Author: joel@jmhartley.com

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My Mom’s DNA and Genealogical Connection to Katja

I’ve noticed lately that Ancestry has some helpfull Latvian records. So I have been looking through some of my mom’s Latvian DNA matches to see if I can find out how we are connected.

Katja at MyHeritage

MyHeritage seems to be a good place to find Latvian DNA matches. Katja also has a Theory of Relativity with my mom, but I don’t think that it is right:

I have a different genealogy for my mother:

Besides, why would have a Pfief have a Biedermann for a daughter?

Here is Katja’s tree at MyHeritage:

Katja is missing a maternal side and has additional Hirschenhof ancestry on her Lutz side.

Building a Tree for Katja

I will check out Katja’s genealogical tree by building a tree at Ancestry:

When  I entered Wilhelm Georg Lutz, Ancestry gave me hints for his parents. The hint for Wilhelm Georg is from this tree:

I checked the records at Raduraksti for 1895, but those records appear to be in Russian. I’m not sure if the Ancestry suggestion is correct at this point.

Pauline Rathfelder

Next, I will check on Pauline. Here is a record – perhaps baptismal?

Pauline and Emilie appear to be twins. I see Pauline’s mother’s maiden name as Mattheus, but I’m not sure. Here is the record transcription of their marriage:

This Goerge Ludwig seems the right age to have Pauline in 1879:

Based on the DNA matches between Katja and my mother, I expect that the match is on more than one line:

Sometimes many small matches mean more than one pair of common ancestors going back. So likely, some of the DNA matches represented above are from Lutke and some from Rathfelder- or perhaps even other surname.

A Common Rathfelder Ancestor for Katja and My Mom?

It turns out that I already have a Georg Adam Rathfelder in my Ancestry Tree:

However, this Georg was born in 1798:

I also see another marriage for a Georg Adam Rathfelder:

This marriage was in 1818. So this Georg Adam could have re-married in 1839 or had a son Georg Adam who married in 1839. Fortunately, I have a paper which seems to help:

According to this paper, Georg Adam was actually the son of Johannes Rathfelder born in 1796 I think I’ll go with this paper.

Here is what I have so far:

The Johannes in Line A above was the son of Johann Adam Rathfelder and Anna Catharina Elisabeth Rothweiler. I have Johannes in my tree already:

That should be enough to add Katjia to my Rathfelder DNA match tree:

Katja is my mother’s 4th cousin twice removed on the Rathfelder side.

Back to the Lutz Connection

Here were the hints for Katja’s ancestors from Ancestry:

It seems like two possibilities here:

I see a Gottlieb Hermann and a Gottlieb Otto. Here is a third more likely candidate:

Here is a Peter Gottlieb Lutz who married Elisabeth Hauk (maiden name Herman).

Katja’s Family Tree

I have this so far on Katja’s paternal side:

It would take a while to build all the other lines out as far as Hans Jerg Rathfelder and his Bittenbinder wife.

Painting Katja’s DNA Matches to My Mom’s Profile

Here is what I have so far for my mom:

The first line for each chromosome represents my mom’s paternal matches. The Rathfelder/Bittenbinder DNA matches are in red. As I intimated earlier, Katja’s matches with my mom are probably not all from Rathfelder and Bittenbinder due to the nature of where this family lived. They were in a German Colony and married among their own which means that intermarriage of families normally took place.

My mom is 35% painted overall and 40% painted on her paternal side.

By default, DNAPainter adds matches of 7 cM and over. Here are my mom’s paternala matches with Katja added:

Katja matches my mom on Chromosome 4 at 6.7 cM, so that match did not get added. Here are Katja’s specific matches with my mom:

There is no overlap with the matches Astrid has. Astrid and my mom also have Rathfelder and Bittenbinder common ancestors.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Katja matches my mom at Ancestry and has a Rathfelder in her tree
  • I was able to find Katja and my mom’s common Rathfelder and Bittendbinder ancestors
  • Katja and my mom probably match on other ancestral lines
  • I painted the DNA matches Katja has with my mom on my mom’s profile. Those matches were painted to Rathfelder and Bittenbinder even though they may represent other common ancestors.
  • Without a published document that explains some of the complicated Rathfelder relationships in Hirschenhof, it would have been very difficult to figure out the Rathfelder/Bittenbinder common ancestors that my Mom and Katja have.
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Connecting Eva to the Rathfelder Tree

I had wrtten a Blog about Eva in 2020, but had trouble connecting her to my Rathfelder Tree despite a good DNA connection. Now I see the connection.

Here are the DNA matches that Eva has with my mother:

The Rathfelder Genealogy

Here is what Eva has for her tree:

I am interested in the Rathfelder side. Through recent research, I have found “Henrihs Ratfelders”. I found him as Johann Heinrich Rathfelder. This is the same name as my great-grandfather. In fact Eva’s grandfather was probably named for my great-grandfather.

While searching for my great-grandfather, I found this record:

This is a family church record from St. Paul’s in Riga showing Eva’s Johann Heinrich born in Linden (the church for Hirschenhof) on 8 October 1887. I don’t know who the Marie and Heinrich are at the bottom of the page. I wonder if they are my great-grandparents. At any rate there is also a Nicolai in this family who was probably named for my great Uncle Nicolai born in 1874:

Adding Eva to My DNA/Genealogy Tree

This is the DNA matching Rathfelder Tree I have so far:

Here I have added in Eva:

Eva is a 2nd cousin once removed to my mother Gladys. Our common ancestors were Johann Rathfelder born in 1819 and Rosine Schwechheimer.

“Painting” Eva

I use DNAPainter to show DNA matches. Here is what I have so far for my mother:

My mom is 35% painted over all (or 35% filled in) and 40% painted on the paternal side. It turns out that I had already added Eva on my mom’s chart:

It looks like I had guessed at a more distant Rathfelder ancestor. Now that I know better, I can correct that.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I am glad to see now how Eva fits in to the Rathfelder tree
  • Her family and my family were apparently close. Her grandfather appears to be named after my great-grandfather and at least one of her great uncles was named after my great uncle.

 

 

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Browsing Latvian Church Records for Ancestors

For a while, Raduraksti was updating its website, and I was not finding the Church records I used to see for my ancestors in Hirschenhof, Latvia. My ancestors attended the Linden Church in the area:

These appear to be the records:

There should be earlier records. Perhaps they will become available later.

Liepkalnes, Not Linden

I see now that I should have been lookiing at Liepkalnes, not Linden:

That would explain why I was having so much trouble finding people.

Here are some of my ancestors who lived in Latvia:

I see that some death dates are missing. It would be nice to fill some in if I could find them. However, that seems difficult. Perhaps filling in marriages would be easier.

Jacobine Lutke

I see that I don’t have a marriage for my second great-grandmother Jacobine Lutke:

Ancestry has this hint:

Here is the record on the page:

I would say that this looks right. Of course, this is just the summary of the marriage record and not the marriage record itself. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find this record on the Raduraksti website.

Johann Georg Rathfelder Born 1778

I am missing Johann Georg’s marriage record also:

This is a tricky person to research because my memory tells me I had that Johann Georg had another brother by the same name – improbably as it seems:

The other confusing part is that the second Johann Goerg was supposed to have been born 14 years afther the first one. Aslo the Johannes who was supposed the be the son of the first Johann Georg was born in 1819 which would make him of an age that he could have been the son of the second Johann Georg! I would like to find the birth for Johann, but it appears that the records only go back as far as 1824 currently.

Browsing Ancestry Records

I found this interesting record at Ancestry:

I don’t recall seeing this before. This appears to be a personal register for the Rathfelder Family for Saint Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Riga.

From what I can tell, this is a record for the brother of my great-grandfather Heinrich Rathfelder. I have this brother as Georg Gustav Rathfelder:

The above record can at least fill in some family history. I don’t know if the +1918 attached to Heinrich was to mean his death or just his leaving. It appears that Johann Heinrich was named after my great-grandfather. I couldn’t make out the second name for Jakob. There appears to be much other interesting information on the page, but I don’t know what it all means.

A Record for My Great-Grandfather Johann Heinrich Rathfelder

This appears to be a baptismal record:

Sponsors appear to be Gerhard Schwechheimer and a Rathfelder. I see that I can also add this wedding record to my Ancestry file:

I’m having such fun with these records, I’lll look more into Alexander’s siblings.

Johann Phillip Nicolai Rathfelder

This appears to be Nicolai’s Baptismal record:

Again, I take the additional names to be sponsors. However, there appear to be more names than usual. I found this record listed under Marriage Banns:

I think that this is telling me that Philippe Nicolai’s mother-in-law was Wilhemene Rathfelder.

This is my great-aunt Maria Caroline Rathfelder’s baptismal record:

I recognize the last name as Pfief or similar spelling.

Harry Eduard Rathfelder

Here I think I have a mistake and I think I know how it could have happened. Harry is the son of Phillipe Nicolai:

Harry’s Personal Register is interesting:

I don’t understand all the notations. It appears that although he was born in Riga, he was confirmed in Linden. Looks like he married in 1932 and has a swastika near his name. The above record is from the Jesus Church – I assume in Riga.

Erna Auguste’s Baptismal Record

Erna’s great-grandmother was a Fuhrmann. I believe that Ern died young:

I am glad for transcriptions as I would have had trouble finding this record:

Caroline Antonie

It looks like I missed one of her names. Ancestry had her birth year as 1877, but that bumps into Erna’s birth, so I will keep the 1878 that I had. Caroline’s Confirmation Record shows her born in 1878 also:

Johann Jacob Reinhold Rathfelder

I may have too many names here:

I dropped the Reinhold in my family tree.

Robert Ernst

It appears that Robert also died young:

Marie Otilie Hilda

Otilie must have been for her godmother. Marie also died young at 2 month:

Ludwig Artur Wilmar

If I have him right, he would have been my grandfather’s next oldest sibling. I am having trouble finding this person in the Latvian records that Ancestry has. I also cannot remember where I got the original information. I may have to re-evaluate Ludwig. While searching for Johann Heinrich Rathfelder, I finally found him:

The Ludwig name was probably for his sponsor Ludwig Metz.

Leonhard Florentin

Leo was apparently the baby of the family:

He got his name from Leonhard Goldigowsky(?).

My Grandfather, Alexander Siegfried Oscar

For some reason, Alexander’s baptism was at St Paul’s rather than St Peter’s Church in Riga. It looks like Alexander didn’t pick up a name from his sponsor. I see that Alexander’s godmother was Ottilie who was a sponsor for Alexander’s older sister Marie Ottilie HIlda who died young. It also appears that Alexander was born in July not June as I had it previously. Of course, all other records appear to show that Alexander was born in June. I guess I’ll go back to June.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I started out trying to use the Raduraksti website to find the records of my Rathfelder ancestors, but found the Ancestry records much easier to use
  • The death records were especially easy to use as they are difficult to read and go through without being able to search for records.
  • I found that searching in different ways helped. For example, I could only find one of the sons of Johann Heinrich Rathfelder by seaerching for the father
  • I found that one of the sons I had for Johann Heinrich Rathfelder was actually the son of his oldest son Nicolai. Nicolai’s son Harry appeared to have a swastika by his name which I am sure would have been common for Germans in the 1930’s.
  • Finally, I found out that I was looking at the wrong records at the Radurakski website.
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A New Ellis Match for My Wife’s Aunt Elaine

I was notified by Ancestry recently that my wife’s Aunt Elaine had a new DNA match named Jolene.

Ancestry thinks that these two could be in the 2nd to third cousin range.

Here is Jolene’s tree:

As Jolene and Elaine have shared DNA matches on the Ellis side, it would seem like the connection should be on Jolene’s Ellis side. I can try to build out this tree:

I see that Arthur’s father was antoher Arthur. Arthur’s marriage record gives his parents:

They were on the next page:

That gets Jolene’s tree this far:

Now George is starting to match my Ancestry Tree for my wife’s family:

However, I had that George’s wife was Marion MacArthur. I think that Matthews is more correct at this time. So, I have corrected my tree, but not added the families down.

An Ellis DNA/Genealogy Tree

This is the tree that I have so far:

George was probably the younger brother of James Henry Ellis:

When I add in Jolene, I see that she is a third cousin to Elaine:

It could be that the Georges on my wife’s line could have been named for this George Ellis. George’s Death Certificate listed him as a bridge builder:

 

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Greenwood Hartley in the Year 1874

It seems like certain years are more filled with events than others. For my 2nd great-grandfather, Greenwood Hartley, it seems like 1874 was one busy year. I can think of four significant events that happened that year.

Greenwood’s Only Daughter Mary Ann Marries

Mary Ann Hartley Married Abel Burrows on 12 February 1874. At the time, Abel was a weaver from Fall River – originally from Burnley, Lancashire. This would be not too far from Bacup where Mary Ann was from:

Bacup was about 6 miles from Burnley. Greenwood was born in Trawden which was also close to Burnley. Abel would later become a jeweler and store owner in Fall River. Actually, upon closer look, Abel was living in Habergham Eaves in 1871:

The other interesting thing is that Abel Burrows was born in Marsden. There is a Marsden in West Yorkshire and a historical Marsden near Colne and Trawden where the Hartleys came from. So I’m not sure which this is referring to. My guess would be that they were from the Marsden in Lancashire. Marsden was taken over by Nelson in later times. Abel’s mother was from Haggate:

Haggate is to the NE of Burnley.

Here is a portion of Greenwood’s Map of Lancashire from 1818:

This shows Great Marsden which was closer to Trawden and Hag Gate which appears to be a very small place. I see another place below Little Marsden which is also called Marsden.

Here is a Newpaper notice from the Fall River Daily Evening News of 16 February 1874:

How Did Abel and Mary Ann Meet?

At the time that Abel and Mary Ann married, Abel was living in Fall River and Mary Ann was living in New Bedford. The English Census was taken on April 2, 1871. Abel’s Naturalization Papers have him coming to the US before this time:

I have come to mistrust these dates after looking at Greenwood Hartley’s Naturalization and his half brother William Wilkinson’s. I would trust the Census more than the Naturalization Papers.

We know that the Hartley family moved from Fall River to New Bedford in 1870. The 1870 Census was taken on June 1. Greenwood’s daughter Esther Hartley died in New Bedford from Typhoid Fever on 30 October 1870. The family was living at the rear of Ray Street near the Wamsutta Mills.

All this to say that May Ann was most likely living in New Bedford by the end of October 1870. Abel was in Fall River some time after April 1871. I suppose that if the Hartleys lived briefly in Fall River before moviing to Fall River that Abel could have lived briefly in New Bedford before moving to Fall River. There are other possibilities:

  • Perhaps the two families had some connections in Lancashire
  • Perhaps the two families had connections in Bristol County or a go-between
  • There could have been church connections. Greenwood’s wife Ann Emmet was from a Baptist Church in Bacup and Abel and Mary Ann apparently attended a Baptist Church in Fall River
  • When Abel’s father Samuel married, his witness was a John Hartley.

It would be interesting to know what Church Mary  Ann and Abel married in. For some reason, I thought it was an Episcopal Church. I am guessing that if Mary Pilling Wilkinson was able she would have attended as well as other family.

According to the New Bedford Mercury, the Wilkinson boys at least attended this church:

Yesterday noon as soon as the Sunday school at Mr. Dennison’s North Mission Chapel, corner of Purchase and Pearl streets was dismissed, eleven boys of the school went to Willis Point to play on the ice, or perhaps as one account states to cross over for play on “the Isle of Marsh”, a high rocky hill connected by marshes with the Fairhaven shore.

I’ll just finish off this section with an image from my Wilkinson Web Page:

The corner of Pearl and Purchase is easy to see near the lower left corner of City Common. The M.E. Church – probably Methodist Episcopal is also a possibility. I just read up on the Mission Church and this was really a Sunday School Mission. This is from an 1869 History of the Churches of New Bedford:

The Death of Greenwood’s Mother: Mary Pilling Hartley Wilkinson

Greenwood’s daughter Mary Ann married in February. Not long after, Greenwood’s mother dies. She was listed as having weak eyes on her voyage to Massachusetts. I mention on my Hartley web page:

An asterisk by Mary’s name indicated her poor health. She was listThised as having very sore eyes and being infirm. 

Mary Pilling lived over three years past her voyage to Massachusetts from Bacup, Lancashire.

Mary died March 23, 1874. This is the building that shows on Google maps for 23 Austin Street:

My guess is that this is the same building that was there and that the Hartley family lived in in 1874. However, the building may have been remodeled since and was much newer at the time. Here is a view of the house next door to this:

Here we can see the stone foundation. Perhaps 23 Austin Street looked more like the shingled building next door. Here is a period map:

I believe that 23 Austin would be at the NW corner of Austin and Pleasant Streets.

I have an old photo which is unidentified, but may be Mary Pilling.

Mary Pilling was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in New Bedford. This is an online photo giving the sense of the Cemetery as I remember visiting it:

Here is a map:

I believe that Mary Pilling is buried in Section GG of the Cemetery along with Wilkinson and Hartley relatives. However, I was unable to find an online map with location designations. I was unable to find a grave marker for Mary Pilling, but I have found markers for other of the relatives. I see that Austin Street ends near the Northern part of the Cemetery. My son lives not too far from this Cemetery, so I could walk from his house for a visit some day.

Greenwood’s USA Citizenship

By Spring of 1874, Greenwood’s only daughter Mary Ann had married and moved to Fall River. Greenwood’s one constant throughout his life, Mary Pilling, was gone. He is now with his wife and son when he turns 42 years old in May, 1874. Greenwood works probably at the Wamsutta Mills in New Bedford and lives at 23 Austin Street. I wrote a Blog recently about Greenwood’s Naturalization here.

I need not reproduce all the information that I went over in that Blog. A pattern that I saw was that if someone was keen on getting their Naturalization, it geneally happened about 5 years after they arrived. Here is a document that I was looking for after I wrote my Blog I mentioned above:

This was Greenwood’s Declaration of Intentions from December 1872. At the time I had found this at the Massachusetts Archives, I found it ironic that it took a trip to Lancashire to find out that Greenwood was born in Trawden, when that information was in my home State already.

As I mentioned, Greenwood, William Wilkinson and John Pilling – all half  brothers to each other – headed up to Boston, apparently at the end of November. John was a witness and Greenwood and William both got their Citizenship papers that day. This completed the legal paperwork they needed and established them as permanent citizens of the United States. Perhaps Greenwood and family celebrated the American Holiday of Thanksgiving on the Thursday before going up to Boston on Monday November 30,  1874. Thanksgiving had been declared a National Holiday by Lincoln 11 years prior.

Buying the Farm in Rochester in December 1874

The fourth big event for 42 year old Greenwood in 1874 was buying a farm in Rochester. According to local historian Judy Gurney, Greenwood’s health was failing and his doctor recommended a move out of the City. Aside from this, Greenwood could have had some bad feelings about New Bedford. After all, his daughter Esther died there of Typhoid Fever in October 1870 not long after the family moved to New Bedford from Fall River:

In January 1872, two of Greenwood’s nephews drowned in New Bedford. These were 11 and 9 year old John and Robert Wilkinson.

Then, as mentioned above, Greenwood’s mother died on March 23, 1874.

It seems like the doctor gave a good recommendation to Greenwood as sanitary conditions must have been better and the chance of catching something from someone must have been less in Rochester compared to New Bedford.

Weaver to Farmer

I wonder if many people changed carreers later in life like Greenwood becoming a farmer after being a weaver?  In 1874, Greenwood’s son James was 12, so perhaps would be more helpful around a farm. Greenwood was frugal and had saved enough money to buy a farm for $1200. If Greenwood bought the farm in December, I assume that he lived there with his wife and son James that first winter. What did they do all winter? Were there animals to take care of? Did he plan for the next year? He must have had enough money to buy food to eat. I am also curious as to whether Greenwood knew much about farming. Perhaps he had observed farmers in Trawden. Little is known about Greenwood’s grandfather. Perhaps he was a farmer in Trawden? Many questions and not many answers.

It’s fun to think about what life was like for Greenwood Hartley and his family.

Summary and Conclusions

  • 1874 marked the fifth year since the Hartley family arrived in Massachusetts
  • The fact that Greenwood arrived with mother, wife, children and half-brother’s family seemed to indicate that all intended on staying in the US
  • Greenwood’s early years in Massachusetts were likely difficult adjusting to a different life-style and customs. Also the death of his daughter and two nephews made life difficult.
  • The death of Greenwood’s mother in 1874 must have been difficult also. Greenwood’s father had died when he was 4, so his recollection of him would have been very vague. Mary Pilling was Greenwood’s one constant in the 38 years since his father died.
  • This death was off-set by three positive happening to Greenwood in 1874. His daugther Mary Ann married Abel Burrows. He recieved his naturalization along with his younger half brother William Wilkinson. Then he bought a farm in Rochester and apparently moved there in December 1874.
  • Greenwood’s move to Rochester was apparently good for his health and for his family. Greenwood apparently gave a leg up to his son James who was later able to purchase a Mill which became the Hartley Saw Mill.
  • In protecting his health, Greenwood outlived his father who died at age 32. This afforded his children the father that Greenwood never had.

 

 

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Another Nicholson/Dockrill DNA Match

I wrote about another Nicholson/Dockrill descendant named Jessica here. That match opened up some new information on the Nicholson family history. I hadn’t known that the family lived in Liverpool for a while:

This Maria Baxter Nicholson married a Dockrill. Maria was born in Sheffield in 1858 and later baptized in Liver pool in 1860. The Nicholson family moves to Philadelphia around 1870 when Maria is 12, so it is unclear why Maria does not join the family to Philadelphia.

In 1879, the Philadelphia Nicholsons have a son named George Dockrill Nicholson. This birth recognizes the fact that Maria Baxter Nicholson married a Dockrill probably when she was about 20 years old.

The New AncestryDNA Match: DPD

The new match shows that Maria married:

In 1861, Maria Baxter Nicholson is living with her grandmother and Aunt in Liverpool:

Maria’s Aunt Ann was born in 1822, so was about 13 years older than Maria’s mother Martha.

This appears to be Maria in 1881:

She is living on Sharp St. in Liverpool and is the wife of a ship steward. The record is a bit confusing as it names Jane as her mother and Flora and Rosine as sisters. I assume that these two are in-laws. My Aunt once told me she had a ship captain ancestor from Liverpool. Perhaps this ship steward was the one – though not really an ancestor.

The 1901 Census fills out more information about the family:

DPD is My Third Cousin

DPD adds another line to the English Branch of Nicholsons:

Maria’s Burial

Maria was buried in Anfield Cemetery in Liverpool:

Summary and Conclusions

  • Based on my new third cousin Nicholson match, I looked up more information on the Maria Baxter Nicholson Dockrill Line
  • It is unclear why Maria stayed in England when the rest of the family left
  • It is also unclear why Maria was living with the Baxter family in 1861. Was it a temporary stay or long-term?
  • I have not found a marriage for Maria and George Dockrill – however they were clearly married
  • I found some more interestign details about the occupation of George Dockrill and the final resting place of Maria.

 

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A Naturalization Record for Greenwood Hartley

While I was reviewing my Ancestry hints for my second great-grandfather Greenwood Hartley, I ran across this record:

This is a document signed by Greenwood Hartley on November 30, 1874. This Greenwood was said to be born very close to my Greenwood ancestor:

I have that my Greenwood was born 25 May 1831. This Greenwood was a year younger. He also came to Boston a lot sooner than my Greenwood – in 1849. I have that my Greenwood came into Boston 24 October 1869. This is starting to look suspicious. I think that this is the actual Naturalization Record for my 2nd great-grandfather Greenwood, but that some of the information got entered incorrectly.

A Rare Signature

The 1870 Census states that Greenwood and his wife could not write. However, the box is not checked that they could not read. Hear is Greenwood’s signature – apparently signed with difficulty:

This would appear to be a rare signature for Greenwood. i assume that it is authentic due to the difference in writing elsewhere on the Naturalization document.

Other Implications?

The approximate age at the time of this document would be correct. It states that Greenwood was 42 in 1874, when he was actually 43. The above document appears to be the actual naturalization based on this index card:

Interestingly, two weeks after Greenwood’s Naturalization, he buys a house in Rochester Massachusetts on what is now Snipatuit Road.

 

Here is the only photo I have of Greenwood:

Greenwood’s Two Naturalization Witnesses

Greenwood needed two people to vouch for him:

These two are Greenwood’s half brothers. I wonder if they all had to take a train up to Boston for this? I also wonder if the Judge knew that these two were Greenwood’s half brothers. Here we also have John Pilling and William Wilkinson’s signatures. They look at litte more refined than Greenwood’s signature. Technically, Greenwood had been in the US for 5 years as he arrived in Boston in October 1869. It is interesting that the place that he resided for that amount of time is left blank. The family lived in Fall River for a short while before moving to New Bedford.

John Pilling attested to Greenwood’s good character. However a few years later, in August 1877, John took off with Co-op money, and left his famiy for England. William Wilkinson travelled to Boston with Mary Pilling, Greenwood, and Mary’s grandchildren.

Here is William Wilkinson:

I believe that this is John Pilling:

I also recall seeing a record in the Massachusetts Archives saying that Greenwood was born in Trawden. I believe that that was his Petition for Naturalization. Hopefully I have a hard copy of that somewhere.

William Wilkinson

William was born in 1840, so he was about 9 years younger than Greenwood. Here is his Naturalization:

As far as I know, his arrival in New York in 1858 is not correct. In fact, I have this as his marriage in Bacup, England in 1859:

This is interesting as I had that William married Tamar Dawson. This seems to say that she was Tamar Burus, daughter of William Burus [Burrows?]. A Mary Dawson is a witness. I see that my Ancestry tree has her father as William Barnes. I have that William arrived in Boston in 1869:

Witnesses for William’s Naturalization

First, I should point out that Wiliam and Greenwood’s Naturalizations were both on the same day. That leads to the idea that they all went up to Boston together.

Here, Greenwood’s name was in and signed and then crossed out. John Pilling was one witness. My guess is that William got his naturalization first and was able to be a witness for Greenwood. However, because of this Greenwood could not be a witness for William. The typed part says “both citizens of said United States”. If Greenwood’s Naturalzation was after William’s he wouldn’t have been a citizen yet. I don’t know who John Armstrong was.

John Pilling’s Witnesses

To complete the circle, here were John’s witnesses to his 1867 Naturalization:

This is likely John Dickey in New Bedford in 1870:

He was likely known through work or possibly through John’s Scottish wife.

This is likely Thomas Watson in New Bedford in 1870:

In 1884, Thomas apparently remarried for a third time:

This Thomas lists his birth Town as Brindle, Lancashire. This appears to be Thomas’ marriage to Elizabeth in Boston in 1852:

Summary and Conclusions

  • A discovery of a Naturalization record for Greenwood adds some detail to his life for the year 1874
  • I followed a bit in the lives of two of Greenwood’s half brothers who vouched for his trustworthiness on his Naturalization.
  • Another bonus was in seeing Greenwood’s tenuous signature which is a connection between him and us in the present time.
  • My assumption is that Greenwood and his younger half brother William dependended on their older half brother John Pilling to show them the ropes in the New World

 

 

 

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Visual Phasing My Two Children with the Fox Spreadsheet: Part 4

This should be the final Blog for the visual phasing of my childrens’ autosomal DNA. I will be looking at Chromosomes 19-22 and the X Chromosome sometimes called Chromosome 23.

Chromosome 19

There appears to be a discrepancy at position 46 between the crossover line and where my mother matches JJ. However, as these are smaller chromosomes, any difference will be exagerrated in the view.

I’m not seeing any easy cousin matches on the maternal side.

I had said that the the shorter chromosomes can be easier to solve. There is the other problem that they are so short, that there may not be any identifiable matches on them. I can put in a G3 and G4 on the right hand side of the Chromosome:

I checked Heather at MyHeritage and she has a match with Richard who has all Polish ancestors:

Now that I have this, the G3 and G4’s are not useful:

Heather and Richard have a shared match with Krystyna:

I am showing some progress:

JJ and Richard have a shared match at MyHeritage with Patricia here:

That leaves a small area to fill in on the left side of Chromosome 19:

From a comparison between JJ and Heather, it appears that the first crossover should be at about 5.2M. I’m having trouble figuring out the left hand side of Chromosome 19, so I will leave it as is for now.

Downloading Heather and JJ’s MyHeritage Segment Data

While working on Chromosome 19, I downloaded Heather and JJ’s segment data from MyHeritage. I waited a little while and got an email with the information I was looking for. Heather did have these matches at MyHeritage which appear to go through position 5.2:

However, it is difficult to tell for sure if these are real matches, maternal, paternal or if they in fact clearly straddly position 5.2M.

Chromosome 20

On the paternal side, all but one segment is Rathfelder DNA:

I am having trouble finding DNA matches on Heather and JJ’s maternal side on this Chromosome also.

Now it’s time to get creative. I put a Poland filter on Heather’s matches at MyHeritage. I see a match there with Grzegorz:

Unfortunately, it is rather a small match. Heather and JJ have several small matches in this area. I’ll take a chance and give that segment to Jarek:

JJ clearly has matches that go through position 18:

That is about as far as I can get. However, that is built upon small matches on the left side of Chromosome 20.

Chromosome 21

Here, Heather and JJ have all Rathfelder and no Hartley on their paternal side.

Heather and Jarek-side Richard have this match:

I’ll say that Heather’s match goes through position 41.2.

Heather has a match on the Cavanaugh side with Martha:

That should finish Chromosome 21:

JJ’s match with Martha further confirms the visual phasing:

This Chromosome is further shortened by some unusable area at the beginning of the Chromosome.

 

Chromosome 22

There are no obvious matches on the maternal side yet:

JJ and Nicholas match:

He is probably on the Jarek side, but I can’t be certain.

Heather’s match with David:

I didn’t see any Polish ancestors on David’s tree. Also, this is a paternal match as my siblings show up as common matches with Heather and David.

I’ll leave Chromosome 22 like this and hope that I get more or find more matches:

I did find this match at MyHeritage between Heather and Krzysztof after filtering for matches from Poland:

Here is another match that Heather has at MyHeritage with Rafal from Poland:

I see now that I should have extended the segments to here anyway:

Now, I’m doing better than I thought I could. I see that MyHeritage shows that JJ matches Rafal, but not on Chromosome 22:

This suggests to me that JJ should have the crossover at 43.9 M:

Heather and JJ’s X Chromosome

Here we have a different situation. JJ has no paternal side to his X Chromosome as these are not passed down from father to son. Heather’s paternal side of her X Chromosome is just from my mom, so her paternal grandmother. That leaves Heather and JJ’s maternal side DNA to fill in: Jarek and Cavanaugh.

Another complication is that MyHeritage does not report the X Chromosome and Heather and JJ did not test at 23andMe. That means any matches will have to be from Gedmatch or FTDNA.

This is what I have for Heather at DNAPainter:

I am not sure why there is a gap in the paternal side as Heather should match her grandmother the whole way.

Here is Heather’s match with Martha on the Cavanaugh side:

The blue portion in the comparison betweeen Heather and JJ on the top row indicates that JJ should match the same on his maternal side. JJ also has a small match with Peter on the Jarek side here:

JJ’s match list shows that he has no X Match with Peter:

So perhaps 6.4cM is below FTDNA’s X Chromosome match threshold. Heather, on the other hand shows no X match with Peter on the FTDNA Chromosome Browser.

Assuming that is a valid match, I get this:

JJ’s Interesting X Match with Ellen at Gedmatch

If this match is correct, then it suggests that my mapping above in incorrect. I would assume that JJ’s match is with either on the Jarek or Cavanaugh side, but not both. Here is JJ’s ancestry where the match can be:

From the right-hand column, there are two Polish lines, two English lines and three French Canadian lines. I have sent an email to Ellen to see if she has family history information.

So how do I interpret the new information? I need to disregard the small DNA match with Peter for now. One interesting thing is that JJ matches Martha on the Cavanaugh side where he doesn’t match Ellen:

JJ’s match with Martha is from about position 9-33 where I have the red arrow pointing to the black region. I take it to mean that both Martha and Ellen match JJ on his Cavanaugh side, but down different branches of the Cavanaugh line. For example, JJ’s match with Martha may be on the Morrow side and JJ’s match with Ellen may be on the Cavanaugh/Warren side.

Here is my guess on how the the X Chromosome should look:

I now have JJ as mostly Cavanaugh due to the match with Ellen.

Heather and Ellen

Here is how Heather matches Ellen at Gedmatch:

Heather has a smaller match with Ellen, but it is still significant. In the area I have mapped as Jarek for Heather, she does not match Ellen, so that is consistant with the visual phasing that I have done above. That means that Ellen should match JJ and Heather on the Cavanaugh line. That would likely mean a French Canadian or English connection.

One Last Step: Heather and JJ’s X Chromosome Segments

I already downloaded Heather and JJ’s autosomal segments at Gedmatch. However, this did not include their X Chromosome segments. I picked the Segement Option at Tier 1 for Heather. The minimum I could pick was 1,000 matches so I picked that. I don’t need a lot for the X Chromosome. I picked the csv download option and then saved the file as an Excel file. I formatted the positions with commas:

Next, I would like to see if Heather has matches that go through the next crossover on the X Chromosome which is at 143.7. However, my download was for all of Heather’s X Chromosome matches: paternal and maternal. I really want the maternal side. For that I have to choose Heather’s phased maternal kit to get the segments. When I try to do this, I get no segments. I assume that when Heather’s phased maternal kit was created, it didn’t include the X Chromosme.

JJ’s matches will already be phased, so I will try him next. JJ has one match that goes through 143.7, but I am not convinced that this match will help me:

One problem is that the SNP count is quite low.

Heather has matches that go through 143.7, but they are mostly on the paternal side:

TX is a match where I can’t tell if it is paternal or maternal. All the other matches are close paternal matches. That means that I will leave the X Chromosome visually phased as is for now:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to visually phase my two childrens’ 23 chromosomes.
  • Some were fully phased and some were partially phased
  • Because I had tested my mother, Heather and JJ were already phased on the paternal side
  • There are more DNA cousin matches on the maternal Jarek side than the maternal Cavanaugh side. This is offset by Martha who is a fairly close Cavanaugh relative to my two children
  • I am interested in DNA matches on the Cavanaugh side due to some confusion in the genealogy. For example, Cavanaugh going back should actually be Warren the way I understand it
  • Visually phasing the X Chromosome is a little different than the others. I found a large Cavanaugh side X Chromosome match to Heather and JJ and wrote to the match. I hope that she writes back so we can find the connection.
  • Some chromosomes may need updating and filling in as new maternal matches are identified
  • Using the Fox Spreadsheet is a handy way to do visual phasing and keeps all the information in one need spreadsheet

 

 

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Visual Phasing My Two Children with the Fox Spreadsheet: Part 3

In Part Three of this series, I will be looking at Chromosomes 13-18 for my children and visually phasing them to the extent that I can.

Chromosome 13

Here, Heather gets a full dose of her Rathfelder Grandmother’s DNA:

I didn’t see any of the Jarek-matching DNA on the Fox Spreadsheet. I don’t have to open JJ’s FTDNA account each time for his Cavanaugh side match Martha as I aready downloaded JJ’s segments:

Here is where Heather matches Martha:

That takes care of the right half of Chromosome 13:

Heather has this maternal match with Pavel that JJ does not:

It is small, but likely to be real as it is a phased match. This appears to be the correct solution for Heather and JJ’s Chromosome 13:

Chromosome 14

Here is what Heather and JJ’s paternal side looks like:

Heather has a small DNA match with Robert that JJ doesn’t have on the Jarek side:

That is enough to map the left side of Chromosome 14:

The maternal side DNA can move over two lines as those are taken up by paternal crossovers.

Heather matches Peter, a Jarek-side matche, here:

Here is JJ’s match with Peter at FTDNA:

This indicates to me that JJ has a crossover to Jarek at about position 70:

Next, I need to get the position number for the right side of the green FIR.

This is at about 96.6.

JJ has a maternal match with Ashley that goes to about 98:

Heather’s matches do not go that far, so I would give the crossover to Heather:

Other than to JJ, Heather’s furthest out math is at 91.

Chromosome 15

Let’s see how Chromosome 15 shakes out for Heather and JJ:

This shows that Chromosome 15 only has two crossovers and one of those is on the paternal side. It also shows that JJ got a full dose of Rathfelder DNA on his paternal side. Heather and JJ’s match with Jarek-side match Robert shows where the other crossover is:

Here is the finished, simple Chromosome 15:

This tells me that if I was looking for Cavanaugh matches on this Chromosome, I should look at Heather’s match list and not JJ’s.

A Further Check on Chromosome 15

I show that Heather has a match with Jarek-side LeeAnne here:

I had assumed that LeeAnne was on the Jarek side, so something seems wrong. Perhaps LeeAnne is on the Cavanaugh side. When I check on LeeAnne’s tree at Ancestry, I assumed that the Dziura in her family was the Dziuria in my children’s family:

That could mean that LeeAnne could match on the Cavanaugh side? Very confusing. However, LeeAnne’s shared matches at AncestryDNA are clearly on the Jarek side. The only explanation that I can think of is that Heather and JJ have a crossover at nearly the same poine where (going from right to left) JJ goes from Jarek to Cavanaugh and Heather goes from Cavanaugh to Jarek.

Checking Martha on the Cavanaugh Side

I see that JJ matches Martha here:

This confirms that at some point on the left side of Chromosome 15, JJ needs to have Cavanaugh DNA and Heather has to have Jarek DNA, but I can’t figure out where that is.

One More Check

When I check on Heather compared to JJ at Gedmatch with a lower match limit of 3 cM, I get this:

These are just two small matches at the beginning of the Chromosome. These two small matches may or may not be important. I’m tempted to think that Heather and JJ had maternal crossovers at about the same point:

I don’t know where that point was, but it must have been after position 54.3. Here are Heather’s maternal matches:

The crossover is likely between 55 and 60.8. based on Heather’s maternal matches.

Chromosome 16

I hope that this Chromosome goes more smoothly than the last one:

I don’t see any uploaded Jarek matches on the spreadsheet. I have used Peter before as a Jarek side match:

That gets things started on the maternal side:

The 55 above is closer to 54.8. That is cutting it close, but JJ has this maternal match:

Heather’s match with KP ends slightly sooner:

So I will give Heather the crossover at 54.8:

JJ has many matches going through 82, so I will give the crossover to Heather again:

I couldn’t find a clear answer to the two segments on the left of Chromosome 16:

Chromosome 17

Here Heather gets a full dose of Hartley DNA from my father:

 

A match with Robert on the Jarek side shows that Heather has the first maternal crossover from Jarek to Cavanaugh:

 

JJ matches Cavanaugh side Martha here:

That means that Heather must match on the Jarek side in that area:

A Little Detective Work to Fill in the Last Part of Chromosome 17

I noticed that on Heather’s list of matches from FTDNA, she has one with a Polish sounding last name:

The match goes through positiion 72.7. I need to know if this is a paternal or maternal match for Heather. I checked Heather’s in common matches at FTDNA and did not see any paternal matches. That tells me that this match is likely on Heather’s maternal side. From what I can tell, this is the right answer for Heather and JJ’s Chromosome 17:

Chromosome 18

I’lll conclude this Blog with Chromosome 18:

This project would have been much more difficult without my mother’s Rathfelder DNA.

Jarek Cousin Robert has a match that goes to position 53:

The match looks like it goes over the crossover line, but I don’t trust the accuracy of it.

Cavanaugh Cousin Martha matches Heather here:

There were no obvious snags in Chromosome 18:

This would be a good Chromosome to look for Cavanaugh side matches – especially on Heather’s side.

Summary and Conclusions

  • It looks like I was able to finish the visual phasing for each of Chromosomes 13-18
  • The smaller higher number chromosomes are generally considered easier to visually phase compared to the longer chromosomes
  • I find it interesting that when I passed my DNA on to my children, I was really passing down my parents DNA to them and combined my children recieved the DNA from their four grandparents.
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Visual Phasing My Two Children with the Fox Spreadsheet: Part 2

In my previous Blog, I started working on visually phasing the first 6 chromosomes of my two children. Normally, visual phasing is done with three or more siblings. However, it should not be too difficult to visually phase Heather and JJ’s chromosomes. I have tested their paternal grandmother. Because of that, their paternal side is basically phased.

Chromosome 1

Here is how far I got previously:

It would be helpful to put a few position numbers in at the end of the Chromosome. Specifically, the beginning and the end of the last green HIR would be helpful. The end should be around 216.6M where the last black non-matching area starts:

I’ll call that 215.5. Here is the beginnning of the FIR:

I’ll call that 203.6M.

Segment Search for Maternally Phased Kits of Heather and JJ

Here are some of the results for segment details for the maternal part of JJ’s DNA:

Near the bottom, JJ matches Heather from 237.5M. However, his match with *sly goes past that match to 238.9M. This is a likely indication that Heather has a crossover at 237.5M. Unfortunately, we first need to find out who has the crossover at 203.6.

Heather has this match which I don’t see on JJ’s match list:

Betty likely matches Heather on the Cavanaugh side. Gedmatch indicates that Betty tested at Ancestry, but I am having trouble identifying her test. So it looks like I am stuck, unless I download more match information from FTDNA and MyHeritage for Heather and JJ.

Chromosome 2

Here, I’ve added a few position numbers:

Let’s see what Heather and JJ show around positions 115 and 231M. I couldn’t find anything obvious, so I need to find the end of the first green FIR:

I’ll call that 20.7M. Heather has many maternal matches that pass through 20.7M:

So, I’ll give the crossover to JJ:

Next, I’ll add two more positions:

 

However, when I do that, I notice a problem with the segment map. I see that this is the result of a missplaced paternal crossover:

It’s a good thing I am checking this. The crossover from Rathfelder to Hartley should be at 83:

JJ shows a match going through 47.7 which is the beginning of the second green HIR:

That means that Heather gets the crossover there:

This is an improvement over what I had. In this case, it helped to check.

Chromosome 3 Check

Here I added some easy position numbers:

I’ll look at Heather and JJ’s maternal matches around position 2 and 168.3M. Heather’s first match goes beyond 3M:

The first position above should have been a 3:

So I am giving the crossover to JJ.

JJ has many matches that go through 168.3:

So I give this crossover to Heather:

Heather and JJ do not have many maternal matches around 183.1, so I will leave this Chromosome as is.

Chromosome 7

Chromosomes 4-6 are in good shape, so let’s check on Heather and JJ’s Chromosome 7:

Here, JJ’s match with his paternal grandmother didn’t quite match up with his crossover point, so I put his grandmother’s match at the closest crossover.

Here, I’ll add Leeanne’s match on the left side of Chromosome 7:

Here is Heather’s match with Cavanaugh side Martha:

This match fills in 2 Cavanaugh segments for Heather:

Due to the HIR and FIR, JJ is Jarek and Cavanaugh below Heather. JJ’s match with Martha brings his Cavanaugh DNA to the end of his Chromosome 7:

Next, it would be nice if JJ or Heather had some maternal matches going through position 80. Heather’s maternal match Charles meets that requirement:

Next, I am focusing in on 56.1:

JJ’s match with the same Charles appears to go through 56.1:

That leaves the very left of Heather and JJ’s maternal side. The next position I am interested in is at 5.7:

JJ has two matches going through that position. That should finish Chromosome 7:

However, it doesn’t. Two segments after the red one above should be red and not green. If there is no match there, then the two Hartley segments cannot be right there. Remember when I guessed on JJ and Heather’s grandmother’s ambiguous match position? I guessed wrong.

Here is the easiest, though perhaps non-scientific way to fix the problem:

I moved JJ’s Rathfelder segment right to 80. I then moved JJ’s Jarek segment left from 80 to 76.3. This is the intuitive, logical solution. By non-scientific, I mean that I didn’t look at all of Heather’s and JJ’s matches in that region to double check the crossovers. The yellow/green/red segment map checks out.

Chromosome 8

Things have been going fairly smoothly so far. Let’s hope they continue that way.

Here are two complications. The first situation has a FIR going into a region with no matches. In order for that to happen there has to be two crossovers. The second arrow points to a region where there appear to be two crossovers fairly close to each other, but the match to Heather and JJ’s paternal grandmother shows as being between the two crossovers.

The start of the FIR is at 101.6:

Using the closest rule, I’ll go with the 99.2 crossover.

I left the little paternal segment blank on JJ’s side as there are two very close changes there. The segment is so small, it doesn’t matter. I will just need to have a HIR there when I am done.

Mat1’s matches give some Jarek segments to Heather and JJ:

This seems to be what the match with Jarek relative Mat1 is telling me:

The next step is to find some more crossover locations for this Chromosome.

Next, I’ll check Heather and JJ to see what their matches look like in the vivinity of 12.9, 72.1, 106 and 137.5.

Downloading Heather and JJ’s Segments

However, instead of looking at each chromosome, I will download Heather and JJ’s segment information for their top 1,000 maternal matches at Gedmatch. I did this, but could not find any easy clues as to their crossovers on this chromosome.

Chromosome 9

Chromosome 9 looks interesting:

For one thing, the Heather and JJ’s matches with their grandmother do not line up with the first crossover I have. I went back and compared Heather with JJ at a resolution of 3 cM:

3 cM is the smallest increment allowed. It is good that the smallest is not 4 as I would have missed two crossovers at 10.2 and 13M. Now this makes more sense:

Matches with Robert point out two maternal crossovers:

It seems like JJ should have a crossover to Jarek at 98.1.  When I lower the threshold for JJ’s match with Robert, I get this:

This is what I expected, so JJ does have a crossover at 98:

That leaves only 4 maternal segments. Here is a match that Heather has with Martha on the Cavanaugh side:

Next, I’ll look at Heather and JJ’s maternal match list at around 133.6M. Heather has a lot of maternal matches that go through that crossover. That means that the crossover must belong to JJ:

Here is what I end up with:

Chromosome 10

Here is my initial interpretation:

Chromosome 9 had to HIRs. Chromosome 10 has a small one shown in green above.

Robert has a small match with JJ:

Robert is on the Jarek side, so Heather must have Cavanaugh DNA in her corresponding maternal segment. Heather’s match with Martha on the Cavanaugh confirms that:

 

Heather also matches Martha at the right hand side of Chromosome 10.

Next, I am looking for the position number for the beginning of the HIR:

I’ll call that 114.6.

Heather and JJ’s maternal matches at Gedmatch are primarily between 13.8 and 79.2 for Chromosome 10, so I am stuck for now:

Chromosome 11

Here is my start:

JJ’s matches don’t align perfectly with his paternal grandmother. Robert matches Heather and JJ on the Jarek side:

When I put this in, I notice that there is a Fully Identical Region (FIR) going to a non-match. That means that there needs to be an extra crossover there.

Leanne matches JJ and not Heather on the right hand side:

Here is the beginning of the first FIR in green:

I’ll ignore the three yellow lines and call the start of the FIR 57.4M.

Heather has maternal matches that go through 123.6:

 

Because there is already a paternal crossover at 115.8, I can also move the two Cavanaugh segments to the left.

JJ has two matches that go through 102.5:

Heather would not have a super small Cavanaugh segment at 95.8:

Checking around FTDNA, I see that JJ has a match with Peter, who is in common with Robert and Leeanne from the Jarek side on my spreadsheet:

Thanks to Peter, I can finish Chromosome 11:

Other matches at FTDNA and MyHeritage would also help in completing chromosomes.

Chromosome 12

Here is my starting point with my children’s Rathfelder grandmother added:

I was suspicious of the segment at the right hand side, so I looked at the match between Heather and Gladys at a lower resolution:

Here we see Heather has a small amount of Rathfelder at the end of her paternal side. I don’t see any standard Jarek matches, so I’ll check on Martha on the Cavanaugh side:

JJ has two good matches with Martha:JJ

JJ’s other match with Martha appears to extend to the left of 96.1, but I’m not sure:

Heather’s maternal match with Bryan at Gedmatch clarifies this:

JJ also has matches that go through position 15.3:

In order to get more match information, I will download Heather and JJ’s segment data from FTDNA. The problem with this is that it takes a little work to figure out whether the matches are paternal or maternal.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I have now looked at about half of my childrens’ chromosomes and have done an initial mapping out of their segments, sorting them out to where they got their DNA from their four grandparents where I could figure that out.
  • I found an additional Jarek side match named Peter at FTDNA which helped out on one chromosome
  • I downloaded additional segment information from Gedmatch and FTDNA. The Gedmatch segments are more helpful as I can download just the maternal side segment imformation
  • So far, the detailed segment information from FTDNA has not been helpful as many matches are on the paternal side or small and I can’t be sure on which side they are (or perhaps they could be false matches).