Genealogical research has never been easier. With the plethora of information available on-line at Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org, you can start to build a family tree in hours instead of years. Then, when you add in inexpensive DNA testing, you can uncover long-buried family secrets or answer family questions that cross generations.
In my case, I have discovered what happened to two of my great-grandfather John Sherrington Ashton’s daughters from his first marriage.You can read about those discoveries here and here
A DNA Cousin Searches for His Grandfather’s Natural Father
Recently, a DNA cousin, Mike Sullivan was able to answer a decade old question that turned out to relate to my McCloskey side. His maternal grandfather was born out-of-wedlock and for years his mother and aunt have searched to discover their father’s father.
Awhile back, Mike began to notice that he was getting many matches with people with the surname McCloskey in their family tree. And while the name was unfamiliar to his family, there was once a birth certificate made for his grandfather Robert Monroe that listed his mother Florence Monroe as the mother and William Monroe as the father. The only thing was Florence’s name was listed as Florence McCloskey. For years they just thought the surname was picked at random. It didn’t seem that random any more!!
When Mike started his research he noticed that there was a McCloskey family living around the block from the Monroe family in Princeton, New Jersey in the 1900 Federal Census. Mike searched the family names but there was no Robert McCloskey. He did discover though that one son was Michael RobertkMcCluskey. He thought maybe Michael Robert was the father.
Mike Sullivan Notices His McCloskey Cousins
Mike decided to send emails to several of his DNA McCloskey cousins. I was among those receiving an email, my great-grandfather Ashton’s second wife was Margaret McCloskey.
After I received the email, I tried for a day or so to connect the Princeton McCluskeys to my family line. Or to one of the family lines of one my other DNA cousins. I was unsuccessful.
After those two days, I went back and looked at Mike’s family tree information again. I discovered to my surprise that he had listed my great grandmother’s brother Michael Joseph McCloskey as the father!!
I thought about it, Joe was born in 1873 and Florence in 1890. So there was a big difference in their ages. Especially when she was ready to give birth. She was 19 years old in 1910, Joe was 37 years old.
The Connection to My McCloskey Family Line
When I told my wife (who by the way is a far better genealogist than I am) about what Mike had done and the age difference between Joe and Florence. I saw an “oh,no!” Look on her face. She said” Do you remember those newspaper articles about Joe and that younger woman. I found before”. Before the words were out of her mouth, she was typing in a search at Genealogybank.com. That search resulted in the following.
Oh my, the article was from June of 1910. Florence Monroe gave birth to Mike’s grandfather in September of 1910. Joe was the father and was trying to do right by Florence.
The only discrepancy in the article is that Florence’s name is listed as Alice. At the time my wife found the article , she searched but couldn’t find an Alice Monroe.
After Mike’s email, my wife checked the Asbury Park Press. The paper also had the article and listed The girl’s name as Alice Monroe. So, Mike is correct to list his great-grandfather as Michael Joseph McCloskey.
“Uncle Joe” as my mother knew him was in fact my grandfather’s uncle. Both he and my grandfather had drinking problems. Stories of their drunken exploits is for another post.
The bottom line is, without DNA and all of the information available on-line, Mike Sullivan’s family question may never have been answered.
