Timeline for Bridget

Working again with Claude.AI, I asked it for assistance building a timeline in the life of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget. The back and forth exchange provided some good ideas for further exploration.

Timeline for Bridget (1824-1859)

Early Life in Ireland

• c. 1824: Born in Ireland
• Possible marriage between 1839-1844 (no marriage record found)

Immigration to America

• Before 1845: Immigrated to the United States, possibly with husband Patrick or before marriage

Life in Illinois

• c. 1844-1845: Possibly married Patrick Dooner in Illinois (no marriage record found)
• c. 1845: Son John Dooner born in Illinois, possibly in La Salle County.
• 1846: Son Hugh Dooner born in Illinois, possibly in La Salle County.

Cholera Epidemic and Family Tragedy

• July 1849: Son Hugh Dooner died of cholera at approximately 3 years old
• August 1849: Husband Patrick Dooner died of cholera
• August 1849: Son John Dooner died of cholera at approximately 4 years old
• August 1849: Patrick's father Hugh Dooner died of cholera at approximately 45 years old

Birth of Last Child with Patrick

• 16 March 1850: Son Michael Dooner born in La Salle County, Illinois, about 7 months after Patrick's death

Life as a Widow

• June 1850: Husband Patrick and children Hugh and John appear on the US Federal Census Mortality Schedule for La Salle County, Illinois, confirming their deaths in 1849 and the birth state of Hugh and John has recorded as Illinois.
• 24 August 1850: Recorded in the US Census in La Salle County, Illinois with son Michael

Second Marriage and Family

• c. late 1850-early 1851: Likely married John O'Brien in La Salle County, Illinois (no marriage record yet found)
• 1852: Daughter Anna Maria O'Brien born
• 1853: Daughter Isabella O'Brien born
• 1 August 1854: Son John J. O'Brien born
• 20 November 1858: Daughter Agnes O'Brien born

Death and Afterward

• 1859: Died in La Salle County, Illinois, shortly after the birth of her daughter Agnes
• 3 Aug 1860: John and John J. O'Brien appear in the 1860 US Census in Shelby County, Illinois.
• 14 Aug 1860: Anna Maria, Isabella and Agnes appear in the Sisters of Charity Convent in La Salle County, Illinois in the 1860 US Census.
• 15 Aug 1860: Michael Dooner appears in the household of his uncle Owen Dooner in La Salle.
• 29 Jul 1861: John O'Brien remarries in Shelby County to Margaret Fegan

Some other important details highlighted by Claude. She immigrated to the US as a young woman, and made her way to Illinois where her husband Patrick's family had settled. Losing her husband and two young children within a month while she was pregnant would have been an unimaginable tragedy for Bridget. She would have faced emotional heartbreak and significant economic hardship as a pregnant widow. The fact that she and Michael survived the cholera epidemic that killed the rest of the immediate family, along with Patrick's father Hugh shows remarkable resilience and perhaps some degree of natural immunity.

Bridget shows a lot of strength as she navigated life in La Salle County as a young widow with her son Michael, and starting a new family with John O'Brien. Her life ended relatively young, about 35, possibly due to complications from childbirth or other health issues common in that era.

The cholera epidemic of 1849 was devastating across America during this time, particularly in the Midwest. I asked Claude for pointers to additional resources:

1. "Cholera in Illinois and the Old Northwest: 1849-1850" - This study examines the impact and spread of cholera throughout Illinois and neighboring regions.
2. "Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1828-1965" by Mark Aldrich - While focusing broadly on railroad safety, this work includes sections on how cholera spread along transportation routes in Illinois.
3. "Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866" by Charles E. Rosenberg - This is considered a seminal work on American cholera epidemics, with significant coverage of the 1849 outbreak that affected Illinois.
4. "The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History" by Libby Hill - Contains information about how the cholera epidemic impacted Chicago and surrounding areas.
5. The Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society has published various articles over the years examining the 1849 cholera epidemic and its effects on specific communities.

"The fact that Hugh and John were born in Illinois according to the Mortality Schedule is very significant for your research. This confirms that:

1. Bridget and Patrick were already in Illinois by 1845, when their first son John was born.
2. They had established themselves in La Salle County early enough to start their family there.
3. The Mortality Schedule is a particularly valuable resource because it captures information about people who died in the year before the census was taken, which would have been missed in the regular census.

"This information narrows down your search for Bridget's immigration to before 1845. It also suggests that if Bridget and Patrick did marry in Ireland, they would have immigrated together very shortly after their marriage.

"For further research, you might want to:

1. Look for church records in La Salle County from the early 1840s that might document Bridget and Patrick's arrival or early presence in the community.
2. Search for birth records for John and Hugh in Illinois, which might provide additional details about their parents.
3. Check land records in La Salle County from the early 1840s to see if Patrick purchased property.
4. Investigate if there were any Irish settlement patterns in La Salle County that might help identify where Bridget came from in Ireland."

During RootsTech, Ancestry introduced a new feature called Networks. I might try to create a network of the Irish immigrants who died in La Salle County of cholera between 1849-1850 to see if any of them provide some connection to the Dooner family and Bridget. I may also try to create a network using Bridget's neighbors in La Salle in the 1850 Census entry.

Leaving Seattle

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Art at Hyatt Seattle. 9 Mar 2025.

It's been a week in the Pacific Northwest and now time to return to the East Coast. As always it has been great catching up with friends, colleagues and community, and we'll do it again later this summer in Prague, Czechia. I was last in Prague in the summer of 2012, and it will be wonderful to be back and have an opportunity to see some new things.

Safe travels everyone and I'll hope to see you at the next place.

Reflections on family heritage (article worth reading)

It's Sunday and we're springing forward. Today I'm busy with our conference and in place of a full post, here's an article from the Deseret News titled Perspective: What would happen if all 262 million American adults connected personally with their family heritage?

RootsTech Day 2

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Day 2 keynote at RootsTech. 7 Mar 2025.

Yesterday was another great opportunity to listen and learn at Rootstech. I caught two morning sessions on Irish research and case study examples, then the General Session 2 keynote by artist Dana Tanamachi (see above). I then tried to absorb information from Exhibit Hall sessions by Ancestry and FTDNA, and grab some lunch.

A helpful staff person from FindMyPast listened to my research challenge to find the family of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget in Ireland, and she gave me some tips to try while I was still in Salt Lake City that pointed me in the direction of the FamilySearch booth. The helpful team at FamilySearch had computers with access to documents normally only available at FamilySearch Centers, and I tried searching through La Salle County, Illinois documents that aren't generally available when not at one of these locations. I didn't have any luck finding a marriage record for John O'Brien and Bridget, or birth records for any of Bridget's sons with first husband Patrick Dooner. The combination of Irish research sessions and the in-person help gave me some ideas for further exploration.

I'm now in Seattle for my work part of the trip, and will have to wait to catch up on missed RootsTech sessions online. This is one of the great things about the event. There's really too much to see in person, particularly with my limited time on the ground. Attending the event again was really inspiring, and over the next few weeks I have a lot of ideas for new methods. Many of the big platforms announced new features, like Ancestry's Networks and MyHeritage's Cousin Finder, so there's also new things to test and apply to existing trees.

RootsTech Day 1

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. RootsTech Opening Session. 6 Mar 2025.

My photo doesn't capture how full the opening keynote session was at RootsTech for day one. I was standing in the very back, and it was completely full (and there were likely thousands of conference attendees not in the main room for that session). The first day was a lot, and I probably need some distance from the event to absorb all I picked up from the sessions and Exhibit Hall talks I attended.

I was able to connect with some familiar faces and chat with a cousin by marriage and others at the event. RootsTech is a really unique and special conference.

I have another day on the ground today before continuing on to Seattle for my main event this week. A few highlights from yesterday were chatting with the YourDNAGuide team, Jarrett Ross, and the FamilyTreeDNA team on their new launches. I saw some familiar faces from the genealogy YouTube and podcast community and picked up some interesting nuggets of wisdom from each of the talks I covered. I had a chat with Brooke from Reclaim the Records (please support them, their work is awesome).

I caught a few speakers live who I've seen online. Diahan Southard's morning talk "How does DNA fit into your Family Story? Identity. Connection. Answers." was so good. I skipped the What's New at Ancestry session knowing it would be recorded for later viewing in order to see "Discovering your roots: Getting Started with Central and South American Family History." 

While my question did not get answered in the Central and South America family history session, it did prompt me to go downstairs and seek out some representatives from FamilySearch to ask them when FamilySearch Labs' Full Text search tool will include Sonoran records. Their recommendation was for me to submit a Feedback comment, which I tried to do. I'll probably make the comment again in person before I depart RootsTech, as Sonora is a big one for me on the Campuzano, Amado, Vasquez, Diaz, Suastegui, Portillo, Quijada and related branches side.

I'll have another post on RootsTech in person sessions and then will shift to the online offerings as I head to Seattle. It's been an inspiring conference so far and really reinforces the continuing learning into family history.

RootsTech underway

I'm in Salt Lake City, heading over to the Salt Palace convention center for the start of RootsTech. Some of the recorded sessions may already be appearing online. Many sessions start at 8am Mountain Time this morning, and run for the next three days. I'll probably share some photos in the next post.

I went over yesterday evening to pick up my badge and do a quick walk around. There was a youth event and a buzz of anticipation among the staff. I'm looking forward to connecting with fellow participants in DNA Study Group and perhaps meet some distant cousins who are also at RootsTech. Sharing a link to this YouTube video for RootsTech 2025.

A Mito Update

 

FTDNA. 4 Mar 2025.

Ahead of RootsTech, I have a new mtDNA haplogroup - A2d2a. This is a change from my prior result of A2d2, putting my most recent common maternal ancestor on the haplotree of this line at about 1100 CE. That's pre-Conquest Mexico. It's unclear at this stage which population group this maternal ancestor was from.

Onward to RootsTech. I'm really looking forward to hearing more about the mtDNA Tree of Humankind.

The day before

Today I'm doing my last checks of what I need to pack, and another look at the sessions for RootsTech. It's going to be a quick time on the ground, but I'm also meeting up in person with one of Allison's cousins. It should be a great couple of days. Then I'm off to the Pacific Northwest for my own event.

A few other things:

Last week I wrote about pending queries. The University of Edinburgh Archives confirmed they do have documents showing John McIntosh was a medical student in 1775 and 1776. They also said I can view those in person when I'm in Edinburgh in June. That's super cool. I'll definitely have more to share once I take that trip.

Yesterday the UCLA Special Collections team sent me a digital file from the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel records mentioning the Amado family. There's a lot here and this deserves its own post. There will be more to share as I look into this, and other DNA connections on the Amado side. UCLA has created a website with additional information on Sephardic Los Angeles. I'm also sharing this link to the Sephardic Genealogical Society, partly for future reference as I track the Amado line back to Portugal and Spain.

Thomas Whitley, 1940

 

Glasgow Rep. 11 Jan 1940.

Newspapers.com has added a bunch of new images and newspapers. Above is an obituary for my 2nd-great-grandfather Thomas Whitley. I previously shared a different obituary in 2014 from the Glasgow (KY) Daily Times.

Research Progress March 2025

We've reached the second of the month, and time for another progress check on my research questions. This is a big week, Rootstech is happening in a few days. There's a lot percolating in the background, hopefully some of those things will be ready for sharing soon. I've signed up for another round of DNA Study Group. It's a great community and I'm looking forward to learning more.

DNA Study Group Research Questions

1 - Identifying the parents of Bridget, my 3rd-great-grandmother. As noted yesterday, there are some hints of a way forward and I'm currently building out a floating tree, trying to see if I can find a link in Longford, Ireland to Bridget's family. It is really nice to see some potential progress here.

2 - Determining the generation of connection with the Pennsylvania O'Briens. I'm struggling with this one and need to try again with WATO. Perhaps some additional skills learned at Rootstech and in DNA Study Group will help resolve this one. But, as noted below, I'm hoping to talk with the WATO developers at Rootstech this week.

3 - Verify the father of Cora Belle Medcalf using DNA matches. This is on hold at the moment, but I'm hoping to dive into this toward the end of March.

4 - Identifying the siblings of my 3rd-great-grandfather Gabriel Vasquez. Nothing new here, but again I do plan to pick this one up soon as the next DNA Study Group kicks off. I think this one will pick up in April and May 2025, but this is just a prediction.

5 - Identifying living descendants of Jose Jesus Amado and Gertrudis Palomino. This one has perhaps made the greatest progress, as I've made contact with some distant connections and am pursuing some leads on the sprawling Amado family. I have an inquiry open with the UCLA Library Special Collections, which should be the feature of a new post soon.

6 - I may be adding some new questions as DNA Study Group moves into a second year. One might be identifying the common ancestor with a DNA match, CW, on my Mom's side. Another question is related to #5, determining how I'm connected to a cluster of FamilyTreeDNA matches through the Amado side of the tree.

WATO Course Research Questions

I need more time with WATO as I find it to be challenging to use. All three of my WATO research questions need a fresh attempt at using this DNA tool (see this explanation at DNAPainter). I'm looking forward to potentially chatting with the DNA Painter team at Rootstech this week.

FamilyTreeDNA Research Questions

1 - Interpreting Big Y results. I received my results in early February. There's still a lot to learn about what to do next. I've joined the R-U152-FGC22501 group project, and I am tracing the path of other Jones cousins who might be encouraged to try YDNA testing. 

2 - Interpreting mt Full sequence results. FTDNA launched the mtDNA Tree of Humankind last week, and I'm really interested to hear more about the discoveries available. I've also joined the Mexico DNA Project.

3 - Identifying matches in FTDNA's autosomal DNA results and trying to find some common connections that will help with some of my other DNA quests. This is exactly what I'm doing now with these mystery Amados, and I now have another Campuzano cousin in FTDNA.

Hints of a path

As I take a closer look at the matches in common with my Dad's DNA on the O'Brien-Bridget side of the tree, very little has changed since I starting building clusters using the dot method in August 2024. At the time I isolated 71 matches, and I'm now up to 76. This is exactly where I was in November, and almost all of these matches seem to be connected to the line of mystery Pennsylvania O'Briens descended from James J. O'Brien and Mary Nolan. There's a small set of mystery matches pointing in another direction, which seem to trace to back to Longford, Ireland.

I'm digging into this group now, hoping this will provide a lead to Bridget's family. Here are my steps so far: I've selected a match from among this group of 76 with my Dad's results. This match, DK, has 14 cM in common. This is pretty small, but this match has 22 cM in common with my Dad's 1st cousin Mike O'Brien, giving me a little more confidence that this could be a potential match to Bridget's family. DK doesn't have a public tree, but using shared matches of matches with Ancestry's Pro Tools, I can see he has an aunt with a detailed tree. She has 11 cM in common with my Dad, but doesn't match to Mike.

With a quick look at her tree, I can see Irish names and checking a bit further, see a branch of her line came from Longford, Ireland. This is a promising start.

Next, I've started to build a quick tree, using Ancestry's MyTreeTags labeling this person as part of a Floating Tree and a DNA match. Now I'm "doing genealogy" working backward to Longford, hoping this will lead me to a family that connects down to Bridget.

George Barret Sr. Landscape with cottagers. 1775.

There are some hints in Longford that Bridget's family might connect with this line. More to come, and a monthly research question status report to follow with the next post. 

A really ancient connection

 

FTDNA. 

I've had a really strong connection to Los Angeles since my first visit in 2006, owning property there for eleven years, and learning about my historic LA roots with my 5th-great-grandfather Francisco Suastegui who lived there in 1835. There are many other Campuzano connections to LA, some still living in greater LA County. But the connection highlighted by FamilyTreeDNA's Ancient Connections, takes distant to a new level.

Google Maps. San Nicolas Island.

FTDNA says I share a common maternal line ancestor dating back to 12,000 BCE with 12 men from the San Nicolas Island culture who lived between 3650 and 2200 BCE. That's super distant. I do not know a lot about this culture, but with some quick Google searching, I've found some interesting articles. I'm posting this here for future viewing (pdf, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden & Cal State University; BBC from 6 Aug 2024).

It's interesting that the removal of the Nicoleño people from San Nicolas overlaps with Francisco Suastegui's time in Los Angeles.

At this stage, I'm still awaiting updates to my mtDNA haplogroup and other updates to the Mitotree.

Ancient Origins

 

MyHeritage Ancient Origins. Feb 2025.

Following the release of MyHeritage's Ethnicity Estimate v2.5 last month, MyHeritage added another new tool providing ancient origin estimates, using analysis provided by IllustrativeDNA. For a more thorough overview, see this blog from YourDNAGuide (25 Feb 2025). I've had a chance now to look at my own results, compare them with the v2.5 update, the results of other tests I manage through MyHeritage, and earlier ancient origin tools on Gedmatch. I've also given this some thought in light of my recent YDNA and mtDNA results on FamilyTreeDNA.

While the Ancient Origins data does not immediately resolve current genealogical questions, I do find it really fascinating. I also like how MyHeritage has tried to make this information engaging and approachable with the use of AI-generated videos featuring "representative" illustrations of people who might have been in the historical population groups.

MyHeritage. 

FTDNA. Discover report on A2d2.

On my ancient origin breakdown, when I set the model as Global, I am able to change the migration period from Bronze Age to Iron Age to Roman era and to the Middle Ages. The results also provide a range for "genetic fit", covering from very close to distant for how close of a match my results are to the reference populations used. The number for my result is 0.612 (very close) when the slider is set to Middle Ages. This also shows I match to 15 different populations, which is pretty wild. It's not surprising that Iberian is in my top 3, although Balkans seems really high at #2.

Moving the slider to Roman Era, the genetic fit is still very close at 0.622. Roman Britain and Pict are the top two, followed by Roman Gaul, Italy and Illyria. At the Iron Age level, the genetic fit is 1.114 (close), with Insular Celt and Continental Celt the top two, followed by Iberian, South Amerindian and Colchean (present day Caucasus region).

There's also a breakdown by Hunter-Gatherer and Farmer population type and other advanced reports on genetic similarities, genetic distance maps, and links to the reference population reports. It's a lot of data.

I think the new MyHeritage Ancient Origins data is very similar to the ancient reports available on Gedmatch, but with perhaps newer data and a fresher look with the use of the AI-generated videos and maps. Even if the data isn't 100% historically accurate, I do think this is interesting and may help raise awareness among younger and newer DNA participants. This might help attract new populations to YDNA and mtDNA testing, which will lead to family connections in more recent times.

When I look at my Mom's ancient origins report with the migration slider set to Middle Ages, the genetic fit appears as 0.802 (very close). Her top two are Iberian and Insular Celt, followed by Italian, Germanic, South and North Amerindian. These make sense. For Roman Era, the genetic fit is even closer, .0548.

MyHeritage. Roman Era report.

On my Dad's report for Middle Ages, the genetic fit is 0.905 (very close). His top two make a lot of sense as well. Iberian is a bit of a surprise, along with .08% Sami.

MyHeritage. Middle Ages for KDJ.

I think seeing this shows our family potentially had a much deeper connection to the Iberian peninsula on both sides than I previously thought possible. Overall, it's cool. Will it help me solve some of my current research questions, probably not, but again I like that it's a new feature and it may grow over time. 

Family History TV

Some new shows to add to the watch list:

National Geographic's No Taste Like Home (all six episodes now available on Disney+). These look really good and I'll probably save a few episodes for upcoming travel.

Jewish Life Television's Generations (beginning 3 March 2025).

There are also new episodes for Season 11 of Finding Your Roots. I'm finding the current season "just ok", and maybe upcoming episodes will be more engaging. *Update - Episode 8, particularly Melanie Lynskey's story, is really good. The series as a whole has given so much to family history storytelling and it's still really great that Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr is hosting the series on PBS. I hope there are more seasons.

On Netflix, there's the four part Swedish limited series titled The Breakthrough. While based on a true story, it is a dramatic crime story centered on a policeman and a genealogist who uses genetic testing to solve a double murder.

Mitotree is coming

 

FTDNA. 25 Feb 2025.

This afternoon via FamilyTreeDNA's X/Twitter account, ahead of Rootstech, FTDNA announced an update to the mtDNA of Humankind (also known as the Mitotree). Also see today's FTDNA blog. This is really cool news, and one of the reasons why I took the mtFull sequence test. My "classic" mtDNA haplogroup is A2d2, but it appears I'll be getting a new one on the Mitotree after further analysis is complete.

FTDNA.

Planning for Rootstech

Next week Rootstech returns to Salt Lake City from 6-8 March. This will be my first time in person since 2013, and I'm looking forward to seeing what may have changed, and how the conference has grown since that last visit 12 years ago.

I've downloaded the Rootstech app, and the UTA Transit app for riding the TRAX from SLC airport to the Salt Palace Convention Center. The Rootstech app shows my QR code for check in at the venue, and I can build my schedule for the sessions I want to view in person.

I still need to figure out what I might try to look up at the FamilySearch Library in the afternoon of my first day.

The Relatives at Rootstech feature is really cool, and I'm looking to see if that helps link to some DNA matches.

Back to the list of sessions, I like how the app shows where I have blocks of free time, and can add new sessions. One of talks I want to catch in person is on Friday afternoon titled the Future of Genealogy by Jarrett Ross. His session won't be available on streaming for later viewing, and I should have time to catch it before going to the airport for another flight.

Warren County records

 

FamilySearch. Warren County, OH. 29 Mar 1831.

In October 2013, I posted a four part series of transcriptions of Warren County, Ohio land deeds involving Josiah (also spelled Josias) Lambert, my 5th-great-grandfather. The 4th post included one deed from 29 March 1831. Above and below are screen shots of that record, thanks to FamilySearch Labs' Full Text Search.

FamilySearch. Warren County, OH.

The scans of Warren County records show other connections from my Dad's Lambert and Lee side of the tree. Below is a record from the Warren County Court dockets 1789-1996 dated 1 January 1822, showing both Josias Lambert and Henry Lee (my 5th-great-grandfather) as appraisers of the estate of Elizabeth Holladay.

Another record from 21 February 1833 appears to include Josiah's signature.

FamilySearch. Warren County, OH. 21 Feb 1833.

Queries pending

 

Edgar Degas. Waiting. 1882.

At the end of December, I submitted three queries through the BIRLS database made available by Reclaim the Records. I had somewhat given up on a response to those three FOIA requests, but while I was in LA last week, I received letters from the Veterans Administration confirming receipt. The queries were filed for copies of the VA claim file for my grandfather, Leo Reid; Allison's grandfather James Havens; and the file on James C. Whitley. So, these are still in process. It may be several months before something is made available.

I'm also awaiting responses on research queries with the University of Edinburgh on John McIntosh and his possible attendance at the medical school in Scotland in 1775/76; and a query with the UCLA Archives on the Amado family of Los Angeles.

These queries are in addition to the research questions I'm following for DNA Study Group.

Connecting threads

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Marrakesh, 20 June 2019.

While the day to day work and regular events such as meals, chores, dog walks and basketball games bubble along, in the background, the threads of family history continue to be woven together. New connections are being made and rediscovered. Old stories are being surfaced. New ones are being primed for sharing.

In the background, I've been in conversations with cousins and distant family. It has been really cool and rewarding to think about the discoveries we might find. I am sort of making progress on the research questions I set for myself, in a roundabout way.

I'll say some of these stories are fermenting, maybe soon to be shared, but their vintage may not yet be ready. In the meantime, threads are hanging dry, becoming ready for use later, when it will be time to weave them together for a coherent and connected story.

In the surf

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Venice, CA. 9 Jan 2025.

Speeding up

If January felt like three months, February feels like it is sailing by. The counter on the Rootstech website says that it begins in 14 days. With limited time on the ground, I need to prioritize which sessions I'll try to see in person and which can be viewed online later.

For research progress this month, I've been able to find a common ancestor with Allison in our 8th-great-grandfather Philip Truax. There's more to do in revisiting the Havens family in Monmouth County, New Jersey. I also found some surprise journeys by extended members of the Halter family to Algeria and Brazil.

On Ancestry, I'm now at 76,936 matches, while my Dad's results now show 50,015, and my Mom's are at 61,302. Since December, my Dad's matches have grown by almost 1,000. Most of these are really small and likely very distant, but I'm hoping for just a few that might help on my O'Brien and Bridget research questions.

Another new feature this month deserves a separate post. MyHeritage has added "Ancient Origins" to go along with its Ethnicity Estimate. I'll have more on that soon.

LA Rises

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Venice, 17 Feb 2025.

I'm back in Los Angeles this week and looking forward to catching up with friends and colleagues. Last month was devastating and it will be a long slow rebuild and recovery for so many. The shot above was from walking around Venice yesterday.

Palms in Palisades Park, Santa Monica 1938

 

Santa Monica Public Library. 1938.

Monmouth Court House in 1778

 

Monmouth County Historical Association. Monmouth, NJ.

Carrie A. Swift. Monmouth, NJ.

Philip in common

 

Josephine Des Anges. Oldest House in Manasquan. 1934.

There's a saying that if you dig far enough in genealogy, eventually everyone is connected. Sure enough, my wife Allison and I share a common ancestor, our 8th-great-grandfather, Philip Truax. He was born in 1676 in Monmouth, New Jersey, and died there in 1750. Philip married Sarah Larue, and they had at least the following children:

• John Truax
• Philip Truax
• Larue Jacob Truax
• Samuel Truax

Ancestry. NJ Wills Abstract.

I'm descended from Philip's on John, while Allison is descended from Samuel. This common link to Philip connects us both to his parents, Jacob Du Trieux and Lysbeth Post, the founding of New Amsterdam, and earlier roots in Amsterdam. This also means I need to follow-up with the Association of Philippe du Trieux Descendants.

Samuel and Johanna

 

Henry Pember Smith. Afternoon in Monmouth County, NJ.

The parents of Jacob Truax were Samuel Truax Sr. and Johanna Wilson. Jacob was their youngest son. Samuel married Johanna on 28 March 1747 in Monmouth County, New Jersey. They had at least the following children:

• Samuel Truax Jr.
• Sarah Truax
• Phoebe Truax
• Joseph Truax
• Philip Truax
• Benjamin Truax
• Jacob Truax

It appears that all of Jacob's brothers, and possibly his father Samuel, served in the Revolutionary War. Joseph, Benjamin and Philip died in 1776, very likely in battle.

One more note on Jacob Truax, according to AncestryDNA's ThruLines feature, Allison has the following DNA connections to Jacob's children (at least as of February 2025):

AncestryDNA ThruLines.

A good apple orchard

 

Monmouth Inquirer. 22 Feb 1838.

This clipping from the Monmouth Inquirer in 1838 shows Samuel Truax serving as the administrator of Jacob's estate. It's interesting to see the property described with 60 acres of land, a dwelling house, outbuildings and a good apple orchard.

Jacob and Contente

 

FamilySearch. Rev. War Pensions. 1838.

Jacob Truax and Contente Bills married in Monmouth County, New Jersey in August 1784. The couple promptly had a son, Sylvanus, in 1786, along with Margaret (1788), Thomas (1790), Samuel (1792), Jacob Jr (1794) and Hester (1798). 

Jacob served in the Revolutionary War and filed a pension. His widow Contente submitted pension papers, and after her death in 1838, her children received the benefit. Above shows two screenshots from the pension record naming the children. This set of documents is hugely helpful for piecing together the family.

There's more on Jacob's service during the Revolutionary War that deserves a separate post.

FamilySearch. Rev. War Pensions.

FamilySearch. US Bounty Land records.

FamilySearch. Monmouth, NJ deed. 7 Feb 1823.

Contente was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey in 1764, the daughter of Sylvanus Bills and Rachel Lippincott. She was 20 at marriage to Jacob Truax in 1784. She would have been a teen during the years of the American Revolution. The Battle of Monmouth, which occurred in their town on 28 June 1778, is known as one of the longest battles of the war. For more on the Monmouth campaign, see this post from Mount Vernon.

After the war, the Truax family raised their children in Howell Township. The children of Jacob and Contente received the Revolutionary War pension in 1842.

Fold3.

A deeper connection

 

FamilySearch. Monmouth, NJ marriages. 1810.

All of the documentation I've seen places Margaret Ketcham's year of birth in 1788, and if accurate, at her marriage to Daniel Havens in 1827 she was 38. I had overlooked the fact that Margaret had an earlier marriage in Monmouth County to John Ketcham in 1810. They had a son named Eli Ketcham in 1810, who I had mislabeled in the tree as a possible brother of Margaret. Eli followed the family to Tazewell County, Illinois and lived near the Havens familly.

According to the 1810 marriage record, Margaret's birth name was Truax. Margaret's father, Jacob Truax, is mentioned in the 1836 land transfer I featured in my last post, along with the name Sylvanus Truax. He was Margaret's brother.

I've seen this family name before on my Dad's side of the tree, with connections to Monmouth County, New Jersey. It's time to see where these two branches intersect, and sort out the various members of the Truax family.

Returning to the Havens line

Back in 2013, I posted an image for the marriage record in March 1827 for Daniel Havens and Margaret Ketcham in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Daniel and Margaret were Allison's 4th-great-grandparents. I last looked at her paternal Havens line in 2017, and with the addition of newly available records from FamilySearch Labs, it's time to look back on the Havens family in New Jersey to see what can be found on Daniel before the family made the move to Tazewell County, Illinois.

On 4 March 1836, Daniel and Margaret completed a land transfer (see record on FamilySearch) with Joseph L. Johnston of Howell, Monmouth County, New Jersey for $137. The deed mentions a six acre plot that Daniel had purchased from Jacob Truax on 25 September 1829, and 17 acres that Daniel had purchased from Sylvanus and Rachel Truax on 14 May 1832. The transaction also included a 33 acre plot and additional 12 acre plot.

FamilySearch. NJ deeds. 1836.

There are a lot of Havens mentioned in the records of Monmouth County, New Jersey, but the deeds above provide a pointer to other records that might allow us to track Daniel and Margaret earlier in time.

The ancient path

 

FTDNA. Globetrekker map.

My Big Y-700 DNA results arrived on Friday, and I have been diving into the material to understand more about my place on the Block Tree. In my last Y-DNA update in mid-December, I was assigned haplogroup R-L2. This latest result puts me closer to modern times, with a most recent common ancestor located in England about 1600 CE.

FTDNA.

The screen shot above shows I have an ancient DNA connection with a man who lived during the Roman age in York, England between 100-400 CE (see this article in the Guardian from 2016). York was a Roman city called Eboracum. This particular ancient match may have originated from southwestern Wales. The link to Wales is not a surprise, with the surname Jones originating there. At that far back, this connection is before the creation of surnames.

There's a verse at the beginning of the 2002 song Turn the Page by the British hip hop project The Streets, where Mike Skinner raps "I'm forty-fifth generation Roman". An AI overview of the song lyric says "it's used to playfully highlight the idea that many people in Britain have distant ancestry linked to the Roman occupation, even if they don't directly experience that heritage in their lives today." I've been a fan of The Streets for a long time (saw them live in 2004 at the 9:30 Club in DC), so learning about this deep Roman connection is pretty cool.

In the meantime, I've joined Y-DNA group project R-U152-FGC22501 to learn more about how to work with the results. A fascinating blog entry from an administrator of the group describes some details on the project.

An epic journey

 

Google Maps. Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.

Before I shift from the Halter family to another branch of the tree, I thought I'd close out the story on Caroline Bauer with her move from French colonial Algeria in the mid 1860s across the Atlantic to southern Brazil. I've already shared Caroline's birth record from Bas-Rhin, France in 1838, where she was listed as the illegitimate daughter of Rosine Bauer (and possible daughter of Jean Pierre Halter). Caroline moved with her mother, brother Marcel, and Jean Pierre's children to Oran, Algeria as a teen in the mid 1850s.

She met and married 25 year old Melchior Schaefer in Oran in 1857 at the age of 19. Two years later, she gave birth to a daughter, also named Caroline. Sadly, this child died in 1861. Caroline gave birth to three boys in Algeria between 1860 and 1865: Melchior Jr in 1860; Victor in 1863 and Baptiste (or Jean Baptiste, later known as Joao Baptiste) in 1865.

It's unclear when the family decided to move from Algeria. I have not extensively researched the economic and political situation that Caroline and her extended family may have encountered in colonial Algeria. Jean Pierre Halter died in January 1858. Caroline's mother Rosine died in August 1860 when Caroline was 22 with two young children. Then with two more infants in the household, the Schaefers either first relocated to France in 1867 or moved directly from Algeria to Brazil. Some trees show Caroline delivered a son named Nicolas in France in 1867. Either way, it was quite a journey to go from France to Brazil in the mid to late 1860s. 

I cannot imagine the route taken. Maybe they sailed from Mediterranean France to Sao Paulo or Rio, following the promise of work to the farms in Paraná State. I have not extensively researched Melchior or his trade, or what might have pulled them from Algeria to start anew in Brazil.

The Schaefers first appear in the records in Curitiba, Brazil in 1871, with the baptism of their son, Adolpho. They eventually had five more children in Curitiba.

Melchior Sr. died Curitiba in 1926. Caroline, known in Brazil as Carolina, died on 22 April 1929 (see record on FamilySearch) at the age of 91. From trees on Geneanet and FamilySearch, there's a number of descendants from the Schaefers in Brazil. It's possible there are DNA matches to Allison's Memaw as she's closer in time to Jean Pierre Halter (if he was Caroline's father).

Caroline and Melchior would have seen dramatic change in their lifetimes. They moved from France and Germany to North Africa during a tumultuous war time and colonial period, then to southern Brazil when it was an empire at war with neighboring Uruguay. The Schaefers were there for the formation of the Brazilian Republic and the first World War. They had a huge family who became Brazilian, not knowing about their family connections further north in America.

For now, this post brings my dive into this line of the extended Halter family to a close, as I'll be returning to a different branch on Allison's side of the tree.

Pere Inconnu

 

FamilySearch. Bas-Rhin. 27 Jan. 1838.

Before marrying Jean Pierre Halter on 4 February 1839 in Bas-Rhin, Rosine Bauer gave birth to three children. On the birth records for those children, the father was unknown or "pere inconnu". These children were: Marcel Bauer, born in 1832; Crispin Bauer, born in 1836; and Caroline Bauer, born in 1838. Crispin died an infant in May 1836. On the birth record above for Caroline, she is listed as "fille illegitime de pere inconnu" or illegitimate daughter. Whatever the relationship the children may have had with Jean Pierre, Marcel and Caroline accompanied the family on the move from France to Algeria in the 1850s, and were living near them in the Bou Tlelis neighborhood.

Marcel Bauer married Elisabeth Simon in Bou Tleis, Oran, Algeria in 1856. Caroline married German immigrant Melchior Schaefer in 1857 in Misserghin (next to Bou Tlelis, Oran). While Marcel remained in Algeria until his death in 1903, Caroline and her family took a different path. I'll pick up Caroline's journey in the next post.

ANOM. Misserghin. 1857.