Made a connection through Ruby's DNA for a match (Elizabeth) who had Crockett listed in the list of surnames. I reached out to her and heard back quickly that she is a descendant of the Joseph Crockett, who was the brother of David Crockett - the ancestor of Ruby and I.
In her email, she stated she was in contact with another Crockett researcher who I was familiar with and mentioned that DNA had tied our Alexander Crockett into the line of David Crockett the elder, the grandparents of Davy Crockett of Alamo fame.
There is a Crockett DNA project at FamilyTreeDNA, if you are male Crockett descendant, I would encourage you to join and do the Y-DNA test.
Here is how Ruby compares with Elizabeth, the largest match is on Chromosome 11.
I don't have all of Elizabeth's line yet, so the exact relationship is not known, but the prediction would be 2nd-4th cousin to Ruby.
I'm looking forward to continuing the correspondence and see what the Crockett DNA group has found out about the ancestry.
These are the top eight matches at FamilyTreeDNA for my maternal great-aunt Ruby's by relationship range. I've removed the last names of the matches. Of course, I am her closest match at 998cm with a predicted relationship range of 1st cousin, half sibling, grandparent/grandchild, aunt/uncle, niece/nephew.
The next closest match is Mildred, who matches Ruby at 272cm and is predicted to be a 1st - 3rd cousin. Mildred is a known relative, a 1st cousin once removed with common ancestors being Mary Ellen Swafford. Mildred comes from the Gilliland side of the family, so actually she would be a half-1st cousin once removed.
The next two matches, Judith and Thomas, are the children of Mildred and match Ruby at 173cm and 135cm respectively. These would be Ruby's second cousins (technically half-second cousins). Interestingly, Judith and Thomas do not share the same amount of DNA with Ruby, which just shows why you should test as many people as you can as not even brothers & sisters will share the exact same amounts of DNA.
The next match, Justin, is the son of Judith. He shares 108cm with Ruby. He is also predicted to be a 2nd - 4th cousin, but is actually 2nd cousin once removed.
The next match, Elizabeth, shares 81cm with Ruby and is predicted to be a 2nd - 4th cousin. She doesn't have a family tree on the site, but in the list of surnames was Crockett, the name of Ruby's 2nd-great grandmother. I've heard back from her and she descends from Alexander Crockett & Elizabeth Watkins through Joseph, the younger brother of Ruby's ancestor David Crockett of Owen County, Indiana.
The next match, Sherrol, shares 77cm with Ruby and is predicted to be a 2nd - 4th cousin. She has a family tree on the site, but I didn't see any names that looked familiar. Will have to reach out and see if we can compare notes for the connection.
The next match, Mark, also shares 77cm with Ruby and is predicted to be a 2nd - 4th cousin. He has no family tree or surnames listed.
The next match, Dale, shares 75cm with Ruby and is predicted to be a 2nd - 4th cousin match. Dale is Ruby's 3rd cousin, a descendant of David & Ellen (Lambertson) Mengle. Dale and Ruby's common ancestors are John Lambertson & Sarah A. Willson.
The last match on the first page, Vaughn, shares 74cm with Ruby and is predicted to be a 2nd-4th cousin match. No family tree provided, but several surnames listed - none that are familiar. Will have to reach out to see if we can make the connection.
At first blush, there are some known relatives and good potential matches in the list of the first page of highest centimorgans shared.
I finally took the plunge into the 3rd of the major players in the DNA field and submitted a test to AncestryDNA. I'd already tested at both 23andMe and FamilytreeDNA. Between those two, I probably have enough data to keep me busy for years, but by testing with Ancestry, I will be fishing in the pond with the largest pool of fellow testers.
For a comparison of how the various autosomal DNA testing companies break down, please see the chart at the International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki. They rate Ancestry's DNA users as having a medium response rate and a medium level of genealogical knowledge. The worst response rate was from 23andMe and I managed to have pretty good results before they changed their setup. I like how FamilyTreeDNA is set up, but they only have about 150,000 testers versus the 1 million at Ancestry. So I'm definitely stepping into the big pond.
I'm looking forward to finding even more relatives and hopefully break down some brick walls.
