DNA Match - Double distant Cousins?

Finding relatives through DNA consists of looking at and evaluating the DNA match and then working through the genealogy paper trail to find out when and how we are related.  Two sisters, Joy and Lois, contacted me about a match.

Ancestry.com and GEDmatch,com calculates that Joy and I are 4th cousins which would mean that we share our 3rd great-grandparents.  FamilyTreeDNA calculates that we are 2nd - 4th cousins meaning that we share our great-grandparents, our great-great-grandparents, or our 3rd great-grandparents.  Based on the paper trail we have figured out that the closest common ancestor would be our 3rd great-grandparents.

Joy, Lois, and I started digging through the family tree looking at names, places our ancestors lived, and dates.  We came up with what we think is a pretty solid match - the Duggan family in Abbeyfeale, County Limerick, Ireland.  We don't know the names of our 3rd great-grandparents but we believe that my Hanora Duggan and Joy and  Lois's Thomas Duggan are siblings.  And this would be the end of our search for a straight Autosomal DNA match.  But we have an X-Match and my Hanora Duggan can not have passed down an X Chromosome to me!

Women have 2 X Chromosomes and men only have one that they received from their mother. So no X passes down on a man's paternal line.  The passing of an X Chromosome is difficult to conceptualize using normal genealogy charting.  Blaine Bettinger designed a white, pink, and blue Ancestor Fan Chart that has become the standard in visualizing X inheritance.

The white blocks do not pass an X chromosome to the center person in the chart who is my Dad in this diagram.  Hanora Duggan is on the white side of this chart.  So that means Joy and Lois and I have another common ancestor on the pink and blue blocks. But almost all my 3rd great grandparents in the pink and blue blocks are blank - I don't know who they are.

Duggan is an X line for Joy and Lois, so somehow, somewhere the Duggans and at least one of my nameless 3rd great-grandparents in pink or blue are related.  Based on location, Edward Maloney's mother is the most likely candidate, but since I don't know Annie's last name or where in Ireland she was from, her parents are also possibilities.  Anne Joyce is from Mayo so her mother is not a likely candidate.

"Double cousins" are usually cousins who share both sets of grandparents instead of the usual one set.  This happens when 2 siblings marry into the same family. So we don't fit the normal definition, but this extra connection we have means we are doubling up on the DNA connection somewhere.

DNA, Privacy, and the Golden State Killer

Awhile ago Tom asked me a question about DNA and privacy. I don't think I had much of an answer then but today I have a new perspective.

Yesterday news broke out that police had caught the Golden State Killer using publicly available DNA databases that are intended to be used for genealogy or DNA research. And they did it without a search warrant.  They didn't need one for the way they used the database(s).  So far the only DNA database that has been publicly identified is GedMatch.com which generally has the least personally identifiable information visible to users.

When your DNA is on Ancestry or MyHeritage it is normally attached to a family tree. After all, that is the point of using DNA on one of those sites.  On Ancestry, I look at my DNA Matches and near the top of the list is my cousin John. I see his full name, so I know it is John.  He hasn't put in much of a tree yet, but if he put our grandmother in his tree, Ancestry would also tell me that not only is John a DNA match but we both have Mary Elizabeth Parr in our family tree so we are 1st cousins.

A few years ago, the only way to get your DNA into most of the DNA database was to spit in a tube or swipe a wand around in your mouth and put it in a tube and mail the tube off to the company you paid and your DNA results would go into their database. But one database was different, GedMatch.com.  They did not sell any tests.  They let anyone upload DNA results to their database for free.  This allowed genealogists and DNA researchers to reach across all the testing companies to do comparisons in one place.  And it is a place for researchers to test their theories about genetics and tools they develop.  Now many of the testing sites let you upload DNA results you already have instead of spitting in their tube.

GedMatch lets you do fun and serious comparisons between people.  If you upload both of your parent's DNA then you can run a test to see if they are related. Or you can see a chromosome map between you and a potential relative that will show you all the places on each chromosome pair that you match.  But on GedMatch.com all the DNA kits on your account have code names that you created when you uploaded the file.  You can connect kits to people on a tree, but most people keep their trees pretty sparse here with very little identifiable data.  Bernd and I manage a lot of DNA kits for family members and other than their code name, the only identifiable piece of information is my email address.

Let's get back to the Golden State Killer.  If the police did not get a search warrant, then they must have just uploaded the DNA results from the crime scene and gave it a code name.  They then could compare that DNA to everyone else in the database.  Once they found a reasonable match, the only thing they could do without a warrant is email the person who manages that DNA kit and ask for help.  If they found enough reasonable matches, they could have collected up several email addresses and found more people to help them figure out who was the serial killer.  Not so very different than talking to everyone in a neighborhood of interest.

What is the concern about privacy?  It boils down to the fact that your DNA is not as unique to you as you would think --  is shared with many others in your extended family. How many in your family have the same hair color, shape of the eyes or nose?  Does your daughter look like your aunt?  Do you have a cousin who looks more like you than your brother?

You do not need to submit your own DNA in a database to have most of your DNA in one of these databases because  every bit of your DNA is shared with someone else in your extended family.  And through your family, someone could find you.

Fish in Northampton County, PA in Colonial Times

In my earlier search for David Fish, Dee and I found records in the Monroe County Historical Society.  Later my husband and I went to the Northampton County Historical Society and then the Northampton County Archives.  In the time period I was researching, Monroe County did not exist - Northampton County was quite large and covered all of current Northampton and much of Monroe County. As I had mentioned in an earlier post I had gotten so frustrated trying to sort out my Fish family, I just started researching all the Fish in Northampton County.  And strangely enough, it all connected down to John.

John first appeared in Dansbury records in 1745. Dansbury was named by Daniel Broadhead and in 1745 was in Bucks County, later Northampton County, and eventually Monroe County with a new name of East Stroudsburg.

In this first record, John marries Rebecca Herrys (Harris?).  At this time I am presuming that is his first wife. If that presumption is reasonable, then John was likely born around 1720. In multiple references for the time John is mentioned as a loner, a frontier man, a tracker.  Of the children that were still alive when John died, it appears that William, Robert, and Asahel were from his marriage with Rebecca.  The records about Sara are inconclusive at this time. She could have been Rebecca's child or wife #2.

On 24 September 1760, John marries again. This time to Sarah Scott. John and Sarah have about 7 children who were alive at the time of John's death: David, John Jr, Rebecca, Joseph, Eleazar, Abner, and Samuel.

On 27 Apr 1791, John and his wife "Catherine" sell some land that John had purchased in 1745.  So when did John marry Catherine?  Are any of the children I have attributed to Sarah really Catherine's children?

And then in 1793, John marries again!  This time to a young Margaret Williams.  John's daughter Rebecca is married to Jacob Williams.  Are Jacob and Margaret siblings?  John and Margaret have two children who are alive at the time of John's death: Else Hyckson and Nancy Ann.

So John had at least 4 wives and had 13 children who were still alive at the time of his death in 1798. Quite a surprise since his Revolutionary War pension record shows a dispute between a Michael Fish and the two youngest of John's children.  Michael said he was the only child of John and the two girls, Else and Nancy, said they were the only children. But that is another story.

I have not found any Fish in what was Northampton County in the 1700s that was not one of John's wives or children or grandchildren.

Duffy Sisters Go FISHing in Pennsylvania

I wrote about my 3rd great-grandfather, Abner Fish, last year. Figuring out who his parents were has been a struggle since there were 2 or 3 boys named Abner Fish born in or near Little Smithfield Township around 1794.  I now have reason to believe that my Abner's father was David Fish and that David moved his wife Polly and their children from Lower Smithfield, Northampton County, Pennsylvania to Washington County, Ohio around 1803.  David's father's name is John.  John had 4 wives: Rebecca Herrys (or Harris), Sarah Scott, Catherine ? and Margaret Williams.  And John had lots of children.  Catherine is the only wife that doesn't seem to have had any children who were alive at the time of John's death.  Margaret's children were still minors at John's death and needed legal guardians. (Women were not qualified to be even their own children's guardian.)
David's brother Asahel had a son named Abner and possibly one of his other brothers did also.

I had run out of options for searching online to research FISH so I spent a week in Pennsylvania with Dee and her family.  We drove through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (NRA in park terms) on our first day of FISHing. https://www.nps.gov/dewa/index.htm

Northampton County (at the time David and Abner lived there) included the township of Lower Smithfield.  This township is triangle shaped and the base of the triangle is mostly in the Delaware Water Gap NRA.  We started at the Visitor Center near the town of Delaware Water Gap. The rangers were very helpful about what we should see and which areas would best reflect the time period of our Fish.  We explored both Pennsylvania and the New Jersey sides of the NRA. The road through the park was pretty rough on the New Jersey side, so we missed one village of interest but did stop at Millbrook Village which is preserved from a later date than when our Fish were here.

Dee and I at Millbrook Village, Delaware Water Gap NRA

Millbrook Village, Delaware Water Gap NRA

We also attempted to stop at the second Visitor Center, but the two Visitor Centers must share the same staff because they are never open at the same time!  We did see a beautiful waterfall there.

Silver Threads Waterfall, Delaware Water Gap NRA

 On the second day of FISHing, we went to the Monroe County Historical Society Library and Museum in Stroudsburg.  Stroudsburg was named after Colonel Jacob Stroud who was a close friend of David's father, John.    We went to Monroe County because it now includes the township that was called Lower Smithfield -- now just Smithfield. Col. Stroud owned a store after the Revolutionary War and kept ledgers of his customers' purchases and payments.  Unfortunately only one of those ledgers has survived and it was treated with the care it deserves.  I had to put on white gloves before opening the ledger.

Stroud Ledger, David Fish

Stroud Ledger, Abner Fish (David's brother)

 David's page of the ledger ends in February 1798.  Items purchased: nails, tea, chocolate, a shovel, sugar, tobacco, rum, and fabric.  Clearly a man with a household.  His younger brother Abner's ledger continued into 1807 and was mostly liquor and "sundries" with interest on his running balance.

Day 3 of FISHing was to Northampton County.  Started the day at the Signal Museum where the genealogical society has a library on the second floor.  After going through everything FISH they had, the volunteer in charge of the library strongly recommended that we go to the Northampton County Courthouse Archives.  And off we went.

The Northampton County Archivists were very friendly and helpful.  So I went through their index and copied down every ID that had a FISH connected to it.  Later, I realized that I didn't print out everything that I thought I printed-- but enough to be thoroughly confused.  Fortunately Dee's husband could decode the legalize and tell me what was going on.  I need to work with the Northampton County Archivists to get more documents, but one of his close friends, Daniel Broadhead, opted out of being the executor as did his widow Margaret. And another of John Fish's closest friends, Col, Jacob Stroud, sued John's estate and forced the heirs to sell the land that they had received.  All that was referred to in the deeds was that the suit was about "promises made in his lifetime" to Jacob Stroud and to a widow named Martha Coyl.

So how does this all connect to David moving his family to Ohio?  David and his brother-in-law Jacob Williams were the eventual executors of John's estate and it appears that the end of all the deed transfers took place sometime after April 1801.  David then took his family to Ohio.  Young Abner served in the War of 1812 and in 1837 David's wife Polly inherited what little David had in the way of an estate in Trumbull County, Ohio.

The American Revolution - A View from the South

Like most Americans, I studied the American Revolution in Elementary School, maybe a little in High School.  And in college, I needed one History class so I took History of the American Revolution.  And most of the maps looked something like this showing the 13 colonies stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Courtesy of the United States Military Academy Department of History

But that is misleading.  

Credit: http://jb-hdnp.org/

Take a look at this map. Notice how small of an area the original 13 colonies take up compared to the land claimed by France (blue) and the land claimed by Spain (orange).  And neither of these maps assume that the natives of this land have any authority.

Although the Title is "English, French, and Spanish Settlements to 1776".  It is really a map showing the English, French, and Spanish boundaries in 1750.

Credit: NPS

In 1763, the Treaty of Paris changed several of the boundary lines and much of what was New France became Spanish Territory. Spain was not happy with England over the Treaty and that set the stage for the Spanish support for the American Revolution. 

Before 1763, the land now called Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi was populated by Native American Indians, Blacks - both free and slave, French, French-speaking Acadians, Germans, British, Mexicans, and Spaniards.

So why does this matter?  Because the American Revolution was fought not just in the original 13 colonies -- but also across the coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico. 

In 1776 when the colonies declared war on England, Spain was not ready to join the colonists but was supportive and began sending supplies from Louisiana up the river to General Washington in secret.  In 1777, King Carlos of Spain sent a young but experienced Spanish soldier, Bernardo de Galvez, to New Orleans to be the Acting Governor of Louisiana.  Galvez continued his country's secret support of the American Colonials with guns, bullets, food, and other supplies.

On June 29, 1779, Spain declared war on England after England refused to recognize the new American government.  Governor Galvez now had the authority to build a military but he had to do it quickly before the British invaded New Orleans.  After Spain's loss to England in the previous 7 Years War, Spain had learned the value of building ethnically diverse military units. So Gov. Galvez recruited Texan Vaqueros, Germans, French, Spaniards, Mexicans, American Indians, French Acadians, and free blacks to join his Militia.

In the "Marcha de Galvez" with his extraordinarily diverse militia,  Gov. Galvez and his troops marched 115 miles north of New Orleans in 11 days capturing the British posts of Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez on the Mississippi.

Then they went on to conquer the British at Mobile in 1780 and completed their efforts at Pensacola in 1781.

Imaginative engraving of the 1781 Battle of Pensacola, State Archives of Florida

The County of Galveston, Texas and the Parish of St. Bernard, Louisiana were named to honor this American Patriot.

A Thief in the Family Tree!

A thief in the family tree is not unexpected because most of the family is from Ireland and the Potato Famine was notorious for creating thieves out of starving people.  Little did I know that many of the American colonies were populated by thieves and worse as England emptied their jails into the American Colonies.  I never learned that in History class.

I have long searched for some kind of proof as to who Abner Fish's parents are, but I did have the same problem with finding his wife's parents.  Abner married Sally Featherston(e) on October 18, 1816, in Washington County, Ohio.  The town was probably Waterford, but I don't have proof that either family was in Waterford before May 15, 1817, so I can't be sure.  Even this I wouldn't have proof of without the Google Project to digitize out of copyright books.

1788 History of Washington County Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches published by H. Z. Williams and Bro. in 1881 is what broke the block on Sally's father. Apparently, this publisher used mostly in-house employees to write about what they actually knew, so there are a wide variety of authors -- not all recognized in the usual fashion.

On May 15, 1817, Andres Powers sold his grist mill and sawmill and 30 acres of land adjoining Thomas Featherston's land to Thomas Featherston.  Thomas used his son John and his son-in-law Abner Fish as the millers for his new grist mill. Thomas hired Andrew McClure to manage the sawmill.

From the 1788 History of Washington County Ohio under the section on Waterford Township, "Federal Bottom" is the following paragraph:

But there is more to Thomas Featherston than what he became in Ohio. Harvard University has published much of the records of the "Old Bailey" court records from London, England.  And we can trace Thomas back to those court records.

 On July 6, 1774, Thomas Featherston was convicted of theft (Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 6th July 1774, page 47).  Thomas was indicted for breaking and entering the home of John Zeidler on the 21st of May (1774) at about 9 PM and stealing a "hair trunk 1s, a plain gold ring, value 7s, a silk gown, value 10s, a pair of women's stuff shoes, value 3s, a cloth cardinal, value 10s, a camblet gown, value 5s, a pair of worked muslin ruffles, value 4s, a muslin apron, value 2s, a pair of spotted muslin ruffles, value 4s, four pair of linen shift sleeves, value 2s, three linen handkerchiefs, value 3s, three linen caps, value 3s, three pair of women's leather gloves, value 18 d, five yards of thread lace, value 1s".  So a total value of 55 shillings and 18 pence.

In the proceedings at Old Bailey, we find some more information.  "The prisoner called his sister, who said that the prisoner had been to sea; that she kept him till he got another ship, but that he had run away from her for a fortnight; in which time he had got himself into Clerkenwell Bridewell."

Not that Thomas had found himself in a good place, but the prison at Clerkenwell Bridewell (north of London) did not have as terrible a reputation as the one at Newgate in London.

So we can assume that Thomas at this time is an orphan as his sister is responsible for him. Also that he is most likely a "cabin boy" or "ship's boy" for the English Navy.  Boys could start as young as 8 years old and continue until about 15 years old. At 16, they could qualify for the lowest rank in the English Navy.  Based on Thomas's revelations about his age later in life, we may assume that he is about 15 at the time of this theft.

England at this time had no police force and poor theft laws.  There was also a large influx of people into the cities -- but no jobs as the Industrial Revolution had not yet started.  Crime was a huge problem and what value constituted enough for a death conviction was being continually reduced -- without any effect on the crime levels.  In an earlier year, Thomas probably would have warranted the death penalty -- public hanging.  But by this time, England had passed a new law that allowed judges the discretion to banish felons to America instead of jail or death.  Options allowed were 7 years of indentured service, 14 years of indentured service, or life sentence of indentured service in the American colonies.  It was a good way to empty the English jails and get the bad elements out of England for good.  None of those transported to the American colonies were allowed to return to England.  Now as long as the criminal element was banished from England and not allowed to return, the English government didn't really care what happened to them.  So those who had money, could buy their own freedom and special accommodation on the trip to America.  As far as I can tell, Thomas was not able to afford any special accommodation.

Juries were notorious for reducing sentences to avoid the death penalty at whim.  So Thomas was declared not guilty of the breaking and entering, and guilty of theft of 59s. This would keep him in the lower (7 year) level of punishment and out of the potential of death by hanging.  This was not unusual in convictions of children.

Unless a convict was able to buy their own freedom, they were sold at auction in the same fashion as a slave or an indentured servant, usually in Virginia or Maryland.  Shipping companies would "buy" the convicts from the English government, then pay the fee to have them released from prison, and then transport them to the American colonies.  Those shipping companies with government contracts were given 3 s for provisions for each prisoner in addition to what they could earn from selling the prison at auction, the others had to rely just on the value at auction.  Maryland and Virginia were the best place for the selling of convicts (at least from the point of view of the sellers) because not only did those colonies pay more for labor, but the ships could also fill their holds with Tobacco for the return voyage.

Thomas, and all the other convicts from Old Bailey, spring 1774 court session, were sold to Duncan Campbell, London Merchant; Alexander Mackenzie, London Oilman; and John Oligory (Olgilvy), London Mariner.  Capt, John Olgilvy would be written up about this time in the Virginia Gazette for his cruel treatment of prisoners in 1773.  Thomas was in the company of 54 prisoners sentenced for 7 years, 14 for 14 years, and 2 for life.

Transportation Contract - Including Thomas Featherston

Apparently Thomas ended up in Maryland as that is where he married his wife and had several children, but what happened between the assignment to the ship captained by John Olgilvy and his eventual appearance in Ohio is still a mystery to be solved.

Abner Fish in the War of 1812

Abner Fish is my 3rd-great-grandfather.  There are strong rumors around the internet about who his parents are but a significant lack of facts.  Bernd and I took a research class this past week in Washington, DC to learn how to use the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Daughters of the American Revolution Library.  One of my goals was to figure out Abner's parents but no luck on that yet.

The National Archives have the payroll, muster records, bounty land, and pensions for the War of 1812. So I decided to see what family information I could find in those records.  And although I found one very small clue that might lead me to parents someday, I mostly found a new puzzle.  If we have any kids in the family that need a history research project, I could use some help on this new puzzle.

Ohio drafted men into the Ohio Militia and into the Continental Army.  Abner was drafted into the Militia rather than the Continental Army, and I think he stayed in the Militia for the duration of the war. In all the official records about the Ohio Militia, each man was drafted into a District or Division which was subdivided into Regiments which were subdivided into companies.  So at any individual level, each man reported to the Captain of his Company and may or may not have paid any attention to the rest of the organizational structure.

If the man served the entire war, he was entitled to a pension and to "bounty land".  Bounty land was free land (40-80-160 acres) depending on a variety of laws and the man's rank in the military.  But for the Revolutionary War just a few years earlier, pensions were for those men or their widows that "needed" the help.  Although the financial need was not a criterion for the War of 1812 pension, there may still have been some sensitivity to need since none of the Fish who served in Ohio took a pension.

Ohio had some Regiments that were called "Odd Regiments" not because there was anything particularly odd about the people in the Regiment but because they were created from areas that couldn't supply enough men to fill a complete Regiment.  So these "Odd Regiments" were used to augment other larger Regiments who needed extra people for a particular battle.

18-year-old Abner was not in an "Odd" Regiment but he was definitely in some truly unusual military positions. At first, I thought there were two Abner Fish who served in the Ohio Militia from around the same area because there were two complete military service files.  But strangely enough, the files made it very clear that both service files belonged to the same man.

For the entire War, Abner was officially in two different Regiments and as many as four different companies -- at the exact same time! One of the genealogists teaching the research who was a war expert had never heard of such a thing.  The archivists at the National Archives were even more perplexed -- not only did Abner have these strange duty records, but he also filed twice for bounty land and received it twice!  The second time even notated that he was getting a second allotment of bounty land, implying that the second allotment was due to his strange service records.

So far I have only been able to dig up one clue on what Abner was doing.  He was drafted into the Militia on Aug 24th or so in 1812.  He was immediately registered into two Regiments and two Companies.  Depending on whose records are to be believed, on September 17th  or 23rd Abner was sent off to a third Company under Captain Cotton.  (This is just a scribbled note on his records from the second Regiment.)

There is a recently released report that Captain Cotton was responsible for leading a battle against Indians that had massacred all the people in a fort on "The Peninsula" in Ohio on September 29th. Although Captain Cotton won the battle, it was not without injuries to his troops and a significant loss of life. Abner survived to continue his mysterious military service, but does have some lost time marked as "furlough", "sick", and "absent" after that battle.

Pay Roll Card from Col William Rayen's Regiment

So was the Company that Abner considered his primary "home" a special skills company?  Was 18-year-old Abner a skilled Indian fighter?

Instead of getting questions answered about Abner on this last trip, I ended up with more questions.

Duffy Origins - Part 1

DNA is an evolving science that is affecting what we believe about history and mythology.  The testing of the "Y" chromosome is looking back to the origins of the paternal line. Another way of saying that is it traces back the family name back hundreds, maybe thousands of years. I loved the stories of fairies and leprechauns as a child and then read to my son out of Irish Myths and Legends when he was young. So I was very interested when I heard about a project that was working to take Irish mythology and tie it to proven history.  I had my Dad's Y-DNA tested to see if our "Duffy" was part of the Duffy Clan descended from one of the mythical Kings of Ireland, the Three Collas. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Collas)

Various websites have altering stories about the Duffy clan and whether it is one clan, three clans, or more. Some only list the Duffy clans of Ireland, others insist all the Duffy clans part of a single are Scottish clan.  DNA tests are sorting these things out, and what is clear is there is not just one clan.  The rest is still a little fuzzy.

With help from Peter Biggins, Administrator of Clan Colla 425 Null Project, and from Paul Duffy, Administrator of the Ireland Y-DNA Project, we have eliminated some possibilities. I am sad to say the first possibility eliminated was the genetic tie to the Three Collas.

My great-great-grandfather, Michael Patrick Duffy, was born in Killoe Parish in County Longford, Province of Leinster, Ireland about 1809.  County Longford is in the Northwest corner of Leinster with its West/northwest edge bordering Connaught and its Northeast edge bordering Ulster. The Parish of Killoe is in the Northwest corner of County Longford and has those same borders as the county with Connaught and Ulster.

www.Our-Ireland.com

The Duffy's of Clan Colla generally are from County Monahan in the southern part of Ulster. The other two primary known clans of Duffy are from County Donegal in Ulster and County Roscommon in Connaught.

Ireland's Counties

Killoe in County Longford sits about halfway between Roscommon and Monaghan counties and is nowhere near Donegal (northern-most county in Ulster).  DNA conclusively says we are not part of the Monaghan clan.  Without further DNA testing (and more other people doing the same), I don't have anything to prove one way or the other about being part of the Roscommon clan.  It looks promising, but the best DNA match Paul Duffy found for me says our closest common ancestor was someone living back in the Medieval time frame (maybe 700 years ago).  There are a lot of blank names in my family tree between 1809 and 1300-ish.  So no research shortcut here for the Duffy tree!

Link to Clan Colla Project: https://www.familytreedna.com/public/clancolla425null/
Link to Ireland Y-DNA Project: https://www.familytreedna.com/public/IrelandHeritage/

William Michael McGee - Civil War Service

On May 17, 1847, young William Michael McGee arrived in New York on the ship Pontiac from Belfast, Northern Ireland.  He listed his age as 14 on the ship roster, but if the birth date on his tombstone is correct, he had just turned 13.  

William moved to Wisconsin around 1850 and married Isabel Carney on October 29, 1854, in Fox Lake, Dodge, Wisconsin.  Before the start of the Civil War, Michael and Isabel had three sons, William Henry, James Patrick, and my great-grandfather John Carney McGee.  When Wisconsin started recruitment among the Irish for the 17^th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment in early 1862, William’s wife Isabel Carney, was pregnant with their fourth child, Thomas Bernard McGee.  The 17^th Wisconsin Regiment set off to serve the Union in the Civil War March 15, 1862, and Thomas was born on April 28, 1862. 

The 17^th Wisconsin Regiment’s second tour of duty started January 1864.  William and Isabel’s fourth son, Michael Emmet, was born on November 14, 1863.  Apparently, the timing was now right for William to serve his country, leaving his wife with 5 small children.  So on January 18, 1864, William enlisted in the 17^th Wisconsin Regiment and was assigned to Company A as a Private. 

In January, the 17^th Wisconsin Regiment was in Vicksburg, Mississippi where they had been performing guard duty.  Seven-eighths of the existing Regiment re-enlisted which gave them the designation of a “veteran” Regiment and earned them a veteran’s furlough.  The 17^th left Vicksburg on March 8^th and arrived in Madison, Wisconsin on March 18^th where they were publically welcomed home.  They were then on break until April 20^th.  So was William sent down to Vicksburg and then right back up to Wisconsin, probably but I haven’t found any records that describe what happened to the new recruits. 

The 17^th Wisconsin Regiment reassembled at Camp Washburn in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 20^th, 1864.  Camp Washburn was a Civil War reception center and trading post established in October 1861. The camp was located on the old Cold Spring Racetrack, west of 27^th Street.  In 1864 this was still outside the city limits of Milwaukee.

b&w film copy neg. 
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a18237

They left the next day on a two-day trek to Cairo, Illinois covering over 400 miles, where they rejoined United States 17^th Regiment Corps.  The 17^th Regiment Corps was on its way to join General Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign. Here they were assigned to the 2^nd Brigade, General Gershom.  They headed out to the Tennessee River and shipped on down to Clifton, Tennessee on May 4^th, over 100 miles.

On the same day, they marched from Clifton to Huntsville, Alabama (another 100 miles).  When they arrived in Huntsville, the 17^th Regiment Corps was reorganized and the 17^th Wisconsin Regiment was transferred to the 3^rd Brigade, 3^rd Division.

On May 5^th, they marched to join General Sherman.  They traveled through Warrenton and Rome, Georgia and reached Ackworth on the 8^th of June.  General Sherman’s troops were in position in Ackworth.  

Sketch of Keneshaw from Big Shanty
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.17639

On June 10^th, the 17^th Wisconsin Regiment took a position near Big Shanty, on the front line, on the extreme left.  They fought constantly in heavy skirmishes for 9 days. Then, with the rest of the 3^rd Division, they advanced to Brush Mountain.  Two of the men of the 17^th Wisconsin  were killed in these 9 days and six were wounded.

This is Brush Mountain from the foot of Kennesaw.  Position of federal batteries against Kennesaw

 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.17652

On June 22^nd they were involved in a fight on Confederate’s right.  They were under heavy artillery fire for over 3 hours before returning to Brush Mountain.  They also fought in the Battle of  Kenesaw Mountain, where 2 more of their regiment were killed on June 25^th and another 13 wounded on June 27^th  with the loss to the Confederacy.  

General Sherman at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.21058

On July 2^nd, the 17^th Wisconsin accompanied 17^th Corps around the right side of Kenesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochie River.  Between July 2^nd and July 17^th, the 17^th Wisconsin had one more soldier killed and three more wounded.

Battle of Bald Hill, Atlanta, Georgia
nps.gov

On July 17^th, the 17^th Wisconsin Regiment crossed the Chattahoochie River with the rest of the 3^rd Division and marched through Decatur, Georgia and by July 20^th occupied a position on the extreme left of the line, south of the Augusta Railroad and in front of Bald Hill.  (Marked on the map - BLAIR (XCII CORPS))  In the following battle for control of the Confederate Army position on Bald Hill, the 3^rd Division was victorious, but from the 17^th to the 28^th of July, the 17^th Wisconsin lost 4 soldiers and 12 were wounded.

The 17^th Wisconsin Regiment then followed the 17^th Regiment Corps across the Chattahoochie River in pursuit of General Hood of the Confederacy. After that, they returned to Marietta, Georgia and remained camped there from November 4^th to November 13^th.  From Marietta they moved to Atlanta.  General Sherman ordered troops to burn Atlanta’s military resources.  The fire got out of control and left Atlanta in ruins.  The 17^th Wisconsin does not seem to be involved in the burning of Atlanta.

Ruins of Atlanta Railroad Depot - Stereo card
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/stereo.1s02510

On November 16^th, they left Atlanta in the march towards Savannah, called the March to the Sea.  The purpose of the March to the Sea was to frighten the civilian population in Georgia to abandon the Confederate cause. Sherman’s troops stole food and livestock as they traveled and burned the houses and barns of anyone who tried to fight back.

Sherman's March to the Sea
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c16520

On December 21, 1864, Sherman’s troops arrived in Savannah to find it undefended. Sherman then gave the city of Savannah to President Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas gift.

In January 1865, the 17^th Regiment Corps (including the 17^th Wisconsin Regiment) left Savannah and camped near Beaufort, South Carolina.  They then joined in the march to Goldsboro, North Carolina.  They reached Goldsboro on March 21^st. They were joined by General Sherman’s forces on March 23^rd.  They proceeded to march to Raleigh, North Carolina where General Johnston surrendered.  Following that they marched to Richmond and Washington where they participated in General Sherman’s grand review of his troops in May. 

17th Regiment Corps Grand Review - Washington DC
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpb.02816

  They then proceeded to Louisville, Kentucky for their official muster out on July 14th.  On the same day they left Louisville headed towards Madison, Wisconsin. On July 17^th they reached Madison and received their pay. The 17^th Wisconsin Regiment was officially disbanded.

William headed home, but shortly packed up his family and moved to High Forest, Minnesota.  See “Pioneer Life – Minnesota to North Dakota” to follow William’s family to Cando, North Dakota where William died in 1903.

Duffy Genetics - Where did the dark colors go?

In a previous post, I touched on the perplexing concept of Duffy's having dark skin and dark hair, which seems to have been totally lost by my generation.

I found photos hidden away of John James Duffy and Bridget Helena Murphy which may give clues to what happened to the dark skin and dark hair that traditionally belongs to the Duffy clan.

Bridget Helena Murphy and John James Duffy
Iowa City, Iowa

 I am assuming that this photo was taken around the time they were married (1894).  It appears in this photo that Bridget has fair skin and I have another photo where her eyes appear to be light-colored.  In an earlier post, I said that three of Bridget and John's children had fair-colored skin, but I didn't know about that other two as they had died young.  Now a picture has surfaced of young Willie.  As best as I can tell from this photo, he has very pale skin and light-colored eyes.

Willie Duffy
Williamsburg, Iowa

John and Bridget's firstborn, Michael, apparently died on the day he was born.  But from what we can see, the Murphy light-colored genes drowned out the Duffy dark-colored genes in this generation.  And with the next generation, the Kelly genes are mixed in with their red hair and light skin, and the dark is completely gone.

Carney Family Reunion

The Carney family immigrated from Ireland.  Either they didn't all come together, or they didn't keep track of dates very well.  The 1900 census is the first time people were asked to report the year they went to the US.

The father of this Carney family was John Kearney/Carney.  John died in Illinois in 1876.  So he came before that.

• The eldest son, Thomas, died in East St. Louis, Illinois, in 1895.  So again not sure when he arrived,
• The second son, Michael, was married in Trenton, New Jersey in 1868 and reported that he came in the US in 1863.
• The third son, Bernard, married in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1870 and reported that he arrived in the US in 1860.
• The fourth son, James Carney, married in 1873 in Chicago, Illinois, and reported that he immigrated from Ireland around 1870.
• The fifth child, and only daughter, Mary, was married in Chicago, Illinois in what appears to have been a joint ceremony with her brother James.  Mary died in 1894.

James met Mary Gibbs, an Irish immigrant,  in Chicago, and they were married.  They had five children while they lived in Chicago.  The first two were twins, John & Margaret.  The twins were either stillborn or died shortly after birth.  The third child was Margaret Marie Carney, my great-grandmother.  James and Mary had two more sons, John James, and Charles.  Although the rest of the family stayed in Illinois, the James Carney family moved to Nebraska between 1885 and 1890.  They bought farmland in Oak Grove Township, Section 27.  Their youngest son Charles died around 1888.  Since Chicago has no record of his death, I assume he died in Nebraska, where they didn't keep vital records.

Their neighbors to the north and west of them in Section 28 was the Enoch Parr family.  The families were joined in September 1896 when James' daughter Maggie married Enoch's son Elmer.  In 1906, Maggie's brother John married Mayme Strangman, who also lived nearby.  John eventually took over his father's farm.  Elmer and Maggie bought land north of the original Parr homestead, and the two remaining Carney siblings stayed close, and their children attended school together.

In going through old family photos, we found many with the Carney siblings' families, but there was one that we couldn't quite sort out.  It appears to have been taken in Nebraska at the Carney farm (by then owned by John & Mayme).  One day I came across the exact same picture on Ancestry! It had been posted by John Hunt.  John said the photograph had been taken when the Carney family had gone to visit the "Nebraska Carneys."  He could identify all the Illinois Carneys in the picture but had been struggling to identify the Nebraska Carneys.    So together, we sorted everybody out, but I had to expand my family tree to cover the details of James Carney's siblings' families.

James Carney's eldest brother, Thomas, apparently never married. The second brother, Michael, married Anna Dunne. Michael and Anna had 6 children: John, Annie, Margaret, Thomas James, Mayme, and William Francis.  The third brother, Bernard, married twice.  He had six children with his first wife Sarah Boyle: Margaret, James John, John F, William J, Thomas B, and Michael Joseph.  He married his second wife, Mrs. Mary Moore Shortell, after Sarah's death when he was 51.  James's sister, Mary, married Thomas Dunne and had two children: William Patrick and Katherine.

So who is in the photo in front of John & Mayme Carney's house in Nebraska?
The family on the far left is Bernard's grandson, Bernard J, his wife Lillian, and their children: Larry, Gerald, Bernice, and baby Murray. Then the next pair over is Michael J & Frances Carney - Bernard's son and Bernard J's parents.  Next to Michael J Carney, along the back row, is Mayme Carney, John Carney, and their son Henry. The rest of the younger adults across the front are Michael and Frances' son Michael F, John and Mayme's daughter Mary Carney, Michael and Francis' daughters: Constance Carney and Marjorie Carney Hunt.

The photo must have been taken around 1940, assuming baby Murray was born in 1938.

Genetics & Genealogy - Or why don't I have black hair and dark skin?

Every now and then, someone asks a question that really makes you stop and think.  The question of the day is why don't I have black hair and dark skin. For those of you who know me, this sounds like an extraordinary question. Growing up, my hair color was variable -- changing from a medium brown to almost blond and back.  And my skin color is on the extreme side of light.   I moved from Seattle to Texas in the dead of winter to go to work for NASA.  My new office mates just stood and stared at me when I first showed up.  When they finally spoke to me, they said they had never seen anyone as "white" as me.  Perhaps they thought I was a ghost!

Recently as part of a genetic research project, I was asked to choose a skin tone that most closely matched my skin tone.  The chart has twenty-one skin tones on a scale from 0.0 to 10.0.
(http://ww2.gedmatch.com:8006/autosomal/skin_pigment_chart.php) The color closet to me was at 9.0.  So really far away from dark skin but not all the way to paper white either.

So maybe you are wondering how such a question would have even come up.  Which brings us back to genetics and family tree.  My maiden name is Duffy. In Gaelic, it would be spelled Ó Dubhthaigh.  Surnames are usually occupations, geographic locations, relation to someone else (son of ...), or colors.  Ó Dubhthaigh is a mix of relationships and color.  Dubth is black or dark.  Various meanings attributed to Ó Dubhthaigh are: "descendant of the dark one," son of dark, dark-skinned, black hair.  Until recently, I just considered this a curious description, since my father has red hair (still strawberry-blond at 82!) and pale skin. His sister was blond.  His older brother did have dark hair but not dark skin.

What happened recently was that I came across a Duffy/Duffey relative living in Iowa, where the Duffy's settled after coming to America.  It turns out that the Duffy/Duffey's that stayed in Iowa have black hair and dark skin.  So how and where did the dark coloring get "lost" in the genetic tree?

My Duffy grandparents have 6 genetically linked grandchildren.  My father only has two siblings; one a Catholic priest and a sister with one biological child. I have four siblings. All 6 of us have light-colored skin, and the darkest hair color is a medium brown.

A recent family shot!

My cousin Mary and my Dad (2014)

My grandfather was one of five children.  Two of his brothers died young, his only sister never married, and his other brother was sterile.  Both my grandfather, Francis Michael, and his brother, John James, were light-skinned when I knew them. There were no color pictures when they were young.  But they appear to have brown hair in this wedding photo.  If any of the children were dark-skinned, it would have had to have been the children who died young.

Jim & Frank Duffy at Frank's wedding

Dr. Francis Michael Duffy

My great-grandfather was the 4th of 10 children born in America of Irish Immigrants who settled in Holbrook, Iowa. I have no pictures of my great-grandfather at all. When my great-grandfather died suddenly after an accident, his family moved first to town (Williamsburg) and later to Omaha, Nebraska, where my grandfather and his brother attended medical school.

My newly discovered relative in Iowa is a descendant of the 7th child of my great-great-grandparents. So why are the Duffy/Duffey's who stayed in Iowa dark-skinned with black hair and our branch is pale-skinned with light hair?  I don't know.  The field of genetics is booming with new data from the explosion of people having DNA tests for genealogical purposes.  Maybe I will find answers one day.

Both my paternal and maternal line supposedly trace back to the Three Collas, the mythical founders of the Kingdom of Airghialla in Northern Ireland, about 4 AD.

If you have had DNA testing done by Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, or 23andme, you can download your DNA results to your computer and then upload it to a free website called GEDmatch.com.  This website has some useful tools related to genetics and your DNA.