Chromosome Mapping

 

DNAPainter. Chromosome mapping.

I am trying something new to get beyond this brick wall that I have on the family of my Irish 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget. I'm using the tools at DNAPainter to try chromosome mapping, and see if I can identify matches that might descend from Bridget's side of the tree. For this approach, I am working with some of the matches on MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA that I had previously identified might be promising connections. I also need another round of guided instruction, and I've scheduled a consultation for next week. It will be interesting to see how this works, but so far, chromosome mapping looks pretty cool.

While I learn more about this approach, I received an electronic reply from the parish secretary in LaSalle, confirming receipt of the required documents. Now I'm waiting to see if there's something in the church archives on the Dooners and O'Briens. If there's nothing, then there likely are not records waiting to be discovered in LaSalle that have the information I've been missing. But if something comes back, that's the tantalizing hope that my brick wall might be opening.

DNA in the news: Genomic history of the early dogs of Europe

 

IMDB. Alpha (2018).

A new publication in Nature (25 March 2026) dives into the early history of dogs in Europe. Open access versions can be read here:

• Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia
• Genomic history of early dogs in Europe

Planning another visit to the old country

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Sevilla. 27 Aug 2019.

In August 2019, we had an extended trip to Portugal and Spain that took us to Sevilla. I'll be returning this summer for our mid-year meeting, and to scope out spots for future visits there in early 2027. I am still working on one of our Spanish ancestral lines, but this one seems to point to Northern Spain, possibly Cantabria. We're awaiting Big Y results for another Campuzano cousin that may provide a more recent branch point before this line appeared in Sonora, Mexico. 

Again, signs point to Longford

Once again I'm looking at DNA matches with links to this border area of County Longford, Ireland and Roscommon. On MyHeritage, my Dad's results match to someone (EM) who is likely a grandson of a first cousin from the O'Brien side, but might be more closely related. This match has 228 cM in common across 10 segments. EM and my Dad also match with PH, who has 23 cM in common with my Dad across 2 segments and has 39 cM in common with EM.

Here's where things get interesting. PH has a tree on MyHeritage and Ancestry. On Ancestry, I can see from shared matches of matches that he and his sister match with my Dad. On Ancestry PH has 17 cM in common, with 99 cM in common with another match (EG) who has 13 cM in common with my Dad. This person also has 32 cM in common with Mike, my Dad's first cousin on the O'Brien side. The sister has 17 cM in common with my Dad, and she does not seem to match Mike. The sister is also a 30 cM match with EG.

I posed this question to Claude, which identified this is likely a set of matches in common with my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget. I suspected this was the case but because I have so few matches with this line, I'm pursuing a variety of leads. A further wrinkle of connection is PH's 3rd-great-grandparents were Hanleys who immigrated from Roscommon, Ireland to LaSalle County, Illinois and were living in the same township as Bridget in 1850.

I feel like I've looked at these people previously. There's definitely more to follow and further posts soon.

An Ancient Connection

 

FTDNA. A2d Discover Report. Mar 2026.

FamilyTreeDNA shows I have another rare ancient DNA connection, this time to a Mayan man who lived at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan between 500-900 CE. This is pretty cool as I've been to Chichen Itza twice over the years, most recently 10 years ago.

Last year I also shared a link to a study on DNA at Teotihuacan, and another study on DNA at the Mayan city of Copan.