Closer to the end of summer than the beginning

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Ai Weiwei at LACMA. 9 Aug 2026.

While the calendar says mid-August, kids in the neighborhood are beginning their journeys off to college. Our senior's last year of high school kicks off in a week. This is probably the earliest it has felt like the end of summer is approaching. Soon I'll be driving Sophia north for Year 3. It's going to be an exciting period over the next six months. 

We have a few more weeks before calendar summer comes to a close, but we're entering the part of the year that seems to speed up.

Filter by region now on AncestryDNA

AncestryDNA Filters.

Ancestry has added the ability to filter DNA matches by ancestral region. Using my Mom's results as an example, when I click into regions as shown above, I get a drop down menu for all of her ancestral regions. Then I can click further to filter by matches in common from those regions. This is a significant improvement to the filter by journeys feature that Ancestry launched last year.

When I run this on my Dad's results and filter by Central Ireland, I can now see several bubble groups with ties to Roscommon, Ireland. This is really promising for finding potential connections to the family of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget.

Return from the West Coast

I'm back after spending the week in Los Angeles. The new David Geffen Galleries at LACMA are amazing. I could have spent more time there, but will have to make another visit on a return trip to the city.

A big focus of the research time during the month so far has been looking closely at the O'Brien DNA matches. I am currently working with 210 matches in common on MyHeritage between a first cousin once removed of my Dad's O'Brien side. I am attempting to separate the network of Lamon and Lambert matches, leaving me hopefully a group of O'Brien-Bridget matches who I can use to identify the families of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget.

DNA in the news: Adventures in the Animal Archive

A new article describes the use of DNA testing techniques on the pages of ancient manuscripts in the Duke University Library, and how this analysis is opening up methods for tracing the movement of parchments. Adventures in the Animal Archive: New Techniques for the Genetic Analysis of Parchment Manuscripts. Manuscript Studies, Vol 11, Number 1, Spring 2026.

Santa Monica

 

Made in Ideogram.

Urban Light, 2016

Photo by Patrick Jones. Urban Light at LACMA. 4 Jan 2016.

This is a memorable throwback from ten years ago. Night running from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and finishing at the Urban Light installation. I have a return visit to LA coming up, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the new David Geffen Galleries. 

The case for James O'Brien

FamilySearch. Luzerne County, PA Citizenship records. 28 Sep 1871.

While looking at the father of the branch of Pennsylvania O'Briens, James John O'Brien, several of the marriage records for his children list birth locations as Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. There's a James O'Brien who appears in the Luzerne County citizenship records in 1871, listing his arrival as November 1864 in New York. I cannot tell if this James was the same one who died in Pittsburgh in 1914. 

Michael Campbell served as a witness for James O'Brien on his petition for citizenship. I'm hoping I can find him in the 1870 US Census, perhaps living near the O'Brien family.

I have a hypothesis that James John O'Brien was the son of a James O'Brien, who may have been born in Ireland sometime about 1815-1825. This James may have been a son of my 3rd-great-grandfather John O'Brien, possibly from a first marriage before John arrived in the US and moved to LaSalle County, Illinois.

Restating research problem one

Ahead of the DNA Skills Workshop kickoff, I am restating my research problem on my paternal side.

Using my Dad's DNA matches, I am looking for the parents of my Irish immigrant 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget (my Dad's maternal 2nd-great-grandmother). There are hints that this family came from County Longford, Ireland before Bridget arrived in LaSalle County, Illinois sometime before 1849.

On the O'Brien side of the tree, I have a cluster of mystery O'Brien matches descended from James John O'Brien and Mary Nolan. This couple went to Pennsylvania. I have tried using WATO and BanyanDNA to figure out how they may be related to my O'Brien line.

I've now built a genetic map using diagrams.net to see the DNA matches descending from my O'Brien side and the mystery Pennsylvania cluster. I do not have that many O'Brien DNA matches, but thankfully my Dad's first cousin tested at Ancestry and transferred results to FTDNA so that I can see matches in common on both platforms. I can also see some of these Pennsylvania O'Briens are on MyHeritage and 23andme.

California

 

LA Public Library. Brubaker.

Summer

 

Vincent van Gogh. Garden at Arles. Jul 1888.

Research Progress August 2026

This is my monthly spot to review progress on my various research questions. As I head into the DNA Skills Workshop, it is time for a reset.

My Paternal Side

I had hoped to spend some time in July researching the mystery O'Brien connections who went to Australia. While I continued with chromosome mapping, digging into these Australian connections didn't happen. I may put that off for a bit. In the meantime, here's the current topics that I do want to try to pursue in the Skills workshop:

1. Determining the family of my Irish immigrant 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget.
2. Pursuing the possible leads connected to the Hanley family in LaSalle County, Illinois (see my recap from April 2026).
3. Jones YDNA
4. Working with XDNA matches

My Maternal Side

1. Portillo DNA matches and the mystery Guerrero-Leyvas.
2. Analyzing mtDNA matches in the maternal line path of Maria Jesus Vasquez
3. Campuzano YDNA
4. Creating a genetic map for the descendants of Jose Jesus Amado and Gertrudis Palomino
5. Continuing chromosome mapping using matches at FTDNA, Gedmatch, MyHeritage and 23andme

DNA in the news: Smallpox DNA recovered from Conquest-era Chilean mummies

A Reuters article from 30 July 2026 describes new research identifying smallpox in the DNA from Chilean mummies dated to the Spanish conquest era. The research was published in the 30 July issue of Science.

The researchers were able to sequence smallpox genomes from two likely Incan individuals dated between 1492 and 1631 CE.

This reminds me of the traces of smallpox in the photo of Jesus Anaya, taken in November 1916.