Seventeen Years Later A Picture is Found of the Grandfather who Complicated our Family History

This is just one thing that can happen when you take a DNA test.  I ordered a test from Ancestry.com several years ago.  The results are posted on Ancestry.com and just this year a match appeared with Brenda from Utah. This person is on my father's paternal side. (Very rare connection)  I was so excited about contacting her and she was thrilled when she got my message of our connection.  To make a long story short this was the out come.  She was able to find a picture of my second Great Grandfather Edward Aaron WHERRETT Jr..  I have been looking for a picture of him since the year 1999; the year when I finally unraveled the surname conundrum.  

This second Great Grandfather married Mary Ellen Burns who is Brenda's Great Aunt so we are second cousins once removed. 

I'm only going to give a brief explanation of Edward Aaron Jr. at this writing and will be doing many posts on the  'soap opera' life of the WHERRETT'S at other times. 

At age seventeen Edward Arron WHERRETT Jr. migrated with his mother Matilda GAY WHERRETT from Bath, England to America in 1864 on the ship Hudson and crossed the plains with the William Hyde Co and arrive in the Salt Lake Territory in the fall of 1864.  In 1866 his mother, Matilda married George TOMLINSON.  (More to this story later)

On 18 December 1871 Edward Aaron WHERRETT Jr. married Mary Ellen BURNS in the Salt Lake City Endowment House UNDER the NAME of TOMLINSON his step-father's name. 

So Mary Ellen BURNS became Mary Ellen TOMLINSON. 

My father did not know this.  Even though his middle name is WHERRETT  (Vern WHERRETT TOMLINSON) he thought WHERRETT was a grandmother's maiden name when the truth is WHERRETT was her first married name our biological name.  Matilda (mother of Edward Aaron Jr.) maiden name is GAY.   I plan on taking this life history slow so my family can keep it all straight.  (Our grandfathers name is George WHERRETT TOMLINSON.)

I would like to encourage everyone to take a DNA test.  Last Christmas I gave my daughter and her children and their spouses DNA kits for Christmas.  It's so fun to see the results. 

Here is a link that's a simple explanation of three types of dna tests a person can take.  

  5 surprising things you could learn from a dna test.