Category: ThruLines

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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.

 

 

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Joyce and Bearse ThruLines

I have been looking at the ThruLines of Joyce who is my late father’s first cousin. While doing this, I have become more acquainted with some of my ancestors lines through the DNA of matching descendants.

Here are Joyce’s Bearse ThruLines:

I have that Joyce descends from Olive Bearse. Olive’s siblings in white are already in my Ancestry Tree. Then Joyce has 8 potential matches for siblings of Olive that are not in my tree.

Bearse Genealogy

The genealogy for this family goes back to 1888 with the Amos Otis Papers:

I descend from Joseph.

I descend from VI John., born in 1687.

I descend from John and Lydia Lumbert. If John married in 1746, he could have been born around 1720 or so.

John Bearse, born around 1720 and Lydia Lumbert are the ancestors that Joyces’ ThruLines descend from.

Joyce and Thomas

Interestingly, Joyce and Thomas have a shared match with Judith who is on the Martha Bearse ThruLines. So that is hopeful. Martha Bearse was not on my Ancestry Tree. That tells me that if Thomas connects, then it would make sense that Judith could also connect, but we’ll see.

Horace was born in Lincoln, Massachusetts and his mother checks out:

Georgiana was born in Boston. Her father Austin was a real estate agent:

Here is the record from findagrave.com for Austin Bearse:

Here is what I have so far:

I need to confirm the Eleazer H Bearse to Gershom Bearse connection. Gershom marries Prudence Hatch in 1771 according to the Falmouth records:

I see this hint an a history of Barnstable County;

From this account, I take it that Eleazer had a daughter named Martha A and that Eleazoer was the son of Gershom Bearse.

I see this in the Barnstable Town records:

I did find a marriage record between Gideon Hallet and Martha A Bearse.

A First Bearse DNA Tree

Here is a vertical view of my Ancestry Tree showing where I spliced in the new descendants of the Gershom Bearse Line:

I am happy to end the Blog here, but will likely continue with other Bearse ThruLines in a subsequent Blog.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I learned much about the Bearse family
  • I am amazed at how early Austin or Augustine Bearse came to Barnstable. This was 1639 according to his biography. That is not many years shy of 400 years ago.
  • The Hatch family name comes up in many of these families. In fact the name Prudence Hatch comes up in my ancestry and that of Thomas.
  • Austin Bearse born 1808 in Thomas’ line was an abolitionist

 

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Joyce’s Hoar ThruLines

Joyce is my late father’s 1st cousin, so her ThruLines go back one generation further than mine. Here are her Hoar or Hoard ThruLines:

I researched this family many years ago, so it would be good to take a fresh look.

The Hoars lived in the Taunton or Dighton area. I believe that Dighton used to be part of Taunton.

Joyce and Sprry

Sprry’s tree goes back to his paternal grandmother which agrees with the ThruLines up to that point:

I think that sprry will match up with my tree. Here is Luella in 1900 in Bingham, Michigan:

Here is Bingham:

Luella’s father was Adelbert who was a farmer.

This is likely Adelbert sitting down. Here is Adelbert in 1855 as a young child with his father George and family living in Madison, New York:

Here is George in 1850:

My guess is that George’s elderly parents George and Prudence were living next door to him.

At this point, I would like to look more at the top of the ThruLine:

Here is an excerpt I found at Ancestry:

This is from a book called, A record of descendants of Hezekiah Hoar of Taunton, Massachusetts : with an historical introduction.

This fills in the blanks.

A First Hoar DNA Tree

This is at the limits that the ThruLines go to which is a 6th cousin relationship. I should note that the match between Joyce and sprry is listed as a peternal one and I match Joyce on her maternal (Annie Louisa Hartley) side. So the DNA appears to be saying one thing and the genealogy another. This is probably because Joyce has colonial Massachusetts ancestors on her paternal side also.

Joyce and Singinheart

For singin and donald, I only have to show a connection up to James Hoar. Singin shows two Hoards in her tree:

I notice that with singin, the match is on Joyce’s maternal side:

 

Here is Agnes living in Minnesota in 1920 with her family. Her father was post master and was born in New York:

Here is a younger Hiram in 1850:

As suggested, by the ThruLines, Hiram’s father is William. Here is Stockbridge, where the farm was:

Here is some interesting information on William at Findagrave.com:

As William was quite well documented, I will accept the hints for his parents at Ancestry.

At this point, I hope that there is a reference to James and Enos Hoard in a published book. Here is where he is:

Enos is apparently the youngest son of James.

Next, I add singinheart to my Hoar DNA Tree:

Joyce and Donald

Joyce and Donald are said to match on Joyce’s paternal side also. Donald takes his tree back on the Hoard/Hoar Line;

I am tempted to accept Donald’s tree as is. For one reason, his grandmother is mentioned in the Hoar Book:

That grandmother being Laura Adelia Foot.

Summary and Conclusions

  • The genealogy for all of Joyces 3 Hoar ThruLines matches played out well
  • The Hoar family appears to be well documented. I think that one Hoar I read about became the Governor of Minnesota. Another was a traveling Methodist Preacher.
  • There is some confusion as to whether Joyce’s Hoar descendant matches are paternal or maternal. Maternal would be better. Out at this level of relationship I am not sure whether I trust the designation. Regardless, there is still a genealogical connection.
  • I am not sure at my level whether I match any of these Hoar descendants by DNA.
  • Another of my father’s cousins tested at Ancestry and he has an additional Hoar ThruLine that I did not add to my Hoar DNA Tree.

 

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Joyce’s Davis ThruLines

My father’s cousin Joyce has a lot of Davis ThruLines:

Joyce and I descend from Mercy Davis. The other lines show six matches. I have not looked at other children of Noah Davis as ThruLines is showing that I need to evaluate those children. I have that Noah was born in Falmouth. I believe that is where Davisville is.

Davis Genealogy

My tree starts on the left with Mercy Davis who married William Parker.

Findagrave.com has that Mercy was burried in the Woods Lhoe Village Cemetery:

This suggests that she may have lived in or near Woods Hole:

Here is a record from 1756:

Mercy was propounded which I take to mean suggested for commuion in August and baptized and admitted to full communion on August 8 at the age of about 22.

According to the Church’s website:

Falmouth’s first meeting house was built in 1700 or earlier near the Old Burying ground off today’s Mill Road in Falmouth. A second larger meeting house, near that site, was completed in 1717.  Continued growth of the town led to that meeting house being moved and rebuilt by 1756 on that portion of the original Meeting House Lot which was then laid out and called the Village Green. That meeting house was replaced in 1796 with a fourth building in the style of a church, erected on the same site. In its steeple a bell made by Paul Revere was placed. That bell continues to ring out over Falmouth. Its inscription reads: “The living to the church I call, and to the grave I summon all.”

Here is where the original Church was:

Here is the current church location:

Mercy’s husband William Parker served in the Revolutionary War. On my Parker web page I note:

William also served in the Revolutionary War as did his son Isaac and other Parkers. He was at Fort Ticonderoga. He became ill during the war and died soon after.

As William died in 1778, his wife Mercy was a widow about 42 years. I assume that she lived with one of her children:

My assumption is that Mercy was born perhaps in the Davisville area of Falmouth. She has 6 children. The first dies young. Her husband dies due to complications of an illness during the Revolutionary war. She remains a widow for 42 years. She likely lives near the end of her life in or near Woods Hole. Perhaps her child was involved in the area of navigation as Woods Hole was an important pass through place between New Bedford and the Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. This is a guess as Mercy’s son Isaac was in the ship repair business on Nantucket. William’s brother Silas Parker was a Captain who sailed between Nantucket and New Bedford.

Dolor Davis and The Great Migration

One of my favorite sources for early Massachusetts genealogy is in the Great Migration Publications. I see this on page 292:

It looks like Dolor moved around a bit. According to Wikipedia:

Falmouth was first settled by English colonists in 1660 and was officially incorporated in 1686. 

 I am guessing that Dolor’s trade of house carpenter was much in demand.

Dolor’s son John who is also in my tree is mentioned above.

It seems odd that Dolor would live in both Concord and Barnstable. Summering on the Cape?

My tree shows that John Davis married Hannah Linnell. I will change that to Linnett based on this.

Of interest to me is that John came to the New World in 1635 with his mother and two younger sisters when he was nine years old. According to an 1881 ‘sketch’ of Dolor Davis:

John Davis

Further from, “Dolor Davis, a sketch of his life, with a record of his earlier descendents”:

This brings us to my ancestor Noah Davis #12 above. We also learn that John, father of my ancestor Noah moved to Falmouth about 1710.

Back to ThruLines

I would like to start with JB:

JB’s Ancestry tree follows the ThruLines as far as her tree goes:

I note that I also have Hatch ancestors.

I added JB to my tree as a floating tree. I quickly move on to JB’s paternal grandmother. Eleanor’s father was a master mariner:

However, I want to follow her mother Abbie. The couple were married in Boston:

Here is Abby’s family in 1850:

Abbie’s death record has a lot of information including her whole name, her parents’ names where she was born and where her parents were born. Abby and her mother Eleanor who I am tracking were said to be born in Woods Hole.

Here is the 1827 marriage record in Falmouth for Eleanor and Ervin:

Here is Eleanor’s grave marker:

Eleanor’s parents are listed on the Falmouth Death Records:

The last name is transcribed Jenny, but I can also see Young. I am following Andrew next:

Here is the 1797 marriage:

I have two more steps to go. I need to get back to Mehitable Davis. I see her marriage:

However, I need to link her to Andrew Young.

Mehitable Davis

I was able to find a Mehitable in Noah Davis’ will. This will is referenced in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (NEHGR):

Fortunately, FamilySearch has the Barnstable County Probates online.

Noah names several children:

  1. Son Francis Davis
  2. Daughter Mercy Davis – my ancestor
  3. Daughter [Lavinia?] – the name appears to be behind tape.
  4. Daughter Mehitable
  5. Daughter Anna
  6. Granddaughter Susannah Parker

According to WikiTree:

The will of Noah Davis of Falmouth was dated 12 February 1780 and proved on 16 August 1787[8] in Barnstable. He mentioned his wife Mercy, and his children, Mercy Parker, Francis Davis (executor), Susanna Swift, Mehitable Davis, Anne Davis, and his granddaughter Susanna Parker.

It is interesting that a Susannah Parker is mentioned. I do not have a record of my ancestors William Parker and Mercy Davis having a daughter Susannah, so perhaps she was the daughter of the Hannah Davis who married Benjamin Parker mentioned above in the NEHGR.

However, Mehitable should have been married by 1780. The fact that she was not called Mehitable Young does not necessarily mean that these are two different Mehitables.

So what I am trying to connect:

  1. Noah Davis has a daughter named Mehitable who was alive about 1780.
  2. Noah was born in 1707 and probably having children in the 1730’s and 1740’s.
  3. There is a Mehitable Davis of Falmouth who marries a Simeon Young of Chatham, Connecticut in 1768.
  4. Andrew Young marries Marcy Hatch both of Falmouth in 1797

In this Ancestry Tree, it would appear that Mehitable gave birth to all her children in Connecticut:

Andrew father dies the same year Andrew is born and Mehitable remarries. Andrew makes his way back to Falmouth. Under this scenario, Mehitable’s second son is named for her brother Francis. The Connecticut Abstracts reinforce that:

For me, this record tips the balance of evidence for me to add JB’s Line to my tree.

I think the date of Mehitable’s birth is a bit late. However, it could be. She would have been about 20 at the time of her marriage.

My First Davis DNA Tree

I used to call these DNA/Genealogy Trees, but have just shortened the name:

It took a lot of work to convince myself that this was real. The only question is the two Hatch connections. However, these would go back quite a bit further than 1707.

Joyce and Robin

It should be much easier checking this connection:

Robin is a shared match between Joyce and JB above. Robin has her maternal grandfather born in Falmouth which is hopeful. Robert Hamblin’s family is mentioned in an American Histories book which even has a photo of Emily above:

In Emily’s death record in Falmouth, her mother is transcribed as Eleanor Foung, but I am quite sure it should be Young. Here I’ve already gotten ahead of myself:

I’ll delete Erving and Eleanor Young and then Connect Emily to my tree.

Now I just need to add Robin to my DNA tree:

 

This also gave me a chance to correct my tree. Previously I had Eleanor Young and Erving Robinson reversed. This shows that JB and Robin should be 3rd cousins to each other. The only odd thing is that Joyce and Robin show as a paternal match and I match Joyce on her maternal Hartley side. However, I assume this could be wrong or pointing to another relationship.

Joyce and Debra

This will be the last ThruLine for this Blog:

Debra is also shown as a paternal match to Joyce. Mehitable Young already shows in white above which means that she has been added to my tree. The maternal side of Debra’s tree does not include the Young family which is suspicious:

Who Was the Mother of William James Tyron?

I see another problem. Or perhaps two. Augusta Anthony would have been 16 when she gave birth to William James. More improbably, Martha Amanda Young would have been about 59 when her William James was born.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to trace the ancestry of one of Joyce’s DNA matches back to Noah Davis and Mercy Prence or Meigs
  • After that another third cousin of that match was easy to trace back to the same common ancestors.
  • The excercise gave me a better feeling for the Davis family of the 1700’s.
  • I tried to trace another of Jocye’s matches who had a potential descent from Mehitable Davis (the Daughter of Noah and Mercy Davis). However, that descent was not clear and seemed unlikely based on the age one woman would have to have been for this to be right.
  • There are three more Davis ThruLines for Joyce. However, one of the lines is from a child of Noah that I am not aware of which makes me suspicious.
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Joyce’s Trafton ThruLine

Joyce is my late father’s cousin. I was looking for possible connections on relatively obscure lines and found one ThruLine that Joyce has:

Joyce and nallen are potentially 6th cousins. Joseph Trafton was from Dighton, Massachusetts.

Joseph Trafton was married to Zipporah Talbot.

Joyce and nallen

I will create a floating tree for nallen and hopefully connect it later to my existing tree. nallen’s grandfather’s mother is listed on his death record:

This gets us back to Trafton.

Leila’s father appears to be a brick layer in 1860:

He was born about 1821 in Virginia. I just need to get from Walter back to Charles G Trafton who is in my tree.

I don’t mind borrowing from this source:

Findagrave.com has additional information:

Here is Camdem, NC:

Here is the final link:

I connected nallen to my tree:

Here we see a tale of two Traftons. Rebecca marries Benjamin Luther and remains in the Dighton area. Charles Gardner Trafton moves South to North Carolina.

A Small Trafton DNA/Genealogy Tree

Summary and Conclusions

  • I assume that Joseph Trafton and Zipporah Talbot had a small family.
  • This Blog was one of my easier ones. My job was to see if nallen and Joyce matched by genealogy as well as by DNA.
  • It is not clear why Charles Gardner moved South. Perhaps he was offered land for his service in the military during the Revolution.
  • The fact that Charles moved out of Massachusetts early on makes it more likely that this an accurate match between DNA and genealogy.

 

 

 

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Burbank ThruLines

My Burbank ancestors go back too far to be covered by my own ThruLines. However, my father’s cousin Joyce shows some ThruLines for Burbank:

This appears to be new territory to look at.

Here is part of my great-granmother’s maternal line:

It shows that Timothy Burbank was married to Mercy Kempton.

Some Burbank Genealogy

Apparently Timothy Burbank was born in Boston in 1703. However, he married in Plymouth.

I have that Timothy’s father was born in Haverhill and that his grandfather was from Rowley.

Joyce and Donna

Donna’s tree goes back to Mary Burbank which is hopeful:

Donna’s tree shows Mary dying in Canada:

Mayflower Births and Deaths has this entry:

This leads to Register 59 from 1905:

This shows a strong link at the top of the tree. I note that families left not because they were unsympathetic to the Revolution, but because they could get free land. I also read that residents of this area became unsympathetic to the Revolution after being raided by Americans.

Now I will start at the more recent part of the tree. Here is the birth record for Donna’s father:

Cape Negro Island is not too far from Yarmouth which I cut off on the map. Shirley’s father Wilford was a fisherman which makes sense given the location that they lived.

The 1901 Census says the family was Baptist, Scottish and the father was a blacksmith. His wife is 37 and he has a daughter who is 27, so that suggests that this was a second marriage.

I think the red on the map is Jordan River. Here is the widowed Albert Morton in 1881:

I found this at Ancestry which apparently refers to FamilySearch:

Albert Edward was born in Liverpool:

His parents were James Roland and Katy S.? (transcribed as F.). James was a mason. This James would be the son of the Lucy mentioned in the New England Historic and Genealogical Register (NEHGR) above.

At this point, I connect my floating tree of Donna into my main tree:

A First Burbank DNA/Genealogy Tree

In my mind, the fact that Donna’s Burbank moved to Nova Scotia before the Revolution makes this DNA connection more likely.

Joyce and Douglas

Douglas could help fill out my Burbank DNA/Genealogy Tree. The 1910 Census has Douglas’ grandfather a physician in Gloucester in 1910:

The fact that the grandfather was from Canada is hopeful. Douglas’ grandfather’s marriage record is helpful:

It gives his birth place and parents’ names. Here is Milton, near Liverpool, NS:

Here is the family in 1891:

Richard was a Congragationalist who was listed as farmer and huntman. So far the tree is going well:

Findagrave.com has this information:

This research on Thomas Knowles was found at Ancestry:

This document was also helpful:

Based on this, I accepted the parent hints at Ancestry:

From there, I added Elizabeth Crowell and linked Elizabeth Burbank to the Timothy Burbank I already had in my tree.

Here, the Burbank DNA/Genealogy Tree gets a little more width:

It turns out that Douglas has small DNA matches to two of my siblings.

Joyce and F.M.

The paternal side of FM’s tree is from Nova Scotia. I have had success so far with Joyce’s Burbank ThruLines. As usual, I start a floating tree for F.M. F.M. has a small tree at Ancestry:

Here is the family in 1921:

John was Scottish and the Town Clerk. However it is Mattie I am interested in.

Here is Mattie’s family in 1901 in Brooklyn, NS:

ThruLines wants me to go with Mattie’s mother Gertrude at this point and then Gertrude’s father. Gertrudes grave stone has her maiden name:

Gertrude’s father was a Baptist blacksmith:

Based on this, I’ll accept the Ancestry hint of Theodosius as Gertrude’s father.

Hannah Burbank

At this point, I look at the family from near the top of the ThruLines:

Hannah marries in Plymouth in 1758. That means that the above Theodosius must have been named for his grandfather. The easiest reference I can find to fill in the blank is this:

Adoriam Judson caught my eye. I assume that Theodosius was a fan of the missionary:

Next, I just need to connect John Ford to his parents in my tree and connect the floating tree.

Here is the big picture:

I am pretty confident with this DNA/Genealogy Tree. However, having said that, I realize that many from Colonial Massachusetts moved to this area. So other connections are possible. At this distant relationship, it would be extremely tedious to check out all possibilities.

Summary and Conclusions

  • It appears that all of Joyce’s Timothy Burbank ThruLines check out.
  • At first it appeared that these were the only possible connections. However, with the emmigration patterns from Massachusetts, there could be other connections. Still this is a good list. This is because my ancestor Lucy Burbank’s three siblings moved to this area in Nova Scotia
  • I had not known about this immigration pattern before, so it is interesting. I’m sure this move was meant to increase personal wealth – or so it seems.
  • It would interesting to check the actual DNA matches and where they occur. However, that is not possible with Ancestry. Ancestry is good with making genealogical connections but does not have Chromosome Browser.
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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