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.

Gloria LeMaster, Graduate Certificate List, August 1970, Ball State University

"Ball State University Trustees minutes," Ball State Univeristy, Ball State University Digital Media Repository (http://libx.bsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/BSUBoT/id/45314/rec/29 : accessed 8 February 2015), , "1970-09-19 Ball State University Trustees Minutes," page 146; Graduate Certification List, August 1970.

Located the following mention of my mother's graduation with her Master's Degree in the Ball State University Trustees Minutes of August, 1970.

LeMaster, Gloria Jean Wright (Mrs.) 27093

Major: Elementary Education

Minor : Library Science

Permanent Address:

214 W. Monroe, Alexandria 46001

Degree :

B.S.in Ed., 1967

Ball State University

Finds like this are interesting, mom was finishing up her Master's with a baby (me!) at home, living in the house on Monroe Street.  We lived there for just a few more years.  Someday I'll write a post about that house.

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.