Category: ThruLines

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More DNA Evidence for My Childrens’ Warren Ancestry

I have that my two children descend from Jeremiah Warren:

From Ancestry ThruLines for my daughter:

 

This shows a DNA connection between children of Bridget Warren and John J  Warren.

Here is a Warren DNA Tree I built in 2020:

Mary is a new DNA match to the tree since 2020.

Adding Mary to My Tree?

Ancestry suggest that I evaluate Mary’s tree. Here is what Mary has:

I only need connect Mary back to Francis J. Sullivan. Here is the family in 1910:

Here are the children I already had for Frank J. Sullivan:

Notice this is the same family due to Blanche, Henry and Russell Sullivan. That means that Douglas Sullivan must be George Douglas Sullivan, the great-grandfather of Mary. The Roman Catholic records show Douglas’ full name:

The Massachusetts records only have him as Douglas:

Next, we need the connection from Douglas to Mary’s grandfather.

Frank passes away in 1917:

George is a single truck driver for the City of Lowell in 1930:

Here is Mary’s grandfather Jerry in 1950:

Jerold appears to have been in the Navy:

Here, I have added Mary to my Warren DNA Tree:

A Tale of Two John Cavanaughs

All the DNA connection is important as there is some confusion between two John Cavanaughs in Lowell. I previously set out the genealogy of my children in this 2019 Blog.

My Childrens’ John Cavanaugh

This John was born in 1880 to John Warren and Louisa Kavanaugh:

As stated in the Roman Catholic record, he was illegitimate. This John went by John Warren sometimes and John Cavanaugh at other times. Here is his marriage record:

Despite going by John Cavanaugh, he chooses to use his birth name at the time of his marriage in 1911.

The Mistaken John Cavanaugh

The mistaken John Cavanaugh was born about 10 years earlier than my children’s’ John.

The people in this neighborhood of Lowell worked in a bleachery.

Confusingly, the two Johns were also half brothers according to my research:

The chronology is that Louisa Gatley marries Michael Cavanaugh. They have two children, but Michael dies in 1872. Louisa then has a child with widower John Warren who already has a family. John Warren drowns two years later. Massachusetts records list John’s death as ‘accidental drowning’. However, he had two half siblings who were Cavanaughs.

More on DNA and Shared Matches

So far, Mary has supported my genealogy showing that my children’s great-grandfather was actually a Warren and not a Cavanaugh. Eileen is Heather’s closest match for the Jeremiah Warren ThruLines:

On Heather’s Shared Match list, Eileen and Mary share 72 cM. Also I see a Kevin who is Mary’s father.

Summary and Conclusions

I have not reviewed the Warren ThruLines for many years. Now there are a few more matches. Some are on the ThruLines and some are not. The matches support my assertion that my children do not technically descend from a Cavanaugh Line but from a Warren Line.

 

 

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More Hartley ThruLines

I need to modify my Hartley genealogical tree. My earliest verified ancestor was the widower Robert Hartley who married Mary Pilling, a single mother:

 

This marriage was in 1830. However, finding the father of Robert Hartley has proved to be difficult.

ThruLines Gone Wrong

When I took out my best guess for Robert Hartley’s father, ThruLines or Ancestry added in Moses Wilkinson as the father:

I am quite sure that this does not make sense as Mary Pilling married a Robert Wilkinson after Robert Hartley died. I have that Mary’s second husband Robert Wilkinson had Moses Wilinson and Jane Shaw as his parents.

Adding Robert’s Father Back In

My idea is to add just a father in at this point. Here is Robert Hartley’s burial record:

The best information I have is that Robert was 31 years old when he died in 1835. That means that he could have been born in 1804 or 1803 after August 6th. There were four Robert Hartleys born in Colne Parish in 1803-1804:

All fathers of these Roberts were named James Hartley. That means that I can a great degree of confidence say that Robert’s father was James Hartley. In addition, all these James Hartleys were weavers. I’ll just add in James Hartley as a father to Robert and see what sorts out with the ThruLines.

It may take a while for the ThruLines to recalculate. This is what it looks like now:

Robert Wilkinson was taken out, James Hartley has not been put back in. But because I did not pick a spouse for James Hartley, Jane Shaw is still showing up. I suppose that it would make sense that the Wilkinson family would show up, because I am related to the Wilkinson family – but only because Robert Wilkinson married my ancestor Mary Pilling.

It has now been a few days since I added in James Hartley and now have this:

James has been added but no descendants are connected. Also, ThruLines seems to preferentially chosen Jane Shaw as a potential ancestor.

My Father’s Cousin’s ThruLines

My second cousin has tested her father who is my father’s first cousin. She has a different tree than I have and has these ThruLines:

She has chosen James Hartley and Betty Baldwin as parents of Robert Hartley. It is possible that James and Mary of Bough Gap may be a better choice. Here is a map of Bough Gap and Bough Gap Mill from about 1844:

Also, from a previous Blog, I believe that Robert Hartley’s first wife was Barbara or Barbary Heaton who died in Well Head. I believe that Well Head was in Winewall.

Robert Hartley and Mary

This next step is to find a Robert Hartley who married a Mary:

Here, I have another 4 choices. Unfortunately, a location is not given for these couples other than the Chapelry of Colne. Assuming the couple married in Colne, Mary would have been 24, 30, 32 or 44 when giving birth to Robert.

Here are some children born to James and Mary Hartley:

More were born in Gilbert Clough, but I do not know where this is.

Gilford/Gilbert/Guildford Clough

There appears to be a great amount of confusion as to the spelling of this place. Here is part of a helpful detailed walking tour description from Wycoller to Trawden:

After taking in my fill of comprehensive views from Lad Law I began my descent by following a good path on Bedding Hill Moor towards the Trawden Valley. I was drawn to look at Upper Coldwell Reservoir and Lower Coldwell Reservoir below to my left. Further west I could see the east of Burnley but these views disappeared as I descended further off the moor and were gone completely by the time I reached the first discoveries of Trawden Brook at Gilford Clough. The moor was now behind me as I followed upland pasture in the direction of Hollin Hall and the village of Trawden. Near Alder Hurst End the field path ended and I followed a lane past some lovely rows of cottages to the village.

Here is a map I found that appears to match that description:

This location looks promising. The question is, did James and Mary live in Bough Gap, have Robert and then move to Guildford Clough and have more children? Also notice the mention of Alder Hurst in the walking narrative. I believe that the Pilling family lived there.

1841 Census

There are a James and Mary in the 1841 Census in Winewall:

It is not clear if this is the same James that gave birth to Robert. It is definitely not the same Mary as she is born about 1801. She is possibly a second wife.

The oldest resident of Alderhirstend was John Hartley:

Bough Gap has many Hartleys:

Henry Hartley, 45, may have been a relative of Robert Hartley from Bough Gap? His parents appear to be William and Margaret Hartley.

Adding a Mother for Robert Hartley

I added back James Hartley for Robert’s father. Now I will add in Mary Heap. She is a logical choice, and my cousin already have Betty Baldwin (perhaps from my Hartley Web Page). Having two different mothers may be helpful to compare. Another interesting connection is tha there is a Heap living at Alderhist Head:

Adding Mary Heap will be better than having a Wilkinson wife in my ancestry.

Here is what my ThruLines now show:

However, there are no matches for either person. This could be because I have no birth date for either or because they are the wrong ancestors?

My Cousin’s ThruLines

I mentioned above that my second cousin posted her father’s results at Ancestry. But she used James Hartley and Betty Baldwin as Robert Hartley’s parents.

These ThruLines have 35 matches. Robert Hartley is listed twice, but it sort of makes sense as the second Robert Hartley was not the father of John Pilling Mary Pilling had a child before she married Robert Hartley. The ThruLines get more interesting with what my cousin has for James Hartley’s parents:

Even more matches appear on the Bracewell side:

Going back a generation, there are even more matches:

This seems to indicate that this tree is on the right track – either right or close enough to right that there are a lot of DNA matches.

Give Heap a Chance

Before I add birth dates to James Hartley and Mary Heap, I’ll try something else. I took DNA from another of my father’s cousins named Joyce. I’ll look at her Hartley side and then search for DNA matches with Heap in the ancestry. First I filter on Joyce’s maternal side which is her Hartley side. Then I search for:

The top match is Brian, but his Heap connection is too far back and in the wrong part of England:

He also has Shackleton ancestors, so that may be a more likely connection.

The next match is Andrew:

Accrington seems to be about the same distance as my Hartley ancestors from Colne and my Emmet ancestors from Bacup.

The next Brian has a shared match with a potential  Emmet side common ancestor.

Steve’s Heap ancestor was from Chesire, but he also has Shackleton, Hartley adn Howorth in the mix. I am not seeing a lot of good results for Heap so far.

Maria’s 13 cM match Heap is from Burnley. I do notice the Pollard name showing up in some of these trees.

Abigail’s Heap is from Haslingden.

A Baldwin Experiment

What if I try the same experiment with Baldwin? I proposed Betty Baldwin as an ancestor many years ago:

Again, using Joyce’s maternal matches.

Kristen

Kristen is a known match. She has built a different Hartley tree far out:

Kristen has James Hartley and Elizabeth Taylor as the parents of Robert Hartley. Elizabeth would have been about 39 when giving birth to Robert under this scenario. Kristen’s Baldwin is from the 1600’s.

Cathy

Cathy has a Baldwin from New Jersey in the 1700’s. Shared matches show common ancestors on my Snell side with Massachusetts colonial ancestors.

Dennis

Dennis has a Baldwin ancestor from Connecticut in the 1600’s.

Lee

Lee has been on my radar for a while. He has Baldwin ancestors, Hartley ancestors and ancestors from Trawden.

So this experiment was perhaps more hopeful, but not the best either. Perhaps the most interesting aspect was Kristen’s proposed ancestry tree for Hartley.

The Taylor Tree Scenario

If I were to look for Joyce’s maternal matches with Taylor in the ancestral tree, I fear I would get too many matches. Kristen has this for James Hartley:

This is interesting as I had Betty Baldwin and Kristen has Betty Taylor as Robert’s mother.

Kristen does not provide a marriage date for James and Betty Taylor.

This does not appear to work out well as Betty would have been 59 when she gave birth to Robert. By Kristen’s timeline, she would actually have been 58 when Robert was born:

I would rule out Betty Taylor based on her age. It is interesting, however, that Kristen chose a Betty as the wife of James Hartley. Now that I think of it, Mary Heap would have been quite old had she been the mother of Robert Hartley

Better Choices for Mary

  1. Mary Holmes – perhaps in her mid 40’s giving birth to Robert
  2. Mary Stansfield – this James was a weaver which is probably a plus
  3. Mary Berry – from Kildwick
  4. Mary Robinson – this James is also a weaver. A witness of John Shackleton is interesting.

Here is Kildwick:

At this point, I would like to end the Blog and pick it up in a subsequent Blog. An initial look at my father’s cousin Joyce’s Kilwick matches shows that there are quite a few matches from this area.

Summary and Conclusions

  • When I took away my best guess for Robert Hartley’s parents, ThruLines gave me parents that I knew were wrong.
  • I made a guess that Robert’s parents could have been James and Mary
  • Unfortunately, the Mary I chose was married too early, so I ruled out Mary Heap
  • I then started to look at other Marys that married James Hartley in the right time period to have a Robert Hartley born 1803-1804.
  • As this could take a while, I will start a new Blog.

 

 

 

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Did ThruLines Find My Hartley Ancestors?

To answer my own question, I believe the answer is no.

A Trimmed Down Hartley Tree

From going through many records, my best guest as to who my ancestors were is on my web page:

With all the Hartleys around it was difficult to establish which was which in the records. The compound matters, my ancestor Robert was a weaver. This makes him somewhat mobile. If he was a farmer, he would have been likely tied to a family farm.

My theory was, that if I took away James Hartley and Betty Baldwin, ThruLines might suggest the correct Hartley ancestor.

My ThruLines Gone Wrong?

Unfortunately, when I used this approach, ThruLines suggested a Wilkinson ancestor.

This would be a good set of ThruLines, but for the fact that it shows my ancestor Robert Hartley to be the son of Moses Wilkinson. I can at least try to give an explanation as to why this happened.

The Pilling/Wilkinson Connection

I do know that Robert Hartley married Mary Pilling who was a single mother. Robert dies young and the widow Mary marries Robert Wilkinson who is a widower. This is perhaps the connection that ThruLines is making, but it is unclear how the widow of Robert Hartley marrying a Wilkinson would connect a dead Robert Hartley to the Wilkinson family. Here is the marriage record for Robert Hartley and Mary Pilling:

The witnesses were John Schofield and John Aldersley. Interestingly, this is likely John Aldersley in the 1841 Census in Holling Hallrow, Trawden:

John was a neighbor to my ancestor Greeonwood hartley at the time. The previous page of the Census shows that Mary Pilling had remarried Robert Wilkinson by this time:

I assume that the young Aldersley was the one who was listed at both of Robert Hartleys weddings. This is probably John’s birth record in 1803:

He was born in Wanless. Here is Wanless on an 1818 map:

 

Here is the marriage record for Mary Pilling and Robert Wilkinson from 1839:

Notice that between 1830 and 1839, a lot more information was included on the marriage record.

Robert Hartley’s First Marriage

When Robert Hartley married Mary Pilling, he was listed as a widower. So, who did he marry first?

I can’t prove it, but there was a Robert Hartley, weaver who married a Barbary or Barbara Heaton. Notice that John Aldersley was a witness to the marriage. There was a Barbara Heaton born in Wycoller in 1802:

Tragically, there was a Barbary Hartley [note the spelling, same as the wedding record] who died in 1829.

Note that in 1829, Barbary and presumably Robert Hartley lived at Wellhead. Barbary is listed as dying at age 27 which also fits very well with the other facts.

Where is Wellhead?

Assuming I have thre right couple, it would be interesting to know where they were living in 1829. A Google search results in this map and arrow:

However, I do not see the words Well head. The location would make sense as it is not far from Hollin Hall where Robert died, not far from Wanless where John Aldersley lived and not far from Wycoller where Barbara was born. A closer view reveals that there is a Wellhead Road which suggests that there was a Wellhead in the area near Winewall:

Who Were Moses Wilkinson and Jane Shaw?

I have them in my tree as the parents of Robert Wilkinson who was Mary Pilling’s second husband. I am confused as to why Ancestry would somehow combine Robert Hartley and Robert Wilkinson just because they both married Mary Pilling. Here is what I have for Robert Wilkinson:

Could the confusion be due to the fact that I have no first wife for Robert Wilkinson? This should be easy to find (I think). This record suggests that the first was was Sarah Cowgill:

Here is a possible marriage:

However, if this is right, Robert would have been only 19 years old at his marriage. I searched for children of Robert Wilkinson and Sarah and found one entry:

Possibly this John died and another child was named John? Or this could be the same John. I would be willing to add Sarah Cowgill as the first wife of Robert to see if this improves my ThruLines.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I took out my best guess for the parents of Robert Hartley to see if ThruLines could come up with a good candidate
  • Instead ThruLines gave the parents of Mary Pilling’s second huband Robert Wilkinson to my ancestor Robert Hartley
  • I added a first wife to Robert Wilkinson to see if this fixes ThruLines
  • The next step is to add in at least a Hartley father (likely a James) to Robert Hartley to correct ThruLines.

 

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My New Nicholson 4th Cousin ThruLine

ThruLines are at Ancestry. They look at DNA matches that also have potential common ancestors in the two lines. I have not been getting many new ThruLines lately, so I will look at my newest possible connection with Sarah:

Sarah shows as a 4th cousin once removed. Apparently, I have her great-grandmother Clara Nicholson in my tree already.

Here are Nellie, Clara and Clara’s father Walter in 1921 in Sheffield:

Nellie would be my mother’s third cousin. Here is Clara’s marriage record:

Here are Nellie’s baptism and birth information:

It appears that all is in order and that Ancestry has the right connection.

Sarah’s DNA

Sarah and I must match by more than the usual DNA for fourth cousins once removed. My late mom matches by even more DNA:

My Nicholson DNA Tree

I have quite a few Nicholsons on the tree already. I’m ready to add Sarah. Here is part of my existing tree:

It will be good to add some branching to this line. Here is what my ThruLines look like:

This does not match well with my current Nicholson DNA Tree:

I have Louie and not Nancy. I wrote a Blog about Nancy and Louie here. In that Blog, I wrote that it would be interesting to see if Louie and Nancy match each other by DNA. It turns out that Louie is a match to my sister Heidi. Here is the match between Saray and Nancy on my sister Heidi’s shared match list:

Sarah and Nancy match by a large amount of DNA (190 cM). That makes me think that Nancy should be on my Nicholson DNA tree.

Louie also has a good match to Sarah.

Here, I’ve added in Sarah to my Nicholson DNA Tree:

More Nicholson Lines to Add?

Here are two more matches on my sister Heidi’s ThruLines:

They are Angela, Andrew and Nancy. For some reason, it appears that I do not have Joseph born 1872 in my Nicholson Tree. I already have a tree for Nancy:

This tree has Joseph’s father as Henry Nicholson, not Walter Nicholson. However, the DNA shows that Nancy should be connected to Sarah. Let’s take a closer look. I assumed that the Ellen in the 1911 Census was Mary Ellen Nicholson born about 1904:

As Henry was the first born son, it would make sense that Joseph’s father would be Henry also. This is the 1881 Census:

However, the 1891 Census shows this:

Here there is a Joseph who is a Carter like the Joseph in 1911. The mother’s name is that same as the 1881 Census, but the father is now George Nicholson. This brings up varioius possibilities:

  1. There were two different familities
  2. Henry Nicholson died and Mary A married George Nicholson
  3. Henry Nicholson also went by the name of George Nicholson
  4. The Census taker got the information wrong.
  5. Joseph may have been living with George Nicholson and Mary A in 1891, but not be their son.

So, for now, I will leave out the Joseph Nicholson Branch out of my Nicholson DNA Tree, even though there are DNA matches.

Summary and Conclusions

  • My sister Heidi and I (and perhaps others) had a match with Sarah. Ancestry shows that Heidi and Sarah have the common ancestors of Nicholson and Clayton
  • I added Sarah to my Nicholson DNA Tree
  • Ancestry also shows that Heidi has matches to three other people who potentially descend from Nicholson and Clayton
  • I was unable to match these DNA matches up genealogically, so I left them off my Nicholson DNA Tree for now. It is possible that there is a Nicholson connection but further back in time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ramping Up the LeFevre DNA Tree

My wife’s paternal grandmother was a LeFevre. Here is the LeFevre DNA Tree I have so far:

My wife’s two late Aunts Lorraine and Virginia tested at Ancestry, so it should be easy to update this chart and go back at least one generation.

Lorraine’s LeFevre ThruLines

Here are Lorraine’s ThruLines for the LeFevre Line going back one generation into the 1700’s:

Jean-Thomas LeFebvre 1770

I have that Jean-Thomas was born in Charlesbourgh. This is an historic part of Quebec City:

Other records show that he died in Neuville:

Here is a marriage record from 1801:

He is listed as a forgeron or blacksmith. This is interesting as LeFebvre means blacksmith.

Checking the Reine LeFevre Line

I can start with Carter, though he seems to have too large a match for a fourth cousin once removed. Change of plans: I’ll go with the person who has the best tree.

Lorraine and Lise

 

Lise’s paternal side of her tree gets her to LeFebvre:

It turns out that LIse’s father had quite a long name:

Here is mother Maguerite Larue in 1901 in Quebec City:

The family must have been doing well to have three serants. This marriage record gets us back another generation to the older Simeon:

Now, hopefully, Simeon’s mother will be a LeFebvre. I am having trouble finding more information but see some information on Marie-Desanges LeFebvre:

This 1820 marriage record is important as it links Marie Desanges LeFebvre with her parents and establishes who her husband was.

For now, I will go with the Geneanet hint:

Updating the LeFebvre DNA Tree

Above, the part that was weak on records was between Desanges LeFebvre and Simeon Larue.

Lorraine and SD

SD is a shared match between Lorraine and Lise:

Here is SD’s paternal side:

I’ll start a tree for SD in hopes of connecting to LeFevre. I will take the Ancestry hints for Andre’s parents as I assume that they were well known. Here is Cecile’s family in 1901:

They are living in St-Antoine-De-Tilly:

Next, I need to follow Cecile’s mother Angelina:

This is in 1891. I knew from Cecile’s death record that her mother was a Lafleur.

Here is the marriage record of Remi and Odile:

I did not mention before that Remi had a dit name of Lafleur. This former name was Sivigny:

This connects Odile to the Marie Odile that I already have in my tree.

I could keep going on with the LeFevre DNA tree, but it could be time consuming.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I met my goal of expanding my LeFevre DNA tree
  • I started with one of the matches with the best tree
  • I hit a snag in not finding some key original documents for Simeon Larue
  • A second line of SD was a shared match with Lorraine and the first match. This line checked out better with all the original marriage documents found
  • Along the way of checking thre trees, I get an idea of what some of these families were like.
  • The DNA connections strengthen the genealogical connections

 

 

 

 

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Following My Father’s Cousin’s Recent Shared Matches: Part 3

Going down Joyces’s list from newest to oldest:

I looked at TJ in my previous Blog. I know who cotton must be.

Joyce and Sarah

At first, I thought that this connection could not be right:

This is what I have on Sarah Pilling now in my Ancestry Tree:

I have that she had two children as a single mother. Then I thought: what if she happened to marry someone with the last name of Greenwood. This would seem ironic perhaps as she already had a son with the first name of Greenwood. When I searched for a Sarah PIlling marrying a Greenwood in the Colne Parish, I got one result:

What if Sarah has two children out of wedlock and then marries? Next, I searched for children of John Greenwood in Colne:

The records show a couple of John and Sarah Greenwood from Aldersend having two children baptized. My thought was that if Sarah was born in 1745, then she would not likely have children after 1785 and that is when Paul is born. I further assume that a 20 year break in children indicates a separate family of John and Sarah Greenwood and that Paul was Sarah’s last child.

If the ThruLines are accurate, that would mean that Greenwood Hartley would have a second cousin named Hartley Greenwood!

Another reason I think that the ThruLine could be correct is that I have my ancestor Greenwood Pilling dying at Aldersend in 1804. Note that this Sarah’s two Greenwood sons were born at Aldersend.

This is part of a map from 1818. I believe that OlddrestEnd is the same as Aldersend. A newer map shows Alder Hurst in this area:

To me, the name of Sarah Pilling, the location of Aldersend and the DNA match is more than coincidental.

The Pilling Genealogy

To do this correctly, I need to add the recent Sarah match to my tree as a floating tree to see if it correctly heads back to Aldersend. I will assume that Sarah knew who her grandparents were.

It appears that Sarah’s grandfather was from Wath upon Deane:

Here is the Greenwood family in 1921. Interestingly, many worked for F Hartley & Co.

Here is Shipley in Bradford:

The 1881 Census shows a problem:

John Greenwood’s father, also a John is working for an out of business beer house if I am reading it correctly.

Unfortunately, this line of genealogy is not matching up with the Ancestry ThruLines. So, the genealogy is dissapointing, but the theory that Sarah Pilling married a Greenwood still interests me.

Joyce and Izzy

This relationship seems questionable. However, what if Jane Shaw married a Hartley before a Wilkinson?

Jane marries Moses Wilkinson in 1785, so that cannot be right.

Unfortunately, I cannot make sense from the ThruLine. I took off the parents of Robert Hartley in my Ancestry Tree hoping that Ancestry would find likely parents for Robert, but having Jane Shaw as a mother does not make sense to me.

Joyce and Tara

I have my tree built out to tara’s likely grandmother: Charlotte Robbins, so this should be easy. Due to a large Snell DNA chart, it would make sense to have one for just the descendants of Otis Snell:

These Snell relatives seem closer, perhaps because many of them stayed in the same area as where I grew up.

Joyce and Cheryl

I’ll look at these two and then wrap up this Blog.

I have a huge Hathaway DNA Tree, but so far I do not have any Philip son of Isaac Hathaway:

I’ll start a floating tree for Cheryl and then try to connect it to my tree if it works out. Cheryl’s tree goes this far:

ThruLines is leading to Daisy Crampton. In 1940, the family lived in Boston:

Beatrice was from Massachusetts. Martin was a car salesman.

Beatrice was buried in Marion, MA, where I live:

 

Here is Beatrice in 1910:

Father Albert was an ice man, but I am interested in mother Desire.

The marriage record for Desire Crampton raises some question as to Desire’s parents:

The father’s name is not given and the mother’s name is given as Betsey Nye.

Further, here is the 1880 Census:

Here, George and Julia Crampton are living with Philip Hathaway, but I do not see Desire living with them. However, Julia’s mother was Desire:

Further I do not see a Desire born in Mattapoisett in 1878:

Summary and Conclusions

  • It has been interesting going through some of Joyce’s ThruLines
  • I added one person to my Snell Tree
  • Two other avenues were interesting but somewhat of a dead end.

 

 

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Following My Father’s Cousin’s Recent Shared Matches

In my previous Blog, I looked at two of Joyce’s recent shared matches. I will continue on.

Angela and Joyce

Angela comes with a bonus:

It appears that Angela and Jaqueline should be fourth cousins to each other if this tree is correct. As this is the main line that I am interested in, I feel obgligated to look into the connection. This Hartley Line has been difficult to deal with.

Angela also has a Hartley on her maternal side which makes me skeptical. Here is Jaqueline’s Tree:

Here tree has a lot of John Hartleys, but I do not see James Hartley in her tree. I will take these two back to see if I can get them both to James Hartley born 1813. In the unlikely chance that happens, I will then look further back.

A Floating Tree for Angela

Angela’s grandparents lived in Barrowford in 1939 according to Angela’s tree:

Here is the family in 1921:

We are interested in Ann who was born in HIgham:

Here is the non-conformist wedding record at the Weslyan Chapel. Ann’s father was a farmer in 1871:

The marriage record shows Henry to be a widower:

As the marriage is in 1867, all three daughters listed in the 1871 Census must be from Christiana. So far, my research agrees with Angela and Jocye’s Thrulline.

Here is the family in 1861 in Higham:

Henry’s first wife is Jane. Henry is a shoemaker and father James is a shoemaker and farmer.

The 1851 Census has James born at Sagar Hill:

My guess is that Sagar HIll is part of HIgham.

Here is the Census for 1841 for Sagar HIll, Padiham:

I am not making a lot of sense of it.  I will Robert the same as Henry Robert in the 1851 Census? Is Dinah the wife of James or a daughter of John?  Is Robert the son of an unmarried daughter of John? Due to the vagueness of the Census, I would be willing to stop this line of pursuit for now.

I think that one problem is my tree:

 

Ancestry is trying to find mathes that fit my tree. However, I do not know if Robert Hartley’s parents were James Hartley and Betty Baldwin or not. I picked them because they seemed to fit. If I were to de-link James Hartley and Betty Baldwin from Robert Hartley, I may get other suggestions. I tried that and I will wait to see if I get other suggested ancestors.

I see that Angela went away when I took away the link between known Hartley ancestor Robert Hartley and what I thought may have been his parents:

Joyce and TJ

The Cowen or Cowing Line should be easier to trace. I see that TJ’s tree goes back to a Zenas Cowen:

I will assume that TJ had his maternal grandmother right. TJ also has this record:

Social Security is helpful here:

This gives a specific birth date and place. However, the father’s name is given as Joseph Tyson rather than Walter Butts.

In 1940, Patricia is living with her family on Collette Street, New Bedford. Patricia’s mother is shown as married but also the head of household. I think that the suggestion is that the Walter who was the lodger was the father of Patricia. Walter is still there in 1950, so I will go with that.

This is probably Walter in 1900:

Here is the birth record for James D Butts:

His mother, Polly Cowin was born in Dartmouth.

I see I already have Polly in my tree, so I will have to merge the two people:

However, I have this Polly as being the daughter of Zenas Cowen rather than Israel Cowen or Cowing. That means that this is another dead end.

Shared Matches with TJ and Joyce

One interesting thing is that Joyce and TJ have these two shared matches:

Perhaps the connection is on another line.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Usually I blog on success stories, but finding a proposed match is not as proposed is a success in a way.
  • In the first exercise, I decided to try a different tact by taking away the supposed parents of known Robert Hartley to see if Ancestry proposed someone else.
  • In the second exercise it appears that there is a connection, but the connection does not look to go back to Israel Cownen or Cowing.

 

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Kerivan Matches at Ancestry

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

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

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

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

William A Kerivan

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

Here is the famlly in Needham, Massachusetts in 1880:

The parents are said to be born in Ireland.

Willie was born in 1876 in Needham.

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

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

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

 

Social Security has William’s wife as Beatrice Curtis:

George F Kerivan

George is mentioned in his father’s obituary:

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

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

ThruLInes for Patrick Kerivan

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

Joseph and Lorraine

Here a few of the names appear to be misspelled.

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

Ancestry thinks that Robert descends from John Kerivan.

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

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

Here is where some of the strange spelling gets introduced.

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

This William Joseph also married later in life:

I now have this floating tree for Joseph:

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

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

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

Manassas and Lorraine

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

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

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

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

Summary and Conclusions

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

 

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Reviewing Recent Common Ancestor Matches at Ancestry

I look at my Common Ancestor Matches very often at Ancestry. However, I do not often look at them sorted by which ones are the most recent. When I choose my most recent Common Ancestor matches, I get this list:

I see that none are very recent as the most recent is two months ago. However, I am interested in Melissa. I wrote a Blog on her here, but did not add her to my Clarke DNA Tree.

Adding Melissa to the Clarke DNA Tree

Here is the tree I have now:

There is a Melissa on my tree, but it is a different Melissa.  Here is what Ancestry shows:

Ancestry correctly shows Melissa and me as half third cousins. That is because the first Spratt wife of Thomas Clarke died (in childbirth, I believe) and he remarried a Henderson. Melissa descends from Jane Henderson and I descend from Jane Spratt. Here is this Melissa added:

I tried to put this Melissa’s line in a different color to differentiate the relationship. What I find interesting is that matches with Melissa should be related only on the Clarke side Matches with other than this Melissa could be Clarke or Spratt. Another confusing aspect is that Celia Clarke married a McMaster and I am also related to the McMasters. That adds an extra level of confusion. Actually, Catherine Clarke married a McMaster also.

My Mother’s Recent Common Ancestor Matches

Donna and Derek did not look familiar, but I did write a Blog on Derek in 2023. So let’s look at Donna:

Here is the Baker DNA Tree that I created:

I already have George Slater, so I just need to link Donna back to him.

Donna and Gladys

Here is Donna’s father in 1950:

They are in Bridgeton, New Jersey in a three generational household.

This is interesting because it is Lawrence’s grandmother that I am looking for. She was born in Pennysylvania. One tree I saw had this record:

This adds a twist with the Lent name.

Apparently, Mary also went by Sarah?

Here is the family in 1940.

Sara’s father was a stationary engineer. Mary was born in Pennsylvania.

Mary lived at East Venango Street, Philadelphia in 1900:

Findagrave ties in the loose ends:

Here is how my Ancestry Tree looks now:

At the right side is George Lentz, perhaps where the Lentz name of this Blog came in?

Summary and Conclusions

  • The method of looking for recent common ancestor matches seems to be successful
  • I updated my Clarke and Baker DNA trees
  • It appears that Donna’s ancestor with a middle name of Lentz suggests a reference to the Baker/Lentz Connection that I descend from
  • Donna should have a shared match with Annette, but Annette tested at MyHeritage so Annette does not show on Donna’s Ancestry Shared Matches.
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Joyce and Bearse ThruLines Part 3

In Part 1 of my series, I looked at early Cape Cod Bearse Genealogy and Joyce’s ThruLine with the Gershom Bearse Line. In Part 2, I looked at the genealogy of the Enoch Bearse Line and another ThruLine Joyce had there. In this Blog, I will look at the Martha Bearse Line:

Based on the DNA, the connection looks likely.

Looking at the trees of H.R., Judith and Donald, I do not see any Bearse ancestry.

Martha Bearse

Martha is mentioned in a 1772 will of spinster Hannah Bearse.

Martha is Hannah’s niece. I have that John Bearse Sr. only had one son who was John Bearse Jr.:

If that is true, then all of Martha’s neices and nephews should have been children of John Bearse Junior born in 1720. Specifically, that would mean that Martha Bearse must be the daughter of John Burse born in 1720.

First, I’ll add Martha to my Ancestry Tree. I see that Hannah’s probate was recorded in 1787 – so 15 years after the will was written:

I assume, then, that Hannah died some time before February 28, 1787.

Here is one problem in my tree:

I have that Hannah married Jabez Bearse in 1761. I guess I will delete that entry as this Hannah was a spinster.

Joyce and Judith

Judith’s father and paternal grandparents were living in the Back Bay, Boston in 1920:

Here is some more information:

Here is the tree so far:

From here, I wanted to go via Lydia’s line, but she is listed as living, so I have to change that. Here is Lydia’s family in 1850:

Here is Lydia’s death record:

One thing I see a lot is Cotuit:

Based on the Death record, I added the suggested parents that Ancestry had for Lydia:

Now, what I do not know is whether Moses Sturges is the father of Daniel and whether Moses married Martha Bearse. That would close the loop.

As I do not see any clear evidence either way, I think that I will abandon this line for now and move to the next set of ThruLines.

Joyce and the Rebecca Bearse Line

Here Rebecca has a proposed birth and death date which looks hopeful. Joyce has 5 ThruLines on this Branch. Also, as mentioned above, Rebecca is mentioned in the Will of spinster Hannah Bearse. The order given (probably by age) is Olive, Martha, Rebecca, and Lydia.

Of the 5 mathces, one has a Bearse in the ancestral tree:

However, this tree goes back to Abigail Bearse born 1715, a generation earlier than Rebecca Bearse. The tree is for L.A.:

I will look at L.A.’s ancestry to see what I think.

Joyce and L.A.

L.A.’s mother’s birth certificate gives the name of L.A.’s maternal grandmother:

Here is some wedding information for Laura Lewis:

Here is where that gets me:

I need to change the “Living” tag as Ancestry adds that in when it is not sure.

The 1910 Census says that Loren was born in the French portion of Canada and was a button cutter.

Here is some more about Loren:

Alonzo’s death record has him born in Blenhem, Ontario:

Here is Blenheim, ONT:

Ontario is a long way from Barnstable. Findagrave.com has this information:

So this states that George was born and died in the U.S., but that he was buried in Ontario.

Rebecca Bearse

At this point, I will go up a generation to the supposed mother of George Washington Bearse. When I choose Rebecca Bearse in Joyce’s ThruLines, I get this tree as a hint:

Apparently, there was a Rebecca Bearse who married a Melahtiah Lewis:

Here is a stone for Rebecca in the Hillside Cemetery in Osterville.

It looks like Rebecca was 57 when she died which would put her birth at 1753. Here is a published account of a wedding between Melatiah Lewis and Rebecca Bearse:

Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016).

https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/rd/13885/221/248787656

The reference tree from the ThruLine also has that Rebecca had another son named John Bearse Lewis:
I notice that he dies of old age in Osterville:
Recall from above that is where Rebecca Lewis is buried. So that is more circumstantial evidence. That means that it seems likely that Rebecca Bearse married Melatiah Lewis and had a John Bearse Lewis. However, I am still not as convinced that George Washington Lewis was his brother.

Summary and Conclusions

I was able to find out more about the Bearse family. However, I had trouble linking the DNA matched descendants to my Bearse tree.