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| Photo by Patrick Jones. Sheep, 27 June 2023. |
The group above were at Hermann J. Weimer Vineyard during our visit last summer. We're heading back there soon for a weekend wine tasting. The friendly sheep followed our kids around as we enjoyed the lovely and relaxing setting at Weimer.
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| Photo by Patrick Jones. EPIC Museum, Dublin. 18 Feb 2020. |
One might think from my last post that I've been in Ireland, but instead I'm planning ahead for a summer visit in 2025. That's one of the motivations to try to pinpoint the location of my O'Brien roots, and the location of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget's family.
I know I've used the photo above in a previous post, but I like the mural and it is fitting for thoughts on a return visit to Ireland.
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| Illinois State Register. 9 Mar 1909. |
I don't think I've run across this article before. The clipping above appeared as a hint on FamilySearch, and directed me to this article on GenealogyBank. I knew my great-grandfather Harry O'Brien had a younger brother who died young, but I'm not sure I was familiar with the details described in the article. Like Harry's older sister Anna, who died young from an infection due to blood poisoning, Guy O'Brien died just short of 20 after catching typhoid-pneumonia, perhaps brought on from working in a mine.
I don't typically listen to podcasts on long car rides. I usually opt for Spotify playlists, but on the long drive home from New York I needed something to help pass the time. Back in July I starting listening to Crista Cowan's Stories that Live In Us podcast. It's really great.
While the first seven episodes are available as videos on YouTube (where I began listening to the series), there are many more on Spotify (or on your podcast platform of choice). In addition to helping pass the time, these episodes (20 as of today) are emotional, many are inspiring and give me ideas for ways that I want to use this platform to tell stories about my own family history discoveries. Episode 10 is incredibly moving, but give the whole series a listen.
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| Photo by Patrick Jones. Hirshhorn Museum, 24 Feb 2017. |
As mentioned in Friday's post, tagging DNA matches is a slow process. I'm currently in the staging phase of tackling the research questions I posed earlier in the month, using a combination of comparing matches on MyHeritage with results from enhanced shared matches in Ancestry's ProTools, to create groups for the immediate lines I am researching on my parent's sides of the tree. And this isn't my primary focus because, family obligations, moving Sophia off to college and day job duties. But behind the scenes, there's a lot going on.
I have scheduled some guided coaching through the experts at YourDNAGuide for later in September, so a lot of the work at the moment is to help me walk through my research with the coach when that session takes place. This is not cheap, but I've reached a stage where I'm committed to trying to resolve these questions I have, and the price of knowing is worth it to me. This process has also been really fascinating, and it is fun to learn something new and meaningful. Just maybe, others in the family will think this is cool, and be able to take up the torch from the spark I am starting.
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| Photo by Patrick Jones. S at Occoquan. Jul 2015. |
In a summer of milestones, from graduation, to a first international solo (but with a group) trip, and now for the big move to college, we've reached the last day at home for Sophia. I've tried to think back what it felt like for me to make the same move from home to college, but my experience is totally different from hers, both in location and era.
I drove myself and a car load of stuff about an hour and a half away, to Crawfordsville, Indiana, which is a small town, to attend a very small college. Sophia's high school is already bigger than many college campuses. She and her classmates experienced their 9th grade as a COVID year, and all the accompanying anxieties of that time, in a way that I did not in my formative high school years. The World Wide Web was brand new while I was in college, and now kids have a computer on their wrist or pocket and all the world's knowledge or tools to find it at their fingertips. As I type those words, now I hear "old man voice" in my head saying "back in my day...".
It really doesn't seem that long ago, I'm carrying Sophia along Santa Monica Beach, looking out over the water, and now we've reached the point where we're packing her things into the car and driving up to her next adventures.
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| Photo by Patrick Jones. Madrid, 13 May 2017. |
Like the group of turtles above, from Madrid's Atocha train station, I am slowly building reliable clusters of DNA matches. This hasn't been easy, but would not have been possible without the shared matches of matches feature in AncestryDNA's ProTools. The genetic genealogists and researchers who have made this possible deserve a round of applause and more. I didn't think it was possible to break through some of these research walls that I've had for so long, and yet, with this new set of tools, I think I am really close.
Using my Dad's DNA matches on both Ancestry and MyHeritage, I've been able to filter from among almost 20,000 total matches down to about 71 matches on the John O'Brien-Bridget side of the tree. About 40 of those matches (and growing) belong to the James O'Brien cluster. The other 31 should be connected in some way with Bridget's mystery side of the tree. There's quite a few in that group with ancestors who were from Longford and Roscommon, so that gives me some hope that I am on the right track.
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| Photo by Patrick Jones. Seattle, WA. 27 Jul 2024. |
This summer has flown by, and we're in the process of packing up our daughter for the big move to college. High school resumes on Monday too. While meteorological summer, and the East Coast heat, continues for a bit longer, the school year marks the end of the lazy, breezy summer season for our kids. New adventures await in just a few days.
A quick note on the mural in the photo above, this was painted by Shepard Fairey on the State Hotel in Seattle, across from the historic Pike Place Market. I've been lucky to capture photos of my of his works over the years, including a big mural across from the Santa Monica Pier.
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| Possible relationships. MyHeritage. |
Using several of the shared matches who appear on both MyHeritage and AncestryDNA from my Dad's results, I'm looking at the generation of connection to determine how we're linked to the James O'Brien cluster of matches in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The chart above shows the probability of possible relationships between my Dad and EM. She is a descendant of James' son Daniel F. O'Brien and has 72.9 cM in common with my Dad's results.
While I still think we have in common a 4th-great-grandfather or sibling of my 3rd-great-grandfather John O'Brien, it's interesting to see another possibility is that James was a son of John O'Brien through an earlier family, before John settled in La Salle County, Illinois. I have a huge gap in John's timeline. He was already in his mid-50s when he met Bridget and started a family in La Salle. As it is unclear where he was between 1831 and about 1850, there's a reasonable likelihood that he had another family in Pittsburgh, or somewhere else, before making his way to Illinois. I'm going to try to compare the generation of connection graphs for others in the James O'Brien cluster and see if that helps.
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| AutoCluster report from MyHeritage. |
I'm trying a new approach to find some DNA connections, using a combination of the AutoCluster report from MyHeritage, shared matches on MyHeritage, and shared matches of matches on Ancestry. So far, I'm finding some overlap between matches on both platforms, but it is slow going. It is useful to have both tools, as there are slight differences in the reporting of segments and match length between MyHeritage and Ancestry.
Ultimately I am hoping this will aid my quest to resolve the research questions I posted earlier in the month.
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| Postcard from Keith Jones to Jones family, 1938. |
About three weeks after the postcard mailed from Indiana Dunes back to Indianapolis, my Gumpy sent another card to his parents in mid July 1938. The card above shows the parking area at Indiana Dunes. On the reverse, he wrote in tiny handwriting about how crowded the park was over 4th of July weekend.
The pavilion building in the postcard above was recently renovated and reopened.
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| Postcard from Indiana Dunes. 1938. |
This is another postcard in the set I shared previously, mailed by my Gumpy, Keith D. Jones, to his parents back in Indianapolis. This one was sent the week after the postcard I shared in 2012, mailed on 20 June 1938. He describes a six mile hike over the dunes and his summer jobs at the dunes state park.
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| Postcard from Keith Jones. |
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| Library of Congress. 1896. |
The original Koster and Bial's Concert Hall was located at 23rd and 6th Avenue in New York. The image below from the NY Public Library Digital Collections shows the venue from 1892. By time Agnes Atherton performed with Anna Held at a series of November 1897 shows, Koster and Bial's had relocated to 34th and 6th Avenue. This is the present location of Macy's at Herald Square, final stop for the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC.
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| Koster & Bial's. NYPL. |
The 24th and 6th Avenue location was the home of Koster and Bial's The Corner. I highly recommend reading this December 2023 article on Ephemeral New York titled "From Gilded Age Beer Garden to 1970s Strip Club: 100 years of vice on a Chelsea corner." This location is right across the street from the hotel I've been using as a base for the past three trips to the city. I didn't know this history when I was visiting the city last month, but now that I know, I'll check out this spot on our next trip.
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| Tacoma Daily Ledger. 21 Nov 1897. |
My previous post on the Gilded Lady mural in the Nomad district of New York prompted me to look back at Agnes Atherton O'Brien's years of performing in New York theatres. Sure enough, there's a closer connection than I expected. The article above shows Agnes performed at Koster & Bial's theatre in late 1897. Correction - While the original theatre was located at 23rd and 6th Avenue, mere blocks away from the mural and right around the corner from the hotel we've been using on recent visits to the city; the theatre where Agnes performed in 1897 was at 34th and 6th Avenue. Agnes and I most definitely walked on the same streets in NYC, 127 years apart.
More on the theatre in the next post.
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| Photo by Patrick Jones. NYC, 17 July 2024. |
The mural above is titled "The Gilded Lady", painted by artist Tristan Eaton in the Nomad district of New York City. I've captured photos of Eaton murals in Miami, Santa Monica, Long Beach and Hawaii, so the one in New York was a cool surprise while we were walking around in July. The mural makes me think of Agnes Atherton O'Brien, sister of my 2nd-great-grandfather who was a vaudeville performer and toured through New York many times during her 30+ years in the business.
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| AncestryDNA Thrulines. |
A challenge in uncovering the parents of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget (shown above as my Dad's 2nd-great-grandmother from his AncestryDNA Thrulines results), is the lack of direct DNA matches in my line connecting to her. Bridget had three sons with first husband Patrick Dooner. Two of those sons died of cholera between July and August 1849. Her third son Michael Dooner died in 1918 without having children.
Bridget and John O'Brien had four children: Anna Maria, Agnes, John J. (my 2nd-great-grandfather) and Isabella. Only John had children. Among his seven children, only his son Harry O'Brien had children: Blanche (my grandmother), Harry Jr, and Lowell. Harry Jr and Lowell had children and I know a few of their descendants appear as DNA matches to my Dad, who was an only child of Blanche and my Gumpy.
As I try to find best common matches or best mystery matches among my Dad's AncestryDNA results, the facts above will come into play in the search for potential connections.
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| AncestryDNA matches. |
As I try to work through various approaches to using the enhanced shared matches from the DNA results of my parents, I thought it would be useful to write down the specific research questions I am looking to resolve. This will help focus the research, and if I proceed down the path of using some guided coaching, it will help that person get up to speed with the family history mysteries I am trying to address through DNA.
Question #1
I've written about this on the blog several times. I am trying to identify the parents of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget. Using my Dad's DNA results, this would be to identify the family of his 2nd-great-grandmother, which should be feasible through the Dot Method described in Your DNA Guide. From his AncestryDNA ancestral regions and DNA journey, we know there is a close connection to Central Ireland, specifically Lough Ree, Roscommon and Longford counties. We also know the Dooner family came to America from this same region, and I have a strong suspicion that Bridget's family was from this area too.
A secondary question on this side of the tree would be to determine the generation of connection with the James O'Brien cluster of DNA matches. I think I share a common ancestor at the 4th-great-grandparent level on the O'Brien side. I know it is a challenge to trace this O'Brien line back to a specific area of Ireland, even though John O'Brien's obituary says he was from County Clare, that could be where he departed Ireland.
Question #2
My next research question would be to use my Mom's AncestryDNA shared matches to identify the father of my 2nd-great-grandmother, Mary Alice Cain. This is particularly challenging given known issues with endogamy on the Flatt side of the tree, where Mary Alice's mother Nancy Jane Flatt married her first cousin Pleasant Morgan.
There are other questions I have using AncestryDNA results, but these are the first ones I'd have a DNA research coach review to help me overcome long standing brick walls.
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| Glasgow Daily Times. 11 Jan 1940. |
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| Glasgow Daily Times. 2 Aug 1955. |
I'm looking again at the obituary for my 2nd-great-grandmother Mary Alice Cain Read. A new hint in the clipping above puts her son, my great-grandfather, Alvin Read, in Fennville, Michigan in 1955. I have so far not been able to find him in the 1950 US Census, so this is a lead worth exploring. Fennville is a tiny town between Benton Harbor and Grand Rapids, on the eastern side of Lake Michigan.
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| Photo by Patrick Jones. Bainbridge Island, WA. 27 July 2024. |
The sculpture above was created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo as part of a series of troll sculptures around the world. This one, called Pia the Peacekeeper, is located on Bainbridge Island, a quick ferry ride away from Seattle, Washington. I had a beautiful day for a hike, a visit to the Bainbridge Farmers Market, and some wonderful pizza.
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| New Orleans Times-Democrat. 15 Jul 1906. |
The clipping above is a new find, describing the marriage of my great-grandfather Harry O'Brien to his first wife, Marguerite Theresa Barba, in New Orleans. This provides a bit more detail about the roles of the witnesses on the marriage record. Harry and Marguerite took a quick honeymoon to Mississippi City, on the Gulf Coast between Gulfport and Biloxi. The Barba and Soderstrom families seem to have a close connection in Mississippi.
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| Pascagoula Chronicle. 12 Mar 1943. |
