Building a Tree for Grandpa Harry Hughes Part I

In the post titled, "Eureka - I think I found it! Part I" and three following posts, I described my efforts to find the family of Harry Hughes, my husband's grandfather. Harry, as we found out recently was also known as Joseph P. Hughes. He was born on 31 December 1874 near Chester, Cheshire, England which was the birthplace he always listed. He was baptized in St. Peter's church in Liverpool, Lancashire, England which is close to Cheshire. His parents lived in nearby Garston, Lancashire at the time.

Harry and his father, Samuel, both have a lot of holes in their timelines. There are large gaps, spanning a decade or more, for which there appears to be no information.

While I do some offline investigating in those timeline gaps, I decided to build Harry's family tree backward using online records, if possible.

I knew that Samuel Hughes (1841 - 1917) was almost certainly Harry's father. But who were Samuel's parents? Who was his wife, Harry's mother? And who were her parents? In the post, "Eureka, I think I Found It Part III," I shared the marriage certificate of Samuel Hughes and Frances Woodward. Here it is again below.

Marriage record for Samuel Hughes and Frances Woodward 1869¹

The marriage record states that Samuel Hughes, age 27, a bachelor, a farmer from Broxton, son of Samuel Hughes, also a farmer, married on 6 March 1869 at St. Johns in Chester parish, Frances Woodward, age 25, a spinster with a residence of Foregate Streets, daughter of Joseph Woodward, also a farmer. The certificate contains what appears to be the actual signatures of the bride and groom as well as the signatures of the witnesses, Alice Woodward and John Brereton.

Brereton is another name that shows up on the research trees of probable Hughes DNA matches. The Brereton name is in a tree that contains intermarriages between the Hughes, Brereton, and Cheers families. It appears that these families migrated to Australia in the mid-1800s. I need to keep this information handy as these people are part of Samuel's FAN club,2 "Friends, Associates, and Neighbors."

Concentrating on Frances Woodward, Harry's mother, the marriage record shows she was born about 1843 and her father's name was Joseph. In the 1871 census where Frances is enumerated with Samuel Hughes, her birth location is given as Christleton. So Christleton is a good place to start looking for her baptism.  And her baptism shows up exactly where it is supposed to. In fact, she is the only Frances Woodward baptized in Cheshire between 1841 and 1845. So I am reasonably sure this is the correct Frances.

Baptismal Record for Frances Woodward 1843³

Page 10 on the left lists "Baptisms solemnized in the Parish of Christleton in the County of Chester in the Year 1843." The fourth one listed is Frances, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Woodward, a farmer in Christleton. She was born on 5 June 1843 and baptized on 25 June 1843.

The 1851 census for Christleton helped to further develop the Joseph and Elizabeth Woodward family structure. Elizabeth was listed as widowed and she had 4 young daughters: Jane, born about 1841; Frances, born about 1843; Alice, born about 1845; and Martha, born about 1847. Elizabeth and her four daughters were living with Mary Rhoden, Elizabeth's mother, who was also a widow. ⁴

I will need to find Joseph's death which would likely be between 1846, the conception of the last child, and 1851, the year of the census. But I want to go backward to the previous census to see if there are additional family members.

1841 Census for Joseph and Elizabeth Woodward⁵

In the 1841 census of Christleton which is shown on the right, Joseph, age 50, and Elizabeth, age 30, are listed with six children. Sarah, born about 1825; Mary, born about 1832; George, born about 1833; Emma, born about 1834; Martha, born about 1837; and Joseph, born about 1838. The entire family was listed as being born in Cheshire. 

I noted that Elizabeth was 20 years younger than Joseph and the oldest child was 15. There was a 7-year gap between the oldest child, Sarah and the next child, Mary. I hypothesized that Elizabeth was not his first wife and noted that I will need to look for evidence of a previous wife. I also noted that NONE of the children in the1841 census were with Elizabeth in the 1851 census. It's possible there are two separate families or it is possible that there is just one family that broke apart after Joseph's death and the older children are being cared for elsewhere.

Burial Entry for Joseph Woodward 1849 ⁶

Evidence of Joseph's death was relatively easy to find. I was able to find his burial record in 1849 in Christleton where he had lived at least since marrying Elizabeth. He was buried at Christleton on 13 April 1849. I searched for a newspaper account of his death but was unable to find one. 

I can't imagine being a mother, 39 years old, with 9 children and at least one step-child. And then being suddenly widowed with these 10 children, aged 2 to 25. It's not surprising then, to find Elizabeth living with her mother and her four youngest children, including Frances, Harry's mother.

The obvious question is where are all the other children? So much more to find out.

Here is the family constructed thus far for Frances Woodward, her parents and siblings:



Joseph Woodward, born about 1790 in Cheshire, England, died 1849, probably in Cheshire England. He married,
Elizabeth Rhoden, born 1809 in Cheshire, England.
Daughter, Mary was born about 1832.
Son, George was born about 1834.
Daughter, Emma was born about 1835.
Daughter, Martha was born about 1838 and must have died before 1847.
Son, Joseph was born about 1839.
Daughter, Jane was born about 1841.
Daughter, Frances was born about 1843.
Daughter, Alice was born about 1845.
Daughter, Martha was born about 1847.

The next post will fill some detail for the family.

1. "Cheshire Diocese of Chester parish marriages 1538 - 1910,” database, findmypast.com (www.findmypast.com: accessed 20 March 2020); marriage entry for Samuel Hughes and Frances Woodward, 6 March 1869, St. John the Baptist, Chester, Cheshire, England.
2. FamilySearch Research Wiki, (http://https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/) "Elizabeth Shown Mills," rev.10:04, 26 March 2019.
3. "Cheshire Diocese of Chester parish baptisms 1538-1911," database, findmypast.com (www.findmypast.com: accessed 24 March 2020); baptismal entry for Frances Woodward, 25 June 1843, Christleton, Cheshire, England.
4. "1851 England, Wales & Scotland Census," database, findmypast.com (www.findmypast.com: accessed 25 March 2020); citing [The National Archives] Series HO107, piece 2171, folio 431, p. 31; entry for Elizabeth Woodward, Christleton, Cheshire, England.
5.  "1841 England, Wales & Scotland Census," database, findmypast.com (www.findmypast.com: accessed 25 March 2020); citing [The National Archives] Series HO107, piece 90, folio 13, p. 26; entry for Joseph and Elizabeth Woodward, Christleton, Cheshire, England.
6. "Cheshire Diocese of Chester parish burials 1538-1911," database, findmypast.com (www.findmypast.com: accessed 25 March 2020); burial entry for Joseph Woodward, 13 April 1849, Christleton, Cheshire, England.

Eureka - I think I found it! Part IV

My previous three posts left so many questions unanswered it will form my research on Harry and Samuel Hughes for many months to come, if not years.

But there are three more records that shed possible light on Samuel Hughes, Harry's father, in Canada between 1879 when he arrived there and his death in 1917.

In Part III of this series, I showed a portion of a ship's register listing Saml and Jos P Hughes arriving in Quebec from Liverpool in 1879. I don't find any evidence of Samuel again until 12 years later in the 1891 Canada census.

Samuel Hughes 1891 Canada census Montreal¹

Samuel Hughes was listed as 40 years old, living in a hotel in Montreal, Canada. His marital status was blank and he was born in England as were both his parents, and he was a member of the Church of England. He was a cattle foreman (although one of the transcriptions read "cake freeman," which made me giggle).

He was a wage earner but unemployed the week before census, and he could read and write.

Although his age is off by 10 years, it will fit into the next record nicely, allowing for the age mistake.

Samuel Hughes 1913 Canada US Crossing²

This 1913 record is interesting in that it shows a Samuel Hughes crossing into the US from Montreal, Canada. Twenty-two years later, if it is the same man, he is 70 years old, still a cattleman, now widowed. He's able to read and write, he's Canadian English from Montreal with no relatives in Canada. He is going to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

If this is Harry's father born in 1841, he should be 71 years in March of 1913, but 70 is pretty darn close.

This particular record has been in my "Possible Hughes" file for a while. But I never looked at the next page online... until now. PEOPLE - please check the pages around the record you're viewing. It could be critical.

Samuel Hughes 1913 Canada. US Crossing page 2³

This second page sheds so much light on Samuel and Harry and I am embarrassed to say I just finally turned to the second page to see it!

The second page of the record goes on to say that Samuel did not have a ticket to his final destination but his son had paid his passage.  He had $50 and had never been in the U.S. before. His son, Harry, lived at 108 Utah Ave N Minneapolis. Samuel was 5' 9" with white hair and brown eyes. He was born in Harthill, Cheshire, England, arrived in Quebec in July 1879 on the what appears to be the Sarmatian and was examined 6 Mar 1913.

Wow, that information sure lines up with what I know about Samuel, Harry's father! And it pretty much confirms that the Samuel and Joseph P. Hughes that arrived in Canada in 1879 were my husband's grandfather and great-grandfather. It also provides indirect evidence to the hypothesis that Joseph P. Hughes and Harry Hughes are the same person.

Death Certificate for Samuel Hughes 1917⁴

And finally, Samuel's death certificate has what little information that the informant, Harry, knows about his father.

He was born in England on May 3, 1941. He was widowed. Samuel's father's name is also Samuel and his mother's name is unknown.

He lived at Rosedale Avenue and 36th Avenue. Samuel has been in the district where the death occurred for 4 years and in the state for 4 years.

This fits perfectly with his Canada crossing from 1913.

Apparently, even though Samuel hadn't visited the U.S., Harry and Samuel kept in touch. Samuel knew about Harry's name change and how to reach him. While they probably spent little if any time together between 1891 and 1913, they were able to spend Sam's last four years together.

So now there are some answers but there are so many more questions!




1. "1891 Census of Canada; West Ward, Montréal Centre, Quebec, Canada"; p. 7, Samuel Hughes; image, Library and Archives Canada, 2009. (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 20 March 2020) citing Library and Archives Canada, Series RG31-C-1. Statistics Canada Fonds. Microfilm reels: T-6290 to T-6427. Year: 1891; Census Place: West Ward, Montréal Centre, Quebec, Canada; Roll: T-6410; Family No: 25.
2. “Manifests of Passengers Arriving at St. Albans, VT, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895-1954,” database, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com: accessed 20 March 20200, entry for Samuel Hughes, age 70, arrived St. Albans, VT, 1913; citing NARA, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: M1464; Roll Number: 207.
3. Ibid.
4. Minnesota Department of Vital Statistics, death certificate no. 4867 (1917), Samuel Hughes; Minnesota Historical Society, St Paul.

Eureka - I think I found it! Part III

My Q & D Match Trees

In Eureka - I think I found it! Part I, I shared a photo of the trees I have on the wall in my office. The trees are "quick and dirty" (Q & D) trees developed from the trees of DNA matches and extended using Ancestry hints and other quick searches.

Reviewing the information I already had about Harry Hughes confirmed that I had many large gaps in his timeline:

He was born 31 December 1874 in Chester, Cheshire, England. His father was Samuel.

He crossed the border from Canada to the US in about July of 1891 or 1892.

He was inducted into the I.O.O.F. in 1906 in Breckenridge, Minnesota.

He married Anna Kline in 1916. He is shown in the federal census of 1920, 1930, and 1940 with Anna and family.

His Railroad Board Retirement file shows that he worked for Soo Line Railroad in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1920 to 1944 when he retired.

He died in January 1957 in Crystal, Minnesota.

The big gaps are between 1874 and 1891/1892; between 1892 and1906; and between 1906 and 1916.

Obvious searches did not give any more clues about those gaps.

So my next step was to stand back - to stand and stare at the charts on the wall. I stared and looked for duplicate names; I stared and looked for duplicate surnames, and I stared and looked for any clue that would give me direction on where to go next.

And I looked at my online Q & D trees for any clues as well. The unfortunate by-product of totally English surnames is they are all very bland and unmemorable. You need to review them several times because they all blend together.

Eventually, I noticed duplicate surnames that popped up on more than one tree: Lee, Lewis, Cheers, Woodward, and even a Hughes or two. Concentrating on the ones with Cheshire, England locations, I built those trees as far back as possible then continued building them forward again finding as many descendants as possible.

Several Samuel Hughes showed up and there were many William Hughes but I still couldn't find a Harry. Yet I was convinced the answer was on the wall.

I reviewed my digital file of "possible" Hughes documents. Several had Harry at the right age but not Samuel as a father. Several had Samuel at the right age but not a Harry. I remember telling my husband that I was concerned that Sam and Harry weren't really father and son but maybe uncle and nephew. I thought perhaps Hughes was Samuel's surname but Harry was Sam's sister's child and actually had a different surname.

Then I spotted this 1871 English census in my file, it had been there since 2011.

1871 English census for Samuel Hughes¹

Here's a closer view of the highlighted part.

Closer view of 1871 English census for Samuel Hughes

Samuel Hughes, age 29, and Frances (his wife), age 27 were living in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, with their son, George Woodward, age 1. Samuel was a slaughterhouse constable and had been born in Harthill, Cheshire, England. Frances was born in Christleton, Cheshire, England. And George was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England.

George's middle name was Woodward. And I had seen the name "Woodward" on two of the DNA match charts on my wall. So I investigated this family further. The first step was to look at the family in the following censuses.

Well, that turned out to be easier said than done. I found George living in Christleton with his grandmother, Elizabeth Woodward, in 1881. I couldn't find Frances or Samuel as easily. In 1891, Frances is back in Birkenhead and George is living with her. She is now a midwife and George is a grocer's assistant. Frances's marital status is listed as married. But Samuel is not there. Where is Samuel?

Are these the people I'm looking for? It's possible but I have many questions. So it's back to my "possible Hughes" digital files.

Here is a portion of a ship's list file I've had in that digital folder since 2017.

1879 Ship's List for Samuel Hughes²

It shows Saml Hughes, age 38, with Jos P Hughes, age 4.  They arrived in Quebec from Liverpool on the ship Sarmatian on July 13, 1879.

The reason I kept this record was that I assumed Saml was Samuel and he was of the right age. Also the middle initial of the child, Jos "P" was intriguing. I assumed that the child's full name was Joseph P. Hughes. He was also of the right age although he had the wrong first name.

Again, there are more questions. If this is Samuel, why would he be traveling to Canada with one child? And who is Joseph P. Hughes?

I went to findmypast.com to look at the births, marriages, and deaths in the parish registers. I was hoping the family married and baptized in the Church of England to make the records easier to find. I decided to try to find George Woodward's and Joseph's baptisms. I wanted to see if they were from the same family.

These are descriptions of some of the records I found.

George Woodward Hughes was the son of Samuel Hughes and his wife, Frances. They lived on Somerville St. in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England. Samuel was a market inspector. George was baptized on 26 December 1869 at St. Peter's church in Birkenhead.³ 

Lizzie Annie Hughes was the daughter of Samuel Hughes and his wife, Frances. They lived in Garston, Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Samuel was a plate-layer. Lizzie was born 12 November 1871 and baptized on 16 March 1875 at St. Peter's church in Liverpool.⁴ 

Joseph Percy Hughes was the son of Samuel Hughes and his wife, Frances. They lived in Garston, Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Samuel was a plate-layer. Joseph was born 31 December 1874 and baptized on 16 March 1875 at St. Peter's church in Liverpool on the same day as his sister, Lizzie.⁵ 

I bolded Joseph's name above as it fits with the name on the ship's list as the child traveling with Samuel Hughes in 1879. I've bolded Joseph's birthday as it is significant in that it matches exactly the birthday that Harry Percy Hughes used consistently throughout his life in the United States.

I also found this marriage record.

Marriage record for Samuel Hughes and Frances Woodward 1869⁶

Samuel Hughes, age 27, a bachelor, farmer from Broxton, son of Samuel Hughes, also a farmer,  married on 6 March 1869 at St. Johns in Chester parish, Frances Woodward, age 25, spinster, daughter of Joseph Woodward, also a farmer.








These are definitely some good leads but are they the right family for certain? No, in fact, now I've discovered that there was more than one Samuel and Frances Hughes with children in the Cheshire and Lancashire areas. The Samuel and Frances Hughes with the son George Woodward Hughes lived in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England which is directly across the river from Liverpool in Lancashire where Joseph and Lizzie Annie were baptized six years later.

I will have to build the families for any Samuel and Frances Hughes in the area in hopes of keeping them separate.

Currently, my theory is that the three children above are the children of Samuel and Frances Woodward Hughes.

• A woman named Frances Hughes is found in 1891 with only George present.
• A man named Samuel Hughes is found in 1879 on a ship's list from Liverpool to Quebec with a Joseph P. Hughes.
• Joseph P. Hughes has the same birthday that Harry Hughes used in the United States.
• Hughes and Woodward are names found in the DNA matches that also have locations of Cheshire, England.

There is more work to do. I have trees to build and records to find. I have questions to answer:

What happened to Lizzie Annie?

Are there more children? 

Why did Sam leave?

Where was Sam when Harry AKA Joseph came to the United States? 

So many more questions!

1. "1871 England, Wales & Scotland Census," database, findmypast.com (www.findmypast.com: accessed 13 November 2011); citing [The National Archives] Series RG10, piece 3745, folio 66, p. 55; entry for Samuel Hughes (age 29), Birkenhead, Cheshire, England.
2. Ancestry.com. Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Series: RG 76-C; Roll: C-4530, month 7. Passenger Lists, 1865–1935. Microfilm Publications T-479 to T-520, T-4689 to T-4874, T-14700 to T-14938, C-4511 to C-4542. Library and Archives Canada, n.d. RG 76-C. Department of Employment and Immigration fonds. Library and Archives Canada Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
3. "Cheshire Diocese of Chester parish baptisms 1538-1911," database, findmypast.com (www.findmypast.com: accessed 20 March 2020); baptismal entry for George Woodward Hughes, 26 December 1869, St. Peter, Birkenhead, Cheshire, England.
4. Lancashire Baptisms," database, database, findmypast.com (www.findmypast.com: accessed 20 March 2020); baptismal entry for Lizzie Annie Hughes, 16 March 1875, St. Peter, Liverpool. Lancashire, England.
5. "Lancashire Baptisms," database, database, findmypast.com (www.findmypast.com: accessed 20 March 2020); baptismal entry for Joseph Percy Hughes, 16 March 1875, St. Peter, Liverpool. Lancashire, England.
6. "Cheshire Diocese of Chester parish marriages 1538 - 1910,” database, findmypast.com (www.findmypast.com: accessed 20 March 2020); marriage entry for Samuel Hughes and Frances Woodward, 6 March 1869, St. John the Baptist, Chester, Cheshire, England.

Eureka - I think I found it! Part II

In part one, I reviewed what I thought I knew about Harry Hughes and described my renewed effort to find out more about him. I grumbled that the answers I was finding were creating more questions. I resolved to review the information I had in my files.

Harry Hughes draft card 1918²

The first evidence that he was in Minnesota came from the I.O.O.F. Grand Lodge of Minnesota in St. Paul in the form of a letter included in his railroad retirement file. The letter was dated 22 Nov 1944 but indicated that he was inducted into the I.O.O.F. at Breckenridge, MN on 21 May 1906.1

In Harry's 1918 WWI draft registration card he gave his name as Harry Hughes with the middle name field blank. He gave his age as 43, born Dec 31, 1874, in England (Chester). He was a declared alien. His wife was Anna Hughes and he was a laborer at the [illegible] Bros Mfg Co. on 10th Ave SE. His physical description on the backside of the card is as follows:

Height: Tall
Build: Stout
Color of Eyes: Brown
Color of Hair: Dark

Harry Hughes Alien Registration 1940 ³

Harry's 1940 Alien Registration form reveals similar information.

His name is Harry [None] Hughes and he entered the United States as Harry Hughes. He was born 31 Dec 1874 at Chester, Chester [sic], England. He is a citizen of Great Britain. He entered the United States on 1 July 1892 at Niagara Falls, NY on foot.

I only show a partial record at left. But it goes on to state that Harry had been in the United States for 48 years and expected to remain permanently. He was a freight handler for the Soo Line Railroad. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Clerks. He had a wife and four children in the United States but no parents. He had not been arrested in the previous five years and he had not affiliated with any organization that furthered the political or public policy of a foreign government. His signature looks almost identical to the one on the draft registration above.

Railroad Employee Statement 1944⁴

Harry's Railroad Retirement Board Employee's State of Compensated Service had similar information. Harry gave his name as Harry [None] Hughes. He was born on 31 December 1874 in Chester, Cheshire, England. His father's name was Samuel Hughes and his mother's name was unknown. He was a freight handler for the Soo Railroad from July 1920 to October 1944. He give his wife's name as Anna [none] Kline. Only a small section of the file is shown at right.

Harry Hughes death certificate 1957⁵

Also included in the Railroad Retirement file was Harry's death certificate. The informant was Mrs. Howard Tenney who state that the deceased's name was Harry P. Hughes, he was born 31 Dec 1874 in England and was still a citizen of England.

His father's name was Samuel Hughes and his mother's name was unknown. His spouse's name was Anna Kline Hughes.

He was a resident of Valley View Rest Home when he died and had been there for 46 days. My husband remembers visiting him there but also remembers visiting him at an I.O.O.F. home near Northfield, MN.

Harry Hughes obituary ⁶

The obituary for Harry Hughes doesn't give any additional information about the past life of Harry Hughes. Like his death certificate, his name is listed as Harry P. Hughes. It lists his four children and mentions he has 7 grandchildren.



Questions to follow up on:
Does the I.O.O.F. have records available that would give more information about Harry's whereabouts before he married in 1916?
Would the I.O.O.F. have information about his time in the rest home in Northfield, MN?
Would his marriage license give more information about his life before marriage?
Does the Brotherhood of Railroad Clerks have archival information that would give additional information?
Why didn't Harry use a middle name when his daughter insisted he had one: "Percy"?
Where was Harry before he entered the United States in July of 1892?
Where in the U.S. was Harry between 1892 and 1916 when he married his wife, Anna Kline?

Do you see what I mean about more questions!

1.  Hughes, Harry. Pension file. Social Security no. 701-05-4003, 1944. Records of the Railroad Retirement Board, Chicago, IL.

2. "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-818N-4YL?cc=1968530&wc=9FZ7-4WL%3A928311201%2C928497801 : accessed 19 Mar 2020), card for Harry Hughes, Minnesota > Hennepin County; D-V > image 1757 of 6042; citing NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

3. Hughes, Harry. Pension file. Social Security no. 701-05-4003, 1944. Records of the Railroad Retirement Board, Chicago, IL.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid; Minnesota Department of Vital Statistics, death certificate no. 006344 (1957), Harry P. Hughes; Minnesota Historical Society, St Paul.

6. Obituary of Harry P Hughes (d. 15 Jan 1957), Minneapolis (Minnesota) Star, 16 Jan 1957, p. 7D. Cp;/ 1; image copy, Newspapers.com (https://mewspapers.com: downloaded 13 Jun 2019).

Eureka - I think I found it! Part I

Eureka! I think I found the answer! But sometimes the answers leave you with more questions. My 30-year-old brick wall is a case in point:

Harry Hughes

Harry Hughes was born 31 Dec 1874 in Chester, Cheshire, England. His father’s name was Samuel. When Harry was still young, he left England with his father and went to Canada. Harry crossed the border to the U.S. at Niagara on foot in July 1891 or 1892. I’m not sure how much time was spent in Canada nor am I positive he traveled with Samuel. But the rest of the above information is fairly consistent across records including alien registrations, WWI draft registration, IOOF membership, railroad pension documents, and death certificate.

The first census record I can find for him is in 1920 in Hennepin County, Minnesota, after he married my husband’s grandmother, Anna Kline. I can’t find any record of a Harry with father Samuel in England. The Harry Hughes(es) that I have found online had different fathers and seemed to have stayed in England.

Harry's father, Samuel

I queried my mother-in-law extensively prior to her death several years ago and she claimed to not know very much. She said that she was named for him (Harriet Priscilla) and that his name was Harry Percy Hughes. But he always entered “None” in the middle name field or left it blank when he filled out forms. She also said he was either born in England or Wales. I can see that Chester is very close to Wales. She also thought he might have worked “out east” for some years.

His father, Samuel’s death certificate has no helpful information, nor does his own. Harry’s mother’s name isn’t even on Harry's death certificate. So who the heck is this guy and where is he from?

Harry's wife, Anna Kline

I turned to DNA for some help. One of my husband's first cousins tested so I started with their shared match list. I then needed to eliminate all the matches that were related through Anna Kline's line. This was relatively easy as Anna Kline was 100% Icelandic, born just a couple of years after her parents arrived in Minnesota from Iceland. Anna Kline may not sound like an Icelandic name but the entire family adopted the last name Kline after arriving in Minnesota and she used Anna instead of her birth name.

Just to give an idea of the number of matches I was working with, my husband has over 50,000 matches on Ancestry. He shared only 54 4th-cousin or closer matches with his first cousin. Of those, only 7 could be identified as probably coming from the Harry Hughes line.

Using the shared matches feature with those 7, I was able to add some more distant matches to the group which I colored coded using Ancestry's group system. Once I added matches to the group, I chose just that group from the Group drop-down menu to limit my view to just those matches. At that point, the URL showed the group number as the last four characters of the URL.

I then used geneticaffairs.com auto-clustering and chose to use the group number from Ancestry. I extended the clusters and also asked for family trees, using cM thresholds of 250 cM and 9 cM. A total number of 24 matches were identified that were used for an AutoCluster analysis.

My Q & D Match Trees

The results were interesting. As it turned out, geneticaffairs.com tree feature wasn't helpful in this case as not many of the matches had enough information for the program to create a shared tree. So I created trees manually. There were several matches with individual online trees, some very small, but enough to start building a quick and dirty (Q&D) tree. I created a tree called Hughes Research Tree and using Ancestry I used their hints to build those trees back into the mid-18th century. I added siblings and others when possible as they might be the actual link I need.

Ancestry doesn't make it easy to create separate trees in one research tree but it is possible. I wanted them in one place so I could look at the combined list of all people. I could examine the list for duplicate people or surnames that pop up in more than one tree. I also printed the trees out and hung them up so that I could look at them all at once.

One thing I noticed with Ancestry's tree printing is that it prints the birth, marriage and death dates AND locations for everyone. This was very helpful for me. When viewing the online tree you don't see the locations unless you click on each person. I highlighted the people on the printed trees who had locations of Cheshire or Lancashire, England.

Interestingly, the matches that were the most helpful came from Australia. One tree looked quite promising but it was private. I reached out to the tree owner and she was very helpful in quickly giving me the information I needed to construct that part of the tree.

I had a few surnames that matched across a couple of trees but the names weren't yet meaningful to me. The name Hughes popped up on two trees but it is such a common name in that area that I didn't want to put too much weight on that.

So nothing jumped out at me yet but I felt like I was getting closer and now at least I had names in front of me. What to do next? I could spend more time working on the match trees. I could revisit the searches I made in the past at Ancestry.com, Findmypast.com, and FamilySearch.org. But I opted to step back and review my file of "Possible Hughes Connections."

There's something to be said for reviewing information in your files. You never know what might jump out at you when you have new information. What could possibly be in those files that might shed new light on this old problem?




Photos in collection of author.