Hi! I have a really confusing brick wall I've been trying to overcome for the past year or better and I seem to be getting nowhere with it.
My great-great grandmother was Roseline Brossett. She was born in 1876 in Cloutierville, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. She was the daughter of Marie Lise Brossett. But there is no father listed on her baptismal. Her mother had a lot of children - about 14 in total - that were all born out-of-wedlock. Most of them I know the fathers of but there are about 4 or so children that I don't know the father, Rose included. Lise often had children with men living nearby to her and oftentimes she had them within a year or two of each other. So based on my knowledge of the other biological fathers of these kids, I know that when there was a gap of 3-4 years, it usually meant that these set of kids were born to a different man entirely.
But back to what I was saying, the only other documentation I have of Rose besides the baptismal is a written-up copy of her marriage license (that omits the parents) and censuses that range from 1900-1910, since Rose died in 1915. I can't find her prior to those dates. So I'm at a loss here as to who her father was.
I do know for a fact that I share DNA with a set of cousins with the surname Rachal. That leads me to believe her father very well may have been a Rachal since all my other lines are DNA-proven not to be related to these Rachals. The problem with that though lies within the fact that a lot of these Rachal cousins are double or sometimes triple cousins to me through a lot of intermarriage. The area in Natchitoches was very rural so cousin-marriages happened often. The weird part is that with a lot of these cousins, even though we only have one documented line shared, we often share more DNA than we should. And yet, these cousins - some who match me on one line, some on others - still all match each other. When the only known connection could be Rachal.
It again leads me to believe her father himself was a Rachal. Throw in the fact that some of these Rachal cousins are descended from those only of white ancestry versus some sets of Rachals descended of mixed white and African ancestry makes it all even more confusing. You see, I also have some African DNA that evidently comes through the biological father.
So I looked a bit more and did find one thing - apparently, there was a Louis Casimere Rachal (b.1825) that was living a few houses away from Lise both 6 years before Rose's birth (1870) and 4 years after her birth (1880). He was an older, wealthy man (which was Lise' usual choice) who lived alone with his wife. All of their children had either moved off or married. And he was also of mixed white and African ancestry - he was the son of Jean Espallier Rachal Jr. and Marie Susanne Metoyer. He also was related to a cousin that I share exta dna with - he was her great-great grandfather's brother.
It all seems to fit but I don't have any other documentation past this. So my question is - is this enough proof to say that this man was Rose's father since DNA is all that I have to go by? And when there are no documents to be found, is DNA sufficient enough to say "this is the one"? Any help or thoughts on this are very welcome!!
My great-great grandmother was Roseline Brossett. She was born in 1876 in Cloutierville, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. She was the daughter of Marie Lise Brossett. But there is no father listed on her baptismal. Her mother had a lot of children - about 14 in total - that were all born out-of-wedlock. Most of them I know the fathers of but there are about 4 or so children that I don't know the father, Rose included. Lise often had children with men living nearby to her and oftentimes she had them within a year or two of each other. So based on my knowledge of the other biological fathers of these kids, I know that when there was a gap of 3-4 years, it usually meant that these set of kids were born to a different man entirely.
But back to what I was saying, the only other documentation I have of Rose besides the baptismal is a written-up copy of her marriage license (that omits the parents) and censuses that range from 1900-1910, since Rose died in 1915. I can't find her prior to those dates. So I'm at a loss here as to who her father was.
I do know for a fact that I share DNA with a set of cousins with the surname Rachal. That leads me to believe her father very well may have been a Rachal since all my other lines are DNA-proven not to be related to these Rachals. The problem with that though lies within the fact that a lot of these Rachal cousins are double or sometimes triple cousins to me through a lot of intermarriage. The area in Natchitoches was very rural so cousin-marriages happened often. The weird part is that with a lot of these cousins, even though we only have one documented line shared, we often share more DNA than we should. And yet, these cousins - some who match me on one line, some on others - still all match each other. When the only known connection could be Rachal.
It again leads me to believe her father himself was a Rachal. Throw in the fact that some of these Rachal cousins are descended from those only of white ancestry versus some sets of Rachals descended of mixed white and African ancestry makes it all even more confusing. You see, I also have some African DNA that evidently comes through the biological father.
So I looked a bit more and did find one thing - apparently, there was a Louis Casimere Rachal (b.1825) that was living a few houses away from Lise both 6 years before Rose's birth (1870) and 4 years after her birth (1880). He was an older, wealthy man (which was Lise' usual choice) who lived alone with his wife. All of their children had either moved off or married. And he was also of mixed white and African ancestry - he was the son of Jean Espallier Rachal Jr. and Marie Susanne Metoyer. He also was related to a cousin that I share exta dna with - he was her great-great grandfather's brother.
It all seems to fit but I don't have any other documentation past this. So my question is - is this enough proof to say that this man was Rose's father since DNA is all that I have to go by? And when there are no documents to be found, is DNA sufficient enough to say "this is the one"? Any help or thoughts on this are very welcome!!
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