Molecular Genetics

A Philadelphia family excluded

Session 11 had ranked a Philadelphia man, a widowed machinist named Edward J. Quinn born 1909 and enumerated in the 1950 census with two children and a sister, as the prime candidate, because a FamilySearch tree profile attached both the 1911 Sainte-Barbe census and that 1950 household to one person. That profile is a contributor merge of two men. The 1910 census of Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania records the Philadelphia man at one year old, born Pennsylvania to parents born there and in Ireland; Find a Grave links him, his half-sister and his children to a Minersville and Springfield, PA family; and a 2015 obituary names the same parents. That family has no Dozois ancestry and is excluded, together with its Session 11 ranking.

John Joseph Quinn’s 1951 border cards

Of Hermine’s sons only John Joseph (1919–2002) is documented in the United States. Two border-crossing cards from Niagara Falls, NY, dated June 4 and August 6, 1951, record a 31 year old plasterer of St. Catharines, Ontario, born Saint-Anicet, nationality Irish, wife Mary Eldora, purpose “to get a beer, few hours”, stamped debarred and appealed and referred to a Board of Special Inquiry. His wife was Mary Eldora Eiler (1924–1997) of Welland, Ontario, married about 1947; she remarried Forrest Franklin Shontz at Palm Beach, Florida in April 1960. His Social Security number was issued in Illinois in December 1956, and he died in King County, Washington in 2002. A Seattle passenger list cited for him in Session 13 was withdrawn in Session 16: it belongs to a different John Quinn, born 1922 at Victoria, British Columbia. The other four brothers have no United States Social Security record: all 327 Canada-born Quinns born 1905 to 1925 in the index were read, with John Joseph’s own entry as the positive control. Session 15 found that FamilySearch silently returns page 0 for any offset of 1,100 or more, so the index cannot be read to the end by paging; it was swept again as 57 sliced searches on spelling variants of the mother’s surname (617 pages, 7,281 unique rows, John Joseph’s entry present under 11 hints as the positive control, a nonsense hint returning nothing as the negative control), and again only John Joseph’s application was found.

The brothers’ lives from the Québec papers (Session 16)

Session 16 built a timeline for each of the five brothers from the Huntingdon Gleaner, the St. Lawrence Sun and La gazette Valleyfield-Beauharnois on BAnQ numérique, the 1931 Census of Canada and the United States border, Social Security and Florida marriage indexes. The 1931 census records Hermine as “Minnie Guinn”, 45, at Godmanchester with six children, which is why earlier searches under Quinn found nothing. The Gleaner’s 1945 honour roll lists Edward, George, John and Michael Quinn on active service. Edward Joseph Quinn, a well driller, died unmarried at his mother’s home at 533 chemin Larocque, Valleyfield on July 29, 1970, aged 61; Hermine died at the same address on December 30, 1977, aged 94; Albert died at Huntingdon on August 3, 1982 and Michael at Ormstown on June 7, 2002. On June 30, 1971 the Gleaner reported “Mr. and Mrs. John Quinn of Washington”, John in the construction business, spending a week with his brother Albert and visiting his mother, “his first visit back since leaving 30 years ago”.

The conception window was corrected to Christmas 1961 to New Year 1962 (a full-term birth on September 21, 1962). All 38 issues of the three Québec papers from November 29, 1961 to February 21, 1962 were read; they hold one Quinn item, Albert on a Huntingdon donor list. For that window the brothers rank: John Joseph first (unattached after his wife’s 1960 remarriage, in the United States, and unrecorded from April 1960 to June 1971), Edward second (52, unmarried, at Valleyfield, 70 kilometres from the Laliberté family’s Rouses Point), then Michael, George and Albert, each married and settled in Québec or Ontario.

The family’s account: “John Quincy” (Session 17)

On September 20, 2026 a relative in Canada told Catherine that her birth father was “John Quincy”. The name was tested as a surname first: the Social Security NUMIDENT index returns 76 Quincy rows (11 men born 1900 to 1945, none with a Québec, New York or New England tie), the Social Security Death Index 14, and the 1931 Census of Canada, the New York City marriage index 1950 to 1975 and Find a Grave none of the right age and place, each search run with a positive control. Read as John Quinn, the name points to exactly one of Hermine Dozois’s sons, the one already first in the Session 16 ranking. The statement is second-hand family testimony, unrecorded; if the relative is a maternal half-sister, the name reached her through Estelle Laliberté’s family, so it is a name Estelle used, not a record. A given name that matches the one John in the DNA-isolated family is the working identification of Catherine’s father: John Joseph Quinn, born June 10, 1919 at Sainte-Barbe, died July 25, 2002 in King County, Washington — Strong Signal on documentary identity on four independent records (identity bridge: 1956 Social Security application, FamilySearch NUMIDENT corroboration, Washington death index entry, and his death certificate received October 1, 2026). The ~August 30, 2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer notice was never retrieved — only an indexed-only Findmypast blurb confirms his name and dates. Biological paternity remains unproven.

The same session read his Washington residence chain from vendor-compiled public records indexed with his exact birth date: Lynnwood, Snohomish County, 1993 to 2000, and Seattle’s Belltown and Queen Anne neighbourhoods, 1993 to 2003. He is not in the 1975 or 1985 Polk directories for Seattle. A 1977 Island County marriage of a John J. Quinn to Judy A. Johnson was tested and excluded: it belongs to a younger John Joseph Quinn (1944–2019) of Oak Harbor. A FamilySearch tree profile for a John Quinn who died in Washington in 2002 was likewise withdrawn as a 1922 man of Victoria, British Columbia. No child of John Joseph has been found; the Social Security index shows only his own application, and it covers applications made before 2007 only.

Every candidate father was dead by 2014 (Session 15)

George Antoine Quinn’s obituary (Irvine Funeral Home, Brockville, 2014; FamilySearch GKLZ-Z8L) was retrieved in full. Born at Sainte-Barbe on August 28, 1920, an employee of Brockville Public Utilities and husband of the late Frances Louise Neale (1911 to 2007), he died at Kingston General Hospital on April 11, 2014, aged 93; his son Roger Wayne Quinn (1954 to 2024) died at Odessa, Ontario. The obituary reads “Predeceased by brothers and sisters Edward, Albert, John, Mike, Rose and Irene”, so all five sons of Hermine were dead by April 2014 (Strong Signal). Paul-André Quinn, son of Albert Joseph (1911 to 1982) and Marie-Ange Galipeau (1918 to 2008), died at Sainte-Barbe on March 16, 2021, aged 65; his obituary, placed with Rodrigue Montpetit et fils, names his parents (Strong Signal), though the funeral home’s own article returns HTTP 500 on every retry. A contributor tree adds Albert’s sons Charles, called Catin (died 2013), and Albert Jr, whose daughter Linda lived from 1961 to 1985; Michael Delvani’s 1951 marriage to Marguerite Chrétien (1925 to 1982); and Rose-Marie Quinn (born 1915) and her husband Henry Brady, both dead before 2014 (Moderate Signal). Living relatives named in the obituaries are withheld.

Four further searches came back empty, each with a positive and a negative control: Chronicling America 1955 to 1963 has no page for Quinn with any Huntingdon County or Brockville place name, and almost no New York or Québec titles for those years, so that is coverage, not absence; Nos Origines does not hold the Dozois and Quinn family of Sainte-Barbe; and the New York City marriage index 1950 to 2017 has no marriage yet tied to this family. No record places any brother in New York State in 1961 or early 1962.

What would make it Strong

• John Joseph Quinn’s 2002 Washington death certificate (VitalChek #227405226; local 8468 / state 146 2 28218) — RECEIVED October 1, 2026 and integrated: it is the fourth identity leg (born June 10, 1919 Canada, died July 25, 2002 Seattle, occupation driller, DIVORCED, residence 533 Third Ave W #906 Seattle WA 98119, cremated 8/24/02, informant Donna Quinn of Ocala FL). It proves nothing about paternity — the parental data is informant-supplied, and “Doza” is a surname only, a Speculative phonetic reading of Dozois. The ~August 30, 2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer notice was never retrieved; only the indexed-only Findmypast blurb names no survivors, so that route is closed pending a library GenealogyBank / newspapers.com terminal pass.
• Catherine’s original 1962 Bronx birth certificate (NYC VR 214, prepared and not yet submitted), or a 1961 New York City marriage certificate: a Quinn and Marchand marriage in Queens that year is the one unexplained index entry.
• A Quinn half-sibling or first cousin among Catherine’s matches. 23andMe messages went to the two closest paternal-side matches on September 19 and 20, 2026; no reply yet.
• The relative’s own memory of the name, asked directly: “Quincy” or “Quinn”, and how they knew it.