They met as volunteers at the Washington DC Family History Center — two researchers, steeped in their own quest yet eager to assist others — and totally unaware that their service would lead them into a tangle of branches stemming from a common family tree.
Mary Ahearn and Cindy Finelli
Two years ago, Mary Ahearn responded to a call for volunteers needed on Saturday afternoons. A year later, Cindy Finelli began to work on Tuesday evenings. Mary joined Cindy’s shift after scheduling problems arose on Saturdays, and the two quickly found intriguing familial coincidences. Both were Irish, which was a pleasant surprise, but when Mary talked about a recent visit to an ancestral home in Collinsville, Connecticut, both were shocked.
Collinsville is a “company town,” home to the Collins Company AXE factory which manufactures picks, axes and similar tools.In the mid-1800’s, the factory recruited immigrant workers and many Irish settled in this tiny village in northwest Connecticut. Among them were the Flaherty and Lynch families– ancestors of Mary and Cindy, respectively.Determining this to be a huge coincidence, the two volunteers were elated yet puzzled. Was it remotely possible that their families may have known each other?
One eveningwhen Mary and Cindy were bemoaning the notorious misspellings in census records, Marysaid she couldn’t understand why she could not find her Flahertys. She knew they had emigrated between 1843-1850, after the potato famine. When Cindy opened the 1850 census online, Mary found her Flaherty ancestors living next door to Cindy’s Lynch family. The families were neighbors!
Mary and Cindy’s Collinsville roots led to months of joint research and countless conversations. Yet there were too many questions and no firm answers.
A turning point in establishing kinship came when they attended a lecture, “DNA: The Latest Tool for Genealogists,” and both took an AtDNA (autosomal DNA) test. Their results showed a match to each other — they are cousins! But how? And through which family? Although DNA testing can prove there is a genetic link, it does not determine how people are related or who the common ancestor is. This is where the science of biology meets the research of genealogy: both are needed to positively establish a family relationship.
Cindy was stunned to see that her at DNA results included a match to Donald Ahearn. Mary’s family lore related a connection to this same Donald Ahearn, a Catholic priest in Chicago and son of an Olympic athlete who was born in Athea, County Limerick. Athea is also the birthplace of Mary’s great-grandparents, Bridget Ahearn and Patrick Ahearn. (Yes, two Ahearns from the same town married each other!) A Y-DNA test taken by Mary’s brother did not match Father Donald’s Y-DNA. Thus, Mary’s link to Father Donald is through her great-grandmother, Bridget Ahearn.
Mary and Cindy initially supposed that they may be related through the Flaherty and Lynch families in Collinsville. But in a most unexpected twist, they discover that theyshare a common branch on the Ahearn family tree, through Bridget, with Father Donald Ahearn as their proven cousin.
For Cindy and Mary, untangling the branches of their family trees is an ever-unfolding and perpetually commingled puzzle. Was it coincidence or destiny that they both chose to volunteer at the Family History Center? “The coincidences involved in us being related and meeting at the FHC are just too amazing,” Mary said. “I am not surprised that I immediately liked Cindy!”
Surprises abound in family history work, as do joyful discoveries of newly-found cousins. What could be waiting for you?
Carol Kostakos Petranek is a Co-Director of the Washington DC Family History Center and a Volunteer at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
