May 082013
 

Following my e-mail to cousins on the Oulton line, two cousins agreed to take the Y-DNA 12-marker test while a third cousin ordered the 37-marker test. The initial results for these tests are now available. As hoped, all three results match at the 12 marker level. While we will soon upgrade one of the kits from 12-markers to 37-markers, to confirm we still have a match at that level, there is little reason to suspect we won’t. Once we have a 37-marker match we will know the Y-DNA signature of Charles Oulton who married Abigail Fillmore as he is the most recent common ancestor for the three testers.

Family Tree DNA (the testing company) has now provided a haplogroup prediction of R1b1a2 which has a terminal SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) of M269. This is one of the most common haplogroup in Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R1b_%28Y-DNA%29).  Given this, I will investigate whether it would be useful to do more SNP testing to determine the specific haplogroup subclade for our Oulton line.

Also, as expected, there are no genealogical significant matches to other non-Oulton test kits. I am not aware of any descendant of any other Oulton family not connected to our John Olton of Tarporley line who are being tested. As I previously mentioned, I have contacted several member of other Oulton families and suggested that they be tested but without success.

You can see the test results on the Oulton DNA Project page at http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Oulton/default.aspx?section=yresults.

This page will be updated as additional results are made available.

Apr 152013
 

The Old Presbyterian Cemetery in Jolicure, NB is the final resting place of Charles Oulton and Abigail FIllmore, my 5 x great grandparents. They died within 5 hours of each other on successive days in September 1826, A number of their descendants are also buried there (see http://ourmaritimeties.com/tng/showmap.php?cemeteryID=4&tree= for a list of those for whom I have photos of their headstones).

It is not believed that the cemetery was in use when Abigail Fillmore’s parents, John Fillmore and Leah Day, died in 1796 and 1797 respectively, but at least one of their sons, John Filmore, and his wife Jemima Tingley are buried in this cemetery. Another set of my ancestors, Jeremiah Brownell and Anna Copp, were also buried there. As a result, this small cemetery has always meant something special to me.

The care of the cemetery is the responsibility of the Jolicure United Church. While the church, like many other small rural churches has had declining attendance for many years, its congregation has remained vibrant. They have undertaken a number of organized volunteer outings to do major cleanups of the cemetery and they will undoubtedly continue to do so. Two such outings consisting primarily, but not exclusively, of Oulton descendants are pictured below, one in 2000 and then again in 2005.

Thus, when I was recently contacted by Rev. Eldon Hay on behalf of the Old Presbyterian Cemetery Committee (Jolicure), which is responsible to the Jolicure congregation, and asked to pass on information concerning a Capital Campaign to raise sufficient funds for the ongoing maintenance of this cemetery, I readily agreed to do so. While the amount of the campaign may seem large, the intention is to invest the funds and only use the investment returns to cover the annual maintenance expenses. I will certainly be making a contribution and I ask that you also consider donating to this Capital Campaign so that this wonderful small cemetery can be properly looked after for the years to come.

The announcement of the Old Presbyterian Cemetery (Jolicure) Capital Campaign including a contribution form is available here.