Category: Butler

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Looking at My Wife’s Side French Canadian Clusters at Ancestry

I’ll start by looking at my wife’s Aunt Lorraine’s Clusters. Lorraine’s mother was French Canadian:

Perhaps we will see some Lefevre, Methot, Pouliot and Fortin Clusters.

Here are Lorraine’s Clusters including paternal:

The connected clusters 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8 are maternal or French Canadian. Clusters 4, 5, and 6 are on the paternal or Irish side.

It took a while to go through Cluster 1:

I looked at all the common ancestor suggestions and assumed that they were right. Out of 28 matches there were 17 common ancestor suggestions. They all included Lefevre, so I assume that this is a Lefevre cluster.

Here is the overall picture:

Clusters were paternal, so I did not look at them. Lefevre or 1873 had two wives. My wife descends from the Pouliot wife and not the other, so the blank wife (CA2) indicates a half relationship.

The last Tremblay/Bouliet result does not go well with the Methot/Angesrs descendant match as Tremblay is in a different part of the tree:

What I see is that most of Lorraine’s Standard Clusters are on the Lefevre side. A few are on the Methot/Angers side. There are some on the Lefevre/Pouliot side, but those relations are too close to be helpful. This would be at the 1st cousin level. Usually, one looks for the 2nd cousin level or further out to track.

Pouliot Clusters

I can force Pouliot clusters by choosing a person of interest:

I’ll choose 2nd cousin Belharuk. I’ll choose a match level between 30 and 150 cM:

I don’t know why sometimes I get a large cluster to see and sometimes I do not. Here is the first match in the 10 match cluster:

Robin is on the Lefevre side, but her grandmother is a Pouliot. This is very confusing. Here is a situation where I can identify with the Ancestry computers as they are confused also. I better go to Fred’s tree. He is one of my wife’s relatives and I trust his tree:

Fred does not actually descend from Lefevre. That explains Lorraine’s clusters above. Many that are called Lefevre are actually Pouliot. Fred’s tree shows on his paternal side.:

Here is a Pouliot DNA tree I made a long while ago. I believe that it correctly shows the Pouliot relationships:

Here we see Belharuk, Robin, Fred, and Lorraine. Fred, Belharuk, and Lorraine are 2nd cousins to each other and not related on the Lefevre side. The confusing part is that Joseph Martin Lefevre also marries Mabel Ford:

And that is what causes a great deal of confusion.

I am not sure how to fix this at Ancestry.

Here is John in Cluster 1:

He is the third match down. According to Shared Matches at Ancestry, he is the son of Judy. Here is Judy’s tree on her maternal side:

Here, I have added Judy and John to my Pouliot DNA tree for the next time I get confused by what Ancestry is showing:

Back to Lorraine’s Standard Clusters

I just remembered that I can filter Lorraine’s standard clusters by her maternal side:

Cluster 3 is actually Pouliot:

This explains the mystery as to why Lorraine had so many Lefevre clusters. Not all the Lefevre clusters were really Lefevre clusters.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I assumed that the Common Ancestors shown in the close relationships of the  Standard Clusters were right, but many were not.
  • I found this out when I went looking for Pouliot Clusters
  • That means that I should not always accept the close common ancestor suggestions that Ancestry has.
  • This Blog has me thinking about mapping my wife’s aunts’ French Canadian DNA using DNA Painter.

 

 

 

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Some Butler DNA Clusters at Ancestry

Since Ancestry enhanced their clusters, I thought that I would try them out on my wife’s Butler Line. I have two of my wife’s tested at Ancestry.

Here is my wife’s father’s paternal line:

Here is my wife’s Aunt Lorraine’s ThruLines on the third cousin level:

Patty seems like a good choice to try to cluster on.

I got some results, so that is good. Here is the 6 match cluster:

I believe that all these descend from George Butler of Cincinatti.

Here is the 19 Match cluster:

Here Patrick is interesting. What I am seeing is that there are two major clusters and Patrick is in-between the two. Patrick is the son of Will:

The common ancestor between Patrick and Lorraine is likely George Butler. He was born some time in the 1700’s and likely from Wexford, Ireland. Lorraine is Will’s 4th cousin once removed and an important DNA match.

Patty is in the cluster above Patrick. This is likely the Cincinnati cluster descending from the George in the DNA tree above.

The cluster below Patrick appears to be from another George. This George was the son of Edward Butler who confusingly also had the birth name of Adam. Edward was the brother of the George who moved to Cincinnati.

So here is what I think I have:

This is what one blogger calls walking back the ancestors.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of Georges here. The lower right corner of the pink cluster is from George Butler born 1872 and brother of Edward Henry Butler born 1875. Patrick descends from the George in the upper right hand corner of the Ancestry tree above. The upper left corner of the pink cluster descend from George Butler born 1826 and brother of Edward “Adam” Butler. I find it satisfying to be able to see all these connections in one place using Ancestry Clusters.

Lorraine’s 30 Match Butler Cluster with Patty

This is no doubt a more detailed picture of the previous pink cluster:

T

Top right is Cincinnati Butlers. Will and Patrick are from Butlers that never came to the US. The tighter cluster is from George Butler. He moved to Massachusetts. I cannot place the last 5 in the bottom right. Lisa has Murphy and other ancestors from Wexford. It is possible that some matches go beyond what we know about in the area of genealogy. This view also includes Patrick’s father Will.

Virginia and Brian

Brian comes up as a large match to the Butler family. He is a fourth cousin to Virginia who is another of my wife’s Aunts. My guess is that Virginia’s clusters with Brian should look very similar ot Lorraine’s clusters with Patty.

 

 

It is a little different. The upper left cluster is the George Butler born 1826 in Wexford, moved to Cincinnati. Actually the common ancestor between Brian and Virginia should be Henry Butler born about 1800 in Wexford – not George born 1826 as stated earlier in the Blog.

Then within that Cluster is Will and Patrick. The common ancestor between them and Virginia is Henry Butler’s father and George Butler and his unknown wife.

The third cluster would also have the common ancestor of Henry Butler but this cluster represents the desendants through Edward Henry Butler down to his son George Butler born in 1872.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Running clusters for my wife’s two late Aunts confirm my previous DNA and genealogical research.
  • Two important matches are Will and Patrick. They bring the Butler connection back another generation in Wexford, Ireland. Their DNA matches also tie together two other branches descending from two son sons of Henry Butler of Wexford: a George Butler Branch who remained in Cincinnati and a Edward Butler Branch who lived for a while in Cincinnati but who eventually moved to Massachusetts.
  • There is also a connection with Brian who descends from the Cincinnait branch, but one branch moved to St Johns, New Brunswick. This connection is important as that is where Edward Butler lived briefly and married Mary Crowley before moving to Cincinnati and eventually to Massachusetts.
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My Wife’s Side Clusters at Ancestry

Ancestry has a new feature which shows clusters of DNA matches. These clusters can represent particular ancestors or ancestral couples. Here are my wife’s clusters:

These clusters are in Beta which means that Ancestry wants to use smaller matches to get more clusters. Right now, the matches go down to only 65 cM and the cross matches go down to 20 cM. My wife’s five clusters are sorted by size starting with the largest one in the top left. This shows that clusters 2, 3, and 5 are related to each other and that clusters 1 and 4 are on their own.

Here are Marie’s paternal clusters:

Here, the red and blue clusters are more related to each other than the orange cluster. Here is one match from the orange cluster:

Marie and Debbie share Butler and Kerivan ancestors.

This is the Irish side of the family. That leaves the red and blue clusters to the French Canadian side of the family. This makes sense as French Canadian genealogy tend to have a lot of matches. As far as the red and blue goes, my assumption is that on favors LeFevre and the other favors Pouliot, but I am not sure which is which. I will look more into my wife’s Aunts’ clusters.

I will look at my wife’s maternal side in a subsequent Blog. This will include Ellis and Upshall.

Aunt Lorraine’s Clusters

Aunt Lorraine has 8 clusters:

Three of Lorraine’s clusters are paternal:

Brian is the most interesting match in the red cluster. He does not show his family tree at Ancestry, but I have the common ancestor here:

This goes back 225 years to Henry Buter and Anne Russel in Wexford, Ireland.

The Blue Cluster

Here is a match from that Cluster:

What is Left for the Teal Cluster?

The teal cluster also has Kerivan and Rooney, so my assumption is that one cluster favors Kerivan and the other Rooney, but I do not know which. It may be possible to tease out which cluster is Rooney and which one is Kerivan with Shared Matches, but it is probably not worth the effort at this point.

Aunt Lorraine’s Maternal Clusters

Here we are in the world of French Canadian ancestry:

It may be easier to start with the small yellow cluster:

If Ancestry has the right common ancestor, this goes back to the year 1800. Another match agrees:

 

My Wife’s Aunt Suzy’s Clusters

This provides a sort of DNA fingerprint for my wife’s late Aunt Suzy. She has 7 clusters. This could roughly represent her 8 great-grandparents.

Here is Suzy’s paternal side:

Emily is in the blue cluster:

I don’t have Emily in my Butler DNA tree. Apparently, I do not have James Alfred Butler in my Ancestry Tree. He should be easy to figure out. From the tree, it appears that Emily Mary married a Butler.

Emily’s Genealogy

Here is the Emily Mary Butler family in 1930:

Emily’s husband, William Butler was a house painter. James Alfred was not likely born yet. Emily has her father’s birth place as Illinois. The family lived in Watertown, Massachusetts. Here is James in 1940:

James is still at home in 1950 working in a plastic factory:

A further revew of information at Ancestry including an obituary for Michael W Butler confirms the connection. I will add Emily to my Butler DNA tree:

Suzy’s Orange and Green Paternal Clusters

A review of a few matches looks like the Orange Cluster is Kerivan/Rooney:

Blue was Butler/Crowley. What does that leave for the green cluster? Turns out that green or teal is also Kerivan/Rooney. So both orange and green are either Kerivan or Rooney, but I am not sure which. That is why there are not many matches between the blue Butler/Crowley and the orange and teal Kerivan/Rooney:

Or more specifically, the areas I have highlighted between blue and teal have no matches. So orange seems to be Kerivan/Rooney with matches to Butler and teal is Kerivan/Rooney with no matches to Butler/Crowleyy descendants.

Suzy’s Maternal Clusters

Here is where things get a little wilder due to the French Canadian Heritage.

Without looking at the names, I see that Cluster 1 and Cluster 3 have no interaction (matching). Cluster 1 and 2 have a lot of matches with each other and Clusters 2 and 3 have a lot.

Suzy’s Cluster 1 – Orange

There are 28 matches in this cluster. 19 show common ancestors. I went through the suggested common ancestors and got these:

The fact that there are two matches that go further up on the LeFevre side indicate to me that this cluster belongs to Edmund LeFevre:

If I am right, then this rules out the Methot Line.

Suzy’s Pink Cluster 2

Here there are only 14 matches. Here is what I show for common ancestors:

Joseph Martin LeFevre marries twice and the last three matches are to the second wife.

Cluster 1 is Edmond LeFevre and Cluster 2 is Joseph Martin LeFevre.

Suzy’s Purple Cluster 3

Unfortunately, I cannot explain these results well:

The only difference between Clusters 1 and 2 are that Cluster 1 has 2 first cousins and that Cluster 3 has a 2nd cousin with a common ancestor of Pouiot/Fortin.

I also find it curious that there are many matches between Clusters 1 and 2 and many between Clusters 2 and 3, but none between Clusters 1 and 3.

Fred’s Tree

I do see one error. I have been in touch with Fred who is an excellent genealogist. He should be related on the Pouliot side. Here is a simple tree I have for Fred:

Aunt Suzy’s birth name was Virginia. That means that Ancestry’s common ancestor was wrong.

Here is Robin’s tree:

She descends from the same Wilfred Joseph Pouliot that Fred does. I will put Robin into my Pouliot DNA Tree:

Here, I’ll also add Belharuk:

Here is what I have:

My assumption is that Ancestry got John’s common ancestors with Suzy wrong also. I could figure out how he fits in, but I will assume that he is a 2C1R with Suzy in the Pouiot/Fortin column. So that was not as easy as I thought. Moral of the story: don’t trust Ancestry’s common ancestors.

Aunt Suzy’s Green Cluster 4

Here there are 5 matches. Four have unlinked trees and one shows a common ancesetor:

Here is the common ancestor match:

A fifth cousin once removed that matches at 100 cM is quite unusual. That common ancestor was based on this tree:

It would take me quite a while to figure out the seven generations of this tree. My reasoning is that the match is on the Fortin/Gagne side:

In summary, this is my best guess for Aunt Suzy’s Maternal Clusters:

  1. Orange Cluster – Edmund LeFevre 1834
  2. Red Cluster – Joseph Martin LeFevre 1873
  3. Purple Cluster – Joseph Pouliot 1848
  4. Green Cluster – Fortin 1804/Gagne

It may help to look at her sister’s clusters. I suppose that can wait for a subsequent Blog.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I looked briefly at my wife’s paternal clusters
  • I then looked at my wife’s paternal Aunt Suzy’s Clusters.
  • I had thought that Aunt Suzy’s maternal French Canadian Clusters would be straightforward, but there were mistakes on the common ancestors for one of those lines. These mistakes were on a line that I have had no previous questions due to my working with a relative who has a great French Canadian Tree.
  • As a result of this Blog, I was able to augment and improve my wife’s paternal side DNA trees.
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A Recap of Butler Genealogy

For years, I have been tracking my wife’s Butler genealogy with the help of DNA testing. As some of her relatives have pointed out, some of that genealogy was in the wrong direction. I was looking in Poulrone, County Kilkenny, Ireland at an Edward Butler, but now I see that was the wrong Butler.

The Butler Story

Here is what I have:

Henry marries Anne in 1824 in Wexford:

George, the Oldest Son, Born 1826 in Wexford

I know most about the oldest and youngest sons of Henry Butler. George Butler was born in 1826 in Wexford, 13 years before Edward Butler, my wife’s immigrant ancestor.

The name is odd, in that the first choice is Adam Butler, but then in small letters, “or George”. Edward was also Edward Adam Butler but the Adam name did not prove to be popular perhaps as I do not see it used again. Here is a map of Wexford, showing also Kilkenny and Waterford:

George marries Mary Whitty in 1848 at Rathangan:

I think this is Rathangan:

This appears to be Mountaingate Townland:

Perhaps George was listed in Griffith’s Valuation. Here is a possibility:

This is not close to Mountaingate:

Here are some choices for Henry Butler in Griffith’s Valuation:

Seven choices are in Wexford. It is not likely that Henry would have been listed in the Tithe Applotments as these were for people that had owned or leased land. At the time of the Tithe Applotments, Henry appears to be living in the City of Wexford.

 

George and Mary give birth to a daughter Anne in Wexford in 1850:

What Happened to Anne Butler?

Anne is in the 1860 Census for Cincinnatti:

This shows that George Butler and family moved to Cincinnati probably in the mid-1850’s. Anne shows as 11 in the 1860 Census, though technically, she should have been 10 at the time. However, Anne was missing from the 1870 Cincinnati Census:

Henry’s first wife had passed away and Henry remarried Margaret Sinnott.

Ancestry suggests this record for Anne Butler:

Mary Ann Butler is listed as a witness. However, she would have beeb about 17 at the time of the marriage if we have the right people. I cannot make out the other witness which may be William Butler? Also as Mindall is an unusual name, the spelling could be wrong.

This appears to be St. Louis Parish:

Here is another possibility:

This may be the same Anne or Anna in 1870 in Cincinnati. Anne is also listed in the 1870 Cincinnati Directory:

Mary Ann Butler Born

Mary Ann marries Thomas Murphy in St. John, New Brunswick in 1878:

The 1901 Census shows that the couple had a large family. Some descendants tested for DNA which confirms the relationship between this family and my wife’s family. Here is my Butler DNA tree:

I see at Ancestry that there are other matches. My wife’s late Aunt Lorraine also matches Bobbi at 41 cM. Here is the maternal side of Bobbi’s tree:

There could also be other matches under Rebecca Butler born 1869. Actually, I was looking at an old Butler DNA Tree. Here is the newer one:

It goes back an extra generation to the likely father George Butler from the 1700’s. On the left side of the Tree, notice that the name Adam comes up twice:

These four people plus the son of Will have DNA matches with my wife’s side of the family. They are fourth cousins once or twice removed to my wife’s aunts and father. This side of the Butler family moved to England.

Recapping George Butler’s Life

George Butler was the eldest son of Henry Butler and named for his grandfather. He was born in Wexford in 1826. Little is known of Henry Butler except that he was probably born in Wexford around 1800. He was likely not a farmer. He had eight known children. I will copy Peter’s genealogy. He is a good Butler genealogist from England:

George marries first Anne Russel. They have a daughter, Anne born in 1850. According to Peter, she dies in 1865:

However,  I mention above that there was an Anne Butler who married a Hugh [Mindall?] in New Brunswick in 1876.

We do know that Mary Ann Butler, born in 1858 in Cincinnati married aThomas Murphy in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1878 and lived there, had children and died there. She died at 196 Watson Street in St. Jon West :

Mary Ann was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery:

Questions and Observations

  • Edward Butler is in St. John, New Brunswick where he marries Mary Crowley in 1855 at age 16. He has two daughters born there: Julia Ann Butler in 1857 and Ellen about 1859.
  • Soon after the birth of Ellen, the Butler family moves to Cincinnati where brother George and family live.
  • Is it possible that brother George was also in St. John at some point before living in Cincinnati?
  • Julia Ann marries in New Brunswick in 1904 at the age of 47.
  • I have that Ellen dies in 1865, however, I have no reference for that date. If this death date is right, it would have been the same year that Peter has her cousin Ann dying.
  • What I find interesting is the relationship between the two families.
  • How did Edward know that George was in Cincinnati?
  • George’s children would have known about St. John through Mary Crowley Butler if from no one else.
  • The time around the mid 1850’s was a bad time for all Irish people. For the Butler family hard times dispersed the family to England, Canada and the US.

A Short Sketch of George Butler Born 1826, Wexford and Younger Brother Edward

  • 1826 – George Butler is born in Wexford, Ireland. He is baptized as Adam or George Butler. He was named presumably for his father’s brother Adam and his grandfather George.
  • 1839 – Younger brother Edward Adam baptized in Wexford
  • This just in for 1849:

George and Margaret have a child named George in Wexford who is illegitimate. Yet, the father George marries Mary Whitty in 1849 and Margaret Sinnott in Cincinnati after Mary dies in 1868? If that is right, it certainly seems unusual. And what happened to baby George? Was he adopted by Catherine Meany?

He is married in the Rahangan Parish in 1849 to Mary Whitty:

Presumably, Mary Whitty was from the Rathangan Parish or they wanted to marry away from Wexford.

  • 1850 – The family apparently lives in Wexford, as George’s daughter Ann is born there in 1850. Ann either dies in Cincinnati or possibly moves to New Brunswick and marries.
  • 1855 – Edward marries Mary Ellen Crowley in St. John, Nova Scotia
  • Mid 1850’s – George and his small family settle in Cincinnati, Ohio. It appears that both brothers leave Ireland roughly around the same time.
  • 1856 – Edward’s daughter Julia Ann born in St. John
  • 1858 – George’s Daughter Mary Ann is born in Cincinnati
  • 1859 – Edward’s daughter Ellen born in St. John
  • 1859 or 1860 – The Edward Butler family moves to Cincinnati
  • 1860 – Both George and Edward live in Ward 17 of Cincinnati
  • George Butler has a son born in 1862 named Henry, presumably after his father.
  • 1863 – An Edward Butler and George Butler enlist for duty in the Civil War. I assume that both of these are the right people. There is independent reference to Edward being in the Civil War.
  • 1865 – George’s wife Mary Whitty dies
  • 1868 – George marries Margaret Sinnott
  • 1869 – A daughter, Rebecca, is born to George
  • 1870 – George and family live in Ward 17 of Cincinnati while Edward and family are now in Ward 5 of Cincinnati
  • 1872 – Edward has a son born named George Henry. He is said to be born in Chicago, though no original record has been found of the birth.
  • 1875 – Edward has another son born – Edward Henry again said to be born in Chicago in June
  • 1875 – George has a daughter Margaret born in Cincinnati in June
  • 1876 – George has a daugther Elizabeth born in Cincinnati
  • 1877 – George’s daughter Mary Ann marries Thomas J Murphy in St. John
  • 1880 – George and family is listed as living in Cincinnati. His son Henry is listed as being born in Ireland – perhaps a mistake?
  • 1887 – George’s wife Mary Sinnott dies
  • 1890 – George dies in Cincinnati at age 64
  • 1890 – There is a listing for an Edward H Butler, Clerk at 220 California Street in Newton. This is the same place where the funeral was held for Edward Butler.
  • 1890 – There is an Edward H Butler listed on the Verteran schedules in Newton, Massachusetts. He is listed as a mariner on the US Ship Milwaukee and served from 1864 to 1865.
  • 1891 – Edward dies in Boston at age 52 (listed as 51) as a longshoreman. Two addresses are given: Boston City Hospital and 24 Clark Street. The Boston City Hospital was in the South End of Boston and 24 Clark Street was in the North End of Boston – the home of a priest.

Edward’s Civil War Service

I looked up lists for the Milwaukee and did find Edward there on page 70 of this record:

Here is the reference link: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/134431401

Edward is listed as age 29. He was probably more like 25 at the time. He was supposedly tranferred from the Great Western, but I do not see his name listed there. So I assume that entry was incorrect. Butler researcher Peter from England already had this information, so I was a bit behind him.

1890-1891

These two years provide a lot of information for Edward, though the time between 1870 and 1890, a 20 year period appears to be mostly missing.

1890 Veteran Schedule

This is one of the only records I am aware of where Edward goes by Edward H Butler. His rank appears to be mariner or marine? The house number was 255 and family number was 290. The post office address is listed as Newtonville. This comment appears to correlate to Edward H:

Unfortunately I cannot read what it says. However, the entry confirms family lore that Edward served on an iron clad ship during the Civil War.

Where Was Edward Living in 1890?

According to the Veteran’s Schedule, he lived in Newton. Here is an entry from the Newton Directory of 1889:

A Mrs. Mary E Butler was living at 473 Auburn Street. She may have been a widow or the husband of Edward Butler.

Here is the Newton DIretctory for 220 California Street where Edward’s funeral was held:

The problem is whether the Edward H, machinist was the son or the father. My guess is that these were the two brothers, but I am not sure as the son Edward would have been only 15 or 16. I am not aware that the father was ever listed as a machinist. The son Edward is listed as a machinist living on Crescent Stree in Newton in 1900:

Assuming my wife’s ancestor was not an assistant priest, there is only one other Edward H. in Newton in the 1889 Directory.

1887 Directory for Newton

Here is Mary E Butler:

That eliminates Mary Crowley.

There were fewer Butlers in the 1887 Newton Directory:

1891 Newton Directory

George Butler is no longer at 220 California Street, but there is an Edward H Butler, now listed as a clerk. This could still be the elder Edward as he died in December 1891 and would be listed in that year.

1893 Newton Directory

Edward H is still listed as a clerk.

I see also a George Butler listed.

1890 Boston Directory

There is an Edward Butler who was a mariner in the 1890 Boston Directory:

A quick search for Erin Alley does not show anything.

1891

While the 1890 Census shows that Edward was in Newton and near Newtonville, I cannot find other proof from street directories that he was livign there. Perhaps he moved around a bit or was in poor health. Or he lived there less than a year and was not caught in the City and Town listings.

Edward died on December 16th 1891. I take it that he died at City Hospital but that he was livign at 24 Clark Street at the time in Boston.

The funeral notice corrects the age at death:

This appears to pull things together. The elder Edward was living at 24 Clark Street, Boston. The son, Edward was living at 220 California Street in Newton from the way I interpret this information. The fact that the funeral notice mentions St. John, New Brunswick indicates to me that Edward may have had connections to that City more recently than when he married there in 1855.

Some Questions Remain

  • There appear to be no records for Edward Butler between 1870 and 1870 – a period of 20 years.
  • Where did Mary Crowley Butler live between 1891 and 1905 when she died? We do know that she was living with her son George in Watertown at the time of her death.
  • Why was Edward living at 24 Clark Street at the time of his death. This was the home of a priest from what I understand.

Summary and Conclusions

  • The Edward Butler livign at 220 California Street was likely Edward the son
  • The 1890 Veteran Census confirms the Navy record of Edward Butler enlisting on the USS Milwaukee during the Civil War.
  • Many questions are raised as to the whereabouts of Edward Butler between 1870 and 1890.

 

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My Wife’s mtDNA

I was interested in finding out my wife’s mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA, so I tried to get results from her late mother’s test. The sample was apparently no longer good. I then tried to get results from my wife’s old test. This sample was also inadequate, so she took a new test.

My Wife’s Maternal Lineage

This is what I have for my wife’s maternal line:

It goes from Ellis to Daley to Rhynold to Sandwich. However, there is some ambiguity as the suggested father for Mary Sandwich is a Daly and the mother is a Snyder. Here is the 1891 Census for Crow Harbour, Guysborough, Nova Scotia:

This shows that Mary was born in Nova Scotia. It also has her father born in Ireland and mother born in Nova Scotia. The 1871 Census for the same place gives Mary’s origins as Irish, but that does not necessarily mean that she was born there:

I do see this record:

However, I assume that this George is the son of George Rhynold. The younger George was 22 in the 1891 Census. However, according to this genealogy at genealogy.com, the elder George did remarry:

The key here would be to find the records for St. Joseph’s Church, Port Felix.

Perhaps this is a hint:

This birth record indicates that the parents George Rainold, fisherman and Mary Sandwich were married in 1858 at White Haven:

Here is a different transcription of the same event:

However, I do not see the Landrich. The r in Landrich is clearly a w. That leaves the name as Landwich or Sandwich of which Sandwich is more probable. That seems to be the best I can do with the information I can find now.

The mtDNA

The results appear to be still coming in:

Let’s see if this is in SNP Tracker:

According to SNP Tracker, the connection is very old, going back to the Iron age and apparently ending up in the British Isles.

I wonder how this compares to my own mtDNA:

This did not work, perhaps it is too new, I had to choose my old designation of H5’36:

This is really old by comparison. This is quite a discrepancy from what FTDNA shows on their Time Tree:

This puts me clearly in the Roman Period.

Back to Marie:

Marie has one exact match and several two step matches. Perhaps a new SNP will form based on Marie’s one match.

When I choose the Discover Haplogroup Reports at FTDNA, I get this message:

I will write another Blog when these results are available.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was curioius as to what was going on with my wife’s mtDNA results. I had to change her password to check
  • Marie is in the U category. H is most prevalent in the British Isles from what I understand which is what I have. However, U appears to be located in the British Isles at a very early date if I am interpreting SNP Tracker correctly.
  • Marie has one exact match for her mtDNA. I wonder if that match will form a new group.
  • I am also interested in seeing the Discover Reports when they are available.

 

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Kerivan Matches at Ancestry

I’ll take a look at my wife’s late Aunt Lorraine’s tree first:

Based on the high DNA match, this connection seems likely. Here is my Kerivan DNA tree which needs some work:

This should start with John Kerivan, not Alice Rooney. Also, I need to add Suzy’s siblings Lorraine and Richard. I already have William Kerivan in my Ancestry tree, so this  line should be an easy add. Here are more of Aunt Lorraine’s Kerivan relatives:

Here there are 9 matches and I have four in my Kerivan DNA tree.

William A Kerivan

I ususally do not start from the past and work to the present, but I’ll make an exception here.

Here is the famlly in Needham, Massachusetts in 1880:

The parents are said to be born in Ireland.

Willie was born in 1876 in Needham.

On this record, his father John was said to be born in Newton, MA and his mother in Ireland. Some records have John born in Marblehead. Here is a Census for Salem in 1850 which would support that John was born in that part of Massachusetts:

Note here that son William was a shoe maker. Patrick was born in Ireland, but the apparent chidren were born in Massachusetts. By 1855, the family moves to Needham:

This is surely the same family. I have that Catherine died in 1845, so Mary must be a second wife. Now Ellen is added to the family in 1855. Patrick is shown as born in Ireland.

 

Social Security has William’s wife as Beatrice Curtis:

George F Kerivan

George is mentioned in his father’s obituary:

The obituary for George appears to link him to the John who tested at Ancestry.

This Kerivan Tree is much better, but a proper tree should go back at least to Patrick Kerivan.

ThruLInes for Patrick Kerivan

Here is what Lorraine has. William and Richard P must be in my Ancestry Tree already. We were already introduced to Richard and William the shoemaker in the 1850’s censuses for Salem and Needham.

Joseph and Lorraine

Here a few of the names appear to be misspelled.

I’ll add Joseph to my Ancestry tree as a floating tree and then attach him if the genealogy checks out.  However, already I see that Joseph and Lorraine have a shared match named Robert:

Ancestry thinks that Robert descends from John Kerivan.

Joseph has his father being born in 1949 in Clinton, Iowa. That would mean thta he should be in the 1950 Census.

Next, I have to figure out if Bernadine was in fact a Kerivan.

Here is where some of the strange spelling gets introduced.

William Joseph Kerivan is said to be born in Maine according to the 1920 Census but his father was from Massachusetts:

This William Joseph also married later in life:

I now have this floating tree for Joseph:

However, my non-floating tree has a William and Bridget already:

That means that I need to merge Wm with William and Bridget Kerivan with Bridget Norton.

This is the first step in bringing the Kerivan DNA Tree back a generation.

Manassas and Lorraine

I think that masassas is Francis but I am not sure:

Francis’ mother lived on Maxwell Street in Boston, MA in 1930:

In not too long, my floating tree is at the point that it can be connected:

Now the Kerivan DNA tree is taking shape. DNA and genealogy are bringing back this Irish family.

Summary and Conclusions

  • In this Blog, I updated my Kerivan DNA Tree using my wife’s Aunt Lorraine’s ThruLines
  • The DNA matches give credence to the genealogy and vica versa
  • The many children of Patrik Kerivan makes it easier to trace the DNA matches

 

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More Butler DNA Review and DNA Painter

I need to do some extra review now that I have a new set of ancestors for my wife’s Butler Line. I had previously thought that the immigrant ancestor Edward Butler was the son of Michael Butler and Margaret Croke. This has turned out to be extremely unlikely. A more likely candidate now is Edward, son of Henry Butler and Anne Russel. This man was actually born Adam but went by Edward.

Gedmatch

I had an early match between my late father-in-law Richard Butler and a Murphy descendant from New Brunswick. I can now map his DNA to Richard’s profile at DNAPainter. I have the match’s name as Nathan on my chart:

By the chart, Nathan is Richard’s third cousin twice removed. Here are some expected shared DNA amounts for that relationship:

Here is the match at Gedmatch:

Here is Richard’s DNA Painter map currently:

He shows Kerivan, Rooney and an unknown match. I’ll add in Nathan which represents Henry Butler or Anne Russell’s DNA:

When I do that, I see that I already have Nathan, but listed as an unknown branch. Now that I know that Branch I can make the necessary changes.

Note that there is no light blue bar for the X Chromosome as men do not receive on from their father – only their mother.

Virginia and Butler DNA Matches

I have the same unknown Butler in VIrginia’s DNA Painter profile:

We now know the common Butler ancestral couple to be Henry Butler from Wexford and his wife Anne Russel.

Virginia is Lorraine’s sister and the Henry Butler DNA on Chromosome 4 is shared with James from FTDNA. Fortunately, I made that note on my chart. Also, I was fortunate to find her old FTDNA code in an old address book of mine.

Here is Lorraine’s DNA Painter Profile for comparison:

I should note that the birth years for George Butler and Henry Butler are guesses.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I didn’t find any new DNA matches but I was able to sort out some old ones
  • Previously I was searching for the wrong Edward Butler. This lead me in the wrong direction for DNA matches
  • I now appear to have the right Edward Butler. Previously, I had to fill in ‘unknown Butler Ancestor’ in DNA Painter. Now that I know that the common ancestor is Henry (born Adam) Butler, I am able to fill in the unknown DNA matches using DNA Painter.

 

 

 

 

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Butler Enhanced Shared Matches

Shared enhanced matches is a new feature at Ancestry under their Pro Tools. They are helpful in ferreting out matches or identifying matches with no trees by associating them close matches that do have trees.

In my previous Blog, I looked at the Butler ThruLines for two of my wife’s late aunts. It turns out that recent revisions to the Butler tree have made a lot of my older Blogs obsolete. Here is one of my wife’s Aunt Lorraine’s matches:

Lorraine’s match with Will is interesting as it brings us back an additional generation from what we had. Here are Lorraine and Will’s shared matches:

 

These are shared matches where will also matches Lorraines match by at least 20 cM. There are more matches going down. Virginia is Lorraine’s sister. Barbara descends from Edward Butler and his son George. Brian descends from Edward’s brother George of Cincinnati as does Patty. The blue dots for Charles and Jennifer mean that I have not looked at these matches. There are additional matches not shown above.

This is one way that it could work. Charles is a shared match with Lorraine and Will, but he has no tree posted. I choose Charles to get his shared matches:

 

Charles is in the the second cousin range compared to Bobbi. I know that Bobbi descends from Mary Ann. She was the son of George Butler of Cincinnati. She moved to St. John, New Brunswick and had a family. That means that Charles must be related to the New Brunswick side of the Butler family. In fact, Charles is from Halifax, Nova Scotia:

Here is the relationship between the two places:

Bobbi is on the bottom left of the image above. She is with two other DNA matches from the New Brunswick Branch started by Mary Ann Butler. Mary Ann’s sister Rebecca remained in the Cincinnati area.

Lorraine and Will’s Shared Match Jennifer

Jennifer also has no tree, but I shared match between her and Lorraine does:

Based on other matches, the link is probably on the Kirwin side:

Maureen and Lorraine are related to Michael, but Michael is much more closely related to Maureen:

Michael’s 2nd great-grandfather was from Waterford:

This may be the connection. I believe that Maureen and family are from New Jersey.

Lorraine and Patty’s Shared Match List

Patty is one of Lorraine’s biggest matches from the Cincinnati Branch:

Jeremiah is the first on page 2 of Lorraine and Patty’s Shared Match List, but he is already on my Butler DNA/Genealogy Chart. James is someone new. Here is James’ Family Tree on his maternal side:

I see three Butlers. Richard Butler was from Wexford and Adam Butler is a name that comes up in the new Butler genealogy. This is worth tracking, so I’ll create my own tree for James focusing in on the Butler connection. Even better, I contacted a Butler relative in England and he assures me that his tree is right for the Butler part.

Here is James added to the Butler DNA/Genealogy Chart:

Here are the shared connections by DNA:

 

A Peek at MyHeritage

Lorraine has a match with Marie at MyHeritage:

Marie’s tree has some familiar names:

I’ve added Marie to my Butler Chart:

I didn’t check Marie’s tree, but I’m guessing that it is right. One good thing about MyHeritage is that they show where the match is between Lorraine and Marie:

Here I added that information to Lorraine’s profile:

This is the first Butler DNA I’ve added for Lorraine and it goes back to the 1700’s. I even have an unknown category. Hopefully that will be identified at some point.

Summary and Conclusions

  • It was helpful looking at enhanced shared matches. I don’t always find out who the match is if they don’t have a tree, but I get a much better idea of what branch of the family they are from.
  • I was able to enlarge my Butler DNA/Genealogy Tree. This is a tree of DNA matches that also show an ancestral connection.
  • I looked at one match at MyHeritage and was able to map it to Lorraine’s profile using DNAPainter.
  • This is still more searching to be done for matches at Ancestry, MyHeritage, FTDNA, and Gedmatch.

 

 

 

 

 

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Checking DNA ThruLines for a Newly Revised Butler Ancestor

In my previous Blog, I mentioned that I needed to exchange an Edward Butler ancestor on my wife’s side for another one. Now I would like to look at some of the new DNA connections based on that exchange.

Michael Vs. Henry Butler Connections

I previously noted that there were no Ancestry ThruLines for supposed ancestor Michael Butler:

However, I would not expect any. I did expect some on the Henry Butler side:

I just made the change in ancestors today and already there are four matches. These are all from the George H Butler side who was from Cincinnati.

Let’s start with Patty. She matches Lorraine by 39 cM and shows on the chart as a 3rd cousin. Ancestry shows this:

This shows that 3rd cousin is the most likely choice for this level of match. I’ll start a spreadsheet to compare the matches:

kziemann

kziemann actually has a larger match than than expected, so there is only 28% chance of being the right match. Still, that is quite close to the highest likelihood:

Regina and Joey

Regina’s match comes in at 22%

Here is the rest of the chart:

The Frequency Column does not compare well. For example, for Regina and Joey, the frequency is 22%, but they are both still top choices. kziemann at 28% is a second choice (but not by much) and then only because her match is too high and not too low. My takeaway is that all these matches fit very well for my new Butler ancestor configuration.

My Butler DNA/Ancesty Chart

I currently have this chart which I now believe to be incorrect:

I need to move the right side so that Edward is George’s brother.

Here is the new chart showing the relationship between Patty on the George side and Lorraine on the Edward side:

It shows these two as third cousins. That is what they are, but it is good to check to make sure I have thre tree right.

Patty, Kim and Regina are already on the chart. I just need to add Joey:

An Extra Generation

Now that I have added in Edward Adam Butler, I get a bonus generation:

Lorraine’s ThruLines shows George Butler, father of Henry Butler. This name was provided by my most helpful Butler Genealogy friend Peter.

Here are two extra matches for Lorraine:

Here, Peter and Will are shown as half 4th cousins once removed. However, I suspect that is because the wife of George Butler above is not known. I have previously looked into the match with Will, but not the match with Peter.

This Peter is different than the genealogy friend Peter. When I click on the George Butler above, I see one tree from Peter:

Here is what Peter’s tree shows:

One interesting thing is that Peter of the DNA match above and Will are both from England. These two descend from Anastasia Butler of Wexford.

I’ll add George to my Butler DNA/Genealogy Tree:

I put Anastasia’s family on the left, though I do not know the birth order. My genealogist friend Peter made an educated guess on the George at the top and his children. However, an educated guess plus DNA matches makes for a more educated guess. The red lines and circles indicate that Peter and Will are fourth cousins once removed to Lorraine. The chart also shows the impressive amount of DNA matches to my wife’s family in support of the new family tree.

Here is my finished ThruLines Chart for my wife’s Aunt Lorraine and her sister Virginia:

Where the freqqency is on the lower side it is because the match is larger than average. I think what happens often is that there is either a  match or not. When there is a match, it tends to be larger thana average.

Summary and Conclusions

  • After correcting the Butler genealogy back to Ireland, I picked up some Ancestry ThruLines right away
  • I added those DNA matches to my corrected Butler DNA/Genealogy Chart.
  • The seven in the ThruLines amount to only about half of the total matches on the non-Edward Butler descended side of the chart. The other matches were from other testing companies or matches that didn’t have trees or linked trees and I was able to find out the genealogy.
  • I was a little surprised that the ThruLines added a potential ancestor of George Butler. He would have been born in the late 1700’s. This George was added in by my researcher friend Peter.
  • The ThruLines corroborate the corrected Butler ancestry on my wife’s side
  • I intend to do further analysis of the Ancestry DNA in a subsequent Blog.

 

 

 

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Swapping Out Butler Ancestors

Ever since I have been working on my wife’s Butler genealogy, I have been assuming that the parents of her Irish immigrant ancestor, Edward Butler were:

  • Michael Butler and
  • Margaret Croke

Now due to recent events I believe that Edward’s parents were:

  • Henry Butler and
  • Ann Russell

Here is Edward, now believed to son of Henry Butler from Wexford:

The Catalyst for the Change

The catalyst for this is that my wife’s niece and recently my wife’s sister have been looking into the genealogy. They convince me that, based on Mary Crowley’s death certificate of 1905, that she was a widow at the time. This means that Edward, son of Michael Butler and Margaret Croke who died in 1915 could not have been Mary Crowley’s husband. Mary Crowley was the husband of immigrant Edward Butler.

Major Reasons for the Swap

  • None of Edward’s children had the names of Michael or Margaret
  • A Blog I wrote in 2019 showed that Michael Butler and Margaret Croke were probably not the parents of Edward Butler based on DNA analysis. They were more likely in the Henry Butler and Ann Russell family
  • Immigrant Edward Butler lived in Cincinnatti during the 1860 and 1870 Census. Also living in Cincinnati was a George Butler, son of Henry Butler and Ann Russell.
  • George Butler had a brother named Edward (born Adam) who died in Boston in 1891.
  • There have been many autosomal DNA matches between the Edward Butler and George Butler family descendants.

Correcting the Genealogy

In my past research, I have a lot of information on Edward Butler. However, a lot of this is from the Edward Butler born in Poulrone, County Kilkenny and who died in Newton in 1915. I need to separate the two Edward Butlers and replace the wrong ancestral couple with the correct one. Once I do that, I believe that Ancetry ThruLines will begin to populate for Henry Butler and Ann Russell. Right now, my wife’s late Aunt Lorraine has no Michael Butler ThruLines (nor should she if I am right):

Downsides to Swapping the Edward Butlers

  1. I was used to researching the Edward from Poulrone
  2. Edward Adam would have been quite young when he married Mary Crowley

This is from my Butler researching friend Peter from England:

If Edward Adam Butler was born 24 July 1839 he would have been a few months shy of 16 when he married in St. John, New Brunswick in 1855.

Taking the Plunge

The first step is changing my records at Ancestry.

I also had to remove records that were associated with Edward Butler of Poulrone. Here I have that George of Cincinnati and Edward are brothers:

So there is a bit of sorting out to do.

Summary and Conclusions

  • It is difficult to swap out one ancestor for another. This is especially true as I have been researching this ancestor for so long. It is sort of like saying goodby to a family friend who is no longer family.
  •  There is also the nagging questiion of, did I get the right guy this time? Most signs point to adding in Edward (Adam) Butler of Wexford. The major problem right now is that he was born a bit later than I would have thought he should have been. The possible explanation is that he padded his age to sound older.
  • However, overall, there were many reasons to remove Edward Butler of Poulrone, County Kilkenny with Edward (Adam) Butler of Wexford.
  • One reason why Edward (Adam) was added in was due to DNA matches between the one who I now believe is his brother (George Butler of Cincinnati) and my wife’s Butler family.
  • I am looking forward to exploring more of these DNA matches in a subsequent Blog.