DNA to the Rescue.....Finding my Mother and now my Father!

To continue from my recent previous post in locating my birth mother.

I have been in contact with my birth family. I have a living full brother who is understandably overwhelmingly shocked. We will just take baby steps. The son of my birth mother's sister, a 1st cousin, has been extraordinarily welcoming and we have talked several times. He is putting together a box (a BOX!, not an envelope) of photos and other family memorabilia for me, including my mother's baptismal certificate and pictures of her from the time she was a child. My cousin and I have already developed a wonderful rapport and he has been totally supportive. But the question still nagged at me....Who was my father?

DNA was not the avenue that identified my mother but I am now confident that it has identified my father.

After a week of absorbing all the information, I finally went and checked my Polish DNA matches. I never knew what to do with them before I had at least a surname. My father was of Polish descent with a somewhat uncommon surname. At least it wasn't Kowalski - the Polish equivalent to "Smith"! My mother got pregnant at the age of 16, the facts are is that my father was 17. A year or two after I was born she married. And I totally believe she married the man who was my father.

In looking for his surname, I was able to determine that there were 2 of my matches on FTDNA, 1 match on 23andme and a 4th match on Gedmatch who all matched each other and they all have my father's surname in their ancestry. All of these matches were managed by the same person. She lives in Belarus and only speaks and writes Russian. The most recent common ancestor is probably back in the early to mid 1700's and we are probably no closer than 5th cousins. Needless to say, the challenges seem to be endless. Regardless, with my gut instinct and knowing a little bit more about my mother's history, the common surname and matches, the overlapping segments especially on Chromosomes #2, 3, 4 and 12, can only lead me to conclude one thing...the man that my mother married was also my father.

The screenshot below is from FTDNA chromosome browser of the two Family Finder matches from this family. Notice the nice overlaps on Chromosome 3 and 4. The other two matches from 23andme and Gedmatch also overlap at the same segment location!!!:

So I'm comfortable with my conclusion (or maybe I should say "confusion") that DNA has identified my father.

What's next you may ask? As I discover more, my "To do" list is never-ending. I believe I may also have some half-siblings, as my mother died young at the age of 32 in a car accident. My father remarried a few years later. I have been active, although on the fringe, of the Adoptee Rights movement and will definitely become more involved, especially in New York and here in South Carolina. Access to original birth certificates should be everyone's right...not a privilege. I will also continue to help other adoptees in their searches in any way I can possibly contribute.

A special thanks to all those who helped me in this continuing journey....you know who you are!

Karin Corbeil
-- born Carol Lee Foley in Brooklyn, NY
mother identified 6/14/2012

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Have I Found My Birth Family? Overwhelming Circumstantial Evidence!

I believe I have found my birth family!

Last week I received some additional non-identifying information from the adoption agency that within hours led to the discovery of a FOLEY girl from Connecticut. The 3 new little clues that I received coincided with much of the information my adoptive parents told me and out of every FOLEY girl found in the 1930 and 1940 censuses, she is the only one that fits.

I have already spoken with a few of this FOLEY family's members. I believe I have a full brother, as I believe his father was also mine. We found a yearbook picture of him and the resemblance to me is unmistakable, almost shocking. I talked to him last Tuesday. He was, needless to say somewhat shocked, but receptive, and listened to my story most attentively. I think he just needs some time to absorb it all. I will give him all the time he needs.

A cousin I spoke with was ecstatic and has agreed to do a DNA test.

With this discovery, I again spoke with the adoption agency and after a little tap-dancing around, I shared with them the information....names, places, etc. Remember, we are dealing with New York State and their archaic adoption laws....no response or confirmation, except one sentence. "Perhaps confirmation isn't necessary as you seem to have done your homework."

That was good enough for me! Sometimes reading between the lines is all that it takes.

Something my cousin told me....there was a rumor years ago in the family that possibly one of the FOLEY girls from this family "lost a baby girl". My cousin always assumed that someone had a miscarriage but he and I now believe that this "lost baby girl" was ME!

Until this FOLEY family is totally comfortable with all this and/or the DNA results give us the proof, I will not identify them by name out of respect for my deceased mother who died quite young. It's apparent that this family had several tragedies over the years and I'm hoping that my existence may bring a little joy and brightness to their lives.

A special acknowledgement to all those that helped me on this journey, you know who you are...you are the best!.

Stay tuned.....much more to come, I'm sure.

NEXT

St. Agnes Church and Cemetery, Greenport, NY

Having grown up on Long Island myself, I have been to Greenport, which is located near the very eastern end of the northern fork of Long Island. A pretty little town with a long history of shipping, trade and taking advantage of the bounty of the sea. Founded in 1640 by Barnabas Horton whose granddaughter Phoebe Horton married Daniel Purdy around 1705.

But I'm getting off the track here and I only mention that because my husband is related to the Purdy clan. See:

Investigating a Long-Held Genealogical Theory Using DNA Evidence - Purdy

Remember that little note for Mary Lellman "buried in St. Agnes cemetery" that someone added to her name in the 1920 census? The results of that tiny hint were enormous. The person that posted that reference is the same one who posted the pictures of their graves on the  Findagrave website . This added much more information on Alice Foley McCarthy and her family, but also added many more pieces to the puzzle. Alice is buried there along with her daughters, their husbands and her grandchildren:

Also buried here are Alice's daughter's husbands....Gustave Lellman (1884-1917); Alfred Huggler (1880-1962)

And the names, birth and death years of 4 of her grandchildren:

Charles L Lellman (1907 - 1977)
Alice Gertrude Lellmann Barnes (1909 - 1932)
Gustave Edward Lellmann (1912 - 1989)
Virginia Lellmann Wells (1916 - 2006)

But where are the other two children, Caroline and Margaret?

We find Gustave and Mary Lellman in the 1910 census with two children, Charles and Alice. This also tells us that Gustave and Mary were married sometime around 1907.

Source: 1910; Census Place: Manhattan Ward 19, New York, New York; Roll: T624_1041; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 1096; Image: 709; FHL Number: 1375054. Living at 26(?) Second Ave., New York, NY

This confirms Mary's husband's name as Gustive/Gustave. Now, let's  look at the 1930 censuses. And we now see that Mary McCarthy Lellman married again to a "E. Frank Griffing".

Source: 1930; Census Place: Greenport, Suffolk, New York; Roll: 1652; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 126; Image: 298.0. Living at 547 Third St., Greenport, NY

In trying to determine the whereabouts of the missing children of Mary who are not buried in St. Agnes' , the 1930 census tells us that Margaret is still alive but we find nothing yet on Caroline who was age 8 in the 1920 census. It is possible that she was already married. But I find no "Carolines" of the right age in the area.

There are also some McCarthys and Foleys buried here that might lead us to Alice's family and her husband.

I then remembered an information database from Long Island - part of which is on Ancestry.com and another part is found at the Suffolk County Historic Newspapers site. My hunch was right and I found Alice's marriage record....or at least the newspaper article pertaining to it. In fact I found two resources!

The fact that she was married by a priest whose name was the Rev. R. S. Foley may also help us in determining her parentage, as it may  be that she was related to him.  I am somewhat familiar with this Father Foley....he is Richard S. Foley (1850-1907) and he built St. Agnes Church, Greenport in 1883. I do know that he was born in Ireland and that his mother's name was Catherine. Catherine was born circa 1810-1815. In 1900 Richard is living in Brooklyn, NY (where Alice is said to be from in the marriage notice); in 1880 he is in Southold with his mother, a niece, Katie b. c. 1861, and a nephew, James, b. c. 1863. So we know he had at least one brother. Tomorrow we'll look further into Richard Foley's family and see if we can find Alice in 1900 and possibly 1880, as well as look further into finding daughter Caroline. And what happened to Gustave Lellman...he died so young?

To be continued.....

Posted November 14, 2011

Documentation

Finding sources for documenting an individual is the backbone of genealogical research.  Sources are usually either considered "Primary" or "Secondary".

Primary records are usually those created shortly after an event by someone having personal knowledge of the event. A birth or death certificate would fall into this category. Aunt Jane's letter to your father may tell you about a birth date or death date but my own research tells me to be cautious in documenting this as a primary source. Primary records are obviously the preferred sources for establishing historical facts.

Secondary records are generally compiled from a primary source or written from memory long after the event....such as Aunt Jane's letter. Sometimes we may need to rely on these sources if no primary resource is available.

We then need to cite these sources to our individual in order to have a documented record. Your sources must be written so that anyone can retrieve the same data bringing credibility and traceability to your family history.

There are so many "closet" genealogists today who think that just by posting information about an individual gives it credibility.

Here's an example of poor documentation. It shows a marriage date of 19 Jan 1869 in Salem, Massachusetts (which may be correct) but doesn't tell us where they got the information from. The second image shows a Loretta Foley Metscher's death documentation via the posting of the obit, and where the obit was found.  It only takes a few extra seconds to add this information and I just wish more people would take the time to better document their information.

 

 

Now, the above Loretta Foley also happens to be one of the women I am looking at who possibly could be my birth mother. Why is she a candidate? Based on my non-identifying information she fulfills some of the clues:

1. She is of the right age....my birth mother was 16 yrs. old at my birth.

2. My non-id info states that my birth mother was Methodist. I believe Loretta was of the Methodist faith as her son Richard was confirmed in a  Methodist church.

3. She was born in Queens County, NY and certainly within easy distance of where I was born in Brooklyn, Kings County, NY.

The only reason why she is not on my priority list, is that her mother was Irish. My non-identifying information shows my birth mother's ancestry as "American/Polish". My DNA profile confirms the Polish link, but this could be through my birth father who was 17 at the time of my birth and whose ancestry is said to be Polish. But I continue to leave no stone unturned.

Back to Alice Foley McCarthy.

Let’s look at her daughter Mary and see what additional information we can get about this family.

The 1920 census gave me a little surprise in that Alice was still alive in April, 1920 and daughter Mary was a young widow with 6 children. I guess probate in the 1920's moved along much faster than it does today!

Alice Foley McCarthy - 1920;Census Place: Southold, Suffolk, New York; Roll: T625_1268; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 153; Image: 516. Living at 133 Central Ave., Greenport, NY

This gives us the approximate age of Mary, born circa 1885, and we can guess by the age of her youngest child that her husband must have died sometime between January 1917-April 1920. Mary's daughter Margaret is shown here as being born Oct 1917, so he had to be alive 9 months prior to her birth.

One other interesting thing on this census is that it shows Alice as not being able to read or write. My guess is that she was just getting too old and her eyesight was poor. Her age here is four years off of the 1910 census revising her possible birth years to 1844-1848.

Notice on the initial record page for this census enumeration....at the top under Mary's name are two corrections. This is where Ancestry.com's platform can be most helpful in finding more clues. One of the names has a link, the other does not. The one that does not have a link just means that the person who initially put this update to Mary no longer is an Ancestry.com subscriber. The one with the link is still a member and when we click on that link this is what we find out:

"Mary Lellmann rather than Mary Sillaman

The family name is Lellmann. This on their tombstones at St Agnes cem in Greenport LI NY.
Submitted by  jstrasse on 3/13/2011"

Now we've found out where Mary is buried, and also, there is someone who at least recognizes this family. 

Isn't technology wonderful?

Time to start traipsing through cemeteries....at least virtually.

Posted November 13, 2011