Collaterals are Just as Important

Here we are another month and more research twists and turns. 

I actually started writing this several weeks ago and so.. here I am. I’m not behind... I’m right on time. Don’t sweat the small stuff and quit worrying about every little thing. 

Finally, I have all the Petition letters to the churches in the Canary Islands ready to go except for the signatures from the local Catholic Church. Apparently this is required by the Diocesis of Gran Canaria, for those requesting information about their family at the local Parroquias. Apparently, there are two main Diocesis in the Canary Islands. The Diocesis of Gran Canaria and the Diocesis of Tenerife, and they both have their own protocol on how you proceed to request records. 

I found the greatest difficulty to be in having to acquire signatures by my local Catholic Church in the area. That seems to be a simple task, but has turned out to be a most daunting situation. I do have a contact that may turn out to be the key that unlocks this door, so that I can complete this portion. 

Meanwhile, I continue with my DNA matches through the several companies that I have tested with.  To better, keep up with matches and the match analysis that I am doing I decided to personalize my own spreadsheets to work with my research genetic analysis. Once I have completed and tested these worksheets, I may include them on a future post. 

Last month turned into a pretty active DNA month. I made contact with a rather ‘close’ cousin, at least closer in Centimorgans than I am ever used to finding on my match results. Most are very low in number and have surnames I have never heard of in my family. I guess, that just signifies women marrying and taking on their Husband’s surnames, but whatever the case, it really complicates the research. 

Turns out my contact had 3 kits he is managing through MyHeritage and I matched all three. One was a pretty high CentiMorgan range — almost a first cousin range. I thought that’s way too close for me to not know who it is.  And of course, the surname was unfamiliar. 

It would be so nice if women held on to their own family surnames, as they do in other countries, particularly European countries. It would be so much easier to find them.  

So, I made contact and he graciously responded.  And drum roll..... lo and behold, it turns out our common ancestor is my maternal great-grandparents and his maternal 2 Great-grandparents!!!  Touchdown!!!! Awesome 🎉🎉🎉  I love when this happens. 

As if that wasn’t awesome enough, I had another breakthrough with another contact in another country. I sent an invitation to access my tree and I was able to access theirs. We found a few similar surnames from the town that my ancestors were from, but based on experience that is not always as clear cut as it looks. 

So we both kept digging deeper to see where the connection could be. I am so appreciative to come across others with similar passions or interests in their family history. So refreshing and encouraging. 

I sent my information for the surnames we were showing in common, including collateral lines. 

And to stress that very point, sometimes we focus only on direct lines, but that limits your research and can make the difference in whether or not you get your breakthrough and find your ancestors. 

Fortunately, they had access to the local archives and was able to search in the record books for the approximate years we were targeting. As it turned out, her direct female ancestor was a sibling of my male direct ancestor, and their parents were our most recent common ancestor. If I had not given Information on the brother of my great-grandfather, we would not have seen the connection 2 generations back. 

So a word of advice— don’t dismiss those collaterals. They are every bit as important as your direct line.  

Keep digging deeper and look around at all those collaterals.