I have a lot of fun looking at proposed Ancestry Common Ancestors. Sometimes they are obvioius. Sometimes they bring me through murky genealogical areas. Let’s see where this one brings us:
The match is not close and the common ancestors go back to the 1700’s. This shows that Ed and I are 5th cousins once removed. Here is Ed’s part of my Snell ThruLines at Ancestry:
Ed should be E.G.’s 2nd cousin twice removed. This shows E.G. is as shared match between Ed and me:
That means the DNA supports the theory that Ed should also descend from Anthony Snell. Ed should fit in on the right side of this part of my Snell DNA Tree:
Here is Ed’s Ancestry Tree:
It looks on the surface to be a well researched tree.
Ed’s Floating Tree
The proper way to evaluate Ed is to create a floating tree for him in my tree and then connect him when I see that the connection is appropriate. Based on the shared DNA, it seems likely that he would be connected. According to Ed’s tree, his father was born in New Jersey and died in Germany:
I don’t see Ed listed in the obituary. Is he the same as Derek? Edward T was listed as Edward W in the 1950 Census:
At this point, we need to follow wife Marie’s line going back. Marie’s obituary gives me a head start:
I highlighted the most interesting part to me for the purposes of this Blog.
Here is Marie in 1930:
Marie’s father worked at an iron foundry. Notice that Marie’s Uncle Chester Snell lived with them. He was an attendant at a service station.
Here is an odd marriage article from 1920 that highlights the pastor instead of the bride:
Ruby was a newborn in 1905. Her father was a farm laborer.
Ruby remarries in 1951 and gives her parents’ names:
I see her father as Percy E Snell, but it is transcribed as Percy Ednell.
Here is the 1900 Census for Landis, New Jersey:
Unfortunately, it straddles a page. Percy’s father was a farmer.
This shows as E. Landis Ave., but I think it is the right vicinity:
Here I have built out Ed’s tree to Charles Snell:
That is the floating tree. I have to connect this to my tree:
Just to make sure, here is Charles’ marriage record from 1860 in West Roxbury when he was an iron monger:
I successfully merged the two Charles Snell.
Updating the Snell DNA Tree
Summary and Conclusions
- It is interesting to see how different Snell lines diverged
- It looks like I am missing a line under the Anthony Snell 1802 line. This is due to my computer and laptop not being synced.
- My only question in the connectiion is between Ed and his father. However, I do not usually question these relationships as I assume that people know who their father is.
- A shared match between Ed and EG made it highly likely that this connection was correct even before checking the genealogy.