Author: joel@jmhartley.com

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2019 Updates on Butler DNA

I recently posted an update on Butler genealogy. Here is an update on Butler DNA. I have found that DNA matches work well to get good genealogical results. For the Butler project, the two main relevant test are YDNA and the autosomal DNA tests. I have discovered new relatives through both the YDNA tests and the autosomal DNA test results.

Butler YDNA and the BigY Test – I-Y128364

The two major YDNA tests are the Big Y and the STR testing. Two Butlers have taken the Big Y test. One is my late father-in-law. The other is Peter from England. This has placed my wife’s Butler family (and Peter’s) on the YDNA tree. That Place is called I-Y128364. This is actually an I2 Group. This is further broken down to I-M223 (or I2-M223). One way to show I-Y128364 is on FTDNA’s Block Tree:

The discovery of I-Y128364 is important as it describes the specific branch of Butlers that Peter, my father-in-law Richard’s family and other related Butlers belong to.

I-M223 was formed about 15,000 years ago. There is more branching that goes on, but this just shows the direct line from I-M223 to I-A427. At that point it shows additional branching. One way to get a rough date for the common ancestor is to take their average number of private variants (shown in the green boxes above) and multiply those by 144 years. This results in a common ancestor for Peter and Richard of about 288 years. Richard was born in the 1930’s, but we’ll use 1940 as a starting date. That would give a rough date of 1650 for a common ancestor between Peter and Richard. The average man has his middle child at age 34, so 288 years turns out to be about 8.5 generations.

Here is a migration map for the I Haplogroup:

The question is how the Butler’s got to Ireland. One possibility is through the Normans. These were Norse men who lived in France and invaded England. Some of those would have ended up in Ireland also. Other routes are possible.

Here is a more detailed look from SNP Tracker:

The Butler ancestors were in Southern Germany from the later Paleolithic to the early Neolithic. The one Bronze Age SNP is shown in the water. I take this to mean that these people could have been in Scandinavia or around the North Sea where the blue dot is. Iron and Roman Ages are missing and then we end up in Ireland in the Medieval period. The Medieval period was from 476 to 1450 AD. So between the blue dot and orange dot above, a lot of time goes by. The light dot in the North Sea represents a tester by the last name of Batt. The common ancestor between Batt and Butler was about 700 years ago.

Butler YDNA and the STR Test

Here is how Peter and Richard match on their STR test:

Peter and Richard match on all but 6 STRs out of the 111 tested. Plus they match on all but 6 STRs on the 412 STRs identified by the BigY results. Here is the TIP Report for Richard and Peter:

Richard and Peter have a 60% chance of having a common ancestor within 8 generations.

Neil – the Newest STR Match

Neil, who has Butler ancestors from Wexford has taken the 37 STR test. His results came back in July 2019. He matches my father-in-law Richard exactly at the 37 STR level. Here is the TIP Report between Neil and Richard:

I put in the report that Richard and Neil did not share an ancestor within the last three generations. The 37 STR test is not as accurate as the 111 STR test, so more variation may be expected in the results. Neil, Richard and Peter are all in the Butler YDNA Project at FTDNA:

Neil’s ancestor is Richard Butler born 1817 in Wexford. Neil and my father-in-law Richard share at value of 32 for a STR called DYS389ii. None of the other Butler testers share this value, so this value likely defines the specific branch of Butlers that Neil and Richard are in. Likewise, Peter and the descendant of Laurence Butler born 1830 Wexford share a value of 23 for a STR called DYS570. That STR likely defines their Butler Branch.

Neil is very likely a closer match to my father-in-law Richard than Peter is. He may also be a family finder match by autosomal DNA. Peter suggests that the older Butler line was from Wexford and branched out from there. It appears that the limited DNA matches would support that also. Based on the closeness of Neil’s DNA test to my wife’s Butler family, renewed effort is being made to make a genealogical connection.

Butler STR Overview

There are 576 members in the FTDNA Butler YDNA Project. These represent most of the Butlers and related families who have had STRs tested. Of those 576, most of the Butlers and associated families are R1b. These are probably what are considered traditionally as the more Celtic or native people to the British Isles. Of those 576, about 49 or 8.5% are I1. According to FTDNA, I1 has a common ancestor of about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. 25 Butlers or associated families are listed as I2 in the Butler YDNA Project. This represents 4.3% of the people in the Butler YDNA project. Of those 25 I2’s, all but three are I-M223. According to FTDNA, the I-M223 Tree is about 17,400 years old. That means that the Block tree I showed earlier in this Blog represents well over 17,000 years of “Butler” history. Of course, the Butler name was only attached to this history since some time in the last 1,000 years.

How does this compare to Ireland in general? Here is part of a Eupedia.com Chart:

From what I can tell, this represents percentages of Haplogroups. Above, I found that 4.3% of the Butlers were I2. From the above chart, it appears that about 6% of Irish are I2 (adding I2a and I2b). A review of the Butler YDNA Project results shows that the Butler’s in general were from many different Counties in Ireland and had many different Haplotypes. That means that no one Haplotype can be associated with the Butler name. However, different branches of Butlers can be associated with specific haplotypes.

Butler Autosomal DNA

In general, it could be said that the YDNA tests take over at the point that the autosomal DNA tests fade away. What that means is that autosomal DNA matches may be found with this probability:

The hope is that once these matches are found that there would be a genealogical connection or possible connection. Around the point where the autosomal results fade out, say about the 5th cousin level, the YDNA tests are helpful for establishing relationships going back hundreds and thousands of years. With the BigY tests, and closest matches for the STR tests, these results may overlap.

Finding New Butler Relatives Through DNA

I have found new Butler relatives through DNA matches in the following three categories:

  • Relatives who have common Butler ancestors that we already knew about
  • Relatives who have Butler ancestors that we hadn’t known about previously. Right now, the main Butler ancestor that we found out about is George Butler born in Wexford, Ireland and died in Cincinnati. It is clear that he was related to my wife’s ancestor Edward Henry Butler. But we don’t know exactly how. They may have been first cousins.
  • Relatives who have common ancestors with Butlers, but those ancestors perhaps go back beyond the time when there were good records kept – or the connection has not yet been discovered. Therefore, the connection to a comman ancestor may not be clear, but the connection to an area may be guessed at – such as Weford, Ireland. A good example of this category would be with Peter who is a YDNA match, but we don’t know who the exact common ancestor is.

Here are some lines that were discovered by autosomal DNA Matches:

This tree represents two branches that are real branches. Some of the descendants of the Henry Branch on the left match some of the descendants of Michael Butler Branch on the right. I have put the two together as potential brothers to explain the DNA matches.

Brian and Nathan (Butler/Whitty LIne)

Brian and Nathan descend from George Butler and his first wife Mary Whitty. This couple moved from Ireland to Cincinnati where they had Mary Ann. Mary Ann moved to St John, New Brunswick where she married and had descendants including Brian and Nathan who have had their autosomal DNA tested.

Nathan is in green because he has uploaded his DNA results to Gedmatch. Here is how Nathan matches my father-in-law, Richard:

A MRCA of 4.5 suggests a third cousin, once removed. By the tree above, Richard and Nathan would be fourth cousins, twice removed.

Brian tested at AncestryDNA and has a large match with my wife’s Aunt Lorraine:

The Problem with Brian and Lorraine

Ancestry predicts that Lorraine and Brian should be third cousins by the amount of DNA they share. By my proposed chart they would be fourth cousins, once removed. It seems like Lorraine and Brian share too much DNA to be 4th cousins, once removed. Here is part of a 2017 chart showing reported ranges of DNA matching for different relationships:

The highest reported DNA match for a 4C1R is 117 cM. That seems to rule out the chart I have above unless Brian and Lorraine match on another line such as the Crowley line. If Lorraine and Brian are actually third cousins, once removed, that leads to some strange conclusions. That would mean that Henry Butler is actually Michael Butler and that Ann Russel is actually Margaret Croke. Or that Henry/Michael Butler had two wives and that Lorraine and Brian are half third cousins once removed. I don’t know of DNA statistics for 1/2 3C1R, but 147 cM seems like it would be high for that relationship also. Another possibility is that Edward Henry Butler was the son of Henry Butler and Ann Russel but adopted by Michael Butler and Margaret Croke.

Here is how Brian matches my wife’s Aunt Virginia:

Ancestry suggests a 4th cousin match which is more in line with the proposed tree that I have showing that Lorraine and Brian could be fourth cousins, once removed.

Patty and Kim (Butler/Sinnett or Sinnott Line)

Patty matches Lorraine at 39 cM and Virginia at 30 cM which is more in line with my proposed chart. My proposed chart showed Lorraine and Virginia as 4th cousins. 35 cM is an average match for a 4th cousin.

Here is Patty’s tree:

Patty has a shared match with Terri. Here is Terri’s tree:

My guess is that Elmer could be a brother of George. Based on this 1920 Marriage record, that was the case:

That means that I can expand the Butler DNA match/genealogy tree:

Terri matches Virginia by 26 cM and doesn’t match Lorraine.

Kim at gedmatch

Kim’s DNA results are at Gedmatch. Here are three of her DNA matches with people on my larger chart:

Summary and Conclusions

  • In this Blog, I tried to give an overview of all the different types of applicable DNA matching results to my wife’s Butler Line
  • These DNA matches have resulted in finding new Butler relatives and a renewed effort to find genealogical connections.
  • One surprising result is that Brian and Lorraine match by too much DNA for them to be fourth cousins, once removed. If Brian and Lorraine don’t match on other family lines, then it would appear that their ancestors George and Edward Henry would have been brothers rather than 1st cousins. One scenario would have Edward Henry as the son of Henry Butler and Ann Russel and adopted by Michael Butler and Margaret Croke. This would explain why no birth record has been found for Edward H as the son of Michael Butler and Margaret Croke.Although this explanation answers some questions, it also raises other questions. If Edward was the son of Henry Butler, then why does family tradition say that he was the son of Michael Butler?

 

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Updates on Butler Genealogy

I had an email recently from Butler researcher Peter with a big find:

While I was getting ready to write this Blog, I came across another surprise. This was from the Charlotte County, New Brunswick records:

Anne Butler

Let’s start with Anne. I think that this record should say that her parents were Edward Butler and Mary Crowley. Perhaps this is Julia Ann who was three in 1860 in Cincinnati. If they are the same, This Anne would have been born about 1857 and would be about 44 in 1904.

But was Julia born in New Brunswick or Elizabeth City, NJ?

Here is a Julia in Nelson, New Brunswick:

William was widowed.

This is likely Annie who was a single laundress in 1901:

This is also likely the same person in 1896 in St John:

Just to be confusing, FamilySearch has a different version of the marriage license:

Now Anne is from Boston. I thought that this would be a lot easier.

Anne’s Death Record

One genealogy has Anne dying in Taunton, MA in July 1918. I did find a death record, but is this the right person?

This is a very confusing record. I’ll look at this closely:

  • Taunton was known as Taunton Mental Hospital. Could she have been in Taunton for the ‘senile psychosis’?
  • Husband Silas B. Deshon – As far as I know, there was only one Silas B Deshon. There is a listing for Silas in the 1919 Taunton Directory:

  • ‘Hannah’ was in the hospital for one year and two months. Silas apparently moved to Taunton for part or all of this period to take care of his wife.
  • Hannah is about 63. That would put her birth at 1855. I have about 1857. By the way, this is the first time I have seen her name as Hannah.
  • Birthplace: Elizabeth, NJ – This matches with one of her marriage records.
  • Father: Daniel O’Leary – No idea where this came from.
  • Mother: Mary Croak – This matches her marriage record. Julia Ann’s mother was Mary and her grandmother’s maiden name was Croak or Croke.
  • Place of Burial: New Britain CT – I don’t know the reason for this. This could be something to follow up on.

My conclusion is that this is the same person as the Julia Ann Butler in the 1860 Cincinnati Census – assumed to be the daughter of Edward H Butler and Margaret Crowley. The informant was hospital records, so that may explain some of the confusion.

Edward Butler’s Naturalization Papers

I had assumed that Edward Butler would have applied for Naturalization some time while the family lived in the Chicago area in the 1870’s. It turns out that he applied for US Naturalization much sooner than I realized.

This means that Edward was in the US for the 1850 Census. It also means that he came from Ireland to New York in 1843 then to Boston to St John to Cincinnati to Chicago and back to the Boston area.

Here is one possibility for Edward:

That seems to be this Boston couple from 1855 but the age differential has changed:

Here are the two that vouched for Edward:

These two look to be John Ryan and Hugh Gray.

or

Here is a 27 year old Edward in working at a farm in Dedham:

This is possibly the same Edward in 1855:

Edward Butler in the Boston Directories

Here are the entries for 1848-1849:

Here there are only three choices. Edward was probably a laborer and not a clerk. Below, I show that the Edward I’m interested in lived at 9 Belmont next to Hugh Gray at 8 Belmont Street. That means that the 44 Vine Edward is not ours. That means that the Edward at 18 Washington moved to 9 Belmont or moved out of the area and our Edward moved in in 1849.

Here are some Edward Butler’s from the 1849 Boston Directory:

My assumption is that the Edward I am looking for was a laborer. 9 Belmont seems to be in Charlestown:

There is a 44 Vine Street in the South of Boston:

1851 Boston Directory

This list is similar except there is an additional laborer at 18 Stillman in the North End of Boston:

Here is Hugh Gray in 1851:

Fortunately, there was only one Hugh Gray in the Boston Directory. That means that our Edward must have lived at 9 Belmont Street – unless this is a great coincidence.

There are many more John Ryan’s:

Here is Hugh Gray in the 1850 Census in Boston Ward 8 right next to Edward Butler:

Hugh married Ann Carr in Roxbury in 1847:

One would think that Ward 8 would be in Charlestown, but it isn’t:

Sorting Out Belmont Street

I assume that there was a Belmont Street in Boston that isn’t there today. Charlestown is not in Boston. The 1848-1849 Boston Directory gives the location for Belmont Street:

Here is where Edward and Hugh lived:

 

I would say based on proximity, that our Edward lived at 18 Washington Ave in 1848. That would be when he was 21. In 1856, this area was in Ward 7:

Edward Butler in 1850 and 1855

Unfortunately, the 1850 Census does not show relationships? Who was Bridget Butler – a sister or wife? Also Hugh Gray was from Canada. Would Hugh have influenced Edward going to Canada?

There is an Edward Butler and Bridget in the 1855 Massachusetts Census which reflects June 1 of that year. I have that Edward Butler married Mary Crowley on 1 May 1855 in St John. That means that at least the Edward Butler in the Massachusetts Census of 1855 is very unlikely to be the one that I am interested in.

The Boston Directory 1852

This is back down to four entries.

1856

I see Edward is still at Belmont in the 1856 Directory. Does this mean we have the wrong person?

It could mean that the 1856 Directory was a bit behind the time?

In 1856 Edward’s friend Hugh is here:

1865 Boston

I didn’t expect to see Edward at 9 Belmont.

Edward’s living in Boston could explain why he put down Boston for his wife’s and daughter’s birth in the 1870 Cincinnati Census:

Summary and Conclusions

  • The big news is the finding of Edward Butler’s Naturalization papers. This ties him down to Poulrone, Kilkenny Ireland and Boston around 1850 and gives some specifics as to how he got to the US.
  • Previously, I had thought that Edward had emigrated from Ireland to St. John, New Brunswick, as that would have been a normal point of entry. Edward apparently went against the tide and went from Boston to St John, married, had two daughters there and then moved to Cincinnati, then Chicago and then back to the Boston area.
  • The discovery of the Naturalization record lead to the discovery of Edward Butler in the 1850 Census in Boston where he was living with a Bridget Butler, one year younger than Edward. She also was born in Ireland.
  • Julia Ann Butler was born in New Brunswick about 1857 and showed up in the Cincinnati Census of 1860. After that I did not see her and suspected that she had died young. However, I discovered that she married Silas DeShon in St. John in 1904 at about the age of 47.
  • I further followed up on an Ancestry Tree lead and found a death record for Julia Ann (Hannah) Butler DeShon.

 

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Edward Butler Son of Henry Butler and Ann Russel Born 1839 Wexford

Thanks to my fellow researcher Peter from England. He, with the help of Neil, has unearthed Edward Butler. This was no easy task as this Edward was baptized Adam:

George Butler Born 1826 Wexford, Ireland

Adam must have been a popular name in this family as George was also baptized as Adam:

George is important because he moved from Ireland to Cincinnati. He had two wives and descendants who have taken DNA tests. Those DNA tests have linked George to my wife’s ancestor Edward Butler (different than the Edward above). Here is my tree from Henry Butler showing those on the bottom who match my wife’s Butler family by DNA:

Above, I have added in Edward Butler (baptized Adam) next to George.

The Ireland, St John, Cincinnati, and Boston Connection

  1. My wife’s ancestor Edward was born in Ireland. He married in St John, New Brunswick. He moved to Cincinnati, then to the Chicago area and then to the Boston area.
  2. George Butler above was born in Wexford and moved to Cincinnati. However, his daughter Mary Ann who was born in Cincinnati moved to St John where she married Thomas Joseph Murphy. This implies that the family had previous connections with St John.
  3. The Edward of this Blog was born in Wexford, and died in Boston. However, his funeral notice in the newspaper mentions that the funeral arrangements would be of interest in St John, NB.

Here is Edward’s Boston Globe funeral notice thanks to Peter:

Edward Butler Born 1839 Wexford, Ireland

Perhaps this Edward who was baptized Adam can shed some light on these connections. I’ll start with Edward’s death which Peter already found. Edward was listed as married and a longshoreman. He died of pneumonia at the Boston City Hospital:

I found this 1908 marriage:

This Julia A married a man from Digby Nova Scotia. Her parents were Edward E Butler and Catherine Murray. Julia A was said to be born in Boston, but her husband’s naturalization papers say she was born in Ireland:

I can’t be sure this is the right family. It appears that Julia could have been from Cork:

However, other Ancestry trees seem to think that this is the right person:

City Directories

I’ll try some City Directories. Here is Newton, Massachusetts in 1893:

This is at 220 California Street where Edward’s funeral was at in 1891. I assume that b means boards. That would mean that this was a boarding house.

Here is the 1891 Newton Directory:

I get the sense that Edward (Adam) lived in Boston, but had the funeral at a boarding house where Edward H Butler lived in Newton.

Who Was Edward H Bulter, Clerk at 220 California Street?

Hopefully this is more than a wild goose chase.  In 1895, this Edward H was a canvasser:

Here is a bit of a breakthrough in the 1897 Directory:

Here, Edward H makes the switch from clerk to canvasser to machinist. This is important because my wife’s great-grandfather was Edward Henry Butler, a machinist.  In the 1899 Newton Directory, the entry is exactly the same.

By the time of the 1900 Census, Edward H had moved to 26 Crescent Street, Newton:

Here Edward is shown as being born in Massachusetts, where other records have him born in Chicago.

That leads me to an interesting conclusion. My wife’s great-grandfather was living in Newton at least as early as 1891. At that time he was 16 years old, working as a clerk and hosting the funeral of Edward (baptized Adam) Butler who was born in Wexford in 1839. Edward later was a canvasser shortly and then a machinist and moved to 26 crescent street.

[Edit: After further thought, it would make more sense if the Edward H Butler in the Directory and holding the funeral service was the elder Edward H Butler born in Ireland. Subsequent evidence has come to light based on DNA testing that the two may have been brothers. That means that they would have been brothers of the elder George Butler who lived in Cincinnati also.]

In November 1901 Edward H married Lillian Frances Kerivan. However, it seems the marriage got off to a rocky start. Here is a note from the Newton marriage intentions dated 6 November 1901:

This note is in the column titled “married when, where and by whom”. This would usually give the name and address of a priest. Apparently the marriage took place but in Boston, not in Newton where the Intentions were recorded:

Here is the person who married them:

This is also a bit unusual. CL stands for Clergyman. PR stands for priest. That means that this was not a Catholic wedding. Perhaps that is why Edward destroyed the original certificate?

Back To Edward Butler Born 1839 Wexford, Ireland

Other than Edward’s birth and death, not much can be found out about him. Here is a detail from Edward’s death record:

Boston City Hospital was not at 24 Clark Street, so I assume that is where Edward lived prior to his death. According to Google maps, 24 Clark Street is the address of the Society of St James. However, that Society began in 1958. The Society of St James is part of St Stephens Church:

Ancestry has this listing for Edward Butler in the Boston Directory of 1890:

Here is my guess from 1889:

Here is another guess:

The above is from the 1879 St John Directory.

Then, if we want to accept that he was a seaman, we can consider this record:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I am fortunate to have Peter working on my genealogy as he has come up with so many leads.
  • Peter’s finding of this other Edward Butler has lead to more important clues for my wife’s family.
  • Edward son of Henry Butler had his funeral at the boarding house where my wife’s great-grandfather Edward H Butler lived. Edward was the grandson of Michael Butler of Ireland.
  • I suspect that Henry and Michael Butler were brothers.
  • It was difficult finding clues for Edward, son of Henry other than his birth and death records. However, looking at his information shined some light on details of my wife’s family.
  • While working on this Edward, new information has been brought to light by Peter concerning my wife’s immigrant ancestor Edward. I’ll Blog about that soon.

 

 

 

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Upshall DNA Update: Barry From New Zealand

In a previous Blog, I looked at Mervyn’s DNA. He matched my wife’s family on the Newfoundland side where many Upshall’s lived. Upshall DNA and genealogy is a difficult subject. Many families intermarried in the small community of Harbour Buffett where many of these families lived.

Esther’s Early Upshall ThruLines

Esther is my wife’s 1/2 great Aunt. Here are her early Upshall ThruLines:

Here, the working theory is that Sarah Upshall (above left) was the daughter of John Upshall and that she was the single mother of Peter who moved to Newfoundland. This theory seems to be born out by the above ThruLines.

I have also come up with my own tree that mixes ancestry and DNA:

This tree has George in the right columns as one of four children of John Upshall. Sarah is in the middle with many Newfoundland descendants. Interestingly, there is no overlap between Ancestry’s ThruLines and my chart.

The John at the top of the chart was married to an Elizabeth Ellis. The ThruLines for Elizabeth give me one more line to look at:

All the ThruLines have a note that they want me to evaluate the lines. That sounds like a lot of work. The thing that I like about these early ThruLines is that they represent the family before they moved to Newfoundland, so there would be less intermarriage with these lines. That means that these lines should more likely have Upshall common ancestor rather than another name.

Evaluating Esther’s Early Upshall ThruLines

The Upshall/Carter Line

I’ll first look at the additional ThruLine that Elisabeth Ellis has. Barry shows a 19 cM match with Esther. Fortunately, Barry also has uploaded his DNA results to Gedmatch:

Before I look at Barry’s genealogy, I note that Martha also matches Esther at this location. Here is Esther’s Chromosome 12:

This is roughly the area where Barry matches Esther in red. If Barry also matches Martha, then we would have triangulation and indication of a common ancestor:

This shows that Esther, Barry and Martha triangulate. This gives me confidence that the Ancestry ThruLine between Barry and John Upshall is correct.

Here is Martha’s tree. Ancestry has put green rectangles around common ancestors:

This shows that Esther and Martha also match twice on the Kirby/Emberley lines. Barry has 28,000 people in his tree but no Kirby or Emberley. That means that the common ancestor for Esther, Martha and Barry should be Upshall/Ellis.

Barry’s Genealogy

I’ll do a quick tree for Barry to figure out who the private person is in the tree. I got back as far as Priscilla Carter and noticed an Ann Upshall in Barry’s tree:

This appears to be Ann’s birth record:

Here is Winterborne-Stickland, about 6 miles from Hazelbury Bryan:

Triangulating With Barry

Now we have a match by DNA, Triangulation and genealogy:

The people in the green boxes have their DNA at Gedmatch.

DNA Painter

All that is left to do is to paint in these ancestors on Esther’s Chromosome 12:

This shows more precisely where Barry’s match is on Esther’s paternal side Chromosome 12. It appears that Joan’s sister Elaine and Martha have DNA from either John Upshall born 1739 or his wife Elisabeth Ellis.

Summary and Conclusions

  • In updating my wife’s side Upshall DNA matches, I came across Barry
  • Because Barry had his genealogy at Ancestry and his DNA at Gedmatch, he was the perfect example to show and Upshall match that was outside of Newfoundland.
  • A match outside of Newfoundland is important as other Newfoundland matches have confounding DNA matches and genealogy.
  • I was able to show genetic triangulation with Barry, my wife’s Aunt Esther and at least one other match. That triangulation in conjunction with the genealogy seemed to confirm that Esther’s DNA match with Barry was from an Upshall born in the 1700’s.
  • In areas where there is intermarriage, it helps to go to earlier matches outside the area of intermarriage if possible. In this case the Upshall matches go back to the area of Hazelbury Bryan in Dorset, England.

 

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Update On My Hartley YDNA

There are many Hartleys in the world. Not all of them are related which shows up in the YDNA testing. This is my first update in over 2 years on my Hartley YDNA.

My Hartley Branch is R-A11132

This branch may be shown many different ways. This view is from the Big Tree:

My Hartley overall group is R1b and further L21. R1b is mostly European and L21 can be loosely associated what is called Celtic background. In my case this could be considered perhaps early British as opposed to the later arriving Anglo Saxons. This designation is based on SNP testing.

From the chart above, our branch of Hartleys are associated with the Z17911 Branch of Bennett, Phillips, Merrick, Thomas and Smith and more distantly associated with the Z16854 Branch of Pillsbury, Hayes and Hays.

Why Is My Hartley Branch R-A11138 at YFull?

Here I am under A11138 at YFull’s YTree:

Under R-A1138, there are two people. It is difficult to tell who they are due to only id’s being used. I had assumed that these two were me and the other Hartley BigY tester. But, based on the the A11138 designation, I think that the other person in this group must be Smith:

So now I hope that my BigY Hartley match uploads his results to YFull.

Dating Hartley YDNA

YDNA can be dated by SNPs or by STRs

I recently posted information on a Facebook page noting that I had 9 BIgY matches and only one 111 STR match. One informed responder noted that:

It’s pretty unusual to have one Y111 match and 9 Big Y matches certainly! Actually though that would normally mean the STRs have mutated faster than usual and the SNPs have mutated more slowly than usual, so that enough STRs have changed that only one match is left within the STR matching threshold (10 at Y11) while fewer than 30 SNPs have changed between yourself and the 9 matches so they show up on the Big Y matching report. 

Unless there is some other reporting error at work, I highly suspect that 8 of those Big Y matches are off on their own branch where their common ancestors had a lot of STR mutations and pulled them all out of reach of your STR matching threshold!

The person above, David Vance also produced a STR Mutation History for the group I am in. Here is the Hartley/Smith portion:

This shows that the common ancestor between Smith and Hartley is around 900 AD. The common ancestor between my Hartley match is 1400 AD. David further notes:

The age estimates in green are based on the STRs, not the SNPs; but are overall pretty consistent with the Big Tree estimates although note they align with the END of each block, not the start (since they refer to when the branching underneath each node first started).

This dating is helpful as it is the only one that I have right now. However, it is possible to roughly date the FTDNA Block tree by using 144 years times the average private variants under A11132. As there are an average of three private variants, that comes out to 432 years. I could add another 63 years for my age to get roughly 500 years or about 1500 AD. So if this is right, I find it pretty amazing that my match and I have both kept the Hartley surname for between 500 and 600 years!

Summary and Conclusion

  • By comparing my FTDNA Block Tree with the YFull YTree, I saw that YTree was missing some information. That missing information was my other Hartley Big Y Hartley match
  • David Vance performed a STR Mutation History for me. This gave a Hartley common ancestor date of about 1400 AD.
  • I did a rough estimate based on SNPs. The two Hartley’s have an average of three private variants. This would put our common ancestors at roughly 1500 AD.

 

 

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Mervyn’s Newfoundland DNA: Proceed With Caution

I don’t mean to single out Mervyn for proceeding with caution. You need to proceed with caution with most people from Newfoundland who have had their DNA tested. Due to the small isolated locations in Newfoundland, some re-intermarrying of families happened.

Mervyn got in touch with me because he matched my wife’s 1/2 great Aunt Esther. Esther’s parents were both from Harbour Buffett, so Esther matches most people by DNA who have Harbour Buffett Roots.

Mervyn and Esther Show Common Ancestors at Ancestry

Here is what AncestryDNA shows:

Ancestry thinks that based on the DNA match Mervyn and Esther have a 2% chance of being second cousins twice removed:

Mervyn and Esther appear to be related at least three different ways. Here is the ancestry of Mervyn’s maternal grandfather:

Peter Upshall is a shared ancestor twice. William Shave and Margaret Burton are also shared ancestors.`

Here are the AncestryDNA Thrulines for Peter Upshall from Esther’s viewpoint:

These add up to a lot of Upshall matches for Esther. I counted 45 matches above for Esther. But as I suggest above, how do we know that they are for Upshall or Shave? Or they could be for Burton.

Joan To the Rescue

Joan is my mother-in-law. She is Esther’s 1/2 niece. That means that Joan is related to Esther only on Ether’s paternal side. Here is Esther’s tree:

Esther matches Mervyn on Esther’s paternal and maternal sides. However, Esther matches Joan on Esther’s paternal side only. One complicating factor is that Esther has Dicks on her paternal and maternal sides. Mervyn has Upshall, Shave, Burton and Dicks on his maternal side. This is where my title comes in: Proceed with Caution.

Joan’s Peter Upshall ThruLines

Here is how Joan matches Mervyn:

Joan matches Mervyn at 30 cm.

The Upshall Genetic Genealogy Tree

I created this tree that mixes Upshall genealogy and DNA matches:

This is a work in process. The ideal people on this tree would also have their DNA uploaded to Gedmatch. Fortunately, Mervyn has done that.

Here Esther and Mervyn are in green as their DNA is at Gedmatch. I have pretty much the same problem, in that there is the potential to match on different lines.

After some more finessing:

Above, MB is important as I don’t see any Dicks in her ancestry. Karen is a special case as the tree followed the DNA testing rather than the genealogy. We have no record that Jessie Kate was the daughter of Henry Upshall, but she fits in well there. Also I haven’t added in my mother-in-law Joan or her sister Elaine.

Looking At Gedmatch

Let’s look at how Mervyn matches MB, Esther, Joan and Karen.

Here are the DNA matches between Mervyn and Esther:

Mervyn and MB

Mervyn and Joan

Mervyn and Elaine

I also had Joan’s sister Elaine tested:

Mervyn and Karen

Esther’s Matches

Esther and MB

From this, I deduce that Mervyn’s match with Esther on Chromosome 17 is an Upshall match.

Esther and Joan

This one almost goes off my computer screen:

This brings up an interesting point. The common ancestor for Joan and Esther is Esther’s father. However, this also represents the DNA of Esther’s maternal grandparents Henry Upshall and Catherine Dicks. I had painted this so far onto Esther’s Chromosomes using a web tool called DNA Painter:

Here Esther is 17% painted and 25% paternally painted. Let’s add in Joan’s DNA matches:

Now Esther is 45% paternally painted and 26% painted overall:

 

While I’m at it, I can add in the matches between Esther and Elaine:

This gets Esther up to 29% painted and 50% paternally painted.

A Side Trip to Esther’s X Chromosome

I note that above, I have nothing mapped for Esther’s X Chromosome. According to Gedmatch, this is her largest match:

This Fran seems to be this person at Ancestry:

This Ancestry page has that Caroline is the daughter of Moses Burton Dicks:

The Dicks Genetic Genealogy Chart I have shows this:

I’ll add in Fran:

A Snag On Esther’s Side

Here is Esther’s tree:

The interesting thing is that the X match could be on Esther’s paternal or maternal side. It seems like the match has eliminated a Dicks common ancestor. That is because the elder Christopher Dicks did not pass down an X Chromosome to either son Christopher or Joseph – assuming I have the genealogy right. That means that this match likely represents Burton or some sort – again assuming that the Margaret who married Christopher Dicks was a Burton. So, although I still have not painted in any of Esther’s X Chromosome, i did learn something about this match.

Mervyn’s Dicks Side

Mervyn says his genealogy is a work in progress and aren’t they all? I had some questions about Mervyn’s Dicks side. Ancestry shows these possible connections between Mervyn and Esther:

It turns out that Ancestry found some connections and a possible connection. Here is how Ancestry shows the Dicks connection:

One problem is that Frances Dicks show that she gave birth to Margaret at about the age 14.

This match-up seems more likely:

However, as my wife and mother-in-law are not related on this side, I am not looking so much at these matches.

Mervyn and Joan’s Unlikely Shave Connection

Here is a new one on me from AncestryDNA:

I’m not sure how Ancestry came up with this. My best guess is that Elizabeth could be Elizabeth Crann. Look at the ThruLines:

For one thing this shows that Joan’s ancestor Elizabeth was born in 1820 and was a sister to George Alfred Shave born 47 years later! Also Elizabeth would have been born when her father was negative 5 years old. Further, Joan and Esther have the same Newfoundland genealogy, so how could they descend from siblings? Let’s forget about this screwed-up line. I hope that Ancestry didn’t deduce this from anything I have on my Tree at Ancestry.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was all over the place with Mervyn’s genealogy and DNA matches. However, as I said, Newfoundland genealogy and DNA matches are confusing.
  • Even Ancestry seemed confused with its genealogy. Perhaps it is pulling from something in my tree or someone else’s tree that is off.
  • Overall, I did a brief summary of Mervyn’s genealogy and DNA matches. There is a lot there.
  • There would be more room for doing analysis at Gedmatch to try to parse out the different lines from Mervyn’s ancestry. It looks like it could be a lot of work to do this.
  • I was glad to improve my Uphall genetic genealogy tree and use my existing Dicks genetic genealogy trree. I see that I need to spruce up the Upshall Tree.
  • I took a diversion to ‘paint’ some more of Esther’s DNA and look at her top X Chromosome match.
  • Esther is Mervyn’s top match. However, Mervyn is number 17 on Esther’s Geadmatch match list. That is because Esther is of an older generation. Also because other of her closer relatives have tested their DNA.
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An Update on Jean’s McMaster/Frazer DNA

Here is a short chronology of what has happened so far.

  1. Jean got in touch with me because she wanted to figure out the ancestry of her great-grandmother Effie McMaster who was born in Ontario in 1861. She found that she had a DNA match to Keith who recommended she get in touch with me. Keith like me and others descend from William McMaster and Margaret Frazer.
  2. I looked at Jean’s genealogy and found a connection to my ancestors William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. Effie lived with her Aunt Susan McMaster Beckett in 1871 and with an Isabel McMaster. In the 1861 Beckett household Isabel McMaster was already there as well as a George A. McMaster. George A. McMaster was the son of George McMaster and Jane McMaster. Jane McMaster was the daughter of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. Jean’s tradition was that William McMaster and Margaret Frazer were the parents of Effie. However, given the time-frame, that would be physically impossible. I believe that William and Margaret McMaster were Effie’s grandparents. Isabel could have been Effie’s mother.
  3. I asked Jean if she would upload her DNA to Gedmatch for comparison. Based on comparisons with other descendants of William and Margaret McMaster, it seemed probable that William and Margaret McMaster were Effie’s grandparents. Jean also matched other people from a Frazer DNA project that I manage. I noted that Jean had an ancestry that could result in an X DNA match with other descendants of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. However, Jean’s DNA upload to Gedmatch did not include her X Chromosome.

Jean’s Surprising Lack of X Chromosome Matches on the McMaster/Frazer Line

That brings us up to present. Jean did upload her X Chromosome results, but I could find no matches with known descendants from the McMaster/Frazer couple that we have been looking at. I can think of three possible reasons:

  1. The first would be that Jean does not descend from William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. However, all other evidence seems to lead to the conclusion that Jean does descend from that couple. There are other explanations.
  2. It could be that Effie’s parent was a male McMaster. However, that would only eliminate the William McMaster as a possible X Chromosome donor to his son. This possibility seems less likely.
  3. Isabel or a female McMaster is still the parent of Effie, but the X Chromosome representing William McMaster and Margaret Frazer were not passed down to Jean. This is the option that I am favoring.

How To Explain Jean’s Lack of X Chromosome Match

First of all, it is possible for relatives to match or not match on any Chromosome. For example, here is Jean’s match with Keith. Jean and Keith match each other on two of their 23 Chromosomes: 

Here is how Jean inherited her two X Chromosomes. She got one from her dad which is the same as the X Chromosome he got from his mom. However, we are not interested in that line in this Blog.

It is Jean’s mother who descends from Effie. Etta gave Jean her X Chromosome which was some combination of the DNA from Paul Swayze and his Adams wife. However, we don’t know what that combination was. It could have been half Swayze and half Adams or all one or the other. I have mapped out my three sisters’ X Chromosomes and it looks like this:

My three sisters are Sharon, Heidi and Lori. They all got the same DNA from their dad. That was the Frazer DNA that he got from his mom. The mother’s side is what we are looking at. Sharon got about 1/3 of her mother’s father’s purple DNA followed by about a third of her mother’s mother’s DNA, then back to her mother’s father’s DNA. On the bottom row, Lori, got a variation of that theme but in reverse order and in different amounts. Heidi got a tiny bit of her mom’s mother’s DNA followed by the rest being all her maternal grandfather’s DNA. My guess is that Jean’s X Chromosome could be all of her paternal grandmother Adams DNA and little or no Swayze DNA. That would explain why she wouldn’t match other McMaster/Frazer descendants on the X Chromosome as her McMaster and Frazer X Chromosome DNA would come i on the Swayze side.

It is possible that if Jean has siblings that had their DNA tested, they would likely have a different combination of X DNA that may show the descent from McMaster and Frazer. The reason I say this is that when Paul Swayze passed down his X DNA to his daughter Etta, it was the same X Chromosome that he got from his mother Effie. Effie had two X Chromosomes that she got from what we are saying was her McMaster mother. Her McMaster mother who we are initially guessing was Isabell passed down some combination of X DNA from William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. That is why, if our genealogy is right, the main reason that Jean doesn’t match other McMaster/Frazer descendants on the X Chromosome is the reason I explained above. Actually, there is another possinbility. That is that the inherited X McMaster/Frazer Chromosome that Jean inherited isn’t lining up with the X McMaster/Frazer DNA that the other McMaster/Frazer descendants inherited.

Summary and Conclusions:

  • Some previous large X DNA matches lead me to suppose that I was matching some people on my McMaster/Frazer Line. This came to be true as I was able to line up genealogy and DNA matches. As it turns out, I am still finding descendants of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer.
  • Jean found me and I was able to connect her genealogy with my McMaster/Frazer ancestry.
  • As a result, I thought that the reverse would be true, that she would match certain McMaster/Frazer descendants on the X Chromosome.
  • I was reminded that just because there can be a match doesn’t mean that there has to be a DNA X Chromosome match.
  • I discussed some ways in which Jean would not match other McMaster/Frazer descendants on the X Chromosome.

 

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The DNA of Effie Jean (Jane) McMaster Born Ontario 1861

In my previous Blog on Effie, I looked at some possible parentage. In this Blog, I’ll get into some genetic genealogy, looking at the DNA of Effie’s great-granddaughter, Jean. Jean recently uploaded her Ancestry results to Gedmatch for comparison.

Effie’s Possible Ancestry

Based on reasons I presented in my previous Blog, it seems like Effie’s grandparents should be William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. Here is a pre-Effie tree that combines DNA-tested descendants of William and Margaret McMaster with an ancestry chart:

I had guessed that Effie was the daughter of Isabel McMaster who should fit in on the second row above. I note that Jean told me that she matches Keith by DNA. So that is further evidence that Jean and Effie may belong on this chart.

Here I entered Jean’s line in a different color as we are still figuring this out.

Jean and Keith

It turns out that Jean is Keith’s fourth highest DNA match and my brother Jim is Keith’s fifth highest DNA match at Gedmatch. Here is how Jean and Keith match:

The DNA doesn’t tell who the common ancestor is, but suggests that Jean and Keith have a common ancestor. On the chart above, Keith and Jean’s common ancestors are 5 generations away. Gedmatch is guessing that the common ancestor could be as close as 4 generations away. By the chart above, if I am right, Keith and Jean would be 4th cousins.

By comparison, here is where Keith and my brother Jim match:

If Jim, Keith and Jean all matched on overlapping areas, then we could say that the three triangulate and share the same common ancestors. However, the fact that they don’t all match on the same segments doesn’t mean that they don’t share common ancestors. Sounds confusing, I know.

Jean and Emily

The next person I recognize on Jean’s DNA match list is Emily. Here is how they match:

Jean and Paul

Jean has a smaller match with my cousin Paul:

 

None of my family has DNA matches with Jean but that is not unusual for a 4th cousin once removed. However, one could say that we are related in the sense that Paul and Emily are related to Jean as my siblings and I are 2nd cousins once removed to Paul and Emily.

BV – Descendant of Mary Ann McMaster

BV had uploaded her results to Gedmatch, but now I don’t see them. It could be that there was a problem with the results or a private button was turned on. I wrote a Blog about BV’s DNA here. It’s too bad that those are missing as I would have liked to have seen how Jean matched BV. Right now the only DNA uploaded to Gedmatch is from Jean and descendants of Fanny McMaster. [However, see below in the Blog.]

Jean and the X Chromosome

Jean probably would be a good X Chromosome match with others, but her X Chromosome DNA did not get uploaded to Gedmatch. The reason that she would be a good match is that the X Chromosome is never inherited by a son from the father. So for example,

The places that I have red boxes, show where there cannot be an X Chromosome passed down. This means that BV can match Jean, my sisters,  or Emily by the X Chromosome. In order to show this, we would need to get BV’s DNA back up on Gedmatch and get Jean’s X Chromosome results to Gedmatch.

Jean’s Matches with Frazers

I have a Frazer DNA project, so I’ll check some of these people to see if Jean mathes any of them. Here Jean matches Cathy:

Here is Cathy’s tree as it relates to the Frazer family:

Jean and Cathy’s common ancestors could be Frazer, Stinson, Parker, Moore, or someone not even on this chart. Cathy is on the Archibald Line of the Frazer family. The best guess for Jean’s ancestor Margaret Frazer is that Margaret is on the James Line of the Frazer family.

Jean and Jamie

I found a small match here:

Jean and the James Line of the Frazers

Here Jean matches Toni:

Here is where Toni is on the DNA/genealogy chart for the James Frazer Line:

This means that if I Margaret Frazer placed right and Toni placed right, they would be on opposite sides of the James Line Chart. That means that Toni and Jean would be about 6th cousins, or something may be wrong in the chart. The other possibility is that they match on a  different line.

Rodney and Jean’s DNA Match

Here is Rodney on the Chart:

All the same caveats are in effect for this match that were in effect for Jean’s match with Toni above.

Frank and Jean

I’m looking for trends here. So far the trend is that Jean is matching more Frazers on the James Line side as compared to the Archibald LIne.

Here Frank shows as a closer relative to descendants of Margaret Frazer based on where I have her placed in the tree.

Keith and Jean

I already mentioned Keith above.

However, above, I was thinking about the McMaster side. The assumption is that Keith and Jean match on the McMaster and Frazer sides, so we wouldn’t know which side the matches above are on.

Barbara and Jean

It’s a good thing that I went through my list twice, as I missed Barbara the first time:

Finding BV

It turns out that the Barbara above is actually the BV I was looking for. If I search for BV at Gedmatch by her kit#, Gedmatch tells me that there is no such kit. But if I put in her kit number into Gedmatch for comparison, I can find matches. This is the missing information that I was looking for.

Based on the proposed tree, BV and Jean are third cousins, once removed.  Based on Gedmatch’s best guess, BV and Jean have a common ancestor 4.4 generations away. William McMaster and Margaret McMaster are 4 generations from BV and 5 generations from Jean. That averages out to 4.5 generations. Seeing as a common ancestor would never be 4.4 generations away, that is pretty close.

Triangulation, Crossovers and Chromosome 8

If BV, Jean and Emily each matched each other on Chromosome 8, that would be a strong indication that they each received that DNA from the same ancestor. However, look at what happened. BV and Jean match each other on Chromosome 8 between positions 57M and 71.  Emily and Jean match each other between positions 71 and 104M:

This could indicate a crossover. A crossover is where the DNA we inherited from one ancestor cross over to the DNA we inherited from the spouse of that ancestor. In this case, the crossover could be between William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. Our crossovers are inherited from our grandparents. So, if this is a crossover between William McMaster and Margaret Frazer it would be a crossover that came down to BV or Jean either through Elizabeth Shannon or Effie McMaster.

Here is Elizabeth:

Here is Effie:

Summary and Conclusions

  • Jean uploaded her DNA to Gedmatch for comparison. That comparison shows that she matches BV, Emily and Paul. These four descend from William McMaster and Margaret Frazer.
  • By a proposed chart, Jean would be third cousin once removed to BV. She would be fourth cousin to Keith, Emily and Paul. She would be 4th cousin once removed to me and my five siblings. Jean and my direct family do not show shared DNA, but that is not uncommon for that level of relationship. However, our family has matches to BV, Keith, Emily and Paul and the genealogical connection is more secure.
  • Jean’s X Chromosome results did not get uploaded to Gedmatch. A comparison of those results should give further evidence that Jean shares the common ancestors of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer with BV, Keith, Emily, and my direct family.
  • I was not able to triangulate Jean’s DNA matches. Triangulation would indicate a specific common ancestor. However, the fact that Jean’s matches didn’t triangulate does not mean that the proposed genealogy is wrong. I also looked at a possible crossover between DNA inherited from William McMaster and DNA inherited from Margaret Frazer.
  • In general, the DNA results support the assumption that Jean descends from William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. In order for that to be the case, Effie McMaster would have to have been the child of one of William and Margaret’s children. I had proposed Isabel as that child. However, I have no direct proof that Isabel is the child of William and Margaret and no proof that Effie is the daughter of Isabel. Having said that, there is a likelihood that Isabel could be the daughter of William and Margaret and that Effie could be Isabel’s daughter.
  • So what I am saying is that the DNA gives more evidence that William and Margaret are the grandparents of Effie, but do not supply additional evidence that Isabel is the mother of Effie. The evidence that Isabel may be the mother of Effie has to do with the fact that Isabel was in the right place at the right time and had the last name of McMaster.

 

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A Short Teagarden Genealogy

I recently visited the State of Washington for the birth of my first grandchild Elora Pearl and had the pleasure of staying at a Pam’s house who had the last name of Teagarden. She felt that the name was German. I said that I could do some genealogy for her.

Nine Generations of Teagardens

In not too long, on my cell phone, I was able to find (including my host) nine generations of Teagardens:

I’ll call Pam generation 1 and go back from her.

Generation One – Pam

Here is Pam’s Senior High School photo from San Antonio, Texas:

Generation Two – Pam’s Father

Here is Gilbert Darwood’s photo a little cut off on the left:

The photo was from a Teacher’s college in Alpine, Texas, though Pam says her dad did not pursue teaching as a career.

Generation Three – Weldon John (Jack) Leo Teagarden (1905-1964)

Pam surprised me by pulling out a phonograph collection that featured her grandfather:

Jack Teagarden was a famous jazz trombone player. I found this short bio at Ancestry:

Born in 1905 in Vernon, Texas, Jack Teagarden was an influential jazz trombonist and singer, regarded as the “Father of Jazz Trombone.” His musical abilities were largely self-taught and for that reason, unrestricted. He developed innovative positions and effects on the instrument, and was known for his bluesy-style. He recorded with Louis Armstrong, among other notable jazz players.

Here is a snapshot of Weldon Leo (Jack) in 1920:

Jack is the oldest son. His father died in 1918, so when he was about 12. At this time, they were living in Nebraska.

Pam’s grandmother was Dee Ora Binyon. In 1930, she was living in her sister’s house in Rankin, Texas with her two children and working as a telephone operator while Jack pursued his musical career. Ora married Jack in 1924. At the time of the 1930 Census, Ora was listed as not married.

Generation Four – Charles Woodbury Teagarden (1878-1918)

The Wikipedia biography for Charles’ famous son Jack says:

His father was an amateur brass band trumpeter and started him on baritone horn; by age seven he had switched to trombone. His first public performances were in movie theaters, where he accompanied his mother, a pianist.

Here is Charles in 1910:

If my Google Map is right, Vernon is between Amarillo and Dallas:

In 1910, Charles’ occupation was listed as a ginner in the cotton gin industry. I was able to find an extensive biography of Charles at Ancestry:

Birth: Dec. 12, 1878 Grapeland Houston County Texas, USA Death: Nov. 3, 1918 Vernon Wilbarger County Texas, USA Son of John McGuire Teagarden and Sarah Beatrice Durham. Married Helen Giengar. Together they had four children. All of their children were top flight Jazz musicians. The most noted was Jack Teagarden. Charles was a “cotton gin man” – an outstanding oil mill engineer and mechanic; Chief Engineer for the Vernon Cotton Oil Co. Some say he was also a musician down in the Red River Country on the Texas-Oklahoma boarder, where they lived. It was “Woodie” who gave Jack a baritone horn when he was seven. Helen was a musician who used to play the piano in theatres in the days of silent movies. Abour her, Jack said, “I guess I was luckier than most fellows – my mother’s a teacher, a piano teacher, and still is (1963). She is only 16 years older than I am…she’s a very talented girl…she taught me how to read music and the first training I had was the right training.” From Teagarden Book – Vogt – 1988 “Woodie” died in the flu epidemic on 1918.

Generation Five – John Maguire Teagarden (1851-1928)

I found this photo of John at Ancestry:

This information is from findagrave.com:

John was the son Oswin Teagarden and Mehitable Baker.

John married Sarah Beatrice Durhan, Jan 10, 1878 in Floyd, Texas.
Together they had seven children
Charles Woodbury(twin), Mary Francis(twin) Lula Rose , William Albert (b. Sept 3, 1898 d. 1954), Minnie Bernice, Joseph Moore, and John Bailey.

Sarah died Nov 10, 1898 in Elctra, Texas and is buried there.

The oldest son, Charles Woodbury married and had 4 children before his early death in 1918. These children, Weldon, Norma, Charles and Eugene would become noted Jazz musicians. Weldon is known today as Jack Teagarden.

In 1900, John was a widowed farmer in Wilbarger County, Texas:

Vernon was also in Wilbarger County. This shows that John was born in Louisiana. However, by 1860, the family was living in Sumpter, Texas:

Generation Six – (1812-1887)

Here is Oswin and his wife Mehitabel Baker:

This couple got around a bit. The first useful US Census was in 1850:

Here, Oswin and Mehitabel and their young family are in Shrevesport, Louisiana. A Laborer was living in the house also but no age is given. I found this biography at Ancestry:

Son of John B Teagarden and Rosanna McGuire; husband of Mehitable Baker; Father of 11 including Joseph Oswin Teagarden.
Oswin was apprenticed to a boootmaker in Hebron, Ohio at an early age and for four years, experienced ill treatment. He did not follow this trade but engaged in the livestock business and drove herds as far east as Philadelphia. He then entered the mercantile business, first settling in Martinsburg, West Virginia. After their marriage, Oswin and his father-in-law, Artemas Baker (member of Congress from Ohio in 1825) ordered a flat-boat constructed in one of the boat yards on the Ohio River. They loaded on their families, a number of friends, their possessions and proceeded down the Mississippi River to New Orleans where they sold the boat. Then up the Red River by steamboat to Shreveport, Louisiana where Oswin spent the next three years as a merchant.

Artemas Baker and family continued overland to Dallas County, Texas and Oswin followed later to settle at Rusk in Cherokee County. His wanderings were in 3 year cycles and he next went to Dayton in Polk County. These trips were by wagon and eventually they moved to Sumpter in Trinity County where he had a large general store with a drug department.

As a druggist and homeopathic physician, Oswin was assigned as a Medical Purchasing Agent by the Confederate States of America for the Army of the Mississippi. He often made trips to New Orleans disguised as a Dutch peddler. On one occasion when he had $4000 in gold on his person (his own money) intending to buy scarce goods for his store, he was arrested but a squad of Federal soldiers. Realizing he would be searched and his money taken, he clamored to be sent to General Butler. The squad agreed to take him to the General but Oswin managed to lose himself in the crowded street. He had four years of service in the Army.

Early in the war between the states, two companies of volunteers were orgainzed in Trintiy county for the Confederate Army and Charles(Oswin’s son) enlisted in one of them. Although over the conscription age, his father (Oswin) enlisted and took his sons place; as a druggist, the son would be exempt and with the help of clerks could conduct their large store. – Teagarden Book

Joseph Teagarden’s memories of his father writen 1953 when he (Joe) was in his 70’s.
“I have said very little about my father and I shall try to record what I can remember of the best man I ever knew. A man who had no enemies and like my mother was revered by all in the little town.
He was an indulgent father, never even scolded me but once, which I deserved. I am unable to place the time on the all these few memories of my patents, but one occasion, I think it was during the war, he came home during the Christmas Holidays and on horseback and in riding by the house on the way to the stables in the rear, he tapped on the windows of the dinning room with his riding whip. The house being built on a corner lot and to the property line, had no fence on the front and sides. He rode along the side of the house on which the dinning room windows opened. So when he tapped on the window the larger children cried out that there was Dad and all was excitement. 
Another time some years later, possibly 1870, in the spring, when all six of us sons of the family and my father went fishing. Walking to Piney Creek nearly two miles away, when the older ones, impatient at our progress were walking too fast for me. My father called a halt saying they were walking too fast for him. Which surprised me as I was the littlest one and hadn’t thought he was getting tired. 
I remember I caught the second best string of fish, Sam beating me by one or two. 
Another time when only four of us boys with Mother and Father went to the same creek bottom to gather backberries, where they were in great profusion in the cane brakes. On this occasion we went in conveyances, possibly the old folks and myself in a buggy and the others on horseback. 
Another vivid memory was when my father had taken a long trip to Austin attending the legislature lobbying for some northern capitalists seeking charter for two railroads – He succeeded in securing both charters, but on his way home he was taken sick and for some time, possibly two or three weeks we had no word from him. Mother becoming alarmed wrote to several prominent masons in that section. Soon after this he returned home barely able to travel. I rememeber that he was very sick for some time. One reason for my mother’s uneasiness was the fact that at the time there were many murders and robberies on the roads and my father was driving a very beautiful span of matched bay horses, very valuable ar the time.”
From Joe Teagardens “Life of an Ordinary Man” 

Family Members

Parents

John B Teagarden

1779 – unknown

Rosanna McGuire Teagarden

1780–1817

Spouse

Mehitabel Baker Teagarden

1816–1898

Siblings

John Marion Teagarden

1810–1870

James Ulysses Teagarden

1813–1853

Half Siblings

William Teagarden

1819–1888

Children

Louisa Teagarden

1842–1843

Charles Artemas Teagarden

1843–1888

Rose Ellen Teagarden Evans

1846–1889

Mary Oconasta Teagarden Adams

1849–1941

John McGuire Teagarden

1851–1928

William Baker Teagarden

1854–1933

Samuel Teagarden

1856–1940

Timothy Oliver Teagarden

1858–1942

Joseph Oswin Teagarden

1861–1954

That covers a lot. The Census lists Oswin’s birthplace as Virginia, but the findagrave index lists his birth as Pennsylvania:

This web site on the Teagarden family refers to Oswin as a confederate smuggler.

Generation Seven – John B Teagarden (1779-1830)

I don’t have quite as much on John B Teagarden:

I did find this short account:

From Find A Grave:

John was born near Old Redstone Fort. His parents are William Teagarden and Bethia Craig. He married twice. First marriage was to Rosanna McGuire in 1805. They had 6 children; Louisa, George, Bethia, John Marion, Oswin, and James U. 
After Rosanna’s death in 1817, John remarried Sarah Ripley Hartwell. Together, Sarah and John had one child, a son, William.
John died about 1830 

Generation Eight – William Teagarden (1746-1814)

Here we are in the Revolutionary period. Again, I rely on the findagrave.com website:

Private Pennsylvania Militia, Revolutionary War
William Teagarden, son of Abraham and Mary (Parker) Tegarden, was born in 1746, probably at “Tecart’s Delight” near Hagerstown, Maryland. He inherited land along the Monongahela River, near present-day Fredericktown, Pennsylvania. In addition to farming, he operated the Monongahela ferry at Tenmile Creek.

During the War for Independence, he served as a private in Captain James Mc Lean’s Company of the “Invalid Regiment,” Pennsylvania Militia, in 1783, and saw action in the defense of Washington County. Such resistance on the part of the frontiersmen in the rear helped make possible the Continental Army’s success on the front. He served also as a Frontier Ranger in the Pennsylvania Militia under Captain James Seals 1793-94, the unit responsible for the defense of Greene County against the Indians.

Family lore tells that William, intending to follow his friend John Hardin to new settlements opening in Kentucky after Independence, sold the Monongahela property and received payment in Continental currency, which soon thereafter became worthless. In a state of near-bankruptcy, he was forced to abandon his plans, and instead settled on land he claimed on Wheeling Creek in the West Finley Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania, where he remained until his death.

William married Bethia Craig, daughter of John Craig of Harford County, Maryland, and had 13 children.

Here is Greene County in the SW part of Pennsylvania:

Here is the Wheeling Creek in West Finley:

According to this website, William was buried in the Teagarden Cemetery in Richhill, PA:

Here is the family cemetery, not far from West Finley:

Generation Nine – Abraham Teagarden Born 1718 Germany

Pam knew that her ancestors went back to Germany, but perhaps didn’t realize that it was such a long time ago. I see this entry in Ancestry for Abraham Teagarden:

The question here is whether the Senior or Junior Teagarden is the father of William Teagarden. A Teagard Early History posted at Ancestry indicates that it was Abraham Teagarden II who married Mary Parker:

That gives us two more generations back to Christian Tegarden. I have a reference to the website here. The author was interested in an Elizabeth Teagarden who was the sister of William Teagarden. The parents through great-grandparents listed above were for Elizabeth Teagarden.

The Tegarden family was from the area of Solingen, Germany:

Solingen was famous for the making of blades or swords. The above genealogy notes that some of these Tegardens were from Meigen and associates Meigen with Meissen, Germany. However, I believe that Meigen was a part of Solingen. There is currently a Meigen and Meigener Street to the East of the City of Solingen:

These Streets are also near an area called Theegarten.

That finished my brief genealogy of the Teagardens. I actually went back 11 generations. Christian Tegarden was born in 1650.

 

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The Mystery of Effie Jean (Jane) McMaster Born 1861 Ontario

I recently had an email from the great-granddaughter of Effie Jean McMaster whose name was also Jean. She has been trying to find out more about her mother’s favorite grandmother. Here if Effie’s photo at age 18:

The Mystery of Effie McMaster

Effie’s great-granddaughter states:

Family oral history and limited documentation indicate that the McMaster’s immigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1845 from Sligo. My great-grandmother, Effie Jean (Jane) McMaster, b. 1861, Effingham, Ontario, Canada was born to William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. He is said to have died before she was born and that her mother, Margaret, was unable to care for her and she was “adopted” by a Susan McMaster, b. 1834, Sligo, Ireland, and her husband, John Beckett, b. 1806, Ontario, Canada. In family oral and written history, Susan and Margaret were ‘sisters’ but both belonged to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) who referred to each other as ‘sisters’ by religious tradition, casting doubt on any biological connection.  

Then in a follow-up email:

I started my genealogy journey because I wanted to find out more about the woman my mother adored, my great-grandmother Effie Jean (Jane) McMaster. Ironically, I’ve never been able to unlock the mystery of her parentage. I have been through the Canadian Census’s, the Quaker Meeting notes, read notes in autograph books and the back of pictures and queried family members when they were alive but still no answers. The family oral history says her father, William McMaster, died before she was born in 1961 and her mother, Margaret Frazer, died when she was 16, about 1877, indicating she probably knew her mother. Effie does show up in the 1871 Census as the ‘adopted’ daughter of Susan McMaster and John Beckett but I’ve been unable to find any death certificates, gravesites or mention in church records of William McMaster/Margaret Frazer. I’ve looked at Canadian immigration records and have found a Margaret McMaster traveling with a child but it is before my g-grandmother was born. Again, dates and ages do not match.

Effie in 1871

Here is Effie in 1871:

Effie shows as adopted at age 9, but either with a line through adopted (or underlined?). She goes by the name Effie J Beckett. Her father is a miller. Also living in the house is Alfred Beckett and his family:

The location of this Census is Pelham, Ontario:

The John Beckett Household

Isabel McMaster

I assume that John’s wife Susan was a McMaster. I assume that the 40 year old single “Esibel” is Susan’s sister. That would put her birth at about 1831 in Ireland. She is likely Isabel. Effie is said to be short for Euphemia.

Here is Isabel in 1861:

Now Isabel is 35 which means she was born about 1826. Now there is also a George A McMaster living in the house. Perhaps he is a younger brother to Susan and Isabel. George appears to have been born in Canada in about 1847. John and Susan are listed as Quakers. Isabel and George however are W M which I take to be Wesleyan Methodists.

The 1851 Census didn’t come out until 1852. There, we see Isabella living with Mary Ann McMaster Shannon in Vaughan, York County:

That puts Isabella born in 1827. A working theory is that Isabella is a daughter of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer.

A Clue With George McMaster?

A search for George brings up this birth in the Wesleyan Methodist Baptism Register:

This is where you need to read the fine print. The George A McMaster of the 1861 Census is very likely George Arthur McMaster, son of George and Jane McMaster from Vaughan, Ontario (where other McMaster relatives lived). This George fits in with the George from my Blog on the four McMaster sisters:

Jane McMaster was the daughter of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. George was her youngest son with George McMaster. Susan McMaster, above was 28 in 1861, so that would mean she was born about 1833. In 1871, Susan listed her age as 36, making her a bit younger.  Now we have a few possibilities for Susan (McMaster) Beckett. Was she the daughter of Jane McMaster or Jane McMaster’s sister? Also how does Effie fit in? As George, born 1847, was the youngest son of George and Jane McMaster, he could not be the full brother of Effie who was born about 1861.

Part of the mystery of Effie is that there are lot of similarities between the family stories about her and my McMaster relatives. I mention those relatives in a Blog about four McMaster sisters and their brother. One of those sisters, Catherine McMaster lived in Burford, Ontario. Her husband, Henry Bennett was also a miller. Family lore has William McMaster and Margaret Frazer as Effie’s parents. My ancestors were also William McMaster and Margaret Frazer, though they were born much too early to be Effie’s parents. In 1852, Catherine Bennett, the miller’s wife was living with her mother Margaret Frazer McMaster who put her age at 63. That means that Margaret was probably born around 1789. The miller connection may be a coincidence, but I mention it in case it isn’t.

Summing Up the 1871 Census

We learned that Effie was living in a house where George A McMaster used to live. George was the son of George McMaster and Jane McMaster. Jane was the daughter of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer (my ancestors). Also sharing the Beckett house with Effie was Isabel McMaster. Isabel was single and in 1852 lived in the household of Mary Ann McMaster Shannon. Mary Ann, Jane and my sister Fannie McMaster were all sisters originally from Kilmactranny Parish in the Southern part of County Sligo. Sometime between 1852 and 1861 Isabel moved from the Shannon household to the Beckett household. We can deduce that Effie was not a full sibling of George Arthur McMaster as George was the last child of George and Jane McMaster.

Effie in Antioch, California

In 1880, the Census shows that the Beckett family had moved to California:

Here Effie is shown as a niece. That would normally mean the daughter of a brother or sister of the John or Susan. The birthplace of Effie’s parents is interesting:

This has Effie’s father born in Ontario and mother born in Ireland. That brings up the possibility that Effie’s mother may have been a McMaster. If that is the case, then her birth name may not have been McMaster. My reasoning goes like this: Jean has the McMaster family immigrating to Canada in 1845. My previous guess was 1844, so pretty close. Effie’s father could not be from the McMaster family that came to Canada in 1844 if he was born in Ontario 1841 or earlier. I’m guessing that if Effie was born in 1861, then her father should have been at least 20 in 1861. That means that if the 1880 California Census is correct, then Effie’s mother would more likely be a McMaster. A scenario would be that Effie’s mother is a McMaster born in Ireland. She comes to Canada and marries and has Effie. For some reason, possibly the death of both parents or the remarriage of one of the parents, she comes to live with the Beckett family.

Susan Beckett

One question is whether Susan Beckett is the same as Susan McMaster, daughter of George McMaster and Jane McMaster. If this were the case, that would mean that George Arthur McMaster would be Susan’s brother and it would make sense perhaps that he would live with her for a while.

I don’t have much information on Susan McMaster in my tree. I just have that she was born in Dromore, Sligo in 1841. I’m not sure where I got this information. It may actually not be right. Jean has that Susan Beckett was 19 in the 1851 Census:

The 1951 census wasn’t taken until 1852. So that would put this Susan Beckett’s birth at about 1833. This seems too early for her to be Susan McMaster, daughter of George and Jane McMaster. I have that George McMaster was born around 1820 and married Jane McMaster in 1839. Here is Jean’s photo of Susan McMaster Beckett:

Was Susan Beckett the Daughter of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer?

Margaret Frazer McMaster was born about 1789. That means that in 1834, she would have been 45. This is not an impossible age to have a baby. Here are the known children I have of Margaret Frazer McMaster:

Jean asked me if any of her photos looked like any of my photos. I don’t have a photo of Fanny, my ancestor. Here is Jane in the middle of the photo:

Susan McMaster Beckett (from Jean):

I’m not good at comparing photos.

Under this scenario, if Susan was the younger sister of Jane McMaster Thompson, then George Arthur McMaster would be her nephew. My working theory is that Isabel McMaster is one of Jane’s sisters. That would make her Susan’s sister also. That doesn’t directly help us figure out who Effie was but it helps define who she may have been related to.

More On Effie

Effie was born in 1861 according to Jean. That means that she could not have been the daughter of Margaret Frazer McMaster who was born about 1789. Margaret would have been alive at Effie’s birth but would have been about 72 years old. Let’s assume that Susan McMaster was the Aunt of Effie. That would mean that Effie would be the daughter of one of Susan’s siblings. I’ll go through those quickly:

  • Jane McMaster b. 1816 – She had two families. The first by George McMaster. When she married her second Thompson husband, the children of the first marriage were sent out to different families. It is unlikely that Effie was a Thompson as that family seemed to stay together.
  • Mary Ann McMaster b. 1820 – She married in 1849 and had two children around 1864. She was taking in other family earlier. I don’t see any reason why she would give her daughter to a sister.
  • James McMaster b. 1822 – James was living in Michigan in 1861. I don’t see any reason why he would give a daughter to a sister in Canada.
  • Catherine McMaster b. 1827 – She was living in Wisconsin in 1861. I don’t see any reason why she would give a daughter to a sister in Canada.
  • Fanny McMaster b. 1829 – She is my ancestor and stayed in County Sligo. The records of baptisms were fairly good at this time. If Effie was a daughter of Fanny, I would probably already know that.

Any other candidates for parents of Effie?

  •  Isabel McMaster b. about 1827 – She would have been about 35 when Effie was born. Isabel was single  in 1861. If Isabel was Effie’s mother, she was either a single mother or got married quickly and had a baby the same year. However, in the 1871 Census, Isabel is not listed as married or widowed.
  • John McMaster b. about 1841 – I mention John in my previous Blog. He was living in the household of Mary Ann McMaster Shannon in 1852 along with Isabel. I don’t know much about this John. If he was Effie’s father, he would have been about 20 at the time of her birth. Also if the 1880 Census is correct, Effie’s father was born in Ontario. According to the 1851 Census, this John was born in Ireland.
  • Other – There may have been other descendants of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer living in Ontario that I don’t know about.

Based on the above, it appears that Isabel would be the best known candidate to be Effie’s mother.  That choice is followed by ‘other’. In fact, take another look at the 1871 Census:

Effie is listed directly under “Esibel”. Sometimes in a Census, this could indicate that Effie may be the child of the person directly above. It would be interesting to find out what happened to Isabel McMaster whether or not she was Effie’s mother. I think that if Isabel was Effie’s mother, it would answer more questions than it would raise. For example, if Isabel was Effie’s mother, then it is improbably that would become the family story. There would be another more palatable story made up. In this case, it appears that the story of  Effie’s parentage was borrowed from her Aunt’s parentage.

Based on Ontario Quaker records provided by Jean, the following six Becketts left the area by January 1, 1879:

One interesting point in the above minutes is that there is no mention of Effie. Why would Alfred’s children be mention and there be no mention of Effie? In addition, Alfred has another daughter Ruth who isn’t mentioned in the minutes.

Here is Alfred’s family in 1880:

Alfred continued to live next to his brother John in California.

An obituary for Alfred indicates that he was married to Mercy Ward in 1857:

Jean’s DNA

Jean doesn’t match me or my four siblings who have tested at AncestryDNA. If she uploaded her DNA to Gedmatch, she may see more DNA connections with other McMaster/Frazer descendants who tested at different companies. Jean tells me she matches Keith by DNA. I match Keith also and wrote a Blog about that match here.

I show as a 3rd cousin, once removed to Keith. Our common ancestor is Fanny McMaster. Of course, this gets confusing as Fanny married a McMaster. Assuming that Isabel is the mother of Effie and that Isabel is the sister of Fanny and Susan, one may see how Jean would be a DNA match to Keith. However, that is a lot of assuming.

Summary

  • I first made a connection with George A McMaster who was living in the household of Susan Beckett in 1861. I further identified him as the son of George McMaster and Jane McMaster born in Vaughan, Ontario in 1847. Jane McMaster was the daughter of my ancestors William McMaster and Margaret Frazer born around 1789.
  • From there, I made an assumption that Susan Beckett was the sister of Jane McMaster. I note that Jane also had her daughter Anna living with Jane’s sister Catherine McMaster Bennett based on the 1860 Census. Apparently the children of Jane’s first marriage were not welcomed by her second husband, so they were sent out to Jane’s sisters.
  • I then looked at possible McMaster parents for Effie Jean Beckett. By the process of elimination and based on the 1871 Census, it seemed like Isabel McMaster could be a candidate to be Effie’s mother. Isabel was in the right place at the right age.
  • If Jean uploads her AncestryDNA results to Gedmatch, it would be possible to check other matches that would give more evidence to support or detract from the Isabel McMaster theory.