Families Still Connected After 100 Years
Did you ever think that extended families would still be connected after 100 years? Well, they can.
Over the weekend I decided I should go through my AncestryDNA results to see what I could find. I took the test years ago and have really done nothing with it, except look at my ethnicity break down. My goal was to find some matches using the search function in the DNA results.
Search 1: O’Connell
Results: Negative.
I was not sure why, but it makes sense as everyone enters the name differently due to the darn apostrophe. The struggle with this is real, I have to remember how the companies I interact with put my name in their system. Space or no space, apostrophe or no apostrophe.
Search 2: Connell
Results: 14 matches at distant cousin level.
Not too many, which in this case was good. It would have overwhelmed me to get multiple pages of matches.
Going through the results I decided I wanted to look at the people who had accessible trees only. At this point, I know they are looking to make a connection (well, I hope they are). Going through each tree I made a note of where there Connell was and what the time frame is. For example, if we were looking at my tree I would notate Denis Connell 1840 Garravesoig, County Cork, Ireland.
I found one tree that actually had my Denis Connell in their tree. I was super excited about this. Anyone I have met to this point that relates through my O’Connell line has not been interested in researching the family and usually do not have much information to add to what I already have. Which is fine, I am happy to make connections with new family members.
Here is the interesting part. The person whose DNA I matched was not the person administering the DNA results. I decided to take a look at that persons tree as well. See if I could find the connection. What I found amazed me. The person administering the test had my 2nd great-grandfathers second wife, Maria, on their tree. John and Maria married on 9 April 1915.
To see that these families are still connected 100 years later amazes me. Especially since my section of the family moved to Chicago in the 1920s and it seems like we just cut the family off. The cousins I have met knew about my great grandfather, but not about his kids.
Instead of just scrolling through your results to see what you can find, consider using the search function to see if you can find the connection. Once you do, reach out and connect the families!
