Double Cousins

I recently came across a report of a Dooley cousin in St. Louis - Alex Dooley, Hamburger Man in St. Louis - (though I haven't yet contacted this family and they may not be aware of our connection). My Legacy Family Tree software tells me that Alex's children are my fourth cousins, through two different paths, i.e., double fourth cousins.  I set out to find out what that means genetically and if there is some sort of metric to allow me to compare a "double fourth cousin" to the more common single fourth cousin.  There is a Coefficient of Relationship, R, related to degrees of relationship, but the math might be too much, so first I'll skip to the results, then try a brief basic explanation, then point to some resources for more information, if you're interested.


Single relationships

Siblings have about half of their genes in common, the degree of relationship is 1 or first, and the corresponding coefficient of relationship, R, is 1/2.  Advancing one generation: first cousins have in common about 1/8 of their genes, the degree of relationship is 3, and the corresponding R is 1/8. Each consecutive generation shares just 1/4 as many genes as the previous generation, the degree increases by 2, and the corresponding R is only 1/4 as large.  The following table shows these values through fourth cousins.

Relationship	Degree	R	% genes in common
Self or identical twins	0	1	100
Siblings	1	1/2	50
1st cousins	3	1/8	12.5
2nd cousins	5	1/32	3.1
3rd cousins	7	1/128	0.8
Double 4th cousins	8	1/256	0.4
4th cousins	9	1/512	0.2

Our double relationship

So, where does the "double" come in? Back in 1863, William Dooley married Elizabeth Martin in St. Louis.  In 1887, William's niece, Anastasia LaBrune, married Elizabeth's nephew, James Hogan. This created a double relationship between the Dooleys and the Hogans. William and Elizabeth's son, Thomas, was a first cousin to both Anastasia LaBrune on his father's side and James Hogan on his mother's side.  As an aside, since Thomas was an only child AND the Dooley's were Anastasia's only family in St. Louis AND Thomas and Anastasia were only four years apart in age AND James Hogan was also family AND the Hogan kids and Thomas' kids were all close in age, the Hogans and Dooleys were probably very close, akin to siblings, at least in their teen and adult lives.  In the next generation, Thomas' kids were second cousins to the Hogan kids, once through Anastasia and the Dooleys and again through James and the Martins.  This made them double second cousins. The next generation were then double third cousins, and so forth. How does that change the values in the table? Basically this means that instead of having one set of ancestors in common, they have two, both the same number of generations back, so the descendants of Thomas Dooley and of James and Anastasia LaBrune Hogan all have twice as many genes in common. The degree of relationship for double fourth cousins in 8, R is 1/256, and they have about 0.4% of their genes alike. According to one of the sources listed below, this is about 117 genes of the approximately 30,000 in the human genome.

More about quantifying relationships

If you'd like to know more, perhaps about how to include half siblings, or how to trace out any relationships, here are some explanations on the WWW:

Genetic and Quantitative Aspects of Genealogy
A thorough explanation of the Coefficient of Relationship (R) and related subjects.

Quantitative Consanguinity
A less through explanation with more applications to genealogy, but they only show degrees of relationship through 7, whereas a fourth cousin is degree 9.

Degrees of Relation and Number of Genes Shared
Not thorough, but relates R to the number of genes shared for various relationships.

Irish Origins

If you're Math-phobic, skip this article.  It will explain and demonstrate a proposed method to assist in locating Irish ancestors.

A valuable resource used to trace families back to Ireland is Sir Robert Matheson's Surnames in Ireland (1909). One of my first posts showed how common (or rare) some of the Irish surnames in our family tree were in Ireland in the 1800s, when all of our known Irish ancestors came to the United States. The bulk of Matheson's report is a table showing the number of births registered for every surname (family name) in Ireland in 1890, and the distribution of these births by province (Leinster = eastern Ireland, Munster = southwestern Ireland, Ulster = northern Ireland, Connaught = mid-western Ireland).  Some of the important things to know about this index are: (1) related names are combined and reported as the most common name; (2) 1890 is after the Great Famine (aprox. 1845 to 1852) and deaths and the enormous exodus of emigrants from Ireland in the mid and late 1800s had decimated the population (Population was growing very rapidly before the Famine, peaking somewhere around 8 million people, but was down to about 3.5 million at the time of Matheson's data in 1891), so this data may not accurately portray the distribution of families in the early 1800s; and (3) rare family names, for which less than 5 births were registered throughout Ireland, are not included. In spite of the limitations, because of the sparsity of census-like information in Ireland, this is a valuable resource.

I have used this book from time to time to give me a general idea of where a branch of my Irish ancestors came from. Because comprehensive searching of data has not been easy (at least in the past), I have not actually found any of my ancestors using this data.  But I hope to.

It has occurred to me that this information can be used mathematically to narrow a search for an ancestor. The listings in Matheson's table are essentially the probability of finding a family with this surname in the various provinces.  Using Hogans as an example:

Surname    Births in:        Ireland              Leinster             Munster            Ulster            Connaught
Hogan                              193                    59                     115                   5                     14

can be recalculated as

Surname    Probability of birth in:  Ireland      Leinster         Munster            Ulster            Connaught
Hogan                                          100%          31%              60%                 3%                   7%

[Because of rounding, numbers don't add to 100.] So I would expect that my Hogan family was most likely from southwest Ireland, but may also have been from eastern Ireland. It is unlikely they came from northern or western Ireland.

I recently found a marriage record that Mrs. Hogan's maiden name was Rice. Matheson's data for Rice is:

Surname    Births in:      Ireland              Leinster             Munster            Ulster            Connaught
Rice                                 99                     33                     18                   48                     0

and can be recalculated as

Surname    Probability of birth in:   Ireland        Leinster       Munster         Ulster         Connaught
Rice                                               100%           33%            18%             49%               0%

Nearly half of the Rice families were in northern Ireland, where there weren't many Hogans, but there were many in eastern Ireland and several in southwestern Ireland. By combining this data, multiplying the probabilities that both families were present in the province, and normalizing:

Surnames    Probability of marriage in:   Ireland      Leinster     Munster     Ulster      Connaught
Hogan-Rice                                           100%         46%           49%         6%              0%

Note that this method assumes that the bride and groom were actually from the province in which they were married. In this case, a Hogan and Rice married in Ireland were likely from eastern or southwestern Ireland, only slightly different from the conclusion I would have drawn from considering Hogan alone.

Applying this to the other families in our family tree for which I know both surnames:

                   Probability                                                                                                        Start in
Surnames   of marriage in:   Ireland      Leinster      Munster       Ulster       Connaught      counties:
Hogan-Rice                        100%          46%           49%            6%              0%             Dublin

Donnelly-Larkin                  100%          38%            7%           50%              5%       Dublin, Armagh

Cushing-Casey                   100%            6%           87%            0%               8%       Cork, Limerick

Casey-Brady                      100%          60%           12%          20%               8%            Dublin

Shannon-McHugh              100%            5%            2%            56%             37%             ?
Waters-Murphy                  100%          24%          76%             0%              0%          Wexford
Murphy-Stafford                 100%         78%             9%           13%             0%       Wexford, Dublin

Unfortunately, I don't think the underlying data for this table still exists.  If it did, we could further analyze this data by county.  In Matheson's table, he also indicates in which counties the most births occured.  Using these (unquantified) indicators, I estimated the most likely counties in my table, above.  The only test I have on this method is that the Cushing-Casey family is known to come from Co. Limerick, near where it joins Cos. Tipperary and Cork. The table above tells me that the family was very likely from Munster province (correct), and the county notes would have sent me to Cork and Limerick counties.

Unfortunately, at this time, there are very few couples in my tree that were married in Ireland and for whom I know the wife's maiden name. In the table above, only three are direct ancestors, and for the one most strongly placed (Cushing-Casey) we already know where they're from.  The other four families are parents of in-laws in my tree to help others connect to our family, but not of enough interest to search their origins.

Famille LaBrune à Dubuque, l'Iowa, E.U.

Jean-Baptiste LaBrune était benjamin de, je crois, cinq enfants nés à Philip et Ann LaBrune.  De leur voyage de la France, je sais peu: une des enfants est née entre 1835 et 1840 en France et Jean-Baptiste est né à l'Ohio aprés le recensement en 1840 et dans 1850 la famille était arrivée, moins deux enfants, à Dubuque, Iowa, une destination populaire pour les immigrés français. (Avant la Vente de la Louisiane en 1803, la plupart de la territoire entre la rivière Mississippi et les montagnes Rocheuses appartenait (au moins en excluant les peuples indigènes) à la France, à l'exception de quelques années sous le contrôle de l'Espagne. Cette territoire était en plus grande partie ni développée ni explorée, donc la rivière Mississippi était la frontière d'une étendue sauvage, du point de vue des Etats-Unis. Beaucoup de trappeurs français se sont installés dans des lieux comme Dubuque le longue de la rivière d'où ils faisaient commerce de peaux avec l'Est.) Donc la famille LaBrune a quitté la France vers la fin des années 1830s, aurait pu voyager d'abord au Québec, et se cheminait vers les villes françaises à l'autre côté de la rivière Mississippi.  Il est possible que quelques uns des enfants avec eux ne soient pas leurs propres enfants (les noms des individus n'étaient pas enregistrés dans le recensement de 1840) ou qu'ils se soient mariés ou installés quelque part en route ou qu'ils aient péri. Je crois que les familles qui se déplacaient en migration vers l'ouest avaient tendance à s'installer quelque part pendant quelques années, puis continuer, donc il se peut que notre famille LaBrune est restée faire de la cultivation des années à l'Ohio avant de reprendre la route à Dubuque. Le fils aîné, George, s'est marié à Dubuque en 1846.  Peut-être il y est allé et puis a persuadé ses parents d'amener la famille là-bas. J'ai très peu d'information sur leur voyage.  En tout cas, en 1850 la famille était aux parages de Dubuque où elle est restée de nombreuses années. Ann est morte en 1868 et est enterrée dans le cimetière Catholique St. Joseph.  Lisez mon post antérieur sur Philip, mais il a disparu. Il est possible qu'il s'est déménagé à l'Ohio et s'est remarié après la mort d'Ann.

L'enfant aîné, George, s'est marié à Domathilde Breault à Dubuque en 1846. Elle est née à Montréal en 1826 et je suppose qu'elle avait un assez fort accent français parce que la plupart des traces écrites lui assignent les noms de Mathilda ou Martha ou Mary.  Ils ont élévé neuf enfants aux environs de Rickardsville: Mary (m. Peter Limoges), Celina (m. Casper Luchsinger), Josephine (m. John Liebold), Caroline (m. Amab Cousley), George Nicolas (m. Adeline Crevier), John B (resté célibataire), Joseph (m. Josephine Limoges, soeur cadette de Peter), Edmire (quelques fois dit Adeline m. Martin Cunningham), et Mathilda (m. John Schwind). Quelques uns des enfants se sont déménagés vers l'ouest à Sioux City et la Dakota Territory (Mary Limoges, Celina Luchsinger, George N. LaBrune, and Joseph LaBrune). Tôt dans leurs mariage, George et Martha étaient propriétaires d'une taverne sur la route des diligences qui traversait Rickardsville, mais tous les recensements disent qu'ils étaient fermiers.  George est mort en 1873.  Lorsque leur fille, Mathilda, s'est mariée en 1866, Martha est allée vivre avec elle à Dubuque. Martha est morte en 1914 et était enterrée à côté de George dans le cimetière St. Joseph à Rickardsville.

Trois des cings enfants dans la famille de Philip et Ann à l'Ohio ont disparu: un fils né en fin des années 1820s en France, Nicholas né vers 1831 en France (ce dernier était avec la famille dans le recensement de 1850 à l'Iowa, mais puis a disparu), et une fille née en fin des années 1830s en France.  Je continue à chercher des traces écrites d'eux.


Jean-Baptiste, le benjamin de la famille et le seul né aux E.U., s'est marié à Catherine Dooley, une voisine à Jefferson Township originaire de l'Irelande.  Jean-Baptiste a eu du succès comme fermier.  Ils ont élévé six enfants: John P (m. Elizabeth Rooney), Anastasia (m. James Hogan), Mary (morte à l'age de 19 ans), Daniel (resté célibataire), et Lydia (m. Frank Schirmer).  Trois autres enfants sont morts très jeunes: William (1 mois), Thomas (2 ans), et Josephine (3 ans).  Je crois que Lydia est née Lydia Maxwell, une voisine de la famille LaBrune, et était adoptée par eux après le décès de ses parents.  Anastasia s'est mariée à James Hogan à St. Louis, où ils ont élévé leur famille.  Le frère de Catherine Dooley LaBrune (mère d'Anastasia), William, était épicier prospère à St. Louis et sa femme était de la même famille que les Hogans.  Anastasia et James se sont fait leurs connaisances chez l'oncle William, sans doute. John, Daniel et Lydia sont restés aux environs de Dubuque.

LaBrune Update

I had a few LaBrunes floating around in my data that I've attached to our family.

Jean-Baptiste LaBrune was the youngest of, I believe, five children born to Philip and Ann LaBrune.  About their journey from their native France I know only that one of the children was born in the mid to late 1830s in France and Jean-Baptiste was born in Ohio after the 1840 census and that by 1850 the family, minus two of the kids, was in Dubuque, Iowa, a common destination for French immigrants. (Prior to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, most of the land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains was French territory, though for a short time under Spanish control.  This land was largely undeveloped and unexplored, so the Mississippi River was the edge of wilderness, from the point of view of the United States.  There were many French trappers that settled in places like Dubuque along the Mississippi where they traded their pelts with the East.)  So the LaBrunes left France in the late 1830s, may have gone first to Quebec, and were making their way west to the French towns across the Mississippi.  Some of the kids with them may not have been their own (no names are given in the 1840 census) or may have married or settled somewhere along the way or may have perished.  My sense is that families that migrated west tended to settle in the east, then move on after a few years, so maybe they spent a few years farming in Ohio before deciding to move on to Dubuque.  The oldest son, George, married in Dubuque in 1846.  Perhaps he had gone ahead and persuaded his parents to bring the family.  There is very little information about their travel.  In any case, by 1850 they were in the Dubuque area where they remained for many years. Ann died in 1868 and is buried in St. Joseph's Catholic cemetery.  See my earlier post about Philip, but he disappeared.  It's possible he moved to Ohio and remarried after Ann's death.

Their oldest known child, George, married Domathilde Breault in Dubuque in 1846.  She was born in Montréal in 1826 and I assume she had a heavy French accent since most records name her Mathilda or Martha or Mary. They raised nine children in the Rickardsville area: Mary (m. Peter Limoges), Celina (m. Casper Luchsinger), Josephine (m. John Liebold), Caroline (m. Amab Cousley), George Nicolas (m. Adeline Crevier), John B (did not marry), Joseph (m. Josephine Limoges, younger sister to Peter), Edmire (aka Adeline m. Martin Cunningham), and Mathilda (m. John Schwind). Some of the kids moved west to the Sioux City area and to the nearby Dakota Territory (Mary Limoges, Celina Luchsinger, George N. LaBrune, and Joseph LaBrune). Early in their marriage, George and Martha operated a tavern on the stagecoach road through Rickardsville, but every census record lists George as a farmer. He passed away in 1873. When their daughter, Mathilda, married in 1886, Martha went to live with her in Dubuque, Martha passed away there in 1914 and was buried next to George at St. Joseph's Catholic cemetery in Rickardsville.

Three of the five children in Philip and Ann's family in Ohio disappeared: a son born in the late 1820s in France, Nicholas born in about 1831 in France, and a daughter born in the late 1830s in France.  I'm still looking for traces of them.

Jean-Baptiste, the youngest of the family and the only one born in the United States, married Catherine Dooley, an Irish-born neighbor in Jefferson township. Jean-Baptiste did well as a farmer there. They raised six children: John P (m. Elizabeth Rooney), Anastasia (m. James Hogan), Mary (died at the age of 19), Daniel, and Lydia (m. Frank Schirmer).  Three other children died as infants: William (1 month), Thomas (2 years), and Josephine (3 years).  We think that Lydia was born Lydia Maxwell, was a neighbor of the LaBrunes, and was adopted by them  after her parents passed away.  Anastasia married James Hogan in St. Louis, where they raised their family.  Catherine Dooley LaBrune's (Anastasia's mother) brother, William, was a successful grocer in St. Louis and was related to the Hogans.  Anastasia and James undoubtedly met at uncle William's house. John, Daniel and Lydia stayed in the Dubuque area.

Leo Hogan

Leo LaBrune Hogan was born in St. Louis in 1900 to James and Anastasia Hogan. He was a great competitive swimmer.  He began college at St. Louis University, probably in the Fall of 1917.

Alton Evening Telegraph, Alton, IL, April 21, 1918
Leo Hogan of St. Louis in the Navy
   Friends in Alton have received word that Leo Hogan, eighteen year old son of Mr. and Mrs. James Hogan of McPherson avenue, St. Louis, has enlisted in the radio service of the navy and is at the Great Lakes Training Station near Chicago.  Hogan was a student of the St. Louis University and enlisted upon reaching his 18th birthday.
   He is the son of James Hogan, formerly of Alton, and is well known here, where the family visits frequently.  His elder brother, Lieut. Dan Hogan, is in the 432nd Aero Squadron, in the state of Washington.  Miss Marie Hogan, a sister, visits with Mrs. James B. Cahill of Madison avenue very often.

He served at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station for 16 months, first as a radio electrician, then as a hospital apprentice.  He stayed at Great Lakes as a swimming instructor and in 1920 travelled to the Summer Olympics as a men's swimming coach.

Alton Evening Telegraph, Aug 3, 1920
Leo Hogan, son of James Hogan, a former Altonian, but of recent years residing in St. Louis, has sailed for Antwerp, Belgium, as coach for the men from the Great Lakes Training Station at Chicago, who will participate in the Olympic meet.  Hogan is 21 years of age and is the youngest coach at the Great Lakes.  He has been coach at the Great Lakes since 1917.  He will spend the summer in Europe.  Hogan is the brother of Miss Marie Hogan, who visits frequently in Alton.

You can imagine the world wide excitement at the 1920 games.  The 1916 games that were to take place in Berlin had been cancelled in turmoil preceding the start of the first World War.  The 1920 games were held in Belgium, a country that had been occupied by Germany in the War.  [I don't know whether this location had been chosen long in advance, or was selected to symbolize the victory of the Allies in the War.]  Germany was not invited to the 1920 games.  In what must have been the lingering  euphoria of victory, a record number of athletes were sent to these games.  The five ring symbol of the modern Olympic Games was introduced that year. Duke Kahanamoku was the best known of the men's swimmers that year.

In about 1922, Leo graduated from St. Louis University and moved to Chicago.  In 1927, he founded Hogan & Farwell real estate, of which he was president until his death in 1948.  Hogan & Farwell owned some of the most prominent buildings in Chicago.  He joined the Navy again in World War II.  The following is probably from the Chicago Tribune:

One of his nieces remembers Leo saying that the most exciting thing he ever experienced was when his ship returned to the US mainland from duty in the Pacific, having crossed the Pacific Ocean.  When the ship passed under the Golden Gate bridge it was covered with cheering people welcoming them home.  Another recalls hearing Leo's stories of some of his shipmates tortured during the War.  They say he was not the same after his return.

His obituary in the New York Times summarizes some of his achievements:

New York Times, 5 June 1948

Leo L. Hogan, Headed Chicago Realty Men
Chicago, June 4 - Leo L. Hogan, former president of the Chicago Real Estate Board and a prominent real estate broker here since 1927, when he founded the firm of Hogan-Farwell, Inc., died today after a long illness.  His age was 48.

Mr. Hogan was elected president of the Chicago Real Estate Board in 1946 after serving a term as president of the North Central Association, a group of real estate dealers.

He came to Chicago in 1922 after he was graduated from St. Louis University in the city of his birth.  After working as a salesman for five years he established the firm of which he held the presidency until his death.

A veteran of both World Wars, he spent three and a half years as a lieutenant commander in the Navy during the recent war and won the Silver and Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart while serving aboard the carrier Intrepid in the South Pacific.

He was a member of the Racquet, the Chicago Golf, the Tavern and the Mid-Day clubs.

Surviving are a sister, Mrs. James L. Donnelley of Evanston, and a brother, Daniel.

Although he never married and had no children of his own, he spent a great deal of time with his sister's family, also in the Chicago area.  He reportedly drove his big sister nuts, his wild personality the opposite of hers.  But the children loved his antics and his stories.  He passed away at his home in 1948.  In a reflection of both his wild side and his prominence in the business community, his funeral was attended by the mayor of Chicago and the entire kick-line from the Club Alabam, one of the hottest night clubs in Chicago.