So Where Are They?
Cousins, cousins everywhere but not a McLeod or Ligget in sight. On Ancestry.com I have 50,744 DNA matches: 39,744 are connected to my paternal line; 9,643 are connected to my maternal line; 1,049 have not yet been assigned. Ancestry identifies 15 of the 50,744 matches as close family; of the 15, nine are 2nd or 3rd cousins but seven of the 15 have no trees so I cannot trace who they are. MyHeritage.com shows 15,208 DNA matches. MyHeritage relationships show one close family member {my half uncle, Eddie}, 20 extended family members, and 15,187 distant relatives.
My father’s lineage is pretty well documented as is my mother’s German side.
Now the surprising part: I have not been able to find any matches to my mother’s paternal side though I have found a few records. Well, you cannot have a DNA match if the other person has not tested. None of my siblings, their children, my full first cousins, or their children have tested with Ancestry or MyHeritage. I have a half uncle and a half first cousin who have tested, both on my paternal side. I begin to have more matches at the second cousin level. But still, no McLeods or Liggets.
My grandfather was Malcolm McLeod. His father was John McLeod and his mother was Sarah Ligget. My grandfather was born in Bruce, Ontario, Canada in 1900 and his family immigrated to the United States in 1902 and settled in San Bernardino (Del Rosa), California.
So now it’s time to take a more in-depth look at the McLeods and Liggetts to see if there are some relatives that I should be able to find. My grandfather, Malcolm McLeod, and my grandmother, Annie Anthony, had two children, William and Geraldine, my mother.
My Uncle Bill and Aunt Toni adopted my cousin but had no biological children. My mom, Jerrie, and my dad, Bill, had three children. Neither my sister or my brother (now deceased) have had their DNA tested. I also have a half sister who has not tested. So…no close relatives other than my half uncle at this point show as DNA matches.
Next, I look at my mother’s paternal grandparents to see if I can find some my answers there. John and Sarah had four sons.
My grandfather, Malcolm was the 3rd son. His oldest brother, William, was born in 1889. There is record of him in the 1910 census but absolutely no record of him anywhere after that. I cannot find a death record or obituary for him. There is no record of him marrying and having any children. The second son, George (1896-1956), married but he and his wife had no children. The youngest son, Leroy (1905-2001), did not marry and had no children. So…my mother had no 1st cousins on her father’s side.
I then decided to look at my 2nd great grandparents. John’s parents were Malcolm McLeod and Mary Stewart. I can find almost no information about them and cannot find any other children that they had; therefore John may have been an only child. Sarah’s parents were Oliver Ligget and Catherine Stewart. Oliver and Catherine had two children, Sarah and her brother George. George stayed in Canada and spelled his last name Leggett. George married Hannah Russell and they had five children: Marjorie, Stewart, Russell, Mary Eileen, and Jennie.
MyHeritage allows you to search for cousins based on location. I currently have 276 DNA matches who live in Canada. At this point, I found no surname matches but that is not unusual. None of these matches had extensive trees (if they had a tree at all) and as of yet, I have not found how I match to them. However, it is definitely likely that I will eventually find a DNA match or two that connect to Oliver and Catherine Ligget (Leggett).
My surprise isn’t what I found; it’s what I didn’t find.