DNA Monday: What Worked For Me

Bingo! Got a real live cousin match on 23andMe.com! And I feel good about this one because I can pin-point exactly where on the tree we connect. That's a first.

I've been working at GEDmatch and 23andMe.com looking for a cousin connection since, what, March? Yeah, it's been a while. A couple hundred emails later and we finally have a true cousin match. Listen, brothers and sisters, if you think that you'll swab a cheek or work up a lot of spit and send that sample off, then magically get a whole boat load of genealogy back, it just doesn't work that way, sad to say, or at least not for me. I kinda thought and hoped that it might, but no great big genealogy truck driven by a DNA cousin has pulled up and dumped a ton of stuff in my lap.

So here's what worked for me, and heavens knows if it was just a fluke or if it would work for others. I attended a Ce Ce Moore's seminar held at the Chula Vista Genealogical Society here in greater San Diego, and she spoke about triangulation and other sophisticated techniques, but I'm a simple person and just did it the best way I could think to do. Ce Ce Moore is wonderful and I do think that I've gotten this far because of her information:) Thanks, Ce Ce!

1.) On 23and Me.com as well as GEDmatch.com, I check back about once a week to see if new matches have popped up. At first I didn't have a feel for how long it took for new matches to show so I went from every five minutes to once in a blue moon. Once a week feels about right for me now, and since Monday is my day to work on DNA stuff, that's when I go check.

2.) The avalanche has started! As prices drop lots of new players are on the field! 23andMe.com has said that they are on target for reaching their goal of one million users by the end of the year. Impressive. And, I'm kinda shocked when I check into GEDmatch and find a couple hundred new people I match with.
You need a systematic way to cover this because a lot of them won't be matches that are close enough to bother with, at least not for me to bother with because I don't have that kind of time because of the laundry and all the rest getting in the way of me doing genealogy.

3.) There are two kinds of matches in my book: those with nice trees with a surname list and some locations and those who have a "mystery tree" or no tree at all. The really cool players are the ones - and you can spot them right away on 23andMe.com - who have a lot of surnames and locations. The other guys want you to supply a tree for them to pick over... and they never get back to you because they don't know what they are doing, bless their hearts. At least that's been my experience. Finally they say, I guess our match is just too far back. And it might be, but I'll never know because they have a mystery tree.

4) Go for the closest matches first, and for me that's less than fourth cousin on 23andMe.com, and the dozen closest matches on GEDmatch with the largest total number of autosomal segments. And while there, check out the green highlight on the kit number (in the left column) which indicates that the results are newer. I like GEDmatch's generations matrix because from that I have a clue as to how far back the match might be. I like it when it's four or less:) Whoop!

5.) Make contact and wait. You might hear back and you might now. I don't take it personally... anymore;)

Oh, yeah, about my match on 23andMe.com, Cousin Andrew. You know how I'd hoped that some DNA cousin match or other would show up and drive up the big genealogy truck with loads of info and drop it in my lap? Well not here and not with Andrew. He and his dad, still with us, don't know diddly about their ancestors. So ya know what? Mom, Aunt Betty, and I drove up the big genealogy truck and dumped it all right in his lap, charts, reports, photos and all! Genealogy good deed done for the week:) That felt great!!


From Aunt Betty's file:

Probably the wedding portrait of my great grandparents.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/06/dna-monday-what-worked-for-me.html

Surname Saturday: The Prices and Missing Pieces

Off we go on another Surname Saturday, a very useful  blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers! I really am loving this opportunity to work with Mom's Big Tree and delve into each line taking it back as far as we have gone, and then talking to Mom in depth about what's there and what's missing.

This week we're looking at the Price family and they are a puzzle to me. The records get very cloudy fast and the trail is murky as it get all mish-mash in Virginia, England and Wales from the 1730s forward. So let me share what we have and list what we don't have so that Mom and I can work on it.

1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick Kelly 1916 - 2007
3. Virginia Williams, living and loving it!

6. Cambria Williams 1897 - 1960
7. Emma Susan Whetstone 1897 - 1956

12. Daniel Williams 1852 - 1920
13. Jane Price 1862 - 1939

26. William Price 1829 - 1872
27. Diane Thomas about 1832 - 1871
William Jr. was born in Bedfordshire, England, why we do not know. He died in Aux Sable Township, Grundy County, Illinois. Our working theory is that they went west, possibly mining, and to be with family. He's listed in the 1841 English Census living with his mother, Ann who is a lace maker. In both the 1850 and 1870 US Census he is listed as a miner and then more specifically, a coal miner.
Williams' wife Diane was born in Wales. She died in Mount Savage, Allegany County, Maryland. Mom believes that she traveled back to where family was to have her last child and died in childbirth or shortly thereafter.
They had these children:
William Henry Price 1852 - 1910. William was born in Frostburg, Allegany, MD and died there. He married Julia Elizabeth Koegel.
Benjamin Price 1854 - 1906. He died in Streator IL.He married Hanna "Annie" ?.
Diane Price 1856 - ????. She married Charles Busch and they lived in Brooklyn, Kings, NY, and presumably died there.
13. Jane Price 1862 - 1939. She was born in Mount Savage, Allegany, Maryland and died just up the hill in Frostburg.
Ellen Nellie Price 1864 - ????. She married the musician Buford Alley, born in Indiana.
James H. Price 1856 - 1933. He married Elizabeth Hiller and died in Streator IL.
Mary Price 1869 - ????
Victoria Price 1871 - ????

52. William Price ???? - before 1860
53. Ann ???? - ????
William was born in Wales and died before 1860 in Annapolis Maryland. We don't know a thing about Ann. Obviously we need to get going on this couple!
Some preliminary work looks like Ann went to Illinois and that's why her son William went there and died there... but is it the same Ann Price the lace maker, that's the question?
These are the children we've found so far:
26. William Price 1829 - 1872
John Price 1821 - ????

104. Arjlon Price 1738 - 1822
105. Catherine Katey Hill 1740 - 1824
Both Arjalon and Catherine were born in North Farham Parish, Richmond County, VA, and died in Allegany County, MD. What is believable is that this family migrated west to Ohio. But notice the strange Wales birth of William. And that the parents die in Allegany County in Western Maryland. Doesn't fit in. Am having trouble wrapping my head around it. Needs way more work to tie up these lose ends.
John Price 1762 - 1845. He was born in North Farham Parish, Richmond County, VA and died in Marshall County, WVa. He married Martha Ann.
Arjalon Garner Price 1764 - 1852. Born in Ohio County WVa and died in Marshall County WVa. He married Nancy Ann Thompson.
George Washington Price 1788 - 1820. George Washington was born in Ohio County, WV. He married Martha Patsy Ellis Burbridge. They both died in Moundsville Ohio.
52. William Price ???? - before 1860. Born in Wales. Doesn't fit in.

If you are a knitter, sometimes you get to a point and look at the work and have a sinking feeling that it's not right and you're going to have to take it apart and start over, or at least re-do a bunch of work. Yeah, that's how Mom and I are feeling about this line. Following in Mom's footsteps, I need to now do a "reasonably exhaustive search" with the resources available today and see where it goes. The Price Family goes on my ever-growing list of things to do.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/surname-saturday-prices-and-missing.html

Tombstone Tuesday: The Great Grands

So here it is Tuesday again, and let's take a look at some tombstones, these from Mom's photo collection. Tombstone Tuesday is a weekly blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers. You can find the whole week's list of prompts here.

 

This time we're looking at all of my great grands.

First are Dad's Father's parents and there's a Surname Saturday post about the Kelly line here. 

Then on Dad's mother's side are the Zellers. You can read about these Zellers in a Surname Saturday post here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom's father's side, Daniel and Jane Price Williams are explained in a Surname Saturday post here.

And Mom's mother's side are the Whetstones and you can read about thm here.

 

 

 

All of these grandparents are buried in the cemeteries of Frostburg, Maryland. The Kelly - Zeller side are at St Michaels' Cemetery (Catholic) and the Willimas - Whetstone are at the Frostburg Memorial Park. Makes it easy to decorate the graves:)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/tombstone-tuesday-great-grands.html