Reginald Brenton Foley (1920 - 2006)

Born 25 Feb 1920 in Jeddore, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Ancestors

Son of Frederick Brenton Millett and Ethel Margaret (Foley) Ritchie

Descendants

Died 26 Mar 2006 at age 86 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Brad Foley [send private message]

Biography

Reginald was born in 1920, in Jeddore, Halifax, Nova Scotia^[1]. He married Mary Campbell, and had three children in Dartmouth.

He was raised as the brother of his mother (Ethel Ritchie). It was not known who his father was. DNA evidence, however, has pinpointed a match: Brent Millett (see the section on Paternity, below).

Residence 1921

On Canada Census, Dartmouth, Halifax, as Reginald, age 1. He was referenced as the son of Angus Foley and, Josephine Foley^[2].

Obituary

Halifax Herald 3/28/2006

FOLEY, Reginald Brenton - 86, Dartmouth, passed away March 26, 2006, in Dartmouth General Hospital. Reginald joined the Dartmouth Police Department May 1949 and retired February 1980, he was also Justice of the Peace for many years. He was a devoted Christian and a man of strong integrity. Reginald enjoyed hunting with friends, Bill Bailey and Bill Sullivan. Reginald was a loving tenderhearted father who stood by his children through good times and bad. He always said C.O.D. "Call on Dad."

Reginald is survived by his loving wife, the former Mary Campbell; son, Brian (Maxine), Shubenacadie; daughters, Marion Stepharnoff (Raymond), Enfield; Barbara Winchester, Dartmouth; half-brothers, Russell (Veronica), Florida; Gordon (May), Dartmouth; George (Maria), Cape Cod; Lloyd (Sharon), Oshawa, Ont.; half-sisters, Dorothy Jordan (Murray), Emma Creese (Chris), Margaret Brian (Henry), all of Dartmouth; Barbara Thom, Oshawa, Ont.; grandchildren, Richard Stepharnoff (Monica), Reggie Stepharnoff, Brad Foley, Paul Foley, Scott Foley, Tim Dobson (Sandra), Rosey Dobson (Russell), Tom Dobson; great-grandchildren, Tyler and Chloe Stepharnoff. Reginald was predeceased by half-sisters, Evelyn and Kathleen. Family will be receiving visitors 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. today in Atlantic Funeral Home, 771 Main St., Dartmouth. A memorial service will held 1 p.m. Wednesday in Evangel Pentecostal Church, 1412 Cole Harbour Rd., Rev. Bradley Ball officiating. Reception to follow in the church. Interment in Dartmouth Memorial Gardens. Family has requested, in lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Reginald's memory to the Evangel Pentecostal Church. On-line condolences may be made by visiting: www.atlanticfuneralhomes.com^[3]

DNA

Maternal relationship is confirmed by a GEDmatch test match between Brad Foley GEDmatch M154952 and his second cousin once removed Kerry Nash GEDmatch A434525. Their MRCAs are Angus Foley and Josephine Weston, the 2nd great grandparents of Brad and the great grandparents of Kerry. Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 3.2, based on sharing 169.4 cM across 6 segments.

Paternal relationship is confirmed by a 23andMe test match between Reginald's son Brian Foley and his first cousin once removed Robert Nathaniel Millett. Their MRCAs are William Rupert Millett and Georgina Sarah Morgan, the great grandparents of Brian and the grandparents of Robert. Estimated relation between Brian and Robert is first cousin once removed, based on sharing 336cM across 19 segments.

Notes on paternity

In the absence of documented evidence, a number of pieces needed to come together to establish the match. The strongest matches are listed above. But multiple cousin matches, including Y-chromosome matches, with Reginald's son Brian point to a paternity descending from Jacob Millett and Sarah Kaiser of Chester. Most lines of evidence point to Brenton Millett as the best candidate to be Reginald's father. While the Millett tree is confusing --- there were multiple marriages among the same few Rafuse and Millett families in Chester, in particular the descendants of Jacob Millett, and John Rafuse --- there were additional matches to the Morgan line of Brent's mother.

• The closest 23andMe autosomal match, excluding matches through the Foley, Campbell or Doherty lines, to Reginald's son Brian is at the 1st cousin once removed, to an R. Millett. R. Millett is the son of Rupert Millett. This strongly suggests that one of Rupert's brothers is the father of Reginald (making R. Millett and Reg first cousins).
• There is a shared match between R Millett and Brian Foley, at about the 2nd cousin level, to a great-great niece of Georgina Morgan. As far as I know, there are no other possible connections between the Morgan and Millett lines.
• The Y-haplotype, also through 23andMe, is a match between Brian and R. Millett. They are both I-Z58 (Brian tested on an older version of the 23 and Me chip, but his son Brad Foley has the updated chip, and the matching haplotype).
• Y-DNA testing, on Family Tree DNA for Brad, with 67 STR markers gave a single match to a man with surname "Millett"; with a difference at 2 markers (approximately 6-14 generations to a common ancestor)^[4].
• Autosomal testing, on Ancestry^[5] and GEDmatch^[6] supports Millett ancestry in a comparison of a number of shared trees.

Timing and Name

• Brent Millett was released from Camp Hill Hospital in Halifax on June 1st, 1919. This is 38.5 weeks before Reginald was born (the length of an average gestation).
• In 1921, the Foley family was living in Dartmouth, not Jeddore, not far from Camp Hill.
• The name 'Brenton' was not a common name in Nova Scotia at the time. By way of reference, there were 110 Brentons in the province in the 1921 census. Given a total population of 523,837, assuming half of them were males, about 0.04% of the males had Brenton as a first name. There were no other Brentons in Foley family. The coincidence of names is not proof, but is the most persuasive evidence directly linking the two.

Sources

1. ↑ "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 21 June 2015, 02:00), entry for Reginald Brenton Foley(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LKQT-7NP); contributed by various users.
2. ↑ Library and Archives Canada, Census of 1921. Nova Scotia, Halifax, Dartmouth, Portland. Page 2001, image e002909668. Accessed 2019.
3. ↑ Nova Scotia Obituaries. Memorial for Reginald Brenton Foley. Accessed 2016. 9
4. ↑ Family Tree DNA How Many to Test? 12, 37, 67 Markers? Accessed 2019.
5. ↑ Ancestry.com [1] accessed 2019.
6. ↑ Gedmatch Tools for DNA and Genealogy Research accessed 2019