Great-Uncle Philip unlocked by AncestryDNA connection

AncestryDNA rest results have paid some dividends pretty quickly after enabling me to contact a previously unknown second cousin, and learn of the man she only knew as "Grandpa Far Away."

My grandfather, James Mahoney, was one of five children born and raised by Thomas Mahoney Jr., and Agnes St. John in Worcester. All five were born during the Roaring 20s and raised in the Great Depression. My grandfather was the youngest of the litter, born 25 June 1929 — some four months before the Wall Street Crash that officially began the Great Depression. I've had some information regarding some of his siblings, but two have largely remained enigmas: Thomas (born 1924) and Philip (born 1926). All I had for either of these guys was their dates of birth, first name of their spouses, and when they died. No maiden names for their wives, no idea on who their children were, no idea where they passed away, what they did for a living, or anything else.

Through one particular AncestryDNA match, I was able to connect with Jennifer, my great-uncle Philip's granddaughter. She has been able to fill me in a bit with the maiden name of Philip's wife, Pauline, and the dates of her birth and death. From there, I quickly found her obituary, which gave me a good deal of brand new information. Through this cousin, I was also able to learn of Philip and Pauline's four children, further confirmed through Pauline's obituary.

In Pauline's obituary, Philip is not mentioned whatsoever. Instead, it mentions a second husband who had passed in 1997. Turns out that soon after their fourth and final child was born, Philip had decided he was not happy with the family he had carved out for himself. He drained the family bank accounts, took up with a neighbor, and left the family flat. He moved to Arizona at some point, probably as part of this seemingly abrupt abandonment of his wife and kids, and, my newfound cousin asserts, was later known only through cards as "Grandpa Far Away." Through the U.S. Public Records Index, I was able to confirm Philip living in three different cities in Arizona. In 1978, he's in Phoenix, and then he's in Glendale and Peoria in the 1990s. I was also able to confirm what was assumed, that he died while in Arizona.

In the early 1980s, Pauline would marry a man who had seven children through a previous marriage. Between them, that would be 11 children, and eventually many grandchildren. Pauline passed away in 2012, at the age of 82.

Buoyed by this wave of new information, I spent a little more time with public records searches and city directories, and so forth. I found that in the 1950s, Philip was working at Wyman-Gordon in Worcester, residing with Pauline on Tower Street. I uncovered his social security number.

Most exciting of all, I found his school yearbook photo from 1944. Beneath Philip's name is open white space, which seems quite vacuous when compared to the classmate next to him, who was a multi-sport athlete, a member of the Student Council, Chairman of the Ring & Pin Committee, and a member of the group U.S.N.R.

The AncestryDNA results are in...

This morning, I opened up my e-mail inbox and was pleased to see an e-mail from Ancestry.com: "Your AncestryDNA results are in!"

I write this as I begin to explore the results and data, and have not previewed the information. This posting is sort of a real-time cursory exploration. I will take a deep dive after this is published, with no idea how soon I'll be coming up for air in the process. There's a good chance I become entirely immersed in the information and data.

I was not exactly surprised by the first thing I saw, which is my "DNA Story," which provides an "ethnicity estimate." According to AncestryDNA, I am 81% Irish/Scottish/Welsh, 7% British, with "low confidence" results showing 6% Eastern European, 3% Scandinavian, 2% from the Iberian Peninsula, and less than 1% Central Asian. More specifically, the results suggest County Kerry, Ireland to be first among specific regions where my family might have lived. This is not news as I've long-known the Moriarty family to have originated in County Kerry, more specifically the village of Alohart.

Within the "Ethnicity Estimate" is that ancestors, in the first half of the 18th century, were among the "Lonely Settlers in New France" that were the Saint Lawrence River French Settlers. This, presumably, has its origins in my maternal lines that include my maternal grandmother's family having roots in that part of Canada.

After the cursory look at the "Ethnicity Estimate," I turned to the DNA matches, of which there are apparently 362 people who are listed as 4th cousins or closer.

In viewing the matches, I come across my half-brother Jeff, who has previously done the AncestryDNA test. They mark him down as "Close Family" with "extremely high" confidence in the match. They're correct there.

It offers one first cousin, a Sullivan that I do not currently know. There are a number of Sullivans within my family tree, so this makes sense. There's a second cousin with the surname Greene, who appears to be related on my mother's side as my brother Jeff is listed as a shared match with Ms. Greene.

There are 13 third cousins matched, including my late cousin Barb Jones. Each of these matches are listed as "extremely high" confidence level matches, by AncestryDNA. There seems to be a slight edge in matches on my paternal side over my maternal side here, but not by much.

The balance of the matches are fourth cousins, more than 300 of them. Certainly this will take a good deal of time to go through all of them.

Time to get to work...

The AncestryDNA Journey Begins...

I walked in the house this evening, and what did I see waiting for me?

Three AncestryDNA test kits, ready to be opened up so a little spit can help polish up the genealogical research.

You've probably seen the ads. There's the one with Kyle, who grew up with the understanding his family was ethnically German. Turned out, the ad claims, he wasn't German at all, but 52% Scottish & Irish. "So, I traded in my lederhosen for a kilt," he quips at the end of the commercial.

Based on the genealogical record, I'm not expecting this sort of complete curveball that I'm not primarily Irish in ethnicity. There is enough data to track the Moriarty family back to County Kerry, Ireland, and a few family members have even had the privilege of traveling back to the Emerald Isle; some even visiting the old Moriarty homestead, then in the hands of a since deceased second cousin, Jerry Gallivan. My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Hurley, while my maternal grandfather's surname was Mahoney. I think we've got the Irish piece locked down, so I'd be quite surprised to have the sort of experience of Kyle, the German-turned-Scotsman.

Kyle Merker not only learned he was Scottish rather than German, but, according to Ancestry.com, also found familial connections on both sides of the American Revolutionary War, and that his 15th great-grandfather was King James IV or Scotland.

My purpose in this test is the hopes of being able to dig up the sort of information that helped Kyle find ancestors from the Revolution, and I'd love to be able to find records and evidence that takes me back several centuries.

The AncestryDNA test, the company asserts, uses the latest autosomal testing technology to map your heritage, and also compare to other members and data. It tests on all 23 chromosomes, which allows it to explore both the X and Y chromosomes rather than simply going through the paternal line only.

I'll share my finds and discoveries as the process unfolds, wherever it may take me. Stay tuned.