When I was looking at my sister’s DNA matches at Ancestry, I came across Nancy. She also matches me and we show common ancestors:
Ancestry want me to evaluate the tree. I suppose I can start with mary Ellen Nicholson. Here are the basics that Nancy has on Mary Ellen:
The thing I find interesting about Nancy is that she descends from Henry Nicholson who shows as the brother of my 2nd great-grandfather’s brother William. William was from a large family. Here are his siblings:
I also have my own DNA Matching Genealogy Tree:
This is part of the tree. I see I already have Michelle on the Henry Nicholson Branch. I suppose that is a good sign. I wrote a Blog including Michelle here.
My genealogy-only Tree doesn’t have Walter:
Doing the Genealogy to Try to Connect to Nancy
The best way to make the connection is not from the top down but from the present to the past. I’ll start a tree for Nancy:
Based on Arie’s Naturalization papers, Arie and Mary Ellen married in Sheffield, England and Mary Ellen was also born in Sheffield:
Based on this, I take this to be the Nicholson family in 1911:
All family members were born in Sheffield according to this Census.
More on Joseph Nicholson
I can get back to the 1901 Census before Mary Ellen was born:
Here is some more information from the 1901 Census:
Here is what I have for Joseph and Mary Ellen’s children:
Mary Ellen should be Boothroyd. I think that one of the record transcriptions was off. I have Joseph at least later associated with Brightside Bierlow:
In 1891, there are two Josephs associated with Ecclesall Bierlow.
Mary Ellen Boothroyd
Here is Mary Ellen in 1881:
Mary Ellen’s father was a Carter as was her later husband Joseph Nicholson. She also lived in Brightside Bierlow, so perhaps Joseph went to live near where she was from.
Back to Joseph Nicholson
FamilySearch has these two Josephs born in Sheffield:
Neither of these two have the father Walter as suggested by Ancestry. The one with the fathe Henry is promising as Joseph’s first son was named Henry. However, I’m ruling him out as he appears in the 1901 Census:
Here is a Joseph in the 1881 Census:
He appears to be the son of George and Mary Ann Nicholson and the grandson of Mitalda(?) Nicholson. I was looking in the Ecclesall Bierlow area, so that meets that criteria.
The 1891 Census Gives a Clue
Here Joseph is a Carter:
That is too much of a coincidence for me to overlook in an area that was known for the metal industry. Time to deviate from the Ancestry Common Ancestry Tree to see where this leads us:
Ancestry wants me to put in William Nicholson for the father of Joseph Nicholson. Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with this line. Perhaps the connection is on another line.
Trying the Top Down Method
This is the less preferrred method, but perhaps I can test out the Ancestry model this way. Here are two records for Henry Nicholson:
As these are both bachelors, they must be two different people. Interestingly, one is the son of Joseph and one is the son of Matthew. Matthew is my 3rd great-grandfather. I have Henry married to Ann Bainbridge:
I’m not sure where I got that so I’ll change her to Elizabeth Bradshaw. That could mean that the work I had done on a previous Blog on Michelle (mentioned above in the Blog) could be wrong.
Henry and Elizabeth in the Census
Here is a Henry and Elizabeth listed as visitors. They also have a son Walter. However, how did Henry and Elizabeth get three sons if they just married in 1850? Nothing seems to add up.
Back to Michelle
I mentioned Michelle near the top of this Blog. It appears now that I have drawn her connection incorrectly and too hastily. Now it is back to the drawing board or in this case, Nicholson Tree. Here is part of Michele’s tree:
Here is 4 year old Francis Emily in 1861:
10 years earlier, this couple had no children:
This is likely the Ann Nixon that I mentioned above.
This is where things get complicated again. I found an Ann Nixon who died in Worcester, MA:
Unfortunately, Henry’s death record is missing his parent’s information:
However, from the marriage record, we know that the Henry Nicholson who married Ann Nixon had as his father Joseph Nicholson. I will go with this for Henry’s birth:
This is the closest I could find in the 1841 Census:
Here, there are many possibilities:
- I may have the wrong family
- Joseph may have died, but then who is John
- Joseph may have been a John Joseph or Joseph John
- The Census taker may have gotten the name wrong
Assuming that Joseph and Sarah are the right names, here is a wedding transcription:
I assume that this is the same family in 1851 and that the husband is correctly named now:
Henry married a local girl as the Nixon family is on the same page. I also see that Joseph was born in Thorne.
The red marker is where Thorne is.
Will the Real Nicholson Relative Please Stand Up?
I have taken Michele off of my DNA relative chart. I believe she is related, but I haven’t figured out how or where right now. Both these lines end up in the Thorne area. From my early genealogical Nicholson guesswork, I did have a Joseph Nicholson in the mix:
Concerning the Walter in the Ancestry connection shown at the top of the Blog, I coudln’t find that he had a son named Joseph. This is what one Ancestry tree shows for Walter which appears to be accurate:
Summary and Conclusions
- Sometimes it is difficult to figure out how DNA matches match by genealogy
- When I took Michele’s genealogy back it ended with someone who died in Thorne
- When I took Nancy’s genealogy back, the Nicholson side also ended up in Thorne
- These DNA matches may hark back to an earlier Nicholson connection or they may connect with an associated line to the Nicholsons.
- At very least, I was able to correct a past mistake. I had William Nicholson’s brother Henry married to an Ann where he was apparently married to Elizabeth Bradshaw.
- I would like to give credit to the Sheffield Indexer Website where I was able to find important Nicholson baptismal and marriage records