Brick wall: another new Dougherty/Doherty mystery

They say that DNA doesn't lie. Ever. In both crime solving and genealogy, DNA does not lie.

On my list of AncestryDNA matches is a mystery. I have a 4th cousin match with a descendant of a Bridget Doherty, born in Donegal, my new 4th cousin believes, about 1850. Her firstborn child was born about 1869.

According to the match produced by AncestryDNA, Bridget would be a sibling of my 2nd great grandfather, Marcus Dougherty.

But the problem is that Marcus was born in about 1794. And my 3rd great grandparents, James Dougherty and Isabella McLaughlin, were both deceased by the end of 1830.

There are clearly at least two generations missing here, between Bridget and my 3rd great grandparents. My newest (at least) 4th cousin definitely shares DNA with me, courtesy of James, right?

This Bridget remained in Donegal all her life, dying in 1898. Her grandson emigrated from Clonmany, Donegal in about 1930, settling in the Boston area. Today, Clonmany is about a 20 minute drive from the Inishowen Peninsula area, where my 3rd great grandparents were born.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Bridget's descendant and I are related. But we need to figure out the missing generations. I've been unable to find any records of sisters of my 2nd great grandfather, Marcus. And there are probably other brothers that he had, besides those I've found so far.

The never ending story continues....



© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2018 All rights reserved

Another brick wall gone: Isabella McKenzie Matheson

I wrote about my great grandfather Frank Matheson's three-volume bible here and the children, including my grandfather, that he had with my great grandmother Annie Ross, who were recorded in that bible here.

Frank was quite meticulous in recording all of the life events of his family members before he died in 1909. But information about the death of one child, my great aunt Isabella McKenzie Matheson (b 1882) wasn't recorded in the bible. I've always wondered why. All I knew from my mother and aunt was that Isabella "died young", that all purpose but very unhelpful category. That said, she does appear in the 1901 census, but because of her common name, and even more, the misspellings of Matheson (Mathieson, Mathewson, etc) and McKenzie (Mackenzie), finding out what happened to Isabella using the usual sources, including Scotland's People, had been an enduring brick wall for me.

As was then common in Scotland, Isabella was the second daughter that Frank named in memory of his first wife, Isabella McKenzie (1840-1871), who died from rheumatic fever in 1871, four days after giving birth to her wee namesake, Isabella McKenzie Matheson, who lived only five brief weeks. My grandfather, (Isabella's brother), for example, was the second son Frank named John, the first having died at only four months old in 1879.

But thanks to The Moray Council's Local Heritage Centre's record set being added to Ancestry, a new hint appeared by Isabella's name not long ago. It was one of those serendipitous genealogical ah ha! moments.

It turns out that Isabella died in Forres on 20 Dec 1903, aged 21. Her death was reported in two local newspapers, the Forres Gazette and the Courant, and that information was noted in the Centre's database.

Forres Gazette, 30 Dec 1903

Isabella's parents lived in Aviemore, about 40 miles from Forres, which is the birthplace of my great grandmother Annie Ross Matheson (1849-1922). Why was Isabella in Forres? Was she visiting family or friends? Did she die in service?

The life events of all of my great aunts and uncles Matheson are now fully accounted for, with Isabella's death details found.

The never ending story continues....


© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2017 All rights reserved