52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 3 (Unusual Name)
I opened my email box one morning, and SURPRISE a 'you know nothing Deb' email arrived. It was from a brother & sister research team who had found my Ancestry DNA results on GedMatch. They let me know that I was related to many of their relatives, and none of the folks in my tree were familiar to them. They also noted that I shared more DNA with many of their known relatives than they did, and yet it appeared I didn't know any of them.
I was brand new to DNA, and had no idea what they were saying or what exactly I could do with it. They offered to look at my tree, and see what they could figure out.
They offered me an unusual name .... Deuchar as my 4th great grandmother. Elizabeth Deuchar and her husband John Lamb appeared to be my X4 great grandparents via my mother's paternal line. Yet there were no Duechars or Lambs in my family tree no matter how long I searched.
They postulated that my grandmother Nellie May Cannon was not the daughter of Jack Cannon as had been expected. Their working assumption was that Nellie's mother Edith May Lake had Nellie with John Lamb (the grandson of Elizabeth Deuchar and John Lamb through their son Charles). John Lamb (the grandson) and Jack Cannon were both engineers for the railway, and census finds the two families living on the same street in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
My immediate thought was that now I understood why there was so little Irish in my DNA results. I had been confused how I could have almost no Irish when my great great grandfather had been born in Ireland. At the time I decided that it was because of the generation distance between us. I now suspected it was because my great great grandfather was Scottish instead of the expected Irish. This began my crash course in Genealogical DNA, but first I went back to good old fashioned research.
I began by looking again at all of Nellie's documents. I discovered that the registration did say her parents were married at the time of her birth, but her birth wasn't registered until Nellie was much older. There were census records showing that Nellie had been living with Jack Cannon's sister in the United States for parts of her childhood. Nanny had told me about those years. She had also shared that she wasn't her father's favourite, and it often was obvious. Maybe Jack Cannon knew or suspected that Nellie wasn't his biological child. Or maybe Nellie just remembered from her own perspective. It doesn't take blood to be a father.
Still not wanting to embrace this scandal if it wasn't a real one I dug back through more records. I was looking to prove or disprove the working scenario. All the details provided by my new found cousins were exactly as they stated them.
I looked at the DNA I had in common with descendants of Nellie's two known sisters. Using the in common matches (on Ancestry) and centimorgans it became quite clear. Nellie and her two sisters were half siblings. Nellie's two younger sisters were full siblings. All three girls had the same mother. Since John Lamb and his wife adopted their children I was unable to confirm a sibling match for Nellie through the father of this assumed scenario.
I created a new tree on Ancestry that I refer to as my guessing tree called DNA - Lake/Cannon/Lamb/Deuchar Minnesota Mystery. So far no one has taken me up on my request for more information if they know anything about this story.
Edith May Lake is a brick wall for me. I have been unable to prove who her parents were. She had 4 known husbands. Records said her father was John or Fred and her mother Della Wish or Zundal Jackson. Then again maybe the records aren't for the same person. Turns out Edith May Lake isn't an uncommon name. Still I search.
When this mystery first presented I was positive that I would never really understand how to go beyond guessing when trying to figure out NPEs (non-parental events). In the past two years my understanding of how to triangulate DNA matches allowed me to assist an Ancestry DNA match determine her likely father in my husband's tree. The more you learn the farther you go.
This week's challenge has sent me back to look again at the DNA matches for the Deuchar/Lamb connections, and tug a little more to see what I can find. This week I connected my DNA to my guessing tree on Ancestry for this purpose.
Maybe you can help me with this brick wall. Do you know anything about Edith May Lake? Do you know anything about Nellie being the child of John Lamb or any other Deuchar/Lamb descendent?
This is why I search -
Cause ...
You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
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Below are my possible X4 great grandparents, X3 great grandfather, X2 great grandfather.
1818–1887
BIRTH 25 SEP 1818 • Pitteris, Parish Craig, Forfarshire, Scotland
DEATH 26 JAN 1887 (1889) • Baker, Clay, MN, USA
and John Lamb
1804–1860
BIRTH 10 JUL 1804 • Crudie Acres, Parish of Arbirlot, Forfarshire, Scotland
DEATH 05 JAN 1860 • Crudie Acres, Parish of Arbirlot, Forfarshire, Scotland
their son:
Charles Lamb SR
1844–1929
BIRTH 30 APR 1844 • Parish of Arbirlot, Forfarshire, Scotland
DEATH 29 APR 1929 • Clay, Minnesota
their grandson (Charle's son)
John Lamb
1869–1958
BIRTH 24 DEC 1869 • Parish of Aberlemno, Forfarshire, Scotland
DEATH 08 SEP 1958 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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