Week 5: Challenge (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2025 Version)

The theme for Week 5 is “Challenge.” Which ancestor has been challenging to research? What ancestor faced an enormous challenge? Click hereto view all of the 2025 prompts.

I have been researching my family genealogy for over 40 years. Various ancestors over the years have been challenging. Sometimes break throughs come out of the woodwork.

For example: Currently I am researching the descendants of my 3^rd great grandparents, Thomas Goodwin and his wife Jane. Jane is my challenging ancestor because as a woman, her maiden name and thus parents are a challenge to find. Even though I have found items that state her surname is possibly Burns, I haven’t been able to figure out who her parents are, or if she even has siblings.

In February of 2023 one of my DNA Matches reached out to me about Ellen Scott and Bartholomew Kernan line. My DNA match, was trying to figure out the parents of Ellen Scott.

Thus, I looked at our shared matches and found that Bartholomew’s parents were most likely Bartholomeus Kernan and Mary Byrne. Suddenly, I was noticing a few more matches whose trees went back to Bart and Mary. I found that Bart was living in a small community in Wisconsin called Lost Lake, Dodge County, Wisconsin. I am very familiar with this small community, because I had lots of relatives who lived and died there. In fact, this is where Jane is buried.

I surmised, that our DNA match wasn’t through Ellen Scott but through her husband Bartholomew Kernan. At the time of this message, I had just started my descendant project and found a family tree that referenced a small booklet titled “Some Goodwin and Kieffe Families of New York, Wisconsin & Nebraska” which was complied by William R and Helen (Kral) Houk in July 1997. In this booklet Jane’s will was referenced. The executor of her will was Edward Kernan since her sons had preceded her in death. I also found a marriage record for Thomas Kernan whose parents are listed as Bartholomew Kernan and Mary Burn. Therefore, I found Mary’s maiden name listed as Burn and Byrne. Finally, I found that Thomas and Jane were witnesses to Bart and Mary’s son Edward Kernan’s wedding, the same Edward who is the executor to Jane’s will.

This led me to making a hypothesis that Mary Burn/Byrne and Jane Burns may be sisters. They are the correct age to be sisters, I have lots of DNA matches to Mary’s descendants and their relationship to me would fit this hypothesis.

Since that original message from my DNA Match, I found several trees with parents for Mary Byrne. So now I have a new challenge to determine if Mary is actually Jane’s sister, are Mary’s parents really her parents, do I have any other DNA matches through another siblings of Jane.

In genealogy, our challenges never end, but it’s these challenges that are the driving force for my genealogy.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!