Category: DNA General

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Downloading Hartley DNA Segment Match Data from FTDNA

I had heard that it is possible to download segment match data from FTDNA now, so I thought that I might try it. I had downloaded this data previously into a spreadsheet that looked like this:

Actually, this is my brother’s match sheet. First I chose Chromosome Browser under my autosomal matches section. Then I choose download all segments:

There should be a lot of segment data there. However, when I check my downlike file, the file is not as large as expected:

There are about 10,000 lines and my old file has 86,000 lines. However, a lot of these may be from Gedmatch and a few other sources. I also have this file:

I need to merge the two files somehow. This file is helpful because it has the match date. This is the format I want:

If I can remember how to use MS Access, that would be helpful. FTNDA no longer downloads the kit number. Also, Access likes Excel Files, so I needed to convert the csv file to an excel file:

I stuck the first two tables into a database I already have. Next I need to perform a query on the two tables. Here is my query:

Next, I need to add fields. I tried to get them in the order of my master spreadsheet. I ran the query and got this:

I have two columns for Match Date. I will have to fix that. Also, the Match Dates are off. I was trying to get the match dates only past a certain date in January 2022. That means that I imported the wrong match list file from FTDNA. I re-checked and made a new file and then imported the right one:

The dates look better now. I notice that there is no email which is OK as I can always look that up at FTDNA. The Matching Bucket field could be useful. One more correction is that I do not see the end location:

This is a bit of trial and error. Next, I need to incorporate this information into my master segment list. Here I line up everything with my master spreadsheet:

Turned out I had the wrong master spreadsheet, so I had to do this again with the real master spreadsheet. The end result looks like this:

This is a random shot from my list. The arrows point to two matches that FTDNA think are maternal. Where I have another maternal match in this section as Rathfelder, the match could be on the Rathfelder side.

What is the Use of Segments?

Segments can be helpful in finding the side that your match is on, or in the ancestral line where your match should appear. For example, I have an unknown match from Ancestry named Lee. Lee has a Hartley Line that is from the same area that my Hartleys are from:

Lee’s match is shon in a shade of blue on my DNA Painter Profile:

This is on Chromosome 13:

Our match is between position 88 and 110 million. Here is my match list for Chromosome 13:

 

Any of the paternal matches in blue could be along the same line as Lee. I don’t have lee on the list, so I need to add him from Gedmatch.

Lee and Gedmatch

Gedmatch has a utility that will show me common matches between Lee and myself:

This is near the bottom of my list and the projected match is out to 5 generations. That means that they are potentially fourth cousins or further out. The first three columns of numbers are how these people match me. The fourth through sixth colums are how the matches match Lee. The last column is interesting to me as it includes genealogical information. In one tree, I saw the Clarke name. I also have Clarke ancestors, but they were from Ireland and this family was from England. Another tree had a Clarke from 1835 in England. So, the connection from genealogy is not clear. Lee also has Clark in his tree, so coincidence? I think that Clark is a common name. I would rule out Clark based on the fact that two of my father’s cousins are on the shared match list. Those cousins are on my paternal grandfather’s side and my Clarke ancestors are on my paternal grandmother’s side. However, I cannot rule out a second Clark line on my paternal grandfather’s side.

Unfortunately, I did not see any easy connections to Colne through this exercise.

Richard: A Match on My Frazer Side

I match Richard here:

The smaller match on Chromosome 17 is Richard’s brother. Here is the likely connection at MyHeritage:

Here, I just added Richard to my spreadsheet:

These are some matches that could overlap with Richard.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to download about two and a half years worth of FTDNA autosomal matches
  • These matches I added to my spreadsheet with the help of MS Access
  • I was able to add some key matches from other sources to my master match spreadsheet
  • I could do this for my siblings, but it would make more sense to download the matches from my father’s first cousins and my mother’s matches. In other words, the matches from those who are a generation older than me.
  • The exercise did not result in any new revelations, but may be helpful in the future.

 

 

 

 

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My Father’s Cousin Joyce’s Shared Matches

I have been recently looking at my enhanced shared matches at Ancestry. It occurs to me that it would make sense to look at Joyce’s enhanced matches. Joyce matches me on her maternal side, so I chose that:

 

Gary has a private tree.

According to Ancestry, Warren is Gary’s father:

Here is Warren on my tree:

For some reason, I have him in yellow. The problem now is whether Gary is Ahsa’s father or not. I think that Asha tested at 23andMe. I’ll just add Gary in the box with Asha’s dad.

Suzanne

Joyce’s top maternal match is Suzanne:

Suzanne has an unlinked tree:

The connection must be through Suzanne’s maternal grandfather, Alan Hartley. I have Alan in my tree:

Adding Suzanne, adds another Hartley Line to my tree:

Diana

Diana is next on the list:

Diana has a tree that looks like Suzanne. From other information, I see that Suzanne and Diane are sisters. I’m sure that the shared matches would show that also.

Will

Will is difficult to figure out by shared matches. However, by process of elimiation, I can place him:

On second thought, Will should be the Bill I used to play ball with as a kid. The DNA match should be Bill’s son Will.

This shows Joyce and Will as 1st cousins once removed.

Liffers

Liffers should be easy to place as there are many Liffers matches. The trick is that the tree is set to the spouse:

If I choose ‘Spouse’, I get this tree:

The maternal side of this male Liffers is clear a match. Unfortunately, I don’t have the work I did on my other computer as I am on my laptop, so I will add Suzanne back in:

Shared matches show Suzanne and Liffers as siblings.

M.F.

I am going down Joyce’s match list and looking at the matches without a listed common ancestor:

I know where M.F. fits in, but I want to put her on my chart. It looks like I can do that from M.F.’s tree:

Ma

Her maternal grandmother was my grandfather’s sister.

Marsha, Nicole, and Samantha

These are more fairly close relatives. They will be easily added to my James Hartley DNA/Genealogy Tree:

This is turning into an impressively large tree.

N.M, Aimee, and Riley

More easy adds:

Unfortunately, I did not add nm as she is my sister Heidi’s daughter. I would have had to split my box out to 6 people, making a large chart much larger.

m.a.

I’m finding m.a. difficult to place precisely.

Here is my guess:

Ancestry thinks that Gary is m.a.’s half uncle which is still an uncle. Also Ancestry thinks that ME (who I just added) is m.a.’s grandaunt.

Camie on the Snell Side

Camie matches Joyce by 129 cM. From shared matches, Charles is Camie’s father:

 

Further, C.W. is Camie’s son:

Here I have added Camie and C.W.:

It appears that there are two C.W.’s, but I have added only one. Here we have four generations of a tested family. Those that match this family should not have Hartley ancestry if they are far enough back as they descend from the Snell side only.

Kristen: A Link to Lancashire?

Kristen’s Hartley link to Joyce goes back another generation compared to her many Hartley matches:

Greenwood was born in Trawden, Lancashire. Due to the industrial revolution putting hand loom weavers out of business, he moved to Bacup, Lancashire where he married Ann Emmet.

Joyce and Kristen’s Shared Matches

I have wondered to Jennifer is:

There are some close shared matches matches to Jennifer on the list, but those matches do not have much other information about themselves.

Joyce and Sheryl

Sheryl is one of Joyce and Kristen’s shared matches:

Sheryl shows a potential set of common ancestors:

Bracewell is a name that comes up often in Lancashire matches. I also have that John Hartley, common ancestor married Ann Bracewell who would be another common ancestor if this representation is correct.

I also like Sheryl’s family tree:

The reason that I like it is that all the people in the last full column are from the United States except for John Bracewell. That means that there is less of a chance that other confusing Lanchashire people married into this family.

Unfortunately, I have tried to extend Sheryl’s tree and come up with this likely scenario:

That means that either I did the genealogy wrong, or I am related to Sheryl on her Bracewell side and not the Hartley side.

Joyce and Kristen’s Shared Match Paul

I have looked at Paul’s genealogy before and gotten him back to John Hartley and Ann Bracewell:

I had to go back quite a way from Paul’s posted tree which just went back to his two parents. This tree is from Paul’s maternal side. Here is a tree that I have:

By this, Joyce is Paul’s 5th cousin once removed. I do notice some discrepancy between the Sheryl’s line in the tree above and the tree I had created earlier. However, I do note this connection:

Sheryl and Paul have a 20 cM DNA match with each other. That seems to add more evidence that my tree above may be correct.

Summary and Conclusions

  • It was helpful looking at my father’s cousin’s shared matchese at Ancestry
  • Using that, I could place some of the closer cousins into my Hartley DNA/Genealogy chart even though the matches had no usable family trees
  • I looked at some shared matches with Kristen. Kristen is a helpful match as her connection goes back a generation on the Hartley line compared to most of my Hartley relatives.
  • There is some confusion as to whether my ancestors are John Hartley born 1730 and Ann Bracewell. However, shared matches Paul and Sheryl have genealogies that suggest that these could be the right ancestors. In addition, Paul and Sheryl show a match with each other.
  • It would be helpful to do more analysis in this area to try to confirm or disprove the genealogy and whether the DNA evidence supports what the genealogy shows or suggests.

 

 

 

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My Mother’s Paternal Shared Matches

I have been having fun using the shared matches pro at Ancestry. I wrote three Blogs on my mother’s maternal shared matches and was able to place many more people on her (mostly) Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Tree. That is, I have a chart where I place people that are both DNA matches and genealogical matches.

My mother has more maternal matches than paternal, but still quite a few on the paternal side:

That is interesting, considering that her father was a German with roots in Latvia. As I go through my mother’s paternal matches, there are two fairly close matches and I know how they fit in. Here are some names starting in the Extended Family portion of her match list:

It seems like a logical method to go down this list. There is one person on the list with a common ancestor.

Holger

Holger has no family tree. Holger’s closest match is to my mother. So that doesn’t help me figure out how he fits in.

Susanne

A.E. has a common ancestor with my mom. She shows up as a fourth cousin to my mom on my Rathfelder Chart. I don’t know if she would be related on other lines:

Susanne’s parents are from Germany:

Susanne has few shared matches with my mother. The better way would be to trace her line back, but that would take a while.

Alex

So far, I have not done too well. Alex does not have a helpful tree. I see Alex’s father Ralf as a shared match:

However, Ralf also does not have a tree.

Amy and Thomas

Amy has few shared matches and no tree. Thomas has a tree:

However, I now see that Anna Marie Daal was from Latvia also. It may be good to try to figure out the genealogy at some time. I’ll start now:

This is my version of Thomas’ tree with just the people I am interested in.

Here are some Anne Burkowitzs from Latvia:

The one closest to 1874 was born in 1876 in the Ozolnieku Parish and had a father named Peter. This is a list of passports.

This is apparently Anna Marie Daal:

Anna Maria was confirmed near a Gangnus and born in Riga:

This begs the question why the father’s name was not listed. Was Barbara a single mother? I guess I’ll stop for now. It was interesting to find the Gangnus name near Daal.

Next Group of My Mother’s Matches

I hope that I have more luck with this group:

Two of these six matches have common ancestors, so are already placed.

J.S.

Here are some good shared matches:

There is another uncle of J.S. that I did not add. Let’s look at my Schwechheimer DNA/Genealogy Chart:

I don’t see Karin or Stephanie on this chart. Before I can figure out where J.S. fits in, I need to find out how Karin and Stephanie fit in. There is also Valdis who is Karin’s brother. I started to build a tree for him, but I’m not sure why I stopped:

Valdis’ mother was a Schwechheimer. Here is what Ancestry proposes:

Let’s start at the top. One problem is that I have that Rosine was one of 16 children. That is a lot. Rosine had 6 brothers named Johann, so Ancestry picked an unfortunate name to identify him. Johan is likely:

Johann Georg Michael Schwechheimer. He is in the 1834 Revision Books as George Michael (makes sense as there was already a Johann Georg Philipp.

My ancestor Rosine shows on the right side of the List.

Vialdis’ sister has a much larger tree:

However, this tree has many Gangnus lines also:

Assuming Karin’s tree is right, we share at least four common ancestors. That must mean that there were two Schwechheimer siblings that married two Gangnus siblings. I am inclined to add this line to my Schwechheimer DNA/Genealogy Chart. This part appears to be right:

The resident list of Hirschenhof from 1858 shows Friedrich Schwechheimer married to Maria Hausel and with a son Georg Adam born in 1852. I don’t often do genealogy from the top down (meaning older to younger), but I will in this situation.

Then I have this issue:

My tree shows that Johann Georg Michael born in 1802 had two wives. I assume that Anna Marie Neumeister is the widow mentioned in Karin’s tree. However, the Resident Record has Marie as geb Hausel which I assume means born. Perhaps Neumeister was a married name. Here is my tree view:

This can only show so much. My ancestor Rosine is off the chart to the right. This correctly shows Georg A descending from Johann G M and not Anna C Gangnus.

Adding Kristin and Family to My DNA/Genealogy Charts

However, if I add these four to the Schwechheimer Chart, I also need to add them to the Gangnus Chart.

Gangnus DNA/Genealogy Chart

Here is my chart as is:

Here it is with Valdis and family added:

Hopefully, I got it right.

Karil

Here is Karil’s maternal grandmother where the Latvia connection is.

I don’t see any large shared matches for Karil, so my option is to skp her or look at her genealogy. I’ll try the genealogy route. Here is an interesting record from 1950:

Here is a record that gives Zenta’s maiden name:

It is Kröger. I did not find who our common ancestors are, but it seems clear that we have one. I am a bit overwhelmed that the family is on Lists of Persecutees. There must be some interesting stories there.

Pwa, Valdis, and Gunars

I did not find an easy connection with Pwa. Valdis shows common ancestors at Ancestry. Let’s look at Gunars:

Peteris is Gunars son, which does not help in itself.

K.B. is Gunar’s grandniece. So I suppose she must be the granddaughter of a sibling of Gunars? From S.B.’s tree, I think my mother’s connection with her is here:

These names appear to be Latvian. Ozolnieks is Latvian but the birth is said to be Germany. Grizis is said to be from Latvia according to the tree. There is no birth place for the other two names in the red box.

Karin shows at Ancestry as a second cousin to Gunars, so if that is right their common ancestor could be here:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I started looking at my mother’s paternal shared matches
  • The genealogy is more difficult on this line as it goes back to Latvia
  • Due to upheavals in Latvia including communism and World Wars, many people have not traced their Latvian genealogy back that far.
  • Rather than going down my mom’s match list, it may make more sense to look at the people I have already placed in a tree and look at their matches to see if there are any close relatives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More of My Mother’s Maternal Matches’ Share Matches

This is my third Blog on this topic. I left off with my mother’s maternal match Elise.

 

Elise descends from my mother’s Uncle William.

David

David has no close shared matches. That means that the connection would be difficult to find. His closest shared matches with my mother is in the 20-29 cM range. I think that I will skip David based on my last Blog and all the work I did to try to connect Michelle without success. At least Michelle had a Nicholson in her ancestry, which is more than what David has.

Caroline

Caroline also has no close matches. Plus she has no family tree posted at Ancestry.

Robert

Again, no close matches. These connections probably go back to Sheffield in the 1700’s.

James

James is related to Carolyn:

James shows as first cousin to Aaron. I have not added Aaron to my Chart:

Barbara is probably James’ Aunt:

It seems like James should be added next to Anne and Aaron:

This is what makes sense to me.

Yvonne

Yvonne appears to be a 2nd cousin with a Christopher, but I do not know how Christopher is related. Yvonne appears to be from England.

Seven More Maternal Matches for My Mother

The easy answers appear to be drying up:

Jenna

Jenna’s mother:

Ronald

I did not find any close matches for Ronald with the exception of his daughter. Ronald has a small tree showing some ancestors in the Camden, New Jersey area.

Lauren

Joshua is on my tree already. I mentioned Christopher above. He seems to be from England. I saw a few close matches to Lauren, but they did not appear to shed any light on how we are related.

Raymond and Edward

Raymond has only one page of shared matches with my mother. Also, there was no easy way to find out how he was related to my mom.

I was Edward’s daughter in the shared match list, but that did not help.

Nicole

Ancestry thinks that Nicole could be in the third cousin range from my mother.

Barbara is a key person here:

If Barbara is an Aunt, that would put Nicole on a level with the bottom row above.

James is a cousin:

This is my best guess on where Nicole should be on my Chart. She shows as 2nd cousin once removed to my mother.

Henry Nicholson

In my previous Blog, I looked at Michelle. She showed a Nicholson ancestor:

I traced Francis back:

However, this Henry seems different than the one in my Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Tree:

Where Henry is the son of Matthew Nicholson born 1798. From my mother’s ThruLines, there are three other matches on this line:

I checked Michelle’s shared matches and did not see Nancy, Angela, or Louie, so I suppose she shall remain a mystery.

Problem #2

A second problem is that I do not see Joseph Nicholson on my tree. I see that Walter married Sarah Clarke in 1871:

I have Louie descending from Clara Nicholson:

This Census does not show a Joseph Nicholson. I wonder if my genealogy for Louie is right?

Nancy’s Genealogy

I’ll look at Nancy’s genealogy to see if that looks right. Nancy has a Nicholson as her maternal grandmother:

I found this tree at Ancestry:

This means that Mary E was originally a Boothroyd. However, it is unclear who was the father when Joan was born. According to the 1940 Census:

Mary is English. Here is a suggestion from Ancestry for the parents of Mary Ellen Lliohan:

This record tells me I am on the right track:

I do not think that there were many Arie Lliohans in Wortley, Yorkshire. This tree at Ancestry appears to explain the Boothroyd Connection:

This appears to be a summary of the 1911 Census for Mary or Mary Ellen:

Joseph’s #1 son is Henry, so I am thinking that his father was also a Henry.

This could be the Henry:

Here is a Joseph Nicholson in the 1871 Census:

Here is a marriage for Joseph and Matilda:

Unfortunately, we do not know the father of this Joseph from this record. The closest baptism for Joseph that I can find is this one:

However, this would put him about 15 years older than shown in the Census. The 1861 Census is interesting:

Henry should be about 15 this year, but I don’t see him in the Census.

Joseph is an awl blade maker. According to the next page, his 31 year old daughter was born in Halifax, America.

If that is correct, that would put Joseph in Halifax, America around 1830. This is from Ancestry:

At this point, I am getting stuck unfortunately.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to add a few more people to my Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Chart using shared matches
  • There were a few Nicholson ThruLines that did not seem to match up well. I tried doing some genealogy but did not find a connection to my previous Nicholson genelaogy
  • That means that the Nicholson DNA matches are earlier than I had tracked or possibly there is a connection on a collateral line (surname married to the Nicholsons)
  • I’m ready to move on to my mother’s paternal shared matches. However, there is much more room for research on my mom’s maternal side.

 

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My Mother’s Maternal Shared Matches

In my previous Blog, I set out to look at my mother’s Nicholson Shared Matches, but ended up looking at both Lentz and Nicholson from her maternal match list. That Blog was successful, so I want to continue down her maternal match list.

Here are the next three on my mother’s maternal match list:

Hannah

Hannah has no tree and is more difficult to place.

Justin is Hannah’s first cousin or half uncle:

As Justin is on the bottom of the Chart, my first guess would be 1st cousin. Judy is her grandmother or Aunt:

I’m guessing grandmother.

Paige is her half sister or Aunt:

I’ll say Aunt. That narrows it down:

This should be the likely connection.

Michele

Michele shows a Nicholson in her tree, but I have never heard of this person:

I do show this tree in my records:

Perhaps I had started investigating this line before. This seems worth pursuing.

In 1871, Frances was a servant in Sheffield:

She was born in Darnall. according to the 1871 Census:

Here is the family in 1861:

I think I see the family now:

However, the dates don’t quite match up between the Henrys in my tree and Michelle’s Henry.

Ancestry thinks her parents are Benjamin and Rebecca.

The family was in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1900:

They probably married about the year 1880.

Henry Nicholson

Father Henry is also in Worcester in 1900. Good news:

Unfortunately, his death record does not shine a lot of light on the situation:

My assumption is that he lived alone as there was no informant listed. Henry was in Sheffield with his young wife in 1851:

The transcriber says that Ann was born in Walkley, Yorkshire:

I am guessing that Henry and Ann married in 1850 or 1851.

The death record for Ann is more helpful:

Here I would like to thank Henry for putting down his wife’s parents’ information. There were two Henry Nicholsons in the 1841 Sheffield Census, so the information on the above death certificate could be important.

Here is Ann in Nether Hallam, Sheffield in 1841:

The family was living at Walkley Bank. I wonder if the town of Walkley was wrong. Nether Hallam sounds familiar from my Nicholson research, so I may be on to something here. Here is the wedding:

This is from the Sheffield Indexers site, but I had to use Firefox to get it to work. Here is some more information:

Now I have another problem as I have not been tracking a Joseph Nicholson. However, I do have this Joseph on my Nicholson Web Page:

He would have been quite old in 1830 – about 63. Here is a baptism of a Henry:

Assuming the baptism was not at an independent church, this could be the Henry I am looking for. That means that this could be the right Census record:

But who is John Nicholson, head of household? This is likely Sarah and Joseph:

Next, who was this Joseph? The marriage record gives no father. My web page manetions a Joseph born in 1767. If this is the Joseph, he would have been 46 at marriage. This would be unusual for a bachelor. Here is a record from Sheffield:

This Joseph would 34 when he married. Also the baptism took place at Wortley. This is North of Sheffield and this Joseph is a labourer rather than a cutler. I’m ready to stop researching this line. I feel like the connection is quite old.

Robert

Robert’s connection to my mother is much closer than Michele’s.

We already have one child of Joan on the chart:

Karen is Robert’s likely Aunt:

To confirm, Joshua is Robert’s 1st cousin:

Next 5 of My Mom’s Maternal Matches

I added Justin earlier in the Blog.

Jason is the son of Carolyn:

I’ll add him to my chart next to Heidi:

For some reason I had not entered Barbara. Here she is on lower left below:

The Nicholson family tree is rapidly expanding.

Sue

Doris is Sue’s mother:

In my previous Blog, I had Doris in the 1st cousin range to Barry from the English Branch of Nicholsons:

Elise

Elise shows as 1st cousin to Joshua and Robert and niece to Karen, so I put her as shown above.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Most matches that I looked at on my mother’s maternal side at this level were easy to place or figure out on my Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Chart
  • One match was difficult to place. I did a lot of genealogy, but was still unable to find Michelle’s Nicholson connection.
  • The Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Chart is expanding
  • It would be worth my while to further look at my mother’s maternal matches.

 

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Nicholson Enhanced Shared Matches

I have been looking at Enhanced Shared Matches in several recent Blogs. I have used different methods in doing those. In this Blog, I will take a look at my Nicholson Enhanced Matches. The goal is to identify some new matches. These are matches without trees or trees that are unhelpful.

My Nicholson DNA/Genealogy Chart

This chart is already large:

Perhaps because of all the connections, it would be fairly easy to make some more connections. Now my grandmother was a Lentz, but her mother was a Nicholson. I have found many Nicholson connections but not many Lentz connections. I plan to look at Lentz in a subsequent Blog.

Going Down My Mother’s Maternal Matches

The first match is my older sister. After that, Eric shows a common ancestor. After that, the people are not easily identified. In addition, there are two matches over 200 cM that I have not looked at – at least on my mother’s match list.

Jessica

Here is Jessica’s tree:

She is a bit of a mystery as I have not figured out how she connects to my mother’s genealogy. That leads me to believe that Jessica’s genealogy could be wrong. Jessica is Angela’s sister, but Angela has a private tree:

If Angela and Jessica are sisters, then they could descend from William Lentz:

Doris

Doris has no tree. However, she shows as a possible 1st cousin once removed to Barry:

Here is Barry’s paternal side tree:

I added Barry onto my chart here:

Barry is my mother’s second cousin once removed. He descends from Martha Baxter Nicholson. Martha stayed in the UK when the rest of the family moved to Philadelphia.  If Doris is a 1st cousin once removed, she could be from a sibling of Martha Jane Dockrill.

Marian

Marian’s closest match is to Matthew:

Unfortunately, Matthew does not have a tree.

Paige

I already added Barry, so Paige is next on my mother’s list of matches. Judy shows as Paige’s mother:

Here under Grandmother Judy, I have replaced mother with Paige. I had a question with Judy as I was a liitle shaky on the genealogy. Further down the list, I see that Justin is Paige’s son, so Haiven’s brother. I will add him in also. That means we have three generations of a tested family. Of course, to be complete, I should get around to adding these people to my Lentz chart also.

Karen

I already have Haiven and Robert on my chart, so I’ll look at Karen. Karen should be easy to figure out:

Karen shows as Joshua’s mother. Somehow, I lost my NIcholson chart, so I added her on my Lentz Chart:

Other, than losing a chart, this is going pretty well. Fortunatey, I have a copy on my other computer. Karen is my mom’s 2nd cousin twice removed.

Colleen

I have Robert and Heidi on my chart, so I’ll look at Colleen. She has an unlinked tree, but there is only one person in the tree. Eric is Colleen’s father, so there is another easy add.

This is starting to fill in the William Lentz Line.

Rachel

I don’t think I need Shared Matches to fill in Rachel:

Rachel’s paternal side tree has this:

Albert Pote Allen is already on my chart:

I’ve added her in. She is my mother’s 2nd cousin once removed.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I started out looking for my mother’s Nicholson Shared Matches, but ended up just looking at her maternal matches which was easier.
  • These matches included Nicholson and Lentz Matches
  • Many of these matches had a high cM value and were easy to place due to other close identified relatives showing up in the Shared Match List
  • Due to the success of this exercise, I would like to continue this in a subsequent Blog

 

 

 

 

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Fun with My Frazer Enhanced Shared DNA Matches at Ancestry

I recently signed up for Pro Tools at Ancestry. The only Pro Tool I have used so far is the enhanced Shared Matches. One Quarter of my ancestry is Frazer. Then that goes back to Clarke and McMaster, so I’d like to take a look at what I have.

Here is my grandmother’s tree so far:

I’m stuck more on the Clark side.

Frazer Enhanced Matches

I’ll start here as it should be simpler than the Clarke side:

Many of these matches are from FTDNA, MyHeritage and 23andMe. Enhanced matches are just from Ancestry. It appears that my Ancestry DNA Frazer matches are at the third cousin level. However, that should include McMaster also technically as the common ancestors for this group are George William Frazer and Margaret McMaster.

One way to see my maches are through ThruLines:

I do have one match at the 2nd cousin level. That is Mabel. Interestingly, I match Faye, my third cousin with more DNA. Here is Mabel and my shared match list:

These are the first five after my niece:

  1. Matthew – on my chart
  2. Rebecca – on my chart
  3. Stephen – need to add
  4. Faye – on my chart
  5. B.V. – older match

Actually, I need to add Mabel. She is the sister of Raymond and Emily:

After adding Mabel, I realized that she and Emily are the same person!

Adding Stephen

I had a note already that Stephen was related to Whitney. When I choose Stephen’s Shared matches with me, I see this:

Whitney is Stephen’s Niece:

Here I have added him to my Frazer DNA/Genealogy Chart. Stephen must be Lisa’s brother and my third cousin. I made a note at Ancestry to that effect.

Here is how BV is related:

The relationship is on the McMaster side. However, William McMaster married a Frazer. This Frazer is quite distantly related to me.

The next 5 on Mabel and my match list could be more difficult:

I know how I am related to Gladys:

Our common ancestors were James Frazer and Violet Frazer. i believe that they were first cousins. I don’t think I have the other four on the list. However, I have noted previously that they all match Gladys.

Where is Lisa on My Chart?

Next I choose Lisa on my shared match list. I look on the right to see her highest shared match:

Fortunately, that match is with Linda and I have a shared ancestor with her. Ancestry guesses that Lisa is a 1st cousin once removed to Linda.

I don’t know exactly where Lisa fits in, but my guess is around here:

Lisa probably descends from James Clarence Frazer.

When I look at Spen, she is likely from the same branch as Lisa.

I get two hints for Kathryn:

Kathryn is either first cousin or haf niece to SM and Linda. I see that SM is not on my chart, so I will add her as a daughter of Clarence Frazer:

Finally, I have John on my list. John is most closely related to Brad:

However, the blue dot by Brad means that I haven’t even looked at his results.

John’s second largest match is with Matthew:

Matthew is my 3rd cousin:

John has no family tree, but his results are managed by Dawn. Dawn has this tree with her husband in it. This is her husbands part of the tree:

John’s maternal grandfather was my great-grandfather’s brother. That means that I can at least add John to my tree:

John would be my 2nd cousin once removed. I need to write to Dawn to find out if the John who took the test was her husband. It looks like from my notes that I did write two years ago, but didn’t hear back. It is helpful to have John on the Chart above as it reminds me who he is when the Ancestry match comes up.

Continuing with Mabel

Now I have only three because this is the end of page one of three of shared matches between myself and Mabel. As I side note, I could do this with my four other siblings who have tested at Ancestry and I would get different results and in different order. I don’t know about Alannah, but Matthew and Jan are on my chart.

Here is Alannah’s tree:

The Johnston name comes up a lot in my research, so that could be the link. Alannah’s highest shared match is with BV mentioned above. That match is only 47 cM. My guess is that the connection is quite old – as in the 1700’s.

Here are the first two matches on Page 2 of Mabel and my shared matches. I know where keith fits in on my McMaster side. I am not familiar with Lila. Lila’s tree shows some ancestors that came from Ireland and went to Ontario. I found a first and a second cousin to Lila, but their trees were not useful.

Five More on Page 2

I’m still interested in the list, so will keep going:

All these shared matches have some sort of tree. There is one match that I have not looked at named KS.

Morgan is and estimated 1st cousin once removed with Keith. I see that he is already on my chart.

Morgan should show up on my ThruLines, but perhaps I haven’t kept up at Ancestry with my McMaster side. Also Morgan does not have a linked tree, so we would not show on ThruLines because of that.

Mary

Mary is the sister of Lila. Mary and Lila are still a bit of a mystery.

K.S.

Here is KS’ tree:

A lot of these names have come up in my DNA matches, but they have stumped me so far. KS’ largest DNA match is with Mabel.

John

His match seems to go back to the 1700’s in Ireland on my Mcmaster or Frazer side or both.

n.f.

n.f. is most closely related to Matthew.

That means that he must descend from Hubert Frazer.

Looking at the Clarkes

Here is my closest Clarke descendant match at Ancestry:

Ronald is also related to me on my McMaster side, but more distantly, so that creates some potential difficulties.

Above are the top six shared matches I have with Ron.

Cheryl

Cheryl has no tree. However, she shows as a first cousin once removed to Kyle who has this tree:

There is the Lougheed name again. They are from County Sligo where my McMaster and Clarke ancestors lived. Frazers lived there also, but earlier, they were in North Roscommon. My guess is that Cheryl also has Lougheed ancestry.

Another unusual thing about Cheryl is that I have 13 pages of shared matches with her. I didn’t check every match but every match she had with a good tree had a Lougheed in it. One theory, based on the number of Lougheed matches is that Lougheed is the mother of Jane Spratt:

However, this match is still a mystery until I can work out the genealogy.

Nina – A Spratt Connection?

L.R. is Shani’s child, so I will move on to Nina. Here is Nina’s tree:

I think that Spratt is a relatively uncommon name. The connection must be on the Spratt side. Nina has a large match with Ed:

Deb also has a good match with a better tree:

Deb’s paternal side:

Here it is clear that Deb is in fact a half niece as Wray Lionel must have had two marriages.

Craig also has an interesting match to Nina:

That means that Ancsetry is right is saying that Craig is Nina’s 2nd cousin once removed:

Notice that there are no Lougheed ancestors. Ancestry thinks that Nina and I could be third cousins once removed. Assuming that is right, our common ancestors could be:

1775 seems a long time ago, but third cousin once removed does not seem like that distant of a relationship. However, I would not be surprised if the connection is at least a generation back. I have three out of found sibllings at Ancestry that showed shared matches with Nina and all their matches are at a lower level than mine.

Helena

Helena matches Nina and me with modest amounts of DNA:

Helena’s maternal genealogy goes back to William Spratt:

It appears that Christopher was older than average when he had Rachel and George. It is also possible that the Jane Spratt in my tree born in or around 1830 is a daughter of Christopher Spratt or a daughter of one of his brothers.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I started out looking at my somewhat easier Frazer shared matches
  • By looking at shared matches, I added some names to my Frazer DNA/Genealogy Charts. Other names I could figure out where they should be approximately on those Charts
  • I then looked at the more difficult Clarke side
  • The name Lougheed comes up quite often. My guess is that name is associated with Jane Spratt’s (b. 1830) maternal side
  • Another separate group of shared matches went back to earlier Spratts of Enniskiilen, Ireland (Fermanagh County). This line is likely the line of Jane Spratt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Butler Enhanced Shared Matches

Shared enhanced matches is a new feature at Ancestry under their Pro Tools. They are helpful in ferreting out matches or identifying matches with no trees by associating them close matches that do have trees.

In my previous Blog, I looked at the Butler ThruLines for two of my wife’s late aunts. It turns out that recent revisions to the Butler tree have made a lot of my older Blogs obsolete. Here is one of my wife’s Aunt Lorraine’s matches:

Lorraine’s match with Will is interesting as it brings us back an additional generation from what we had. Here are Lorraine and Will’s shared matches:

 

These are shared matches where will also matches Lorraines match by at least 20 cM. There are more matches going down. Virginia is Lorraine’s sister. Barbara descends from Edward Butler and his son George. Brian descends from Edward’s brother George of Cincinnati as does Patty. The blue dots for Charles and Jennifer mean that I have not looked at these matches. There are additional matches not shown above.

This is one way that it could work. Charles is a shared match with Lorraine and Will, but he has no tree posted. I choose Charles to get his shared matches:

 

Charles is in the the second cousin range compared to Bobbi. I know that Bobbi descends from Mary Ann. She was the son of George Butler of Cincinnati. She moved to St. John, New Brunswick and had a family. That means that Charles must be related to the New Brunswick side of the Butler family. In fact, Charles is from Halifax, Nova Scotia:

Here is the relationship between the two places:

Bobbi is on the bottom left of the image above. She is with two other DNA matches from the New Brunswick Branch started by Mary Ann Butler. Mary Ann’s sister Rebecca remained in the Cincinnati area.

Lorraine and Will’s Shared Match Jennifer

Jennifer also has no tree, but I shared match between her and Lorraine does:

Based on other matches, the link is probably on the Kirwin side:

Maureen and Lorraine are related to Michael, but Michael is much more closely related to Maureen:

Michael’s 2nd great-grandfather was from Waterford:

This may be the connection. I believe that Maureen and family are from New Jersey.

Lorraine and Patty’s Shared Match List

Patty is one of Lorraine’s biggest matches from the Cincinnati Branch:

Jeremiah is the first on page 2 of Lorraine and Patty’s Shared Match List, but he is already on my Butler DNA/Genealogy Chart. James is someone new. Here is James’ Family Tree on his maternal side:

I see three Butlers. Richard Butler was from Wexford and Adam Butler is a name that comes up in the new Butler genealogy. This is worth tracking, so I’ll create my own tree for James focusing in on the Butler connection. Even better, I contacted a Butler relative in England and he assures me that his tree is right for the Butler part.

Here is James added to the Butler DNA/Genealogy Chart:

Here are the shared connections by DNA:

 

A Peek at MyHeritage

Lorraine has a match with Marie at MyHeritage:

Marie’s tree has some familiar names:

I’ve added Marie to my Butler Chart:

I didn’t check Marie’s tree, but I’m guessing that it is right. One good thing about MyHeritage is that they show where the match is between Lorraine and Marie:

Here I added that information to Lorraine’s profile:

This is the first Butler DNA I’ve added for Lorraine and it goes back to the 1700’s. I even have an unknown category. Hopefully that will be identified at some point.

Summary and Conclusions

  • It was helpful looking at enhanced shared matches. I don’t always find out who the match is if they don’t have a tree, but I get a much better idea of what branch of the family they are from.
  • I was able to enlarge my Butler DNA/Genealogy Tree. This is a tree of DNA matches that also show an ancestral connection.
  • I looked at one match at MyHeritage and was able to map it to Lorraine’s profile using DNAPainter.
  • This is still more searching to be done for matches at Ancestry, MyHeritage, FTDNA, and Gedmatch.

 

 

 

 

 

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Enhanced Shared Matches at AncestryDNA Part 3

In part 2 of my Blog series on enhanced shared matches, I looked at four matches. For three out of four, I figured out how they fit in and added them to my DNA/Genealogy Trees. I’ll continue the exercise in this Blog. This was one of four methods suggested by Jim Bartlett in a recent Blog that he wrote on the subject.

Doris on My Maternal Side

 

Ancestry thinks that we could be 2nd or third cousins. That should be easy to figure out. However, Doris has no trees. It looks like I have never tried to contact Doris. Doris and I share a match with Barry:

Pro Tools tells me that Barry could be Doris’ first cousin once removed. Here is how I am related to Barry:

This is interesting becuase Barry descends from a NIcholson ancestor named Maria who stayed in the UK when most of the family moved to Philadelphia. That means that Doris is likely from the UK. I believe that Barry and I should be full, not half third cousins.

I see that Sue is Doris’ daughter:

Sue shows that she has a tree but there is nothing in it. I have written to Doris to see if she would like to share information.

Mystery Match Kathy

I know that Kathy matches on my mother’s side – perhaps on the Nicholson or Lentz side or both:

Kathy’s closest shared match is with my late mother:

This makes sense as my mother is obviously an earlier generation than me. That would mean that Kathy likely descends from Lentz and Nicholson and is from a generation later than me. This also means that no close relatives to Kathy have tested at Ancestry.

Mystery Match #3: emach

Even the name of this paternal side match is mysterious. Joyce is emch’s grandmother:

I’m glad I got a DNA sample from Joyce at a family reunion.

I also see that emach’s mother is Jill:

Here I’ve added emach into my Hartley DNA/Genealogy Tree:

emach is my second cousin once removed. The tree is a little out of date as I’m not at my primary computer writing this. David should be in the same box with emach.

Mystery Match #4: Matthew

I think that four matches are enough for a Blog. Matthew is on my mother’s side:

I am now down to below 100 cM for a match.

Matthew’s best match is with Marian:

However, she has a line through her tree next to her name. That means she has no tree.

One More: Howard

Howard and I have a fairly large match:

Even though the match is quite large, I think that the relationship is quite distant. Based on Howard’s last name, I would suspect connection to the Pilling side, but I don’t see obvious Pilling matches that we share.

Howard and I share a match with John:

John shows this:

However, I have questioned some of these Hartley trees. I have two Robinson Trees that I have looked at, but I have not looked at this one. This gives me an idea for a subsequent Blog. I can look at all my Hartley Common Ancestor Trees at Ancestry to see if they have anything in common or shared matches.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I looked at four more enhanced shared matches
  • I found out where one of them fit in my Hartley DNA/Genealogy tree.
  • For three of them, I have a pretty good idea where they fit in my maternal tree, but not exactly
  • the fifth match is in a category of Hartley matches that I am unsure of, because I am so unsure of the Hartley genealogy before the early 1800’s. However, it gives me impetus to take a fresh look at my possible early Hartley ancestry to try to prove or disprove the Ancestry theories.

 

 

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Enhanced Shared Matches at AncestryDNA Part 2

In my previous Blog, I took a shot at looking at my enhanced shared matches. This is a new feature that AncestryDNA has under it’s Pro Tools. As the name suggests, there is a charge associated with the Pro Tools. In my previous Blog, I looked at a few matches on my Hartley side that I was curious about.

In this Blog, I would like to look at a suggestion from Jim Bartlett in his Blog:

1. Work down our Match list. Start at the top, and methodically work on each Match that we haven’t placed in our Tree. The advantage here is that the top Matches (most shared cM) are usually the easiest to figure out. With Pro Tools we can see their top Matches, potentially ones with good Trees, and often tease out their place in our Tree. At the least, even if we cannot find the exact relationship, we can figure out which sub-branch of our Tree they are on (which is all we really need to know for them to be helpful forming a tight group).

This is his Plan of Attack #1 out of 4.

Top Unknown Match

This would have to be Keith:

I recognize the last name. My grandmother had a sister Agnes Lentz whose married name was the same as Keith’s. I have that Agnes had a son named Robert Lester in 1925, but I have no further information on him. Keith’s tree is private. I messaged Keith at Ancestry, but got no response.

This is probably a pretty easy example. The first shared match between Keith and myself is my late mother. She shows as likely 1st cousin twice removed. Now the Robert Lester I mentioned would be my mother’s first cousin. That means that Keith at twice removed could be Robert’s grandson.

As I scroll down my shared match list, I see Mia:

Mia is Keith’s daughter and has an unlinked tree:

Mia has Robert as her paternal great-grandfather. This seems to confirm what I had guessed. I wrote to Mia in the past. She got back to me once but did not follow up apparently. Without the Pro Tools, I would not know that Mia was Robert’s daughter which is helpful.

Keith and Mia are related on my Lentz and Nicholson side. I am having more trouble with the Lentz side, so I will add them to that tree:

Here is the add:

Keith is my 2nd cousin once removed and Mia is my second cousin twice removed. Keith may be helpful in checking out other Lentz matches.

My Second Top Unknown Match: Bird

I have a high match with bird. I don’t think I ever heard back from her. She is on my Hartley side. I go down the Shared Match Pro list and look for large matches:

Turns out that Bird is an Aunt or half sister to S.W. S.W. is my second cousin:

Ancestry thinks that S.W. is bird’s aunt or half sister. That means that we are related through my great Aunt Mary. Mary Alice (also known as Molly) had several children. So it may be possible to reason out a more exact relationship. However, I believe that bird must descend from Mary Alice aka Molly.

Upon further review of my tree, I see a person who would fit the remaining name of bird that I have blurred out. Here is my Hartley DNA/Genealogy Tree so far:

This is a big family, so this is the tip of the iceburg. My great Aunt Mary is in the second row about the middle. I am missing Mary Alice or Molly:

Here I have filled in Mary Alice and her children. Susan, Lady and Bird have all tested at AncestryDNA. So Bird was actually a niece to Susan and Lady and not a half sister.  I may have been able to figure this out without the Pro Shared Matches, but the new utility got me to figure it out. Another mystery solved. So far, I am two for two.

Mystery Match #3: David

My match to David has some similarities to Bird:

I match David at 148 cM vs 150 for Bird. Here is a shared match between David and me:

I am the administrator for Joyce’s DNA, so that is convenient. A second shared match makes it even more clear:

Here I have separated out Jim and Joyce and added Jill and David to my Hartley DNA/Genealogy Tree. Again, I probably could have figured this out before, but I didn’t without the Pro Tools. The Pro Tools give a certainty to this line that I could have assumed before.

Mystery Match #4: Jessica

If I ever figured out how Jessica fits in, I didn’t make a note to that effect. Jessica shows up on my maternal side.

Jessica has a sister named Angela who matches me at a lower rate (64 cM). However, she has a private tree.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I tried going down my list of matches as suggested by Jim Bartlett in his Blog
  • I fairly easily identified my first 3 uncertain matches.
  • I could not identify the fourth match. However, she likely descends from Nicholson and Lentz. I aslo could not trace her ancestry easily.
  • This was a pretty fun excercise and I will likely continue in a subsequent Blog

Jessica’s Genealogy

I will have to make a tree for Jessica and see where that takes me. This is what she has:

Here is my tree so far:

So far, I’m in the US with this tree, so  I’m tempted to accept all the green hints to see if any familiar names show up.

Still nothing rings a bell.

Here is the next level:

Still no luck. It seems like I should see a famililar name by now. I can tell by the shared matches that I am related to Jessica probably on the Lentz or Nicholson side or both.