Return from the West Coast

I'm back after spending the week in Los Angeles. The new David Geffen Galleries at LACMA are amazing. I could have spent more time there, but will have to make another visit on a return trip to the city.

A big focus of the research time during the month so far has been looking closely at the O'Brien DNA matches. I am currently working with 210 matches in common on MyHeritage between a first cousin once removed of my Dad's O'Brien side. I am attempting to separate the network of Lamon and Lambert matches, leaving me hopefully a group of O'Brien-Bridget matches who I can use to identify the families of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget.

DNA in the news: Adventures in the Animal Archive

A new article describes the use of DNA testing techniques on the pages of ancient manuscripts in the Duke University Library, and how this analysis is opening up methods for tracing the movement of parchments. Adventures in the Animal Archive: New Techniques for the Genetic Analysis of Parchment Manuscripts. Manuscript Studies, Vol 11, Number 1, Spring 2026.

Santa Monica

 

Made in Ideogram.

Urban Light, 2016

Photo by Patrick Jones. Urban Light at LACMA. 4 Jan 2016.

This is a memorable throwback from ten years ago. Night running from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and finishing at the Urban Light installation. I have a return visit to LA coming up, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the new David Geffen Galleries. 

The case for James O'Brien

FamilySearch. Luzerne County, PA Citizenship records. 28 Sep 1871.

While looking at the father of the branch of Pennsylvania O'Briens, James John O'Brien, several of the marriage records for his children list birth locations as Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. There's a James O'Brien who appears in the Luzerne County citizenship records in 1871, listing his arrival as November 1864 in New York. I cannot tell if this James was the same one who died in Pittsburgh in 1914. 

Michael Campbell served as a witness for James O'Brien on his petition for citizenship. I'm hoping I can find him in the 1870 US Census, perhaps living near the O'Brien family.

I have a hypothesis that James John O'Brien was the son of a James O'Brien, who may have been born in Ireland sometime about 1815-1825. This James may have been a son of my 3rd-great-grandfather John O'Brien, possibly from a first marriage before John arrived in the US and moved to LaSalle County, Illinois.