My local genealogy society is the Marin County Genealogical Society. I love attending our monthly meetings. Not only do I usually learn something new from the presentations, it is fun to talk with people who have the same passion for family history.
On Wednesday night this week, the Marin County Genealogical Society had its monthly meeting. The guest speaker was Anthony Hoskins. He gave a great presentation entitled, "You May Not Be Who You Think You Are, or How Y-DNA Testing Broke Up That Old Family Of Mine." As the title suggests, DNA testing shattered years of documentation he had collected. It was a very interesting story that does not have an ending yet.
I found myself thinking of Mary Bradley during the presentation. I have written about the search to identify her mother in two posts: Mystery Monday - Who Was Mary Bradley's Mother? and Mystery Monday - Mary Bradley Update.
Tony Hoskins' discovery was a surprise and a little earth shaking for him. He has proven that there is an illegitimate child in his direct line. While I feel for Tony, I still felt a little jealous on Wednesday night. I will never be able to prove Mary Bradley's mother with DNA. That family line weaves in and out of males and females so I am unable to use the Y chromosome test.
It is back to the paper hunt for me and hopefully there is enough of it to prove or disprove who Mary Bradley's mother is. I am still trying to pin down the death date for Catherine Carey in Chicago, Illinois. I have too many options right now for the time frame I am looking at. Hopefully, I can pare it down soon and find probate records that identifies if Mary was her child.
The title of your post would be a GREAT title for a Movie!
ReplyDeleteyou're right though, sometimes it really sucks to be a girl!