Art in the city

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Edinburgh, 28 June 2025.

A painting in the lobby at the Old Town Chambers hotel in Edinburgh. We didn't stay at the hotel this summer but had dinner in their restaurant.

Christmas Decorations, 2014

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. The White House, 12 Dec 2014.

A throwback to a different time, showing some of the decorations at the now demolished East Wing of the White House in Washington DC. I have more photos from my visit on that day in 2014, which really feels like a moment in time now that the historic wing is no longer there.

Escolastico and Flora

FamilySearch. 19 Aug 1881. Mazatlan, Sinaloa, MX.

Last week I wrote about Trinidad Leyva, the mother of our mystery match CH. Her parents were Escolastico Leyva and Flora Escovar. They were married in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico on 7 September 1881. The image above comes from their marriage intention document (Informacion Matrimonial) on 19 August 1881. This is a great record, as it states Escolastico was a twenty-six year old shoemaker (zapatero) from Culiacan, Sinaloa, and names his parents Juan Leyva and Carlota Rodriguez (both deceased). 

Flora was fourteen, from San Javier, Sinaloa, not far from the Sinaloa-Sonora border in the northern part of the state. She had been living in Mazatlan for twelve years, with her mother Maria Hernandez. Flora's father, Valentin Escovar, was deceased by the time this marriage intention was made in 1881.

Escolastico and Flora had at least the following children:

• Antonio Leyva (June 1882-1883)
• Ysabel Leyva (1887-1904)
• Enriqueta Leyva (1889-1889)
• Trinidad Leyva (1892-?)
• Juan Leyva (1897-1947)

Escolastico died in 1902 in Sinaloa. Flora lived until 1934 and moved from Sinaloa to Nogales, Sonora.

There's more in the Mexican records on FamilySearch. Somewhere on either Escolastico or Flora's line is our connection to this group of mystery matches. I'm parking this here for now, and will pick up this path later next week.

Revisiting the Schwarzlose family

 

Daily Republican-Register. 25 Jul 1939.

Back in 2016, I wrote about the family of Allison's 4th-great-grandparents, John William Schwarzlose and Maria Elizabeth Hesse. As Maria is on the maternal line path working backward from Allison, her Mom and her Memaw, and our daughter is taking a mtDNA test to verify the mtDNA haplogroup for this line, I thought it would be timely to revisit the available records on the family while we await the results of the test.

Allison's line descends from Mary Elizabeth Schwartzlose Koehler. A Genealogy of John William and Maria Elizabeth Schwarzlose was published in 1989 by Judy L. Schwarzlose, and a digital version is available on FamilySearch. I'm hoping new records have become available since this family history was published, which will allow us to push the maternal line back into Germany.

FamilySearch. Edwards, IL. 17 Jan 1877.

John William and Maria Elizabeth were married on 14 November 1852 in the village of Roxförde, located south of Gardelegen in the present-day state of Sachsen-Anhalt. At the time this would have been part of Saxony in the Kingdom of Prussia.

New look to Ancestry's ThruLines tool

 

Ancestry's ThruLines for KDJ. Dec 2025.

Over the weekend, Ancestry rolled out a new interface for ThruLines, integrating DNA matches into a family tree view. You can then click on any person in the tree, expand backward on a line and see how many DNA matches Ancestry thinks are descending from a person. As an example below, when I am in my Dad's results and click on Robert Thomas Jones Sr, the image shows his children and the path for the DNA matches connected to them.

Ancestry's ThruLines.

The old ThruLines view is still an option, and I think both are useful. I also haven't tested this yet with my iPad, but I think the tree graphics might work better on a screen that I can pinch and expand easily. The new tree graphic is pretty small.

Another cool feature is if you click on an ancestor, you see a right-side profile pop-up which shows how many DNA matches you have and pulls some detail from your tree such as facts from their timeline.

Ancestry. ThruLines profile.

As others I follow have shared, it is good to see Ancestry continuing to innovate and evolve these tools, and I am looking forward to using these to make more connections.