DNAEXPLAINED

In other words, of the 100% of your ethnicity, stepping back each generation we can see how much of that particular ancestor you would carry. You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A 442 ANCIENT VIKING SKELETONS HOLD DNA SURPRISES Yesterday, in the journal Nature, the article “Population genomics of the Viking world,” was published by Margaryan, et al, a culmination of 6 years of work. Just hours later, Science Daily published the article, “World’s largest DNA sequencing of Viking skeletons reveals they weren’t all Scandinavian.” Science magazine published “’Viking’ was a job description, not

DNAEXPLAINED

In other words, of the 100% of your ethnicity, stepping back each generation we can see how much of that particular ancestor you would carry. You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A 442 ANCIENT VIKING SKELETONS HOLD DNA SURPRISES Yesterday, in the journal Nature, the article “Population genomics of the Viking world,” was published by Margaryan, et al, a culmination of 6 years of work. Just hours later, Science Daily published the article, “World’s largest DNA sequencing of Viking skeletons reveals they weren’t all Scandinavian.” Science magazine published “’Viking’ was a job description, not ANCIENT ICELANDIC VIKING SETTLERS EXPAND THE Y DNA TREE The harsh yet starkly beautiful volcanic island of Iceland was only settled about 1100 years ago, between 870 and 930 CE (current era). Obviously, the original settlers had to originate in locations where populations were already established. During this time, Vikings had been raiding islands and coastal regions of Ireland, Scotland, and

England.

DNA FILE UPLOAD-DOWNLOAD AND TRANSFER INSTRUCTIONS TO AND Some of my most popular articles are the instructions for how to download your DNA files from the various vendors in order to upload and transfer your DNA files to other vendors to obtain more matches. Now, I’ve put the instructions for all the vendors together in SHARED CM PROJECT 2020 ANALYSIS, COMPARISON & HANDY Recently, Blaine Bettinger published V4 of the Shared cM Project, and along with that, Jonny Perl at DNAPainter updated the associated interactive tool as well, including histograms. I wrote about that, here. The goal of the shared cM project was and remains to document how much DNA can be expected to be shared by various GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and ABOUT ME | DNAEXPLAINED Roberta Estes has been a professional scientist and business owner for 25+ years, (MS Computer Science, MBA, graduate work in Geographic Information Systems), as well as an obsessed genealogist since 1978. In 2005, reflecting her interest and expertise in genetics for genealogy, she formed DNAeXplain, a company providing individual analysis of DNA results and consulting

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

Searching for Native American Ancestors? If you’re searching for Native American or particular ancestors, mitochondrial DNA can tell you specifically if your mitochondrial DNA, or that of your ancestors (if you test a direct matrilineal descendant,) is Native, African, European, Jewish or Asian.Furthermore, your matches provide clues as to what country your ancestor might be from and SHARED CM PROJECT 2020 ANALYSIS, COMPARISON & HANDY Recently, Blaine Bettinger published V4 of the Shared cM Project, and along with that, Jonny Perl at DNAPainter updated the associated interactive tool as well, including histograms. I wrote about that, here. The goal of the shared cM project was and remains to document how much DNA can be expected to be shared by various Y DNA: STEP-BY-STEP BIG Y ANALYSIS Many males take the Big Y-700 test offered by FamilyTreeDNA, so named because testers receive the most granular haplogroup SNP results in addition to 700+ included STR marker results.If you’re not familiar with those terms, you might enjoy the article, STRs vs SNPs, Multiple DNA Personalities. The Big Y test gives testers the best of both, along with contributing to the building of A CAREER IN GENETIC GENEALOGY One of the questions I’m asked regularly is how one might prepare for a career in genetic genealogy. I can’t really answer that question very effectively, because there is no official path or course of study for this career. My own entry point was through a strong science and computer background, although my degrees are ANCIENT IRELAND’S Y AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA Ancient Ireland – the land of Tara and Knowth and the passage tombs of New Grange. Land of legend, romance, and perchance of King Arthur, or at least some ancient king who became Arthur in legend. The island of Ireland, today Ireland and Northern Ireland, was a destination location, it seems, the westernmost island in

WORKING WITH Y DNA

Y DNA a special type of DNA that tells the direct story of your father’s surname line heritage – all the way back as far as we can go – beyond genealogy– to the man from whom we are all descended that we call “Y line Adam.”. In the pedigree chart below, Y DNA is represented by the people with blue squares – generally the surname

line.

FULL OR HALF SIBLINGS? Many people are receiving unexpected sibling matches. Everyday on social media, “surprises” are being reported so often that they are no longer surprising – unless of course you're the people directly involved and then it's very personal, life-altering and you're in shock. Staring at a computer screen in stunned disbelief. Conversely, sometimes that surprise involves 23ANDME STEP BY STEP GUIDE: HOW TO UPLOAD-DOWNLOAD DNA In this Upload-Download series, we’ll cover each major vendor: How to download raw data files from the vendor How to upload raw data files to the vendor, if possible Other mainstream vendors where you can upload this vendor’s files Uploading TO 23andMe This part is easy with 23andMe, because 23andMe doesn’t accept any other

vendor’s

HOW MUCH INDIAN DO I HAVE IN ME??? So, for this example, 1/16 becomes 2/32, 3/16 becomes 6/32 and 3/32 remains the same. 3. Add the Top Numbers Together. Now just add the numerators, or the top numbers together. 2/32 + 6/32 + 3/32 = 11/32. That’s the answer. In this example, our person,

DNAEXPLAINED

In other words, of the 100% of your ethnicity, stepping back each generation we can see how much of that particular ancestor you would carry. You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. ABOUT ME | DNAEXPLAINED About Me. Roberta Estes has been a professional scientist and business owner for 25+ years, (MS Computer Science, MBA, graduate work in Geographic Information Systems), as well as an obsessed genealogist since 1978. In 2005, reflecting her interest and expertise in genetics for genealogy, she formed DNAeXplain, a company providing individual PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch 442 ANCIENT VIKING SKELETONS HOLD DNA SURPRISES Yesterday, in the journal Nature, the article “Population genomics of the Viking world,” was published by Margaryan, et al, a culmination of 6 years of work. Just hours later, Science Daily published the article, “World’s largest DNA sequencing of Viking skeletons reveals they weren’t all Scandinavian.” Science magazine published “’Viking’ was a job description, not

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A ANCIENT ICELANDIC VIKING SETTLERS EXPAND THE Y DNA TREE The harsh yet starkly beautiful volcanic island of Iceland was only settled about 1100 years ago, between 870 and 930 CE (current era). Obviously, the original settlers had to originate in locations where populations were already established. During this time, Vikings had been raiding islands and coastal regions of Ireland, Scotland, and

England.

DNA INHERITED FROM GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT-GRANDPARENTS Philip Gammon, our statistician friend has been working with crossover simulations again in order to tell us what we might expect relative to how much DNA we actually inherit from grandparents and great-grandparents. We know that on average, we’re going to inherit 25% of our DNA from each grandparent – but we also know in GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and

DNAEXPLAINED

In other words, of the 100% of your ethnicity, stepping back each generation we can see how much of that particular ancestor you would carry. You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. ABOUT ME | DNAEXPLAINED About Me. Roberta Estes has been a professional scientist and business owner for 25+ years, (MS Computer Science, MBA, graduate work in Geographic Information Systems), as well as an obsessed genealogist since 1978. In 2005, reflecting her interest and expertise in genetics for genealogy, she formed DNAeXplain, a company providing individual PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch 442 ANCIENT VIKING SKELETONS HOLD DNA SURPRISES Yesterday, in the journal Nature, the article “Population genomics of the Viking world,” was published by Margaryan, et al, a culmination of 6 years of work. Just hours later, Science Daily published the article, “World’s largest DNA sequencing of Viking skeletons reveals they weren’t all Scandinavian.” Science magazine published “’Viking’ was a job description, not

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A ANCIENT ICELANDIC VIKING SETTLERS EXPAND THE Y DNA TREE The harsh yet starkly beautiful volcanic island of Iceland was only settled about 1100 years ago, between 870 and 930 CE (current era). Obviously, the original settlers had to originate in locations where populations were already established. During this time, Vikings had been raiding islands and coastal regions of Ireland, Scotland, and

England.

DNA INHERITED FROM GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT-GRANDPARENTS Philip Gammon, our statistician friend has been working with crossover simulations again in order to tell us what we might expect relative to how much DNA we actually inherit from grandparents and great-grandparents. We know that on average, we’re going to inherit 25% of our DNA from each grandparent – but we also know in GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

Searching for Native American Ancestors? If you’re searching for Native American or particular ancestors, mitochondrial DNA can tell you specifically if your mitochondrial DNA, or that of your ancestors (if you test a direct matrilineal descendant,) is Native, African, European, Jewish or Asian.Furthermore, your matches provide clues as to what country your ancestor might be from and CONCEPTS – PERCENTAGE OF ANCESTORS’ DNA You’ll notice that by the time you’re in the 7 th generation, you can be expected, on average, to carry 0.78% meaning less than 1% of that GGGGG-grandparent’s DNA. Looking at the chart, you can see that you reach the 1% level at about the 6 th generation with an Y DNA: STEP-BY-STEP BIG Y ANALYSIS Many males take the Big Y-700 test offered by FamilyTreeDNA, so named because testers receive the most granular haplogroup SNP results in addition to 700+ included STR marker results. If you’re not familiar with those terms, you might enjoy the article, STRs vs SNPs, Multiple DNA Personalities. The Big Y test gives testers the best DNA FILE UPLOAD-DOWNLOAD AND TRANSFER INSTRUCTIONS TO AND Some of my most popular articles are the instructions for how to download your DNA files from the various vendors in order to upload and transfer your DNA files to other vendors to obtain more matches. Now, I’ve put the instructions for all the vendors together in

ETHNICITY TESTING

Ethnicity results from DNA testing. Fascinating. Intriguing. Frustrating. Exciting. Fun. Challenging. Mysterious. Enlightening. And sometimes wrong. These descriptions all fit. Welcome to your personal conundrum! The riddle of you! If you'd like to understand why your ethnicity results might not have been what you expected, read on! A CAREER IN GENETIC GENEALOGY That really isn’t surprising given that genetic genealogy is only 17 years old, and that there wasn’t enough interest, testing or tests to constitute a career or even a specialty in genetic genealogy for the first several years. I began writing the Personalized DNA Reports, available through Family Tree DNA and my website, in about 2004. ANCESTRAL DNA PERCENTAGES The chart above shows how much of a particular generation of ancestors’ DNA you would inherit if each generation between you and that ancestor inherited exactly 50% of that ancestor’s DNA from their parent. This means, on the average, you will carry less than 1% of each of your 5 times great-grandparents DNA, shown in generation 7,

in total

NATIVE AMERICAN MITOCHONDRIAL HAPLOGROUPS New Native American Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups, Estes, 2017. Ancient A2a. Ancient samples (3) from Ekven, Russia, from a 2000 year old Eskimo cemetery near Uelen on the easternmost spit of land in the Bering Strait, one sample dating from about 100 BCE, one from about 900 BCE and one from about 30 BCE, Sikora 2019. FULL OR HALF SIBLINGS? Many people are receiving unexpected sibling matches. Everyday on social media, “surprises” are being reported so often that they are no longer surprising – unless of course you're the people directly involved and then it's very personal, life-altering and you're in shock. Staring at a computer screen in stunned disbelief. Conversely, sometimes that surprise involves CONCEPTS – CALCULATING ETHNICITY PERCENTAGES Concepts – Calculating Ethnicity Percentages. There has been a lot of discussion about ethnicity percentages within the genetic genealogy community recently, probably because of the number of people who have recently purchased DNA tests to discover “who they are.”. Testers want to know specifically if ethnicity percentages are right or

DNAEXPLAINED

You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. If she was 100% African, then that 0.78% would be the only African autosomal DNA of hers that you carry, on

average.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch DNA FILE UPLOAD-DOWNLOAD AND TRANSFER INSTRUCTIONS TO AND Some of my most popular articles are the instructions for how to download your DNA files from the various vendors in order to upload and transfer your DNA files to other vendors to obtain more matches. Now, I’ve put the instructions for all the vendors together in 442 ANCIENT VIKING SKELETONS HOLD DNA SURPRISES Yesterday, in the journal Nature, the article “Population genomics of the Viking world,” was published by Margaryan, et al, a culmination of 6 years of work. Just hours later, Science Daily published the article, “World’s largest DNA sequencing of Viking skeletons reveals they weren’t all Scandinavian.” Science magazine published “’Viking’ was a job description, not HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and ANCIENT ICELANDIC VIKING SETTLERS EXPAND THE Y DNA TREE The harsh yet starkly beautiful volcanic island of Iceland was only settled about 1100 years ago, between 870 and 930 CE (current era). Obviously, the original settlers had to originate in locations where populations were already established. During this time, Vikings had been raiding islands and coastal regions of Ireland, Scotland, and

England.

A CAREER IN GENETIC GENEALOGY That really isn’t surprising given that genetic genealogy is only 17 years old, and that there wasn’t enough interest, testing or tests to constitute a career or even a specialty in genetic genealogy for the first several years. I began writing the Personalized DNA Reports, available through Family Tree DNA and my website, in about 2004.

DNAEXPLAINED

You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. If she was 100% African, then that 0.78% would be the only African autosomal DNA of hers that you carry, on

average.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch DNA FILE UPLOAD-DOWNLOAD AND TRANSFER INSTRUCTIONS TO AND Some of my most popular articles are the instructions for how to download your DNA files from the various vendors in order to upload and transfer your DNA files to other vendors to obtain more matches. Now, I’ve put the instructions for all the vendors together in 442 ANCIENT VIKING SKELETONS HOLD DNA SURPRISES Yesterday, in the journal Nature, the article “Population genomics of the Viking world,” was published by Margaryan, et al, a culmination of 6 years of work. Just hours later, Science Daily published the article, “World’s largest DNA sequencing of Viking skeletons reveals they weren’t all Scandinavian.” Science magazine published “’Viking’ was a job description, not HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and ANCIENT ICELANDIC VIKING SETTLERS EXPAND THE Y DNA TREE The harsh yet starkly beautiful volcanic island of Iceland was only settled about 1100 years ago, between 870 and 930 CE (current era). Obviously, the original settlers had to originate in locations where populations were already established. During this time, Vikings had been raiding islands and coastal regions of Ireland, Scotland, and

England.

A CAREER IN GENETIC GENEALOGY That really isn’t surprising given that genetic genealogy is only 17 years old, and that there wasn’t enough interest, testing or tests to constitute a career or even a specialty in genetic genealogy for the first several years. I began writing the Personalized DNA Reports, available through Family Tree DNA and my website, in about 2004. ABOUT ME | DNAEXPLAINED Roberta Estes has been a professional scientist and business owner for 25+ years, (MS Computer Science, MBA, graduate work in Geographic Information Systems), as well as an obsessed genealogist since 1978. In 2005, reflecting her interest and expertise in genetics for genealogy, she formed DNAeXplain, a company providing individual analysis of DNA results and consulting A CAREER IN GENETIC GENEALOGY One of the questions I’m asked regularly is how one might prepare for a career in genetic genealogy. I can’t really answer that question very effectively, because there is no official path or course of study for this career. My own entry point was through a strong science and computer background, although my degrees are Y DNA: STEP-BY-STEP BIG Y ANALYSIS Many males take the Big Y-700 test offered by FamilyTreeDNA, so named because testers receive the most granular haplogroup SNP results in addition to 700+ included STR marker results. If you’re not familiar with those terms, you might enjoy the article, STRs vs SNPs, Multiple DNA Personalities. The Big Y test gives testers the best SHARED CM PROJECT 2020 ANALYSIS, COMPARISON & HANDY Recently, Blaine Bettinger published V4 of the Shared cM Project, and along with that, Jonny Perl at DNAPainter updated the associated interactive tool as well, including histograms. I wrote about that, here. The goal of the shared cM project was and remains to document how much DNA can be expected to be shared by various ANCIENT IRELAND’S Y AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA Ancient Ireland – the land of Tara and Knowth and the passage tombs of New Grange. Land of legend, romance, and perchance of King Arthur, or at least some ancient king who became Arthur in legend. The island of Ireland, today Ireland and Northern Ireland, was a destination location, it seems, the westernmost island in ANCESTRAL DNA PERCENTAGES The chart above shows how much of a particular generation of ancestors’ DNA you would inherit if each generation between you and that ancestor inherited exactly 50% of that ancestor’s DNA from their parent. This means, on the average, you will carry less than 1% of each of your 5 times great-grandparents DNA, shown in generation 7,

in total

THE WARRIOR GENE

The Warrior Gene is a variant of the gene MAO-A on the X chromosome and is one of many genes that play a part in our behavioral responses. The “Warrior Gene” variant reduces function in the MAOA gene. Because men have one copy of the X-chromosome, a variant that reduces the function of this gene has more of an influence on them. 23ANDME STEP BY STEP GUIDE: HOW TO UPLOAD-DOWNLOAD DNA In this Upload-Download series, we’ll cover each major vendor: How to download raw data files from the vendor How to upload raw data files to the vendor, if possible Other mainstream vendors where you can upload this vendor’s files Uploading TO 23andMe This part is easy with 23andMe, because 23andMe doesn’t accept any other

vendor’s

FULL OR HALF SIBLINGS? Many people are receiving unexpected sibling matches. Everyday on social media, “surprises” are being reported so often that they are no longer surprising – unless of course you're the people directly involved and then it's very personal, life-altering and you're in shock. Staring at a computer screen in stunned disbelief. Conversely, sometimes that surprise involves ACADIAN AMERINDIAN ANCESTRY PROJECT Acadian AmerIndian Ancestry Project. The Acadians – settlers, pioneers in a new land allied with and intermarried into the Native population of seaboard Nova Scotia beginning in 1603. They lived in harmony, developing their farms and then, roughly 150 years or 6 generations later, in 1755, they found themselves evicted, ruthlessly

and

DNAEXPLAINED

You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. If she was 100% African, then that 0.78% would be the only African autosomal DNA of hers that you carry, on

average.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A DNA INHERITED FROM GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT-GRANDPARENTS Philip Gammon, our statistician friend has been working with crossover simulations again in order to tell us what we might expect relative to how much DNA we actually inherit from grandparents and great-grandparents. We know that on average, we’re going to inherit 25% of our DNA from each grandparent – but we also know in

THE WARRIOR GENE

The Warrior Gene is a variant of the gene MAO-A on the X chromosome and is one of many genes that play a part in our behavioral responses. The “Warrior Gene” variant reduces function in the MAOA gene. Because men have one copy of the X-chromosome, a variant that reduces the function of this gene has more of an influence on them. HOW MUCH INDIAN DO I HAVE IN ME??? So, for this example, 1/16 becomes 2/32, 3/16 becomes 6/32 and 3/32 remains the same. 3. Add the Top Numbers Together. Now just add the numerators, or the top numbers together. 2/32 + 6/32 + 3/32 = 11/32. That’s the answer. In this example, our person, ACADIAN AMERINDIAN ANCESTRY PROJECT Acadian AmerIndian Ancestry Project. The Acadians – settlers, pioneers in a new land allied with and intermarried into the Native population of seaboard Nova Scotia beginning in 1603. They lived in harmony, developing their farms and then, roughly 150 years or 6 generations later, in 1755, they found themselves evicted, ruthlessly

and

DNAEXPLAINED

You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. If she was 100% African, then that 0.78% would be the only African autosomal DNA of hers that you carry, on

average.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A DNA INHERITED FROM GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT-GRANDPARENTS Philip Gammon, our statistician friend has been working with crossover simulations again in order to tell us what we might expect relative to how much DNA we actually inherit from grandparents and great-grandparents. We know that on average, we’re going to inherit 25% of our DNA from each grandparent – but we also know in

THE WARRIOR GENE

The Warrior Gene is a variant of the gene MAO-A on the X chromosome and is one of many genes that play a part in our behavioral responses. The “Warrior Gene” variant reduces function in the MAOA gene. Because men have one copy of the X-chromosome, a variant that reduces the function of this gene has more of an influence on them. HOW MUCH INDIAN DO I HAVE IN ME??? So, for this example, 1/16 becomes 2/32, 3/16 becomes 6/32 and 3/32 remains the same. 3. Add the Top Numbers Together. Now just add the numerators, or the top numbers together. 2/32 + 6/32 + 3/32 = 11/32. That’s the answer. In this example, our person, ACADIAN AMERINDIAN ANCESTRY PROJECT Acadian AmerIndian Ancestry Project. The Acadians – settlers, pioneers in a new land allied with and intermarried into the Native population of seaboard Nova Scotia beginning in 1603. They lived in harmony, developing their farms and then, roughly 150 years or 6 generations later, in 1755, they found themselves evicted, ruthlessly

and

THE WARRIOR GENE

The Warrior Gene is a variant of the gene MAO-A on the X chromosome and is one of many genes that play a part in our behavioral responses. The “Warrior Gene” variant reduces function in the MAOA gene. Because men have one copy of the X-chromosome, a variant that reduces the function of this gene has more of an influence on them. HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A A CAREER IN GENETIC GENEALOGY One of the questions I’m asked regularly is how one might prepare for a career in genetic genealogy. I can’t really answer that question very effectively, because there is no official path or course of study for this career. My own entry point was through a strong science and computer background, although my degrees are WHAT IS A HAPLOGROUP? Think of a haplogroup as an ancestral clan, a large family, like the Celts, or Vikings. These would be larger than Native American tribes, encompassing members of many tribes. There are two male Native American haplogroups that include all Native American males. There are a few more African clans, or haplogroups, but not many. ANCIENT IRELAND’S Y AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA Ancient Ireland – the land of Tara and Knowth and the passage tombs of New Grange. Land of legend, romance, and perchance of King Arthur, or at least some ancient king who became Arthur in legend. The island of Ireland, today Ireland and Northern Ireland, was a destination location, it seems, the westernmost island in

DNA-EXPLAINED.COM

1 day ago · dna-explained.com X-CHROMOSOME MATCHING AT FAMILY TREE DNA Just as they promised, and right on schedule, Family Tree DNA today announced X chromosome matching. They have fully integrated X matching into their autosomal Family Finder product matching. This will be rolling live today. Happy New Year from Family Tree DNA!!! In the article, X Marks the Spot, I showed the unique inheritance properties PROVING NATIVE AMERICAN ANCESTRY USING DNA Every day, I receive e-mails very similar to this one. “My family has always said that we were part Native American. I want to prove this so that I can receive help with money for college.” The reasons vary, and not everyone wants to prove their heritage in order to qualify for some type of NATIVE AMERICAN MITOCHONDRIAL HAPLOGROUPS New Native American Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups, Estes, 2017. Ancient A2a. Ancient samples (3) from Ekven, Russia, from a 2000 year old Eskimo cemetery near Uelen on the easternmost spit of land in the Bering Strait, one sample dating from about 100 BCE, one from about 900 BCE and one from about 30 BCE, Sikora 2019. FULL OR HALF SIBLINGS? Many people are receiving unexpected sibling matches. Everyday on social media, “surprises” are being reported so often that they are no longer surprising – unless of course you're the people directly involved and then it's very personal, life-altering and you're in shock. Staring at a computer screen in stunned disbelief. Conversely, sometimes that surprise involves

DNAEXPLAINED

You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. If she was 100% African, then that 0.78% would be the only African autosomal DNA of hers that you carry, on

average.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A DNA INHERITED FROM GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT-GRANDPARENTS Philip Gammon, our statistician friend has been working with crossover simulations again in order to tell us what we might expect relative to how much DNA we actually inherit from grandparents and great-grandparents. We know that on average, we’re going to inherit 25% of our DNA from each grandparent – but we also know in

THE WARRIOR GENE

The Warrior Gene is a variant of the gene MAO-A on the X chromosome and is one of many genes that play a part in our behavioral responses. The “Warrior Gene” variant reduces function in the MAOA gene. Because men have one copy of the X-chromosome, a variant that reduces the function of this gene has more of an influence on them. HOW MUCH INDIAN DO I HAVE IN ME??? So, for this example, 1/16 becomes 2/32, 3/16 becomes 6/32 and 3/32 remains the same. 3. Add the Top Numbers Together. Now just add the numerators, or the top numbers together. 2/32 + 6/32 + 3/32 = 11/32. That’s the answer. In this example, our person, ACADIAN AMERINDIAN ANCESTRY PROJECT Acadian AmerIndian Ancestry Project. The Acadians – settlers, pioneers in a new land allied with and intermarried into the Native population of seaboard Nova Scotia beginning in 1603. They lived in harmony, developing their farms and then, roughly 150 years or 6 generations later, in 1755, they found themselves evicted, ruthlessly

and

DNAEXPLAINED

You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. If she was 100% African, then that 0.78% would be the only African autosomal DNA of hers that you carry, on

average.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A DNA INHERITED FROM GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT-GRANDPARENTS Philip Gammon, our statistician friend has been working with crossover simulations again in order to tell us what we might expect relative to how much DNA we actually inherit from grandparents and great-grandparents. We know that on average, we’re going to inherit 25% of our DNA from each grandparent – but we also know in

THE WARRIOR GENE

The Warrior Gene is a variant of the gene MAO-A on the X chromosome and is one of many genes that play a part in our behavioral responses. The “Warrior Gene” variant reduces function in the MAOA gene. Because men have one copy of the X-chromosome, a variant that reduces the function of this gene has more of an influence on them. HOW MUCH INDIAN DO I HAVE IN ME??? So, for this example, 1/16 becomes 2/32, 3/16 becomes 6/32 and 3/32 remains the same. 3. Add the Top Numbers Together. Now just add the numerators, or the top numbers together. 2/32 + 6/32 + 3/32 = 11/32. That’s the answer. In this example, our person, ACADIAN AMERINDIAN ANCESTRY PROJECT Acadian AmerIndian Ancestry Project. The Acadians – settlers, pioneers in a new land allied with and intermarried into the Native population of seaboard Nova Scotia beginning in 1603. They lived in harmony, developing their farms and then, roughly 150 years or 6 generations later, in 1755, they found themselves evicted, ruthlessly

and

THE WARRIOR GENE

The Warrior Gene is a variant of the gene MAO-A on the X chromosome and is one of many genes that play a part in our behavioral responses. The “Warrior Gene” variant reduces function in the MAOA gene. Because men have one copy of the X-chromosome, a variant that reduces the function of this gene has more of an influence on them. HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A A CAREER IN GENETIC GENEALOGY One of the questions I’m asked regularly is how one might prepare for a career in genetic genealogy. I can’t really answer that question very effectively, because there is no official path or course of study for this career. My own entry point was through a strong science and computer background, although my degrees are WHAT IS A HAPLOGROUP? Think of a haplogroup as an ancestral clan, a large family, like the Celts, or Vikings. These would be larger than Native American tribes, encompassing members of many tribes. There are two male Native American haplogroups that include all Native American males. There are a few more African clans, or haplogroups, but not many. ANCIENT IRELAND’S Y AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA Ancient Ireland – the land of Tara and Knowth and the passage tombs of New Grange. Land of legend, romance, and perchance of King Arthur, or at least some ancient king who became Arthur in legend. The island of Ireland, today Ireland and Northern Ireland, was a destination location, it seems, the westernmost island in

DNA-EXPLAINED.COM

22 hours ago · dna-explained.com X-CHROMOSOME MATCHING AT FAMILY TREE DNA Just as they promised, and right on schedule, Family Tree DNA today announced X chromosome matching. They have fully integrated X matching into their autosomal Family Finder product matching. This will be rolling live today. Happy New Year from Family Tree DNA!!! In the article, X Marks the Spot, I showed the unique inheritance properties PROVING NATIVE AMERICAN ANCESTRY USING DNA Every day, I receive e-mails very similar to this one. “My family has always said that we were part Native American. I want to prove this so that I can receive help with money for college.” The reasons vary, and not everyone wants to prove their heritage in order to qualify for some type of NATIVE AMERICAN MITOCHONDRIAL HAPLOGROUPS New Native American Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups, Estes, 2017. Ancient A2a. Ancient samples (3) from Ekven, Russia, from a 2000 year old Eskimo cemetery near Uelen on the easternmost spit of land in the Bering Strait, one sample dating from about 100 BCE, one from about 900 BCE and one from about 30 BCE, Sikora 2019. FULL OR HALF SIBLINGS? Many people are receiving unexpected sibling matches. Everyday on social media, “surprises” are being reported so often that they are no longer surprising – unless of course you're the people directly involved and then it's very personal, life-altering and you're in shock. Staring at a computer screen in stunned disbelief. Conversely, sometimes that surprise involves

DNAEXPLAINED

You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. If she was 100% African, then that 0.78% would be the only African autosomal DNA of hers that you carry, on

average.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A DNA INHERITED FROM GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT-GRANDPARENTS Philip Gammon, our statistician friend has been working with crossover simulations again in order to tell us what we might expect relative to how much DNA we actually inherit from grandparents and great-grandparents. We know that on average, we’re going to inherit 25% of our DNA from each grandparent – but we also know in

THE WARRIOR GENE

The Warrior Gene is a variant of the gene MAO-A on the X chromosome and is one of many genes that play a part in our behavioral responses. The “Warrior Gene” variant reduces function in the MAOA gene. Because men have one copy of the X-chromosome, a variant that reduces the function of this gene has more of an influence on them. HOW MUCH INDIAN DO I HAVE IN ME??? So, for this example, 1/16 becomes 2/32, 3/16 becomes 6/32 and 3/32 remains the same. 3. Add the Top Numbers Together. Now just add the numerators, or the top numbers together. 2/32 + 6/32 + 3/32 = 11/32. That’s the answer. In this example, our person, ACADIAN AMERINDIAN ANCESTRY PROJECT Acadian AmerIndian Ancestry Project. The Acadians – settlers, pioneers in a new land allied with and intermarried into the Native population of seaboard Nova Scotia beginning in 1603. They lived in harmony, developing their farms and then, roughly 150 years or 6 generations later, in 1755, they found themselves evicted, ruthlessly

and

DNAEXPLAINED

You carry 50% of your mother, 25% of your grandmother, and so forth. You inherited approximately 0.78% of your GGGGG-Grandmother’s autosomal DNA, less than 1%. If she was 100% African, then that 0.78% would be the only African autosomal DNA of hers that you carry, on

average.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

The daughter and son both inherited the yellow mitochondrial DNA of their mother, and her mother and her mother. You can also see that the mustard-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to the paternal grandfather. The magenta-colored paternal great-grandmother gave her mitochondrial DNA to her daughter who gave

it to the

PICTS | DNAEXPLAINED Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker. He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically. As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DNA MATCHING SEGMENT DATA AND WHY … There are two or three types of data that testers may be able to download from DNA testing sites. Genealogy customers need to periodically download as much as possible. Raw data files needed for transferring DNA files from the company where you tested to other testing or analysis/comparison sites such as FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: LAST CHANCE TO PRESERVE If you’re one of the one million+ public participants in the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, you probably already know that testing has ceased and the website will be discontinued as of June 30th. Your results will no longer be available as of that date. I wrote about the closing here and HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A DNA INHERITED FROM GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT-GRANDPARENTS Philip Gammon, our statistician friend has been working with crossover simulations again in order to tell us what we might expect relative to how much DNA we actually inherit from grandparents and great-grandparents. We know that on average, we’re going to inherit 25% of our DNA from each grandparent – but we also know in

THE WARRIOR GENE

The Warrior Gene is a variant of the gene MAO-A on the X chromosome and is one of many genes that play a part in our behavioral responses. The “Warrior Gene” variant reduces function in the MAOA gene. Because men have one copy of the X-chromosome, a variant that reduces the function of this gene has more of an influence on them. HOW MUCH INDIAN DO I HAVE IN ME??? So, for this example, 1/16 becomes 2/32, 3/16 becomes 6/32 and 3/32 remains the same. 3. Add the Top Numbers Together. Now just add the numerators, or the top numbers together. 2/32 + 6/32 + 3/32 = 11/32. That’s the answer. In this example, our person, ACADIAN AMERINDIAN ANCESTRY PROJECT Acadian AmerIndian Ancestry Project. The Acadians – settlers, pioneers in a new land allied with and intermarried into the Native population of seaboard Nova Scotia beginning in 1603. They lived in harmony, developing their farms and then, roughly 150 years or 6 generations later, in 1755, they found themselves evicted, ruthlessly

and

THE WARRIOR GENE

The Warrior Gene is a variant of the gene MAO-A on the X chromosome and is one of many genes that play a part in our behavioral responses. The “Warrior Gene” variant reduces function in the MAOA gene. Because men have one copy of the X-chromosome, a variant that reduces the function of this gene has more of an influence on them. HAPLOGROUP MATCHING: WHAT IT DOES (AND DOESN’T) MEAN "Our haplogroups (sort of) match, so that means we're related, right?" Well, maybe. It depends. Great Question This is an oft-asked great question. Of course, the answer varies depending on the context of the question and what is meant by "related." A haplogroup match may or may not be a valid match for genealogy. A A CAREER IN GENETIC GENEALOGY One of the questions I’m asked regularly is how one might prepare for a career in genetic genealogy. I can’t really answer that question very effectively, because there is no official path or course of study for this career. My own entry point was through a strong science and computer background, although my degrees are WHAT IS A HAPLOGROUP? Think of a haplogroup as an ancestral clan, a large family, like the Celts, or Vikings. These would be larger than Native American tribes, encompassing members of many tribes. There are two male Native American haplogroups that include all Native American males. There are a few more African clans, or haplogroups, but not many. ANCIENT IRELAND’S Y AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA Ancient Ireland – the land of Tara and Knowth and the passage tombs of New Grange. Land of legend, romance, and perchance of King Arthur, or at least some ancient king who became Arthur in legend. The island of Ireland, today Ireland and Northern Ireland, was a destination location, it seems, the westernmost island in

DNA-EXPLAINED.COM

18 hours ago · dna-explained.com X-CHROMOSOME MATCHING AT FAMILY TREE DNA Just as they promised, and right on schedule, Family Tree DNA today announced X chromosome matching. They have fully integrated X matching into their autosomal Family Finder product matching. This will be rolling live today. Happy New Year from Family Tree DNA!!! In the article, X Marks the Spot, I showed the unique inheritance properties PROVING NATIVE AMERICAN ANCESTRY USING DNA Every day, I receive e-mails very similar to this one. “My family has always said that we were part Native American. I want to prove this so that I can receive help with money for college.” The reasons vary, and not everyone wants to prove their heritage in order to qualify for some type of NATIVE AMERICAN MITOCHONDRIAL HAPLOGROUPS New Native American Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups, Estes, 2017. Ancient A2a. Ancient samples (3) from Ekven, Russia, from a 2000 year old Eskimo cemetery near Uelen on the easternmost spit of land in the Bering Strait, one sample dating from about 100 BCE, one from about 900 BCE and one from about 30 BCE, Sikora 2019. FULL OR HALF SIBLINGS? Many people are receiving unexpected sibling matches. Everyday on social media, “surprises” are being reported so often that they are no longer surprising – unless of course you're the people directly involved and then it's very personal, life-altering and you're in shock. Staring at a computer screen in stunned disbelief. Conversely, sometimes that surprise involves DNAEXPLAINED – GENETIC GENEALOGY DISCOVERING YOUR ANCESTORS – ONE GENE AT A TIME

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EASTER & THE COVID PARABLE Posted on April 12, 2020

by

Roberta Estes

28

AND SO IT CAME TO PASS THAT A SCOURGE WAS UNLEASHED ACROSS THE LAND,

AND…

This reads like the beginning of a parable, the Covid Parable, because history is being made and the last half of the parable has yet to be

written.

This Easter is clearly different from any Easter that has ever come before. It’s a dark and frightening time. I’m reminded of those “choose your own adventure” books where the choices you make determine the outcome – but this is no novel and our choices mean life and death, both for ourselves and others. Instead of traditional Easter baskets, this year, my grandkids received a bucket of face masks functioning as a nest for chocolate. Necessity is the mother of invention. Truly, face masks are the single most loving thing I can do for my family now. The Easter Grandma delivered the basket by meeting half-way in-between our houses at a truck stop, outside, sliding a box into the back of their Dad’s truck and stepping away. No hugs this year. My granddaughters loved their custom masks. I hope those masks will become part of good memories about staying home together and pulling together to stop a pandemic in its tracks. In addition to the Easter bucket, packed into that box were 50 face masks for my son’s co-workers, public servants who have no choice, work with the public daily, yet have no face masks or other protective

gear.

We stood more than 6 feet part and chatted lightheartedly for a few minutes, making the best of an uncertain situation. I don’t know when I’ll see them again, or, truthfully if I will ever see them again. That’s excruciating, especially when turning to say goodbye and walking away. What do you even say, other than “I

love you”?

Due to my son’s career choice, he lives in some degree of danger every day. As a result, I’ve learned to deal with ever-present danger to some extent. Other family members have been in dangerous, life threatening situations too from time to time. The difference now is that everyone is in danger, all at once, from a stealthy, invisible

enemy.

How do we turn the tide on this rolling disaster? The next chapter in this pandemic story is up to you, and to me, and to our neighbors. In other words, our world-mates. Because just like with DNA, we’re all connected. WINNING THE FIGHT WITH A PAUSE FOR LOVE Doner, a Southfield-based ad agency created an incredibly inspirational video. I’m particularly proud of this ad because Doner was my customer for about 20 years when I worked in a technology field. They were then, and remain, an amazing, creative company and you can read, here, about how and why Doner created this video

.

Please watch, here  or

the Facebook link

if you’d prefer.

It’s is just beautifully done, and so hopeful.

WAKE UP CALL

This pandemic is clearly a wakeup call, in so many ways. It’s ironic, or perhaps prophetic, that this devastation is peaking during the Holy season. This time of year, in the spring as the Earth reawakens from its winter slumber in the northern hemisphere, every religion celebrates with their own rituals and traditions. Jewish families celebrate Passover with Sedar, the Christian faith celebrates Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter, Muslim people begin Ramadan and others celebrate Spring Equinox. The beautiful April

“Pink Moon” is

named for the time of year when pink flowers begin to bloom. Everyone celebrates the departure of cold and gloom in their own way, but this year, we are not celebrating in groups in an attempt to stop the advance of this Covid plague. We’re isolating at home using technology to come together, at least most of us are. The world has suddenly become a much quieter and less polluted place

,

healing a bit as we hunker down. It doesn’t matter whether or not your state has a mandatory lockdown order, you need to stay at home to protect yourself, and by protecting yourself, others. Just do it. It’s the single most important thing you can do to facilitate survival and limit the devastation. The alternative is unfathomable. Look at it this way – if everyone stays at home unnecessarily, or “too long,” the worst that happens is that we are uncomfortable, safely, at home. Conversely, if we don’t stay home, and should have, death on a massive scale will result. We are all in this together – the world is connected – by people.

One by one.

TAKE TIME FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION Might I suggest that this is an opportunity for personal introspection? Can we take this time to reflect, quietly and personally on what we can do to save ourselves, to save our neighbors, our elderly in nursing homes, people residing in group facilities, our beloved family members and life as we know it? Not everyone “prays” in the same way, but in the way that you seek the light, will you focus on the following intentions: * Resolve to stay home. Understand that you really don’t need to go anyplace and that you are literally saving lives by staying home. That’s all you need to “do,” literally nothing. * Consider that you really don’t need to see anyone personally to celebrate anything right now. * Use the technology available to interact and encourage others to do the same in order to stay connected while remaining at home and isolating. Facetime, Skype and Zoom are all easy to use on phones or

PCs.

* Send positive energy for world and local leaders to be guided to seek the wisest and most humane path – without political bias or ulterior motives. And I don’t mean just the politicians you support or like – I mean all of them because they are what and who we have right now and we are ALL in the same life-or-death battle together. * Figure out how you can help someone else, without going out and making the situation worse if you are a non-essential worker. Volunteer online, make masks for pickup – just select something

positive and do it.

* Pray, in whatever way you do, that we, as world citizens will find the wisdom, insight and resolve to stay at home. Then, after this is over, to collaborate and work together so that something like this never, ever has such deadly consequences again. Pray that humans never again ignore ominous signs as precious time slips away, until it’s

too late.

* Leave politics out of this for now – no matter how strongly you feel – unless you’re a politician. There will be plenty of time to resolve political situations later, but right now, we have a pandemic to survive and we need united focused behavior to do that. * If you are a politician, do everything you can to encourage people to stay home and to facilitate cooperation with surrounding governmental agencies, states and countries. Covid-19 knows no borders and our response can’t either – or we will all suffer and many will perish whose deaths could have been avoided. Set politics aside and reach out to find speedy solutions to obtain equipment, protect people and flatten the curve. When in doubt, trust the scientists. ISOLATION DOES NOT HAVE TO MEAN ALONE – FINDING INSPIRATION Staying home, especially this weekend, feels unnatural and insurmountable to many people, but it isn’t. Aside from electronic family-gathering tools like Zoom, Skype and Facetime, here are some uplifting, soothing options to make you feel good.

MUSIC

On Easter Sunday, Andrea Bocelli in combination with the mayor of Milan, Italy and the Duomo cathedral is offering a free live-streamed performance, Music For Hope. The cathedral will, of course, be vacant, except for Andrea and you, remotely. You can watch here at 6 PM UK, 10 AM PST and 1 PM EST. Even just the trailer is beautiful, inspirational and brings me to tears. I’ll be lighting my own candle for the world. You do the same! Regardless of your religious faith, music is uplifting and universally speaks to our souls. I would like to share nine of my favorite music videos. Sometimes when I’m feeling low or have a particularly difficult day, I listen to these inspirational selections. Perhaps you will enjoy them too: * Bette Midler – Wind Beneath My Wings – dedicated to our front line health care workers and those who continue to give, knowing they are literally risking their lives. * Josh Groban – You Raise Me Up * Susan Boyle audition on Britain’s Got Talent 2009 – I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables * Colm Wilkinson performing Bring Him Home

from Les Miserables

* John Berry – Your Love Amazes Me * Ed Sheeran – Perfect * If you think Ed Sheeran’s video above was wonderful, wait until you hear Ed and Andrea Bocelli performing together in Andrea’s home in

Tuscany.

* Hugh Jackman’s read-through for Greatest Showman – From Now On . This read-through is so full of passion – absolutely amazing. No words do this justice. * Kealla Settle, also during The Greatest Showman read-through performs courageously in This is Me

. I think these are

actually better than the movie. Let there be no doubt – the grace of God, Goddess, He or She, whatever you perceive the Deity to be, shines through these performers. Their music, a gift of courage that communes with our souls and lifts us up. If God is with Andrea Bocelli in the empty Duomo, and with these artists, then God is also with you, wherever you are. GOD IS IN THE GARDEN God isn’t in a building. God is in the garden. More to the point, God is with you wherever you are. You don’t need to “go someplace” or even listen to anyone else. God doesn’t just make house calls, God lives in you. God speaks through music, through others who grace our lives and through nature – directly to you. To your heart. God is found in nature. I built this labyrinth as a quiet place of reflection twenty years ago. God meets me here. I have walked this oh-so-familiar path hundreds or thousands of times. Sometimes seeking centering or healing, for myself or someone else. Sometimes with a heart filled with gratitude. Other times, blinded by burning tears of grief. Today, I try to leave my fear here, forging a path forward. Asking what I can do, and how, and finding the resources to do it. The answers are there, within each of us, if we quiet our minds and

listen.

I walk as fresh green growth appears and I’m hopeful, oh so hopeful that we will all do what we need to do, unselfishly, to save ourselves

and others.

It’s an individual choice we each have to make. WHAT’S THE ENDING? How will this pandemic end? Which of these scenarios will it be? “And so it came to pass that a scourge was unleashed across the

land…”

…and people took refuge in their houses. The plague was slowly defeated while the earth healed. People understood the message and resolved that a pandemic would never again ravage the earth. …and at least one in every family died. There were not enough graves. People buried their dead in trenches. There were no funerals. The people realized too late that they should have stayed home, but by then, it was too late. The economy collapsed and eventually food and everything else became scarce. Slowly people recovered, but life was never the same. Families were broken and the devastation lasted for 7

generations.

…and all but one in every family died. Some families were wiped from the face of the earth, and the earth was forever changed. All nations on the earth crumbled. The ending is up to you. CREATE THE END OF THE STORY You complete this chapter of our shared human history, the Covid

Parable.

How memorable, historically, will this event be? Just a blip on the radar, remembered for the next generation or two through family stories about face masks for Easter, or something on the scale of the Bubonic Plague that literally wiped out 60% of the population of

Europe? Or worse?

It’s up to you – today – tomorrow.

Stay home.

Stay safe.

Save lives.

You make the difference. Commune with God in the garden. Wherever you are, God is there too. Our collective future is in your hands. You are tasked with that.

What will it be?

Choose wisely.

Choose love.

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SHARED CM PROJECT 2020 ANALYSIS, COMPARISON & HANDY REFERENCE CHARTS Posted on April 9, 2020

by Roberta Estes

12

Recently, Blaine Bettinger published V4 of the Shared cM Project

,

and along with that, Jonny Perl at DNAPainter updated the associated interactive tool as well, including histograms. I wrote about that, here

.

The goal of the shared cM project was and remains to document how much DNA can be expected to be shared by various individuals at specific relationship levels. This information allows matches to at least minimally “position” themselves in a general location their trees or conversely, to eliminate specific potential relationships. Shared cM Project match data is gathered by testers submitting their match information through the submission portal, here

.

When the Shared cM Project V3 was released in September 2017, I combined information from various sources and provided an analysis of

that data

,

including the changes from the V2 release in 2016

.

I’ve done the same thing this year, adding the new data to the previous release’s table. COMPILED COMPARISON TABLE I initially compiled this table for myself, then decided to update it and share with my readers. This chart allows me to view various perspectives on shared data and relationships and in essence has all the data I might need, including multiple versions, in one place. Feel free to copy and save the table. In the comparison table below, the relationship rows with data from various sources is shown as follows: * White – Shared cM Project 2016 * Peach – Shared cM Project 2017 * Purple – Shared cM Project 2020 * Green – DNA Detectives chart I don’t know if DNA Detectives still uses the “green chart” or if they have moved to the interactive DNAPainter tool. I’ve retained the numbers for historical reference regardless. Additionally, in some places, you’ll see references to the “degree of relationship,” as in “third degree relatives always match each other.” I’ve included a “Degree of Relationship” column to the far right, but I don’t come across those “relationship degree” references often anymore either. However, it’s here for reference if

you need it.

23andMe still gives relationships in percentages, so I’ve included the expected shared percent of DNA for each relationship and the actual shared range from the DNA Detectives Green Chart. One column shows the expected shared cM amount, assuming that 50% of the DNA from each ancestor is passed on in each generation. Clearly, we know that inheritance doesn’t happen that cleanly because recombination is a random event and children do NOT inherit exactly half of each ancestor’s DNA carried by their parents, but the average should be someplace close to this number. click to open separately, then use your magnifier to enlarge The first thing I noticed about V4 is that there is a LOT more data which means that the results are likely more accurate. V4 increased by 32K data points, or 147%. Bravo to everyone who participated, to Blaine for the analysis and to Jonny for automating the results at

DNAPainter .

METHODS

Blaine provided his white paper, here

,

which includes “everything you need to know” about the project, and I strongly encourage you to read it. Not only does this document explain the process and methods, it’s educational in its own right. On the first page, Blaine discusses issues. Any time you are crowd sourcing information, you’re going to encounter challenges and errors. Blaine did remove any entries that were clearly problematic, plus an additional 1% of all entries for each category – .5% from each end meaning the largest and smallest entries. This was done in an attempt to remove the results most likely to be erroneous. Known issues include: * Data entry errors – I refer to these as “clerical mutations,” but they happen and there is no way, unless the error is egregious, to know what is a typo and what is real. Obviously, a parent sharing only a 10 cM segment with a child is not possible, but other data entry errors are well within the realm of possible. * Incorrect relationships – Misreported or misunderstood relationships will skew the numbers. Relationships may be believed to be one type, but are actually something else. For example, a half vs full sibling, or a half vs full aunt or uncle. * Misunderstood Relationships – People sometimes become confused as to the difference between “half” and “removed” from time to time. I wrote a helpful article titled Quick Tip – Calculating Cousin Relationships Easily

.

* Endogamy – Endogamy occurs when a population intermarries within itself, meaning that the same ancestral DNA is present in many members of the community. This genetic result is that you may share more DNA with those cousins than you would otherwise share with cousins at the same distance without endogamy. * Pedigree Collapse – Pedigree collapse occurs when you find the same ancestors multiple times in your tree. The closer to current those ancestors appear, the more DNA you will potentially carry from those repeat ancestors. The difference between endogamy and pedigree collapse is that endogamy is a community event and pedigree collapse has only to do with your own tree. You might just have both, too. * Company Reporting Differences – Different companies report DNA in different ways in addition to having different matching thresholds. For example, Family Tree DNA includes in your match total all DNA to 1 cM that you share with a match over the matching threshold. Conversely, Ancestry has a lower matching threshold, but often strips out some matching DNA using Timber. 23andMe counts fully identical segments twice and reports the X chromosome in their totals. MyHeritage does not report the X chromosome. There is no “right” or “wrong,” or standardization, simply different approaches. Hopefully, the variances will be removed or smoothed in the averages. * Distant Cousin Relationships – While this isn’t really an issue, per se, it’s important to understand what is being reported beyond 2nd cousin relationships in that the only relationships used to calculate these averages is the DNA from people who DO share DNA with their more distant cousins. In other words, if you do NOT match your 3rd cousin, then your “0” shared DNA is not included in the average. Only those who do match have their matching amounts included. This means that the average is only the average of people who match, not the average of all 3rd cousins. Challenges aside, the Shared cM Project provides genealogists with a wonderful opportunity to use the combined data of tens of thousands of relationships to estimate and better understand the relationship range

of our matches.

The Shared cM Project in combination with DNAPainter provides us with a wonderful tool.

HISTOGRAMS

When analyzing the data, one of the first things I noticed was a very unusual entry for parent/child relationships. We all know that children each inherit exactly half of their parent’s DNA. We expect to find an amount in the ballpark of 3400, give or take a bit for normal variances like read errors or reporting

differences.

click to enlarge

I did not expect to see a minimum shared cM amount for a child/parent relationship at 2376, fully 1024 cM below expected value of 3400 cM. Put bluntly, that’s simply not possible. You cannot live without one third of one of your parent’s DNA. If this data is actually accurate from someone’s account, please contact me because I want to actually see this phenomenon. I reached out to Blaine, knowing this result is not actually possible, wondering how this would ever get through the quality control cycle at

any vendor.

After some discussion, here’s Blaine’s reply: If you look at the histogram, you’ll see that those are most likely outliers. One of my lessons for the ScP (Shared cM Project) lately is that people shouldn’t be using the data without the histograms. People get frustrated with this, but I can’t edit data without a basis even if I think it doesn’t make sense. I have to let the data itself decide what data to remove. So I removed 1% from each relationship, the lowest 0.5% and the highest 0.5%. I could have removed more, but based on the histograms, more appeared to be removing too much valid data. As people submit more parent/child relationships these outliers/incorrect submissions will be removed. But thankfully using the histograms makes it clear. Indeed, if you look on page 23 on Blaine’s white paper, you’ll see the following histogram of parent/child relationships submitted.

click to enlarge

Keep in mind that Blaine already removed any obvious errors, plus 1% of the total from either end of the spectrum. In this case, he utilized 2412 submissions, so he would have removed about 24 entries that were even further out on the data spectrum. On the chart above, we can see that a total of about 14 are still really questionable. It’s not until we get to 3300 that these entries seem feasible. My speculation is that these people meant to type 3400 instead of 2400, and so forth.

click to enlarge

The great news is that Jonny Perl at DNAPainter included the histograms so you can judge for yourself if you are in the weeds on the outlier scale by clicking on

the relationship.

click to enlarge

Other relationships, like this niece/nephew relationship fit the expected bell shaped curve very nicely. Of course, this means that if you match your niece or nephew at 900 cM instead of the range shown above, that person is probably not your full niece or nephew – a revelation that may be difficult because of the implications for you, your parent and sibling. This would suggest that your sibling is a half sibling, not a full sibling. Entering specific amounts of shared DNA and outputting probabilities of specific relationships is where the power of DNAPainter enters the picture. Let’s enter 900 cM and see what happens. That 900 cM match is likely your half niece or nephew. Of course, this example illustrates perfectly why some relationships are entered incorrectly – especially if you don’t know that your niece or nephew is a half niece or nephew – because your sibling is a half-sibling instead of a full sibling. Some people, even after receiving results don’t realize there is a discrepancy, either because their data is on the boundary, with various relationships being possible, or because they don’t understand or internalize the

genetic message.

click to enlarge

This phenomenon probably explains the low minimum value for full siblings, because many of those full siblings aren’t. Let’s enter 1613 and see what DNAPainter says. You’ll notice that DNAPainter shows the 1613 cM relationship as a

half-sibling.

And the histogram indeed shows that 1613 would be the outlier. Being larger that 1600, it would appear in the 1700 category.

click to enlarge

Accurately discerning close relationships is often incredibly important to testers. In the histogram chart above, you can see that the blue and orange histograms plotted on the same chart show that there is only a very small amount of overlap between the two histograms. This suggests that some people, those in the overlap range, who believe they are full siblings are in reality half-siblings, and possibly, a few in the reverse situation as well. WHAT ELSE IS NOTEWORTHY? FIRST, some relationships cannot be differentiated or sorted out by using the cM data or histogram charts alone.

click to enlarge

For example, you cannot tell the difference between half-siblings and an aunt/uncle relationship. In order to make that determination, you would need to either test or compare to additional people or use other clues such as genealogical research or geographic proximity. SECOND, the ranges of many relationships are wider than they were before. Often, we see the lows being lower and the highs being higher as a result of more data.

click to enlarge

For example, take a look at grandparents. The expected relationship is 1700 cM, the average is 1754 which is very close to the previous average numbers of 1765 and 1766. However, the minimum is now 984 and the new maximum is 2462. Why might this be? Are ranges actually wider? Blaine removed 1% each time, which means that in V3, 6 results would have been removed, 3 from each end, while 11 would be removed in V4. More data means that we are likely to see more outliers as entries increase, with the relationship ranges are increasingly likely to overlap on the minimum and maximum ends. THIRD, it’s worth noting that several relationships share an expected amount of DNA that is equal, 12.5% which equals 850 cM, in

this example.

click to enlarge

These four relationships appear to be exactly the same, genetically. The only way to tell which one of these relationships is accurate for a given match pair, aside from age (sometimes) and opportunity, is to look at another known relationship. For example, how closely might the tester be related to a parent, sibling, aunt, uncle or first cousin, or one of their other matches. Occasionally, an X chromosome match will be enlightening as well, given the unique inheritance path of the

X chromosome .

Additional known relationships help narrow unknown relationships, as

might Y DNA or

mitochondrial DNA

testing, if appropriate. You can read about who can test for the various kinds of tests, here

.

FOURTH, it’s been believed for several years that all 5th degree relatives, and above, match, and the V4 data confirms that.

click to enlarge

There are no zeroes in the column for minimum DNA shared, 4th column

from right.

5th degree relatives include:

* 2nd cousins

* 1st cousins twice removed * Half first cousins once removed * Half great-aunt/uncle FIFTH, some of your more distant cousins won’t match you, beginning with 6th degree relationships.

click to enlarge

At the 6th degree level, the following relationships may share no DNA above the vendor matching threshold: * First cousins three times removed * Half first cousins twice removed * Half second cousins * Second cousins once removed You’ll notice that the various reporting models and versions don’t always agree, with earlier versions of the Shared cM Project showing zeroes in the minimum amount of DNA shared. SIXTH, at the 7th degree level, some number of people in every relationship class don’t share DNA, as indicated by the zeros in the Shared cM Minimum column.

click to enlarge

The more generations back in time that you move, the fewer cousins can be expected to match. This chart from the ISOGG Wiki Cousin statistics page shows the probability of matching a cousin at a specific level based on information provided by

testing companies.

QUICK REFERENCE CHART SUMMARY In summary, V4 of the Shared cM Project confirms that all 2nd cousins can expect to match, but beyond that in your trees, cousins may or may not match. I suspect, without evidence, that the further back in time that people are related, the less likely that the proper “cousinship level” is reported. For example, it would be easier to confuse 7th and 8th cousins as compared to 1st and 2nd cousins. Some people also confuse 8th cousins with 8 generations back in your tree. It’s not

equivalent.

click to enlarge

It’s interesting to note that Degree 17 relatives, 8th cousins, 9 generations removed from each other (counting your parents as generation 1), still match in some cases. Note that some companies and people count you as generation 1, while others count your parents as

generation 1.

The estimates of autosomal matching reaching 5 or 6 generations back in time, meaning descendants of common 4 times great-grandparents will sometimes match, is accurate as far as it goes, although 5-6 generations is certainly not a line in the sand. It would be more accurate to state that: * 2nd cousins, people descended from common great-grandparents, 3 generations back in time will always match * 4th cousins, people descended from common 3 times great grandparents, 5 generations back in time, will match about half of the

time

* 8th cousins, people descended from 7 times great grandparents, 9 generations back in time still match a small percentage of the time * Cousins from more distant ancestors can possibly match, but it’s unlikely and may result from a more recent unknown ancestor I created this summary chart, combining information from the ISOGG chart and the Shared cM Project as a handy quick reference. Enjoy!

click to enlarge

_____________________________________________________________

DISCLOSURE

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA PURCHASES AND FREE TRANSFERS * FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing

* MyHeritage DNA

– ancestry autosomal DNA only, not health * MyHeritage DNA plus Health * MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – transfer your results from other vendors free * AncestryDNA – autosomal DNA only * 23andMe Ancestry – autosomal DNA only,

no Health

* 23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

* LivingDNA

GENEALOGY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES * MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder – genealogy software for your computer * MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial * Legacy Family Tree Webinars – genealogy and DNA classes, subscription based, some free * Legacy Family Tree Software

– genealogy

software for your computer * Charting Companion – Charts and Reports to use with your genealogy software or FamilySearch

GENEALOGY RESEARCH

* Legacy Tree Genealogists – professional genealogy research

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PANDEMIC JOURNAL: THE INFLUENCE OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND HOW IT’S

SAVING US RIGHT NOW

Posted on April 7, 2020

by Roberta Estes

51

The metamorphosis is now complete. I swear, I’ve now officially

become my mother.

Mom doesn’t just “come out of my mouth” on occasion. No, I’ve become her – well except that I’ll never fit into her literal clothes. In spite of the fact that fudge was mother’s favorite food and she believed religiously in first, second and third dessert, she was rail thin. How is this fair? My mother was a child of the “Great Depression ,” except the only thing “great” about the Depression was its decade-long duration. Beginning with a stock market plummet in October of 1929, drought followed in 1930 throughout the agricultural heartland of America. Investors lost everything, jobs disappeared, farms were repossessed, banks failed and closed and people were terrified, with reason. This iconic 1936 photo taken by Dorothea Lange titled Migrant Mother shows a destitute pea picker in California. Florence Owens Thompson, age 32, mother of 7, hungry, dirty and not knowing where their next meal would come from represented the greatest fear that haunted all Americans. For many, it wasn’t just a fear, it was all too real. The economic downturn which became the Depression began in the US, eventually encircling the globe. The Depression didn’t ease until the late 1930s and then was promptly followed by WWII which ushered in a slew of deprivations of its own including rationing. 1943 rationing poster Mother was born in 1922 in a crossroads town in northern Indiana. She was all of 7 years old when the Depression hit. She, of course, couldn’t and wouldn’t understand all of the underpinnings. What she was acutely aware of was that her father lost the hardware business, her mother’s job, such as it was, was the only thing that stood between her family and abject poverty. Income was critically affected, almost non-existent, without enough for even essentials. Mom’s maternal grandmother, Eva Miller Ferverda

,

loaned her son, John Ferverda

,

money and forgave the debt upon her death in 1939. To make matters worse, mother was critically in during that time with Rheumatic Fever. Her father and grandmother cared for her while her mother worked. There was just no other choice. Money was tight, very tight – but unlike so many others, they did not lose their home, thanks primarily to Mom’s paternal grandmother. Mom and her parents didn’t live on a farm, but on the very edge of a small town, not even large enough for a stop light. The town stretched a couple blocks in either direction from the main crossroads of two state highways. Businesses consisted of my grandfather’s hardware store, before that business closed, and the Ford dealership which sold both vehicles and tractors. Mom’s father, John Ferverda, worked there after he lost the hardware store, until there were no sales so no need for a salesman. I don’t think mother realized how much the Depression influenced her childhood and formed many of her personality traits. In turn, she passed them on to me – although I’ve struggled to break some of those ingrained habits for years. This past month, or really just the past couple of weeks, they’ve come roaring back with a vengeance – apparently having been lurking just below the surface. Some of these “quirky behaviors” are actually quite useful. Others make me smile with nearly-forgotten memories. Perhaps you carry some of these hidden depression-era traits too. BEFORE RECYCLING WAS A THING In the 1930s, there wasn’t “disposable” anything. Throwing something away was simply wasteful, heresy, and it was never, ever done – not until its original purpose and a few repurposed lives had been completed and there was literally, nothing left at all that was salvageable. Then, and only then, could it be thrown away. By then, “it” was unrecognizable. Let’s take bread wrappers, for example – the disposable plastic bread bags that we take for granted today, throwing them away without even thinking, although I always have a twinge of guilt. That never happened at my house when I was growing up. We routinely saved plastic bread bags and reused them for storage. When we had too many, Mom would crochet them into a rug to pad the floor standing at the kitchen sink or the ironing board. One year, Mom even found a pattern to crochet a Christmas wreath from bread bags. I kid you not. This recycling before that word was even invented was normal in our

house.

We seldom got new clothes. Most of our clothes were hand-me-downs from either someone directly or a second-hand store of some sort. Being gifted with new old clothes was wonderful and nothing to be ashamed of! After we initially acquired the clothes, they were “taken in” or “let out” to fit a child as they grew or were passed to another child in the family. The sign of a great piece of clothing was a HUGE

SEAM ALLOWANCE.

When grocery items began to be sold in glass jars, those were never thrown away either. Jars sufficed for everything. In fact, I still have a glass jar upstairs with “old silverware” in it that belonged to Mom, and perhaps to her mother too. You never threw anything away because not only was it wasteful and irresponsible, you truly never knew when you or someone else would need that item. During the Depression, and after, you simply found a way to make do with what

you had.

During that time, chickens, wild berry bushes and a large vegetable garden saved the family. Mother cleaned the chickens that were butchered and sold. She was paid a nickel for each clean chicken. For the entire rest of her life, she pretty much hated chicken, except for fried chicken, and she utterly despised cleaning the chicken. I think she viewed them as her murdered friends and not a commodity food source. I inherited that soft-hearted worldview too. However, during the Depression, you ate whatever you were fortunate enough to have. Period. There was no expectation that you would actually LIKE what was served – that was a benefit. Today when I see kids refusing to eat something, I think to myself, “you have never truly been hungry.” That’s the blessing of course, as is having

food at all.

At home, after clothes could no longer be salvaged and made into anything else, they were deposited into the “rag bag,” a coarse brown bag fashioned from rough upholstery material salvaged from an old couch. The rag bag hung on a hook on a door in the closet that led to the attic. Rags were quite useful – for cleaning, for turbans around your hair from time to time – and also to crochet into rugs. Yes, Mom made just about everything into rugs. It was the last salvage of the nearly unsalvageable. If there was any cotton fabric in the rag bag that wasn’t entirely threadbare and had any color left in the fibers at all, it was a candidate to be used in a quilt. You could always tell the quilts from wealthier, meaning not poor, families because their quilts were actually planned with matching fabrics. Not ours. We had scrap quilts, made by patching things together, which I always loved and continue to love to this day. Scrap quilts are a storybook of history and we always talked about the “life story” of the piece of fabric we were sewing – the pieces of clothing the fabric used to be, who wore it, how it wound up in the rag bag and so forth. Some of those fabrics were decades and literally generations old. How I wish I had written those stories down – but they didn’t seem remarkable at the time. Everyone had a rag bag. We were just making small talk,

after all.

This quilt, made originally during the Depression by my great-grandmother, Nora Kirsch

,

used on my grandmother and then mother’s bed, has been patched now using my grandmother’s handkerchiefs. It had literal holes, but the thought of cutting that quilt traumatized my kids, so like my ancestors, I found a way to preserve it, one more time. By the time one of my granddaughters inherits it, such as it is, it will be connected through 6 generations over more than a century.

DEPRESSION CULTURE

The Depression wasn’t just a defining event, it formed the culture in which my mother grew up. Frugality was ingrained by some combination of fear and guilt-induced obligation. Eventually, I inherited the rag bag and used the items in that bag, along with the rag rugs, the bread bag Christmas wreath which eventually deteriorated and fell apart, along with decades worth of glass jars and things too “good” to throw away or pass on to someone else just yet. Of course, part of the “problem” was that as the economy improved, the need to obtain hand-me-down items from someone else to “set up housekeeping” was greatly diminished. Looking back, I’m not convinced that was a good thing, because I still have items from my mother and grandmother’s houses gifted to me when I moved to my first apartment. They aren’t “used,” simply accepted as second rate undesirables, but were and are cherished treasures infused with memories of a time, place and people

long gone now.

You can take the child out of the Depression, but you can never take the Depression out of the child. Those behaviors become generational. If you are the child of someone who lived through the Depression, I’m sure you have stories of your own just like these. And just like me, those legendary stories might all have come rushing back during these past couple of weeks. I used to think to myself when Mom did one of her “Depression Era” things that I understood. While I understood the genesis of the behavior, never until these past few weeks did I understand the fear that accompanied the scarcity and subsequent rationing that occurred

during WWII.

The Depression hit Mom’s family with the same suddenness that the pandemic has struck our generation. We don’t know, as they didn’t know, what’s coming. How bad is bad? What businesses will be left? What will happen to all of those people? Can we hold on? For how long?

How will we eat?

And what about toilet paper?

TOILET PAPER

Toilet paper at that time consisted of the Sears catalog located strategically in the outhouse. I’m beginning to size up the different kinds of junk mail for “texture.” Obviously, something glossy isn’t good and neither is stiff and crunchy. Thank goodness I saved those old phone books – they look just about right! Mother

would be proud!

Just 14 weeks ago, when this pandemic was still an illness in China that no one had heard about anyplace else in the world, my husband and I were leaving for a trip to Australia and New Zealand in the midst of their searing heat and bush fires. We purchased and took 4 boxes of face masks with us to protect ourselves from the smoke. We opened one box and put a couple of masks in our backpacks, but we never used any of them. I wanted to bring the masks home, because I am my mother’s daughter and we might need them someday. However, I had purchased fabric and my bag was both full and heavy. My husband convinced me to leave the masks in the cabin. I told myself that the crew might need them to protect themselves from the bush fire smoke. I certainly hope someone got some use out of them and they didn’t just get thrown away. It pains me to even think about that – especially NOW that I desperately want those face masks. Do you know how valuable 4 boxes of face masks would be? Not just monetarily, but for the medical professionals and others. It’s amazing now how valuable TP and face masks have become. We would have

been RICH!

Mom’s vindicated. I’m vindicated. My husband is wearing a cloth mask instead of a stylish blue paper mask that we left behind – and hopefully a crew member someplace is safer for those masks. Ironically, I’m not sweating TP, because as a result of being raised by a Depression Era mother, I have years worth of lone socks that, in a pinch, will suffice as TP sock-mits. Just wipe and deposit in the washing machine. And NO, you cannot JUST THROW THEM AWAY, because you have no idea how long you might need them. Before saying “ewwww” too loudly, remember when we used cloth diapers on babies because pampers didn’t yet exist? We washed those diapers every day and thought nothing of it. I’ve also stopped using paper towels because who knows how long they will be manufactured. We might need paper towels for TP, you know, before we break out those orphan socks that I knew, just knew, I’d find a use for eventually if I just kept them long enough. Soon enough, lone stray socks will be just as valuable as TP. Find yours now wherever they’ve been congregating for years, waiting for their new purpose in life redeployed as TP sock-warriors. IT’S ALL A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE I’ve been sorting through things in the closets and put several items with rips in a bag in the laundry room already, but I’m trying NOT to call it a rag bag. I may last another day or two before I give

in on that one.

Of course, jeans with rips are quite popular right now, so I’m wearing those again and am now quite the fashionista:) I even patched one of the jeans, strategically, with matching fabric from a face mask. A coordinated pandemic outfit! Everyone is going to want one! Not only that, but I’ve sewn phone pockets onto my PJs and leggings. I’m referring to them as holsters for face-mask sewing warriors instead of PJ pockets. It’s all in perspective and marketing,

right???

Mother and grandmother would BOTH be so proud, I’m telling you. But that’s not all…

FOOD

Another thing that has changed immensely in the last month is food. Everyone likes to eat. My grandmother worked first for a chicken hatchery and then for the welfare office. In both cases, unlike other women of her era, she was not “at home” to cook, so she relied heavily on meals she would either make in advance or quickly in the

evening.

I’m not quite sure why my grandfather didn’t cook when he wasn’t working during the Depression, but he didn’t and neither did my uncle. Back then, cooking was probably considered woman’s work. Mom began cooking as soon as she could reach the stove even though she was the youngest family member. All things considered, it’s no wonder my grandmother was perpetually exasperated. Her husband lost the hardware store through no fault of his own, they were in debt, he next lost a sales job at the Ford dealership. She worked to support the entire family, AND performed all of the traditional “woman’s work” too. No wonder she was chronically unhappy. While it wasn’t anyone’s “fault,” per se, it was still a fact that these unfortunate events had happened and for a decade, followed by a war, there was no way out except for sheer perseverance. That economic situation lasted for 15 or 16 years in total, almost a full generation – by which time my mother was grown, married and my brother had been born. One of the favorite things that churchwomen did to liven up mealtime and to raise money for the church and charities was to publish a

church cookbook.

True to form, the Methodist Church where my grandparents lived published a book in 1953 or 1954, and my grandmother is represented. I think I might have found the source of my Mom’s favorite fudge! Unlike the other women who contributed their “best recipe,” probably determined by how quickly it disappeared at pot-lucks or funeral lunches at the church – my grandmother’s recipe was how to make something called “Master Mix.” click recipe pages to enlarge Think of this as an early form of Bisquick which you made up in advance, dry, and used it as the base to make several dishes such as cookies, dumplings, pudding, griddle cakes and waffles. All of a sudden, we too are suddenly stuck at home, without necessarily ready access to a grocery store – and if we can visit, they may likely be out of a large number of items. We’re consigned to a type of “food challenge” which could reasonably be called Pandemic Cooking. You use whatever you have available, forgotten in the far corners of your pantry, and find some way to create something that results in an edible dish. Everyone is getting quite creative. I though it would be interesting to take a look at that cookbook published before I was born to see what my grandmother contributed. Hey, maybe something looks good. That cookbook was published before the days of exact measurements, which lends itself very well to “make do” cooking. Next, I checked Mom’s recipe box where I knew goodies lurked.

MOM’S RECIPE BOX

Like all women of Mom’s generation, she had a recipe box that was a virtual goldmine of wonderful comfort-food with many recipes, finally committed to cards, that had been passed down for generations. Most of the time, Mom didn’t even have to look at the recipe when making our favorite dishes. Both of us knew that fudge recipe by heart, I

guarantee.

There are references throughout my mother’s recipe box to a “pinch of” something and instructions to work the dough “until it feels right.” I learned to cook this way and always have – much to

Jim’s chagrin.

“How much of that did you put in?” “I don’t know, enough but not too much. Till it looks right.” Yep, I’m my mother’s daughter alright. The transition to mother’s double seems to be complete, because I pulled a spaghetti sauce jar out of the trash earlier this week and washed it, thinking “we might need this.” You never know what might happen and how long the ramifications of the pandemic might last. Who knows, spaghetti jars might be just as valuable for barter

as TP one day.

The good news is that there’s only one bread bag in the house right now, and it’s holding bread. At least presently. Plus, I can’t crochet. There’s that. Don’t ask how I know, but you can’t use bread bags in quilts. (If you figure out how, please, just don’t

tell me – OK?!)

I am however, jealously saving even the smallest scraps of fabric from making protective facial masks for medical workers because I might need those remnants for a scrap quilt. Now, if I can just find the lids to all of the orphan Tupperware, or is that too much to ask? THROWBACK COOKING AND YOU! You’re probably finding yourself in the process of attempting to cook with whatever you have on hand too. You may discover items in the back of the pantry that are older than your children. Mom, like her mother, worked her entire life – so her recipe box also contained a plethora of yummy recipes, many of which were also quick. Most of Mom’s recipes, however, cater to her sweet tooth. It wasn’t until I was digitizing and creating an index that I realized that the recipes for chocolate and sweets far, far outnumbered everything else – put together. Don’t believe me – check it out for yourself by clicking on the link below to download a cookbook of sorts that I created from Mom’s Recipe Box. Please download and enjoy. Mother’s Recipe Box A few years ago, for a family Christmas gift, I scanned the recipes in Mom’s recipe box. Perhaps you’ll find some new recipes to try, or a dish that perhaps you’ll recognize from a long-ago church

carry-in.

If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll find some comfort food from your childhood that you’ve forgotten about and you’ll have almost everything to make it! Or, try Mom’s fudge! Let me know if you find something fun here, or share a story. By the time we exit out the other side of this pandemic, we’ll be cooking like our mothers and grandmothers, using whatever is on hand, not following any recipe exactly and “seasoning to taste.” Maybe this is a good time to scan your family recipes and document your memories. Seeing your ancestor’s handwriting and connecting with them as they survived trying times might just help you feel

better.

_____________________________________________________________

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JOHANN JAKOB LENZ (1712-1793), GRENADIER & CAPTAIN OF THE ROMAN COMPANY – 52 ANCESTORS #279 Posted on April 4, 2020

by Roberta Estes

7

Johann Jakob Lenz was born in Beutelsbach, Germany among the vineyards on July 25, 1712 to Johann Georg Lenz and Sibilla Muller. Unlike other Lenz men for generations, he is not referred to as a weingartner, or vine tender in the vineyard. Instead, he appears to be a captain of the Roman Company – a military man. Johann Jakob died in Beutelsbach on March 8, 1793 at 81 years of age – quite a remarkable achievement before the days of modern medicine. We find information about Johann Jakob Lentz in the Beutelsbach local

heritage book, here

.

Martin Goll, local historian, reports additional information in the

notes, as follows:

Bemerkungen:_(notes)_ Kann lesen und schreiben. Hat ettlich Jahr lang allhier und in Stetten gedient. Ist 1734 in die Außwahl als Grendadier kommen. Hat sich 1742

losgekauft.

Todesursache: Halsentzündung

Ehebuch:

Gefreyter und hrn. Hauptmann von Roman Compagnie. Hat seinen Trauschein von Herrn Obrist Lieutenat Pentz vorgezeigt, welcher von dem Herrn Specialis von Schorndorf durch mich geschickt worden, darauf er die Conzesion zur Copulation erteilt. Auto-translated to English by Deepl, they read:

Comments: _(notes)_

Can read and write. Served here and in Stetten for several years. Was elected grenadier in 1734. Bought himself out in 1742. Cause of death: throat inflammation. Marriage book: Corporal of Herr Captain of Roman Compagnie. Has shown his marriage certificate from Lieutenant Colonel Pentz, who was sent by the Specialis von Schorndorf through me, after which he gives the permission to marry. Does this suggest that perhaps Johann Jakob was serving elsewhere and had to return home to marry? WHAT IS A GRENADIER? According to this research , grenadiers were elite assault troops chosen for being the most physically powerful soldiers and would lead assaults in the field of battle. Grenadiers would also often lead the storming of fortification breaches in siege warfare.

A drawing, here

,

shows a grenadier from Upper Saxony in 1734. Johann Jakob may have looked much like this in uniform. Perhaps Catharina found him to be quite handsome! She wouldn’t be the first young woman to be smitten by a man in uniform. This painting shows Prussian Grenadiers with mitre hats advancing on foot during the Battle of Hohenfriedberg in 1745, just three years after Johann Jakob “bought himself out.” The grenadiers were distinguished from other soldiers by their distinctive headgear, mitre caps, the ones above being from Prussia. It appears that Johann Jakob served in the military for at least 8 years, and probably longer. He was elected to grenadier in 1734, which means that he was already serving. Born in 1712, he would have been 22 by that time. I wish there were German military records or some way to discover what he was doing during those years, and where. A timeline of Germany history

shows that

there was no warfare from 1716 to 1740. In December 1740 the Prussian King Frederick the Great issued an ultimatum to Austria demanding the cession of Silesia and a week later, Prussia invaded Silesia beginning

the Silesian Wars.

Beutelsbach was part of Wurttemburg

,

the Holy Roman Empire, which was apparently not directly involved in the Prussian invasion of Silesia. However, assuredly, soldiers were militarized with war so close to their borders, ever vigilant, if not

more.

Johann Jakob apparently “bought himself out” in 1742, perhaps before the treaty was signed in July. I was unable to discover information about how German soldiers “bought themselves out” of military service, which suggests perhaps that he was serving either mandatory service or maybe he had signed a contract of some sort. Or maybe “bought himself out” means something else entirely, like bought himself out of that specific position. Regardless, what we can take away from this is that he was a large, strong man, based on the fact that he was elected as a grenadier. Ironic that a tough soldier died of “throat inflammation.” I suspect that throat inflammation or sore throat was actually something else. One did not simply die of a sore throat, so perhaps his final illness included a sore throat which could have been a strep infection that evolved into something much more serious. Johann Jakob couldn’t have been stationed too far away in the military, because he married his first wife, Catharina Beerwarth, on April 25, 1741. Catharina was from his hometown, Beutelsbach. Unfortunately, that marriage didn’t last long. JOHANN JAKOB BECOMES A WIDOWER Johann Jakob married his first wife Catharina Beerwarth while he was still in the military service. They had one son Johann Jacob Lenz who was born August 25, 1742, 16 months after they were married. This child died a few days later, on September 2, 1742. It was also in 1742 that Johann Jakob “bought himself” out of the military. Was Catharina experiencing problems during the pregnancy that eventually took the life of their child, and then her own life as well? Catharina was born October 24, 1708 and died four months after her child, on January 16, 1743, of steckfluss which translates to either pneumonia or bronchitis. It was the middle of winter. Catharina’s mother was Katharina Lenz born in 1675 in Schnait, the neighbor village, daughter of Caspar Lenz and Anna Maria Baur, so she and Johann Jakob were very probably related in some fashion, although it may have been several generations earlier, assuming they were only related on one line, which isn’t a safe assumption at all in these small, intermarried, villages where residents had lived for countless

centuries.

JOHANN JAKOB REMARRIES Johann Jakob’s second wife was Katharina Haag, born April 25, 1716 in Heiningen to Jorg Haag and Anna Hofschneider. Katharina and Johann Jakob Lenz were married on November 2, 1744 (corrected to 1743) in Heiningen where she lived with her parents. Katherine was 27 when she married, had never been married before and had always lived with her parents, according to Martin Goll’s notes. Interestingly,  another note reveals that she had endured a 6 weeks long headache, which causes me to wonder about closed head injuries as well as either meningitis, meningismus or encephalitis – all diseases or injuries which would cause a severe protracted headache. Heiningen was not close to Beutelsbach. In fact, it was some 20 miles away. Twenty miles today is a quick trip in the car, but 20 miles then required a horse or a mule, both in short supply, or a very long walk – roughly 7 hours at 3 miles per walking hour, assuming flat

terrain.

Johann Jakob would have had to have the opportunity to meet, court and get to know Katharina. That distance might help explain why their first child was born three months or so before they were married. It’s also possible that one of the years recorded is incorrect. Katharina would have gotten pregnant about November 6, 1743, roughly 10 months after Johann Jakob’s first wife had died. Did he visit Heiningen in November 1743 and not know that Katharina was pregnant? I’m sure there is more to this nearly 300-year-old story, and I surely would love to know what it is. Update note: Indeed, there was more to the story – a transcription error. Nothing nearly as exotic as my theory. My friend, Chris, checked the original marriage record that I can’t publish due to restrictions by Archion.de, and discovered that the marriage actually look place on November 12, 1743 and their child, Anna was born on July 30, 1744. Mystery solved! I also wonder if the reason it was noted that Katharina had always lived with her parents is that perhaps she had some residual issues due to the cause of the extended headache. Both of those facts seem so odd to note, especially in combination, making me wonder if they are provided as a subtle explanation for something. Katharina and Johann Jakob only had 4 children, which too is unusual. Adding to the mystery, their first child, Anna is noted as having been

born in Beutelsbach

,

but if Katharina and Johann Jacob weren’t married, Katharina certainly wasn’t living with him at the time and her parents were living 20 miles away. Another note in the records stated that she had always lived with her parents. Of course, the note regarding where Anna was born could simply be wrong, too. * Anna Lenz born July 30, 1744, died January 31, 1810. * Johann Georg Lenz born Sept 27, 1745 died June 3 1834

* Jakob Lenz

born February 1, 1748, died July 2, 1821 (my ancestor) * Georg Friedrich Lenz born January 13, 1750 Katharina’s last child was born when she was 34 years old, but she did not die until 1791, 41 years later, two years before Johann Jakob

passed over.

We don’t know where Johann Jakob and Katharina are buried, although it was almost assuredly in the Beutelsbach Protestant church’s churchyard, probably only a few steps away from their home where lived their entire married life. _____________________________________________________________

DISCLOSURE

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA PURCHASES AND FREE TRANSFERS * FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing

* MyHeritage DNA

– ancestry autosomal DNA only, not health * MyHeritage DNA plus Health * MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – transfer your results from other vendors free * AncestryDNA – autosomal DNA only * 23andMe Ancestry – autosomal DNA only,

no Health

* 23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

* LivingDNA

GENEALOGY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES * MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder – genealogy software for your computer * MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial * Legacy Family Tree Webinars – genealogy and DNA classes, subscription based, some free * Legacy Family Tree Software

– genealogy

software for your computer * Charting Companion – Charts and Reports to use with your genealogy software or FamilySearch

GENEALOGY RESEARCH

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PANDEMIC JOURNAL: “ROSIE THE MASK CRAFTER” & CONQUERING FEAR Posted on April 2, 2020

by Roberta Estes

8

As we look back, from our privileged position today in a safe home doing genealogy, we think that participating in a historic event or time might have been fun. Exhilarating or exciting, perhaps, or both. When you’re in that historical moment where life changes in the blink of an eye, as we are today, and you don’t know who will see the other side, or what the other side looks like, it’s not fun or exciting in a good way. It’s flat out terrifying. OUR ANCESTORS DID IT We are doing today what our ancestors did before us. We are persevering and putting one foot in front of the other, doing what we can with what we have in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. They were resourceful, and so are we. Bravery is not the absence of fear, it’s working through the fear, in spite of fear and doing something productive. Sometimes that “something” becomes our legacy.

IT’S YOUR TURN

As one of the army of mask-makers isolated in her home says, “It’s up to me to be the history maker. Our lives are a culmination of the choices we make and the chances we take.” That woman, still anonymous, is now and will be forevermore known simply as “Rosie, the Mask Crafter

.”

An entire army of sewists, many of them quilters, are sewing masks, every day, all day, coordinating requests, delivering supplies and completed masks where they are needed across the country. The dozens made in our homes added together combine into rivers of hundreds that become thousands and then tens of thousands, but the need never

abates.

Still, we cut and sew and pick up and deliver, day and night, and we will until either the virus is defeated, or the manufacturing industry can ramp up enough to meet the demand. Thousands of us are members of social media coordination efforts that sprang up overnight to answer the call. Not only can we save others by staying home, we can help to protect our brave front line fighters in this war to the death – our health care providers who never signed up to fight battles. Yet, there they are every single day, trying to save us and themselves in a war zone that has been transformed from something that seemed perfectly normal just a couple weeks ago to a Hell scene straight from the apocalypse. Someone posted “Rosie the Mask Crafter’s” picture, iconically posing by her sewing machine, a pandemic version of Rosie the Riveter

who represents an

entire generation of women who stepped up in 1943 during WWII to fill the manufacturing void. Thank you to “Rosie” for permission to use her photo. Then, a couple days later, this…from group member, professional artist, Camilla Webster : Thank you to the member who shared a photo of “Rosie, The Mask

Crafter.”

I painted her today for all of you in memory of my friend Maria who passed away this weekend of COVID-19. Keep up the great work! I salute all of you! Rosie, The Mask Crafter, Copyright @ Camilla Webster Inc 2020 – Thank you to Camilla for permission to use her painting. I have to tell you, when you know someone who is sick or dies from this monster, this gets real – real fast. When your friend’s spouse is a doctor or nurse ON the Covid floor, doesn’t have enough PPE and they ask you for help protecting their loved one – it gets real, very real in a heartbeat. Just like it did for Camilla when her

friend died.

Suddenly, you’re not sewing, you’re driving your tank through the night to create the defenses our medical warriors need so the masks can be overnighted the next morning. They are the front lines, but we have their backs as much as possible. If they can do that, we can certainly do this from the safety of our seclusion – a luxury they

aren’t afforded.

And on and on we sew – as the streams of sirens scream, delivering the flood of critically ill people to hospitals across our nation as city after city becomes overwhelmed. YOU MAY NEED MASKS FOR YOUR FAMILY – YOU CAN DO THIS!! If you are willing to make masks for front line medical workers or others in need, such as nurses aids, public servants or other essential workers, there are numerous groups on social media coordinating by state and county. Search for terms like “mask” or “face mask warriors.” Call your local quilt shops, hospitals, police department, sheriff or EMS facilities to see if they are aware of local need in places like nursing homes or medical offices. I’ve provided the pattern I use here

,

along with pictures of how I’m making the masks. As the pandemic worsens, it appears that the CDC may recommend wearing face masks when we go out in public, not only to prevent picking up the virus, but from spreading it if we are infected but not symptomatic. Even if you’re not sewing for donation, you may want to make some for your own family. Men are sewing just same as women – everyone can do this, even if you’ve never sewn before. The frightening thing is, we are nowhere near the peak yet . So, I want to share something else

with you today.

IT’S OK TO BE AFRAID It’s alright to be afraid. I posted a link to the article, The Discomfort You’re Feeling Is

Grief

on my Facebook page. I’ve tried very hard to stay positive, but that’s not always possible, especially since I have family on that

front line.

I feel like this isn’t just a temporary situation, but a fundamental change – a paradigm shift in life as we know it. Not only do we not know who will be on the other side, we don’t know what “the other

side” looks like.

After I posted the link, I discovered that two of my cousins expressed their feelings. One said she is angry, and one said she is afraid. We discussed this, together, and a few more people chimed in. It felt good to share what we are all feeling and admit that we can’t be cheerful and upbeat all of the time. It was comforting to know we are not alone and that yes, we are grieving. This situation exacerbates other life events that are already saddening – like deaths of family and pets when we can’t travel, and funerals that can’t happen at all. It isolates us when we most need to be together and hug our family – but we can’t. We risk their very lives, and others, if we don’t continue to isolate. This is particularly difficult when dealing with the critically ill, knowing we may not see them again and we’re missing our last opportunity, or when dealing with elderly or other people who can’t understand WHY we’re not there. We don’t always, always have to put on the smiling face, the mask of our own that says, “it’s going to be alright,” because truthfully, we don’t know whether it will be or not. Yet, we all say that to each other as reassurance, a form of whistling while walking past the cemetery in the dark. But here’s the thing. I don’t know if I’ll survive this, or if all of my family will – but I have a choice today. I’m inconvenienced and afraid, but I’m also able to fight and I promise you, I will fight until my dying breath whether it’s sooner or later. By making masks, by still doing for others as I can, by teaching and writing these articles, by honoring my ancestors and by fighting for those who desperately need help, both human and animal – I will fight on. I may be frightened, but I’m not down and I’m not out – and I’m trying to make sure others aren’t either. I’m absolutely determined, committed and steadfast in my perseverance – even if we are all whistling while walking in the dark. Keep on walking, one step at a time! We are walking together – virtually – if not in person.

FIVE THINGS

If you’re not sewing masks, and even those of us who are can’t do that 24X7, here are 5 things you can do that will distract you and

lift your spirits.

* The VGA (Virtual Genealogy Association) Entertainment Show free

video is here

,

minus the music which had to be removed because it might have been a copyright violation to play or sing those songs. * Legacy Family Tree Webinars

is having a free

genealogy webinar every single day in the month of April, here or you can subscribe for free unlimited access to everything, here

.

* MyHeritage is making the photo colorization tool free, here

,

and all US census records are free here or you can try a free trial subscription to all the records, here

.

DNA tests are also on sale for $39, here

.

* If you’ve DNA tested at any of the companies and contacted people in the past who haven’t answered, now’s a great time to check for new matches (don’t forget Y and mitochondrial DNA ) and reach out because many people are safely tucked away at home. What better time to do some genealogy and reach out to others?

* Here’s a list

of free educational videos and more than half a million National Archives records that you can use if you’re schooling your children at home, or maybe you’re interested yourself. Wait, you could assign genealogy research as homework! YES! Now THAT, that is a silver

lining!

Stay “Rosie Strong.” You got this! _____________________________________________________________

DISCLOSURE

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA PURCHASES AND FREE TRANSFERS * FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing

* MyHeritage DNA

– ancestry autosomal DNA only, not health * MyHeritage DNA plus Health * MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – transfer your results from other vendors free * AncestryDNA – autosomal DNA only * 23andMe Ancestry – autosomal DNA only,

no Health

* 23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

* LivingDNA

GENEALOGY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES * MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder – genealogy software for your computer * MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial * Legacy Family Tree Webinars – genealogy and DNA classes, subscription based, some free * Legacy Family Tree Software

– genealogy

software for your computer * Charting Companion – Charts and Reports to use with your genealogy software or FamilySearch

GENEALOGY RESEARCH

* Legacy Tree Genealogists – professional genealogy research

FUN DNA STUFF

* Celebrate DNA – customized DNA themed t-shirts, bags and other items

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*

* Email

*

Save

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Interest | 8 Replies TRIANGULATION IN ACTION AT DNAPAINTER Posted on April 1, 2020

by Roberta Estes

4

Recently, I published the article, Hitting a Genealogy Home Run Using Your Double-Sided Two-Faced Chromosomes While Avoiding Imposters

.

The “Home Run” article explains why you want to use a chromosome browser, what you’re seeing and what it means to you. This article, and the rest in the “Triangulation in Action” series introduces triangulation at FamilyTreeDNA

, MyHeritage

,

23andMe , GedMatch

and DNAPainter, explaining how to use triangulation to confirm descent from a common ancestor. You may want to read the introductory article

first.

This first section, “What is Triangulation” is a generic tutorial. If you don’t need the tutorial, skip to the “Transfers” or “Triangulation at DNAPainter” section. WHAT IS TRIANGULATION? Think of triangulation as a three-legged stool – a triangle. Triangulation requires three things: * At least three (not closely related) people must match * On the same reasonably sized segment of DNA and * Descend from a common ancestor Triangulation is the foundation of confirming descent from a common ancestor, and thereby assigning a specific segment to that ancestor. Without triangulation, you might just have a match to someone else by

chance

.

You can confirm mathematical triangulation, numbers 1 and 2, above, without knowing the identity of the common ancestor. Reasonably sized segments are generally considered to be 7cM or above on chromosomes 1-22 and 15cM or above for the X chromosome.

BOUNDARIES

Triangulation means that all three, or more, people much match on a common segment. However, what you’re likely to see is that some people don’t match on the entire segment, meaning more or less than others as demonstrated in the following examples. You can see that I match 5 different cousins who I know descend from my father’s side on chromosome 15 above. “I” am the grey background against which everyone else is being compared. I triangulate with these matches in different ways, forming multiple triangulation groups that I’ve discussed individually, below. TRIANGULATION GROUP 1 Group 1 – On the left group of matches, above, I triangulate with the blue, red and orange person on the amount of DNA that is common between ALL OF THEM, shown in the black box. This is triangulation

group 1.

TRIANGULATION GROUP 2 Group 2 – However, if you look just at the blue and orange triangulated matches bracketed in green, I triangulate on slightly more. This group excludes the red person because their beginning point is not the same, or even close. This is triangulation group 2. TRIANGULATION GROUP 3 AND 4 Group 3 – In the right group of matches, there are two large triangulation groups. Triangulation group 3 includes the common portions of blue, red, teal and orange matches. Group 4 – Triangulation group 4 is the skinny group at right and includes the common portion of the blue, teal and dark blue matches. TRIANGULATION GROUPS 5 AND 6 Group 5 – There are also two more triangulation groups. The larger green bracketed group includes only the blue and teal people because their end locations are to the right of the end locations of the red and orange matches. This is triangulation group 5. Group 6 – The smaller green bracketed group includes only the blue and teal person because their start locations are before the dark blue person. This is triangulation group 6. There’s actually one more triangulation group. Can you see it? TRIANGULATION GROUP 7 Group 7 – The tan group includes the red, teal and orange matches but only the areas where they all overlap. This excludes the top blue match because their start location is different. Triangulation group 7 only extends to the end of the red and orange matches, because those are the same locations, while the teal match extends further to the right. That extension is excluded, of course.

SLIGHT VARIATIONS

Matches with only slight start and end differences are probably descended from the same ancestor, but we can’t say that for sure (at this point) so we only include actual mathematically matching segments in a triangulation group. You can see that triangulation groups often overlap because group members share more or less DNA with each other. Normally we don’t bother to number the groups – we just look at the alignment. I numbered them for illustration purposes. SHARED OR IN-COMMON-WITH MATCHING Triangulation is not the same thing as a 3-way shared “in-common-with” match. You may share DNA with those two people, but on entirely different segments from entirely different ancestors. If those other two people match each other, it can be on a segment where you don’t match either of them, and thanks to an ancestor that they share who isn’t in your line at all. Shared matches are a great hint, especially in addition to other information, but shared matches don’t necessarily mean triangulation although it’s a great place

to start looking.

I have shared matches where I match one person on my maternal side, one on my paternal side, and they match each other through a completely different ancestor on an entirely different segment. However, we don’t triangulate because we don’t all match each other on the SAME segment of DNA. Yes, it can be confusing. Just remember, each of your segments, and matches, has its own

individual history.

IMPUTATION CAN AFFECT MATCHING Over the years the chips on which our DNA is processed at the vendors have changed. Each new generation of chips tests a different number of markers, and sometimes different markers – with the overlaps between the entire suite of chips being less than optimal. I can verify that most vendors use imputation to level the playing field, and even though two vendors have never verified that fact, I’m relatively certain that they all do. That’s the only way they could match to their own prior “only somewhat compatible” chip

versions.

The net-net of this is that you may see some differences in matching segments at different vendors, even when you’re comparing the same people. Imputation generally “fills in the blanks,” but doesn’t create large swatches of non-existent DNA. I wrote about the concept

of imputation here

.

What I’d like for you to take away from this discussion is to be focused on the big picture – if and how people triangulate which is the function important to genealogy. Not if the start and end segments are exactly the same. TRIANGULATION SOLUTIONS All vendors except Ancestry offer some type of triangulation. If you and your Ancestry matches have uploaded to GedMatch, Family Tree DNA or MyHeritage

,

you can triangulate with them there. Otherwise, you can’t triangulate Ancestry results, so encourage your Ancestry matches to

transfer

.

I wrote more specifically about triangulation here

and here

.

Transfer your results in order to obtain the maximum number of matches possible. Every vendor has people in their data base that haven’t

tested elsewhere.

TRANSFERS

HAVE YOU TESTED FAMILY MEMBERS, especially everyone in the older generations? You can transfer their kits from Ancestry

or 23andMe if

they’ve tested there to FamilyTreeDNA,

MyHeritage

and

GedMatch.

Here’s how to transfer: * Ancestry Step by Step Guide: How to Upload-Download DNA Files * 23andMe Step by Step Guide: How to Upload-Download DNA Files * MyHeritage Step by Step Guide: How to Upload-Download DNA Files * Family Tree DNA Step by Step Guide: How to Upload-Download DNA

Files

Now that we’ve reviewed triangulation at each vendor; FamilyTreeDNA

,

MyHeritage

,

23andMe

and GedMatch

,

let’s looking at utilizing triangulation at DNAPainter. TRIANGULATION AT DNAPAINTER Once you identify your ancestral segments with matches, or using triangulation, you can paint them on your maternal or paternal chromosomes utilizing DNAPainter . The great aspect of DNAPainter is that you don’t have to triangulate in order to use DNAPainter. Just identifying matches as maternal or paternal allows you to visually see where on your maternal or paternal chromosomes your matches fall, in essence triangulating groups for

you.

DNAPainter assigns colors to each ancestor and shows your match names, which I’ve disabled in this example for privacy. I’ve also optionally painted my ethnicity segments from 23andMe, which I discussed in this article

.

Above, on chromosome 22, I’ve painted matches that I know descend from either my mother’s (pink) or father’s (blue) side. At DNAPainter, I DO have both a maternal and paternal chromosome, but they are only useful AFTER I figure out which side of my family a match comes from, or if I paint my Family Matching bucketed maternal and paternal matches in an upload file from Family Tree DNA. I wrote instructions for how to do that, here

.

The combination of Family Matching and DNAPainter is awesome! Looking at the graphic above, I know that three separate people who match me descend from the bright pink ancestor on my maternal chromosome; Curtis Lore and his wife. I’ve assigned Curtis the bright pink color, and now every match that I paint assigned to Curtis and his wife is colored pink. One person descends from Curtis’s parents, Anthony Lore and his wife Rachel Hill who I’ve assigned as green. Until someone else matches me and descends either from Anthony Lore’s parents or Rachel Hill’s parents on this green segment, I won’t know which of those two ancestors, or both, provided (pieces of) that segment to me. Anthony Lore and Rachel Hill are my great-great-grandparents and Curtis Lore is their son. Even if I only have 2 matches on this segment, one pink and one green, I would know that the green portion of my maternal chromosome 22 is attributed to Anthony and Rachel which means I inherited that green segment from my pink ancestor, Curtis

Lore.

In order to determine the source of the two pink triangulated matches at far right, I’ll need to wait until someone from either Curtis’s line or his wife Nora Kirsch’s line match me on that same segment. We build these groups of triangulated segments slowly, creating in essence a timeline on our chromosomes. It seems like it’s taking forever, but four generations distance with 2 separate triangulated segments really isn’t bad at all! At DNAPainter, triangulation is as simple as painting your identified matches, either individually, one by one, or using the group import features. I would only recommend utilizing that feature at Family Tree DNA where their Family Matching software divides your matches into maternal and paternal, allowing DNAPainter to paint them on the

correct chromosome

.

Otherwise, the segments are painted, but you can’t tell which side, maternal or paternal, they come from, so I don’t find painting all matches useful without some way to differentiate between maternal and paternal. After all, the point and power of a chromosome browser is to determine how each person is related, from which side, and from which

ancestor.

In the article, DNAPainter Instructions and Resources

,

I compiled my various articles about the many ways to use DNAPainter, including an introduction.

TRANSFER

Be sure to test at or transfer to each vendor who provides segment information. Unfortunately, Ancestry does not, but you can transfer your ancestry results to Family Tree DNA

, MyHeritage

and GedMatch, each of which has unique features that the others don’t have. Transferring and matching is free at each vendor. I wrote transfer instructions for each vendor, here

.

Then, paint and triangulate all in one step at DNAPainter.

Have fun!

______________________________________________________________

DISCLOSURE

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA PURCHASES AND FREE TRANSFERS

* FamilyTreeDNA

* MyHeritage DNA

only

* MyHeritage DNA plus Health * MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload

* AncestryDNA

* 23andMe Ancestry

* 23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

* LivingDNA

GENEALOGY SERVICES

* MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder * MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial

GENEALOGY RESEARCH

* Legacy Tree Genealogists for genealogy research

SHARE THIS:

* Print

*

*

* Email

*

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, Triangulation

| Tagged

Intermediate DNA | 4

Replies

PANDEMIC JOURNAL: THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT I’D DO, BUT HERE I AM Posted on March 29, 2020

by Roberta Estes

15

What week is this?

What day is this?

What day of the week is it?

What time is it?

Yes, we’ve all lost track of these kinds of things now because our days blend one into the next with no delineators like going to work on weekdays and doing other activities on weekends. Even if you don’t work in a different location, most of us have some sort of routine that has been disrupted by social isolating. I hope you ARE isolating, because the sooner everyone actually does this, the sooner this pandemic will be over, the fewer people will die, and we can all resume our pre-Covid lives again. I must say, these once-in-a-lifetime measures have wrought some quite unexpected challenges and in some cases, despite the circumstances, we

just have to laugh.

A group of us crazy genealogists cooked up something quite unique and

fun, so read on

But first, let’s get the deadly serious stuff out of the way. Trying to find a silver lining by no means suggests that the situation we find ourselves in isn’t the most serious threat to our lives in this generation, and probably in the past century.

FIRST IS NOT GOOD

My Mom used to say that being first wasn’t always a good thing. I always had images of the road runner tricking the coyote into running off the edge of the cliff. We’ve sort of done just that. On the website Worldometers, cases of Covid-19 are tracked, and a few days ago, the US became #1 in the world. You can see the breakdown here by country worldwide

and by state

here .

On March 26th, the US outpaced all of the other countries in the world with a record number of Covid-19 cases, and that’s just the confirmed positives. We haven’t tested nearly the number of people, or the percentage of the population that either China or Italy have. The deaths are still somewhat comparatively low, thankfully, but we are no where near the peak while China and Italy are beyond that point. The numbers won’t be apples and apples until after we are beyond the peak as a country too.  Let’s hope they stay low, but I’m not optimistic. I never, ever wanted the US to be #1 in quite this way. Like everyone else, I’m deeply concerned and anxiety is running at an all-time high for many people. It’s important, after we take care of life-sustaining tasks to find something to take the edge off – preferably other than eating or drinking or we’ll emerge pickled and unable to get through the door when this is all over. Have you done something quite unusual since this isolating began, other than inventorying your pantry and planning “blizzard meals” out of whatever ingredients you find? Here are four things I never thought I’d do. SIGNING MY WILL IN A DRIVE THROUGH My husband and I had been working on creating wills and trusts since last fall. It’s a challenge with a blended family and we are trying to do our best to provide for each other as well as fairly to

descendants.

We had intended to get this sewn up and signed before we left for down under at Christmas time, but our attorney was traveling. Then we were traveling. Upon our return, we were having back and forth discussions when the virus hit, quickly followed by social distancing and shutdowns. It became apparent that this situation was worse than anticipated and that we might need those documents sooner than later. We are in the high-risk category, and here we sat with no wills or trusts. This meant that we would have no control over what happens to each other or how our assets would be distributed to our heirs. That’s clearly not what we want, which is why we were working on those documents in the first place. Plus, you know how Murphy works – that’s like an invitation for disaster. Our best insurance of staying alive? Get those documents

signed, somehow.

But how on earth could we get our wills and trust documents signed and notarized with two witnesses? That’s 5 people, one with a specialized skill, the notary, all of whom need to be in the same place at the same time when we are all supposed to be social distancing? Our attorney is in an office building that is closed, so that won’t work. Finding an online notary, although they do exist,

was unsuccessful.

None of my friends are notaries and neither are the grocery stores which are open. I messaged a well-connected friend. He found a local bank branch that is notarizing documents through the drive-through window and they agreed to notarize our wills, so long as they did not have to attest that we were of sound mind, cause we obviously are

not.

Having not been out of the house in a couple of weeks, the drive to the bank was lovely although we stopped no place and talked to no one. Here we are in the drive though, signing as they watch, passing documents back and forth to the notary and witnesses, one by one, for half an hour, complete with hand sanitizer and wipes. I know this is a somber time, and signing one’s will isn’t exactly joyful either – but the other-worldly irony of a couple signing wills and related documents in a bank drive-through during a pandemic stuck us as quite humorous. It struck the bank employees the same way, and dare I say, we had fun. They probably had a fun story to tell their family and we do too. Of course, the (sealed) bag of chocolate we took them as a thank you for going way above and beyond didn’t hurt anything. Afterwards, to celebrate, we pulled into the parking lot behind the bank branch and enjoyed a picnic in the sunshine in our car. We are livin’ large, I’m telling you! The next day, when the US became #1 in the world in terms of positive Covid-19 cases, we were greatly relieved to have this task behind us,

just in case.

Now we can focus on living, and keeping everyone else living too.

MAKING FACE MASKS

Over the years, we’ve done some really unusual things as a family, but making face masks is something I never even pondered. Of course, the biggest problem is that the only family we can see right now is the other person who lives here, and the cats. Normally, if I were making masks or other charity items, it would be with my quilt sisters, but you can’t really socially isolate and sew at the same table. Plus, there’s no reason to take a chance. My husband has done something HE never thought he’s be doing either – ironing the ties for face masks. Before that, he was so bored he was cleaning…so ironing was actually a welcome break, well, up until the iron broke and drained water all over the ironing board and floor. He magnanimously volunteered to go to the store for groceries AND a new iron. He’s rather shop then either clean or iron, so that worked

out well.

There are several steps to making these masks that appear to be quite simple and shouldn’t take much time at all. The masks are deceptive taking roughly an hour each when you combine all the steps. I sure hope these get washed and reused, but regardless, they are saving lives and that’s all that matters. Let me share with you the construction crew. First, you have to cut the mask face panel and sew the two sides together, supervised by Kitters, of course. Mom, I think you forgot this pile over here. I’ll hold these others

down for you.

This work is EXHAUSTING. Time for a nap. Chai needed to call in the reserves. Kitters, can you take over supervising mother, please? Next, the masks must be pressed, either by an iron or in a pinch, a cat taking a bath sitting on the pile will do. A pile of masks on the ironing board also makes a wonderful pillow. Next, the ties are cut and stacked on the ironing board for pressing. The ties must be held down or they will jump off of the ironing board. Of course, the ties might be assisted in jumping off the ironing board by one of the other cats batting the ends of the ties, just saying’. It’s amazing with all this “help” that I’ve gotten any masks at all finished. These 7 and more are being contributed to workers at the hospital where my daughter, her husband and another family member go to work every day regardless of the personal risk involved. The very least I can do is to try to keep them as safe as possible. Later in the day, I got a very bad case of cabin fever though.

GARDEN INTRIGUE

I’ve stayed inside this house as long as I can, nearly a month with only two outings. Going to the grocery never looked so good. It’s still cold in the north where I live, so being outside in the yard isn’t terribly attractive either. For my mental health, and in the interest of marital harmony, I really need to go outside at least once a day, even if it is just walking around my yard looking for any hint of green. Yes, I’m literally watching the plants grow – an indication that spring, color and warmth will be here soon. I can’t wait until it’s warm enough to

open the windows.

Come along, take a walk with me. There are hints of green now that the snow from a few days ago has melted. Maybe a few other goodies have

surfaced too.

Look here…I think this might have just grown an eighth of an inch in the past hour or so. Maybe if I just walk around the house once more, new growth will appear. What do you think? Let’s take a lap and see what else we can find. Wait!! What’s this? OMG! Why, I think this might be important. A hint perhaps? A “green leaf” of sorts – kind of like a chocolate trail, maybe. This is intense alright. What is this and where does

this lead?

Hmmm, let’s keep walking. Wow, this plant is trying to bloom. The very first one, and look what’s tucked in right alongside – Toblerone. Someone obviously didn’t want me to miss this. We must be in Switzerland now – the

Swiss Alps perhaps?

Wow, this is a great journey! Indeed, some creature must be trying to tell me something or lure me someplace with chocolate? That’s not very difficult, actually. I already very nearly met my Maker once already thanks to chocolate

.

Next, we find Ghirardelli milk chocolate staking out a beautiful green plant, waking up and yawning. This looks just succulent to me. On to the northlands we find chocolate in Iceland as well. Mmm, volcanic and rich – my favorite. Where to next? Crossing the sea, of course, with sea salt carmel.

Yum…

How far will we sail until we hit land again? Oh, oh, now we’ve gone “down under.” Indeed, Kia Ora to my New

Zealand peeps.

Now we’re obviously in the mountains someplace. Hidden in the crags is a truffle, probably discovered by one of those truffle-loving pigs. Good thing it wasn’t a chocolate-loving pig. I’d be wrestling with

that pig for sure.

What’s this? My eagle has brought me something magical called dark chocolate “Hokey-Pokey.” Makes me feel like dancing, “Put your left foot in, put your left foot out…“ It too came from “down under” as you can see in the background. I’ll take this magic any day! Dark chocolate in English Ivy. We must be in the British Isles now. Wow. This is some amazing chocolate trail! Uh oh! Oh no. You know what that is don’t you? The dreaded rabbit hole.

Should I?

Or shouldn’t I?

I’m a genealogist, I should know better than to go down a rabbit

hole. Right?

But…but…there might be another clue down there…..or chocolate.

Where does it go?

What should I do?

What would you do?

Ok, let’s see what’s down that hole. Hey look, we found the rabbit along with a lovely basket of goodies. Sometimes it pays to go down those rabbit holes. Maybe watching the plants grow isn’t such a bad idea after all, and it just might be entertaining. Plus, there’s chocolate and “that’s what it’s all about.” Speaking of entertaining, there’s one more thing I never thought I’d be doing, but here I am. “Performing,” in a variety type of

entertainment show.

SATURDAY NIGHT VIRTUAL ENTERTAINMENT SHOW This last Saturday night, a group of obviously incredibly bored genealogists joined forces for 2 hours – virtually – to entertain each other and the members of the VGA who were available to tune in

last minute.

Courtesy of Thomas MacEntee and coordinated by Katherine Wilson of the Virtual Genealogy Association (which you might be interested in joining), our “Virtual Entertainment Show” was performed live from around the world. Indeed, this is what happens when genealogists are placed into isolation. We might be physically distant, but we’re not exactly

isolated.

We’re not star-studded in the traditional sense, but everyone showed something we enjoy, generally not something genealogy related although some were, because genealogy weaves itself into the very fiber of our

lives.

Several people showed skills and hobbies from the rest of their lives. You didn’t know genealogists had any “rest of their life” did you. Me either, but getting to know people better was one of the benefits of this show. Dreamed up only a day in advance, this pop-up event was quite literally a variety show. There was origami from Germany, traditional Irish storytelling from Ireland, of course (where else), sign language, piano from England, the most amazing textile art created from discarded constitutional law books, amazing papercrafts, art jewelry in a number of formats, including turning old watches into small photo frames sporting family pictures that you can wear, wire molding, quilting, instrumental music, singing, comedy, dollhouse miniature making, rowing instruction and more, much more. Each “performer” had 5 minutes and the participants thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I hope the attendees did too. Here’s Marcel from Germany instructing us how to make an origami

frog.

For my part, I showed a few quilts and useful quilted items like my quilted vest, purse and laptop sleeve. I had a great deal of help as I prepared the “studio” in advance. In fact, several of the performers had assistance, which made the event even that much more

enjoyable.

Thanks to Katherine, the VGA, Thomas and the rest of my genealogy peeps for pitching in to do something none of us ever imagined we’d be doing and providing a couple hours of blessed distraction.

PANDEMIC JOURNAL

That does it for this edition of the Pandemic Journal. What have you done recently that you never thought you’d ever do? _____________________________________________________________

DISCLOSURE

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA PURCHASES AND FREE TRANSFERS * FamilyTreeDNA  – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing

* MyHeritage DNA

–

ancestry autosomal DNA only, not health * MyHeritage DNA plus Health * MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload

–

transfer your results from other vendors free * AncestryDNA  – autosomal DNA only * 23andMe Ancestry  – autosomal DNA

only, no Health

* 23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

* LivingDNA

GENEALOGY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES * MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder

–

genealogy software for your computer * MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial * Legacy Family Tree Webinars

– genealogy and

DNA classes, subscription based, some free * Legacy Family Tree Software

– genealogy

software for your computer * Charting Companion – Charts and Reports to use with your genealogy software or FamilySearch

GENEALOGY RESEARCH

* Legacy Tree Genealogists – professional genealogy

research

FUN DNA STUFF

* Celebrate DNA  – customized DNA themed t-shirts, bags and other items

SHARE THIS:

* Print

*

*

* Email

*

Save

*

LIKE THIS:

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, Covid-19

, Pandemic

| Tagged Pandemic

| 15 Replies

ISABEL (CIRCA 1753 – 1840/1850), WIFE OF MICHAEL MCDOWELL – 52

ANCESTORS #278

Posted on March 28, 2020

by Roberta Estes

4

We’ve gathered quite a bit of information about Michael McDowell,

here

,

here

and here

,

but not so about his wife, Isabel. It appears that Isabel lived to be at least 87 years old and possibly as old as 97 years. That’s amazing, even today – but especially remarkable at a time when there were no antibiotics and childbirth carried the threat of death every year and a half for 20 or 25 years of a woman’s life. Not to mention that Isabel appears to have crossed the mountains moving to a new home twice in her life, once when she was about 30 and again another quarter century later. Not an easy trip under the best of circumstances and the best of circumstances probably didn’t

exist.

Isabel, spelled Isbell, is only mentioned one time – ever. If it was not for the deed that she signed with her husband, Michael, on February 16, 1793 in Wilkes County, North Carolina, selling their 75 acres of land on the Blackwater River in Franklin County, Virginia – we wouldn’t even know her name. Isbel signed with an X, three times, indicating that she could not read or write – and neither could Michael who signed with an X as

well.

We don’t really know, positively, that Isbel, or Isabel, was Michael’s wife before or after that time. We presume, and that’s a really dangerous word in genealogy, that Isabel was the mother of Michael’s children – including Mary

McDowell

,

Michael’s daughter, born about 1785 in Wilkes County, 8 years before “Isbell” signed that deed. We don’t find the name Isabel, by any spelling, among any of the children of Michael’s known children. But then again, we don’t know who all of Michael’s children were, nor do we know who all of his grandchildren were. What we do know is that Michael was born about 1747, according to his Revolutionary War Pension application, and began having children when he lived in Bedford County, Virginia. Who did Michael marry? We have no idea. Marriage records exist during that time in Bedford County, but Michael isn’t there. Of course, those records may be incomplete, but there’s no McDowell and no

Isabel or Isbel.

Michael’s son, Edward was born possibly as early as 1773, but likely in either 1774 or 1775, which tells us that Isabel was probably born around 1753, assuming she was Michael’s only wife and the mother of all of his children. When Edward was young, Isabel spent time alone in their cabin, without Michael at home. I hope she had other family members nearby. Michael fought in the Revolutionary War in parts of 1777, 1778 and 1779. Michael reveals in his pension application that he initially marched to the lead mines and built a fort, taking at least 6 months, probably beginning about April 1777. After returning home, he was summoned again and “joined with some neighbors and friends with the citizens of the country calling themselves spies, to protect women and children from the skelping knife of the savage.” Michael marched off to war at least 2 additional times, coming home

in-between.

During the many months that Michael was gone, Isabel would have had to function alone on the frontier – not knowing if she would ever see

her husband again.

It’s likely that Isabel was pregnant and probably had a second or perhaps even a third child during Michael’s 3 tours of duty. One of those children may have been their son, also named Michael, and other children may have not survived. Whether Michael was present at home or not, life had to go on. Isabel was responsible for cultivating the fields, planting seeds or tobacco plants, depending on what they were growing, tending animals and harvesting crops if necessary – not to mention taking care of toddlers. There was no “good time” for Michael to be gone – nor was Isabel ever safe. Michael did eventually return home. Isabel must have been incredibly relieved. Finally, they could actually begin to plan their lives without the spectre of war constantly hanging over their heads. On September 24, 1783, Michael bought 75 acres of land on the north side of the Blackwater River in Bedford County where they were living according to the tax list of 1782. In 1783, Michael owned 2 horses and 4 cows, but in 1784, he was no longer on the tax list of Bedford County. We do find a Michael McDowell in Botetourt County, but then he’s gone from there too. Michael is absent for a couple of years, but on February 4, 1786, Michael McDowell bought 161 acres of land from John Hall Sr. in Wilkes County, North Carolina characterized as “the plantation where Michael McDowell now lives.” We know Michael was already living on this land at that time, but we don’t know how long he had been there. Michael and Isabel didn’t sell their land in Virginia until 1793 from Wilkes County, when Isabel signed as his wife. Were they unsure about staying in Wilkes County? By the time they sold their Virginia land, they had been landowners in Wilkes County for at least 7 years and possibly as long as 9.

ABOUT THOSE HALLS

I almost hate to say this, but I’ve wondered for some time if Isabel was a Hall. This is speculation, so please, please do NOT run over to your tree and add Hall as her surname. It’s equally as likely that Michael married Isabel who was not a Hall in Bedford County, Virginia and was married to her for his entire life. Still, I feel compelled to at least look at Michael’s relationship with the Halls and the possibility that Isabel was,

herself, a Hall.

Michael is heavily involved with the Hall family in Wilkes County. The Halls began entering land in 1778 on Mulberry Creek. Wilkes County Genealogy Society writes about the Hall family, here

.

WeRelate provides information about the family of Thomas Hall of Colonial Virginia, here

.

Not only does Michael McDowell purchase land from the Halls, he fights

with them as well.

No one fights as much as people who are related. On January 24, 1786, Michael McDowell, along with Owen Hall posts a bastardy bond for William Profit who was charged with begetting a bastard child on Ann Hooper or Hoper. Both Michael and Owen signed

with an X.

In November 1786, Michael is referred to in a deed between Owen and Robert Hall for 156 acres on Andrew Vannoy’s line, Mickel (sic) McDowell’s corner and the line between Hall and McDowell.” This confirms that they are neighbors. In 1787 on the tax list, Michael has in his household 1 white male age 21-60, 2 males under 21 or over 60 and one white female. The man 21-60 would be Michael himself. There are only two children, both males? * If Edward was born in 1773, where are the children born between 1773 and 1787? That’s 15 years and only two surviving children? Isabel would have born in approximately 1753 or earlier if Edward was

born in 1773.

* If James McDowell who witnessed a deed in 1801 is the son of Michael and Isabel, he would have been born about 1779, so that would be the a second male. * Son John was born about 1782 or 1783, possibly in Virginia which would be a third male. * Son Michael witnesses a deed in 1799, so he would have been born before 1778, a fourth male. According to these calculations, there should have been 4 sons living with Michael and Isabel in 1787. Where are the other boys? In 1787, Michael is in court for a trespass case brought by the state. The same jury is ordered to hear Michael’s case as is hearing one between Owen Hall and John Hall Senior and wife, a “case for words” found in favor of Owen. The court then moved Michael’s case to the civil docket and finds him guilty as charged. Those cases seem

to be connected.

Did the Hall family come from Bedford County, or an adjacent county? Where were they before Wilkes? There are Halls in Bedford County, but that certainly doesn’t mean they are the same Hall family. However, in a letter dated 1782 from Henry Innes of Bedford County, Virginia to Ralph Smith of “The Pocket,” he says, “There is a large bull in this neighborhood which was formerly the property of Hezekiah Hall.” The 1782 Bedford County tax list includes both Owen and Hezekiah Hall as well as John Hall Jr. and Sr., two Williams and a Robert Hall. In 1773, we first discover Owen Hall on the Pittsylvania County, Virginia Tax list, so he appears to be about the same age as

Michael McDowell.

That’s VERY interesting. Michael McDowell’s’ father

,

also named Michael, spent time in Halifax County, adjacent Pittsylvania as well, but at least 20 years before Owen was found in Pittsylvania County. It’s also possible that Michael was a widower when he moved to Wilkes County, or became a widower shortly thereafter? By April 1785 in Wilkes County, Owen Hall was selling land to John Shephard on Mulberry Creek that runs with the lines of Owen Hall and

Jesse Hall.

In 1790, Michael McDowell continued his involvement with Owen Hall when the state prosecuted Michael McDowell, Owen Hall and William Abshers who on July 20, 1790 “did beat, wound and ill treat Betty

Wooten.”

Wow. I can’t help but wonder if they had been drinking. I also wonder what Isabel had to say to Michael. I sure hope she wasn’t on the receiving end of that kind of treatment. Wooten Creek is a small creek feeding into Mulberry Creek near where the Hall, Absher, Vannoy and McDowell families lived, just south of

Hall Mountain.

In the 1790 census, Owen Hall was Michael McDowell’s neighbor and probably about 40 years old. Robert Hall was Michael’s neighbor on the other side, probably about the same age. John, Jesse and William Hall live a few houses away. Michael McDowell in the census has 1 male over 16, 4 males under 16 and 2 females. This tells us they have 4 sons and one daughter. In July 1792, the court granted Michael McDowell permission to rebuild his mill. I wish they had told us what happened, but I’m guessing a fire. It would have had to be either fire, flood or tornado. We know there was an arson in the neighborhood in 1789 when John Roberts burned the cabin of Braddock Harris and his wife Rachel Hickerson. The Hickerson family lived slightly south on Mulberry Creek. Arsons did happen, and it’s certainly possible. It seems the entire neighborhood was feuding during this timeframe, judging from

the court cases.

On July 23, 1792, a deed was executed between Owen Hall and Robert Hall for 115 pounds, 156 acres adjacent Andrew Vannoy’s line, Michael McDowell’s corner, line between Hall and Michael McDowell including the land Owen Hall bought of John Hall Sr., witness Jacob McGrady, signed Owen X Hall, page 269. I wish I knew if John Hall Sr. was Owen’s father, but there are no

clues.

In February 1793, Michael McDowell and Isabel sold their land in Virginia. Perhaps they needed the money to pay bills given that their mill was out of commission. Or maybe they needed the funds to rebuild the mill. Note that today on Mulberry Creek, very near this location, we find Halls Mills. In 1799, Michael sold his land to the local preacher, Jacob McGrady who lived just north of Hall Mountain and whose wife was Amiah, reportedly born about 1760 in Bedford County, Virginia, daughter of Owen Hall. Michael signed the deed but Isabel is glaringly absent. The property is located on Mulberry Creek, abuts Robert Hall’s line and is witnessed by Michael and Edward McDowell as well as Robert Hall. However, no mill is mentioned. It’s difficult to deduce much about the relationship between the McDowell family and the Halls since they are clearly neighbors. Specifically, it looks like Michael is literally surrounded by Hall

men.

Following that 1799 sale, Michael officially owned no land. How did the family earn a living? In 1799, Michael is shown with 200 acres but there are no deeds. Perhaps he was renting or we have an unrecorded

deed.

In the 1800 census, Michael was 53 years old, Isabel is apparently still alive, even though her signature was absent on the 1799 deed, given that a female over age 45 is living in the household. Additionally, they have 2 males age 0-10, 1 female 10-16 and 2 females 0-10. It looks like the older sons have left the nest, but we don’t know where they are. On November 23, 1805, a deed of conveyance occurs between Owen Hall, Russell Co., VA, and Robert Hall, 60 pounds for 156 acres, Andrew Vannoy line, Michael McDowell corner, marked line between Hall and McDowell, Witness William Abshire, Hezekiah Hall and James Quyth (?) Signed Owen Hall, page 287 Owen Hall moved north too, apparently. December 5, 1805, a deed between Robert Hall and John Abshire, 150 pounds, 156 acres, Andrew Vannoy line, Michael McDowells corner marked line between said Hall and McDowell. Wit Jacob McGrady, William McGrady and Owen X McGrady. Signed Robert x Hall CLAIBORNE COUNTY, TENNESSEE In 1809, Mary McDowell married William Harrell, the neighbor’s son. Harrell was spelled Harrold at the time and the family lived on Harrold Mountain, just to the east. Within the year, Michael, and presumably Isabel, along with most of their children left for Claiborne County, Tennessee. Mary McDowell and William Harrell moved

with Michael too.

A younger Michael McDowell, presumably Michael’s son, stayed in Wilkes County, but the rest of the McDowell family left for the Powell River on the border of Claiborne County, Tennessee and Lee County,

Virginia.

As Michael and Isabel packed up the wagon to set out over those mountains for Tennessee, Michael would have been 63 years of age and Isabel wasn’t far behind. Given that four children were born between 1790 and 1800, we can infer that Isabel would have had her last child about 1797 or 1798, suggesting she was born about 1754 which is in line with Edward McDowell having been born about 1773. After arriving in Claiborne County, Michael McDowell settled on land named Slanting Misery. I’ve always wondered why they chose that land, because it truly was slanted and miserable, both. Or maybe it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. They were certainly used to mountains from living in Wilkes County, so maybe Slanting Misery simply felt

like home.

The 1810 census is missing, but the 1810 tax list in Lee County, Virginia, on the Powell River, shows Michael and two of his sons. Four year later, in 1814, Michael begins claiming and amassing land in Claiborne County, just across the border from Lee County, beside his son-in-law, William Harrell who was married to his daughter, Mary McDowell

.

Sons John and William McDowell live beside and claim land adjacent

Michael as well.

Unfortunately, the 1820 census is lost too, but in 1830, a female is living with Michael, age 70-80, so born 1750-1760. That surely looks

like Isabel.

In 1840, a female age 80-90 is living with Mary and William Herrell and it appears that Michael may have been living with the rather unfriendly preacher, Nathan McDowell. It’s worth noting that two McDowell males, Nathan S. McDowell and John P. McDowell, clearly with ties to Michael McDowell based on deeds transferred to them “for love” are probably too young to be children of Michael and Isabel. It’s possible that these males were grandchildren of Michael and Isabel, especially given that we don’t have a full accounting of their children.

CHILDREN

In summary, the children attributed to Michael and Isabel are as

follows:

* Michael McDowell born between 1774-1778, either dead or gone from Wilkes County by 1820. (I’m confident of this relationship, but Michael is not confirmed as Michael’s son.) * Edward McDowell born possibly as early as 1773 or as late as 1780

(confirmed)

* John McDowell born 1782 or 1783 (confirmed) * Mary McDowell born 1787 (confirmed) * Luke McDowell born circa 1792 (confirmed) * William McDowell born circa 1795 (confident, but not genetically

confirmed)

* Daughter born between 1790-1800 (no further information) * Daughter born between 1790-1800 (no further information) Nathan and John P. McDowell are unlikely to be Isabel’s children, although it’s not impossible, given that Isabel was born about 1753 or possibly slightly earlier. If born in 1753, Isabel would have been 44 in 1797 and 49 in 1802. There are two sons born between 1790 and 1800 as well – one of which

could be Nathan.

Based on their transactions and activities, Nathan and John P. certainly appear to be related to the family in some fashion. I’m betting on grandsons, possibly through son Michael who stayed in North Carolina. A persistent rumor exists that the son, Michael McDowell, died on September 3, 1823 in Stokes County and is buried in Winston-Salem. A Billion Graves entry shows

us a stone

that says the Michael who died was in the 42nd year of his age, which would put his birth in 1781. I’m NOT convinced that this Michael is the Michael who was the son of Michael McDowell of Wilkes County, but it is a possibility.. * Nathan S. McDowell born 1797 could be Isabel’s son or possibly a grandson or related in some other way. Nathan did not live close to Michael, roughly 20 miles away, and had no children, so this can never be proven genetically one way or another. * John P. McDowell born about 1802 is probably not Isabel’s son, especially since John born about 1782 is proven to be Michael’s son. John P. is probably a grandson or related in some other way. Without documentation that doesn’t exist today, we’ll never know

for sure.

DNA

Mary McDowell’s mitochondrial DNA is haplogroup U5b2b1a1, inherited directly from her mother’s matrilineal line. Of course, we’re presuming here that since Mary was born in 1785 in North Carolina that indeed she is the daughter of Isabel McDowell whose birth surname is

unknown.

U5b2b1a1 is found mostly in the British Isles, although with some mutations, also in Scandinavia and central Europe. Given that we first find Isabel in (probably) Bedford County, Virginia, it’s likely that she either descended from the Scotch-Irish population, Germanic settlers or from colonial English stock. We need more testers before we can draw any conclusions, although there are matches to a few families in this region in the

right timeframe.

We find Mary’s earliest known ancestor migration map matches scattered across the rather traditional migration path, so nothing

unusual here.

AUTOSOMAL DNA

I was really hoping to find a smoking gun, or maybe a smoking Hall in my own DNA matches that might suggest that Isabel was a Hall. I have neither ThruLines nor Theories of Family Relativity that suggest Halls, although Isabel is 6 generations back in my tree. Looking to sift out more information, I used two wonderful tools which were both inconclusive. First, I ran the Genetic Affairs cluster analysis along with tree reconstruction and didn’t find anything suggestive of a Hall connection. I was hoping for a fortuitous tree reconstruction, but it was not to be had unfortunately. I then utilized DNAGedcom.com’s service that obtains the direct line ancestors in the trees of my matches, and indeed I do have a significant number of DNA matches with Hall ancestors out of Wilkes

County.

The problem, of course, is that the Hall family remained in Wilkes and were neighbors of my family members with the following surnames:

* McDowell

* Herrell/Harrold/Herrald

* McNiel

* Shepherd

* Hickerson

* Vannoy

It’s very likely that I share a different line with these people who have Hall in their trees. In fact, I do share multiple ancestors with two of the most promising matches. This what happens when everyone stays up on that mountain and marries their neighbors. Within a generation or two, everyone is related to everyone else, and the neighbors are marrying are their cousins because everyone is a cousin. Unfortunately, what this means is that for autosomal testing, I would really need to find a group of people who descend from Hall ancestors from this same line BEFORE they migrated to Wilkes, and who don’t share a different line with me. Colonial Virginia is a tough nut to crack in this type of situation, especially this far back in time. Isabel would have been born in the early 1750s and many Virginia counties have experienced record loss of one kind of another. Unfortunately, there is no recorded marriage for Michael McDowell, nor a will that leaves anything to Isabel or any Michael McDowell from a father-in-law – so we’re out of luck unless something turns up one day in a previously buried record. Or of course, if the right person just happens to DNA test, that could turn the tide as well Hope springs eternal. If you descend from Michael McDowell and Isabel or the Hall line, please be sure you’re in all of the databases (Family Tree DNA, Ancestry, MyHeritage, GedMatch and 23andMe). It’s not just who you match, but who your matches also match. The power of the newer tools is found in groups of matches that descend from the same ancestral couple – and each vendor has unique matches and tools that other vendors don’t have. _____________________________________________________________

DISCLOSURE

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA PURCHASES AND FREE TRANSFERS * FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing

* MyHeritage DNA

– ancestry autosomal DNA only, not health * MyHeritage DNA plus Health * MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – transfer your results from other vendors free * AncestryDNA – autosomal DNA only * 23andMe Ancestry – autosomal DNA only,

no Health

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GENEALOGY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES * MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder – genealogy software for your computer * MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial * Legacy Family Tree Webinars – genealogy and DNA classes, subscription based, some free * Legacy Family Tree Software

– genealogy

software for your computer * Charting Companion – Charts and Reports to use with your genealogy software or FamilySearch

GENEALOGY RESEARCH

* Legacy Tree Genealogists – professional genealogy research

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* Celebrate DNA – customized DNA themed t-shirts, bags and other items

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Weeks of Ancestors

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THE SHARED CM PROJECT VERSION 4 RELEASED Posted on March 27, 2020

by Roberta Estes

14

Version 4 of the Shared cM Project has been released, utilizing over 60,000 known relationship results submitted by genealogists. The Shared cM Project was begun in 2015 by Blaine Bettinger in order to crowd-source the actual number of shared centiMorgans, cMs, of variously related people who match each through autosomal DNA testing. Obviously, in order to contribute to the Shared cM Project and participate, you must know how you are related to your matches. You can read about the earlier versions of the project, here

.

The Shared cM Project has been very useful for genealogists attempting to determine potential relationships of unknown testers, in particular, because sometimes what we “expect” to see based on academic predictions and models isn’t actually what happens. Of course, the flip side of that is that sometimes people who contribute relationships don’t understand or report relationships accurately; specifically relationships such as “half,” and “removed.” Nonetheless, with enough data, these reporting errors become statistical outliers. You can participate by contributing your known relationship data through the portal, here

.

Blaine’s blog about the new V4 version is here and the full 56-page pdf paper about the results and methodology is

here

.

If you want to understand how the project works, not only is this paper essential reading, it’s a wonderful educational source.

DNAPAINTER

By far, the most common usage of The Shared cM Project results is the interactive tool created at DNAPainter by Jonny Perl. The Shared cM Project tools are found under the Tools and WATO tab,

here .

Click on Shared cM Tool when navigating from the main DNAPainter page. You’ll see the updated V4 relationship chart, with the field to enter the amount of shared cMs between you and a match above the chart, shown partially above. Selecting a cM number at random, I entered 1300. The results show the probabilities of various relationships between two people who match at

1300 cMs.

1300 shared cMs can be any of the relationships shown, above. The grey, faded background relationships are not candidates at 1300 cMs, according to V4 of the Shared cM Project. A new feature added by Jonny provides the ability to click on a relationship and view the histogram from The Shared cM Project showing the submitted relationship amounts. For aunt/uncle at 1300 cMs, 26 people reported that matching amount. The most common amount of shared DNA was 1800 for that relationship category. You can read Jonny’s latest blog introducing these new features,

here

.

Thanks to all of the 60,000+ contributors, Blaine and Jonny who made

this possible.

_____________________________________________________________

DISCLOSURE

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA PURCHASES AND FREE TRANSFERS * FamilyTreeDNA  – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing

* MyHeritage DNA

–

ancestry autosomal DNA only, not health * MyHeritage DNA plus Health * MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload

–

transfer your results from other vendors free * AncestryDNA  – autosomal DNA only * 23andMe Ancestry  – autosomal DNA

only, no Health

* 23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

* LivingDNA

GENEALOGY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES * MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder

–

genealogy software for your computer * MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial * Legacy Family Tree Webinars

– genealogy and

DNA classes, subscription based, some free * Legacy Family Tree Software

– genealogy

software for your computer * Charting Companion – Charts and Reports to use with your genealogy software or FamilySearch

GENEALOGY RESEARCH

* Legacy Tree Genealogists – professional genealogy

research

FUN DNA STUFF

* Celebrate DNA  – customized DNA themed t-shirts, bags and other items

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PANDEMIC: FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT’S HOLY – STAY HOME, AND SEW A

MASK

Posted on March 24, 2020

by Roberta Estes

10

Everything that happened to China and Italy and now Spain and much of the rest of Europe is happening here too. After we’re on the other side of the tsunami that is rushing over us, we can talk about how we got here and why, but right now, none of that is important. What IS critically important is what we do right now. Today – this hour! Everyone knows about covering a cough, washing hands and to some extent, social distancing, but not everyone is taking social distancing seriously. Whether they don’t believe the authorities are correct, think they are invincible or something else isn’t for me to say. What I am saying is one thing – this pandemic isn’t just coming, it’s here. There’s no discussion anymore about maybe. The only debate left now is how many will die. Here’s the chart for Michigan. The very first case was less than 2 weeks ago. Beginning on the 17th, the cases began increasing rapidly every day, and on the 18th, the first death. Southeast Michigan hospitals are already out of ventilators for patients and masks for

staff.

The Michigan governor ordered: * Schools closed on March 13th * Restaurants and bars to close to the public, open only for takeout on March 16, along with restrictions of public gatherings * Shelter-in-place lockdown today, March 23rd New York is ahead of Michigan in terms of infections and deaths, as are a few other states, but many are not. Don’t think it won’t arrive – it already has. Look here for the state by state cases. There is no consistent survival directive for the entire US. Each state and sometimes each city or county is left to its own devices to decide what to do, and when. However, you are in charge of you, and possibly of other people too – family members. Those you can’t control, you may be able to

influence.

The most important thing you can do, and people’s lives depend on it

is…

Right now, there is nothing more important. If everyone simply stayed home for the next 2 or 3 weeks while the cases currently developing worked their way through the system, we’d see a downturn in 3 weeks. If we don’t, the cases will continue rise and the outcome will be catastrophic, like we’re seeing in Italy right now. Remember, you’re contagious for as long as 2 weeks before you actually exhibit symptoms. You may have a mild case of the illness and not know it – meaning you’re contagious for a lot longer than 2

weeks.

You will be touching doors and other public places during that time, unaware that you are infecting others.

NOW YOU KNOW

Now that you know, you’re responsible for protecting yourself from becoming infected which means you’re also protecting others – your family, your neighbors, friends and the vulnerable population. Everyone over 60 is considered vulnerable, but they aren’t the only ones. Many people have diseases or conditions you can’t see, like asthma or diabetes. If you risk being contaminated, you risk the health of everyone else too. And you risk killing your own family members.

PEOPLE ARE DYING

In the past couple of days, this insidious virus has moved from the threatening to the deadly. I know people who have it. My friend’s nephew, a physician. Another friend’s neighbor died. This is just the beginning and there is still time to avoid the worst outcomes. This virus is real, deadly and here. The people who die and have already died will probably never know HOW they were exposed to the virus, because it was likely from someone else who didn’t know they were ill yet. Illness and deaths today are reflective of what was happening 2-4 weeks ago – the day before that first case was reported in Michigan. All of these cases were percolating among the population at that time – deadly time bombs. We just didn’t know it.

BE A HERO

It’s never been easier to be a hero – because all you literally have to do is nothing. Sit on the couch. Only go out when necessary, and then keep a distance of 6 feet. Practice pandemic hygiene. We’ve limited our trips out to once a week, and only then if necessary. No, buying a newspaper or your child having a play-date is not necessary. Neither is buying a lottery ticket. Besides that, you’re much more likely to get exposed to Covid than win. Yes, working one of the essential jobs is necessary. You may also be able to do things to help out. URGENT NEED – MASKS!! Project N95 was begun just 72 hours ago as an entirely volunteer effort to coordinate the need and delivery of N95 (covid) masks and other personal protective gear for our medical professionals. Click here to see what’s needed and where. An army of sewers and quilters have taken up the mantle to provide masks to individuals who need masks, but not necessarily the Covid-19 masks, freeing up those masks for those who really do need them. If you would like to help with a donation of material, time, money or sewing masks, please coordinate to be sure that the masks are being accepted by a facility near you. Also, note that elastic does not survive an autoclave. I’ve been using bias tape for the ties or t-shirt material which is stretchy and doesn’t fray. Some institutions only accept specific patterns, so don’t start sewing with great intentions only to have your masks be rejected or

thrown away.

Here’s a FaceBook group, COVID Mask Crafters

, that is

coordinating request, supplies, sewing and distribution efforts. JoAnn Fabric in many locations is coordinating both requests and masks through their local stores. Some are even providing free kits for people willing to make

the masks.

EQuilter

has provided this information: Dear Sewing Community, Passing on this message: There is a critical shortage of face masks for health professionals and first-responders. We have been asked to mobilize our community to do what we do best:

sew.

We are calling on you all now to share the “Keep Calm and Sew a Mask” campaign on all of your social media platforms. There is a tremendous need for masks that tie at the top and the bottom, as seen above. A large hospital uses hundreds of thousands of masks a week — so we need to move as quickly as we can. To start making an impact, get your materials ready and click the link

below:

https://freesewing.org/docs/patterns/fu/instructions/ Also see these crucial details offered by our friend Rachel Wallis: https://docs.google.com/…/15Y2_5fFWuog_o4q3CjhpdfFC8LX…/edit Many thanks to Andover Fabrics for sharing this today. Providence Hospital is desperately asking for people who sew to join their “100 Million Masks” challenge

.

Call your local hospital, EMTs, police and firefighters, doctors’ offices, senior living facilities, rehabilitation facilities or elder-care facilities. Masks are needed for so many people in our health care system, including janitorial staff. OPPORTUNITIES TO HELP How else might you be able to help?

LOCAL BUSINESSES

Restaurants are still open for takeout in most places. Not only do people need to eat, but supporting restaurants reduces the economic impact at least to some extent. Business like GrubHub and delivery services are functioning in most places as well as grocery shopping and shipping services. Many restaurants have implemented a curbside pickup and no-contact

delivery.

Many times restaurant staff and gig-workers have few or no benefits like sick time, paid vacation or insurance and often depend heavily on tips. Be as generous and patient as you can be.

THE VULNERABLE

Call your neighbors, especially anyone who is a little older, lives alone or who is vulnerable. Ask if they need assistance with shopping or picking up medications. They may not know how to order online delivery or be comfortable doing do. You can pick up their groceries when you pick up your own and drop them off on their doorstep. They may also be lonely and frightened, isolated from their family as well, and a friendly voice may be quite welcome.

WHAT ELSE?

What else can you think of to do to help? We are all in this together and we need to do what we can,

individually.

HEROES

I want to say a very special thank you to medical professionals – our doctors, nurses and first-responders along with all of the other people who make their jobs possible. People you don’t necessarily think about or see, but people who are at risk of contracting the virus by virtue of working in a hospital or medical setting. Everyone from receptionists to nurses aids to lab personnel to cooks in the hospital kitchens to cleaning staff. Medical facilities simply cannot run without these people and we need them so desperately. They are risking their lives every single day right now to go to work and care for ill people. Let’s all of us do our part by making sure we aren’t exposed, and exposing them, any more than possible – just stay home and practice your best couch potato, read a book, do some genealogy or sew a mask. Please share this article. _____________________________________________________________

DISCLOSURE

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA PURCHASES AND FREE TRANSFERS * FamilyTreeDNA  – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing

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