My Cousin Paul’s Theories of Relativity

MyHeritage does Theories of Relativity. They are like Ancestry’s ThruLines. MyHeritage compares ancestral trees and matches them with DNA matches. This can be very helpful. I have looked at Paul’s Theories in the past, but they need updating.

Here are Paul’s Theories:

These Theories will be from the Frazer and McMaster families as that is where Paul and I match. Here is an update of my chart:

This is my attempt to be more comprehensive in my look at Paul’s Theories. For example, I don’t have Melanie on Paul’s DNA Painter profile, but I don’t need her there as her mother is already there. I have one of the John’s on my McMaster DNA/Genealogy Chart, but I forgot to put him on Paul’s DNA Painter profile. The blanks are ones that I appear to not have looked at yet.

John on the Robert Line and DNA Painter

Here is John on the Robert Line:

Paul and John should be 4th cousins and MyHeritage’s Theory of Relativity agrees. Here is where Paul and John match:

The Chromosome 8 match looks large, but it is only 6 cM which is below the standard amount that DNA Painter will add.

On Chromosome 14, John adds some new mappimg area. On Chromosome 18, John shows that matches with Emily, Raymond, and Faye are actually on the McMaster side and not on the Frazer side. Further, it explains on which McMaster line this DNA comes from:

My second great-grandmother Margaret McMaster had two McMaster parents. This DNA was from the James McMaster side.

Painting John to My Sister Heidi

Heidi and John match on the first two chromosomes:

Heidi’s match on Chromosome 1 was too small to paint. Here is Chromosome 2;

The blue matches are on my Hartley side. Here, John’s DNA identifies the match with Susan as being on the McMaster and not the Frazer side. I didn’t have other DNA painted from Abraham McMaster and his wife, so I added that for Heidi.

Painting John to my Sister Sharon’s DNA Painter Profile

Sharon and John:

Sharon’s Chromosome match with John is large enough to paint.

Again John paints a new area for Sharon on Chromosome 1 and identifies other Frazer/McMaster matches on Chromosome 2.

Paul and Brian

MyHeritage shows:

I will create a floating tree for Brian. Here is an obituary for Ethel:

In 1900, James McMaster was a farm laborer in Hinsdale, Massachusetts:

Here is Hinsdale:

Here is the tree I have so far:

This tree is following the Theory.

Here is some more information on James McMaster (which my tree shows as McMasters):

According to the 1880 Census, Charles McMaster must have been born in Ireland:

Unfortunately, Charles had apparently died as Rachel shows as a widow. I notice that Brian has this interesting note on his family tree at Ancestry:

I would tend to agree with Brian. The William I descend from had children who were etiher in Ontario or stayed in Ireland.

I see that this is likely the same family in 1870 in Berlin, New York:

Ancestry has the surname as McMartus, though I can also see where this could be McMasters. The transcriber has Mary Blowers which makes sense as Brian has Rachel as Rachel Blowers.

I also see that Berlin is not far from Massachusetts and Vermont:

Here is where Brian matches my cousin Paul:

Here I have put Brian under Abraham McMaster, on Paul’s DNA Painter profile though there were some doubts as expressed above:

That tells me that Paul matches his Frazer relatives on the McMaster side on Chromosome 2 where those matches over lap with Brian.

Paul and Berenice

Paul and Berenice show as 4th cousins at MyHeritage. I’m going to shortcut and not evaluate Berenice. Besides, she shows as a 1st cousin to the John I already have on this line.

Paul and Brad

I don’t recall this match:

Unfortunately, Brad’s tree is missing some information:

It appears that Brad would have his mother a Long rather than a McMaster. Brad does show his paternal grandmother as a McMaster:

It looks like I can fill in some blanks. John had Andrew who married Evelyn:

That should be enough to go on for now. This stone is from the West Bothwell Cemetery in Ontario:

However, something still does not add up. MyHeritage has that Brad is in his 70’s. That means that he was born in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. If Evelyn was mother this would make more sense as she would be in her 20’s at that time. The person who manages Brad’s DNA is clearly the daughter of Evelyn McMaster. I will assume that Bev is Brad’s sister.

It looks like Evelyn would have been about 32 when Bev was born. Here is Evelyn in 1931:

Below is Evelyn potential great-grandfather William at age 98. I think that it will be difficult to place this family with certainty.

Here is where Brad matches Paul by DNA:

The 1891 Census appears to show an extended McMaster family group:

William J is living with siblings and parents: William and Sarah McMaster. An elder Eliza McMaster is also living with them. She is perhaps the grandmother bron about 1810.

William’s parents names are given on his death certificate:

This says that William’s parents were Abraham McMaster and Bessie Johnston. I have this already on my McMaster DNA/Genealogy Tree:

I had added in the past to the Abraham McMaster/Bessie Johnston Line but did not save it. I’ll add Brad now.

We think that Eliza made it to Ontario and perhaps her husband. Also I see that brothers William and Mark McMaster both married Crundwells.

Next, I add Brad to Paul’s DNA Painter Profile:

These are new sections painted to Paul’s chromosomes and the first from the Abraham McMaster/Bessie Johnston Line. This raised Paul’s overall painted DNA from 12 to 13%. That doesn’t seem like much, but I am only looking at Paul’s paternal side, so he is painted 26% on his paternal side.

While I’m at it, I’ll add Christina’s match to Paul on his profile:

I also mention Christina in my previous Blog.

Paul and Justin

Here is a progress update. Hopefully it is accurate:

Se that there are twice as many identified McMaster Theories compared to Frazer Theories. Justin shows in the Frazer camp:

I am initially skeptical of this connection. Here is the full Theory:

Many on the connections have low probabilities of being correct. I’ll move on to the next Theory.

Pamela and Paul on the McMaster Side

For some reason, two generations show as ‘Deleted profile’. First, I will try to recreate Pamela’s tree but putting Pamela in my tree as a floating tree. It appears that Elsie’s father should be Archibald:

Here is Steiglitz, near Melbourne:

I borrowed from an Ancestry tree to see that Archibald is actually Archibald McPherson III.

In my own tree, I have this information:

This is from an email I received in 2009.

So my tree for Pamela should have a McMaster by now, but has a Tait:

Here we have possibilities:

  1. Archibald had two different wives
  2. One tree is right and one is wrong.
  3. There was more than one Archibald born around 1860

Here is a gravestone from Meredith, AUS:

Meredith appears to be in the right part of the World:

I am not sure where the confusion is, but I am going with the Archibald from the gravestone above. My tree has an Archibald born 1860 and another Ancestry tree has this Archibald McPherson born 1867. I am not sure if this is the discrepancy:

So between the DNA match, my old email and other Ancestry Trees, I will add this Line in to my tree. This appears to be the other McPherson, buried in Gisorne:

I’ll add Pamela to my McMaster DNA/Genealogy Chart:

Here is Pamela on Paul’s DNA Painter profile:

This is confusing as this shows overlapping DNA from the McMaster and Frazer side on Chromosome 12. This suggests that Suzzanne could be related on the McMaster side.

Finally, Paul and Josephine

Josephine is Paul’s last Theory at this time:

 

Based on other Archibald McMaster/Elizabeth Meehan descendants, this connection seems likely. Paul and Josephine match on Chromosome 14 in this area:

This is the John that I mention earlier in the Blog who descends from Robert McMaster.

Based on the share matches between Paul and Josephine, the connection seems pretty certain. Here is Lalbert where Elizabeth McMaster Meehan was buried:

Here is a birth record for Margaret Mary Meehan borrowed from an Ancestry Tree:

This record is helpful:

Again, I will borrow this record from another Ancestry Tree:

That seems to close the circle. I will now add Josephine to my McMaster DNA/Genealogy Tree:

All that is left to do is to add the DNA match to Paul’s DNA Painter Profile:

Here is a summary:

Summary and Conclusions

  • It was helpful to look at Paul’s Theories at MyHeritage as Paul is one generation closer to common ancestors than me or my siblings.
  • The McMaster tree is quite large. This is just the tree I go back on on my James McMaster side. I have another tree for Fanny McMaster who married James McMaster.
  • The McMaster families that I tracked were in the US, Canada and Australia.
  • There was some confusion on some of the Frazer Theories. The connection for Justin was unclear. I already know the connection for Joanna, but MyHeritage did not show the right connection. This is understandable as the connection is a bit convoluted. I already had the connection to Suzzanne, but when mapped on Paul’s DNA Painter Profile, it appears that Suzzanne’s connection could be on the McMaster side.
  • I agreed with Brian that his McMaster connection was through Archiabald McMaster, but based on naming conventions, I could also see the possibility that he could be connected on the William McMaster side.

 

Updating My McMaster DNA Matches

I recently noticed a new McMaster match at MyHeritage. This match came up the strongest for my second cousin Paul as he is a generation closer to the common ancestors. Here is how the match shows:

I cannot see how Geoffrey and Paul match specifically on each chromosome as that information appears to be blocked. Geoffrey’s tree was also private but he shared it with me. Here is a DNA/Generalogy Chart I already have for part of the McMaster family:

I circled my family and the Meehan Line where Geoffrey is. I’ll add in Geoffrey:

Paul and Geoffrey are 4th cousins. My family and I are 4th cousins once removed to Geoffrey.

McMaster ThruLines

Here is what I have for Abraham McMaster ThruLines:

This points out an error on my Chart:

The two Abrahams I have pointed to above should be the same person. As the third Abraham was born 1809, that line should be mnoved to the right. The Chris at the bottom of that line corresponds with the Chris on my ThruLines:

Checking Tamara’s McMaster Connection

I would like to build out a tree for Tamara. This is one of those human vs. computer challenge, to see if I can verify what the Ancestry Computers came up with. Tamara’s tree is small, but seems to be workable. I’ve never done a floating tree before and the consensus seems to be that is the way to do these. I just watched a video on how to do this. I have to connect a person to my tree and then disconnect that person.

I’ll add Tamara as a daughter to my grandmother and then disconnect her. I did this, and then I removed her fake parents (who were my grandparents). Now she is floating. I put Tamara in under her maiden name, so I want to add a married name, so she will be easier to find if I need to.

Now Tamara has the first ‘floating tree’ in my AJoelHartley Tree. I had to rename my tree AJoelHartley previously because I had so many non-floating trees. So far, Tamara’s tree matches up with the ThruLines Tree. However, that is as far as Tamara went on her paternal side.

My best guess is that this is Warren Stirling in the 1931 Ontario Census:

This shows that the family lived in Enniskillen, Ontario at the time. Also, Stirling’s father was born in Ontario and named Herbert Tims. According to this record, Herbert’s parents were both born in Ireland.

This obiturary ties the father and son together also – especially as Tamara has her father buried in Wyoming, Ontario. If I have the right place, Enniskillen is close to the US:

Here is a portion of the marriage record for Herbert George Tims:

This gives his mother’s name as Mary Ann McMaster. Mary Ann’s death record gives helpful information:

I expect Eliza Johnson is meant to be Eliza Johnston. The reference to Roscommon is interesting. Most McMasters were from Sligo. However, I believe that the Johnston family was from Roscommon. Both families lived near the border between Roscommon and Sligo. I feel that this is enough evidence for me to add Tamara to my McMaster DNA/Genealogy Tree:

The relationship appears to check out. Tamara is my 4th cousin once removed. This information needs to be reconciled with my McMaster Website:

One possible explanation is that Abraham remarried Eliza Johnston and had more children. On another of my McMaster Web Pages, I mention 3 Abraham McMasters as referred to in a lease for William McMaster from 1812. Or, on a current reading, there could only be two Abrahams mentioned in the Lease. That means that it could be that the Abraham McMaster who married Margery was different from the Abraham McMaster who married Eliza or Elizabeth Johnston. One interesting possibility is that the William McMaster who is the subject of the lease is my ancestor born around 1790 who married Margaret Frazer.

This is the tree I proposed in a previoius Blog:

Adding Mary Ann McMaster to My Tree

This was fairly easy. I just chose Abraham McMaster in my tree and added a daughter. I picked choose from tree and chose Mary Ann McMaster:

Now I see why the floating tree method is preferable. By the way, ThruLines is showing these relationships to be half relationships. My assumption is that they are full relationships. The confusion is perhaps about who the wife of elder Abraham McMaster was.

A Floating Tree for Eliot

My assumption is that Elliot belongs in the tree. In fact, it looks like the family married back into the Johnston Line. This is the only information that Elliot has on his paternal grandfather:

The ThruLines could be right, but I do not have enough information to go on.

My Sister Lori’s ThruLines

My sister Lori has more than the average amount of McMaster ThruLines compared to her siblings.

Lori has 7 potential matches under Abraham, son of Abraham McMaster. When I open up Lori’s Mark McMaster matches, I see Chris who is already on my McMaster DNA/Genealogy Tree:

A Floating Tree for Jean

Jean and Lori have Chris as a shared match as well as two McMasters, So that is a good sign. Jean has a small tree including her father who was born in Ontario:

Otto’s death record is helpful:

This gives both his parents’ names. The 1921 Census has Otto’s grandfather born in Ireland which is a good sign:

Here is George and his father Mark (transcribed as Mary by Anncestry) in 1891:

Here is Mark in 1861 with his family living in a log home which was the usual residence for the area and timea:

This is helpful as it gives the children of Abraham and Eliza McMaster. On my McMaster DNA/Genealogy tree, I already have Mary Ann and Mark:

I’ll add Otto under Mark:

My Sister Lori and HH

Adding HH would add antoher child of Abraham. The ThruLines has William H McMaster born in 1831. However, the 1861 Census above has William at 23 in 1861 which would mean William was born closer to 1838 or 1839.

First, I have to create a floating tree for HH:

It looks like HH’s mother Annie needed a birth cerificate and got a delayed one in 1970. Here is the family in 1921:

The family is listed as Methodist and father Thomas works on a farm.

Here are a few McMaster families living next to each other in 1891:

My guess is that the Eliza is Eliza Johnston McMaster. Next, I just need to associate this William with the William in the 1861 Census. Here is Bothwell, where William lived in 1891:

I see that in 1871, William was also in Zone, Bothwell:

He appears to be still single, but head of household with his (assumed) parents, Abram and Eliza. Next door, is assumed brother George and more family. I feel like this is enough evindence to add HH to my McMaster/DNA tree and to my Ancestry Tree. When I added William McMaster to my tree, I had a duplicate Elizabeth Johnston, so I had to merge the two into one at Ancestry.

What I notice is that all these matches are at Ancestry, so I don’t have the specific area where on my family’s chromosomes where this line matches.

Lori and Christina

I looked on MyHeritage for Lori and saw this match:

Christina must be the sister of Jean from Ancestry. I’ll add Christina to Lori’s DNAPainter Profile:

The red indicates DNA from Abraham McMaster at the top of my chart or his wife. This just further confirms that these matches go back to Abraham McMaster in the 1700’s (or his wife):

This also confirms the relationship of the three brothers: Robert, James and Abraham McMaster.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I looked at a match Geoffrey on the Meehan Line of McMasters and added him to my McMaster DNA/Genealogy Chart
  • I looked at some McMaster ThruLines at Ancestry
  • These ThruLines that I looked at descended from Abraham McMaster born 1809. He is probably the one who is mentioned in an 1812 Lease by William McMaster
  • Abraham moved to Ontario as did my other William Branch of McMasters
  • I employed the floating tree method for those who I added to my Ancestry Tree while verifying the ThruLines.
  • I found a match at MyHeritage on the Abraham line. I was able to add this match to my sister Lori’s DNA Painter Profile. This further solidified the connections between the elder Abraham McMaster family (born perhaps in 1764.

 

 

 

A New MacMaster DNA Match at Gedmatch with Clarke and Spratt Ancestry

I have a new MacMaster DNA match at Gedmatch. However, this match is also at Ancestry DNA and MyHeritage. Here is what Ancestry shows:

We are third cousins, but we are also related on the McMaster side:

As shown above, Ron and I are fourth cousins once removed on the McMaster side. This makes sorting out the DNA difficult. However, I am more interested in the Clarke connection as I have a lot of missing information on my Clarek and Spratt ancestry.

MacMaster DNA

I am really interested in the Clarke DNA. However, it would seem that anyone that I have a known Clarke DNA match with could also have McMaster DNA.  Here is where I match this MacMaster according to Gedmatch:

I had previously used DNA Painter to show where this match was Here is the paternal side of my Chromosome 4:

The green and yellow matches are on my Hartley side. However, the blue DNA should represent either Thomas Clarke or Jane Spratt:

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However, there is a more distant amount of McMaster in there because Ron’s great-grandmother Celia Clarke married Edward McMaster:

This shows that Ron is my 4th cousinn once removed and Stephen is my 5th cousin on the McMaster side. Still, the chances are that matches with MacMaster represent Clarke or Spratt more than McMaster.

More Clues from Ancestry

I feel like Ancestry has the most matches, so it is a good place to look for clues. As the McMaster who is the subject of this Blog is my largest match, I’ll start with him at Ancestry. It would make sense to try to sort out those matches between Spratt and Clarke as those are the two most recent ancestors that this McMaster and I have in common.

Clarke or Spratt?

I should have shared matches with my good MacMaster match that are either Clark or Spratt. By using a spreadsheet, I can separate those matches by color. This is a variation of the Leeds Method:

I’m trying to come up with a spreadsheet that will work well. I’ll use a blue color for Clarke and a different one for Spratt.

I’ll start with Lori and Nina:

Nina appears to be a Spratt and is a shared match with my MacMaster match:

My Leeds Chart is a little compicated as it includes 5 siblings. My assumptions are:

  • shared matches between my siblings and me and Nina will be on the Spratt side
  • Spratt is not related to Clarke
  • Clarke is related to McMaster so those shared matches could have McMaster also
  • Ideally, there should be a group of Clarke DNA matches that match me and each other and a group of Spratt DNA matches that match me and my siblings and each other.

My Shared Matches with Nina

Here are a summary of my findings:

I decided to go with just my matches for now as it was too messy having all the siblings there. There were similarities in the trees when the trees were givien. Note that I have not yet identified any Clarke matches.

I decided to add the strength of the match in cm:

Looking for the Clarke Side

I don’t see any matches that are obviously Clarke. That means that I need to find matches that are not in common with the ‘in common’ matches to Nina and the above Spratt matches.

I’ll start with Cheryl. She is a shared match with MacMaster and matches me. Here shared matches do not seem to coincide with Nina’s, so I will make an assumption that she matches me on the Clarke side. Unfortunately, she does not have a tree at Ancestry.

Here is what I am guessing is the Clarke side:

The problem is that none of the DNA matches that have trees have Clarkes in them. The common name in the trees that match the blue side appears to be Lougheed or Loughead.

Here is the tree I have for my great-grandmother:

My knowledge of this branch of the family does not go back very far. Here my assumption based on family trees is that the Spratt side is represented by my orange matches and Clarke by the blue. But where would Lougheed fit in? Assuming that Whitesides is right, that would leave the mother of John Clarke or the mother of Catherine Whitesides.

A Blue Side DNA Match at 23andMe

I made a note at Ancestry that my blue side match, L.S., also tested at 23andMe. I hope the match is still there. That match had this person in his tree:

Unfortunately, I cannot get into 23andMe. The Company instituted extra security on their website and it is creating a problem for me to get to that site.

More Lougheads

Here is Ballybrennan::

This location is interesting to me as Ballybrennan is South of Collaney which is the area that my Clarkes were from and West of Kilmactranny where my Frazers were from.  However, Frazers should not be related as the connection between Frazer and Clarke was in Boston, Massachusetts.

Cheryl has many what I call blue matches.

Here I have also added some shared matches from D.E. The last match is interesting as there is a connection with Hugh Lougheed from 1750. He appears to be the same Hugh said to be born 1752. Here is what jreaton’s tree shows:

From the trees and the DNA matches, it is likely that this Hugh Lougheed could be an ancestor of mine, but I cannot tell where the connection is. It is possible that this Hugh had another daughter who married and stayed in Ireland.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Based on my most recent common ancestors with MacMaster, I should have matches on the Clarke side and the Spratt side
  • I found DNA matches with a group of people who have Spratt ancestry
  • I found another group of DNA matches who do not match the Spratt matches but have Lougheed in their genealogy.
  • I found a Lougheed side match that was also at 23andMe
  • It would be interesting to find out which chromosomes are Lougheed and which are Spratt.

New Discoveries for the McMasters of Ireland and Canada

I was pleasantly surprised to get back in touch with a McMaster descendant recently named Jean. Jean had asked for help in trying to figure out how Effie McMaster fit into the family tree. Jean is an avid genealogist and a pleasure to work with. At that time, I had come up with this possible tree for how I may be related to Jean:

Here, Effie is on the pinkish line. It appears that Effie could have been the daughter of Isabel McMaster and that she was raised at least for some time by Isabel’s married sister Susan McMaster Beckett. I wrote two blogs on Effie in September 2019. Here is the link to the second blog.

Susan McMaster Beckett

I don’t currently have Susan McMaster in my tree, but need to add her. This is what I have:

I am also missing Isabel McMaster born about 1827. A document that Jean sent me makes it clear that Susan McMaster was a daughter of Margaret McMaster:

I’ll quote Jean on the document:

After sifting through the family letters and photos I found several clues. In an old, small and deteriorated New Testament, I found a dedication to Susana McMaster from her mother Margaret McMaster, dated 7 April 1850, Ancaster (Ontario, Canada). There are two other signatures: James McMaster and Fanny McMaster. The bible was apparently passed onto Effie’s daughter, Grace Swayze, and then to my mother Etta Velma Swayze.

Here is an isolation of the left part of the flyleaf of the New Testament:

A Margaret McMaster is presenting a New Testament to her daughter Susan or Susanna McMaster.

Here is the second page:

My first reaction that this was the James McMaster who was the husband of Fanny (my ancestor). However, Jean thought that this could be the James, son of Margaret McMaster. I’m not sure which makes more sense. Jean also says:

The Methodist ticket is interesting as it was given at the weekly meetings to participants.

I found Fanny’s signature in a subsequent email from Jean:

This leads me to my original thinking that these two signatures could have been Fanny McMaster and her husband James Mcmaster born in 1806. Either way, I am happy to be able to see a signature of my 3rd great-grandmother. There is no way to know exactly what happened with this New Testament. We just know that it was passed down to Jean through her ancestor Effie McMaster.

Susan McMaster’s Marriage Document

I just discovered also that Jean had sent me Susan Mcmaster’s Marriage Document. It appeared as an attachment at the bottom of her email:

This document appears to be in good shape considering the age with minimal yellowing. This continues in the Wesleyan theme. According to Jean:

  • The dedication to Susan McMaster and the marriage license are interesting. The family came to Canada in about 1850, I think it may have been earlier. She is about 18. Margaret gave birth to Susan in her early 40’s, four years after the birth of Frances. The older daughters probably cared for Susan, Frances and younger children. 
  • Susan arrives in Canada, meets John Beckett, who was from a good Methodist/Quaker family who were millers and lumbermen. He is 15 years older than her, they fall in love, but there is no preacher to formally marry them. In the Quaker tradition you stood before the meeting and announced your wishes to marry, say vows to each other and you are married. Quakers do not have formal ordained leaders. This is where the date 7 Sept 1850 may come in. If they announced their intent to marry Margaret may have given the bible as a gift. It would have been appropriate for Susan to hold it during the ceremony. It may or may not be recorded in Quaker meeting notes because I’ve looked. But, in Canada at this time, their marriage would not have been recognized.
  • If Susan’s family were Methodists, to formalize the marriage they would have to wait for the Methodist preacher, who rode a circuit through towns and villages and may only appear several times a year. In the Methodist traditions of that period, only an ordained preacher could marry, bury, baptize and serve communion. 
  • The clues are in Susan and John’s marriage license. “Said marriage is legalized; by special license and solemnized in the presence of Mr. J. Hamilton and Mr. H. Bennett.” The operative words here are “legalize and solemnize”, both secular and religious are needed to recognize the marriage. Their formal marriage date is then: December 28, 1850. This may, or may not, explain how the bible came into Susan McMaster’s possession.

This document is a genealogist’s dream. How many times is it that I document like this is missing?

Here I have added Susan and Isabella to my Ancestry Tree:

More Photos from Cousin Jean

Here is one from Uncle William Mcmaster:

He looks like a friendly man with light colored eyes. Jean writes:

This is signed on the back, “From Uncle William McMaster to James and Effie”. No date. It was taken in California. I have no idea who this “Uncle William McMaster” is or how he is related. Another mystery. 

My other observation, or question, is whether the beard may have indicated that he was part of the Friends or Quaker religion. Here is a long-shot guess as to who he is:

This was from a tree I found at Ancestry, but I’m not sure how accurate it is.

More recently, Jean sent me this photo from another Uncle William:

Both these men were from California and both had white beards. Perhaps both were Quakers? Cousin Jean included the inscription on the back of this photo:

From the inscription, I take it that this man kind and religious. My geography of California is not the greatest, so here is Santa Ana and Los Angeles:

A Photo of Elizabeth Shannon and Effie McMaster

Until not too many years ago, I didn’t know of this Canadian Mcmaster family. I knew I had a third great-grandmother named Fanny McMaster, but I hadn’t realized that the rest of her family had traveled to Canada. Here is a photo that Jean sent me:

Jean says:

I found a tintype of Effie and another woman who I immediately recognized as Mary Ann McMaster Shannon’s daughter, Elizabeth. (Attached) Which led me to search for the Mary Ann Shannon connection. Quite by accident I found Isabella McMaster’s grave. She is buried with Willie J. Shannon, Mary Ann’s son. (Photo attached) They died several months apart. Thomas, Mary Ann, Elizabeth, and Willie Shannon, Isabella and Jane McMaster are all buried in the same cemetery. 

From a portion of my McMaster DNA/genealogy Tree:

That would mean that these two would be first cousins born abour 3 years apart with Effie on the right being slightly older. I’m not sure of the significance of what they are wearing on their left hands.

A Photo of Girls

This picture could possibly use some touching up:

Jean writes:

The last photo is a tintype that was in the Susan McMaster Beckett memorabilia. It’s early but no date or info. The 4 girls look about the same age. I wonder if the girl second from the right is Effie because of her facial structure but, otherwise, I have no clues about these children.

If I had to guess, I would say these are all cousins. Margaret Frazer McMaster had enough granddaughters to fill up this photo. I have Effie born in 1861. I’ll say that Effie is about 7 in the photo. That would place the photo around 1868 or so. Margaret passed away in 1872, so the photo could have been for her. However, I can’t back that up with names and dates. I suppose that another choice could be Beckett cousins, assuming that Effie was raised by Susan McMaster Becket.

A Theory about Effie’s Father

Now this is just a theory, but an interesting one. And it involves a bit of scandal. Jean gives a possibility that George A Mcmaster may have been Effie’s father. I find the theory possible as does Jean. Exhibit A would be the 1861 Census where Isabel and George A. McMaster are living in the Becket household:

This would be a situation where Effie’s father would have been her mother’s nephew, if I have it right. The fact that they were living in the same household at the time gives the opportunity for this scenario.  I hesitate to mention the scenario.

Further, George A McMaster appears to have joined the Civil War in the US based on this record:

Lewiston is to the North of Niagara Falls and just to the East of the Ontario border. The argument could be that George fled the situation of fatherhood in Ontario by joining the Civil War. Unfortunately, George died young of ‘disease’ in Washington, D.C. Of course, this could be just coincidence.

Further McMaster Tragedy

Isabella, who was perhaps Effie’s mother suffered a fall and an injury. Jean writes:

While going through the family material I had run across a letter that was very fragile and difficult to read and had set it aside. After finding Isabella’s grave I revisited it and have attached the transcription. One of the family stories about Effie’s mother is that she had died from a fall from a wagon. This letter, I believe, was written by Mary Ann to her sister Susan describing their sister “Bella’s” fall from a wagon. The letter is heartbreaking in its description of the fall and the “loss of her mind”. It also mentions Lizzie, Willie and Effie. In the US 1880 census for Contra Costa, California, Thomas, Mary Ann, Elizabeth and Willie Shannon (misspelled as Sharmon) and Isabella McMaster are listed in the same household. Isabella is described as “sister-in-law” to Thomas. I strongly believe Isabella and Susan are the daughters of William and Margaret McMaster expanding that tree. 

I’ll include the transcription here as it all adds to the McMaster story:

Summary and Conclusions

  • Jean has done some excellent research concerning McMaster Family History
  • Jean has some great documents concerning that history. Perhaps like many of us, some of that evidence is mysterious while other evidence fairly clear. Other evidence is inbetween.
  • The clear evidence includes a dedication of a Bible from mother Margaret McMaster to daughter Susan. This makes it clear that Susan was Margaret’s daughter.
  • This Bible had a signature from Fanny McMaster. I believe this to be my third great-grandmother in Ireland. The time that the family left can be estimated to be before the inscription of 1850 but after the publication of the Bible in 1845.
  • I found Jean’s theory that George Arthur McMaster was Effie’s father to be interesting and apparently circumstantial evidence would support the theory.
  • The McMaster family hid the details of what really happened. However, they also pulled together and were a strong family that supported each other in difficult times.

 

 

 

My Sister Sharon’s AncestryDNA Match with a McMaster Descendant

Let’s get right to it. Sharon’s match:

I’ll call the match Gibbs. Here is the maternal side of his tree:

No Need for Me to Build a Tree for Gibbs

Very often I will build out a tree for a DNA match. However, I’m pretty sure where this match fits in to my tree:

In fact, if I have it right, William McMaster and Margaret Frazer would be our common ancestors. Here is Gibbs’ version of the same tree:

His children on the second row go for a long, long way. I don’t show them all. This photo of Lucinda was on Ancestry. It shows her with her children:

Adding Gibbs to My McMasteer DNA/Genealogy Tree

I have a large tree already:

This is only one of the McMaster trees I descend from. I need to add Lucenda or Lucinda? here:

Here I’ve added Gibbs:

Sharon and hence me and my siblings are 4th cousins once removed. Gibbs has not linked himself to his tree, so Ancestry will not pick up the connection between our families on Ancestry Trees.

Shared Matches Between Gibbs and Sharon

This has been a short Blog, so I’ll add some bonus information. B.V was the top shared match. That is one reason that I knew that I was on the right track with Gibbs. Here is the connection that Ancestry has between BV and Sharon:

Sharon has a good match with BV – perhaps due to the fact that we are related to Frazers and McMasters in at least two different ways each.

Shared Match Robert

Sharon matches Robert by 48 cM on two segments. Robert has some Irish ancestry:

In the last row, James Hadden appears to be from Ireland. He married a Stewart. According to Frazer researcher Joanna, we should have Stewarts in our ancestry. So that may be the connection. I had put Margaret Frazer as the daughter of a Margaret Stewart, so that may be the connection – though it is a bit ancient:

I could continue on with Shared Matches, but it would be a lot of work to try to make connections. Gibbs does not match my other 4 siblings who I had tested at Ancestry. Gibbs does match a few other people who are in the Frazer DNA project.

Summary and Conclusions

  • If I had not checked my sister Sharon’s DNA results, I would have missed this match to Gibbs
  • Gibbs provides another branch to the line of William McMaster/Margaret Frazer > James McMaster born 1812
  • This is an interesting line as my familiy has at least double ties with both the McMaster and Frazer families
  • Some of these families were large, so I may expect some more matches.
  • One shared match had a Stewart name which is possibly linked to a Margaret Stewart born 1764 – or more likely her parents.

 

A New AncestryDNA Match with Chris on the McMaster Line

Chris is a recent DNA match with me and other siblings. He shows as having a common ancestor with me:

Chris’ tree has the common ancestors as Abraham McMaster and Margery Noble:

My tree also goes back to Abraham McMaster, so I’m not sure why this is not reflected at AncestryDNA:

Here is an extensive tree that I have so far based on Genealogy and DNA matches:

Here is an overview of the ThruLines at Ancestry:

One possible issue is that Abraham McMaster and Archibald McMaster both show being born in 1809.

This Abraham is related to another McMaster Branch. I have guessed at the connection here:

This Margaret Frazer Mcmaster on the left side of the chart moved to Ontario with all of her children except for Fanny. Fanny was my ancestor and stayed in Ireland. Just to confuse things, she married another McMaster (James McMaster Sr from the chart above).

Building a Tree for Chris

My building a tree for Chris would give me more confidence of how we are connected. Here is Sadie McMaster’s birth record:

Here is the start of Chris’ tree I am working on:

Mark McMaster’s Marriage record:

This gives his father’s name as Frank. However, the 1881 Census has the father’s name as Mark:

The 1861 Census for Euphemia, Ontario implies that Mark’s parents were Abraham and Eliza:

The 1861 Census Vs What I Have for McMasters

I have a web site on McMasters and the relevant part looks like this:

Here the difference is that Abraham marries Margery rather than the Eliza in Euphemia, Ontario. Also in my genealogy, James is younger than Mark. Also the timing is a bit off. If Mark McMaster was born in 1817, he would be about 44 in 1861, so we are about a generation off.  My guess is that the Abraham in the Ontario Census could be the 1817 Mark’s brother. So in my genealogy above, a likely scenario would be that there was an Abraham the son of Abraham and this Abraham had children William James and Mark. That is what Chris’ Tree shows:

That means that I would be happy to add Abraham as an older sibling to William and Mark in the family I have the genealogy for above. The earliest Kilmactranny Church records appear to be in 1817, so Abraham predated this time. Here are some transcriptions I received from a McMaster researcher:

If the records are right, there were two McMaster boys born on the same day. A problem I see with Chris’ tree is that Margery probably was not born in 1775 as I have that her daughter Eleanor was baptized in 1828. That would put Margery at 53 when she had Eleanor:

That means that some adjustment may be necessary for Abraham the father of Mark. I’m guessing he was born some time around 1813 to 1815 (before the start of Kilmactranny birth records in 1817). I would say Margery should have been born around 1785. She would have been 18 or 20 when she had her son Abraham and 43 when she had Eleanor in 1828. Genealogy by biology.

However, now there is a new issue. Here is the tree I had at Ancestry:

If I now move Abraham from 1797 to 1785, that puts a 17 year gap between him and William Briton McMaster. Further, there is this record from an Ancestrty Tree to contend with:

This 1812 record lists an Abraham as son of Abraham which most people take to be the ancestor of Chris. This works also:

Likely Margery was born at some time after 1785 that I have her. If Abraham was named after his grandfather, then by popular naming conventions, he would have been the first son. I’ve adjusted Margery to being born in 1787 in my tree. Fine tuning.

My DNA Match with Chris

I match Chris at 24 cM which is probably more than would be expected for a 5th cousin once removed. First I need to add Chris to my DNA/genealogy tree. That involves squeezing three Abraham McMasters into the tree:

Also note that the younger Abraham born in 1809 would have an uncle who was born the same year. This is of course possible. Also, I have two Abrahams who both married a Margery which is also possible but a little suspicious. However, this is the best I can do with the information that I have. It helps to make these charts as the way I have it, Chris is a 5th cousin two times removed:

If we combined the two Abrahams and Margery’s, that would move Chris up a generation, but as I said the configuration above seems to me to be the better choice.

Shared Matches with Chris

When I checked my shared matches with Chris, I see an interesting trend. The first shared match with Robert. Robert and I have this connection:

Recall above, I had this simplified genealogy tree:

I have ancestors on both sides of this tree via William McMaster and Abraham McMaster. I match Chris on the right side of the tree. However, for Chris to have a common match with Robert, it would have to be on the left side of my proposed tree or go further back to Archibald McMaster born in 1730. Of course, that is assuming my hypothetical tree is correct.

The next shared DNA match between Chris and me is a brother of Robert and matches me at 29 cM. Other matches don’t have much in their trees, so I can’t tell where the match is.

Linda: Shared Match Between Me and Chris

As the other two matches are on the McMaster/Frazer side, I will look at Linda’s match. It turns out that Linda’s tree is the same as Chris’ tree so she is likely as sister or other close relative.

That means that there is a tie of sorts between me matching Chris by DNA and the Shared Matches on the McMaster/Frazer Line.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Chris’ AncestryDNA common ancestor seems nearly right. The way I figured it out, it appears that it should be back a generation on his tree from what AncestryDNA has.
  • One problem with the tree I have is that is has two Abraham McMasters in a row married to two Margerys.
  • There were a lot of McMasters and a lot of vital records are missing.
  • I am related to McMasters on two lines
  • I have shared matches with Chris on the second line where I match McMaster (on the McMaster/Frazer Line). This could indicate a more ancient DNA match between Chris and me. Most in this family also moved to Canada.
  • I mentioned a proposed tree that tries to pull the two McMaster lines together.
  • Deed records help in the iterpretation of the genealogies. These typically mentioned three generations. However, they were not always straight father to son lines in the three generations.

 

My New Clarke/McMaster DNA Match at 23andMe

I get notifications from time to time from 23andMe about new DNA matches and I don’t usually know how we match up. Recently I had such a notice of a potential 3rd cousin and I did know how we match.

How Zoë and I Match by Genealogy on the Clarke Side

Zoë and I match by McMaster and I later found out Clarke. I’ll start with the Clarke side. This is the tree that I have so far of DNA relatives on my Clarke side:

Zoë descends from Catherine Clarke and William McMaster on the right side of the tree where I am. It turns out that this is an important DNA match, as I have one DNA match on that side who is Melissa. However, she tested at Ancestry which does not show detailed DNA information like 23andMe does. Zoë  tells me that Violet McMaster is a many times great grandmother to her, so I’ll build down her tree from there.

From what I can figure out this is how we connect:

So it turns out that we are third cousins, but it looks like third cousins twice removed. Our common ancestors are Thomas Clarke and Jane Spratt. When I look at my common DNA relatives with Zoë, Stephen shows up from the left side of the tree. He tested at 23andMe also. Ron from the left side of the tree shows up at MyHeritage.

These two are Zoë’s ancestors William McMaster and Catherine Clarke:

Probably taken around 1882. Reverse of picture indicates that they were engaged “about 1881” and married October 5, 1882.

How Zoë and I Match by McMaster Tree

Here is my existing McMaster DNA Tree:

This tree is larger and needs a road map. I don’t need the left side of this tree for Zoë. The left side of the tree is for a branch of the McMaster family that ended up in Canada. The down arrow is where I need to add Zoë’s ancestor William McMaster.

Zoë and I are at opposite ends of this DNA McMaster tree. We appear to be 4th cousins once removed. Our common ancestors are Fanny McMaster and James McMaster. That means that I am related to Zoë by four ancestors and three out of those four ancestors are McMasters.

Adding Zoë to My DNA Painter Profile

This is my DNA map of known matches:

This shows that I have identified 51% of the available spaces on the two copies of my chromosomes (paternal and maternal). Here is my paternal side where I match Zoë:

On this side I am 57% painted or identified. I’ve checked ahead and saw that Zoë adds new information to this map. That is probably because she represents a new relative on my family trees also.

Here is how I match Zoë at 23andMe:

We match on Chromosomes 3 and 17 and twice on Chromosome 7. the question now is which DNA goes with which pair of ancestors? Chances are slightly higher that I match Zoë by Clarke and McMaster than the second McMaster and McMaster relationship. It is also possible that each of the four DNA segments could represent one of our four common ancestors. The easiest way to identify all the DNA would be to create a new category on my DNA map called Clarke 1823 or Mcmaster 1829.

Here is how Zoë shows up on my Chromosome Map on Chromosomes 3 and 7:

On Chromosome 3, Zoë is a new match. On Chromosome 7, she overlaps with Ron. On Chromosome 3, my match with Zoë has no overlap with other matches. Here is my phased map of Chromosome 3:

This is the portion of my Chromosome I got from my Frazer grandmother shown by the red arrow above. She is the one with Clarke and McMaster ancestors. So it would make sense that I would match Zoë on the right side of the paternal copy of Chromosome 3.

On Chromosome 7, I match Zoë in two areas that are close to each other. The first segment overlaps with a match with Ron. Ron also has Clarke and McMaster Ancestry. It is my guess that that segment triangulates between Zoë, Ron and me:

One More Scenario and Another McMaster Tree

Ron is also related to Zoë and me on the McMaster side, but that brings up another McMaster tree:

I must have planned on meeting Zoë or one of her relatives as I left a space (outlined in an orange box). Here I have added in Zoë:

This connection goes back 7 generations for Zoë. So while this connection is less likely than the Clarke connection, it is still a possible connection. I have a quick fix:

I added 1764 to the possible place that this DNA could have come from. Even that designation is not totally correct as the triangulated  match with Ron could not be from the McMaster born in 1829. Even these designations are simplifications as the DNA could have come from the wives of these two McMasters and one Clarke.

Finally Chromosome 17

Zoë’s match is interesting here:

 

The place where the DNA changes from Barry to Zoe appears to indicate an old crossover from Barry. A crossover is where your DNA changes from one family to another. The simple explanation woudl be that this is a crossover from the Frazer DNA I got from Barry to the Clarke DNA that I got represented from the match with Zoë.

Here is where that split appears in my tree (see above). With the addition of Zoë’s matches:

That put me up 1% on the paternal side. Overall, I am still at 51% ‘painted’.

Summary and Conclusions

  • The ancestors that Zoë and I share belonged to the minority Church of Ireland in  Roman Catholic Ireland. They tended to marry within their faith, but that resulted in the intermarriage of lines.
  • The Clarke line was not related to McMaster as far as I know in Ireland. However, one Clarke sister married a McMaster in Boston (Zoë’s ancestors) and another Clarke sister married that McMaster’s nephew who was a Frazer (my ancestors).
  • I mapped out the different relationships in one Clarke tree and two McMaster trees
  • Due to the relationships involved, the assigning of the DNA to a patricular couple was not easy. There were a possible three couples that this DNA could represent except for the case where the DNA overlapped with Ron. In that case, the DNA could only be from a possible two couples.

 

McMaster ThruLines Through William McMaster and Margaret Frazer

AncestryDNA uses ThruLines. These are usually good hints that connect DNA matches and genealogy. Here is my ThruLines match with Deborah:

I have written about Deborah’s ancestor Jane in past Blogs. I have mentioned her genealogy, but I don’t think that I have written about DNA matches from her line until now. Here is a photo of Jane:

Jane is in the middle. I descend from her sister Fanny who stayed in Kilmactranny Parish, County Sligo, Ireland. Jane and the rest of her family traveled to Ontario.

My DNA match with Deborah is not that large at 9 cM.

Jane McMaster ThruLines for My Sister Heidi

Here is what my sister Heidi shows for the Jane Line of ThruLines:

 

It looks like I cut off Joseph’s child Kelci who is also a DNA match. My sister Heidi also matches Deborah. Deborah is from the McMaster Line. Jane first married George McMaster, then a Thompson.

My Brother Jon’s ThruLines

My brother shows goosie on the Thompson side of the Jane McMaster Line:

Jon doesn’t match Deborah. Jon has a discrepancy on the James Line. How can Robert Trent have two different mothers?

My Siblings’ Summary

This chart doesn’t get to the strength of the DNA matches. However, the more of my siblings match a person, the better the match. We had more matches on the Fanny line, but I didn’t include the closest matches.

Here are the matches that only matched on of my siblings:

Frank on the Robert Line

Of the above, Frank is interesting, because it adds another McMaster Line. Here is what AncestryDNA shows:

Ancestry would like me to evaluate Frank’s ancestry. This should be interesting as McMaster genealogy can be confusing. It turns out that I have already started a tree for Frank:

Here are wedding the same year for two Margaret McMasters:

The first was my 2nd great-grandmother and the daughter of James McMaster. The second was Frank’s second great-grandmother and the daughter of Robert. These two were both married at Kilmactranny Parish. That means that Frank’s Margaret’s father was Robert.

I have this Robert on my genealogy website:

That means that Frank’s Margaret could be Margaret Mae McMaster. In fact, I am leaning that way:

I also note that Lori and Frank have shared a shared DNA match with Ron who I circled. I added in Frank in the Abraham McMaster tree:

If this is not right, then there would have been three Margaret McMasters around the same time! I have Frank in a different color which means I am not positive. Under this scenario, my ancestor Margaret and Frank’s ancestor Margaret Mae would be first cousins. Here is the baptismal record for Margaret Mae:

Goosie on the Jane McMaster Thompson Line

Goosie matches my four siblings who tested at Ancestry (but not me). It should be easy to trace her tree back.

My tree apparently already goes down to Robert Henry Lowry. In this case, it would be easier to work my tree down. That way, I won’t have to create a new tree for goosie.

 

I found a photo of Lee Senior at his 50th wedding anniversary:

The caption:

I was able to build my tree down to Lee Robert Lowry Jr. I couldn’t easily make the connection to goosie, but I assume that she knows who her parents were.

Here is goosie on the first row of the William McMaster tree:

The tree is getting quite large and I am missing a lot of DNA matches.

Deborah Also from the Jane McMaster Line

I first mentioned Deborah above.

She shows as my half 5th cousin, but is likely a full 5th cousin. I’ll try taking her genealogy down from mine like I did with goosie.

I’m already confused as this view is different than the ThruLines:

However, I see the confusion as Jane McMaster married George McMaster. This is the connection I was looking for:

Here is the family in 1880 in Iowa:

William was clearly born in Ireland, but many of these Irish McMaster families liked to stress that they were from Scotland. Here is William’s baptismal record from Kilmactranny Parish, County Sligo, Ireland:

George was no doubt named for his father’s father:

Here is George’s daughter Ethel in Nebraska in 1910:

Here is how I worked my tree down:

I didn’t enter all the maiden names of the spouses. In this case I was able to see the connection to Deborah from an Obituary Index at Ancestry. Here is my family’s connection to Deborah:

That is just one connection. We are also connected through George McMaster – apparently on a differnt line.

Summary and Conclusions

  • In this Blog, I looked at some of my unexplored ThruLines on one branch of my McMaster ancestors. This branch starts with William McMaster and Margaret Frazer.
  • One of the ThruLines went through a Robert McMaster. After lookinng at the genealogy, it appears that this Robert Line belongs on a different Branch of McMasters. This branch is likely related to the other branch but beginning with Abraham McMaster born about 1764.
  • I looked at Deborah and goosie. They both descend from Jane McMaster. Deborah descends from Jane’s first McMaster husband and goosie descends from Jane’s second Thompson husband.
  • I have tried to combine the McMaster trees in the past, but it is difficult to tell how the lines tie together. Here is one guess that I have made in the past:

My ancestors are James McMaster Sr and Fanny McMaster who married each other. Under this scenario, they would be 1st cousins once removed. Of course, there are other possibilities.

 

 

 

Irish Petty Sessions and My Frazer Ancestors and Relatives

I recently came across Irish Petty Sessions at Ancestry. These could be helpful in sorting out relationships and/or adding some interesting information to my family history.

Let’s look at some of these records.

Let Your Light Shine in 1918

Here is the simple case of George Frazer of Derrycashel who was operating a vehicle at night without a light.

This actually happened on March 16th at 8:20 p.m. George was fined one shilling. Here is George (#27):

My great-grandfather’s brother George was born in 1879 and lived in the old family house – the one his father George grew up in in Derrycashel, Roscommon before moving to Ballindoon, Sligo.

Wild Times in Augrafinegan on 12 May 1886

I get the impression that Catherine Frazer and Anne Jane McMaster were not getting along. The first column is the complainant, the second column is the defendant and the third column contains the witnesses. It appears that Anne Jane was charged:

Who are these people? Here is the charged Anne Jane Frazer (wife of James McMaster):

James McMaster died in 1874. Here is Anne Jane’s family:

That means that in 1886, Anne Jane was about 57.  That means she low-balled her age in 1901 when she was probably 72. Under this scenario, Richard could have been her brother.

Who Were the Other Frazers in This Court Case?

We may never know why Anne Jane Frazer McMaster and Catherine Frazer were assaulting each other. But who was Catherine Frazer?  We know that in 1886, she was living in Aughrafinegan:

Also, I would assume that Anne and Richard Frazer could also have been living there. One guess would be that Catherine Frazer was her mother. However, Anne Jane’s mother could have been around 77 years old at that time (if she was even alive then). It does seem from the record above that that Catherine was a widow. Another guess would be that Catherine and Anne the witness would have been daughters of Richard:

For some reason, animosity between mother and daughter seem more likely to me than between Aunt and niece. Perhaps someone else will come up with a different possible scenario.

Who Was James Hartley of Oldbrook?

My third great-grandfather was James Frazer of Derrycashel, so this entry interested me:

Acconrding to this research from the mid 20th century,  Oldbrook is another name for Shanvoley (or Shanwilly).

This list has Oldbrook in County Leitrim. However, other references to Leitrim should be County Roscommon. I believe Oldbrook should be in Roscommon here also. Oldbrook or Shanvoley was not from from Derrycashel.

I notice that I have a document of transcriptions – I believe from a fellow Frazer researcher:

James Frazer Complainant April 19, 1867: Defendant [Thaddy Devauny of Fermoyle] allowed his three cows to trespass on the Complainant’s lands at Fermoyle on 14 April 1867. “To pay 1/6 costs to Court”

James Frazer of Derrycashel in 1867 owned one black sheep dog and one black and white sheep dog and paid the due fees for its license.

James Frazer of Oldbrook in the Parish of Kilbryan shopkeeper Complainant June 1868: Civil Bill: An action for the sum of 3..0 for that the defendant [Patrick Rorke from Cornacwita in the Parish of Boyle] is indebted to the said plaintiff in the said sum for shop goods sold and delivered in the year 1867. “decreed payment and 2/6 costs”

James Frazer of Ballymote labourer Complainant; Defendant Mark Connelly 27 July 1871; for following Complainant  into Catherine Dockry’s house and assaulting him there on 17 July 1871 at Ballymote. “No A”.  Same complaint against Margaret Connelly of Barrymote married woman; Mary Morrison of Barrymote married woman. The same day Mary Frazer of Ballymote [widow]; Defendant: Mark Connelly for assaulting Complainant and making use of scandalous and abusive language towards her at Ballymote on 17 July 1871.  “No Ap”.  Same day James Frazer of Ballymote Defendant – assault of Complainant [Mary Morrison] on 17 July 1871.  “No Ap”

James Frazer of Ballymote letter carrier Complainant 22 June 1876; the Defendant John Cawley assaulted and violently threatened the Complainant and challenging him to fight on the night on 15th inst at Ballymote.  “No appearance.”

James Frazer of Ballymote Defendant: Defendant did unlawfully and violently assault the Complainant [his wife Marion Margaret Frazer] at Ballymote, Sligo on 3rd July 1888.  Knocked her down abused and blackened and injured her and did so abuse and beat.  Kick, knock down and injure and did endeavour to take her life within the last two months several times.  Complainant claims protection. “No app”

James Frazer of Derrycashel owned a black & white sheep dog March 1875 and paid the required fee.

In March 1878 he had a black spaniel.

James Frazer Complainant: the defendant [Thomas Coyer] on 22 June 1878 at Athlone Roscommon did leave his horse and cart on the public street without anyone in charge of the same. ‘Fine 5/- costs 1/-“

James Frazer Complainant 14th June 1875; that the defendant [Michael Higgins of Kilmactranny] did refuse to pay the sum of 17/-  for a pig sold and delivered purchased on 3rd January 1875 at the Boyle fair the property of the Complainant. “No appearance”.

Here is Shanvoley. It is to the SE of Derrycashel:

Archibald of Shanwilly (aka Shanvoley) had a son named James Parker but he moved to Australia before this time:

Here is another case from 1875 involving James Frazer of Oldbrook:

When I Google Oldbrook, Roscommon, I see this MyHeritage record:

This George Robert Frazer was said to have a father named William James Frazer from Oldbrook. Was this William James the shopkeeper?

Here is another possibility from the tree of fellow Frazer researcher Joanna:

If this is the right James Frazer, he would have been a shopkeeper at age 21 in 1868. This must be the same family in Edgbaston, Warwickshire in 1811:

John W and Margaret would have been the children of Archibald Frazer. Archibald was the son of Alexander and the Mary Frazer of the above Census (though Alexander had died before this Census). Archibald Frazer is the one who lived in Shanvoley or Oldbrook and moved to Drumatybonniff Farm in the Parish of Tumna, County Roscommon (see below).

While I’m At Old Brook

Here is an early case:

This is no doubt, the same Alexander:

My guess is that this person was renting property from Alexander and deserted his wife. That meant that she had to end up in the work house. Of course, Alexander would have lost the rent of his property by this man deserting his wife. These were very difficult times.

Apparently, there was a different James Hartley from Ballymote:

I hope he was not related as he was a wife beater. His wife had the same name as my grandmother’s maiden name, though my grandmother was born in the US in 1894.

Other Mentions of James Frazer, My Third Great-grandfather

There are two other mentions of James Frazer in Derrycashel. He was supposed to license his sheepdog, but he didn’t until he was caught. This suggests that James was raising sheep. My relative in Ireland said that the Frazers butchered some of their sheep to help feed the neighbors during the potato famine. This also suggests that he didn’t like to pay to license his dogs.

My guess is that James also raised Pigs as there was mention of him selling a pig to Michael Higgins of Kilmactranny at the Boyle Fair and not receiving payment.

When I put these together in a spreadsheet and sort by date, I get this short Frazer history over a period of 59 years:

These people were almost certainly all related and assuredly knew about these events as they also lived in fairly close proximity to each other.

John Frazer of Dereenargan

Here is a John Frazer from Derreenargan in 1890. I have written about a different John Frazer from Derreenargan here. The John Frazer I wrote about was living in Lockport, New York in 1870 and had a son, John Jr., who was born in New York

Here is Derreenargan in the heart of Frazer country, County Roscommon:

Here is the charge:

Here is the Complainant:

Based on other information these two were assaulting each other.

Is this the family in 1901?

The transcriber got the name as Frozier.

However this appears to be a different Derreenargan:

This John was born about 1856 in County Roscommon. I see that Frazer research MFA has a John born at Kilmactranny to Edward and Mary:

This was at Kilmactranny which is technically in Sligo. However, one may have lived in Roscommon and gotten baptized in Kilmactranny. Also, there was an Edward who was the son of John (circumstantial evidence).

Here is another John from nearby Shanvoley, but I don’t have any more information on him:

Edward Wynn Frazer

As I recall, there were two Edward Wynn Frazers. This always confuses me. This one lived in Derreenargan in 1862:

Notice this Edward from Derreenargan of Klbryan. The John above appears to be from Derreenargan of Ballyformoyle. Edward had a case against Michael Partlane for failure to pay rent:

I believe that Partlane was another name for McPartland. I have written quite a few blogs on this family. Who knew that Derreenargan was such a popular place in the day?

This is the Edward Wynn I have:

Here is the other Edward Wynn Frazer:

According to the Frazer tree of my researcher friend Joanna, this Edward Wynn’s daughter Kate Peyton Frazer was born in Derreenagan. That means that this court case would be for the Edward Wynn born in 1838 and he would have been about 24 years old at the time of this court case. The Edward Wynn pictured above is the second great grandfather of fellow Frazer researcher Kathy who lives in Massachusetts.

Here is a simplified tree of the Frazers based on YNDNA testing:

This tree goes back to about 1690. Edward Wynn Frazer from the photo is the brother of Thomas Henry Frazer on the right branch. James Frazer with the unlicensed dogs was born about 1804 and is on the left branch.

More on Edward Wynn Frazer

Here Patrick Gallagher claimed that Edward Wynn assaulted him:

This would have been about a month before his daughter Katherine Peyton Frazer was born. Here is some more background:

I appears that the Gallaghers were damaging and breaking Edward’s door with stones.

Edward Wynn brought Widow Jane Doyle to Court:

This is one tough dude. “Your chickens step on my property and we’re going to court.” I’m not sure how much damage chickens could do to “fattening grass”. Here is another complaint from Edward against Widow Doyle – apparently a neighbor:

In 1861, Edward Wynn was looking for rent from Bartley McKeon of Aughnasurn:

Here a shopkeeper is looking for money owed him from Edward Wynn:

Perhaps Edward couldn’t pay because people owed him money.

Edward M Frazer Aughnasurn

This Edward M Frazer was from Aughnasurn and was a Gentleman. He owed Jones Cuttle some money. This Edward appears not to be the same as Edward Wynn as he is not from Derreenargan.

Edward Frazer of Annagh died 8 March 1863, so that rules him out. This is leaving me stumped, unless this is the same as Edward Wynn Frazer. However, the Gentleman part and living in Aughnasurn seem to distinguish this person from Edward Wynn Frazer.

Archibald Frazer of Drumatybonniff Farm in 1876

There are a lot of Archibald Frazers, so perhaps this record will help sort things out.

However, finding these locations could be difficult. If John and Edward were under 14 years of age, that means that they would have been born 1862 or later. Here is one possibility by name but not by place:

More on Archibald Frazer

Here we see that this Archibald was from Tumna Parish. Here is a more standardized spelling:

From here, I can find them in the 1901 Census:

Archibald was born about 1840. He lived at the same place in 1866:

Thomas Malone who lived in the same Townland as Archibald was not doing his contracted work:

More problems in 1870 from Patrick Doran:

Edward Little was also listed as a compainant. I think that this is a hint that Archibald of Shanvoley was the same as this Archibald. Of course Frances would be Frances Little and Edward Little a likely relative of Frances. I assume that Mary Doran listed as the Defendant below was Patrick Doran’s wife:

There was a lot of assaulting going on in County Roscommon 150 years ago. She was not happy with Archibald. Mary Doran, married woman, charged that she was assaulted by Archibald Frazer on the same day.

More Assaulting in 1879

Let’s check Archibald for bruises:

I believe Toomna would be the same as Tumna.

Here is Frances Little Frazer from Doug Vaugh’s Web page:

That means that between at least 1866 and 1901, this couple lived at Drimitybonniff (or some variation of spelling). Here is Tumna:

Here is Drumatybonniff:

Here is another mention of Archibald Frazer in Oldbrook in 1862:

Said Archiald of Aughrafinegan to Archibald of Oldbrook, “Just put it on my tab”.

Here is my spreadsheet sorted by date:

Alexander, who was Archibald’s father was 53 in 1859. He could have passed away early in the 1860’s. Archibald marries in 1861 and becomes a shopkeeper in Oldbrook. Around 1868, the Archibald Frazer family moves from Oldbrook to Drimatybonniff where Archibald apparently farms the land. He is there for at least 32 years as he is there with his wife in 1901.

Archibald Frazer Junior of Aughrafinegan

This junior Archibald owed Archibald of Oldbrook money. Here junior does not imply that he was the son of Archibald, but just a younger Archibald. As Archibald the shopkeeper was only 24, we are looking for a younger Archibald in Aughrafinegan. Here is a guess for Archibald Junior:

If my guess is right, then this Archibald would have to have been born after 1838 and would have had to have left Ireland after 1862.

Summary and Conclusions

It’s time to bring this Blog to a close as it is becoming unwieldy.

  • It is important in Court cases to properly identify people. As such, detail is given to where these people lived to distinguish them from other people with the same names. This can be helpful in sorting out who belonged to which family.
  • Many of these cases involved assaults. Money was in short supply and neighbors did not always get along well. Other cases involved owing money. My own ancestor James was guilty of not obtaining three dog licenses and went to court when someone didn’t pay him for his pig.
  • I probably learned the most about the Frazers of Shanvoley. Due to the number of Petty Session cases, it was possible to monitor what was going on in the lives of at least some of these families  for about four generations.
  • I found out a little more about Kathy’s ancestor Edward Wynn Frazer. I was able to sort him (I think) from the other Edward Wynn Frazer. He was the only one I looked at from the James Frazer Line. He was in Derreenargan. I also looked at others in Derreenargan.
  • I looked at a John Frazer from Derreenargan. But this Derreenargan appears to be in Ballyformoyle and different from the one in Kibryan Parish. However, bother are in County Roscommon.
  • I started a spreadsheet of some of these cases noting the people and where they lived.
  • Times were difficult in Ireland. Looking at these Frazer lives through the lens of the Petty Sessions helps to keep us from romanticizing these times and lives. It seemed there may be a correlation between the number of Court cases and the families that moved out of Ireland. For example, I didn’t see my second great-granfather George Frazer listed in any case (yet) and part of that family is still in the Ballindoon area of County Sligo today.
  • I will likely be writing more on the Petty Sessions.

 

New DNA Results for My Frazer Cousin Susan

I recently heard via the Frazer Facebook Page that my cousin Susan had her DNA tested at MyHeritage. That was good news for me as I am interested in DNA – how it shows where we are related and how we share parts of our common ancestors.

How Susan Fits In On the Frazer DNA Tree

I create trees of people who have had their DNA tested. Here is a partial Frazer Tree:

Earlier this year I wrote a Blog about Brenda.  She, like Susan and Paul, is my second cousin once removed. She tested at 23andMe. Brenda is also Paul’s first cousin. Susan descends from William Frazer and James Robert Frazer. That section of the Frazer DNA tree is spreading out:

This part of the Frazer tree is interesting to me because I have met many of these people. They would be most familiar with the farm where my great-grandfather James Archibald was raised.

Here is a photo of the family in front of the old family house in Ballindoon. MyHeritage has a new program that colorizes old photos. My great-grandfather James Archibald, Susan’s grandfather William and another brother Richard were in Massachusetts at the time this photo was taken. Brenda’s grandfather Hubert is probably the first one in the back row in the photo above. The girl on the right is Susan Frazer. I wonder if the Susan of this Blog was named after her?

Here are five Frazer Brothers in Boston, Massachusetts:

Susan’s grandfather William is sitting on the right next to my great-grandfather James Archibald Frazer. James was a year and a month older than William.

My DNA Match with Susan

Here is where I match Susan:

I should note that MyHeritage has some matches that are under 7 cM. The first match on Chromosome 1 and the match on Chromosome 5 are in this category. Matches under 7 cM can have a lower probability of being actual matches.

Painting Susan’s DNA

I use an online program called DNA Painter to map out my DNA matches when I can identify the common ancestors. DNA Painter has a default of 7 cM for what it paints, so these two segments would not be painted under normal circumstances. Here is the paternal side of my existing Chromosome 1:

 

The green part is already taken up by Hartley matches. That means that the small match that I have with Susan on Chromosome 1 cannot be real. The maroon section is a match I have with Kat, so that represents Frazer/McMaster.

Here is my existing mapped Chromosome 5:

Again, my Chromosome map didn’t leave much room for Frazer matching. My siblings have different configurations, so they probably have better matches on Chromosomes 1 and 5. The small maroon match I have at the end of Chromosome 5 is with Brenda from position 173 M to 175 M. My match with Susan above is between 175 M and 177 M. I take that to mean that the match I have with Susan is real, but the reason that it is small is that it is clipped off on the end of the Chromosome. That means that I will want to add this match in.

In order to paint Susan’s results onto my tree, I first download the matches. They look like this:

The Location numbers are important. This shows what I was calling the position numbers above. So rounding off, Chromosome 5 starts off at 175 million and ends at 178 million.

At DNA Painter, I choose paint a new match. Then I am changing the default from 7 to 6 cM:

I copy the results into the blank space and save the information. I choose Frazer/McMaster for the common ancestors.

Next I have to delete the Chromosome 1 match as that doesn’t fit.

 

Percent Painted

One thing I like to look at is my percent painted. This is overall:

This is just my paternal side:

My numbers are creeping up. In my Blog about Brenda, my overall percent painted went up from 41% to 42%. Now I am at 43%. When I was mapping Kat, she brought be up from 50% paternally mapped to 51%. Now I am at 52%.

More About Susan’s DNA

There are a lot of different directions I could go from her. I could look at my siblings’ DNA matches to Susan. Or I could look at my cousin Paul’s matches to Susan. Or I could look at shared matches to Susan.

My Siblings and Susan

Here is how I matched Susan at MyHeritage:

This is a pretty good match for a second cousin once removed. Actually, there is a new report out:

122 cM is typical for a second cousin once removed. In my previous Blog, I mentioned my Frazer third cousin Karen. I didn’t match her at all which is within the possibilities but below the average of 73 cM.

Here are how my other siblings match Susan:

  • Heidi – 202 cM
  • Sharon – 143.5 cM
  • Jon – 113.0 cM
  • Lori – 154.0 cM
  • Jim – 139.7

These are all above average – except for Jon.

My Second Cousin Once Removed Paul

I manage my cousin Paul’s DNA also. He has a huge match with Susan:

This is about 200 cM above average. Susan is Paul’s top match at MyHeritage. As this is as good as it gets, let’s take a look:

All of Susan and Paul’s matches are between Chromosomes 1 and 15.

Painting Paul

Here is what I have for Paul so far:

I was only interested in Paul’s paternal side as that is where we match. Paul is about 12% painted on his paternal side. The key shows that George Frazer and Margaret McMaster DNA are in green. That is the DNA that Susan and Paul share.

After I paint Susan’s matches to Paul’s profile, this is what I get:

That is quite a jump.

Here is Paul’s new profile:

Some More DNA Detail

Susan and Paul have a huge match on Chromosome 7. Here is the detail:

There is another Susan who matches Paul there also, but a smaller match. Here is what happened:

Susan, Susan and Paul (sorry left out Paul in the diagram above), get their Chromosome 7 DNA from James and Violet Frazer. However, because Paul and the Susan of this Blog share overlapping Chromosome 7 DNA, that DNA must have come from George Frazer and not Margaret McMaster. The one catch is that the three must triangulate. That means that the Susan in the yellow box needs to match the Susan in the blue box. I assume that to be true, but because these two Susans tested at different companies, I don’t know for sure.

I’ll do that in DNA Painter:

A Complicated Chromosome 12 for Paul

On the left, Paul matches Emily and John. John has McMaster ancestry:

Paul and John from Australia show as 4th cousins.

MyHeritage shows that Paul, Emily and John triangulate:

The yellow match is between John and Paul. The red match is between Paul and Emily. The circle around the two indicates triangulation, so John must match Emily. That also means that the DNA match that Emily and Paul share must have come from the McMaster side:

Even more speificially, the DNA came from James McMaster as opposed to his wife Fanny McMaster.

Joanna, Susan and BV

Here is another case where it would be helpful if Susan was to upload her DNA results to Gedmatch:

I have written many Blogs about BV as the match is very interesting.

BV and Paul have the common ancestors of William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. This couple left Ireland for Canada with their children. Except for Fanny McMaster. She stayed back in Kilmactranny Parish, County Sligo and married James McMaster.

So where does Joanna fit in? It appears that she could triangulate with BV. Unfortunately, I don’t see BV at Gedmatch anymore, so she may not have re-signed when the ownership changed hands. My previous note says that Joanna does not triangulate with BV:

That would probably make sense as Joanna has no known McMaster ancestors.

John, Keith and Susan

Here is an even more confusing situation on Chromosome 12:

Susan overlaps with both John and Keith. John and Keith both have McMaster ancestry, but from different lines. The other problem is that I have never figured out how the two McMaster Lines fit together. I did make a guess here:

Probably the confusion is on the McMaster side. The matches John and Keith above are both McMaster matches.

Summary and Conclusion

  • I have been hoping for quite a while that one of my Irish Frazer relatives would have their tested. Susan did this and I am glad to see the results.
  • Susan matches most of my family above average as well as my cousin Paul. This may partly be due to the extra McMaster connections
  • I was able to narrow down from which of our ancestors our DNA matches come from based on matches with other Frazer or McMaster relatives.
  • Some aspects of the DNA matching was confusing. This is probably due to the fact that we don’t know who all our ancestors were and the ones that we do know tended to marry relatives in several cases.
  • If Susan uploads her DNA to Gedmatch, it would be possible to compare her matches with other Frazer relatives who tested at different companies.
  • I like seeing how the old Frazer photos look with added color.