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Posts Tagged ‘Genetic DNA testing’

Our last Beatty brick wall ends with Charles Beatty (Abt 1730-1798) of Farnamullan

Posted in Aghavoory, Fermanagh, Ireland, Archibald Beatty (1758-1831), Beatty family, Charles Beatty (Abt 1730-1754), Farnamullan, Fermanagh, Ireland, James Beatty (1797-1873), James Beatty 1842-1903, tagged , , on September 14, 2024| 1 Comment »

I’ve been more interested in birding than family history for the last seven years, but thought I should tie off this loose end after all the work I’ve put into it. Here are the earliest four known generations of our Beatty ancestors working back from James Beatty of the flowing beard who brought his family to Melbourne, Australia in 1878.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find out anything at all about his mother.

Some of the research progress leading to the connection between the Beattys of Aghavoory and Farnamullan is recorded here and in earlier posts, but briefly: from the marriage record from his second marriage we knew that James Beatty of Aghavoory, Fermanagh had a father Archibald who was a farmer. There had been no Beattys in Aghavoory before James. We knew from his death certificate that he was born about 1797. I was in contact with Pete Beatty who was the closest of all the many Beatty genetic matches using FTDNA. His earliest Beatty ancestors were from Farnamullan, Fermanagh, and were well documented for the time because they owned their land rather than leasing which was the norm in Fermanagh after the Plantation of Ulster. Therefore they wrote deeds to do with the exchange of property which mentioned a lot of names and relationships. Charles’ son Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan (1758-1831) married Martha Moore of Aghavoory in 1794. They had a second son James, born about 1797 of whom nothing else was known except he was still alive somewhere when his brother Archibald also born about 1797 left him 4 pounds in his will in 1869. I spent several days in Belfast and Enniskillen in 2016 combing through the archives for some documentary proof of the connection. I found a lot of interesting background information but no certain proof, and yet the circumstantial evidence alone is overwhelming. Apart from all the above, James’ son-in-law William Robinson was a witness at the wedding of Martha Beatty of Farnamullan to Alexander Carrothers in 1871, and James Moore witnessed deeds for Beattys of Farnamullan. In 1829 James went to register his new holding at Aghavoory in order to vote accompanied by his neighbour James Moore – his Uncle. On top of that is the very close genetic link.

I’ve rewritten the early part of The Beattys out of Ireland : 1700s and 1800s and have extended my family tree accordingly – at least my ancestry.com tree. I used to show the link to my Legacy tree on the sidebar of my website, but when my old ISP, grapevine, went defunct I lost the bit of web real estate where it was stored and haven’t been able to replace it yet. Instead I’ve replaced it with a link to my ancestry tree in the meantime, but probably only other people who subscribe to ancestry.com can open it.

I’ve also notified the Beatty Project that lineages 535 and 560 have been joined.

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So who is Archibald Beatty, Farmer, father of James Beatty of Aghavoory?

Posted in Aghavoory, Fermanagh, Ireland, Archibald Beatty (1758-1831), James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged , , on April 29, 2016| 1 Comment »

I’ve now updated the chapter: “The Beattys out of Ireland” in the family story to include all the latest information I have about the early generations of our Beatty family. The Colebrooke Estate records at the Public records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) didn’t go back quite far enough to tell me where our ancestor James Beatty (1797-1873) came from before taking up farming at Aghavoory townland just south of Fivemiletown, Co. Fermanagh, sometime before 1829. They did tell me the year he died, which enabled me to find his death certificate, so here is his death record.

James Beatty of Aghavoory, co. Fermanagh. Death record 1873

James Beatty of Aghavoory, co. Fermanagh. Death record 1873

They also showed that the land which James later farmed was leased in 1787 to a Robert McKnight, then aged 32, and that that name remained against James Beatty’s Aghavoory land in the Colebrooke Estate rent book until November 1865 even though James Beatty paid the rent. The original Robert McKnight would have been aged 105 by then. Maybe it was sublet to James by the McKnight family all that time? There seems to be no surviving lease for Aghavoory in James Beatty’s name, even from 1865.

So who was Archibald Beatty, Farmer, who was given as James’s father at his (second) marriage?

We know from genetic testing that we are very closely related to the Beattys of Farnamullan. The YDNA tests indicated a strong probability that Charles Beatty (1725-1798) of Farnamullan could be the common ancestor between our family and descendants of the Farnamullan Beattys. I’m told that analysis of “BigY” tests using the same DNA samples gives an even stronger indication that either Charles or his father must be the common ancestor. I confess that I don’t really understand “BigY”.  As mentioned in earlier posts, Charles Beatty of Farnamullan had a son Archibald Beatty (1758-1831), who married Martha Moore of Aghavoory in 1792. Their second son was a James. It was the coincidence of Martha Moore being from Aghavoory that compelled me to visit PRONI in Belfast. It’s now confirmed that our James was born in 1797. This is the perfect date to be the second son of a couple who married in 1792 and had 8 children. The order of Archibald’s children (but not their birthdates) is given in a transcription of his will whose original is lost. The birthdates of the two youngest children are known from tombstones, indicating that Martha had at least 2 children in her forties. The ages at death of Archibald, his wife Martha and their eldest son Charles who died young come from the transcription of a tombstone at the Church of Ireland in Lisbellaw, very faint when transcribed. From the date and age at death, eldest son Charles would have been born in 1805 – too late for our James to be his younger brother. But also there is a death certificate for third son Archibald who would have been born about 1797. There was no mention of the second son James having died young, and he was left four pounds in the will of his brother Archibald so was still alive somewhere in 1869. So where did he go then??

In short, I haven’t given up on Archibald Beatty (1758-1831) of Farnamullan as the father of our James after all, although there is still no documentary proof. If this Archibald is not the one, and we take the genetic test results seriously, then we’re probably looking for a son Archibald of a hypothetical brother of Charles Beatty (1725-1798) of Farnamullan who would need to have been about the same age as the above Archibald; have married at about the same time and also have a son James. There weren’t as many Archibald Beattys in Fermanagh as there were James Beattys, and only a couple of those seemed likely from a scan of the sparse Irish records. Sigh! I think I’ll leave it at that for a while!

Beatty tombstone CoI Lisbellaw, Fermanagh

Church of Ireland, Lisbellaw, Fermanagh. Tombstone of Archibald Betty [sic] (1797-1869), wife Martha and eldest son Charles.

Update September 2024: Something must be wrong in the tombstone transcription to make the  date for Charles’ birth 10 years too late. It’s transcribed as: “Also their son Charles who depd. this life March 27th 1818 aged13 [?] years” If the barely legible age was 23 and not 13 then he was born in 1795 OR if the date at death was 1808 and not 1818 then he was born in 1795 – and then the birth date of his younger brother Archibald (born 1797) makes sense and James of Aghavoory (also born 1797) is the right age to be the missing second son James. Most likely the age at death is 23 as it is also more likely that a 23 year old would have made his will a few months before he died. 

Charles Beatty will 1817

Will of Charles Beatty from Ireland Diocesan and prerogative Wills and Admins. Indexes 1595-1858

 

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Genetic DNA testing pays off after all!

Posted in Beatty family, James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged , , on March 17, 2016| 7 Comments »

Firstly, I had a good look at James Beatty, Farmer of Aghavoory, Fermanagh (c1810-Aft 1875) now that we know more about him (for example that his father was  a Farmer called  Archibald Beatty), and can see that he must have been born about 1807, earlier than I had thought. The earliest mention of him (so far) at Aghavoory is in the Enniskillen Chronicle 14 May 1829, listing persons in Fermanagh who have registered their freeholds to establish their qualification to vote at elections. Probably at the time you’d also need to be over 21.

Secondly, on the basis of our YDNA111 tests, there’s a 70% probability that the Grandfather  of James above will be our common ancestor with the person whose test results are closest to ours of those tested so far. We* both also carried out “Big Y” tests whose significance I don’t really understand, but am told that we share a mutation that makes the relationship even more likely. Pete has been researching this family for many years and has an extensive tree of Beattys in Fermanagh. In his tree is a Farmer Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan townland (1758-1831), whose son James Beatty born c1807 disappeared off the genealogical radar. Pretty interesting eh? Furthermore, Archibald of Farnamullan in 1794 married Martha Moore who was from Aghavoory townland! It’s hard to believe this is a coincidence –  there are 2,294 townlands in Fermanagh!  I’m guessing that James, who was the eldest surviving son of Archibald, inherited the lease on the farm at Aghavoory from his mother’s family –  I understand that leases could be inherited? Leaving his younger brothers to inherit the Farnamullan lands. I spent a few hours spreadsheeting all the Archibald Beattys in Fermanagh at the time, using every mention from the usual online sources, and as far as I can tell, only two are likely candidates to be the Farmer father of James of Aghavoory, one of whom is Archibald of Farnamuallan.

This is so exciting after all these years of facing our Beatty brick wall that I’m booking plane tickets to Belfast for next week. Aghavoory townland was on the Colebrook Estate of the Brooke family, one of the few estates whose papers survived. The papers are in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast. I’m hoping to spend a few days combing through them for clues about our family, and hopefully some proof that Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan was the father of James of Aghavoory. I’m sure to end up very knowledgeable about 19th century farming practices in Fermanagh at least!

And the common ancestor, if all this can be established, the father of Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan, was Charles Beatty (1725-1798). We know that name!

I’ve been cross with our g grandfather James Beatty of Ballina/South Yarra (1842-1903) for passing on virtually nothing useful about his family in Ireland – not even the name of his mother! Yet he did in a way – by leaving little clues scattered among the names of his children 🙂

*Not my DNA of course! I borrowed some from a sibling with a Y chromosome!

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James and Archibald Beatty of Ballina must be related

Posted in Archibald Beatty (c1836-1897), Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Beatty family, James Beatty (1797-1873), James Beatty 1842-1903, James McLean (c1840-1916), McLean Family, tagged , , on January 16, 2016| 4 Comments »

I’m going to focus on breaking through the James Beatty of Fermanagh brick wall now. Just because it’s difficult is no excuse not to try. For those of you interested in the Forsters/McLeans though, I did find one more document which casts a little more light on the McLean family, particularly James McLean, in 1858. It’s now incorporated in the McLean family story .

A question for other family historians: How much circumstantial evidence do you need before you conclude that two people are related? Yes, I know. It isn’t proof. It’s certain that James Beatty the Draper, who is first documented in Ballina, Co. Mayo in 1862 and who brought his young family to Melbourne in 1878, was born Co. Fermanagh in 1842. All we know of his parents is that his father, also James Beatty, was a farmer. At about the same times as James, an Archibald Beatty, Merchant, 7 years older than James, also appeared in Ballina. He is first documented there in July 1861. It is certain that he had formerly been a Merchant in Lisnaskea, Fermanagh, but his father, also a James Beatty, was also a farmer. Could this be just a coincidence?  Beatty was not nearly such a common name in Mayo as it was in Fermanagh. Yesterday I found a document showing that Archibald and James Beatty both joined the Freemasons in Ballina on the same day, 16 Dec 1867. Only 2 others joined the same day. What’s the probability that James and Archibald Beatty are brothers? James the Draper named his second son (my Grandfather) Archibald.

The main thing that came out of the DNA testing was finding a fellow researcher whose family are genetically very closely related to ours and who has a detailed family tree of Beattys in Fermanagh, including Archibalds and a James. Thanks Pete! I’m going to work on the area around Lisnaskea, Fermanagh, and follow the names James and Archibald, and hope to work out which Farmer James Beatty is our ancestor!

 

 

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DNA testing

Posted in Beatty family, tagged on October 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Well it’s official. We have genuine Beatty DNA going back (almost certainly) to an ancestor from the River Esk region of South-West Scotland in the 15th century. No wonder we’re a rowdy lot as ours was one of the notorious border reiver families. Several other Beattys who’ve been tested are very closely related (meaning we almost certainly have common ancestors within the last 8 generations) and some of those have ancestors known to have lived in Sligo or Fermanagh.
As suspected, we don’t seem to be all that closely related to the famous Admiral, but I’m waiting for my email to work again so I can talk to the experts.
At some stage ours should be added to the data in the BeattyDNA project though it’s not easy reading. Ours is Lineage 560.
Watch this space!

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