Murder was the case...

 

FamilySearch. Grainger County, TN. 12 Dec 1865.

This is the companion case to State v Riggs, filed in Grainger County, Tennessee in December 1865, from an earlier action filed in Jefferson County. The screenshot above shows State vs James Berry, which was combined with the Riggs case on appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1866. I'm posting here for later research.

I am currently working with Ancestry's new Networks feature with the John Thornhill case as my first network. This will be the subject of a longer post on Friday, but so far, this is the perfect example of the value of the new Networks. I'll walk through this step by step with how I'm utilizing the tool so far, and where it can be improved with some additions.

State v Berry. Jefferson County, TN. 1865.

Assigning a DNA beneficiary

Ahead of World DNA Day later this month, DNA Study Group has a daily series of challenges to encourage participation. Today's challenge is to assign a DNA beneficiary to the kits one might administer on the various DNA company sites or to communicate with your loved ones on your final wishes for your DNA results. While both are good, the first one, assigning a beneficiary to the DNA results I administer, may be easier.

At RootsTech last month, Ancestry had an Exhibit Hall talk at their booth to walk through the process of assigning a Legacy contact to your Ancestry account. This is fairly easy, and can be found on the Account Settings on Ancestry, then scroll down the page to "Legacy contact", appearing in a box under Region and Language. Once you've added the name and email for the person you want to name as your Legacy contact, Ancestry then sends a confirmation to you like the one below, and presumably an email to the person who has been named as the Legacy contact.

Notification email from Ancestry.

Although I'm hoping to be around for quite some time, I've reached the age where unfortunately friends and colleagues have died too soon. It doesn't hurt to plan ahead and think about who you may want to manage DNA data and those DNA connections after one passes. I want this information preserved so that future generations in the family can build from my own DNA discoveries. New technology and advancements may come along after me which allow us to break through mysteries unimaginable today.

Research Progress April 2025

A new cycle of DNA Study Group starts today with Your DNA Guide. It's been a month since my last DNA research progress post. With the start of the new cycle, I'm updating my research questions. All of these are DNA-related, so it doesn't make sense to break them down by type of course.

1 - Identifying the Irish parents of Bridget, my 3rd-great-grandmother. I am hoping some fresh approaches with Study Group will shake loose new ideas for using DNA to identify mystery matches to her line.

2 - Determining the generation of connection with the Pennsylvania O'Briens. I'm going to try again with the WATO course to see if another attempt makes it easier to work with.

3 - Verify the father of Cora Belle Medcalf using DNA matches.

4 - Identify possible siblings of my 3rd-great-grandfather Gabriel Vasquez, allowing for further research in Chilean records.

5 - Identifying living descendants of Jose Jesus Amado and Gertrudis Palomino (my 5th-great-grandparents), and explore a potential connection to the Amado family of Los Angeles, founders of the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel.

6 - Determining the connection to the cluster of Amado matches on FamilyTreeDNA.

7 - Locating another Jones cousin for YDNA testing.

8 - Working with a Campuzano cousin to potentially take a mtDNA test, giving us a MitoTree haplogroup for some of the maternal branches on the Mexican side of the tree.

9 - Exploring the Campuzano side of the YDNA results to see if we can make a connection back to Spain.

10 - Working forward on the McIntosh line for cousins to encourage to YDNA test. I am going to Scotland in June and will be viewing records on John McIntosh at the University of Edinburgh.

11 - Identifying the connection with the mystery Guerrero-Leyva group of matches. I think the common ancestor is on the Portillo side of the tree.

12 - Working with mtDNA matches and trying to identify connections.

Again, these are DNA questions I'm using for Study Group. I am still pursuing other research, such as:

• Awaiting the copy of the marriage record and certificate for Agnes Atherton O'Brien in Indianapolis from 1881. 
• Awaiting the addition of Sonoran records to FamilySearch Labs' Full Text Search.
• Picking up the trail on the Havens family in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
• Using Ancestry's new Networks tool.
• Planning a possible RootsTech 2026 talk idea.

April

 

Childe Hassam. April: The Green Gown. 1920.