XDNA Inheritance

 

Source: Blaine Bettinger. The Genetic Genealogist, 2008.

In July 2025, I wrote about using XDNA with DNA matches. I am looking again at XDNA patterns, now that I also have access to my cousin Catherine's results with FamilyTreeDNA. I can compare XDNA matches in common between Catherine and my Mom, and possibly try to identify the most recent common ancestor with matches on the Mexican or Chilean sides of the tree.

Catherine and my Mom share 36 cM of XDNA, and 208 cM of autosomal DNA. Her common ancestor are my 2nd-great-grandparents Vicente Plutarco Campuzano and Maria Jesus Vasquez. With XDNA, because this has a specific inheritance pattern, those 36 cMs could be 50% from Vicente and 50% from Maria Jesus. In addition, Maria Jesus inherited her XDNA from both her parents, Gabriel Vasquez and Maria Jesus Suastegui, while Vicente only inherited his XDNA from his mother, Maria Concepcion Amado. As one of my research areas is to dig into the Amado DNA connections, XDNA provides another possibility for discovery.

Catherine has another XDNA match sharing 25 cM, but only 12 cM autosomal DNA. This match is in Brazil, so this hints at a possible Portuguese connection. It would help to see if there are more testers with a connection to the Amado side who also have a match in common with this particular XDNA match. We're currently waiting on another Campuzano cousin descending from Vicente Plutarco Campuzano and Maria Jesus Vasquez to complete his test, so I'll be curious if this match also appears.

Update - The chart at the top of the post shows female XDNA inheritance, highlighting the parts of the tree passing along XDNA (blue for paternal line inheritance, pink for maternal). So, if you have XDNA matches this can be a powerful tool for identifying matches and lines on the tree for research focus.

FamilyTreeDNA and Gedmatch are the only DNA sites I am aware of that currently display XDNA matches.

Revolutionary Veterans

 

Emanuel Leutze. Washington Crossing the Delaware. 1851.

With the PBS documentary series on the American Revolution premiering this week, I thought it was timely to look at some of the Revolutionary veterans I have covered previously on the blog. Since my meeting in Dublin, I've been providing some research assistance with a distant cousin's DAR application involving my 6th-great-grandfather James Tucker. This recap might be useful later in case S would like to pursue a DAR application.

• James Tucker, 1759-1849. He served in North Carolina.
• Azariah Davis, 1756-1830. He served in Pennsylvania.
• James Smith, 1755-1838. He served in Maryland. See also his pension file.

There's another group I think served during the American Revolution, but I have not yet verified this.

• Samuel Pollock, 1756-1835.
• William Allman, 1746-1830. Pennsylvania.
• Thomas Armstrong, 1734-1776
• Samuel Vail, 1754-1846
• Moses Lambert Jr, 1737-1782. New Jersey.
• Michael Braun. 1761-1826. Pennsylvania.
• John Read, 1734-1819. Virginia.

Finally, there's John McIntosh, the Scottish surgeon whose legend states he was captured at the Battle of Cowpens in 1781 while serving in the British Army.

Now streaming: The American Revolution

 

Source: PBS. The American Revolution (2025).

The 12 hour, six part documentary The American Revolution is now streaming (available each night this week or in full on PBS). Additional detail about the episodes is available on the PBS link above and in the image below.

Source: PBS.

Over the top Christmas lights

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Temple Bar Dublin. 23 Oct 2025.

Culpeper Station

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Culpeper Station. 13 Nov 2025.

Yesterday was another of my regular visits to historic Culpeper, Virginia to perform a role in a critical process of maintaining the global Internet. The shot above is from Amtrak's Culpeper Station, which makes for an easy and reliable way to travel.

ThruLines for Samuel

 

Ancestry's ThruLines. Matches of KDJ. Nov 2025.

Ancestry's ThruLines tool currently shows 46 DNA matches descending from Samuel Oyler using my Dad's DNA results. Two of those DNA matches descend from Potter Samuel Oyler's daughter Frances, and another two descending from Hannah Oyler. Thirty-six of our matches are from George Oyler Sr, who moved to America, operated the Buck Tavern and imported Kent Buck sheep.

At this point I am shifting to another branch of the tree, but it is useful to look back regularly to see how these numbers change.

A key ingredient for Thanksgiving

 

DAR wiki & Government of Canada.

This article in the Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative wiki on the cranberry trade in Nova Scotia has a surprising connection back to the Oylers of Spitalfields Market. The article on Herbert Oyler, son of George B. Oyler, describes his family connection to the apple trade. "The growing of apples appears to be in the blood of the Oyler family...Mr. Oyler was born in England, where his father George Oyler, had 3000 acres of orchard, apples and other fruit. His father was a member of Potter, Oyler, Ltd. in Kent, and Mr. Oyler still holds stock in this leading apple concern of England. His grandfather and great-grandfather were also apple men, making Mr. Oyler the fourth direct generation to be interested as a livelihood in apples and other fruits." This connection goes back even further when you consider the 1,000 year lease on the orchard, gardens and farm assigned to Samuel Oyler in Kent, England in 1834.

Source: Facebook. 1940s label.

The article continues into Herbert Oyler's shift into cranberry production, and how he was a pioneer in Canada using the first sprinkler on a cranberry bog. This was published in a 1955 magazine of the national cranberry growers in the United States and Canada. The Government of Canada website also has some historic photos from the Oyler cranberry operation in Nova Scotia.

It makes sense that the Oylers would seek out produce from beyond England to sell at the Spitalfields Market, but I had no idea how extensive this transatlantic produce trade was. FamilySearch has deeds for Potter Oyler Ltd in Nova Scotia showing they had an apple warehouse. Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley is the heart of the region's apple production and is known as the "Apple Capital of Nova Scotia."

Google Maps. Annapolis Valley, NS.

The Brickies

 

Source: Wikipedia. Sittingbourne F.C.

Here's one more post on the extended Oyler family in Kent, England. In 1922, Potter Oyler (a son or grandson of George Oyler?) was elected President of Sittingbourne Football Club. The team are nicknamed the Brickies, and they still play in the Isthmian Football League in the lower divisions of English football.

East Kent Gazette. 8 Jul 1922.

Oyler served as President in the 1922 season, and did not seek the seat in 1923. The team saw some of its greatest success in the 1922 season, advancing in the FA Cup and scoring 102 goals against 20 goals given up. Again, this is a cool connection to English football, even if on a distant branch.

The Oylers and Spitalfields

 

Photo from Spitalfields Market.

Historic Spitalfields Market has been a trading site in London since the 1600s. Various generations of the Oyler family have sold produce at the old market from the mid 1800s. While my own connection to this branch of the family is distant, I know there are others out there who are more recent descendants from Thomas Pettit Oyler and his heirs. There's a great photo from 1910 showing the name Potter Oyler on the outside of Spitalfields Market (I don't have the digital rights to post it on the blog), and it looks like there was a Potter Oyler Ltd operating at Spitalfields up to 1990.

Thomas Pettit Oyler married Elizabeth Potter in Kent in 1817. They had at five daughters - Caroline, Mary, Frances Matilda, Elisabeth, and Harriet - and one son Potter Samuel Oyler. Thomas and Elizabeth moved from Kent to Shoreditch in the early 1830s. Elizabeth died in 1840, and Thomas in 1842.

Potter Samuel Oyler was born in 1821 in Sandhurst, Kent. In 1841, he married Mary Ann Hales, the granddaughter of a grocer, in Shoreditch, and they had nine children. Potter and family appear in the 1851 England Census, living at 8 Fashion Street in Spitalfields.

Ancestry. 1851 England Census.

By 1861, the family was at 33 and 34 Commercial Street, and Potter is listed as a fruit salesman. His oldest sons, Thomas P. and George Oyler, ages 15 and 13, are listed as assistant salesmen. They would later take over the business with their mother after Potter's death in 1868 (for a copy of the will of Potter Samuel Oyler and Mary Ann Hales Oyler, see this page on Rootsweb posted by a descendant of Thomas Pettit Oyler).

Ancestry. 1861 England Census.

The Standard. 28 Mar 1871.

In the 1871 England Census, Mary Ann is listed at 27 Commercial Street in Spitalfields as a fruit saleswoman with her children.

Ancestry. 1871 England Census.

The Oylers invested in property, and according to the survey of London, in 1879 Thomas P. and brother George Oyler built St. James' Chambers a dormitory house that had 420 lodgers. In 1880, they rebuilt 199 and 201 Poplar High Street, and later 203-207 Poplar High Street. Mary Ann Oyler died in 1886, her daughters married fruit salesmen from the area near Spitalfields. One son William operated the Bridge House tavern.

Thomas Potter and George, operating as "T. and G. Oyler" appear in the England newspapers with various interests, from owning The Swan pub on Great Dover street, a fruit business at Spitalfields Market, and sourcing fruit and produce from Kent and other locations. It looks like the building where the Swan pub was located no longer exists, but The Roebuck is a historic pub nearby that could be worth a visit.

A cool item is this photo of an old market token labeled P. Oyler, Spitalfields. According to a Google search, the tokens were used by wholesalers and retailers to track deposits on returned containers and work done by porters. The tokens served as a receipt and prevented fraud.

Source: eBay.

Branches of the family descending from George Oyler carried on the family business and maintained a connection to Spitalfields Market into recent decades. This is a fascinating bit of history and I'll try to check out the Spitalfields Market area when I'm in London again next month.

A link to Spitalfields Market

 

The Western Times, 24 Jan 1868.

I'm posting this advertisement for Potter Oyler and Sons at the Spitalfields Market ahead of next month's stopover in London. Potter Oyler was a son of Thomas Pettit Oyler, oldest son of my 5th-great-grandfather Samuel Oyler. While my 4th-great-grandfather George and his brothers Samuel Jr, David, William and John went to America, their brother Thomas Pettit stayed in England and worked in Whitechapel, London. I wrote about their sister Hannah Oyler back in May.

Samuel Sr's orchard property in Kent may have put Thomas Pettit and son Potter on a path to selling fruit. I'll explore the fruit business and the Oylers at Spitalfields further in the next post.

In August 2014 I took a street art walk through nearby Shoreditch, without knowing the family connection to the Spitalfields Market. I'm looking forward to a return visit to this part of London.

O'Brien's

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. O'Brien's Dublin. 25 Oct 2025.

A shot from the upstairs bar at O'Brien's The Ferryman pub. The sign at the bar says it was established in 1820. My seafaring 3rd-great-grandfather John O'Brien was born in 1793, maybe if he passed through Dublin after a voyage he had a pint at this pub.

O'Briens was one of my first stops ten years ago during our 2015 meeting in Dublin, and I hosted a happy hour for our extended team in the pub this year. This is a lively spot along the Liffey across from the convention centre.

Food as family history

Take twenty minutes to watch this fascinating YouTube video from NYT Cooking featuring Priya Krishna and her quest to recreate her family's secret spice recipe. She works with two different versions of the recipe, one dictated by her grandfather, and another dictated by her grandmother, both without clear instructions for how to recreate the spice blend. The process takes months, including extended time sending samples of the spice blend to her family members all over the world.

Emotional and really well done, and another example of how YouTube as a platform is so good for this type of short form content.

Update - There's an article to accompany the video if you have a subscription to the New York Times.

James Tucker's Publick House

 

Created in Ideogram. Tucker's Publick House, 1817.

Back in the early months of the blog in March 2012, I wrote about my 5th-great-grandparents Thomas Jones and Nancy Tucker. While I've covered Thomas and the Jones line extensively, I haven't spent a lot of time writing about Nancy's side of the tree. I have been sharing my research with Mary, a skilled researcher working on a Daughters of the American Revolution application for a distant cousin also descending from Thomas and Nancy. There's more to follow on this in future posts.

I've run across news articles describing a James Tucker who operated a house of entertainment along the stage road between Knoxville and Abington, Virginia. The place became known as Tuckertown, and later New Market. We don't know if the James Tucker who opened this first tavern was James Senior or his son, James Tucker Junior. In the June 1816 sessions in Jefferson County, a James Tucker was granted the right to operate "an ordinary" at his home. At this time in Tennessee, an ordinary was a public house that served as an inn or tavern, providing travelers with a place to rest their horses along the stage road and get lodging, meals and drink.

FamilySearch. Jefferson County, TN. June 1816.

In June 1820, James Tucker Junior was granted the authority to keep an ordinary at his house, and took an oath not to allow gambling.

FamilySearch. Jefferson County, TN. June 1820.

An old post on genealogy.com says that James Tucker's Publick House was the site of the first non-Quaker religious services in the area in March 1819. "To gain the community's blessings, he offered his facility to Dandridge's Hopewell Presbyterian Church for worship."

Learning about Tucker's Publick House reminds me of other taverns in the family, the Buck Tavern operated by George Oyler in Hamilton County, Ohio, and the Blue Dove tavern operated by Lodewyck Post in Dutch New Amsterdam.

A corner in Dublin

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Dublin. 23 Oct 2025.

mtDNA for Elizabeth and her children

 

Elizabeth and Sarah. Color using MyHeritage.

Back in March, I reached out to cousin Lynn, a direct maternal line descendant of Elizabeth Thornhill Jones through Elizabeth's daughter Catherine. She agreed to take the mtDNA test through FamilyTreeDNA. The result came back last week, giving us a mtDNA haplogroup for her, Elizabeth and her children, along with Elizabeth's mother Sarah Westall.

With this post, I'm following the example of my recap A Place on the Mitotree for the maternal line path of Maria Jesus Vasquez. Lynn's result was U5b2a1a1, a uniquely European haplogroup.

FTDNA. Discover report.

There's further analysis to do with the results and comparing against mtDNA matches from that haplogroup. Hopefully the results will help connect Elizabeth and her mother Sarah into another family in Colonial Virginia, and perhaps we can follow their path back to Europe. FTDNA suggests joining the Cumberland Gap-mtDNA project along with several Scandinavian and British DNA projects.

From a search on Perplexity, there are few scholarly articles mentioning this mtDNA haplogroup in Colonial America, but it is an ancient European maternal lineage. It is interesting to see Finland as a possible origin location. On MyHeritage's Ancient Origins, my Dad's report has .8% Sami.

Elizabeth and her children

Elizabeth Thornhill was born in Culpeper, Virginia about 1808. She moved with her parents Joseph Thornhill and Sarah Westall, and siblings from Culpeper to Jefferson County, Tennessee. Elizabeth married Robert Thomas Jones in Jefferson County on 20 October 1824. She and Robert had at least the following eleven children in Jefferson County:

• Robert Thomas Jones Jr, 1825-1847
• Catherine Jones, 1826-
• Elizabeth Jane Jones, 1827- before 1875
• Margaret Caroline Jones, 1831-1894
• Emeline Jones, 1832-1865
• Adaline Jones, 1835-
• Joseph Thomas Jones, 1837-1910
• Mary E. Jones, 1839-1900
• Martin Van Buren Jones, 1842-1918
• Francis Marion Jones, 1844-1865
• Sarah Melissa Jones, 1846-1888

As mtDNA is inherited from the maternal line, all of Elizabeth's children would have also shared the U5b2a1a1 haplogroup. Only Elizabeth's daughters passed down this haplogroup to their children. This also means Elizabeth inherited the haplogroup from her mother Sarah Westall.

One more note, for the image at the top of the post, I used the features on MyHeritage to enhance and colorize the photo showing Elizabeth and her daughter Sarah Melissa Jones Daniel. The photo was shared to me in 2015 by a distant cousin descending from Sarah Melissa.

Research Progress November 2025

Since last month's update, there's quite a lot of new information to share. Several of these topics deserve a dedicated post, so this is a summary of progress on my various research questions.

Paternal side research

1 - Identifying the parents of Bridget, my Irish 3rd-great-grandmother. Last week I had a consultation with a genealogist at the Irish Family History Centre, who gave me some great suggestions for follow-up after my meetings had ended in Dublin. This needs some more time as I only returned Friday afternoon, but there are some promising leads to pursue.

2 - Generation of connection for the Pennsylvania O'Briens. Based on my experiment with BanyanDNA, I think a case can be made that these people descend from an earlier son of John O'Brien, born between 1807 and the mid-1820s. YDNA testing would help significantly on this question if an O'Brien male descendant of this branch would test, and an O'Brien cousin on my Dad's side took the test. I think this research question will shift in the next month, and I am currently taking the YDNA online course through YourDNAGuide.

3 - Determining the mtDNA haplogroup for the maternal line of Elizabeth Thornhill Jones. Big news! We have a result! No spoilers yet, this deserves its own post.

4 - McIntosh side of the tree and McIntosh DNA matches. This topic may change.

5 - Jones YDNA. I've joined the Jones YDNA project on FamilyTreeDNA and I'm using my own Big Y results as part of the YDNA online course I am in, while also looking for male Jones cousins to encourage to test. There's currently a sale on YDNA kits with FamilyTreeDNA. This topic will evolve but for now it is a placeholder for Jones YDNA research.

6 - Guthrie DNA group project.

7 - [New] Cleaning up my Thomas Jones and Nancy Tucker research. Much more to follow later this month.

Maternal side research

1 - Identify possible siblings of my 3rd-great-grandfather Gabriel Vasquez.

2 - Working with DNA matches on the Amado side of the tree.

3 - Analyzing the mtDNA matches in the maternal line path of Maria Jesus Vasquez.

4 - Identifying the connection to the Guerrero-Leyva mystery matches. I might try using BanyanDNA here, in combination with Ancestry's new Clustering with Pro Tools.

5 - Resolving descendancy from the daughters of John Carter (1715-1783) using mtDNA. I've joined the Carter DNA project with FTDNA and will be following up with the Carter Society.

6 - Identifying a direct maternal descendant of Mary Alice Cain Read to encourage to take a mtDNA test.

7 - [New] Campuzano YDNA - This one is an exciting addition to the research. I'm working with Campuzano cousin Pat, and she's persuaded one of her male cousins to take the YDNA test. I purchased a kit and have sent it off to Pat for him when they next connect later in the month. It may take a few months for results, but this will give us a Y haplogroup for the line of Vicente Antonio Campuzano. I am hoping this will help clear up whether this branch came from Cantabria, or if there's some truth to the shipwreck tale passed down to my Granny that a Campuzano was Italian, or some combination of the two (a Sephardic link from northern Spain to Genoa perhaps).

A look at the numbers

On Ancestry, I have 79,801 DNA matches. My Mom's kit has 63,850 matches. My Dad's has 51,738. On MyHeritage, my kit has 19,608 matches. My Mom's has 16,905, and my Dad's has 21,131.

On FTDNA, my FamilyFinder (autosomal) transfer has 7,204 matches. My Mom's has 6851 matches, and my Dad's has 7,149.

With this many matches, the new clustering tools are even more useful.

New Korean War era draft cards

 

Source: Fold3. Nov 2025.

While I was in Dublin, Ancestry's Fold3 team announced the addition of new Korean War era draft registration cards covering 10 states. Lucky for me, several of those states are places of interest for my research. Two sons of my great-grandfather Plutarco Campuzano appear in the draft cards in Arizona, and each of those cards provides interesting details. 

My granduncle Ernie served in the US Marine Corps, and his Korean War era draft registration notes that he had tattoos, including initials on his left arm. His younger brother Frank also had a tattoo on this left arm. Another Campuzano cousin has a card that says he has "numerous tattoos on both forearms". This seems to run in the family.

The Korean War era database should contain draft registration cards for potential cousins on several branches that I'm investigating for YDNA and mtDNA testing.

This database is currently at 13%. I suspect further scanning is paused until the government shutdown ends.

Dublin was EPIC

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. EPIC Museum Dublin. 28 Oct 2025.

I'm back from the extended week of meetings in Dublin, and there's quite a lot to cover. On Thursday 23 October, I had the opportunity to book an hour long discussion with an expert at the Irish Family History Centre. Huge thanks to Kira at the Centre for listening and suggesting several research paths on my questions on my 3rd-great-grandparents John O'Brien and Bridget. I have some new suggestions to pursue and will post more about those shortly.

The Centre is tucked in a corner next to the gift shop above the EPIC Museum. There is a cost for their consultation service but I found it was comparable with other consultations I have paid for. 

EPIC was the site for my organization's reception on Monday night. The building is the historic Custom House Quay in Dublin's Docklands. In the early 1800s the building served as storage for cargoes of tobacco, tea and spirits. The location on the river Liffey was also a departure point for the millions of Irish people who left the island for destinations far and wide.

Happy Halloween

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Art by Maxxer242 in Venice. 8 Jan 2025.

Crossing the Liffey

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Dublin. 26 Oct 2018.

Reposting a photo I shared on an earlier stopover in Dublin. By now this has been a regular sight during this week's stay in the city.

Guinness Time

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Dublin, 26 Jun 2025.

A historic advertisement from the Guinness Storehouse tour in Dublin, taken this summer during Allison's choir tour visit to the brewery. Looking back, I was here 10 years ago during our last meeting in the city. I've linked a few other throwback shots from the previous Dublin meeting.

Live music, Dublin 2020

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Temple Bar, 18 Feb 2020.

I've shared this shot previously (originally on Instagram, and then again on the blog on 2021). As I'm back in Dublin this week for the second time this year it feels like I should revisit some stops during other visits to the city. The shot above was particularly poignant at the time as it felt like this was my last trip before COVID took off. Of course I was in Mexico as things were shutting down in mid March 2020 so this wasn't my last trip, but looking back on it, this Dublin time stood out as I was interacting with colleagues and community.

I anticipate I'll make a visit or two at the Norseman pub in Temple Bar (or may have already done so by the time this post is live). It is one of my favorite stops in Dublin and a place I've returned to many times. There is live music seven nights a week at the Norseman, and they have good food too.

Summer Throwback

 

Allison & I at Guinness Storehouse Dublin. 26 Jun 2025.

A selfie from the summer tour in Dublin, which also happened to be our anniversary. Allison & I visited the Guinness Storehouse as part of her choir tour to Ireland & Scotland. This week I'm back in Dublin, and there's a good chance I may end up at the Guinness tour again, even if I don't drink Guinness. It's a cool tour and there's a great view of Dublin from the top.

Welcome to Dublin

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Dublin, IE. 26 June 2025.

Preparing for digging

 

Made in Ideogram. 

Joining group projects and online learning sessions on DNA through YourDNAGuide feels a bit like preparing the construction site for something bigger. I've now joined the Jones DNA project on FTDNA, and am awaiting a response on the Tennessee Smoky Mountains project as they have a number of Jones and Thornhill participants. I am very curious to see if either project can shed light on potential connections that might lead the Jones line further back to the place before they arrived in Jefferson County, Tennessee.

The YourDNAGuide YDNA course begins next week, and while I have some significant primary duties in Dublin through the end of the month, this should be a really helpful course to better understand my own results.

Above is our Hailan coo, who appeared on the blog earlier this summer. A likeness can be found throughout the souvenir shops of Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Governess

 

FamilySearch. Mary Frances' Passport application. 1918.

In October 1918, the Chilean Embassy in Washington DC sent a letter to Leon Canova, head of the US State Department's Mexican bureau on behalf of Alberto Yoacham, the Minister of Chile to Mexico and former head of affairs for the Chilean delegation in Washington DC. The letter sought to expedite the passport application for Mary Frances O'Brien (the kindly woman in the passport photo above). Mary Frances had been retained as a governess for Yoacham's child, and was set to move to Mexico City.

Ancestry. US Passports. 1918.

Mary Frances O'Brien was born in Boston, Massachusetts in January 1866. When her passport application was submitted in October 1918, she was 52, living in New Orleans, Louisiana, and had been there since at least 1916. Leonie Humble, proprietress of the boarding house where Mary Frances was living in New Orleans, provided a statement in support of her application. Mary Frances noted she had never married.

Ancestry. US Passports. 1918.

The letter and application notes that Mary Frances would join the family at the Chilean legation in Mexico City, and also travel to Chile and Argentina. It is unclear from this record how Mary Frances met the Minister, but she was likely hired to serve as the governess for the minister's son, Alberto Jr. Perhaps she was retained to teach him English.

According to the New Orleans passenger lists, the Yoacham family arrived in New Orleans on 10 October 1918. Alberto married Carmen Saldias, the daughter of the Argentine minister to Bolivia in January 1914.

Ancestry. New Orleans passenger list. Oct 1918.

Moline Dispatch. 12 Apr 1911.

Alberto Sr's story reminds me of another government official I've featured on the blog, Francisco Suastegui, the Mexican commercial attaché sent to Washington DC in 1925.

In July 1919, Mary Frances traveled to New Orleans through the border crossing at Laredo, Texas. It is unclear if she later followed the family in 1921 when Alberto Sr. was given the post to serve as Chile's minister to Canada. Her time in Mexico City would have been a tumultuous one. 1918 into 1919 overlaps with the global influenza pandemic (Spanish flu) and the Mexican revolutionary period.

Down the rabbit hole

How did I stumble onto Mary Frances' passport application and how if at all does she factor into my O'Brien search? While looking on FTDNA at matches in common with my Dad's kit and his first cousin Michael, I saw a 10 cM match in JJ O'Brien. This person has 125 matches in common with my Dad, and also had linked a family tree. Working backward on his O'Brien line I landed on the parents of Mary Frances, John O'Brien and Mary Daley. Our match is descended from Mary Frances' younger brother.

John was born in Ireland in 1833 and moved to Boston in 1864 via Queenstown, now Cobh in County Cork. He died in 1896, and his wife Mary died in 1910. In the 1900 US Census, Mary Frances was in Boston working as a school teacher. By 1910, Mary Frances is listed as a public school teacher, still in Boston. Mary Frances visited Queenstown in the summer of 1901, sailing to Boston on the S.S. New England on 30 August 1901 (see the Boston emigration record on FamilySearch).

Following her governess work, Mary Frances returned to New Orleans in 1926, and appears in the Orleans Parish voting records on FamilySearch. In 1939 she was living at 1416 1/2 Canal Street. In the 1935 voting records, she is listed as living at 719 Camp Street, working as a lady's companion for Mrs. Charles Murray. Catherine Rirdon Murray was a native of Ireland, and died in March 1937. Three years earlier, Mary Frances was working as a lady's companion for Carrie Berlin at 741 Camp Street.

FamilySearch. Orleans voting records.

The Camp Street address is not far from where my great-grandfather Harry O'Brien lived when he was in New Orleans. This is a city that has featured regularly in posts on the blog, and the references to New Orleans caught my attention when looking at Mary Frances' passport application.

It does not appear that Mary Frances ever had children. I'm not certain our O'Briens even connect to this branch, but her story seemed like a fascinating one to follow. Mary Frances was a daughter of Irish immigrants, lived a life of service through public education and care giving, and traveled the world. 

Testing BanyanDNA

I am currently trying a free version of BanyanDNA to explore some possibilities on the generation of connection for the Pennsylvania O'Brien branch that is connected in some way to my 3rd-great-grandfather John O'Brien. I tried a similar approach using WATO around this time last year.

BanyanDNA.

Using a tree with John O'Brien as a father of a mystery son born 1807-1829, who was the father of James O'Brien (1843), the head of the Pennsylvania O'Brien group, returned really promising possible results.

BanyanDNA validation calculation.

As someone born in the early 1790s, it does seem likely that John O'Brien had a family before he arrived in La Salle County, Illinois about 1850. James O'Brien's 1914 death certificate says that James' father was also named James.

Sign of the times

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Shepard Fairey. Lisbon, 17 Oct 2023.

Custom Clusters

 

Ancestry Custom Clusters. Oct 2025.

Yesterday a new feature within Ancestry's ProTools appeared for me, allowing for the creation of custom clusters. This is an improvement on the Clusters tool launched earlier in the summer. I'm still testing this out. I created a cluster using a known match on my Dad's side of the tree who is part of the Pennsylvania O'Briens group, and the tool did pull in many of the people who I've already looked at with Shared Matches of Matches that I think are connected to each other.

You can start a cluster with a match of interest who has less than 20 cM in common with your tester, and the tool will pull in some of those people who have been 20 cM and 1300 cM in common with the match of interest and who also may have cM in common with your tester. I tried this to isolate a group who might be connected with my Bridget side of the tree. You can generate up to 25 clusters, and these will stay on your page for 30 days unless added to a group.

I then tried this with the mystery Guerrero-Leyva matches on my Mom's side of the tree. While there's a lot of overlap, it does show a group of people connected together. This gives me some new ideas to try and people to investigate to see how they are related. It's definitely faster than the DNAPainter method I tried in August.

Ancestry. Custom Cluster.

Group Projects

In most cases, DNA research works better in combination with others. FamilyTreeDNA hosts a wide range of group projects based on YDNA lines, mtDNA, regional and surname specific questions. With my own test, I previously joined the A2 mtDNA haplogroup, the Mexico DNA, and the R-U152-FGC22501 projects. I've now added my interest to join the Diaz/Dias project as my mtDNA result descends from my 2nd-great-grandmother Teresa Diaz.

I recently added my Dad's result to the Guthrie genealogy project. Today I added his kit to the Lemon project on FTDNA and the Thorne/Thorn project. I was previously in contact with Earl Layman on his Lehman Genealogy and own a copy of his 2006 book and the 2011 supplement.

For the Thorne/Thorn project, we're waiting on the mtDNA result for cousin Lynn, which will provide the haplogroup for Elizabeth Thornhill of Culpeper, Virginia and Jefferson County, Tennessee. I've already heard back from an administrator of the project. This has prompted another search for a living Thornhill male from this branch of the family for a potential YDNA test.

As for YDNA tests, FTDNA currently has a sale underway through 12 November 2025 on various kits, including YDNA, mtDNA, autosomal (FamilyFinder) transfers from other sources such as Ancestry, and bundled savings for multiple types of tests. This is a great opportunity to get a lower cost test, one that could break through some brick and adobe walls for anyone interested in more targeted DNA testing.

On the maternal side of the tree, I've also reached out to the Gibson project to see if participating in this effort with autosomal DNA will identify a clear connection to the family of James Robert Gibson and Nancy Street. On Ancestry, my Mom has 121 DNA matches to descendants of James Robert Gibson with ThruLines. My aunt Linda has 101 DNA matches from James, while my aunt Patty has a 116 DNA matches from James. I think that's a really strong indicator of a connection.

Indigenous Peoples

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Apitatán at STRAAT Museum. 12 May 2023.

In our locality schools are closed today recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day. In our tree, there are traces of connection to native people in the Americas, and we've seen from the recent update to Ancestry's Origins there are definite signs of indigenous people from Canada to the Andes of Peru, Bolivia and northern Chile.

Source: Ancestry. Origins. Oct 2025.

Origins looks at your DNA compared to reference panels with deep, documented roots in specific geographic regions. Even looking back 300 years to 1725, that time frame roughly connects to the 7th-great-grandparent level. Doing the math without factoring in pedigree collapse or loops in the tree, at the 7xgreat level, that's 512 people. While I do have some 7xgreats in my tree, on the maternal side I only know one. Going back another level to the 8xgreat-grandparents, that's 1024 people (again assuming no loops or pedigree collapse).

The percentages for Indigenous Americas Bolivia and Peru are definitely connected to a branch from my 3rd-great-grandfather Gabriel Vasquez, who was born in Valparaiso, Chile in 1838. Somewhere three or four generations back from Gabriel is an indigenous woman from the Andes region. On another mystery branch of the tree is likely a woman from the Yucatan, perhaps near the port of Campeche or Merida. Her distant family was perhaps Yucatec Maya. I feel a real connection to this region from past travels.

Another branch likely shows an enslaved woman or family tracing roots back to the Nigerian woodlands. She and this family perhaps were brought to Mexico in the 16th or 17th century.

Our largest area for indigenous ancestors is in Mexico and my Mom and her sisters all have 12% Indigenous Americas - Mexico in their origins. Our links from Sonora to Arizona and Southern California are quite strong.

Source: Ancestry. Journeys. Oct 2025.

Even looking at the Ancient Origins feature in MyHeritage shows a link to indigenous people in North & South America and in Central Africa.

MyHeritage. Ancient Origins.

The painting at the top of the post is by Ecuadorean artist Apitatán and is on display at the STRAAT Museum in Amsterdam.