What to believe (3)

Whilst proof reading the final draft for “What to believe (2)”, I had a flash of insight. “Any account of events written more than 40 years later is likely to contain errors. Dates can become mixed up. Events can be forgotten. Others can be, albeit unwittingly, exaggerated. Details become blurred.” Almost all accounts of historic…

Kane cluster

I have been examining the family trees of people in one of the DNA clusters that I have accessed from Ancestry. The fact that there is a cluster tells me that there should be a common ancestor. I do not know where. I do not know how far back in history to look. Geography helps…

Sowing more seeds

I have been doing a course in the last few weeks. The subject is Genetic Genealogy. It has helped to clarify a few points. One of the suggestions made by the course tutors has paid immediate dividends. I had my DNA analysed by Ancestry. But, as some broadcasters are fond of pointing out, in the…

MRCA 4

The last connection that I want to explore, at least for the present, is that of the Lally family. (See MRCA 2 and MRCA 3 for further investigations along these lines.)  A number of Lally family members have had their DNA results uploaded onto Gedmatch. Estimates of the number of generations back to the Most…

MRCA

When I first started work, MRCA stood for Multi Role Combat Aircraft. (I am showing my age!) It was subsequently called Tornado. In the world of genealogy, MRCA stands for Most Recent Common Ancestor. And that is the meaning that applies here. Gedmatch produces an estimate of how far back I must look to find…

Real people – not just names

Developing a deeper understanding of relatives can be quite important in tracing their movements. For example, if you own land then you are likely to stay in one place. If you are a tenant then moving is easier. Indeed, you may be given no choice by the landlord. Many tenant farmers were evicted when their…

Griffiths Ormsby

The Griffiths Survey refers to three Ormsby people as tenants in Roscommon. These are in addition to the landowning Rev. William Ormsby (already covered in ‘Rich Ormsby and poor Ormsby‘). Isabella Ormsby has two houses and associated gardens at Drum, near Athlone. One of the houses was sublet. There is a death of Isabella Frances…

Rich Ormsby and poor Ormsby

In “Servant in Tonlegee”, I made reference to an article about Beechwood House. Almost in passing, there is a reference to an Ormsby estate. This required further investigation. There is a wealth of information to be found at http://goldenlangan.com/ormsby.html The earliest family record is of Richard de Ormesby who was born in 1020. A mere…

Servant in Tonlegee

As mentioned in ‘Ormsby or Armsby’, Bridget Ormsby was a servant living in Tonlegee at the time of her 1865 marriage to John Stanly. But which Tonlegee? There is a townland of that name to the west of Roscommon Town in the civil parish of Kilbride. There is another one to the east of Roscommon…

Ormsby or Armsby

I have written about the doubt that exists about the identity of my great grandmother. (See “Ormsby & Scott”) I have decided that it is time to put those doubts to one side. Evidence, one way or the other, may emerge from further research. As stated in “The Ormsby connection”, a marriage took place in…