🌿 Finding Minnie’s Father: How DNA Helped Solve a Family Mystery

New threads revealed through DNA — connecting lives, places, and generations

Every family has its quiet questions — stories half-told, details never written down but often wondered about. One such story belongs to Minnie Alious Hookeywin (born 1896 at Bellingen; died 1982 at Newtown) - pictured here.

Minnie is not one of my direct ancestors, but she connects to my extended family through marriage. Her mother, Emily Jane Hookeywin, later married Thomas Cahill (known as Carroll) — the brother of my great-grandmother, Agnes Cahill. From this point forward, he is referred to as Carroll, the name by which he was known to Emily and their family.

There is no clear reason for the change of name. Thomas and his relatives continued to be known within the wider Cahill family, so the variation was most likely a simple misunderstanding — perhaps the way his name was heard or recorded after he moved from the Cahill family’s home in the Hunter region to northern New South Wales, where he met and married Emily Hookeywin. Like his sister Agnes, Thomas could neither read nor write, and he may never have realised that the spelling of his name had changed.

Although Minnie’s story lies on a side branch of my family tree, it is closely interwoven with it. Recent DNA research has helped to illuminate a mystery that puzzled her descendants for more than a century — the identity of her father. There were no family stories and no name on her birth record, only silence.

By combining traditional genealogical research with modern DNA analysis, this investigation follows the trail from a single question to a credible conclusion — weaving Minnie’s life into the larger tapestry of the families who lived, worked, and loved across northern New South Wales.

❤️ Minnie and her mother, Emily

Minnie’s mother, Emily Jane Hookeywin (1871–1951), was born in Wagga Wagga and spent much of her life in the Clarence River district before passing away in Grafton. Minnie’s birth record did not name a father, and no reliable family story had survived to explain who he might have been. For years, that absence remained — until DNA evidence offered a way to re-examine the mystery.

(Pictured here is Emily with her youngest child, Samuel)

🧬 What DNA added and the process followed

When one of Minnie’s grandchildren took an AncestryDNA test, a new avenue of investigation opened. The results included a list of genetic matches — people who share segments of DNA with the tester and are therefore related in some way.

The first step was to sort those matches into the tester's four grandparent groups. This made it possible to focus on the group most likely to include matches from Minnie’s line.

In theory, the matches relevant to Minnie could fall into three categories:

Matches with other descendants of Minnie herself;
Matches from Minnie’s maternal line — her mother Emily Hookeywin’s family; and
Matches from Minnie’s unknown paternal line — the one under investigation.

Once the matches were organised, attention turned to those that did not connect to Emily Hookeywin’s family through her marriage to Thomas Carroll or through her known siblings and cousins. These matches were considered the most likely to represent Minnie’s paternal ancestry.

Ancestry’s Shared Matches feature — which shows which DNA matches are related to both the tester and another match — was used to explore connections. As family trees were compared, a clear pattern emerged: many of the shared matches traced their ancestry to the Collins and Hawthorne families, who lived around Tenterfield and southern Queensland in the late 1800s — precisely where Emily Hookeywin was living around the time of Minnie’s birth.

Step by step, the combined evidence of DNA, geography, and timing pointed strongly to Michael Collins, born about 1870 at Tenterfield and later residing in Armidale, as the most likely father of Minnie Alious Hookeywin.

While DNA does not always provide absolute proof, the consistent pattern of shared matches across multiple descendants of the Collins and Hawthorne families, supported by the historical record, provides a well-founded and coherent conclusion.

🧩 Understanding shared matches, clusters and intersecting lines

When someone takes a DNA test, they receive a list of matches — other testers who share sections of the same DNA. The Shared Matches feature shows which of those people also match each other. When several matches connect in this way, they form what’s known as a cluster.

Each cluster usually represents a branch of the tester's family tree — perhaps a maternal grandmother’s line or, as in Minnie’s case, a previously unknown parent’s side. By comparing family trees within a cluster, it becomes possible to identify the common ancestors shared by those individuals.

It’s much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle: at first the pieces appear scattered, but as patterns emerge, connections take shape. Clusters reveal those patterns clearly, grouping people who share DNA through the same ancestral couple.

Some matches appear in more than one cluster or connect to two family branches. These intersection points, sometimes called union matches, act as bridges between clusters. They show where families met through marriage, cousin relationships, or shared ancestors several generations back.

Recognising these intersections matters because they:

Confirm relationships between clusters and show how family lines interconnect.
Narrow the search for unknown ancestors by pinpointing overlaps.
Prevent false assumptions, especially in small colonial communities where intermarriage was common.

In short, clusters show the parts of a person’s genetic tree, while intersecting lines reveal how those parts join together — transforming scattered matches into a connected family network.

🧬 DNA links between the Collins and Hawthorne families

DNA testing adds a biological layer of evidence to family history research, revealing connections that written records alone cannot show. When the same ancestral surnames appear repeatedly among a tester’s DNA matches, it usually signals a shared ancestor several generations back.

In this case, analysis of the tester’s results pointed consistently toward two families who lived in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland in the late 1800s — the Collins and Hawthorne families. Their genetic signatures held the key to identifying Minnie’s unknown father.

Part 1: The Collins Family

The first chart (below) shows the tester's DNA matches with descendants of George and Sarah (Eamer) Collins appeared through five of their seven children. The colour-coding is to help distinguish different branches. Those shown in red are the match and the number represents the amount of DNA — measured in centimorgans (cM) — shared between the tester and that match.

DNA matches with descendants of George and Sarah (Eamer) Collins

The strongest matches (105–170 cM) were found among descendants of Michael Collins, son of William Collins and Julia Hawthorne, indicating a close relationship at about the great-grandparent or great-great-grandparent level.

Smaller but consistent matches (8–45 cM) appeared among descendants of William’s siblings — Richard, Charlotte, Charles, and John Collins — pointing to a broader connection within the extended Collins family.

The concentration of strong matches within William’s branch provided the first major clue that the tester descended directly from this line.

Part 2: The Hawthorne Family

The second chart shows matches with descendants of Michael and Bridget (Carey) Hawthorne. The pattern closely mirrors that of the Collins family: the strongest matches again fall among descendants of their grandchild Michael Collins, while smaller matches occur among descendants of Adam, Thomas, and Alexander Hawthorne.

DNA matches with descendants of Michael and Bridget (Carey) Hawthorne

This mirrored pattern is significant because Michael Collins’s mother was Julia (Juliana) Hawthorne, daughter of Michael and Bridget (Carey) Hawthorne. In other words, the tester’s DNA connects to both families — through William Collins on the paternal side and Julia Hawthorne on the maternal side.

Such dual-line matching is precisely what would be expected if Michael Collins, or his full brother, were the biological ancestor of the tester.

How the two lines intersect

When viewed together, the Collins and Hawthorne results tell the same story from two directions:

Collins matches trace the connection through Michael’s father, William Collins.
Hawthorne matches trace the connection through his mother, Julia Hawthorne.
Shared matches across both families confirm that the tester’s DNA passes through a child of William and Julia — or possibly through another union between their close relatives.

This means Minnie’s father could, in theory, have been Michael Collins, a full brother, or a son born from another Collins–Hawthorne connection.

To assess these possibilities, both documentary and DNA evidence were re-examined in detail. Historical records show no evidence that William and Julia had another surviving son, nor that any other Collins–Hawthorne union produced a male child who could have been Minnie’s father.

Further confirmation comes from DNA matches with descendants of Michael Collins and his wife, Jessie Mackay, whose children were born after Minnie. These descendants share measurable amounts of DNA with the tester at levels consistent with being half-relations. This pattern reinforces the conclusion that Minnie and the Collins–Mackay children shared the same father — Michael Collins.

What this means

For readers new to genetic genealogy, the principle is simple:

Each person inherits half of their DNA from each parent.
If a tester's DNA matches people from two different families — and those two families are linked though only one known couple — the shared ancestor is almost certainly that couple’s child.

Here, the tester’s DNA matches descendants from both the Collins and Hawthorne families. The only person who biologically connects those two lines is Michael Collins, son of William Collins and Julia Hawthorne.

The conclusion

When the DNA findings are viewed alongside the documentary record, they form a clear and consistent picture:

Strong shared-DNA values with multiple Collins and Hawthorne descendants point to a close biological link.
Overlapping shared matches across both family groups confirm that the connection runs through a single individual.
Historical timing and geography align with the known lives of Michael Collins and Emily Hookeywin, who were living in the same region during the 1890s.

Taken together, the evidence strongly supports that Michael Collins (born about 1870 in Tenterfield) was the biological father of Minnie Hookeywin, making him the tester’s previously unknown great-grandfather.

Bridging to the historical families

Beyond solving one mystery, this case shows how DNA can bridge the gaps left by missing or incomplete records. It connects living descendants to both sides of a once-silent story — reuniting the Collins and Hawthorne families through shared ancestry and discovery.

Yet DNA tells only part of the story. To understand Minnie’s paternal background more fully, it helps to look beyond the genetic connections to the families themselves — the people who lived in the border districts of New South Wales and Queensland, where their paths intertwined in the decades before Minnie’s birth. Their histories reveal the social and geographic world that made those connections possible.

🌿 The Collins and Hawthorne families of the border district

To trace Minnie’s paternal background, attention turns to the two families that shaped it — the Collins and Hawthorne families — and the documentary evidence that ties them to her story.

The Collins Family of Tenterfield

To understand Minnie’s paternal line, it helps to look further back — to the English roots of the Collins family in Chute, Wiltshire, whose descendants would later spread across Australia’s border districts.

Origins in Wiltshire

The story begins with George Collins, born about 1793 in Chute, Wiltshire, and his wife Sarah Eamer, born around 1797 in nearby Milton. They married in Chute on 1 June 1820 and raised a large family of at least seven children. George worked as a labourer, typical of the rural working class of the early 19th century, and the family remained in the Wiltshire area until his death in 1849. Sarah outlived him by several years, passing away in 1857.

Their known children were:

Richard Collins (1821–1881), married Charlotte Fowler in 1846, remained in Wiltshire.
William Collins (c.1822–before 1898), emigrated to Australia, married Eliza Ann Baker in 1851, later Julia Hawthorne in 1862.
Charlotte Collins (1824–1903), married John Offer in 1854, lived in Wiltshire.
Charles Collins (1827–1913), emigrated to Victoria, married Matilda Watkins, settled in Ballarat.
Mary Collins (1831–1857), remained in Wiltshire.
Elizabeth Collins (c.1833–?), life details unknown.
John Collins (1836–?), married Jane North in 1856, remained in Wiltshire.

These siblings represent the broader Collins family network identified through DNA testing — with matches appearing not only among descendants of William Collins (who settled in New South Wales and Queensland) but also among descendants of Richard, Charles, Charlotte, and John who remained in England or had families in other parts of Australia.

Migration and settlement

William Collins, born about 1822 in Chute, followed a familiar pattern of mid-century migration. Working as a labourer, he left England after his 1851 marriage to Eliza Ann Baker at Wherwell, Hampshire. About five years later, William and Eliza emigrated to Australia with their young family, joining the flow of assisted migrants seeking opportunity in the colonies.

They settled in the developing Queensland–New South Wales border region, a landscape of new pastoral runs and railway expansion.

Their known children were:

Eliza Jane Collins (c.1849–?), born in Hampshire, England.
William Collins (1853–1941), born in Alresford, Hampshire; married Theresa Bailey in 1877 at Tenterfield; later lived in Stanthorpe, Queensland.
Elfrida Collins (c.1855–?), born in Wiltshire.
Mary Collins (1857–?), born 15 July 1857, Queensland registration.
Martha Collins (1859–?), born 6 November 1859, Queensland registration; married William Crawford in 1879 at Tenterfield.
Emily Collins (1862–1863), died aged ten months.

Eliza Ann (Baker) Collins died on 1 July 1862, leaving William with several small children. Later that year, on 25 October 1862, William remarried Juliana (“Julia”) Hawthorne. The marriage record lists William as a widower residing at Canning Downs (pictured here) and Julia as living at Rosenthal — neighbouring pastoral districts south and west of Warwick, Queensland.

From this second marriage came at least two known children:

Bridget Collins (1864–1866), who died in infancy and was buried in the Tenterfield district.
Michael Collins (c.1870–1941), later of Tenterfield and Armidale, and identified through DNA evidence as the likely biological father of Minnie Alious Hookeywin

No confirmed death records have been located for William or Julia, but the family’s movements place them within the Queensland–New South Wales borderlands, especially around Warwick, Stanthorpe, Tenterfield, and Glen Innes — regions where many Collins descendants intermarried with other pioneering families of the late 19th century.

The Hawthorne Family

Julia’s background adds another important dimension to this story. She was born Juliana Hawthorne in 1847 in Sydney, the daughter of Michael Hawthorne and Bridget Carey, both Irish-born.

Michael Hawthorne (1807–1855) and Bridget (Carey) Hawthorne (1810–1902) arrived from Ireland on 6 November 1841 and initially settled in Sydney before moving north to the Clarence and Tenterfield districts - pictured here. Their children included:

Adam Hawthorne (1836–1915), born in County Tipperary, Ireland.
Catherine Hawthorne (1841–1842), born at sea.
Michael Hawthorne (1845–1916), born in New South Wales; married Bridget MacCarthy in 1874 at Tenterfield.
Juliana (“Julia”) Hawthorne (1847–after 1898), born in Sydney; married William Collins in 1862 in Queensland.
Thomas Hawthorne (1849–1920), born in Grafton; married Emily Farrell in 1871 at Tenterfield.
Alexander Hawthorne (1852–1919), born in New South Wales; married Elizabeth Fletcher in 1874 at Inverell.

Julia’s mother, Bridget (Carey) Hawthorne, lived to the age of 92, passing away in Tenterfield in 1902 — bridging the family’s Irish beginnings and its Australian generations.

Michael Collins and Jessie Mackay

The youngest known child of William and Julia (Hawthorne) Collins, Michael Collins, was born about 1870 in Tenterfield, New South Wales. Although no birth registration has been located, his 1898 marriage certificate provides key details — including his stated age, birthplace, and the names of his parents — confirming his identity as their son.

By the early 1890s, Michael was living and working in the Glen Innes–Grafton district. Emily’s movements between Grafton, Glen Innes, and nearby settlements suggest that their paths may have crossed during this period. It was within this window that Minnie Alious Hookeywin was born, her birth registered at Bellingen in 1896 — a district connected by road and trade to Grafton and the Clarence River region.

Two years later, in 1898, Michael Collins married Jessie Mackay at Hillgrove, near Armidale. Jessie, born in 1876 in New South Wales, lived until 11 May 1958, passing away in Glebe, Sydney.

Michael and Jessie raised a family of seven children, moving between Hillgrove, Wallsend, and Armidale:

Constance Collins (1898–1981), born at Hillgrove; married William Oldoine in 1944 at Hamilton, NSW.
Emma Collins (1901–1989), born at Wallsend; married William Herbert Corkill in 1927 at Sydney.
Sidney Alexander Collins (1903–?), born at Armidale; married Mary Ellis Franklin in 1941 at White Cliffs, NSW.
Muriel Collins (1906–?), born at Armidale; married William James Macmillan in 1935 at Sydney.
Howard Duncan Collins (1909–1983), born at Tilbuster, near Armidale; married Viola Myrtle King in 1931 at Glebe, NSW.
Joyce Margaret Collins (1912–1979), born at Armidale; married Robert Pryde in 1935 at Hamilton, NSW.
Cecile Annabel Collins (1921–1993), born at Armidale; married Robert Lindsay Wallace in 1943 in Sydney.

Michael Collins died in Armidale on 1 March 1941, aged 71, remembered as part of the generation whose lives bridged the pioneering decades of settlement with the modernising era of the twentieth century.

🌸 Emily’s marriages and children

Emily’s life took several turns, and her children appear in records under several surnames, including Hookeywin, Carroll, and Kelly. Her 1907 marriage at Grafton (pictured here) to Thomas Carroll — brother of Agnes Cahill, my great-grandmother — formally linked her to the Cahill family. Her children include:

Children born before the 1907 marriage (fathers not identified):

Arthur James Hookeywin (Carroll) (1892–1971)
William Belgrave Hookeywin (Carroll) (1894–1948)
Minnie Alious Hookeywin (Carroll) (1896–1982) — the focus of this story
George Hookeywin (Carroll) (1898–1979)
Thomas J Hookeywin (Carroll) (1900–1903)
Walter John Hookeywin (Kelly) (1902–1966)
Elizabeth Agnes Hookeywin (Carroll) (1904–2001)

Children after Emily’s 1907 marriage to Thomas Carroll:

Thomas Lawrence Carroll (1907–1966)
Rosanna Mary Carroll (1909–1936)
Michael Patrick Carroll (1912–2004)
James F. Carroll (1916–1916)
Samuel Joseph Carroll (1918–1994)

Current research — combining DNA evidence, family records, and descendant analysis — provides strong support that Michael Collins was the biological father of Minnie Hookeywin (Carroll). His genetic signature is clearly represented in Minnie’s grandchild and aligns with the Collins and Hawthorne families.

While the paternity of Emily’s other pre-marriage children remains less certain, DNA testing by their descendants may help to clarify those relationships.

Some observations can, however, be made:

Because Michael Collins married in 1898, it is unlikely that Thomas (1900), Walter (1902), or Elizabeth (1904) were his children. The 1903 death registration of Thomas J Hookeywin (Carroll) lists Thomas Carroll as his father, suggesting that he was the first child of Thomas and Emily.
The name Walter does not appear elsewhere in the Carroll, Cahill, or Hookeywin families, while Elizabeth and Eliza are significant family names — Thomas’s mother was recorded as both. His younger sister, my great-grandmother, was Agnes, another family name that reappears across generations.
As Thomas died in infancy and Elizabeth has no known descendants, there will be no DNA evidence to confirm those relationships. Walter does have descendants, but none appear to have tested at AncestryDNA so far.
Given that William and George are names found within the Collins family — and that they were born on either side of Minnie — it seems likely that they were also children of Michael Collins.

I would warmly welcome contact from descendants of Arthur, William, George, or Walter who have tested (or are willing to test) with AncestryDNA to help advance this ongoing research.

❤️ A family story illuminated

The discovery that Michael Collins was the father of Minnie Hookeywin (Carroll) brings new clarity to a long-standing family mystery. Through careful research, DNA comparison, and collaboration among descendants, Minnie’s place within the Collins family of Tenterfield can now be confidently recognised.

This finding reshapes our understanding of Emily’s life and the intertwining of the Collins, Cahill, and Carroll families. What once appeared as separate paths now form a single, connected story — one that stretches from the granite country of northern New South Wales to the wider network of Irish-Australian families whose lives intersected across generations.

Far from altering the past, this discovery illuminates it. It transforms fragments of record into a coherent narrative, showing how DNA evidence and traditional research can work hand in hand to uncover hidden relationships and restore names to their rightful places within the family story.

Family history, like DNA itself, is about connection. Each new insight strengthens the weave of shared ancestry — linking those who came before with those who continue their story today.

✍️ Author’s note

This paper forms part of an ongoing exploration of the many families connected through the Cahill–Carroll line. It brings together historical records, DNA evidence, and descendant collaboration to document a key finding — that Michael Collins was the biological father of Minnie Hookeywin (Carroll). Establishing this connection strengthens our understanding of how the Collins, Cahill, Carroll and Hawthorne families were intertwined in northern New South Wales at the turn of the twentieth century.

The research draws on public archives, civil registration records, and AncestryDNA results. While every effort has been made to verify the details presented here, new evidence from future testing or record discoveries may refine the picture further.

This work is published on Blogger to ensure it remains accessible to current and future generations of family members and researchers. Its purpose is not only to preserve the facts of ancestry but also to share the process of discovery — how DNA, history, and collaboration can illuminate the lives that connect us all.

Minnie’s story, once uncertain, now stands within the Collins–Cahill narrative as another thread in the enduring fabric of shared family history — a story that continues to unfold with every new discovery.

— Christine Woodlands

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