52 Ancestor Challenge and DNA

Up to the 19th  of 52 Ancestor Challenge and the last couple permitted me to go in and look at my research (and that of cousins since I can not take credit for all of it) and make new decisions on work done six or seven years ago. Our next trip to London and the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) will involve some interesting research on the Beard and Hemsley families and another look at the Buller family. It was more of a drop in and check for Christopher Buller's baptism (not found) that first visit and then onto the Society of Genealogists that busy morning that we decided to travel on the City Bus in London as that was the easiest way to get to LMA and then walk to the Society of Genealogists.

 The 20th Ancestor of the 52 Ancestor Challenge is one that I have done all the research on. But I have meant to get back to her and this is an excellent opportunity.

Coming up to half way through I think this is an excellent idea and next year I shall do the 3x greatgrandparents of my children and our son in law giving me again 64 individuals to work on. I know all 32 3x great grandparents for our son in law - about 98% early French Canadian lines. For our daughters I am looking at all sixteen known for my husband's side and I will do the remainder in my lines (just four of the 16 - I will leave out the likely ancestors of my paternal grandmother because they are going to be well discussed this year). I will also omit my paternal grandfather lines except for Ann Farmer's ancestors. I am hoping that I will, by the end of next year, have more information on the Henry Christopher Buller line and the last two will be the parents of Ellen Taylor because by the end of next year when I work on her lines we will have been to Birmingham and London for another couple of good research days. I will report on what I find (or do not find).

I also tested at 23 and Me (at least my sample has now reached the testing facility) and possibly I will learn more about my lines as some of my families are known to have gone to the United States since the early 1900s. They have a huge database.

A recent match was most revealing at Ancestry. A 4th to 6th cousin match turned into a 2nd to 4th cousin match at FT DNA when she brought her results across. We have a sizeable match on one chromosome where I do not match my siblings (they do not come up as a match with her at all although they do have small matches with her). I am suspicious, because of another known cousin match, that I have inherited more of the Ellen Taylor line. My siblings have twice the match that I have with a Pincombe 4th cousin. I do match a known 3rd cousin on my Buller side (descendant of a sister to my greatgrandfather Buller)) but it is somewhat weak as well and it is at Ancestry where only I have tested and she has not elected to bring it across into FT DNA. That leaves the Taylor line for me to have inherited a large chunk via my mother from her mother. DNA can be very very interesting on occasion. I am suspicious that Ellen Taylor is descended from an Irish/Scot family because my mtDNA is mostly found in the Argyllshire/Ayrshire area of Scotland (Blood of the Isles Database and Sorenson). My grandmother did mention once that some of her mother's family had emigrated to the United States and it is a vague memory her saying that. The match at Ancestry can trace her one parent's side back to specific areas in Eastern Europe so not a match there. But the other parent's side is a mystery on the paternal line (the maternal line on that side is known) and Ireland is suspected as the home for this ancestor (noted on the US census). The surname Halloran which is much nicer to look for than Taylor. Although there are actually not all that many Taylor families in Ireland compared to England.