Have relatives of Mary Neil (1830-1898) been identified among the DNA matches at Ancestry?
Mary Neil, or Neill, or ONeill, was my great great great grandmother. She was born around 1830. On the record of her first marriage in 1847 to my third great grandfather, Calvin Cook (1826-1889), names of parents were not recorded. The names of her parents are from the record of her second marriage to Nicholas Keating (1825-1898) in 1892: Charles ONeill and Catherina Brougham. Mary's death certificate from 1898 only provides her mother's first name, Katie.
 |
| Only the names of Mary Neil's parents are known. |
In contrast, Calvin Cook's ancestors are well-plotted at this point in my research. As a bonus, this was an intermarrying group with lots of descendants. As a result, I have hundreds of DNA matches who trace back their ancestry to the ancestors of Calvin Cook: Wiggins, Peer, Post, White, Vanderhoof, Stegers, Young, Hopler, DeMouth, Muller, etc.
 |
| Ancestors of Calvin Cook, mostly from Morris County, New Jersey. They intermarried. Their descendants share more DNA because of this intermarrying. |
DNA Strategy
This is the strategy for identifying relatives of Mary Neil amongst the DNA matches:
Mary Neil and Calvin Cook have around fifteen descendants in the DNA database at Ancestry. Use of the "Shared Matches" feature (only available for an additional monthly subscription) finds other relatives. These shared matches might be connected through Calvin Cook OR Mary Neil. If the shared match has ancestry amongst Calvin's ancestors, then the connection is probably not through Mary Neil.
A few people do not share matches with the Calvin Cook Morris County ancestry. These are potentially related through Mary Neil's ancestors.
One of the problems is that we are working with tiny segments of DNA that trace back at least six generations. If we land in Ireland, there are few written records to demonstrate a relation.
DNA Matches of Interest
We will look at three people who match descendants of Mary Neil and Calvin Cook, but do not match anyone in the Morris County group. There are more matches who fit this scenario, but they have cryptic usernames, no trees, private trees, scant trees, and do not answer messages.
All three matches share less than 20cM of DNA with my group, or about one small segment of DNA. This indicates that the relation is likely third cousin or more distant.
The sorting feature places the DNA match's matches at the top. (Also a paid feature.) This is such a helpful mechanism for figuring out how relations relate to one another.
We will label the three matches as Person 1, Person 2, and Person 3. Person 2 and Person 3 are siblings. Person 1 turned out to be their second cousin.
Their common ancestors are Hugh ONeil (1835-1888) and Margaret ONeil (1838-1906) of Ireland and Washington, United States. (Washington became a state in 1889.) Person 1 descends from their son George. Person 2 and Person 3 descend from their son Charles.
 |
| Household of Hugh ONeil and his wife, Margaret, in the 1880 census. Washington Territory, United States of America. Children: Evelena, Minnie, John, Charles, Francis, George, and Kate. |
Having the same surname as Mary Neil is great, but this is a common Irish surname and means little until we have paper documentation. Spoiler alert: we do not have any records connecting them at this juncture.
Hugh ONeil was a veteran of the Civil War. He died in 1888, the year before Washington became a state. His death record was a line in a ledger book. His parents were not listed.
Margaret ONeil died in Oregon in 1906 while visiting her children. Her death certificate provides the names of her parents as James ONeil and Margarete, last name unknown by informant, G W ONeil.
 |
| Death certificate of Margaret O'Neil. Died March 15, 1906 in LaGrande, Union County, Oregon. Collection online at Ancestry |
Was Margaret also ONeil? The records of her children provide no other surname. Some of their records are easily viewable online, such as marriage, death, and Social Security Death Index. No surname other than ONeil or ONeill was given for their mother.
Yet her memorial page at Find A Grave provides Cook as her birth name. Hmmm.
 |
| Find A Grave memorial page for Margaret ONeil (1838-1906) Buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Walla Walla, Washington. How was her birth name of Cook found? |
Cook is a common name. My Cook ancestry is Dutch, not Irish. The name was Van Der Koeck.
Future Research
More DNA connections will appear with new leads.
More records will find their way in an easily accessible format online.
I'd like to see Brougham turn up amongst the matches.
