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Michael Driscoll b 1793 married Helena Fitzgerald -I have DNA match

CorkMyross (Cork)

'Michael Driscoll married Helena Fitzgerald.  Son, Denis was born in Ireland.  I found this in a book on the history of Lamoille, Illinois, where this family finally settled.  I am wondering if they are of the 'Blackstaff' Fitzgeralds/Driscoll's......but that is a guess based on their relationship to my John Driscoll of Rineen (b 1832)

DENIS DRISCOLL, Lamoille, was born May 27, 1835. in Ireland; is a son of Michael and Helena (Fitzgerald) Driscoll, natives of Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland. They left the Emerald Isle about the year 1836, to make a home in the new world. They landed in Boston, Mass., and made that city their home for a period of twelve years. In 1848, on the 8th day of October, they came to La- moille Township in Bureau County, and the following spring settled on a place which their brother-in-law had entered the year before. The Driscoll family, when they came here, consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll, and four boys: Michael, Denis, James and Daniel Driscoll.

Of these Michael died in Louisiana, and James in Sterling, 111. Michael Driscoll, Sr., was born 1793; he died here in August, 1849. Mrs. Helena Driscoll was born
in 1800, and when her husband died, managed the home farm, and added to it
from time to time. Although she has been one of the hardest working women in this part of the country, she is yet able to get about and read and sow without spectacles.

 

Her two sons, Denis, born May 27, 1835, in the old country, and Daniel, born May 20, 1842, in Boston, are living with her at home. Denis Driscoll went to Boston in August, 1863, in search of one of his brothers; from there he went to New York, and then to San Francisco, Cal., via Panama. In California be mined, returning
the same way in December, 1864. Since then he has farmed successfully, especially of later years. They now own a farm of 240 acres. Politically, both boys are identified with the Democratic party.'

They have a rather famous descendent in 'Fibber and Molly',  Molly was Marian I Driscoll b 1898 USA.  I am trying to find out anything about the Irish roots of this family - and how they relate to my John Driscoll.  Thank you.

kezdriscoll

5 replies

You mentioned DNA in the subject, but didn't elaborate in your post. I also have family from the area (although not those surnames) and was wondering you wanted to expound what you have a bit more. For example I have kits from the three main testing companies up on http://www.gedmatch.com for my Mother (whose maternal line is from this area of Ireland.) If you care to compare to her kits they are M121714 (that's from 23andme), F189796 (from FTDNA) and A145906 (from AncestryDNA).

 

Sincerley,

Lenny Zimmermann

zarlor

Hi Lenny

 

My FTDNA number is 233326 and I am fairly new to using it.  I have tracked the births of 5 of my GG Grandparent's children to Union Hall, In the Castlehaven and Myross Parish.  They are baptised as being 'from Rineen' or 'Rinneen'.  GG Grandparents are John Driscoll b about 1834, and Kate O'Neil (Neale in UK).  I have written what I know in another post here.

 

I am most interested in that Michael Driscoll 1793,, and Helena Fitzgerald as they are the closest dna match I can find so far, and I am particularly interested in the Driscoll side of my family.  I get the name but it comes from my G Grandmother.......long story and a few opened closets there. Most interesting though.

I have a match to a chap by the surname of Roberts, who has the Driscoll's I wrote about, from Peoria, Illinois.  There is also a match to a family who had a Widow Mary Driscoll,b 1796   whose daughter Mary Driscoll (1820?) who married Michael McCarthy, and son James Driscoll (1819?)and all went to Cincinnati.   I am tracking them now.

I have a few matches to the name Hayes, but have not worked this out yet.

I did the dna as there were so many gaps and most of my kin in Irish, but they all seem so blown to the wind. It is inteeresting I have found so many in America, as my people went to the docklands of London.

I do not know about that other site you mention 23andme?  I am curious? Can I get my FTDNA test and put it on that site?

I am trying to work out who my John Driscoll's and Kate O'Neill's parents were.  John must have been a cousin or sibling to some of the people I have found as I am 4th cousins in the dna.

Cheers

Kerry Driscoll

kezdriscoll

23andme is just another genetic testing company (http://www.23andme.com). I believe they have a larger database than FTDNA but a LOT of people actually tend to use it more of the health marker information they provide rather than for genealogy, so the response rate of genetic cousins isn't always that good. Ancestry.com also now has an autosomal test available, too, which is helpful if you have a tree set up on ancestry as it will automatically search the trees of others who have taken the test to find common ancestors. Neither of those places will accept FTDNA autosomal data, but FTDNA will accept 23andme data (and rumors are that they will also begin accepting Ancestry data in the future.)

However, is your FTDNA test an autosomal test (I think they call it Family Finder, if I remember correctly) or is it a Y-DNA or mtDNA test by chance? If it's Y-DNA and/or mtDNA then you can manually input your markers into Ancestry DNA's database for those, which could potentially widen your matches. If it's a Family Finder/Autosomal test you can upload your data to http://www.gedmatch.com which will allow you to compare your data against others who have uploaded their data from those other companies, so again it may help broaden your search with more people. It also allows you to look at smaller segments you might have in common with others than FTDNA would normally allow you to compare against.

If you do have an autosomal test and decide to upload to gedmatch let me know, I'd like to compare my Mom's kit there (F189796) with yours.

So far I see no matches with the surnames you mentioned but I do run into more than a few dead ends in the area myself in the mid. and early 1800s.

zarlor

I have done the family finder test. Not sure how to upload to other site but will ask friendly geek.

kezdriscoll

 

Upload functionality at gedmatch is down right now, but it should be back up and available probably next week (they were inundated with Ancestry DNA uploads since Ancestry only recently released data for download). Once it is available again, though, they do provide fairly detailed, step-by-step directions on how to download your FTDNA data file and then upload it to Gedmatch.

BTW, I did check through my Mom's FTDNA Family Finder matched and did not see any matches for Driscoll, so there may be no connection there, or it may just be too small to see with FTDNA. Either way, however, I do wish you great luck in your research!

Lenny

zarlor

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