Taking a breather and Sullivans!

It surely has been awhile since I posted.I have been managing 5 genetic genealogy DNA accounts which is very very time consuming.This will be a brief return and I will try to do better.

Two of the biggest mysteries I wanted to solve with autosomal DNA was first to ascertain my Grandfather's identity and that has been done. This week 23andme introduced an "Ancestry Finder" program that is both exciting and informative. It shows the 23 chromosomes and our matches, even those who decline to contact. l It is a bit like a crystal ball and shows my ethnic background in a nutshell as # 1 Ireland and #2 Norway. (well it varies a bit but I said a nutshell)
Very wonderful experience for me.

The number two mystery I wanted to unravel was the family of my mitoDNA ancestor Margaret Lynch of Cork who is born in 1841 and marries Charles Rementer most likely in 1860 in Rhode Island. I have known of her existence for almost 30 years and have gotten no further than that.

Enter DNA and I have a very close match with a full sequence Mitochondrial test which shows 2 of us as being almost 2 peas in a pod with J2b1a1 mutations. Our ancestors both hailed from Cork around 1840. We have hung in THAT spot for almost 2 years..

My buddy and I have tested first our own autosomal DNA and then a host of cousins and siblings ( I have but one).My sister Carol, bless her, spit for the family cause and with that we miraculously got two matches on her DNA.My DNA apparently did not take this excursion.

Having been recently told by a cousin that our Lynch family was said to be cousins with the noted John L.Sullivan, I pounced on both a Lynch and a Sullivan cousin match when they "came in". Apparently my Margaret was born to a Jeremiah Lynch and a Mary or Margaret Sullivan from the Beara peninsula near Bantry Bay.

I definitely have a general location and also know that THIS generation at least came to Newport Rhode Island and stayed in New England for keeps. Later generations of Sullivans may not have done so.

I am content.