Genetic Communities and the Lies we Buy Ourselves

With much aggravation taken as penance I have finally been able to put to rest a cluster of four supposed Ancestor Discoveries (Beta). Turns out the four were Grandparents of second cousin 3x named Jessie May Kelly, a grandchild of the Day family. I am fairly disappointed that they were none relatives to me and indeed come from a branch I was just pondering over regarding the percentage of shared DNA.

I have had a week recently where I have been contacted only by paternal relations to me, and those I think are outside of my x-inheritance. It makes me wonder then about the randomness of dna assignment and how much if any I can really trust Ancestry.com services. I am up to five genetic companies which have my dna sample and have rendered ethnicity lists. There is some major variation between them all, but yet also a seeming obvious underlying cause. Clustering populations together creates a wide variety. My initial thought was that where France goes so do I, but there is also a question of whether France itself is one unit. Northern France is flavored with Britain as much as east and south are peppered with other border countries. Ancestry.com is the only of five companies to declare any Irish, while FTDNA tells me I have recent Amerindian...on 23andMe my West African is disappearing by the minute.

The New Genetic Communities feature looks quite fun and I have wanted an aggregated list of birthplaces for a map for quite sometime. While I made my own by hand once or twice they never are very accurate when new data is arriving each day or even week. A major problem that seems to show up is first degree relatives getting drastically different communities. My Father for example, has at least four or five with many placed overseas or in the American south, think Confederacy. I on the other hand have only a single group for French settlers along the St. Lawrence, excluding regions relevant to my father. It seems quite odd to be sharing no groups with a parent and I have heard this from other users as well.

So what is the basis for communities? It would seem to be a macro version of dna circles, of which parents and children should share. Yet I am only seeing confusion and complaints. Given the differences in my parents ethnic background there should be more. There just isn't...

Non-Paternal Events

I haven't done much serious work on genealogy in a while. However recently I finally had some distant cousins and possibly great aunts/uncles inquire about a family group we share on ManitoulinRoots. It was a bit unhelpful to see someone else regurgitating photos of mine that they obviously took off my public tree however it definitely collided with the last work I did on the genetic side prior to 23andMe turning into a worthless piece of bunk. After comparing my father and I on a few of the direct tests such as Dodecad9, I took another crack at generating parental emulated files from my own sample. My father's emulated sample perfectly matched his real data so I can only assume that my mothers is more than 75% correct even without her test to confirm it.

Part of the fun on spreadsheeting my results versus my fathers in Dodecad was that I discovered I inherited his older DNA contribution. When run against my mother's 'sample' I inherited her more recent groups. Something glaringly obvious is that the south european, which I had tracked down to primarily Portuguese, is actually from my mother. It's also the most recent population addition for her estimated at two generations above her. That generation just happens to be within the Bryants who everyone is suddenly so interested in.

Ironically in this case the infidelity was entirely well known to the family. What no one ever seems to discuss is the time gaps between children and the fact that only half or less look related to each other. Something more strange is the appearance of a unique firstname for the youngest child. While the story is that the mother chose it because she admired a foreigner her brother had dated once I find that a bit odd. To add flame to this fire in researching the origin of the name I discovered that it is actually of Portuguese origin despite the Italian spelling.

So how does one really confirm a highly likely NPE? I seem to have two avenues, one to compare the male line of my great grandmother's three brothers. This could be supplemented with their sons tests but of course that means a confirmation for a non paternity could also be a illegitimacy in that younger generation. The other would be to compare the autosomnal records of the sister's children for glaring different builds. No one of course wants to confirm a non paternity for the family who raised them and who they believe is apart of their personal identity. In that sense I would require either a science and truth driven youngblood like myself or one of the closer generations who doesn't care. As of yet I have not located either.

I imagine if I was local and a bit more skilled at hard copy research I could probably discover names and dates for the unfaithful spouse after the separation. It is likely that the man who took her in as a live-in maid was also her lover. Perhaps he was Portuguese?

Statistical Work in Aborigional Ethnicity Prediction

Last year I set out to comb through the rough of my DNA sampling with many algorithms until I found the clearest percentages. In doing this I clustered Asiatic derivative groups under the heading of tricyclic populations as direct relation to the genealogical evidence of First Nations ancestry. However I did not at the time have a major justification for doing this except that these evidences were non compliant with the majority of my recent generational admixture. I also had my mtdna tested which is passed down from my farthest known matrilineal ancestor who came from Kirkgunzeon, Scotland. The result was the mtdna haplogroup H. I had not considered anything further about haplogroups until today.

Someone had also recommended to me that it could be useful to make a genealogical data map. I decided to place within it known birth locations as well as the locations of genetic populations I matched. The variability of genetic population was in some ways shocking. It did however follow the typical water trade routes in it's spread. The deep Asian line however and the Americas seemed not to be related with the exception of two locales of Aleut. Recently I provided information to the younger sister's of my husband about their own native history as Saginaw band of Ojibway. I did this with only name places, some stories and a map. It surprised me how much a map can say and so I thought of this again for myself.

My statistics produced the average of hard 19%, and soft 20% if one accounts for decimals, of Native genetic material per gene. This 20% however was also not a solid component. 53% was of Inuit derivative, 38% Americas proper including Central/South and lastly a unresolved 21% that was more closely related to Asian heritage. Some strict populations that occurred were Aleut, Inuit, Pima, Maya, Ecuador, Colombia, Peurto Rican. The more exotic was Samii, Tibetian, Han, Thai.

These places however share a major component of Haplogroup. Indeed in map review of the locales it is quite evident that the underlying mtdna associated with the portions of my DNA would be Haplogroup A. The great evidence of this is that Tibetan only hosts A of those also present in the Americas. Asian haplogroups are the predecessor of native american strands which is why it is proper to review them together especially in the absence of actual Asian heritage.

Since Catherine Dufour spoke French-Cree I have come to the assumption that she was Métis-Cree herself as other varieties of Metis would speak their own aboriginal language. Of the localized groups the Cree associated with the region she lived refer to themselves as the Innu. I would not however assume to be exact on which regional tribe of the Cree Catherine came from until we ever have the exact name of her mother. There remains as well the possibility that her father Peter was also of mixed ancestry. Within the Boussey family work I am lucky to have not only a exact name for Anne Marie dit Metisse but also the Indian settlement she lived. Port Royal, Nova Scotia is under the Bear River Nation of Mi'kmaq today. It would be lovely to have exacting answers but native american DNA methods are extremely limited.

Wismer not so Wise...

Something I don't normally do is research areas of my family history that are already overly championed by dedicated people. This would probably include anywhere from 25-45% of my entire tree. That probably seems like a high range to some but these groups are fully vetted at least 5 generations back. Not much left then to research honestly. Recently GEDMatch.com had a server crash and so has been offline or with limited capability for sometime.

The cousins who were in contact with me broke off for the time being so while my inbox is empty I did not have much to do, (not counting graduate school!) It occurred to me after playing around with the repaired website that perhaps I did have something to say on the subject of one of my well researched surnames. I have also been a fan of the show "Lost Girl" for sometime particularly enjoying when Kenzi spoke slavic in a few episodes as I hadn't heard it before.

Looking at Eurogenes w/oracle today and having already recognized much to my father's horror that I have no central European (more than 45% of his composite) it was odd to see a component of projected populations owing to that area. Immediately I was thinking of a small research I did on the Wismer family, my grandmother Lucienna's maiden name, regarding the orientation of that name. Commonly it is assumed to be a amalgamation of anglicized Germanic words meaning "wise-person". I haven't had a reason to doubt this presumption until DNA became available. The two interesting results were, Ukrainian_West 15.33%, Erzya 8.18%, Russian 5.80%, three populations not previously attributed to my admixture. I'll continue here with my previous research...
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"Wismer Family Morphology"

Two interpretations of the origion of the Wismer clan have existed. Anglo saxonry dictates that the name is a germancised account of a trait name "wise-man". Recent admixture however points to a genetic source outside of the North Sea. The term Wismer is a placename given to the inhabitants of the port town called Wismar in the german state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The small historical town is formed by a natural harbor to its north from the baltic sea. While Wismar was under Norwegian control for some time and rests in northcenteral germany is was origionally colonized by Palobian Slavs from the eastern Baltic region.

Palobian Slavs are unfortunate to be extinct in language. As a group of Lechtite people their genetic heritage exists still in other members of the same cluster notablly the Polish. The Sorbs of Lusatia remain the only unique cultural descendants of Palobian Slavs still maintaining those language and physical cultural traits such as dress. As a coastal region the town of Wismar was prone to genetic drift from resulting neighbor groups as well as bleed through from its closest relation Poland. Notably Poland itself is a conglomeration of the Lechite tribes assembled under the Duke of Poland, Mieszko I. Therefore the Wismer family heritage represents a north eastern slavic peoples and more recently german adjunct influence not that of Britain.
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...More onto the recent identity of the Wismer descendants as German that is a over simplified fact. Only three of the men born before the immigrant ancestor came from  Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. Hidden inside the older generations is a large amount of Austro-Bavarian, Swedish, and Danish. It is a important reminder to the genealogist, especially any amateurs reading my blog, that birthplace doesn't always convene with genetic population. Obviously this might be the case of African american individuals researching there family who are surprised to find relatives in Spain or the like which was simply a host nation to many generations. A subject I'd love to breech is that of a African cousin in my ancestry.com match maker I did not know I had. Upon my last visit reviewing genealogy with my father he conveyed to me this was not news to him. A great uncle of his had returned to Europe and as a sailor had taken a wife from the north African coast. Somethings are just beautiful discoveries of the amazing global culture we all share.

The Curious Trail of Catharine Dufour

It’s always great to hear from people interested in family history, at least that’s what I tell myself. I let my website go stale for some time now as I was finishing undergraduate school and wasting my free time on video gaming. I gather that at some point Google updated its service protocols making my page live in Web searches. Suddenly I have people who were wholly uninterested to help seeing my document list and deciding they have loud opinions to share. I ranted some posts ago about people not understanding the organic nature of self publishing versus professional works. No doubt the comments and demands would eventually fall onto my favorite topic, Catharine Dufour. I was lucky that the third party relation who wanted my work indeed contacted Mr. Charpentier of my post “midnights are not for making friends”. He was kind enough to look into the information our family has especially as he is in my opinion a specialist in French river region history. The work has come out most fruitful this time, a majority of that owning to Mr. Charpentier’s access not mine.

Catharine’s birth date has always been passed down since her sons based on the interview she gave in 1905. While her husband was alive however documents including her in his household indicated an 1813 birth year. The summative works of French genealogy do not have an individual born in 1805 to any of the Dufour, Deveaux couples. The death certificate that I was provided an image copy of by a 3^rd cousin does state Mr. Duforse as Catharine’s father. Nay, the Duforse name is nonexistent in records of that period. Adjusting her birth date uncovers a slew of records due the family most especially while they lived in Canada for some years. Three of the known children now have French catholic baptism statements. One of these children was of the missing portion of eleven that did not survive to adulthood. Marie- Agathe Jones died the same year that Edward Junior’s baptism took place. Indeed it was Catharine’s grandmother, Josephe Garand, who sponsored his baptism as Edouard Jones at her local parish. The same parish had baptized Henry John earlier as Honoré Jones. As French culture in that area was dying out it is not surprising that the children simply lost sight of their heritage.

Yet what about Catharine’s account in the newspaper, does this all not invalidate it? Not exactly.  Catherine’s parents by document consensus were Pierre Louis Dufour and Archange Garand married in 1811 as St. Anne Cathedral. As a family they lived in Frenchtown, a small settlement south of Fort Detroit. While Catharine was born at the height of the war she could not have witnessed the surrender. However she may well have been mistaking the final abandonment of the Frenchtown settlement due to increasing raids and attacks. The emerging soldiers in uniform may well have been coming to protect the settlement. The direction as well that she describes her home from the Fort agrees with the assertion she is recalling Frenchtown. Now while I am ashamed of my third party relative’s reaction to this data I can also say that my own qualms regarding it are just as silly. Indeed this would seem to dismiss the assertion that Catharine was a Métis child. Yet not enough is known of her mother Archange Garand to me yet as well as Louis Dufour’s mother also being undiscovered. I look forward to finding more documents to uncover the Dufour/Dautour/ Garand connection. Meanwhile I have work to update my website to keep me busy!

Graphing FTDNA for Native Blood

It's common for people to find a unsubstantiated family myth regarding a long lost great grandparent of some tribe. It's part of the Rousseau ideal that native culture is somehow noble through its simplicity and to be admired. Indeed looking just at the surface of things at the time of first contact they had more advanced systems of hygiene and significant ecologically-sensitive agriculture. Those of us with genealogical evidence often find it scant due to the nature of the times regarding the personage and citizenship of a native person in the imperial Americas. As a Metis woman I am at a disadvantage that besides the myth and a lucky interview provided by James Sweinhart, a published journalist, that there is no physical connection I can grasp.

Cherokee Nation at Kansas City, 1994

As a anthropologist, I maintain a certain outlook from multicultural perspective but I have found it fails me when working with more traditional native american individuals. Often I am met with hostility which I believe is less to do with how I look, as some might presume, and more to do with the socioeconomics of tribal living. I certainly don't intend to be a bother and the only community I intend to pursue citizenship with would be the Metis peoples in my local Canadian/US sector. Due to the degree of mixture it simply seems idiotic to sequester anything more specific when indeed I am not specific. 

It is that mixture exactly that is the true topic of this post. After my 3rd party transfer to Family Tree DNA completed I uploaded it into GED Matches album to compare with ancestry original interpretation. It is notable to mention that ftdna actually reevaluated the chip itself not just the raw composite to my knowledge. For the most part I saw predictable and minute changes. Side by side I noticed that ftdna cited more africanized Moorish DNA as apart of my Iberian spectrum. When I reviewed MDLP 22 by chromosome it suddenly occurred to me to class out the asian decent populations and revise it for my native american blood. Trycyclic populations including the middle east are often misplaced amounts of plains native which is so intermixed that it more often registers as middle eastern.

On average I found that 20% of each chromosome was Asiatic derivative. Since the middle eastern connection is still debatable I also went a step further in removing the trycyclic and Asian components to search for individualized known samples of native american DNA. On average this left a 10-12% of each chromosome to be confirmed native american source which is above the threshold for founder markers. Each of the remaining populations confirmed in my chromosomes were set in known genetic regions allowing me to percentage out the confirmed strains by region. Of the 10-12% confirmed; 53% was Northern Hemisphere (Inuit derivatives), 38% was Americas proper, & 21% was trace matching aboriginal societies in the eastern hemisphere. Percentage peaks for the northern group rested on chromosomes 7, 16, 18 & 22. The Americas group peaked at 13 & 20, but only 20 was highly above the margin of error. Lastly the trace societies were highest peaked on 8 & 15 but not as impressively as the other groups. Overall it was North Amerindian which received the highest proportion spikes but it was also one of the least spread matches across the 22 chromosomes.

So I may be lucky enough to have numbers but it also comes down to personal experience and identity. Personal experience has always pushed me to look at aboriginal life in a learning capacity much like a child watching their parents. Even now I am writing my final paper for my degree program on Native American Studies. The expectations of that work is for me to be a participant but I've always been a participant even in times where I was so far away from the source. Part of my most loving experience was the short time I spent with the Cherokee Nation in Missouri. Despite outward appearance I was drawn in and allowed to participate culminating in a honorary membership. While it may have just been words it started me off on a journey I am still following now, as a Metis.

Family Historian: Hit or Miss

I've had a wonderful set of short messages this past week with a second cousin of mine. She brought up the woes of being a family history researcher. In particular she has been rather glum about family secrets and salacious stories. I've encountered a few of those myself and it seems that once you get past someone's reluctance you then have to deal with the next persons dismissal and anger at the facts. Some of my closer family has just discovered my work which apparently was of no value to them previously. I've suddenly found myself put upon with questions and angry dismissals of fact. Whatever romantic notion my father gave me of how important a family historian is must be on its last legs by now.

As a anthropologist I've been trained to look at the qualitative information but not to the disregard of hard quantative sources. I happen to revel in cultural quirks which seem irrelevant to other people. Corrections are one thing to approach but flat out disgruntled and condescending relatives are another. It is a part of my adaption into a specialization instead of a entire pedigree. In fact with the last angry message I've considered jumping ship. Then again I have to remind myself that the person complaining is not apart of my specialization itself. I am barely scratching the surface as it were of my French family history of the Detroit region.

I also had a awkward conversation with my sister this week after having reviewed some DNA research with my father. The insanity of patriarchal naming hit me out of no where in the fact that I carry the surname Grant yet don't have any of its DNA as a daughter. Then again the same would be said for my mothers side that by a juvenile interpretation of genetics I could also not be a Jones. Unspoken irony then to the fact that my research is focused almost distinctly on my matriarchal lines. Still perhaps that is the answer to having any work undervalued that in truth the relevance of that complaint comes from your perception of your place in those families. Simply adjust ones world view and it seems to seldom matter what facetious opinions people hold except for the sake of accuracy. Then again when people are suffering under the delusion of self serving bias its a fat chance that they can admit to the validity of facts even in the presence of documentation.

So who am I researching for myself or my family? I started this all to learn about my origins and connect to family members that were lost. Now suddenly the ones I've always known are resentful that I'm searching. As the black sheep you'd think I'd have more freedom but maybe that is what they are afraid of...finding family more like myself. I am lucky at least to fit into my own little immediate group of four.

Plain, Simple, and Often Unsightly History

It's been a while since I posted new findings partially because my subscription is up but also I have been having a breather from this hobby while I focus on my health. The last few days however I became aware of a new television program placed on Hulu regarding the second World War. If you haven't watched "The Promise" I would recommend seeing it once just to open your perspective on world conflicts a bit more.

Having just finished the series this morning I can say that I have never been happier in my life that my Grandfather Harvey had not been sent overseas from Canada to serve with the British forces during the occupation of Israel. It is acctually apart of history I hadn't heard till now. This is maybe in part due to the fact that american schools teach very patriot-centriclly avoiding most especially when discussing war. My grandfather was lucky to escape as much conflict as possible during the war however his brother, Henry Charles, was not so lucky and died during 1944. Two of the other grand uncles I have may have also encountered a similar end but my access to records is minimal.

Last year my mother ordered a copy of Grandpa Harvey's war records. We knew he had served in WWII and in fact shipped off to a base in British Columbia with his brother Murray (who later married the stewardess that covered that flight). Having forgotten to make notes I can't be certain but I believe he enlisted with my Great Uncle Max, his brother in law by my Grandmother's sister. From the records my grandfather fulfilled his training quite well as a private in the Canadian corps of the British army. His transport to active duty overseas however was brought up short by the diabetic neuropathy in his legs though at the time they didn't define the cause. While his brothers and peers went over to die at the end of the war my Grandfather was left on base to fulfill rank duties there.

In fact by the time of his release from duty he had been given the rank of Acting-Sargent. That is not however the rank under which he was dismissed from service. He refused to accept the step in pay and rank just before his leaving because it had already disrupted his home life, (no doubt the 8 year difference between his first and last child as well as five years between middle and last) but also he felt unfit for the title given that he never experienced combat himself.

My grandfather has always been amazing to me in that same way as were his brothers and father who ran 'Earl Jones and Sons' in Windsor, Ontario. Grandpa Harvey took a job with the Shell Oil company but he also invested in other interests the biggest being the local Lions Club. My grandmother, his wife, was not entirely dis involved either as she volunteered for some years with the Red Cross, a suit that my second eldest cousin followed when she coauthored a book about it. All I have of my Grandfather today are some pictures and a lot of tears. When he passed I was only 5 years old and was so afraid of the changes that occured in him from his last few strokes I couldn't be held. That's a guilt I carry though I know he was reasonable enough to know why I was frightened. He showed me my first live fish under the short docks across from his old yellow house on the Detroit river. Being so little I was able to look between the slats and see them in the water. I also remember his office, though as a little child it looked like a personal library to me.

I can understand the power of grandfathers even though I've lost both of mine now. My Grandpa down from Missouri, Joseph Lincoln, also missed the war because of a Heart condition and like my northern Grandpa he served in local duty though as a personal secretary since he had gone to a 2 year college. Grandpa Jo showed me how to plant grass seed with straw so it wouldn't blow away. I'm just as happy with these memories knowing that I've lost them as people and it would be pointless to wish it all never happened because I wouldn't have the joy at all. So I am thankful many times over that both my grandfathers were saved from service abroad thought it may have hurt them to be left behind.

Endless Discovery

Today I am off to Amherstburg, Canada to visit my Grandmother Lucienna. I intended to have many questions to ask her but the Wismer family is fairly well researched already so I have little need except to enjoy humorous tales. I do of course have some hope that she may have pictures of her maternal grandparents, the Mills, who don't seem to be researched anywhere else. This may be due to the fact that like my Grandfather Harvey Jones's family most of the generations have since passed on and what little grandchildren my age remain have no interest. I thoroughly enjoy collecting images on my family especially since I don't particularly match any living relatives that closely.

Yesterday I considered the idea of tracking down a history course on Canada that I could take. It seems most colleges do not offer it so I settled into a quick reading of the Wikipedia page. The word Acadian came up and I was curious enough to read through it wondering what background this cultural group had. It seems Acadian could be in both of my parents tree's with my Paternal lines in Maine and now it seems through so quick luck today I have my answer in my mother's tree.

It is no new knowledge that I greatly honor my grandfather's Metis heritage from his father and as it turns out his mother also had a metis heritage of her own. Within a maternal offshoot from the Boussey's to the LaPierre's I came across my 9th Great Grandmother, Anne Marie Fauconnier Dit Metisse, born between 1616-1631 at the Metis settlement in Port Royal, Nova Scotia. She had married a Acadian man named Rene Raimbault, whose daughter Jeanne married Francois LaPierre. Jeanne's grand daughter Angelique married Nicholas Boissy (Boussey) my 6th Great Grandfather. All of this is such an amazing find since I so recently stumbled upon the new knowledge of the Acadian's perhaps it is serendipitous.  It appears that Anne Marie may have been Micmac Indian and luckily she has more records than most Indian women of that time. Further research into both the Acadian's and the life of Anne Marie will of course be a new focus for me.

Importance of DNA

The consolidation is going well for those that read me regularly. At this time I am about 200 people short (mostly in the Day family) of incorporating all of my Father's currently discovered ancestors. The other day I received a surprising message on Ancestry.com from a professional Genealogist (Dee Dee King) looking to find the family of my 1st cousin thrice removed on the Jones side. Within a few minutes search I verified the identity of cousin Freddie and had expanded my general knowledge of him. In fact his name had only shown up on a single census so far when I researched his parents and had been referred to as Fred.

Dee Dee did not present a very pleasant picture at first since she did not tell me why she wanted to contact next of kin or if perhaps she was a "lazy genealogist" going to let me do all the research for her. My Grandfather experienced a bit of this when working with a 'professional' on our published family history, at least she sourced him. After a message back and forth I finally opened the link that Dee Dee gave me and discovered her purpose for researching Freddie was much more noble than just getting paid. Ms. King is under contract it seems with the US Navy to research the men who died aboard the USS Oklahoma that was sunk in Pearl Harbor. The Navy it seems is still hoping to identify the remains through DNA sampling from living relatives.

Freddie Jones, (MM1c) is not the first war hero that has been in my tree. Most of the men born at the turn of the century served in WWI and in fact one of them was even willing to serve in both WW's despite his old age. Unfortunately I am a hop and skip relation to Freddie myself and could only have at best a 3-5% match on the M-DNA. The grand-kids of Freddie's sister Grace Jones seem unwilling to help or at best haven't had time to respond to Ms. King. I'm sure within the week or so they will have gotten back to her since the female relations would match well.

Speaking of DNA, last week I talked a bit about the Street family. It seems that the Mental defects are X-linked for the most part. The men not having a second X to counteract the deletion/mutations suffer the worst. It seems my grandfather's family all suffered a degenerative condition; Dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinsons, respectively by age. My father has made comments to my sister and I that we must get our bad health from his Mother's side because of a Uncle who suffers depression yet the evidence of inheritance says other words. Discovering Dementia and Alzhiemers so close to my generation is a recent development and no doubt a conversation I will have to have with my own Neurologist. This is especially pertinent since the degenerative diseases have shown up in at least 1 child each generation and my Aunt Debbie is the carrier in my Father's generation thus moreover proving the likelihood of a X-mutation.

Finding Cousins

My sister Heather has been commenting that I spend too much of my research time on dead sources when we have plenty of living cousins to find. She is right of course that I have almost no focus on living relatives. This is mostly due to how proliferative my 'Wismer' family has been up in Canada. Cousins upon cousins.

After the Leitzke, Neitzke debacle last week I am slightly more interested in living relatives than I have been in the past. As a change I ended up diving into the Boussey (Boissy) line of my Maternal Grandfather's tree. This would be the famous 'Fillies du Roi' decendency for which I have considered putting in a application to the society. A lot of my data has come from a user named 'AlyceBoussy' on Ancestry and I was curious enough to track her line from our common ancestor down.

It was fairly exciting to see that for the most part she was in a similar family design as I was with one or two families marrying siblings doubling our genetic comparisons. Closer however to recent I find that while her Father was predominantly french he married a lovely Italian woman. Following my own tree you have a predominately French woman marrying a Welshman. The difference that these  derivatives might make was tantalizing. I began to wonder whether she would have a interest in conversing with me.

So as I found Alyce's information I found that she had unfortunately passed away about 4 years ago and the family had not taken down her work. Four years is when I began doing research and so I missed a chance to reach out to a cousin I didn't know I had and find a connection that I am missing to French culture. This is especially disheartening since it is my Grandfather's family that I have little to no knowledge of.  His mother had been a Boussey and so I am grateful to Alyce's family for not taking down her work. Yet here I sit still missing my contacts as well from the Jones family line for most of my Grandfather's brothers: Murray, Floyd, Henry, & Ralph all predeceased him. After my grandfather's death the families separated and the 'Jones & Sons, LTD' was dissolved.

As of now I have placed in over 1700 unique people into my tree and most of those in the past week are cousins that I am no longer willing to miss out on. Perhaps I will find the secret to the Jones' in the old reunion papers that my Grandmother Lucienna has sent to me through my mother.

This Changes Everything

A while ago I asked my mother for a picture of her paternal grandmother. As a great surprise she also came up with a small package of the Jones family history. Within this envelope was a original copy of the 1966 article featuring my Great (x3) Grandmother Catharine Dufour. I had been given what I thought was a copy of this small article already. Turns out it was a full page spread in the Saginaw News.

From the article I was able to gleam most of a interview she gave to a historian named, James Sweinhart, in c. 1900. Intimate details that explain some of the timeline distortion are available in just these small glimpses of her interview that was included in the 1966 print about Jonesfield Township.

Beginning in her childhood Catherine reffers to her father as Peter who owned a strip of land across the river from the fort. She had a sister who may not have survived into adulthood and she was close to a paternal aunt.Her family watched from accross the bank in fear as French nationals as the fort was taken.

“One night in summer I and my sister in bed. My sister asleep, but I awake. I hear my mother call fadder to the door, Peter to the door. Someone knock, I think the Indian come and I cry. I hear great noise cross the river.” “Next morning I get up and look out the window. All the bank of Canada side lined with solider. My dear boy, how fine they all looked in their red suits. Six O’ Clock come. They draw up cannon and fire at the fort.”

“Then Fadder come pick us up and hurry to the woods. After a time the solider go away. Pretty soon they come back and go straight into the fort.” “The officer come out and talk a long while. A white flag is on the fort. Pretty soon they take it down and a red English flag is put up. Then the blue coats all march out and the red coats march in. Then Fadder tells us the fort is surrender and we stay no longer.”

Other notable information bits include her mother's death date within two years of the Fort being taken. Her father than passed her on to his mother who was too old to raise another child and gave her away to a local young couple. The name listed on Catherine's death record as her Father may in fact be this man who raised her in his household from 10-20 years of age.

“When I grow up I go back to Detroit. In those days there was a hotel named ‘The Eagle’ and I work dere as a cook. Den after a long time I get married. I 29 years old.” (All during her story to Sweinhart and reportedly all during her life, Catherine fondly referred to her husband as “Johnny”. He was also 29 when they married.)“My Fadder get married too same year and I never see him again. My man his name John Jones. He come over from England (actually Wales). In 1832 and two year later we get married.”

Perhaps Peter Dufour can be gleamed from the new information but regardless I have the joy of hearing my frontier ancestor talk about her life in a intimate way. Not everyone gets to enjoy the words of their ancestors so freely.

“After a time our cornmeal begin to get short and we have no flour. In wintertime I cannot go to Saginaw and back in a day. The Injun gone long while and left us alone and I afraid to leave children by themselves.” “Den, ah den, my child, we begin to listen for the footstep of da Fadder. Every day we watch da stream dat flow by our cabin and listen far into da night. One day da sun go down and all the sky was red as fire. Everything was dry, da tree an’ branches above and the twigs on da ground.” “A leetle snow was on da tree. We all watch da sun as he sink down to sleep in a blaze of red fire. As we look suddenly we hear far away as it was a hundred mile, a cry. ‘Yo-HO! Yo-Ho!’. My child, how da warm blood ran from ma ole heart. We listen.” “Again it come a leetle louder, leetle clearer. ‘Eagle’ say the baby (Thomas). ‘No’ say Edward, the oldest boy, ‘it’s fadder, fadder, fadder.’ An it was. When it come again, I answer and it come nearer and nearer. Da sun been down and hour and it twilight. We had the fire heaped high. Da fire shown bright and warm and made da spur on da evergreen glisten, and we all stand round da door as da dark night settle down. Soon we hear a step and in come da Fadder with flour and other things we wished for so long. ”

Who is Henry Dupuis?

My Great (x3) Grandmother Catharine is a enigma. Upon her death in 1912 she had stated that she never left the great lakes in all her life. According to limited genealogical data her father was Peter Duforce of Fort Detroit, a Frenchman. Her death certificate written at a Nursing home in Big Rapids, Michigan tells a different story. (K)Catherine according to that document was daughter of Henry Dupuis, a Belgian immigrant. So who is this Henry Dupuis and how could he possibly be her father?

In searching the back story of Peter Dufour born of Bonvivant in New France (1754) one comes across the general consensus that Peter was a traveling man. Thinking back to the research shared with me by Guy Carpentier,of the Dufour Family organization, we have evidence that post revolution Peter traveled under assumed names between the lakes and river fronts. Peter eventually retook his name over time and it is here that we find him mentioned in the journal's of  John Baptiste Perrualt II, which are published in "Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections" in 1909". Perrault began traveling in 1783 with the local fur trade alliances down the Mississippi. His companions for this trip are named as Canadian men: Mr. Sacharit of Quebec;  St.Germain, Mr. Robert & Mr. Dupuis of Maskinong; Antoine & Francois Beauchemin, Manard, L.Lavalle of Sorel & Yamaska. Marchesseau sold all his goods in the trade to Chouteau, of St-Louis.
It is here that we have the first appearance of Dupuis alongside a trip that would fall headlong into a encounter with Peter Dufour (alias Dufaut).

"...Upon entering the river the next day and doubling the point of the little lake, we saw a wintering-house. It was that of Mr. Dufaut, come from Grand Portage, clerk for NW. and we stopped before his door. As Mr.Kay had perhaps taken only one drink he now took the second which made him ill-tempered so that instead of receiving politely Mr. Dufaut, who came down to meet him on the beach, he treated him rudely... "


At this time Dufour and children of related surnames began to be birthed in the area in which both Dupuis and Peter Dufour travelled. A Pierre Dufault for example appears in one of the areas know to be propagated by Pierre son of Bonvivant.

Pierre Dufault, Ojibwa Metis, b-1815 Sault Ste Marie son of Ojibwa Metis parents, listed March 28, 1836 treaty.

It was popular at the time for Frenchmen to have multiple families because the Catholic church did not always honor marriages between frenchmen and Indians. It is possible that Catherine's mother was never legally wed which explains the lack of documentation. However family story claims that there is a existing newspaper announcement from the times stating that Pierre Dufour had wed an indian woman. For now information like that remains a holy grail. Yet I cannot dismiss the existence of Henry Dupuis from Belgium.

A History Divided

As readers no doubt would know my focus on genealogy always seems to come back to the War of 1812 within the Detroit River area. At the time our nation was liberal and as such the peoples straddled lands that today are quite separate. While renewing my research interest I came to the realization that this division is a great hurdle to my record finding.

My maternal line consists of a strong influx of French and German Canadians all of who traveled quite often into Michigan. This creates a disparity between records. While I can easily search the Library of Canada's Genealogical supply I am limited in my findings due to coresidency or immigration. Sadly during this period not only were the first generational wave immigrants themselves, from France (or otherwise), but their children then became Canadian immigrants into the United States. 

Growing up in my day I have always visited my family still residing in Canada so I can understand how living so close in the Detroit River area one simply considers it a skip across the stream. Our Secretary of State would of course not agree since I have to hold a Enhanced license as supplement for a Passport. Historical Detroit's records are measly at best from what can be accessed online and I feel as if the States has failed me in this respect.

Yet new information always appears such as my stumbling upon a possible site for my Ancestors wedding site. I had been given the name "Eagle Hotel" in Detroit, Michigan to which nothing existed. However a pleasant surprise in my search today lead me to the Eagle Tavern of Greenfield Villiage.Possibility is high that this tavern was the site of my Great Grandparents wedding as the groom was a Ferryman for some years running the water trail from New York to Detroit originally. I can only look forward to what more study might bring and perhaps more records may open up here in Michigan.

Midnight Introductions aren't for Making Friends

When I began to have a strong interest in the information a close cousin passed down to me about my Great Grandmother Catherine Jones (Dufour) I took each element word for word. That is to say no independent fact checking before running head first into the Drouin Collection of records on the Dufour Family in Quebec.

Last night I received a response from the Vice-President of the Dufour families association of North America. He was nonetheless not to happy about a midnight message I had sent last year complaining about the merging of two first cousins into one record.

Mind you I was suffering Sepsis from a liver abscess and blocked gallbladder so I doubt I wrote my comments to the webmaster very tactfully.

According to Guy Charpentier, the Pierre Parfiat Dufour of St, Anne parish changed his name and relocated to Missouri where he married, twice.

Due to his actions during the American Revolution, in 1778, Parfait assumed temporarily a false identity, calling himself Antoine during the hostilities, most likely to avoid retaliation by the British against his siblings living in the Detroit area. Once the war of independence had ended, and Detroit had been handed over to the U.S.A., he reassumed his true Christian name - Parfait. He used indifferently or jointly the names of Antoine and Parfait thereafter.

Now while I should be incredibly happy with this since I have recently considered a generation younger to most likely contain Catherine's father by a son of Joahim Dufour... Mr. President states that through firsthand research he can find no document proving these men: Antonie Dufour born in Montreal and Pierre Parfiat born in Quebec are separate individuals.

The hilarity here is that with divided interest I recently filled out the siblings tree's looking for another Pierre Dufour who could have passed down the name. This led me to review the marriages of women into the Dufour family of which those attributed to Pierre incognito are clearly documented elsewhere with younger men. Now if Pierre Parfiat was my Grandmother's father then he would have been 51 when he conceived her. My Grandmother's obituary says that she never moved from the Detroit river region and her father was with her all of her youth.

"Jonesfield Township History Traced to 1812: Mrs. Edward Jones, A.ea's First Resident, Lived to be 107." "In Detroit August 16, 1812, American General William Hull ... gave up the fort...a 6 year old half French half Indian girl named Catherine DuForce ... was at the fort. She had been born September 15, 1805, the daughter of Peter DuForce and his Indian wife, and had lived all her life along the Detroit River." ~ through death "Catherine's death notice came in the Big Rapids Bulletin Herald September 6, 1912. She died September 5, just 10 days short of her 107th birthday. The notice said: "In the death yesterday afternoon at Mercy Hospital of Mrs. Katherine (Catherine) Jones, the State of Michigan lost its oldest Native inhabitant. She was 106 years, 11 months and 17 days (actually 20 days), and despite the ravages of time, she retained a remarkable physical vitality and a wonderfully clear memory. The body was shipped to Hungerford this afternoon and the funeral services will be held at the Hungerford Church. Internment will be in Hungerford." She was buried in Hunkleford Cemetery near Woodville, about seven miles west of Big Rapids."

Source: The Saginaw News, Sunday May 29, 1966 (section B, Page 3) & USGENWEB

Oh and Mr. president you are about to publish that Pierre Dufour Born April 1754 married his nephew's wife who was almost 30 years younger. Good luck with that...

Now onto the more interesting ideas. If Pierre did go into hiding in Missouri than that places him in the Red Reedies area to which another mystery Dufour/Dufault family exists. Therese Dufault maybe another child and lays creedence to the family tales of a mixed heritage. (Clues to ancestry of Therese Dufault)

If Pierre Dufour, Jr. did leave the Great lakes region than why is he listed as a founding member of Wayne County (Historical Publications of Wayne County)

Oh Pierre you Dirty Bird...!