Tag: DNA

Betty Jeans Adoption Search – The DNA

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.

23andMe

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.

Betty Jean’s GEDmatch Matches

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.

GEDmatch Matches
Betty Jean’s top GEDmatch matches.

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.

Gathering Family Trees

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.

Endogemy Defintition
Google Search

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.

My Map of Betty Jean’s Family

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.

 

Got an “Oh Wow” Today!

Nothing earth shattering, but wanted to share my selfish pleasure today. I went for an “Oh Wow” and got it. At first innocently, then when I realized that an “Oh Wow” was imminent, well, I went full out to make sure it happened!

I am helping my friend Ted with his family mystery. To find the answers, I am reviewing his new auDNA results and contacting individuals to see if they might help with the family mystery. Sent out 20 or so emails on Friday and have not heard a peep.

in a day or so I had a gentleman contact me about Ted’s match to him. Great!

I helped Ron (Ted’s match) get his DNA data downloaded from FTDNA and uploaded into GEDmatch. Ron’s expectations were, well, not high? After running a specific analysis for him on GEDmatch while on the phone his interest was piqued. There was something in the way he spoke that made me think he had no idea that my description of GEDmatch would be exactly what I said, he would have many more matches there.

Still, sitting with him on the phone – live – yes Genetic Genealogists do things with live people – I had him plug his GEDmatch number into a one-to-many matches and waited.

He said, “Oh WOW” and made my day! Literally, OH WOW!

 

WikiTree search results now include DNA test connections.

Once again WikiTree is moving forward with DNA functionality that is bleeding edge in the field of Genetic Genealogy. WikiTree search results now include DNA test connections.

What does this mean?

“When you search for a person, if there are any Y-chromosome, mitochondrial, or autosomal DNA tests that are believed to be relevant for the person’s genealogy, a Y, mt, and/or au icon will appear next to their name. Clicking this will open up a window with details.” Chris Whitten

WikiTree Search results showing DNA connections

Clicking on the Icon gives you a window with details:
WikiTree DNa search info.

I know I often say those busy little WikiTreers are always busy coming up with better, innovative ways to work with it’s one single family tree, but this DNA tool on WikiTree is just great!

Thanks WikiTreers Kitty Cooper, Roberta Estes, Peter Roberts and of course the WikiTree techies who fly through the limbs making our suggestions come to life.

Why WikiTree Use WikiTree for Genetic Genalogy?

This one bit of collaboration is just another great example of how WikiTree and it’s global, collaborative Tree can be used by anyone to further their family research using Genetic Genealogy.

No math degree required.

WikiTree does all the work for you. All you have to do is add what tests you have taken to your WikiTree profile. No uploading of Raw Data, just tell WikiTree what tests you and WikiTree will auto-populate your limbs with all of your DNA test information.

“The WikiTree Pledge: Always Free

As the creators and hosts of the WikiTree website, we pledge that our mission is the same as that of the community: to create an accurate, single family tree that will make genealogy free and accessible for everyone.

Free is an essential part of our shared mission. We will never charge for access to the single family tree. And we will never knowingly and willingly sell or transfer the single family tree to any individual or organization that intends to charge for access to it.” WikiTree Pledge

What if something happened to WikiTree, do I lose everything?

No. If a Tornado were to rip WikiTree up by it’s roots and throw it miles away shattering it’s precious limbs, there is a plan. There are several cloud and server back-ups of the physical tree. There are also fail safe’s “if WikiTree suddenly disappeared it would not be easy for someone else to simply restart it using the same software and all our members’ data…if the team knew that the current organization could not continue hosting WikiTree it would be a top priority to find a successor organization. We are all WikiTree users who have our family information here too. The WikiTree Pledge means that a successor organization could not be planning to put WikiTree behind a pay wall. It must stay free.”WikiTree Back-ups

The Lost Colony of Roanoke and DNA

The Carte of all the Coast of Virginia by Theodor de Bry -Roanoke Island Map
The Carte of all the Coast of Virginia by Theodor de Bry -Roanoke Island – Creative Commons

I love answering the many questions I receive daily from people who think they are related to someone famous. Can I prove it? Uh, erm… Today I had a question about someone getting their DNA results back and finding they may be related to many different ethnic groups which was a real surprise to he and his family. Jewish? Black? Native American? Oh, but there is one little bit of interestingness in all this. The Lost Colony. We might find links to the Lost Colony of Roanoke through DNA.

The mystery of the Lost Colony is suddenly (a drop in the bucket of time genetically speaking) coming back into discussion because of new inroads in genetic testing, advances in Archaeology and possibly a TV show. The Archeology hasn’t excavated any bodies, so genetically, who on earth could they test? No bodies = no DNA? The Descendants.

“Descendants you say”?

The email listed several North/South Carolina associated Native American tribes – Lumbee and Croatan being among them.

If you paid attention in school you learned that the only clue as to what happened to these planters (Plantation “16th- and 17th-century… involved the confiscation of land by the English crown and the colonisation of…land with settlers from the island of Great Britain.” – WikiPedia article on Irish Plantation) was a word scratched into a palisade post at the Roanoke Colony location, “CROATOAN”.

The word “Croatoan” could imply a couple things:

– The Croatan, being already stirred up by the aggressiveness of an earlier group on a reconnaissance mission (read that military) and the lack of a good supply of drinking/farming water due to severe drought, attacked and killed all the planters.
– Or the Planters split into smaller groups and assimilated into the existing local population. Since there was a sign left, one wonders about the story of all the planters being killed by hostiles…

The theory current researchers seem to be working with is the latter, that the Planters were assimilated into existing populations – the Croatan included. With this in mind DNA researches like Roberta Estes and the Lost Colony Research Group are looking for DNA testers to add their DNA to The Lost Colony Research Project Gene Pool.

The Lost Colony of Roanoke DNA Projects

The lost Colony Research Group has, with it’s goal of providing “a body of credible research [on the Lost Colony], in one location, available to all researchers.”, projects for the DNA end of their work.               

  1. “The Y-line DNA project, for males who have a colonist surname or a surname of interest and whose families come from either Eastern North Carolina or England or have Native heritage. 
  1. The mitochondrial DNA project (see below) , for males or females whose maternal line carries the Lost Colony surnames or surnames of interest and who are from Eastern North Carolina or have Native heritage.
  1. The Family Finder project (see below) who is for anyone who believes they are descended from the Lost Colonists. This project was created specifically for those who have taken the Family Finder test…

    Anyone can join the Lost Colony Family Finder project, however, both the y-line and the mitochondrial DNA project have guidelines.

    You can join the Lost Colony Y-line or mitochondrial DNA projects if you fulfill one or more of the following criteria for the Y-line or mtDNA lines you have been tested for:

    1. Your surnames include those of the Colonists or others on the interest list AND your family is proven to descend from Eastern North Carolina, preferably before 1700, or the areas of interest shown on the maps later in this document.
    2. You have a history of Native Ancestry from this area, confirmed or unconfirmed.
    3. You have an oral history of Lost Colony ancestry.”The lost Colony Research Group

If you check out the Lost Colony Research Groups FAQ Page, you’ll see a complete list of projects as well as links to all the current surnames possible.

Here are the DNA Projects:

Lost Colony – YDNA Project 277 members
Lost Colony -MTDNA Project 0 members
LC Family Finder Project
Hatteras-YDNA Project 104 members
Hatteras – MTDNA Project 12 members
Hatteras – Family Finder Project 152 members

Lost Colony TV Show?

Of course there’s a TV show in the works which may serve to give some new energy toward the work to finding the DNA of possible descendants. American Horror Story is taking on the ghosts of Roanoke in it’s newest incarnation. “…the American Horror Story season 6 theme has been revealed, and it is a bloody “Roanoke Nightmare,”Den Of Geek!  Will the show be less about the haunted house in Roanoake, North Carolina portrayed in the first episode of the season and more about the Planters who disappeared? Either way just having the word Roanoke in the title should spice things up a bit for the Lost Colony Research Group. Good luck – I hope you get a lot of spill over from this!

Further information and reading

º Lost Colony DNA – The Scientist
º Another listing of Surnames associated with the attempted English Plantation of Roanoke.
º New Discoveries could explain what happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke –  Gizmodo
º The Lost Colony Research Group Blog
º Lost Roanoke Found – Maps, Artifacts and DNA Evidence
º Have we Found the Lost Colony? National Geographic
º Karen Ordahl Kupperman, whose book Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony
º Roanoke Colony on WikiPedia

A little Epitaph Here. A Little Epitaph There?

ep·i·taph

    a phrase or statement written in memory of a person who has died, especially as an inscription on a tombstone

Origin
late Middle English: from Old French epitaphe, via Latin from Greek epitaphion ‘funeral oration,’ neuter of ephitaphios ‘over or at a tomb,’ from epi ‘upon’ + taphos ‘tomb.’ google search result

I have always thought I would be cremated when I pass. This idea formed over time but was pretty much a solid thought before I finished High School. The Idea has not changed, but it has become more elaborate over time. First, my ashes will be placed in the hole where a sapling will be planted in a national park. Trees aren’t cut down in national parks, right? A tombstone next to the tree? Not too sure about this part because I don’t think it’s really legal to plant your ashes with a sapling in a national parc. My thought then was to place a little Epitaph here. A little Epitaph there.

Today I saw a post in the WikiTree for Genealogist’s Facebook page which Post on Epitaph's - WikiTree for Genealogists

WikiTree For Genealogists Post by M. Anderson, September 16.2016

gave me impetus to write about how I had to fly to SC recently for a Family Funeral and where I had a conversation with a family member about their recent decision to be cremated and ashes scattered (in a place which shall not be named because I KNOW this place is illegal). They have cemetery plots, so what are they going to do with those? What about a Tombstone? How will family historians be able to find out about their birth/death/husband/military service, etc.?

For me, my thought (since becoming a hard core family historian, Genealogist, Professional Genealogist and Genetic Genealogist) is that I will want a small plaque placed with a family member giving my “information”. This way others who follow in my footsteps will have some concrete (or brass in this case) “thing” to find. For me, hearing that these particular family members will possibly NOT have a plot of some kind of shook up my plans. If I can’t tag along on their graves, where would I put my plaque(s).

Plaques (above) is plural because I live far from my original home and Family base in SC, I would want one there. I also would want to place one somewhere in my adopted city. I belong to a large family here, spouse, children, cherished aunts, ma’s and pa-in-law, brother and sister-in-laws, nieces, nephews, and one or two wonderful uncles. So, I feel sure I am in good stead for finding one of these to let me, “tag along” with their memorial <stern look at SPOUSE>, surely. Maybe even a close friend may let me, “…and my loving, loyal, good friend Mags”, if my spouse isn’t willing <another stern look at SPOUSE>.

So, you see my plan is for a little epitaph here, a little epitaph there. I WANT to be found.

More on the elaboration of a little epitaph here a little epitaph there.

Since I know how important Genetics can be to family research, I also would like to have me teeth (or what’s left of them) sealed in a test tube for anyone to use in the extraction of my DNA at a much later date. Think of it as a biological time capsule, with genealogical implications.

Ok, so not just a plaque but a little bit of my DNA too. Too much to ask? Do cemeteries even allow “add-on” plaques? Do they allow encapsulated DNA (isn’t a body in a casket just a one big DNA encapsulation anyway?) to be placed with/in the plaque in some fashion (some clever Genealogist should design this Plaque and DNA Time Capsule for just this purpose! Of course you will need to credit me for the idea of course, but just run with it – really. And while we are at it about a RFID tag with further information about the individual. You could go on a cemetery tour and learn all about the people buried there – again credit me, but run with it!).

I have it all worked out, kind of sort of. Who wants to share your tombstone with me?

I Am So Sorry Dad – We’re Pending.

This could end up being very humorous or a nightmare.

I was excited to hear the great news that FTDNA (FamilyTree DNA) has added a phasing ability to their matches results. Just Great! I love it! I am all over it!

I jumped into my DNA matches before I even finished reading the email. I like the new layout with the tabs navigation – makes things very easy to see in a “nutshell”. You won’t be able to be eligible to use this feature, be able to click on the tabs, until you get yourself linked to another match who is in your tree. The “tree” refers to the GEDCOM/Tree you uploaded to FamilyTree DNA. Continue reading “I Am So Sorry Dad – We’re Pending.”

DNA – Where to Test?

This is a subject that has been whipped, but good. There isn’t a lot to add to the information about where to DNA test, but since some of my readership may be looking only to me for this very advice (delusions of grandeur), I have to whip it one more time. If you have already been around the block on this, you can sit back with a nice piece of hot blueberry pie while I ramble on, entertainingly, about where to test. The rest get your pie at the end.

Sticker Shock – It’s not a new car, but…

Prices range from around $99.00 US to about $249.00 US for single tests. If you don’t live in the US and your currency isn’t doing well against the US dollar, prepare for even more sticker shock and high fees for shipping.

You can get an Autsomal Test and/or a y-DNA test or mtDNA test and you can order a test: from 23andMe, Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA, My Heritage and National Geographic.

The companies vary in the tests they offer so you should spend time looking over the FAQ for each company to decide which one is right for you, based on what you want to know and what test you need to point you in the right direction. A previous blog post gives some advice on the, “what you want to know” and the “what tests” for you here: DNA- Who to Test?

Testing Companies

Ancestry FAQ
FamilyTreeDNA FAQ
23andMe FAQ
My Heritage FAQ (bottom of page)
National Geographic Geno 2.0 FAQ

Is Testing Available Everywhere?

No. You will want to read to make sure testing is available for your area. For example, Ancestry DNA testing is only “available in the United States and for purchase online for residents of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.”- Ancestry FAQ #10.

Now that that is done, everyone enjoy the hot from the oven blueberry pie I just served you! Some Vanilla Ice cream too!

Also see Why DNA? to see why you would want to do DNA testing.