An Interesting Cluster of DNA Matches

For years, I've wanted to solve the mystery of who my great-grandmother June's father was - ever since my grandmother first told me the story of how her mother was an orphaned child.  This blog even has a section dedicated to the mystery of Ida Davis and her children's parentage. 

As the above graphic indicates, June's mother was Ida Davis (1874-1900).  By the time Ida passed at age 26, she had two daughters : Pansy and June.  June was my great-grandmother.  Both of these girls were raised by their grandmother, Mary Ellen (Swafford) Davis Gilliland (1854-193) and her 2nd husband, Robert F. Gilliland.  Both girls used the Gilliland surname.

While I continue to search for paper records to document clues as to June's father, when autosomal DNA testing came on the scene I had renewed hope that a nearly 120 year-old mystery might be able to be solved.  I've tested myself and my mother at all the major DNA databases, hoping to utilize the tools to find a connection.

Utilizing the Shared Matching tools at AncestryDNA, I was able to sort my mother's matches with her male cousin "L" on her mother's side.   Because mom and "L" share grandparents, all of their shared matches have to be on either through the genetic upline of either Clemon Lambertson or June Gilliland.  Because I have a rather robust tree, I was able to look at their shared matches and identify several right away and group them into clusters.

The shared matches that I couldn't identify became the ones that I looked more closely at.  One match in particular (M.W.) shared by my mom and Cousin L shares 168cm across 8 segments with mom.  AncestryDNA predicts her in the 3rd-4th cousin range.  Looking at the matches shared with mom and M.W. were many names that were unidentifable.

I began working on building out Quick & Dirty Trees for each of these matches, hoping to find commonality.  Many of these matches only had one or two names in their tree, others were a bit more detailed.  I have scoured them looking for clues in common places and names, hoping to tie them together.  Eventually I was able to tie a couple of them together with common ancestry.

In addition, mom has tested at 23andMe and I was able to find a couple of matches there who also tie into the family tree of the matches at Ancestry.  These matches are distant cousins to each other, but did not know of their connections.

At AncestryDNA, matches M.W., K.H., P.B, and A.S. appear to tie into common ancestry through James Wesley Harris (1862-1926) and Laura Alice Livingston (1860-1942) of Monroe County, Indiana.  Additionally, at 23andMe, matches T.F., K.S. & K.A. also have common ancestry to this couple.

Additional matches at Ancestry further up the line from Harris-Livingston connection include the Vint and Stine families, all of whom have Monroe County, Indiana connections - right in the hotbed of where June's family was living.  I have identified additional matches of mom from these lines on both the Stine and the Vint families.  In the Q&D tree of James Wesley Harris, his mother, Martha Ellen Vint (1840-1918) was the daughter of Wiliam Henry Vint & Sarah Stine.

Recently I was able to have additional cousins test who descend from Clemon and June at AncestryDNA.  They also share common DNA with this cluster of matches.  Cousin A and Cousin B are both my 2nd cousins.

If my Q&D trees are correct, M.W. and K.H. are sisters and P.B. is their 1st cousin. A.S. is the nephew of P.B.  From 23andMe, T.F. is a 2nd cousin to M.W., K.H. & P.B.  K.S. is the son of T.F, and K.A. would be 1st cousin twice removed.

I have worked this tree out using the WATO tool at DNA Painter, trying to figure out a hypothesis.  I need more data, and will be reaching out to other descendants, including those who descend from June's sister, Pansy, to see if we can make the connections work.

While I don't have access to mom's Cousin L's matches to these individuals, I am encouraged by the amount of DNA shared and continue to work the Q&D Tree for more clues to tie in additional matches.  Eventually I will solve the mystery of June's ancestry.

Waiting on the Y-DNA Results

I took advantage of the Father's Day sales at FamilyTreeDNA to order the Y-37 marker test to explore my deep paternal ancestry.

I don't have enough time in the day to work on the autosomal results from the various testing companies, but I have been thinking about having a Y DNA test done for several years.

I'm not expecting any surprises, but I would be interested in seeing if I match with others in the Lemaster study to confirm the line of descent.  I had previously written about my paternal haplogroup here, from my test results at 23andMe.

With my paper-trail genealogy not being able to complete to my satisfaction the descent from Abraham Lemaster of St. Mary's County, Maryland.  The proposed line was described here initially, but given in more detail in this Surname Saturday post.  As always, I'm looking for additional information to tie the branches together.

Perhaps this Y-DNA test will help me determine whether or not my ancestor dropped out of the sky in 1804 Mason County, Virginia.

DNA: More Testing in a Different Pond

Activated three AncestryDNA kits this weekend - one for my wife and one for each of my parents.  This will be the second test for them, as they have already tested at 23andMe. Hoping that by fishing for relatives in another pond, we will discover more clues and relatives.

I was able to show mom & dad this weekend the different number of matches that I had received through AncestryDNA, including many on my paternal side.  I've already reached out to some 2nd and 3rd cousins and have encouraged them to upload their results to GEDMatch so we can compare on a chromosome browser.

I've not done much recently with my DNA results, but hope to get back into it now that my new job situation has settled down a bit.

AncestryDNA Results Came In : Ethnicity Estimates

My AncestryDNA results came in last week, and above are the graphics for the ethnicity estimates.  Although I know that these should be taken with a grain of salt, and are only as good as the database they are comparing me to, I find it interested to compare the differences from my results at 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA.

AncestryDNA picked up traces of Native American and West Asian, for example, that 23andMe didn't show.   I've had my results run at GEDMATCH in the various ethnicity calculators and have found similar results.  So way back in time there is a bit of a mystery to solve.

These regions are hard to pinpoint and are very vague such as Europe West or Scandinavia - but again based on the paper trail I'm not too surprised by the results.  

The trace regions in West Asia - the Caucasus region of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, etc. is interesting.  But then again, I have quite a bit of ancestry that remains unknown due to my mystery maternal 2nd great-grandfather.

I've posted on these various topics before under my DNA Genealogy tab.

DNA: Mom's Cousin Jack - Fourth Cousin

Mom's 23andMe cousin Jack matches her on two chromosomes, and matches me as well.  He is predicted to be my 3rd to 6th cousin.

Jack was quick to write back that he took a look at the family tree, and only saw one name, William Henry Summers that matched.  William Henry Summers was the husband of Margaret P. Pierce.  We traded more information, and I was able to view his family tree at Ancestry and confirm that we are fourth cousins, once removed, through the most recent common ancestors of Francis Pierce and Rebecca Page.

Francis Pierce
Rebecca Page

Margaret P. Pierce               Edmund G. Pierce
William H.H. Summers                Catherine Groenendyke

Francis P. Summers               William F. Pierce

Katie ________                     Clara A. Penisten

Glee William Summers               Edna M. Pierce
Mary J. Hunter                          Virgil Lee Wright

his parents                             my grandparents

Jack                            my mom

                               me

This is the second DNA connection through the MRCA Francis Pierce and Rebecca Page I've discovered through 23andme.  Earlier, I had made a connection with cousin Raj through Margaret Pierce and William H.H. Summers.  Raj and Jack would be 3rd cousins once removed.

Note: This post was drafted before the recent changes to the 23andMe site.

DNA: My New 23andMe Experience

Received the email yesterday that my 'new' 23andMe experience was ready, so I took the plunge and logged into the site.  After the preliminaries of making sure how my name would be displayed and opting into sharing of reports, etc. I was ready to start exploring.

I must say that I bought my first 23andMe kit the day they stopped giving health reports - a strange coincidence, so I had never had them in the first place.  I was disappointed that they wouldn't be providing those, but my main concern was genealogy and solving family mysteries, so that disappointment was quickly forgotten.

Now that I can see some of the health reports that they are providing, I'm not sure that I was really missing anything.  I realize that the types of reports they can provide is likely dictated by the FDA, but I can't see the increased value that they are providing.  If the health reports are the justification for raising their kit price to $199, all I can say is "wow".

The reports tell me information that I could find out by looking in the mirror, such as hair and eye color, as well as caffeine usage and lactose intolerance.  Not something I find too impressive.  The other reports are negative results for rare diseases, which fortunately I do not have, but if they are so rare, then why would I be worried about them?  Maybe I'm missing the point of the reports, but I'd like to know more about indicators for cancer or epilepsy or alchoholism.

The biggest changes I see at this point have to do with the DNA Relatives and how that experience will be enhanced or hindered by the new site.  It would appear that it would be hindered.  

While not an advanced user by any stretch, I have been able to find and make connections through DNA relatives, and have been tracking my results with a spreadsheet, comparing segments and finding triangulations, etc.  When it was announced that the 'old' website would be going away, I quickly went in and re-invited all the connections that hadn't responded to me in hopes that I would keep them as a connection.

Kitty Cooper's blog has a good run-down of the changes at the new site here.

I don't like the fact that you can no longer get the table view of matching segments of DNA.  That was what I was using to populate my spreadsheet and then comparing matches to each other.  

I don't understand why you can no longer sort your DNA relative matches by the most recent, either.  That was one way to find out which new matches you might have matched.  Granted, many of them were small matches, but every little bit counts when you're working with DNA.

I'm really confused by the fact that I still have anonymous matches showing - I thought one of the changes would be that everyone would be forced into sharing or they would not show in your DNA relatives.  Perhaps these folks haven't transitioned yet to the new system.  Will have to wait and see.

I've checked out the forums at 23andMe and to say that many people are unhappy would be an understatement.  Kitty's blog posts states that they have heard from the community and many of these complaints will be addressed.  We shall see.

Honestly, at this point I'm going to move my focus on to FamilyTreeDNA for any future testing.  I have tested both of my parents, my wife, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law at 23andMe, but will use the other sites in the future. There is no reason to recommend someone pay $199 for a test kit if you are wanting to use DNA for genealogical research.  The health reports do not justify the increased cost.  I'm not ready to buy into the "big pharma" conspiracy theories on the forums, as I already understood that was part of the exchange, but I question why the company appears to be trying to turn away the genealogy community.


Just my two cents worth.

Triangulation

Made a connection with my first good case of triangulation on chromosome 15 today.  Contacted a recent match at 23andMe (Robert) and began looking at the possibilities.  What I discovered was that we matched at the same point as a known relative - and therefore we have triangulation!

Robert matches both me and my mother at the same location on chromosome 15.  23andMe rounds the start and end points to be as follows: for both my mother and me, the shared start point is 81000000, for me the end point is 89000000 and for my mother the end point is 90000000.  Not much of a difference, but Robert shares a slightly longer segment of DNA with my mother (10.4 cM) than with me (9.3 cM).

23andMe Segment matches with Robert, I'm green, mom's is blue

Robert also has his results uploaded at GEDMatch, and I was able to confirm the results, the start and end locations for matches with me are as follows:

Robert's results for the start and end location of the match with mom was nearly the same :

But what really got me excited was Robert's match with a known relative on my mother's side, Mildred.  The results for Robert's match with Mildred :

Mildred is my maternal 1st cousin 3 times removed.  Her grandmother was the half-sister of my 2nd-great grandmother, Ida Davis.  The common ancestor between Mildred and myself is Mary Ellen Swafford (1854-1932).

This is how I match with Mildred (note chromosome 15) :

My mother matches Mildred even more (note chromosome 15) :

Because Robert matches on the exact same chromosome in the exact same location to not only me, my mother and Mildred, we have triangulation on this spot, indicating that the match is Identical by Descent, rather than Identical by Segment.  Anyone that matches all of us at this same chromosome and segment must be related through the same line.  Because the common ancestry between myself and Mildred is Mary Ellen Swafford, so the DNA either came from her or one of her ancestors.

Robert is predicted by 23andMe to be a 3rd to distant cousin.  We share just one segment and 0.13% of our DNA.  GEDMatch predicted that the estimated number of generations to the MRCA is 5.2 generations.

One of the surname's in Robert's ancestry is Thacker, and there is a Thacker-Swafford connection, but in the correspondence so far, the names do not match up.  Robert's tree is just getting started, and I hope that by sending my contact an outline of Swafford ancestry we can find a common name. My thought is that the connection is further up line from Mary Ellen Swafford.  She has several female ancestors with unknown maiden names.


The DNA game is an exciting one to play around in, and I appreciate any suggestions or tips.

DNA: Mom's Cousin Rita

Mom's cousin Rita is a predicted 3rd to 6th cousin match at 23andMe, matching both mom and I on chromosome 1.

One of the surnames listed on Rita's profile is Osborn. I have maternal Quaker relatives Osborn(e) in North Carolina.  I've written to Rita to see if she has a family tree and we can explore the connections.

DNA: Dad's Cousin Jason

One of my dad's distant matches at 23andme, Jason, shares no DNA with me.  He matches dad on chromosome 10, and is predicted to be a 3rd to distant cousin.  He shares 0.26% with dad and only 1 segment.

Jason has an extensive list of family surnames on his profile, but none that appear to match.  Hopefully he and I can compare family trees and make the connection.

DNA: Mom's Cousin Stephanie

Another 23andme match for my mom, Stephanie, was predicted to be a 3rd to distant cousin, but doesn't share any DNA with me.  She matches mom on chromosome 16, 1 segment, with 0.22% shared.

Stephanie had a small family tree online, but I didn't see any connection just yet.  She has a lot of early Massachusetts ancestors, as does my mother.

DNA: Dad's Cousin Jonelle

Another recent match at 23andMe that had a nice family tree prepared was dad's cousin Jonelle, who was predicted to be 3rd to distant cousin, with 0.22% DNA shared on only 1 segment.

Jonelle has a pretty extensive tree linked to her profile from MyHeritage, but I was not able to find any surname matches.  She did have quite a bit of Dutch ancestry, and dad has some Dutch that hasn't been fully researched.  Will continue the conversation with Jonelle to see if we can find a connection.

Jonelle does not share any DNA with me.

DNA: Dad's Cousin William

Another recent 23andMe match that was added to my spreadsheet was dad's cousin William, who also matched me on chromosome 12.

Once again, William is predicted to be a 3rd to distant cousin match, so the connection must be pretty distant.

One good clue is that on his profile, he listed the surname Burdick.  I descend through Robert Burdick in two different ways.

I've reached out to William and hopefully we can discover the connection soon.

DNA : Mom's Cousin Dennis

Another recent 23andMe match that I've added to my atDNA spreadsheet was mom's cousin Dennis S., who also matched me on chromosome 2.

Dennis is predicted to be a 3rd cousin to distant cousin match, with only 0.12% DNA shared with just this one segment.

Will reach out to him to see if he has a family tree somewhere so that we can compare.  His family tree at 23andme did not include anything other than his name.

DNA: Dad's cousin Sarah

Working on following up with the recent matches at 23andMe and adding them to my atDNA spreadsheets for tracking.

Dad's DNA match with cousin Sarah is predicted to be 3rd to 6th cousin, a pretty distant match.  The percentage shared is only 0.23% on two segments.  However, Sarah and I share no DNA.

I do not see any surnames on her list that match, and she did not share a family tree to compare.  Will have to triangulate and hope that we can find a match at a later date.

Update

I logged into 23andMe this week and realized it had been awhile, I had over 125 new relative matches on my dad and mom's results.  Reached out to them to see if we can find the connections.

Haven't been doing much in the way of genealogy research due to work commitments and house-seeking.  We put our house on the market and have been looking for the past couple of weeks.  That is an experience.  The last time we moved was 13 years ago, and we only moved two blocks away. 

I've made this community my home for almost a third of my life and it seems weird on the one hand to leave but on the other I'm excited about the opportunities.  You have to move where the jobs are.

Hopefully, we some time off over the next few days I can post some updates.

DNA : Mom's Cousin Linda

Corresponding recently with mom's DNA match, Linda, with whom I share no DNA.  Linda matches mom on only one segment, chromosome 1, and is predicted to be a 3rd to 6th cousin, according to 23andMe.

When I contacted Linda and shared my family tree at Ancestry, she wrote back and thought that we might be related on the Caldwell line.  Linda sent me a link to her Ancestry tree as well.  Her Caldwell line comes from Andrew Caldwell who died 1759 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Mom's line, however, comes from an Andrew Caldwell who died 1758 in Frederick County, Virginia.  While there might be a connection further back, this did not appear to be where we connected.

Looking at Linda's tree, I discovered that she had a branch that ended with Ruth Hunt (1745-1767) who married Thomas Thornburgh (1743-1788).  Her Ruth Hunt was born 1745 in Loudon County, Virginia and died January 20, 1767 in Rowan County, North Carolina.  This matches up with the Quaker relative of my mother, Ruth Hunt, daughter of Thomas Hunt (1723-1763) and Ann Beals (1720-1790), members of the New Garden MM, Society of Friends.  Ann Beals was the daughter of John Beals (1685-1745) and Sarah Bowater (1689-bef1767), my mother's 7th-great grandparents.

If this is the connection, it would make Linda and mom 8th cousins twice removed.  The DNA recombination might be a bit higher because I noticed that Linda had Osborn relatives as well, and mom has Quaker Osborn ancestors as well.

I've sent Linda some information today and I'm hoping we can continue the discussion to confirm the connections.

DNA: Eileen's Lewis Match

Recently made a connection with one of Eileen's matches at 23andMe that turns out to be her 3rd cousin once removed on her maternal Lewis line.

23andMe predicted that Michael and Eileen were 3rd cousins and turns out they match on 5 segments. Michael listed Lewis as one of his family surnames, so that was where I concentrated on when corresponding began.  

Michael was able to name his 2nd-great grandfather and his wife, who I was able to find in my database and make the connection.  I quickly wrote back to him to share the connection and ask for more information on his line down from the common Lewis ancestors.

The common ancestors between Michael and Eileen are Jacob Lewis (1847-1898) and Marietta Cook (1855-1942).  Michael's 2nd-great grandfather and Eileen's great grandfather were brothers.  The line of descent goes like this:

Jacob Lewis & Marietta Cook

Wilfred Lewis - brothers - Lawrence Solomon Lewis

Glenn Lewis - 1st cousin - Leota Marie (Lewis) Pefley

Michael's grandfather - 2nd cousin - Eileen's mother

Michael's father - 3rd cousin - Eileen

Hopefully, this will spark some correspondence that will generate more family information on these Lewis relatives, as I don't have information on Wilfred's line right now in my database.

DNA : Dad's Top Ten Matches at 23andMe

Here is a screenshot of the top ten DNA matches for my dad at 23andMe.  I am obviously the closest match.  For privacy reasons, I've erased the last names of the public matches.

Dad's next closest match is Ed, who is predicted to be a 2nd to 4th cousin, sharing 1.26% DNA and 4 segments.  I've been in contact with Ed, and determined that he is my dad's fourth cousin through the common ancestors of Selah Moulton and Lydia Finel.

Dad's next closest match is William, who was predicted to be a 2nd to 4th cousin, sharing 1.07% DNA but 6 segments.  I've also been in contact with Bill, and have determined that he is my dad's second cousin once removed through the common ancestors of Luman Walker Lemasters and Mary Keziah Chew.

Dad's next closest public match, David, who was predicted to be a 3rd to 4th cousin, sharing 0.92% DNA with 3 segments.  I've been in contact with David, and have determined that he is my dad's third cousin once removed through the common ancestors of George J. Haley and Rachel Gary.

Invitations to connect have been sent out to all of this matches.

Updating My Ancestry Tree

Have spent some time this weekend updating and adding to my personal tree at Ancestry.  I've neglected it for awhile, but with all of the work I've been doing with DNA matches, I felt I needed to get it as up to date as possible.

Many of the matches at 23andMe are in the 3rd to 4th cousin range, so I am focusing on my 4th-great grandparents and working the tree down to the present. Hopefully, this will make the tree as complete as possible for some of those closer matches, who might recognize a surname.  Most of my matches don't have a family tree online at all, but if I can point them to mine, perhaps they can find the match.

I've had great success in finding cousins through DNA autosomal matches and want to keep the momentum going.  First I have to input all the names in the trees, then I will go back and work on updating by adding photos and documents.  

If you think you and I might have a connection, the tree is available at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/25951333/family

DNA : Mom's Top Ten Matches at 23andMe

Here is a screenshot of mom's top ten DNA matches at 23andMe.  Obviously, I am her closest match.  For privacy reasons, I've erased the last names of public matches.

Mom's closest match is Ellen, who shares 0.68% DNA and 5 segments and is predicted to be a 3rd to 4th cousin.  Though we've been corresponding, I've not yet made the connection because she hasn't shared any surnames in her family tree.  Other than stating she has Quaker ancestry, I don't know anything yet.

The next closest match is Raj, who shares 0.59% DNA and 3 segments and is also predicted to be a 3rd to 4th cousin.  Through correspondence, I was able to determine that Raj is mom's fourth cousin once removed, through common ancestors Francis S. Pierce and Rebecca Page.

The next closest match is Kenneth, who shares 0.42% DNA and 3 segments and is predicted to be a 3rd to 5th cousin.  We have not yet made any connections.

The next closest match is Mary, who shares 0.40% DNA and 3 segments and is predicted to be a 3rd to 5th cousin.  We have not yet made any connections.

Invitations to connect have been made to all of these DNA matches, though half of the top ten matches have not responded.  Knowing that one is predicted to be a 2nd to 3rd cousin is intriguing, as that individual should be in my family tree database.