Some Close Cousin Connections

Meet Eric and Yvonne Stewart who hold a radio broadcast of their Reformed Presbyterian sermons from Antrim, Northern Ireland.  Their sermons were once preached as drive-in services from beautiful Portrush, Antrim and now they upload their content to Facebook - Look for Yvonne Stewart on Facebook - it is called "Glad Tidings with Eric and Yvonne Stewart".  They are lovely people and descend from Oliver Stewart, our Sam's brother.

Believe it or not, we have a reality star in our family!  Meet Bobby Patterson, great grandson of Rebecca Stewart Patterson, our Sam's sister.  He is from Raphoe, Donegal , Ireland and stars in "There's No Place Like Tyrone" a BBC comedy-reality show.  You can find episodes on YouTube.  

Meet Stephen Donnell and his wife Amanda McLaren.  This name will be familiar to the auto racing enthusiasts.  Amanda is the daughter of Bruce McLaren, inventor of the famous race cars.  Stephen is our cousin via the Keatley family and his family interweaves with ours several times.  Stephen and Amanda are the Ambassadors for McLaren Auto amongst other things.  They are currently living in Surrey, England and plan to move back to their native New Zealand in 2021.  He is the great grandson of Sarah Keatley, our Mary Anne Keatley's sister.

Ryan reached out to me due to our strong DNA match (He matches Laurie and Sara as well as several Stewart related cousins) and after some quick work on both our parts, we discovered our connection:  Ryan's 3rd great grandfather John Stewart was the brother of our 2nd great grandfather James Stewart.  Ryan is a  singer-songwriter with a few albums to his credit and was recently asked by the Old North Church in Boston to perform his song "Granary" there - the song is an homage to Paul Revere.  If you want to hear a stunning version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", listen to Ryan's version on YouTube.    

"Granary" is a fun video of Ryan walking/singing around Boston as well. Copy and paste:  Ryan Ahlwardt - Hallelujah / O Holy Night - YouTube 

Allyson (2nd from left) pictured with her siblings, was a close DNA match to me (and now to my siblings as well) when I discovered her Grandmother was a woman named Ruth Stewart.  Ruth, as it turns out was the daughter of David Stewart, a brother of our Sam Stewart.  Allyson knew  nothing of her Stewart heritage in Scotland and at the time, the University of Strathclyde was looking for a case study of someone who could connect to famous historical Scots via autosomal DNA.  Allyson's match to me and in turn, my siblingship with Tommy Stewart was used as an example of how someone without knowledge or the surname could have proof of descent from a historical figure, in this case, Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland.  Our case study is included in the book "Tracing Your Ancestors Using DNA".  Allyson also is the great niece of artist Ethelyn Stewart (Ruth's sister) and she and her siblings all own a piece of Ethelyn's art.  Ethelyn has her own page on this site.