DNA Match : Cousin Raj

Made a DNA connection with a public match at 23andMe, Raj, who is not currently sharing genomes with me.  Because we are not sharing genomes, I'm unable to compare him with others to see where we match. We share 1 segment, or 0.31% DNA and was a predicted 4th cousin. Raj was listed as my mother's predicted 3rd to 4th cousin, sharing 3 segments and 0.59% DNA.

Looking at his profile at 23andMe, there was no family tree listed, but he did list family surnames and locations, though none of them looked familiar to me.

Because he has a rather unusual name and surname (at least to my ears), I decided to see if I could "reverse engineer" a solution to seeing exactly how we were related.  With the help of Google, FindAGrave and some genealogical intuition, I was able to successfully tie cousin Raj into the family tree.

Using Google, I located him listed as a survivor in his mother's obituary that had been posted to the Iowa Gen Web.  Likewise, his father's obituary had also been posted to the same site.  His father immigrated from India, so I made the deduction that we must be related through his mother's line.

I found the listing for his maternal grandmother's obituary that had been posted to Legacy.com and FindAGrave.com  I also found his maternal grandfather listed at FindAGrave.  There was not much biographical information listed at FindAGrave for his maternal grandfather, but his maternal grandmother's obituary at Legacy.com had her dying in Ft. Wayne, Indiana about 60 miles away from where I live.  Armed with that information, I made an assumption that our connection came from the line of his maternal grandmother's side.

Fortunately, his maternal grandmother lived to be 101 years old and her obituary at Legacy named her parents and stated that she was a native of Ossian, which is just south of Ft. Wayne in Wells County.  I remembered that I had one branch of the Pierce family that had migrated there.

Through the FindAGrave website, I was able to connect Raj's maternal great-grandfather to his maternal 2nd-great grandparents, John H. Simerman and Mary Lula Summers of Ossian, Indiana.  That's when I knew we had a connection.  Mary Lula Summers was in my database (though I had the surname as Sommers), the daughter of William Henry Harrison Summers (1844-1911) and Margaret P. Pierce (1840-1920).

Margaret P. Pierce was the daughter of Francis S. Pierce (1806-1881) and Rebecca Page (1806-1893) and the younger sister of my 3rd-great grandfather, Edmund G. Pierce (1837-1875).  I had found the connection!

I quickly sent a note to Raj through 23andMe, and he wrote me back.  We've begun exchanging information, and I've kick-started my research on these branches of the family that I previously had left blank.

Knowing that I was able to make a connection where one didn't appear possible right away makes me confident that with a little persistence and as complete of a family tree as possible, I can make connections to some of these other DNA matches at 23andMe.  There are so many descendants of my 4th-great grandparents that I need to track down, as that is where many of the connections will be found.

DNA : My Top Ten Matches at 23andMe

Here is a screenshot of the top ten DNA matches for me at 23andMe.  My parents are my closest matches.  Because I was fortunate enough to be able to have them tested, all of my other matches show whether they are paternal or maternal matches by the "P" or "M" displayed after their names.  For privacy reasons, I've erased the last names of public matches.

My next closest match is on my paternal side, William, who I've already contacted and determined that we are third cousins through common ancestors of Luman Walker Lemasters Jr. and Mary Keziah Chew.

The next closest public match is on my maternal side, Ellen. We've corresponded but have not made the connection.  She has not yet shared a family tree, but states she has many Quaker ancestors, so that gives me a starting point to searh on my maternal side.  She is predicted to be a 3rd to 5th cousin, which means we could share 2nd-great through 4th-great grandparents.  

I have reached out with introductions to the remaining matches and hope that they eventually respond.

DNA Match : Cousin Lila

Made a DNA connection at 23andMe with cousin Lila, who shares 1 segment of DNA with my mother.  None of that DNA passed to me, at least not enough for Lila to show up as a match on my DNA relatives.

Lila and my mother match on chromosome 19:

Comparison	Chromosome	Start point	End point	Genetic distance	# SNPs
Lila vs. Gloria	19	1000000	11000000	25.4 cM	1957

We've been trading messages back and forth, and by looking at her family tree I was able to find the connection - through the Hadley family.  This is one of the Quaker lines that stretches pretty far back.

Lila  and Travis

1. Sixth cousin 3 times removed (common ancestor: Joshua Hadley & Patience Brown)

2. Eighth cousin twice removed (common ancestor: James Brown & Honour Clayton)

3. Ninth cousin twice removed (common ancestor: Richard Brown & Mary [brown])

4. Ninth cousin twice removed (common ancestor: Richard Brown & Mary [brown])

5. Ninth cousin twice removed (common ancestor: William Clayton & Prudence Lanckford)

6. Ninth cousin twice removed (common ancestor: William Clayton & Prudence Lanckford)

Joshua Hadley (1703-c1760) and wife Patience Brown (1712-1783) were our common ancestors.  Lila descends from son Simon (1737-1803), while I descend from daughter Mary (1739-1810).

The Hadley Society has a searchable database at WorldConnect.

Charting the DNA connections

Spending some time this weekend updating the spreadsheets I've created to track the DNA matches for myself, Eileen and mom and dad.  There is a lot of data to track, but have had some success in making connections.  Kitty Cooper's blog has a lot of good tools for DNA research.

Finding out that the autosomal matching works much better if you have a fairly extensive family tree.  Without it, it is nearly impossible to find the matches just from a few surnames listed.  Also, find that 23andMe is a bit clunky in their family tree.  Having more success with those who have a tree at Ancestry or somewhere else.

Will be sharing some of the stories in a later post.

Tracking my atDNA matches

I've been spending a lot of time lately maintaining a spreadsheet of my autosomal DNA matches as suggested by Jim Bartlett and detailed at Kitty Cooper's blog.  In the meantime I've been reading and trying to learn as much as I can about how autosomal DNA works.

I've added the matching detail and the chromosone mapping from the first set of 23andMe matches as well as those from Gedmatch.  I have over 1000 matches at 23andMe alone - it will take me some time to get this all down.

I'm lucky that both of my parents have tested now at 23andme. Mom's results are ready, dad's are just about ready.  Because they've been tested, I can easily tell which of my matches come from which side of the family. 

Using the spreadsheet, I will triangulate among the matches to identify relatives that match me at the same chromosone segments.  This should help identify that we are descended from a common ancestor.  Then, hopefully, we can use the family tree information to determine which ancestor.

Right now, I've clearly identified the common ancestors of two matches on my paternal side and one match on the maternal.  There is so much more to discover!

DNA : Eileen's Ancestry Composition

Eileen's results processed from the DNA test she took at 23andMe and her results were not quite what she expected.

Here is the "Conservative" estimate of her genetic make-up : 97.9% European, 2.1% unassigned.

There was no trace of any Native American, or any other ancestry for that matter, than European found.  A full 51.1% of non-specific northern European and 43.6% of non-specific European.

Here is the "Standard" estimate of her genetic make-up : 99.6% European, .4% unassigned.

This is a better break-down, showing 18.7% British & Irish, only 58.3% non-specific northern European and 21.7% non-specific European.  The .8% eastern European is interesting, as this is an unknown aspect of her family history.

Here is the "Speculative" estimate of her genetic make-up : 43.2% British & Irish, 9.8% French & German, .7% Scandinavian and 38.8% non-specific northern European.

The 2.4% non-specific southern European and 1.2% eastern European will be the most interesting to see if we can discover during this DNA research.  There is no known history of this ethnicity in her family.

Eileen was surprised that no Native American showed up on the test, and I was surprised that we weren't related to each other.  We have Swiss Mennonite families in the same area, I thought for sure we would be distantly related.

The good news is that we are hopeful that her mom and brother will test with 23andMe as well.

DNA : Ancestry Composition - Tweaking the Results

When I wrote about my Ancestry Composition results from 23andMe before, I didn’t realize that the numbers could be ‘tweaked’ just a bit, depending on how conservative or speculative an estimate you wanted to have.

For example, here are my “Conservative” estimates of my genetic make-up : 98.7% European, 1.3% Unassigned.

Note that a full 59.0% is Nonspecific Northern European.  That means that 23andMe found the markers in a wide enough group of places that they couldn’t say that part of my DNA came matched a specific population in, say France, for instance.  When you look at the “Standard” estimate results, you will see that play out.

Here are my “Standard” estimates of my genetic make-up : 99.8% European, .1% Sub-Saharan African, .1% Unassigned.

Notice in the “Standard” estimate, I pick up .1% of Sub-Saharan African.  If I’m reading the results correctly,  I have an ancestor back about 10 generations that was from Africa.  At 10 generations, there are 1024 ancestors to choose from.   Also, in this chart I have .3% Iberian and 1.1% Nonspecific Southern European.

Here are my “Speculative” estimates of my genetic make-up : 99.9% European, .1% Sub-Saharan African, less than .1% unassigned.

Now this is where I find it interesting.  Not only do they speculate that the .1% DNA that is Sub-Saharan African comes from Central & South Africa, but look at the break-out of the Southern European : 1.6% Italian, 1.3% Iberian and 1.3% Nonspecific European.  This is where some of the mystery comes in – I know of no ancestry in my paper trail genealogy that comes from these locales.  I’m speculating that this DNA comes from the ‘unknown’ ancestry of my maternal great-grandmother.  The breakout of 42.3% British & Irish and 14.4% French & German is more in line with what I would expect, based on the paper trail genealogy.

With both of my parents being tested, it will be interesting to see if my results change once they are tied to my account.  I also want to know if my theory about the maternal ancestry hold up.  I would be surprised, for example, if the southern European DNA shows up on my dad’s results.

Looks like the results get even better if you have a parent or child in the database :

DNA Relatives : Closest Matches

23andMe's DNA Relatives finder has identified 3 individuals as being between 3rd and 4th cousins.  I've reached out and sent introductions to all of them, so far I'm sharing genomes with two of them.

The first relative, Ed, shares the most DNA with me 1.02% and we connect on two segments.  The locations of his ancestry (Fort Wayne, IN and Jay County, IN) led me to believe I would find a connection to my paternal lines.

Comparison	Chromosome	Start point	End point	Genetic Distance	# SNPs
Ed vs Travis LeMaster	1	3000000	42000000	63.8	7637
Ed vs Travis LeMaster	5	1000000	5000000	11.9	1244

The second relative, Bill, shares DNA with me of .70% but we connect on five segments.  Again, the locations listed for his ancestry (Geneva, IN and Ft. Recovery, OH) led me to believe the connection would be on the paternal side.

Comparison	Chromosome	Start point	End point	Genetic Distance	# SNPs
Bill vs Travis LeMaster	1	201000000	215000000	20.4	3098
Bill vs Travis LeMaster	3	174000000	180000000	7.9	1216
Bill vs Travis LeMaster	13	74000000	85000000	9.1	2047
Bill vs Travis LeMaster	14	43000000	51000000	6	1414
Bill vs Travis LeMaster	19	55000000	59000000	9	844

The third relative has not responded to my request to share genomes, yet.  We share DNA of .58% on four segments.

By comparing Ed's family tree he provided, I quickly discovered a paternal line connection through the Moulton and Finel families. Selah Moulton (b. 1790 Rutland Co., VT d. 1848 Licking Co., OH) and Lydia Finel (b.1796 Rutland Co., VT d. 1869 Licking Co., OH) were my paternal fourth great-grandparents.  Ed and I are fourth cousins once removed.

Looking at Bill's surnames, I recognized a common surname and discovered that we have a paternal line connection through the LeMasters and Chew families.  Luman Walker LeMasters (b. 1842 Shelby Co., OH d. 1931 Jay Co., IN) and Mary Keziah Chew (b. 1847 Burlington Co., NJ d. 1927 Jay Co., IN) were my paternal second great-grandparents.  Bill and I are third cousins. 

This is exciting - I've found a couple of fairly close cousins and have reached out to several more.  In fact, my inbox has been flooded with responses to my invites to share genomes.  Now I have to go through them and see if we can start finding the connections.

This DNA testing has re-energized me and inspired me to dig deeper, share more online with my family trees (Ancestry, WorldConnect, etc) and get more family members tested.

DNA Relatives : Surname View

One of the reports at 23andMe provides for DNA matches is a surname view, showing surnames matching the profiles of my genetic cousins.  I just updated my list of associated surnames through twelve generations in order to help others find a surname match, and I uploaded a GEDCOM to the site showing my family tree.

The enrichment factor is the result of a one-tail binomial test to gauge the uniqueness of the surname result and weed out the more common surname matches, ie. Smith and Jones.  The higher the number, the more unusual it is that it is of a high frequency of my matches.

The top surnames with high enrichment numbers are : Cherdron, Roblyer, Moninger, Marvin, Herbach and Stickel.  I have three of the five in my known genealogy : Cherdron, Herbach and Stickel.  With the high frequency matches, I wonder if Roblyer, Moninger and Marvin may be as of yet undiscovered family names in my tree.

I've already reached out to all of the 994 connections and hopefully we will begin sharing genomes and be able to find out just how we are related.

DNA Results Are In : Surprise ?

Just received the email from 23andme telling me that they have finished analyzing the DNA sample that I recently sent them.  As I indicated earlier, though most of my ancestry is known, the fact that my maternal great-grandmother's ancestry is unknown has made me curious to find out what my genetic makeup is all about.

The DNA test at 23andme tests your paternal and maternal ancestry, as well as compares your DNA to the over 500,000 others in the database.  I'm hoping that I can make some connections with other distant cousins through this service.  They also compile a chart of showing the percentages of your DNA that match others in specific regions.

My paternal haplogroup is I1 (Y-DNA) and my maternal haplogroup is T2b (mtDNA).  Each haplogroup has certain characteristics that are common to all members of that haplogroup.  The Wikipedia entry for haplogroup explains it much better.  Remember, Y-DNA is only passed from father to son, while mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed from the mother to her offspring.
The haplogroups can be traced by looking at the geographic distribution of a particular mutation.

Results say that my Y-DNA Haplogroup I1, features a mutation going back 28,000 years in the region of Northern Europe.  Example populations given are Finns, Norwegians and Swedes.  The highest frequency of this particular haplogroup is found in Scandinavia.

Results say that my mtDNA Haplogroup T2b, features a mutation going back less than 33,000 years in Europe and the near East.  Example populations given are Northern Europeans and Spanish.  They noted that the outlaw Jesse James carried mtDNA from Haplogroup T2.

These results weren't really that surprising, with most of my paper-trail genealogy indication roots in Europe (predominately German and English).  My mother's side showing a haplogroup that might be found in Spanish populations was interesting, but not unexpected.

23andme gives you a chart called the Ancestry Composition, where they try to break down the percentages of your DNA that comes from populations worldwide.  

These results were interesting - 99.8% European was no surprise, but the 0.1% sub-Saharan African was.  There is a small percentage unassigned.  I'm not surprised that the largest percentage was non-specific European, followed by British & Irish, but the small percentages of Scandinavian and Finnish are intriguing.  The 1.1% non-specific southern European and the 0.3% Iberian are truly interesting as well.  I assume they come through my unknown maternal great-grandmother, but who knows?  The best way to find out would be to have both my parents tested as well.

What all of this means for my result is really unknown at this point.  Eileen is getting ready to send in her test as well, it will be interesting to compare the results.

Their results also said that I share 2.8% Neanderthal DNA.  That is, my DNA was compared to DNA samples taken from Neanderthals and my percentage match was slightly higher than the average 23andme user, who comes in at 2.7%.

The DNA Relatives part of the data is the one that I'm the most excited about - the possibility of connecting with other cousins to share research.  These won't just be paper cousins, they will be proven genetic cousins.  Crazy thing was that it showed 994 matches!  Of first two closest matches, which the company says were are probably 3rd to 4th cousins, one says his family is from Jay County, Indiana and the other from Geneva, Indiana (right next to Jay County).  My father's line is from Jay County, Indiana and I have deep roots there. One gentleman has a surname that I recognize from my database, and I project we are exactly 3rd cousins.  Will be reaching out to these gentleman, as well as the other who match to see where our paper trails meet.

The top locations listed for a match include England, Scotland, Ireland and then Texas, Virginia, New York, Ohio and Indiana.  

I'm going to continue to dig into this data, including the DNA relatives, and reach out to a few that look like we share a surname in our genealogy in common.

Jumping Into the Genealogy DNA waters

Just finished completing a DNA sample to be sent in for testing with 23andMe.

The kit was a present from genea-Santa this past December.  For the past few years, I've debated joining the crowds of people who've combined DNA testing with their genealogical research.  With this Christmas present from myself to me and my wife, I can finally join in the fun.  

There are several different groups doing DNA testing, and I decided on 23andMe prior to the recent issues with the FDA.  In fact, I placed my order within a day or two of the announcement, and received an email from the company telling me that I could have my money back if I wanted.  Since I'm more interested in the genealogical data rather than the health information, I decided to keep the two kits I had purchased wrapped up underneath the tree.

I'm hoping that this testing will provide some clues on my genetic ancestry as well as Eileen's.  An overview of the service is explained here.

While most of my "paper trail" genealogy is fairly well traced, being mostly German or English,  I do have a maternal great-grandmother who was illegitimate.  Her ancestry is probably where I get the dark eyes, hair and complexion common to her descendants.  If I would venture to guess, I'm thinking there is some Italian in the line, though I'm ready to be surprised.

Same with Eileen's "paper trail" genealogy - a lot of German and English origins.  However, there is the tradition of Indian blood that she would like to have verified.  Though I'm suspicious this tradition, based on the records, DNA research should at least provide some clues.

I'm eagerly anticipating the results of this service and can't wait to see if I connect to other cousins.