I wanted to post a snapshot of my Ancestry ThruLines featuring ancestor Patrick Phalen. I thought it would be exciting to show others how DNA matches through each of his children (not all are listed) whose descendants have taken the AncestryDNA test. So here are your distant “cousins,” Cousins:
You will notice that son Thomas went by the surname “Whalen,” which is another spelling of Phalen. If you look closely you see the blue circle with the white DNA strand in the lower right of each picture. That means those individuals’ DNA matches closely that of my DNA and of my brother who has also tested.
What else can we learn from our roots in Nova Scotia? Here are some links that you may find reveal more than you realize – and our roots in coal.
Cape Breton Development Corporation (Wikipedia)
In Google, type “phalen’s of Port Morien” hit Enter, and go to Images. There are tombstones, newspaper clippings, photos, and more.
Then, my favorite: Phalen’s Bar from near Port Morien. You’ll recall from previous posts that Port Morien was known as Cow Bay until 1895 (or about). It is the birthplace of Andrew and his siblings.
With this in mind, I’m beginning to think that our ancestor Andrew Phalen was drawn to West Virginia for the purpose of finding and mining coal. When most people were pushing westward, he left St. Louis and came east.
