Tuesday, May 13, 2008

1st Missing Clue

Who was "cousin" James Wanless's mother? We have no birth certificate yet.

We know from "cousin" James's death certificate that his father was John Wanless, who (like "cousin" James) was a baker, but the mother's name was not listed.
http://www.wanlessweb.org/TNG/getperson.php?personID=I13&tree=28

Can we find proof that "cousin" James's father, John Wanless, was the John Wanless who married Margaret Ramsay?
http://www.wanlessweb.org/TNG/getperson.php?personID=I41&tree=28

Where can we look for evidence that Margaret Ramsay was "cousin" James's mother?

Linking "cousin" James Wanless to the Ramsay family strengthens the link to our James Wanlass (the miner), because our James said he was raised by a Ramsay family when he was a boy. It makes sense that he might have been raised by relatives.

Discovery of his "Cousin" by DNA research

When one of our James Wanlass's direct male-to-male descendants had a Y-chromosome DNA test performed, we found an exact DNA match with another man in the "Wanless Web DNA Project."
http://www.wanlessweb.org/DNAProject.php

The match was with a James Wanless (1827-1877), who was about 2 years younger than our James, lived in the Edinburgh, Scotland area also, was a baker by trade, married Christiana Parkinson in 1847 in Edinburgh, and had several children.
http://www.wanlessweb.org/TNG/covers/28.php

The father of this "cousin" James Wanless was named John, who was also a baker. The documentation has not yet been found, but his father may have been John Wanless (a baker) who married Margaret Ramsay.
http://www.wanlessweb.org/TNG/getperson.php?personID=I87&tree=27.1

The Ramsay name is important, because our James Wanlass thought a Ramsay family had helped raise him when he was a boy. It is possible that Margaret Ramsay's parents, Thomas Ramsay and Jean Smith, could have helped raise our James Wanlass. They were alive in 1841 and lived near several Wanless families in Dundee, Scotland at that time.
http://www.wanlessweb.org/TNG/getperson.php?personID=I410&tree=27.1

The Ramsay name also shows up among "cousin" James Wanless's (the baker) children, for he named a son "William Ramsay Wanless."
http://www.wanlessweb.org/TNG/getperson.php?personID=I21&tree=28

Thus in this "cousin" we have the convergence of DNA evidence and the "Ramsay" name. We must be on to something here!

Background Essentials

Our ancestor, James Wanlass (1825 - 1895) didn't know who his parents were. He wasn't sure where he was born. He thought a family named Ramsay helped raise him. He became a miner in Scotland, around the Edinburgh area. He married Margaret Neilson in 1847. They had a large family. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1850. He emigrated to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1874.

The pedigree chart on my website shows my relationship to him:
http://www.southwickresearch.com/Genealogy/AncestorsOnly/p5.htm