Looking to connect family information Margaret Friel

Steve:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Friel is a very common surname in Co. Donegal. There are a number of Margaret Friel birth records in Donegal in the 1880s/1890 with a father John. Also, the 1901 census for Donegal shows 24 John Friel records as head of household. One of them had a ten year old Margaret with an older brother Bernard. They lived in Aghadaghly townland in Clondavaddog parish in northwest Donegal. We have a volunteer for Clondavaddog parish and I will alert him in case this is the correct family.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Donegal/Greenfort/Aghadaghly/1191783/

I located the 1882 marriage record for this couple (wife was Catherine Sweeney) on the free site www.irishgenalogy.ie  

I searched on the same site for a birth record for Margaret Friel but could not find an image of the birth record but I did determine that she was shown as Margery on the record and she was born October 16, 1889.

Did Margaret stay in Pennsylvania and did she die before 1965? If so a death record should be available on Ancestry.com  Her parents names should be listed and if it shows Catherine Sweeney, we have the right family.

Roger McDonnell

Steve:

I may have located the death record for Margaret. Was she married to Raymond Griffin? Then the death record is no help since no parental data is shown. She died January 31, 1962.

Roger

Steve:

I was able to locate the civil birth record for Margary Friel. Fifth record on page   https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1889/02453/1911782.pdf

Roger

Thank you Roger. Your help is great and appreciated. Anything that helps is important since I have very little of her; likely because she left her family to go the US -where her siblings went to Canada. Margaret did stay in Philadelphia her whole life. I also have her death certificate but as you noticed no family listed other than husband name of Raymond, which is the line where I get my surname Griffin. Friel name has been hard since it's common and John as a first name doesn't help given it's also common.

What is good about her death certificate though is her date of birth. Hopefully that helps your connection at Clondavaddog and maybe your 1901 census is her because it's likely (but not certain) that it matches her age about that time.

Thank you Roger -and thank your connection to Clondavaddog in advance.

Steve Griffin

Hi Steve and Roger, 

That was a great bit of detective work done Roger, thank you for that, very useful information gathered on Margery Friel. Steve, I grew up near Fanad in the Parish of Clondavaddog, however I have never heard of the townland of Aghadaghly until now. It is situated near a well-known tourist area in Fanad called Portsalon, which includes famous beaches such as Ballymastocker Bay.  

I tried to continue the research to see if I could find the location of this Friel homestead by using the old 1850 -1870S maps and I can see the homestead seems like it is still standing today, although it is used nowaday as a shed for farming. I will attach a few slides to point you in the right direction when viewing on Google maps (I will be sure to do this later on this evening). 

Before we might take it further in trying and find out if there is any of this Friel family living there or nearby at present, I would like to see if we can strengthen the facts found and confirm that this is the correct Friel family. 

I was wondering Steve if you or any close family on great-grandmother’s side have had your DNA sampled by ancestry or similar and if you have submitted the results to Gedmatch/Genesis. I only ask because my father and all his ancestors would have all come from the same parish, and if your DNA were to match in any way to his, it would tie you to the Parish of Clondavaddog and all these Friel family records that Roger has found would strong point towards this being the correct  Friel family within Donegal. 

My father DNA number is A252964 -  Liam Callaghan  Seamus Callaghan) 

Regards 

Seamus. 

P.S: apologises on the delay (family & work commitments) 

Seamus,

Thank you for your reply as well. Given Margaret's death certificate showing her year of birth is 1890, I'm really trying to secure her birth certificate and verify her mother's name (it is either Sweeney or Downey; both are unverified. I added Sweeney for now on Ancestry with a tag of unverified)- and of course connect to other Friel's as well. You mentioned a few great ways to connect further and hope this helps. Her siblings went to Canada and I did connect to a man where we share DNA; believed to be from my great grandfather's brother's line).

I am on Ancestry; I have a family tree and DNA from them. Tree (I'd venture to say it is 90% accurate with her mother as Downey, could be Downey?). Following my father's side, Griffin, you can follow the path to Margaret Friel and Raymond Griffin. I do see connections to Connacht and Donegal from Ancestry's tools, but just the Friel line can't connect me that strongly alone. I assume my father's line prior to Dublin would have been from northwestern Ireland at some point in time also. Mt Griffin brickwall is roughly 1776 Dublin. Ancestry's DNA tool connects me to over 200 people with Donegal and Connacht roots, specifically South Mayo. https://ancstry.me/2J8M7OY 

I am also on Gedmatch, but tend to find their tools cumbersome myself. Here is my #T957338 They moved to a new system and recently generated a new kit #. I do match a woman with the Friel name and it looks she just did 23&me recently. 

I tend to use FTDNA much more because of their forums are vey active. I have tested through their Y500 to receive a terminal haplogroup as well - but it appears the haplogroup is very rare when compared to their database, which doesn't necessarily mean it is rare per se. My kit for FTDNA #863255

Thanks again Seamus and also to you Roger,

Steve

Hi Stephen,

I did the DNA comparision between yourself and my father and the results are coming back as no connection.

I would expect a small glimmer or something but this tells me that your Friel family is not from the Parish of Clondavaddog.

I will double check later, but i do not see any name coming up on your own Gedmatch.

I will get back to you soon.

Regards

Seamus

Seamus. When I go to gedmatch my first autosomal match is a Friel female. I emailed her and waiting to hear back hopefully.

Hi Stephen, I am just checking in. I wanted leave it a week or so to see if there happened to be any progress.

Please let me know if Lisa Friel does reply, as I would love to see if she knew of any location for her ancestors within Donegal, as I am sure this would help us research and hopefully find Margaret Friels family in the late 1800's.

Remember, you can always link this message to the email also as it would explain a lot of the story and hopefully encourage getting in contact. I will also try and take a look to see if I can find anything regarding the name Downey for her mother.

There is a facebook group page that I am a member of called County Donegal DNA Matchfinder and I hope you don't mind but I uploaded your DNA number there to see what members logging on there come up within your Gedmatch list. Attached is the image that shows the names but please go into the fb page yourself, follow the instructions and carry out the search also.

Post the results on the page also to see if it helps.

The facebook page link is here

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1879729458987625/announcements/

Seamus

Thank you Seamus - I will reach out to those with connections via GEDMATCH. They was this tends to work given Gedmatch uses autosomal DNA is that few, if any, DNA from woman (grandmother's, GGM, and so on) actually contribute to my y-DNA. Largely the only female influence on your y-line would by your paternal grandmother - whereas x/mtdna is different and comes directly from your mother. This mix (or DNA soup) is what is referred to as autosomal. When my Friel line doesn't neatly connect me to people via DNA, it only confirms that a great grandmother via your y-line ad very little to no impact on your DNA. 

Thank you Seamus - I will reach out to those with connections via GEDMATCH. How this tends to work given Gedmatch uses autosomal DNA, is that few, if any, DNA from women (grandmother's, GGM, and so on) actually contribute to my y-DNA. Largely the only female influence on your y-line would by your paternal grandmother - whereas x/mtdna is different and comes directly from your mother. This mix (or DNA soup) is what is referred to as autosomal. When my Friel line doesn't neatly connect me to people via DNA, it only confirms that a great grandmother via your y-line added very little to no impact on your DNA. 

Hi Steve,

Your dad and I have 14 shared segments with the highest being 8.3cm's. I have three Friel great-grandparents from County Donegal. I have a John Friel b. 1861, son of Bryan Friel. Nest, I have Bridget Friel b. 1962, daughter of Francis Friel. Finally, I have Catherine Friel b. 1844 daughter of James Friel. All great grandparents were in Gortnalaragh in the 1901 census. I also have a 2x great-grandmother Mary Sweeney who married Francis Friel. Lastly, I have a great aunt, Ellenor McGee who married Jim Sweeney from Fanad. 

I am also on the Donegal FB site. 

I'm on ancestry under username taemory and my gedmatch is BE7015543

Teresa Maughan Emory

Santa Rosa