TUESDAY’S TIPS ~ New cousin connections made from watching a 10 minute video

No matter how long we have been researching our ancestors, we are always learning something new.  Whether we attend classes at our local society, read any of the wonderful blogs by my fellow bloggers (there are over 3,000 of them), get a tip from a fellow genealogist, watch webinars, learn from Facebook groups,  or attend a conference in person (when that becomes possible again).  There is no shortage of learning opportunities.

I decided to watch a quick 10 minute video offered by Legacy (the software program I’ve used for years).  This was a short tutorial about how to make connections on the 23&Me website for DNA.

While my DNA and my mother’s are on that site, as we both tested there.  I’ll admit to not using the site very often (I use the Ancestry DNA site all the time).  All of us have our favorites.  I’ve tested or have results uploaded to all the major DNA sites.

The tutorial I watched was called Connection Requests at 23andMe by Michelle Leonard M.A., PgCert.  As I said before it is 10 minutes long and rated as Beginner.  Click here for a link to the video. 

After watching it, I went right to 23 & Me and began inviting some of my matches to share their DNA with me.  Now, we all know that sending any kind of message to someone on any of the sites is a “longshot.”  Will they respond?  Did they even receive my message? The chances of getting a response are low (I speak from experience and information from others).  But, I had not really sent requests for more than a handful of matches on 23 & Me over the past 7-8 years.

I wanted to try and make contact with some of the people in the DNA tree automatically built on the website.  Knowing that some of the suggestions I’ve seen on that tree are quite accurate and others are not.  I was going for the low hanging fruit.  These are the people at the bottom of the tree created using my DNA.  Here is an image showing how these people appear in the automatically created tree.

(Please click on any image to enlarge it) I have blurred the names for privacy 

I sent 9 requests to connect, using the suggestions from the video.  As suggested I kept it simple, no attached message, just a request to share DNA. This allows me to see the matches we share in common and to view the chromosome browser.  Viewing the chromosome browser allows me to paint that match into DNA Painter.

How many would you expect to hear back from?  I thought I’d be very fortunate if one person responded. 

SURPRISE!  I heard back from 3, accepting my invitation to share.  They all responded within a day. None of the other 6 have responded...yet.

In the past few days I’ve been communicating with all 3 of those matches and have new cousins to add to my tree, as a result. 

As a matter of fact I was so excited to figure out the match between me and a match named Cheryl, that I spent 4 hours building a tree on Ancestry, for her family.  She only gave me 2 names to go on, Edward Riggs and Audrey Gerkin.  No dates, no places.  Using Blaine Bettinger’s Quick & Dirty trees idea, I began building.  I used obituaries, census records, birth, marriage and death records to try and build this tree back several generations.  We’ve all seen CeCe Moore and others go through this process to find unknown parentage and criminal suspects.  I’ve built several of these kinds of trees before, but cannot claim much success. 

NOTE:  When you do build a Q&D tree it should be private AND UNsearchable. You don’t want anyone else to use it or take items from it since you are not conducting exhaustive research on each person and do not want to proliferate errors.

Within four hours of starting that Q&D tree, at 10:59 p.m. I located who I believed to be our Most Recent Common Ancestor!  WOW! I was excited and very proud of myself. 

Now what?  Time to go down the descendant line from that common ancestor and really look closely to make sure I’m correct.  This is where you slow down and look at all the records as in our regular, due diligence, research.

What was my conclusion?  I was right on the money.  Cheryl and I share my 3rd great grandparents, Monson THORP & Lany COOPER.  They are my 3rd and her 4th great grandparents.  She's a generation younger than I am.  I also share DNA with her mother, a woman who’s name I have seen numerous times on various DNA sites and had no idea how we connected…..until now. 

Here is an image of that Q&D tree

Now, Cheryl and I are talking back & forth and she told her mother about our discovery. There are things they didn’t know about some of the lines I have information about.  We will talk more after the new year and they may have some photos and other information for me.  I will gladly share anything I have with them.

On another note. One of the other matches and I have also been in touch and she actually lives in Detroit.  We are also connected through the Thorp line, but via another route.  She has all her parent’s family research and lots of information.  We also plan to talk after the new year.

ALL of this from a 10 minute video.  Never stop learning and never stop looking. 

If you have any comments or you’ve had a similar experience, I’d love to hear about it.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

DNA CONNECTIONS AND DISCOVERIES ~ A new 2nd cousin leads to more information on my Mom’s family line

I find myself checking for new DNA matches, pretty much daily.  Most of the time it’s while I’m watching TV and using my iPad.  My DNA site of choice is Ancestry, although my DNA is on all of the sites (FtDNA, 23 & Me, Gedmatch, MyHeritage and Living DNA).

The other night while checking on new matches, I came across one that was 30 cms on 3 segments and had a tree of 102 people and shock, also a common ancestor.  I say shocked because while I have a lot of matches, I don’t have all that many that have common ancestors.

I looked at the match and saw that it was managed by someone I’ll call her Anna.  Right away I clicked on Anna’s name to see what her profile said about her.  She lives in Australia and joined Ancestry in 2005.  Her last sign in was that same day.  That’s certainly a positive sign that someone is actively working their tree and/or matches.
 
Next I checked our shared matches (hoping we had some) and sure enough we did.  She matches my brother, my nephew and a first cousin on my maternal side.
 
My next step was to check her tree and take a look at our common ancestor.  Woohoo!  The common ancestors are my 3rd great grandparents Charles Milne and Margaret Ritchie.  And I see not only the name Milne in the tree but also Beechey/Beechy which I know to be associated with my Milne family. 

(Click on this image to enlarge it)

This is a SOLID match which also follows my own paper trail and years of research.  I did a little more looking at her tree and discovered she had information on that Beechey line, that I had yet to uncover.
 
Next step – send her a message.  We all know that sending messages to our DNA matches is a gamble at best.  Will they respond?  Many times the answer is no.  But, when someone has checked in recently and is managing other people’s DNA you have a better chance that the person will respond.

Sure enough, I heard back the very next day.  After all, we are in very different time zones.  She was excited to make contact with me and told me that the person who actually took the DNA test and is a match to members of my family, is her mother-in-law who is 98 years old.  So, I’m actually related to Anna’s husband and not her.  The test taker who is 98, is my 2nd cousin once removed.

Testing the oldest members in our families is so useful, as it can take you back another generation or two.

Anna and I have exchanged emails and invited one another to be viewers on our DNA.  We have a lot to share with one another and are both excited.

Huge bonus when you connect with cousins is not only the extra information, but the possibility of pictures.  Sure enough, Anna has already shared a beautiful wedding photo with me.  I haven’t asked her permission yet, so I cannot share it.  If she does give me permission I’ll be sure and share.

I have new stories to add to my tree and have located lots of new records on Ancestry.  And that’s the only site I’ve checked so far.  There’s still Family Search, MyHeritage and others.

There’s a whole lot to like about DNA.  One of my favorites is the verification of years of research.  What a wonderful feeling to know that we have been doing it correctly and following the right trail.  This is just one example of a DNA success story.  I have so many more.

Do you have DNA connection stories?  I’d love to hear about them.
 
OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST


TOMBSTONE TUESDAY ~ Aboyne Parish Kirkyard in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland – my visit to my 3rd great grandparents, Charles Milne & Margaret Ritchie’s burial site

Surname Saturday - A Very Early Post about my Milne family

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2019   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

ANCESTRY & MYHERITAGE ANNOUNCE EXCITING NEW FEATURES TO HELP WITH OUR DNA MATCHES

Right now up in Salt Lake City there’s a gathering of thousands of genealogists.  They are attending Rootstech.  I went last year with my friend, Pam and we had a wonderful time.  We hope to attend again next year.

Want to view live streaming from Rootstech – here’s the link Rootstech Live Streaming Schedule

Coinciding with the conference and not coincidentally, are announcements from major websites about additional functions to assist us with identifying our DNA matches.

There are other people who have already blogged about these new items.  Rather than re-create the wheel, I’m going to share what the new features are and then direct you to the other blogs and websites that can help you better understand how to use them.
 
Let’s begin with Ancestry.com  They are in a beta phase for these features right now.

• Thru Lines – illustrates how you may be related to your DNA matches through a common ancestor
• Labeling – This feature, which was previously available as a Chrome add-on, is now being offered by Ancestry.  It allows you to create groups and designate them by color.  This means when you are viewing matches or shared matches you can see exactly how they fit into your family. The labeling is up to you.  Here’s a sample of my labels so far.

MyHeritage new tools

• Theory of Family Relativity – theories about how DNA matches may be connected to a particular person.

• AutoClusters – An automatic tool that organizes your DNA matches into clusters that likely descend from common ancestors.  This can really help you determine how your matches are connected to one another.

I just began experimenting with these new tools yesterday.  I’m very excited about the opportunity this gives us to identify how our matches fit into our family trees.

For excellent explanations and tutorials about these new tools, please go to the following blogs.  There are other bloggers also writing about these exciting enhancements.

Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings
MyHeritage Theory of Family Relativity
Ancestry DNA Thru Lines

Kitty Cooper’s Blog
MyHeritage Theory of Family Releativity

Extra tid bit – Kitty has also written about how to use the new Genesis that has replaced Gedmatch
Genesis - Gedmatch reinvented - How to Use it - Part 1

I’m sure there will be much more to come on both of the listed blogs and many others.  For now, I hope this will get you started.

Have you tried out these wonderful new features?  If so, are they helping you?
 
Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2019   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

The i4GG Conference in San Diego is over for this year ~ here’s a quick take away–What a GREAT 2 days!!

Screenshots from i4GG website used with permission

I was fortunate to be able to attend my second i4GG Conference this past weekend.  What does i4GG stand for?  Institute for Genetic Genealogy.

This was the second year for the conference.  It is put on by CeCe Moore and her group DNA Detectives.  It was a sold out two day event held at the Sheraton Hotel in Mission Valley, here in San Diego, CA.

Each day there were 10 classes to choose from.  The classes are geared for Beginner/ Intermediate or Advanced or a combination of two.  And some are for all levels
.
I’ve placed a red X next to the classes I attended.

Here are the classes offered on Saturday

X Opening Keynote, CeCe Moore
X The Limitations of Cousin Matching, Blaine Bettinger – Beginner/Intermediate
What’s New at Gedmatch – 2017, Kitty Cooper – Beginner/Intermediate
X Creating and Utilizing Genetic Networks In Your Research CeCe Moore – Intermediate
X Power Tools for the Genetic Genealogist, Angie Bush – Sponsored by AncestryProGenealogists – Intermediate/Advanced
X Science the Heck out of Your DNA: Using Hypotheses and Probability to Solve Genealogical Questions, Leah Larkin – Intermediate/Advanced
Furthering Your Research With Living DNA, Katie Welka – Living DNA – All Levels
X Tips and Tricks from the Genetic Genealogy Trenches, Carol Isbister Rolnick – Beginner/Intermediate
Your (very) Extended Family Tree, Oron Navon – MyHeritageDNA – All levels
Lineage Societies and DNA, Katherine Borges – All levels
Examining Your Matches at the “Big 3,” Michelle Trostler – Beginning

I learn something from each and every class that I attend.  Maybe it will be just that one thing you learn that allows you to advance your research or break down that brick wall.

For me on this day, it was the class about Creating and Utilizing Genetic Networks by CeCe Moore and Tips and Tricks from Genetic Genealogy Trenches by Carol Isbister Rolnick that hit home and gave me new ideas.  Not to take away from the other classes, they were good too.  But, what we learn will always depend on where we are in our particular journey.

I went home tired after the first day with my head full of new ideas.  But, I went right back for the Sunday sessions.

Here are the list of classes offered on Sunday 

Identifying the Man Known as Paul Fronczak through DNA Detective Work, CeCe Moore, Carol Rolnick and Michelle Trostler – All levels
What’s New at Family Tree DNA?, Jim Brewster – Family Tree DNA – All levels
DNA Successes In–And Despite Of—Endogamy, Lara Diamond – Intermediate
How DNA Testing Works: The Science Behind Your DNA Results, Ben Wilson – AncestryDNA – All levels
X Using DNAGedcom’s GWorks, Rob Warthen – DNAGedcom – All levels
Tracing Your DNA Across the Ages with 23andMe, Hilary Vance – 23andMe – All levels
X Breaking Down Genealogical Brick Walls with AncestryDNA, CeCe Moore – All levels
Jewish DNA: Beyond Ashkenazi, Schelly Talalay Dardashti – All levels
X Visual Phasing How-To, Blaine Bettinger – Intermediate/Advanced
The Priest and the Choir Girl: Searching for Family in an Endogamous Population, Kathleen Fernandes – Advanced
Closing Keynote - Genetic Genealogy Year in Review 2017, Blaine Bettinger

The three classes I attended on Sunday were just as good as Saturday. 
With one exception being the Visual Phasing-How To by Blaine Bettinger. That class wasn’t just good, it blew my mind.  Why?

Because this particular procedure allows us to use DNA from a set of 3 siblings (even half siblings can be used in some cases) to extract those sections on the chromosomes that belong to our individual/paternal or maternal GRANDPARENT(s)!

Yes, I said GRANDPARENTS.  How many of you, like me, have no way to test your grandparents?  Many of us don’t even have parents we can test.  In my case, I was fortunate enough to be able to test my Mom, who lived to be 91.  But, my Dad has been gone for decades.
 
If we can extract or determine what portions of our DNA belonged to our grandparent or grandparents, then we are getting two more generations back, allowing many more possible matches.

I certainly haven’t tried this out yet and cannot explain it.  I’ll leave that to the professionals.  But, if you’re interested I would encourage you to purchase the video presentations that will be available from this conference.  There are so many that will be helpful to you.  Here again is a link to the Institute for Genetic Genealogy website. I don’t know when the videos will be available.  Last year it took a couple of months.

Please note:  I get no remuneration or benefit from mentioning the i4GG website or conference.  I’m just an excited blogger sharing information with my readers.

I can’t wait to get started so I’ll end here.  If I have news to share (new finds) from all of this, you’ll be hearing from me.  Now go and test all those family members near and far.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

How DNA Led Me To Change My Husband's Direct Line - Flynn or Cupps?

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2017 Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

WHEN CONTACT FROM A DNA COUSIN LEADS TO GREAT NEW INFORMATION

Here’s how it happened a couple of weeks ago.  I received a message on my Ancestry account from a cousin, I’ll call “J.”  Here is her message to me:

“You came up as a DNA match for me . Would you be interested in linking family trees? I am related to Hunter & Frampton.”

I wrote back and said that I would be very interesting in exchanging information.  My Hunter and Frampton lines are direct ancestors, so a connection is always good news.

Next, I went to my DNA matches on Ancestry and immediately began looking for this match. 

Here is what I found.

I’m only showing a portion of the pedigree in order to protect privacy.
My match is on the left hand side and J’s match is on the right.  So, we are connected via my 3rd great grandparents Isaac C. Hunter and his wife Emily Gillen.  I have no contact with any of their descendants so this was BIG news!



You’ll notice the name John E. Hunter on the right hand side.  I have never been able to find out information about that descendant of Issac & Emily.  He was a brother to my 2nd great grandfather James Gillen Hunter. 

TIP: Whenever, I look at someone’s match on Ancestry, I make a note in the “Add Note” portion of the DNA page.  I note how many centimorgens and any other possible, such as what part of the family they may be from, maternal, paternal etc.  That way the next time you review this person you will already have some information.  I learned this tip from another researcher.  Thank you Carol.



Now, 22 cm’s is not a lot.  Considering the small amount of DNA passed between 4th to 6th cousins, it’s lucky there is any match.  Having said that, she did not match either my brother or my maternal half brother.  She does match my Mom at 25.4 cm's.  
J's connection to me is 4th cousin once removed.

We chatted back & forth and armed with new information, I was able to learn more about John E. Hunter.  I learned that he’d been married and had a son, from whom this cousin descended.  The bigger thing I learned was that he served during the Civil War and there was a pension file for him.

I requested a copy of the pension file the next day.  Having received four other pension files, I know the worth of the information contained in those files.  I use Twisted Twigs to order pension files.  It’s much faster than ordering directly from NARA and also less expensive.  (Disclaimer – I have no association with Twisted Twigs nor do I gain any remuneration from mentioning the service, nor can I guarantee your satisfaction) 

I received the 111 page pension file for Lottie R. Hunter, widow of John E. Hunter a few days later.  I am currently going through the pension file, page by page and making notes, as I usually do.
 

Corporal John E. Hunter was a prisoner of war for a short time and he also received a gunshot wound to his shoulder, during his service.  He didn’t live very long after the war, dying at age 28.

  STAY TUNED FOR A BLOG POST WHERE I REVIEW HIS ENTIRE PENSION FILE

How important is all the DNA testing many of us are participating in?  VERY!!!

I’d like to hear your stories of connections made through DNA.  Share them with me in a comment or on your own blog and leave a link in the comments.
 
As always….Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2017 Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HOW DNA LED ME TO CHANGE MY HUSBAND'S DIRECT LINE

I consider myself a novice when it comes to DNA.  Although I've taken many classes and seminars, I still have a lot to learn. I'm getting there......slowly.

One of the most Aha! moments I've had came when I was looking at my husband's DNA on GedMatch.   This was the number one match on his One to Many list.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

This match has a total cM of 75.6 with a 3.8 MRCA (most recent common ancestor).  That would mean the match is at about the 3rd cousin level, sharing 2nd great grandparents.  Other possibilities are 3rd cousin once removed or even 3rd cousin twice removed.  For any of those it would mean sharing 2nd great grandparents.

The exciting thing was that I noticed there is a Gedcom associated with this match.  That means I can go into the Gedcom and try to find those 2nd great grandparents and see if I can locate the match.  

NOTE: When I click on the GED link a screen comes up with "Individual Detail Display"  This gives me some information on the specific match, but not what I'm looking for.  So, I always click on "Pedigree." 

This pedigree is pretty full, which is exciting.  I count back from the point person to the level of 2nd great grandparents.  I browse down that level in the pedigree chart to see if I recognize any names.  BINGO!  There is a surname I immediately recognize as being associated with my husband's line, CUPPS.  And the location in Pennsylvania also fits.

I immediately go to my Legacy database and find the only Cupps entry I have, which happens to be the first wife of my husband's 2nd GREAT GRANDFATHER.  Now that's exciting as it is in line with what the shared DNA indicated.  

I didn't even know that my husband's 2nd great grandfather, William W. Bright (1835-1916) had a first wife until I received his Civil War pension file.  I only knew about his second wife, Mary Jane Flynn, which is whom I thought my husband descended from, based on dates and other records.  
Mmmmm..........could I be wrong?  I'm certainly anxious to find out.  

Was my husband's great grandfather, Ellmer E. Bright the son of Mary Jane Flynn or Catherine Cupps?

I set out on a research mission to find out all I could about the CUPPS names listed in that Gedcom file that was a match to my husband's DNA. 

The first thing I did was try to find the 2nd great grandparents listed on that Gedcom in GedMatch, Henry Cupps and Catherine Strauss.   I went over to Ancestry.com, where my husband's DNA is located.  I immediately found a public tree with the same pedigree as the one on GedMatch.

There are Henry Cupps and Catherine Strauss and two of their children, Sarah and Catherine.  

That, of course, isn't good enough for me, but it's surely a strong indication.  

I located Henry Cupps and his wife Catherine in the 1850 census and guess who two of the children were......that's right, Sarah and Catherine Cupps.  Further proof. 

Next, I began reviewing the dates of marriages for William W. Bright and his two wives and the dates of death of both women.

We all know that prior to about 1900 anything is possible.  You may or may not find records.  A strong indicator of when William's first wife Catherine Cupps died is in his Civil War pension file. In his deposition he states that she died "during the war."  That puts her death between 1861 and 1865.  Also in the pension file is the date of the marriage of William to Catherine Cupps, 1853 in Sharpsburg, Allegheny, Pennsylvania.  Further reading in the pension file gives her death date of August 1862.  Also listed in that pension file are the names and years of birth of all of William's children from both marriages, including Ellmer E. Bright (my husband's direct line), who is said to have been born in 1861.  I had a year of birth for him of 1859.  Either way, he was born prior to Catherine Cupps death and prior to William marrying his second wife in Feb 1864.

I have more research to do to bring out all the details for this family.  

CONCLUSION:  

• First of all, I didn't look closely enough at the Civil War pension file.  I read though it a couple of times and caught, what I thought, were most of the details. 
• I didn't consider or look closely enough at the years of birth for all six children born to William W. Bright.   I don't have a death certificate or register of death, but I do have an obituary and a probate record for Ellmer.  The obituary gives his age at death of 29 years and 5 months.  Given his date of death that would indicate he was born in November 1859.
• This family was one of the very first I worked on back in 2003-2004.  Not an excuse, but certainly a reason for all of us to review ALL of our work.
• I have officially changed my husband's direct line and now have Catherine Cupps as his 2nd great grandmother instead of Mary Jane Flynn.  

This has been a LOT of fun and really points out the value of our DNA tests.  Not only that, but making sure your DNA is uploaded to every possible site.  
This match showed up as the first hit on GedMatch.
On Ancestry it is buried several pages down with the 4th - 6th cousin matches.

I have yet to check on MyHeritage and FtDNA where my husband's test is also uploaded.

Have you had similar experiences?  Are you using your DNA matches to verify or disprove your paper trail?  

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST 
AMANUENSIS MONDAY - The Last Will & Testament of Ellmer E. Bright

SURNAME SATURDAY - Who Was Daisy Bright? (my husband's grandmother) 

If you are connected with the families mentioned here, I would love to hear from you.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION