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

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

Surname Saturday: House, but not those other House people

It's time for this week's version of one of my favorite blogging prompts from GeneaBloggers called Surname Saturday. If you are a blogger and not doing Surname Saturday, please let me encourage you to give it a try! Here's my own blog post about Cousin Bait and Surname Saturday has been the very best one for me. Randy Seaver over at his excellent blog, Genea-Musings left a comment and be sure to read that too because it gives clear instructions on how to construct a Surname Saturday post!

This week we're into the 3rd great grandmothers, already having covered earlier grandmothers and a bunch of grandfathers in previous Surname Saturday posts. To check a surname, just plug it into the search box near the top right under the surname graphic. Are we related? I'm continuing to include some of the collateral folks as better cousin bait. It seems to be working:)

OK, so about that title for this post. You ever go charging into a line of ancestors and run across a really juicy story and get all excited about it and the way it could add pizazz to your family history? And then wake up one morning, have a cup of coffee and think, hey, that's not right! Yeah, it happens. And it happened on this House line.

For a really long time, Mom thought that we were descended from the famed Andrew V. House and John Valentine House of the House Heirs Association events, which is a very juicy story with millions of dollars hanging in the balance. You can read about it by clicking here for Part I to find the basics of the whole affair, then here for Part II where we follow the money, and finally here for Part III in a post that tries to uncover what is known about all that land the King of England supposedly gave the Count. It's complicated! Just know that even though we have in our possession copies of some of the House Heirs papers, now Mom and I are totally doubting that we're connected to this line at all!! Begging the question: if not them, who do we descend from?


1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly 1916 - 2007
3. Virginia Williams, living and loving it

6. Cambria Williams 1897 - 1960
7. Emma Susan Whetstone 1897 - 1956

14. Joseph Hampton Whetstone 1858 - 1938
15. Catherine Elizabeth House 1865 - 1947

30. Samuel Albert House 1832 - 1917
31. Mary Elizabeth Farrell 1835 - 1919
I wrote a longish blog post about Samuel Albert House on February 25, 2013 and his strange life which you can find here. It tells the story of various jobs and moving and finally settling in Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland.
There's also an amusing post about the Counterfeiting Twins here, and those two, Rev. Edward Francis and Joseph Martin, were SA and Mary Elizabeth's children.
They had these 16 children:
* James I. House 1844 - ????. He married Sara C. Wilson
* John T. House 1855 - 1954. He married Sarah Dennison.
* William H. House 1858 - 1907. He married Ada Elizabeth Garlitz.
* Mary Amelia "Molly" House 1861 - 1949. She married John R. Davis.
* Samuel T. House about 1862 - ????. He married Emma Siebert.
* Garnet Soloman House 1864 - ????. He married Rhoda ?.
15. Catherine Elizabeth House 1865 - 1947
The following were the twins:
* Rev. Edward Francis House 1868 - 1926. He married Martha Edith Dennison.
* Joseph Martin House 1868 - 1950. He married Rose Praut and upon her death married Madge Cook.
*George House 1870 - 1871.
* Sarah Ellen "Sadie" House 1870 - ????. She married William Harvey Reckley.
* Margaret Anna "Nan" House 1872 - 1968. She married Philip Long.
* Sadie F. House 1873 - ????.
* Charles Harley House 1875 - 1945. He married Blanch Perdue.
* Michael A. House 1878 - ????. He married Lillian Meade.
* Nora House 1879 - 1964. She married Denton R. Kaseycamp.

Samuel Albert took his mother's surname as his own and changed it from Biggerstaff, his natural father's surname, to House some time after the 1850 US census. The presumption is that he was illegitimate and his father was Isaac Biggerstaff. Some records/ trees have him as the son of a House man who lived in Harper's Ferry but there is not evidence of that suitable to quote. What we do have is this index from Hampshire County Virginia/ West Virginia. Here's what that index looks like, along with the 1850 census listing:

1850 US Census

 

Hampshire County (now West Virginia) index of births.

 

And here's the URL of the index at "Hamshire County VA: Vitals: Births":

http://files.usgwarchives.net/wv/hampshire/vitals/Births.txt

Now let's check out this House line back from Samuel Albert House's mother, Rebecca House Caton, and then his maternal grandfather.

60. Patrick Caton 1814 - 1861
61. Rebecca House 1808 - after 1861
Remember we're after following the House family line back so we'll leave the Catons alone except to say that Patrick Caton came here from Ireland. Because of where he ended up in America, which is now West Virginia on the Potomac River near the long gone town of Magnolia, he most probably was lured by work on the railroads or the canal, as were countless other Irishmen. In the 1850 US Census he's listed as a farmer, but Samuel (calling himself Samuel Biggerstaff) and Patrick's brother, Francis Caton a man of 30 years living in the household, are listed as laborers. Presumably based on history of the area they were most likely employed by the railroad or the canal digs.
Patrick and Rebecca had the following children together:
* Mary Caton 1846 - ????
* Margaret Caton  1847 - ????. She married George W. Meade
And then of course they cared for:
30. Samuel Albert House 1832 - 1917

122. James House 1777 - 1862
123. Margaret Hartley about 1787 - about 1847
James House was born in the western frontier, also called at this time the Far West, in Morgan County (was Hampshire County), Virginia, now West Virginia. I can not even imagine what life was like for him growing up and later caring for his family! He owned at least 115 acres of farm land on the Potomac River, that became the subject of legal wrangling after his death.
Margaret was also born in the same area in Morgan County (was Hampshire County).
They had the following children:
* Dinah House 1803 - after 1880. She married Aaron W. Boxwell.
61. Rebecca House 1808 - after 1861
* William House 1811 - 1881. He married Susannah Johnston.
* Mary House 1814 - 1905. She married Jacob Snyder who died. Then she married Elijah Shambaugh.
* Susan House 1818 - 1854. She married George Washington Athey.

Well, there you have it. Who was James House's father? If you know or have a clue please let me know because it's driving Mom and I crazy!

Jame's wife, Margaret Hartley's parents were Rebecca Biggerstaff  (1754 - 1826) and John Hartley (1750 - 1825). The 1782 census for Hampshire County shows a William Biggerstaff Jr. and Sr. living in proximity to a Thomas Hartley.

 

Head of Families - Virginia 1782

 

 

So here's the deal and if you are confused, it's real easy to get that way. Samuel Albert House' mother and natural father were related. Rebecca House, his mother was great granddaughter to that William Biggerstaff Sr listed above. Isaac Biggerstaff, his natural father was great grand son to the same William Biggerstaff Sr. And see that George Tarvin who is next on the list above? That was the minister of the church the Biggerstaffs were prominent members of. Interesting, huh?

Well, at least none of this bunch owned slaves. That's something to be happy about.


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/07/surname-saturday-house-but-not-those.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: Biggerstaff Book

I'm so lucky to have Mom and all of her excellent work! I thank the genealogy gods every day for every scrap of what she's done over the years. Whenever I get stuck she's the first person I call or email. I wouldn't think of posting a Surname Saturday report without checking with her first. So when I launched into the Biggerstaff family this week I checked in with Momsie. She had a Biggerstaff book in her treasury and mailed it to me.

Here's the book, pictured below, fresh from Mom's treasure chest to mine. As you can see Biggerstaff is a branch on the Isaac Garinger Davis tree, but I'm happy to have any and all information about the Biggerstaff line. This book was privately published by Elizabeth Davis Thompson in 1979. She did a remarkable job of it that long ago before desktop publishing.

I'm thinking that this book is the earliest genealogy published on the Biggerstaff's from Hampshire County, Virginia then West Virginia. There are other Biggerstaff and Bickerstaff lines in the South and in Pennsylvania but they have not been proven to have any connection to the Biggerstaffs of Hampshire County. At all. The other Biggerstaff/Bickerstaff lines apparently trace down from England and there's every possibility that our Biggerstaffs (and it's always Biggerstaff with the double "g") were originally Blickenstaff from Germany or Switzerland. Wouldn't a lovely yDNA test help out sorting them?

Cousin William has done a fine job of constructing the first three generations back from Issac Biggerstaff (1798 - 1844), natural father of my 2nd GGF Samuel Albert House (1832 - 1917). Here they are, as per Cousin William.

Samuel Albert House (1832 - 1917)
Issac Biggerstaff (1798 - 1844)
Samuel Biggerstaff (1760 - 1804)
William Biggerstaff (1720 - 1803)

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt of GeneaBloggers.


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/treasure-chest-thursday-biggerstaff-book_14.html