A man of education

 

FamilySearch. Fayette County, KY. 14 Apr 1797.

The indenture above named Thomas Romine as an apprentice to Jesse Guthrie, until Thomas reached the age of 21 years old. Jesse was a well-known teacher in Lexington, Kentucky at the time. The indenture was signed by Levi Todd, grandfather of future First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln. Under the terms of apprenticeship, Jesse would teach young Romine how to read, write and use arithmetic and the "rule of three". He would provide Romine with a new suit of clothes, "common wearing apparel" and pay him a wage of 3 pounds 10 shillings.

Jesse Guthrie published a book titled The American Schoolmaster's Assistant (1804; via HathiTrust), which became an early popular textbook for teaching arithmetic. This was one of the first school books published in Kentucky.

Guthrie. 1804.

Lexington Independent Gazetteer. 24 Jan 1804.

The initial publication came with recommendations from the President of Transylvania University in Lexington and several Transylvania professors, along with the Secretary of State of Kentucky, giving some indication of the kind of circles of society that Guthrie worked in during the time.

Indep. Gazetteer. 1804.

In late 1822, Jesse Guthrie and family moved from Harrison County, Kentucky to Posey County, Indiana, a developing trading area on the Ohio River. He died around September 1823 (the administrators of his estate filed papers with the Posey County Court on 15 September 1823). A final settlement of his estate in 1840 included a disposition of his extensive library, which deserves its own post.

Coleman v Mattox, 1824

 

Lexington Weekly Press, 31 Jan 1825.

The notice above was published in the Lexington (Kentucky) Weekly Press between 6 December 1824 and 31 January 1825, as part of a chancery case filed in Harrison County Court on 15 January 1824. The case named Priscilla Guthrie, widow of Jesse Guthrie, and his children Polly (Guthrie) Martin, Priscilla Guthrie, Reuben Guthrie, Rebecca Guthrie, Maryann Guthrie and Suckeyann (Susan Ann) Guthrie. The original action from Harrison County is available online via FamilySearch Labs' Full Text Search.

Jesse Guthrie has been appearing for a while in Ancestry's ThruLines for my Dad's results as a possible 4th-great-grandfather, which would place him as a 5th-great-grandfather to me. There's a quite bit more to sort through. I'm starting with the Coleman v Mattox case and looking at land deeds involving Jesse and Priscilla in Kentucky. Some of the land in the case had been conveyed previously by Jesse and Priscilla to Thomas Morrow on 10 November 1822 (see below):

FamilySearch. Harrison County, KY. 1822.

James Coleman brought his action against Edmond Mattox and the Guthrie survivors as Jesse had at one time held a bond for a conveyance for 130 acres in Harrison County. Jesse, Priscilla and their family moved to Indiana in late 1822 or early 1823, where Jesse died in September 1823. There was a survey error in the acreage of the plot, and Coleman claims the amount of the extra land conveyed to Mattox, Thomas Morrow and others is owed to him.

Coleman v Mattox complaint. 1824.

It looks like a representative of the Guthries answered that they have no further property in Kentucky, and were non-residents of the state. They said if Mattox owed a debt to Guthrie for the extra land the debt should be paid over to Coleman. Priscilla and the heirs of Jesse were dismissed from the case (see the order from the Harrison County Court here on FamilySearch.

In June 1825, the court dismissed an action brought by Priscilla Guthrie against Edmond Mattox.

One more note - there's quite a lot online from other researchers of Jesse and Priscilla Guthrie. More to follow on this interesting branch.

Slow progress

I'm making slow and steady additions to the Irish in La Salle in the 1850s network. Currently I am just adding people to the network who are listed in the 1850 US Census entry for La Salle County several pages on either side of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget. I'm not at the stage of analyzing who these people were or where they came from before arriving in Illinois. I have to keep reminding myself this is more like a 10 mile run than a three mile run, and while I don't want to do either, I definitely have to go slow, try not to trip, and take in a bit of the scenery along the way.

Another challenge is that I'm bouncing around on various research questions, not sticking to one topic. There probably are better ways to make the most of the limited research time, but the hope is I'll uncover some gems and surface interesting stories.

A link to the old country

 

Abraham Storck. Izmir, 1645-1710.

One of my current research questions is to work with the DNA matches descending from Jose Jesus Amado and Gertrudis Palomino (my 5th-great-grandparents). They lived in Sonora, Mexico from roughly 1780s (possibly earlier) to the 1820s (possibly later). The Amado surname is believed to be connected with the Amados of Spain and Portugal, and known to be a converso family of Sephardic origin. We have a number of mystery matches who descend from Dionisio Sanchez in early Los Angeles, and his mother was likely a descendant of the Amados in Sonora.

There's another well known Amado family in Los Angeles, with historic ties to the Sephardic community. This family were among the founders of Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Los Angeles, and have left a huge legacy to UCLA via the Maurice Amado Foundation. I do not know how or even if our Amados connect into this Amado family. The path of their story, as Sephardic Jews who settled in the Ottoman Empire after their expulsion from Spain, hints at a very distant link.

Maurice, his brother Raphael, and their families immigrated to the United States from Smyrna (now Izmir, Türkiye) in the Ottoman Empire about 1903. Maurice was involved in the tobacco business and used the fortunes from that business to found and grow the Sephardic community in Los Angeles.

The father of Maurice and Raphael, Solomon Amado, appears to have been born in Izmir about 1845. It would be interesting to see what records are available in Türkiye, and if any of those records tell the story of the family's journey across the Mediterranean. Izmir has been on my list to visit in the future, and now I have even more reason to try to plan a stop.

I need to watch Trees Cry for Rain: A Sephardic Journey (1989) (see also on Vimeo), a documentary film about Rachel Amado Bortnick and her Sephardic roots from Izmir.

Another network example

 

Ancestry Network. April 2025.

Following yesterday's post testing Ancestry's new Networks tool on my Thornhill case, I have started to build out a network based on Irish immigrants in La Salle County, Illinois in the 1850 US Census. My hope is this will identify research leads on the family of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget. Last June I looked at Timothy Hanley, a neighbor of Bridget in the 1850 Census entry. Using the Networks tool, I've added him and his brother Thomas Hanley, and am continuing to build out the network with other Irish immigrant neighbors. I suspect several of them will be from Roscommon and Longford in Ireland.

In addition, I created a custom tag "Irish in La Salle Network" on each entry so that anyone who stumbles on these people in my tree will see that I've put them in a network. Networks are still in Beta and not visible to others.

This is still work in progress.

Testing Ancestry's new Networks tool

One of the big features announced at RootsTech last month was Ancestry's Networks. This feature is currently in Beta and available to those with Ancestry's Pro Tools membership. Networks allows you to create a private workspace to collect and organize information on groups of people who may be connected through a particular event, such as military service, passengers on a voyage, a community enumerated in a census record, a religious group or sports team, among others. There are many possible uses for the Networks tool. At RootsTech, some of the examples mentioned were to collect in one space members of the same World War II company and build out their stories, or to follow a group of immigrants from the same ship as they settled in other locations in the United States. Crista Cowan from Ancestry has shared a Tips and Tricks Virtual Event (YouTube) highlighting ways to use the new Networks feature.

For my first test drive with the Networks tool, I've created a network to gather information on all the witnesses and defendants in the 1865 murder of Captain John A. Thornhill of the 9th Tennessee Cavalry. This is a case I've long thought about compiling into a book, and more recently wish it could be made into a limited series for a streaming service. I think this is the perfect example to put the Networks tool to work. There's a large number of people involved, with hundreds of pages of documents scattered across various county court cases, military courts and service records, a Tennessee Supreme Court case and a US Supreme Court case, newspaper articles, witness testimony, census records, diary entries, even a letter from the desk of President Andrew Johnson. There's a real cast of characters involved in this complex story, and I am hoping the Networks tool will help sort them out.

Ancestry Networks example, Apr 2025.

A cool feature is the ability to create Stickie notes. This enables a quick at a glance view of important notes for the Network. A nice addition would be the ability to allow users to drag and drop or reorder the Stickies dynamically on the page.

Example from Ancestry Networks.

Clicking into a Stickie, one can tag or link stickies to people in the network. For example, below is a screen shot from the Rankin v State stickie, and I've added Samuel E. Rankin as a person of interest with this case. Currently Stickies can only be viewed by the network owner, but maybe in the future Ancestry will make these searchable or shareable. The Stickie note feature is really great and I hope that Ancestry enables that for regular users outside of Pro Tools. Within the Stickie note feature, you can use it to create "To Do" lists. My use will definitely evolve as I work more with it.

I've shared some initial feedback to Ancestry through a survey link they have at the top of the networks page. I am hoping they add the ability to create sub-networks within the main network. In my current example, this would allow me to separate the men of the 9th Tennessee Cavalry involved in the case from those who were just part of the regiment, or group the witnesses and family members of Thornhill and separate them from the defendants.

Some other uses that I see for this tool is to use it with groups of DNA mystery matches, potentially in place of a floating tree. I might try to create a Network in LaSalle County, Illinois connecting the Irish immigrants enumerated in the 1850 US Census to find potential links to my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget.

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.

Piggly Wiggly

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Columbia, SC. 13 July 2023.

You know you're in the South when a Piggly Wiggly is your local market. We're currently visiting family in South Carolina and celebrating a birthday.

Blacksburg

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Virginia Tech. 23 Apr 2022.

Happy Friday! The photo above is from Spring 2022 next to the Duck Pond at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. We're currently here for a quick stop, then heading further south this afternoon for a long weekend with family. It isn't quite as floral here yet, but the forecast calls for near 80 today.

The divorce decree

 

Davidson County, TN. Circuit Court. 24 Sep 1887.

Thanks to the helpful team at the Metro Archives in Nashville, above is a copy of the divorce decree in the case of Fred E. Day and Agnes Day, issued in September 1887. This confirms Fred paid the court costs for the divorce and Agnes failed to answer the complaint. Most probably she did not answer because she was no longer in the relationship, on tour out of state, and may not have had notice the divorce had been filed. There's not much else to go on.

The Tennessean. 7 Aug 1887.

The Circuit Court Clerk's Office also wrote back to me that they do not have records going back earlier than 1925. The courthouse burned twice and was flooded during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Any records that do exist would be with the Metro Archives (see above). Now I wait for the Marion County Clerk in Indiana to see if there's more information from the start of Agnes and Fred's relationship. 

On the stage

 

Evansville Journal. 24 Jan 1882.

Another article I had previously overlooked when searching for references to Agnes Atherton's career on the stage. The clipping above shows Agnes (listed as "Aggie") performing in Evansville, Indiana with Fred Day in January 1882. The couple were married in Indianapolis in October 1881. This indicates they performed on stage together at least in 1882.

News of the marriage between Agnes and Fred made it to the Springfield, Illinois newspaper the Daily Illinois State Register on 6 November 1881.

Daily Ill. State Register. 6 Nov 1881.

I am really hoping the marriage record and certificate from Marion County provides some interesting details about Agnes.

Another look at the records

Back in September and October 2023, I dove into the story of Agnes Atherton O'Brien, the multi-talented sister of my 2nd-great-grandfather John J. O'Brien. I previously looked at the news clippings of her quick marriage and later divorce proceedings brought by Fred Day in Nashville, Tennessee in 1887. At the time, I had not checked whether a copy of the divorce case file might be available from the Davidson County Circuit Court. From the news article below, a final decree of divorce was approved by the court around 24 September 1887.

The Tennessean. 25 Sept 1887.

I'm now in the process of completing the public records request form for the case file.

In addition to the divorce case, I am requesting a copy of the marriage record from the Marion County Clerk's Office in Indianapolis. From the Indiana Marriages index on Ancestry and FamilySearch, the marriage occurred on 20 October 1881. Maybe these documents will shed more light on Agnes.

Something I overlooked when I wrote about Agnes and Alfred M. Gillette in October 2023, is that on the 1910 US Census entry, the couple is listed as married for 20 years. This would put their marriage to be about 1899-1890, if one existed.

Ancestry. 1910 US Census. Cincinnati, OH.

DNA news of the day

The top story of the morning is the news of genetics company 23andme filing for bankruptcy protection (BBC article). The California Attorney General issued an urgent release for 23andme customers on Friday.

23andme had made a big push at RootsTech earlier this month to remind people it was still operating and making a case for new testers from the genealogy community. The big question is what happens next to all the genetic data held by the company, and who might become the buyer.

Seeking descendants on the Jones line

I'm looking at the descendants of Robert Thomas Jones Sr and Elizabeth Thornhill in Jefferson County, Tennessee, trying to follow a trail of daughters and granddaughters of Elizabeth in the hopes of locating a present day maternal line descendant to encourage to take a mtDNA test. Of the eleven children of Robert and Elizabeth, seven were girls, so this provides a strong group to research forward.

Starting from the last Jones daughter, Sarah Melissa Jones, her daughter Minnie died without children in 1941. Sarah's sister Mary had three boys. Another sister, Adaline Jones, disappears from the records after the 1870 US Census. Emeline Jones had one son before she passed in 1865.

The focus of possibility points to the first three daughters of Elizabeth: Catherine Jones, Elizabeth Jones and Margaret Caroline Jones. My Mom's results have a lot of DNA matches to descendants of Catherine and Elizabeth, but there's also a few from Margaret Caroline to follow.

AncestryDNA ThruLines.

Six months of learning

In September 2024 I took some active steps to learn how to work with DNA matches and signed up for YourDNAGuide's DNA Study Group. The first six months of Study Group have now come to a close. It has been a really great experience. I think I've learned a lot, and while I haven't solved some of my research questions, the sessions have given me confidence on new approaches. Working with DNA takes some time, and I'm all in on learning more. 

Before meeting the team at RootsTech in Salt Lake City, I signed up for another cycle for 2025-26 and beyond. They've moved to a new Circle platform and so far it is pretty great. This platform works better with my iPad when traveling, and it is much easier to view other live sessions hosted by the team and interact with the growing community.

I am in the process of crafting new research questions for the upcoming cycle. In addition, I'm midway through the Shared Matches of Matches course with YourDNAGuide. I have some mystery matches on FTDNA and the other DNA platforms where I think this shared matches of matches approach will really help.

Mission San Gabriel

 

Henry C. Ford. Mission San Gabriel, 1883.

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a historic landmark and California mission founded in 1771. As the location where Dionisio Sanchez and Maria de Los Angeles Marron were married in 1875, I thought I'd share a bit more information (partially for viewing later) on this place known as the "birthplace of the Los Angeles Region".

Another connection to early Los Angeles

 

FamilySearch. Los Angeles Marriages. 1875.

In the Los Angeles marriage records, Dionisio Sanchez and Maria de Los Angeles Marron (spelled Marona in the record) received a marriage license on 14 December 1875, and were married two weeks later at Mission San Gabriel on 28 December. The record says Dionisio was 30, and Maria was 25.

While I have not yet verified how Dionisio connects directly to our family, I have a strong sense the common ancestor is on the Amado line. I've made a floating tree descending from Dionisio. From my Mom's DNA matches on Ancestry and FamilyTreeDNA, we have a cluster of matches descending from him. On FTDNA, many of these people have Amado listed as a family name. Before going to RootsTech, I had a call with the person who administers these kits on FTDNA, and we share a strong belief that the common ancestor is an Amado, possibly a sister of Jesus Amado and Santos Amado. There's more to do and I'm starting here to help separate the legend from known facts, and see if the available information can point to that mystery Amado link.

Source: Ancestry.

March Madness

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Casco Viejo, Panama. 29 Jun 2018.

March Madness tipped off last night with the first two First Four games for the 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Once again, my Hoosiers are left out of the field, but hope springs for the announcement of the new head coach who will be formally introduced today.

Obligations at home and work have made the research progress slow. The last session of 2024-25 DNA Study Group is today, but a new one kicks off in two weeks. I've also started a Shared Matches of Matches course, and am interested to apply some new techniques to the growing matches on the various DNA platforms.

Two Years Ago

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. El Cuyo, Yucatan. 16 Mar 2023.

Thoughts on RootsTech 2025

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. RootsTech. 7 Mar 2025.

It's been a week since RootsTech 2025, and I thought I'd share another post of observations. I'm really glad I attended in person. While I've been able to fully enjoy the online lectures via the RootsTech website, experiencing the event on the ground is different. I only had two days there, and I used the opportunity to attend as many in person lectures as possible and chat with people from the platforms I use most in the family history space. 

I really liked some of the short talks in the exhibit hall by FamilyTreeDNA, Ancestry and MyHeritage. I want to thank again the kind expert from FindMyPast who spent some time assisting me with my complicated research challenge on my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget, giving me ideas for other documents to try to locate in Illinois and Ireland that might provide a path forward.

MyHeritage introduced their Cousin Finder and spoke about Ancient Origins. Ancestry introduced Networks and a facial recognition tool for uploaded photos, along with a ton of new record collections. FTDNA had several talks on the new MitoTree of Humankind. I had several chats with the team at YourDNAGuide, and I'm really excited about the new platform for DNA Study Group.

Several sessions touched on advancements in AI, the future of genealogy and storytelling. There's a lot of food for thought on these subjects that carry over to my regular work on the Internet. 

I'm feeling inspired to submit a talk for RootsTech next year, if I can make the timing work before I need to be India in early March.

While the event is huge, the numbers didn't really feel overwhelming (although the opening session in the main hall was super packed). There's a large number of helpful volunteers. The quality of the talks was very good, and I have a lot of ideas and suggestions to follow on my various research questions going forward.

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.