Obituary : Fern (Metzner) Doty (1897-1917)

Evangelical Messenger, October 17, 1917, page 2

Fern Doty, daughter of Rev. J.W. Metzner, and wife of Clifford F. Doty, fell asleep one day after her 20th birthday and lay in her casket on her second wedding anniversary.  Born Sept. 3, 1897, she departed Sept. 4, 1917.  Nurtured in an Evangelical parsonage she early received the best Christian training and at the age of 9 years was converted to God and united with our church.  Upon moving to Elkhart, she became a member of First church.  For 6 years she served in the capacity of pianist.  One daughter preceded her to the better world 4 months ago.  She was a dutiful, modest and highly respected young woman.  The Revs. Walmer, Roberts, Mygrant, D.D. Spangler assisted the undersigned in the obsequies.     E.W. Praetorius.

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Fern (Metzner) Doty was my paternal second cousin twice removed, the daughter of John W. Metzner.  Our common ancestors were John Metzner and Catherine Young.

This obituary gave me not only her death and marriage information, but the fact that they lost a young daughter, another fact to be researched.

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.

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 :