2026 - 19 Discovering Louisa Jane Foley

 Louisa Jane Foley, Maternal 2nd Great Grandmother

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 19

Prompt: A Question the Records Can’t Answer (But DNA Can)

Louisa as imagined by ChatGPT.

Initially, I thought she was Louisa Jane Wright—the name listed on the marriage index of my 2nd great-grandparents.

On December 13, 1854, Parmenas James Nolen married Louisa Jane Wright in Jackson County, Arkansas. The record listed:

Parmenas – age 24, from St. Francis County, Arkansas

Louisa Jane – age 22, from Jackson County, Arkansas

The index did not include witnesses, nor did it indicate a prior marriage for either party.

When I searched the 1850 census, I found Louisa J. Wright in Richland Township, St. Francis County, Arkansas, age 18, living with George W. Wright, age 36, a merchant. Given the age difference, I assumed he was her father and built my family tree accordingly.

Then DNA testing changed everything.

When DNA testing became available on Ancestry, I had my mother, Margaret, take a test, which I manage.

On December 27, 2017, I received this message through Ancestry’s messaging system:

“I manage my aunt Alene Foley Gates’ Ancestry test. You show up as a 2nd cousin match to her. She was born to Eugene Dudley Foley and Margaret Caroline Comer Foley on September 28, 1921, in Independence County, Arkansas. We are very interested in how we connect to you and hope to hear from you. Thank you, Linda Karen Clark Courtney.”

Alene shares 218 cM with Margaret, and after weeks—perhaps months—of collaboration, we determined the only logical explanation:

Louisa Jane was not a Wright. She was a Foley.

George Wright was not her father. He was her first husband.

Based on the DNA evidence, Louisa Jane and Alene’s grandfather, John T. Foley, had to be siblings. That would make Alene and Margaret second cousins once removed, which aligns with their shared DNA.

Since Louisa Jane married George Wright before 1850 and then married Parmenas Nolen in 1854, she never appeared on a census with her parents. However, seven of her nine siblings appear in the 1850 census with their parents, Townsend Foley and Christina Bradley Foley. Two additional siblings are with the family in the 1860 census. Margaret has DNA matches who descend from five of Louisa Jane’s nine siblings.

Then I remembered something else.

I had letters written by Louisa’s son, P. J., to his son Leonard—my grandfather. In those letters, he often referred to “the Foley boys,” usually saying, “The Foley boys are all all right.” In one letter, he mentioned “Uncle Bill Foley.”

That was enough to confirm that there was, indeed, a connection to the Foley family.