Category: DNA General

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My Look at an R1a Administor’s Review on Frazer BigY Results

Sorry for the awkward title on the Blog. Things are moving quite quickly after a 4 month wait for Frazer BigY results. I wrote my first review the day the initial results came out on December 29th. Martin’s initial review came out on January 2, 2021. Happy New Year.R1

Martin’s New S2880 Tree

Martin, who live in the Netherlands, is the L664 Project Administrator for FTDNA’s R1a YDNA Project. Here is L664 on the left of the image below:

 

This is from a 2015 R1a Tree.  At that time, L664 was dated around 3,000 BC.  L664 is in blue on the bottom left of the image above. Martin has updated what he calls Section 2b or S2880 as of January 2, 2021. Here is where that is on the bottom left side of the 2015 tree:

 

Here is where S2880 is on Martin’s new tree:

The date for S2880 is about 1800 BC:

Here are the four Frazer BigY testers on the tree:

Here is a more close-up version:

Above YP6489 is the date 1200 AD. Below that box is 1600 AD. That is an important jump as it brings us into more of a genealogical time-frame. It is also important to understand the what these two dates mean. It says that the SNP YP6489 (which is actually a group of SNPs) formed about 1200 AD. The shared group of Frazers go back to 1600 AD (by DNA). This is probably 1690 or so by our genealogy, so a pretty good agreement. However, others outside our group who descend from our 1690 Roscommon Frazer and who share YP6489 could have have an earlier shared date. We are currently awaiting BigY results for a Frazier/Frasher who may fit into this category. His results should show where he fits in.

The last four vertical lines are the Frazers in our group. They are Rodney and Jonathan in the James Frazer Branch. The last two are Paul and Rick in the Archibald Frazer Line. They are the two with all the projected private SNPs.

Martin’s Review

Rick and Paul’s Shared Private SNPs

This is the most important part, because these shared private SNPs willl become a new Frazer YDNA branch. Martin writes:

You have 13 private SNP’s and I found that you share 3 of your private SNP’s with the private SNP’s of Frazer #[number deleted for privacy]. This means you both create a new subclade downstream Subclade YP6489, which I have called Y85652.  

In my first review, I only found two private SNPs that Paul and Rick shared. Martin was able to find three:

These three are shown in the block where the bolded Y85652 is. Here were the two variants that I found:

Positions 8162400 and 21457649

These were the two that I found. Martin has these as SNPs Y85652 and Y112046. In my previous Blog, I had identified that Rick and Paul had matching SNPs Y85652 and Y112046. So that looks like we agree.

Position 16784516 aka Y102972

This is the posiition that Martin found and that I didn’t see in my initial review. Here is my spreadsheet:

I Show that Rick and Rodney have position 16784516 as a non-matching variant but that Rick and Jonathan do not. I may have deleted this entry by mistake. Actually I see this variant above on Jonathan’s list, so I just did not match these correctly:

You have to think backwards with these lists. So if Rick has non-matching variants with both Rodney and Jonathan who are in the James Line. That means that he must have matching variants at those locations with Paul in the Archibald Frazer Line.

Here is Richard Frazer born 1830:

Here is George Frazer born about 1838:

Assuming that this is right (and it appears to be) that means that there was on average one SNP mutation every generation for Archibald Frazer born 1720, Philip Frazer born 1758 and James Frazer born 1804. Also this assumes that we have the genealogy right. We don’t know which ancestor had which mutation. However, it would be possible to find that out if we had descendants from each of these lines test. That is also assuming that there is an unbroken male descendant in each of these lines.

Here is one of Martin’s comments:

Normally we find in the BigY-700 on average a number of 100 years per SNP (or one SNP mutation in every 4-5 generations). So when we assume the Frazer family splits around 1600 AD in 4 branches, then you expect on average for each about 4 private SNP’s. You and #444958 have now about 12-13 SNP’s downstream subclade YP6489 and the other two Frazer’s only 1-3 SNP’s. But sometimes we see large differences in the SNP mutation rate in individual cases.

My opinion is that a male generation was longer between 31 and 38 years so on average 34.5 years. Of course this varies at different times and in different places. Still, with my version, there would be a new SNP every three generations as opposed to the one generation we are seeing here.

The bottom line is that I see my mistake and Martin and I are in agreement on the number of matching private variants that Rick and Paul have in the Archibald Frazer Line.

A Side Thought on Male Frazers

A little ways above, I mentioned the need for an unbroken male line for Frazer YDNA testing. Here is the line of Archibald Frazer born about 1778 and Ann Stinson. This Archibald was the son of Archibald born about 1720 and Mary Lilley:

Out of about 27 or so who tested for autosomal DNA under the Archibald Line born about 1720, I see only about two who would be eligible for YDNA testing. If these two tested, it would confirm this line by YDNA. Their common ancestor would be Archibald born about 1778.

On the James Frazer Line the first two circled on the bottom have taken the BigY test.

There are two others on the left hand side who haven’t taken the YDNA test.

Rick and Paul and Private Variants

To me the private variants are not as important as the shared SNPs. These are variants that should describe a line after the shared ancestor of the two testers.

So Rick’s Private Variants would describe his line starting with Richard Patterson Frazer. Paul’s private variants describe his lineage starting with George Frazer born about 1838. George is my second great-grandfather.

Here is what Martin has to say about Rick’s Private Variants:

You and #444958 have now about 12-13 SNP’s downstream subclade YP6489 and the other two Frazer’s only 1-3 SNP’s. But sometimes we see large differences in the SNP mutation rate in individual cases. I have also checked your 10 private SNP’s in the Yfull results of #444958, but for these 10 private SNP’s of yours, 8 gave a negative result and 2 gave a “no-call” because these two were not tested in his BigY-500 test.  

I am a bit confused by Martin’s use of what he calls downstream SNPs or private SNPs.

These are the numbers in the last yellow boxes for Rodney, Jonathan, Paul and Rick. Paul currently has 4 private SNPs. Because of his three matches with Rick, that will go down to one. However, Martin adds in private eight private SNPs identified by YFull.

Here are some of Paul’s ‘Novel’ Variants at YFull:

I highlighted the first Private SNP that Martin has identified on Paul’s yellow box above. Paul has two more Novel SNPs under his Best quality tab. I see that some on the YFull list say private and some say up to R-YP6489. According to YFull:

The words up to [name of subclade]  after a Novel SNP means that the eventual location of the SNP may be as far in the past as the named subclade or closer to the present than the current Terminal Hg.

That means that they aren’t sure if those SNPs belong in with YP6489 or after it. Just another way to slice and dice things. For the SNPs that say ‘private’, they must be after YP6489 for sure.

Rick then shows 10 private variants. These also don’t make sense in a way. If these are valid, then these would all be in five generations of his Richard Patterson Frazer line. That would mean that there were two mutations per generation. I’ll just depend on Martin’s analysis for now and wait to see if FTDNA’s manual review reduces these SNPs at all.

Dating the YDNA Tree

We can use what we know about Frazer genealogy to get better dates on this tree. The date of ca 1600 is probably a bit early. We think that the father (probably Archibald) of the Archibald and James Lines was born around 1690. Our best bet at dating is from the Elphin Census:

For sake of argument, we’ll say that Archibald Sr was born in 1690 and died at age 50 or so around 1740.  Perhaps Mary was younger and born in 1695. Let’s say she had Archibald in 1718 and James in 1720. We’ll say they both married at age 25. We know that James married in 1745. He had two children by 1749. We’ll say they were only age 1 and 3 at the time. Archibald could have married in 1743 and had children aged 1 3 and 5 in 1749. Just a guess.

All this to say that Archibald Frazer Senior could not have been born 1600. I would stick to 1690 and put that date in where the 1600 is. Then we know that the common ancestor for Rick and Paul is James Frazer who was born about 1804:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I appreciate Martin’s quick and thorough review of Rick’s test results and his incorporation of those results into Setion 2b of his L664 Tree
  • The new name Frazer Branch in the Archibald Frazer line will include three SNPs
  • I was able to identify four people who would qualify for YDNA testing from my charts of Frazers who have already taken autosomal tests. These people are rare because they have to have unbroken male line Frazer ancestry
  • I looked at Rick and Paul’s private variants briefly and will wait for the FTDNA manual review on these.
  • I looked at fine-tuning the dating of the Frazer YDNA BigY Tree based on what we know about our Frazer genealogy.
  • Next on the horizon is the Frazier/Frasher test we are waiting for and Rick’s FTDNA manual review.

Addendum on 16784516 and New Information from David Vance

This is the extra SNP that I missed. Here it is at YBrowse:

This would have been discovered at the time of my cousin Paul’s initial BigY test. David Vance recently posted a chart with the regions of the Y Chromosome:

DaveidVance has this as a good region even though it shows in a darker region on the YBrowse browser.

So SNP Y102972 is a SNP that Rick and Paul share. We’ll have to wait and see which SNP FTDNA calls this portion of the Archibald Frazer Branch.

8162400

David Vance lists this in not the best region:

Here is more from David:

21457649

David doesn’t list this as the greatest either. Based on David’s chart Y102972 would be the best SNP name for this section of the Archibald Frazer Line. Whatever the name, I think that it is interesting that the BigY test has defined a specific area of the Archibald Frazer Branch of the Frazers from Roscommon, Ireland.

 

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My Children’s Lowell Ancestors in Newspapers

Seeing as I have subscribed to newspapers.com, I am looking to see what is there. They do cover Lowell. I’ll start there and see what I find.

Here is my children’s mother’s genealogy:

The Polish top half came to Lowell later than the bottom half of the genealogy.

Jarek

17 December 1929

The Hartford Courant:

It looks like the coverage for Jarek in the Lowell Sun starts in 1936:

28 October 1938

Jules is Julius – my children’s grandfather. Walter was his brother. Julius was about 27 in 1936.

11 January 1930

15 January 1930

Here’s an interesting Boston Globe story. The newpaper dates before 1936 seem to be mostly from the Boston Globe.

I see that Julius aka Gerald was the top scorer for Lowell.

3 March 1930

28 April 1933

In case you missed seeing this game live:

6 May 1933

11 May 1934

I’m assuming that Julius also played baseball, but perhaps this was his brother Walter. Walter was listed as basketball captain in the Lowell Tech Yearbook in 1934, so this is more likely Walter.

3 January 1931

So this game was brother against brother.

26 October 1940

Draft numbers from the Burlington Daily News:

12 August 1943

The Burlington Free Press:

Cavanaugh

2 January 1974

From the Lowell Sun:

10 March 1945

The Miami News:

11 March 1945

 

Note that Agnes’ sister Helen is listed as Helen Rowbotham. I don’t think that is right.

Helen Cavanaugh Born 1917

11 November 1944

15 November

14 July 1991

Leona M Morrow Born 1891

Here is Leona’s birth record from Lowell. She was actually born in 1890:

It looks like someone may have added her in after the fact.

Her father was a jeweller:

Her mother was said to be born in Canada. I didn’t see any newspaper entries for Laona. Here is Marshall St in Lowell. I don’t know if it is the same as Marshall Place:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I found it interesting reading about Julius Jarek’s basketball games. I recall him being inducted into the hall of fame at Lowell Tech.
  • I got interested in Agnes Cavanaugh’s sister Helen when the Miami newspaper wrongly referred to her has a Rowbotham. I suppose the reporter did not realize that Agnes had been married previously.
  • I was not able to find out anything on the Morrow side. However, I did find Laona Morrow’s birth record in Lowell.
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The John Williams Family as Seen in Fall River Newspapers

Previously, I have looked at many of the Fall River newpaper entries for Officer Abe Pilling, the jeweler Abel Burrows and his wife Mary Ann Hartley Burrows. Abel and Mary Ann had one daughter out of three who survived and married. She was Elizabeth A Burrows born in 1874 in Fall River. She married John Williams who worked at Abel’s jewelry store. I suppose that a follow-up on the Pilling family will also be in order at some point.

What I found with Mary Ann Hartley Burrows was that most of her newspapers entries were listed under Mrs. Abel Burrows.

4 Sep 1900

I had shown this before, but missed the second part:

I had previously guessed that Joseph Hartley was really 9 year old James Hartley, my grandfather. The other guess is that the two women accompanied the two children back and stayed for a while in Rochester.

5 March 1903

23 February 1907

The Fall River Globe didn’t miss many events:

13 January 1912

I wonder who was there from Rochester. By the way, Orlando or Orleando Draper was the brother of Walter Draper mentioned in my previous Blog. Mary Ann Burrows was listed as Walter’s guardian. I believe that it was also Orelando Draper who traveled to New York with Abel Burrows when Abel got a telegram that his daughter was ill.

25 February 1913

13th and 18th birthdays were big deals for the Williams girls. I wonder who wrote up these stories. Did Fall River Evening Herald have a birthday party reporter?

3 September 1913

Of course, I know this was actually Mary Ann Burrows.

16 October 1913

Listed under Tiverton news:

10 July 1914

Under the heading of Tiverton:

20 January 1915

Elizabeth Burrows Williams’ father-in-law:

29 October 1915

Mary Ann Hartley Burrows is mentioned but as Burroughs. Some entries were mentioned in my previous Blog, so I will omit them here.

23 February 1918

I may have this elsewhere:

According to Google, $18 from 1918 would be worth about $310 today.

17 April 1918

My guess that Mrs. Mary Bellow above was actually Mary Burrows. Quite a few parties were held at this house. This is what Google shows at 585 Cherry Street  currently:

 

6 November 1919

18 October 1920

8 March 1921

14 January 1922

This tells me that John kept on as a jeweller. Mrs. Marion Wilmot sounds familiar.

Marion was the daughter of Marion Ann Pilling.

2 May 1922

I guess that my cousin was a member of the Central Baptist Always Busy Club.

19 Jun 1922

29 June 1922

Looks like the Fall River Evening News got the scoop on this one:

6 July 1922

5 April 1923

I wouldn’t want to miss any 18th birthdays:

12 July 1923

DNA Matches

Here are my matches at Ancestry to this side of the family:

 

Summary and Conclusions

I think that the availability of the Fall River Newspapers at newspapers.com stops about 1923. I have a few reasons for following Elizabeth Burrows Williams. One is that she is the daughter of Mary Ann Hartley Burrows. Mary Ann was the sister of my great-grandfather. Also I have DNA matches to two people through Mildred Williams.

Reading these newspaper articles give some details into the Williams family. Also it is interesting to see the differences between today and then. I can’t imagine a birthday party today including military marches and ending with the Star Spangled Banner. The Williams appeared to have had a less tragi life than the Burrows. The Burrows lost two of their three daughters to illiness. It appeared that all the Williams children survived.

 

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Mary Ann Hartley Burrows in Fall River Newspapers After 1903

In my previous Blog, I looked at Abel Burrows, the husband of Mary Ann Hartley. He died in 1903, so that was a natural ending for that Blog. I’ll look to see what else the Fall River newspapers have to say about my relatives after 1903 in this Blog. In my previous Blog, by looking at Abel, I found out some more about other relatives, such as the Hartley family who visited him and he visited in Rochester. Also, of course, I learned about his wife, Mary Ann. I’ll look some more at Mary Ann in this Blog.

6 Jun 1904

This article raises some questions. What relatives did she visit? I assume that they were Bacup relatives on the Emmet side.  Mary Ann Hartley was born in Bacup where her mother Ann Emmet was from. She could have also visited Abel Burrows’ relatives. Mary Ann returned on the SS Saxonia on September 8. This was the same ship that Abe Pilling and his family took to England a few years previous. Here the ship is called the RMS Saxonia:

12 Sep 1904

I wonder if Bank St is a typo. I have her at Oak Street in the 1906 Fall River Directory:

22 September 1905

Listed under real estate transactions:

See below for more information. Stetson St goes by the Western side of Oak Grove Cemetery:

3 Apr 1906

This was some kind of infection.

4 August 1909

There is an Island Park Beach and Island Park Cove in Portsmouth, RI not too far from Fall River.

4 July 1912

According to the 1900 Census, Mary Cowgill was a widow living with her son William Marshall at 210 Franklin Street, Fall River.

7 August 1912

From the Fall River Globe under the heading of Tiverton:

There is a Riverside Drive on the current Google Map of Tiverton:

Annie Hartley was born November 1902, so she would be 9. Margaret was born May 1906, so she would be just 6 years old. Florence and Mildred were Mary Ann’s granddaughters. Florence was 12 and 8. That leaves Sadie Edmundson of Providence. Who is she?

Here she is in 1910:

Sarah or Sadie was born in Massachusetts which makes sense. Sadie was actually born in 1897 in Fall River. Her father was a barber. The mother was Elizabeth Barlow. I think that William was from Blackburn, Lancashire so perhaps a friend of the Burrows family?

Actually, this newpaper article from the Fall River Evening News from 8 September 1905 sheds some light:

I assume that means that Mary Ann’s relationship was with Elizabeth Barlow who was a Draper before she was an Edmundson. Here is Orange Street:

More on Walter Draper

Although Walter is said to be born in Rhode Island in the Census above, I find a record of his birth in Fall River on June 22, 1885. His father was Oswald, a weaver. As might be expected, Oswald died in 1894. At that time, he was a restaurant keeper. Elizabeth Barlow Draper then married William Edmundson in 1897. It was William’s second marriage also. One question is why was Mary Ann Walter’s guardian if Elizabeth remarried? As may be guessed, Walter Draper poses more questions than answers.

This could be Walter’s grave stone:

This is interesting unless it is coincidental. My third great-grandmother Mary Pilling’s mother was a Shackleton. I take this to be the same Walter:

Here is a photo that gives some dates of these burial mates:

Edmundson can be explained. He was Walter’s step father. Albert Shackleton married Sarah. The Shakleton name looks like a coincidence. These Shackletons were from Yorkshire, so perhaps distantly related to my Lancashire Shackletons. However, none of this suggests why Mary Ann Hartley Burrows would be the guardian of Walter Draper.

3 Sep 1913

Under the heading of Tiverton:

Here is Quaker Ave., Tiverton:

12 November 1913

23 February 1918

16 April 1918

Here is the Fall River Globe version:

World War I ended November 11, 1918.

30 October 1920

2 December 1920

I have that Mary Ann was born 30 April 1855, so she would be 65 in 1920. Findagrave.com has her birth on 1 December 1854, so that makes more sense.

3 March 1921

I like these pleasant little articles:

Again, I think by Marion is actually meant Rochester. Here is a photo with Mary – possibly from that trip:

 

I believe Mary Ann is to the left of my grandmother. My grandmother is near the middle of the photo and has dark hair and is holding a child – probably my Aunt Sybil. My Aunt Sybil was born 8 September 1920, so the photo may be from 1922. Here is a close-up of Mary Ann:

Eighth Street was not far from Oak Street:

7 July 1921

This was under the heading of Ocean Grove:

15 April 1923

Here is Cherry Street:

That about covers what I could find on Mary Ann Hartley Burrows. Here is her grave stone taken from Ancestry:

I’ll look into the Williams family more in my next Blog.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Between this Blog and the one on Abel Burrows, I have a better picture of who Mary Ann Hartley was and the type of things that she did.
  • At some point, she must have gone from Episcopal to Baptist, perhaps due to Abe?
  • I was disappointed to not find her obituary at newspapers.com. The note said that the obituary had been removed or relocated.
  • The social customs of the day were interesting. Apparently social gatherings were very important and newsworthy
  • Mary Ann had a high regard for her daughter and granddaughter based on parties given for them and the gifts given to them
  • Mary Ann was also brave as she apparently traveled alone to England, Scotland and France.

 

 

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Another Hartley Relative in Fall River Newspapers: Abel Burrows

In my previous Blog, I wrote about Abe Pilling who was a policeman in Fall River from about 1890 until 1925. I had good luck with finding out a lot about this very public man. Next I thought that I’d check around for other relatives. This Blog will focus in on Abel Burrows who was the husband of Mary Ann Hartley. However, some other Hartley relatives will be mentioned.

1 Nov 1870 – Death of Twelve Year Old Esther Hartley

 

One of the first entries was a sad one. The Hartley family arrived in the US not much more than a year before this time.

Other Wilkinsons were listed on the previous page. Mary Wilkinson was Greenwood’s mother. The ship arrived in Boston on  25 Ocober 1869. The Hartley family lived in Fall River for only a year or less before moving to New Bedford.

Mary Ann Hartley and Abel Burrows

I had to find this 16 February 1874 article by searching for Burrows. Hartley was hypeneated in the paper. Mary Ann looked to be 18 but is listed as 19 on the State Marriage record. Abel was a weaver at the time. I wonder how the two met as Mary Ann lived in New Bedford and Abel in Fall River.

Mary Ann’s grandmother Mary Pilling Hartley Wilkinson died not too soon after the wedding:

The above is from 25 Mar 1874.

18 May 1878

14 April 1880

7 June 1880

5 August 1880

19 June 1882

21 June 1882

Was Abel a cricket player? Cricket is a very English game, but there were many English in Fall River.

13 Feb 1884

30 April 1884

27 June 1884

Friends of the family?

Here is Linden Street:

6 Sep 1884

Here are Abel’s wife and children:

8 Sep 1884

Now we know Nancy’s nickname.

29 Jana 1885

Here is a map:

There is a balloon located at 47 South Main located at the intersection of at least two streets. I circled where the old business was and Linden Street. I wonder if the family home moved also at this time. If he did move, it was not right away. Here is the 1885 Fall River Directory:

20 Mar 1885

That would explain how Abel came by the jewelry business. Emanuel decided to stay. According to the 1900 census he arrived in the US in 1885 with his wife and daughter.

24 March 1885

24 April 1885

Here was a way to get people to Abel’s store:

25 June 1885

23 Dec 1886

 

8 Mar 1887

I guess I didn’t expect to find out so much about Abel.

15 July 1887

10 August 1887

This is of interest to me as I grew up in Rochester. Perhaps Mary Ann visited her brother James Hartley while in Rochester. According to the 1885 Fall River Directory, John Slinn was in the insurance business.

It turns out that John Slinn wrote an article of his trip to Rochester in the Fall River Daily Herald published 12 August 1887.

That is quite the fish story and I had to chuckle picturing where most of this took place. My guess is that the fishing took place at Snow’s Pond not too far from the Hartley farm. What the article doesn’t mention is that Annie Hartley was due to give birth to her 2nd child later in September of that year and already had a one year old Daniel Emmet Hartley.

8 Nov 1887

15 Dec 1887

19 June 1888

30 July 1888

24 Sep 1888

1 Jan 1889

Apparently Abel owed some money.

25 Jan 1889

15 Feb 1889

28 Feb 1889

17 Sep 1889

14 May 1891

12 June 1891

20 August 1891

Mrs. David Wilkinson is Marion Ann nee PIllng the sister of Abe Pillng who lived in New Bedford. She was born in 1861. I wonder if the vacation was actually in Rochester at the Hartley farm.

30 Jan 1992

More problems for Abel:

The same day:

15 Feb 1894

15 May 1894

9 Feb 1895

25 Feb 1895

Tessie must have been a nickname for Esther.

13 Jan 1897

I assume that the Burrows attended the Baptist Church.

1 Oct 1897

29 Dec 1897

27 Jan 1899

4 Feb 1899

15 FEb 1899

21 August 1900

Who knew my great-grandfather was in the Fall River Daily Herald or that he had visited Niagara Falls? I can’t tell if James was travellng alone or not.

5 Sep 1900

This is a bit of a mystery as there is no Joseph Hartley. My guess is that this was my 9 year old grandfather James Hartley and his 7 year old sister Nellie. Henry Bradford was born January 1900 and would have been the 7th chlld in the house, so perhaps James’ and Nellie’s trip to Fall River gave their mom a break.

14 Feb 1901

8 Jun 1901

The follow-up article two days later:

My guess was that they went to visit the Hartley family. This is the type of article I was not expecting – a story about Rochester in a Fall River paper.  Mrs. Williams must be Elizabeth Burrows Williams:

The child must be Florence Williams.

6 Sep 1901

16 Jan 1902

5 Mar 1903

So that was the end of Abel. His son-in-law became exectutor and sold off the contents of his jewelry business. I felt I got to know Abel a bit through the eyes of the Fall River newspapers. He was very active in sports and a supporter of cricket, polo and biking. He was in good shape and an avid biker until near his premature death. He had his share of problems with the death of two of his daughters and more than his share of robberies.

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Abraham L Pilling of Fall River as Seen in Newspaper Articles.

I have been looking at Newpapers.com lately for articles of genealogical interest. Some people have more written about them in the newspaper than others. Abe Pilling had a lot written about him.

Pilling

My 3rd great-grandmother was a Pilling. Her son was John Pilling. He had Abraham Pilling who lived in Fall River. Newspapers.com covers Fall River. This article is 02 May 1925 from the Berkshire Eagle:

Those were a lot of vetoes. Abraham had actually died in February 2nd before this veto took place. Here is an article that preceded the above from the Boston Globe on 14 April 1925:

Here is an article from the Fall River Daily Evening News from 6 September 1907:

Here is some basick information on John Pilling and his family:

Abraham was born in 1865 and was the son of John Pilling. Mary Pilling had John before she married Robert Hartley, my ancestor. Abraham was born five days after the Civil War was over.

This is probably an early mention of Abraham in the Fall River Globe on 6 May 1889:

Abraham was apparently on a sports team called the Olympics. Abraham was not afraid to get into a fight.

Here an entry from 19 July 1889:

A day later Pilling was in the paper for a quarter mile race:

More from July 23:

22 Feb 1890

7 April 1890

Sounds like an exciting game.

Now I’m curious about his trip to England as Abe’s father abandoned the family and took off to England in 1877 when Abe was only 12.

Here is one record:

This must be Abe’s return. At this time, he was a weaver:

 

Here is a later trip:

Here he took his wife and two children:

25 Jul 1890

31 July 1890

A report of the annual Sons of St. George Day at Rocky Point:

11 Nov 1890

James Pilling

26 October 1891

James’ obituary was posted in the Fall River Daily Evening News on 1 April 1919:

 

In 1891 and 1892 as Abe worked on the police force, he changed from footballer to referee.

25 Nov 1892

16 Oct 1895

The Fall River Daily Herald reported:

5 Mar 1896

15 Aug 1898

28 Jul 1899

31 Jul 1899

Perhaps Abe’s wife needed a break from the police force drama. Marion was Abe’s sister.

14 Sep 1899

Some criticism of Abe on the baseball team:

10 Apr 1900

25 Jul 1901

Abe also played quoits:

Quoits was a type of ring toss game:

15 May 1902

More problems for Abe:

 

5 Sep 1907

From the Fall River Daily Evening News:

9 Jul 1902

I mentioned this trip the Abe took with his family above. I’m curious as to whom he visited. His father was dead by now. It seems that I recall that my great Aunt Nellie aslo traveled to England at some point.

24 Sep 1902

Here is some more news on Abe’s trip:

The name Thomas Wilkinson is interesting. The article doesn’t mention the purpose of the visit.

21 May 1903

19 Jul 1906

I like how the paper covers the local news:

I still have a few years to go.

26 Jan 1907

15 August 1913

The next day’s paper:

4 Sep 1918

    • My guess is that at least one of Abe’s visits to England was to visit the Halliwell family.

20 Oct 1920

There are many more details. Alice’s brother Everett was an usher.

2 Nov 1920

After this time, there are few significant newspaper articles about Abe.

Here is Abe with my Hartley relatives around 1921 or 1922:

Abe is in the back row with white hair, a mustache and bow-tie.

24 June 1922

Actually, there were a few later articles that I mention at the top of this Blog. That article mentioned injuries that Pilling sustained in the line of duty. I wonder if these were part of those injuries.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Abe certainly had a difficult start in life as his father deserted his family when Abe was 12
  • Abe lived a very public life as seen through his appearances in many newspaper articles
  • Abe was apparently a very physical man charged with what today would be called police brutality. He was also fond of playing sports and traveling. Of course these were different times. He also seemed to like to drink and was accused of being intoxicated on the job, but never found guilty of the charges. However, Abe stayed with his family, so in that way was a better man than his father.

 

 

 

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Newpaper Articles on My Mother’s Side

My mom was from the Philadelphia area.

Rathfelder

Here is something from the Philadelphia Enquirer on 30 August 1936:

Various people then answer my grandmother’s question.

The Philadelphia Inquirer on September 17, 1943 announced the death of my mother’s brother:

My Uncle Russel’s death noted 12 January 1999:

Lentz

Here are some Lentz names from my mother’s ancestry:

This appears to be an early mention of George Lentz of Northern Liberties in 27 September 1805:

George was a butcher in Northern Liberties, so it would make sense that he would want to be on a vigilance committee. Here is George listed in the 1810 Census in East Northern Liberties:

Here is the translation:

I have that Georg (or George) was born in 1770, so he would be 40 in 1810. The two older people would be George and his wife. The four younger ones could be George’s children.

Here is the 1800 Census:

This indicates perhaps a son under 10. So he would have been born between 1790 and 1800. Here is what I have on my web page:

This does not seem to match with the Census. As I have my line through John above, then Georg born 1798 may not be right. However, based on the 1810 Census, there were two males who were between 16 and 25. That means that they were born between 1785 and 1794. Something still seems off.

This John is probably George’s brother:

He is listed near George in the Direct Tax of 1798:

Here George was living at New 4th and Coats. It looks like John was on West 3rd Street. Here is an 1802 map of Northern Liberties:

4th Street is the Street on the left going up and down. 3rd Street is the next long Street to the right of 4th. As I only see one house on the corner of 4th and Coates, I assume that is the George Lentz house. In the newspaper ad above John lives on 3rd Street above the Coates Burying Ground, which I assume is on Coate’s Street. So using a newspaper, tax records and an old map, it seems we get an idea of where some of these Lentz families lived. There is another John Lentz listed in Philadelphia newpaper articles but he lives in Passyunk.

This ad from 31 August 1812 in the Aurora General Advertiser mentions the George Lentz property:

It appears that this property just happened to be next to where George Lent lived.

Here is an ad from 20 December 1851:

I recognize the firm of Lentz & Young as a place one of my ancestors worked. I found that Lentz and Geisler also had many contracts with the almshouse such as this one recorded on 13 August 1861:

Jacob Lentz was my third great-grandfather. Here is part of a poster that one of my relatives sent me from 1851:

10 July 1863:

Here is Jacob’s death notice from the Evening Telegraph on Saturday 6 Feruary 1869:

Jacob’s wife died over thirty years later. Here is the 1 May 1900 Notice:

George Washington Lentz

Here is George death notice:

This was from the Philadelphia Inquirer on 20 February 1888. Here is another notice from the Philadelphia Times from February 17:

Baker

I have that my 2nd great-grandmother was Mary Baker. Her father was Conrad Baker (1800-1881). Here is the notice from 28 February 1881:

Here is East Mongomery Ave in Fishtown:

Nicholson

I can start with my mother’s grandmother. This is from 24 September 1951:

This appears to be the Cemetery:

Here is Annie’s father in the paper of 11 June 1919:

He was also buried in the same cemetery.

Agnes D Nicholson

I have that Agnes who was Annie’s sister married David Vickery. She died at the same place that Annie died. This was at a Presbyterian Home for Widows and Single Women on 58th and Greenway Ave.

Agnes died about 7 years after Annie.

Summar and Conclusions

  • There could be many other paths to follow in the newspaper aritcles
  • The newer articles have the most information, so they are important in bringing the various family lines forward
  • Reading these newpaper articles spurs research using sources other than newspaper.com which also helps to fill in missing family information.

 

 

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Pilgrim 400th Anniversary: My Brewster Ancestors

I have quite a few Pilgrim Ancestors. They tended to marry other Pilgrims. I descend from Elder William Brewster in two different ways. All my Pilgrim ancestors come from my third great grandfather, Harvey Bradford. Harvey was born almost 250 years after Elder William Brewster.

Harvey descends from William Brewster on his father and mother’s side.

Harvey’s Paternal Brewster Connection

Harvery was the youngest son of Samuel Bradford. Unfortunately, I have that Samuel died in 1812, when Harvey was about three years old.

In the above image, we finally see a Brewster. Here is Sarah Brewster who married Benjamin Bartlett. Here is an expansion of her tree:

Sarah must be my 8th great grandmother and Elder William Brewster is my 10th great-grandfather.

Elder William Brewster Born About 1566/67

I’ll start will William to keep the Blog in chronological order. Doncaster looks to be about 12 miles NorthEast of Sheffield. Some of my mother’s ancestors lived in Sheffield in the 1700’s and 1800’s.

Although I have that William was born in Doncaster, I see that the Mayflower Families Book on Brewster has him born in or near Scrooby, Nottinghamshire – to the South of Doncaster:

Scrooby is quite small with a current population of about 329. According to the Mayflower families book, William’s father who was also William Brewster was appointed to the office of Baliff-receiver of Scrooby manor by Archbiship Grindal on 4 january 1575/6. So when William, Jr. was about 9 years old.

Here is a photo of Scrooby Manor:

This home was later occupied by William Brewster (Jr.) who served as did his father as Master of the Royal Post. This house played an important part in formation of Separatists later to be called the Pilgrims. Brewster and Bradford would meet in this house to pursue their religious freedom while in England.

In addition, William was unique in some ways compared to the other Pilgrims:

  • The only Pilgrim known to have had a college education
  • The first Pilgrim to visit Holland
  • The only Pilgrim with Government experience
  • William also held the highest non-pastoral Church position as Elder and very often filled in as preacher to the Pilgrims.

William was a much respected part of the Pilgrims. He nursed the sick to health in the first winter the Pilgrims were in Plymouth – even including William Bradford. At the time of his death, he had over 400 books in collection.

William Brewster Places

I have already mentioned Scrooby where William came from. While at Cambridge University, William was at Peterhouse Hall built in 1290, so already old when William attended.

Here is Peterhouse Hall:

In Leiden, William lived in the “stinksteeg” or stink alley in the Pieterskerk section.

The alley William lived on is now named William Brewstersteeg.

Here is Mr. Brewster’s location in Plymouth:

Isaac Allerton was William’s son-in-law. From Plymouth, William moved to Duxbury where he lived with his son Love. This is the likely location of his house:

The location of the house is known as Elder Brewster Lilacs:

Wililam died on 10 April 1644.

Love Brewster Born about 1614

Love was born in Holland and would have lived near or with his father William most of his life. Love and his brother Wrasling (or Wrestling) were on board the Mayflower accompanying their father. Love’s older brother Jonathan and his two sisters Patience and Fear arrived not too long after.  Jonathan, Patience and Fear were likely born in Scrooby. Love married Sarah Collier in Plymouth on 15 May 1634.

Love had four children probably all born in present-day Duxbury:

  • Sarah born about 1635 – probably named for her mother
  • Nathaniel born about 1637
  • William born about 1645
  • Wrestling

Love died late in 1650. His brother Jonathan wrote a letter to Love’s wife Sarah after the death of Love and gave her some land in Duxbury. Jonathan desired to return to England but never made it back. Based on the number of books in Love’s inventory at the time of his death, he appears to have been educated. This education was likely from his father Elder William Brewster.

Sarah Brewster Born about 1635

Sarah was last in my line of Brewster ancestors and still born in the early 1600’s. She was actually twice my ancestor. Here she is as my 8th great-grandmother on my 3rd great-grandfather Harvey’s paternal side:

Here she is as my 9th great-grandmother on Harvey’s maternal side:

It makes more sense that Sarah would be further back on Harvey’s maternal side as women tended to marry at an earlier age. Sarah grew up in her father Love’s house in Duxbury as noted above. In 1654 or 1655, Sarah married Benjamin Bartlett. He had been married previously to Susannah Jenny. In 1656, Sarah received a gift of land from her Uncle Jonathan Brewster. The birth record and marriage record for Sarah are missing. So wills and land records are used to patch the information together. Benjamin’s mother was Mary Warren also of Mayflower lineage.

Sarah’s husband Benjamin Bartlett was a cooper. Here is an excerpt from werelate.org:

The matchmakers were soon at work again, and in 1655, Benjamin married Sarah Brewster, daughter of Love Brewster and Sarah (Collier) Brewster, and grand-daughter of the spiritual leader of the Plymouth Colony, Elder William Brewster. They moved to Waiting Hill in Duxbury, near the Collier home on North Hill, where the North Hill Country Club now stands. Sarah’s maternal grandfather, William Collier, had been one of the original merchant adventurers who financed the Colony and an assistant governor. Benjamin was soon active in politics and was elected Constable in 1662. He was elected a Selectman in 1666 and was reelected for 14 terms, until 1686. In 1685 he was representative from Duxbury to the General Court of the Colony.

Here is a three mile walk near Waiting Hill that also shows North Hill:

Put this walk on my bucket list. Here is the actual Waitin Hill shown between Routes 3 and 3A:

Before there were so many trees in the area, the story goes that people would wait for ships returning from England on this Hill where they could see the Ocean.

Sarah died before 21 January 1678.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I have three Brewster ancestors who lived in early Plymouth and what is now Duxbury.
  • I have always been interested in Elder William Brewster due to his education and spiritual role and other roles he played in the life of the early colony.
  • These three people are fairly well documented as to where they lived and the lives they lived. I have a special interest in where my ancestors lived.
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An Update On My Mitochondrial DNA from 2020

While looking over my old draft Blogs, I came upon this one last updated in November of 2020. I had not finished it, but I wanted to post this now to show the progression of my Mitochondrial DNA Matches.

My last Blog on my Mitochondrial DNA or MtDNA was in 2018. I won’t go over everthing I wrote there. At that time I had four perfect MtDNA matches:

At that time, I noted that I was getting about one perfect (or Genetic Distance of zero) match per year. That rate has kept up and now I have seven perfect matches:

My three new matches are with Anne, Elizabeth and Ann. The two additional female surnames noted are for Gallagher and McLaughlin.

Triangulation of Female Ancestors – Back to Ireland, or Not?

At the time of my previous 2018 Blog, it seemed like my mother’s female line went back to Ireland based on the common ancestors. FTDNA has a map of my current matches, but only the ones who have listed a location for their female line oldest ancestor:

Here is a key to the pins:

However, along with the map, the dates have to be considered. My female line, from what I can tell goes back to the 1700’s:

Ann Nicholson is my great-grandmother. Ann Scott was certainly born in the 1700’s. I am not certain of Roebuck and Scott, but onely mostly sure. My MtDNA Haplogroup of H5’36 certainly goes back to the British Isles, but I would like to know more than that.

However, 9 people list an earliest known ancestor. These are:

  1. Gallagher
  2. McLaughlin
  3. McKelvey
  4. Jennings
  5. Coleman
  6. Francis
  7. Chiffink
  8. Roberts, Jolly
  9. Touhey

These names are helpful, but adding dates and places would be more helpful.

My MtDNA Matches’ Genealogy

The map above only shows the location of most distant female ancestor where that was added. Most people don’t add this information. Out of 21 matches:

  • four people made it to the map
  • 10 show that they have family trees at FTDNA
  • 9 list an earliest known ancestor (see above)

The last two bullets have some overlap but some are only in one category or the other.

I’ll start a spreadsheet:

Already I have an issue. Anne’s tree has Anne O’Donnell as the oldest on her female-only line. But she listes Annie Gallagher.

A Tree for Newest MtDNA Match Anne

I can build a quick tree at Ancestry Here is Anne’s grandmother:

Anne’s great-grandmother is Margaret Campbell who was born in Ireland. Here is Maggie in 1900 in Philadelphia:

If this is right, Maggie came to the US as a baby in 1862. This appears to be Margaret’s death record:

Conlin is transcribed as Coulin.

This appears to be the passenger list for Maggie and her family:

It is more likely that Maggie was born in December 1862 than 1861. This ship, the Hecla, arrived June 29, 1863.

Summary and Conclusions

  • The rate continues that I get about 1 new perfect Mitochondrial DNA match per year.
  • Going through the genealogy on the maternal side for these matches – if these matches  have provided trees – takes time
  • So far, I have not found a genealogical connection in any of my matches

 

 

 

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Another Nicholson Heard from at 23andMe

Lately I have been reaching out to Nicholson descendants at 23andMe who match me by DNA. The last one that I had identified was Dave and I wrote a Blog about my match with him here.

It turns out that this match is with Cynthia who is Dave’s sister. I didn’t realize that until I just checked. Cynthia’s common matches with me.

This shows that David is my third cousin and Cythia’s brother.

Here is how we match. I’ll need to add Cynthia into David’s box on the lower right. Cynthia didn’t know much beyond her Nicholson grandfather. I have more on the Nicholson family here. Here is Walter’s baptismal record from Kensington Presbyterian Church:

Walter is Cynthia’s Nicholson great-grandfather. Walter and his brother George Dockrill Nicholson were both baptized on April 4, 1886 when they were 10 or 11. Cynthia’s grandfather George Dockrill Nicholson was named for Walter’s brother.

My DNA Match with Cynthia

My DNA match with Cynthia is similar to the one I have with her brother David, but larger:

Here is my match with David:

I match David on the same Chromosomes but for less on each Chromosome.

I had added David to my Chromosome map, now I can add Cynthia. Here is Cynthia on Chromosome 8:

My match with Cynthia is represented by the third purple bar. Her match overlaps some with Linda. In order for these people to match me, each of our unique mixes of chromosome inheritances have to match up. David and Cynthia’s DNA matches with me do not overlap with each other

Other people that match me on this Chromosome are Linda, Carolyn, Beth and Robert.

Robert and Beth are the great-grandchildren of Sarah Nicholson, my great-grandmother Annie’s older sister. Linda and Carolyn descend from Nellie Nicholson and David and Cynthia descend from Walter Nicholson. David and
Cynthia also have a 1st cousin Robert, but he tested at AncestryDNA, so he doesn’t have detailed DNA comparison information unless he uploads his results to Gedmatch, MyHeritage or Famly Tree DNA (FTDNA).

My DNA Match with Cynthia on Chromosome 20

We have two copies of each of our chromosomes. Both Cynthia and I match on our maternal copy of our Chromosome 20. That is because that is our Nicholson side.

Chromosome 20 is one of the shorter chromosomes. Judith descends from my closer Lentz and Nicolson ancestors, so she is in a different color. Cynthia’s DNA match with me on this chromosome overlaps my match with David and Carolyn, meaning we all got the same DNA from William Nicholson or his wife Martha Ellis there.

Here is what my maternal chromosomes look like now:

Cynthia brought my maternally mapped DNA up a percentage to 38%. The purple represents DNA from my great-grandmother Annie Nicholson. I have eight great-grandparents, so that represents roughly 12.5% of all of my DNA or 25% of my maternal side DNA. Taking this one step further:

5.5% divided by 12.5% is 44%. That is the amount of DNA from William Nicholson and Martha Ellis that I have mapped now.

Visual Phasing

I have mapped out by visual phasing where I got my DNA from each of my grandparents on all my chromosome. Here is Chromosome 8:

I am the third person on the chart. All my maternal side (green) DNA came from my maternal grandmother who was a Lentz. However, this is my Nicholson side also as my grandmother’s mother was a Nicholson. That explains why I match Nicholsons well on this Chromosome. My sister Lori has the second most Lentz DNA on the bottom row.

Here is Chromosome 20 for me and my siblings:

Again, I have all green or Lentz. By looking at my siblings’ DNA, you can get a good idea how DNA is inherited differently by each sibling. For example, my sister Sharon would not match Cynthia on this Chromosome as she has a lot of Rathfelder DNA on Chromosome 20. But she may match on another chromosome where I con’t match Cynthia.

23andMe Family Tree

23andMe suggests that I add Cynthia to their tree:

I also added David on the lower left part of the tree.