Week 22: Uncertain #52Ancestors — Making Sense of it All

One of the things I am the most uncertain about in my family research is exactly where in Ireland my five Irish-born second great-grandparents came from. Heck, I don’t even know exactly when they came to America. I know they were all in the U.S. by the late 1840’s – early 1850’s, so they were likely part of the mass migration as a result of the Irish Famine of 1845-1852. I have found only naturalization records for one of the five, but that doesn’t tell me where he came from other than “Ireland.”

Ancestry’s autosomal DNA test provides ethnicity estimates not only by country, but also by region within the country. My DNA estimates currently show my family may have come from Connacht, specifically, North Connacht, North Mayo, North East Mayo and North West Sligo. My sister’s DNA test on Ancestry shows those same areas in Connacht. All of this is interesting, but it hadn’t led to any new discoveries.

Until last week.

Scrolling through my aunt’s DNA results last week (I manage her account), I came across a guy with the last name of McDonough who shares 135 cM with her. With that many shared cMs they could be 2nd cousins once removed or 1stcousins three-times removed. Awesome. I immediately dove into his tree and found something that could be a “game-changer.”

First, let me back-up a bit.

McDonough is my aunt’s mother’s maiden name (i.e., my grandmother).

For those who may need a DNA refresher, a “cM” is a “centiMorgan,” defined as “a unit of recombinant frequency which is used to measure genetic distance.”[1] Okay, that’s not helpful. Essentially, the genetic testing companies use cMs to “denote the size of matching DNA segments in autosomal DNA tests.”[2] Better? The more cMs you have in common with another person, the more closely related you are. As an example, my aunt shares 3,376 cMs with her daughter and 100% of the time people with that many shared cMs have a parent-child relationship.

So back to my newly-discovered McDonough cousin. His immigrant ancestor, Mary McDonough, came to the United States with her two children between 1849 and 1855. I haven’t yet found where the family was living in the 1850’s, but I do know that in 1860 they lived in the same small town in New Jersey as my immigrant McDonoughs.[3] In fact, the only McDonoughs in Clinton were Mary’s and Michael’s families.

Mary’s children were John and Bridget. Their father Patrick likely died before 1860 and my best guess is that he died before they immigrated. My new McDonough cousin is a descendent of John’s so that’s where I do a deep-dive.

John had a thriving florist shop in Newark when he married a Mary Ann Radel in 1873.[4] They had twelve children and lived for the next forty years in Newark. Before 1910, they came back the same town as my McDonoughs.[5] Nothing yet to tell me where in Ireland John or his sister or mother came from. Twelve was a lot of kids to research, but the work payed off when I look at their seventh child Anna and, of all things, her passport application.

At thirty-four, Anna Meria applied for a passport so that she could go to France to work as a Red Cross Nurse’s Aide during WWI.[6] In that application, she stated that her father was born in County Clair, came to the U.S. in May of 1849 from the port of “Lunbuck,” Ireland.[7]

I can’t tell you how trilling it is to have even this still uncertain clue as to my Irish origins.

So what to do now? I will continue to research this McDonough family because I am finding little tidbits that help reinforce a possible connection. For example, one of John’s sons has the middle name of “Sarsfield” as does my great-grandfather Michael. Coincidence?[8] Maybe not.

As fun as it is to find these little connections, the definitive connection will come through test DNA. I’ve contacted my new McDonough cousin and am waiting – with baited breath – to hear back from him. What I’ll propose is that he take a Y-DNA test from Family Tree DNA and that my cousin Kevin McDonough do likewise. Another little DNA refresher: The Y chromosome is a male-specific sex chromosome and is passed down virtually unchanged from father to son.[9] If my new cousin and Kevin have a common male ancestor, they should match closely-enough to verify (or disprove) a family connection. Wouldn’t that be something?

[1] International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki, “centiMorgan,” (https://isogg.org/wiki/CentiMorgan : accessed 28 May 2020).

[2] Ibid.

[3] 1860 U.S. census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, Clinton, p. 37 (penned), p. 240 (stamped), dwelling 263, family 287, Mary McDonough; image, Ancestry (http://ww.ancestry.com : accessed 1 June 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll not noted.

[4] New Jersey, Newark, McDonough-Radel, 16 February 1873; database, “New Jersey Marriages, 1678-1985,” FamilySearch(htpp://www.familysearch.org : accessed 1 June 2020).

[5] This may not be such a big deal since Newark and Maplewood aka South Orange aka Hilton aka Clinton was next door. 1910 U.S. census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, South Orange, enumeration district (ED) 219, sheet 4-B, dwelling 78, family 230, Jno F. McDonough; image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 June 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication T624, roll 884. 1910 U.S. census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, South Orange, p. 73 (stamped), enumeration district (ED) 219, sheet 29-A, dwelling 571, family 613, Michael McDonough; image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 June 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication T624, roll 884.

[6] Anna Meria McDonough Passport Application, 5 September 1918; digital image, “U.S. Passport Applications,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 May 2020); citing National Archives, Washington, D.C., Roll #592, Certificates: 36250-36499, 21 September 1918-24 September 1918.

[7] As far as I can tell, there is no such place as “Lunbuck” in Ireland. Given that John left Ireland when he was under ten-years of age and that it had been sixty years since he’d lived there, I am guessing he meant Limerick, which could be a good possibility.

[8] “U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942,” images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 May 2020), card for Andrew Sarsfield McDonough, serial no. 1831, Local Draft Board 14, East Orange, New Jersey. 1915 New Jersey state census, Essex County, population schedule, South Orange Township, p. 11-A, dwelling 237, family 258, Sarsfield McDonough; image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 June 2020); citing New Jersey zState Archive, reference no. L-12, film no. 25.

[9] International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki, “Y-chromosome DNA” (https://isogg.org/wiki/Portal:Y-chromosome_DNA : accessed 28 May 2020).