For several years, the descendants of Patrick McIntyre (c1831-1902) and I, a descendant of Michael McIntyre (c1805-1891), felt we were related, but couldn't prove it. Since that time, we have learned that Patrick McIntyre's father is Edward McIntyre (c1806-1881) AND several of Patrick and Michael's descendants have taken DNA tests. First the article I wrote for my genealogy society last year.
Not Proven on Paper –
At Least Not Yet – But
Proven
By Elaine McIntyre
Beaudoin
When I was a teenager, I remember hearing stories from my
Dad about the grand summer of 1923 when he visited his grandparents’ farm in the
little townland of Lislea, County Sligo, Ireland. He told of how he would tease the bull in the
pasture and then run for the fence when it started to charge at him; of the
donkey he relished riding and how he shadowed him wherever my Dad walked; and,
of how annoyed his older sister, Mary, was by lack of modern conveniences and the
absence of in-house running water. He thought it was all great fun as any six
year old child might. Later I learned the townland of Lislea was barely more
than half a square mile in size and had less than 20 families living there in
the mid-1800s and early 1900s.
In 1982 I vacationed in Ireland and decided it would be interesting
to see if I could find this little patch of land known to me as the “McIntyre Family
Farm.” I had no interest in genealogy at the time; I just thought it would be an
exciting adventure to find the land about which I had heard my Dad reminisce. Stopping
at the local Irish post office, I asked the postmaster if he could direct me to
the McIntyre farm. Receiving a blank stare, I searched my memory for other
family names and remembered a McIntyre daughter had married a Haran. Once I offered
this name, I was swiftly directed to the homestead. We were warmly welcomed by
my widowed third cousin who was living in the cottage, as well as her sister
who was visiting, after I worked through my relationship with them, that is. It
was about 10:00 a.m. and they offered me tea and my husband “a wee glass of
whiskey” – so Irish.
 |
| Bridie Haran Heffernan, Elaine McIntyre Beaudoin, Tessie Haran Cafferty in front of the McIntyre Farm House, Lislea, County Sligo, Ireland, 1982 |
Fast forward more than 20 years and I have now become an
avid genealogist. While researching at the Salt Lake City Family History Library
in 2003 I checked my email and found a rootsweb listserv message (the social
media of the early part of this century!) entitled “[Sligo] McIntyre Family of
Lislea, Kilmacteigue, Sligo, Ireland.” It
listed a Patrick and Bridget (Stevens) McIntyre along with their 10 children all
of whom I had never heard of but felt must somehow be related because they were
from the same tiny Lislea townland and bore the same surname.
The author of the web post and I communicated on and off
for several years about her Patrick McIntyres. We learned members of each of
our families had been sponsors and witnesses for the other’s baptisms and
weddings. I dutifully researched this other McIntyre family, learning more
about them than my own. Since Patrick McIntyre and his family had come to the
US in 1863, settling in San Francisco, and my grandfather had not come to the
U.S. and Chicago until 1904, I had much more luck finding records and documents
on Patrick and his descendants than on my own ancestors.
I dutifully recorded the information I discovered and
eventually created a website including all of my genealogy work. The website
contained Patrick and his family as well as all of his known descendants because
I “just knew” we must be related. Then in 2012 I was contacted by a 3rd
great-grandson of Patrick McIntyre, Sal Bigone. He told me he had photos of
many of the individuals I had recorded on my website and informed me about many
more descendants of Patrick. Together we discovered additional McIntyre offspring
in Canada, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Great Britain and Germany as well as Ireland
and the US. We became Internet friends and later that year, when I was in the
San Francisco area for a wedding, we met and spent the day together with his
Mom.
Then in late 2013 I learned one of these Patrick McIntyre
“cousins” was going to be traveling between Canada and El Salvador stopping in
San Francisco. One thing led to another and suddenly a first McIntyre Family
reunion was being planned. With the exception of me, all the other attendees,
13 in total, descended from Patrick and I had the detailed paper trail to prove
it.
 |
| McIntyre/McIntire Family Reunion, Hayward, California home of Joanie Zandona, January 2014. |
By now, I was well invested in these two McIntyre
families and had recently begun DNA testing. Unfortunately, among these new
“cousins,” there were no males with the McIntyre surname to compare against my
paternal uncle’s Y-DNA test results. Since my autosomal DNA was already tested through
FamilyTreeDNA, I thought, why not ask the oldest member of this group, Sal’s
Mom, to also take an autosomal test. We
guessed we were third or fourth cousins, perhaps once removed. Close enough, we
felt, to find some shared chromosomes. The results from the DNA test were
returned in June and, alas, our chromosomes did not show a match. When I received the results, I was extremely
disappointed. I really thought we shared the same blood, but my confidence was now
waning. However, I also knew there was
about a 50% chance that even if the results didn’t show a relationship, due to
the distance of our common ancestor, we still could be related. In the
meantime, Sal had decided to have his Mom’s brother tested. And, in late July,
the results arrived showing we shared a chromosome segment large enough to
suggest our relationship as 4th or 5th cousins. Indeed, we WERE all cousins!
Matching traditional paper research with DNA testing can
be very powerful. We were able to “prove” a family relationship that we may
never be skilled enough to demonstrate with documents. Also, posting ancestral
information on the Internet, where others can find it, is key to making
connections with unknown kinsfolk. Now I understand why they call genealogical
websites “cousin bait!”
Having proof we are related will spur us on to continue the
paper trail in Ireland. Knowing the
approximate time frame of our common ancestor gives us a focus for the next
steps in our research. However, for now, I am just thrilled we have proof we
ARE all cousins. Since we have more work to do with Irish records, perhaps our second
McIntyre Family Reunion should be held near the sliver of land in Lislea I
visited 32 years ago. I will have to suggest this to MY cousins! But, for the record, I will not propose we
include bull pestering, donkey equestrian activities or staying in a facility
without modern amenities.
*********************************************************************************************************************************
The DNA results for three descendants of Patrick McIntyre and one descendant of Michael McIntyre show the following in the Family Tree DNA chromosome browser.
We are most likely fourth cousins, once or twice removed if Edward and Patrick are brothers. Given the tiny pieces of DNA we share, these relationships sound just about right
The little bits of black, orange, blue and green colors above are proof that DNA from our ancestors born in the very early 19th century are inside of us in the 21st century.
Now, we just need to find the names of the parents of Edward and Michael McIntyre and, hopefully, we will have proven the relationship on paper too!
