Families unite

Not that this is an earth shattering revelation, but this one solved two puzzles.

Ann McAdie is a newfound (May 2022) member of the family of Donald McAdie & Catherine MacKain brought to my attention thanks to a "follow" on Donald on FamilySearch. 

I was initially sceptical as the profile showed an unverifiable baptism, subsequently proven to be an Ann to a different couple.

I cannot find a baptism for Ann yet, but did indeed prove that she married John Cooper, produced two children, Euphemia and William. 

Her death cert. confirmed her parents were indeed Donald and Catherine.

As I explored the family to update my records, I found the 1851 census for the Cooper family (John, Ann and daughter Euphemia) which showed a 2 month old George McAdie grandson with them. Where did he fit?

George's baptism has not - yet - been found, nor his fate after the 1851 census, but it did make me go looking for a likely marriage for Euphemia.

Ancestry Scottish census transcripts don't show marital status, so I hadn't twigged that the Euphemia Cooper daughter of John & Ann was actually recorded as married but enumerated under her birth name.

Sure enough there was an 1850 Edinburgh marriage where  Euphemia Ann daughter of John Couper, farmer in Newton in Caithness, had married a William McAddy, joiner Both were described as resident 47 Yardhead, Leith. 

So the focus shifted to "Who was William?"

And where was he in 1851?

The only un-eliminated candidate was a joiner lodging in Glasgow in the 1851 census. 

Which entry I'd previously tagged as a potential ID for William, HM Customs Officer in London, later married to Sarah Abbot, being investigated for his missing whereabouts in 1851.

The occupation of joiner always seemed a bit of a leap between Caithness farmer's son and a London (but born Wick) HM Customs Officer, so the info had been marked as "of interest"  but unconfirmed. 

William was shown as single when he married Sarah.

What was the marital status of the 1851 joiner?

I could NOT find the FindMyPast transcript at all, but FreeCen came up trumps and showed him as married, albeit indexed as William McEadie

Great for Euphemia's William, not so great for Sarah's given his marriage cert. 

How could I check further?

What happened to Euphemia?

Newspapers reported her death in Louisburgh (Caithness) in Dec 1852, "wife of William McAdie, joiner", several years before he married Sarah.

Given they married in Nov 1850 and the census was Mar 1851, I wonder who was living at 47 Yardhead in 1851?

Bingo, thank you FindMyPast address search

One Robert McAdie, joiner, born Wick, and family, which family later emigrated to Australia.

Robert being known to have a brother William, believed to be the Customs Officer chap in London, where DNA matches between descendants of Robert and of William, Customs Officer, are adding to the ID that William is indeed the son of George McAdie and Elizabeth Rosie in Wick.

I'm convinced that Ann's daughter Euphemia married her 2nd cousin, William, their shared ancestors being George McAdie and Margaret Cooper.

The Power of the X

The players:

A chap curious what he'd learn from testing his DNA at Ancestry.

Someone who regularly monitors new matches on Ancestry over 20cMs and any with suggested Common Ancestors, ie me, a self confessed genealogy and DNA obsessive.

Assorted tested cousins who all share the suggested common ancestors, Isaac Smith Dawe and Betsey Metters (married 1818 in Devon), plus several sharing earlier generations, only a few of whom had tested at Ancestry.

Scene setting:

2017 MyHeritage: 

A match appears to myself and two cousins whose Most Recent Common Ancestors (MRCA) were the above Isaac Smith Dawe and Betsey Metters (married 1818 in Devon), one son migrated to Australia, a daughter to New Zealand back in the 1850s.
The match's tree has no obvious connection, but did contain an Eliza Cook who married in New Zealand in 1911, ancestors unknown.
Cook does feature as a married surname of another daughter of Isaac and Betsey but no known migration out of the UK for the line.
No response to "hi" message.

2018: a message received from this match asking if I knew anything about her, or any, Eliza Cook and could she have access to my tree please?
Responded, sorry but nothing obvious to help other than the DNA connection looked to be back up from Isaac and Betsey's family somewhere and she could keep tabs on progress on their tree in my online regularly updated basic BDMs of rellies and connections instead, given my MyHeritage tree is far from complete, being used to record research done at that site and DNA connections.

The connections

2022 Ancestry:

A new match over 20cMs appears (the above curious player) sharing with my maternal first cousin.

His small tree includes... Eliza Cook, married NZ in 1911. Ancestry unknown.

It didn't take much to join the dots, despite finding an Eliza Cook in the extended Dawe family, living with her mother's aunt's family in still living in Lancashire in the April 1911 census.

A passenger record was found showing Eliza and her cousin Hannah Parker departing Liverpool 28th Jun 1911 destination Wellington. 

The arrival of the "Arawa" warranted several column inches in the NZ Times of 10 Aug 1911 on its arrival in Wellington as it had been in wireless contact for most of the voyage thanks to being "fitted with the very latest type of Marconi wireless telegraphic equipment" 

So somehow Eliza met up with her newfound husband and married him in within two months of arrival (it has been suggested they may have met on the voyage as he had been in South Africa for a while)    

The message

Keep track of everything, dots do join -  eventually.

The MyHeritage match turns out to be the first cousin of the new Ancestry match, and previously unknown to each other until DNA introducing them.

But wait there's more: beware what DNA can tell you

With access to the X chromosome segment data on GEDmatch and FTDNA, (but not visible on MyHeritage) this Cook link had to be my new match's father's side not his mother's, which was a bit of a surprise, but did enable identification of which side was which in the new Ancestry SideView given his ancestral composition divided into two prominent ethnicities,  clearly separated by "side".

All power to the X- and Ancestry's new SideView.