52 ANCESTORS 52 WEEKS - DNA

Around 2010 I was contacted through Ancestry.com by a women named Myrna McGuigan.  She indicated that her husband, James J. McGuigan was a distant cousin of mine.  Myrna had looked at my tree and said her husbands family was connected to my Patrick McGuigan from Tynan, Armagh, Ireland.

Patrick is my 2nd Great Grandfather.  I was excited because I haven’t been able to find out what his father’s name was and hoped they had that information.  James’ great grandfather, Michael McGuigan left Ireland around 1835 and lived on Prince Edward Island for the rest of his life.  The grandson, Austin McGuigan, immigrated to California

Several years after that initial contact, Myrna and James McGuigan went to Ireland.  They went to the archives and found many documents pertaining to the McGuigan family.  They then went to the town, Middletown in Tynan, Armagh, where the family came from.  They spoke to several members of the McGuigan family while there.  They had two of the men take a DNA test so they could compare it with James’ DNA.  They wanted to verify that they were related.

The DNA came back as a match!  One of the men that did the DNA, Peter McGuigan, is a grand nephew of my Grandmother, Mamie McGuigan.   Peter lives in the house that was owned by Patrick McGuigan, then my great grandfather, Thomas McGuigan.  My grandmother, Mamie McGuigan was born in the house, so it has been in the family for many years.  Myrna and James said the house has been renovated and doesn’t look anything like it did back in the 1880’s.

McGuigan Farm 

Unfortunately, none of the records we both have found indicated the father of Patrick or the father of Michael McGuigan.  We haven’t been able to figure if Michael is a brother or uncle  of Patrick.  Patrick and Michael were both born about 1820.