{"id":79723,"date":"2024-05-29T12:35:47","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T17:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.familytreedna.com\/?p=79723"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:32:18","slug":"granddaughter-mtdna-historical-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.familytreedna.com\/es\/granddaughter-mtdna-historical-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Granddaughter Finds Her Roots with mtDNA and Historical Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”482708″]By: Georgiann Gibson<\/p>\n

Using mtDNA and Group Projects, a customer traced her maternal lineage back to one of the King’s Daughters.<\/h2>\n

There is a great deal of satisfaction in finding the missing piece that completes a puzzle. My mtDNA journey provided me with many moments of joy, astonishment and gratitude following years of frustration and disappointment. The result was finding an extensive branch of family I could never have imagined.<\/p>\n

A Brief History<\/h2>\n

After many years of searching, these were the only bits of information I knew about my great-grandmother: her name was Mary Gonya. She had lived in the small rural town of Elmira, Michigan, around 1883 when my grandmother, Mabel LaFrancis, was born. I found this information on my grandmother\u2019s Social Security application. Mabel thought she had French-Canadian ancestry but knew nothing more specific. I estimated that Mary was born about 1860. No birth, marriage, or death record for her has been found to date.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”79725″ caption=”yes” media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”45″ lbox_caption=”yes” lbox_social=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”581518″][vc_single_image media=”79726″ caption=”yes” media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”65″ lbox_caption=”yes” lbox_social=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”946077″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”123591″]A census record showed that by 1900, Mabel was living in Illinois with her father, her stepmother, her biological siblings, and four step-siblings who had been born in 1888 or later. From that information, it seemed likely that Mary may have died some time before 1887.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”79729″ caption=”yes” media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”65″ lbox_caption=”yes” lbox_social=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”415547″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”643729″]<\/p>\n

Pandemic Perk<\/h2>\n

Fast-forward to 2020 when I had plenty of \u201cpandemic time\u201d on my hands to focus on genealogy. It finally dawned on me that I had a valuable resource that was \u201cunmined\u201d; notably, the autosomal DNA matches that were showing up regularly in my Ancestry account for myself and my mother, Mary O\u2019Malley. There were literally thousands of matches, but I didn\u2019t know what to do with all the information. So, I set a goal to learn as much as I could about DNA.<\/p>\n

I attended a group of DNA classes at a virtual RootsTech conference early in 2021 and did a lot of reading. About that time, a friend suggested I try an mtDNA test. I was skeptical that it would help because female lineage is notoriously difficult to trace. But I had nothing to lose, so I ordered a FamilyTreeDNA mtDNA kit, and, as they say, the rest is history.<\/p>\n

In-person Research<\/h2>\n

Later that fall, my husband and I had a trip planned to Michigan to visit family. Having found no evidence of records online, it seemed a perfect time to research in person. Prior to our departure, I contacted the Catholic Diocese of Michigan, and some very helpful people gave me the names of three possible churches where I could look for records related to Elmira, Michigan.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t find a baptismal record for my grandmother Mabel at any of those churches, but at one of them, I most unexpectedly found a baptismal record for her younger brother Robert.<\/p>\n

Robert\u2019s baptismal certificate from1885 listed his parents as Charles Francis and Mary Gonyer, and his godparents as Napoleon Gonyer and Elisabeth Gonyer. Finally, I had verifiable evidence of Mary\u2019s existence, and I was overjoyed! A picture of that page is shown below (names are written in Latin).[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”79730″ caption=”yes” media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”65″ lbox_caption=”yes” lbox_social=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”565256″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”778305″]<\/p>\n

Traditional Research<\/h2>\n

I returned home reinvigorated by my findings, and now, having some basic DNA knowledge, I began my search again.<\/p>\n

Reviewing my Ancestry DNA matches, I found two women of interest who shared DNA with my mother, Mary O’Malley. I used Mary\u2019s DNA matches because she would share more DNA with matches than I would. One woman, Sandra B, and another, Karen D, shared 127 cM\u2019s (centimorgans) and 101 cM\u2019s, respectively. I searched both of their trees for relevant information.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”79731″ caption=”yes” media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”65″ lbox_caption=”yes” lbox_social=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”119127″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”928386″]Both Sandra and Karen\u2019s trees were well documented and included people with the name Gagne (alternate spelling); some lived in Michigan and descended from ancestors who had lived in Canada.<\/p>\n

I found that Sandra\u2019s great-grandmother, Ida Gagne, had a sister named Mary Gagne, born about 1860, and a brother named Napoleon Gagne, whose wife was Elisabeth Gagne. Subjectively, I was quite sure this was the right family, but I was skeptical because the census that included Mary had their last name listed as Gann (see census below). To me, that bore no similarity to Gagne. However, the family members matched other censuses and Sandra believed it to be correct.<\/p>\n

This is where an mtDNA test could provide a definitive answer. By now, I knew my Haplogroup was C4a1a. Because Sandra\u2019s Gagne connection was through her father, an mtDNA test for her would not be useful. However, Sandra had a cousin named Daphne who descended through a mother\/daughter female line, so she was a perfect candidate for an mtDNA test.<\/p>\n

When I contacted Daphne, I found that not only did she share 127 cMs with Mary, but she had already taken an mtDNA test and knew she was in the C haplogroup. This supported Mary\u2019s place in this family.<\/p>\n

Visual Organization<\/h2>\n

To understand the \u201cbig picture\u201d of how these three families might fit together, I used Ancestry\u2019s ThruLines and Shared Matches to construct a chart showing the amount of DNA each person shares with my mother, Mary O\u2019Malley, as well as their pedigree.<\/p>\n

The colorized chart below shows the autosomal test takers I found for each family. The chart is read from left to right, with the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) in the first column. Each subsequent generation descends to the right.<\/p>\n

The number of cMs shared with Mary O\u2019Malley is listed in the final columns. The family at the top of the page, starting with the green columns, who descend from Mary Gagne and Charles La Francis, are my half aunts and cousins.<\/p>\n

At this point, my family\u2019s earlier generations were unknown and are represented by question marks. Sandra (SB) and Daphne descend from Marguerite Desnoyer and Louis Eusebe Gagne; that family is represented in purple. Karen (KD) descends from the L. Gagne and Zoe Robert family, as shown in Pink.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”79732″ caption=”yes” media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”70″ lbox_caption=”yes” lbox_social=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”291965″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”190425″]With Robert\u2019s baptismal information, the autosomal DNA information in this chart, and the fact Sandra and Karen both had significant documentation that their 3x great-great grandparents were Marie Gagne and L Gagne Bellavance, it looked very reasonable that my great-grandmother, Mary, was a daughter of Marguerite Desnoyer and Louis Eusebe Gagne and sister to Ida Lydia Gagne.<\/p>\n

Autosomal DNA Analysis<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”79733″ media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”60″ lbox_caption=”yes” lbox_social=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”213499″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”175201″]Sandra, Daphne, Karen and I found that we had all previously uploaded our DNA to a site called GEDmatch (gedmatch.com<\/a>). Knowing that, we were able to use a tool called the Compact Segment Mapper to analyze our DNA chromosomes, looking for triangulation among them. Triangulation provides evidence that people share a common ancestor.<\/p>\n

Below is a screenshot of the chart comparing chromosome overlap for Mary O,Malley (the gray lines), Sandra, Daphne and Karen. So, for example, if you look at chromosome 11, you can see that Sandra, Karen and Mary have significant overlapping segments indicating a common ancestor for each of the three families. Referring back to the Colorized chart, that ancestor appears to be Marie Anne Gagne.<\/p>\n

The Crowning Achievement<\/h2>\n

Perhaps the most astonishing discovery of this endeavor was found through my mtDNA matches at FamilyTreeDNA. My test results showed 10 total matches<\/strong>:<\/p>\n