Friday, March 24, 2017

This Week's We're Related Relationships - 24 March 2017

I received 7 new cousin relationships on the We're Related mobile app over the last week, which is based on Ancestry Member Trees.  The new relationships, and my initial evaluation of them, are:

1)  Robert Redford -- Actor, 9th cousin, common ancestor is John Young (1624-1690).



My line back to John Young goes through his son, John Young (1649-1718).  Robert's line goes through David Young (1682-1776), and there are many AMTs that say he was born in Donegal, Ireland and married Martha Boyd and died in Worceste, Mass..  My John Young had a brother David Young (1662-1745) who married an Anna Doane and died in Eastham, Mass.  My judgment is that the Ancestry app has conflated two different David Youngs born 20 years apart here.  My judgment is that this relationship is Unlikely.

2)  Orson Welles -- Entertainer, 8th cousin 2x removed, common ancestor is Robert Williams (1607-1693_.

My line to Robert Williams goes through his purported daughter, Elizabeth --?-- (1620-1664), who married Richard Cutter of Cambridge, Mass.  Orson's line goes from Robert Williams to Isaac Williams (1638-1707).  I don't know Elizabeth --?--'s parents names yet, but Ancestry thinks it does.  There are well documented AMTs for the Isaac Williams parents and descendants.  My judgment is that this relationship is Unlikely.

3)  James Madison - U.S. President, 6th cousin 6x removed, common ancestor is William Allen (1553-1589.

My line back to William Allen goes through 5 known generations of Allens, but I don't have a William Allen in England as a father of my George Allen (1585-1648) of Massachusetts.  President Madison's line goes from William Allen's daughter Eleanor to Peter Montague.  There are over 13,000 AMTs with Peter's granddaughter, but of the 10 I checked (with the most sources), none of them went back to William Allen.  My judgment is that this relationship is Unlikely.

4)  Barbara Perez - Facebook friend, 8th cousin 2x removed, common ancestor is Thomas Nichols (1630-1720).

My line to Thomas Nichols is through his 2nd great-granddaughter, Jerusha --?-- (1750-1817), his first great-grandson Joseph Chandler, his granddaughter, Mary Tucker (1697-????) and her purported father, Ebenezer Nichols (1664-1735), son of Thomas Nichols.  My known line ends with Jerusha --?-- who may have been a Chandler before she married Burgess Metcalf.  Also, how does a man named Ebenezer Nichols have a daughter named Mary Tucker?  Again, Ancestry has added five generations to my known tree here.  I can't judge Barbara's line without seeing more details.  My judgment is that my line on the app is Wrong, and therefore this relationship is Wrong.

5)  Barry Kline - Facebook friend, 8th cousin, common ancestor is John Morrison (1705-1752).

My line back to John Morrison is through his daughter, Martha Morrison (1739-????), but I don't know her father's first name or her mother's name.  Barry's line is through David Morrison (1742-1807), who I don't have in my database.  There are AMTs with David's parents as John and Margrete Morrison, but there is a problem with some of the dates in Barry's line - Isaac Morrison's wife, Elizabeth Haycraft (1791-1868) would be 13 when she had June Mary Morrison (1804-1831).  My judgment is that this relationship is Possible.

6)  Jen Baldwin -- Facebook friend, 7th cousin 4x removed, common ancestor is Christopher Yonges (1545-1626).

My 11 generation line back to Christopher Yonges is through my known ancestor John Young (1624-1691) and his purported father John Youngs (1602-1672).  I don't have the John Youngs 1602 or Christopher Yonges in my database, so Ancestry added two generations to my known ancestry.  Jen's line back to Christopher Yonges has only 7 generations, and says her father was Walter Yoe (1800-1867).  I am sure  that is incorrect.  My judgment is that this relationship is Wrong, since my line is unknown and Jen's looks wrong.

7)  Joan Young - Facebook friend, 6th cousin, common ancestor is Philip Jacob Konig (1738-1792).

My line to Philip Jacob Konig is through his son, Philip Jacob Konig (1764-1829).  Joan's line is through Peter King (1775-1847), brother of my Philip.  My judgment is that this relationship is Very Likely.

My count is up to 197 famous or Facebook cousins provided by the app.  This week, my judgment is that only 1 of the 7 cousin relationships are Likely or better.

I will say it again:  My biggest problem with this We're Related app is that it thinks it knows my ancestral lines better than I do, and adds one to five generations to some of my end-of-line ancestors.  The second biggest problem is that many of the lines of the famous or Facebook persons have colonial lines that have same name, different place problems.


The app may be right -- I don't know for sure -- and I can't really find out because the app provides no source material to back up their assertions.  If there was authoritative information for my end-of-line ancestors, I would add it.  None of the "Unlikely" or "Wrong" relationships have been convincing to me yet.


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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver


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2 comments:

Crafting in Yoohooville said...

Randy, you're hitting a lot of the same celebrities that I'm getting. I think I have two that I can confirm. Plus a couple friend relationships that I would have guessed anyway based on a connection to BoQ Loyalists.

The rest of the links are unlikely or what I would call is random algorithmic guessing. There's no evidence that its guesses could be correct. And some seem to be connections to people I am still theorizing upon, so I'm not going to confirm the connection yet.

Fun toy, but the app still needs a lot of work.

Debby said...

Oh my, I'm scrolling through my blog reader and I see John Young. My dad was John Young. I checked my tree and your John Young is not my John Young.