comes of it.

Emmet Genealogy

This is from my Ancestry Tree:

My second great-grandmother Ann Emmet was born in 1829 in Bacup, Lancashire.

Emmet ThruLines

Here is what my father’s cousin Joyce has going back to Edmund Emmet born 1727:

My father’s cousin Maury has a similar set of ThruLines with one additional person added:

I was excited to look into this because I do not believe that I have made an Emmet DNA/Genealogy Chart yet. Also in looking into this Blog, I saw an interesting tree that appeared to have great research.

My Family’s ThruLines to Edmund Emmet Bory 1727

I don’t have any, but my sister Heidi does:

Heidi adds the match Julia.

My brother Jon has money 40.

My sisters Lori and Sharon have no ThruLines at this level like me.

Maury and Banker

I’ll go with Banker’s Tree as she has as good one:

Her tree goes back to Alice Emmett. I also see the Pilling name which pops up a lot.

This death certificate for Rowland gives his parents’ names:

Here is the family in 1881:

I think this is Shawclough:

We next need to find Joseph’s mother. According to the 1861 Census, Joseph’s mother was Alice, born in Haslingdon:

Here is the marriage record which mentions Alice Emmett:

The Census records have Alice from Haslingdon:

The Alice Emmet to Richard Emmet Connection

This connection is not as clear to me. The Trees at Ancestry have the connection, but they do not say how they got there:

1811 was before Civil Registration and apparently there have been no records found. That is when I submit that DNA evidence can add to the evidence that this is the correct Line.

Here is the summary of Richard Emmet from the Smith Tree at Ancestry. That is the tree that I looked at and found to be very well researched:

Edit: Through subsequent conversations with David, the creator of the Tree above, he tells me that there is a will that connects

A Geographical Check

If Richard and my ancestor Edmund Emmet were brothers, they would have had to have lived in the same area. Sounds basic. Here is Richard’s baptismal record, looking quite old:

This baptism happened at Goodshaw, St. Mary and All Saints. Here is Goodshaw:

The Tree above has Richard from Lumb or Water and born in 1767. I have that my ancestor Edmund Emmet was born in 1759 in High Edge Goodshaw. Here is the baptismal record:

Due to a search on Google, I see that this should be Hugh Edge.

I don’t know how accurate these house renditions are, but they are interesting. Perhaps the Emmets lived in one of these houses around 1767. As Edmund and Richard were baptized at the same Church and had the same parents, I assume that they were brothers.

Emmet DNA/Genealogy Map

Turns out I already had Richard in my Ancestry Tree:

Here is my tree:

This is not actually perfect as Banker was a match to Maury, my father’s first cousin. This should more accurately display the relationships:

Now that the line from Banker to Richard seems likely, the other lines should follow. As the Stansfield tree seems well documented, I will add Anne and money40:

Keep in mind that not all the people on my side of the tree match all the people on the Richard Emmet side of the tree, but a lot do.

Heidi and Julia

My sister Heidi has a ThruLine with Julia that I have not evaluated:

Julia has a huge family tree with over 33,000 people in it. Of interest to me are Julia’s DNA designations on her tree:

That tells me that Julia is perhaps thinking like me in using DNA as evidence to support her family tree. I do see Betty Emmet in the records:

Here is Loveclough:

I also caught Lower Hugh Edge at the bottom right of the map. Based on this information, I am tempted to not bother verifying Julia’s tree and just accept it.

Here my Emmet DNA/Genealogy Tree appears to be finalized for now:

Bonus on Isaac Emmet

From mucking around the tree which I mentioned above that David built, I found a Willl for Isaac Emmet (or Emmett):

Isaac was my third great-grandfather. I am not sure that I was aware of this document before. Or if I was, I don’t recall it. This is certainly Isaac, as he was from Stubby Lee.

Here is the Mary Stott mentioned in the Will:

Mary was the one taking care of the rest of the family in 1851 when the father was a servant at Stubbylee Hall. I wrote a Blog about this in 2018.

Although Mary is shown as the head, I note that the whole household was working. My second great-grandmother Ann must have been second in command.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I looked at DNA matches to two of my father’s cousins on their Emmet ThruLines
  • I checked one line going back to Richard Emmet that seemed to be likely based on location and the same parents.
  • That connection lead to common ancestors of Edmund Emmet born 1727 and his wife Mary Omerod
  • The first connectionwas on a Stansfield Line which seemed well documented. There were two other Stansfield Line DNA matches which I added to an Emmet DNA/Genealogy Tree
  • I then added a line which went back to a different daugther of Richard Emmet born 1767. This daughter was better documented than the daughter that produced the Stansfield Line.
  • These four DNA matches as well as other Ancestry Trees support the Emmet genealogy I have done previously.

 

 

Updating Philadelphia Baker and Surrick ThruLines

In the past, I have looked at some of my Baker ThruLines on my mother’s side. This is my summary on a Baker DNA/Genealogy Chart that I made:

This Chart goes back to some of my 4th cousins on average. However, ThruLines go back to 6th cousins. That means that this chart is undersized.

Here are my ThruLines going back one more generation to an earlier Conrad Baker:

I already have a tree for Ruth’s maternal side:

Ancestry suggests Conrad Baker and Mary Surrick as the parents of Sophia Baker.  I would have to assume that they are correct. All indications are that the tree is correct, though there are few original sources.

Here is a source from the Daughters of the American Revolution:

Here is the extra generation added to my Baker Tree:

Based on this Ancestry Tree, Conrad had many children:

My ancestor was the first wife Mary Surrick who apparently died before 1796. That means that most of the children must have been through Susanne Fraley. Also, according to these trees, this Conrad was bron in New York.

This tree shows that Sophie Baker Andress had quite a few childre also:

This increases the chance of having a DNA match.

Going Back Before Baker to Surrick

I notice that my mother has some Surrick ThruLines:

Why not take a look at some of these matches?

ldclouser has a good tree. Here is her Druck Line going back to Surrick:

Surrick seems to be an unusual surname:

According to Ancestry, there were 6 Surrick families living in Pennsylvania in 1840 and they were found nowhere else in the US. However, the good news it it appears that could narrow down the genealogy.

My own tree does not go back to Philip Surrick, so this may be a good time to amend my tree:

Checking LD’s Tree

One good thing about a rare surname is that the connection is more likely to be real to that surname between two families. Here is Mahlon’s family in 1930.

Here is Bart, to the West of Philadelphia in Lancaster County:

At this point, I should be following Kathryn’s Line. The death certificate and marriage record for Mason Druck has his wife as Katherine or Catherine Smeltzer. Here is a child’s birth certificate:

Here is Catharine in Chanceford, PA in 1900:

Catharine’s father was a cigar manager and her mother was a cigar maker. In the Census, her mother appears to be Lucy, but this obituary has her mother as:

In 1860 Philadelphia, 19th Ward, I find this record:

Here is Catherine who was supposed to be born in 1864 according to findagrave was born probably in 1859.

This Tree at Ancestry for John Smeltzer shows that he had two wives:

The first died in 1893.

This is my tree so far:

According to ThruLines, I am alsmost there. I see a George Surrick in 1850:

He is living in the Richmond Districk of Philadelphia. His father appears to be Philip Surrick. The ThruLines wanted to show Georges father as George and his grandfather as Philip. However, I see what happened. There was more than one George Surrick in Philadelphia. The above was a different, George W Surrick:

He was a ropemaker like his father and he married Anna.

Here is the George that I am interested in:

He is living in Chanceford with the husband of his late daughter Catharine. I don’t agree with the birth date here. I think it should be around 1835.

Here is some more information on George:

This tells us that George was in the Civil War.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to expand my Baker DNA/Genealogy Tree by looking at ThruLines
  • The earliest ancestors on that tree are Conrad Baker born 1764 and his wife Mary Surrick
  • I had thought that I would be able to create a Surrick DNA/Genealogy Tree based on ThruLines, but I was unable to figure out a good connection between Surrick descendants and basically, my mom.
  • I may try again at some point. This would involve extending my known tree out to the parents of Mary Surrick.