Casting A Wider Net

Spent most of the weekend genealogy work by adding to my family tree at Ancestry.com .  I’d kept a very small tree with only a few generations previously.  My hope was to slowly work backwards, making sure that it was as documented as possible.

My tree is available at Ancestry at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/25951333/family

I decided that since I’m doing the DNA research and directing distant cousins to my family tree, I figured I’d better update it to include as many generations as possible.  So I added branches in the direct lines up to at least the immigrant ancestor.  I’ll go back later and add the children, etc. and flesh it out a bit.

Noticed that several invites to view the family tree for my immediate family have gone unaccepted.  So sad, they’re not as interested in genealogy as I am.

Grandma June's Birth Announcement

Indianapolis Sun, Indianapolis, Indiana
June 13, 1898 page 2

Located my maternal great-grandmother, June Davis' birth announcement in the Indianapolis Sun newspaper of June 13, 1898.  

The birth announcement lists her only as a girl born to Atkinson and Ida Davis, just as her birth certificate lists.  Instead of a street address, the residence is listed as "Door of Hope".

Door of Hope was associated with the Wheeler Mission in Indianapolis and was established as a home for fallen women.  I have previously found Ida living at the Door of Hope in the 1900 census, this confirms that she was there in 1898 as well.  I remember my grandmother, Bonnie, when I had asked where her mother was born, saying that June was born in the city of Hope.  For a long time, I had assumed this was Hope, Bartholomew County, Indiana, where incidentally, there were Gilliland families.  Gilliland was the surname that June was raised with.  After her mother, Ida, died, June and her sister were raised by their grandmother, Mary Ellen (Swafford) Davis Gilliland.  Keeping this straight has been quite a lot of fun.

I have not been able to determine if the father listed on June's birth certificate is an Atkinson Davis or a _______ Atkinson.  I have not been able to locate an Atkinson Davis in Indianapolis are at the time.  This might be a mystery that is never solved.  Perhaps there is a bastardy proceeding somewhere that might shed some light.

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.