Tag: genealogy

Lydia Gaulden Shout Out – Come on Social Media, Connect Me!

This is a Lydia Gaulden Shout out. When I discovered Raven Symoné’s mothers surname is Gaulden my curiosity was piqued.

Who is Raven Symoné?

The adorable kid on Cosby, “American actress, singer, songwriter, television personality, and producer”, WikiPedia the former outspoken co-host of the View.

My interest is not so much in Raven, it’s her Gaulden’s I want to know about!

Could we have a Gaulden Cannection?

A part of my Sumter, South Carolina Gaulden Family headed west. Martha Gaulden married Francis Richardson and migrated to Mississippi . They lived in Woodville, MS which is close enough to New Orleans that my ggg Dempsey Gaulden spent time there.

“Dempsey Gaulden was born in Sumter County, South Carolina in about 1767. He may have migrated with his brother William or sister Martha (Patsy) to Mississippi about five years after the revolutionary war.[1]As a young man Dempsey raced horses in New Orleans.

According to Laura Gaulden Bailey he married ‘(wife’s name unknown) and left at least two sons: John Sidney and _________, father of Sam Gaulden of Windsor County, Mississppi. This information is furnished by John Sidney Gaulden.’ If she got this information first hand from John Sidney Gaulden and he was indeed a son of Dempsey this adds two new , and older sons, for Dempsey than I have in any information about him.” WikiTree

Dempsey sows his wild oats and is back in SC in 1830 working on my part of his family with no sign of Sidney, etc.

Raven Symoné has origins in the south, possibly Louisiana, so I hear. Though it doesn’t matter where, since she is a Gaulden, I want to know how, and who and where in the gene pool we connect. I would like to learn about her family lines and hopefully find some common genetic cousins to connect the story.

I am looking for someone, somewhere, somehow to put me in contact with Raven’s momma Lydia Gaulden Pearman, so I can cure my curiosity.

Come On Social Media Connect your Grandma! Let’s go Viral! 

Share, Share, Share, Spread, Spread, Spread. Please and Thank you!

Your Grandma is back after a six week hiatus.

The Tigger Character from the A. A. Milne book, Winnie The Pooh,  is my favorite. Why? Because Tigger will try to do anything, and try hard to do it well, whether or not he can. Well that is me. I will try anything. I will build, or move or create or produce anything I set my mind to. Sometimes this can get me into trouble.

A Tiggering I Went

Back on October 27th, I was moving a large bar (think 70’s retro with red Naugahyde on the out facing side) that the previous owners had left us. I have this 1000 pound megalith in my office. In October I decided to empty the shelves of household storage and start using it for Grandma’s Genes. To do this I needed to turn it around so the shelving was facing the office rather than the wall.

So, using good moving skills I leveraged it around to almost where it needed to be. I couldn’t move it further because I needed to move a piece of furniture out of the way (think painting yourself into a corner). Trapped, I couldn’t get out to move the furniture. Without forethought, I jumped up on the bar, then sat my bum down, scooched off the bar and…

Your Grandma fell straight armed to the floor.

No my hip wasn’t broken!

I did mess-up my shoulder and six weeks ago I had surgery. I can tell you having to type one handed, or via speech to text (think “uh”, “hmm” and “throat clear” and all the corrections for speech to text that would entail) then you might get an inkling of the frustration and annoyance I have been feeling at not being able to write well (thank you to Eowyn Langholf and Julie Ricketts for helping me out a bit with some burning issues that needed to be addressed).

Thursday marks the end of my six week “sling imprisonment”. I won’t be cycling, or doing yard work for six more weeks, if that, but I will be back to typing. Just like I am doing now. Left hand and arm working as usual and the right arm kind of propped up to the keyboard so my hand can type.

Now get baking…Grandma needs some Blueberry Pie! Your grandma is coming back after a six week hiatus – next week.

 

Hunt-14 of Bedford County Virginia Researcher, My Prom Date

A fellow Hunt-14 researcher contacted me because of a conversation he was having with someone who wants to connect to our Hunt line. The discussion was based on DNA matches to a fella who could be related to the Hunt family brickwall, Dr. Thomas Hunt of Bedford County Virginia, father of the children known as the Hunt 14. This probability has never been fleshed out before using DNA, but…

All this is very interesting (VERY VERY INTERESTING) as I calmly go on to the reason for today’s post…

He is Doug Hunt and we do share our Hunt line back to Dr. Thomas. Like researchers before him, Edgar Hunt, Jean Hunt, Allen Hunt, Jimmy Hunt, Jr., Doug wants to get the many disjointed pieces to the Hunt 14 progenitors life right. He wants to get it right and get it “out there” for all researchers to access. He and I are working on that and I am as giddy as a school girl just asked to prom by the cutest boy in school.

What made you want to do this, go to Richmond for the LVA and Durham for Duke University and do the research?

Basically, I’ve been fascinated with the idea that for so many years our family has run into a dead end finding the origins of the 14 beyond a few bits and pieces about Thomas Hunt. At first, I started by looking up various Hunt families (like the famous Westchester, NY one at Hunts Point) to try to find a link, but often there are too many Thomases and too few facts! I also started to compile facts on what was already known, but I kept finding incomplete or inconsistent information…like did he live in Bedford or Franklin? Was he a Doctor? How do we know? Was he in prison, when and where? Why do people keep saying he is “Thomas Elwood Hunt IV” (probably wrong)…I figured the best way to solve the origin question was I had to find everything that it is possible to know about Thomas Hunt and that hopefully that would lead to a link or discovery. Also, doing that would help me sort through the various rumors (which had turned into several disorganized text files at the time).So I started systematically citing all sources, pulling original documents, and transcribing / interpreting the records. It turned out that by doing so I was able to discover more an more leads into other possible research. Not only did I gain a clearer picture on the life story of Thomas and his family in Bedford / Franklin, but also I began to discover the historical context of some of the events too.I have not yet made the significant breakthrough I was hoping for…to find some clues to his origin…but I still have more research to do, and I feel the information I have gathered will help as a reference in the search, not just for me but for all researchers.

Your Dad and you went together?

Yes we did, back in January. The reason we went was actually the John Hook papers. I had discovered several documents linking the two of them, suggesting a close business or personal relationship. The key findings were (1) in Hook v Hancock 1808 Augusta County, there is mentioned a letter written by Thomas to John Hook (relating to a debt) that was marked “exhibit D”…but when I searched through all the documents (90 pages) there was A, B, C, …. then E, F!!!! It was rather frustrating that the document was missing. I figured it would be really cool to find a letter written by Thomas, but then (2) shortly afterwards I discovered that John Hook and his company had kept a ton of letters and documents (7000+ pages) and they were available at Duke University. I figured there was a high probability of finding a letter to or from Thomas considering their other shared records. So I booked a flight (cheapest time of year, January) and invited my father to come along (he had actually started all this research a few years ago, discovering we were related to Esli and taking a trip to Mississippi). We also made a plan to visit the LVA since it contained a vast repository of county / state records on microfilm.

Unfortunately I didn’t find a letter like i was hoping, but the worst part was I didn’t plan enough time there. My dad and I probably went through 20 or so boxes in an 8 hour period, but I had reserved 46 of them, so we might have missed something. I am hoping to go back someday.

We did, however find other things that were unexpected. I was able to document the land rolls from John Hook’s estate, which showed his land obtained from Hunt. Also my dad found several signed documents from Benjamin Hunt (as witness), and records from him at the “Hailsford” store. I believe (based on handwriting) that Benjamin was actually a clerk at the store (would make sense considering he was a teenager at the time) and later worked for John Hook…though I wouldn’t say with 100% certainty that it was Benjamin of the 14 (probably but not 100%). We also found that Jesse, Uriah, Joel, Thomas, and Benjamin were all customers of Hook at one point or another, and the sequence of indexes indicated that Thomas, Uriah, Joel and Jesse were earlier customers, probably before 1790, then Thomas and Benjamin 1790 to 1795ish…then later only Stephen Hunt appears. It seems to fit with the ages of the 14 and the suggestion that Stephen did not come to Bedford until later.

By the way, my next goal is to pinpoint exactly on the map where Thomas’ land was. I have the surveys, but i need to request the full survey microfilm from the LVA to try to puzzle piece the exact location…

Who is the family Historian, you or your dad?

At first my Dad, but I have taken over more and more as I get older (I’m 32 now). I got my interest from my Grandma from her stories about the family and her as a kid. Also, my Dad has a cousin, Marsha, who basically knows everything about our more recent genealogy.

I love stories, and i feel that ancestry is made whole by them (dates and names only give so much). I also feel like a story can come from simple facts, that can be expanded to more by researching the historical context…

What is your Day job?

I am an engineer…hence the desire to systematically organize things!

Thank you Doug for taking the time to answer my questions and thank you for wanting to get this all organized and accessible. Your Grandma is mailing you a Blueberry pie today…

Cornbread Genealogy

I am a child of the US South. I grew up eating cornbread in all it’s forms, but I have never thought about Cornbread as a tool in Genealogy (Anthropology, Sociology). Cornbread Genealogy.

Last night the spousal unit and I had dinner here in Ottawa (the 5th coldest national capital in the world – and the snowiest this year) at a warm, comfort food place called the Foolish Chicken. it’s is a good place to have good chicken. It’s not particularly “southern”, no collards or sweet potato soufflé, but they do serve cornbread with most everything on the menu. Being a self proclaimed cornbread connoisseur I have enjoyed the Cornbread at the foolish chicken often.

Last Night’s Cornbread?

It was fabulous. Creamy, fluffy, slightly sweet with whole corn and green chili’s inside to give it an extra burst of moistness and flavor. Being a connoisseur of cornbread, I can tell you that this bit of cornbread was among the best I had ever tasted.

Cornbread Genealogy

At some point in the last week I read an article about cornbread, Why does sugar in cornbread divide races in the South? By Kathleen Purvis (March 29th, 2016 edition of the Charlotte Observer). In the article she describes cornbread from two Charlotte eateries, “…(their versions of) cornbread are humble things. But they represent something deeper: The dividing line between black Southerners and white ones. As examples of one of the defining staples of Southern food, they also are a marker of food history that speaks volumes about origins and identity, about family and what we hold dear.

Culinary historians have debated this one for years: Did the descendants of slave cooks who were exposed to British baking styles come to value cornbread that was lighter and softer? Did the children of farm-based white Southerners get used to unsweetened cornbread that tasted more emphatically like corn? Whatever caused it, the line is drawn.

‘You have to have sugar in your tea and your cornbread,’ says La’Wan Adams, the owner of La’Wan’s. ‘People will ask, ‘Is it like Jiffy? Is it like cake?’

If you are white, you likely fall into the camp of Lupie Duran, the retired owner of Lupie’s.

‘To me, sweet cornbread is like Jiffy mix. And that’s not the Southern kind. No sugar. It’s not my thing.'”

Read more here…

It’s an interesting idea.

Where I grew-up, and in my family, we always had slightly sweet cornbread homedmade and via Jiffy Mix. My Mom owns her own business and sometimes having a quick fix for something to go along with her ALWAJiffy Cornbread MixYS well prepared dinners (no tv dinners for us) was a good thing. We also occasionally had cornbread made by Cammie, our nanny, housekeeper, cook and second/third mama. It was always cooked in an iron skillet and served hot from the oven. Comfort food in the extreme.

Cornbread Variations – From WikiPedia

Baked cornbread – “In the United States…Southern cornbread has traditionally been made with little or no sugar and smaller amounts of flour (or no flour), with northern cornbread being sweeter and more cake-like.

Corn pone – “Corn pone…is a type of cornbread made from a thick, malleable cornmeal dough (which is usually egg-less and milk-less) and cooked in a specific type of iron pan over an open fire (such as a frontiersman would use), using butter, margarine, shortening, or cooking oil. Corn pones have been a staple of Southern U.S. cuisine, and have been discussed by many American writers, including Mark Twain…

In the Appalachian Mountains, cornbread baked in a round iron skillet, or in a cake pan of any shape, is still referred to as a “pone” of cornbread…

The term “corn pone” is sometimes used derogatorily to refer to one who possesses certain rural, unsophisticated peculiarities (“he’s a corn pone”), or as an adjective to describe particular rural, folksy or “hick” characteristics (e.g., “corn pone” humor).”

Hot water cornbread – “Cooked on a rangetop, one frying method involves pouring a small amount of liquid batter made with boiling water and self-rising cornmeal (cornmeal with soda or some other chemical leavener added) into a skillet of hot oil, and allowing the crust to turn golden and crunchy while the center of the batter cooks into a crumbly, mushy bread….

Johnnycakes – Pouring a batter similar to that of skillet-fried cornbread, but slightly thinner, into hot grease atop a griddle or a skillet produces a pancake-like bread called a johnnycake. This type of cornbread is prevalent in New England, particularly in Rhode Island, and also in the American Midwest and the American South…

Hushpuppies – A thicker buttermilk-based batter that is deep-fried rather than pan-fried, forms the hushpuppy, a common accompaniment to fried fish and other seafood in the South. Hushpuppy recipes vary from state to state, some including onion seasoning, chopped onions, beer, or jalapeños….” WikiPedia

Mouth Watering yet?

Aside from Ms. Purvis’s racial line of thought, we should be able to scour family cookbooks for clues about where the recipe authors lived. My family surely shows that the type of cornbread you eat isn’t really an indicator of your race. But it is certainly an indication of geography.

In one of the Recipe books inherited from my grandmother, you can see where she underlined things. Looking closely at it she was underling notes from people who connected to our family in one way or another. She even scribbled brief notes in the margins explaining who they were. This particular cookbook also had old family stories along with the recipes. I can’t wait til I find another seemingly unimportant book to find it is stock full of family history.

lisa lisson goes into detail about this in her post, How to Use Vintage Cookbooks in Your Genealogy Research, Are You My Cousin? – Resources & Tools to Confidently Research Your Genealogy

Grandma’s Genes Year End Review – Networking

Grandma’s Genes is winding down 2016 with a mind towards the things that most influenced our work. Aside from the blueberry pies, presentations, research, Swab-A-Thons, field trips, conferences, phone calls, blog posts etc., there is one major take-away.

Networking.

Networks connect us all. We drive to our jobs on a network of roads. We communicate with each other over a network of airwaves or wires or through the vast web of the internet. We have a network of support – friends, family and the baker down the street. Even our neighbor next door is a thread in the Network of our Lives.

How we connect to our networks is just the facility of that connection. What matters is the content.
WikiTree

If I hadn’t joined WikiTree in December 2013, the mother load of genealogy networking and collaboration, and turned this many, many year passion into a mystery solving venture that pays for my blueberry pies? I would still be just answering family queries and would never have learned the joy of genealogical collaboration. Collaboration on such a stratospheric level. I posted once about how WikiTree has given me an education beyond my university degree in WikiTree’s G2G Forum. That was a year ago – I must be working toward my WikiTree doctorate now.

23andMe

As such, I have been able to solve a 90 year old mystery, fairly quickly (8 months to find her father), because I was able to use a Network to make a connection. 23 and me connected me with Jane and her family who in turn helped connect Betty Jean to half of her birth family.

Facebook

A woman posted in Gauldings page on Face Book about a common Ancestor. She found an obituary stating our common ancestor was a Captain in the revolution under Francis Marion. In all the research anyone has ever done on this man, he was not a soldier in the revolution. He served as a Petit Juror. He also might have been providing supplies to the troops – no one knows for sure. She used Facebook to find me and my very underwhelming answer to her question, “was John Gaulding a Captain under Francis Marion?” “No…”

A man who believed a long held family story that his gggrandfather was adopted into a family of African Canadian’s has been able to find interest in the real story. This story told mainly by his DNA and supported by the network of other distant cousins who had heard and believed or not believed the story. These distant cousins are all testing their DNA now and finding that they too have a connection to a very rich African ancestry. These distant cousins have also created their own network, on Facebook, so that others who are not in the know can find the truth and their heritage through them.

Mother Nature

If mother natures network of weather hadn’t dumped 20 + cm of snow on Ottawa in a matter of a few short hours last year, the idea that became Grandma’s Genes would not have formed into what it is today. Marc, my fellow shoveler on that day, has moved on to work in his day-job field full time. During the year, though, he helped an adoptee find his fathers family. Marc helped so many with Indigenous roots find the right identity for themselves and possibly take the true meaning of being connected to an indigenous ancestor with them into their new found knowledge of self. Marc also made long sought connections within his own genealogy through research and networking with others who have connections to his indigenous lines – to his Quaker lines – to his southern lines.

Moving Forward Through Networking

For me? I found a path which has been made stronger, straighter and more focused than I would have ever thought imaginable. Only with the help of my network of family, friends, partners, genealogists, geneticists, clients and all those ancestors long passed, has Grandma’s Genes grown into what it is today. What it will become tomorrow.

Thank you, every – single – point on our network – one of you.

 

Betty Jean’s Adoption Search – “I’ve got a secret”

Betty Jean’s Adoption search is moving right along. It’s an interesting thing, this kind of search because someone has to have a secret. A secret that they told no one, ever, if you are the father. If you are the mother? It’s a secret you probably had to tell someone at some point. I can imagine the fear of the disapproval and anger that might be foisted upon on unwed mother or father of the 1920’s deep south.

Betty X’s Abandonement

Betty Jean was left somewhere in or near Asheville, North Carolina. When her foster parents picked-her up, it was from, according to them, a Catholic hospital. When the Sister gave Betty Jean to them, she described Betty Jean’s mother as having blue eyes and black hair. Whoever left her, father, mother, grandparent, uncle, or aunt, didn’t leave any information with the Sister(s). All of her adoption files were empty. Blank. Nothing in them, period.

The Living Cousin

We found a living cousin, Jane and I, using Traditional Genealogy, Genetic Genealogy and a bit of Forensic Genealogy – from Dick Eastman’s Blog: “The word ‘forensic’ means ‘relating to the use of science or technology in the investigation and establishment of facts or evidence.” In this case, forensic would mean to use science or technology in addition to traditional records. In short, Forensic Genealogy is the use of something OTHER THAN standard records to add to your family history’.”

We had hoped that she might be Betty Jean’s real, live sister but she wasn’t. She was a real, live first cousin instead. A first cousin who had gotten me in touch with her real, live first cousin, Ike. As soon as her test came back as a cousin and not a sister I called Ike immediately. He was the possible clue to Betty Jean’s Adoption. I told him the test for his cousin was just that, a DNA test result showing her to be the first cousin of Betty Jean as well.

The Next DNA Test

Ike was more than happy, almost excited, to find the answer to this mystery. I ordered his test from FTDNA and we waited again for five or so weeks. Weeks of waiting to solve this 90 year adoption mystery. To reveal this secret.

The Secret Revealed? Well, Partially

We checked for the results nearly daily when four weeks had past. We checked so much that we knew the results were in before FTDNA had a chance to send the notification. At this early stage the results weren’t complete but still filtering through FTDNA’s system. Nail biting and grinding of teeth ensued. Finally they were complete and…

Glenn Cashion is Betty Jean’s Father

Glenn Cashion. He lived in Asheville in 1926/7 and his son Ike matches Betty Jean as a half sibling. Betty Jean looks like her father in so many ways it’s almost uncanny. Would they have recognized each other if they had met on the street? Would Glenn have acknowledged his resemblance in a strangers face?

Glenn Cashion PhotoHow did it happen? How did Betty Jean come about? We have no idea. It was a secret he kept to his death.

When Glenn married and started a family of his own, he named his first Child Betty. Betty Glenn Cashion was named for his grandmother, Emily Elizabeth “Betty” Asbury. Looking at this while we were searching, I always though it interesting that Glenn had named his first daughter Betty, when he might have been our Betty Jean’s father as well. I thought that this was a clue to the fact that he might be Betty X’s father. Instinct vs. fact is sometimes very interesting.

Glenn is…

“My Dad is a winner. He was the gem of the family. Glenn was giving and worked hard for Shriner’s charities, helped family with money when they needed it, even when they didn’t ask. He took care of family – he was a nice man.” – Ike Cashion

Ike didn’t say this to make the secret of Betty Jean right. It was not said in defense of whatever actions his father took in 1926/7, it was said just as a matter of fact. Glenn Cashion was a good guy.

Onward to work and research deeper and to find Betty Jean’s Mother…

Jane's Desk
Genealogical Researcher Jane’s desk.

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“Breakfast with Public Historians, Building a History Business”, Panel Discussion, University of Ottawa

Mags will join a Panel Discussion, “Breakfast with Public Historians, Building a History Business”, focusing on marketing and branding consultancy. Applications of History Outside of the University Setting.

This is a private event for a University of Ottawa, 3rd year class, studying “public history,” applications of history outside of the university setting. The students will hear from a panel of three people who are working in the Public History field, with lots of opportunity for questions and discussion.

Truth or Lore in Eyvel Family History

Truth or Lore in Eyvel Family History

Mr. George Eyvel, President of the Canadian Shorthand Writers Association[1], was a reporter for the Hansard News (see information below), who after covering Parliamentary goings-on, was assulted, “…knocked down by Foot Pads [padfoots] at night and lay insensible on the street.”[2] while walking home in the early hours of the morning, on or about the 25 of March, 1888.”

The Temperature that night could have been -2c or close to that. Mr. George Eyvel, whilst laying in the street insensible, also very nearly froze to death.

 

Information unreported in the news, and according to his now-a-days cousin was that when the police found him, they thought he was drunk and just needed to sleep things off. They carried him to the station and locked him up. Later, much later, as he lay near death in his cell, the Police discovered he was really a victim of a padfoot. They then got him some medical attention. After his death Parliament passed a resolution and most everyone present signed a book of condolences for his wife and raised $1000.00 for his wife and kids.

The information that jives.

He did receive medical attention. He had nearly frozen to death and had fingers amputated, developed blood poisoning

 

and ultimately died about a month after sustaining his original injuries from the padfoots (I am pretty sure this has nothing to do with Harry Potter but more to do with an English term, “one of many names for ghostly black dogs reported across the United Kingdom.”[1] I hope these black ghost dogs have not spread to Ottawa in the past 130 years).

Family Lore or Truth

 

From the story above we see that the press reported he awoke himself and smashed a window in a house near where he fell, or was attacked, and given immediate medical attention. So if the press is correct he was not found and mistaken as a drunk in the street.

Do we believe the press of the day or do we believe the family lore?

More Truth

As mentioned in the article above, “the press gallery met to pass resolutions of condolences.” There is indeed a book of autographs from many of the pressmen and parliamentarians of the time. Was it a Parliamentary Resolution? More research is needed to verify this.

Geroge Evels Condolence Books and letter.
 

As a note of interest, Included in the autographs is the then Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. McDonald’s signature.

 

The Hansard Press

The Hansard Press “…In 1878 a subsidy was granted to the Hansard press and at that point reporters were employed.[1] Despite hiring contract reporters there were still widespread complaints about the accuracy of the debates.” This press was an attempt to publicly report debates and happenings in the Parliament. At points this style of press was more a commentary on the happenings rather than a true to the facts kind of reporting. Parliamentarians were even allowed to edit what had been written and correct it before their words were sent to press. Parliamentary debates had been in the realm of privacy prior to 1809.[2]

The question then, is the story about a man who worked for a news organization with questionable accuracy…? Who is to be believed, the Family of George Eyvel or the press of the time?

Sources

  1. ↑ The Ottawa Journal, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Thursday, April 21, 1887 – Page 1, NewsPapers.com
  2. ↑ Manitoba Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Tuesday, February 28, 1888 – Page 1, NewsPapers.com
  • “Ontario Marriages, 1869-1927,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FMNF-8XY : 10 April 2015), George Eyvel and Ella Maria James, 22 Nov 1877; citing registration , Napanee, Lennox And Addington, Ontario, Canada, Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 1,863,649.
  • “Ontario, Toronto Trust Cemeteries, 1826-1989,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KH6H-92G : 28 November 2014), George Eyvel, ; citing Toronto, Ontario, Canada, section and lot , line 12201, volume Volume 07, 1883-1891, Toronto Trust Cemeteris, Toronto; FHL microfilm 1,617,041.
  • Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Series: MS935; Reel: 53, Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938, 1943, and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
  • The Ottawa Journal, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, February 25, 1888 – Page 4, Newspapers.com
  • The Ottawa Journal, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Monday, February 27, 1888 – Page 1, Newspapers.com
  • The Ottawa Journal, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Thursday, February 23, 1888 – Page 1, Newspapers.com
  • Manitoba Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Tuesday, February 28, 1888 – Page 1, Newspapers.com
  • The Ottawa Journal, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Thursday, April 21, 1887 – Page 1, Newspapers.com

Swab-A-Thon a Success ‘Thanks Ottawa!’ says Grandma’s Genes

Grandma’s Genes held Ottawa’s first (World’s First) genetic genealogy Swab-A-Thon.    The event, held at Bowman’s Bar and Grill on Saturday August 27th, brought a diverse crowd.  People came with questions about their origins, asking what they could learn from DNA testing?  Genetic genealogist, and Grandma’s Genes co-founder, Marc Snelling opened the event.  He spoke about the discoveries that can be made through DNA.

Marc spoke about how to learn more about your ethnic background. About how and where we fit into the human family tree.  He also spoke about breaking a brick-wall in records, such as adoptions where no records are available, or finding unknown grandparent. Other reasons for DNA testing he covered included; leaving a legacy for your children and grandchildren, making new discoveries, and connecting with living cousins.

Participants in Ottawa's first genetic genealogy Swab-A-Thon put on by Grandma's Genes, Family Tree DNA, and Ancestry.ca
Participants in Ottawa’s first genetic genealogy Swab-A-Thon put on by Grandma’s Genes, Family Tree DNA, and Ancestry.ca

Grandma’s Genes co-founder Mags Gaulden spoke about DNA tests currently available to consumers.   Autosomal tests  (chromosomes 1-22, and X),  are a test offered by ‘the Big 3’ testing companies, 23andMe, AncestryDNA and Family Tree DNA.  23andMe includes testing for DNA health markers, and idetifies paternal and maternal haplogroups, currently priced at $249 (CA). She also spoke about mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) a test of your direct maternal line and it’s associated halpogroup, and Y-DNA a test of the direct paternal lines. (tests offered by Family Tree DNA).  She also spoke about The Genographic Project, a science-focused DNA project to document the human family tree and it’s haplogroups.

Mags Gaulden, Marc Snelling of Grandma's Genes at Swab-A-Thon
Grandma’s Genes co-founders Mags Gaulden and Marc Snelling answer attendees DNA questions at the Swab-A-Thon.

Mags and Marc spoke with Swab-A-Thon particpants about the value-added services Grandma’s Genes provides to customers who have purchased a DNA test from one of ‘The Big 3’.  Some of the services offered by Grandma’s Genes include;

  • In-depth ethnic analysis, beyond simple percentages with results across multiple DNA testers,
  • Searching for birth families of adoptees, and uncovering the identity of unknown ancestors,
  • DNA mapping – identifying common ancestors shared with DNA cousins, through triangulation of DNA and genealogy across all company’s databases and public records, 
  • Preparing genealogical reports for First Nations or American Indian Nations, and other lineage societies such as United Empire Loyalists, Daughters / Sons of the American Revolution.

Lesley Anderson from Ancestry.ca spoke to the crowd about the Ancestry database, over 2 million samples. The size of the DNA database together with millions of user-created family trees creates discoveries through Ancestry DNA Circles. Ancestry DNA Circles are an automated tool that discovers common ancestors shared between DNA matches.

Everyone who came had a different reason for being there.  One adoptee sought to learn more about his birth parents.  Two others wanted to learn more about what their DNA will tell them about their deep roots in their home countries, France and Algeria.  Another wanted to know more about his maternal granparent. An ancestor the family says was in England while other lines were in Eastern Europe. Several others purchased tests as gifts for their relatives.

Free kits won by three!

Three free DNA kits were awarded.  One from Grandma’s Genes., one by Family Tree DNA, and a third from Ancestry.ca. Geraldine won the FTDNA Family Finder kit offered by Grandma’s Genes.  Vanessa won the Family Finder kit offered by Family Tree DNA.  Lyle won the free AncestryDNA kit.  Those who won prizes all purchased additional kits for testing themselves at both Family Tree DNA and AncestryDNA. They also purchased kits for other family members.

Another Swab-A-Thon?

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped create Ottawa’s first genetic genealogy Swab-A-Thon.  Several participants were hopeful another Swab-A-Thon will be held.  An event  to bring their cousins and family members to, to learn more about DNA testing.  Grandma’s Genes hopes to bring another Swab-A-Thon to the area in the future.

I know I am the only one who does this.

I know I am the only one who does this.

I am the only genealogist who has a sense of family, who feels an ancestor’s pain when I type a date into my Genealogy program of choice (WikiTree). I am the only one who, when reading about some horrific event in an ancestors life, feel it in the pit of my stomach. I am the only one who feels pride when I read that someone was mentioned in the hallowed halls of Congress upon her death.

I know I am the only one. Continue reading “I know I am the only one who does this.”