Lines -- building family trees is all about researching lines of your family.
Each person has direct lines that double at each intersection: 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great grandparents, 32 great great grandparents.
BUT ... wait
I have 33 great great grandparents that I am researching.
Lets go back to the beginning ---
I originally decided to have my Ancestry DNA done to break down brick walls on my paternal family line that was full of secrets.
After uploading to GedMatch I discovered there looked to be a bigger secret on my maternal side.
It appears as though my great grandmother, Nellie May Cannon, was not the child of Jack/John Rodger Cannon as expected. It further appears as though Nellie and her two sisters had the same mother but not father.
The DNA matches appear to suggest Nellie may be the daughter of a coworker of Jack's - John Lamb. They were both Railway Engineers for Canadian Pacific Railway. They both immigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from the United States about the same time (1902). Their wives followed about a year later (1903).
Finding them in the 1906 census we know they lived on the same street in Winnipeg:
Jack & Edith Cannon at 794 Flora Avenue,
and
John & Laura Lamb at 814 Flora Avenue.
1906 Census entries
#621 Jack (32), Edith (25), daughter Nellie (1) Cannon
#701 Jack (35), Laura (32), adopted daughter Elizabeth Nelson (7) daughter Margaret (5) Lamb
15 year later both families are still living fairly close to each other as we find them in the 1921 census no longer renting on Flora Avenue.
Both families own their own homes.
Jack (45), Edith (34), daughters Nellie (16) & Kathleen (14) Cannon at 856 Bannatyne Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
and
Jack (51), Laura (49), adopted daughter Elizabeth Nelson (33) daughter Margaret (19), son John (1) Lamb at 670 McDermot Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Both Cannon & Lamb are still listed as Engineers for the railroad in the 1921 census.
When I was first contacted by Lamb descendants I was told that John Lamb and his wife Laura were unable to have children, and adopted - which limits the ability to match more directly. The census records seem to indicate the older daughter was adopted, but the younger daughter and son were not. Follow up records suggest all three were adopted. All of my DNA connections are not direct descendants of John & Laura. If the 3 were adopted this makes sense. If the 2 younger were not adopted then my hypothesis falls apart even with the matches to other relatives. Unless their descendants haven't done genealogical DNA which means it could happen in the future.
When examining the DNA matches I have in common with known descendants of John Lamb's grandparents the amount of shared DNA matches.
If the hypothesis is correct my 4th great grandparents are
John Robert Lamb
BIRTH 10 JUL 1804 • Crudie Acres, Parish Arbirlot, Forfarshire, Scotland
DEATH 12 JAN 1860 • Crudie Acres, Parish Arbirlot, Forfarshire, Scotland
and
Elizabeth Deuchar
BIRTH 25 SEP 1818 • Pitteris, Parish of Craig, Forfarshire, Scotland
DEATH 26 JAN 1889 • Baker, Clay, Minnesota, USA
I had started a guessing tree right after contact was made about our possible connection to the Lamb/Deuchar line instead of the Cannon line. At the time I added both my aunt's DNA & mine to the tree seeking matches.
It wasn't long before it became pretty clear why there was almost no Irish in our DNA results. John Rodger (known as Jack) Cannon whose parents were born in Ireland was not my X2 great grandfather.
My next thought was that maybe the unknown history of X2 great grandma Edith May Lake might be related to the Lamb/Deuchar family. This would allow for the child (my great grandmother) Nellie to not have been the result of infidelity. This hypothesis did not prove our when it became clear that Nellie and her two sisters shared the same mother, but only Nellie's descendants matched the Lamb/Deuchar descendants.
I began adding notes to all the DNA matches through Nellie's paternal line. I called the group 'Nellie's Complicated Line'. Once the matches were all sorted & examined it was pretty clear that Nellie's father was John Lamb. At that point I added him to my main tree on Ancestry as Nellie's biological father.
While writing this week's blog I removed John Rodger Cannon as Nellie's father. This was very hard to do. I had been attached to Nellie being a Cannon right up until that message arrived. I continued to believe it was possible that he was Nellie's father up until the DNA evidence clearly showed he was not. He is still listed as father to Nellie's two sisters as it appears as though he was likely their father. He is also listed as the father to brother John Patrick Cannon who died at 2 1/2 months of age in 1911.
Embracing what is instead of what was.
The in common DNA matches all support the hypothesis of John Lamb being Nellie's father. There is a part of me that feels it's wrong to add the Lamb/Deuchar line to my tree without some sort of factual proof or permission of the descendants. At the same time the DNA matches have resulted in my arriving at a place of reasonably exhaustive search. It seems the right time to take ownership of the family line the DNA follows.
When the DNA evidence points your family history in a different direction there is little choice, but to follow the new line!
This is why I search -
Cause ...
You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***
Links:
Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/
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