Author: joel@jmhartley.com

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Another Frazer Theory for My Cousin Paul

My cousin Paul is an important match because he is from a generation closer to my Frazer ancestry compared to me. Here is a Theory I see at MyHeritage:

The Theory says that Paul and Michele are 5th cousins going back to Michael Frazer born 1764 and Margaret Stewart. Here is Michele’s tree at MyHeritage:

Here tree shows her going back to Archibald Frazer and Catherine Knott. When I expand Michele’s Tree, it goes back to where we potentially connect:

I have a tree for Michael Frazer which has DNA matches. Here is the part with Archibald Frazer and Catherine Knott:

Apparently, the daughter Catherine married a Petterson and then a Patton – confusing. I already have the tree down to Homer Hanham which Michele shows as her great-grandfather. My Ancestry Tree goes down as far as Rachel Patton. Here is a photo I found at Ancestry:

Here is Rachel in the 1900 Census:

Rachel is buried in Tecumseh, Michigan:

Homer is a teacher in Toledo, Ohio in 1940. Here is Judith Ann in the 1940 Census:

I have added Michele to my Michael Frazer DNA/Genealogy Tree:

Michele’s DNA

Paul and Michele share a match with my sister Sharon:

The three share a match on Chromosome 9:

That should represent a large chunk of DNA from either Michael Frazer or his wife, Margaret Stewart.

DNA Painter

I can add that DNA to Paul’s DNA Painter profile:

I can also ‘paint’ Sharon’s match. For some reason, she does not have the same Theory yet.

The same problem shows where Paul and Sharon are not matching in the middle. This may be due to the centromere:

That is the part of the chromosome shown by the arrow. I probably had Paul and Sharon’s match from a different company. Here is how Sharon and Paul match at MyHeritage:

Note that there is a break in the DNA Painter Profile. Paul and Michele’s match ends and then the Doreen and Gladys matches start. That is where Sharon’s DNA goes from McMaster DNA to Frazer DNA. Or more specifically, from Margaret McMaster’s to George Frazer’s DNA. Doreen and Gladys are from an earlier line of Frazers. Likewise, Margaret McMaster’s ancestry goes back to Michael Frazer and Margaret Stewart. It seems unusual that such a large segment would travel down through the ages.

Visual Phasing of Chromosome 9

I have done visual phasing for my siblings and myself:

Sharon got a full paternal chromosome of Frazer on her Chromosome 9 as seen by the color Blue. My brother Jim got some, so he may match Michele also. I checked my brother Jim’s matches for Michele, but she did not come up. I checked the location of the match and it starts at about the location where my brother Jim’s Frazer DNA inheritance ends – about location 23 or so.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was happy to find a Frazer Theory for my cousin Paul that filled in some DNA for Paul and my sister Sharon
  • I was able to add Michele to my Michael Frazer DNA/Genealogy Chart
  • For a match going back to the 1700’s, Michele shares a lot of DNA with Paul and Sharon.

 

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Updating My Ancient Irish Ancestors Based on Ancestry ThruLines

In my previous Blog, I was happy to find a match that convinced me that I was on the right track on the origin of my older Frazer ancestors. That DNA match was confirmed at MyHeritage and mapped onto my cousin Paul’s DNA Painter profile. In this Blog, I’ll look further into DNA connections along the same line.

ThruLines of Michael Frazer Born About 1764, Cleragh, County Rosommon

This is what I show:

I am a 5th cousin once removed to one person on each of these three children of Michael Frazer.

I already have Bob on my Micheal Frazer DNA/Genealogy Chart:

However, I have Ann Frazer in a different tree also:

I had Charlene, Karen and Chris in green perhaps because I was unsure of where they fit in.

My genealogy friend Joanna and distant relative has Bob on her ThruLines in the tree with the green lines (above):

I would say, based on the fact that Joanna knows her side of the tree better than me and also looking at the birth dates of proposed siblings in either case, that Ann fits better on Joanna’s side of the tree. Here I have moved Bob from my Michael Tree to my new Archibald (born 1751) Tree:

 

I show the wider view to show how nicely Ann fits in with the other siblings. Where I had her on the Michael Frazer Tree, she was born 13 years before the next child and 20 years before the oldest child. I notice that I had her birth year shown differently in the two trees, so I changed her birth year to 1823 to be consistent with Joanna’s tree.

Where I have Bob right now, that would make him my 5th cousin once removed – quite a distant match. He shows as a 4th cousin match to Joanna which is less unusual than my match. ThruLines goes out to my 5th great-grandparents and James Frazer on this Line is my 6th great-grandparent. That appears to clear up one major discrepancy in my James Frazer DNA/Genealogy Chart.

My Siblings’ ThruLines with Michael Frazer

My sister Heidi has quite a few matches on the Michael Frazer Line:

She has a total of 10 matches that descend from Michael Frazer.

My sister Sharon has the McPartland Matches:

She also matches Patrice as in Heidi’s and my ThruLines.

My brother Jon has four ThruLines:

However, J.F. is Joanna’s brother. So, at least this one ThruLine is apparently wrong. The two Archibalds from the two different lines have created some havoc.

Finally, my other sister Lori’s ThruLines are similar to my older sister Heidi’s:

I will look at the non-Archiabald Lines first as they appear to be easier.

The John Stuart Line Matches

It looks like I do not have John Stuart on my Ancestry tree or on my DNA/Genealogy Tree. This is what Ancestry wants me to look at:

Patrice’s Tree

I’ll add Patrice to my Ancestry as a floating tree. That means I’ll connect him to two parents, then take those parents away. I go to edit relationships:

I put him in as the son of Michael and Margaret, but I will just X them out at parents. This birth certificate fills in some gaps in Patrice’s tree:

I added this to my floating tree:

Unfortunately, Hellen McKay was put in as living by default, so I need to correct that. Ancestry has this potential couple for Hellen:

This marriage transcript gives Hellen’s birth date:

In the 1900 Census, Hellen shows up as Nellie:

Nellie’s father Robert was a paper maker in Flint, Michigan.

When I tried to add Robert’s marriage record, Ancestry tells me that I have already added this record to another tree. I had built a separate tree for Patrice in the past. The marriage was performed by a Roman Catholic Priest. Here is the tree I had:

Here is an obituary for Robert:

Here is the McKay family in 1870 in East Saginaw, Michigan:

Here is the family in 1860:

The family moved from Canada between 1853 and 1856. If the ages are correct, then Mary must have had Elizabeth at about age 17.

This could be their marriage:

This child who was born in 1850 and baptized in 1854 in the Methodist Church may be a clue as to the father of Mary Frazer:

Patrice’s Shared DNA Matches with My Sister Heidi

Patrice and Heidi have 4 pages of shared matches. Here is one with a proposed common ancestor:

However, when I check Joanna’s tree (a top Frazer genealogist), I see this:

Joanna shows that I would be more closely tied in to Michael Frazer through Catherine Matilda Frazer. That should make Heidi and Darlene 5th cousins rather than 6th cousins. I also note that Catherine named one of her sons John Stewart Frazer Brady.

Here is another shared match between Heidi and Patrice. S.C. has Catherine Matilda Frazer as her ancestor:

Using the same reasoning as above, Heidi and S.C. should be 4th cousins once removed.

Back to the genealogy, I see that Joanna has a grave marker for John Stuart Frazer:

The inscription appears to say, “of the Country of Boyle, Co. Roscommon, Ireland:

Joanna has John Stuart Frazer in Tuscola, Michigan in 1860:

This must be close to East Saginaw where the McKay family was living in 1870. Joanna also has this 1860 record:

John McKay is living with John S ‘Frazure’. Also next door is a James Frazure who is apparently John S.’s son, born in New York State.

Based on all the above evidence, I have added John Stuart Frazer to my floating tree:

According to Joanna again, Michael Frazer lived in Church Hill, Roscommon:

Church Hill was within the Parish of Ardcarn:

However, I notice that there is a Mr. Mick Frazer & Co. listed in the Tithe Applotments living and/or owning land in Cleragh in 1834:

The connection between John Stuart Frazer and Michael appears to be in the name of Michaels wife: Margaret Stewart or Stuart.

Adding Patrice to My Michael Frazer DNA/Genealogy Tree

All the above work is to convince myself that I have the right tree and right connection between my sister Heidi and Patrice:

Heidi and Patrice are 5th cousins once removed.

Ellis, Darlen, S.C., and Brieanna

I would like to add these three to my Michael Frazer DNA/Genealogy Tree:

They are on my sister Heidi’s ThruLines. These three descend from Catherine Matilda Frazer born 1825. In addition, here is Brieanna with a proposed match to my sister Lori:

I plan to add these four to my Michael Frazer DNA/Genealogy Tree. Here is Joanna’s record for Catherine Matilda Frazer:

Apparently Mysilla is a variant of Priscilla.

Updating My Michael Frazer DNA/Genealogy Tree

I got this far, but Joanna did not have much information on Margaret Brady:

I see that Ellis has some information on Margaret Brady:

Unfortunately, it appears that Margaret died quite young:

Evans Mills is not far from Ontario:

Here is how the Michael Frazer Line is filling up with DNA matches:

The only caveat is, that if this is right, Mary Frazer married William Frazer, so we would be related on generation back also on the William Frazer Line. They would have been second cousins, but I also desecend from William Frazer’s father. We can’t be sure which side the DNA is from, but it is more likely to come from the Michael Frazer Line.

Michael to Archibald ThruLines

I already have BK on my tree:

I mentioned above that J.F. is under the wrong Arhcibald according to his sister’s genealogy which I trust. Here is what I have for this Archibald:

ThruLines of Michael Frazer Through His Son (Henry) Patrick

Here is what I have so far:

I am not sure why Wejum has a different color. Actually, I looked this person up and Wejum was a ThruLine for Beverly who is a descendant of Archibald and Catherine Knott. Beverly has a lot more ThruLines now:

Beverly is two generations higher on the Michael Frazer tree, so her matches are much better than mine or my siblings’. She is a good check to my matches.

Here is what my sister Heidi shows:

It turns out that Richard is the son of Alvie. I’m not sure why I didn’t add Richard to my tree. I even found a photo of Georg H. Frazer:

Here is his obituary:

Here, I add Richard and add a ThruLine note:

Michael, Son of Michael Frazer ThruLines

My sister Heidi has this:

Looks like Michael Junior moved to Saugherties, New York:

I’m just going to assume based on the Census and the DNA matches that the genealogy is correct. Here is Saugherties:

Michael Frazer DNA/Genealogy Tree

The tree is getting quite large now:

I circled my sister Heidi on the left part of the chart. The part I added is on the right. Here are two things I cannot explain on Heidi and Monica’s shared matches:

 

I know how I am related to Jane and Michael on the other side of the Frazer tree, but not on this side of the tree. So it is interesting that Monica are related to the two. Keith makes sense because he descends from Jame and Fanny McMaster.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Following a match in a previous Blog I wrote, I am more certain than ever that I descend from the Michael Frazer Linen. He was born around 1764 in the Northern part of County Roscommon. I was able to add some ThruLine matches to the Michael Frazer DNA/Genealogy Tree.
  • I moved McPartland out of the Michael Frazer Portion of the Tree. However, I am not certain that was the right move based on the DNA match. I followed Frazer researcher Joanna in this case and used her tree as a reference.
  • These descendants of Michael moved to Ontario, Michigan or New York. My Frazer Line stayed longer in County Sligo and some moved to Massachusetts or England. One family remains in County Sligo.
  • ThruLines have been accurate for the most part for my Michael Frazer descendant relatives. They have a difficult time in interpreting the matches in the cases where the genealogy is already confusing.
  • I found some shared matches from the Michael, son of Michael Line that were difficult to explain. The matches are probably from very old DNA or from unknown genealogical connections.

 

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My Cousin Paul’s Frazer Theory at MyHeritage

I recently looked at my cousin Paul’s Theories of Relativity at MyHeritage and saw this interesting one:

I already have a large Frazer DNA/Genealogy tree for this branch of the Frazers:

There may be some mistakes. I notice that I have McPartland here and also in another branch, so they should not be in both places. I do not have Fitzgerald Frazer here, but do have him on my web page:

Here is Franklyn’s tree at MyHeritage:

Ancestry shows a marriage certificate for William M Frazer:

This line seems pretty well documented:

Here is Haverstraw where Fitzgerald lived:

Frazer DNA

Here is how Franklyn and Paul match by DNA:

The match on Chromosome 17 is 6.8 cM and the cutoff for DNA Painter by default is 7 cM, so I won’t count that little segment. Here is Paul’s already busy Chromosome 12:

Notice that I do not have Michael Frazer in the Key above. Michael would add an important DNA link in this whole puzzle:

Franklyn is the missing piece of the puzzle between Joanna and BV.

Every Picture Tells a Story

I can try to interpret the meaning of all these segments on Paul’s Chromosome 12:

 

There appear to be breaks in the DNA matches which to me indicate breaks between Paul’s inherited Frazer side DNA and the McMaster side DNA.

The first section appears to be McMaster shown in blue. Suzzanne does not have any known McMaster, so this may indicate a small false reading or that Suzanne does have McMaster ancestry somewhere.

Barry has no known McMaster ancestor, so I have his section as Frazer.

The third section has John whose common Ancestor with Paul was Abe McMaster and Margery (no known last name). Keith also has two McMaster ancestors.

The fourth section appears to be just Frazer as Joanna has no known McMaster ancestors. Her ancestor was James Frazer who was born around 1720. Franklyn also has no known McMaster ancestors.

BV and Susan

Notice that BV and Susan are in both the McMaster and Frazer sections. BV descends from William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. So actually the common DNA represented by the orange would be from William McMaster and not his wife.

 

Susan’s McMaster ancestor is Margaret McMaster born 1846 at Kilmactranny, County Sligo. Keith has the ancestors of James and Fanny McMaster, but the common ancestor between him and my ancestors would be James McMaster.

Technically, the DNA that Paul and BV share in the fourth section representing Frazer is from Margaret Frazer born 1780 and not her husband William McMaster.

Adding Franklyn to My Frazer DNA/Genealogy Tree

This tree just represents my older half of my Frazer genealogy going back to James Frazer born about 1720.

Unfortunately, the tree got so large that the program could not handle it. The blank circle should be Franklyn. Also, Susan did not make it onto the chart. She would be on the lower row with Paul:

Here, I split out the Michael Line and added all my cousins in purple:

I guess Michael and his wife would be surprised to know about all their descendants. This chart includes Susan and Franklyn. The only one who is missing from the above chart is Joanna who descends from Michael Frazer’s father James Frazer.

On Second Thought

After looking at Paul’s DNA Painter profile, I thought that this may be a further refinement:

Barry has no known connection to the James Frazer Line. Joanna, BV (Barbara) and Franklyn have no known connections to the Archibald Line. Here is the Elphin Census of 1749 showing Archibald, James and their apparent mother Mary Frazer:

Mary Frazer had one male servant. Susan and the group in the darker green descend from both the Archibald and James Frazer Lines.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Finding Paul’s match to Franklyn at MyHeritage, including an accurate Theory was very helpful
  • That match fills in a gap which appears to solidify the fact that Margaret Frazer born 1780 and married William McMaster was indeed the daughter of Michael Frazer and Margaret Stewart.
  • By looking at Paul’s DNA Painter profile, it is possible to separate out different Frazer and McMaster ancestry.

 

 

 

 

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A New Rathfelder Theory at MyHeritage: Not Quite Right

I recently had an email that MyHeritage had discoverred a new Theory of Relativity for me, so I was interested to see if it was correct. Fortunately, I have been researching the Rathfelder Line for a while and have some good information on it.

MyHeritage Theory Between Robert and Me

The full Theory gives a low chance that the two Johanns are the same person:

This is where my Rathfelder DNA/Genealogy Chart comes in handy:

As shown by the red circle, I descend from Johann Georg Rathfelder born 1778. Robert likely descends from Johann Adam Rathfelder born 1775. The names these families had were often confusing.

Looking at Robert’s Genealogy

Next, it would be helpful to see if my records agree with Robert’s genealogy. Here is part of Robert’s paternal tree:

I need to figure out how to get to Rudolf who is actually Rudolf Georg Adam Spengel. I do have a Maria Barbara Rathfelder in my tree:

I do see a record for Dororthea Blandina:

She is the daughter of Georg Adam Spengel and Emilie Frederica Hauk (probably born Gempfer?). She was born in July of 1888. This appears to be Georg Adam’s birth record:

Here, I assume that the mother is Maria Barbara Rathfelder.

Here is my updated Rathfelder DNA/Genealogy Chart:

Robert is my 5th cousin once removed.

Looking at the DNA

Next, it is time to look at the DNA. Here is how Robert and I match:

We share a segment at the end of Chromosome 11.

DNA Painter

I keep track of what I can of my DNA matches at DNA Painter:

Right now I do not have anything showing on the right end of my Maternal Chromsome 11. I’ll add in Robert who represents DNA from either Hans Jerg Rathfelder or Juliane Bittenbinder.

For some reason, Robert’s match on Chromosome 11 appears to be the largest chunk of DNA from these mid 1700’s ancestors. I always find it interesting that we carry these ancient reminders of our ancestors in our bodies.

My Mom’s DNA

My mother’s match with Robert is basically the same as mine. Here is my mother’s paternal Chromosome 11:

Here, at the right end of my mother’s Chromosome 11, I have two mysterious matches to an unknown Latvian Ancestor. The ancestor must not be too far back from my mother as the length of the matches are quite long. Here is Robert added in:

A Clue to How Angelina and Assunta Match My Mom

Here is Assunta:

MyHeritage thinks that Assunta could be my mother’s 2nd cousin’s granddaughter. That means that Assunta could descend from Johann Rathfelder born 1819 and Rosine Schwechheimer:

Angelina shows as an even closer match. I have written to the person who manages their family tree to see if I can look at their family tree.

I checked my other 5 siblings and did not see Robert as a match, so it appears that DNA came down to just me out of the 6 children. This graph shows why:

The purple to the right of Chromosome 11 is Rathfelder. I was the only one out of 6 siblings to inherit my maternal grandfather’s Rathfelder DNA at that location.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I looked at MyHeritage’s Theory concerning Robert and our common ancestors
  • MyHeritage was off, but was not far off
  • I was able to add Robert to my Rathfelder DNA/Genealogoy Chart and to DNA Painter
  • Robert’s match on Chromosome 11 for my mother helped to get me closer to identify two fairly close matches on Chromosome 11. They must descend from a more recent Rathfelder Line.

 

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Downloading Hartley DNA Segment Match Data from FTDNA

I had heard that it is possible to download segment match data from FTDNA now, so I thought that I might try it. I had downloaded this data previously into a spreadsheet that looked like this:

Actually, this is my brother’s match sheet. First I chose Chromosome Browser under my autosomal matches section. Then I choose download all segments:

There should be a lot of segment data there. However, when I check my downlike file, the file is not as large as expected:

There are about 10,000 lines and my old file has 86,000 lines. However, a lot of these may be from Gedmatch and a few other sources. I also have this file:

I need to merge the two files somehow. This file is helpful because it has the match date. This is the format I want:

If I can remember how to use MS Access, that would be helpful. FTNDA no longer downloads the kit number. Also, Access likes Excel Files, so I needed to convert the csv file to an excel file:

I stuck the first two tables into a database I already have. Next I need to perform a query on the two tables. Here is my query:

Next, I need to add fields. I tried to get them in the order of my master spreadsheet. I ran the query and got this:

I have two columns for Match Date. I will have to fix that. Also, the Match Dates are off. I was trying to get the match dates only past a certain date in January 2022. That means that I imported the wrong match list file from FTDNA. I re-checked and made a new file and then imported the right one:

The dates look better now. I notice that there is no email which is OK as I can always look that up at FTDNA. The Matching Bucket field could be useful. One more correction is that I do not see the end location:

This is a bit of trial and error. Next, I need to incorporate this information into my master segment list. Here I line up everything with my master spreadsheet:

Turned out I had the wrong master spreadsheet, so I had to do this again with the real master spreadsheet. The end result looks like this:

This is a random shot from my list. The arrows point to two matches that FTDNA think are maternal. Where I have another maternal match in this section as Rathfelder, the match could be on the Rathfelder side.

What is the Use of Segments?

Segments can be helpful in finding the side that your match is on, or in the ancestral line where your match should appear. For example, I have an unknown match from Ancestry named Lee. Lee has a Hartley Line that is from the same area that my Hartleys are from:

Lee’s match is shon in a shade of blue on my DNA Painter Profile:

This is on Chromosome 13:

Our match is between position 88 and 110 million. Here is my match list for Chromosome 13:

 

Any of the paternal matches in blue could be along the same line as Lee. I don’t have lee on the list, so I need to add him from Gedmatch.

Lee and Gedmatch

Gedmatch has a utility that will show me common matches between Lee and myself:

This is near the bottom of my list and the projected match is out to 5 generations. That means that they are potentially fourth cousins or further out. The first three columns of numbers are how these people match me. The fourth through sixth colums are how the matches match Lee. The last column is interesting to me as it includes genealogical information. In one tree, I saw the Clarke name. I also have Clarke ancestors, but they were from Ireland and this family was from England. Another tree had a Clarke from 1835 in England. So, the connection from genealogy is not clear. Lee also has Clark in his tree, so coincidence? I think that Clark is a common name. I would rule out Clark based on the fact that two of my father’s cousins are on the shared match list. Those cousins are on my paternal grandfather’s side and my Clarke ancestors are on my paternal grandmother’s side. However, I cannot rule out a second Clark line on my paternal grandfather’s side.

Unfortunately, I did not see any easy connections to Colne through this exercise.

Richard: A Match on My Frazer Side

I match Richard here:

The smaller match on Chromosome 17 is Richard’s brother. Here is the likely connection at MyHeritage:

Here, I just added Richard to my spreadsheet:

These are some matches that could overlap with Richard.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to download about two and a half years worth of FTDNA autosomal matches
  • These matches I added to my spreadsheet with the help of MS Access
  • I was able to add some key matches from other sources to my master match spreadsheet
  • I could do this for my siblings, but it would make more sense to download the matches from my father’s first cousins and my mother’s matches. In other words, the matches from those who are a generation older than me.
  • The exercise did not result in any new revelations, but may be helpful in the future.

 

 

 

 

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My Father’s Cousin Joyce’s Shared Matches

I have been recently looking at my enhanced shared matches at Ancestry. It occurs to me that it would make sense to look at Joyce’s enhanced matches. Joyce matches me on her maternal side, so I chose that:

 

Gary has a private tree.

According to Ancestry, Warren is Gary’s father:

Here is Warren on my tree:

For some reason, I have him in yellow. The problem now is whether Gary is Ahsa’s father or not. I think that Asha tested at 23andMe. I’ll just add Gary in the box with Asha’s dad.

Suzanne

Joyce’s top maternal match is Suzanne:

Suzanne has an unlinked tree:

The connection must be through Suzanne’s maternal grandfather, Alan Hartley. I have Alan in my tree:

Adding Suzanne, adds another Hartley Line to my tree:

Diana

Diana is next on the list:

Diana has a tree that looks like Suzanne. From other information, I see that Suzanne and Diane are sisters. I’m sure that the shared matches would show that also.

Will

Will is difficult to figure out by shared matches. However, by process of elimiation, I can place him:

On second thought, Will should be the Bill I used to play ball with as a kid. The DNA match should be Bill’s son Will.

This shows Joyce and Will as 1st cousins once removed.

Liffers

Liffers should be easy to place as there are many Liffers matches. The trick is that the tree is set to the spouse:

If I choose ‘Spouse’, I get this tree:

The maternal side of this male Liffers is clear a match. Unfortunately, I don’t have the work I did on my other computer as I am on my laptop, so I will add Suzanne back in:

Shared matches show Suzanne and Liffers as siblings.

M.F.

I am going down Joyce’s match list and looking at the matches without a listed common ancestor:

I know where M.F. fits in, but I want to put her on my chart. It looks like I can do that from M.F.’s tree:

Ma

Her maternal grandmother was my grandfather’s sister.

Marsha, Nicole, and Samantha

These are more fairly close relatives. They will be easily added to my James Hartley DNA/Genealogy Tree:

This is turning into an impressively large tree.

N.M, Aimee, and Riley

More easy adds:

Unfortunately, I did not add nm as she is my sister Heidi’s daughter. I would have had to split my box out to 6 people, making a large chart much larger.

m.a.

I’m finding m.a. difficult to place precisely.

Here is my guess:

Ancestry thinks that Gary is m.a.’s half uncle which is still an uncle. Also Ancestry thinks that ME (who I just added) is m.a.’s grandaunt.

Camie on the Snell Side

Camie matches Joyce by 129 cM. From shared matches, Charles is Camie’s father:

 

Further, C.W. is Camie’s son:

Here I have added Camie and C.W.:

It appears that there are two C.W.’s, but I have added only one. Here we have four generations of a tested family. Those that match this family should not have Hartley ancestry if they are far enough back as they descend from the Snell side only.

Kristen: A Link to Lancashire?

Kristen’s Hartley link to Joyce goes back another generation compared to her many Hartley matches:

Greenwood was born in Trawden, Lancashire. Due to the industrial revolution putting hand loom weavers out of business, he moved to Bacup, Lancashire where he married Ann Emmet.

Joyce and Kristen’s Shared Matches

I have wondered to Jennifer is:

There are some close shared matches matches to Jennifer on the list, but those matches do not have much other information about themselves.

Joyce and Sheryl

Sheryl is one of Joyce and Kristen’s shared matches:

Sheryl shows a potential set of common ancestors:

Bracewell is a name that comes up often in Lancashire matches. I also have that John Hartley, common ancestor married Ann Bracewell who would be another common ancestor if this representation is correct.

I also like Sheryl’s family tree:

The reason that I like it is that all the people in the last full column are from the United States except for John Bracewell. That means that there is less of a chance that other confusing Lanchashire people married into this family.

Unfortunately, I have tried to extend Sheryl’s tree and come up with this likely scenario:

That means that either I did the genealogy wrong, or I am related to Sheryl on her Bracewell side and not the Hartley side.

Joyce and Kristen’s Shared Match Paul

I have looked at Paul’s genealogy before and gotten him back to John Hartley and Ann Bracewell:

I had to go back quite a way from Paul’s posted tree which just went back to his two parents. This tree is from Paul’s maternal side. Here is a tree that I have:

By this, Joyce is Paul’s 5th cousin once removed. I do notice some discrepancy between the Sheryl’s line in the tree above and the tree I had created earlier. However, I do note this connection:

Sheryl and Paul have a 20 cM DNA match with each other. That seems to add more evidence that my tree above may be correct.

Summary and Conclusions

  • It was helpful looking at my father’s cousin’s shared matchese at Ancestry
  • Using that, I could place some of the closer cousins into my Hartley DNA/Genealogy chart even though the matches had no usable family trees
  • I looked at some shared matches with Kristen. Kristen is a helpful match as her connection goes back a generation on the Hartley line compared to most of my Hartley relatives.
  • There is some confusion as to whether my ancestors are John Hartley born 1730 and Ann Bracewell. However, shared matches Paul and Sheryl have genealogies that suggest that these could be the right ancestors. In addition, Paul and Sheryl show a match with each other.
  • It would be helpful to do more analysis in this area to try to confirm or disprove the genealogy and whether the DNA evidence supports what the genealogy shows or suggests.

 

 

 

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My Mother’s Paternal Shared Matches

I have been having fun using the shared matches pro at Ancestry. I wrote three Blogs on my mother’s maternal shared matches and was able to place many more people on her (mostly) Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Tree. That is, I have a chart where I place people that are both DNA matches and genealogical matches.

My mother has more maternal matches than paternal, but still quite a few on the paternal side:

That is interesting, considering that her father was a German with roots in Latvia. As I go through my mother’s paternal matches, there are two fairly close matches and I know how they fit in. Here are some names starting in the Extended Family portion of her match list:

It seems like a logical method to go down this list. There is one person on the list with a common ancestor.

Holger

Holger has no family tree. Holger’s closest match is to my mother. So that doesn’t help me figure out how he fits in.

Susanne

A.E. has a common ancestor with my mom. She shows up as a fourth cousin to my mom on my Rathfelder Chart. I don’t know if she would be related on other lines:

Susanne’s parents are from Germany:

Susanne has few shared matches with my mother. The better way would be to trace her line back, but that would take a while.

Alex

So far, I have not done too well. Alex does not have a helpful tree. I see Alex’s father Ralf as a shared match:

However, Ralf also does not have a tree.

Amy and Thomas

Amy has few shared matches and no tree. Thomas has a tree:

However, I now see that Anna Marie Daal was from Latvia also. It may be good to try to figure out the genealogy at some time. I’ll start now:

This is my version of Thomas’ tree with just the people I am interested in.

Here are some Anne Burkowitzs from Latvia:

The one closest to 1874 was born in 1876 in the Ozolnieku Parish and had a father named Peter. This is a list of passports.

This is apparently Anna Marie Daal:

Anna Maria was confirmed near a Gangnus and born in Riga:

This begs the question why the father’s name was not listed. Was Barbara a single mother? I guess I’ll stop for now. It was interesting to find the Gangnus name near Daal.

Next Group of My Mother’s Matches

I hope that I have more luck with this group:

Two of these six matches have common ancestors, so are already placed.

J.S.

Here are some good shared matches:

There is another uncle of J.S. that I did not add. Let’s look at my Schwechheimer DNA/Genealogy Chart:

I don’t see Karin or Stephanie on this chart. Before I can figure out where J.S. fits in, I need to find out how Karin and Stephanie fit in. There is also Valdis who is Karin’s brother. I started to build a tree for him, but I’m not sure why I stopped:

Valdis’ mother was a Schwechheimer. Here is what Ancestry proposes:

Let’s start at the top. One problem is that I have that Rosine was one of 16 children. That is a lot. Rosine had 6 brothers named Johann, so Ancestry picked an unfortunate name to identify him. Johan is likely:

Johann Georg Michael Schwechheimer. He is in the 1834 Revision Books as George Michael (makes sense as there was already a Johann Georg Philipp.

My ancestor Rosine shows on the right side of the List.

Vialdis’ sister has a much larger tree:

However, this tree has many Gangnus lines also:

Assuming Karin’s tree is right, we share at least four common ancestors. That must mean that there were two Schwechheimer siblings that married two Gangnus siblings. I am inclined to add this line to my Schwechheimer DNA/Genealogy Chart. This part appears to be right:

The resident list of Hirschenhof from 1858 shows Friedrich Schwechheimer married to Maria Hausel and with a son Georg Adam born in 1852. I don’t often do genealogy from the top down (meaning older to younger), but I will in this situation.

Then I have this issue:

My tree shows that Johann Georg Michael born in 1802 had two wives. I assume that Anna Marie Neumeister is the widow mentioned in Karin’s tree. However, the Resident Record has Marie as geb Hausel which I assume means born. Perhaps Neumeister was a married name. Here is my tree view:

This can only show so much. My ancestor Rosine is off the chart to the right. This correctly shows Georg A descending from Johann G M and not Anna C Gangnus.

Adding Kristin and Family to My DNA/Genealogy Charts

However, if I add these four to the Schwechheimer Chart, I also need to add them to the Gangnus Chart.

Gangnus DNA/Genealogy Chart

Here is my chart as is:

Here it is with Valdis and family added:

Hopefully, I got it right.

Karil

Here is Karil’s maternal grandmother where the Latvia connection is.

I don’t see any large shared matches for Karil, so my option is to skp her or look at her genealogy. I’ll try the genealogy route. Here is an interesting record from 1950:

Here is a record that gives Zenta’s maiden name:

It is Kröger. I did not find who our common ancestors are, but it seems clear that we have one. I am a bit overwhelmed that the family is on Lists of Persecutees. There must be some interesting stories there.

Pwa, Valdis, and Gunars

I did not find an easy connection with Pwa. Valdis shows common ancestors at Ancestry. Let’s look at Gunars:

Peteris is Gunars son, which does not help in itself.

K.B. is Gunar’s grandniece. So I suppose she must be the granddaughter of a sibling of Gunars? From S.B.’s tree, I think my mother’s connection with her is here:

These names appear to be Latvian. Ozolnieks is Latvian but the birth is said to be Germany. Grizis is said to be from Latvia according to the tree. There is no birth place for the other two names in the red box.

Karin shows at Ancestry as a second cousin to Gunars, so if that is right their common ancestor could be here:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I started looking at my mother’s paternal shared matches
  • The genealogy is more difficult on this line as it goes back to Latvia
  • Due to upheavals in Latvia including communism and World Wars, many people have not traced their Latvian genealogy back that far.
  • Rather than going down my mom’s match list, it may make more sense to look at the people I have already placed in a tree and look at their matches to see if there are any close relatives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More of My Mother’s Maternal Matches’ Share Matches

This is my third Blog on this topic. I left off with my mother’s maternal match Elise.

 

Elise descends from my mother’s Uncle William.

David

David has no close shared matches. That means that the connection would be difficult to find. His closest shared matches with my mother is in the 20-29 cM range. I think that I will skip David based on my last Blog and all the work I did to try to connect Michelle without success. At least Michelle had a Nicholson in her ancestry, which is more than what David has.

Caroline

Caroline also has no close matches. Plus she has no family tree posted at Ancestry.

Robert

Again, no close matches. These connections probably go back to Sheffield in the 1700’s.

James

James is related to Carolyn:

James shows as first cousin to Aaron. I have not added Aaron to my Chart:

Barbara is probably James’ Aunt:

It seems like James should be added next to Anne and Aaron:

This is what makes sense to me.

Yvonne

Yvonne appears to be a 2nd cousin with a Christopher, but I do not know how Christopher is related. Yvonne appears to be from England.

Seven More Maternal Matches for My Mother

The easy answers appear to be drying up:

Jenna

Jenna’s mother:

Ronald

I did not find any close matches for Ronald with the exception of his daughter. Ronald has a small tree showing some ancestors in the Camden, New Jersey area.

Lauren

Joshua is on my tree already. I mentioned Christopher above. He seems to be from England. I saw a few close matches to Lauren, but they did not appear to shed any light on how we are related.

Raymond and Edward

Raymond has only one page of shared matches with my mother. Also, there was no easy way to find out how he was related to my mom.

I was Edward’s daughter in the shared match list, but that did not help.

Nicole

Ancestry thinks that Nicole could be in the third cousin range from my mother.

Barbara is a key person here:

If Barbara is an Aunt, that would put Nicole on a level with the bottom row above.

James is a cousin:

This is my best guess on where Nicole should be on my Chart. She shows as 2nd cousin once removed to my mother.

Henry Nicholson

In my previous Blog, I looked at Michelle. She showed a Nicholson ancestor:

I traced Francis back:

However, this Henry seems different than the one in my Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Tree:

Where Henry is the son of Matthew Nicholson born 1798. From my mother’s ThruLines, there are three other matches on this line:

I checked Michelle’s shared matches and did not see Nancy, Angela, or Louie, so I suppose she shall remain a mystery.

Problem #2

A second problem is that I do not see Joseph Nicholson on my tree. I see that Walter married Sarah Clarke in 1871:

I have Louie descending from Clara Nicholson:

This Census does not show a Joseph Nicholson. I wonder if my genealogy for Louie is right?

Nancy’s Genealogy

I’ll look at Nancy’s genealogy to see if that looks right. Nancy has a Nicholson as her maternal grandmother:

I found this tree at Ancestry:

This means that Mary E was originally a Boothroyd. However, it is unclear who was the father when Joan was born. According to the 1940 Census:

Mary is English. Here is a suggestion from Ancestry for the parents of Mary Ellen Lliohan:

This record tells me I am on the right track:

I do not think that there were many Arie Lliohans in Wortley, Yorkshire. This tree at Ancestry appears to explain the Boothroyd Connection:

This appears to be a summary of the 1911 Census for Mary or Mary Ellen:

Joseph’s #1 son is Henry, so I am thinking that his father was also a Henry.

This could be the Henry:

Here is a Joseph Nicholson in the 1871 Census:

Here is a marriage for Joseph and Matilda:

Unfortunately, we do not know the father of this Joseph from this record. The closest baptism for Joseph that I can find is this one:

However, this would put him about 15 years older than shown in the Census. The 1861 Census is interesting:

Henry should be about 15 this year, but I don’t see him in the Census.

Joseph is an awl blade maker. According to the next page, his 31 year old daughter was born in Halifax, America.

If that is correct, that would put Joseph in Halifax, America around 1830. This is from Ancestry:

At this point, I am getting stuck unfortunately.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to add a few more people to my Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Chart using shared matches
  • There were a few Nicholson ThruLines that did not seem to match up well. I tried doing some genealogy but did not find a connection to my previous Nicholson genelaogy
  • That means that the Nicholson DNA matches are earlier than I had tracked or possibly there is a connection on a collateral line (surname married to the Nicholsons)
  • I’m ready to move on to my mother’s paternal shared matches. However, there is much more room for research on my mom’s maternal side.

 

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My Mother’s Maternal Shared Matches

In my previous Blog, I set out to look at my mother’s Nicholson Shared Matches, but ended up looking at both Lentz and Nicholson from her maternal match list. That Blog was successful, so I want to continue down her maternal match list.

Here are the next three on my mother’s maternal match list:

Hannah

Hannah has no tree and is more difficult to place.

Justin is Hannah’s first cousin or half uncle:

As Justin is on the bottom of the Chart, my first guess would be 1st cousin. Judy is her grandmother or Aunt:

I’m guessing grandmother.

Paige is her half sister or Aunt:

I’ll say Aunt. That narrows it down:

This should be the likely connection.

Michele

Michele shows a Nicholson in her tree, but I have never heard of this person:

I do show this tree in my records:

Perhaps I had started investigating this line before. This seems worth pursuing.

In 1871, Frances was a servant in Sheffield:

She was born in Darnall. according to the 1871 Census:

Here is the family in 1861:

I think I see the family now:

However, the dates don’t quite match up between the Henrys in my tree and Michelle’s Henry.

Ancestry thinks her parents are Benjamin and Rebecca.

The family was in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1900:

They probably married about the year 1880.

Henry Nicholson

Father Henry is also in Worcester in 1900. Good news:

Unfortunately, his death record does not shine a lot of light on the situation:

My assumption is that he lived alone as there was no informant listed. Henry was in Sheffield with his young wife in 1851:

The transcriber says that Ann was born in Walkley, Yorkshire:

I am guessing that Henry and Ann married in 1850 or 1851.

The death record for Ann is more helpful:

Here I would like to thank Henry for putting down his wife’s parents’ information. There were two Henry Nicholsons in the 1841 Sheffield Census, so the information on the above death certificate could be important.

Here is Ann in Nether Hallam, Sheffield in 1841:

The family was living at Walkley Bank. I wonder if the town of Walkley was wrong. Nether Hallam sounds familiar from my Nicholson research, so I may be on to something here. Here is the wedding:

This is from the Sheffield Indexers site, but I had to use Firefox to get it to work. Here is some more information:

Now I have another problem as I have not been tracking a Joseph Nicholson. However, I do have this Joseph on my Nicholson Web Page:

He would have been quite old in 1830 – about 63. Here is a baptism of a Henry:

Assuming the baptism was not at an independent church, this could be the Henry I am looking for. That means that this could be the right Census record:

But who is John Nicholson, head of household? This is likely Sarah and Joseph:

Next, who was this Joseph? The marriage record gives no father. My web page manetions a Joseph born in 1767. If this is the Joseph, he would have been 46 at marriage. This would be unusual for a bachelor. Here is a record from Sheffield:

This Joseph would 34 when he married. Also the baptism took place at Wortley. This is North of Sheffield and this Joseph is a labourer rather than a cutler. I’m ready to stop researching this line. I feel like the connection is quite old.

Robert

Robert’s connection to my mother is much closer than Michele’s.

We already have one child of Joan on the chart:

Karen is Robert’s likely Aunt:

To confirm, Joshua is Robert’s 1st cousin:

Next 5 of My Mom’s Maternal Matches

I added Justin earlier in the Blog.

Jason is the son of Carolyn:

I’ll add him to my chart next to Heidi:

For some reason I had not entered Barbara. Here she is on lower left below:

The Nicholson family tree is rapidly expanding.

Sue

Doris is Sue’s mother:

In my previous Blog, I had Doris in the 1st cousin range to Barry from the English Branch of Nicholsons:

Elise

Elise shows as 1st cousin to Joshua and Robert and niece to Karen, so I put her as shown above.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Most matches that I looked at on my mother’s maternal side at this level were easy to place or figure out on my Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Chart
  • One match was difficult to place. I did a lot of genealogy, but was still unable to find Michelle’s Nicholson connection.
  • The Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Chart is expanding
  • It would be worth my while to further look at my mother’s maternal matches.

 

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Nicholson Enhanced Shared Matches

I have been looking at Enhanced Shared Matches in several recent Blogs. I have used different methods in doing those. In this Blog, I will take a look at my Nicholson Enhanced Matches. The goal is to identify some new matches. These are matches without trees or trees that are unhelpful.

My Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Chart

This chart is already large:

Perhaps because of all the connections, it would be fairly easy to make some more connections. Now my grandmother was a Lentz, but her mother was a Nicholson. I have found many Nicholson connections but not many Lentz connections. I plan to look at Lentz in a subsequent Blog.

Going Down My Mother’s Maternal Matches

The first match is my older sister. After that, Eric shows a common ancestor. After that, the people are not easily identified. In addition, there are two matches over 200 cM that I have not looked at – at least on my mother’s match list.

Jessica

Here is Jessica’s tree:

She is a bit of a mystery as I have not figured out how she connects to my mother’s genealogy. That leads me to believe that Jessica’s genealogy could be wrong. Jessica is Angela’s sister, but Angela has a private tree:

If Angela and Jessica are sisters, then they could descend from William Lentz:

Doris

Doris has no tree. However, she shows as a possible 1st cousin once removed to Barry:

Here is Barry’s paternal side tree:

I added Barry onto my chart here:

Barry is my mother’s second cousin once removed. He descends from Martha Baxter Nicholson. Martha stayed in the UK when the rest of the family moved to Philadelphia.  If Doris is a 1st cousin once removed, she could be from a sibling of Martha Jane Dockrill.

Marian

Marian’s closest match is to Matthew:

Unfortunately, Matthew does not have a tree.

Paige

I already added Barry, so Paige is next on my mother’s list of matches. Judy shows as Paige’s mother:

Here under Grandmother Judy, I have replaced mother with Paige. I had a question with Judy as I was a liitle shaky on the genealogy. Further down the list, I see that Justin is Paige’s son, so Haiven’s brother. I will add him in also. That means we have three generations of a tested family. Of course, to be complete, I should get around to adding these people to my Lentz chart also.

Karen

I already have Haiven and Robert on my chart, so I’ll look at Karen. Karen should be easy to figure out:

Karen shows as Joshua’s mother. Somehow, I lost my NIcholson chart, so I added her on my Lentz Chart:

Other, than losing a chart, this is going pretty well. Fortunatey, I have a copy on my other computer. Karen is my mom’s 2nd cousin twice removed.

Colleen

I have Robert and Heidi on my chart, so I’ll look at Colleen. She has an unlinked tree, but there is only one person in the tree. Eric is Colleen’s father, so there is another easy add.

This is starting to fill in the William Lentz Line.

Rachel

I don’t think I need Shared Matches to fill in Rachel:

Rachel’s paternal side tree has this:

Albert Pote Allen is already on my chart:

I’ve added her in. She is my mother’s 2nd cousin once removed.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I started out looking for my mother’s Nicholson Shared Matches, but ended up just looking at her maternal matches which was easier.
  • These matches included Nicholson and Lentz Matches
  • Many of these matches had a high cM value and were easy to place due to other close identified relatives showing up in the Shared Match List
  • Due to the success of this exercise, I would like to continue this in a subsequent Blog