Descendants of Nancy Doran Dunnigan

I don't have any big genealogical projects going on. So what do you work on at a time like this? You look for a piece of your family tree that isn't complete that you haven't beat your head against for months on end. Find some part of your family tree that you can make some progress on. In my case, when I started thinking about who I might be able to have a DNA test on to find connections on my Doran family tree, I realized a few things. First, my first cousin on my dad's side of the family helps me see who I'm related to on either my dad's mom's or dad's branches. The problem is that it doesn't help me see which branch they are on.


I see quite a large number of Irish relations in my common DNA matches with this cousin but that shouldn't surprise me since my dad's mom was 100% Irish. I do have a third cousin on her mom's side so that helps me narrow down a few Kelly and Murphy relations. What about my Doran relatives? I have a fourth cousin that recently had her DNA tested but we don't show up as a match at all. This could be due to a "non-paternal event" where someone's father was not who it is said it is. It could also just be because we are too distantly related. Fourth cousins actually have less than a 50% chance of showing up as a match. So who else could I test to find a match on my Doran lines? I had to find out by doing reverse genealogy.

My great-great-grandmother, Nancy Doran, was married three times that I know of and had a child, my great-grandfather, probably by another man than she ever had as a husband. I thought if I could find someone descended from another child of hers, this could help. Other than my great-grandfather, Nancy had one other child. A daughter named Beatrice Dunnigan, from her final husband. I knew that Beatrice married a man named Paquette. That's everything that I knew. My great-grandfather's obituary says he was a half-brother of one Mrs. F. G. Paquette of Murphysboro, Illinois. That's where I had to start.

I found Beatrice in the 1900-1940 US Federal Censuses. In them, I find her husband as Frank Paquette. She had a total of five children. I also found them on Find-A-Grave, which gave their birth and death dates from their headstones.

1900 Census

1920 Census

1930 Census

1940 Census

Frank George Paquette - July 1, 1860 - February 25, 1945 in Murphysboro, Illinois
Beatrice Ann Paquette - July 1, 1865 - August 15, 1957 in St. Charles, Illinois
Children:
Frank Thomas Paquette - September 11, 1893 - January 1, 1893 in Houston, Texas
Harry William Paquette - October 23, 1895 - June 8, 1962 in Murphysboro, Illinois
Beatrice Marie Paquette - February 8, 1891 - July 8, 1996 in St. Charles, Illinois
Leon Joseph Paquette - October 8, 1904 - April 23, 1994 in Ottawa, Illinois
Helen Mildren Paquette - June 10, 1910 - July 4, 1998 in Geneva, Illinois

Of these children, it appears that only Frank and Leon married and had children. I've previously been in contact with one cousin from this branch but I've not gotten an email from her in a couple of years. I did send her another email after researching this branch. I hope to hear from her again and maybe she'll take a DNA test to help us find our Doran relations!

--Matt