We are into Genes and Genealogy
February Webinar – Mags Gaulden
February 6, 2020 07:00 PM
Topic: DNA Databases
DNA databases, what are they? How do they work? Who runs them? What’s in the TOS/Privacy (Terms of Service/Privacy)? How to you use DNA Databases in your research? Answering these questions for every level of Genealogists.
I noticed a post today about auDNA Raw Data File upload to GEDMatch. The comment that struck me was the idea that people, in general, are nervous, overwhelmed, uncomfortable with the process of downloading their raw DNA data from their testing company and uploading to GEDmatch.
Well, to calm those nerves – we aren’t talking about brain surgery. Not talking about a 120 story tight rope walk. We are not talking about a trip to Mars.
Ir’s just downloading a file to your computer, then uploading the file to GEDmatch. It is exciting, there is no denying that. First time working with DNA results is incredibly exciting. You do all the file portation and in 8 to 24 hours you are connected to people from ALL the Genealogy Testing Companies – not just the company you tested with.
No you can’t upload a paternity test using DNA to a Genealogical Testing Site or to GEDmatch. Get a DNA test from one of the Genealogical DNA testing Companies:
FTDNA Family Finder
AncestryDNA
23andMe *
MyHeritageDNA
You can transfer from other testing companies, like LivingDNA, but until GEDmatch gets the Genesis database merged into the main database you may miss many, many matching opportunities with Genesis.
* “23andMe is now using the GSA chip for their new V5 raw DNA file results. This format is not compatible with the regular GEDmatch upload, but can be used with the GEDmatch Genesis upload.”
Register for a GEDmatch Account
This one is easy AND you can protect your privacy by providing an Alias. Though I am not all that fond of Aliases. One of the first things I do when searching for matches is scan the one-to-many result for a kit to see if any of the known surnames appear in the list (this is easy using your browsers “find” feature). An initial (any initial) and LNAB (last name at birth) can be enough to protect privacy (in my opinion).
Here are the links to directions for downloading your Raw Data File:
FamiyTreeDNA Family Finder – Build 36 Raw Concatenated
AncestryDNA
23andMe
My Heritage
LivingDNA
You can download your raw Data from other companies and upload them into GEDmatch Genesis – Google it – “Download my raw data from _____.”
Make sure you know where the file ends up on your computer. When you download the file make sure it goes to your desktop or downloads folder. If you download it and have no idea how to find the downloaded file, then the anxiety can kick-in. If you can’t find it go back to your browser and click on Downloads in the browser to see where the file might have ended up.
GEDmatch posts pertinent information about it’s site for users at the top of your profile page. Note the information about the 23andMe chipset and it working in Genesis?
Once you are on your Profile page you will see the above box on the right of your page. Click on the Generic upload and it will take you to:
• Upload For FTDNA
• Upload For Ancestry
• Upload For MyHeritage
• Upload Generic (this includes 23andMe and LivingDNA and more)
You’ll get your GEDmatch ID on the Screen at the end of the upload – Write it Down and share it if you are really interested in finding genetic cousins.
It is not all that hard and shouldn’t be anxiety producing. I would equate the feeling of joy with uploading your Raw DNA Data file to Gedmatch. But then again I am such a DNA geek…
It’s a controversial topic, Slavery In The US Southern Colonies/States and DNA. Well, I don’t know if DNA is all that controversial but I don’t shy away from discussing it either. It is my heritage, slavery and slave ownership. That my family(s) were a part of this wide ranging, “it’s what they did back in the day”, thing is not something to be proud of, but I am also not hiding it away. My Family, most every limb, at one time or another owned slaves.
My part as the descendant of slave owners, is to add any information I find regarding the ownership, sale, gift of a human being to another, to the work I am doing. Mainly on WikiTree, where the US Southern Colonies has a Project on Slavery. As WikiTreers add profiles of Slave owners, and transcriptions of wills or other documents to WikiTree, they can also add the category, Slave Owner. There are other categories for each state and one for all of the US. Searching these categories for the names given to Slaves is a boon to helping those searching for their ancestors. These categories create an incredible resource for people trying to find and identify the place where their ancestor lived and worked.
Today I was looking into something we are working on in the DNA project regarding triangulation (using DNA from three matches that share DNA on the same segment of the same chromosome, used in confirming the genealogical paper trail). I drifted to my own DNA trail when I got an email from a Gaulding/Gaulden cousin in reference to the Y-DNA of her brother – which matches my dad back many, many, many generations to our MCRA.
I headed over to the FTDNA Gaulding/Gaulden Portion of the Golding DNA project. The results page is cumbersome (a table within a table and two scroll bars) so the page often sits or takes a while to scroll. Sitting there waiting for the screen to catch up with my mouse I realized I was staring at people in the project who had a Nigerian/Camaroonian Hapogroup – E-M2.
I had been staring at it for so long that when it dawned on me who I was looking at I felt a burst of energy. Really. There in the midst of all these DNA results were people whose ancestors were, in all probability, slaves. They listed as their MDA (most distant ancestors) as people living in the US south prior to 1864.
My next question is, is there a DNA Project specifically designed to help identify people whose ancestors were slaves? Googling Slavery DNA Project returns hits with people. like me, writing articles or Blogs about Slave related DNA Projects. FTDNA has an African DNA Project and 23andMe has the African Genetics Project, but no one has a Slavery DNA Project.
Because of the way Slaves were named, very few carried their original name, they were given the name of a master, or of many masters. Then the masters listed them in the bills of sale or their wills by first name only or by the diminutive “boy” or “girl” or just “negro”.
I know there are Gaulden’s out there who are of African descent. Already done a shout out to try and connect with Lydia Gaulden (mother of Raven-Symoné – someone has to know how to get me in touch!). There’s a college football player with Gaulden emblazoned across his Jersey as well. I know that every single person out there with the name Gaulden is related to me to some degree, no matter the amount of melanin we have.
Go check out all the DNA Projects associated with the name your family was given and look for the African haplogroups in the DNA. Better yet, get your DNA tested and add your results to a DNA project. Other people may find you and have some answers for you.
I’ll be talking more about slavery as it relates to the US and Canada in my presentation, An African Canadian Family History Mystery on Sunday October 15th at the Great Canadian Genealogy Summit in Halifax.
The US Southern Colonies Project will be the focus of the the WikiTree LiveCast comping up on the 30th, live from the BIFHSGO Conference 2017.
Check out this in-depth article, Locating Afro-Diasporan haplogroups within Africa, on African Slave DNA from Tracing African Roots Blog.
If you ended up with my last name (any of my last names) or any derivative shoot me a note. I will gladly try to connect you further back along your in your heritage if I can.
Thanks to my childhood friend Cynthia for sharing your finding of your heritage story with me. Your wonderful work and your family inspire me everyday.
On Saturday May 27th at 3:00PM EDT, please join me (Mags), WikiTree Leader Peter Roberts, DNA Project Coordinator Emma MacBeath, and Julie Ricketts for a live chat on “WikiTree and DNA – Third Party DNA Sites.
This is the sixth in the WikiTree and DNA Series and goes along with some of the changes going on with the DNA Project. Join the chat to ask us DNA Features questions.
We will also be running down the Saturday Sourcing Sprint numbers and WikiPeeps who are involved in the sprints.
Pull up a chair to watch or ask questions in the LiveCast chat, either way we promise an hour of WikiTree fun! If you want to see a complete list of past and future LiveCasts click the graphic below or follow this link.
Mags
P.S. Do you have someone you would like us to interview? Post some answers with your picks for LiveCast Guests – it can even be yourself!
Betty Jean had her DNA tested with 23andMe in an attempt to find out if she had any medical issues which she may have passed along to her children. Along with her health test, she was also was in 23andMe’s Genetic pool of genes. Having her genes in DNA gene Pools will help us in her adoption search.
On first look, Betty Jean’s information included some fairly close cousin’s. The closest was a predicted 2nd cousin sharing 1.76% of their DNA. There were 12, 2nd to fourth cousin matches. I sent notes to all of them via 23andMe’s internal messaging system.
I also took some time to look to see if there were any common surnames in these matches. There were – Brotherton and Howard. At the time 23andMe had no DNA analytical tools, so I immediately downloaded Betty Jean’s raw DNA Data file (to download a DNA Data File from 23andMe see this help information) and uploaded it to GEDmatch (you must register for GEDmatch to be able to upload) via the Generic Upload Fast New, Beta.
NOTE: 23andMe has recently added DNA analysis tools which lets it’s users do chromosome mapping and comparisons to other matches. This is great news for anyone who has their DNA tested with 23andMe. It does not preclude a tester from uploading data to GEDmatch, because a tester would want to have their DNA in GEDmatch’s large Gene pool along with people (anyone who uploaded their raw data to GEDmatch) from all the testing companies.
After uploading Betty Jean’s Raw data file from 23andMe we found Betty Jean’s genes swimming in the pool with many of her close cousins – the big one was a 1st cousin once removed at 342.8 total cM.
What do we know from this list? Not much for this search since we don’t have any family line we can identify in the matches at face value, without being able to correlate the information with her matches family trees. GEDmatch does have a GEDCOM upload function, but not many of Betty Jean’s matches had their family trees on GEDmatch.
Again, using the emails for the matches on GEDMatch I sent emails explaining that Betty Jean Matched them and asking if they have family tree’s online or available for access in some other way. I also contacted Jane to discuss the matches. Jane and I spent a bit of time exchanging emails and connecting the dots of Betty Jean’s matches to Jane’s tree.
Remember the 20 foot tree I printed of Jane’s Ancestry Tree? At first I started trying to jump around that monster to mark where the matches landed in the tree. It was cumbersome and frustrating and I had to come up with a better way to be able to see ALL of it at once, and…
There was one more thing about Jane’s tree that needed some space to work-out. It seemed from a quick scan that the Howard and Brotherton lines, as well as other lines that married into them, were a product of Endogamy.
Endogamy is not uncommon in the US colonies as our social spheres were limited by small communities and vast distance between them. This occurred in Appalachia to an extent that one often hears jokes about “my cousin is my wife”. Jokes aside, the area of North Carolina where the Howard’s and Brotherton’s lived is on the outside edge of Appalachia.
Why should Endogamy be something we need to look into carefully and closely? Simply put, it skews the numbers. If cousins marry, then the DNA mix is a mix from one family rather than two. So there is a double infusion of Genes.
It started with one single 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. In the middle of that first sheet of the paper I wrote a list of Betty Jean’s top matches, the 12 Jane had in her tree and a few more. Then I started adding lines back. Creating pedigree charts from the DNA matches for each of the family lines identified by the DNA and Jane’s tree. As I went I added more blank sheets to fill in as I added family. At this point the Howard’s and Brotherton’s were extending to the right, radially from the DNA matches circle in the middle. I added papers to the map so that it was 3 sheets long and 3 sheets wide. Thankfully Jane’s tree was now easy to see, even with all the complicated connections within the Howard and Brotherton families.
For each person added to my map, I added or connected them to WikiTree to create Betty Jeans birth/mirror tree. It was a great help having WikiTree’s relationship tools at the ready to help me define how these people might be connected to Betty Jean. It also helped me when trying to decipher Jane’s voluminous emails on family connections.
