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The Search for the Ryan Branch

Every week I look at my dad’s DNA matches. I focus on his line because that lineage holds all the brick walls in our family tree. I look for new matches, and I try to identify the most recent common ancestor for any relatives I do not recognize. This summer, I am focusing on the Ryan branch of my family.

We have numerous Irish DNA matches, many with Ryans in their family trees. These people must fit on my tree somewhere. Yet I have not found a single common ancestor for my dad and his Irish-surnamed matches. The one I worked on last week turned out to be related to us through an English line, the Carters.

We descend from Daniel Ryan (1829-1863) who was born in Ireland, immigrated to Illinois, and died of disease while serving in the Union Army at New Orleans. On a marriage record, he reported that his father’s name was Edmund Ryan.

None of our DNA matches descend from Edmund Ryan.

Yesterday I worked on the puzzle again. I traced most of the Ryan matches back to Denis Leonard and Mary Ryan who were born in County Limerick (or perhaps County Clare) in the early 1800’s. Dates vary, and I suspect researchers may have merged two couples into one.

Our DNA matches living in Ireland today almost uniformly reside in Limerick or nearby Tipperary. I believe this area, not County Clare, must be where my roots lie.

One Ancestry family tree for Mary Ryan and Denis Leonard offers tantalizing clues. It extends back in time much further than other posted trees. Family names include Daniel and Edmund, the same names I have in my tree. They resided in Limerick, where I think my family may have originated.

Could these people be my family? I have half a dozen other matches to work through to see if I can make sense of it all.

This Ryan ancestry provides me with quite a challenge. I would like to resolve the mystery this year in time to write it up and distribute it to the family for Christmas.

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