RootsTech Week 2024

March 15, 2024 ~ Patricia Coleman ~ Leave a comment

I arrived in Salt Lake City Saturday 24 February. Arriving on Saturday is convenient as it gives me Sunday to sleep in and get organized for the week. Leisa Byrne had already arrived, and we recreated some of the things we’d done before RootsTech in 2020, starting off with brunch at Eva’s Bakery.

Then we went on to Harmons grocery store to pick up some snacks and items to have for lunch while working in the library Monday through Wednesday.

Sunday afternoon we went to the organ recital at the Tabernacle.

The lights changed colors with the different songs that the organist placed. It’s such a beautiful location and magnificent organ.

We were staying at the Little America Hotel this year. I was surprised at the pansies that were blooming all over the place. It was still pretty cold. They had beds of purple ones and others of yellow ones.

Purple pansies blooming at Little America Hotel.

Yellow pansies blooming at Little America Hotel.

Little America Hotel was at the end of the free Trax line which made getting around to the library and the Salt Palace very easy. Both the blue and green Trax lines went to Temple Square, which was the exit we took for both the library and the Salt Palace. But once we got on the red line by mistake and ended up having to walk farther!

Monday was FamilySearch Library day! We arrived just before the library opened and joined the crowd of people waiting to get in. There had been a little snow overnight.

I was surprised at how crowded the library was for this early in RootsTech week.

Monday through Wednesday was spent working in the library. After being there three times I think I may have finally found all the Kent County, Michigan land records that exist from the 1850s. I know that Dave’s third great grandfather, David Coleman, was listed in Lyndon, Washtenaw County in the Michigan 1845 census. Now I’ve found that the family purchased land in 1846 in Kent County. Many of the land deeds were lost in a fire in 1860, but some of the indexes still exist.

Wednesday afternoon the RootsTech free golf cart shuttle was already running between the library and the Salt Palace, and we got a ride to go and pick up our badges.

RootsTech map showing the presentation rooms.

Things were still quiet in the halls on Wednesday, but there was plenty of activity in the Expo Hall getting the booths set up.

Grand Ball ready for presentations that would begin at 8:00 AM Thursday.

We headed to the DNA Painter booth to see if help was needed on the setup, but Jonny and James had it all done.

One of the signs at the DNA Painter booth.

The RootsTech souvenir booth was open Wednesday afternoon, and I had to get a new RootsTech T-shirt.

Thursday presentations started at 8:00 AM, and the Expo opened at 9:00 AM. I heard there was a huge crowd waiting outside the Expo before it opened, and we were swamped with people! I think it was the busiest day. None of us ever got any lunch. I did manage to get a quick photo of the DNA Painter shirt, that we had new for the booth this year. Thursday the expo was open until 7:00PM. It was a long day.

Things settled a bit as the conference went on, and I was able to attend some presentations and visit several booths.

String quartet playing in front of the FamilySearch book.

There was often musical entertainment in the Central Park area.

The Ancestry booth was to the left of Central Park.

MyHeritage booth was to the right of Central Park.

MyHeritage had a booth set up where you could upload your raw DNA right onsite. They offered the DNA tools for free if you uploaded during the time of RootsTech.

MyHeritage booth to upload your raw DNA.

FamilyTreeDNA was to the left of FamilySearch.

DNA Painter was near the FamilyTreeDNA booth. We were able to get a group photo.

Left to right: James Nunn, Leisa Byrne, me and Jonny Perl.

LegacyFamilyTree Webinars was in the row of booths beside DNA Painter.

Farther down the aisle was the Board for Certification of Genealogists.

Association of Professional Genealogist had a booth as well.

I managed to get a photo of the GEDmatch booth when no one was there.

Last year at RootsTech I purchased Cite-Builder which is a program that lets you generate citations. With the premium account you can generate your own and save them on the site. When I had a question about one of their structures last year, it was Jenny who answered my email. It was great to meet her person this year.

It was great to get to meet Nathan in person.

RootsTech is also a great place to see friends that you’ve not seen for a year.

With Roberta Estes before her presentation.

At the end of Roberta’s presentation she told us about her newest book, that hadn’t been released in time for RootsTech. It’s due to come out in March or April 2024.

Roberta’s book due out in March-April 2024.

It’s always a bit of a rush to fly home on Sunday after RootsTech, but staying another day doesn’t make much sense since the library isn’t open on Sunday. There was more snow Saturday overnight.

Snow on the mountains as seen from the airport Sunday morning.

I had several hours layover in Minneapolis and spent the time putting in a couple presentation proposals for upcoming conferences and organizing my notes from the library.

Using MyHeritage Theories of Family Relativity

June 4, 2023June 13, 2023 ~ Patricia Coleman ~ Leave a comment

Recently MyHeritage announced some new, additional Theories of Family Relativity. Theories are similar to Through Lines on Ancestry, but they show all the pieces of the different trees that are used for the Theory. In a way that makes it a bit like a Quick & Dirty (Q&D) tree, only I didn’t have to make it myself. What I like to do is to use documented records to verify the matches’ trees, and then add the matches’ DNA segments to DNA Painter profile. This lets me look for shared segments from different Theories and hopefully find more family connections. At first I was only going to add the Theories that I could verify as being correct. But then I decided that adding the incorrect ones as well and looking for shared segments might make it possible to find the correct connection.

My family is small, and I only had one new Theory. Besides, I know how all six of the Theories fit into my family. So it’s not particularly exciting. My husband, Dave, on the other hand, had a lot of new Theories bringing his total to sixty-six. Dave’s one of seven and three of his sisters have done DNA tests, plus a number of his nieces have as well. But there are still sixty Theories that are not close family. What kind of new information could I find for his family by looking at these Theories?

Starting with one of the Theories I looked at what was proposed as the connection and most recent common ancestor (MRCA). Dave’s highest match was ‘Carol.’¹

Figure 1. Theory of Family Relativity for Carol and Dave.

I found different resources were used for each of the three Theories for Carol’s relationship to Dave. The first used my Coleman tree and Carol’s tree. The second added the 1880 Federal Census, and the third added two other families trees besides Carol’s and mine. All three of them reached the same conclusion. The MRCA couple was Jacob Marti and Anna Fritz. The Marti family is Dave’s paternal grandmother’s side.

Figure 2. One of the Theories for Carol’s relationship to Dave.

Dave’s paternal grandmother was Harriett Ruth Marti. Looking at her family tree, figure 3, we see that Jacob Marti and Anna Fritz were Dave’s second great grandparents. The Marti family originated from Switzerland and settled in Michigan after immigrating to the United States.

Figure 3. Dave’s grandmother, Harriett Ruth Marti’s family tree.

One way to view the results of the MyHeritage ‘Theories’ is by making a profile for Theories in DNA Painter. Copying the DNA segments that Dave and Carol share from MyHeritage, figure 4, and then putting them into DNA Painter provides a way to collect all these data, but also to analyse the matches.

Figure 4. DNA segments that Carol shares with Dave.

In a new profile in DNA Painter Carol’s data is pasted into the “Paint a Match’ box, figure 5.

Figure 5. Entering Carol’s shared segments into DNA Painter.

Her data was entered into a new group named for Dave’s second great grandparents, Jacob Marti & Anna Fritz. The resulting profile is shown in figure 6.

Figure 6. DNA Painter profile showing segments that Carol shares with Dave.

I continued going through the Theories adding the matches to the DNA Painter profile.

Figure 7. Dave’s profile after all the Theories have been added.

Looking closely at Dave’s DNA Painter Profile from the Theories there’s no DNA segment overlap for his paternal matches, but several maternal matches do overlap. On chromosome 11 there’s overlap with Kelly and Frank, see figure 8. There’s also a clear recombination point between Andy and Kelly.

Figure 8. Segments overlap on chromosome 11.

The MRCA for Sue are Haken Nisson and Cajsa Andersdotter, Dave’s third great grandparents. The MRCA for Andy are Anders Salonomsson and Kerstin Andersdotter, Dave’s fourth great-grandparents, who are the parents of Cajsa Andersdotter. Kelly’s MRCA with Dave are Peter Kilts Graves and Lucy An Shear, his third great-grandparents. Frank’s MRCA with Dave are Smith Shear and Martha Handy, his fourth great grandparents, who are the parents of Lucy An Shear. Because of the overlap with Kelly and Frank the entire segment that Kelly has must have come from either Smith Shear or Martha Handy. Since any one segment can only come from one person Kelly’s segment would have come to her from Lucy An Shear from Lucy’s parents.

Many of the Theories are for Dave’s maternal side. His mother’s maiden name was Hocking. The Hocking family were miners in the Cornwall region of England. By the middle of the nineteenth century mining in Cornwall was declining and many miners emigrated to Australia to mine gold, to South Africa to mine diamonds, and to the United States to mine iron. Dave’s great-grandfather, James Monteith Hocking, Sr., was living in Mesabi Mountain Township in the city of Eveleth, Minnesota in the 1905 state census. Dave’s maternal side has two Hocking lines. James Monteith Hocking, Sr. wife was Martha Murris, whose mother was Eliza Hocking. ‘Mary’ was one of the first Hocking matches we found when Dave did his DNA test. Her great-grandfather, John Hocking, emigrated to New Zealand around 1879. The DNA connection to Mary is on the Eliza Hocking line with their MRCA being Dave’s fifth great-grandparents Simon Hocking and Jane Lutey, see Figure 9.

Figure 9. Dave’s tree starting with his grandfather, John Hocking.

The Hocking Descendant Society Inc. is based in Australia but has members from all over the world. They have done a great deal of research backing up Hocking families with records: birth, baptism, marriage, death, burial, and census records.. A lot of the information for Dave’s tree came from them, tracing back both of his Hocking lines.

On chromosome 20 Dave triangulates with Mary, Kay, and Rachel, as shown in figure 10. Mary and Kay are sisters and Rachel is their niece. They also triangulate with Kate, whose Theory has a wrong set of parents in her Hocking line. However, because of the triangulation she would need to be somewhere on this Simon Hocking and Jane Lutey line to Dave.

Figure 10. Segment on chromosome 20 that Mary’s family shares with Dave.

On chromosome 1 Mary overlaps with Matt, see figure 11.

Figure 11. Chromosome 1 showing triangulation for Matt and Mary with Dave.

Matt was adopted, but he knows that his paternal great-grandmother was Elizabeth Hill Hocking. Perhaps there’s a clue here! Matt’s segment here is only 7.2 cM, and I know there’s a fifty percent chance that a 7 cM segment is a false match. But looking at that differently there’s a fifty percent chance that it is a true match. Matt has another segment on chromosome 14 that’s 32.6 cM. Looking at some more of the shared matches that Matt has with Dave on MyHeritage I find that Matt and Dave triangulate with Dave’s first cousin once removed, Jean. Jean is the granddaughter of James Monteith Hocking and Martha Murrish.

Figure 12. Chromosome 14 where Matt triangulates with Dave and Jean.

Adding this information it now appears that Matt’s great-grandmother, Elizabeth Hill Hocking, should be somewhere in the Hocking family line between Dave’s great-grandparents, James Monteith Hocking and Martha Murrish, and his fifth great-grandparents, Simon Hocking and Jane Lutey. Time to go back to the documents from the Hocking Descendant Society and also search British and Australian records to search for Elizabeth’s location in this line.

Summary

MyHeritage Theories of Family Relativity provides a path that connects the DNA match and the tester and shows the various trees that were used to find the MRCA. There are links to all these trees which makes it easy to check what information they have. It’s a bit like having Quick and Dirty trees provided for you! Of course, you need to still verify the information with documented records.

Putting the segment data from Theories into a DNA Painter profile makes it easy to see if there is segment overlap between people in different Theories. When there is, check the shared matches one of them in MyHeritage to see if they triangulate with the tester. If they do this would indicate a MRCA. Then searching documented records could help you place them correctly in your tree.

All names of living DNA matches are fictitious.

Thomas Barry in Kilkenny, Ireland

September 5, 2020September 7, 2020 ~ Patricia Coleman ~ 1 Comment

Like everything else this year the Celtic Connections Conference went virtual. That gave me the opportunity to attend, as the dates of the live event would have conflicted with several local things I would have been involved with. There were several presentation dealing with Griffiths Valuation. Although I’d used it several times in the past, I learned a great deal more about it in the conference.

Griffiths Valuation

The Griffiths Valuation was a property tax based on what income could be produced annually from the land. It was carried out from 1847 to 1864 starting in the south of Ireland and moving north. Every area of land and building were measured and the person leasing the property was named. Irish census began in 1821 and occurred every 10 years, however the majority of the census records were either destroyed by the 1922 fire at Four Courts or were pulped for making paper in WWI. The only fully existing census records are from 1901 and 1911. Some fragments of earlier census exist and can be found on the National Archives of Ireland website. Because of the loss of early census records the Griffith Valuation and the Revision books are now used by genealogists as census substitutes.

Thomas Barry, 2^nd Great Grandfather

My 2nd great grandfather was Thomas Barry. My Dad had built extensive family trees for both his side of the family and my Mom’s family. As the only child I obtained all the records after their deaths. Dad’s information said that Thomas Barry and his wife Mary (Aide) Barry lived in the Village of Ballyhale, County Kilkenny, Ireland. I found baptismal records for Edward, my great grandfather, born in 1840 and for his sister, Mary, born 1843. The Roman Catholic church there did not have any records that had survived for Thomas and Mary’s wedding or either of their baptisms.

After learning that FindMyPast listed the exact date that the Griffiths Valuation was printed, and that it took 3 months to compile and print, I decided to look and see if Thomas Barry, was listed there. Griffiths Valuation for Kilkenny was published in April 1850. I really didn’t expect to find him listed there, as the 1855 census for Evans, Erie County, New York state indicated the family had been residence there for 5 years.

The children’s baptismal records indicated the townland where the family lived at that time. Edward’s baptismal record is shown in figure 1. Starting at the left it has Feby 11 Ned Tom Barry Mary Aide and on the 2nd line Martin Millea Cath Millea and Moanroe. Mary’s baptismal record in 1843 also listed Moanroe.

Figure 1. Edward Barry’s baptismal record 11 Feb 1840 Ballyhale Catholic Parish, Kilkenny

I looked for Thomas Barry in Griffiths Valuation in Moanroe Commons, Kilkenny. To my surprise I found that Thomas Barry leased land in Moanroe Commons along with Anastasia Barry. I had no idea who Anastasia Barry was, as far as anyone in the family. I knew she had to be a widow, as the only women in Griffiths Valuation were either widows on their husband’s land or the landowner, and she was clearly not the owner here. But where did Thomas live? I broadened my search to nearby townlands and found that he had a house in Knocktopher Manor which was next door to Moanroe Commons. The Griffiths Valuation for Knocktopher Manor is in figure 2. Anastasia had a house next door to Thomas, and the land they shared in Moanroe Commons backed into the location of their houses. Figure 2 is a composite of the top of the page of Griffiths Valuation which shows the column heading and the listings for Knocktopher Manor which was at the bottom of the page.

Figure 2. Griffith Valuation for Knocktopher Manor, Knocktopher, Kilkenny.

The numbers and letter in the first column indicate the location on the map, and the small a and b indicates house. Column 2 has the name os the occupants. Parentheses surrounding Thomas’ and Anastasia’s names indicate that each of them is responsible for the tax on the house and land. The immediate lessor is Thomas Norman, Esq. who seems to lease a good bit of land here. He may not be the actual owner and was subletting the land, but more research is needed to determine that. Column 3 has house, office and land. An office is not what we’d think of today. It could be a barn, or a stable. Content of the land is in acres, roods and perches. A rood is 1/4 of an acre, and there are 40 perches in a rood. The net value would be how much income could be expected from that land in a year. The net value of the buildings would mainly be for the house. They had to pay tax of 1£ 2 shilling on the house. I learned from Fiona Fitzsimmons Celtic Connections presentation that a house with a tax about this amount would be made of cob walls. Cob was made from mud and straw and usually white-washed to help keep out the weather. When the house was abandoned, and no one was any longer living there, heating it and caring for it, the house would just melt into the landscape. Using the numbers in column 1 we can look on the map and find the location. The map for Knocktopher Manor and Moanroe Commons is shown in figure 3. I’ve circled 6a and b in Knocktopher Manor where Thomas and Anastasia Barry lived. The land they had in Moanroe Commons is 11, so it basically is their back yard.

Figure 3. Map showing Moanroe Commons and Knocktopher.

What’s more Thomas’ next door neighbor was Martin Millea. His house is at 5a, shown both in figures 2 and 3. It just happened that Martin Millea was one of the sponsors on Edward’s baptismal records, shown in figure 1! This had to be my Thomas Barry!! That would leave just about a 6-month window from when they left Ireland and arrived in the US. I planned to add several months on either side when I started digging in ship arrival records, just in case. My latest hypothesis was that this was my Thomas Barry and Anastasia was his mother. This totally threw out two earlier hypotheses I had. One was based on a Barry DNA match whose family was in Thomastown, and had a Thomas baptized in 1812 with parents Js Barry and Ellen Shea. That hypothesis had been based on this Thomas’ baptismal record that showed James Comerford as the sponsor, and he had been a witness at the wedding of Mary Barry, who was a daughter in the family there. Thomastown RC is the next RC parish to Ballyhale RC and only a few miles away, so it seemed a reasonable hypothesis. The other hypothesis was based on an Aide cousin to Thomas’ wife, Mary, whose naturalization papers said he’d arrived in the US via Buffalo, NY in 1846. Buffalo is only a short distance from Evans, NY and since families, neighbors and friends often traveled from Ireland to US, this also seemed a reasonable hypothesis.

Anastasia Barry

So who is Anastasia Barry? There’s no mention of her in any of the family notes or tree that my Dad had done. But then again he never says anything about Thomas’ parents. Dad likely got his family information from his father, Frank, who would have gotten it from Edward. My Dad was only 5 when his grandfather Edward died. It’s unlikely his grandfather told him any family information. Edward, born in 1840 and in the US at least by 1855, may not have known his grandparents at all. That would mainly depend on when the family left Ireland and Edward’s age at the time.

I searched FindMyPast baptismal records for Ballyhale Catholic parish using Barry surname and An* as the mother’s forename and found two records; Margaret born in 1825 and Nellie born in 1831. The earliest surviving baptismal records for Ballyhale Catholic parish are in 1823 according to John Grenham’s website. Thomas likely was born before that time. Those two baptismal records list John Barry as the father and Anastasia Riley as the mother. Potentially these are Thomas’ parents and Margaret and Nellie are his sisters.

Revision Books

Every few years after the Griffiths Valuation a revision was done. Since this was a record for collecting tax, it was necessary to update the person living there that would be required to pay the tax. The Revision books started just after Griffith Valuation and continued to the 1980s. These Revision books are housed in the Valuation Office in Dublin. Some have been digitized, but not all, and none of them are online at this time. I emailed the Valuation Office asking about this location where Thomas Barry was in Knocktopher Manor. I fully expected a reply telling me how to apply for the information and the cost. However, the next day I received an email with 2 pages from the Revision books. Thomas took over the lease from Anastasia in the 1860-62 timeframe. That likely indicates that she died, but Civil records for death did not start until 1878. Thomas is replaced by Eliza Barry in 1882, and Eliza is replaced by Richard Moore in 1883. Figure 4 shows the Revision book for 1876-1883.

Figure 4. Revision book for 1876-1883 showing Thomas Barry in Knocktopher.

Checking the civil death records Thomas died 31 Oct 1881 as reported by his son, John. Elizabeth Barry, widow of Thomas Barry, farmer, died 8 May 1882 again reported by son John. This is not my Thomas Barry, as I know he was in NY in June 1855. I’d heard many times how unusual the surname Barry was in Kilkenny. So it had never occurred to me that there could be two Thomas Barry’s in the same area of Kilkenny!

Validation Books

Now what to do? Prior to Griffiths Valuation there had been Field Books which described the land, quality of the soil etc but also listed the name of the person on that land. There had also been House Books which listed the houses on the land and what had already been surveyed in preparation for the later valuation. FindMyPast had Field books from 1848 and House books for 1845 and 1848. Thomas Barry who lived in Knocktopher Manor and died in 1881 was found with his house in Knocktopher Manor in 1845 and 1848. But looking at the House books also for Moanroe Commons, since the children’s baptismal records said that was where my Thomas Barry lived, I couldn’t find him in 1848, but there he was in 1845! In the 1845 House Book both my Thomas Barry in Moanroe Commons and the Thomas Barry who had a house in Knocktopher Manor were listed! This appears to tell me that my Thomas Barry who was there in 1845 and not in 1848 left Ireland for the US after 1845 and before 1848. Maybe they did travel with the Aide cousins, and maybe he was baptized in 1812 in Thomastown. Lots more research needs to be done. But now I do have an earliest date for his arrival in the US when I start searching passenger records.

Welcome to Patricia Coleman Genealogy

May 19, 2020August 6, 2024 ~ Patricia Coleman ~ Leave a comment

My Dad and VE Day

My Dad has been in the news a lot recently – in London, England – that is. The 75th anniversary of VE Day was May 8, 2020, and there was a large remembrance celebrated in London during the week leading up to it.

At the beginning of May, I received the Friday email from FindMyPast regarding the remembrance of VE Day. I was eager to response with a letter my Dad wrote to my Mom about this historical celebration. My Dad served in the 94^th US Air Depot Group. His letter wrote about his pass to London that serendipitously occurred with VE Day. He enthusiastically celebrated with the enormously cheerful London crowds. The masses paraded through the town with ecstatic electricity to watch Prime Minister Churchill and King George give victory speeches.

As it turned out one of the newspapers was planning an “I was there….” kind of story, and Dad’s letter fit perfectly for that. On May 5 The Daily Mirror published some of Dad’s story along with one of the photos he took. These are shown on the left in the collage pictured above. Two days later The Daily Express expanded this article shown on the right of the collage.

To top it all off, the following day, May 8, FindMyPast’s blog (found here: Findmypast blog ) published my Dad’s entire letter and even more photos, the bottom image in the collage.

We are humbled and excited that my Dad’s memories are shared with many in the remembrance of VE Day.