Week 17: DNA (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

April 25 is DNA Day, and it's no coincidence that the theme for Week 17 is "DNA." Has DNA testing broken down a brick wall for you? Is there a brick wall that you wish it would break down? Have there been any surprises? (If you're posting anything publicly, remember to not identify living people unless you have their permission.) Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.

My DNA breakthrough started with a message from another Ancestry user.

I noticed some common names such as Scott and Malone. However, these brought up red flags because my Scott line is on my maternal grandfather’s side while Malone is on my maternal grandmother’s side.

On the message page, the right column has the person who message me and it had a “view” link to take me to our DNA match page. She had a very nice tree. I clicked on the Shared Matches tab to see what clues I could discover from our shared matches. 

We had twelve matches. The first being my full sibling, then a close family who I already recognized to be the son of my 1st cousin on my paternal side. Next was one Extended Family who I had already identified as a 2nd cousin Once removed with our common ancestor of Myron O’Brion and Mary Goodwin, who are on my paternal grandmother’s side of the family.

Then I had nine distant family members. Looking at the notes, I had good notes for three of the matches. They descended from my O’Brion/Goodwin Branch. Four of the matches had trees, where two of them were managed by the person who sent me the message. Thus, I explored the other two trees since I only flagged them as being on my paternal grandmother’s side of the family

These two trees both had a Bartholmeus Kernan and his wife Mary Byrne. I referred to the message from my DNA match, and her mother was a Kernan. I decided to see what kind of information these two trees had on Bartholmeus Kernan. It showed he died in Lost Lake, Wisconsin. I already knew of Lost Lake, Wisconsin because Myron O’Brion and Mary Goodwin are buried in Lost Lake, Dodge County, Wisconsin.

I just so happen to be working on expanding my tree by finding all the descendants of my Thomas Goodwin and Jane Burns. This couple is my dead-end couple, since I know nothing of either of their parents, and they are the immigrant couple. 

While working on the Goodwin project, I found out that a local library had a book titled “Some Goodwin & Kieffe Families of New York, Wisconsin & Nebraska”. Compiled by William R & Helen (Kral) Houk, of Claymount, Delaware. This was printed in July of 1997. The 28-page booklet didn’t know much about the descendants of Thomas and Jane, however, it had a transcribed copy of Jane Goodwin’s will. She named Edward Kernan the executor of her will. 

Edward was the son of Bartholomeus Kernan and Mary Byrne. I also did a little searching of Edward and found his marriage record (image) on Ancestry and his witnesses were Thomas Goodwin and his wife Jane. WOW! 

I decided to see who else was researching the Bartholomeus Kernan family and looked at more trees of Bartholomeus and found some listed his wife as Mary Burns. This caused a light bulb to go off in my head.

What if Mary and Jane are sisters? Since both of Jane’s sons had died before she did, this might explain why she choose Edward Kernan as her executor of her will. This might have been her nephew, a family member she trusted. 

I also noticed that some of Thomas and Jane’s descendants moved to Nebraska and so did some of Bartholomeus and Mary’s descendants. They moved to the same location in Nebraska. Thus, this might signal family ties. 

Even though I haven’t totally broken down my brick wall, it is starting to crumble a little. I need to research these two families a little more. However, I am still in the middle of my project to find all the descendants of Thomas Goodwin and Jane Burns. I am trying hard not to wander off one unfinished project before moving to another project. Therefore, I printed out some tree pages, and created a new project folder for this brick wall. When I get completed with my Goodwin project, I can then dedicate the proper attention to this problem.

I am so happy that my DNA match reached out to me. Even though, I wasn’t able to help her in her research goal, she now knows how we might be related and it might help her identify other matches that are not on her Scott side of the family but on her Kernan side of the family.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

Week 11: Lucky (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

Were any of your ancestors lucky? Maybe someone won the Georgia Land Lottery? Do you consider yourself lucky to have discovered a particular ancestor or document? Write about it this week! Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.

This past week I considered myself lucky. I was contacted by a DNA match that let me see my shared matches in a different light.

For several months, I have been working on identifying the descendants of my 3rd great grandparents, Thomas Goodwin and his wife Jane. I believe Jane’s maiden name is Burns, however, this was given to me by a distant cousin via an email back in 2009.

Anyway, I decided to select this branch of my family, because I don’t know who either of their parents are, they are both born in Ireland and are my immigrant ancestors. Thomas Goodwin was born about 1796 in Ireland and died Dec 1, 1967. He is buried in a little cemetery known as Annunciation Cemetery however was formerly known as St Mary’s Cemetery.  This cemetery is located in a little community called Lost Lake located in Dodge County, Wisconsin. Jane Goodwin was born about 1811 in Ireland and died Jan 15, 1888 in Dodge County, Wisconsin and is also buried in Annunciation Cemetery. 

Thomas and Jane have five known children, who were born in Ireland and who came to Wisconsin. It appears they stopped off briefly in New York State, since their eldest son John was married in New York City May 16, 1854. 

I descend through their third child, Mary Goodwin born Jan 1, 1839 in Mayo, Ireland and died Mar 18, 1910 in Lost Lake, Dodge, Wisconsin. She married Myron O’Brion who was born in 1835 in New York State and died Nov 1883 in Lost Lake, Dodge, Wisconsin. They were married around 1859 in Fox Lake, Dodge, Wisconsin, USA.

Now back to my DNA match, lets called her KB. She was looking for distant cousins on her Ellen Scott and Bartholomew Kernan line. She is trying to find the parents of Ellen Scott. I do have Scott’s in my tree, on my maternal line.

I proceeded to go to her DNA profile page. It displays her tree and I don’t recognize any names. Next, I select “Shared Matches”. We have a total of 12 matches. The first one is my sister, then my 1st cousin’s son. This tells me that the match isn’t on my maternal line, since this is my paternal 1st cousin’s son.

The next match is labeled “Extended Family” by AncestryDNA and it’s my 2nd cousin 1x removed who our Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) is Myron O’Brion and Mary Goodwin. The remaining nine of the matches are for Distant Family of 4th-6th cousin range. Of these nine, only four have public link trees and one has an unlinked tree.

The first distant match, I look at her tree and see the Kernan name. I see Bartholomeus Kiernan and wife Mary. I click into that tree for Bartholomeus and the first thing I see is that he died in Lost Lake, Wisconsin. I also see that his son is Bartholomew who is married to Ellen Scott. 

Therefore, at first glance, it appears I am not related to her via Ellen Scott but through the Kiernan line.

Looking at some of the other trees tied to my matches for the Kiernan / Kernan line, I noticed that Mary’s last name might be Byrne. 

Several of the Goodwin children of Thomas and Jane married siblings from the Biel family. I was lucky to have someone from the Biel family send me a portion of the History of Joseph and Theresa Biel Family compiled by Carol Graff in October 2003. However, I noticed another descendant, a grandchild or great grandchild had married into the Biel family and it wasn’t part of the portion of the book sent to me. I decided to go online and see if I could find that book. I saw it was listed as a holding of the Beaver Dam Public Library located in Dodge County, Wisconsin. It’s only about 47 miles away and happens to be the town I was born in.

The public library had a listing of other family genealogies in it’s holding and I saw one labelled, “Some Goodwin & Kieffe families of New York, Wisconsin & Nebraska” which was complied by William R & Helen (Kral) Houk in July of 1997. It was only 28 pages long, but I knew a road trip was needed. I really feel lucky finding this listing.

Even though it appears to be lacking quite of few of the descendant lines of Thomas and Jane Goodwin, they included a transcription of Jane’s will. In this will she named Edward Kernan as the executor of her will. Her only two sons had proceeded her in death. 

Edward Kernan is the son of Bartholomeus and Mary Kiernan. I found a marriage record for Edward where the witnesses of his wedding are Thomas and Jane Goodwin. 

I found another son of Bart and Mary, Thomas Kernan’s marriage record where he lists his mother’s name as Burn. I wonder if the Irish accent of Byrne sounds like Burn(s). Could Mary and Jane be sisters? There is some biological connection between the Goodwin descendants and the Kernan’s descendants. Plus, many of the Goodwin and Kernan descendants moved from Wisconsin to Hasting, Nebraska. 

Thus, I started another project folder for my Kernan’s DNA Matches, along with the marriage records and trees of my matches. I feel lucky to have had that DNA match reach out to me. I might not have noticed the Kernan family tie.

Even though, this project will have to be put on hold until I finish my current Goodwin descendant project. I feel lucky to know I have a very interesting project in my future. So far on my current project, I have added over 750 descendants to my tree and I am only on Thomas’s second child of five, Edward and his fourth child of six, Anna and her fourth child of thirteen, Frank. So I might be here for a while. I have also noticed that AncestryDNA ThruLines has increased the projected number of DNA matches from 14 to 37 possible matches for Thomas and Jane Goodwin. My goal of doing this project, was to be able to identify more of my DNA matches. 

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!