So the past couple of days I have been about to communicate with Sandra Fisher Woolsey. I was not getting any response on the Ancestry site, so using the power of google, I was finally able to find an email address I sent a simple inquiry to. Luckily she received it and responded. What a great opportunity. I was able to convince her to share her ANCESTRY DNA results with me through the Ancestry Site. Ancestry allows you to share your DNA results in a way similar to sharing your tree, in that now, I can look at all of Sandra's matches. Using AncestryDNA helper, I was able to go through and cross tabulate her results with mine and pull out the line to concentrate on.
It seems the next few weeks will be looking at her COZART and PRIEST lines. I matched someone that shows on her list as a 1st/2nd Cousin, someone who shows as 2nd/3rd Cousin and a smattering of people further out. This is awesome in that I can really start narrowing down the search for how we are matched up. No longer do I have to search her entire tree. I can concentrate SURNAMES that all of us match together. Since COZART and PRIEST are new in my line, I would never have found the matches without her sharing her results with me.
Lets start today and see how long it takes me to find our MCRA.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Which Test would I recommend June 2015
So people have asked me which test I would recommend.
As I have used three different companies FTDNA, Ancestry and 23andME, I can say I certainly have a favorite - AncestryDNA.
Why do I like it.
First, unlike FTDNA and 23andME, Ancestry automatically and easily integrates your family tree. As I am a genealogist, not a geneticist or someone trying to get insight into what role my genes may play in future health issues, this is precisely the type of integration I am looking for.
It is not perfect, as you would by reading my blog, but it certainly beats what the other companies have to offer in this respect.
FTDNA is useful, but I have found it to be very cumbersome to use and I have not found people all that responsive on the site. The good thing about Ancestry is, I have matches and trees I can get to work on immediately without having to wait for a response from someone else.
Second 23andMe is a really disorganized. It was geared to providing health feedback to its users. However, since that has all been taken away, it really doesn't know where it stand right now. I did testing for an Aunt on 23andMe and the sample turned out to be inadequate. They needed a new sample, so 23andMe told me they would send me a replacement kit or refund my money. Also, if I retested the same individual a second time, and it was still not a usable sample, I could not receive a refund or another test. Since I do a lot of testing, I decided to simply have a replacement test sent and to order a test from Ancestry for my Aunt to try. When I was ready to send the replacement test out to a new individual, an Uncle, I asked 23andMe how to change the information on the test. They informed me that I could not, I would have to have my money refunded to me, and then purchase a third test and have it sent to me, even though I had a valid identical test in my hand. At that point, it was confirmed for me, 23andMe just is not up to the challenge of making any of this easy and streamlined. Using 23andMe to do genealogy research simply is not a winning option.
Ancestry, even though there is a lot of misinformation done by shoddy research on the site, it still is able to provide a great tools to work with and a good jumping off point.
Tests from any of these vendors are also able to be transferred to GEDMATCH.COM to compare with users from any one else uploading their results to GEDMATCH. The tools GEDMATCH offers and the number of tests in their database make it a very worthwhile addition to any of the vendors alone, and it is free as well.
As I have used three different companies FTDNA, Ancestry and 23andME, I can say I certainly have a favorite - AncestryDNA.
Why do I like it.
First, unlike FTDNA and 23andME, Ancestry automatically and easily integrates your family tree. As I am a genealogist, not a geneticist or someone trying to get insight into what role my genes may play in future health issues, this is precisely the type of integration I am looking for.
It is not perfect, as you would by reading my blog, but it certainly beats what the other companies have to offer in this respect.
FTDNA is useful, but I have found it to be very cumbersome to use and I have not found people all that responsive on the site. The good thing about Ancestry is, I have matches and trees I can get to work on immediately without having to wait for a response from someone else.
Second 23andMe is a really disorganized. It was geared to providing health feedback to its users. However, since that has all been taken away, it really doesn't know where it stand right now. I did testing for an Aunt on 23andMe and the sample turned out to be inadequate. They needed a new sample, so 23andMe told me they would send me a replacement kit or refund my money. Also, if I retested the same individual a second time, and it was still not a usable sample, I could not receive a refund or another test. Since I do a lot of testing, I decided to simply have a replacement test sent and to order a test from Ancestry for my Aunt to try. When I was ready to send the replacement test out to a new individual, an Uncle, I asked 23andMe how to change the information on the test. They informed me that I could not, I would have to have my money refunded to me, and then purchase a third test and have it sent to me, even though I had a valid identical test in my hand. At that point, it was confirmed for me, 23andMe just is not up to the challenge of making any of this easy and streamlined. Using 23andMe to do genealogy research simply is not a winning option.
Ancestry, even though there is a lot of misinformation done by shoddy research on the site, it still is able to provide a great tools to work with and a good jumping off point.
Tests from any of these vendors are also able to be transferred to GEDMATCH.COM to compare with users from any one else uploading their results to GEDMATCH. The tools GEDMATCH offers and the number of tests in their database make it a very worthwhile addition to any of the vendors alone, and it is free as well.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
GEDMATCH Generational Matrix
So interestingly I was shown a report from GEDMATCH the other day by a distant cousin. Looking at it I saw some very telling details that I had not considered before.
The report is a generational matrix. Think of it like a mileage chart for cities you used to find in AAA books. The columns and rows are GEDMATCH members instead of cities. The boxes are filled with the estimated generations to a most recent common ancestor rather than the number of miles. For example my sister says 1. My first cousin says 2. My first cousin, once removed says 2.3. The more distant the relationship, the higher the number.
What this particular chart showed me was that there are some people who I am related to through different routes some more closely than others. For example, I am related to a person named NEF59. GEDMATCH estimates our distance to be 4.7 generations. Now the distance to my cousin Jennie, who is related though their mothers to my father, is only 2.3 generations. She is also at my dads generation so her distance to our shared ancestors should be less than mine by around 1 point. This works out pretty well except for a few examples like NEF. GEDMATCH thinks that Jennie and NEF are actually at a distance of 7.5 generations. That is over 4 generations different than what I would expect. Since NEF is reported at 4.7 for me, it should be 3.7 for Jennie. I am thinking this means that NEF actually has someone in their tree that matches me more closely than whoever NEF is matching in Jennie's tree. It also means that just because Jennie and NEF match, I cannot assume all of NEF's segments are coming from my paternal side through Jennie and my father's mothers. It seems likely that I am actually more closely related to NEF through a completely different ancestor that is not related to Jenny at all. It is even possible that Jenny is related to NEF through her father's line and I am not related to the person that Jenny is related to either.
I have now decided to go through and look at key individuals and do a chart for each of them to determine exactly what the generational projection is. My matches with Vicki, the cousin with most recent common ancestors who are both brick walls GUIDER ROBERTSON/ROBINSON turned up nothing really unusual, however, it did reveal a couple of people who were cousins themselves. This helped in narrowing their tree so I could work with them and know that we were talking about her mother's mother's family rather than having to research her entire tree looking for leads.
What this particular chart showed me was that there are some people who I am related to through different routes some more closely than others. For example, I am related to a person named NEF59. GEDMATCH estimates our distance to be 4.7 generations. Now the distance to my cousin Jennie, who is related though their mothers to my father, is only 2.3 generations. She is also at my dads generation so her distance to our shared ancestors should be less than mine by around 1 point. This works out pretty well except for a few examples like NEF. GEDMATCH thinks that Jennie and NEF are actually at a distance of 7.5 generations. That is over 4 generations different than what I would expect. Since NEF is reported at 4.7 for me, it should be 3.7 for Jennie. I am thinking this means that NEF actually has someone in their tree that matches me more closely than whoever NEF is matching in Jennie's tree. It also means that just because Jennie and NEF match, I cannot assume all of NEF's segments are coming from my paternal side through Jennie and my father's mothers. It seems likely that I am actually more closely related to NEF through a completely different ancestor that is not related to Jenny at all. It is even possible that Jenny is related to NEF through her father's line and I am not related to the person that Jenny is related to either.
I have now decided to go through and look at key individuals and do a chart for each of them to determine exactly what the generational projection is. My matches with Vicki, the cousin with most recent common ancestors who are both brick walls GUIDER ROBERTSON/ROBINSON turned up nothing really unusual, however, it did reveal a couple of people who were cousins themselves. This helped in narrowing their tree so I could work with them and know that we were talking about her mother's mother's family rather than having to research her entire tree looking for leads.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Bradley County Swaffords / Lee's
So I am going through all my matches again.
This time I notice another LEE family in Bradley County. This time the same city as the Millers. It wouldn't even need to be a travelling minister.
I wonder where the big breakthrough is going to come?
Anyway, this Lee family is also descended of the Swafford Lee family. This guy's name is Burrell Lee as well, though on this census record it is spelled Lea.
And my Miller family
It makes me wonder if some of the researchers at Ancestry might have linked the wrong Burrell Lee to their tree....
This time I notice another LEE family in Bradley County. This time the same city as the Millers. It wouldn't even need to be a travelling minister.
I wonder where the big breakthrough is going to come?
Anyway, this Lee family is also descended of the Swafford Lee family. This guy's name is Burrell Lee as well, though on this census record it is spelled Lea.
| Name: | Burrell Lee | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age: | 38 | ||||||||||||||||
| Birth Year: | abt 1822 | ||||||||||||||||
| Gender: | Male | ||||||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Tennessee | ||||||||||||||||
| Home in 1860: | District 10, Bradley, Tennessee | ||||||||||||||||
| Post Office: | Cleveland | ||||||||||||||||
| Family Number: | 984 | ||||||||||||||||
| Value of real estate: | View image | ||||||||||||||||
| Household Members: |
|
And my Miller family
| Name: | Mary A McMiller [Mary A Miller] |
||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age: | 25 | ||||||||||||||
| Birth Year: | abt 1835 | ||||||||||||||
| Gender: | Female | ||||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Tennessee | ||||||||||||||
| Home in 1860: | District 10, Bradley, Tennessee | ||||||||||||||
| Post Office: | Cleveland | ||||||||||||||
| Family Number: | 938 | ||||||||||||||
| Value of real estate: | View image | ||||||||||||||
| Household Members: |
|
It makes me wonder if some of the researchers at Ancestry might have linked the wrong Burrell Lee to their tree....
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Sites that bring researchers together
Ancestry is a great site for hints, online searches and documentation. However, as you will find out if you do much research there, there are a lot of newbies out there. And, as I was guilty of when I first started working on my tree, I would click and add without giving it much thought. Later, those clicks and adds would get copied to someone else's tree and then in effect be given much more weight than either of us had intended.
On Ancestry it is not uncommon to find glaring mistakes of parents being 90 years older than their kids. I have found census records of african americans with the same name linked to white folks. All in all, the trees there are not dependable.
On the other side of the spectrum are Wikitree, Findagrave and Family Search. All three are great places to work with others on your trees. The least popular so far is Wikitree. It is a cumbersome interface and they have a lot of rules about posting information on the site. However, what all three sites share, is that there should be only one record for each person in history. Findagrave uses as its source point, the burial record or headstone. This generally gives one a great meeting point. Findagrave can attract descendants from all over, looking at the site. There is one grave, hence one record. I have yet to run across someone posting incorrect father's mother's siblings etc.. on this site though I guess it could happen. I have found a couple duplicates for information, but all in all, I have used it to find some excellent researchers who are managing pages for my ancestors and have gotten some great history from it.
Familysearch is another awesome site. In the past year or so they have instituted a system where you can actually tag a name in a census document and attach it to your family tree. If someone later comes along and tries to tag that same record, the person in your tree will be suggested. This is great because theoretically on each census there should be one and only one record for each individual. When there is a conflict you can discuss right there on the record who's research is better. Once you find your ancestor and you clean everything on their page up to your liking, you can also tag their record. Anytime anyone visits or makes changes to it, you will get a notification. That way, you will see whatever additional information they have added. Also if you believe that information to be false, you will have a place to note that, change it back and/or contact the person that made the change.
These are all built-in features that work much better than Ancestry's limited tracking system.
On Ancestry it is not uncommon to find glaring mistakes of parents being 90 years older than their kids. I have found census records of african americans with the same name linked to white folks. All in all, the trees there are not dependable.
On the other side of the spectrum are Wikitree, Findagrave and Family Search. All three are great places to work with others on your trees. The least popular so far is Wikitree. It is a cumbersome interface and they have a lot of rules about posting information on the site. However, what all three sites share, is that there should be only one record for each person in history. Findagrave uses as its source point, the burial record or headstone. This generally gives one a great meeting point. Findagrave can attract descendants from all over, looking at the site. There is one grave, hence one record. I have yet to run across someone posting incorrect father's mother's siblings etc.. on this site though I guess it could happen. I have found a couple duplicates for information, but all in all, I have used it to find some excellent researchers who are managing pages for my ancestors and have gotten some great history from it.
Familysearch is another awesome site. In the past year or so they have instituted a system where you can actually tag a name in a census document and attach it to your family tree. If someone later comes along and tries to tag that same record, the person in your tree will be suggested. This is great because theoretically on each census there should be one and only one record for each individual. When there is a conflict you can discuss right there on the record who's research is better. Once you find your ancestor and you clean everything on their page up to your liking, you can also tag their record. Anytime anyone visits or makes changes to it, you will get a notification. That way, you will see whatever additional information they have added. Also if you believe that information to be false, you will have a place to note that, change it back and/or contact the person that made the change.
These are all built-in features that work much better than Ancestry's limited tracking system.
Martinucci DNA saga
So some excellent results from my brother Todd's DNA test. He matches someone with ancestors from a town called Villa De Chiavenna, Italy. I had already identified this town as a possible origination point for my Martin(ucci) surname.
I also revisited an older site http://photohistory-sussex.co.uk/BTN-Lombardi.htm which points to a photographer named Eugenio Lombardi Martinucci (1849-1920). He is also for Chiavenna and bears a striking resemblance to my father.
I contacted the owner of that site, and he said he would try and reach the Martinucci descendants for me.
I was able to contact the Maraffio from Chiavenna. He did not know much about genealogy, but his sister in law is a Mormon and is supposedly working on the family tree. I am also trying to conatct her.
I also tried running a search on my matches for people born in Chiavenna, and I was able to pull up one family from there Panzeri. This match was also a match to my cousin, who is descended from my Italian Grandfather. This is a good lead.
It sounds like a trip to Chiavenna is in order in the coming years. It is nearby to Andermatt and my mother's grandmother's home so I can do research there as well on the REGLI family.
This adds more surnames to my search including PANZERI, GINI, NYE, DOLLIMORE, and TAYLOR, MARAFFIO,
I have been busy entering this information into familysearch and wikitree.org and I am actually going to write a little about those sites and findagrave right now.
I also revisited an older site http://photohistory-sussex.co.uk/BTN-Lombardi.htm which points to a photographer named Eugenio Lombardi Martinucci (1849-1920). He is also for Chiavenna and bears a striking resemblance to my father.
I contacted the owner of that site, and he said he would try and reach the Martinucci descendants for me.
I was able to contact the Maraffio from Chiavenna. He did not know much about genealogy, but his sister in law is a Mormon and is supposedly working on the family tree. I am also trying to conatct her.
I also tried running a search on my matches for people born in Chiavenna, and I was able to pull up one family from there Panzeri. This match was also a match to my cousin, who is descended from my Italian Grandfather. This is a good lead.
It sounds like a trip to Chiavenna is in order in the coming years. It is nearby to Andermatt and my mother's grandmother's home so I can do research there as well on the REGLI family.
This adds more surnames to my search including PANZERI, GINI, NYE, DOLLIMORE, and TAYLOR, MARAFFIO,
I have been busy entering this information into familysearch and wikitree.org and I am actually going to write a little about those sites and findagrave right now.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Searching for the Swaffords
So on my DNA test when I look at my list for Swafford relatives, the first one on the list is Jameswoolsey49. James E. Woolsey runs the account but the test is from a woman though, and with a little googling I came up with his wife, Sandra (or Samdra) Carolyn Fisher. Now Sandra is great grand daughter to Ida Mae Swafford. Her parents were Jay Fisher and Laverne Priest. Nobody has found any records for Ida Mae except the marriage record, but I was able to find and Idea M Swofford 4 years before her marriage, in the same county Arkansas. I am 99% sure this would be the same woman.
Following the line back, even though the grandparent was born in Tennessee, I cannot connect them to the Swaffords and Lees I am looking for. I did notice a HOWARD surname as well.
I have tried to contact the Woolsey family with no luck.
UPDATE:
I did do some more work and traced these Swafford's back to our most recent common ancestor. This ancestor makes me and Sandra Fisher 7th cousins. Ancestry tags Sandra as an EXTREMELY HIGH match at 4th-6th cousins. Ancestry's description of the relationship is 4th cousin but could possibly vary to 5th or sixth cousin.
This means that either Ancestry is doing something very wrong in their analysis since they are citing this with their most definitive match category (the same one used for my sister), or we are somehow related more closely.
Unfortunately, until I can get the Woolsey family to upload the DNA results to GEDCOM I will not be able to look into exactly how we match. Perhaps we share more than one relative. Who knows?
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