Research Progress September 2026

With the calendar change to a new month it is time for another recap on my research progress. The main focus of August was the DNA Skills course and determining the family of my Irish immigrant 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget. Toward the end of August I seemed to have enough DNA signs to make the case for Daniel Gannon and Maria Hanley as the parents of Bridget.

There's a bit more work to do, and I am continuing to build out a genetic map linking a 44 cM match descending from a brother of Daniel Gannon, and a 23 cM match descending from a brother of Maria Hanley. The Gannons may have had a sibling who left Ireland for Australia, as there's a cluster of Australian matches also in common with HD, the 44 cM match, and his niece, a 26 cM match.

The other research questions I listed in my August post carry over to this month. I may switch over to the maternal side of the tree once I've had my 1:1 meeting with an expert coach as part of the DNA Skills course and confirm if I'm on the right track with my hypothesis for Daniel and Maria.

End of August

Photo by Patrick Jones. Tompkins County, NY. 19 Aug 2026.

 

A corner of Dimmick Township

 

Ancestry. US Land Ownership map, Dimmick, La Salle, Illinois. 1876.

The map above shows part of Dimmick Township, La Salle County, Illinois. In the middle of the map are some familiar names, Thomas and Timothy Hanley.

An overlap in Roscommon

 

Screenshot from JohnGrenham's Irish Ancestors page.

When I was in Dublin back in October 2025, I had a one-hour consultation with an expert at the Irish Family History Centre. Among the many suggestions she provided, one was to look at the resources on JohnGrenham.com. There's a tool where you can plug in two family names and see how they overlap in the records. At the time, we were looking at Dooner and Hanley, along with Farrell and Casey. With my latest discovery, I plugged in Gannon and Hanley, and the overlap is pretty clear.

The Australian Connection

 

Arthur Streeton. Golden Summer, Eaglemont. 1889.

As I look at the DNA matches in common associated with my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget's side of the tree, I am seeing clusters of Australians descended from Irish people from Roscommon and Longford. The Australian story is worth exploring in further detail. On my extended travel calendar for late 2027 is a long awaited visit to Australia. I've missed a few opportunities to see Australia and New Zealand, and I'm really looking forward to the chance to finally travel to the land Down Under.

I'm going to use some of the remaining days of the month to look at some of these Australian connections and try to build floating trees connecting them back to my growing list of family names from the border of Roscommon and Longford.

It makes sense that descendants from my Irish line would escape famine era-Ireland for new opportunities across the world in Australia and New Zealand. I'd like to explore their stories further before I make my own long journey around the world to see this intriguing place.