Esther is my wife’s 1/2 great Aunt and has Newfoundland Ancestry on both sides. AncestryDNA’s ThruLines takes DNA matches and matches those up with Ancestry Tree matches. Let’s take a look at Esther’s ThruLines to see what they show.
Esther’s Parents
Here are Esther’s Parents:
Here are the ThruLines for Fred Upshall:
These people are not related on the Shave side, so the relationships show correctly as half relationships. These people are my mother in law, Joan, her sister Elaine, my wife Marie and Marie’s niece Tina. These four should show up in Esther’s more distant Upshall side ThruLines.
Esther’s Grandparents
Very quickly, Esther is back to 1841 with her Upshall grandfather. I am more interested in the Upshall and Dicks side as that is the side where my wife and her mother are related.
Here are the Henry Upshall ThruLines:
On the right is Karen. I have written Blogs about her family. I put her great-grandmother Jessie as the daughter of Henry Upshall based on DNA evidence even though there was no genealogical evidence. This was a bit dicey, but based on the amount of DNA shared between Esther and Karen, it seems like the right thing to do. According to Ancestry DNA, that amount of shared DNA is most likely to be a 1st cousin, twice removed relationship:
Nicholas and Esther
How does Nicholas fit in? For one thing, 1st cousin four times removed goes right off the chart:
I would think that a 1st cousin four times removed would be similar to the 2nd cousin once removed. Either way, the chances of this being right are <1% according to AncestryDNA.
Nicholas’ Genealogy
Here is the expanded view of ThruLines:
One problem is that Nicholas’ parents and grandparents are shown as living, so I don’t have information on them. Nicholas’ tree is managed by Kara. She has Gladys Uppshall Knight as Nicholas’ maternal great-grandmother. From there, Stephanie’s tree kicks in with Theodore the father of Gladys.
Here is the 1935 Census for St John’s West:
The assumption is that this is the same Gladys in 1945:
Here is a replacement birth record for Malcolm:
This shows that Malcolm’s mother was a Shave. That makes it more surprising that Esther and Nicholas don’t have more matching DNA as Esther’s mother was a Shave.
Here is another after the fact record for Malcolm’s brother:
This could be William in the 1945 Census living next to his brother:
Was Alexander the Son of Henry Upshall?
I have it that way on my Ancestry Tree, but not on my Upshall Web Page. I don’t see any genealogical evidence that would put Alexander as the son of Henry Upshall. It is that way in some on-line Trees. Based on the low amount of DNA match and the shaky genealogical evidence, I would call into question this particular ThruLine at this time.
Esther’s Upshall Great-Grandparents
Here, things get more interesting as there is no known genealogical evidence for Esther’s great-grandparents. These ancestors are a best guess scenario. Here are the ThruLines for best-guess Peter Upshall:
At first look, it seems as though there are a lot of different DNA matches for these likely children of Peter Upshall.
George Upshall Branch 1829
Here, note that Pat, like Nicholas has Shave and Upshall in her ancestry. I note she also has Burton which Eshter has, so perhaps other names also. 280 cM is a huge match for a 2nd cousin twice removed:
Ancestry says that Pat and Esther look like 2nd cousins. However, that is assuming that they are not related on other lines which they are. For comparison, I had mentioned above that Nicholas’ match to Esther should have been equivalent to a 2nd cousin once removed. Another thing I’d like to do is to see if these people have shared matches with each other. I note that Nicholas does not have a shared match with Pat. That means that he shares less than 20 cM with Pat.
Checking with Joan and Elaine
One way to check these matches is by Joan and Elaine. They are Esther’s half nieces. That means that they match on the Upshall side and not the Shave side. Here is what Joan shows:
Now the DNA matches are quite a bit different. When I look at the numbers for Joan and her sister Elaine, I get this for the proposed George Upshall Branch:
Sarah Upshall Branch 1831
Here Esther has 10 DNA matches on the Sarah Upshall Collett Branch:
Here are the results for Eshter, Joan and Elaine:
- I added in a Maximum % column, so we could see what the highest likelihood is for the DNA match
- Green indicates that the DNA matches got that highest mark
- This seems to indicate that Esther does not match this Sarah Upshall Collett on other lines.
- None of the numbers seem unreasonable. The <1% can be explained by matching on many other lines and getting too high of a match.
- Joan and Elaine match Sarah and Esther doesn’t. That means that Florence (who is Joan and Elaine’s mother) got DNA that her sister Esther did not.
- Esther went off the chart with the 2nd cousin 4 times removed category.
- To do this right, I would need to check all the genealogy. I didn’t. The genealogy is likely good up to the children of Peter and Margaret Upshall and then missing.
- All these numbers seem to confirm that the trees are likely trees.
Jane Upshall Branch
Jane appears to be well documented by DNA. Esther has 14 matches to Jane’s descendants along the Tulk Line. I have noted close matches to Tulk in the past, so this may explain those DNA matches.
Jane also has a rare Upshall birth record:
However, I find it odd that she was born in November and baptized in September. Perhaps she was born in 1838. I assume that there was only one Peter and Margaret Upshall at the time. Burin was about 90 miles away from Harbour Buffett, so I assume there was a travelling minister who performed these baptisms on 29 September 1839. I have that Jane was born in Burin which is not accurate. She was born in Garnish Gut according to this record. I’m not sure where Garnish Gut is, but I assume that it is part of or near Harbour Buffett.
An additional confusing point is that Peter was the father of Christopher Upshall also in 1833:
This means that Peter may have had a first wife Mary or the transcription may have been off. Christopher doesn’t show up on the ThruLines. I don’t see many trees for Christopher. Here is one:
This person shows Margaret as the mother and the birth at Famish Gut which perhaps makes more sense. Perhaps there were few descendants on this line.
So far the matches for the descendants of the three potential children of Peter and Margaret Upshall looks like this:
The evidence looks pretty good. I added Karen from the more recent Henry Upshall Line to show how good her numbers were.
Susan Upshall Born 1848
This Line is a little more confusing:
Roy’s grandmother is Margaret Collett. That begs the question of Elizabeth Webber. Shouldn’t she be a Collett also? Here is some information from http://www.collettfamilyhistory.net/Part-32-The-Newfoundland-Line-Rev.12.htm:
The same web page has this on Elizabeth:
According to this information, Elizabeth Webber is really Elizabeth Collett.
Here is the last of Esther’s ThruLines at this level:
This was a bit of an annoying exercise, but it does seem to verify the trees for the descendants. However, I have not tried to disprove the theory. That would take a bit of work. I do recognize interfering influences of the DNA matches through intermarriage. I showed some of those effects by comparing Esther’s matches to her half nieces Joan and Elaine. The main interferences could be other relationships with the Dicks, Shave and Burton families. The other thing I didn’t do was to check the genealogy of each line. This would take a while to do. The last confirmation would be to check to see if each of these matches match each other. The best way to do that is with Genetic Affairs’ AutoClusters.
Esther and AutoClusters
Here is a ‘basic’ AutoCluster I ran for Esther.
Esther has all Newfoundland ancestry, so almost all her clusters match other clusters. This AutoCluster ran January 9, 2019 between the match levels of 50 and 250 cM. I checked my Chart above to see which clusters the matches were in:
It turns out that the Jane Upshall Tulk Line were all in Cluster 14. In the other Lines, there was not enough information or the matches were outside the range. However, the other two Clusters found were 8 and 11.
This means that while Esther is matching Cluster 14 by Peter and Margaret Upshall, all the 10 in my Chart are matching each other by Jane Upshall and her Tulk husband.
Esther’s ThruLines With Christopher Dicks Born 1812
Christopher was married to Elizabeth. My best guess is that she was Elizabeth Crann. Esther has 12 new DNA matches on the Christopher Dicks Line. These matches could have gotten their DNA from Christopher Dicks or from his wife Elizabeth or both.
The matches under Catherine Dicks have already been looked at. Compare this with the Gedmatch Tree I have been working on for the Dicks Family:
ThruLines has a David Branch that I don’t have and I have a Christopher Branch that Thrulines doesn’t have.
The David Dicks Branch
Here is a partial opening of that Branch:
One interesting thing here is that Frances is also related to Esther through the Jane Upshall Tulk Line:
That is because Caroline Dicks married Edwin Kingwell Tulk according to the trees at Ancestry.
Cathy in the David Dicks Branch
Here is how ThruLines shows Cathy:
I had Cathy in a different Branch. However, if the ThruLines are right and I am right, she could be in two Dicks Branches of Frances Dicks Burton and Christopher Dicks:
Here is a summary of the David Dicks Branch:
It seems like everything checks out OK. Esther was matching too high to Newf due to matches on Esther’s maternal side. Joan isn’t related to Esther on Esther’s maternal side, so that took the extra DNA out of the equation. I skipped checking Joan’s sister Elaine’s results to save time. Joan matched one person David, who didn’t match Esther.
Going Up One Generation to Christopher Dicks Born about 1784
The Dicks family was huge and then spread out from there.
Here are nine children of Christopher who have matching DNA with Esther:
- John Michael – before 1808 – I haven’t been following this Branch. Has some Joseph’s in this Branch
- Elizabeth – 1809 – Married Thomas Adams
- Joseph – born 1810
- Frances born 1811 – Married Charles Burton
- Christopher Born 1812 – covered in previous section
- Rachel born 1817 – married James Joyce
- James Dicks born 1830 – also has a Joseph Dicks son. I haven’t been following this Branch either.
- George born 1832
- Robert born 1824 – so should be above
I trace six children in my Dicks Gedmatch DNA project. I didn’t have John Michael, James or Joseph. Altogether, there are 77 DNA matches represented in these 8 proposed children. That would be too many matches to check for this Blog.
Joseph Dicks
Although I don’t have Joseph Dicks on my Dicks DNA Chart, I have that Esther descends from Joseph Dicks on her maternal side:
I have Joseph Dicks born at Famish Gut in 1810 to Christopher and Margaret. However, this does not appear on Esther’s ThruLines or on my own Dicks DNA Chart.
I’ll look at the genealogy behind the John Michael and James DIcks Branches as I am unfamiliar with them.
John Michael Dicks Born 1808
The ThruLines Profile for John Michael shows this:
This information is a bit sparse. It shows that John Michael would have been over 105 years old when he died.
In a previous Blog I note this Joseph:
My thought was that this was a more likely ancestor for Esther.
Joseph Dicks and Violet
After changing Esther’s Jane Ann Line, I noticed that ThruLines did have a Joseph Dicks Branch with one large match:
However, this follows from the way I had Esther’s tree. Violet has a huge match with Esther at 359 cM. Here is a much closer relationship between Violet and Esther at 2nd cousin:
My mother-in-law, Joan also has a good match with Violet:
Violet’s Tree
Now I’m suspicious that Tulk may be related to Upshall.
Upshall of Dorset ThruLines
Newfoundland is too complicated with the intermarriages and lost records. Lets go back to Dorset, England:
My current thinking is that Peter Upshall born in 1800 in Dorset was the daughter of Sarah Upshall. Sarah is shown here with three of her siblings. This Dorset, England ThruLines appears to confirm that Sarah was the sister of Joseph, George and Charles who shows a Private above. This is a chance to find out what my wife’s Upshall relatives have been up to since 1737. Judy above is probably in Australia. Margaret’s paternal grandmother was born in England and died in Rhode Island.
The Charles Upshall Branch
Ross and Peter’s parents were both from Dorset, England.
Here is one of the trees I had been working with:
For some reason I am missing the Jane Upshall/Tulk Branch. I also need to go up two levels to John Upshall.
I had previously added an additional sibling Ann Upshall due to a match with my wife’s Aunt Elaine. Due to the fact that none of Peter’s Aunts or Uncles did not live in Newfoundland, my guess is that the DNA matches represent John and Elisabeth Upshall.
Here are some potential siblings to Sarah Upshall that I took from an online Ancestry Upshall Tree:
After quite a bit of typing, I get this:
This is a small version of the Upshall DNA match tree. I didn’t add in Ann Upshall or many of the Newfoundland Upshalls.
Shared DNA Matches
When I check how Judy on the bottom left of the chart above matches Esther, I get these shared DNA matches:
Many of these shared matches are with descendants of Newfoundland Upshalls.
Elaine and Joan’s Hazelbury Bryan Thrulines
One of Elaine’s Hazelbury Bryan Thrulines is with Peter on the Charles Upshall Branch shown above. The other is with Hazel on the Joseph Branch.
It looks like Hazel’s Branch stayed in England while Judy’s branch went to Australia:
Joan also has a ThruLines match with Hazel.
More of Esther’s English Upshall Shared DNA Matches
Elaine and Margaret from the George Upshall Branch have a shared DNA match named Trenton. Trenton has a good sized tree:
Trenton’s father’s mother’s father was Peter Upshall Boutcher. This sounds suspicious. There must be an Upshall in Peter’s ancestry. The Collett Genealogy that I referred to above is very helpful:
Here is one relationship that ThruLines didn’t figure out, but it helped in conjunction with Shared DNA Matches:
Putting the Upshall’s Together
Here I added a representative person from the Upshall/Tulk Branch:
Based on the ThruLines there are over 10 matches each on the Sarah Upshall Collett and Jane Upshall Tulk Branches. So the above tree is just a skeleton.
One Last Shared Match Between Esther and Judy
I don’t want to leave too much low hanging fruit. AU is a shared match with Dorset descendant Judy and Esther. Here is his three person tree and his DNA match:
AU and Esther have a DNA match of 69 cM. Here is Jacob in 1935 in Harbour Buffett:
Edward and Martha married in 1916:
Unfortunately, I soon got stuck at the level of Edward Upshall:
Summary and Conclusions
- Going Through many of Esther’s ThruLines was a large undertaking. I may have been better off just looking at the Upshall ThruLines.
- It was helpful have two of Esther’s 1/2 Nieces to compare the results. This is because Esther matches on many intermarried lines and Joan and Elaine only match on Esther’s paternal side.
- Esther’s ThruLines complemented and expanded upon the previous DNA work I have done on the Upshall and Dicks Families.
- I compared Esther’s Upshall ThruLines with her AutoCluster results. The Jane Upshall/Tulk Line showed clearly in one of Esther’s Clusters.
- I brought Esther’s ThruLines back to John Upshall born 1737 in Dorset, England and his wife Elisabeth Ellis. To me, the results clearly show that Esther descends through John Upshall and his daughter Sarah Upshall to Peter Upshall who was an early settler in Newfoundland in the Harbour Buffett area.
- I was a little surprised that Esther had four DNA matches going back to a common ancestor who was born in 1737
- ThruLines work well with Shared DNA Matches. I was able to find at least one new Upshall Line using Shared Matches to ThruLine Matches.
- In the future, I would like to concentrate more on the Upshall Branches and build them out in my Excel spreadsheet.
- It may be helpful to also check to see how many Upshall descendants have their DNA at Gedmatch, FTDNA and MyHeritage. This would allow for more detailed DNA analysis.
- ThruLines are able to put together many trees and DNA matches in order to see a possible big picture solution to some genealogical problems.