Is there a 12 Step program for genetic genealogy? Maybe!

Oh, no! Another DNA cousin has popped up!

I don't mean to seem ungrateful for the connection to another DNA cousin at all. In fact, I welcome all of them. It's just that every time I see that "We might be cousins" subject in the email, I know that I'll be spending some bunch of hours trying to sort it out. Right now it seems there are so many people testing with the Big 3 and then finding GEDmatch that I have to hustle to keep up.

I didn't even realize that I had a "problem" until I saw this blog article, "The Stages of Genetic Genealogy Addiction", by Roberta Estes that it all sunk in. Houston, I have a problem!

https://dna-explained.com/2016/07/06/the-stages-of-genetic-genealogy-addiction/

I can check them all off but have drawn the line at #7 and refuse to spend any more to get DNA relatives tested! Can't do it. Won't do it. Seriously, I just about have come to the point where I don't need to because the cousins are shelling out their own money to buy kits!

Happily, I've not gone the whole route to number 10. Not in a cab going somewhere and thinking about the next DNA match. But I am at 9, at home, thinking about the next DNA cousin. Hmm. Thanks, Roberta, for pointing this out;)

Great grandmother Moretta Workman Zeller with Gustav Zeller and sons Charles, Bert, and Gus Jr.

(Photo thanks to cousin Brenda. She's a peach!)

Posts and their popularity

Guess which posts are the most popular? Seriously, go ahead and guess.

This blog has a built in traffic monitor that tells me how I'm doing and how many visitors look at each post. I have a curious nature so every once in a while I check it and see what's what. Have to mention that I'm not the type of blogger who monitors my blog traffic too often or one who maybe hopes to eventually slap some adds over there on the right side and earn some revenue, although come to think of it, if I did I could get more genealogy stuff! No, I'm happiest and think the blog is doing it's work if a new-to-me cousin contacts me out of the blue. And that happens regularly enough so all's right in my blog world.

Posts that get pretty good traffic are the ones picked up by other blogs or Best Of articles. Then everyone has to click through to see what's of interest. That's pretty cool but it's a once in a while thing and a novelty that keeps me amused for a moment or two. These are not the posts that get the most traffic.

What totally floats my blogging boat is knowing what terms people Google and are looking for that brings them here. I hear that "genealogy" is the second most searched term, after porn, and I'm willing to bet that you already knew that;)

Overwhelmingly, people are seeking out information on and Googling DNA. And toping that group of posts is Neanderthal DNA. People must be fascinated by the concept that our origins have a different path than what they might have thought. I was somewhat amused when the topic of Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens interbreeding first hit the mainstream press how a good number of people had a freak out. Postings to social media revealed a deep dislike of such a thing! All I can say is: LOL.

The second term that brings a crowd is Haplogroup. There's nothing like a hearty discussion of what percent Neanderthal each of us might be, but after that Haplogroup is what attracts attention. I get it because it still fascinates me to think of some millennia-ago ancestor traversing continents, mating with other travelers, and little by little, moving on.

I think that the popularity of personal DNA testing is a transformative thing in our world. This self-knowledge at our deepest levels is a powerful tool that we're only starting to comprehend. And I think and anticipate that it will bring even more changes and some in ways we can't even imagine now. We struggle with it. We push it away and then draw it back to us. We Google and then click away. But more and more of us are using the personal DNA test and liking that we can. We understand more about how DNA works as we go along. What seemed a steep learning curve a couple of years ago is becoming common knowledge very quickly. The numbers of people tested continues to climb, companies offering services expand their offerings, and slowly the price still continues to come down. We want to know increasingly more about ourselves.

Imagine what you and I might have said 20 years ago if we were told that anyone, anyone at all, could spit into a tube and a month or two later find out who we match based on a common ancestor. Not to mention the Neanderthal thing;)




The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/11/posts-and-their-popularity.html

The "New-to-me DNA cousin, or a scam" guy is back!

On May 15 of this year I did a post about an email I received in my junk mail folder. Some folks emailed or commented on the post that they too have received the same email from a Nelson Zego, so we all assume that it's a scam, especially with the mention of Tuscan DNA! Here's the original email just in case you missed it.

Hello,

I'm sorry to be bothering you, but I have news for you. My name is Nelson Ivandro Lima Zêgo, was born in Santo Antão island - Cape Verde.
 I Did the dna test - family finder in family tree dna match and told me that we are cousins. 

Testing my I'm 56% West africa (bantu people), 36% European (French, Norway, germany, Russian, spanish and tuscan) and 8% Middle East (turkey Jewish and north africa jewish).

My facebook is ivandro Zêgo

Greetings,

Nelson Zêgo

Well, I've just received this email, below.

If we are cousins ​​or not, I do not know. It says that the gedmatch.
You should send a message to the administrators of gedmatch to take me off your list of primes. In the gedmatch Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 6.4.
I do not blame the gedmatch says. I am not a scam. Your problem is that you have a black cousin.
With all due respect and in the name of a race (black) I wish you good health, luck and humility.
Be well

http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.pt/2014/05/a-new-to-me-dna-cousin-or-scam.html

Obviously he's now monitoring this blog. If he doesn't want his emails posted he should stop sending them.

OK, so what's going on here? The first thing I notice is that he has way better luck getting on GEDmatch than I do, what with it being down so much lately! He wants me to contact the administrators to take him off my "list of primes". If he's the real deal why doesn't he just make his name and contact info private? And however did I miss the "list of primes"?

He has gotten a bit more savvy since sending out the first email because now he knows terms like MRCA. But at a MCRA of 6.4 even if he's the real deal I'm not too keen about that poor quality match. And he is no longer referring to FamilyTree DNA and Family Finder as he did in the first  email, but has shifted his focus to GEDmatch. Deeper pool to fish in, or should I say pfish in?

But really, saying that my "problem" is that I have a black cousin?! What a clever argumentative gambit: I'm a racist! That's a first for me! But since he's claiming to be my cousin wouldn't I too have have checked my countries of origins/ethnicity and already know that I'm at least partially "black"? Then I'd be racist against myself. How would that work??

Poor Nelson Zego. I wish him as he has wished me, "good health, luck, and humility". Humility?



The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.pt/2014/07/the-new-to-me-dna-cousin-or-scam-guy-is.html

A thought about AncestryDNA retiring products

Maybe you read the news on the blogs or news feeds? AncestryDNA is retiring both the Y-DNA and mtDNA products (along with a couple more products including one I particularly enjoyed, MyCanvas) and deleting all trace from their site, which will include content and matches. See what CeCe Moore posted to her excellent blog, Your Genetic Genealogist here. Below is part of what she wrote.

Q: Will the entire Y-DNA and mtDNA site interface be retired? Will you be able to view and contact your matches?
A: The entire interface will be retired, including the match lists and the ability to contact your matches.

My comments: If you have tested there, I strongly encourage you to contact your matches before September 5th (and so does Ancestry.com) because you will not have another opportunity to do so.  You can download your raw data (CSV file) until September 5th by going to www.DNA.Ancestry.com and upload to other services like Family Tree DNA.

This is scary stuff if you ask me. If you tested with these products your stuff is gone as of September 5th. Just gone. So of course, as CeCe suggests, you need to get on over there and download your stuff soon if you want it.

The reason I find it scary is that some folks paid for a service and aren't going to get it anymore and to me that's a big ol' black eye on Ancestry and calls into question their commitment to products. It's not about the money and paying for a service that one would assume is offered indefinitely, but about it calling into question Ancestry's commitment to those of us who chose to use it. How hard would it be to leave that part of the AncestryDNA web site up and running? What would that cost them? Peanuts, I'm thinking.

But my own take-away is that when we buy a DNA testing service we are depending on that company's commitment to a business model that is dedicated to DNA testing. Ancestry is a gigantic corporate entity with fingers in many pots. It's revenue stream has many sources and a very small part of that is likely the earnings from AncestryDNA's Y and mt testing. If they were making money on it they'd just continue on offering it, wouldn't they? How serious can their commitment be if a product isn't earning as hoped for? It must go... is that what they're thinking? Is their priority the revenue stream and not users? It would seem so, at least in this case. Makes me wonder what will eventually happen to all the Member Trees if revenues from the main site ever falter? Sure, genealogy is real popular now but what's going to happen in 50 years? Will that tree I've been working so hard on with all the photos and documents just up and disappear? For the first time I'm thinking, yeah, maybe.

I don't know about you but I am so far into this DNA matching thing that if either 23andMe, AncestryDNA for autosomal DNA testing, or GEDmatch went away, I'd be a hurting cowgirl! Sure I've downloaded everything you can, but now I depend on the interfaces and how they work, and that point has been driven home recently now that GEDmatch is down for service.

When we buy a DNA product we're buying into a corporate philosophy and commitment... or lack thereof. To us it's not a product so much as it is a tangible connection to our ancestors.

My great grandparents and Mom's grandparents on her mother's side. Gone now but their DNA lives on in Mom and me... and at 23andMe and AncestryDNA.

 



Catherine Elizabeth (House) Whetstone 1865 - 1947
and Joseph Hampton Whetstone 1858 - 1939.

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-thought-about-ancestrydna-retiring.html

The Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project: Chasing Chromosomes

This time last year I couldn't have told you very much about chromosomes and now I'm swimming in them. These days I'm focusing my efforts on how various descendants of Thomas and Judah Farrell have inherited certain chromosome segments along ancestral lines. (You can read about the larger project here.)

As we each pursue our various genealogy projects, it often causes us to think deeper about the topic at hand and this sure has been true for me while chasing chromosomes. As regards this project I've stumbled into some conclusions and want to share them. These conclusions are very much based on the way our project is shaping up. Our Farrell project is unique to us but there might be something of interest to others. Maybe.

We know that chromosomes are key to unlocking the science of inheritance. If there's a chromosome match that follows some basic parameters then descent is assured (no matter what the records say or especially what they don't say). But for our project, what are those parameters? Here's our thinking and the parameters we came up with. Just remember that I'm no expert on genetic genealogy:)

1. We need to see the match plus a tree in order to know who the common ancestor is. If there's a match but no tree (or the tree is poorly developed) we've found that we're mostly out of luck, unless we want to invest a lot of time helping the matching person build out their tree. Right now we have only six people who have matched and have identified a common ancestor, but we've just started.

2. Importance of the number of centemorgans, or cMs, in the match: more = better. So we know that cMs is how the match is measured and that more cMs equals a better and stronger match. The general rule of thumb is that under 5 to 7 cMs is probably not worth spending too much time on: glance at it and move on quickly. Over 5 - 7 is called IBD or Identical By Descent to indicate that the matching chromosomes are shared by descent, with some level of confidence. Less than 5 is called IBS or identical by state, meaning that the chromosomes are shared most probably by chance or if by a common ancestor, then that ancestor is way back.

As a side note here, at each generation we inherit only about 50% of our DNA from one parent. Which DNA segments are handed down is close to random. By about 5 to 9 generations you start to lose ancestors entirely leaving no trackable DNA.

3. Endogamous populations are a little different and Magnolia, Virginia, now West Virginia, might be one. It was a small relatively isolated community and there were many intermarriages. An endogamous population is a group or social set in which there's mating amongst a small population and therefore the gene pool is shared and re-shared repeatedly. In this endogamous population situation the rule is to use 10 cMs as a cut off point for IBD and establishing a true genetic connection. This 10 cM cut off could be a good tool in evaluating our Farrell matches.

4. Number of generations to a shared common ancestor. We've seen that when it comes to number of generations to that common ancestor, fewer is better and gives us a better chance at spotting a common ancestor. At the point of 4th cousin it is commonly thought that there's maybe a 50-50% chance of the match being reliable. With each generation the confidence drops some more. We want 4th cousins or closer. (Who doesn't?)

5. In looking at the individual chromosomes where there is a match, the key element is the start and stop locations. If two people have a matching segment of over 10 cMs on the same chromosome with greatly similar start and stop locations, that's a good match for us to pursue.

And what are our "best case" requirements?

* A tree that shows the common ancestor
* 7 cMs minimum and 10 cMs or more is best
* 4th cousin or closer, 5 generations or fewer to common ancestor
* Matches with similar start and stop locations on chromosomes

So there we are. We've found that most matches don't work out because we're thinking that they aren't "good enough." We'll either have to wait for more people to be tested that meet our requirements or invest more of our own time helping matches that follow the four generation and greater than 10 cMs rules build out their trees in an effort to find that most recent common ancestor. We will have to evaluate each match and, using these parameters, decide how much time we can invest to make the match gain more confidence and eventually yield that ever-elusive and critically important Most Recent Common Ancestor.

This is at times difficult work, but so very rewarding.


Resources I like:

Beginner's Guide to Genetic Genealogy
Lots of resources and love the way learning is broken down into manageable lessons. You can pop in and learn on the fly or brush up on a topic. Love it!

Blaine T. Bettinger's Blog: The Genetic Genealogist
It's all good here. Check out the Product Reviews to sort out vendors.

CeCe Moore's Blog: Your Genetic Genealogist
I really don't know how CeCe gets it all done. Her schedule makes me swoon with exhaustion. Use the search box down a little ways on the right to connect with any topic you can think of.

ISOGG Blog: the International Society of Genetic Genealogy
The Source. Check it out.

DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy
Roberta Estes's web site is a good read. Subscribe or pop in to browse or search.



The URL for this post is:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-dna_30.html

DNA Monday: The beauty part more relatives getting tested

Now I get it: it's way better when more relatives get DNA tested.

At first it instinctively made sense, but now that Mom's 4th cousin has been tested and her uncle and aunt also tested, along with my brother and Mom, well, it's a DNA party over here. Her husband is managing her project and I manage Mom and brother's accounts so he and I have been working together. Let's just call him "Rich" because he's rich in genealogy stuff. This guy knows how to research like a blood hound!

Rich's wife is the direct descendant of the sister of Mom's 2nd great grandmother... or the direct descendant of my 3rd great grandparents. (I had to use the Steve Morse One-Step Relationship Calculator to be sure. http://stevemorse.org/relation/calculator.html ) OK, now I'm real willing to admit that the cousins and their removal is like jello in my mind! I think I have it nailed down and then, poof, it's gone. My Family Tree Maker says one thing and Steve Morse's One-Step calculator says something else so it's operator error for sure. (I have a self-inflicted headache now.) The point being that Rich's wife and Mom and I are blood relatives. Whew.

Rich's people tested with Ancestry DNA and Mom and all of us tested with 23andMe. We met in the middle and uploaded raw files to GEDmatch. It's so lovely that there's a place to upload your raw files and compare across DNA platforms.

Rich and I are new to this, although in full disclosure I have been working with my DNA results almost a year now, stumbling as I go and learning by trial and error. But DNA for genealogy got so complex so fast that I always feel as though I've just scratched the surface! He and I spent an hour or so chatting by phone and while our conversation happily rambled here and there, we did talk about the connections that our DNA results show.

Recently I've read about "sticky" chromosome segments, ones that are passed down through multiple generations. I think I read it on Roberta Estes blog, DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy. Here's the recent article in which she mentions "sticky" segments. This blog post is really good at explaining a phenomenon I've seen in the results for the known relatives who have tested. By identifying known relatives and our shared segments, especially when three or more are tested, I can go look for others in the GEDmatch database who match on those chromosomes looking for the segment match.

In the case of Rich and his wife's relatives, we are looking at sticky segments for Mom and Uncle. Here's what we see on GEDmatch.

Minimum threshold size to be included in total = 500 SNPs
Mismatch-bunching Limit = 250 SNPs
Noise Reduction Threshold = 0.85
Minimum segment cM to be included in total = 5.0 cM

Chr	Start Location	End Location	Centimorgans (cM)	SNPs
3	191,215,300	195,414,546	10.3	976
6	2,311,198	5,104,224	7.7	969
9	90,880,292	115,766,725	28.5	6,192
10	88,087	6,035,498	17.0	2,241
13	45,249,456	68,027,160	12.7	4,681
13	68,030,461	73,908,815	8.1	1,674
17	63,017,961	68,974,712	11.9	1,611
20	50,632,750	56,584,252	15.9	2,016

Largest segment = 28.5 cM
Total of segments > 5 cM = 112.2 cM
Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 3.5

And we can go looking for matches on that loaded chromosome 13. And here's what that looked like.

Comparing Kit M120110 (Mom)   

Kit Num Name Chr Start Location End Location Centimorgans (cM) SNPs A470427 Uncle 13 45,249,456 67,361,541 12.4 4,702 A470427 Uncle 13 68,030,461 73,896,659 8.1 1,706 A541390 13 89,533,759 97,889,635 11.5 2,524 A894557 13 34,638,877 39,193,129 7.4 1,355

As you can see Uncle and Mom show up as we would expect. And two other people also show up but they don't match on the same locations on chromosome 13. Too bad but we'll keep looking.

I find it astounding that those segments on CH 13 have been handed down through two descendant's lines intact! Talk about sticky!


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/03/dna-monday-beauty-part-more-relatives.html

DNA Monday: Stuff, random and otherwise

My DNA test results from 23andMe are continuing to work to connect me to new DNA cousins. And some interesting projects are in progress over on GEDmatch. Additionally, a tip off from the medical results from 23andMe.com has helped me solve a personal medical mystery. These are exciting times, my friend!

DAR soon to accept DNA: Hey, check this blog post out from The Legal Genealogist, Judy G. Russell about the big news that the DAR is going to be accepting DNA evidence for membership approval... along with the other usual stuff they want. As Judy sharply points out, they are only taking Y-DNA, which is a guy thing. Please read her blog post because this is a very big deal (at least to me) and marks our changing times.

The Basics of DNA testing for genealogy: If you are wondering about DNA for genealogy, here's a wonderful blog post by DNAeXplained - Genetic Genealogy, and you can see it here. Here is a lovely beginner's guide to the topic and while I know a bunch of stuff covered in this post, it was really good to have a re-check to make sure my understanding was clear. Thanks, Roberta!

A new GEDmatch project: Got an email from someone named Vivian because we matched through GEDmatch and 23andMe. She sent the same email out to a couple of hundred people telling them about their shared connection and letting us know that if we were interested in participating, to reply to the email. I replied, of course. Why wouldn't you want to?
In a couple of days she sent a rather long email letting us know that she'd found a sub-group of participants who all had Quaker ancestors. One of Mom's brick wall ancestors married a mystery man named Waggoner and that was one of the surnames included in the list. I just about stumbled over myself in crafting a quick reply!
This Waggoner guy has us stumped, but good. Sarah Wooden (1810 - 1870) married the mysterious Mr. Waggoner, had a daughter from whom we descend, that being Sarah (Waggoner) Whetstone (1825 - 1880). Presumably Mr. Waggoner died or otherwise made himself scarce such that Sarah Wooten then married Peter Yeast (1808 - 1851) in 1829. On his passing she married Phillip "Major" Durst (1817-1888) and they owned a whole big bunch of land together in what is now Garrett County, Maryland.
We know nothing about Mr. Waggoner and it's about to drive us (Mom and I) crazy! Maybe this DNA study group will give us a hint. There were very few Waggoners in what was then Allegany County around 1825 when Sarah Jr. was born and most of those were residing a ways east of where Sarah lived. Other researchers have suggested to Mom that Sarah wasn't married to Mr. Waggoner at all and that she was a "grass widow", meaning left in the grass where he lay with her. What Mom has found is that her marriage record to Peter Yeast states that her name was at the time of the marriage "Sarah Waggoner".

My medical mystery: I feel like one of the older ladies sitting on the porch chatting about their aches and pains in writing this:) Just to say that a clue for the 23andMe DNA test has uncovered a medical mystery that has been bothering me for a very long time. K304E: that's my mismatched gene. That was all I needed to get going and do a lot of googling to find what ails me. Science is amazing!!

Yours truly and Grandma Williams, Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams (1897-1956)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/10/dna-monday-stuff-random-and-otherwise.html

Wisdom Wednesday: New-to-me Cousins

My life at the moment is full of new-to-me cousins. Some have been found by connecting through Ancestry Member Trees and to be totally accurate, most found me. It's nice connecting that way because we can look at each other's trees and spot the connection pretty fast. Patti messaged me about a possible connection a week ago wondering about our relationship because we had so many matching people on our trees. I took one look at her tree and spotted a remote connection, went to Mom's GEDCOM on Family Tree Maker and looked at our cousin relationship... and it's so far distant I think it broke FTM. Kidding, of course. We're connected through Meshack Browning and you can read about him here.

Another new-to-me cousin is cousin Norma. We share a great grandfather and found each other on the Facebook group, You Know You're From Frostburg When... after I posted a photo of him in his Frostburg Fire Department uniform and you can see a post about that here. The historian from the FFD is still trying to determine the date range of the photo but meantime, it's hanging in the new Day Room in the fire house! Norma and I have been emailing and it seems we're about the same age and she still lives in Frostburg, as does Mom. They run into each other all the time at the Food Lion, but for the life of me, I don't think I've ever met Norma... or maybe the ol' memory is going:) Yeah, that's probably it.

DNA cousins are dropping in so often it's become an everyday occurrence. Am I becoming jaded about the magic and mystery of my DNA? Not really. It's just that as I come to see how powerful testing is and how important your results can be, I'm more impressed all the time with the marvel of the science of it. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future it will be something every genealogist does automatically at the very start of their quest to find family. Last weekend at a seminar here in San Diego I had the delight of sitting next to a man who found out that his presumed grandpa wasn't. But the next door neighbor's descendants were about as close a match as you'd every want. Now that's impressive. How would you ever know that otherwise?

It makes me super happy when I connect up with a new cousin. And about the happiest I can get is when I can share by email a PDF of their family tree. More and more I see that it's all about sharing your work... and those wonderful old photos!

New Price Day Room at the Frostburg Fire Department, in Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland.

(Our donated photo is in the upper right by the bulk head.)

 

Here's the image!

 

 

Many thanks to GeneaBlogger's for their blogging prompt called Wisdom Wednesdays.

 

The URL for this post is:  http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/09/wisdom-wednesday-new-to-me-cousins.html

Wisdom Wednesday: Mom's DNA Test Tip

OK, so you might have seen the post below about Mom's 95th birthday. What do you get a woman who has everything she wants and more? A DNA test!

Mom and I are both genealogy addicts, so it was past time for her to take a DNA test. Mom lives in the wacky and wonderful state of Maryland so 23andMe can't sell their DNA test kit into the state because it contains "medical" results which can only be ordered by a doctor. My thought is that it only gives you back sort of sketchy results that show what your tendencies might be, and that's not a result you can write a prescription or do surgery for. But, hey, that's Maryland. Without breaking any of Maryland's idiosyncratic laws, Mom got her test and the little box is in the mail back to me in California.

23andMe wants a saliva sample. It's said that the older you get the harder it is to drum up saliva. I know it was hard for me and I was really surprised how hard! I passed on to Mom all the tips I could think of. Take your time, you'll get enough eventually, so no rush. Rub the side of your cheek. That's the hint 23andMe gives. But Mom had a better idea: watch the food channel! Mouth-watering deliciousness! It worked and within minutes she could have filled the whole tube with saliva, way past the line:)

Now we wait for the results and the fun to start!

Mom at her 95th birthday party!

What can I say: we're all foodies:)

This post is inspired by a GeneaBlogger's blogging prompt called Wisdom Wednesdays.


The URL for this post is:

DNA Monday: Neanderthal on My Mind

OK, to recap, I took my DNA test with 23andMe.com. I was after the medical information equally as much as the genealogy results. The medical stuff was informative: I read it, thought about it, made a couple of changes to diet, remembered how important exercise is, and so on... then moved on with my life. The genealogy matches are an ongoing process and I'll wind up this post with some more surnames to add to the Surname List, hoping to catch a "cousin". But I keep on finding that my thoughts wander back to one issue: I'm 3.1% Neanderthal. Imagine! How? Why?

I guess of all the results from DNA testing, after delving into the percents of me that come from various European populations, the most surprising element is that small part (less that .1%) that's Sub-Saharan African and a bright happy red chunk on chromosome 10. I can not for the life of me figure out where that fits! I like and enjoy a bit of diversity in my mix, and maybe disappointed that it's such a small part. I'm also interested in that less than .1% that's Askanazi on chromosome 2. L'Chiam! But nothing gets my imagination going like that 3.1% that belongs to the deep past that's been identified as Neanderthal.

The big brewing pot of my imagination has been helped along recently by two programs on the Smithsoniam Channel, both about the Neanderthals and their legacy to those of us who are non African and inherited some of their DNA. (And double-check everything I write about DNA because, try as I might, I am just another fan trying to stumble their way into some pretty deep waters here.)

The first program was, predictably, about physical relations. But a couple of minutes into it and I could tell that it was really about how I got that 3.1% neanderthal DNA... well, not me exactly, but you know what I mean;) The second program was mostly about the Denisova Hominins and all about that discovery, which is a continuing saga.

Now, and knowing that my DNA is 3.1% Neanderthal, when I watch programs like these I pay more attention because I suddenly feel that I have a vested interest. Hey, they're talkin' about me!

My personal take-away so far is that this DNA thing is right there on the cutting edge of science and I'm happy to watch from a front row seat, so to speak, provided by my DNA test as a ticket to that grandstand. I find this exciting!

To read other posts on this subject on this blog, just find the search box near the top right and put in "DNA".

Here's the next installment of my Surname list so we can keep finding out if we're related!

ECKHART:
Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland (before 1768 - present)
Franconia Township, Montgomery, Pennsylvania (before 1755 to before 1768)
Germany, Bavaria (before 1755 to about 1750)

WORKMAN:
Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland, general area including Zihlman, Mt. Savage, etc. (before 1767 - present)
Somerset County, New Jersey (about 1742 - before 1767)
The area now known as Brooklyn, New York (about 1647 - about 1742) As you can see I really don't know how to term this location in this time period. So don't yell at me and I'll go find out and correct it later.
Holland
England
Other locations associated with this family:
Danville and Union Township, Knox County, OH (before 1835 - ????)

PRICE:
Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland (before 1852 - present)
Possibly England (before 1852)
Other locations associated with this family:
Aux Sable Township, Grundy County, Illinois.

HOUSE:
Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland (after 1900 - present)
Hampshire County, Virginia then West Virginia (before 1782 - after 1910)



The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/05/dna-monday-neanderthal-on-my-mind.html

DNA Monday: Starting the Surname List, Finally

This DNA adventure has been going on a while and it continues to amaze and amuse me. One of the matches and his father shared their GEDmatch kit number and I with them. I thought that there wasn't a match on the fathers but there was on the son's results. Sadly for me, the son emailed back that he read it that the best match was on chromosome 14 on his father's results and that his showed some sort of lesser match. I dunno. Got to go back and take another look. There are three people here so could I do some triangulation? Possibly.

I'm into this adventure since the middle of January when I received my kit from 23andMe. If you want to look back and see what's happened so far just put "DNA" in the search box to the right and you will be taken to a list of articles. Be sure to click on to the next page, because only four results are there at the top of each page. Seems strange to me, but there you have it.

Getting the results back from 23andMe took a bit of patience -- I want it now -- but really, they did fine. And the medical results were very informative showing me another reason or two to have a low fat diet. That was good to have reinforced. But here's where it all got complex: the relative match/finder, or family finder, or DNA match... whatever you want to call it. I'm depending on the knowledge of others about their family tree and their good nature and patience to care about it and look deeper.

In short, the matches I get with 23andMe have blocks as follows:

1. At 23andMe, the reports say the majority of users test for medical results.
2. My experience there might reflect this. I'm super happy I did the testing and the match contacts have been really lovely people, but as far as I can tell, very few are into genealogy. You can tell who is into genealogy because they provided a meaty surname list.
3. I've had real good experience finding matches at GEDmatch so far. Granted, my experience is super limited what with them being down so much recently. But every time I check back I see that I have more matches. The ball is rolling along as more people test and look to a common service to find their matches!

Randy Majors had a really enlightening post about triangulation over on his blog in which he outlines some of these issues and goes on to demonstrate a reasonable spreadsheet that will help us sort it all out. Thanks, Randy!!

OK, so that's the update. Now I'm going to start my list. "What's that?" you say? You really do need a list of surnames and locations that are associated with each surname to help people see how they might match with you.

Here's an example. What if, as actually happened, a match asks where my Price people came from? Without a list ready I have to drop everything and go check about those Price people and where they hail from and the time frame we're talking about. The name of the game is to see if their Price people and my Price people had an opportunity to mix DNA, so to speak. And not everyone has a tree online! (Yeah, that's shocking.)

Here's the plan. It's kind of like Surname Saturday in that every week for a little while I'll come back and report on any news in the DNA area with my matches or whatever and also list a couple of surnames following them back into the past with locations, as best I know it. I'll be working off that chart report that we all generate in our tree programs. Mom and I use Family Tree Maker.

Just discovered a blog post from Caroline M. Pointer's Blogging Genealogy, "I'm in a hurry. Are we related... maybe?" where the topic is a surname page. Cool! Never thought about having a surname page to attract possible cousins. This is a winner!! Then I'll copy these posts on the Surname List page with a tab at the top. Thanks Caroline for this timely and very useful posting! Here's an e-hug:) Meanwhile here's my list, or at least the start of it. Hey, as Caroline says, "Are we related?"

SURNAME, Location & dates.

KELLY:
     Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland (1900 - present)
     Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland (1860 - 1910)
     Cumberland, Allegany, Maryland (before 1848 - 1860)
     Shannonbridge, Clonmacnoise Parish, County Offley, Ireland (before 1848)

WILLIAMS:
     Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland (1872 - present)
     Caron, Uwch, Cardiganshire, Wales (before 1872)
     Other locations:
          Upstate New York, specific location unknown. (probably after 1870)

ZELLER:
     Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland (Before 1860 - present)
     Wurtemburg, Germany (before 1860)
     Other locations:
          Chicago, Cooks, Illinois (probably after 1884)

WHETSTONE:
     Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland (1870 - present)
     Selbysport and Grantsville, Allegany then Garrett, Maryland (1840 - 1870)
     Berks County and Schuykill County, Pennsylvania (before 1738 - 1840)
     Badden-Wuerttemburg, Germany (before 1710 - before 1738)

Kelly family.

Williams family.

Zellers men.

Whetstone, right.

The URL for this post is:
    

DNA Monday: GEDmatch and 23andMe

Found a really cool cousin through 23andMe and he and I have been working together to find our shared ancestor. Cousin Mark has been down this road before so he's leading the way, and directed me to GEDmatch. GedMatch is where you can take your DNA downloaded files and GEDCOM and see if anyone in their database is a match with you.

GEDmatch has been down a lot lately - first one feature, then another, and now the whole site - and I hear that they have been swamped with new users so there will be growing pains. That's OK with me because when they get it all worked out, this site will be a powerhouse for DNA testers across testing companies. The beauty part of their service is that it accepts raw data files from the big three and then they do the matching. Now, no worries that you tested with 23andMe and they tested with FTDNA, it all gets dumped into GEDmatch and they come up with the report. Cool.

Had to wait a day to upload my genome file for the 23andMe upload feature to be available, and another day for it to be processed. The upload feature was not available when I first tried but a day later it was back up again. Right today which is Sunday as I write, the entire site is down for maintenance... but the kind that sound ominous: We have been unable to answer all the emails, so please be understanding. We will post information as soon as we know more and have a time estimate. Uh-oh. Hope they get it worked out because I'm getting excited to do some analysis.

The site is straight-forward and if you just take a couple of minutes to read the entire first page, you'll know what to do. Hey, if I can do it so can you:) I did the DNA test with 23andMe so I clicked on the upload your 23andMe genome file and it outlined exactly what I needed to do and guided me through the steps. Be sure to read all the steps first. I didn't pay close enough attention to what I was doing and uploaded the unzipped file when what they want is the zipped, so got an error message pointing out the silliness of my ways. Went back and did it right the second time. Easy-peasy.

TIP: make a note in a safe place of your ID number. You'll need it later because everything here works off that ID number. So right here I'd like to show you that main page but the site is down. Maybe later. What I can show you is how my DNA matches looked. So here we go.

Here's how you get the party started. Just enter your ID number and leave the rest of the fields as they are... unless you know what you're doing, and that's not me!

Here are my two matches. I was disappointed that there were only two, but I'll keep checking back because I've got to believe that with all the new users (crashing the site) there will be more matches later:) I did click on one of my matched people to see who they matched with, and the list was extensive!

Here's the info on where we match. I don't know what I'm looking at but it appears that KMurray is a closer match to me and I'll try to contact that person first.

This is a matrix showing how many generations back KMurray and I can start to look for a shared ancestor, and it's way back there in the 7th to 8th generation.

 

 

I didn't get a chance to upload my GEDCOM yet (site down) but that will be the first thing I'll do when it's back online. And now I have the ID numbers for cousin Mark and his father so I can start to look at that too.

 

My To Do List:

1. Contact KMurray.

2. Upload GEDCOM.

3. Look at cousin Mark and his father's chromosomes. Can I tell: is it on the Thomas side or the Price side? Cousin Mark has a hunch, I think!

 

Yup, this is still fun! GEDmatch is out, 23andMe is running slow but I'm happy as a clam in mud. My kinda mud:)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/dna-monday-gedmatch-and-23andme.html

Wisdom Wednesday: Why Did I Not See That Before?

This week I'm feeling like I have on new glasses. Well, actually I do, so maybe that's why I'm drawn to this metaphor. I can see a couple of things more clearly now, beside the monitor and TV.

Maryland, My Maryland! (That's the title of the state song of Maryland.) It dawned on me that I am doing a lot of research in the state of Maryland. All, and I do mean all, of my ancestors going back at least the last three generations lived and worked in the state of Maryland, and some go back to my fourth or fifth great grands. That's a lot of Marylanders. I do have a couple of state guides for researching genealogy in Maryland, as well as West Virginia/Virginia, and Pennsylvania guides, but I need more than that. And I need it now. So my educational goal for April is to devote myself to all things Maryland. And I have people to help me. Mom, of course, has been guiding me along and she's born and bred in Maryland and still lives there and has been doing genealogy there sine the early 1970s. Plus, and this is a real blessing, I have a genea-pal who is willing to give me a tour of the Maryland State Archives online. She says it's a beast, but it's our beast:) Pass the Maryland crab cakes! (And I don't mean those weak imitations they offer on the appetizer menu here in San Diego! Yuck!)

Tree Sync. How, oh how, did my work habits get so bad in this one area? I have lost the sync feature between my Family Tree Maker (FTM) tree resident on the desktop computer (and safely backed up online) and my Ancestry Member Tree (AMT)! Discovered it quite a while back but have been ignoring this blister on my tree for too long. Those two buddies need to sync up! How did I not see that? Actually I did but ignored because I didn't know where to turn for answers... and now I do: the email group for Family Tree Maker!

And another thing I did not see before this week: have not updated either the FTM or the AFT with good info from member messages sent to me through Ancestry, after that new information is verified, of course. Remember, Mom started her Big Tree way back when and it's to be expected that there might be mistakes or updates and we find them all the time, some pointed out by other Ancestry members. We like that because those Ancestry members are probably looking at someone close to them but way out on a branch connected to another branch on our tree. Ya gotta love community:)

Cousins and such. Here's something else I've not been looking at: cousins and degrees and removals. Oh, I've known it in a general way so that if someone said, we're third cousins, I'd be looking at a shared great grandparent. And I did vaguely know that if there was a removal, it meant the cousin had kids who were removed down the line from us.
But the other day my laxity in this area stared me right in the face when I realized that my DNA matches on 23andMe who were 4th cousins shared a mutual ancestor not that far back and that for 4th cousins we should be looking at 3rd great grandparents. So the cousin who replied back to my inquiry and said that we probably shared an ancestor too far back to know about didn't have it right. Mom and I know who the 3rd great grandparents are... but maybe that cousin match doesn't.
Here's how I'm remembering it: whatever degree cousin we are, subtract one to find the degree of great grandparent. Example: 4th cousin = 3rd great grandparent. And for gosh sake, if this is wrong, wrong please tell me!! Remember, I'm slightly dyslexic and very math-challenged:)

Photo of the Day from Aunt Betty's Archive:

Jane Price Williams (1862 - 1939)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/wisdom-wednesday-why-did-i-not-see-that.html

DNA Monday: Where Are the Cousins?

Generally, I'm having a blast with my DNA results from 23andMe because it's so fascinating. The thing that's been my obsession is trying to figure out what's the very best way to discover a cousin match from the test results. And now I can report that I have tested out a better way to proceed. Let me explain.

You need to know that I have only tested with 23andMe and I am stumbling my way through this uncharted wilderness without much of a map. The seminar a week ago with Ce Ce Moore has shed ample light on the scientific aspects of this work so that's to the good. She did mention, if I remember correctly, that AncestryDNA uses the Ancestry Member Trees and gives you a head start showing the section of your tree and the cousin match's tree that seem similar. That would be a big help! A clue, any clue, is a big deal!

My problem over here is that the cousin match folks, while mostly enthusiastic about working together to discover a connection, really do lose energy when looking at Mom's Big Tree on Ancestry with over 60,000 people! Where to start?

Alternately, of the folks who replied and are in contact with me and willing to discover where we match, few have trees on line. The one experience I had with a cousin match who did have a large tree on Ancestry gave me an insight into how difficult it is looking at someone else's tree and try to find that elusive ancestor with whom we share a bit of DNA. It's a pain!

So as mentioned here previously, my job is to provide them with a list of surnames going back maybe a half-dozen generations with the locations associated with each surname. This idea came from Ce Ce Moore at the seminar and it was a super good one! This last week I reached out to those cousin matches again and mentioned the list I was working on to get a reaction from them. All of them responded warmly! They would be happy to have a list of surnames and where each lived. One even replied with the longest message I'd received from him yet with even more of his surnames and locations. Cool! Am starting to see that you need enthusiastic cousins to work this problem because it is work.

I have to say that checking in with the prospective cousin match folks first before I went off to work on that surname and location list was a better idea... granted, any other person would have thought of a while back;)

Photos of the Ladies Aide Society (above)

and Children's Choir (below)

of the Congregational Church, Frostburg, Maryland.

Circa 1930s.

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/dna-monday-where-are-cousins.html

DNA Monday: Listening to the Expert

On Saturday I went to a seminar by Ce Ce Moore sponsored by the Chula Vista Genealogical Society here in southern California, and a big "Thanks" to them for doing this. It was fabulous. If you ever have the chance to see this delightful and ever so friendly and generous speaker, please do! She persevered through the end of the flu and a bothersome cough as well as technical difficulties, and did it with grace and aplomb. And I learned a lot. So here are some of my take-aways, in no particular order. Just know that if I wrote for a week about the information she shared, it would only be scratching the surface.

I liked the big picture that Ce Ce gave us along with the many detailed explanations of the how and why of DNA testing. The one really big picture statement that struck a deep chord was that my mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA, has been handed down from mother to daughter over tens of thousands of years. I basically knew this, but given the occasion of the seminar, thought about it and could imagine that unbroken line of women handing me pieces of the puzzle of me. As Ce Ce said, this DNA is the tangible evidence of these ancestors living inside me. I like that!

I was particularly struck by how purposefully the Y-DNA of males and the mtDNA of females is handed down in a highly orderly manner and how that contrasts with the disorderly way the autosomal DNA - or atDNA - is just, at least to my eyes, gathered up like random laundry, thrown in a basket, and handed off to the younger generation. Nature has a sense of humor it seems, and each of us is a crazy quilt of autosomal DNA.

So nature must be having a hearty laugh at me trying to figure out which ancestor the various chunks of autosomal chromosomes came from, which is a mighty hard task, and I did not know that until this seminar. I just thought it was me not "getting it". The bulk of what we are is due to autosomal DNA so there's a lot to sort out. Sounds like a wildly random plan to me but then I'm over here trying to understand it and not over there trying to design an organic system with hybrid vigor where random changes in chromosomal segments work best.

The most illuminating aspect of Ce Ce's presentation for me and where I am in the learning curve is her advice on how to proceed once you get some DNA matches. I had wondered about a "best practices" way of going forward once you get matches and want to contact the other person. Ce Ce suggested sharing two items: surnames and locations. I did try to share the surnames but including the locations for each surname would add important depth to the process of finding the commonality. Because our American families are usually travelers, I'm willing to try a list that includes each surname followed by the locations where they moved and the order in which they did so.

Most importantly, Ce Ce encouraged us to be patient. She said that we might want to think of this as a very long-range project just now beginning. This whole area is young and just getting started. More matches are down the road a short ways, and many more after that. Think of this as the frontier. It's exciting and fun and perhaps some fine excellent day I'll actually find a cousin match out there and we'll look at our chromosomal segments and see that little chunk of orange on number two and know that we got it from the same ancestor oh so many years ago. Now that would be worth the effort!

Dad, Francis Patrick "Pat" Kelly (1916 - 2007)

Easter, 1941.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/dna-monday-listening-to-expert.html

DNA Monday: Are We Related?

Have been working through the results from the DNA test I took at 23andMe, and you can see previous posts by plugging "DNA" into the search box at the right there. I decided on 23andMe because of the low price as well as the medical results, which seemed interesting and useful. Have not been bored with the genealogy results either!

By the way, AncestryDNA just announced at RootsTech that they are lowering the price for an entry-level test to $99. It gets interesting-er and interesting-er all the time!

This past week have been busy contacting DNA matches for two groups: the closest match based purely on chromosomes, and matches sharing surname. First let me cover a few observations about this whole contacting matched people effort and then I'll take a moment to comment on the close match versus the surname match.

Contacting your matches is a fairly straight forward process in which the first contact is made through 23andMe messaging to allow a buffer, and that felt comfortable. If the person is interested they can reply to your overture. I picked about ten or so from both the DNA match as well as the surname match, for which I selected Williams. The results could have been predicted if I'd stopped to think it through. Of both groups the most likely to respond were the individuals who had supplied the most information to 23andMe, probably indicating their interest in using this testing for genealogical purposes rather than those people who came for the medical results and then were just vaguely curious about ancestor matches.

Only one person in either group had a tree online to look at and that was from the Williams surname group. Perhaps this number is low because I didn't contact enough people. Or perhaps this number is low because those who are more serious about testing for genealogy - and with larger and denser trees - have chosen one of the other services, and if I had to guess that's what I'd guess.

After picking through a couple of Williams responders, most of which didn't have a tree online for me to look at, it became apparent that it was going to be much more difficult than I ever could have imagined to find any matching folks or to be able to pinpoint just where and along which line the match was happening. Those without trees online were supplied a list of my direct line Williams ancestors to look at with accompanying dates and locations. A couple of those who responded said they thought the matching ancestor was probably too far back for us to identify and they could be right about that, or at least their trees and research didn't go back that far.

Maybe I selected the wrong surname to start with. Everyone with a Williams surname has ancestors who come from Wales... where else would they come from?! Perhaps I better go back to the list and find another surname. And, I need to find out how these surnames were generated. That's an important detail.

The group with close DNA matching chromosomes in general (not surname specific) were the most difficult to sort out and to know how to get going on. Which surnames do we have in common? Most people offered a half-dozen surnames, but I'm thinking that if we're 3rd to 5th cousins the pool of possible surnames is way larger than that. Do they have a tree online? Most don't. Where to begin the matching process? (When I did a surname report on Mom's Big Tree it was over 200 pages long!)

Generally, people were slow to respond. (Maybe they have a life: how boring for them.) But now at close to a week out about a third have replied and that's pretty good, I think. I still have five replies that I'm working on so who knows how this will turn out. I'll keep you posted.

I'll be looking for Randy Seaver's posts about his contacts over at Genea-Musings because I'm starting to feel that there is probably a "best practices" way to go about this contacting stuff and with Randy's wonderful engineer's orderly mind behind this problem is he's bound to come up with something. Me, I'm blindly stumbling and finding (or rather not finding) my way and not doing a very good job of it.

Plus, I think I'll hold off further exploration until this Saturday when the seminar by Ce Ce Moore on DNA research is happening, hosted by the Chula Vista Genealogical Society. I'm probably going about this the wrongest way possible!

Coal miners in Eckhart, Maryland with the old Eckhart homeplace in the upper right.

Photo courtesy of my Eckhart peeps over on the Descendants of George Adam Eckhart facebook page. (About 1910)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/dna-monday-are-we-related.html