My ethnicity from ancestryDNA

 Brady, Burke, Cruice, Cuthbert, de Guehery, Downie, Giambrone, Millonzi, Palmeri, Parisi, Wilson  Comments Off on My ethnicity from ancestryDNA
Jun 242015
 

I recently completed a DNA test from ancestryDNA.com.

The DNA test largely confirmed what I knew based on my genealogy:
Italy/Greece 39%
Ireland 35%
Great Britain 13%

There was also trace evidence – meaning either a small amount or a spurious evidence – for the following:
Iberian Peninsula 2%
European Jewish 2%
Europe West 1%
Middle East 4%
Caucus 2%

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The most obvious region was Italy/Greece – Palmeri, Giambrone, Millonzi, Parisi. Sicily and southern Italy were settled by the Greeks in the 7th and 8th centuries BC; Magna Grecia – Greater Greece – referred to these areas. Today, some of the best Greek ruins are found in Sicily and southern Italy.

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Some of the trace amounts are also consistent with my Sicilian heritage. The three most common other regions seen in natives of Italy and Greece are Caucus, Middle East, and Iberian Peninsula. The Caucus and Middle East DNA could be explained by the Islamic control of Sicily from around 827 to 1061. Muslim Sicilians were living in central Sicily, in the region that includes both Montemaggiore and Serradifalco, well into the 1200s. And from the 1400s to the middle 1800s, Sicily was controlled by the Bourbons of Spain – the Iberian Peninsula.

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The other obvious component was my Irish DNA. The Cruice, Wilson, Brady, and Burke families all came from Ireland. This DNA could also include my Scottish heritage, from the Cuthberts and Downies.

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The remaining major portion of my DNA is from Great Britain. While I have no English heritage that I know of, the map includes areas of Scotland (Cuthbert and Downie) and areas of France (de Guehery). Also, the Wilsons, from Northern Ireland, who were Presbyterian, could have originally come from England or Scotland.

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The last trace amounts are listed as Europe West and European Jewish. Both of these maps cover portions of France (de Guehery) and Germany (Mack). The European Jewish is an interesting possibility. I wonder if there could be some Jewish ancestry, perhaps in the same family tree as the Macks from Germany.

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Marriage of Emmanuel de Guehery and Marion Cuthbert

 Cuthbert, de Guehery  No Responses »
Sep 212012
 

I found the marriage certificate for Emmanuel de Guehery and Marion Cuthbert, my great-great-grandparents. Both are from Chalk River. Emmanuel was born in Waterloo County, Ontario and was a fireman for the railroad. His parents were Rudolph and Goddlikin de Guehery. Marion was born in London, England. Her parents were Thomas and Margaret Cuthbert. Their marriage was 25 February 1884 in Pembroke. They were Presbyterian.

More on the Downie family

 Cuthbert, Downie  No Responses »
Feb 082012
 

My distant cousin from Canada sent me some more information on the Downie family that he found. It includes a death record for my great-great-great-grandmother, Margaret Ogilvie (Downie) Cuthbert, and pictures of two of her brothers, William and Anthony. He also sent a picture of another Cuthbert named John, but I don't know if that's a brother or a cousin (most likely a cousin since no "John" appears in other family records).


death record for Margaret Ogilvie (Downie) Cuthbert



What am I?

 Burke, Cruice, Cuthbert, de Guehery, Giambrone, Millonzi, Palmeri, Parisi, Wilson  No Responses »
Oct 302011
 

Until a few months ago, I was 1/2 Italian, on my dad's side, and 1/4 Irish and 1/4 French, on my mom's side. My mom's parents were both 1/2 Irish and 1/2 French.

Now, things are a little different. My dad is still full Italian. So that 1/2 is intact. My mom's side is a bit more complex now. 

My maternal grandmother is a Wilson and Cruice. I now know that Wilson side is probably "Scotch-Irish" since census records list Samuel Wilson's parents as being from Belfast and since Samuel Wilson listed his religion as Presbyterian on his marriage record. The origins of the Scotch-Irish lie primarily in northern England and the lowlands of Scotland. They came to Northern Ireland in the 1600s. According to lore, the Cruice family escaped the French Revolution to Ireland. While we considered that part of the family "French", given that Patrick Cruice's wife is Bridget Sweeney, and given that Patrick Cruice's mother appears to be Mary Golden, both decidedly non-French last name, it seems likely that the Cruice side is more like 1/4 French and 3/4 Irish. 

My paternal grandfather is a Burke and de Guehery. The Burke family is Catholic Irish, but we don't know what the Brady family is (Anthony Burke married Maria Brady), but we'll list her as Irish until we know more. We now know more of the history of the de Guehery family. Margaret de Guehery's mother was Marion Cuthbert, who was Scottish. Her father was Emmanuel de Guehery, who was 1/2 French and 1/2 German.

So that makes me:

1/2 Italian (1/8 Palmeri, 1/8 Giambrone, 1/8 Millonzi, 1/8 Parisi)

7/32 Irish (1/16 Burke, 1/16 Brady, 1/16 Sweeney, 1/32 Golden)

1/16 French (1/32 de Guehery, 1/32 Cruice)

1/32 German (Mack)

1/16 Scottish (Cuthbert)

1/8 Scotch-Irish (Wilson)

The de Guehery family history

 Burke, Cuthbert, de Guehery  No Responses »
Oct 022011
 

I made contact with the gentleman who posted the snippet about the de Guehery family 20 years ago.

Ten years ago he wrote a family history called “Some Branches and Twigs of the Elliott Family Tree”, which is on file in the OGS archives in Toronto. His mother, Edna Mae de Geuhery, was the sister of my great-grandmother, Margaret Ogilvie de Guehery. His book has a chapter on the de Guehery family and another chapter on the Cuthbert family (Margaret and Edna Mae's mother was Marion Cuthbert).

He is going to send me the chapters soon.

He also put me in touch with another cousin and this is where it gets even cooler.

His grandfather did a lot of genealogical research in the early 1930s with the genealogy research division at the library in Dresden before that institution was destroyed during WWII. His father continued this research during the 1980's with genealogical researchers in Paris. Apparently, the family tree is complete in detail back to the mid-1700s.

The story includes the de Guehery family's escape from the French Revolution, a beheading, and the loss of a noble title.

I can't wait to get more information.

We’re Scottish!

 Burke, Cuthbert, de Guehery  No Responses »
Jul 172011
 

My mother's father, my grandfather, was Donald Burke. His father, Arthur Burke, was Irish. His mother, Margaret De Guehery, was French.

Or so we thought.

For my initial pass at filling in our family tree, it was a treasure hunt whenever I poked around on ancestry.com, hitting the jackpot whenever I found a distant cousin researching part of my family tree. But as I grew more serious about genealogy, I wanted to make sure that any distant cousins I might find were as serious as I am about documenting records. So now I contact them directly. Some never respond. Many have. Now I have a small network of distant family sharing finds and working on the same problems.

One of these distant cousins is related to Margaret De Guehery.

I knew that Margaret's parents were Emanual de Guehery and Marion Cuthbert. I even had some very old pictures of Marion from my aunt. A search on familysearch.org had revealed their marriage record in Ontario, with Rudolph and Goddlibien de Guehery and Thomas and Margaret Cuthbert listed as their parents.

I also knew that the de Gueherys and Cuthberts had lived in Chalk River, Ontario, both from our own family history, and from the familysearch.org records I found.

What I didn't know was that the Cuthberts were Scottish.

At some point in my search a few years, I had found a Marion Cuthbert in England but rejected that as nothing more than a false alarm.

Well, my fourth cousin had discovered that both Thomas and Margaret Cuthbert had both been born in Scotland. Thomas in Bathgate. Margaret in Glasgow. At the same time, someone in the Upper Ottawa Valley Genealogical Group found Margaret's obituary in a search of their records for me, confirming that Margaret Ogilvy (Downie) Cuthbert had died at age 80 and that she was born in Glasgow, Scotland.

The family had moved to London, England, where Marion and some of her siblings were born. So my find from a few years ago was spot on.

We're Scottish. A small part Scottish, to be sure. After all, it's only my great-great-grandmother who is Scottish. But that's still 1/16.

My cousin also had some photos to share, including a group picture that includes my great-great-great-grandmother, a picture of my great-great-great-grandfather, and a picture of the Cuthbert family farm in Chalk River that had appeared in the newspaper. 

He is a descendant of the gentleman at the left of the photo below, William Cuthbert, Margaret's son and Marions' brother. William took over the Cuthbert farm. What's kind of cool is that my cousin just recently bought the farm for himself and his family.

Margaret Ogilvie (Downie) Cuthbert, my great-great-great-grandmother with William Cuthbert's family

Thomas Cuthbert, my great-great-great-grandfather

the Cuthbert family farm

Renfrew County, Ontario Gravemarker Gallery

 Burke, Cuthbert, de Guehery  1 Response »
Jul 112011
 

Gravemarkers are an excellent source of basic genealogical information. I've called and written cemeteries and I've recruited my sister, who still lives in Western NY, to photograph markers for distant relatives who lived and died near Buffalo.

That's not an option when it's a family member who lived and died hundreds of miles away.

My mom's paternal grandmother was Margaret Ogilvie de Guehery. She was born in Chalk River, Renfrew County, Ontario. I had found a marriage record for her parents, Emanuel de Guehery and Marion Cuthbert on familysearch.org. To track down additional information on Margaret and her parents, I wrote several cemeteries and parishes around Chalk River.

Someone from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pembroke gave me a link to the Renfrew County Gravemarker Gallery: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~murrayp/renfrew/index.htm

While the search capabilities are relatively spartan, this seems to be a fairly complete visual record of all the cemeteries in Renfew County. My sincere thanks go to those who did all the hard work putting this gravemarker gallery together.

I was able to find gravemarkers for several relatives, including my great-great-great-grandparents.

my great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Cuthbert
born 20 Sep 1813 in Bathgate, Scotland
died 19 May 1893 in Wylie, Renfrew, Ontario


my great-great-great-grandmother Margaret Ogilvie Downie
born 11 Apr 1822 in Glasgow, Scotland
died 28 Jul 1901 in Chalk River, Renfrew, Ontario


Thomas and Margaret's son, William Cuthbert
brother to my great-great-grandmother Marion Cuthbert
born 6 Mar 1863 in London, England
died Jul 1943 in Chalk River, Renfrew, Ontario

Where did I start?

 Burke, Cruice, Cuthbert, de Guehery, Millonzi, Palmeri, Parisi, Wilson  No Responses »
Jul 012006
 

The very first step in any genealogy project is to ask your parents and grandparents for any information.

Sadly, most of my grandparents were deceased when I started this, and the only one still living was in a nursing home. I remember putting together a basic genealogy when I was in school. I talked with my great-grandmother and she gave me the names of her parents and some of her grandparents. Like many school projects, that's long gone.

On my dad's side, I knew my grandmother's parents, Carmela (Parisi) Millonzi and Rosario Millonzi. My great-grandfather died when I was a few years old. My great-grandmother died when I was on a teenager. 

My dad said his father's parents were Angelo and Maria Palmeri, but did not know Maria's last name. I might have met one of them when I was little, but I don't remember.

On my mom's side, I knew my grandmother's mother, my great-grandmother, Gramma Wilson. I might have met my grandfather's father, my great-grandfather, Grampa Burke. But maybe not. 

My mom knew that there was something like a Cruice and a de Guehery, but wasn't quite sure how to spell the names, or who went with whom, so she had me get in touch with one of my aunts, who was the family historian. She sent me this family tree with another couple of pages with some of the birth and death dates.

After spending most of my efforts working on and off on digitizing and adding to my wife's genealogy, I used this as a starting point for uncovering my own.

Based on what we knew then, I was 1/2 Italian, 1/4 French, and 1/4 Irish. My mom's parents were both 1/2 French and 1/2 Irish. According to family lore, both French families fled the French Revolution, with the Cruice's escaping to Ireland and then to the US, and the de Guehery's escaping to Germany, then to Canada, and then to the US.

original Burke family tree