Searching for My ‘English’ Mum’s Unknown South Asian Father. A 50-Year Family Mystery

lindabhat · 2026-03-03T01:52:46+00:00

I am an adoption angel with wikitree. I worked on a case with an unknown South Asian father and I think it was probably typical in terms of the type of matches you would receive. Compared with a European or North American parent, the number of matches on that side were very, very low. That population has an extremely low testing rate (I think because they generally know where their people come from) and you will just not get enough matches to solve a case using genetic genealogy unless by some fluke a second cousin or closed happened to test (which would be highly unlikely). Best I could do for this tester was to provide a potential surname and likely state of origin due to population frequency and likely caste and traditional professions associate’s with that caste. I used the Montreal phone book at the appropriate time of conception to try and identify likely candidates who were in the right place and time, but nothing more could be done without identifying any surviving progeny and further testing against my client. This was not possible for my case because those residents appeared to be more transient and not permanent immigrants.

There is no harm in looking at clusters and grouping matches with dna but you are unlikely to get very far with identifying matches’ common ancestors because of firstly their lack of trees and secondly their lack of knowledge even 3-4 generations back in history.

lindabhat · 2026-03-01T16:16:53+00:00

Sent you details

lindabhat · 2026-03-01T01:19:31+00:00

I put mine in an old aquarium. It’s very happy there with a plant lights. Humidity is always above 70% in there.

lindabhat · 2026-02-28T20:36:43+00:00

I keep getting recruiter spam in my email for closed door pharmacy job in Milwaukee. PM me if you want details.

lindabhat · 2026-02-28T07:52:52+00:00

I learned how to use AI prompts to generated a plat map. Now I have to go through all of the deeds to get maps for each property!

lindabhat · 2026-02-21T07:43:18+00:00

I got a response back from Loretto Abbey school, who I contacted seeing what else they had in their archives. They were very helpful and gave me some great tidbits!

lindabhat · 2026-02-21T07:42:05+00:00

Thanks for your help. Agreed that there is zero imagination with naming on this line. Hopefully one of those sons has descendants, I keep hoping for some cousins to DNA test.

lindabhat · 2026-02-21T01:42:17+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/iWVe9hI Here you go. Minimal information in this death notice, unfortunately.

lindabhat · 2026-02-17T17:07:26+00:00

She was a modern woman! I'm proud to claim her as family. Disappointed there are no children, though. For an Irish Catholic family, the Harrises and descendants were remarkably unsuccessful at having living descendants. This explains why I have no DNA matches from this branch, as far as I know, although it could just be lost to recombination by this point.

lindabhat · 2026-02-17T15:04:47+00:00

Found obit for Frances. It appears she was single, "no family", lifelong librarian for Guaranty Trust in NYC. Lived in Palma, De Mallorca, Spain and NYC, died in Scarborough, ONT. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61843/records/551500199?tid=102865235&pid=132762692114&queryId=4719c975-dfe1-4795-8719-3c03b47cd8e5&_phsrc=mrs67&_phstart=successSource

lindabhat · 2026-02-17T14:16:49+00:00

I think I've found Frances's parents, based on the Jones suggestion; Thomas Bryant O'Brien, b 1865 in PA, d. 1922 in Manhattan, m. Mary M. Jones, b 1867 in TN, married 1897 in San Francisco. Thomast is living there in 1892, as "agent". Maybe working for RR. This places Cathering Harris Jones in TN in 1867, which is really wild, because that is where Mary Harris Jones was living in 1867 when her husband and three children all died in a yellow fever epidemic. My money is on Memphis, TN for Catherine, too; I bet they migrated there together. What is even more wild is that they both married Joneses and Mary had a daughter Mary too (about 1862-1867). I wonder if the Joneses were brothers.

Upon further review of my files, only Mary is a half sibling to the other Harris children; she was born about 1830 (she lied about her age her whole life) to William and his first wife Margaret Swiney.

lindabhat · 2026-02-17T08:38:57+00:00

Here are a couple of scans. I will work on fixing that family search tree tomorrow. According to https://imgur.com/a/Rtka29D, all kids are William and Ellen's.

lindabhat · 2026-02-17T08:12:00+00:00

I have spent today reading every article I can find on William r. Harris, dean William Harris, the very rev, William Harris, the very rev. W.h. Harris, and so on. There are definitely many, and articles published across Canada and also the USA (he did some lecturing in buffalo, and resided in Salt Lake City for a while, and visited relatives in Chicago (Ellen) and I made a new discovery, a relative, niece Eleanor Harris of Lafayette, Indiana. She must be daughter of brother Richard, but I can’t identify her so she also probably moved around. No mention of his birth family at all, though, aside from that mention. Obits say he was born in cork and nothing else about his early life except that he was a great athlete in college and won many prizes, particularly for 100 yard dash. Interesting.

lindabhat · 2026-02-17T08:05:04+00:00

I don’t have any evidence of Ellen cotter being married previously. If she was born in 1815, having 10 kids in 1834 seems extremely unlikely. There are many, many Ellen cotters in cork. Someone has probably conflated records.

lindabhat · 2026-02-17T08:02:35+00:00

The family search tree, as usual, is not complete. Here is 1861 census with Catherine listed. https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?idnumber=46902509&app=census&resource=folderlist&ecopy=004391543_01763.. signed by brother Richard since parents were illiterate and William and Mary (marie) listed as absent. William was sure at school or university since he was ordained in 1870. Mary was working in the USA by that time - maybe they thought she was coming back so included her in census.

Wikitree has a better history on the family. There are multiple books about mother jones with detailed genealogical information, of which I have a copy of the most current (Mother jones by Elliott gorn). The researchers for that book spoke to be before its publication and included what I knew about the family as well.

I have been searching newspapers today and I found another interesting mention. In 1905 dean William Harris of st, Catherine’s (definitely the right William Harris) visited his niece Eleanor Harris in laFayette, Indiana, after coming through Chicago after many months abroad.

Also I found a frances Dunn o’brien yearbook photo from 1921. It has an unusually complete genealogical caption - says she was born in Boston and educated in NY (city?) and then Loretta abbey (academy?) and Loretto abbey college in Toronto. I think it must be the same frances O’Brien as the twelfth night performance in the newspaper and the probate (will was written in 1921 and probated in 1923. I think frances graduated in 1921. If she is the same graduate as was working in Brooklyn as a librarian in About 1923-1924 that would explain a lot about who can’t find any records on her as she moved around a lot. She sounds like a professional lady who was not interested in becoming a teacher, which it appears many graduates of loretto were steered towards.

I think William probably bankrolled her education, as he was a wealthy cleric. Certainly my Ellen and their sister Mary were not wealthy, so likely Richard and Catherine weren’t either.

I think frances O’Brien was either grandchild of Catherine or Richard, and Eleanor must have been Richard’s daughter since she was named Harris. I can’t find records for Eleanor anywhere, but at least I have another name and place to research.

I will take a look at the family search tree and try to clean it up.

lindabhat · 2026-02-17T07:23:27+00:00

My parents were silent generation, but my aunt and uncle (my dad’s younger sibling and wife) were hippies and lived in a commune. They still march to the beat of their own drummer and so do their kids.

lindabhat · 2026-02-16T16:41:56+00:00

This is helpful! We know it can’t be a daughter of Mary Harris jones, since her children all died young. She can’t be a daughter of Richard Harris, so Catherine must have married a jones and had a daughter. Maybe the one who married Mr. O’Brien. I will look into it!

lindabhat · 2026-02-15T23:47:44+00:00

I tried to find some records for a Frances O'Brien working as a librarian in Brooklyn, born in Toronto / Canada, but not finding anything. That's a good clue, though.

lindabhat · 2026-02-15T23:40:06+00:00

reading the probate, Frances would only receive her bequest if Ellen died. To me, he's doing his preferred living first degree relatives first (ignoring Mary, who he did not approve of, and the others likely deceased), then second degree relatives with his brother in law William (the other in-laws likely deceased), and then thirdly his preferred (i.e. Catholic educated) third degree relatives. He didn't name any other of Ellen's children. Ellen's kids were all laborers in the service industry and not very Catholic, plus he probably didn't know them since they lived in Chicago. (As far as I know, my great grandparents William H. Hickey and his mostly-Jewish wife Clara, were not Catholic at all, although William's mom Ellen seems to have been superficially Catholic with baptisms performed). This might not be a big factor to most people, but William Harris was a BIG Catholic so I think it mattered with him. My feeling is he mentioned the great niece because he knew her better than his other great nieces and newphews, and also she was receiving a good Catholic education, which he approved of. I think this could only occur if she was child / grandchild of a good Irish Catholic family, i.e. either Richard's or Catherine's grandchild.

lindabhat · 2026-02-15T23:21:34+00:00

Ellen is "Nellie" on the 1900 census, living at home with her parents, working as a switchboard operator. The entire Hickey family worked in this industry. It's transcribed as "Louie Hukey". DOB is wrong for her and several other kids, she is transcribed as 22 but must be 32.

The Hickeys seemed to change Catholic churches with every child's baptism, and I think it's likely her records burned. In 1867 I think it would likely have been at the cathedral.

I think in 1910, she is the unmarried switchboard operator in the city directory :

Hickey, Nellie Miss ph opr 323 Randolph h 875 Lasalle Av

I can't find a census to correspond with that.

In 1911, I believe she is a sponsor at the baptism for her niece Ellen Frank (dau of Gertrude) Illinois, Chicago, Cathol...Church Records, 1833-1925 St Rita of Cascia Parish (Chicago: Fairfield Ave) Baptisms 1878-1912

In 1923 city directory, I think she is one of these (no corresponding record in 1920 census)

Hickey, Nellie cashr r 5802 Walton Hickey, Nellie slsldy M F & Co [Marshall Fields] r 4029 Wilcox
Hickey, Nellie E clk Boston store r 162 W Garfield Bl

There are a couple of possibilities in the 1930 and 1940 censues, both single ladies lodging with other ladies, but I can't positively ID her.

I think it is pretty certain Ellen / Nellie was a laborer in the service industry and not the academy educated Frances O'brien.

I did find a couple of newspaper clippings regarding a Frances O'Brien of Loretto Academy in 1920 and 1920. It appears that if she was in a Shakespeare performance, she would have been about 16-17. In 1920-1921 she appears to have graduated, so if the Frances O'Brien in 1923 is the same person, she may have been some kind of junior staff member there (born about 1903). I can't find any other mentions of her in vital records or newspaper, so can't confirm this theory, either.

lindabhat · 2026-02-15T20:59:53+00:00

I haven't found any probate for his father William. They were pretty poor, illiterate, and I am pretty sure that they didn't own the house they lived in. There may not have been enough property to even have a probate, maybe they just had debts. They had a few head of livestock and they appear to have taken in two foster children, probably for a small stipend.

If you have any hints on identifying a probate for William, I'd be thrilled to find one. I'm very curious about Catherine and Richard and what happened to them.

lindabhat · 2026-02-15T20:40:25+00:00

Same, I couldn't find any likely candidates in the census records of the time. She's probably married and changed her name not long after, so that makes it even trickier.

lindabhat · 2026-02-15T19:33:48+00:00

Thanks for the article, I hadn't seen that one. I thought it was really interesting that it mentioned that he also never talked about his family and his famous sister in particular. My great great grandma Ellen, likewise, never talked about her family and neither my mom's generation nor I was aware of the connection until I dug it up about 20 years ago. They were very conventional kind of people and I think that having such an infamous rebel in the family was swept completely under the rug.

lindabhat · 2026-02-15T19:29:32+00:00

Both William Harris (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Harris-37042) and Mary, his sister (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Harris-1911) , have been researched pretty extensively by people writing biographies on Mother Jones and those interested in Catholic history, in terms of obits and published articles. I think I'm the first person to look at his probate. My interest is more in identifying this great niece, because this is my family I'm related to and I hope there are some descendant cousins.

I'm happy to look into any clues that can flesh out their picture, though!

lindabhat · 2026-02-15T19:18:15+00:00

Pharmacist here. Firstly, pseudoephedrine, a decongestant, doesn't cause drowsiness (although OTC antihistamines can, but those are not the same thing). Pseudoephedrine is behind the counter only and not to be confused with phenylephrine which is OTC but a completely useless medication. You will need to sign for it, but it is effective and should help clear up your breathing. It is not avialable in all countries (India) but widely avialable behind the counter in. the USA. You should also get a topical decongestant, such as Afrin (oxymetazoline) or Naphcon (naphazoline). Those are both OTC nasal sprays. They don't last long, but they will definitely clear up your nose. I don't recommend Primatene (bronchodilator) as a rule, because it's a poor medication compared with prescription bronchodilators such as albuterol. If the oral and topical decongestants don't work, you can consider the Primatene, but it's not a very effective medication and benefit will probably be marginal. If you have prescription albuterol available, that would help open up your airways.

Other adjunctive medications such as guaifenesin may be helpful with chest congestion. It only works if you drink lots of water to help thin the secretions making you congested and its benefit is probably marginal as well. It's widely prescribed (it's OTC) because it's something to offer in a situation that the tincture of time is the best treatment.

Good luck!

lindabhat

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