Category: DNA General

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Penny’s Frazer ThruLines

My last Blog on Penny is here. That was prior to ThruLines. I also wrote a Blog on Penny’s sister Toni here. Toni’s DNA is not linked to her tree, so she does not have ThruLines.

Penny’s Genealogy

Penny is in red in the lower left. She descends for William Fitzgerald Frazer. This tree is based on research by Frazer researcher, Joanna.

William Fitzgerald Frazer Born 1821 Ireland

I am interested in William Fitzgerald Frazer:

Penny mentions a biography in her Ancestry Tree:

This was from An illustrated history of Sacramento County, California. Containing a history of Sacramento County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time published in 1890. Penny further gives this chronology for William:

This raises questions as to the mother of the first three children. Penny also mentions another daughter Angelina G Frazer as mentioned in William’s will. She is named as Angeline G Law. That gives a hint:

In 1911, Angelina is listed as Gracella. I assume that was her middle name:

This puts William Fitzgerald in Leitrim in the 1840’s. Here is another interesting record:

In this record Angelina “Gracenda” is listed as Augustine. Here is Angelina’s wedding publication from 1872 – not long after her father’s divorce:

This more specifically puts William in Drumkeerin:

That means that William Fitzgerald Frazer lived in Drumkeeran. He had Angelina Gracenda around 1843. His second daughter appears to have been Mary Ann Frazer. Penny has her born in 1844.

Mary Ann Frazer

Mary Ann married in 1864:

About a year later, these two were living in Poughkeepsie, New York:

Thomas Quinton may be William’s father. Margaret Frazier is Mary A’s sister. Poughkeepsie is on the Hudson River:

How Can the DNA Help Us?

Right now on the James side of the Frazer Tree, descendants have been placed into two main branches:

There is an Archibald Branch on the left where Penny is. There is a Michael Branch on the right. There is an Elizabeth branch in the middle also. However, her daughter Catherine Knott married Archibald believed to be the son of Michael on the right side. We can use the DNA matches to test the genealogies above. First, I try to see if the DNA supports that the people within the box on the left match each other. Then I see if they match the people in the box on the right at the appropriate levels.

Penny’s ThruLines

Penny’s first cousin level ThruLines are good:

89% of the time Penelope’s match with Pamela should be a 1st cousin once removed or similar relationship:

Penny’s ThruLines with William Fitzgerald Frazer

At Penny’s Frazer great grandparent level there are no new ThruLines. There are some at the 2nd great-grandparent level:

These matches are from the descendants of Mary Ann Frazer. I’ll start a chart for Penn y:

Penny and Frazer Third Great-grandfather ThruLines

This part goes beyond Penny’s Ancestry Tree to work that Frazer reasearcher Joanna has done:

Here there are 7 matches to Penny on the Thomas Henry Frazer Line. Joanna has that Thomas Henry Frazer was born in Drumkeerin, so there is that connection. Joanna is on the Edward F Frazer Branch. I should point out that Penny has no matches on the Edward Wynn Branch:

Edward Wynn is the brother in the middle group above.

Penny’s Distant ThruLines

When I put the common ancestor up two more generations to James Frazer born about 1720, I pick up two additional matches for Penny:

These two matches were recently added under Michael to explain DNA matches. It would make sense that Penny could match these two, as the theory is that Mary married William Frazer:

Adding Penny’s ThruLines to Madeline’s and Charlotte’s

Although Penny doesn’t share any ThruLine matches with Madeline and Charlotte, they both match some of the same matches as shown in blue below:

I think that Charlotte’s match to JS above is really Janet. The question is: if Penny, Charlotte and Madeline have many of the same ThruLines, then why doesn’t Penny match Charlotte and Madeline? I suppose there could be many explanations:

  • The common ancestor is Archibald born 1792. Charlotte and Madeline may be related on the Archibald side and Penny may be related on Archibald’s wife’s side. That would result in Penny not matching Charlotte and Madeline.
  • Another variation of that is that Archibald may have had more than one wife. Penny may descend from one wife and Charlotte and Madeline from another.
  • It may be that we have the genealogy wrong.
  • There may be other connections on collateral lines.

Adding In Joanna

If I add in Joanna to the mix, I’ll have representatives from the three brothers:

 

These are William Fitzgerald, Edward Wynn Frazer and Thomas Henry Frazer (Joanna’s great-grandfather). Here is a partial list of Joanna’s ThruLines:

I’m more interested in the matches at the third cousin level. Here we have the two brothers plus Ann. The third brother doesn’t show here as he shows at the 2nd cousin level for Joanna. For some reason, the ThruLines seemed to skip a generationbetween William Fitzgerald 1821 and Minnie Jane born 1895. I have written quite a bit about the McPartland Branch. They have the Ancestor Ann Frazer who has been difficult to place. Joanna has made a guess that she was the daughter of her 2nd great-grandfather Archibald born 1792. I have been going back and forth as to whether Ann should be under Archibald or Michael Frazer.

Another interesting point is that Edward Archibald born 1867 ended up in Poughkeepsie, NY where Mary A Frazer Quinton and Margaret Jane Frazer lived in 1855. I don’t know if this is a coincidence or not.

I see that Joanna matches WG. WG is on the Edward Wynn Branch where Madeline and Charlotte are. Joanna has a good match with WG but Madeline and Charlotte do not. This may be a coincidence, but I would keep my eye on this situation. For Charlotte and Madeline the level that they match WG indicates a second cousin once removed only <1% of the time:

I added WG into the tree here:

Joanna and James of Clerragh

I didn’t see any additional ThruLines for Joanna at her Archibald/Peyton level. However, there are some new ones at the level of James of Clerragh:

The odd thing with this ThruLine is that Archibald born 1690 who is usally the father of James of Clerragh is shown as James’ son. However, the relationship shown is correct at 2nd cousin once removed.

When I add the results in with the others, I get this:

Those are a lot of numbers to look at. Basically:

  • Penny had no ThruLine matches at her 2nd cousin level.
  • Joanna shows good match levels at the 2nd cousin level. That is, except with Chris
  • Madeline and Charlotte show poor 2nd cousin match levels. However, the matches are just with one person. Perhaps there are not many descendants on this line who have had their DNA tested.
  • At the third cousin level out of all the matches, there are no perfect scores. I am not sure why that is. If I add up all the percentages for the relationships and divide by the top percentages in the third cousin range, I get 42%. As these ThruLines are somewhat new, I don’t know how usual or unusual that is. The results seem anemic to me. It is as if Archibald Frazer had each of his sons by different wives.

Here are the rest of the results:

At the fourth cousin level, Penny has matches with the Thomas Henry Branch, but not the Edward Wynn Branch.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Looking back at my Blog on Penny’s sister Toni, it appears that Toni had better Frazer matches. However, Toni has not linked her DNA to her Ancestry Tree and therefor does not show up on ThruLines.
  • If Toni links her DNA to her Ancestry Tree, we should get a fuller picture of the situation.
  • I had fun getting a better understanding of Penny and Toni’s genealogy.
  • Perhaps as a result of Penny’s less than average matches on the Frazer side, the DNA matches looked a bit anemic.
  • However, having said that, at the third cousin level there are a lot of matches under Archibald Frazer born in 1792. However, they appear to be all less than perfect matches, with only one match that I see that is above average. That is the match between Charlotte and Gail at 97 cM.
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Bonnie’s Frazer ThruLines and An Update On Beverly’s

In this Blog I would like to look at Bonnie’s ThruLInes. Here is Bonnie on my Frazer DNA and genealogy chart:

I circled Beverly as I already looked at her ThruLines here. It took two Blogs to write about Beverly’s ThruLines. The connection of Beverly and Bonnie to Archibald Frazer and Catherine Knott above is quite certain. However, one other Frazer researcher has the connection after that going up to a different Frazer couple:

Bonnie’s Frazer ThruLines

Bonnie’s ThruLines are based on her genealogy going up to Michael and Margaret Frazer. That could cause some bias toward that outcome, but we will see.

Bonnie’s ThruLines with her second cousins are not in question, but it is always good to go from the known to the unknown in genealogy:

Bonnie’s Third Cousin ThruLInes

At this level three additional people are added:

I mentioned Beverly above. Then there are two more people from the Catherine Frazer Line. Bonnie’s tree has Catherine as Catherine Peyton Frazer, but Frazer researcher Joanna points out that the Peyton is not correct as that is from a different Catherine Frazer. Someone added a photo of Catherine Frazer’s daughter Rachel Patton from NO’s ancestry:

LO and NO are from two different lines as Catherine Frazer married a Pattison (aka Patterson) who died. She then married a Patton.

Here are Bonnie’s ThruLines so far in a chart:

This means that Bonnie’s match with Gary and Judith indicate a second cousin match 62% of the time. Bonnie’s match with Beverly indicates that her 39 cM match indicates a third cousin 13% of the time. It would have been more likely for the two of them to be fourth cousins. 22% of the time a 39 cM match indicates a 4th cousin relationship. That means that they don’t have the most likely match level for third cousins, but still a likely match.

Bonnie’s Third Great-Grandparents

Here is something I had not considered:

At this point, Bonnie has another likely Frazer ancestor in Elizabeth Frazer. This makes life confusing. According to Frazer researcher Joanna, Catherine Knott was either a daughter or niece of William Knott and Elizabeth Frazer. The scenario showing in ThruLines has Catherine as a daughter. Another point is that Michael and Elizabeth Frazer were siblings. Looking at ThruLines by way of William Knott and Elizabeth Frazer do not add any more matches.

Here Bonnie has six additional matches.

Bonnie appears to have strong ties with the Patrick Henry Line of Frazers. This is good based on the fact that there are records for a both a Patrick and a Fitzgerald born to a Michael and Margaret Frazer:

14 Dec1803  b.         Patrick s. of Michael and Margaret                        Eastersnow   

16 Dec1803  bpt.      Patrick s. of Michael and Margaret                        Eastersnow                                                                    

2 Apr 1804    b.         Fitzgerald s. of Michael and Margaret                  Eastersnow   

5 Apr 1804    bpt.      Fitzgerald s. of Michael and Margaret                  Eastersnow   

Frazer researcher Michael was fortunate to find such early birth and baptismal records from Eastersnow Parish in North County Roscommon. However, it is curious as to how these two children were born less than four months apart from each other.

Mary Frazer

Mary is a new addition to the Frazer DNA/Genealogy Chart. Joanna added her in to explain DNA matches to descendants of Catherine Matilda Fraser. Frazer researcher Joanna made an educated guess that Mary Frazer married William Frazer shown below:

That translates to these two ThruLine matches for Bonnie:

Bonnie’s ThruLines with James Frazer and a Surprising Match

Here are Bonnie’s ThruLines up to her 4th great-grandfather. Bonnie has five matches. The surprising one is with Brittney:

Brittney and Bonnie have a 60 cM match which is very high for a 5th cousin once removed. AncestryDNA only gives statistics up to 5th cousin. According to the ISOGG web page, 60 cM is not unheard of for fifth cousins once removed:

Here are the matches charted out:

What if Bonnie Was In the Tree of Archibald Frazer and Catherine Peyton?

I mentioned early in this Blog that at least one researcher has Archibald Frazer and Catherine Peyton as the parents of Bonnie’s ancestors Archibald Frazer and Catherine Knott. It would be possible for me to test out what would happen if we put Bonnie there.

That scenario would replace Archibald born about 1792 above with Archibald Frazer and Catherine Knott. The effect is that Bonnie would be more closely related to those on the Frazer/Peyton Line and further related to those on the Michael and Margaret Frazer Line. There is no need to change Bonnie’s ancestry to see what ThruLines will do. I think that this would be the result. The original analysis is first and the new one second:

It appears that Bonnie’s original genealogy has a slight edge based on the ThruLines. In the analysis above, she has four rows of green where she has the highest probability for the relationship. In the analysis below she has two. I added up the probabilities for each scenario. In the original scenario, the percentages added up to 215. In the alternate scenario, Bonnie gets a 211. There is not much difference there. This analysis quantifies my previous observations that the matches between the Archibald Line and the Michael Lines are pretty even.

Comparing Bonnie’s and Beverly’s ThruLines

Beverly and Bonnie are third cousins. I had written two Blogs on Beverly’s ThruLines, but they have since changed. Also, it appears that Beverly’s DNA may not have been attached properly. I have her mother as Edith Frazer. In the ThruLines below, Edith shows incorrectly as Beverly’s grandmother:

That means that Beverly would be a second great Aunt to Krista and Jordan rather than a 1st cousin twice removed. Also, I show Beverly’s maternal grandfather as Fitzgerald – not Alexander Frazer:

Apparently there was an Alexander with a daughter Edith but not Beverly’s Edith. Beverly’s Frazer side was from the Parry Sound area of Ontario:

For further out ThruLines, the tree corrects itself somehow. Here Fitzgerald Frazer is correctly shown as Beverly’s grandfather:

Here is my new summary for Beverly’s Frazer ThruLines:

Mollie is in a pink color. Her ThruLine has gone away since my last Blog on Beverly. This is good because I couldn’t explain how her Robert McMaster ancestor fit in. The yellow matches are new since my last Blog on Beverly’s ThruLines.

Combining Beverly’s and Bonnie’s ThruLines

A few observations:

  • Beverly has 21 Frazer ThruLines compared to Bonnie’s 14.
  • Bonnie and Beverly don’t share many ThruLine matches. I am not sure why that is or whether they should. They both share Brittney who is the most distant relative.
  • The numbers seem good for the relationships. This tells me that the DNA evidence supports the trees we have.
  • Under the Michael and Margaret Frazer common ancestors, there is a good mix of matches from their children: 8 for Patrick (who is the same as Henry Patrick); 6 for Margaret Frazer; 2 for Mary (recently added in as a hypothesis) and one for Fitzgerald.
  • I didn’t do the reverse analysis for Beverly that I did for Bonnie. That was the using the assumption that the 4th cousin matches descended from Archibald of Tullynure rather than Michael Frazer. One of the problems I find with that assumption is that it does not account well genealogically for the many DNA matches that have been considered. In other words, all these Frazer descendants came from somewhere and under the alternate assumption, it is unclear how these people would fit in.

Summary and Conclusions

  • In this Blog, I looked at Bonnie’s ThruLines.
  • Bonnie’s ThruLines support the tree we have for her descending from Michael and Margaret Frazer.
  • I did an analysis of what the DNA matches would look like if Bonnie descended from a different Frazer Line. The matches were close but not as good as for her descending from the Michael Frazer Line. Also I didn’t like the genealogy for Bonnie being in a different Frazer Line as I couldn’t see how everyone else could fit in with her being there.
  • Next, I did and update for Beverly’s ThruLines. Beverly and Bonnie are third cousins.
  • Beverly had more matches than Bonnie. Her matches were consistent with Bonnie’s.
  • It helped to combine the two results. This method should work in other lines.

 

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Tracy’s Upshall Ancestry and DNA Matches

As I go through my wife’s Aunt Esther’s DNA matches at Ancestry, I came upon Tracy.

According to AncestryDNA, Tracy and Esther could be second cousins or closer.

Tracy’s Genealogy

Here is Tracy’s Ancestry Tree:

I am interested in Tracy’s Halfyard maternal side. I built this tree:

I am interested in Margaret Jane Upshall. Perhaps she will fit into Esther’s tree. The records are not good for Harbour Buffett where many of the Upshalls lived.

Henry Upshall Born About 1841 and Catherine Dicks

Esther descends from Henry Upshall and Catherine Dicks:

Esther is a half-sister to my wife’s grandmother Florence:

This is an Upshall DNA tree. These people have had their DNA tested and match each other.

Jessie Upshall Born 1886

A while back, I came across Karen who descends from Jessie Upshall. By DNA and name it seemed like Jessie would have to be another daughter of Henry and Catherine Upshall:

Karen’s DNA matches to Esther, Joan and Elaine were perfect for her being a 1st cousin twice removed to Esther. I could see no other explanation other than Jessie Kate Upshall was a daughter of Henry Upshall. I added her to the tree even though the records were missing from Harbour Buffett due to a church fire.

Now Tracy has an Uphall great-grandmother born in 1874. Perhaps Margaret Jane Upshall could be another daughter of Henry and Catherine Upshall.

Adding Tracy to the Henry Upshall Tree

I’ll add Tracy in to see how she fits:

If my guess is right, Tracy is:

  • 1st cousin twice removed to Esther
  • 2nd cousin once removed to Joan and Elaine
  • 3rd cousin to Marie, Joanne and Karen
  • 3rd cousin, once removed to Tina

I administer the DNA for Esther, Joan, Elaine and Marie, so I can check those DNA matches.

Esther gets a low score for being a first cousin twice removed to Tracy because she matches by more DNA than expected. Based on their high DNA match, Ancestry would rather see them as 1st cousins once removed. That means that by chance Esther and Tracy share more DNA than average or it could mean that Esther and Joan share ancestries from other branches.

Karen’s Mom Shirley

Karen’s mom Shirley has also tested at Ancestry:

Shirley has perfect textbook matches to Esther, Joan, Elaine and Marie. They get the highest possible scores for these three different levels of relationships.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I think that it would be safe to add Tracy to the Henry Upshall Branch of Upshalls based on close DNA matches to Esther and her family.
  • The DNA matches between Tracy and Esther’s family are a little closer than expected. It is possible that there are other family connections further out.
  • If Tracy uploads her DNA to Gedmatch, it would be possible to do more detailed DNA analysis.
  • If Karen shares her mother’s DNA results with me, I would be able to see how closely Shirley matches Tracy. That would further solidify the Upshall Family Tree.

 

 

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Esther’s Newfoundland ThruLines at AncestryDNA

Esther is my wife’s 1/2 great Aunt and has Newfoundland Ancestry on both sides. AncestryDNA’s ThruLines takes DNA matches and matches those up with Ancestry Tree matches. Let’s take a look at Esther’s ThruLines to see what they show.

Esther’s Parents

Here are Esther’s Parents:

Here are the ThruLines for Fred Upshall:

These people are not related on the Shave side, so the relationships show correctly as half relationships. These people are my mother in law, Joan, her sister Elaine, my wife Marie and Marie’s niece Tina. These four should show up in Esther’s more distant Upshall side ThruLines.

Esther’s Grandparents

 

Very quickly, Esther is back to 1841 with her Upshall grandfather. I am more interested in the Upshall and Dicks side as that is the side where my wife and her mother are related.

Here are the Henry Upshall ThruLines:

On the right is Karen. I have written Blogs about her family. I put her great-grandmother Jessie as the daughter of Henry Upshall based on DNA evidence even though there was no genealogical evidence. This was a bit dicey, but based on the amount of DNA shared between Esther and Karen, it seems like the right thing to do. According to Ancestry DNA, that amount of shared DNA is most likely to be a 1st cousin, twice removed relationship:

Nicholas and Esther

How does Nicholas fit in? For one thing, 1st cousin four times removed goes right off the chart:

I would think that a 1st cousin four times removed would be similar to the 2nd cousin once removed. Either way, the chances of this being right are <1% according to AncestryDNA.

Nicholas’ Genealogy

Here is the expanded view of ThruLines:

One problem is that Nicholas’ parents and grandparents are shown as living, so I don’t have information on them. Nicholas’ tree is managed by Kara. She has Gladys Uppshall Knight as Nicholas’ maternal great-grandmother. From there, Stephanie’s tree kicks in with Theodore the father of Gladys.

Here is the 1935 Census for St John’s West:

The assumption is that this is the same Gladys in 1945:

Here is a replacement birth record for Malcolm:

This shows that Malcolm’s mother was a Shave. That makes it more surprising that Esther and Nicholas don’t have more matching DNA as Esther’s mother was a Shave.

Here is another after the fact record for Malcolm’s brother:

This could be William in the 1945 Census living next to his brother:

Was Alexander the Son of Henry Upshall?

I have it that way on my Ancestry Tree, but not on my Upshall Web Page. I don’t see any genealogical evidence that would put Alexander as the son of Henry Upshall. It is that way in some on-line Trees. Based on the low amount of DNA match and the shaky genealogical evidence, I would call into question this particular ThruLine at this time.

Esther’s Upshall Great-Grandparents

Here, things get more interesting as there is no known genealogical evidence for Esther’s great-grandparents. These ancestors are a best guess scenario. Here are the ThruLines for best-guess Peter Upshall:

At first look, it seems as though there are a lot of different DNA matches for these likely children of Peter Upshall.

George Upshall Branch 1829

Here, note that Pat, like Nicholas has Shave and Upshall in her ancestry. I note she also has Burton which Eshter has, so perhaps other names also. 280 cM is a huge match for a 2nd cousin twice removed:

Ancestry says that Pat and Esther look like 2nd cousins. However, that is assuming that they are not related on other lines which they are.  For comparison, I had mentioned above that Nicholas’ match to Esther should have been equivalent to a 2nd cousin once removed. Another thing I’d like to do is to see if these people have shared matches with each other. I note that Nicholas does not have a shared match with Pat. That means that he shares less than 20 cM with Pat.

Checking with Joan and Elaine

One way to check these matches is by Joan and Elaine. They are Esther’s half nieces. That means that they match on the Upshall side and not the Shave side. Here is what Joan shows:

Now the DNA matches are quite a bit different. When I look at the numbers for Joan and her sister Elaine, I get this for the proposed George Upshall Branch:

Sarah Upshall Branch 1831

Here Esther has 10 DNA matches on the Sarah Upshall Collett Branch:

Here are the results for Eshter, Joan and Elaine:

  • I added in a Maximum % column, so we could see what the highest likelihood is for the DNA match
  • Green indicates that the DNA matches got that highest mark
  • This seems to indicate that Esther does not match this Sarah Upshall Collett on other lines.
  • None of the numbers seem unreasonable. The <1% can be explained by matching on many other lines and getting too high of a match.
  • Joan and Elaine match Sarah and Esther doesn’t. That means that Florence (who is Joan and Elaine’s mother) got DNA that her sister Esther did not.
  • Esther went off the chart with the 2nd cousin 4 times removed category.
  • To do this right, I would need to check all the genealogy. I didn’t. The genealogy is likely good up to the children of Peter and Margaret Upshall and then missing.
  • All these numbers seem to confirm that the trees are likely trees.

Jane Upshall Branch

Jane appears to be well documented by DNA. Esther has 14 matches to Jane’s descendants along the Tulk Line. I have noted close matches to Tulk in the past, so this may explain those DNA matches.

Jane also has a rare Upshall birth record:

However, I find it odd that she was born in November and baptized in September. Perhaps she was born in 1838. I assume that there was only one Peter and Margaret Upshall at the time. Burin was about 90 miles away from Harbour Buffett, so I assume there was a travelling minister who performed these baptisms on 29 September 1839. I have that Jane was born in Burin which is not accurate. She was born in Garnish Gut according to this record. I’m not sure where Garnish Gut is, but I assume that it is part of or near Harbour Buffett.

An additional confusing point is that Peter was the father of Christopher Upshall also in 1833:

This means that Peter may have had a first wife Mary or the transcription may have been off. Christopher doesn’t show up on the ThruLines. I don’t see many trees for Christopher. Here is one:

This person shows Margaret as the mother and the birth at Famish Gut which perhaps makes more sense. Perhaps there were few descendants on this line.

So far the matches for the descendants of the three potential children of Peter and Margaret Upshall looks like this:

The evidence looks pretty good. I added Karen from the more recent Henry Upshall Line to show how good her numbers were.

Susan Upshall Born 1848

This Line is a little more confusing:

Roy’s grandmother is Margaret Collett. That begs the question of Elizabeth Webber. Shouldn’t she be a Collett also? Here is some information from http://www.collettfamilyhistory.net/Part-32-The-Newfoundland-Line-Rev.12.htm:

The same web page has this on Elizabeth:

According to this information, Elizabeth Webber is really Elizabeth Collett.

Here is the last of Esther’s ThruLines at this level:

This was a bit of an annoying exercise, but it does seem to verify the trees for the descendants. However, I have not tried to disprove the theory. That would take a bit of work. I do recognize interfering influences of the DNA matches through intermarriage.  I showed some of those effects by comparing Esther’s matches to her half nieces Joan and Elaine. The main interferences could be other relationships with the Dicks, Shave and Burton families. The other thing I didn’t do was to check the genealogy of each line. This would take a while to do. The last confirmation would be to check to see if each of these matches match each other. The best way to do that is with Genetic Affairs’ AutoClusters.

Esther and AutoClusters

Here is a ‘basic’ AutoCluster I ran for Esther.

Esther has all Newfoundland ancestry, so almost all her clusters match other clusters. This AutoCluster ran January 9, 2019 between the match levels of 50 and 250 cM. I checked my Chart above to see which clusters the matches were in:

It turns out that the Jane Upshall Tulk Line were all in Cluster 14. In the other Lines, there was not enough information or the matches were outside the range. However, the other two Clusters found were 8 and 11.

This means that while Esther is matching Cluster 14 by Peter and Margaret Upshall, all the 10 in my Chart are matching each other by Jane Upshall and her Tulk husband.

Esther’s ThruLines With Christopher Dicks Born 1812

Christopher was married to Elizabeth. My best guess is that she was Elizabeth Crann. Esther has 12 new DNA matches on the Christopher Dicks Line. These matches could have gotten their DNA from Christopher Dicks or from his wife Elizabeth or both.

The matches under Catherine Dicks have already been looked at. Compare this with the Gedmatch Tree I have been working on for the Dicks Family:

ThruLines has a David Branch that I don’t have and I have a Christopher Branch that Thrulines doesn’t have.

The David Dicks Branch

Here is a partial opening of that Branch:

One interesting thing here is that Frances is also related to Esther through the Jane Upshall Tulk Line:

That is because Caroline Dicks married Edwin Kingwell Tulk according to the trees at Ancestry.

Cathy in the David Dicks Branch

Here is how ThruLines shows Cathy:

I had Cathy in a different Branch. However, if the ThruLines are right and I am right, she could be in two Dicks Branches of Frances Dicks Burton and Christopher Dicks:

Here is a summary of the David Dicks Branch:

It seems like everything checks out OK. Esther was matching too high to Newf due to matches on Esther’s maternal side. Joan isn’t related to Esther on Esther’s maternal side, so that took the extra DNA out of the equation. I skipped checking Joan’s sister Elaine’s results to save time. Joan matched one person David, who didn’t match Esther.

Going Up One Generation to Christopher Dicks Born about 1784

The Dicks family was huge and then spread out from there.

Here are nine children of Christopher who have matching DNA with Esther:

  1. John Michael – before 1808 – I haven’t been following this Branch. Has some Joseph’s in this Branch
  2. Elizabeth – 1809 – Married Thomas Adams
  3. Joseph – born 1810
  4. Frances born 1811 – Married Charles Burton
  5. Christopher Born 1812 – covered in previous section
  6. Rachel born 1817 – married James Joyce
  7. James Dicks born 1830 – also has a Joseph Dicks son. I haven’t been following this Branch either.
  8. George born 1832
  9. Robert born 1824 – so should be above

I trace six children in my Dicks Gedmatch DNA project. I didn’t have John Michael, James or Joseph. Altogether, there are 77 DNA matches represented in these 8 proposed children. That would be too many matches to check for this Blog.

Joseph Dicks

Although I don’t have Joseph Dicks on my Dicks DNA Chart, I have that Esther descends from Joseph Dicks on her maternal side:

I have Joseph Dicks born at Famish Gut in 1810 to Christopher and Margaret. However, this does not appear on Esther’s ThruLines or on my own Dicks DNA Chart.

I’ll look at the genealogy behind the John Michael and James DIcks Branches as I am unfamiliar with them.

John Michael Dicks Born 1808

The ThruLines Profile for John Michael shows this:

This information is a bit sparse. It shows that John Michael would have been over 105 years old when he died.

In a previous Blog I note this Joseph:

My thought was that this was a more likely ancestor for Esther.

Joseph Dicks and Violet

After changing Esther’s Jane Ann Line, I noticed that ThruLines did have a Joseph Dicks Branch with one large match:

However, this follows from the way I had Esther’s tree. Violet has a huge match with Esther at 359 cM. Here is a much closer relationship between Violet and Esther at 2nd cousin:

My mother-in-law, Joan also has a good match with Violet:

Violet’s Tree

Now I’m suspicious that Tulk may be related to Upshall.

Upshall of Dorset ThruLines

Newfoundland is too complicated with the intermarriages and lost records. Lets go back to Dorset, England:

My current thinking is that Peter Upshall born in 1800 in Dorset was the daughter of Sarah Upshall. Sarah is shown here with three of her siblings. This Dorset, England ThruLines appears to confirm that Sarah was the sister of Joseph, George and Charles who shows a Private above. This is a chance to find out what my wife’s Upshall relatives have been up to since 1737. Judy above is probably in Australia. Margaret’s paternal grandmother was born in England and died in Rhode Island.

The Charles Upshall Branch

Ross and Peter’s parents were both from Dorset, England.

Here is one of the trees I had been working with:

For some reason I am missing the Jane Upshall/Tulk Branch. I also need to go up two levels to John Upshall.

I had previously added an additional sibling Ann Upshall due to a match with my wife’s Aunt Elaine. Due to the fact that none of Peter’s Aunts or Uncles did not live in Newfoundland, my guess is that the DNA matches represent John and Elisabeth Upshall.

Here are some potential siblings to Sarah Upshall that I took from an online Ancestry Upshall Tree:

After quite a bit of typing, I get this:

This is a small version of the Upshall DNA match tree. I didn’t add in Ann Upshall or many of the Newfoundland Upshalls.

Shared DNA Matches

When I check how Judy on the bottom left of the chart above matches Esther, I get these shared DNA matches:

Many of these shared matches are with descendants of Newfoundland Upshalls.

Elaine and Joan’s Hazelbury Bryan Thrulines

One of Elaine’s Hazelbury Bryan Thrulines is with Peter on the Charles Upshall Branch shown above. The other is with Hazel on the Joseph Branch.

It looks like Hazel’s Branch stayed in England while Judy’s branch went to Australia:

Joan also has a ThruLines match with Hazel.

More of Esther’s English Upshall Shared DNA Matches

Elaine and Margaret from the George Upshall Branch have a shared DNA match named Trenton. Trenton has a good sized tree:

Trenton’s father’s mother’s father was Peter Upshall Boutcher. This sounds suspicious. There must be an Upshall in Peter’s ancestry. The Collett Genealogy that I referred to above is very helpful:

Here is one relationship that ThruLines didn’t figure out, but it helped in conjunction with Shared DNA Matches:

Putting the Upshall’s Together

Here I added a representative person from the Upshall/Tulk Branch:

Based on the ThruLines there are over 10 matches each on the Sarah Upshall Collett and Jane Upshall Tulk Branches. So the above tree is just a skeleton.

One Last Shared Match Between Esther and Judy

I don’t want to leave too much low hanging fruit. AU is a shared match with Dorset descendant Judy and Esther. Here is his three person tree and his DNA match:

AU and Esther have a DNA match of 69 cM. Here is Jacob in 1935 in Harbour Buffett:

Edward and Martha married in 1916:

Unfortunately, I soon got stuck at the level of Edward Upshall:

Summary and Conclusions

  • Going Through many of Esther’s ThruLines was a large undertaking. I may have been better off just looking at the Upshall ThruLines.
  • It was helpful have two of Esther’s 1/2 Nieces to compare the results. This is because Esther matches on many intermarried lines and Joan and Elaine only match on Esther’s paternal side.
  • Esther’s ThruLines complemented and expanded upon the previous DNA work I have done on the Upshall and Dicks Families.
  • I compared Esther’s Upshall ThruLines with her AutoCluster results. The Jane Upshall/Tulk Line showed clearly in one of Esther’s Clusters.
  • I brought Esther’s ThruLines back to John Upshall born 1737 in Dorset, England and his wife Elisabeth Ellis. To me, the results clearly show that Esther descends through John Upshall and his daughter Sarah Upshall to Peter Upshall who was an early settler in Newfoundland in the Harbour Buffett area.
  • I was a little surprised that Esther had four DNA matches going back to a common ancestor who was born in 1737
  • ThruLines work well with Shared DNA Matches. I was able to find at least one new Upshall Line using Shared Matches to ThruLine Matches.
  • In the future, I would like to concentrate more on the Upshall Branches and build them out in my Excel spreadsheet.
  • It may be helpful to also check to see how many Upshall descendants have their DNA at Gedmatch, FTDNA and MyHeritage. This would allow for more detailed DNA analysis.
  • ThruLines are able to put together many trees and DNA matches in order to see a possible big picture solution to some genealogical problems.

 

 

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Finding More Frazers: Matthew

I match Matthew at AncestryDNA. In fact, AncestryDNA calls it a very high DNA match. Ancestry further says that they think I have a 99% chance of finding shared ancestors with Matthew. I took that as a challenge. I messaged Matthew and he gave me enough information to get started on a tree:

Matthew’s Frazer Genealogy

I was interested in Matthew’s Frazer side as that is where we must match:

 

 

Matthew gave me the name of his father and of his grandmother. That was enough to get going. From there I found his Frazer grandfather who was born in Manitoba, Canada. From there others have created Frazer trees that I can use:

Now I am getting into familiar territory with George and Susan Frazer:

Here is George Frazer and Susannah with four boys. Here is my list of children for George and Susannah:

It looks as though Ellen and Margaret died young. My guess is that the four youngest boys could be the ones in the photo above.

Next, I’ll put Matthew on my own Frazer DNA/Genealogy Chart:

This shows that Matthew is my 4th cousin twice removed. He is also Gladys’ 1st cousin three times removed.

One Tree Leads To Another

Speaking of Gladys, she has shared DNA matches with Matthew. One of their shared matches is Sandra. Here is Sandra and her paternal tree:

I’ll add Sandra also to my DNA/genealogy tree:

Sandra is Gladys’ 1st cousin once removed.

ND Helps Fill Out the George Frazer Branch

Gladys and Sandra have a shared DNA match with ND:

One interesting thing is that I match Matthew by more DNA than I match Sandra or ND. I match Matthew by 49 cM across three segments. If I match Sandra or ND it would have to be by less than 20 cM as that is the limit for shared matches.

Summary and Conclusions

  • By using Matthew’s hints, I was able to convert our DNA match into a family tree.
  • Matthew’s DNA match adds to the existing DNA matches from the Richard Price Frazer and George Harvey Frazer Branches
  • By looking at shared matches between Matthew and Gladys, I was able to add Sandra and ND onto the James Clarence Frazer Branch.

 

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My AncestryDNA Match With Whitney Leads To a Frazer Common Ancestor

I have known about matching Whitney for a while, but I didn’t know how she fit in. Whitney and I have a sizeable DNA match spread out over four different DNA segments:

According to AncestryDNA, Whitney’s match is in the Very High Range:

That means that I should have a 99% chance of finding our common ancestors – assuming I can figure out the genealogy.

Whitney’s Frazer Ancestry

Here is Whitney’s tree at Ancestry:

Here is the tree I am building out for Whitney:

I had been working on this tree for a while and thought I should be looking at Whitney’s Masters side. However, today, I took an educated guess on her Cain side and came up with a Frazer. It looks like Whitney’s maternal grandfather’s mother was Elizabeth Frazer Cain.

Elizabeth Frazer was born in Boston to Richard Frazer – a cook. I know that some of my Frazer relatives were cooks,  and I had a Frazer relative named Richard, so that sounds promising. Here is the Richard Frazer family from my Frazer web page:

Richard was my great grandfather’s younger brother. This is my guess for Richard:

Richard’s wife was from Freedom, New Hampshire and this photo was taken in New Hampshire.

Here is Whitney in my DNA/Frazer Genealogy Chart:

Whitney fills in the DNA from Richard Frazer. Whitney and I are third cousins once removed. Here is how my Richard Branch looks like now at Ancestry:

Summary and Conclusion

  • I was only a step away from finding a Frazer link with Whitney and didn’t realize it.
  • According to AncestryDNA, there was a 99% chance that we had findable common ancestors. All I had to do was to find them.
  • If Whitney uploads her DNA to Gedmatch, I will be able to do more comparisons with other Frazer and McMaster cousins.
  • It is likely that my addition of the Cain family to my Ancestry Tree will result in new ThruLines. These are lines that are highlighted at Ancestry due to common ancestry and DNA matches.

 

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Looking for a Match Who Doesn’t Match Me

OK, here is the situation. I administer Gladys’ DNA kit for an Irish Frazer Project. Occasionally, I get requests because people find matches to Gladys’ non-Frazer side. Gladys is not easy to get in touch with, so I’ll give a shot at finding Jonn’s connection to Gladys. Here is the note I got from Jonn:

Hi I’m doing research into my family history and you’ve come up in my results. Just wondering if we could make contact as I’m trying to find the name of my Mystery Great Grandad on my fathers side, who fathered my Grandad Frederick Davis Fassam (Fassam being the mother’s maiden name).   On his Baptism his father was labelled Frederick Edmund Fassam but we believe that’s a made up name as the father was unknown as far as we’re aware.   Most likely linking nameare Beard, Scott, Davy, Stone or Bobitt and the area of origin is likely to be West Ham in London, Essex or Cambridgeshire or Lancashire I think for the periods 1800-1910 Anyway, if you’re happy to, I’d love to hear from you and see if we could potentially identify our connection.   Look forward to hopefully hear from you.   

I found out that Jonn matches Gladys at Gedmatch. I further found out that Jonn tested at Ancestry and has a tree there:

This is Jonn’s paternal side. He has just his mother listed as private on the maternal side. This makes me wonder how we can know if Gladys’ match with Jonn is on his maternal or paternal side. Then, if the match is on Jonn’s paternal side, how do we know if the match is on the paternal grandmother or grandfather side?

Gladys’ Tree

Let’s look at Gladys’ tree.

I’m related to Gladys through James Frazer and Violet Frazer. I would rule those two out as they were from Ireland and Jonn is looking for someone in England. That still leaves a lot of potential. Ephraim Webber and Mary Jury on Gladys’ maternal side were from Devon, England. Seems like I found the right country, wrong region.

Here is Ephraim in 1861 in Chawleigh or Chawley:

This got me back a little further:

Gladys’ and Jonn’s Shared Matches at AncestryDNA

Gladys and Jonn are predicted 4th to 6th cousins at AncestryDNA. That means that the connection could be out quite far. Gladys and Jonn have four shared DNA matches at AncestryDNA:

  1. Has the same last name as Jonn, but it could be her married name and a coincidence. She shows her father from Lymington, Hampshire, England
  2. Her paternal grandfather is from Australia. That could indicate English heritage, but I didn’t trace the genealogy back.
  3. Has a one person tree
  4. Has a linked 6 person tree. The mother and father are both from Devon, England.

On the limited information that I have the DNA connection could be through Devon. However, it may not be on Jonn’s line that he is looking for.

Gladys’ and Jonn’s Shared Matches at Gedmatch

I found a close match to Gladys who shares a match with Jonn:

The first row is Gladys’ match to herself. The second row is the one I am interested in. The match to Gladys is 252.8 cM and to Jonn is 22.3 cM. This person also tested at AncestryDNA. I took a guess as to who the match might be at AncestryDNA. I picked Ryan. However, he doesn’t have a very good tree at Ancestry. I found a Shared match with Ryan who does have a good tree. Rox-Ann’s Tree has Jury and Webber:

That only narrows down Gladys’ tree to her maternal and we are still in Devon.

Summary and Conclusion

  • I did some poking around and it seemed like there could be a connection between Gladys and Jonn in Devon.
  • I wasn’t sure that the DNA connection that Gladys and Jonn had was on the side of Jonn’s tree where he was looking.
  • Jonn could do a shared match analysis with Gladys at Gedmatch. If he could identify one of those shared DNA matches, he could figure out on which side of his tree he and Gladys match. This would narrow down where to look.
  • I was able to narrow down that Jonn and Gladys match on Gladys’ maternal side. I had already assumed that based on the fact that most of Gladys’ paternal side was from Ireland. Gladys’ maternal side as far as I know is from Devon, England.

 

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Following Up On a Frazer ThruLines Shared Match

In my previous Blog, I was looking at a ThruLines match I have named Susan. When I looked at Susan’s ThruLines, it seemed to confirm that we share the common ancestors of Michael Frazer born about 1764 in County Roscommon Ireland and Margaret Stewart. Susan and I had one Shared DNA Match named Patrice

Building a Tree for Patrice

Patrice’s DNA and tree was managed by someone else. The other person had a larger tree, but only a smaller tree for Patrice. I built out Patrice’s tree out to her 2nd great-grandparents like this:

This was a pretty quick and dirty tree and I used mostly Ancestry hints to get out this far. I was worried I wouldn’t find a connection. Then Mary Fraser showed up:

My guess is that Mary is the one to follow. She has 16 Ancestry hints. In this Civil War Pension record, she is Mary M McKay:

Every initial is potentially important in following Mary’s trail.

Here is the 1860 Census:

This helps us trace the McKay family geographically. This means that the family should have been in Canada between 1846 and 1853.

Bell above is Isabella. She seems to have been born in Warwick, Canada:

That opens the door to Canada:

Above is my best guess for Warwick.

Here is another interesting record from Warwick:

Apparently a John Stewart Fraser McKay was also born to Hugh and Mary M McKay in the town of Ancaster in 1850. From what I can tell, this is Ancaster:

That gives us a short chronology for the Hugh McKay family. The family is living in Ancaster outside of Hamilton in September 1850 when John Stewart Frazer is born. The Ontario 1851 Census doesn’t happen until January 1852. We don’t know where the family was living at that time. Isabella McKay is born June 1853 in Warwick, Ontario. The family is still in Warwick when both children are baptized in April 1854 at a Wesleyan Methodist Church by the Reverend George Case.

The naming of John Stewart Fraser McKay seems to be a clue as to Mary’s background:

Trying to Place Mary Fraser in the Frazer Family

Mary states that she was born in New York, but I wonder. I think that she was born in County Roscommon, Ireland. Here is one guess for her birth:

Here is an online view of Mary:

Although the date seems to fit for Mary, I was expecting her to be from the James Line of Frazers due to the shared DNA match between Patrice and myself. I have that the Mary from Roscommon would be from the Archibald Line under John Frazer. This is what I have so far for DNA matches on that line:

My guess is that Mary could fit in between John Frazer and William Frazer above.

How Could Mary Be On the Archibald Frazer Line?

Patrice, Susan and I have shared DNA matches. That does not mean that we share the same ancestors. For that to happen, I would need to show triangulation which is not possible with Ancestry results. I have two Archibald Frazer Line ancestors and one James Line Ancestor. My match to Susan is on the James Line. It looks like my match to Patrice is on the Archibald Line. Patrice may match Susan distantly on the Frazer side or more closely on a non-Frazer line.

Review of the John Frazer Branch

In my pink DNA/genealogy chart above, I have brothers John and William Frazer. I have that John was probably in Canada in 1849 and in Niagara County, New York in 1851. That was my explanation why I couldn’t find him in the Canadian 1851 Census nor in the US Census of 1850. Perhaps Mary took a similar route. John spent most of his time in Lockport, New York.

William Frazer Born 1828

When William married in 1863, he was living in Tecumseth Township, Ontario. In 1871 William and family were in Gwillimbury West, Ontario. Here is a map:

Mary was living in Ancaster in 1850. John was in Canada in 1849 but moved probably to Lockport by 1851 and was in Lockport, NY in 1855. William was in Tecumseth in 1863 when he married Mary Jane Wilson.

An Additional ThruLine to Add to the Evidence (Or Confusion)

Ancestry has provided me with this additional ThruLine:

Here ThruLines did something that I would consider doing. It found a match between me and Bob and matched our two trees together based on an available Anne I had in my tree on the John Frazer Branch. I was having trouble placing this McPartland Branch. My most recent guess had them on the James Line:

Ann Frazer and the McPartland Branch: Archibald Line or James Frazer Line?

I can see some arguments for having the McPartlands under the Archibald Line and John Frazer Branch:

  • I have a baptismal record for 6 Jan 1823    bpt.      Anne dau. of Archibald and Jane (WHITE)
  • The McPartlands settled around the Buffalo area. This is not far from Lockport where John Frazer from the John branch lived.

Adding Bob to the McPartland DNA/Genealogy Tree

I see that I am missing Bob from the McPartland tree above. So I need to add him in:

Summary and Conclusions

This Blog was more of an exploratory Blog rather than one that came up with conclusions. I was looking into a Shared match between someone on a Michael Frazer ThruLine and myself. That shared match was Patrice. I looked into her tree and found a Fraser named Mary. I expected that this Mary would fit into my Michael Frazer ancestry. However, she seemed to fit in better with a John Frazer Branch. I am also related distantly on the John Frazer side. To complicate matters more, Mary consistently claimed that she was born in New York State rather than Ireland. In addition, I have found no record stating who Mary’s parents were. Mary lived in the same area of Ontario that both the Michael and John Branches of Frazers migrate to.

Finally, when checking around for other possible shared DNA matches, I came upon Bob. He shows in a ThruLine with me as being potentially from the John Line of Frazers. I had also tentatively placed his McPartland Line on the James Frazer Line of Frazers. James was the father of Michael Frazer. At that point, the Blog went spiralling out of control and I went into Frazer genetic genealogy overload. I decided that rather than put Mary and Bob into the John Frazer Line, that I would step back, think about it and do more analysis on the DNA and genealogy. I did add Bob to the McPartland DNA/genealogy tree. To complicate matters, Karen and Chris above tested with FTDNA, Charlene tested at MyHeritage, and Bob tested at AncestryDNA. However, I believe that all four have posted their results at Gedmatch which is now Gedmatch Genesis. This should make analysis of their DNA results easier.

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Susan is Back on My Michael Frazer ThruLines

At my first look at ThruLines I had an interesting match with Susan. Unfortunately, her ThruLines went away. I predicted that she might come back and she did. Here she is again:

After Susan disappeared I tried tracing her ancestry back anyway, but got stuck at her Patterson great-grandmother level.

Building Susan’s Tree: Part 2

Here is where I got stuck last time:

Between James Hazzard and Mary Jane Patterson, we go from Susan’s tree to Barry’s tree on ThruLines. Here is a nice record I would like to borrow from Barry’s tree:

Here are James’ parents:

I have James’ mother as Mary Jane. Here she shows as Mary. In Barry’s tree she is Mary Jane. This critical marriage record ties together Barry’s and Susan’s trees.

According to Barry’s tree, Jane was quite young when she married. At least by today’s standards:

Here I owe a lot to Barry:

Jane dies young at thirty one years eight months. That would put her birth in 1854.

Making the Jump from Patterson to Frazer

From Mary Jane, I need to figure out how to get back to Frazer. Here, Barry shows that way again:

This is Catherine’s second marriage. Here she is linked to Arthur, Ontario. She is also linked to Ireland and Archibald Fraser and Catharine Nott. She went from marrying a ‘Pattison’ to a Patton. Without Barry’s tree, I think I would have struggled with this genealogy.

Here is the Township of Arthur:

Here is Catherine in 1861 not too long after her second marriage to Andrew Patton:

I’m glad to see Jane listed here also. This family of four lived  in a log house. Here is a map of where these families lived in 1861 in Southeast Arthur:

A Sneak Preview of Where We May Be Headed with Archibald Frazer and Catherine Knott

Here is my combined DNA/genealogy chart:

It looks like Susan should end up under the orange circle. I am in the left branch. That is in green because I’m mostly sure that is right. The same is true for the McPartland Branch which is also under Archibald Frazer and Catherine Knott. If I match Susan and she is in this group, that adds to the likelihood that I have it right.

Here is Catherine’s death record:

Here she is listed as being born in  County Sligo. Many Frazers were from North Roscommon, but some were over the border in County Sligo. Here is a birth record from Kilmactranny Parish in County Sligo for an Ann Jane:

Anne Jane Frazer  daughter of  Archibald and Catherine Frazer
Born  Dec 13, 1828                                                     
Bapt.  Dec 17, 1828

If Susan’s Catherine was born between 1830 and 1842, it would not show as there is a gap in the Kilmactranny Registers for that period. The other issue is that I have that Archibald and Catherine were married in 1829 at Kilmactranny:

Mar 02, 1829    Archibald Frazer of Ardcarne

                                         Catherine Knott of Kilmactranny

                                             Witnesses:  Archd. Frazer,  Cath Frazer

That means that the Ann Jane above could have been the daughter of a different Archibald and Catherine Frazer.

Here is the Patton family in 1871 with a few extra children:

Putting It Together – Margaret and Catherine Frazer

If I have it right, the genealogy probably looks like this:

This shows that I descend from Margaret Frazer who was the sister of Susan’s 2nd great-grandfather Archibald Frazer.

My James Line Discrepancy

Unfortunately, my chart above doesn’t match what I have on Ancestry Tree.

I show Archibald and Catherine coming from Archibald Frazer and Catherine Peyton. I do show a Mary born much later married to Richard Hazzard. So the Hazzard names comes up more than once.

In addition to this, I have two different versions of the James Line on my Frazer web pages. In one, I followed one Frazer researcher and in the other I followed another Frazer researcher. My combined DNA/genealogy chart is more in line with my Frazer Web Page called Production Update:

The difference here is that I am missing Margaret which is the line I descend from. It appears that Margaret should be the eldest daughter of Michael Frazer born in 1794 and married to William McMaster. Above, there is another tie-in as I see that the above genealogy from my Frazer web page has Archibald dying in Arthur Township in 1866. That was where Catherine Frazer lived. Here is an entry at the Find A Grave Website:

Here is Kenilworth:

Here is a better version for my Ancestry Tree:

Here I still have a problem, as I have Catherine Peyton Frazer born in 1829 to Archibald Frazer and Catherine Knott. I believe that the Catherine of this Blog was just plain Catherine and likely born to a different Archibald and Catherine Frazer. I’ll say that Susan’s Catherine was born in 1834.

Here is the family in the 1851 Census:

Here are the ages:

This family lived in a log house. Jane was born in Ireland in 1845 according to this Census, so the family moved to Canada between 1845 and 1852. Here is A. Frazer’s farm in 1861:

Kenilworth is near the middle of the Arthur map:

The upper circle is for Frazer. The lower circle is where Catherine Frazer Patton lived in 1861.

A Short Story of Archibald Frazer and Catherine Knott

It helps me to put some of these events into a narrative. Archibald Frazer was born about 1801 probably in Ardcarn Parish North Roscommon. His parents were Michael Frazer and Margaret probably Stewart. In 1829 he married Catherine Knott from Kilmactranny Parish in Sligo at the Kilmactranny Church. Witnesses at the wedding were another Archibald Frazer and Catherine Frazer. Their first daughter Catherine may have been born as early as December 1829:

The records appear to show two different Catherine’s baptized in October and December of 1829. Archibald and Catherine were married 2 March 1829, so if this is Susan’s Catherine she would have had a little over 9 months to be born.

The couple had at least seven children. They were born between about 1829 and 1846:

  1. Catherine
  2. William Wynn
  3. Margaret Stewart
  4. James
  5. Fitzgerald
  6. Michael
  7. James

Probably around 1844, Archibald’s older sister (my ancestor) Margaret Frazer McMaster moves to Ontario with her three daughters and a son. Between 1846 and 1852, the Archibald Frazer family moves to Canada and settle on a farm in Kenilworth, Arthur, Wellington County, Ontario. In 1852,. By 1852, the oldest daughter, Catherine had been already married twice – first to Thomas Patterson or Pattison and then to Andrew Patton. Catherine has two daughters with Thomas and more children with Andrew. Catherine Patton lives on a farm also in Arthur in 1852.

The Census for 1861 is a little difficult to read:

Here it looks like the eldest son, William Wynn Fraser, has married – probably Rachel Reid. Likely widowed, she is 36 and a 13 year old Reid is living with them. They then have two of their own children. Either Archibald married another Catherine or she has not aged at all in 9 years.

1871

Here is Catherine in 1871. She is now widowed and living with her two single sons:

Another Correction: Jane Frazer

In my tree above that I moved, I had Jane Frazer married to a Hazzard. That is apparently not right:

Perhaps she married again later?

Summary and Conclusions

  • I’m glad that Susan came back on my ThruLines. It allowed me to track the likely connection we have through common ancestors Michael Frazer and his wife in County Roscommon, Ireland
  • I was able to trace Susan’s Canadian ancestry from Hazzard to Patterson, to Fraser or Frazer.
  • Susan’s ancestors that made the move from Ireland to Ontario were Archibald Frazer and Catherine Knott.
  • I have long known that I had a Frazer ancestor named Margaret who married a William McMaster. I only recently discovered that Margaret made her way to Ontario. I am now following up on her apparent brother Archibald’s family in Ontario.
  • Susan and I also have a shared DNA match. It may be worthwhile to check that connection out.
  • It would also take a bit more to tell the longer story of this family in Canada. I see from my DNA/genealogy chart descendants of Fitzgeral and Michael Frazer. They likely know their ancestors’ stories better than I do.

 

 

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A James McMaster Branch Found with ThruLines and Genealogy

In a previous Blog, I set out to write about four McMaster sisters. One of them was my third great-grandmother Fanny McMaster. In the process of writing about them, I discovered that Fanny’s mother Margaret Frazer McMaster had traveled to Canada with the family. I later found out that the sisters had a brother James who moved from Canada to the US. His mother Margaret lived with his family before he died.

James McMaster in ThruLines

Recently while I was going through my ThruLines, I came upon a DNA match, Jennifer, from this newly added James Branch:

Fanny incorrectly shows as my 4th great aunt for some reason. This also shows Fanny’s sister Mary Ann McMaster and Fanny’s brother James Archibald McMaster. I match Jennifer at 14 cM which would be normal for a 4th cousin once removed. Jennifer’s tree in dotted line goes up to her grandfather Paul McMaster. After that, my tree takes over with James A McMaster.

The above ThruLines probably appeared after I added James Archibald McMaster to my tree based on my previous Blog.

Connecting Two McMaster Trees

My guess is that these two trees should connect. Jennifer has that her father was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That would be the right part of the US. I have that James A McMaster died in Allouez and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Green Bay:

Here is the Cemetery location:

Here is James A in Janesville, WI in 1870:

Here is some more information about James A McMaster from Find A Grave:

Here is James in 1900 in South Dakota:

I don’t see any Paul yet. I suppose Harry P could be Harry Paul. I’m going about this backwards as genealogists are supposed to go from the present to the past. I am going from the less recent to the more recent.

The James Archibald McMaster Family in 1910

Now the family moved back East to Hutchins, Wisconsin. James’ wife Carrie died and Harry P is now Paul. That seems to cement the connection between my tree and Jennifer’s.

 

Adding Jennifer to the DNA/Genealogy Chart

I don’t have Jennifer in green as she has not uploaded her DNA to Gedmatch as far I know.

The MTrent Connection

Next, I checked to see if I had any shared matches with Jennifer. One name came up at AncestryDNA: mtrent. Mtrent had gotten in touch with me in 2017:

Hi Joel. Your name is on my DNA list. I noticed that your Fanny McMaster has info sources from Kilmactranny parish. My 3x great grandfather, James Archibald McMaster was born in Kilmactranny in 1822, immigrated to US via Ontario, Canada. His mother was Margaret, based on census records, born around 1790. Was wondering if you have any information on my branch of the family? I looked at William and Margaret, Fanny’s parents as possible parents for James A,but you have only daughters listed for them. Do you have information on my line of the McMasters? Any info appreciated. Sincerely,

It wasn’t until this year that I discovered the connection. Mtrent’s tree is private, so I don’t know the specific path to mtrent has to James McMaster. However, mtrent is one generation down from Jennifer, so that would make us 5th cousins.

McMaster and Frazer and AutoClustering

I performed an AutoCluster last year when these first came out. Here was my first AncestryDNA autocluster:

This was a simple autocluster with only 5 clusters. The purple Frazer Cluster is relevant to this Blog. BV is the first match in the Cluster. Her ancestors are William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. The next match is Whitney. She matches BV and Gladys the third match. BV and Gladys do not match in this analysis. Gladys matches on my Frazer side.

In January this year, I wrote a Blog about my sister Lori’s 29 AutoClusters at Ancestry and noted this break-down:

Lori’s Irish Clusters were in a big box in the middle of her autocluster analysis. BV and mtrent are in Lori’s green Cluster 12:

Summary

So a Blog I wrote on my third great granmother’s sisters strongly suggested that James was in the William McMaster/Mararet Frazer family. I added James McMaster to that tree and ThruLines found a descedant of James named Jennifer who matched me by DNA. I looked for shared DNA matches between Jennifer and me and found one that went by mtrent. Mtrent had mentioned that she was descended from James McMaster in 2017. I now know that her guess that James was a son of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer was right. Identifying mtrent’s ancestry may give further hints for other shared matches.