Jeff Side B - Unveiling a Paternal Grandmother

When I first looked at Jeff's DNA, I separated matches on his paternal side into two categories, side A and Side B.  Side A easily came together as his father's paternal line. Side B's highest match was 367cMs to MC with all their common matches under 50 cMs.  MC had a partial tree with no  maternal line listed. Taking the information from the paternal side, I was able to determine his parents.  A marriage record lead to names of maternal grandparents. No further information was available.  The maiden name for the grandmother was Nicholls.  This was a surname I had seen with a few other matches.  It was time to order the marriage license from the NYC Municipal Archives as 1949 was not available online.  The wait time was about 3-4 weeks.

While waiting for that, I continued to analyze the 4-6th cousin matches.  There were 4 matches that all tied into one couple, John Coates & Mary Mills.  These matches all fell between 21 -39 cMs and for reference are, DH, DO, HC, & TH.  I started connecting these matches in the tree. There were so many children! John & Mary had 10 children between 1844-1868.   I was quite surprised when the realization came that all 4 matches had the same relationship to John & Mary.  John & Mary are their 3x great grandparents.  They are true 4th cousins to each other. Including Jeff and MC too!

Here is the couple in the 1860 census living in Lower Merion, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania with several of their children.  

There was one last match to look at.  It was JM matching at 48 cMs.  This match had both Coates and Nicholls surnames in their tree and I was able to determine that this match's 2x great grandmother was also a child of John & Mary Coates.  She too is a 4th cousin to the other matches.  JM turned out to be Jeff's 3rd  cousin as they share the same 2x great grandparents.  Charles C. Nicholls Sr. & Sarah Ann Coates. 

 Here is their family in the 1910 Census living in Atlantic City, NJ.

I set this all aside and waited for the document to come USPS.  When the 1949 NYC census record comes for MC's grandparents, things start to click.  Grandmother's parents are Charles C. Nicholls Jr. & Lucy Harrison.  

After a little sleuthing, I found Charles Nicholls & Lucy Harrison's Marriage Certificate and all starts to make perfect sense - 

MC's great grandfather is Charles C. Nicholls Jr., son of Charles C. Nicholls and Sarah Coates.  He married 3 times.  The first wife is unknown at this time, the second was Lucy Harrison and the third is Elsie whom he is buried with. This document along with her grave marker, make it clear that Lucille Nicholls fibbed about her year of birth on her marriage certificate.  She was born in 1931, not 1927.  She was actually 17 when she married her first husband.

 Since MC matches Jeff at 367 cMs.  These are the possible relationships:

MC is Jeff's 1/2 first cousin.  Making their common ancestor, their grandmother, Lucille C. Nicholls.  Lucille has living children and grandchildren. If one of them test, this would further validate this conclusion.  

I was unable to connect a match to the Harrison line as Lucy was the first generation born in the United States.  Both her parents were born in England and she was an only child.  Jeff has several 4-6 cousin matches who reside in England with the Harrison surname in their tree and many, many 5th - 8th cousins that also have Harrisons from England in their tree.  Their matches go back well over 150 years ago. 

This is how I come to the conclusion that Lucille Charlotte (Nicholls) (Runde) Kline is Jeff's maternal grandmother.