More questions than answers

 

St. Patrick's Parish records. LaSalle, Illinois.

In March I wrote to the Archives for the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, and they directed me to the Parish Secretary in LaSalle. After providing a donation and details on the records I was seeking, the staff conducted a search. Late Thursday I received a reply with some photos, which may provide some new information on the children of John and Bridget O'Brien. The image below raises additional questions, which I've asked to the parish secretary.

St. Patrick's baptisms. LaSalle, Illinois.

If I am reading this correctly, on 24 March 1860, three children of John and Bridget O'Brien were baptised at St. Patrick's:

• Ann O'Brien, "born about 1853"
• Bridget O'Brien, "born about 1856"
• Mary O'Brien, "born about 1859"

I have as children of my John and Bridget: Anna Maria, born about 1852; Isabella, born about 1853; John J. O'Brien, born in 1854; Agnes O'Brien, born in 1858. Bridget also had her surviving son from her first marriage, Michael Dooner, born in March 1850. I thought Bridget O'Brien had died in mid 1859. Maybe the entries above are not for the children of my John and Bridget. Baptisms for John J. O'Brien and Michael Dooner seem to be missing. Is "Mary O'Brien" Agnes? Is Bridget from 1856 Isabella? Lots of questions here. 

The Sponsors

Perhaps I need to look into the sponsors for the baptised children: M. O'Kane, Margaret Gorman, and Julia Clark.

Ancestry. 1860 US Census. LaSalle, Illinois.

In the 1860 US Census, there is a Julia Clark, living in the household of Patrick and Mary O'Kane in LaSalle. We also know that by August 1860, Anna Maria, Isabella and Agnes were placed in the care of the Sisters of Charity in LaSalle, and they appear in the list of pupils at the convent. 

At first I was struggling with the spelling for the sponsor of Bridget O'Brien, born in 1856, but looking at this again I think the name is Margaret Gorman. There is a Margaret Gorman in the 1860 US Census in LaSalle, a 30 year old woman from Ireland, spelled Margarette.

Ancestry. 1860 US Census. LaSalle, Illinois.

Another option is Margaret Conway, born about 1836, from Ireland, living in Grand Rapids, LaSalle, Illinois.

Derby Day 2026

 

LIFE Photo Collection. George Silk. Kentucky Derby 1959.

Later today is the 152nd Kentucky Derby. I've previously shared a set of photos taken at Churchill Downs by my Gumpy, perhaps sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s. We're looking forward to the race and enjoying the festivities with friends in the neighborhood.

Research Progress May 2026

Here's a monthly recap on progress for my research questions. As with last month, it's been a mix of progress and stall, with a flurry of movement in the past week.

My Paternal Side

1 - Looking for parents of my Irish 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget. I am continuing to work on chromosome mapping using my Dad's results. I also took the leap and submitted yet another DNA kit, this time to 23andme in the hopes of finding some O'Brien/Bridget matches that only tested there. While I did find matches in common to the James O'Brien group there, I'm so far struggling to see any potential matches to Bridget's side of the tree. I have some new information from St. Patrick's Church in LaSalle, Illinois, but this deserves its own post...coming Sunday.

2 - mtDNA matches in the same mitotree path for Sarah Westall and Elizabeth Thornhill Jones. Cousin Lynn shared some information on a 1 step match located in Australia. Doing some digging, I think there's a possible maternal line connection who was born in the UK and placed on a convict ship to Australia in 1786. Perhaps our Westall maternal line connects back to the UK in the past with this match, how far back, we're not certain yet.

3 - Jones YDNA. No further movement since last month.

My Maternal Side

1 - Working with Portillo matches. Surprise movement at the end of the month following my 23andme results. I can see several familiar names connected to the Portillo side of the tree. This will be an area of emphasis in May.

2 - Analyzing mtDNA matches in the maternal line path of Maria Jesus Vasquez. Cousin Joe's mtDNA results arrived, giving us more matches to compare with cousin Catherine.

3 - Campuzano YDNA. Still waiting on cousin Garry's Big Y result to give us a closer-in-time branch point to compare with cousin Greg.

Allison's Sides

1 - mtDNA results in the maternal line path for Dorothea Sophia Gagelmann. Finally results arrived at the end of April.

2 - Separating out maternal and paternal line matches on FTDNA. Not much progress this month.

3 - Analyzing XDNA matches on Allison's side of the tree. I've added some XDNA matches to the spreadsheet, and have been noting which family group I think these matches might belong to.

Future RootsTech Talk

I have made some progress here, building the bones of the talk into a presentation and pulling together the timeline graphics. I probably have half of the talk built in the presentation and the overall outline and themes are done. More to follow in May, and I suspect there may soon be a call for presentations for RootsTech 2027.

Purple Blooms

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Farnham Castle. 23 Apr 2026.

Matches who only tested at 23andme

Testing at 23andme has proven worthwhile, identifying some matches who only tested there vs on Ancestry, MyHeritage or FamilyTreeDNA but known to connect with documented branches on my tree on those sites. There are some familiar names too, cousins who had also tested on the other sites.

23andme has some tools that I like - the timeline, the reconstructed ancestors tools and clustering are useful. I like that it did a solid job of calculating my maternal haplogroup and allows you to see matches by haplogroup. There are also some features I find annoying, or are not as intuitive as Ancestry and MyHeritage. Looking at DNA Relatives (matches) is not as easy as Ancestry or MyHeritage, and not immediately clear which side of my tree these people are on. I think Ancestry does a much better job at separating out my maternal and paternal sides. 23andme does have a cool DNA Family Tree feature, but I am finding it's mixed up my Mexican side of the tree from my Mom's Whitley/Matthews side (these are both on my maternal side of the tree, but the Mexican side is maternal-maternal, and Whitley/Matthews is maternal-paternal).

23andme also limits you to 5000 DNA matches, vs the 82,574 that I have on Ancestry. But if this number is quality and represents people who only tested here and not on another platform, 23andme is providing potential connections I didn't have on Ancestry or MyHeritage. There's more to do in looking at the tools and possibilities.