Late Night Discovery

Time change had me up at 1 am. What did I do? I logged into my DNA on ancestry to see what was new. After checking on my matches I went into my distant matches which is something I generally avoid. Scrolling through I happened to click on a random person and looked to see if we had any surnames in common. I saw the name Pendergass and selected it on the off chance it would match up with my Prendergast family.

WOW is all I can say. This match could be a legitimate match through the Prendergast family.

First let me take you back a few months when I logged into Gedmatch and looked at my great uncle’s Herb’s matches and I was a close match with a person named Michael. I sent off an email and with his reply I discovered that he decended from Thomas Prendergast & Margaret Walsh. These are the same people who I guessed to be the great grandparents of my great uncle Herb.

To be honest the Reddy/Prendergast line is the one I felt I would never make any breakthroughs on, the history of this family is limited. Herb’s grandmother Anne Reddy died when she was in her early 20s and her mother Margaret Prendergast also had an untimely death at a young age, both died in Quebec City.

With numerous records pointing me to Margaret’s parents being Thomas Prendgast & Margaret Walsh, I had them tenitively listed as  her parents. NO records I have found have proven that connection… yet.

With these new-found DNA matches with my great uncle and myself I felt that these parents are quite likely.

Fast-forward to me last night on Ancestry and the Prendergass match. They had a Cecily Prendergass who married a John Kennedy in Quebec City… Well, with a little further looking I found the marriage record on Ancestry and guess who Cecily’s parents were listed as? Thomas Prendergast & Margaret Walsh. Are you kidding me? Is this even possible? Does DNA do this much?

I have found these same names listed on an Irish pay $$ website as parents for a birth of Margaret Prendergast (1822) in Mooncoin, Kilkenny, this place is where the earlier match named Michael had indicated the family was from.

My question is, how many maybes makes a proven?? How many clues do you use in your genealogy to call it fact? I am leaning closely to Margaret Prendgast’s parents being Thomas & Margaret (Walsh) Prendgast. Woundn’t you?

Summary – 

Great uncle Herb -> Anne Reddy – > Thomas Reddy & Margaret Prendergast 

Margaret Prendergast possible parents –  Thomas Prendergast & Margaret Walsh

Great uncle Herb’s DNA matches Michael who descends from Thomas Prendergast & Margaret Walsh

My DNA shows a match to someone who descends from Thomas Prendergast & Maraget Walsh

Found a birth record for Margaret Prendergast (1822) d/o Thomas Prendergast & Margaret Walsh in Mooncoin, Kilkenny