I have been in touch with my mother’s cousin Dotty about genealogy. She is a busy person and has said she would have her DNA tested. That time has come. Dotty tested at 23andMe where I have tested, but the rest of my family has not tested.
Where Dotty and My Mom Connect
I have a tree that shows genealogy for those with DNA matches. Dotty connects on the Lentz and Nicholson Lines. Here is the Lentz connection:
I have another tree for Nicholson and more matches on that side. I think I have the relationships right, but in one of my emails, it sounds like Dotty may be the sister of Judy.
Dotty didn’t make it to this tree but she would be where the arrow is. Here is the corrected tree:
Dotty’s DNA
Dotty has a lot of DNA in common with me as I am her first cousin once removed. What we don’t know right away is if that DNA is from the Lentz side or the Nicholson side. Here is the graphic from 23andMe:
I match Dotty on 17 chromosomes
Painting Dotty Onto My Chromosome Map
I currently am 49% ‘painted’ using a utility called DNAPainter:
Dotty will add more to the light green Lentz/Nicholson DNA. Here I am starting to add Dotty:
Dotty matches on my maternal side. Her matches show overlap with NicholsHeron and Lentz which makes sense. the overlap with Rathfelder doesn’t make sense but may be small overlaps.
Dotty’s DNA
Here is Dotty’s DNA compared to other Lentz/Nicholson descendants:
On many chromosomes, Dotty extends existing matches or adds totally new Lentz/Nicholson DNA.
Can We Tell Which Parts of Dotty’s DNA are Lentz and Which are Nicholson?
In some places I can tell, in others I can guess.
Chromosome 1
Dotty has two segments of matches with me on Chromosome 1. Dotty’s first match overlaps with Robert, so that makes me think that the first segment is from the Nicholson side. It may be that Dotty’s second match is Nicholson also. That is because Molly overlaps with Robert and Dotty’s second match. I think that the fact that Molly overlaps means that her segment is Nicholson.
Chromosome 2
This is just the first part of Chromosome 2:
Because Sarah and her father Robert descend from the Nicholson side, it appears that this could be Dotty’s Lentz side. Dotty’s match starts and the Nicholson matches start. This could be a coincindence or a changeover (crossover) from Lentz to Nicholson in my DNA.
Chromosome 3
Here, my match with Dotty overlaps with my match with Molly, so we can’t tell what side the match is on. However, my guess is that Jereme and Will have matchs on the Lentz side as they appear to form a crossover between Lentz and Nicholson with John and Nicole.
Chromosome 4
Here Dotty is in the Nicholson camp and Jereme appears to be on the Lentz side. Raimonds is from my mother’s German Rathfelder side.
Chromosome 5
Chromosome 5 is pretty well mapped on my maternal side:
Dotty is clearly in the Nicholson camp on this Chromosome. In fact, it looks like I don’t have any Lentz DNA mapped here unless it is between the other matches. Orange is on my Rathfelder side.
Chromosome 6
Dotty appears to better define the divide between Lentz and Nicholson on Chromosome 6:
Astrid on the right is a DNA match with an old Rathfelder Line.
Chromosomes 7 and 8
Chromosomes 9, 10 and 11
Here we can’t tell where Dotty’s DNA comes from. My guess is that it would be the Lentz side as there is no overlap with Nicholson descendants. We would need more matches to be sure.
Chromosomes 15, 16, 17, and 18
Again, it is difficult to conclude whether the DNA is from the Lentz or Nicholson side. I would expect roughly half from each side on average.
Finally, Chromosome 20 and 21
Dotty is in the Nicholson camp on Chromosome 20. Judith could be on the Lentz side. Dotty adds the first DNA match to my Chromosome 21. That covers all the matches I have with Dotty.
Dotty’s Relatives in Common at 23andMe
Dotty and I have a lot of relatives in common at 23andMe:
This is the first page of people that match both me and Dotty. That means that their match should be either on the Lentz or Nicholson side. Closer relatives could be on both sides. Note that there are at least 10 pages of common matches.
Jennifer and Charles and Placing Relatives in Common
These two in common matches are a bit misleading. They are related on my paternal Hartley side. Yet, somehow, they show as related quite distantly to Dotty. I will ignore those two for now. That leaves 8 people on the first page. The top match is Chris. 23andMe makes a guess as tow here these people fit in using a family tree:
23andMe guesses that Chris descends from Nicholson and Lentz. I know Dorothy and Judith’s parents, so I have them correctly in this tree. Jacob Lentz and Annie Lentz had four children. They were William, Stanley, Agnes and Emma. I descend from Emma on the yellow line above (not shown). Dorothy and Judy descend from William. That leaves Stanley and Agnes. I assume that Will and Jereme descend from Stanley. That leaves Chris who most likely descends from Agnes.
I started a spreadsheet of the Dotty and my Relaitives in Common:
Here is my guess where John fits in:
Nicole shows up as John’s first cousin and Alexander shows as John’s first cousin once removed. that means that they all are on the Nicholson side:
That brings up a problem in that there are many Nicholson relatives, but no only Lentz relatives so far at 23andMe. This is typically due to undertesting of DNA by Lentz descendants or what is sometimes called misattributed parentage.
Page 2 of Dotty’s and My Shared DNA Matches
This is what I get for the first two pages of common matches between Dotty and myself:
There are still no Lentz-only matches.
Summary and Conclusions
- Dotty’s DNA test was a big help in me getting my DNA from 49 to 51% painted.
- While I have identified Lentz DNA matches from other sources, I didn’t see any obvious ones at 23andMe. However, it is difficult to determine the genealogy from 23andMe in many cases.
- Many Nicholson descendants have tested at 23andMe and I was able to identify many of those DNA matches.
- If Dotty uploads her DNA to Gedmatch, I would be able to make some more comparisons.