Update – The very nice person behind the Find-A-Grave account made the changes. I received the email notification Saturday morning. Later that day I was hanging out at one of my favorite libraries, having a great discussion with a fellow history fan. When she gave her name, I realized that she was the face behind the account. What a coincidence! She offered to turn the memorials over to me, but I left them with her since she was tending them so well.

While researching my Fennimore family, I noticed some Ancestry family trees had accepted a Find-a-Grave hint for Mary Day Fennimore.  The hint indicated that Mary died in June of 1903 in Springfield, Burlington County, New Jersey and, she was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Basking Ridge, Somerset County, New Jersey.[i]  This hint caught my attention because I had searched for Mary’s death certificate, and I walked Evergreen Cemetery many times, looking for a headstone; I have found neither.  I have been researching this couple for over twenty years, and if there is a way to connect the Fennimores of Morris, and Somerset Counties to those in the Southern part of the state, I would be ecstatic.  I decided to take a look at the memorial:

Some of the information is accurate, and I recognize some of my memorials identified as children.  I didn’t create a memorial for their parents because I didn’t “Find a Grave.”  This memorial was added in August 2019, with the comments “It has been assumed that she was buried with her husband William Fennimore, but not yet confirmed.” Thinking someone found my William ‘s headstone, I excitedly clicked on his memorial[ii]

His memorial isn’t based upon a physical grave being located either.  Rather it is an assumption that he was buried at Evergreen because some of his family is buried there. Much of the other information matched his death certificate. I’m glad that the memorial owner indicated that these were assumptions; it helped me analyze this source.  Honestly, I had considered this assumption as well, but his death certificate stated that he was buried in Basking Ridge.  Yes, some of his children are buried at Evergreen, but some are also buried at another Basking Ridge cemetery, Millington Baptist Church. Mary and William were married at Millington Baptist, so there is a strong argument for both locations. There is Fennimore family in all four Basking Ridge cemeteries. I have physically searched all but the Roman Catholic cemetery.  I came up empty-handed for William and Mary, so I decided not to make an online memorial.

I looked up the memorial owner, and the individual manages over 27k memorials, a red flag for any genealogist. Thoroughly researching these memorials would be difficult. This person seems different and does do some research, and is open to turning over memorials to the family. I didn’t necessarily want the memorial, but I don’t want incorrect information replicated either.  My guess is that they had a death certificate for a Mary Fennimore and had wrongly attributed it to my Mary.  But without seeing the source document, it’s not very easy to say for sure.

I suggested an edit of Mary’s death and sent a message to the memorial owner asking for the source of her death information.  My suggestion was declined, and I was asked to prove why I thought the memorial is incorrect.  So, in other words, I have been asked to show something is wrong (not knowing what that something is), well here I go…

Conflicts presented

Why do I think Mary Day Fennimore did not die in Springfield, Burlington county?
First, let’s talk about common sense.  What is the likelihood of a women passing in Springfield, Burlington County, when her husband and children were living in the vicinity of Basking Ridge, Somerset County.  Today it’s an hour drive by automobile.  In 1903 travel would be even longer. Is there an explanation as to why Mary would be in that part of the state? Her family originated in Essex County, and later moved to Somerset County, New Jersey. I will acknowledge that stranger things have happened, so let’s review my analysis.

Here’s Something about my Mary

Mary was the daughter of Izrael [Israel] Day and Ann Eliz^h [Gracia Ann Elizabeth Blazier] Day. She married William Fennimore on 16 December 1859, in Bernards, Somerset County, New Jersey.  She was a resident of Bernards, and her age was listed as twenty putting her birth year at about 1839, well before the collection of vital statics. Mary would go on to give birth to at least thirteen children, many of whose brief existence can only be found in undertaker records.[iii]  Nine children survived until adulthood. I have not located any records that would tie Mary, her husband, her children, or her parents to Burlington county.  The family seems to have resided in the vicinity where Somerset, Morris, and Union counties meet in the Northern parts of New Jersey. Please note Basking Ridge, is an area located within Bernards Township.

A gap in death records

While researching Mary’s parents, I stumbled across original undertaker records, which indicated that Israel Day, Mary’s father, was buried on 5 March 1884.  With this date, I went to the New Jersey State Archives and searched for Israel’s death record.  There were no records for the area of Bernards, Somerset County, New Jersey.  I extended my manual search to neighboring Morris County, but nothing was found. I spoke with one of the Archive Rock stars, and we reviewed the Somerset County records. She indicated that Bernards has a record gap, and either they were never deposited with the state, or perhaps never recorded by the town.  Unfortunately, this period seems to extend to the date of when Mary Day Fennimore passed as well. In all likelihood, the death record no longer exists. Not locating a record, and finding that the records for that time and place do not exist today should not be mistaken for negative results.

Death date range

Mary Day Fennimore’s last documented appearance on the census was in 1885, where she is listed under William, and above her children.  The New Jersey census in 1885 did not provide relationships.[iv] In 1900, William Fennimore, her husband, was listed as being married for the duration of forty years. However, Mary was not registered with William or any of her children.  In 1905, William was enumerated again alone, this time indicating that he was widowed. She died before the 1905 census, and likely after 1 June 1900. So where was Mary in 1900?

1900 Census

A search of the 1900 census for women named Mary Fennimore returned results for two women named Mary Fenimore, born in New Jersey around 1840.

• Mary Fenimore of Burlington county, wife of Henry, the was couple married forty years.[v]
• Mary Fenimore of Burlington county, Single living with her sister[vi]

The women enumerated were the same age as Mary Day Fennimore but lived in Burlington County, where the Fenimore name is quite common.  One Mary was married to a man named Henry for a duration of forty years. The second Mary was single living with her sister, also single. Both women of the household with the surname of Fenimore. I would argue that Mary Day Fennimore was missed in the 1900 census. William Fennimore’s entry indicated that he was married (m) and had an accurate number of years married. It wasn’t a simple substitution of M (married) for a W (widowed) because the duration of the marriage was listed. She may have simply been overlooked.

Three women the same age in the same state, two of whom live in proximity to a death event that happened three years later.  I’d argue that it is more likely that the death in Springfield, Burlington County, is attributed to one of the women located in the Burlington County 1900 census.  If there is a death certificate in your possession that would prove otherwise, I’d love to see it. Again, stranger things have happened.

I believe there is enough of a conflict to the Find-A-Grave death entry to merit the removal. A known gap in death records for Basking Ridge (Bernards), Somerset county. Two other women of the same age named Mary Fenimore in the same county of the 1903 death event.  No evidence that any of Mary Day Fennimore’s family was living in Burlington county. It makes no sense for a married older woman to travel to that vicinity.  If I knew the source of the death entry, then I could evaluate further.  The Find-A-Grave memorial has been accepted as fact on several Ancestry family trees; if it’s factual, then please share the source.  If you don’t have a source, let’s work on proving or disproving your entry. I believe we probably live near one another. I’d be glad to meet for coffee to discuss..

[i] Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 17 February 2020), memorial page for Mary Elizabeth Day Fennimore (1840–Jun 1903), Find A Grave Memorial no. 201997099, citing Evergreen Cemetery, Basking Ridge, Somerset County, New Jersey, USA ; Maintained by RS Witwer (contributor 48434609) .

[ii] Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 17 February 2020), memorial page for William Fennimore (1836–4 Nov 1912), Find A Grave Memorial no. 201997045, citing Evergreen Cemetery, Basking Ridge, Somerset County, New Jersey, USA ; Maintained by RS Witwer (contributor 48434609) .

[iii] Robert C Bishop Undertaker Records 1879-1906, Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

[iv] “New Jersey State Census, 1885,” William Fennimore, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : 10 February 2020), Somerset; Department of State, Trenton.

[v] “United States Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DZR3-78N?cc=1325221&wc=9BQK-K6N%3A1030550301%2C1033658901%2C1033734901 : 17 February 2020), New Jersey, > Burlington > ED 35 Southampton Township > image 2 of 39; citing NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

[vi] “United States Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6XCQ-FNB?cc=1325221&wc=9BWH-PYX%3A1030550301%2C1033658901%2C1033683801 : 17 February 2020), New Jersey > Burlington > ED 12 Burlington Township > image 8 of 22; citing NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

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I look at our list, and a familiar surname was at the top, associated with my maternal family. My Fennimore family is on my father’s side, and this was unexpected.  The name is very familiar, and I believe that he is my second cousin’s son.  My great Aunt, his grandmother, was not a Fennimore, and my parents are not remotely related (Gedmatch verified).  I examined the match a little closer:

23andMe makes this very easy.  I can see that we three do not have shared DNA, we match, but not in the same way. I also look at our relationship, and you can see that there is a large difference between the two.  Even when I put my “2^nd cousin” into DNA Painter, it associates the kit with one set of maternal great-grandparents, which I am mapping.  My conclusion is that my cousin’s unrelated paternal line has a far removed match with this test kit or a possible anomaly.  I hadn’t even considered that my paternal and maternal lines could be intertwined, my mother is second generation Irish-German.  My Paternal Grandmother was a mixture of recent British immigration (her mom was born in London), and New Jersey for at least nine generations. My Dad’s father was from New England. I knew that I didn’t have any misaligned parental events in recent generations. Again I lucked out; I could easily resolve this twist.

Do you agree with my analysis?  Have you encountered any DNA conflicts? If so, how did you resolve them?

I’d love to hear from you!

[i] Coakley, Louise. “Tips for using Gedmatch.” Genie1. https://genie1.com.au/tips-for-using-gedmatch/, 2020.

GEDmatch – Tools for DNA and Genealogy Research ©Copyright 2011-2020 by GEDmatch, Inc.
23and Me – © 2020 23andMe, Inc.
DNA Painter – © DNA Painter, 2020

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I’ve performed “One-to-one Autosomal Comparison” matches for each kit, and to each other to ensure that the “One-to-many DNA comparison” was accurate.  We three also match in Ancestry. None of our shared matches uploaded a Gedcom file (family tree), so no new information yet. I’ve decided to jump in feet first and map my chromosomes with my two known Fennimore matches. Maybe not the best move, but I learn by doing.

DNA Painter, like Gedmatch, has a free base option; subscribers receive premium benefits.  My general philosophy is if I am going to use it for more than a week, and it is within my budget, I’ll pay the fee. People should be paid for their work. Besides, I’ve attempted this in excel before, and this is much easier!

My goal is to map my segments to others that share a known ancestor or couple. DNA Painter should help me isolate my William Fennimore-Mary Day segments, allowing me to expand the family tree and contacts.

I am going to use the Gedmatch application “People who match both, or 1 of 2 kits.”  I will run it twice always, using my kit number, since I am using DNA Painter to map my chromosomes at this time.  Right now, I am only interested in the matches I share with each of the two “known” Fennimore kits.

There will be three sections; matches that our two kits share, and matches to each single kit not shared by the other.  As always, I will paste the results into a tab of an excel workbook.  I am only interested in the first sections, common matches shared by both kits. Below is the list of the kits in Gedmatch which share matches with both the descendant of Louis Fennimore, and the descendant of William Henry Fennimore (me). I’ve added a few fields to my spreadsheet:

• Project ID – This will tie back to my project tracking sheet.  I am sure that one is already in my tracker, and I have included it in that field.  The others will receive a new project ID.  The matches may appear already on my main tracker as Ancestry matches, but at this time, I can’t make the correlation. I can always merge later.
  
• Linked –  Some of my matches have the same email address, so a single individual likely manages them. Later, when I start contacting my matches instead of sending multiple requests, I can consolidate.  It will also be helpful to know that they have been correlated with each other by another party.
  
• Paint ID – This is the ID which I will use when adding this match to DNA Painter.  It consists of Project ID-Source abbreviation (G for Gedmatch), Match ID (in this case from Gedmatch)-Date.  I create a little template at the bottom of the screen using the excel concatenate function. I copy and paste the project ID and corresponding match ID, and the output can be copied and pasted into DNA Painter, and my project tracker instead of repetitive typing.  Less chance for errors and easier on the hands.

While I am calling this the Fennimore project, I am only able to map these two kits to a couple; William Fennimore and Mary Day, our common ancestor couple.  You can see by the Gen columns that none of our matches are very closely related, which I would expect for this particular exercise. If I were looking for biological relatives of a living person, I’d be ecstatic to see the opposite.  I believe that the research question (goal) will determine your best approach. But stated earlier, I am jumping in, and you are along for the ride. I welcome backseat drivers! So correct me if I take a wrong turn.

Time to Paint!

I’m firing up DNA Painter, and my prework will hopefully make it a bit easier. I am going to create a new profile in Chromosome Maps. 

I copy and paste each shared match (Gedmatch ID) into the Gedmatch “One-to-one Autosomal Comparison” utility with my kit number. The options selected are position only and display only chromosomes with matched segments.

Highlight the results, and cut and paste into the “Paint a Match” box:

After you have saved the match, another screen will pop up to classify the entry:

Once saved, you can view where the match is placed. Very Cool!

I will repeat this action for each unique match with the two kits. Eventually, I will see some patterns emerge:

Note – When I created my Gedmatch kit list, I worked off my main project tracker. I copied each of the two “People who match both Kits” to a new tab on a workbook.  Beginning with the larger group of shared matches (Louis Fennimore’s descendant).  I used the VLOOKUP feature in excel and eliminated the duplicates on my shared matches with the George Fennimore line and created a single list of unique matches.  Remember, I am mapping my chromosome right now, and they are the same for each comparison. Each unique match was added back into my project tracker with the appropriate information.  I may later find there are duplicates with the testing company matches and my list of Gedmatch kits, but at least I know I haven’t created two entries for the same Gedmatch ID.  How you manage your project is entirely up to you.  I may change over time as I learn, but for now, this is my approach.

It may be too tiny to see in the picture, but there are quite a few matches. Some of which are in a pile-up area, but segments in 5, 18, and 19 look promising. This step is just the beginning; I will repeat the action with my 23andMe, FamilyTree DNA, and My Heritage matches.  These companies provide chromosome mapping so that it will be the same process as Gedmatch. This tool handles them beautifully. I need to find matches of my Fennimore DNA, not descended from this base couple, and see if they have some clues that I could break this wall, so the more matches I map, the better my chances of finding someone. 

So far, the only people I have come across researching this line appear to be using some of my work as a basis. Twenty years ago, I  mailed letters with family trees to all Fennimore families listed in the “white pages “in the vicinity. I received a few responses.  I’ve also corresponded with others electronically, sharing documents when requested, and hearing their family stories. None of the people that I have communicated with knew much about William.  My goal is to find someone who isn’t descended directly from William Fennimore but match my Fennimore DNA. Maybe they will have some information I haven’t yet discovered.  I’ve looked at many matches, and I don’t see the surname or the variations often, which does make me wonder a bit about William.  Plenty of my matches have indirect Day lines in their research.

Painting can be time-consuming, and after a while, copying and pasting matches can get a bit tedious.  I listen to podcasts or music while I do this; it makes the time go by quicker.  Some of my personal favorites are the British History Podcast, Crime Junkie, Murder Squad, and Wondery/LA times series (Dirty John was terrific).  A little foreshadowing for my next post.

Have you used DNA Painter?  If So how did you approach your project?

GEDmatch – Tools for DNA and Genealogy Research ©Copyright 2011-2020 by GEDmatch, Inc.
Ancestry – © 1997-2020 Ancestry
23andMe – © 2020 23andMe, Inc.
DNA Painter – © DNA Painter, 2020
MyHeritage – Copyright © 2020 MyHeritage Ltd
FamilyTreeDNA – All Contents Copyright 2001-2020 Gene by Gene, Ltd.

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The Marriage

William Fennimore of Morristown, Morris County New Jersey, married Mary Elizabeth Day of Bernards, Somerset County on 16 December 1859, in Millington, Morris County. Rev. Hopper officiated the marriage at the Parsonage of the Millington Baptist Church. Mary Elizabeth was the daughter of Israel Day and Gracia Ann Elizabeth Blazier.[1] William’s parents were not listed on the marriage record.

The couple would have thirteen children, of which nine would survive to adulthood; of the nine, it appears that seven would have children of their own.

The Project

Through traditional research, public trees, and correspondence, I have identified six* Ancestry.com kits that share DNA and have a “paper trail.” Using the “paper trails,” it can be determined that we are descended from four different children of William and Mary. 

The ultimate goal of the project is to identify the parents of William Fennimore of Somerset and Morris counties born 1834-37 in New Jersey. By contacting descendants, we can share traditional research, but also hopefully isolate the “Fennimore” DNA. If you match, I will be contacting you via Ancestry messages, and be asking you to help me with our quest. 

[1] New Jersey, Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics, Marriage Returns, Somerset County, Bernards Township, AE:323 (1859), William Fennamore [Fennimore] and Mary Eliz^h. Day, New Jersey State Archives, Trenton

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