Research Progress October 2025

The second of the month brings another update on the progress for my DNA research questions. There's been some major developments since the last update.

Paternal side research

1 - Identifying the parents of Bridget, my 3rd-great-grandmother. Not much new here, but I am hopeful the new AncestryDNA update launching on 9 October will show more information that may pinpoint family links back to Ireland. We have some strong hints back to County Longford, Ireland and it would be great to find a breakthrough here.

2 - Generation of connection for the Pennsylvania O'Briens. Again, not much new here either.

3 - Determining the mtDNA haplogroup for the maternal line descending from Elizabeth Thornhill Jones [Updated]. Huge thanks to distant cousin Lynn who has ordered the mtDNA test from FamilyTreeDNA. Maybe we'll get some Thanksgiving news on the mtDNA result. This will be pretty huge, as her maternal ancestor Catherine Jones, shares the same mtDNA haplogroup with my 3rd-great-grandfather Joseph Jones, and this will give us the haplogroup for their grandmother, my 5th-great-grandmother Sarah Westall. Our knowledge of her line ends there, so perhaps having the mtDNA haplogroup will open up a path backward in time on her maternal line.

4 - McIntosh side of the tree and McIntosh DNA matches. I may change this question, based on the approach with the new #6 below.

5 - Finding Jones cousins for YDNA testing. I've reached out to one cousin through Ancestry's Messages tool, and I am hoping this cousin will log in & reply with the new AncestryDNA update coming next week. Perhaps that will spur some renewed interest from matches.

6 [New] - Through managing my Dad's DNA results on FamilyTreeDNA, I've added his autosomal kit to the Guthrie DNA project, and I've been exchanging messages with Ann from the GuthrieGenealogy blog. I'm now trying to expand out the tree descending from Susan Ann Guthrie and Isaac Smith. We're looking for a direct maternal line descendant from Susan who might take a mtDNA test. This would give us a mtDNA haplogroup for Susan and her siblings, her mother Priscilla and might possibly help determine more information about Priscilla's maternal line.

7 [New] - Looking at other branches on my Dad's side of the tree for potential YDNA and mtDNA participants.

Maternal side research

1 - Identify possible siblings of my 3rd-great-grandfather Gabriel Vasquez. Nothing new since last month.

2 - Working with DNA matches on the Amado side of the tree. While I don't have a direct update on the Amado side, I do have another set of matches to work with on FTDNA using cousin Catherine's results, as she's also a descendant of Maria Concepcion Amado. Her FTDNA kit also provides us with the other big update of the month in #3.

3 [Update] - mtDNA haplogroup for the maternal line path of Maria Jesus Vasquez. As I wrote about late last week, Catherine received her mtDNA results. With this new information, there's a lot more analysis to do with her mtDNA matches. We also have another mtDNA kit soon in progress for another descendant of Maria Jesus.

4 - Identifying the connection to the Guerrero-Leyva mystery matches. I did dive back into the Portillo line, and I have a feeling these people are connected somewhere here.

5 - Resolving descendancy from the daughters of John Carter (1715-1783) using mtDNA. I've now heard back from the President of the Carter Society. This is a big research question, and would likely involve an effort similar to the research study titled Identification of the Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup of Elizabeth Martiau (Jeffrey A. Wright, Journal of Genetic Genealogy, Spring 2024).

6 [New] - Identifying a direct maternal descendant from Mary Alice Cain Read to encourage to take a mtDNA test. I see a few possibilities already, but this may take some time.