Research questions one month later

A month ago I posted the research questions I was using to drive my participation in the DNS study group. I thought it would be good to revisit my progress against those questions after the first month of the course.

For the first question, identifying the parents of Bridget, my 3rd-great-grandmother, using my Dad's DNA matches on the O'Brien line, I've isolated a group of 76 matches. At least 43 of these people actually match to the James O'Brien group of Pennsylvania O'Briens that I've been looking into. This is a small group. I suspect there may be a few more Bridget matches in the 456 matches that are part of the O'Brien/Lamon group. At the moment I'm parking this one as I've been making more progress on a few of my other research questions. I'm hopeful as we learn new skills in the study group there will be some helpful concepts that will be useful here. I also think my approach of using both MyHeritage and Ancestry matches and the autoclustering concepts will pay off as I try on the Bridget line with MyHeritage matches.

On research question two, determining the generation of connection with the Pennsylvania O'Briens, I'm re-doing the WATO tool after speaking with an Irish DNA expert through YourDNAGuide. It does look like either John O'Brien or a brother (or a mystery son by John born between 1807-1829) is the father of James O'Brien who serves as the head of the Pennsylvania branch of the tree.

For research question three, this is where I think I've made the most progress. By redirecting my search to John Hubbard, a son of the third wife of Pleasant Flatt, Nancy Dowell Hubbard, revealed a strong connection to families in Adair, Barren and Metcalfe Counties in Kentucky associated with the Hubbard, Dowell and related family lines. There's more work to do prove this definitively, but signs are much more likely there's a link here than for a Cain family link that just doesn't seem to exist in either the paper trail or via DNA.

On research question four, verifying the father of Cora Belle Medcalf on Allison's side of the tree, this one is waiting for Christmas break when I can look at her grandmother's DNA matches to the Brown line. As I'm waiting on that one, I've added a fifth research question to the list: looking at the Vasquez matches on my Mom's results and trying to identify other siblings of my 3rd-great-grandfather Gabriel Vasquez who might help us dig further into Chilean records. I feel like I'm making progress here, and there might be more to uncover as I continue grouping the Campuzano-Amado and Vasquez-Suastegui matches into different networks.

I might be able to later add a 6th research question looking into the Portillo-Bernal side of the tree, or if I try to isolate Amado matches in hopes of verifying elusive proof of the family's departure from Portugal or Spain as part of the Inquisition.

I think a separate effort all together is to try to experiment with the autoclustering of matches on MyHeritage and test AI to create Leeds Method charts that might assist with the research. That's going to need to wait until I return from travel later in November.