Category: ThruLines

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Gangnus ThruLines

My last two Blogs have been on the Gangnus Family, so I will continue the trend. I descend on my mother’s side from two Gangnus Lines:

The left side of the chart goes to my mother’s Rathfelder Grandfather and the right side goes to my mother’s Gangnus Grandmother. This chart is meant to include DNA matches that also match by genealogy. As the two brothers near the top of the chart had the same first name, I expect that there is a lot of confusion in the genealogy.

My Late Mom Glady’s Gangnus ThruLines

My mom has this ThruLine:

I already have Robert on my Gangnus DNA/Genealogy tree. However, I have him descending from Maria Magdalena Gangnus instead of Johann Georg Gangnus:

And when I look at my mom’s ThruLines for Philipp JG Gangnus, I get more matches:

Here, Tristan is the son of Robert. Tristan’s tree also goes back to Johann Georg Gangnus the first instead of who I have. I see that I created a tree for Robert in 2019:

This explains the issue:

I didn’t realize that I already had Robert in my tree twice. This shows that Robert and my mom (and hence I) both descend from two sons of Johann Georg Gangnus. I don’t think that this is a double cousin situation as double cousin is shown this way:

I suppose that makes Robert and my mom 4th cousins removed twice.

Another problem is that my mom’s ThruLines is missing Philip Jacob Gangnus who married Anna Eva Niclas:

Here are my mom’s ThruLines for Anna Eva Niclas:

So something is amiss here. I know that Anna Eva Niclas and Anna Eva Muller could not have had the same children:

Perhaps if I add some correct genealogy to my tree, these issues will straighten out. The genealogy has definitely given the Ancestry computers a headache.

Checking the Gangnus Descendants’ Matches’ Genealogy

I see that I first mentioned Robert’s genealogy in a 2019 Blog here. That Blog had to do with AutoCluster. However, I assume that the genealogy is still valid, so I will add Robert to my Tree. Currently I have a separate Ancestry Tree for him. Here, I have connected the Retch Line to my Tree:

However, I still have to connect Johann G’s wife Maria M Gangnus to the tree. I did this by adding parents for Maria M. Gangnus and typing in the name of her parents who were already in my Ancestry Tree:

I hope that this will go a long way in fixing the weird AncestryThruLines that currently exist for the Gangnus Family.

Gladys and Kirk

Gladys and Robert have a shared match with Kirk, so I’ll look at him next:

The first icon after Kirk’s name means that Ancestry thinks Kirk and Gladys have a shared ancestor:

I will add Kirk to my Ancestry tree as a floating tree and if the floating tree matches my ancestors, his floating tree will get attached to mine. Kirk has a modest tree:

Unfortunately, he has his paternal grandparents listed as private. This likely was something that Ancestry added by default. Siegfried was born in Hirschenhof according to Kirk’s records. This is where many of my ancestors were born. I see one reference to Siegried’s mother in a tree by Karin:

It turns out that Karin is connected to my mother also via HIrschenhof on the Schwechheimer Line. I will accept the Ancestry Hint based on Karin’s tree:

As I do not have a husband for Melita, that makes the tree difficult to evaluate. I will put Kirk on hold for now.

Gladys and Michael

This is the connection that Ancestry would like me to pursue. However, there are two private generations. Here is Michael’s tree:

Fortunately, Michael and his ancestry are published in a book by Gustav Gangnus published in Darstadt 2003. That means that, assuming the book is correct, I can trace his Gangnus Lineage. Bruno was born in Riga and dies in Wollongong, Australia:

Here are the missing generations:

This is also where it gets tricky as I also have Schwechheimer ancestry. Unfortunately, the Gangnus Genealogy book does not give parents for Emma Eva Schwechheimer. I do see a birth record for Emma Eva here:

However, this is for 1853 instead of 1859. Here is the same information:

This is probably the right person – unless there were two people of the same name within 6 years.

At any rate, I will continue on the Gangnus side. According to Geneanet:

From Johann Georg Michael Gangnus we go to Johann Georg Gangnus 1807 and then Philip Gustav Gangnus. Further,

Now I do have this Philip Gustav in my tree:

That brings us to the common ancestors of Philipp Jacob Gangnus and Anne Ave Niclas.

I think that this is the right connection:

However, the ThruLines have the connection through Philipp Julius Gustavus Gangnus. To check, again, I have the Gangnus Genealogy book which I consider to be the gold standard. I checked and it does have Philipp Gustav as the son of Philipp Jacob. For further proof, here is the HIrschenhof Revision List of 1811:

This shows that at the previous revision, 16 years prior to 1811, Philip Gustav who was the third son of Philip Jacob Gangnus was 11 but that he had since moved to Farm number 92 in 1811. So, I have all sorts of checks on the genealogy.

Updating My Gangnus DNA/Genealogy Chart

This is myy Chart currently:

Recall that Robert was on both sides of the Chart. I will add Michael to the right side:

This shows that my mom and Michael are 4th cousins twice removed – though in a different way that the ThruLines show. They are also 5th cousins twice removed. And that isn’t counting any other connections such as through Schwechheimer or other routes.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I started to look at Ancestry Thrulines on my Gangnus side
  • Due to complexities and two sons named Philipp, it is often difficult to get the genealogy right.
  • I gave up on one line due to scarcity of sources given
  • One other match was much easier to verify due to an excellent book I have in German on the Gangnus genealogy.
  • It takes a lot of work to correctly verify Latvian ThruLines. Due to upheaval in the area, there has been a lot of movement of Germans who lived in that Country.
  • I am glad also to have Revision Lists to verify the genealogy.
  • I hope that the quality of these Gangnus ThruLines will improve based on the work I have done and improvements I have made to my Ancestry Genealogy Tree.

 

 

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My Wife’s Rheinhold ThruLines

I believe that I have not done a comprehensive look at my wife’s Rynault ThruLines. Here is what my wife’s late mother shows:

This turns out to be a huge amount of matches. One problem is the spelling of the name. I see:

  • Rynault
  • Rheinhold
  • Rhynold
  • Rinold

Reynold was also a popular variation. They all seem fairly similar in sound. Joan has 46 matches to Rynault not on her own line. My wife wants to know how many matches she has:

Much less than 46 matches.

A Rheinhold DNA/Genealogy Tree

I do not believe that I have created one yet. I’ll start with my later mother-in-law:

This brings Joan back to her mother’s mother’s mother’s side.

The Casper John Rhynhold 1814 Line

Joan shows 7 matches here. If the father was Frederick Capar (or Casper) Rhynold, it would make sense that he would have a son named Casper.

I’ll start with a match named Leenie:

Her paternal side goes back to a Rhynold from Guysborough which is encouraging. I can add her as a floating tree to my tree and then connect her once it makes sense. Here are Leenie’s grandparents in Hazel Hill, Nova Scotia in 1921:

Here is the path that Ancestry wants me to investigate:

Here is Cora and family in 1901 living in Canso West. Her dad is a Methodist fisherman.

By 1911, it appears that the father had remarried:

However, this marriage for Alonzo is in 1914:

The marriage appears to have taken place in St. John, New Brunwick. This appears to imply that Maude Verge was Alonzo’s third wife?

Due to the confusion, I need to check the hints for Maude Smith. I have this:

This has to be the right Blanche. Here is Blanche in 1891. Her father is a Methodist fisherman:

Her mother is Ester. Here is the 1881 Census:

They seem to be having trouble with the name Esther – here transcribed as Easter. Esther is a Baptist and her husband appears to be a type of Methodist.

The best reference I could find for Esther was in this tree:

This person apparently has a book from 1950 with some important information:

I guess this will have to do for now.

Casper Rhinold

Here is Casper recorded as Reynold:

Fortunately, there is a transcription as the writing is a bit scrawley. Here is Half Island Cove:

Here is a deed which is supposed to explain things:

This is from 1817, so the must be the grandfather of Caspar selling his 300 acres to his son Frederick. This is quite interesting. Apparently Caspar was a military man who was granted 300 acres of land in Nova Scotia. It is unclear to me whether the elder Caspar ever lived on this land. This means that the elder Caspar died likely before 1817 or about 1816 as the above document refers to the Estate of ‘Gasper’ deceased. Casper’s children appear to be:

  • Elizabeth Rheinhold Uloth
  • John Reinhold
  • Ann Rheinhold Harrigan
  • Mary Rheinhold Tanner
  • Frederick Rheinhold

Here is Peas Brook which is probably the same place mentioned in the land deed:

Here is an entry someone shared at Ancestry:

These troops were mainly Germans hired by the British.

Rheinhold DNA/Genealogy Tree

I am fairly sure the ThruLine is correct, so I will add Leenie to the tree:

Having said that, I see that Caspar is quite a bit older than my wife’s ancestor George and there is 14 years between them. Is it possible that Caspar could be from a brother of Frederick? For now, I am going with the way it is above, as that is the information I have, presumably from the book on Guysborough families.

I see I got this one wrong:

Leenie is shown as the ThruLines as a 4th cousin once removed so that is a way of checking my DNA/Genealogy Tree.

Joan and Lorraine

Assuming that I got Esther right, it should be easy to add Lorraine to my tree. However, there is something I would like to look at before I consider this Line.

Joan’s ThruLines for George Tanner Rhynold

It makes sense to start with the more recent generation:

Here are the DNA matches with the descendents of the eldest proposed son of George Tanner Rhynold:

This appears to be George and family in 1871:

Lydia must be George’s mother. He marries and Irish woman which could explain the change to Catholic. It turns out that this Census is quite a find as it shows the implied relationships in this family.

However, the ThruLines show two different James in this family:

A 15 year old James in the 1871 would have been born in 1856 which is inbetween the two James. I am having trouble lining up the ThruLines with the Census.

Joan and Booklady

One person who seems to line up with the 1871 Census is Booklady:

Mary and John are both in 1871 Census for Crow Harbour:

This is likely Queensport today:

Booklady’s tree shows her paternal side only:

Another tree at Ancestry links Booklady’s father to the maternal side:

In 1921, Eunice is living in North Canso with her fisherman father and family:

The family is listed as Roman Catholic.

This Ancestry tree has John’s wife as a Snider:

However, the reference has a different surname:

The same tree shows that Mary’s son Clarence was from a first husband:

However, I believe that there is a mistake in the above tree. It has John Henry Rhyold born in 1886. I believe that he was born earlier. The 1921 Census has him being 53 years old which would have him born about 1868.

This tree has John Henry Rhinold as the son of different parents:

They also reference the 1871 Census:

This tells me that there were two John Rhynolds born about the same time, making researh difficult. Here is Molasses Harbour:

Based on DNA matching and the geography, my guess is that the above tree is incorrect for Booklady’s genealogy.

Doing the Geography Check

One reference has Eunice Rhynold born in Little Dover, but I could find no reference to back that up:

In 1921, the family was living in North Canso. In 1931, the family was living in the Town of Canso where John H was a janitor at the public school.

The question is, is the John who was the father of Eunice from Queensport or from Port Felix?

Perhaps the answer is not clear. If Eunice was born in Little Dover, then perhaps this is about the same distance by water to Fort Felix as Queensport is. If she was born in Canso, then Queensport would be closer and a straighter shot by water.

Clues from the DNA?

If Booklady descends from George Rhynold, that would make her and Joan 2nd cousins once removed. According to Ancestry, there is a greater likelihood that she would be a 3rd cousin once removed compared to a 2nd cousin once removed:

Shared DNA Matches Between Joan and Booklady

Jennis is a shared match:

However, Jennis has a much larger match with Booklady compared to her match with Joan. Here is the proposed connection:

However, the Grant Tree from Ancestry, which I looked at above has this connection:

I also do not see Johanna in the 1881 Census for George Tanner at Crow Harbour:

It appears that ThruLines for George Tanner Rhynold are a bit misleading in this situation:

John may be right and one of the James may be right.

Joan and Erin

Joan and Erin have a similar shared DNA match:

Ancestry is saying that chances are Erin is more closely related to Booklady than Joan. Erin’s tree goes out to a William Aubrey from Gloucester, Massachusetts:

My guess is that he was another son of Joanna Rhynold.

I was trying to set out to prove that Eunice descends from George Tanner, but that does not seem to be the case from the DNA.

Chelsea and Joan

Chelsea’s match with Joan follows the same line of reasoning:

Chelsea must be Erin’s sister:

Back to Eunice

Here is William Rhynold in 1891:

John must be born about 1886, not 1868 as the ThruLines have. Here is William Rhynold in 1881:

It seems like the couple had two families. The 1881 family moves out of the house by 1891, and there is a new family. However, in 1891 there were Claude, Alfred and George. Where were they in 1881? Who thought that this would be so difficult?

Joan and Gordon

Joan and Gordon have a healthy DNA match of 100 cM. Here is Gordon’s tree:

Gordon shows his line going back to George Tanner Rhynold. I will look at the evidence. According to Mabel Rhynold’s obituary, she was born in Fox Island:

The obituary is also helpful in that it gives her parents’ names:

Here is Mabel in 1921 at Fox Island with her parents:

If the 1871 Census was correct, father James Rhynold was a mason and a Baptist. He perhaps converted when he married and became a fisherman. This appears to be a marriage reference:

Next, it the connection between James and George Tanner Rhynold. The best reference for that has to be the 1871 Census for Crow Harbour

Next, I add in George Tanner Rhynold and Mary Sandwich to connect this line to my Ancestry Tree:

When I add Gordon to the Rhynold DNA/Genealogy Tree, it looks like this:

Summary and Conclusions

  • My late mother-in-law Joan has many DNA connections to the Rhynold Family of Canso, Nova Scotia
  • This was a large family and it is difficult to find records for some of the early families.
  • There is confusion as to the different James Rhynolds
  • It would be helpful perhaps, to look at the book about Guysborough families at a genealogical library to try to straighten out the relationships.
  • It is interesting to learn a little about the history of one of my wife’s German ancestors who fought for the British as a mercenary and received land in Nova Scotia for his service.
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Zerns of Bridgeport, New Jersey

It took me a long time to find Mary Zerns. She was the wife of my third great-grandfather Jacob Lentz:

Now I am stuck on her and there is a blank on her portion of the tree.

Here is a death record for Mary Ann Lentz:

This does not give her maiden name but does give a place of birth. The record says she was in her 80th year.

Lentz – Zerns Marriage Record

Hopefully, this is the correct marriage record from 1840:

It is at the Methodist Episcopal Church. Kensington is the right area for the Lentz family. This church is also known as the old brick church:

A search for Zerns in Bridgeport shows a Gideon:

This could possibly be a brother to Mary Ann.

Here is an obituary:

His service is at the M.E. Church which I take to be Methodist Episcopal. Notice the three different spellings:

  • Zerns
  • Zern
  • Zernes

Here is Bridgeport, New Jersey:

So far, I am reinforced in my belief that I have Zerns ancestors:

  • Mary Ann Lentz’ death certificate has her born in Bridgeport, New Jersey
  • There was a Jacob Lentz who married a Mary Ann Zerns in Kensington in 1840
  • There were others who were from Bridgeport with the surname Zerns, Zernes or Zern.

DNA Matches at Ancestry

When I searched for Zerns at Ancestry under my mother’s DNA matches I only found close relatives. However, when I searched for similar names, I found RA. RA’s line goes out to Elizabeth Zern:

Here is some more information on Elizabeth:

Her parents are shown as Gideon and Rebecca Zerns. Elizabeth could be a sister or cousin of Mary Ann Zerns.

In 1830, I see a Gideon Zerns in New Jersey:

This is a small household with only two people.  Here is Woolwich Township:

I do not see any Zerns in New Jersey in 1820, so perhaps they lived in Penssylvania or elsewhere at that time.

Mom and Hum

Here is Hum’s tree:

My Cousin Cindy and Zern Matches

Cindy has this Zern match:

Parent 2 is the side I match Cindy on. Here is Drew’s ancestor:

I believe that Montgomery refers to Montgomery County:

I see that my mother matches this Drew also:

Cindy’s also matches another Drew:

Drew has the same ancestor as the other Drew. The two Drews do not show as shared matches, but they may be below the threshold of 20 cM. My guess is that this is the area where my Zerns were from.

Cindy and Zerns

Here we have Elizabeth again:

This time her name is spelled ending with an ‘s’.

A DNA match between Cindy and Lois also goes back to Elizabeth Zerns in Lois’ tree:

Lois has Elizabeth Zerns from New Jersey in her tree:

Elizabeth is a common theme.

Rusty and Zern

I was so enMiccouraged by cousin Cindy’s results, that I asked my cousin Rusty if he would share his DNA matches. And he kindly did. Here are his Zern matches:

Michael

Michael has an extensive tree. Here is part of his maternal side:

He has Zurn from Germany changing to Zern in Pennsylvania. This surname morphed into Zarns and then Sarnes. This offers two new spellings of the name. Michael also has Anna Magdalena in his tree, but not as a direct ancestor:

As Cindy has a match with a descendant of Anna Magdalena Zern and Rusty has a match with a descendant of Johannes Adam Georg Zern who is potentially her father, that suggests, that the common ancestor could be Johannes Adam Georg Zern born 1732. Michael has this further information:

Here is Graben:

The name since 1972 has been Graben-Neudorf.

When I search for Zern in Michael’s tree, I get these names:

That means that it is possible that my ancestor Mary Ann Zerns descended from Frederick, Abraham or Michael Zern.

Linda

Her Zern ancestor also went by Zorn:

Bellheim is not far from Graben:

RA

My mother matches RA. His ancestry goes back to Elizabeth Zern from New Jersey as mentioned above. Speaking of Elizabeth, Rusty also matches Lois, like his cousin Cindy. Lois, as mentioned above, descends from Elizabeth Zerns.

 

Zerns in Philadelphia

As Mary Ann Zerns married in Philadelphia in 1840, I will look now for Zerns in that area. Here is a family living in Northern LIberties in 1850:

However, the relationships in this family are very unclear. Is Lee the last name of Sarah?

Here are Jacob Lentz, Mary and family in 1850 in Ward 6, Kensington:

However, here is a poster for the family business of a sale of meat in Northern Liberties:

Here is another Northern LIberties Zern family in 1850:

All these people are said to be born in Pennsylvania. Also note that the Lentz’ first child is named George (but possibly after George Washington). This family is clearer. All children could be from Maria Zern.

It is possible that George is a brother of Mary Ann. Further, if George named his first son for his father, then the father would be William Zern. The George Zern family is in Ward 11 in 1860:

There is a 9 year old Elizabeth Zern on the next page. They likely lived in the same area as here is Ward 11 in 1860:

This is likely George Zern in 1840:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to find my first DNA match to a Zern descendant by looking at my mother’s matches
  • I looked at other Zern families living in the vicinity of my Lentz ancestors in 1850
  • I looked at other Zerns from Bridgeport, New Jersey where Mary Ann Zerns was supposed to have been born.
  • Although I found hints, I did not find any actual genealogical connection between Mary Ann Zerns and other Zern families.
  • It is possible that my Zern ancestors lived in Mongtgomery County, Pennsylvania, moved to New Jersey and then some of them moved to Philadelphia.
  • New DNA match information from cousin Rusty implies that our common ancestor could be Johannes Adam Georg Zern born 1732 in Graben, Germany
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Updating My Parker DNA/Genealogy Chart

Here is the chart I have for Parker DNA/Genealogy:

The easiest way I update these charts is by using Ancestry ThruLines. For example, here are my Isaac Parker ThruLines:

This shows where I got Barbara and TD. However, I do not show James. I see in my previous Blog on Parker ThruLines that I decided not to add him to my tree.

My Father’s Cousin Joyce and Parker ThruLines

Joyce has Parker ThruLines going back to 1698:

The ThruLines through Jeusha Parker split evenly:

The two matches under Thomas Landers also match much more closely on my Hartley side:

So I won’t bother to add them there. Their DNA probably comes from much more recent sources.

However, Joyce has much smaller DNA matches with these two:

It may not be too difficult to evaluate these two lines.

Jersuha Parker

Findagrave.com has this:

Jerusha ends up in Maine:

I see Content (Landers) Blackwell, so that is a good sign. Here is North Fairfield, Maine:

Joyce and R.C.

R.C.’s tree goes back to Thomas Parker on his maternal side:

That is a good sign. Abbie’s marriage record shows that these were her parents:

In 1880, Abbie’s father was a blacksmith:

In 1850, Jotham is living with this family:

This Obituary is helpful:

Here Thomas L Blackwell appears to be with second wife and her children:

Here the name of Heman is significant.

Here is the record of death for Thomas Blackwell:

Unfortunately his mother’s name reads as Thankful Lander. These records are notoriously inaccurate, so I will take this to be a match. Let’s see, what was his mother’s name? Content? Thankful?

This completes the circle for me. I just need to merge names to get this family into my tree.

I also found another full sister for Jotham named Julia.

Updating the Parker DNA/Genealogy Tree

We cannot prove that the DNA that R.C. and Joyce share come from the late 1600’s and early 1700’s. In fact the small amount of DNA that R.C and Joyce share is said to be on her paternal side which is the side I do not match Joyce (at least closely). However, I do not believe that the paternal/maternal assignments are foolproof.

Joyce and Edy

Joyce and Edy do match on Joyce’s maternal side, so the chances of this DNA being from Parker and/or Nickerson are greater than between Joyce and R.C. Here is the maternal portion of Edy’s tree:

Here is the family in 1920:

Edy’s father Leslie was born in Maine as well as her mother Bertha. Bertha is the one we are following.

Here is the marriage record:

Bertha is from Madison, Maine. This place came up in R.C.’s line also:

 

Here are Bertha’s parents:

I would think I would be following the Blackwell Line here, but the ThruLines suggest going with the Hayden Line. Here is Sarah or Sally in 1850:

The last step is to connect Ann Hayden with her mother Content Landers. Ancestry is suggesting:

Here is Ann or Anna’s death record from 1903:

.

Adding these two connects Ann Hayden to my main Ancestry Tree:

An Expanded Parker DNA/Genealogy Tree

A Peek at Maury’s ThruLines

Maury is another of my father’s cousins. My 2nd cousin is the administrator to his DNA:

Maury potentially adds another line (Thomas Parker) to the tree. He also has two potential new matches under Jerusha Parker:

I may look at these matches at some later date.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to add two new matches to my Parker DNA/Genealogy Tree thanks to the DNA of my father’s cousin Jocye.
  • Due to the distance of the relation, it is possible that the DNA could be from somewhere else. However, the Ancestry computers did pick out this connection from all the possible connections.
  • Looking at the ThruLines help to solidify my own genealogy and correct and errors that may be there.

 

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Some Hatch ThruLines

ThruLines are Ancestry’s way of trying to connect DNA matches with genealogical matches. And this gets to the heart of genetic genealogy. I do not recall ever looking at my Hatch ThruLines. My Hatch ancestors tended to be in Cape Cod, hence the village of Hatchville:

I assume that some of my Hatch ancestors lived near there in Falmouth off Rte 151 on the road to Mashpee.

My 5th great-grandfather was Nathaniel Hatch Jr.:

He was born in Falmouth in 1743 and married Olive Bearse. I should also point out that my second great grandfather has Hatch as a middle name, likely from his maternal grandmother Prudence Hatch.

Joyce’s Hatch ThruLines

I will cheat a little and use Joyce. She is my father’s cousin, so a generation closer to the Hatch family. Nathaniel Hatch Jr. is at the far extent of my ThruLines, but is in the next to the last tier for Joyce:

Here we see Joyce has two matches with proposed Nathaniel Hatch Jr. descendants.

Joyce and Richard

There are two problems with this match. First, the match is on Joyce’s paternal side according to Ancestry:

Secondly, Richard does not have a great tree:

There is a third issue in that the shared matches between Joyce and Richard do not look familiar. I will skip evauating this ThruLine. So, the genealoyg may match up but I cannot tell and the DNA seems off.

Joyce and K.C.

K.C. shows as a maternal DNA match, so that would be on my side. K.C. and Joyce have many shared surnames:

.However, of all those shared surnames, Ancestry picked Hatch, so I will look at that connection.

K.C.’s tree goes back to Nathaniel Hatch Jr. which is a good sign. Grace was living in Dartmouth, Massachusetts in 1920, though her birthplace is listed as California:

Social Security fills in the father missing from the 1920 Census:

Next, I am looking for Arthur’s mother. According to Arthur’s marriage record, his mother was Clara Sawyer:

Here is Clara in 1860 in New Bedford:

Stephen appears to be a tin plate worker. Next, I am intersted in Stephen’s mother. Here is an entry from findagrave.com:

The Olive Hatch Sawyer name is interesting. She must have been named for her grandmother who would have been Olive Hatch nee Bearse. Olive’s death record in Medford gives a lot of information:

Her husband is Gideon Sawyer. She died in Medford, but her residence was,  New Bedford:

She was born in New Bedford. Her father was born in Westport. Her mother was Drusilla Hatch, born in Falmouth, Massachusetts. This record closes the loop. I just need to merge Drusilla with this floating tree with the Drusilla in my main tree.

My First Hatch DNA/Genealogy Chart

I can now make my first Hatch DNA/Genealogy Chart. However, I see a problem already. It appears that I am missing a generation in my vertical tree. I don’t see Nathaniel Hatch Jr. and Olive Bearse. Actually, I do see them, but Drusilla got connected a generation too early.

I’ll remove Drusilla’s parents:

Then I’ll add in the correct ones. However, it looks like I added a comma to his name, so he is not showing up:

When I type in Hatch for the search, I find him:

Problem solved:

Here is the problem:

The Jr. needs to go in the Suffix box. The exercise is helpful in cleaning up my Hatch tree at Ancestry:

Findagrave.com is helpful again:

Hatch DNA/Genealogy Chart

Here is my first humble Hatch Chart:

Joel and Susan

Next, I will look at this ThruLine:

Here is Susan’s tree:

Susan’s tree is not a perfect match with the ThruLine, but let’s take a look. Here is Geraldine in 1930 in Wareham, Massachusetts:

Her father, Lawrence or Clarence is a carpenter. Here is Anna in 1910:

Anna’s father is the manager of a department store. Lillian or Lilles was born in New Bedford. Here are her parents:

Robert T Hillman was born in New Bedford also. Based on this, I accepted the Ancestry hints for Lilles’ parents:

Lilles is living on North Pleasant Street, New Bedford in 1880:

Her mother-in-law, Tabitha is living with them. Here is the family in 1860:

It is actually Tabitha that I am looking for. Here is a confusing Marriage record for Henry Hillman in New Bedford:

Does this mean that Henry married Olive Hatch and then two years later married Tabitha Hatch? I will at least enter the second Hatch marriage.

Here is Tabiltha’s death record:

Henry was her husband. “Hatch” is her maiden name. She was born in Falmouth:

Her parents, Isaiah and Lucy were born in Falmouth and Sandwich. So, next, I would like to link this line to my Ancsetry Tree. I did that, and now I will add this line to my Hatch DNA/Genealogy Chart:

I also added myself.

My sister Heidi’s Hatch ThruLines

Heidi matches Lincoln and Bridget:

As I look at my old Blogs, I see that I already have a Hatch DNA/Genealogy Tree:

I like the shiny yellow tree, so I will keep that. I also already have K.C. and Susan, but I don’t see Bridget. I see that in this Blog, there was some confusion in the trees going back to Falmouth, so I didn’t add Bridget.

Giving Bridget Another Shot

Bridget has a shared match with CH:

 

Our shared ancestors are Isaiah Hatch Snell and Hannah Bradford.

Bridget and Heidi also have a shared match with O.T.:

Their shared match goes back to:

Otis Snell was married to Mary Ann Parker. Her mother was Prudence Hatch. It is not proof, but Bridget seems to be in the right company. Here is what I had in my old Blog:

This suggests that there were two Rebecca Hatches. One born of Nathaniel Hatch and Olive Bearse and one born of Isaiah Hatch and Lucy. However, the Isaiah Hatch married to Lucy Nye that I have was born in 1780, so he could not be the father of this Rebecca Hatch. The author quotes Beer’ Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts which may be inaccurate or out of date.

I will create a floating tree for Bridget in my tree. I wasn’t doing that when I wrote my previous Blog a year ago. I have that Allen was born in Hyannis. In 1940, he was living with his great-grandfather in Falmouth. Allen’s father was a clert at a lumber company:

The is the route I am checking out:

Here is as far as I have gotten in my own tree going back from Bridget:

Bessie marries in 1912 in New Bedford. Her mother, as expected, is Adeline Parker:

Bessie’s husband is listed as a pay master. In 1900, Bessie’s father is listed as a machinist in New Bedford:

Next, I am following Adeline (Addie). In 1860, Addie is in Falmouth:

Addie’s middle name is Louisa for her mother. Next, I skip back a generation to John H Parker. He marries Louisa Nye of Fairhaven in 1839. Remember that Isaiah Hatch married a Lucy Nye a generation earlier. Here is some information from findagrave.com:

I wonder if John’s middle name was Hatch? We do see the Nye name in James Parker. Here is John’s Falmouth birth record;

Next, we look to Rebecca. Here is their marriage record:

This clue is cast in stone:

This is from the Falmouth East End Burial ground, appropriately on Hatchville Road:

Findagrave.com has Rebecca’s parents as Isaiah and Lucy Hatch:

Here are some Falmouth Town records:

If we take this to be the Rebecca that married Silvanus Parker, she was 78 years and 9 months according to her grave marker. Add that to her birth date would put her death at January 1855 which is a year after the grave marker. However, the original calculation may have been off. I do not have definitive information proving that this is the right Rebecca, but most of the information I have found on the internet leads me to think that Rebecca was the daughter of Isaiah Hatch and Olive Bearse.

Here is how I believe Bridget fits into my Hatch DNA/Genealogy Chart:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I set out to create a Hatch DNA/Genealogy Chart only to find out I had already created one.
  • In a previous Blog, I had decided to hold off on Rebecca Hatch descendant Bridget as there was some confusion as to the parentage of Rebecca Hatch.
  • That confusion was based on an older publication which referred to an older publication. That information seemed to go against other information that I was able to find on the internet.
  • In addition, Bridget had shared matches with two of my Snell relatives whose ancestry also goes back to the Hatch family.

 

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My Father’s Cousin Joyce and Ancient Snell ThruLines: Part 2

In my previous Blog, I started to look at Joyce’s ThruLines through Samuel Snell born 1708 and his wife Mary Head. In that Blog, the last one I added to my Snell DNA/Genealogy Chart was Jane Budd:

Next, I would like to look at the 5 descendants of Joseph Snell.

Joyce and Linda

Here is the complete proposed connection:

Unlike Jane, Linda’s DNA match is said to be on Joyce’s maternal side which is the side I match Joyce on. Here is Linda’s tree:

There appears to be some discrepancy between the Fagen and Phillips surname. I think that Fagen is a married name, so I will pursue this line. I also see that I should have been looking at the maternal side of Linda’s tree:

This seems to put me back on track. Here is the family in 1930:

Cornelius owns a plumbing business in Salinas:

I just need to get from California back to Massachusetts somehow. I am also looking for Cornelius’ mother. This is perhaps Cornelius in 1900:

He from Salinas, but his father was from Maine and mother from Massachusetts. Ancestry’s proposed parents for Cornelius are from Maine and Massachusetts, so I will take a shortcut and use those suggestions:

This article ties the family together:

According to Massachusetts Birth records, Fanny was born in East Bridgewater in 1855:

Ancestry suggests this father for Betsy Pease:

At this point, I will merge Joseph Crandall Snell with the Joseph Snell I already had in my tree:

Here is where Linda fits in on my expanding Snell DNA/Genealogy Tree:

Four More Matches from Pardon Snell

These matches are from William Henry Snell who was the likely brother of Betsey Snell Pease. However, as Ella, Grace and Elmer Snell are in white, it looks like they may already be in my Ancestry Tree. When I choose John, I see this common ancestor for John and Joyce:

This is through Joyce’s paternal side. However, Ancestry has the DNA match on the maternal side which would be the side where Joyce and I match. I also see that this ThruLine is on John’s paternal side where the Snell ThruLine is on his maternal side.

Joyce and Janice

As I mentioned above, I have these lines already in my tree. I just need to evaluate Janice’s mother. I do note some discrepancies between what Ancestry shows and Janice’s tree:

Janice has her maternal grandmother as Lillian Grace Harlow and Ancestry has her as Grace F Snell.

B.S. and Renee

Perhaps these two Joyce DNA matches will make more sense:

B.S.’s tree is showing Snell all the way be to Samuel Snell and beyond:

Further B.S. and Joyce have a shared match with John:

Renee also shows as a close match to B.S. which makes sense. I think that the Janice connection is incorrect as shown by Ancestry.

In 1930, Elmer is a chair worker in Ashburnham, Massachusetts:

Edith and Ronald are there also.

Updating the Snell DNA/Genealogy Tree

I need to add John, B.S. and Renee:

I had to shrink the tree down to get Joyce in on the bottom left.

Joyce and the Job Snell Line

For some reason I do not have a birth date for Job Snell. According to a biography of Job Snell he was born September, 1742 or 1743. Most trees have him as born September 1742, so I will use that. This line is not as well built out on my Ancestry tree:

I’ll start with K.P. She has a tree built out to Edmond Snell. From what I have read, this line moved to New York state early on. Here is Monford and family in 1920 in Mexico, NY:

Monford’s father is a painter in the automobile gas industry. I am not sure what that means. It is Wanda who I am interested in next.

Wanda is said on her marriage record to be born in Scriba to a Jennie Snell. So far, so good.

Jennie Snell is born in New Haven, NY:

Here is the family in New Haven in 1865:

Coley (should be Cooley?) is born in Oneida. From here, the records get a bit thinner. I suppose this is Edmund the father of Edmund in 1820:

This tree has the father Edmund married to a Cooley which makes sense:

And if one has a father with the same name as yours, it also makes sense to go by your middle name (Cooley). This appears to be a list of the children of Job and Ruth from Rhode Island Vital Extracts:

It does not seem that Josiah fits in well as he was born 41 years after ‘Judeth’. Next, I connect Edmund to Job in my tree:

This gets Job Snell onto my Snell DNA/Genealogy Chart:

As Job moved out of the Massachusetts area early on, it is more likely that the DNA is from his line. I thought that I had posted a portion of this great bio on Job Snell by Fred Snell at Ancestry before:

Joyce, King and Ker

Above, we see Ruby in the Rhode Island Vital Records Extracts, so we are likely on the right track. Ellsworth grew up on a farm in Minnesota:

Next, I am looking for the mother of Jason M. Harrington. Someone kindly posted the death record for Elizabeth Harrington:

Her parents on the next page are just listed as Hulbert and Hulbert. I had to accept an Ancestry tree by faith, but there was a Hulbert willl which included daughter Bestsy Hulbert and the executrix (mother/widow) as I recall.

Joyce and Ker

My hope was that Ker would fit in easily. On Ker’s tree, I recognize the surname of her paternal grandmother:

Here is Mabel:

Her husband is a commercial traveler for a candy company. Mabel’s parents were born in New York. Findagrave.com gives some more information:

After this, I am hoping that Curtis’ mother is Elizabeth Hurlbert. It turns out I already have Curtis in my tree:

If I merge the two Curtises, I should be all set.

Finally, Joyce and Skylar

Skylar’s tree goes back to Samuel Snell and beyond. However, the linked tree is ambiguous:

 

The main person in the tree appears as a male. That means that Skylar may be the daughter. Due to the confusion, I’ll skip this match.

Back to the Snell DNA/Genealogy Tree

I’ll just add King and Ker:

My Father’s Other Cousin: MM

Maurey’s ThruLines are similar to Joyce’s. Here are the ones under Job:

Interestingly, there are three different matches. I do notice the Hulbert or Hurlburt name under Ruby Snell. The other interesting thing is that Maurey matches C.W. by DNA on the side that doesn’t match me:

So, as usual, it can get tricky. Maury matches me on his maternal side.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Because Joyce is a generation earlier than I am, I am able to find Snell relatives that match by DNA going back to Samuel Snell born 1708 in Tiverton, Rhode Island and Mary Head.
  • It takes some time to verify these DNA relatives. Some have closer matches on other lines, which means that the DNA match could represent that closer line
  • Sometimes the ThruLines appear to be incorrect.
  • In many cases, the genealogical evidence is scarce and the DNA matches tend to support that there is a connection
  • It is possible to use Shared Matches to help prove or prove some of the connections.

 

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Updating My Hartley Bradford DNA Connections at Ancestry

I had previously looked at Josiah Bradford in a Blog in 2019. At that time, my father’s cousin Joyce’s ThruLines for Josiah Bradford looked like this:

Now, in addition to the two matches on the Jesse Bradford Line, Joyce shows two additional matches:

I like to draw trees for the people that I believe are true DNA matches and match by genealogy, but my Bradford tree is quite out of date:

I had previously looked at this connection with Joyce in 2019:

My Bradford DNA/Genealogy Chart is starting to shape up.

My Match with Rollie

If I could confirm Rollie’s genealogy, that would firm up the Stephen Bradford connection. Rollie has a nice tree which I have no reason to doubt:

Rollie has Stephen, son of Stephen moving to Illinois at some point:

This 1870 Census seems to confirm that:

1850:

1860:

That means that Stephen went from Engraver in New Hampshire to a farmer in Illinois around the age of 50. I feel like the rest of the line should fall into place – I’m a bit lazy today.

Here is the connection I come up with:

Note that brothers Stepen and Alexander were born 1815 and 1838. They are first and last born in the family.

Back to Josiah

From the review of my 2019 Blog, I think that I thought that the Jesse Line would be OK. Here is the William to Jesse Bradford Line added:

New Matches on the William to Josiah Line

I had this image earlier in the Blog for my father’s cousin Joyce’s ThruLines:

This is interesting as I also match Joe. Unfortunately, Joe’s tree does not support this ThruLine:

The other match in pink shows a Bradford connection:

I’ll start with this Howard connection and build out a tree. Here is Glenn Deforest’s birth’s record from Waltham, MA:

It looks like Glenn’s father was a machinist. I get his parents names also from Social Security. Here is Everett’s aka Everard’s marriage record:

Looks like I need the second page:

 

 

The good news is that Evererett’s father had an unusual name. The bad news is that people messed up the name in the records. Here are two Maltiah’s in the 1860 Plymouth Census:

Unfortunately, the child I saw on the Census as Josiah, got transcribed as Jonah. I take him to be named for Josiah Bradford.

Here is the marriage record:

This is the tree so far:

According to North America, Family HIstories:

I note here that the name Josiah is correct. Josiah Bradford apparently married a Polly Robbins in 1803:

FindaGrave appears to confirm that Josiah’s father was William Bradford:

I take Polley to be the same as Mary Bradford, but I may be wrong. I see the trees at Ancestry have her as the same person. Molly is a derivative of Mary and Polly is a derivative of Molly.

This matches up with my own tree:

William’s wife was Ruth Dunham.

The ancestors with large families such as William Bradford’s above born in 1749 were more likely to pass down DNA to subsequent generations.

My Brother Jon and the Matilda Bradford Line

My brother Jon has these three matches:

None of these trees lead to Bradfords. I can make my own tree for Joe to try to see if his tree is wrong or if Ancestry is wrong.

Here is Joe and mother Doris in 1940:

Interestingly, Doris’ mother was the head of the household and not the husband. Here is Doris’ birth record:

Doris’ dad was an embalmer born in Plymouth. Based on this record, I accepted the Ancestry hints for Doris’ parents.

Arthur was born in Plymouth, though his parents were living in New Bedford at the time:

I think I see the problem. Joe’s tree does go back to our common ancestor who was Josiah Bradford:

However, Ancestry seems to be missing Weston Vaughan and Ella May Stephens in the tree. Based on the above birth record, I will accept Ancestry’s clue for Arthur’s parents and follow on Weston Vaughan:

Weston’s marriage record has his mother as Matilda. She is the one I’d like to follow:

Unfortunately, Arthur’s birth record does not give his mother’s maiden name either. Here is the family in 1870 in Plymouth:

We see Matilda’s maiden name on her marriage record:

I have set out to prove either Ancestry’s tree wrong or Joe’s tree wrong. It looks like Joe’s tree is right and Ancestry’s tree is partially wrong. The key is that Matilda married young and had her son Weston at a young age. Her marriage record says she was 18 when she married. The 1870 Census suggests she could have been 17 when Weston Jr. was born. That is what Ancestry did not have for some reason.

Here is Matilda’s death record:

Matilda’s father was a clergyman based on the 1850 Census in Plymouth:

Matilda is mentioned in FindAGrave:

This should bring me back to my own tree and close the loop:

Here is some more information from Ancestry:

The Ruth here would be Ruth Dunham from my tree.

I’ll add Joe into my Bradford DNA/Genealogy Tree:

Joseph is 5th cousin twice removed to Joyce and 6th cousin once removed to my family.

Bradford ThruLine to Barbara

Oddly, when I check my brother’s ThruLines now, they no longer have Joe. Perhaps the ThruLines were recalculated:

However, it doesn’t matter as I have what I believe to be right on my Bradford DNA/Genealogy Chart.

It shouldbe easy to check Barbara’s tree as I just need to get up to Matilda Bradford. Barbara has a small tree:

The other interesting thing is that this tree apparently goes through the Ransom side and not the Vaughan side. I found Etta’s birth record, so accepted the hint for her parents:

The hint for George Ransom’s mother is Rev Mary S Faunce. Here is the marriage record for George and Ida:

Here is George’s birth record:

I am skeptical that Mary was a Reverend. Here she is in Pembroke in 1880 keeping house:

I guess I was wrong. Here is her obituary:

This gets us back to Matilda Bradford born 1813. So I see the Ancestry ThruLine was correct this time.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to show genealogical connections and probale DNA connections between my family and many other Bradford families going back to Josiah Bradford born 1724 and his wife Hannah Rider.
  • There was one generation missing on the ThruLines for Joe Vaughan, but I was able to find that and add it in.
  • These ThruLines change often. The one for Joe was changing as I was writing this Blog.
  • My Bradford DNA/Genealogy Tree was quite out of date and I was able to add two generations to it going back from Harvey Bradford on my family’s side.
  • The DNA matches appear to confirm the previous genealogy work that I have done.

 

 

 

 

 

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Luther DNA/Genealogy Tree and ThruLines

I have been building DNA/Genealogy Trees for my ancestors that have ThruLines that i have verified. On my Hartley side, I have looked at:

  • Hartley
  • Hathaway
  • Snell
  • Parker
  • Hatch
  • Howorth
  • Churchill
  • Cowen

I do not think that I have looked at Luther.

My Luther Genealogy

My great-grandmother Annie Snell was the daughter of a Bradford and a Snell. Luther is on the Snell side. Benjamin Luther and Rebecca Trafton were my 5th great-grandparents. They lived in Dighton, Massachusetts.

Luther ThruLines

I’ll start with my own:

ThurLines think that I match up with Lynn via Lynn’s ancestor Polly Luther. Polly is in white which means that she is already in my Tree. However, it seems as Polly may have married a Simmons:

A few of my siblings have the same ThruLine with Lynn.

Joyce’s Luther ThruLines

Because my father’s cousin Joyce is a generation back, she should have more Luther ThruLines and she does:

Joyce even has a ThruLine going back a generation:

I checked on my father’s other 1st cousin Maury’s ThruLines, but he doesn’t show any on the Luther side.

Joyce and DVanderzell

I’ll start on the oldest ThruLine. DVanderzell’s Tree matches the ThruLine conclusions:

The tree above has Susannah and the ThruLine has Sukey which I take to be the same person.

I’ll start a quick tree to check DVanderzell’s Tree. Winston was born in Taunton, MA. From Winston’s birth record, his father was from Dighton, MA:

The family soon moved to Montclair, NJ:

Here is the previous generation in Dighton, MA:

So far, the tree is checking out:

I am now looking for Jonathan Hathaway:

The family was in Dighton in 1850:

Jonathan to Susannah Sukey Talbot

From Jonathan’s death record, we see his mother is Susan:

At this point, I may want to attack the question from both ends. By that, I mean from the Jonathan end as well as the Sarah Luther side. I do have that Sarah married in 1773. I could go out on a limb and guess that she may have been born around 1753.

One reference to Susannah had this:

Here is the record for Sukey Talbot:

So there are two Jonathan Hathaways.

Sukey Talbot to Sarah Luther

The female connections are more difficult due to the name changes. I have this record from Dighton:

That means that all I am missing is a birth record for Susannah or Sukey Talbot. Here is the missing link:

A First Luther DNA/Genealogy Tree

Here Joyce and DVanerzell show as 6th cousins which agrees with the Ancestry ThruLines.

Joyce and Pat (Sally Luther Line)

Pat has a good tree, but the line diverges at Polly Sartwell:

Pat has her mother as Martha Goodenough. In addition, in my own tree, I have that Sally Luther married James Spooner. I am tempted to pull the plug on Pat for now.

Joyce and RWU12 (Gardner Luther)

RW’s tree diverges before Gardner Luther II:

Here are the Dighton records:

I am trying to figure out how to interpret this. It appears that Gardner Luther in my tree married a Nancy Horton in 1803. He then dies in 1825. Then there is a second Gardner Luther in Dighton. He dies in 1809. I am guessing that he is the son of the other Gardner and that this Gardner was born in 1807 and died in 1809. Then there appears to be a question as to whether the first Gardner Luther married a Nancy Horton or a Nancy Kelton.

I am now cutting corners to save time:

This Gardner is interesting because his parents were Gardner and Nancy Luther. He dies in 1875 on November 6, so would be born around 1809. Also this:

All this leads to the possibility that the ThruLine could be right.

I’ll start a quick tree for RW:

RW’s mother’s birth record was amended, so is not yet available. I’ll have to assume that RW knew who his grandparents were. Here is RW’s 15 year old grandfather in 1900 in Swansea:

At this point, I am checking into Elizabeth from the above Census.

Here is a 1907 North Attleborough Marriage record for William giving his mother’s name as Elizabeth Willmarth:

Here is a good hint. In 1880, Elizabeth was listed as the granddaughter of a Luther:

I got this 1906 Swansea marriage from RW’s tree:

I’ll just take it on face value. My tree is following RW’s so far:

Here is Mary’s marriage record:

Turns out Clement was quite a bit older than Mary and this was her second marriage.

Here two Luthers married.

Here is the family in 1850 in Swansea:

This could be Mary’s first marriage:

Here is the family in 1855:

This proves that the marriage between Mary Luther and Josiah Tucker above was correct.

Gardner dies in 1886 in Swansea and gives the names of Gardner and Mary Luther for his parents who are both said to have been born in Swansea:

Now we have come full circle, however, I had Gardner Sr. marrying a Nancy, so the death record could be wrong?

I have shown a connection from this Gardner to the elder Gardner and that the younger Gardner lived in Swansea most of his life.

Updating the Luther Tree

I gave the chart some color so it wouldn’t just be boring gray. RWU shows as a 5th cousin once removed to Joyce. This is also what the ThruLine suggested, so it checks out. The only thing I didn’t check into was who was the Charlotte Luther who married Gardner Luther?

Joyce and Lynn (Polly Luther Line)

Now we are back to Lynn:

The maternal side of Lynn’s tree agrees with the ThruLine – going back to our common ancestors:

All I need to do now is to build a parallel tree to Lynn’s to see if it checks out. This tree is starting out in Arkansas. I am having a little trouble finding Leatrice. I would think that she would be easy to find, but sometimes with a different name, the name is miss-spelled. Here is the 1930 Census:

I found this in the hints on the ThruLines. Leatrice is here transcribed as Leatrei. In addition, the last name is transcribed as Tolbert. The father was a school instructor and his family was from Mississippi.

Here is Marcus in 1900 in Mississippi:

Marcus’ father was a farmer (I don’t show but he was on the previous page). His father was from Massachusetts. Bingo.

 

The transcriber gives the father’s first name as Allen which I can now see. The mother is Telisia or something similar. I have seen that name before.

The Census records help me quickly build a parallel tree for Lynn:

Here is Allen with his family in 1850:

I don’t know much about Mississippi, but Marshall County where they lived is not too far from Memphis:

I am guessing Ephraim moved South before marrying as his wife was from Tennessee.

Talbot to Luther?

We are trying to figure out if Ephraim’s mother was Polly Luther. This record from Dighton is helpful:

Next, I just have to figure out if Marcy is the same as Polly. She is:

I assume that I got the name Polly from a genealogy book. It is confusing and I should put her name back to Mary. My understandiing is that Molly is a nickname for Mary which sometimes was changed to Polly.

Last Tree Update – for Now

Here is the new and improved Luther Tree:

Summary and Conclusions

  • Out of the 4 Luther Lines I looked into, I was able to make connections on three
  • The Luther Line has a rich heritage and history in the part of Massachusetts around Swansea and Dighton.
  • This is my first Luther DNA/Genealogy Tree and verifies the Ancestry ThruLines
  • Using DNA plus genealogy is a powerful tool in creating surname trees.

 

 

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My Churchill ThruLines

I have been going through my ThruLines and updating or creating DNA/Genealogy Charts for them. In this Blog, I’ll look at my Churchill ThruLines. The people who have tested in my family are:

  • my three sisters, one brother and me
  • my father’s cousin Joyce
  • my father’s cousin Maury

My Churchill Genealogy

The Churchills are related to my Pilgrim Bradford genealogy:

My great-grandmother Annie Snell had the Pilgrim ancestry on her mother’s side. Lucy Churchill married Samuel Bradford who was a descendant of Governor Bradford of the Mayflower. Lucy lived in Plymouth, MA. Her parents were Stephen Churchill and Lucy Burbank. As I recall, Stephen Churchill was a cooper by trade or a barrel maker in the Colonial Town of Plymouth. According to Wikipedia:

 Churchill ThruLines

My sister Lori has the most Churchill ThruLines with two, though the level of DNA matches are low:

The names Peleg and Heman are in white which means they are already in my tree.

Stephen had a big family which is good for producing descendants and ThruLines.

Lori and Herb

Ancestry wants me to evaluae Herb’s connection. Here is what Herb shows for his paternal side tree:

Herb shows the father being from Plymouth, so hopefully that will be easy to track. There appears to be some confusion in herb’s father already. The ThruLines have Elmer C P Chandler and herb’s tree has Elmer Carlton Paul. I did find this record from WWII:

The 1930 Census for Kingston, MA could give an explanation:

Elmer is living with his grandparents and their last name is Paul.

The Social Security record is helpful:

It appears that Eva may have married a Gomes based on the 1945 record above. Of the trees that I have found, this one seems to make the most sense to me:

Here we have the three generations of Elmes Chandlers.

In support of the genealogy, I notice that my father’s 1st cousin Joyce also has a small match with herb:

With that in mind, I continue. This is the Tree I have so far that I would like to get up to Peleg Churchill:

James Chandler to Eliza Churchill

James Chandler was living in Duxbury, MA as a shoemaker in 1860:

Here is Eliza in 1850 in Duxbury, MA:

Her husband appears to be a Hatter.

Eliza Churchill to Peleg Churchill

I am having trouble finding a record to connect these two people. I did find this under a Mayflower Application:

This application was approved in 1921. That genealogy check did not go as smoothly as I had hoped.

My First Churchill DNA/Genealogy Tree

Churchill gets overshadowed due to the Bradford connection. I have tended to focus in more on the Bradford Lines in the past.

Lori and Butterflies on the Heman Churchill Line

That is an interesting heading name. My goal is to prove or disprove this connection:

This is the extent of butterflies’ maternal line in the direction I an interested in:

I will likely be looking for the wife of William Evans on the top right of her tree. I’ll start my own tree for butterflies to see if I can verify the 200 years of genealogy back to our common ancestors.

Beverly’s father Roger was a printer in New London, CT:

It is helpful to now have the 1950 Census to look at.

Roger’s father William was born in New York and was a caretaker at New London Parks:

I next want to follow Ruby or Ruba:

Based on this, I’m willing to accept the Ancestry hints:

Evans to Churchill

Here is someone’s transcription of a newpaper article:

Here Theodore is said to be the son of Jane A Churchill. However, my Ancestry hint has this:

However, the 1850 Census has Theodore’s father from Wales:

I accepted the Ancestry hint for William Evans and Jane Churchill.

Jane to Heman Churchill

This connection is mentioned in many genealogies, but what is the evidence? In Heman’s will, he only mentions two daughters, but not Jane:

That did not mean that he did not have other children. It turns out that Heman who was also a cooper owed a lot of people a lot of money and was also insolvent like his brother Peleg.

It appears that Haman had a lot of deaths in the family:

This was from:

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

https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/14012/503/253533102

Heman apparently belonged to the Baptist Church. I don’t know if that makes finding the records more difficult.

This Ancestry Tree has this summary for Heman Churchill:

Unfortunately, at this point, I am stuck. Jane Churchill Evans has that she was born in New York. The Jane Churchill I am looking for should have been born in Massachusetts as that is where Heman Churchill lived to my knowledge. So I have not proved or disproved the connection.

Joyce and Patricia

I’ll take a look at this ThruLine:

Joyce and Patricia share a pretty good DNA match for 5th cousins. I will try to prove or disprove Patricia’s connection to my family via Jocye:

Here is what Patricia shows on her paternal side:

The ThruLines want me to head toward Ellen Augusta Leach. I see from the 1920 Census that John’s mother’s parents were born in Massachusetts:

Also the name Earle comes up in that Census.

Here is the family in 1880 in San Francisco:

I’m cutting corners a little, but I feel like Patricia’s tree is right and plus Slade above was born in Massachusetts. However, it is really his wife Ellen that I am interested in.

Now my tree looks a little more like Patricia’s:

I need to see if the Churchill connection is right. Slade and Ellen married in 1864 in Lynn, MA:

Ellen was from Plymouth originally and her mother was also an Ellen. Here is a summary of the Leach family in 1850:

Here is the marriage from 1830:

At this point, I am on track with the ThruLines:

Fortunately, Ellen’s father left a will where he clearly states that Eleanor was his daughter:

This Daniel was also a cooper.

I already have Daniel in my family tree, so I’ll add him to my Churchill DNA/Genealogy Chart:

So now I have gone up the genealogy and back down again. Patricia matches Joyce and I don’t have her on my chart. Also I need to fix my side of the chart:

Joyce and Laura

Joyce and Ashley have a large match, because the major match is on Joyce’s paternal side. That is the side that she is not related to me. So I’ll go with Laura. Laura has a large tree:

Unfortunately, her tree diverges at the point of her paternal grandmother. That could make the connection difficult as I would think that Laura would know her grandmother.

Here is the family in 1920 in Penobsctot, ME:

It looks like there was anothegenr Joseph Fernald Leach born in Abington, MA. That appears to be the confusion in the trees, so I will not bother to pursue this further.

Other Churchill ThruLinMes

Maury is my father’s 1st cousin (like Joyce). As such, his Churchill ThruLines go back an additional generation. However, my second cousin manages his DNA and does not have the Churchills in his ancestry. So he doesn’t show any Churchill ThruLines.

I’ll show Joyce’s ThruLines going back one generation:

This family did not hold back on the obscure names. How many people can say they have a Zadock in their ancestry?

Joyce and L.B

I’ll give this a shot. James shows a possible 6th cousin to Joyce on Joyce’s paternal side also – the side I am not related on.

LB’s tree is mostly filled out in the direction of Bathsheba Churchill. As usual, I will build out a tree, to see if I can get to Bathsheba and Zadock Churchill.

I found a birth record for Florence:

Her mom checks out as Annie L. Nelson.

Here is the marriage record for Annie:

Here is the family in 1880 in Androscoggin, ME:

That Census also gave me an approximate birthdate for Sally or Sarah:

Sarah’s death record gives her father’s name:

Here is the family in 1850 in Buckfield, ME:

There is also a Thankful on the next page. Miles was born in Massachusetts which is a good sign. Miles was born in Middleborough, MA:

This Thomas ended up in Buckfield, ME:

I see they have a Zadoc and a Bathsheba Churchilll Bearce in the family which is a good sign.

From Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775:

Bathsheba to Zadock

Here is an approved Mayflower application from 1929:

This seems to tie the loose ends together.

Here is the amended and corrected Churchill DNA/Genealogy Tree:

I previously had Stephen Churchill born 1743 married to Hannah Barnes, so I corrected that mistake.

Do Joyce and Diana Have Churchill Common Ancestors?

ThruLines has Diana going back to a Polly Churchill. I do not appear to have Polly in my tree. Diana shows her paternal grandfather being from Plymouth County, Massachusetts:

I’ll create my own tree to see if the ThruLines make sense.

Here is Edwin’s birth record in Middleborough, MA:

His mother is recorded as Mary Dixon, born in Plymouth. Here is the family in Plymouth:

Jacob’s marriage record gives his father’s name:

In 1850 Plymouth, Samuel was a cooper:

According to Samuel’s death record, his mother was Mary Churchill:

Here is part of Stephen Churchill’s will from 1821:

In it, he names Stephen Jr., Lucy, Hannah, Meriah, Nancy, Sally, Polly and Betsy, Heman and Daniel. I have that Peleg died in 1810 which would be why I don’t see him here.

Finishing the Churchill DNA/Genealogy Tree (for Now)

Here my Churchill Tree is filling out nicely:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to add three lines under Stephen Churchill born 1743
  • I previously did not have the Line of Polly Churchill born 1786
  • I tried to connect a proposed descendant of Heman Churchill, but that proved tooo difficult
  • I add one Zadock Line. Zadock was the son of an earlier Stephen Churchill born 1717 in Plymouth.
  • My father’s cousin Joyce was helpful in most of these matches
Posted on

My Cowen/Cowing ThruLines

My Massachusetts genealogy has two sides. One side is my Pilgrim ancestors and the other side is my non-Pilgrim ancestors:

My great-grandmother Annie Louisa Snell was the source of my Massachusetts heritage. Her maternal side was the non-pilgrim ancestry and the bottom side or maternal side of the tree above was the Pilgrim ancestry lead off my Harvey Bradford.

DNA/Genealogy Trees

Looking through my files I see these Trees:

  • Snell
  • Parker
  • Hatch
  • Bradford
  • Hathaway

What I don’t see for trees:

  • Luther
  • Churchill
  • Cowing

I would like to update my old trees and add trees where necessary. The last time I started looking at this subject, I looked at Hathaway and realized I had a lot of people in that tree and more to add. This time, I would like to look at Luther, Churchill and Cowing.

Cowing

I know this name from my home town as Cowen. However, the more historical spelling is Cowing or Cowin. I don’t recall writing about any ThruLines for Cowing. Here are some from Joyce, my father’s first cousin:

Joyce and my family are under Experience Cowing. Joyce has no additional ThruLines under Israel Cowing, but she has three ThruLines through Jonathan and Patience Cowing. First, I’ll loo at Christine:

This has happened before. When I choose Kristine from the ThruLines and then check her common ancestors, I come out with a different line. I am curious to see if the Cowen connection is correct.

Here is Kristen’s paternal side from her own tree:

Here is the family in Middleborough, MA in 1930:

Philip was a chauffer for the Town. Philip was born in Westport, but his birth record shows that his father was born in Mattapoisett:

Here is Philip and his father Sanford and family in Westport, MA in 1900:

Sandford was a farmer.

Here is my tree for Kristine:

Mattapoisett became a Town in 1857, the year before Sanford was born. I just need to show that the Ruth above was Ruth Cowen.

Here is the 1865 Census for Mattapoisett:

Findagrave shows this for Ruth:

My tree now suggests that Kristine does go back to Seth Cowen:

My understanding is that Kristine should be a 5th cousin to Joyce. So that is a little closer than the 5th cousin once removed on the Hathaway side. The DNA match would be either from the Cowen side or the Hathaway side. There is no easy way of knowing.

A First Cowen DNA/Genealogy Tree

That line was relatively easy to trace as the family stayed fairly local.

Helen and Joyce

The next family is fun because it involves a genealogy friend, Helen, who lives down the street from me:

If I can show that Helen matches  Joyce by DNA, it gives creedence to our genealogical research. I trust Helen’s research, so feel no need to evaluate it. Here is her tree:

Helen’s line goes to Seth Cowing Hiller, then to Patience Cowing and then to our most recents common ancestors, Seth Cowing and Penelope Crapo.

I’ll add Frances and Helen to the Tree:

A few interesting things about this tree:

  • These three lines represent three Cowing children born within about 4 years
  • These families mostly stayed in the same part of Massachusetts for about 300 years and if you look at the Mayflower ancestors, that would have our families here for 400 years, so we have deep roots in this part of SE Massachusetts.

Jon and Shaun

My sister Heidi and I have no Cowing ThruLines from Seth Cowing, but my brother Jon has one:

Shaun has a modest tree, but has more on his maternal side. I don’t have a tree for Shaun, so I will create one. Shaun does show that his maternal great-grandfather was from New Bedford:

This obituary ties Stacey Smith to Francis Swift:

Francis was born in Utah and wed in Wyoming:

Here is the 1930 Census for Salt Lake City:

Here is my tree so far:

I forgot to mention, that when I look at the specific match for Jon and Shaun, a Hathaway connection shows up. It is likely that Jon and Shaun are connected on both lines:

This comes up now because there is a Hathaway in Shaun’s Line.

The marriage record for Francis and Amanda has a lot of information:

This has Francis born in Sandwich rather than New Bedford. It also has their parents’ names.  Here is a tree update:

Where Hattaway is likely a transcription error for Hathaway.

Here is the book transcription of the marriage of Nathan Swift and Pamelia Cowing:

And here is her birth record:

So it is pretty clear where this is going as Israel is the son of Seth Cowing.

Here I have the connection between my brother Jon and Shaun:

I did not check out the Hathaway connection, but that one is likely also. That means, that it is unclear as to whether the actual DNA that Jon and Shaun share are from the Hathaway side or Cowing side.

Lori and Gretchen

I see that my sister Lori has a potential Cowing connection with Gretchen:

The good news is that I already have Matthew Hiller in my tree, so I just need to get Gretchen back to Matthew instead of to the colonial Seth Cowing. I am having trouble finding Seth from the information that Gretchen has:

Gretchen has that Seth died in New York City. I found this draft card:

The only problem is that the tree I got this from has Seth’s wife as Grace Appel:

Gretchen’s tree suggests a Webster as the wife.

Looking at Helen’s ThruLines

I thought of another way to substantiate Gretchen. I have access to Helen’s ThruLines:

Clearly, Gretchen has a large match to Helen and is related. Here is Helen’s tree:

The other three that show as children of Matthew Hiller could not be from Beuretta Webster Hammon if Helen’s tree is right as Beuretta dies in 1880.

Here is the family in 1900:

Charles is apparently out of the house, but George, David and Jennie from Helen’s ThruLines are there. This seems to be a good enough of a connection for me.

I’ll add Gretchen to the tree:

Gretchen and my brother Jon are 5th cousins once removed.

My sister Lori also matches Gretchen. Also my sister Sharon matches Shaun.

Cousin Maury’s ThruLines

My father’s cousin Maury has also tested at Ancestry. He has these ThruLines to Cowing:

Maury and my family are under Experience Cowing. The Hiller family is under Patience Cowing. Here are Maury’s ThruLines on the Hiller side:

Maury and P.S.

Since I last wrote, I see another ThruLine for Maury. It is on a different Cowing Line that I would like to investigate:

Mary is the oldest child of Seth Cowing on the ThruLines. Mary is on my tree. She must have married Philipp Briggs:

We are trying to go from the Wing back to the Nye family:

Here is Addie’s birth record from 1864 in Sandwich:

Addie’s father, George B. was a butcher.

Here is the family in 1870:

Next, I just need to find George’s mother. George’s death record gives his mother’s name and birthplace:

Here the Cowing Tree is filling out:

Co

This is not as far as I could go, but it is as far as I would like to go for now.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able, with not too much difficulty, to pretty good Cowing DNA/Genealogy Tree thanks to my father’s cousins Joyce and Maury and my brother Jon
  • In some cases the common ancestors also came up as Hathaway. That is probably partly because my ancestor Experience Cowing married Joseph Hathaway. However, the matches would have had to have had Hathaways in their ancestry also
  • In other cases where Hathawy did not show up in the ThruLine matches, I assume that Hathaway ancestry was not there in the DNA match – at least during the time period that we are looking at.
  • I am ready to move on to more DNA/Genealogy Trees