Category: DNA General

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.

 

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.

 

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.

The initials BV come up a lot in my Frazer DNA research. My family and I also have a significant DNA match to BV. This is because we are related to BV on two lines (Frazer and McMaster) and in two different ways and also due the fact that we randomly have a higher than average DNA match-up.

BV’s Genealogy with DNA-Tested Descendants

The obvious connection between BV, My family, Emily, Paul and Keith is with William McMaster and Margaret Frazer who were born in the late 1700’s. BV goes back one more generation than others on the tree as she had only two ancestors in the 19th century. Compared with me, I had four ancestors descending from the same common ancestors above in the 19th century.

I have put a green box around two of my other ancestors. They are George Frazer and James McMaster. They would match BV further back. George comes from two other Branches of the Frazer family whose common ancestor is Archibald Frazer born about 1690. I’m not as sure of the connection on the McMaster side, but my assumption is that there is a connection – either in Ireland or Scotland. Because these connections go further back, the DNA matches may not reflect these more distant relationships.

BV – The DNA

Here is how I match BV, who is my 3rd cousin, twice removed, by DNA.

Based on this DNA match, there should be 3.9 generations to our common ancestor. There are four generations between BV and our common ancestor, but six between me and our common ancestor. That averages out to 5 generations. That means that BV and I share about one more generation’s worth of DNA than expected.

Let’s Paint BV’s DNA Match

I can paint BV’s DNA onto mine using a program called DNA Painter. This is what I have painted so far:

This shows my paternal DNA on the top bar and the maternal on the bottom. For me, Frazer and McMaster are the top paternal bar. I already have Abraham McMaster up there somehow. I can drill down to figure that out. That match is on Chromosome 12 with someone named Warwick.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember who Warwick is right now. Perhaps it will come to me later.

Note on the key above, I don’t have anything for William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. That is one reason why my match with BV is so important. The top of the colored image above shows I am 38% painted. When I chose just the Paternal DNA, I see that I am 49% painted.

When I go to paint the DNA onto my map above, I get this message:

I can ignore the Maternal side as this is a paternal match. This says that there is overlap with Frazer/McMaster 1838 and Abraham McMaster 1764. The first note makes more sense as the McMaster in the Frazer McMaster 1838 was Fanny McMaster she was the sister of BV’s ancestor Marianne McMaster. The Abraham McMaster is more mysterious as I have that Fanny McMaster husband was James McMaster and that his father was Abraham McMaster. I’ll have to look more into that later.

Here is the Paternal side of my Chromosome Map with BV’s match in purple painted in:

Here is Chromosome 12 expanded:

Maury is on my Hartley side. Then I see how BV overlaps with matches with my 2nd cousin once removed Paul and Warwick. The light blue matches are other Frazer matches. The issue with my three matches with Paul, Warwick and BV is that they imply that there could be triangulation. That means that if Paul also matches Warwick and BV matches Warwick and BV matches Paul, that would also imply that they have the same common ancestor.

Warwick

I blog about all my the DNA and checked there. Turns out Warwick tested at MyHeritage. I mention Warwick in this Blog. Here is how my tree and Warwick’s match up:

This shows that, as I mentioned above, James McMaster Sr. who was Fanny McMaster’s husband is the son of Abraham McMaster. Fanny was the daughter of William McMaster. Some trees have William as the son of Abraham McMaster, but based on my research, I don’t think that is correct. In fact if is was correct it could imply that Fanny married her own brother.

Here is a possibility that would give a common ancestor of Archibald McMaster for Warwick, BV, Paul and myself:

Based on where these people lived, it looks like William could have been the son of a John McMaster. He may have been named for the father of Archibald McMaster who I have as John. Or the John in blue above may have descended from a brother of Archibald. Based on the above, James would have been a first cousin once removed to Fanny. My second scenario would have her as a 2nd cousin once removed to James Sr.

The other confusing part is that I don’t know who the Margery is that Abraham married. She could even be a Frazer.

The working theory is that Paul, Warwick and BV triangulate up to Archibald McMasteer born in 1730. Without drawing it all out, here is the idea of how the triangulation may work out:

BV descends from Marianne, I descend from Fanny and Warwick descends from Samuel who sailed to Australia.

BV and Her X Chromosome Matches

X Chromosome matches are interesting in that people only inherit the X Chromosome by certain paths. If you are a male or if you have a male in you ancestry those males have not inherited an X Chromosome. BV matches me on my paternal side, so I cannot have an X Chromosome match with BV. However, my three sisters, Heidi, Lori and Sharon all have X Chromosome matches with BV. In addition, Charlene has an X Chromosome match with BV:

Here is Sharon’s match with BV:

Here is Charlene’s match with BV:

Here is Sharon’s match with Charlene:

This shows that these three have triangulation. That means that they have a common ancestor and that common ancestor can only be along a certain path. That is a double narrowing down of the possibilities for the common ancestors of these three matches.

The X Path Inheritance

For Sharon, it looks like this:

The likely path is through my grandmother’s father, James A Frazer. Then through his mother Margaret McMaster. After that, one would think that it would go through Fanny McMaster and her parents where I have common ancestors with BV.

Checking BV’s X Inheritance

BV’s maternal grandmother was Elizabeth Shannon. This takes us to the same place as my tree.

Charlene’s Ancestry

My guess is that Sharon’s match with Charlene could represent an older Common ancestor. Here is Charlene’s McPartland Branch:

The apparent connection to my family is through Charlene’s brick wall ancestor Ann Frazer. I’ll also build out a tree for Charlene:

Jennie Penders is Charlene’s paternal grandmother. Here is the family in 1915:

We see that Jennie’s parents were both born in Ireland. Jennie’s mom Catherine or Katherine (Jennie) is the one that we are following:

Here is the grave marker in Lackawanna, NY to the South of Buffalo:

Getting From Buffalo to Ireland

Next, I would like to make the jump backwards to place Jane in Ireland. Just to confuse things, this passenger crew list from 16 May 1883 has a Kate and a Jennie:

Most genealogies have Jane as Katherine or Catherine Jane. Here Kate indicates she was 21 so born around 1861 or 1862.

Here is the 27 October 1860 Baptismal record that Joanna (a Frazer researcher) found in the Aghanah Catholic Parish record:

This is a record of the birth of Cath. Janam (Jane) [Mc]Partland daughter of Eugene and Ann Frazer. It appears that a Patrick Partland and a Healy were there and that the family lived in Annagh.

Here is the Parish:

Here is the updated tree:

The X Chromosome match no doubt goes through Ann Frazer.

Here is a potential birth record for Ann:

Hannah Frazer  daughter of  James and Margaret Frazer

Bapt.  Jan 05, 1823

Here I’m sticking an unknown with unknown parents. I’m not sure who this James and Margaret Frazer were. That’s the best I can do right now.

Back to BV’s Autosomal DNA Matches

BV has a good match with my 2nd cousin once removed, Paul:

This DNA also represents William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. Or technically, it represents the DNA that Marianne McMaster got from either William McMaster or Margaret Frazer [and that she shared with her sister Fanny McMaster].

I decided to paint Paul’s Frazer and McMaster DNA to see what was going on:

The hot spots are at Chromosomes 1 and 12. Here is Paul’s Chromosome 12 expanded:

Isn’t that confusing. Notice that I put the match with Joanna way back to Archibald Frazer from the late 1600’s. However, there is a closer route.

I did find a match between Joanna and BV here:

That means that Joanna, Paul and BV triangulate and they have a common ancestor.

This shows Joanna, BV and Paul triangulating up to James Archibald born around 1720. I have Charlene over on the same branch as Joanna. However, I note a Catherine McPartland. If Ann Frazer was the daughter of Catherine Knott on the James Line, she could have named her daughter for her mother. I haven’t worked out the details on that, but it would make sense on a purely naming rationale. Perhaps we could vote on this idea. The above-shown triangulation puts Joanna and BV at 5th cousins.

Here is my new idea on the Catherine Knott Branch:

A Re-evaluation of the X Chromosome Triangulation

Above, I had mentioned that the X Chromosome triangulation between my three sisters, Charlene and BV. That makes more sense with the configuration that I have above:

Under this scenario, the X Chromosome DNA shared by these three is actually from Margaret Stewart and is not Frazer or McMaster DNA. That is because, if this were the correct path, Archibald inherited no X Chromosome from his father. He only got his X Chromosome from his Stewart mother Catherine. This scenario does not prove the lineage. However, it does show that it is a possible scenario.

Summary and Conclusions

• BV has played a pivotal role as a match in many ThruLines at Ancestry. Now her daughter has uploaded her DNA to Gedmatch Genesis, so we can take a closer look at what is going on with her DNA matches.
• I found a match between BV, my family and Warwick from Australia that seemed confusing. One possible explanation is that it suggests a possible common ancestor with Archibald McMaster who was born about 1730.
• I took a look at an X Chromosome match that BV had with my three sisters and with Charlene. These matches formed a triangulation. I looked at Charlene’s genealogy.
• I painted BV’s DNA onto my chromosome map and onto my cousin Paul’s chromosome map. There was a lot going on at Chromosome 1 but even more on Chromosome 12.
• I looked at a triangulation between Joanna, BV and Paul on Chromosome 12. This resulted in the a reassignment of the common ancestor for the matches with Joanna. I also moved re-figured BV under Michael Frazer where I feel she belongs.
• I noted that Charlene’s McPartland Line could also go under the Michael Frazer Branch. Although this is not a proven lineage, it is a plausible one based on the name of Catherine Knott possible being passed down to Catherine Jane McPartland. Also it fits in well with the X Chromosome triangulation mentioned above.
• While there were no major breakthroughs at this first look at BV’s DNA, it seems like her DNA matches are moving things toward a better explanation of Frazer and McMaster genealogy.
• It may be worthwhile to paint BV’s chromosomes in the future and compare her DNA matches with others in the Frazer DNA project.

 

 

 

 

I have been working through the ThruLines for descendants of the Frazers from County Roscommon. I recently worked on the James FrazerLine and will now work on the Archibald Line.

Gladys’ Genealogy

Here is how my family is related to Gladys:

At the top of the tree, there is Violet and James Frazer. It is believed that these were two Frazer first cousins. Violet was a daughter of Richard and James is believed to be the son of Philip Frazer. That makes Gladys my 3rd cousin, once removed. Gladys is in a good position for DNA comparisons as she is in a generation ahead of me and ahead of many others on the tree.

Richard Patterson Frazer was my 2nd great-grandfather George’s brother. George stayed in Ireland and Richard moved to New York State and then to Canada. Richard died in Manitoba in 1901. This splitting up of Frazer families was quite common due to difficult times in Ireland.

Gladys’ ThruLines

ThruLines are good in that they combine DNA matches with Ancestry Trees. Let’s start at Gladys’ grandparent level:

Gladys shows no DNA matches at this level. From the chart above, she matches Bill, but he didn’t test at AncestryDNA. He tested at FTDNA.

I go up a level and Gladys (GM) still has no DNA matches:

If Gladys had matches here, they would be at her 2nd cousin level. Again, she would have DNA matches but they tested at FTDNA.

James Frazer ThruLines

James was born around 1804 and is believed to have married his first cousin Vioet Frazer:

Gladys now has 8 DNA matches at this level. They are likely to be 3rd cousins or 3rd cousins once removed. These 8 matches represent me, my four Ancestry-tested siblings, my two children and my nephew:

Next, I put these results in a table:

My son JJ got a perfect score of 22% out of 22%. Sharon got a lower score for getting too much of a match at 72 cM. However, all the levels of matches are good.

Gladys’ 3rd Great-Grandparents: Philip and Richard

This is where things get interesting as there are multiple Frazer Lines.

Philip Frazer Born About 1776

Gladys picks up Martha on ThruLines:

Martha has a strong DNA match for a 4th cousin, once removed. I also have Martha on my own DNA family tree:

I wrote a previous Blog on Martha here. It is interesting that Martha got the DNA match with Gladys and her 3rd cousins Richard and Barry did not match Gladys by DNA. Martha and Gladys get low marks for matching too much DNA:

Note that Gladys and Martha match on four segments. That could be a sign that they match on multiple lines. In my previous Blog on Martha, I show that Gladys and Martha are related also on the Frazer/Stinson Line:

Richard Frazer Born About 1777 – Philip’s Brother

On the Richard Frazer branch, Gladys shows as a half fourth cousin, but I think she should be a full fourth cousin to Michael:

Part of the problem is that we don’t have a name for Richard’s wife.

Here Michael has a DNA match higher than Ancestry would like, but he also matches Gladys on the Archibald/Stinson line. See, Michael and Gladys match on the three segments. That is a possible sign of multiple common ancestors.

Gladys and Archibald Frazer Born About 1778

This is the line I call the Archibald/Stinson Line.

Now things are heating up. Here is Michael again as expected. That means that someone put in Michael and Gladys’ trees correctly and Ancestry interpreted those trees correctly.

I’ll start with two on the Mary Frazer Branch.

Next is the Archibald, son of Archibald Branch:

Here is a good representation. I didn’t have the son Edward Branch on my previous Frazer DNA tree. Cathy is already in the Frazer DNA Project.

The above chart shows the many matches that Gladys has with people on the Archibald Frazer/Stinson Line.

Gladys’ Match with Daniel

Because I haven’t been tracking any DNA matches on the Edward Frazer Branch above, I’ll take a look at Daniel’s Frazer tree:

Daniel’s mother and grandmother are from his own tree. His Frazer great-grandmother is from Maria’s tree and Edward is from my own tree. Ancestry has done some computer collaboration work. I’ll build a private tree to see if I can get the same thing that Ancestry did.

Here is Mary and her family in 1940. They are living on Harvest Avenue in New York:

 

Mary’s mom was also born in New York.

Here is the tree I am building on Daniel’s mother’s side:

Ancestry has hints for me, but I don’t want to go with the hints now. The hint is that Mildred’s mom is Mary Winnifred Frazer.

This couple got married in 1928:

Here is the marriage License:

Here is the young family in 1930:

This says that both of Mildred’s parents were born in Brooklyn, NY.

This appears to be Mildred in 1920:

According to this record, Mildred’s mother was born in England and her father in New York. All four of Mildred’s grandparents were born in Ireland based on the 1920 Census.

This looks to be the same family in 1900:

This shows Mary coming to the US in 1871, so at about age 2.

The conventional wisdom of Ancestry Trees has Mary in Brooklyn, NY in 1880:

This shows that Edward and Winifred were born in Ireland. The children down to Mary were born in England and Edward Jr. was born in New York. This looks to be the same family five years earlier in 1875:

It appears that Winifred also went by Anne. I believe I see the children in Lancashire:

The father as Fred seems to be an error.

This shows the Link between New York and Lancashire. But how do I get back to Ireland?

This record implies that the couple wed in the first quarter of 1861:

Here is the married couple in 1861 in a place called Church, Lancashire:

I would say that this record gives the best birth years for Edward Frazer and Winifred Russell.

I just saw another hint in the 1861 Church, Lancashire Census:

Here is Edward’s older brother Alexander born about 1836. This is a critical record. From here, Edward moves with his family to New York. Alexander moves back to Ireland and marries there. Then some of Alexander’s children emigrate to the US.

That means that if I have made all my connections properly, then this tree may be off:

I am thinking that Alexander shown above was really born closer to 1836 and Edward shown above was really born closer to 1840.

An Updated Tree with Edward Frazer Born About 1840

I just need to update Alexander’s birth year.

Some Alexander Frazer Genealogy

I show Cathy descending from Alexander. He was probably the same Alexander Frazer who was in Lancashire in 1861 with his younger brother Edward Frazer and his new wife Winifred. Cathy has this about Alexander on her tree:

This shows Alexander’s parents, spouse and 12 children. Cathy’s grandmother is Anna Katherine aka Jane Kate Frazer. Here is Alexander in 1901 with his family:

Based on this Census, he would have been born about 1839 or 1840. That is closer to the 1836 birth that I had based on his stay in Lancashire.

 

Alexander was a farmer in Carrowncully, Roscommon:

 

That brings us down to Cathy’s grandmother. This photo is saved to Cathy’s tree:

Cathy shows that her grandmother traveled from Carrowncully to New York City in 1906 accompanied by her older brother Charles:

This photo is also attached to Cathy’s tree showing Charles and his father Alexander:

Brenda’s Link to Alexander Frazer Born 1836

Brenda descends from Thomas who was one of Annie’s many siblings. I didn’t mention above that Annie married and was living in Westport, CT by the 1910 Census:

Annie’s brother Charles was also living in Westport in 1910:

In fact, Charles was living in the same house with Annie.

But I’m looking for Thomas. Thomas was in Westport 10 years earlier:

Lilian is Brenda’s great-grandmother. It looks like Annie and Charles may have followed their older brother Thomas John to Westport, CT.

Based on ThruLines, I have added Brenda to Cathy’s orange Alexander Frazer Branch:

Alan of the Frazers of Australia

The purple boxes above represent the Frazer Family in Australia. Alan represents a new branch:

This is where the ThruLines appear to work well. I can’t tell who Alan’s mother is. She is probably still alive or at least shown that way on Alan’s tree. Because of that, I can’t see any information about her. However, Ancestry must know enough about her to link her as the daughter of John William Bernard Foxwell. The proper way for me to check this is to build a tree for Alan and see if it agrees with Ancestry. I think it will.

Here is my quick and dirty tree for Alan:

It got me back to John Parker Frazer who is the Frazer who moved to Australia. Here is his birth record in Kilmactranny Parish, County Sligo, Ireland:

John Parker Frazer  son of Archibald and Catherine Frazer
Born  Jun 28, 1827                                                    
Bapt.  Jul 03, 1827

Also I see that Beatrice’s middle name above is Honora. This is likely from her grandmother Honora White. I checked Jane who is in the Frazer DNA Project and she has a good match to Alan. That means I can add Alan to the purple Frazer Branch from Australia through Robert Alexander Frazer. I have that Robert was born in Richmond outside of Melbourne:

The Frazer Nation keeps expanding.

Moving Gladys Up the Frazer Tree to Archibald Frazer and Mary Lilly

As a result of cousin marriages, Gladys shows Archibald Frazer and Mary Lilly as her ancestors three times:

This both simplifies things and complicates them at the same time.

Here are Gladys’ ThruLines at this level:

I have covered Philip and Archibald. Gladys also descends from Richard, but I don’t see him here. Let’s look at John.

John Frazer – Born About 1775

Here is TF who sounds familiar and Blair who doesn’t sound familiar. Both of these matches are beyond the 5th cousin level so pretty far out. TF has a private tree and Blair’s tree is public. If the configuration is right, TG and Blair would be 3rd cousins to each other.

The John Frazer Branch doesn’t get much attention, so these matches are interesting.

TFs Tree

I see that TF also matches my sister Heidi – perhaps others of my siblings also. Here is some old research done on the John and Phlip Frazer Branches:

From what I can tell, this shows that John had William, Stewart, Archibald and John. Out of those it looks like William and John went to the USA. If I have this right, it looks like TF follows down from Archibald to John James.

Here is TF’s tree starting with her grandfather Guernsey Preston Frazer:

He was born in Niagara County, New York and died in San Bruno near San Francisco:

Washington Abraham Frazer Born About 1864

Washington married on January 7, 1891 in Ontario even though he and his bride lived in the US:

 

Here is Washington in 1870 in Lockport, NY:

Here is Lockport:

John Frazer Born About 1824 Ireland

Here is the 1865 Lockport Census:

John Frazer was running a hotel in Lockport in 1860:

This Census has John J born in Canada about 1849. This Census also gives a more exact date for the birth of Washington Frazer.

Here is John Frazer and his wife’s grave stone:

Here is the family in 1855:

If the family was in Canada in 1849 and in Niagara County in in 1851, they may have missed the Canadian and US Census.

I have already looked at Marilee who is in the Frazer DNA Project. I put her here on my Frazer DNA chart:

I have that John Frazer was married to Sarah Orr based on the grave stone, but I have seen another marriage record for John Frazer – though possibly a different John. I could probably clear that up by going through all of Sarah’s children’s records to try to find a maiden name for Sarah.

Here is Marilee with TF who I have a third cousins:

Connecting John Frazer to Ireland

I have this record for John James Frazer:

18 Feb 1821  bpt.      John James s. of Archibald and                                                                            Jane (WHITE)           Ardcarne        RI                    ArdC               Address: Aghrafinigan

My guess is that this could be the same person as the John Frazer who lived in Lockport, NY. From John’s grave marker his birth is said to be 14 Feb 1824. My guess is that John may have been born 14 Feb 1821 and baptized four days later. Most of the Census records indicate that John was born around 1824. However, I few indicate that he could have been born earlier. For example, in the 1865 New York Census, John is listed as being 46 which would put his birth at 1819 or 1820.

Blair’s Connection to John Frazer

Again, I’ll build my own tree for Blair. This is what Blair’s tree shows:

Here is the 1881 Ontario Census for Anna Marie Frazer:

If these ages are right, then it would appear there were no parents in the house at the time of the Census. Here is Essa where the family lived in 1881.

The sister of one of my McMaster ancestors lived in nearby Tecumseth for a while. I don’t know if this was a coincidence or not.

Here is Annie’s marriage record from 1898:

The couple married in Cookstown where the red marker is below.

The bride and groom were from Bradford and witness George Frazer was from Bond Head.

Here is the family in 1871 in Gwillimbury West, Ontario. The father William is a farm laborer:

 

Gwillimbury was already shown right below Bradford above in the previous map image.

Tieing William Frazer Into the Irish Frazers

William’s birth appears to be well documented:

14 Jul 1828   b.         William s. of Archibald and Jane (WHITE)           Kilmactranny PR KlmC (MFA)

21 Jul 1828   bpt.      William s. of Archibald and Jane (WHITE)           Ardcarne        RI                    ArdC

I have the same information:

William Frazer  son of  Archibald and Jane Frazer
Born  Jul 14, 1828
Bapt.  Jul 22, 1828

I don’t know if the White above was in the records or someone’s interpretation.

I also found a marriage record for William Frazer:

Here Tecumseth comes into play again. This place was renamed New Tecumseth on the map I showed above.

Here is an interesting photo of William Frazer someone posted at Ancestry:

Tripling the Size of the DNA John Frazer Tree

 

I believe that this tree ties in fairly well by DNA and genealogy. By the way, Marilee tested her DNA at MyHeritage, so would not appear at AncestryDNA. To show their matches with Marilee, TF and Blair would have to upload to Gedmatch or MyHeritage.

Taking Gladys Back to 1690

Here is the final step:

People should be skeptical of these ThruLines that are at a distant level. That means that they should be checked out for accuracy. In the past, I have noted possible additional connections that may by-pass the route all the way up to Archibald from 1690. The fact that these matches are both on the Michael Frazer line may be significant. Also Margaret Frazer and three of her daughters lived in the area of Tecumseth that I mentioned. I match BV at quite a significant level; however, the match probably represents the McMaster side. Perhaps there are other McMaster, Frazer or other connections that I am missing.

Gladys’ Chart of ThruLine Matches

I have Gladys’ Thrulines into 3C, 4C, 5C and 6C. James and Violet Frazer are from Philip and Richard below. The Archibald Frazer 1778 matches are not in the Philip or Richard Frazer groups. Gladys’ matches with TF and Blair seem to be valid matches tracing back to John Frazer born 1775.

Gladys has a good representation of Frazer matches. She also matches two people on the Branch of James Frazer’s son Michael. From other DNA match analysis, my sense is that the common ancestor of Archibald Frazer born about 1690 could be too far removed and that there could be a better choice for common ancestor. However, the common ancestor of Archibald Frazer from 1690 is not rulted out either.

Summary and Conclusions

• It took a while to go through Gladys’ ThruLines, because I checked on the genealogy of some of her matches.
• I found a new important record for brothers Edward and Alexander Frazer who were living in Lancashire in 1861.
• I was able to link these families back to the Frazers of North Roscommon, Ireland.
• I was able to add two more Branches to the John Frazer Born 1775 Line to my combined DNA match/Frazer genealogy chart.
• I looked at Gladys’ match with two descendants from the Michael Frazer Line. I was familiar with the connection and have made suggestions in the past haveing to do with the McPartland Family.

 

So far, I have looked at Joanna’s and Beverly’s ThruLines. It took two Blogs to write about Beverly’s Thrulines. I wrote about a ThruLines match showing my connection to Michael Frazer of the James Line, but that match disappeared. I wrote another Blog about the connection of my fourth great-grandmother Margaret Frazer to Michael Frazer.  I started looking at James Frazer Line ThruLines as I thought they might be easier, but it resulted in a lot in information and I discovered new branches of DNA matches.

My James Line connection would be through the unproven connection between Margaret Frazer and Michael Frazer. Then Michael is the son of James Frazer.

A Summary of My James Line Connection Via ThruLines

I had a ThruLine connection with someone and that connection disappeared as mentioned above. Here is how my connection looks now:

This is a little confusing and ambiguous. It’s confusing because I should be a full 3rd cousin once removed to Keith. The ambiguous part is that I have Fanny descending from Michael Frazer, but I Keith and I are also related on Fanny’s husband’s side James McMaster. The match doesn’t show there because Keith and I perhaps have slightly different information on James.

Sister Heidi’s ThruLines

Next I look at my siblings’ results. Four out of five of my siblings have tested at AncestryDNA. Heidi has the same match as me plus this match with Joseph:

This is one generation up from Heidi’s and my common ancestor with Keith. The DNA match doesn’t show that Heidi descends from Michael, but the tree evidence shows that. Heidi’s next match is with a descendant of Henry Patrick Frazer who I wrote extensively about in one of my past ThruLines Blogs.

This match gives DNA evidence and tree evidence that Margaret Frazer was the daughter of Michael Frazer and a brother of Henry Patrick Frazer. This is not DNA proof, because the tree could still be wrong and the DNA match could belong to a connection between Heidi and Richard on a completely different line that we are not aware of. However, the DNA evidence gives us confidence that we are on the right track.

My Brother Jon’s ThruLines

Jon’s match looks like mine except it adds in Melissa. When I expand the ThruLines, I get this:

Melissa’s tree goes up to her grandmother Joan and my tree goes down to Frances. ThruLines has stitched the two trees together. ThruLines are good in that it forces you to check the genealogy. I can either start a new tree for Melissa, or bring my tree down. I’ll try going down to see if I can match up with Melissa. However, a problem with doing this is that even if I do connect with Melissa, it could be on two lines. William McMaster married my great-grandmother’s sister Catherine Clarke.

Here is Melissa’s Joan Butler in the 1930 Census:

I circled Scotland, because this is not right. Frances’ mother was born in Ireland. There was some stigma about being Irish that some families’ shied away from. Actually, Frances’ father was also born in Ireland and the Census says he was born in Massachusetts. Right away I see in Melissa’s tree that Joan is Joan Clark Butler. The Clark is a giveaway that we are related as William McMaster married Catherine Clarke. The ‘e’ in Clarke went away after the family moved to the US.

Here is another clue in the 1940 Census:

Here we see Hubert McMaster. Hubert was Frances’ older brother born in 1889. This shows that the trees match up. However, I can’t tell if the DNA match is on the McMaster side or Clarke side. Melissa would have to upload her DNA to Gedmatch to check that. Even then it may be difficult to tell.

Jon also has a match with BV:

BV is Jon’s 3rd cousin twice removed. Mary Ann McMaster is the sister of my 3rd great-grandmother. She recently showed up when I asked Cheryl (who does the family research) to take out the space between the Mc and Master that used to be there. Actually this ThruLine showed up as I was writing this Blog. The same is true on my matches except I have a larger match.

Update for Heidi on the Mary Ann McMaster Line

Lori’s Michael Frazer ThruLines

My sister Lori has this additional McMaster connection:

I don’t have Robert in my tree. He is from Joanna’s tree. Here is what the expanded tree looks like:

The Private people are from Joanna’s tree. I might as well create a new tree for Frank and see where it goes. Interestingly, Ancestry pulled in Lillian above from another tree than the one that Frank’s DNA was attached to – perhaps a tree of a child of Frank. Because Frank’s tree only goes up to his mother. That is helpful, Ancestry.

Frank’s tree:

Frank’s son’s tree where Lillian below is the mother of Nancy above:

This goes all the way up to Robert McMaster. However, this shows Lillian being born in Glasgow, Scotland, Edward Bowles in Drumkeeran, Leitrim, IRE and Margaret McMaster in England. The 1920 Census supports this tree:

The 1910 Census gives a different story:

This Census looks like it was done in smudgy pencil. Here James Bowles is still alive. This shows that everyone’s two parents were from Ireland. I also brought in the information on naturalization in the last two columns.

Frank’s tree mentions the 1901 Census for Scotland. In that Census all in the family were from Ireland except for Lillian. She was born in Scotland. Their three-year old son Robert was born in Ireland. That means that the family left for Scotland around 1899.

Here is Edward Bowles and family on their way to Boston via Ellis Island on June, 1901:

He was a draper.

Frank’s son’s tree further has this for Edward’s family:

I found a death certificate for Edward’s sister Margaret in Pennsylvania:

This shows that she usually lived in Hingham, MA. Her mother is listed as M. MacMaster. This gives me the evidence I need to confirm Frank’s son’s tree. I want to make sure that I get Margaret right, because she is the one I am looking for.

More on Margaret McMaster

Here is Margaret’s marriage record at Ancestry:

Now I am getting back to familiar territory. Here are two records:

Mar 15, 1866 George Frazer of Ballindoon son of James Frazer

                      Margaret McMaster of Cuilnagleragh, Kilmactranny daughter of James McMaster

                      in the presence of Thomas Acheson,  James Frazer

Oct 08, 1866  James Boles, farmer  son of Edward Boles

                      Margaret McMaster  daughter of Robert McMaster

                      in the presence of  ?  Irwin, James Boles

The first record is for my second great-grandmother Margaret. The second record is Frank’s 2nd great-grandmother Margaret. Shows that Frank and I have something in common.

Here is Griffith’s Valuation published 1858:

This includes all the lands of Dromore. This shows that Robert was from Dromore. My web page on the McMasters of Dromore has this:

Perhaps Robert was another son of John.

Here is Dromore, spelled Drummore in the Tithe Applotment in 1833 about 25 years before Griffith’s Valuation:

The evaluation shows a John and a Robert McMaster living in ‘Drummore’.

A second possibility is that Robert could have been a brother of John McMaster. Here is a burial date for a Robert McMaster:

Jan 03, 1888    Robert McMaster  Age 85

Ages given at burial can be way off. If it is right, Robert would have been born 1803.

Here is a burial date for Anne McMaster:

May 20, 1847    Anne McMaster  Age 76.   Presumably nee Shannon

The note is by the researcher and transcriber. If this is Anne Shannon, then my birth date and marriage for John could be wrong. That would put her birth at 1771. She would have been 47 at the birth of Margaret. Let’s say she was born in 1776 and she was 42 at the birth of Margaret. Let’s also assume that she was the mother of Robert and that he was either 80 or 85 when he died. That would mean that Anne would have been betwee 27 and 32 yeaers old when she had Robert. This is a lot of supposing. My top guess is that Robert was the son of the John McMaster shown from my web page above.

BV also showed up on Lori’s ThruLines:

In addition, Lori has a match on the Henry Patrick Frazer Branch. This is important, because the other matches could be on the McMaster side.

I have gone over the Henry Patrick Frazer genealogy in a previous Blog and the connection looks good. The DNA match is small as one might expect.

My Sister Sharon’s ThruLines

Sharon has an extra amount of McMaster DNA matches:

Most of these were discussed before. However, there are two new matches under Mary Ann McMaster:

These new matches are with AC and Kerry. My guess is that these are valid trees as there are DNA matches attached. My existing tree only goes down as far as Elizabeth Shannon, so this gives me a chance to update my tree:

This is the family in Lane Tree, Contra Costa, CA in 1900. So far only, Mabel from the tree above has been born.

In 1910, Elizabeth had died and the family was living in Township 8:

Now we see Francis and Leslie.

Sharon’s new-found matches with AC and Kerry check out fine. It’s a good idea to check because sometimes there are mistakes.

Summary of My Family’s ThruLines on the Frazer/Archibald Line

The ThruLines show our ancestry going up to Michael Frazer. This connection is strongly suspected, though not proven. I want to summarize the DNA matches for all the ThruLines to get a feel for the probabilities of the DNA matches. This could be important when looking at relationships that are less probable.

I’ll try a chart like this:

The number I’m interested in is the percentage. Ancestry says, for example, with Sharon’s match to AC as a 4th cousin once removed:

The match is even a bit high as it would be a little more likely to be a 4th cousin (at 22%).

I need to add the cM match level to my chart also. Here is Sharon’s match:

Next, I add in Kerry:

 

Note that the top % is now 33%. That is because it is more likely to have a smaller match at this level of relationship. The reason that I have the top % is to see how high the scale goes for a given DNA match.

Here are the rest of Sharon’s matches on the Michael McMaster ThruLines:

I don’t agree with the last two results. Keith may be shown as a 1/2 3rd cousin because I have Fanny as the husband of James McMaster Sr. Perhaps the senior is throwing off Ancestry. The ThruLines do show that there is a 22% chance that the match would be a 1/2 3rd cousin.

The Full Results for the Michael Frazer ThruLines for My Family

Jon’s match with Melissa was a bit unusual. Jon had a 6 cM match with Melissa in three segments. So those are tiny segments. He should match her equally on the Clarke Line, so that could explain the number of segments. That would make them double 4th cousins, but I don’t think Ancestry accounts for that.

Here is the same information sorted by relationship:

Note that as the relationships get further away, the percentages get higher. I have noted this same effect in at least one other ThruLines analysis for Joanna. Then at the level that I’m trying to prove ancestry, the percentages disappear, because the relationships are too distant (beyond fifth cousin).

My Results Compared with Joanna’s Results

Here are Joanna’s results:

When I did Joanna’s chart I didn’t include the maximum percentages. Here Joanna has more matches in the 2nd cousin range compared to my family. However, if you look at Joanna’s results starting with her third cousin, once removed match, her results go from 12 to the 20’s for her fourth cousins to 33% for her 5th cousins. That seems to be consistent with my results.

Summary and Conclusions

• Most of my family’s Michael Branch Thruline matches are through McMaster. These matches don’t add as much evidence as the more distant matches.
• Heidi and Lori have 7 cM matches with Richard who descends from Michael Frazer. This is probably a non-McMaster match and adds evidence that Margaret Frazer is the daughter of Michael Frazer.
• I looked at all the cM matches with the Ancestry ThruLines percentages to get a feel for the numbers. I also looked at the maximum percentages for the given match level.
• I sorted these matches and saw that the percentages got higher as the relationships got further out. I had noticed this happening with Joanna’s results from a previous Blog.
• Some ThruLines are not as they should appear as I disagree with the common ancestor and/or ThruLines shows a half relationship where I think there should be a full relationship. It may be possible to fix these issues, but I’m not sure how to do that right now. It may involve correcting other people’s trees.
• It was interesting to see in my family with 5 siblings tested at AncestryDNA how the ThruLine results differed for each sibling while just looking at one Branch and one common ancestor.