{"id":4325,"date":"2017-03-17T15:27:51","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T15:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=4325"},"modified":"2017-03-17T15:27:51","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T15:27:51","slug":"taking-the-dna-plunge-in-hopes-of-an-irish-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=4325","title":{"rendered":"Taking the DNA Plunge in Hopes of an Irish Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of hemming and hawing, I’ve finally decided to have the DNA work done at Ancestry.com<\/em><\/a>. The combination of a St. Patrick’s Day Sale<\/a> and my desire to know something a little more about my Irish family made me finally take the plunge.<\/p>\n

While there’s always the chance that new relatives will “pop up,” my real reason for the test is in hopes of connecting with the one-eighth of me that is of Irish extraction. My direct paternal great-grandfather, Charles Neill, \u00a0was born in 1875 in Hancock County, Illinois, to Irish immigrants Samuel and Anne (Murphy) Neill. The Neills are known to have originated in Newtown Limavady in County Derry. That’s where Samuel Neill was born in the 1830s along with his known brother Joseph and his probable sister Roseanne. If there were other Neill siblings, I am unaware of them.<\/p>\n

Samuel’s wife Anne Murphy was born in Ireland, but no specific location is known. She and Samuel married in New Brunswick in the 1860s. I know nothing about her heritage.<\/p>\n

There’s always the chance that the test will help me establish some new connections on other families, but my real interest is in my relatively recent Irish immigrants. My maternal families have been fairly well traced to the late 1500s, but there’s the chance that some connections will be made in a few paternal families that I’m stuck on, particularly a 3rd great-grandmother from Pennsylvania and a 3rd great-grandmother from Ontario.<\/p>\n

But the Irish lines are where I’m really hoping to make some contact.<\/p>\n

We will have updates–hopefully.<\/p>\n