The Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project: Chasing Chromosomes

This time last year I couldn't have told you very much about chromosomes and now I'm swimming in them. These days I'm focusing my efforts on how various descendants of Thomas and Judah Farrell have inherited certain chromosome segments along ancestral lines. (You can read about the larger project here.)

As we each pursue our various genealogy projects, it often causes us to think deeper about the topic at hand and this sure has been true for me while chasing chromosomes. As regards this project I've stumbled into some conclusions and want to share them. These conclusions are very much based on the way our project is shaping up. Our Farrell project is unique to us but there might be something of interest to others. Maybe.

We know that chromosomes are key to unlocking the science of inheritance. If there's a chromosome match that follows some basic parameters then descent is assured (no matter what the records say or especially what they don't say). But for our project, what are those parameters? Here's our thinking and the parameters we came up with. Just remember that I'm no expert on genetic genealogy:)

1. We need to see the match plus a tree in order to know who the common ancestor is. If there's a match but no tree (or the tree is poorly developed) we've found that we're mostly out of luck, unless we want to invest a lot of time helping the matching person build out their tree. Right now we have only six people who have matched and have identified a common ancestor, but we've just started.

2. Importance of the number of centemorgans, or cMs, in the match: more = better. So we know that cMs is how the match is measured and that more cMs equals a better and stronger match. The general rule of thumb is that under 5 to 7 cMs is probably not worth spending too much time on: glance at it and move on quickly. Over 5 - 7 is called IBD or Identical By Descent to indicate that the matching chromosomes are shared by descent, with some level of confidence. Less than 5 is called IBS or identical by state, meaning that the chromosomes are shared most probably by chance or if by a common ancestor, then that ancestor is way back.

As a side note here, at each generation we inherit only about 50% of our DNA from one parent. Which DNA segments are handed down is close to random. By about 5 to 9 generations you start to lose ancestors entirely leaving no trackable DNA.

3. Endogamous populations are a little different and Magnolia, Virginia, now West Virginia, might be one. It was a small relatively isolated community and there were many intermarriages. An endogamous population is a group or social set in which there's mating amongst a small population and therefore the gene pool is shared and re-shared repeatedly. In this endogamous population situation the rule is to use 10 cMs as a cut off point for IBD and establishing a true genetic connection. This 10 cM cut off could be a good tool in evaluating our Farrell matches.

4. Number of generations to a shared common ancestor. We've seen that when it comes to number of generations to that common ancestor, fewer is better and gives us a better chance at spotting a common ancestor. At the point of 4th cousin it is commonly thought that there's maybe a 50-50% chance of the match being reliable. With each generation the confidence drops some more. We want 4th cousins or closer. (Who doesn't?)

5. In looking at the individual chromosomes where there is a match, the key element is the start and stop locations. If two people have a matching segment of over 10 cMs on the same chromosome with greatly similar start and stop locations, that's a good match for us to pursue.

And what are our "best case" requirements?

* A tree that shows the common ancestor
* 7 cMs minimum and 10 cMs or more is best
* 4th cousin or closer, 5 generations or fewer to common ancestor
* Matches with similar start and stop locations on chromosomes

So there we are. We've found that most matches don't work out because we're thinking that they aren't "good enough." We'll either have to wait for more people to be tested that meet our requirements or invest more of our own time helping matches that follow the four generation and greater than 10 cMs rules build out their trees in an effort to find that most recent common ancestor. We will have to evaluate each match and, using these parameters, decide how much time we can invest to make the match gain more confidence and eventually yield that ever-elusive and critically important Most Recent Common Ancestor.

This is at times difficult work, but so very rewarding.


Resources I like:

Beginner's Guide to Genetic Genealogy
Lots of resources and love the way learning is broken down into manageable lessons. You can pop in and learn on the fly or brush up on a topic. Love it!

Blaine T. Bettinger's Blog: The Genetic Genealogist
It's all good here. Check out the Product Reviews to sort out vendors.

CeCe Moore's Blog: Your Genetic Genealogist
I really don't know how CeCe gets it all done. Her schedule makes me swoon with exhaustion. Use the search box down a little ways on the right to connect with any topic you can think of.

ISOGG Blog: the International Society of Genetic Genealogy
The Source. Check it out.

DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy
Roberta Estes's web site is a good read. Subscribe or pop in to browse or search.



The URL for this post is:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-dna_30.html

Cousin Joseph's Good Genealogy Deed

 

 

 

 

That screen shot just above was my introduction to Cousin Joseph. Mom and he took the AncestryDNA test and he came up as a match with high confidence... and he had a big juicy tree that is public! You can read a previous post about our search for Farrell descendants and their chromosomes here in which Cousin Joseph is mentioned. We've been in touch, emailing and messaging back and forth. He has been very helpful and eventually lead Cousin Rich and I to an old church register that might unlock a lot of doors, if we can get to it. But that's another story for a later time.

 

So that's how I met Cousin Joseph. He is the proud owner and proprietor of Barn Dog Antiques and Country Treasures at 876 Main Street in Milton West Virginia. Here's a link to Barn Dog's Facebook page. He obviously has an eye for style and old stuff! The photos make ya' want to stop on by and take a look.

When I checked Joseph's personal Facebook page this morning I read this lovely and heart-warming story.

What a surprise we got today. Interesting, back in March we purchased this awesome signed coverlet from 1847 which originated from Lucas County Ohio. Purchased this coverlet from a lady on EBay who bought it in Iowa. Received a message from the seller of this coverlet stating a guy had been researching his 3rd great grandfather and googled the name and this eBay transaction came up from back in March. Just so happens this coverlet was made by his 3rd great grandfather and that he was a professional weaver in Lucas County, Ohio. The lady forwards me his info and I contacted the gentleman in Michigan and the guy has all his documentation and this coverlet was definitely made by his 3rd great grandfather, Joseph Rochte of Lucas County Ohio. He had no idea what a coverlet was until this came up. I am sending this coverlet back to it's family and the guy is extremely excited to get it.  Just a great story.

 

 

 

 

 

Now isn't that a genealogy good deed? Don't you just love stories like this? I sure do. Warms my genealogy heart:)


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/cousin-josephs-good-genealogy-deed.html

Military Memories: Ancestors of The American Revolution

I love it that my uncles served in the first and second World Wars, but the list that really tickles my fancy is the big yellow post note on the desktop monitor that keeps the running tally of all the ancestors who served, are thought to have served, or gave aid in the American Revolution. The list is in flux as new ancestors who lent aide to the Revolution are approved and officially added - or subtracted. Right now there are eleven confirmed or in the works. Let me share them for this series suggested by Jennifer Holik, Military Memories. Thanks, Jennifer!

When Mom first started telling me about our Patriot ancestors who served in the Revolution, there were just two on the list, one on Mom's side and one on Dad's. We were proud as punch and Mom got busy preparing the documents for my sister and I to get in the DAR under Nehemiah Newans, Dad's ancestor. The original of our DAR certificates still to this day grace Mom's fireplace bookshelves. Nehemiah fascinated me from the start of my interest in genealogy and finding out what I could about him and his life was my first big project. Just plug his name into the search box to the right and many posts about my search for him will pop up. You can also see a timeline of his life by clicking the tab at the top.

By any measure, Nehemiah Newans did have an interesting and adventurous life. Born between 1735 to 1748 in the Derbyshire area of the UK, somehow and under some circumstances, he got to the Colonies. You can read the family story handed down in printed form by clicking on the "Thomas F. Myers Book" tab at the top. You only need to read the first couple of pages to know as much as any of the family now know about his early life. It says that he served with General Braddock and later under George Washington, but I have my doubts about that, even though it makes a dandy story.

After his military service, he landed in the area around York Pennsylvania, maybe. But he did serve in the Revolutionary War and we know that for sure. At the end of the war he disappeared from sight of his wife and son. But he was found in the 1790 census in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. At this time his York family thought he was killed in the Battle of Yorktown that ended the war. But he wasn't. That's all I'll include here for brevity of space, but feel free to see his timeline or search on his name to see where he ends up. I found both the search for him as well as the results fascinating, It was this project that hooked me on genealogy! Sadly, very few others are hunting for him now, but every once in a while we do make contact.

Captain Jacob Whetstone Sr. (1738-1833) is Mom's big Revolutionary War ancestor. I'll save a lot of time and space here by just giving you one important highlight. There were two Jacob Whetstones living in the same area for a period of time: ours and theirs. Ours served in the Revolution and theirs did not. A wonderful researcher named Lois is now putting the finishing touches on a comprehensive book about our Whetstones so I'll leave the detailed exposition to her. Go, Lois!! (And please write faster:) Here is a link to my Surname Saturday post on The Wonderful Whetstones where you can find our line. Just know that the other guy married Elizabeth Studebaker (1771- 1861).

Capt. Jacob Whetstone has a long list of descendants who periodically look for him and I've connected to some of them. His legacy is alive and well, I'm happy to say.

Peter Troutman (1754-1846) is the next on my list of obvious and heralded ancestors who served in the Revolution. He has a whole band of descendants who connect to each other regularly. I found a particularly knowledgeable cousin tending Peter Troutman's memorial on Find A Grave. His war record is interesting and he served both his own enlistment period and as a paid substitute for others. You can read more about him here on my Surname Saturday post.

Peter Myers (?-1825) is an ancestor I want to know more about and you can read a Surname Saturday post here. In short, here's what the little book, The Ancestral History of Thomas F. Myers, has to say about him:
* Peter is the one son who made his escape during an Indian massacre.
* Was "bound out" as a servant when parents were killed.
* Became a tailor early on.
* Was a scout and Indian fighter.
* Helped build Fort Frederick in Maryland.
* Served in the Revolutionary War in the Maryland Line.
* Wounded at the Battle of Brandywine.
* Wounded again at the Battle of Monmouth.
* In old age, lost his fortune after the money from the sale of his farm proved worthless.
* Died penniless.
Now doesn't that sound interesting? But like dessert, I'm waiting for a bit of time and a cuppa to really enjoy this hunt! And I know next to nothing about his Revolutionary War service so that's a bunch of happy digging right there.

Adam Knauff (1760 - 1794) is another ancestor rumored to have served in the Revolutionary War, but I need to check out the documentation for myself. Mom has it in her deep notes from back before the internet that she saw that Adam Knauff served in the Revolutionary War, 4th Company, Benjamin Ogle, Capt. Now that this sort of thing is more easily researched online, it's time to do so. He would have only been 15 at the time of the start of the revolution but that's not impossible, especially if he fought in the later years or his birth year was off. Or he could have been that most romantic of subjects for painters of pictures depicting the Revolutionary War, the little drummer boy or fifer. Don't laugh, it could happen!

John Combs (1760-1854) served and was wounded in the neck and arm in the Revolutionary War and we know the unit and who his captain was, but I want more details about him too.

Josiah Frost (1744-1819) and John Porter Jr. (1737-1810) are both on the Porter line and there is one connection there that isn't rock solid but is so close that Mom and I are pretty sure the link is obvious. It's our Delilah Porter's father and you can read about that here. They lived real close to each other and their families are so intertwined it will drive you just about nuts... as it did me. Their Revolutionary War service is well documented so there's no work there for me, except to better document Delilah's father. Mom and I both think it was the endearing Gabriel McKenzie Porter.

Isaac Workman Sr. (abt. 1710-1827) and his son Isaac Workman Jr. (1742-1827) are hard to unravel in the source records. It is generally agreed that Sr. was the one who fought in the Revolutionary War and then sold his military lot land to Jr. before he moved to be with other sons in Knox County, Ohio. But look, Sr. would have been 60-something years old at the outbreak of fighting. This is a sturdy line of folks, to be sure, but fighting at 60-something? To me, it makes more sense that it was Jr. who fought. But you know how it is when you try to swim against the tide of common belief. There will need to be a lot of ducks and they better be in neat rows. It's on my list of stuff to pursue.

Last are two names from "over the mountain" in Virginia, now West Virginia, and they are John Hartley (1750-1825) and William Biggerstaff (1720-1803). Cousin Rich is the master of this territory so I'll leave it in his able hands. His argument is based on their contribution to the Revolution by paying taxes in its support. 

Well that's all eleven of them. And in doing this tidy exercise I notice that I've also made a To-Do list for myself! Dandy!

Wikimedia Commons, Battle of Yorktown.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/military-memories-ancestors-of-american.html

Military Memories: Uncle Harold and WWII

Guest author for this post is Cousin Steve, writing about his Dad's service in WWII. Originally appeared in our family history newsletter, Spring 2011.

Harold Rae Conrad, as an enlisted man, 1942.

My dad, Harold Rae Conrad, Sr. was attending Frostburg State College, now Frostburg State University, in Allegany County, Maryland, when the first peacetime military draft was held prior to the USA getting into WWII. The bill was signed into law by FDR and the draft set in motion in October 1940. In the fall of 1941, dad was drafted even though he was in his senior year in college. According to dad, he was drafted, “because he was a registered Republican and the entire draft board were registered Democrats.” The original draft was to be for 12 months service, but shortly Pearl Harbor would change all that.

Harold went to Fort Meade for his basic training and then on to Norfolk . He had risen from the rank of private to Master Sergeant, the Army decided they needed more officers and that dad, with his 3 years of college and Sergeant ranking would make a good candidate. So in January, 1943 it was off to OCS, Officers Candidate School, to soon become a commissioned officer. He eventually achieved the rank of Captain before being discharged.

My mom, Dorothy Frances Williams graduated from Frostburg State and was teaching in the Baltimore area when she “laid down the law” and said they were going to get married or else. She had had enough of this long distance romance. So on Friday the 13th in November, 1942, Dorothy and Harold were married. Even the minister questioned whether they really wanted to get married on Friday the 13th!

Harold Rae Conrad and his young bride, Dorothy Williams Conrad, May 9, 1943.
 

Most of World War II had dad, and mom, stationed in Norfolk, Va. In September 1945 Dad made a cruise on the USS A. E. Anderson, aka “The Mighty A” to bring troops back to the USA. He served as a liaison officer for the troops with their Navy crew. Their destination was Karachi, India and back which had them traveling 16,200 miles. When they arrived back in New York, dad was discharged from the Army.

On the USS AE Anderson, 1945, Karachi, India

Postscript

Uncle Harold and Mom's sister Dot grew up together. They were childhood sweethearts and so it was no surprise to the family that they wed. Here are some items from Mom's archive that will give you a fuller picture of their young lives. Weren't they cute?!

A keepsake of Aunt Dots, a gum wrapper souvenir of their first date. Everyone called Harold "Cooney", a shortening of Conrad. Conrad - Coonrad - then Coonie. You know how kids are.

 

Harold and Dot's parents in the back row on a family fun day.

They were that close growing up.

 

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Changed the blog template just now

I follow Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and really like his recent change to a cleaner and simpler design, so I thought I'd try it here. He had some technical difficulties and had to change but luckily I got to choose when this blog changed. I hope you like the new design. Was tired of the old one. Will probably fiddle with it some more. The first fiddle was to change the text color to black instead of gray... darn those 20-something designers and their light gray text! If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear from you!

Military Memories: Uncle Jimmy Whetstone and WWI

James Franklin Whetstone (1889-1960)

I knew that Mom's Uncle Jimmy, who was James Franklin Whetstone (1889-1960), had served in the First World War but not much more, so I asked her recently. He was, as she remembered, the only one of the family to have served in that war. We mused about that for a while and thought that it was due to the way the generations broke out, more or less, and that the men were either too young or too old and supporting families. But Uncle Jimmy went. And Uncle Jimmy got "gassed." But we'll get to that in a while.

I found Uncle Jimmy's draft registration card and gave it a cursory glance. Mom, who is 95 and an avid genealogist, was on the phone with me when I was doing this and we chatted about the times and the place. Jimmy was born in the little Western Maryland mountain town of Frostburg, Allegany, in 1889, and that's where he died. Some of his brothers moved to Akron to work in the rubber plants and Jimmy went there from time to time as well. In the 1910 census he and two of his brothers, Charlie and Tuck, were working in one of the numerous coal mines that dot the hills around Frostburg. The times were prosperous and in 1912 the population of the villages around Frostburg ballooned to over 15,000 and everyone came to Frostburg to shop. The price of coal was rising and the mines were hiring. But after WWI the demand for coal dropped as did employment. The local tire and rubber plant hired as demand for cars and the tires they ran on increased. It made a lot of sense for the men to seek employment in Akron where there were a number of tire and rubber plants.

Here's a look at Uncle Jimmy's draft card, below. So what are we looking at? I checked the source info on Ancestry.com just below the overview box and clicked through to see this about the First Registration cards:

First Registration. The registration on 5 June 1917, was for men aged twenty-one to thirty-one—men born between 6 June 1886 and 5 June 1896.

It was called the 12 question card and there is a graphic view of the card's questions which was a big help because the image I saw for Uncle Jimmy's card was pretty rough and I couldn't make out the questions.

As we chatted, Mom asked me to check the 1910 census and see if Jimmy was married and he wasn't, and then she quickly asked about the 1920 census and he was single there too. Now this jogged Mom's memory a bit and she mentioned that she thought Uncle Jimmy had been married twice, first to a woman who might be named Verona, and then to the wife they all knew, Madge Cornu. But the records weren't yielding anything about a first marriage. We looked in all the usual places and the mysterious "Verona" was not to be found. And just for fun I looked at other trees on Ancestry.com and there was no first wife for Uncle Jimmy there. Maybe he wasn't married before he married Madge Cornu.

Back to Jimmy's military service. I also found a record of his service in this index:
Ancestry.com. Maryland Military Men, 1917-18 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.

Original data: Maryland in the World War, 1917-1919; Military and Naval Service Records. Vol. I-II. Baltimore, MD, USA: Twentieth Century Press, 1933.

 

The box below the source info has this to say:
Considered by many as the first "modern" war, World War One involved United States military units from 1917 to 1918. This database is a massive collection of military records for men who served in the war from Maryland. Originally compiled in 1933, it provides the names for men who served in the army, navy, and marines. In addition to providing the individual's name, it reveals city of residence, unit of service, birth date or age, and other helpful facts. It also contains the location and date of enlistment and discharge information. The names of over 67,900 men are included in the collection. For researchers of Maryland ancestors who may have served in the "Great War," this can be an informative database.

And here's the listing for Uncle Jimmy:
Name: James Franklin Whetstone
Race: white
Address: Frostburg, Allegany Co.
Birth Place: Frostburg, Md.
Birth Date: 17 Sep 1889
Comment: Ind 8/6/18 pvt, Co K 4 Pion Inf; 9 Evac Hosp 8/21/18, Hon disch 7/8/19, Overseas 9/15/18 to 6/27/19, Meuse-Argonne

OK, that's some good info right there but I had to break it down and do a bit of searching. He was inducted into service on August 6th, 1918 and was a private. Look, it says that he served in Company K of the 4th "Pion Inf." What's that? Found out that it's short for Pioneer Infantry. What's that? The pioneers go ahead of each battalion to clear the way and assure smooth passage. They were recruited from men who were described by the Personnel Bureau of the War Department as:
"Men experienced in life in the open, skilled in woodcraft and simple carpentry — substitute
occupations, rancher, prospector, hunter, scout."

The Whetstones were that. They were skilled in life in the open and were handy as hunters and knew their way around the woods. It was Jimmy's brother Tuck who showed Mom how to find edible and safe mushrooms in the woods, and you can read about that here. Jimmy's father was a stone mason so he had intimate knowledge of that craft and building in general. He had worked as a coal miner and needed to be physically strong. I'm thinking that Jimmy would fit right in.

I won't even try to explain the battle of the Argonne and if you want to read about it visit the listing on Wikipedia here. War history buffs will know right away that it was the 47-day battle that helped bring the war to an end and that it was the largest battle in US military history because it employed 1.2 million troops.

He was gassed and I heard it from Mom. Mustard gas, and all the relatives knew about it. If it was mustard gas he would have had scarred air passages and difficulty breathing and Mom confirmed that he had difficulty the rest of his life. He was taken to the 9th Evac Hospital on August 8, 1918 and then received his Honorable Discharge on July 8, 1919. It was probably the great adventure of his life.

Uncle Jimmy was in Frostburg for the 1920 census, and probably real glad to be home. On September 19th, 1921, Jimmy married Madge Cornu in Summit County, Ohio. He was 32 and she was 21 and worked as a rubber worker in one of the Akron plants. He lived and worked in Frostburg, the record shows.

And that brings me to an interesting point here.  Let's go back to the idea of Jimmy being married twice. Look at his draft card, above. It says that he's married but gives no wife's name as so many other draft cards in this record set do. Then take a look at Jimmy and Madge's marriage record below. It says they are both single.

Now what's up with that? Was he actually married to this mystery woman Mom remembered as Verona? Or was it just a romance that never worked out? Was it a secret marriage that just ended without going public, and they both just walked away? Or did she die? Mom thinks she might have.

Why are there always more mysteries and questions than we have time to explore? I'll leave the two marriages issue to his descendants, if they care to go looking. A person only has so may hours in the day, sad to say.

Uncle Jimmy and Madge lived in Frostburg the rest of their lives in a nice little brick house on Midlothian Road, later renamed Braddock Road. They had three sons, Joseph James who everyone called JJ, John Robert, and Raymond. Mom seems to remember something about one of the boys accidentally shooting the other, not seriously or anything, just boys being boys in the country, she said.

I'm glad that I got to know Mom's Uncle Jimmy like this. I've looked at that photo, up top, of him in his WWI uniform and wondered about him. I knew from Mom that he'd been gassed in the war and that he was different when he came back home. Now I know more about that. In some way, he's become my Uncle Jimmy too.

Uncle Jimmy seated with two of his sons.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/military-memories-uncle-jimmy-whetstone.html

Happy Blog-aversary to this little blog! Three years and still having fun

Friday May 16th was the third anniversary of this blog. It was one of the best decisions of my genealogical life, not counting when I took Mom's bait and started asking her about the ancestors. Why does it rank so high on my "best" list? Because it connects me with cousins, especially new-to-me cousins. They call it "cousin bait."

The list of cousin connections is far too long to easily remember. Would have to go look it up. From the get-go I wanted to create a blog that the lost cousins find and value, a blog worth their effort and so much so that they are moved to email. I try hard to do my best when posting, try to get it right, hits and many misses along the way, try to go back and revise when I notice errors. Try hard to use the correct tense when posting, a thing that challenges me constantly.

There was the time a porn bot found something in one blog post about when we moved to Cleveland, but I never did figure out what it was that attracted the bot. When I clicked on the referring link, well, it wasn't PG rated! How that happened I haven't a clue. Finally just took the post down. Have heard that the highest number of search subjects is porn and after that genealogy. Maybe some industrious web master was trying to connect the two?

Then recently a major researcher and author for the Whetstone surname contacted me and shared a couple of discoveries that she'd made about the early immigrants of that line who were Palatinates. I had emailed her hoping to make a connection but it wasn't until she read some posts here on our shared Whetstones that she took time to be in touch, and I'm very grateful that she did. She's just lovely... and generous.

It always amazes me when I check the stats and see a hit on an very old post or search on a family surname. I'm reminds that even though I'm busy now with other ancestors, lost cousins are searching daily. It's the Surname Saturday posts that pulls them in. Those are golden. I've stopped the Surname Saturday posts for now because the main surnames were covered, and those are the ones that I'm focusing on in my DNA pursuits. That works for me. But I might go back because it's so much fun.

So here goes into year four! Thanks for stopping by.


The URL for this post is:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/happy-blog-aversary-to-this-little-blog.html

The Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project: A sidetrack I had to take and a timeline for James O'Farrell

Focus, focus, focus! That's what I say to myself often. Human behavior is fascinating and if I'm going to wander off track it will be because some shiny object connected to that fascinating stuff my ancestors and relatives did. In working with the Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project, both Cousin Rich and I have wandered from time to time. To his credit, he has wandered less - if at all - and his so-called wandering has had wonderful results that are relevant. But me, I'm a bad girl when it comes to wandering. And here's how I found myself so far afield of our primary objective just this week.

Our primary objective is, using DNA test results, establish which DNA chromosomal segments come from which of four prime families who were occupants of the area around the town of Magnolia, Morgan County, Virginia then West Virginia in the time period around 1850. The connected surnames are: Farrell, House, Hartley and Biggerstaff.

To be candid, Rich and I don't even know if this is possible. But we're trying. As we go, we take time to fill our genealogical baskets with even more records and enjoy interesting side trips filling out the picture we have of our ancestor's time and place. For example, Rich just went to the National Archive to dig up a Civil War Pension file for James Farrell/ O'Farrell. It was positively scrumptious!

I won't go into lots of detail about the pension file here because I'm seriously making an effort to stay on task (who me?) But I do want to take a moment to revisit the life of James O'Farrell, as he called himself as an adult. (See previous post about him here.) Timelines are often very helpful in getting a feeling for the arc of a subject's life. I use them, not for every ancestor, but whenever there's a lot of twists and turns in a life, when the subject and family moved and maybe disappeared, or to aid thinking and inspiration when facing a problem. So I thought to do one for James O'Farrell for a different reason. It simply looked interesting.

In it I saw that his story of time in the Civil War is the stuff of Hollywood, and not because it's extraordinary but because it was probably typical of many who served in that war. So now I'll post part of it here and I think that you'll see what I mean. Let's pick up the timeline at the point when James' father, Thomas Farrell dies. As you might remember, both Thomas and Judah Farrell were born in Ireland, had two daughters there, and immigrated to the US.

1851: Thomas Farrell (father) died in Morgan County, Virginia

1855, 20 AUG: Mary Elizabeth (sister) marriage to Samuel Albert House, Morgan County, Virginia

1856, 16 SEP: Catherine Farrell (sister) marriage to James Edward Boxwell, Morgan County, Virginia

1857: Judah Farrell (mother) died in Morgan County, West Virginia

1857, 12 NOV: Sale of Judah Farrell’s estate

1861: Civil War began

1861, 17 APR: West Virginia seceded from Virginia

1861, 24 NOV: James Farrell enlisted in the Union 1st Virginia Volunteer Infantry, Company B, Capt. Zeller's Co., in Williamsport, Virginia.  

1861, DEC: contracted mumps, "affecting his testicles", Williamsport, Maryland

1862, JAN: James Farrell’s unit is absorbed into Union Company H of the 1st Regiment of the Maryland Cavalry

1862, JUL & AUG: company took leave

1862, SEP: back with company

1862, DEC: contracted rheumatism from exposure

(The Company Description Book gives us a picture of him. He was, at age 20, five feet seven and a half inches tall. His hair was light as was his complexion, and his eyes were blue. He was a farmer.)

1863, MAR: contracted small pox affecting his head and hearing, Arlington Heights, Virginia

1863, end: enlistment time up, reenlists and received $100 bonus, becomes a Union Veteran Volunteer

1864, JAN: contracted diseases of the eyes from exposure, Brandy Station, Virginia

No Date: Near Brandy Station in the state of Virginia: contracted scurvy in the mouth from use of Army food

1864, 29 SEP: disappeared from line of fire at Chapin Falls, Virginia, near Dutch Gap

1864, 30 SEP: deemed "missing" by company

1864, 1 OCT: at a prison camp at Richmond, Virginia

1864, 2 OCT: company records show "Missing from picket lines near Newmarket Road - Oct 2nd

1864, OCT: company records, "Nothing heard of him since."

1864, OCT: moved to POW camp at Salisbury, North Carolina

1864, OCT - DEC: population at Salisbury increased from 5,000 to 10,000 crisis level overcrowding, inmates begin die in great numbers

1864, Fall: fearing starvation, James enlisted in the 8th Confederate Infantry

Date unknown: while in service of Confederacy, captured by Union General Stoneman’s troops.

1865, 5 JUL: “Confined at Nashville Tenn. And was released on taking the oath of allegiance July 5 / 65”. ( Source: MEMORANDUM FROM PRISONER OF WAR RECORDS)

1865, 23 JUL: returned to his original Union unit

1865, 8 AUG: mustered out. Owed $290 for back pay and bonus

1867, 14 MAR: marriage to Henrietta Michael, Hattie, Morgan County, West Virginia

1880: US Census, Flat Creek, Pettis County, Missouri.


See, right away I spot that we haven't found James in the 1870 US Census. He was married to Hattie in March of 1867 and they had their first child, William Clem in December of that year still in West Virginia. They had their second child, Margaret or Maggie in 1872 and they lived in Pettis County Missouri then. Arthur came along in 1874 and Elmer in 1981. So where were they in 1870? Wherever they were, they are still to be found by us.

I'm chuckling just a bit as I look at the names of James and Hattie's kids. William Clem, Margaret, Arthur, and Elmer. Whatever the inspiration for those names, it was not the father's Irish family... or Hattie's brother, Isaac Newton! Do you ever wonder about the ancestors and how they named the offspring?

James O'Farrell's land in Missouri.

The URL for this post is:  http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-dna_17.html

The Thomas and Judah Farrell Project: DNA connections using AncestryDNA, Part 2

I need to emphasize again that I do really like AncestryDNA and it's key feature: using the Ancestry Member Trees to find matches and make cousin connections.  The interface is super user friendly and it's easy to navigate when seeking and finding DNA matches. I like that. Of course, I wish I'd find even more matches... don't we all?)

In the last post I wrote about our recent Biggerstaff side project and my longing for a chromosome browser built in to AncestryDNA. Now I want to turn the spotlight on a search mystery that's got Cousin Rich and me scratching our heads. The mystery has to do with the AncestryDNA search function especially as it relates to surname matching. You need to know right here that I have a very limited grasp of the mechanics behind how search apps work and that extends to the AncestryDNA search app as well. I just know what happens when I do this or that.

If you remember from the last post, Mom matches Cousin Joseph because they are both descended from Isaac Biggerstaff (1798-18440). Uncle Sonny is also a descendant of this Biggerstaff line, but not from Isaac Biggerstaff. But Uncle Sonny doesn't match Cousin Joseph. Why?

The answer could be as obvious as Mom and Cousin Joseph sharing Bigerstaff DNA that came right from Isaac Biggerstaff. The DNA shared between Mom and Uncle Sonny could actually be Farrell or House DNA. It remains to be seen and more will be known once Cousin Joseph uploads his raw file to GEDmatch so we can play around with the chromosome matcher utility.

When I found Cousin Joseph's match for Mom I emailed Cousin Rich and he went to see if Uncle Sonny or Aunt Mary also matched him. Joseph wasn't to be found amongst the regular list of matching people so Rich did a surname search on Biggerstaff. Still no Cousin Joseph.

Rich has a good sense of these things and it was Rich who first questioned if the AncestryDNA search function might have something off-kilter going on.

To double check I searched on Whetstone. Used that surname because I'd recently been in touch with a high confidence match who shared our Whetstone ancestors. When I did the surname search, whatta ya know, she didn't show up!

I have no idea why this should be. Is AncestryDNA looking at the same main match list and just searching for surname matches?

Now do you see why I really, really want AncestryDNA to tweek their search function and hopefully making it as good as the search function on the geanealogy side of the house?

 

 

Click here to get to this next search box, below, and enter your desired surname.

 

Late breaking update: tried the Whetstone surname search just now and it worked! But why didn't it before? Now I'm more confused than ever.


The URL for this post is:  http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-project_15.html

A new-to-me DNA cousin, or a scam?

Found this email in my junk folder this morning, subject: DNA cousin:

Hello,

 

I'm sorry to be bothering you, but I have news for you. My name is Nelson Ivandro Lima Zêgo, was born in Santo Antão island - Cape Verde.
 I Did the dna test - family finder in family tree dna match and told me that we are cousins.

Testing my I'm 56% West africa (bantu people), 36% European (French, Norway, germany, Russian, spanish and tuscan) and 8% Middle East (turkey Jewish and north africa jewish).

My facebook is ivandro Zêgo

 

Greetings,

Nelson Zêgo

 

A new DNA cousin, I thought when I glanced at the subject line. But then got very suspicious when I read it. The main thing that struck me is that I haven't tested with Family Tree DNA!

 

I checked SNOPES but it had nothing for me. Maybe this scam is new. Where are they picking up email addresses, that's what I'd like to know. Obviously I have an interest in DNA for genealogy, but probably don't match Bantu people (more likely Ghana for my 1% West African DNA), Jewish, Spanish or... Tuscan?? What's Tuscan DNA?!

 

Just thought you'd like to know.

 

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-new-to-me-dna-cousin-or-scam.html   

The Thomas and Judah Farrell Project: DNA connections using AncestryDNA, Part I

Let me say right off the bat that I do enjoy and appreciate AncestryDNA. But people, for Pete's sake, get yourselves a chromosome browser! And maybe take a second look at your search function especially as it relates to surname matching. Otherwise you're fine... but I really need these two things, ASAP. Now here's why I need this, and I'm going to talk about the chromosome browser thing first and in another post address the issues we're having when we use the search function for surnames.

Let's chat about the usefulness of a chromosome browser. What's a chromosome browser, you say? In a nutshell, it's the ability to run a search or matching app to see exactly where in their DNA two people share the same chromosomes. When we're lucky, some segments of those chromosomes  come down through the generations from the shared common ancestor relatively in tact in each person's DNA. A chromosome browser will find the matching segments for you.

How important is this? I've read a genealogy blog recently (wish I could remember which one, dang it) that compared the chromosome browser to the idea of "original source" in standard genealogy. I can use a chromosome browser to find out which chromosomes exactly match Mom and Uncle Sonny's DNA.

Here's a look at the GEDmatch comparison of Mom and Uncle Sonny's matching chromosomes. Mom first tested with 23andMe and Uncle Sonny and Aunt Mary tested with AncestryDNA.  In order to see exactly how and on which chromosomes they match we needed the help of a 3rd party service like GEDmatch. Here are the results for Mom and Uncle Sonny.

 

In order to get this report both parties must upload their raw data file to GEDmatch, and that's no trouble really, but if the other party is reluctant for no particular reason, then you're out of luck. If you have a chromosome browser built-in to the DNA service you are using, you can just go on ahead and see where you match with the other person's DNA, without the fuss.

Here's a link to Ce Ce Moore's blog where she talks about all this and Ancestry's plans to add their own chromosome browser. I can't wait... but there's no release date at of yet. And I really have a personal problem with waiting because I WANT IT NOW!

And now about our situation which is, I'm willing to bet, typical. Mom and Uncle Sonny are each descended from the oldest daughters of Thomas and Judah Farrell. You can read about them and the Farrell Project here. Mom descends from Mary Elizabeth (Farrell) House (1835-1919) and Uncle Sonny descends from her sister Catherine (Farrell) Boxwell (1838-1910). I'll show you both trees on down.

As we work through Mom's and Uncles Sonny's DNA matches we're always looking for people who match someone in this cluster of people and surnames that fan out around the Farrells. The main surnames are: Farrell, House, Hartley, and Biggerstaff.

Now the Biggerstaff surname is interesting and there's a distinct way that it's important to Mom and I. Samuel Albert House (1832-1917), the husband of Mary Elizabeth Farrell, was the illegitimate son of Isaac Biggerstaff (1798-1844). Proving this paternity is one the top items on my wish list of what I'm looking to find using DNA for genealogy. In order to accomplish that task I would have to find an undeniable DNA match to Mom who has a solid tree tracing back to an offspring of Isaac Biggerstaff through his marriage with Elizabeth Longstreath.

But there's another big problem: Samuel Albert could have also received Biggerstaff DNA from his mother. Keep reading to see how.

Now this next part is a bit sticky and complicated and I hope that the two trees below will help. Back to Uncle Sonny. The top tree for Uncle Sonny's ancestors shows the line back from James E. Boxwell, husband of Catherine Farrell. You'll notice that his mother is Dinah House, and her parents are James House and Margaret Hartley. Now look at Margaret Hartley's mother! Rebecca Biggerstaff! Which means that any of the descendants of James Boxwell and Dinah House could have Biggerstaff DNA... and in theory Uncle Sonny should too.

Uncle Sonny is a descendant of Aaron Boxwell and Dinah House.

Dinah House's grandmother was a Biggerstaff.

Now look at the this tree segment below from Mom's tree. There's Isaac Biggerstaff, presumed father of Samuel Albert House. (Are you wondering about the surname and why Samuel Albert took his mother's surname? He didn't at first and you can find him in the 1850 census listed as Samuel Biggerstaff and living in the home of his mother and step-father, Patrick Caton.)

In this tree below you'll see the biggest problem for me, and that is that Samuel Albert's father was a Biggerstaff and on his mother's side, his grandmother was a Biggerstaff. As a matter of fact, Samuel Albert's great grandmother on his mother's side was sister to his grandfather on his father's side. That's a whole big mess of Biggerstaff DNA! Is there any chance at all for me to sort it out and make a case for Isaac Biggerstaff being Samuel Albert's father using DNA?

I know, I know, I could do some Y-DNA testing with direct males descendants of SA House and Isaac Biggerstaff. I'm trying!

Here, I should mention that we've found a Biggerstaff match with Mom on AncestryDNA and he's a descendant of Isaac and Elizabeth. Nice, huh? He's Cousin Joseph and he came up with a 95% confidence rating. He's great to work with and has already shared some very useful info about local records:)

So, if Uncle Sonny has Biggerstaff  DNA he should in theory show up as a match with others who have this Biggerstaff DNA. Except that Cousin Joseph matched Mom but not Uncle Sonny. Hmmm. See, I wish Ancestry had a chromosome browser because I could use it to see right away how Cousin Joseph and Mom match and on which chromosomes.

Cousin Rich and I are scratching our heads and wondering why. Why new-to-us Cousin Joseph, the direct descendant of Isaac Biggerstaff and his wife Elizabeth Longstreth, should match Mom and not Uncle Sonny. Two answers come to mind immediately. First is that Joseph and Mom both have DNA that comes down through Isaac and no one else in our Farrell group, and I'll need a chromosome browser to answer that question. The other answer is that there is a problem with AncestryDNA's matching function. Or maybe it's both. Next time I'll talk about an issue we might have uncovered with AncestryDNA's search function.

Now do you see why I really, really want AncestryDNA to get a chromosome browser? Soon.



The URL for this post is:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-project.html

A Mother's Day Greeting to Mom

Want to take a moment and send this Mother's Day greeting to my Mom. She's a very special person and a lot of people think so too. A son and daughters, nieces and nephews all think the world of her. That's her in the photo above, holding me, taken in 1947. The relationship you see in that photo is the one we still have.

Today I want to say here what I tell her often, and that's how much I appreciate her genealogy work and how generously she's shared it all with me, teaching me what she knows. It's been her life's work and now, if I'm up to it and God willing, it will be mine too. I stand on the shoulders of a giant.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!



The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-mothers-day-greeting-to-mom.html

Military Memories: WWII: Dad stayed home, why and what happened then

When his brothers Delbert and Bernie went off to enlist Dad stayed home because he knew he wouldn't be eligible to serve. You see Dad had an accident when he was two years old and burned his hands on a hot stove.  Here's a tracing of Dad's little hands done by his Grandmother two days before the accident.

Dad's hands just before they were burned, an injury that kept him out of WWII.

Francis Patrick "Pat" Kelly (1916-2007).

Unfortunately Dad's hands never healed correctly and he was unable to have full range of motion with his fingers afterwards. See how the little fingers in the tracing above look normal? After the accident they were sort of webbed slightly together at the base and scarred such that he couldn't open them fully. It never stopped him from doing anything he wanted to... except join up at the start of the war.

 

Dad had worked at a textile plant so he knew manufacturing real well and worked his way up through the ranks. During the war years he worked in a munitions plant. He had a good analytical mind and understood how chemicals worked. Dad was always intellectually curious throughout his life and was truly a life-long learner. So it's not too hard to imaging how he took to the new chemistry of ballistics and bombs.

 

In his work he met some very important figures of the day and men who went on to work on the Manhattan Project. He was invited to meetings of the National Defense Research Committee, or NDRC, which from what I understand was a top secret group whose work was pretty forward looking and instrumental in the development of ballistic weapons. As Wikipedia describes it:

 

NDRC was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare."

Dad's specialty was explosives and by association, propellants. This area was to become big during the war as science worked with military to develop new weapons. A lot of the projects he worked on were top secret and he had a pretty high security clearance, but exactly what level I'm not sure. He went on numerous trips to meetings at the Pentagon.

The NDRC in its original form lasted a year from June of 1940 to June of 1941 and then it reorganized a bit and continued until after the war in 1947. Looking at the Wikipedia page about it I'm guessing that from what I know about Dad's work he was involved with Division 8, as follows form the Wikipedia listing, below:

Following the reorganization of the NDRC in December 1942, it had the following divisions:
Division 8 (Explosives), George B. Kistiakowsky, Chief (1942–1944), Ralph A. Connor, Chief (1944–1946)

I'm posting some of  the photos of that time from Mom's archive. I'd like to be able to identify some of the individuals but as yet can't except for Dad and one other man. There he is on the left with dignitaries in the photo just below.

 

 

 

Dad often talked fondly about one individual and that was George Kistiakowsky, or "Kisty" as he was called. Kisty went on to work on the Manhattan Project. I'm not positive but looking at other photos of him online, that's most likely him standing to the right of Dad. Here's just part of his fascinating life story which you can read in it's entirety by clicking on his name above which serves as a link.

 

While teaching at Harvard throughout the 1930s, Kistiakowsky applied his expertise in thermodynamics, spectroscopy, and chemical kinetics to military research, corporate consulting, and political advising. During World War II, Kistiakowsky served as chief of the National Defense Research Committee's Explosives Division.
Kistiakowsky joined the Manhattan Project in late January 1944, leaving his role as chief of the National Defense Research Committee's Explosives Division. He replaced Seth Neddermeyer as head of X (Explosives) Division and by spring 1945 had over 600 people working on solving the complicated problem of igniting the plutonium core in the atomic bomb. Under Kistiakowsky's leadership, the complex explosive lenses that would uniformly compress the plutonium sphere to achieve critical mass were developed. 

Dad at his desk at Allegany Ballistics Laboratory.

 

Dad at his ABL desk, back of the room.

Dr. Van Evera, left, shaking Dad's hand.

All of these were taken during the war years. The photo above is marked on back "Dr. Van Evera" and in the image of the plaque below you'll see his name, last column on the right. Some pretty heavy company in the room as Dr. Van Evera witnessed history. As this web site states, Dr. Van Evera must have been a big deal too:

However, The most famous event at this 5th Washington Conference on Theoretical Physics came from the announcement by Niels Bohr at the 1939 conference, in the Hall of Government, Room 209, that the nucleus of uranium had been split by bombardment with neutrons, with significant energy released. This was the dawn of the atomic age.

Photo courtesy: The GW Astrophysics Group and their Washington Conferences on Theoretical Physics.

So that's what Dad did during the war. Wish I knew more, but he wasn't talking about it overly much and now I can see why. It was all pretty hush-hush.

After the war ended and a couple of years passed during which Dad got good jobs at ABL for as many of the boys returning home as he could, and he got interested in plastics. He made some important contacts with the owners of a growing plastics plant outside of Cleveland. In 1952 we moved from the little Western Maryland mountain town of Frostburg to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and you can read about that here. It turned out to be a good move for us as a family and brought us that prosperity and new modern life you hear about and see in movies about the 1950s. Somehow, it all worked out.

Dad, 1945.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/military-memories-wwii-dad-stayed-home.html

Military Memories: Overseas service & D-Day

What were they thinking when they got there? What was Uncle Bernie thinking on D-Day as he headed onshore in the landing boat carrying all his gear? Was he a strong enough swimmer? Would the waves pull him down? A prayer or two would have been offered, to be sure, and then he jumped.

Years later and after a couple of beers on a warm summer night he might be coaxed into telling the story of how he landed at Omaha Beach on the coast of Normandy on D-Day. He always put a humorous filter on it, making fun of himself and keeping it light while he made himself the butt of the jokes. The heaviness, the pure terror of it was well hidden. Here's a recap of the story he told about D-Day. Maybe we'll never know the full truth of it.

Uncle Bernie wasn't a strong swimmer, or at least he thought as much. Growing up during the Great Depression was hard enough with the five other siblings of his parents, Helen and Lee Kelly who lived in the tidy house at 89 West main Street in Frostburg, Maryland. There was no time at all for the kids of the family to enjoy the pleasures of summer in the community pool. So Bernie knew how to swim but hadn't spent enough time in the water to be confident in his ability. And there he was on the landing boat on D-Day expected to swim to shore while loaded down with his pack and gun.

 

Now I have to say here that my brother says he thinks he remember that Uncle Bernie landed the day after D-Day, but I'm not here to split hairs and Uncle Bernie is, sadly, no longer with us. Brother and I were saying that the old people are gone too soon and then we're left discussing how events unfolded.

 

The landing craft sustained small arms fire to such a degree that their progress was halted and so the drivers stopped in 8 to 10 foot waters instead of moving forward to shallower waters that would have allowed the men to walk ashore. The men's packs were big and heavy, holding three day's worth of food and supplies. Plus, they carried a bulky 8 pound rifle and heavy ammo. No life jackets either. And the water was a cold 54 degrees and rough because a storm had just passed.

 

So there Bernie was, maybe not too confident in his swimming skills, and he could easily see that they were stopping too far out, and then he could easily see that the men who jumped into the water with pack and rifle were sinking like stones. He refused to jump. So his sergeant pushed him. And of course he sunk like a stone.

 

He was a "good enough" swimmer and smart enough to figure out that he needed to lose that pack and ditch the rifle if he was going to survive to get to short, where a whole lot of hell was breaking lose. So that's what he did.

 

He made it onto the beach and saw the horrors of war and all the dead boys there. He took a rifle and a pack from the littered beach and started fighting for his life. 

 

Details get fuzzy at this point. The Fog of War they call it. Or maybe there were details Uncle Bernie didn't want to talk about so he just wrapped it all up in typical phrases often used to describe the scene.

 

Uncle Bernie lived to fight on. He made lieutenant at some point but was busted down for some infraction of the rules he probably didn't agree with. He served under General Patton and went on to the Battle of the Bulge. Yeah, he told stories about it all. But we could tell, the story he liked to tell the most was about landing on D-Day.

 

 

D-Day landing at Omaha Beach, "Into the Jaws of Death, June 6, 1944. Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

 

This post is following the blogging prompt for the month of May, Military Memories, from Jennifer Holik. Thanks, Jennifer!

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/military-memories-overseas-service-d-day.html