The floodgates have opened for me in the last two days and all because of DNA.
Yesterday it was all about my Norton family from Great Yarmouth, England. A person emailed me, yes you read that right, they contacted me! Our trees didn’t jive though because I had an error in mine. I had the wrong marriage for Jeremiah Norton, I had wrongly attributed an Elizabeth Jillings as his wife. They had found the correct marriage, Elizabeth Sharpe was the wife’s name. Yes, I made one of the worst genealogy mistakes…grab and go. <sheepishly hanging head> How do I know their tree is the right one? Because I wasn’t certain of Jeremiah and Elizabeth Jillings and to be honest I hadn’t done my due diligence on that marriage record. I meant to go back and research this couple but instead, I added it to my tree and I didn’t go back.
My new DNA cousin was a descendant of Elizabeth Sharp and her first husband Charles Wright. Elizabeth married a second time to Jeremiah Norton. We have five Norton descendants who show up as a match to three people who descend from the Sharpe – Wright marriage. So a lesson well learned all because of DNA. Today was going to be all about gathering data and correct records on the Norton family until an email arrived and I think I may be in genealogy heaven.
This person contacted me because we were DNA matches and they could see the surname Loftus on my online tree. The second match is with — get this — Mary Loftus who I blogged about yesterday!
Mary is an elusive ancestor I have been researching with a cousin Dani Lee McGowan and we have been stuck. This DNA cousin is matching with about seven people who we have identified as descendants of Mary Loftus’ two marriages. Our new DNA cousin has her Loftus family back to 1824 in Mayo, Ireland and has a tree that Mary would fit very well into.
At the moment I am working with both matches to see what more can be learned!
I know people who have been working on their trees for a number of years can relate to what this feels like – is euphoria the right word? A discovery like this happens maybe once a year for me if I am lucky, but to have two in two days is THE best kind of overwhelming!
With all the new matches that are bound to be on the horizon keep the floodgates open and try to keep up!
My Genealogy Life 
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