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Topics - M_ONeill

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1
Shropshire / Obed Beddoes - Do I have the relationships right?
« on: Monday 25 March 24 16:39 GMT (UK)  »
Hi all, I'm hoping to get some fresh eyes on this part of my tree to 'check my working', so to speak, and see whether I have the relationships right.

To begin, I'm fairly sure I have this particular line of my tree correct back to my 4x great grandparents Elisha Howells and Anne Beddoes, married on the 23rd of May 1791 in Culmington Shropshire. The signed witnesses were 'Obad. Beddoes and Thos. Pearce'. At first I assumed 'Obad.' was short for 'Obadiah', but when I looked into the various local records I found that the given name was most likely actually 'Obed', a different biblical name.

Where I'm not sure if I'm right is my assertion that this Obed was Anne's father. When I first added Anne to my tree, Ancestry suggested a number of trees which had her parents listed as a John Beddoes and Elizabeth Brookes, with their daughter Anne being baptised on the 10th Nov 1776 in Diddlebury.

I was initially somewhat doubtful about this parentage, as it would make Anne 15 at the time of her marriage to Elisha. I instead found a baptism of an Anne Beddoes in Edgton on 21st June 1774, parents Obed Beddose [sic] and his wife Mary, which would make Anne 19 at the time of the later marriage.

Now Diddlebury is closer to Culmington than Edgton, but I think that Obed may have moved to the latter location when he married. There is a 31st January 1772 marriage between Obed Beddoes of Seifton and Mary Griffiths of Edgton. Seifton is right next to Culmington.

While there are a number of later Obed Beddoes born in the area over the following decades (likely all in the same wider family) as far as I can see, there is only one candidate for the birth record of this eldest and seemingly first Obed, namely a Quaker birth record in 1741, in Seifton, parents Richard and Mary Beddoes. To my mind the Quaker faith likely explains the choice of name. Obed was baptised into the Anglican church on 2nd of Nov 1817, just a few days before his death. The parish record mentions his being resident in Seifton Batch and his previous Quaker religion.

So that's where I currently stand. I've pencilled in Obed as Anne's father because there are only a certain number of local baptismal records for Anne Beddoes between the 1740s, when Obed was born, and the cut-off point of around the 1770s where the prospective Annes become too young for the later marriage.

I'm interested to know what other Rootschatters think. Do I have a strong enough case to pin Obed as a direct ancestor and the father of Anne?

2
Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing / Researching a Trace Ancestry/Ethnicity?
« on: Sunday 23 July 23 03:53 BST (UK)  »
A few days ago I got my results back from AncestryDNA and one small thing that surprised me was that doing the origin trick showed me that I have one tiny segment (0.05%) that Ancestry has labelled internally as 'Jewish Peoples of Europe', though shows up as 'unassigned' in my official results due to falling below the percentage threshold.

Now, I'm fully aware that such an incredibly miniscule segment could very well be noise, or a mis-reading, but as there's some amount of circumstantial evidence in my own research (and that of other people I'm working with), that suggests it might be legitimate, I'm at least looking into the possibility.

Just as an example, I have one match (12cm) whose tree contains an English family line with a distinct surname I've been researching quite extensively in Ireland. Their tree goes back to an individual b. c1608 who they claim adopted the surname and was originally a member of the Sephardic 'Crypto-Jewish' community of converso emigrants from Portugal (the strong Portuguese connection is another thing of note in the research regarding the Irish family). They sadly don't have an attached source for this claim, so I don't know if it's a family story or an attested piece of history. I'll be contacting said match in a couple of days to see if they're up for sharing info.

When looking at where I match with this person in a chromosome browser, they don't share this particular segment of unassigned DNA in question - but someone who is a shared match between the two of us does. Going through their shared matches finds more people who share the same segment; I have at least ten after a day's searching. Said segments often even sharing the same start and end points. GEDmatch usually puts the estimated most recent common ancestor about seven generations out.

Now as someone new to diving this deeply into DNA I want to ask: am I potentially on to something meaningful here, or is it a wild goose chase? Is finding so many people with the same segment of shared DNA something of note, or with such a small segment could it just be random chance at work?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

3
Hi all,

I'm posting to see if anyone has any more information relating to the Reverend James Mackel, parish priest of Ardtrea (b. c1756 - d. c1832).

He was buried in Ballyeglish Old Graveyard (sometimes referred to locally as simply 'Eglish') a very ancient burial ground that was used by all denominations, about 1km south west of the Loup cross roads. Rev. Mackel was apparently a man with a very holy reputation; so much so in fact, that local people apparently used to take handfuls of soil from his grave to try and cure ailments. Eventually, so much soil was taken that the Reverend was almost uncovered and local priests had to put a ban on the practice.

I happen to be a descendant of Mackles (the usual spelling in our tree) from the local area, some of whom lived in the Loup, and I was fascinated by the story. I was wondering if it could be discovered precisely where he placed among the local Mackle families. 

What I know about the Rev. Mackel so far is that according to his memorial he died on the 4th of March 1832 at the age of 76. At that point he had apparently been parish priest of Ardtrea for 'upwards of 40 years'.

I found the following death notice in the Belfast Newsletter of 11 Mar 1831. The death date is off by a year and a couple of days, but the rest of the details would seem to match. The 1832 date comes from a tombstone transcription; many of the tombstones in Ballyeglish are very worn or damaged, so there's possibly a mistranscription at play.

Quote from: Belfast Newsletter, 11th Mar 1831
The Rev. James Mackel P.P. of Ardtrea. This venerable and highly gifted Ecclesiastic expired on the 2d inst. at his house in Ballynagarve near Magherafelt at the advanced age of 76 years, upwards of 40 of which he was priest of this, his native parish.

This is all I have on him so far. Obviously with Irish history this far back, records can be very piecemeal, but I was thinking with someone seemingly so well known locally, there might be other fragments of information floating around.

Thanks in advance for any help or information!

4
Hello, all.

I've recently been asked to go through my paternal 1st cousin's DNA matches to see if I can find anything interesting. I've found an interesting cluster of results and wanted to get a collective opinion on whether getting a ballpark estimate on the degree of relationship was possible. The family in question likes to keep their tree mostly private, so I hope you'll excuse me skirting around the names.

So, my cousin has five matches from separate Ancestry kits, all descended from one man (we'll call him 'A'). These five results all descend from three of A's Children (A1, A2, A3):

A1: Two results, grandchildren of A, children of A1. Male and female in their 60s (31 and 32cM shared with my cousin respectively).

A2: Two results, a male grandchild of A and child of A2 (11cM shared), along with his own son, the great-grandchild of A (10cM).

A3: One result, a female descendant of A (8cM) Unsure whether this is a grandchild, great grandchild, etc, but she is definitely a descendant of A through A3.

There is also a sixth result, a person of unknown gender (13cM). This person descends from a woman of the same (maiden) surname as A, from the same area (We'll call this woman B). A number of Ancestry trees place her as the older sister of A from the same parents, and conversations with the descendants of A suggest that this link is most likely correct.

Now, I'm aware that these are all very distant relations, but can anyone give an idea of what sort of degree of relationship we're looking at here? There is a shared surname in this branch with our own tree, and some evidence suggests that A's family left Ireland (where mine and my cousin's ancestry remained based) in the early 1800s, with A and B's own father being born in Canada. Also, is there any potential significance in A1s children having a higher cM match with my cousin or is that just 'the luck of the draw' in genetics terms?

Thanks in advance!   

5
Hello all,

I'm trying to determine whether the girl in this photo from sometime in the 1940s (exact year unknown) is my grandmother. I've attached a composite comparison image below.

My grandmother was born in 1929 and I would estimate that the girl in the older photo would be around mid-to-late teens, maybe early twenties at a push. The location is correct, being taken on Medley's Farm, Pattingham, Staffs. which was the village where she lived at the time.

Things I think are in favour of it being the same person: same chin/jawline, same or similar nose, similar forehead and (maybe) eyebrows.

Things I'm not 100% sure about: the eyes - though I think the glasses may be distorting them slightly in the later picture.

Any thoughts would be gratefully accepted!  :)

6
Ireland / Can't find a civil death record (James McLaughlin, Grange, Desertmartin)
« on: Wednesday 31 March 21 13:41 BST (UK)  »
Hi all, I'm wondering if I could get some help in trying to track down an elusive civil death record for a James McLaughlin, brother to my great grandfather Edward John.

James was born in 1868 to parents James McLaughlin and Rose Anne Walls of Grange, Desertmartin near Magherafelt.

The family story, as I heard it, was that he had drowned in a river at the age of 13, but I can find no matching civil death records for the late 1870s - early 1880s.

Now it's an outside possibility that the story might not be true. Relatives tell me that they remember my great grandfather telling them about his sister Bridget who emigrated as an adult - but the civil record shows very clearly that she died in infancy; 15 days old in 1878, before my great grandfather was born, so there may be an element of 'unreliable narrator'/faulty memory at play.

Still, I'm fairly certain that James was dead at least before 1911 and probably before 1901. In the 1911 census, where the widowed Rose Anne McLaughlin was living alone with Eddie John, the officiant has written '3' for total children born and '1' for children still living. They then crossed it all out when they realised they weren't supposed to fill it in for a widowed person.

Any help in tracking down the above civil record greatly appreciated!

7
Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Help with a surname (Benningham?)
« on: Sunday 28 March 21 22:05 BST (UK)  »
Hi all!

Looking for a little help reading a surname split across two lines of a catholic parish record in 1832.

My initial reading would be 'Benning-am', perhaps 'Benningham' with the 'h' missing. Thing is, I've seen this surname nowhere else in the local records, so I'm not sure I have it right.

Any thoughts and suggestions gratefully appreciated!

8
Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Occupation on a Death Record
« on: Tuesday 23 March 21 13:18 GMT (UK)  »
Hi all!

Looking for help on the following occupation listing: 'Wife of a __?__'.

My first guess would be 'bookmaker', but I'm pretty sure I have that wrong. The first three letters almost look like 'Bod.' with a full stop for an abbreviation.

All suggestions gratefully received!  :)

9
Occupation Interests / Travelling to work on the railways? (19thC Northern Ireland)
« on: Saturday 20 March 21 00:22 GMT (UK)  »
Hi all,

Perhaps a bit specific, this, but I'm looking for some input from anyone with knowledge on early railways in Northern Ireland.

My 3x great grandfather Michael McChrystal seemed to travel a long way from his family's home base in Annagh, near Desertmartin/Magherafelt, at least based on the baptismal records of his children (those we can find, that is). My theory is that he may have been travelling to work on the railways, and am trying to see if the construction dates of particular lines might shed any clues.

Michael married a Susannah Owens, date and place unknown. There are some baptisms that may give a clue, though. Their two earliest children I can find were both baptised in Tempo, Fermanagh (1853 and 1854 respectively). The name Owens is very common there, as the surname has links to the local church going back many hundreds of years. The two Tempo baptisms also had sponsors of Edward and Ellen Owens, possible relations, making me think it's a good bet that Susannah likely came from the area.

So how did Michael get all the way down there? The next baptism I can find is that of Arthur McChrystal. He was baptised in Lisbellaw, Fermanagh in 1859. Interestingly, the Dundalk and Enniskillen Railway reached Lisbellaw the previous year - though construction was heading west towards Tempo and Enniskillen, not away from them.

The final child we have a baptismal record for is a Thomas Edmund (or 'Redmund') McChrystal. He's baptised in 1865 in Crumlin, Antrim another large jump. Sadly, the record of births is incomplete and I haven't found baptisms for all of the known children - so there isn't a complete picture of the family's movements. They appear in the 1871 census for England, living in Heath Charnock. I think they moved back to Annagh after Michael's father passed away in 1875, when he went to take over the family farm.

The family definitely has later links to the railways; Michael's own son Michael 'Mick' McChrystal (my 2x great grandfather) was listed as a 'Farmer and foreman platelayer' in his 1908 civil death record in Annagh, where the family returned after Mick's grandfather died. This is likely as part of the Draperstown Railway, which ran through Annagh and was built between 1881 and 1883.

So that's what I have. My theory of Michael moving to work on the railways is complicated by the fact that I can't find any line that had gone from the Magherafelt area down to Enniskillen prior to 1853. If anyone can shed any light on the question I'd be incredibly grateful!  :)

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