Genealogical Conundrum

For reasons unclear to me I had my y-chromosome and mtDNA tested, reckon I found some money laying in the street.  I had had my autosomal tested a while back which was interesting, but did not tell me a lot.  Given that my immediate and personal DNA dies with me – my DNA is nothing special, so no big loss to humanity- I am not quite sure why I am so interested in the genealogy. Probably the history fascinates me.

The autosomal DNA is just general DNA.  Y-chromosome is specific for the paternal line. mtDNA is specific for maternal line.   For me, the y-chromosome shows mostly British isles  followed by Germany and Italy.

Almost immediately after they ran  and posted the results of my mtDNA sample,  I was contacted by a woman trying to trace her Jewish roots.  Turns out one of my very close mtDNA possible matches has nothing but Jewish surnames.  Señora and I could be mishpocha in multiple ways! Also there are lots and lots of possible matches from Finland and many from Germany.  A new one popped up today that was a perfect mtDNA match from Mother Russia.  Neither Finland or Russia has been part of the family mythology.

Anyway I started kicking around on web sources and came across the Mormon genealogy site.  They are essentially trying to build a genealogy tree of everyone.  According to the PBS website which did a story on their genealogy project:

“Mormons trace their family trees to find the names of ancestors who died without learning about the restored Mormon Gospel so that these relatives from past generations can be baptized by proxy in the temple. For Latter-day Saints, genealogy is a way to save more souls and strengthen the eternal family unit.”

The Mormons have the right Nancy Ann Trobuagh, my great grandmother who married John Franklin Austin, in their database with birth and death dates matching, marriage license to John Franklin Austin, etc.  However, the marriage license place is different from the one listed in the genealogy my father started.  Also Nancy’s mother is different in the two databases!

The Mormons have Nancy Ann Trobuagh‘s mother as Martha Qualls and my father’s genealogy has a Margaret Trobaugh on a completely different line.  George Trobaugh is listed as having two wives.  The first, Sebbia Spears, he married in 1832 and resulted in 8 children.  His marriage in 1853 was to Martha Qualls.  Was there a divorce, not a common thing back then. Sebbia did not die until 1881, so that is all that makes sense.   Anyway his second marriage to Martha lists 7 children including Nancy Ann.  There are one or two possible overlap of children’s name between the two families.  So if this rabbit trail be right, Martha was only 16 when she married George Trobaugh… so you would have to assume all the children were from this union???  There is a note floating around that Trobaugh was her stepfather??? However her birth date in Nov 1854 is 18 months after the marriage of Martha and George so it does not seem likely Martha brought her into the marriage.

Looking more at the Mormon genealogy, there is another Nancy Ann Trobaugh, born just a little latter, than my ancestor, that matches the tree my father did.  He must have gotten his bifocals on the wrong line.  So now I am think the Mormons are right and my records need to be corrected, but I am going to research a little more.

Also an interesting aside, must not have been a lot of options as the Qualls and Trobaughs were marrying each other for several generations.  Cousin marriage was not such a big deal back in the day… maybe that explains my 11 toes.

There is a fairly massive database of Austin Families of America.  I did my due diligence, and when they approve my entry into their organization, I will look and see what they have to say about this line.  Probably naught as they are more interested in Austin branches than the branches feeding into them from the little I have seen.

All very strange and perplexing.

Don’t know if anyone has other resources to check?

And so it goes.

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