For quite some years I've been trying to determine the fate of William the brother of my 2* great grandfather James HENDERSON. They were the sons of Archibald, a smith at the Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire. who sprang into existence from apparently nowhere in time to be paid for smithing work in the Stirling of Keir estates and to marry in 1804 to Margaret McEWAN.
Back in 1994 a researcher in Australia contacted one of my cousins about her husband's ancestor William HENDERSON, who had married a Margaret SINCLAIR, and whose family had emigrated to Australia.
The data shown was, however, that for a different HENDERSON family back up the chain.
Time passed.
A couple of years ago I got more stubborn about trying to find any signs of "my" William having survived beyond his baptism and found a smith at the Bridge of Allan with a wife Margaret that just "felt right" - you know how it is when you get a feeling about a family, even if you can't find proof :)
As I dug away discovering his family I was reminded of the 1994 letter, dug it out, and sure enough, the descendants matched but the parents given for William didn't.
Back at Christmas time Diane contacted me about this family on WikiTree, kindly providing some modern day updates.
But even better, her husband was willing to humour me in seeing if we could prove his ancestor William was indeed brother of my James.
No Y-DNA candidates appear to be available so we used atDNA with our fingers firmly crossed that even though the odds of a specific pair of 4th cousins actually turning up a detectable atDNA match were only 50%.
With all the HENDERSON kits we have on file, surely one would match?
Results are just in.
Given the subject line of this post, I think you already know the outcome!
We have significant matches with one descendant of William and James' sister Margaret, and 8 significant segment matches with 7 descendants of my James (including to me).
I think I've definitely found William.
(I don't yet know if the tree of our 1994 correspondent has changed tack over the years)
The HENDERSON chromosome map will be updated shortly (to also include results from another of James' descendants)
Sunday, 21 February 2016
Thursday, 18 February 2016
GPS
I had the privilege of hearing Judy RUSSELL, the Legal Genealogist speak in Wellington today.
Two talks, one on DNA, the other on using circumstantial evidence to piece together families when records are not available.
No, the latter wasn't a fairy story, but evidence of what must have been a very persistent, long search piecing together scraps of this and that to form the family involved.
It made frequent reference to the Genealogical Proof Standard, which reminded me of her post from 2014 (http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2014/11/03/just-a-little-book/).
It was good to actually meet Judy - one of her 3rd cousins is one of my closest non known family DNA matches - which must mean that one or t'other side of this match has cousin marriages somewhere, or we have a larger than normal long lasting segment of DNA. Our respective trees have no obvious connection yet at all.
Two talks, one on DNA, the other on using circumstantial evidence to piece together families when records are not available.
No, the latter wasn't a fairy story, but evidence of what must have been a very persistent, long search piecing together scraps of this and that to form the family involved.
It made frequent reference to the Genealogical Proof Standard, which reminded me of her post from 2014 (http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2014/11/03/just-a-little-book/).
It was good to actually meet Judy - one of her 3rd cousins is one of my closest non known family DNA matches - which must mean that one or t'other side of this match has cousin marriages somewhere, or we have a larger than normal long lasting segment of DNA. Our respective trees have no obvious connection yet at all.
Friday, 8 January 2016
How far have I got?
New year, review time.
Thought it was time to produce some chromosome map snapshots and remind myself why I'm having all this fun (and frustration).
The following illustrates the match coverage on my 23 pairs of chromosomes that has been identified as to which side of my ancestry the match "fits" - maternal or paternal.
The predominance of the pink over the blue makes it rather obvious that I do not have any close living paternal relatives available to test. My two maternal aunts still alive (both in their 90s) have however done their bit to humour their niece, and seem to attract the lion's share of the matches.
Why am I doing this?
To break down, or at least chip, several brickwalls.
Have I succeeded?
Not a lot as yet, but then I never really make time to stop and analyse the gaps in the above and then focus on the matches that have to be related to the ancestors that are causing this descendant so many problems tracking where they came from.
Who are they?
Archibald HENDERSON, a blacksmith at the Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire.
Where did he come from?
Y-DNA testing has as yet not produced any matches, atDNA has thrown up some intriguing matches that may well lead somewhere eventually.
Amelia MILLAR, mother supposedly a Miss CHRYSTAL. From Kippen in Stirlingshire.
We do have a fascinating match with a family that includes both MILLARs and CHRYSTALs but we need to confirm that this is the line that the matching DNA comes from.
Any descendants of David MILLAR and Elizabeth CHRYSTAL out there willing to try their luck to see if we can prove that.
Jane GIBSON, born Somerset, mother supposedly a Jane GIBSON. Where did she come from?
Although we have a reasonable amount of identified DNA segments from Simon ANDREWS an Jane GIBSON, we don't currently know which bits come from the ANDREWS side and which from the GIBSON side. Any descendants of Simon's siblings out there and willing to test to see what we can learn?
John DAVIDSON, born Chirnside, Berwickshire to an Ann COLLINS. Whereas we have quite a bit of FAIRBAIRN DNA identified from John's wife, specific DAVIDSON segments are hard to identify. Any descendants of any of John's children tested? The New Zealand contingent is fully represented - me, unless others ended up here, as I'm the last living descendant of Adam. His brother James and sister Helen had no known children.
Not forgetting the potential Irish connections of:
William AUSTIN who mysteriously disappeared in Australia presumably before his wife/widow married her ship's captain saying she was single with no former children (so much for my great grandmother who was nearly 2 by then!). My only hope here is to be able to identify more of the DNA inherited from the CLINTON/PARKER side of the family, so I would love to hear from any descendants of William CLINTON and Jemima PARKER who may be intrigued enough to help out here.
William CLINTON above. Someone must know where he came from.
The above are the problem ancestors that stop me completing the rows of ancestors at 3* and 4* great grandparents, the "lines of 32 and 64".
But until then I will continue having fun contacting and working with matches, forming triangulated groups that share an ancestor somewhere/when and seeing where that leads.
With kits either in process or en route to the lab several other theories may well be dis/proven, so there's always something fun to do.
Love to hear from you if any of the above look familiar, especially if you hold the key to the puzzle.
The atDNA tests involved here are either that offered by Ancestry DNA - provided you then upload your resulting raw data file to at least GEDMatch.com (free, donations accepted) and also preferably FamilyTreeDNA ($39US to transfer the file from Ancestry) - or simply directly with FamilyTreeDNA using their FamilyFinder test.
(I've currently gone off using 23andme, their website has been "in transition" for weeks and isn't that useable at the moment, with no current signs of improvement)
If a descendant of any of the above and you do end up on FamilyTreeDNA, do apply to join my autosomal DNA project there, FFLornaHen.
Look forward to making 2016 the year the breakthroughs happen - with YOUR help.
Thought it was time to produce some chromosome map snapshots and remind myself why I'm having all this fun (and frustration).
The following illustrates the match coverage on my 23 pairs of chromosomes that has been identified as to which side of my ancestry the match "fits" - maternal or paternal.
Why am I doing this?
To break down, or at least chip, several brickwalls.
Have I succeeded?
Not a lot as yet, but then I never really make time to stop and analyse the gaps in the above and then focus on the matches that have to be related to the ancestors that are causing this descendant so many problems tracking where they came from.
Who are they?
Archibald HENDERSON, a blacksmith at the Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire.
Where did he come from?
Y-DNA testing has as yet not produced any matches, atDNA has thrown up some intriguing matches that may well lead somewhere eventually.
Amelia MILLAR, mother supposedly a Miss CHRYSTAL. From Kippen in Stirlingshire.
We do have a fascinating match with a family that includes both MILLARs and CHRYSTALs but we need to confirm that this is the line that the matching DNA comes from.
Any descendants of David MILLAR and Elizabeth CHRYSTAL out there willing to try their luck to see if we can prove that.
Jane GIBSON, born Somerset, mother supposedly a Jane GIBSON. Where did she come from?
Although we have a reasonable amount of identified DNA segments from Simon ANDREWS an Jane GIBSON, we don't currently know which bits come from the ANDREWS side and which from the GIBSON side. Any descendants of Simon's siblings out there and willing to test to see what we can learn?
John DAVIDSON, born Chirnside, Berwickshire to an Ann COLLINS. Whereas we have quite a bit of FAIRBAIRN DNA identified from John's wife, specific DAVIDSON segments are hard to identify. Any descendants of any of John's children tested? The New Zealand contingent is fully represented - me, unless others ended up here, as I'm the last living descendant of Adam. His brother James and sister Helen had no known children.
Not forgetting the potential Irish connections of:
William AUSTIN who mysteriously disappeared in Australia presumably before his wife/widow married her ship's captain saying she was single with no former children (so much for my great grandmother who was nearly 2 by then!). My only hope here is to be able to identify more of the DNA inherited from the CLINTON/PARKER side of the family, so I would love to hear from any descendants of William CLINTON and Jemima PARKER who may be intrigued enough to help out here.
William CLINTON above. Someone must know where he came from.
The above are the problem ancestors that stop me completing the rows of ancestors at 3* and 4* great grandparents, the "lines of 32 and 64".
But until then I will continue having fun contacting and working with matches, forming triangulated groups that share an ancestor somewhere/when and seeing where that leads.
With kits either in process or en route to the lab several other theories may well be dis/proven, so there's always something fun to do.
Love to hear from you if any of the above look familiar, especially if you hold the key to the puzzle.
The atDNA tests involved here are either that offered by Ancestry DNA - provided you then upload your resulting raw data file to at least GEDMatch.com (free, donations accepted) and also preferably FamilyTreeDNA ($39US to transfer the file from Ancestry) - or simply directly with FamilyTreeDNA using their FamilyFinder test.
(I've currently gone off using 23andme, their website has been "in transition" for weeks and isn't that useable at the moment, with no current signs of improvement)
If a descendant of any of the above and you do end up on FamilyTreeDNA, do apply to join my autosomal DNA project there, FFLornaHen.
Look forward to making 2016 the year the breakthroughs happen - with YOUR help.
Sunday, 20 December 2015
Does it MATTER?
A recent smartmatch on MyHeritage led me on a wonderful, overdue, voyage of exploration on what on earth did happen to the children of my 3x great grandmother Betsy MATTERS' brother Joseph (married Mary CUDLIP).
Betty's tree showed that their daughter Elizabeth married a John NORTHMORE and had emigrated to the States.
That led me to re-check data from many years ago that had her brother Richard possibly in Michigan but not proven at the time.
One thing led to another and I also realised I'd never investigated what happened to Joseph and Betsy's sister Honour either.
Sure enough, yet another immigrant, but with a bit of a mystery involved in the records.
When did she and her husband die?
Honor BORLEY nee METTERS or MATTERS:
Of the 18 tree matches ancestry throws up as a hint, 2 are actually her sister, 2 don't venture a death date, the rest consistently show her as dying in Ulster, New York in Jun 1880.
I found a source document for her death - the mortality schedule (edited here to bring the relevant entries up to the headings from the bottom of the page)
which purports to show deaths to the year ending 31st May 1880.
Both Francis and Honor show on the schedule, Francis as dying in March, Honor in June.
Both show as married (the heading options are single, married, widowed), which itself causes a few logistical problems as one had to have died prior to the other.
At this point I concluded that Honor had died in Jun 1879 and Francis in Mar 1880.
So far so good.
Then I looked in the 1880 census for their children.
There, in Kingston, Ulster, NY is son Thomas and family.
Date of the census is 17 Jun 1880.
In the household is his widowed father Francis, aged 83.
Anyone found a headstone? A family bible?
I'm happy enough that Honor probably died in Jun 1879 but what about Francis?
Betty's tree showed that their daughter Elizabeth married a John NORTHMORE and had emigrated to the States.
That led me to re-check data from many years ago that had her brother Richard possibly in Michigan but not proven at the time.
One thing led to another and I also realised I'd never investigated what happened to Joseph and Betsy's sister Honour either.
Sure enough, yet another immigrant, but with a bit of a mystery involved in the records.
When did she and her husband die?
Honor BORLEY nee METTERS or MATTERS:
Of the 18 tree matches ancestry throws up as a hint, 2 are actually her sister, 2 don't venture a death date, the rest consistently show her as dying in Ulster, New York in Jun 1880.
I found a source document for her death - the mortality schedule (edited here to bring the relevant entries up to the headings from the bottom of the page)
Both Francis and Honor show on the schedule, Francis as dying in March, Honor in June.
Both show as married (the heading options are single, married, widowed), which itself causes a few logistical problems as one had to have died prior to the other.
At this point I concluded that Honor had died in Jun 1879 and Francis in Mar 1880.
So far so good.
Then I looked in the 1880 census for their children.
There, in Kingston, Ulster, NY is son Thomas and family.
Date of the census is 17 Jun 1880.
In the household is his widowed father Francis, aged 83.
Anyone found a headstone? A family bible?
I'm happy enough that Honor probably died in Jun 1879 but what about Francis?
Thursday, 5 November 2015
Curate with a hearing problem?
There seems to be a bit of a trend about oral traditions/hearing issues here at the moment.
My WorldConnect database LornaHenderson has been republished to include the last few months worth of updates.
Many updates are the result of checking off research from the early days when so few sources were readily available - in particular some of the dates for the family of Anna Maria ANDREWS and John Lidderdale PURDIE (having been prompted by a DNA match with a descendant), but also some of the BAINs.
The most recent set however were for the family of Richard MATTERS/METTERS and Elizabeth NORRISH thanks to a smartmatch from MyHeritage alerting me to a tree posted by a descendant.
From Devon to London to Argentina to Devon to New Zealand.
I've found a 5th cousin lives over the hill from me!
This exercise reminded me that I'd never satisfactorily resolved/tidied up the family of Ann daughter of Richard and Elizabeth, nor found the baptisms for the family.
The latter turned out to be because back when that research was first done, Non Conformist baptisms weren't as readily available. Now they are indexed on FamilySearch and Ancestry (at least), with the images available on TheGenealogist.co.uk
That solved I turned my attention back to Ann's marriage to John BORROWMAN.
Still no joy.
Has anyone found it?
The best I could come up with was John's marriage in 1848 to a Mary Ann MEADOWS.
Right father and father's occupation, date fits known info, ie Ann shown in the 1851 census where she was living at home with her parents, shown as Ann BORROWMAN, married, and Richard/Elizabeth's granddaughter Fanny Barford MATTERS aged 3 born Devonport in the household.
The first child for Ann and John I know about is son John born 1853.
Fanny later shows up with John and Ann as daughter, Fanny BORROWMAN, but her marriage certificate to George BURDICK shows her father as _____ and herself as Fanny BORROWMAN nee MATTERS, spinster
So, can anyone claim a Mary Ann MEADOWS of full age, X her mark, father Richard MEADOWS, farmer, who married John BORROWMAN, carpenter Royal Navy residence at marriage HMS Wellesley?
Is this Ann MATTERS as recorded by a Curate unused to the local accent? But if so, why Mary Ann?
My WorldConnect database LornaHenderson has been republished to include the last few months worth of updates.
Many updates are the result of checking off research from the early days when so few sources were readily available - in particular some of the dates for the family of Anna Maria ANDREWS and John Lidderdale PURDIE (having been prompted by a DNA match with a descendant), but also some of the BAINs.
The most recent set however were for the family of Richard MATTERS/METTERS and Elizabeth NORRISH thanks to a smartmatch from MyHeritage alerting me to a tree posted by a descendant.
From Devon to London to Argentina to Devon to New Zealand.
I've found a 5th cousin lives over the hill from me!
This exercise reminded me that I'd never satisfactorily resolved/tidied up the family of Ann daughter of Richard and Elizabeth, nor found the baptisms for the family.
The latter turned out to be because back when that research was first done, Non Conformist baptisms weren't as readily available. Now they are indexed on FamilySearch and Ancestry (at least), with the images available on TheGenealogist.co.uk
That solved I turned my attention back to Ann's marriage to John BORROWMAN.
Still no joy.
Has anyone found it?
The best I could come up with was John's marriage in 1848 to a Mary Ann MEADOWS.
Right father and father's occupation, date fits known info, ie Ann shown in the 1851 census where she was living at home with her parents, shown as Ann BORROWMAN, married, and Richard/Elizabeth's granddaughter Fanny Barford MATTERS aged 3 born Devonport in the household.
The first child for Ann and John I know about is son John born 1853.
Fanny later shows up with John and Ann as daughter, Fanny BORROWMAN, but her marriage certificate to George BURDICK shows her father as _____ and herself as Fanny BORROWMAN nee MATTERS, spinster
So, can anyone claim a Mary Ann MEADOWS of full age, X her mark, father Richard MEADOWS, farmer, who married John BORROWMAN, carpenter Royal Navy residence at marriage HMS Wellesley?
Is this Ann MATTERS as recorded by a Curate unused to the local accent? But if so, why Mary Ann?
Friday, 30 October 2015
Oral family tradition?
Had a bit of a chuckle at the birthplace recorded for the ancestor of a newfound DNA rellie when I went looking to see what other family trees were out there
Birth:July 25 1811 - Scotland
Birth: July 25 1811 - Forgetbrainhead, Dunfriesshire, Scotland
The actual entry shows
Born 22 Jul 1810 - Forgebraehead (which is how my match shows it in his tree as well)
Love to hear from any descendants of Christopher GRAHAM and Jannet GRIEVE of Forgebraehead who may have ventured into DNA testing for genealogy - this is the most likely looking line of my match's ancestry to find a connection on.
Although this only leads to the morass of GRAHAMs and related names in the Dumfries/Cumberland areas without any obvious actual family to connect us up at the moment, it would be good to narrow down the match to this line if at all possible.
Birth:July 25 1811 - Scotland
Birth: July 25 1811 - Forgetbrainhead, Dunfriesshire, Scotland
The actual entry shows
Love to hear from any descendants of Christopher GRAHAM and Jannet GRIEVE of Forgebraehead who may have ventured into DNA testing for genealogy - this is the most likely looking line of my match's ancestry to find a connection on.
Although this only leads to the morass of GRAHAMs and related names in the Dumfries/Cumberland areas without any obvious actual family to connect us up at the moment, it would be good to narrow down the match to this line if at all possible.
Friday, 24 July 2015
Who is Adam?
Does anyone have any evidence as to who the parents of Adam HENDERSON are?
Adam was:
I'm investigating an excellent DNA match between a descendant of Adam (via son Peter), myself, and two of my cousins (2nd and 3C1R) where we all descend from Peter SINTON & Jane WIGHT.
The most likely line of the match's pedigree that accounts for this is that of Peter Oliver HENDERSON who turns out to be the son of Adam and Janet (EASTON) HENDERSON
The indications currently are that Adam is highly likely to belong to Peter SINTON's family somewhere.
But where?
There's an 1808 marriage of an Oliver HENDERSON (Hawick) to an Isabel SINTON (Cavers) in the Cavers Parish register, which looks promising.
Although there's no further info known, the couple fits the timeframe, place, and naming pattern to be Adam's parents.
If Adam and Janet's son Peter Oliver was named for both Adam and Janet's fathers we do have a bit of a problem as the above Peter SINTON's sister Isabel, who is of an age, is accounted for and I don't know about any other Peters.
So, I'm on the look out for others claiming descent from any of the above who may already have joined in the fun of dna testing for genealogy, or be prepared to, so we can compare results and
confirm that the dna match is indeed pointing to Adam.
Missing bits of the papertrails would also be most welcome - a Wisconsin death record/obit for Adam naming his parents? The fate of Oliver HENDERSON and Isabel SINTON?
Check out Adam on FamilySearch FamilyTree for some of the descendants identified / linked to date.
Potential matches/matches are welcome to join my FFLornaHen autosomal DNA project on FamilyTreeDNA, or if you are on GEDMatch.com please get in touch with your id number there so we can check out any potential connections.
Adam was:
- born abt 1815 Southdean, Roxburghshire,
- married Janet EASTON in Oxnam 2 days prior to the 1841 census,
- lived Swinside, Oxnam (1841),
- popped up in West Middle, Cavers in 1851,
- Hallrule Lodge, Bedrule (1861) and
- Newton, Bedrule (1871)
- before emigrating in 1873 with Janet and son George,
- settling in Alma, Jackson Co., Wisconsin where several family already were.
I'm investigating an excellent DNA match between a descendant of Adam (via son Peter), myself, and two of my cousins (2nd and 3C1R) where we all descend from Peter SINTON & Jane WIGHT.
The most likely line of the match's pedigree that accounts for this is that of Peter Oliver HENDERSON who turns out to be the son of Adam and Janet (EASTON) HENDERSON
The indications currently are that Adam is highly likely to belong to Peter SINTON's family somewhere.
But where?
There's an 1808 marriage of an Oliver HENDERSON (Hawick) to an Isabel SINTON (Cavers) in the Cavers Parish register, which looks promising.
Although there's no further info known, the couple fits the timeframe, place, and naming pattern to be Adam's parents.
If Adam and Janet's son Peter Oliver was named for both Adam and Janet's fathers we do have a bit of a problem as the above Peter SINTON's sister Isabel, who is of an age, is accounted for and I don't know about any other Peters.
So, I'm on the look out for others claiming descent from any of the above who may already have joined in the fun of dna testing for genealogy, or be prepared to, so we can compare results and
confirm that the dna match is indeed pointing to Adam.
Missing bits of the papertrails would also be most welcome - a Wisconsin death record/obit for Adam naming his parents? The fate of Oliver HENDERSON and Isabel SINTON?
Check out Adam on FamilySearch FamilyTree for some of the descendants identified / linked to date.
Potential matches/matches are welcome to join my FFLornaHen autosomal DNA project on FamilyTreeDNA, or if you are on GEDMatch.com please get in touch with your id number there so we can check out any potential connections.
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