DNAPainter is a good tool for assigning ancestors to segments of your chromosomes. I’ll use DNAPainter to see how many ancestors I can find for my mother-in-law Joan’s chromosomes.
Here, I start with a blank slate for Joan. The blue is where her paternal ancestors will go and the pink is where her maternal ancestors will go. Joan has two X Chromosomes like all women.
Joan’s 1/2 Aunt Esther
Joan has a 1/2 Aunt. They share the common ancestor of Fred Upshall who was born in Harbour Buffet, Newfoundland in 1879:
The DNA that Joan and Esther share is DNA that they got from Fred Upshall:
So with one DNA match, Joan has painted 15% of her chromosomes.
A Paternal Match for Joan at Gedmatch
Gedmatch.com is a good place to find matches. Gedmatch has specific information on your matches that can be mapped or painted. Joan’s second match at Gedmatch is with Ken. However, the exact common ancestor is difficult to determine due to poor records in the area of Newfoundland where the Upshalls lived. Also there was some intermarrying between families. So I’ll look for one of Joan’s paternal matches so I can paint in on the blue side of Joan’s chromosomes.
Ronda is Joan’s 2nd cousin once removed. Ronda and Joan are also 3rd cousins once removed along the Ellis Line, but I’ll use this relationship. It looks like Joan and Ronda have one common ancestor, but like most people, they have two. James Ellis married Clarinda Gorrill. Ronda has her as Clarinda Gorrill Ellis. This confused AncestryDNA, so they didn’t show Clarinda as a common ancestor. I will, however, on DNAPainter:
Here is how Melissa and Joan match:
I’m not sure why Ronda and Joan had two Shared Ancestor Hints and Melissa and Joan only had one.
Melissa doesn’t bring a new color to the map, but does get Joan up to 19% painted.
A Third Color – On the Maternal Side
Joan has a lot of Dicks descendant relatives. The Dicks were also from Newfoundland along Joan’s Upshall grandfather’s line:
I mapped Barry because it was clear who Barry and Joan’s common ancestors were. However, we are not positive what Elizabeth’s last name was. I forgot to say that Barry was a maternal match and this is what DNAPainter does when that happens:
The match goes across the maternal and paternal side. Here I have fixed that problem:
In some places, Barry has supplied new DNA matches. In other places, they are in parts of areas already matched. Here is an expanded view of Chromosome 15:
Karen and Wallace – Upshall Relatives
I painted some of these on my wife’s Chromosomes. 
Jessie Kate was put in as a daughter of Henry Upshall and Catherine Dicks. I think that Wallace’s Line was better supported by a paper trail.
This brings Joan up to 21% painted, but is mostly on her maternal side.
Going Back in Time on the Ellis Line
Sarah adds some history to the Ellis Line:
Sarah’s match is easier to see by just showing the Joan’s paternal side:
This gets Joan’s paternal side up to 10% mapped.
More Ellis/Gorrill DNA: A Match with Mariann
Joan and Mariann are second cousins:
It helps drawing these out as I realize that Mariann’s father is Melissa’s grandfather. Mariann tested at FTDNA and Ancestry. I can show her FTDNA match with Joan:
One interesting thing is that Mariann and Joan have an X Chromosome match. This cannot be an Ellis match as the X Chromosome does not pass down from father to son. Some people ignore X Chromosome matches of less than 15 cM – especially between two women. This match is around 8 cM.
Now Joan is up to 24% painted. I also organized the key of ancestors into paternal and maternal.
Robert’s Ellis Ancestry
Robert and Joan also match on the Ellis side. Here is part of Robert’s tree from Gedmatch:
Robert descends from William Ellis and Hannah Totton in three ways. I think I’ll skip drawing that out. I note also that Robert also has Rayner ancestry.
Joan is a 4th cousin once removed on the Rayner Line. I said I wasn’t going to make an Ellis tree, but now I have to draw one of the three lines:
Oh my. Robert is a 4th cousin once removed on the Ellis Line. That means that Robert and Joan’s DNA matches have a 50/50 chance of being Ellis or Rayner. Isn’t that confusing.
My guess is that the Chromosome 4 match is Ellis and that the Chromosome 9 match is Rayner. It looks like Mariann and Robert should triangulate, that should mean that the Chromosome 4 match is Ellis. It would take more research to figure out the Chromosome 9 match.
Jane – A 1/2 Third Cousin
As I mentioned about Aunt Esther above, 1/2 relatives can come in handy when doing genetic genealogy. I went back and looked over information about Jane in a previous Blog I wrote about Ellis DNA and Genealogy. Here is how Jane and Joan look like at AncestryDNA:
However, both Joan and Jane descend from James Ellis. Here is the tree I drew:
Here Jane is actually a half 3rd cousin once removed to Joan. Jane descends from the Ramsay side and Joan descends from the MacArthur side. That means that any DNA that they share is from James Ellis born 1801.
Looking for Rayners and Daleys
So far, I have only found DNA on two out of four of Joan’s grandparents’ lines. I would like to find some Rayner and Daley ancestors. The Rayners were, like the Ellis’, from Prince Edward Island. The Daley’s were from Nova Scotia.
Jo-Ann and Joan: Many Common Ancestors
Jo-Ann is listed at AncestryDNA and MyHeritage. Her tree is better filled out at MyHeritage. Here is Jo-Ann’s paternal side starting with her four paternal great-grandparents:
I have circled the ancestors that are in common with Joan. I see that Jo-Ann also has an Agnes Ellis in her tree. She is probably the daughter of William Ellis and Hannah Tawton going back one more generation. That means that Joan and Jo-Ann share three sets of common ancestors in three different generations.
Here is a tree showing that Joan and Jo-Ann are third cousins:
Jo-Ann and Joan appear to also be 4th and 5th cousins. When I paint in Jo-Ann’s matches, this is the confusing picture I get:
It is confusing because on Chromosomes 2 and 4 Jo-Ann’s DNA overlaps with Sarah and Jane’s Ellis DNA. On Chromosome 6, Jo-Ann has a small overlap with Sarah. I take this to mean that on Chromosomes 2 and 4, this is Ellis DNA – even though the common ancestors are two generations away from the Hopgood match. There are segments on Chromosomes 2 and 16 that don’t match others. This could be Hopgood or Gorrill DNA. I’m not sure about Chromosome 6. I would have to compare this to other matches first.
Jo-Ann brings Joan’s chromosomes up to 25% painted.
One Last Match: Glenda
There are many avenues to follow for painting. However, some are easier than others. Glenda has her DNA at Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). I also wrote about her in my previous Blog on Joan’s DNA. Here are Glenda’s four maternal great-grandparents:
The two lines to watch are Ellis and Rayner. Here is the Ellis connection:
Like Jane, Glenda and Joan have one common ancestor: James Ellis.
Here is the Rayner connection:
Here Joan and Glenda are full third cousins once removed. They share both Commmon ancestors of John Rayner and Sarah Simmons. That means that theoretically, Joan and Glenda should share twice as much DNA on the Rayner Line compared to the Ellis Line. Here is what Glenda looks like mapped onto Joan’s map:
Here Glenda’s DNA which I have as Rayner/Simmons DNA is in red. I have only showed Joan’s paternal side for clarity. Here there is no overlap with Green or tan Ellis DNA. That means that it is not positive that this DNA is Ellis DNA. Perhaps this is mostly Rayner/Simmons DNA as I guessed.
Here are Joan’s 26% painted chromosomes:
- The yellow James Ellis of 1801 doesn’t show as it is behind other Ellis colors.
- I could have painted more Dicks DNA as I have a lot of information on that family.
- This represents only 3/4 of Joan’s matches as there are no Daley side matches. There are Daley side matches at AncestryDNA, but AncestryDNA does not supply enough information for mapping DNA.
- Joan has something mapped on every chromosome exept for #22. This is not unusual, as #22 is the shortest chromosome.
Summary and Conclusions
- This exercise turned out to be more difficult than I expected. Three out of four of Joan’s grandparents were from Islands: PEI or Newfoundland. A lot of intermarrying went on between families within those islands.
- I hope to find some Daley DNA eventually. One method is to ask a match from AncestryDNA to upload to gedmatch, FTDNA or MyHeritage.
- The theoretical information I gave on DNA is on average of everyone. Individual DNA hardly ever complies with the averages – especially as the relationships go beyond second cousins.
- Although I did find likely Rayner DNA, that has not been proven without a doubt
- DNA matches that could be from one set of ancestors or another have to wait for other matches that are only from one set of ancestors to see if they match up on the chromosomal segments.