Marilynn Weiss Marshall, 1933-2016

Marilynn Weiss Marshall, 1933-2016

It is with great sadness that I share that we have lost our dear Gates cousin, Marilynn Weiss Marshall, who lived in Carmel, Indiana.
She passed away July 20, 2016, at age 83.
Marilynn was the grand daughter of Christina Barbara Gates, and Christina was sister to our great grandfather, John Charles Marcus Gates. That made Marilynn our "second cousin, once removed."

Marilynn found me on Ancestry.com and shared with me all the research that she had done on our mutual Goetz (and Gotz) ancestors in Germany. Without Marilynn, we would have never known that our great grandfather had 4 siblings. We thought he had just one brother.
 And we would have never known that our Goetz ancestors were "feilenhauer"( filemakers) in Nuremburg, Germany.

Marilynn gave us so much information we could have never imagined. Marilynn shared the heartbreaking letter that one of the Gates sons wrote to Marilynn's grandmother, Christina, explaining about the death of the first Gates grandchild, "Victor Eugene," son of Gertrude Gates and Albert Vogel. Marilynn and her sister shared many photos of the Goetz family in Germany, and in Indiana, and we had quite a time trying to figure out who they all were. She even had a photo of John Charles Marcus Gates, his wife Lizzie and their daughter, Gertrude, visiting Christophe Gates' (John Gates' father) grave in Germany.

Thank you Marilynn for all your research and friendship. I hope we will go on to find more about our Gates ancestors in Germany, in honor of you. We will miss you!

Obituary, KPC News, July 24, 2016

CARMEL — Marilynn C. Marshall, 83, of Carmel, passed away on July 20, 2016.
She was born May 17, 1933, in Angola, Indiana to the late Carl and Lois (Wolfe) Weiss.

Marilynn was a registered nurse and her career spanned many states including Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. In Indiana, she was the Director of Nurses for St. Vincent New Hope and later continued as a nurse for Community Hospital. Marilynn was a member of Carmel United Methodist Church for 40 years, participating in two medical missionary trips to Mexico and was a member of Stephen Ministries. In addition, Marilynn was a regent for the Daughters of the American Revolution.

She is survived by her husband, Edwin W. Marshall; her three children, Christina (Joel) Larson, Donise (Scott) Gehrisch, and Robert (Guy O'Neill) Marshall; ten grandchildren; sister, Suzanne (Richard) Bottomley; and her brother, John C. (Elaine) Weiss.

Visitation will be from 3-5 p.m. Monday at Carmel United Methodist Church at 621 S. Rangeline Road, with the memorial service immediately following.
In honor of Marilynn's passion for medical mission work, memorial contributions can be made to Samaritan's Purse, to help supply countries in need of medical supplies.

Friends and family are encouraged to leave condolences for Marilynn and her family at www.flannerbuchanan.com.
Flanner and Buchanan – Carmel

325 E Carmel Dr
Carmel, IN 46032
(317) 848-2929

Published in KPC News on July 24, 2016

Mary Jane Gates or Mary Reuter Gates?

Photos That Keep On Giving

In an earlier blog, I had posted a photo of a young woman who I thought was Mary Jane Gates, my mother's first cousin. I had good reason to think it was her. There were captions on the back which, even though written by teen-agers, and in somewhat indecipherable handwriting, seemed to indicate who the person in the photo was. That is, if you are thinking in terms of captions that people write on the back of photos.

Then recently, I got a match on 23and Me of a second cousin, daughter of who I thought was Mary Jane Gates in the photo. She introduced me to her sister, who is also our new second cousin. My new dna match and her sister descend from our grandfather's (Augustus J. Gates) brother, Albert Gates and his wife, Alvina Knapp. The supposed Mary Jane Gates, in the photo, was Albert and Alvina's daughter.

I was so happy to show my new cousin and her sister this photo.

Only trouble was, she said, "that's not my mother."

What?

"My mother didn't live in Louisville, KY, and did not go to Atherton High School."

To prove it, she sent me a photo of her mother. She was right! She knew what her mother looked like!
This is a photo of our new cousins' mother, the real Mary Jane Gates.

Mary Jane "Jane" Gates, 1910-2002

Then who was in the first photo?

"Maybe it's Mary Reuter Gates," our new cousin said. Mary Reuter Gates was another of our mother's first cousins. Mary Reuter Gates was the daughter of John M. Gates, one of our grandfather's other brothers.

So I went back to the original photo and tried again to figure out what the cryptic words on the back meant.

This is the backside of the photo:

"Return in ? years to [J?] M Gates 2114 Kenilworth, Louisville, KY.

This brings pleasant memories. Jane? [or J.M?] Gates.

Henrietta Fallis. I have carried this picture since 9/12/25. Reward

8/3/27 Given to my Dearest cousin, 'Connie' " [Connie Gates, my mother, was 15 in 1927.]

The address says: "2114 Kenilworth, Louisville, KY."  Mary Reuter Gates' family DID live in Louisville, KY. And 2114 Kenilworth turns out was their family's address on the 1930 census. Was she saying return this photo to "J.M Gates," meaning her father's address: "John M. Gates"?

There are so many other possibilities of what the signatures could say. Mary Reuter could have been going by a nickname, "J.M." Gates. The first initial "J" might be an arrow pointing to the name. Her father, J.M Gates (John M. Gates) might have signed her photo himself. (unlikely).
What do you think?

I originally found the friend "Henrietta Fallis" in the Atherton High School year book. Looking there again, I now found Mary Reuter Gates in 1925. She does look more like the original photo.

So the photo has got to be of Mary Reuter Gates.

On hindsight, I believe that the signatures on the back of the photo are like signatures on yearbook photos, when you sign your name on your friend's photo.  And the names are those of friends signing, not captions of the person in the photo.
The friends signing it are (first cousin) (Mary) Jane Gates, friend Henrietta Fallis, and it was passed on to (first cousin) Connie Gates.  
"This brings pleasant memories, Jane Gates" could be Mary Jane Gates' signature on her cousin, Mary Reuter Gates,' photo. Mary Jane Gates did go by "Jane" Gates.

What high school cousins would think that their daughters and grand-daughters would someday be struggling to figure out what they wrote on their high school photos?

According to our new second cousins, Mary Reuter Gates never married or had any children.

I wondered about Mary Reuter Gates' brother, John M. Gates, Jr., who was two years younger.

If only we had some yearbook photos for him!

...but wait...

Here is John Gates' senior picture at University of WA, 1934. His listed birth age is 1911 which matches his birth record, 13 Mar 1911, from the KY Birth Index.

Could this be Mary Reuter Gates' brother?

Social Security Death Index shows John Gates, born 13 Mar 1911 (our John M. Gates' birth date), died in Jan 1982, with a last place of residence, to be Vancouver, Clark, Washington. His SS card was issued in KY, so he seems to be our Gates cousin. Well, he'd be our parents' first cousin and our first cousin, once removed.

This John M. Gates, Jr., had a wife, Mary I., and at least one daughter, born about 1940.
That means we have another living female second cousin (children of first cousins are second cousins), whose maiden name was GATES, possibly living in WA state. Did she have brothers or sisters born after 1940? Did she have children? And what name might they carry? Does anyone in the family know anything about John M. Gates, Jr. and his daughter?

More research for the curious.
If ONLY we had some genealogy sleuths in our family living in WA!

NEW COUSIN! Y-TEST RESULTS

R1b: Gates (Goetz) and Myers (Maier) origins

GATES MYERS Y-TEST RESULTS, OR LACK OF...

Hello Gates family, cousins, and interested readers. It's been a busy year or so for the Gates extended family. We've taken two Y-tests: one for GATES and one for MYERS. Thanks Bill and Gus for testing! And thanks to all those who donated to pay for the tests! We have waited patiently for the results. BOTH tests returned as haplogroup R-M269, or in old vernacular, R1b1a2.

With the same haplogroup, one might think that this meant that our Myers/Maier and Gates/Goetz ancestors were members of the same larger clan. They may have been part of the same larger population but that population appears to be all of western Europe. The haplogroup R1b1a2 is the dominant branch of R1b, the most common group in all Europe. Doesn't exactly pin down the ancestors.

And then we waited for exact matches who might give us some inkling of our German ancestors...and we waited...and waited...with not much to show.
The GATES 37-marker Y-test, in over a year and a half, has netted us exactly 7 matches, all only 12-marker tests ("low resolution"), with no 25 or 37-marker matching results and none with the surname GATES or GOETZ. Different surnames means that those 7 matches are from a time before surnames were adopted, so aren't of any use for genealogical searching. This is a bit of a disappointment.

The MYERS 67-marker Y-test, since Oct 2011, has produced over 1000 matches, but also all, except two, were 12-marker tests, and none had the name MYERS or MAIER or variant. A total of two 25-marker tests ("medium resolution") showed up as matches but, their names were Strassman and Baker.

Our closest match in all that time is an "almost-match." Although he didn't show up as an official match, I saw his results on The Myers DNA Project, his test listed one line below our Myers test. The almost-match is a descendant of a Franz "DOLLENMAYER," born 1821, Wurttemberg, Germany. Unfortunately, the tester has 12 markers that don't match our Myers/ Maier 67-marker test. Twelve mismatches of markers is 5 too many to be considered a match by the testing company.

On the 1870 Tuscarawas, Stark County, Ohio census, seven years before his death, Jacob Maier states his exact place of birth was Wurttemberg, Germany, in about 1810. Same place as our almost-match, Dollenmayer.

Might "Dollenmayer" have been a longer name that was shortened to "Maier" at some distant point in history? Is it a fantasy to think of a Mr. Dollenmayer getting tired of writing such a long name? Is it a fantasy to imagine ever getting a match for our German lines? There should be male descendants of our German lines out there, but where are they?

AUTOSOMAL DNA TESTS

On a more positive note, our lack of results in the Y-testing has been balanced by the exciting results of the Autosomal tests ("a-t" DNA). Autosomal testing is a new way of searching for ancestors and is becoming very popular.
The Y-test tracks the Y-chromosome which is passed from father to son only. The Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) test tracks the mother's line, from mother to daughter (and from mother to son, but only for one generation), but the Autosomal test (atDNA) looks at all the chromosomes, on all the lines, so a woman can take the test. Finally!

I have tested, and cousin Barb has tested, at 23andMe, so we are having fun seeing where we have DNA in common and seeing who it is who matches both of us.

Since Barb and I are first cousins, how much DNA should we have in common?

• According to the mathematics of genetics, DNA divides approximately in half with each generation. We get about 50% of our DNA from each of our parents. We have about 50% DNA in common with our siblings. We have about 25% DNA in common with our grandfather, grandmother, aunt and uncle, as well as our nieces and nephews. Think about that for a moment. 25% of your DNA is the same as that of your grandmother or grand father. Your grandchild or your niece or nephew carries about 25% of you.

So first cousins should have about, on average, 12.5% DNA in common. But Barb and I have 14.7%!
We are on the high end of the statistical range of matching DNA for first cousins. My first very unscientific thought was that the Gates genes were probably extra-dominant.

Comparing to others at 23andME, it is most exciting to see that Barb and I have at least 2 other women who match both Barb and me on exactly the same segment of the x chromosome (the x chromosome determines gender). And the two women also match each other. That means that we all 4 have an ancestor in common. But one of the women knows little about her ancestry and the other woman's tree shows no obvious ancestors in common with the Gates lines. It's a challenge, at least, to find the connection.

And cousin Marilynn has tested at Ancestry.com and turned up as a match to me. They predict she is a "3rd-4th" cousin match but actually she is a "second cousin, once removed."

• The "removed" means we're cousins of different generations. Marilynn's father, Carl Weiss, and A.J. Gates were first cousins (they were sons of siblings, Christina Barbara Goetz and John C.M. Goetz), so Marilynn and my mother, Connie, were second cousins. I would be a third cousin to Marilynn's daughter. So to Marilynn, I'm a second cousin, "once removed."

 I can't tell how much, or on which chromosome, Marilynn and I match because Ancestry does not share that information. To compare her test to my test, Marilynn would have to transfer her results to Gedmatch.com, a volunteer-run website that crunches numbers all day for free. My results are already posted there, happily generating comparisons to possible cousins at all hours of the day or night. It's the only place that results from all three companies can be compared to each other.

NEW COUSIN

Closer to the present, through Autosomal testing on FTDNA, I got a DNA match from a male second cousin with the surname BUNKER. He is descended from Albert Gates and Alvina Knapp's daughter, Mary Jane Gates, who lived in Louisville, KY. (Albert was A.J. Gates' brother and Mary Jane was Connie, Fran, Gus, Bill and Pat's first cousin.)

 I recognized the name Bunker immediately because I had seen Albert's death certificate and always wondered who the informant "Mrs. Thomas Bunker" was. I should have guessed it was one of Albert's children. Our other most recent new Gates cousins from Texas are also descendants of Albert, some from Mary Jane Gates Bunker and some from Mary Jane Gates' brother, Ned Gates, and sister, Ruth Gates Heath.

So our latest Bunker cousin matches DNA of both my two brothers (who also have both tested) and me. He would probably match Barb also, but he tested at FTDNA, not 23andMe. I can see Mr. Bunker's results on FTDNA but I can also compare our results on Gedmatch.com and take advantage of their analysis tools because we both transferred our results. He is also my "second cousin, once removed."

• Connie and Mary Jane were first cousins, in the same generation. I'm the daughter of Connie but our new cousin is the GRANDSON of Mary Jane. If he were Mary Jane's son, he would be my second cousin, since children of first cousins are second cousins. New cousin Bunker and my daughter would be full third cousins (with no "removed"), both being in the same generation. 
• New cousin Bunker and Marilynn, both second cousins, once removed to me, are "second cousins, 2 times removed" to each other. I confess, I used my genealogy software to calculate that.

So, welcome new Bunker cousin! All the Gates cousins on this list are happy to know of you!

Mary Jane Gates 1910-2002

The above photo is Mary Jane Gates, our new cousin Bunker's grandmother, in about 1925.

Doesn't she look just like we girls looked in the early 60's? I had that exact hair style in 1959! On second thought, maybe I had that hair style because it was my mother who was the one who arranged my hair that way, teaching me to set the little curls by twisting the hair around her finger and pinning it with bobby pins, like she and Mary Jane probably did in 1925 or so. How times don't change.

Here are the captions that teen-ager Mary Jane wrote on the back of this photo.

CAPTION

"Return in ? years to J M Gates 2114 Kenilworth, Louisville, KY.

This brings pleasant memories. J M Gates.

Henrietta Fallis. I have carried this picture since 9/12/25. Reward

8/3/27 Given to my Dearest cousin, 'Connie' "[Connie was 15 in 1927.]

I've had this picture in my collection for so long. Finally, I could share it with someone who it was connected to. Maybe I should add on the back of it, "I've carried this photo since 1958."

Bonus photo: Mary Jane's friend, Henrietta Fallis, from Atherton High School, Louisville, KY, 1930

CHRISTOPH GOETZ, THE MAN WHO WENT TO WAR

 

Christoph Goetz, 1809-1857, abt age 47, Nuremburg, Germany

This photo is a scan, of a xerox, of a photo of Christoph Goetz (Gotz), born 1809, Nuremburg, Bavaria, Germany, who was the father of John Charles Marcus Gates (born Goetz).

John Charles Marcus Gates was born in Nuremburg, Germany in 1845 and immigrated in 1864, age 19, ending up in Louisville, KY. He was father of 8 children, including A.J. Gates, Albert Gates and Mabel Gates.

The story from my Nana (A.J. Gates' wife) was that Christoph Goetz told his wife, Anna Sibylla (Steffler) Goetz, that he was going to war and might not be back. If this photo is Christoph, it must have been taken shortly before he left. Not sure which war. There was a revolution in Germany in 1848. Not sure if this revolution continued up to 1857, the year of his death, in Nuremburg, or if he was injured and died later. With a uniform, one might think that he was in a German army, part of the government, that was trying to suppress the revolting 48-ers. Some detective work on the uniform might exactly date which army he was with.

In 1853, four years before his death and a few years after the revolution of 1848, considered by most to have failed,  his oldest son, Lawrence, was sent to America, at age 14, where he worked on a farm in Indiana.

1854 was the last year we know Christoph was with his family, since he conceived his last child, a son, who was born Dec.1854 in Nuremburg.

Being that the father was going to war around the same time that the sons were leaving for America might lead one to suspect that they might have been removing their sons to avoid their having to join the German army when they reached the age of conscription.

Seven years after Christoph died, his second son, John Charles Marcus Goetz, immigrated to America in 1864, at age 19, to be followed by Christoph's third son, Christopher Lawrence, who immigrated, the following year, in 1865, at age 17. The rest of their family, two sisters, Christina Barbara Goetz and her husband George Weiss; Margaret Goetz and her husband George Fiedler, their mother, Anna Sibilla (Steffler) Goetz and youngest brother, William J.C., followed in 1867. 

Who do you think he looks like? I think he looks like my Uncle Gussy (My mother's brother, son of A.J. Gates). How appropriate that we now have another ancestor face to go with the newly-determined Gates DNA haplogroup of R1b1a2!

Thank you, cousins in Indiana, for sharing this image with us.

Another photo below from our Indiana cousins.

This is John Charles Marcus Gates, wife Elizabeth (La Salle) and daughter Gertrude Gates Vogel at the grave of Christoph Goetz. Apparently Christoph did come back from the war alive. Caption on back says: "Our father's grave, Christoph Gotz, born Nov 17, 1809, died Oct 30, 1857."

From left: unidentified man (possibly John Charles Marcus Gates' German cousin, "Karl"?), John Charles Marcus Gates with the cane, Gertrude Gates Vogel, his oldest daughter (Gertrude was A.J.'s, Mabel's and Albert's older sister) and Elizabeth Lasalle Gates, his wife.

This photo below is from Connie Gates Markle's collection. She thought the man in the portrait frame might have been Christoph Goetz.

From left: Albert Gates, Elizabeth Gates, Mabel and Gertrude Gates (or Mabel and friend), John Charles Marcus Gates, and Charles Gates, holding portrait of unknown ancestor, possibly Christoph Goetz.

If only they had kept a diary, we might not have to wonder and guess what their reasons for their actions were. Yet, do any of us moderns consider keeping a diary to record the reasons surrounding our current life events?

Why not start today?

Copyright 2013
Jan Davis Markle

SEARCHING WHERE THE LIGHT IS BETTER

Searching for Charles Davis

28 May 2011

 

Searching where the light is better

A Pause in the Search

The results of our newest William Davis DNA Project member has given me pause, as they say. I’ve had to stop and rethink my strategy for finding my Charles Davis. After getting lost in searching among the so many Charles Davises (many in every state, every county, every year!), I’ve had to think what exactly is the plan, otherwise I will just be casting about, suddenly stopping every time I see the name Charles Davis, whether he’s a farmer in Wisconsin or a miner in California.
It doesn't matter that I'm supposed to be looking for a Charles Davis who is a resident of Missouri and who is visiting NYC in 1902; every Charles Davis I see, no matter which state he’s in, I think might be the one. I’ve even spent many a number of hours tracking a Davis line because we (my daughter and I) think his photo looks like my father or my brothers! (that’s called the Psychic strategy.)
My worst thought is that I may have already found but disregarded him because he was married to someone else or because he seemed to have only 4 daughters. He could have been visiting New York City whether he was a wood chopper or a railroad engineer. Just because he “transferred his DNA” does not presume that he and my grandmother were married or even that he lived nearby for any length of  time. The genealogist’s nightmare is the traveling salesman. What kind of records could you expect to find for him?

SEARCHING ANGST

Sometimes the NOT finding can get to you and you want to find ANY Charles Davis, just to be able to find one, just to remind yourself that there was, indeed, a real live man, who lived somewhere! and whose DNA he conveniently passed down to my father and my brother. (Thanks Gramp! Is it ok to call you that?)

STRATEGIES OR TRAGEDIES

In the beginning the strategy was to look for ANY Charles Davis, who was on the known William Davis family tree, was born around 1870 (+ or – 5 years) and then track his line to find his living male descendants and test them, seeing who they might match on the tree. That strategy might be expanded to track his brothers’ or uncles’ descendants if he had no living male descendants.

Then lately, I’ve been mapping ALL the known descendants of Rev. William1 Davis, born 1663, Wales, thinking I could test representative lines looking for an exact DNA match. Mapping ALL the descendants takes the point of view that the descendants are finite.

It might not be in Joshua5′s line at all. I had been guessing we stemmed from Joshua’s line because he was 6 generations back from my closest match. I was under the impression that if you matched exactly, your ancestor in common would be within 3 or 4 generations and if you matched 1 step off, your ancestor in common might be within 5 or 6 generations.

Well, and here’s the pause part, our new Davis member is only one step off from his closest match and their known ancestor in common on the paper tree is 7 generations back! That means my brother’s match, who is also one step off, might not lead to our ancestor in common for 7 or 8 generations! That’s all the way back to the grandsons of Rev. William1 Davis and possibly back to his original six sons. That certainly isn’t any kind of short cut to finding my Charles Davis.

Luckily for me, one of our Davis members had an extra copy of Susie Davis Nicholsons’ book,  Davis-The Settlers of Salem, West Virginia, that he just sent to me in the mail. So I am obsessive-compulsively going over her facts to see if there are any known Charles Davises that I have missed and am searching the censuses to see if there are any Charles Davises the previous Davis researchers have missed. The idea is to find one and track his line forward to a living descendant to test.

FOCUS!

The hardest part of this hunt is to stay focused on searches that will lead to accomplishing the goal of identifying the lines of the William Davis family that match my DNA pattern. So often I find a great trove of information with lots of names and descendants but then I realize that they are from lines that show results that are furthest from my Davis DNA pattern.
It’s like the story of the man who lost his keys near the house but is searching for them near the lamp post because the light was better there.

I must focus and remember that just because there’s more light does not mean it will help my particular search!

-Jan Davis Markle

Frances Lenore Myers is mtDNA haplogroup H7, "Helena"

Hello my dear Gates cousins and interested visitors,

In honor of my mother's birthday (yesterday), I am sharing some genealogy news about our mother line.

Our maternal line from Nana/Grandmother, Frances Lenore Myers, has been mtDNA (mitochondrial) tested (thanks to a Christmas gift from Kendra) and it is:

Maternal Haplogroup: H7(Specifically H7a1, a subgroup of H7. )

H is associated with northern Europe and is the most common haplogroup in Europe. It is also referred to as "Helena." 

The mtDNA test tracks the mitochondrial markers in a woman's DNA. This is the "umbilical" line, DNA which has been passed down identically in the mitochondria of each cell from mother, to daughter, to granddaughter, and on, in an unbroken line, for thousands of years!

When a mutation occurs in the mitochondrial DNA, which it does naturally, it is passed on to the next generation, creating a living record that tags those people carrying that DNA from then on. Scientists use this change in DNA, called a "marker," as a way of tracking where people lived at various times in history. All people with the same markers are categorized in groups called haplogroups.

This is deep ancestry, thousands of years ago. Brian Sykes in his book, 7 Daughters of Eve, tracks mitochondrial DNA back to 7 original women, who he calls "Ursula, Xenia, Helena, Velda, Tara, Katrine and Jasmine." These 7 lived from 20,000-45,000 years ago, the direct ancestors of all modern Europeans alive today!  Article on Brian Sykes and 7 Daughters of Eve

Of the 4 great-grandparents that we have in common, Gates/La Salle, Myers/Gorton, we know that the Goetz's came from Germany and La Salle we think was from Austria/Alsace Lorraine. The Myers/Maiers line was also probably from Germany.

Now, with this test, we learn that the fourth line, Nana/Grandmother's maternal line, although recently from Ohio, and before that, from the New Haven, CT, colony, was originally from northern Europe.

We could have guessed this since Nana/Grandmother's maternal great-grandmother, Emaline Hotchkiss, and Emaline's maternal ancestors, (the furthest back is Priscilla WHITSON) were all from the New Haven Colony in CT, whose settlers in 1638 were English.

If we follow the mother line, (the surname changes each generation because the daughter takes her husband's name), the names after Hotchkiss are all standard English names:  1GATES, 2 Frances MYERS, 3 Mary GORTON, 4 Frances ROBERTS, 5 Emaline HOTCHKISS 6 Hannah WOODING, 7 Hannah HOLBROOK, 8 Priscilla COLLINS, 9 Abigail THOMPSON, 10 Priscilla POWELL, 11 Priscilla WHITSON.  (See chart below of the mother line from Connie Gates to Priscilla Whitson.)

The New Haven Colony was formed in 1638 by a group of Puritans who wanted a STRICTER religious governance than existed in Massachusetts Bay Colony! Priscilla Whitson either came from England or was already in Mass. Bay Colony when the New Haven colony formed. Their theocracy in New Haven, a government based entirely on religion, only lasted one generation. In 1664, they joined with the Connecticut Colony which was secularily-based and much more tolerant of other religions.

What is interesting is that this maternal line, which has been reproducing for 40,000 years or so, is in danger (in our family) of dying out. Since it is only passed from mother to daughter, only the daughters of Nana/Grandmother's daughters carry it. That would be Connie's and Fran's daughters. We know who we are!

Connie and Fran's 4 daughters have produced 5 daughters (and 4 sons) born since 1966, and none of these daughters have had any daughters of their own, only sons. True, there is still time and women are having children later in life these days, but it's looking like the Gates mother line may not survive in our family.

Of course our entire H line will not die out. If any of the sisters of any of our ancestors had daughters (like Mary Gorton's sister, Ella; Frances Lucinda Roberts' sisters, Mary Ann, Emma and Ellen; or Emaline Hotchkiss' 5 sisters...), then they would also carry the same H line down through their daughters.

So think on those things dear Gates cousins. Perhaps when Sharon goes to the LDS library this week she may find more on the origins of Priscilla Whitson, the furthest back we go on the maternal line. Priscilla Whitson was born about 1616, married Thomas Powell in 1637 and came to the New Haven, CT, Colony in 1638 when it was formed. But where was she from?

And for the Gates males who might be feeling left out, why don't we do a Y DNA test (cost is about $240), and we could all see where the Goetz line has traveled. Not only would we find out where our distant Goetz men originated, but we might find some other Gates relatives who match our DNA who we didn't suspect existed.  All we need is one male, who carries the Gates name, to test.

The oldest one is usually the best one to test, since younger men may have already had a mutation, but younger ones will do.  We could even chip in if the cost seemed high. 15 of us at $15 each would do it. Do we know any Gates men who might be interested in spitting in a vial to find out something about our ancestry? I have discovered my Davis paternal line by having my brother take the test so would love to give advice.

An interesting springtime project?

For those of you who want to read more, here's some info on the H haplogroup of Nana/Grandmother's maternal line from the 23 and Me website. Will let you know if I find any significant matches to my test. Maybe we have a H7 cousin out there?

Maternal Haplogroup:H7. H7 is a subgroup of H.
The Mother of all Mothers (the MoM), our common maternal ancestor, lived in Africa about 175,000 years ago.

Chart below is Locations of haplogroup H circa 500 years ago, before the era of intercontinental travel.

  

H originated in the Near East and then expanded after the peak of the Ice Age into Europe, where it is the most prevalent haplogroup today. It is present in about half of the Scandinavian population and is also common along the continent's Atlantic coast.

Haplogroup: H, a subgroup of R0

Age: more than 40,000 years

Region: Europe, Near East, Central Asia

Populations: Basques, Scandinavians

Highlight:  Mitochondrial DNA extracted from the remains of St. Luke belonged to haplogroup H. 

Haplogroup H dominates in Europe, reaching peak concentrations along the Atlantic coast. It is also common in many parts of the Near East and Caucusus Mountains, where the haplogroup can reach levels of 50% in some populations. H originated about 40,000 years ago in the Near East, where favorable climate conditions allowed it to flourish. About 10,000 years later it spread westward all the way to the Atlantic coast and east into central Asia as far as the Altay Mountains.
About 21,000 years ago an intensification of Ice Age conditions blanketed much of Eurasia with mile-thick glaciers and squeezed people into a handful of ice-free refuges in Iberia, Italy, the Balkans and the Caucasus. Several branches of haplogroup H arose during that time, and after the glaciers began receding about 15,000 years ago most of them played a prominent role in the repopulation of the continent.
H1 and H3 expanded dramatically from the Iberian Peninsula, along the Atlantic coast and into central and northern Europe. Other branches, such as H5a and H13a1, expanded from the Near East into southern Europe. After a 1,000-year return to Ice Age conditions about 12,000 years ago, yet another migration carried haplogroup H4 from the Near East northward into Russia and eastern Europe.
Haplogroup H achieved an even wider distribution later one with the spread of agriculture and the rise of organized military campaigns. It is now found throughout Europe and at lower levels in Asia, reaching as far south as Arabia and eastward to the western fringes of Siberia.
Royal LinesBecause it is so common in the general European population, haplogroup H also appears quite frequently in the continent's royal houses. Marie Antoinette, an Austrian Hapsburg who married into the French royal family, inherited the haplogroup from her maternal ancestors. So did Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, whose recorded genealogy traces his female line to Bavaria.

Mother line from GATES to WHITSON

Haplogroup H7a1

(Click on chart twice to enlarge.)

Photos and text copyrighted 

Photos of Ella Frances (Gorton) MacKenzie

A third cousin of ours, Barb H., who is descended from Ella Frances (Gorton) MacKenzie, sent me these photos today.

They give a face, and a beautiful one, to the person we know as "Ella" and they settle a mystery about who is "the lady with the black hat." (See blog entry from Jan 23, 2008: "Who Are the People in These Photos?")

Photo captions:

1. Ella
2. Ella, age 12
3. Ella with her grand dau, Kathryn [(Holland) Wiley]

4. " Great Grandmother Gorton,"- [caption written by Louise (Holland) Nellis, dau of Helen (MacKenzie) Holland, grdau of Ella (Gorton) MacKenzie, gt grdau of Lucinda Frances (Roberts) Gorton...]

Ella was a lot younger, 11 years, than Mary Augusta, her sister and our great grandmother. Do you think she looks like anyone in our family?

If that last picture, #4, above, "lady with the black hat," is a photo of "Great Grandma Gorton," that would be Lucinda Frances (Roberts) Gorton, (see photo we have of her below). The black hat photo could be from her younger days and the rounder face one below could be from when she was older. What do you think?

Also, since this photo was handed down from the Roberts/Gorton line of the family, that means Barbara Hemerling, mother of Elizabeth (Meyers) Gates, is not a possible identity for this lady- wrong side of the family!

The only other woman the black hat lady could be is Emaline (Hotchkiss) Roberts, wife of John Roberts, MOTHER of Lucinda Frances Roberts. She was born in 1805 and died in 1890. If the "lady in the black hat" was Emaline, and the photo was taken around 1880, then Emaline would be about 75 years old. Does this lady look that age? It's either a woman who doesn't age (Emaline) or it must be, as the caption says, her daughter, Lucinda Frances (Roberts), Grandmother Gorton. Mystery solved, would you say?

Lady in Black Hat, captioned as
"Great Grandmother Gorton," Lucinda Frances (Roberts) Gorton

Lucinda Frances (Roberts) Gorton, aka: "Frances Lucinda"



Mary Augusta (Gorton) Myers: sister of Ella Frances.
Mary A. and Ella were both daughters of Lucinda Frances (Roberts) Gorton above.

Thanks Barb H. for your sharing of the photos of Ella.