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.

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.

DNA : Eileen's McMillen match

Was contacted by Retta, a McMillen researcher, in regards to a match with Eileen's DNA on Chromosone 1.  She asked to share family trees, and I believe we have a match through the McMillen family.

Eileen's maternal 3rd-great grandfather, James E. McMillen (b. 1811) was born in New York and the family migrated on to Marshall County, Indiana.  The theory that Retta and other McMillen researchers is putting forth is that James was the son of the James & Keziah McMillen of Cussewago Twp., Crawford County, Pennsylvania.  Retta directed me to another McMillen research, Mary Urban's tree at Ancestry.

This James & Keziah had at least 4 childen who appear in census records in Crawford/Erie Cos., PA as well as Niagara/Erie Cos., NY where members of the Willard family (who married McMillen) are located.  

James McMillen was born circa 1780 Rhode Island was buying land in 1829 in Crawford County, Pennsylvania.  

The DNA match shows a connection, now it is just a matter of finding the paper records to tie them all together.  I have found a few other McMillen's in Marshall County, Indiana and have forwarded their contact information on to Retta.  Hopefully, the paper trail will be able to match up soon.

DNA : Dad's Ancestry Composition

Dad had his DNA tested with 23andMe as well, and here are the results of his test, using their Ancestry Composition section.

Here is the "Conservative" estimate of his genetic make-up : 97.1% European and 2.9% Unassigned.

These results were consistent with the paper trail genealogy, though I found the 0.1% Finnish interesting, as well as the 0.6% nonspecific Southern European.

Here is the "Standard" estimate of his genetic make-up : 99.4% European, 0.5% Unassigned and 0.1% South Asian.

Now where that South Asian comes into the family tree I have no idea as there are a few branches that haven't been traced.  There is a larger percentage of Southern European in this estimate as well.

Here is the "Speculative" estimate of his genetic make-up : 99.7 European, 0.1% South Asian, 0.1% East Asian & Native American, and 0.1% Unassigned.

The 29.3% British & Irish and the 17.1% French & German make sense considering how many of his lines I've been able to trace to those areas of Europe.  The 5.5% Scandinavian and 0.3% Finnish, as well as the 1.7% Italian and 0.9% Iberian indicate lines that I haven't established a paper trail.

The most interesting is the speculative 0.1% Native American - there is no tradition or evidence found of any Native American in my dad's lines, and the South Asian - which 23andMe indicates India or Pakistan is totally new to me.  Will have to see if I can get other members of his family to test and see what percentages show up.

DNA : Mom's Ancestry Composition

Mom had her DNA tested with 23andMe as well, and here are the results of her test, using their Ancestry Composition section.

Here is the "Conservative" estimate of her genetic make-up: 97.5% European, 2.4% unassigned, 0.1% East Asian & Native American, 0.1% Sub-Saharan African.

This differed somewhat from my results by showing the 0.1% East Asian & Native American.  No known paper trail or family legend of that faint amount in our history.  If I were to guess, I would say it comes from her mother's side.

Here is the "Standard" estimate of her genetic make-up : 99.4% European, 0.4% Unassigned, 0.1% East Asian & Native American, 0.1% Sub-Saharan African.

This break-down has her at 70.2% non-specific Northern European; the 2.9% Scandinavian is interesting and represents ancestors I haven't found yet.

Here is the "Speculative" estimate of her genetic make-up: 99.7% European, 0.2% East Asian & Native American, 0.1% Sub-Saharan African and less than 0.1% Unassigned.

The 50.4% British & Irish makes sense considering the number of lines I've found that trace back to England, notice the Scandinavian percentage jumps to 11.5%.  There is a little bit of French & German there, too at 7.7%.

It would be interesting to see if I could get my mom's brother to test as well, to see how his results compared.

Tracing the Tree Up and Down

If there is one thing that working with my autosomal DNA results has taught me – it’s that I need to be sure to work my family tree both up and down. 

While the goal for most people pursuing genealogy seems to be working the tree up, as in “how far back did you go”, when working with autosomal DNA matches and trying to make connections it becomes quickly apparent that you also need to work your tree down as well.

For example, there are several matches that are 3^rd and 4^th cousins on my 23andMe Relatives page.  I’ve been working on contact them all, making a spreadsheet, trying to figure out where we match, etc.  The hope is that I can connect with as many of these new cousins as possible.  Because many of these matches don’t have a very complete family tree, working “up” it is hard to make a match to my tree if I haven’t worked my tree “down” because the surnames in our files never match.

Does that make sense?  How many branches of my public Ancestry tree (and my database for that matter) are simply taken back generation to generation with just my direct ancestors?  More than I would like to admit.  Yet those are the places where I am likely to make a match.  Rarely did those early American families only have one or two children – often there were a dozen or so – and that is where I need to do some work.

I need to begin to take my far reaching g-g-g-g grandfather’s family and work them forward as much as possible in order to meet in the middle with some of these closer DNA matches.  Otherwise, it will be nearly impossible to figure out just how we are connected.

Looks like I have my work cut out for me!

DNA : Eileen's Maternal Haplogroup T1a1

The results of Eileen's maternal haplogroup tested at 23andMe is T1a1, a subset of T1, which comes from her mitochondrial DNA.  This DNA is passed from the maternal line, so it comes from her mother, her mother, her mother, etc. all the way back.

The example populations of British fits nicely with Eileen's very European Ancestry composition results.

Admixture - Eurogenes - Eileen

Used the free tools at Gedmatch.com to compute the admixture of Eileen's DNA using the Eurogenes K13 project.  Admixture is when two or more previously separated populations interbreed.  The Eurogenes project is for those with primarily European ancestry, and more detail can be found at the Eurogenes Genetic Ancestry Project blog.

Population  

North_Atlantic 44.69%

Baltic                 24.31%

West_Med         17.01%

West_Asian        6.64%

East_Med           4.91%

Red_Sea             0.25%

South_Asian       1.52%

East_Asian -    

Siberian -    

Amerindian         0.22%

Oceanian            0.44%

Northeast_African -    

Sub-Saharan -    

This gives an interesting picture of Eileen's deep ancestry, with slight traces of Native American not picked up by 23andMe.

Admixture : Eurogenes - Travis

I took advantage of the free tools at Gedmatch.com to compute the admixture of my DNA using the Eurogenes K13 project.  Admixture is when two or more previously separated populations interbreed.  The Eurogenes project is for those with primarily European ancestry, and more detail can be found at the Eurogenes Genetic Ancestry Project blog.

Population  

North_Atlantic 44.47%

Baltic                 26.11%

West_Med           12.66%

West_Asian          6.16%

East_Med              5.55%

Red_Sea               0.15%

South_Asian          1.98%

East_Asian -    

Siberian -    

Amerindian           1.29%

Oceanian -    

Northeast_African  1.52%

Sub-Saharan          0.10%

This paints an interesting picture of my deep ancestry with only slight variation from 23andMe, showing traces of Native American.

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 : Wardlaw Connection

Researcher Amanda contacted me because she saw my Gedcom file at Gedmatch.com contained a set of common ancestors with her - William Wardlaw and Jane Harper.  They happen to be my maternal 7th-great grandparents.

William born circa 1700 in Scotland or Ireland immigrated to America and ended up in Augusta County, Virginia.  Jane Harper's birth and death dates are unknown to me.  I show they were the parents of seven children : James, John,  Hugh, Joseph, Robert, William and Margaret.  They were the generation that fought in the Revolutionary War.

My line comes through Robert born circa 1745 Augusta County, Virginia who settled in Brown County, Ohio. He married circa 1768 to Janet Downey.  Amanda's line comes through Hugh Wardlaw born circa 1740 who settled in Abbeville District, South Carolina.  He married Elizabeth Coulter.

Taking the information from our kits at Gedmatch, I did the one-to-one match comparison.

The results show that we have no matching DNA.  This can mean a number of things:

1. My paper trail genealogy from William Wardlaw and Jane Harper is wrong.
2. Amanda's paper trail genealogy from William Wardlaw and Jane Harper is wrong.
3. Not enough DNA from William Wardlaw and Jane Harper was passed down to me.
4. Not enough DNA from William Wardlaw and Jane Harper was passed down to Amanda.

I've posted at one of the FB groups for DNA genealogy to get opinions of those more seasoned in the DNA genealogy game.  So far, it appears that anyone of the options above could be the case.

How secure am I in the paper trail genealogy?  Not as secure as I should be. The early generation comes from a compiled Wardlaw genealogy.  Robert Wardlaw becomes Wardlow when he gets into Ohio.  There is a 45 year gap between William's supposed birth and Roberts.  Could there be another generation in between?  Very possible.

Either way, more research will need to be done on this line to see if it is valid.

GEDmatch Comparison : Cousin Judy

Submitted my raw DNA file from 23andMe to the free third party tool, GEDmatch.com for comparison.  GEDmatch allows users from the three main testing sites, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA and Ancestry.com upload their raw data files and then the software will compare your autosomal DNA for matches.

While waiting on my file M170652 to be processed for the "one to many" matches, I was able to compare my file using the "one to one" match of my cousin, Judy.  We had corresponded years ago, and recently reconnected on Facebook. Judy and I connect on my maternal side and has her mother's file at GEDmatch.

This was the comparison that GEDmatch did on the DNA file of Mildred Crane Moore and myself.

 

The prediction was 3.4 generations to the MRCA (most recent common ancestor).

Mary Ellen Swafford (common ancestor)

Ida Davis & unknown                               Mary Florence Gilliland & Thomas Crane  (half sisters)

June Gilliland & Clemon Lambertson            Mildred Louise Crane & Merrill L. Moore (1^st cousins)
Bonnie Lambertson & William Wright           Judy Moore & Troy Hill (2^nd cousins)
Gloria Wright & Ord LeMaster                     

Travis LeMaster

Judy and my mom are 2nd cousins once removed, and Judy and I are 2nd cousins twice removed.  Though we already knew this on paper, it's nice to have the connection confirmed through DNA.

I'm eagerly awaiting GEDmatch fully processing my files, so that I can match with other cousins and begin sharing.  Another feature of the site is the ability to compare GEDCOMs.  I've uploaded a GEDCOM there as well, and the file number is 924805.