Category: DNA General

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Gangnus in the Revision Lists of Latvia

I have done several Blogs on the Revision Lists of Latvia. Most of the ones I have looked at have been in the German Colony of Hirschenhof where many of my mother’s ancestors lived. My mother’s mother was a Gangnus and that was a prominent family in Hirschenhof – at least for the number of people with that name if for no other reason.

From a review of my previous Blogs, I should be looking at:

  • The 1782 Audit of Souls – also known as a revision list. From my recollection, this Revision List had different farm or lot numbers than the subsequent revision lists.
  • The 1811 Revision List – only males are listed. So this is helpful, but not as helpful as the others.
  • The 1816 Revision List
  • The 1834 Revision List

This represents about 52 years and could contain about 3 generations worth of genealogical information.

Strategy for Research

I have found tht the easiest way to research these lists is by Ancestry. These lists are available elsewhere, but are not indexed. In the past, I have gone from the earliest Revision Lists to the later ones, to see how the families progressed. I then tried to summarize the information in a spreadsheet. Here is the format I used for my Fuhrmann ancestors:

This should be easily adaptable to the Gangnus surname.

My Gangnus Genealogy

It gets complicated as there were two Philipp Gangnuses who married two different Anna Evas! There are other complications, but I am hoping that the revision lists will straighter things out. 1782 is a good years as both Anna Gangnus and Johann Jacob Gangnus were young children then.

Johann Jacob Gangnus Born 1777

I ended up looking at the Raduraksti Site for information. After searching a while, I found this:

Here is the family I was looking for:

I have included the farms on either side. Here we see a second son, Johann George and a few other people living in the house. I can’t really figure out their last names at this time.

Actually, it appears that the other Philipp is living next door at Far #28, so that is a bonus. I was expecting Anna to be 2 years old, but she shows as 1/2 here.

When I compare the Philipp Jacob Gangnus family with my Ancestry Tree, I get this:

Here I have put the two families into a spreadsheet:

 

I was thinking that I descended from Anna Eva Gangnus, but it was actually her older sister, Charlotta Maria that I descend from. So, in these two close farms are 6 of my ancestors. I have them outlined in green. In my previous Blog, I looked at a match my mother had with a descendant of 4 year old Johann Gangnus above.

However, I now suspect that the first column ending in Maiga could be wrong. Not seeing Jacobina Magaretha in the Revision List does not prove that she was not a child of the couple above, but it does bring this line into question. Further, the couple would have been quite young when she was born. Having said that, the Gangnus Genealogy book published in 2003 has this genealogy.

1811

This is the revision year without women. First, I see that Philip Jacob is still around:

His first wife, Anna Eva Niclas dies, and he remarries in 1789. He has 4 sons living with him. Two of those sons have their own sons apparently. I think that one son moved to Farm 92.

Next, I need to find Philipp Gustav Gangnus who was born in 1747. He must be on the next farm:

By this time, Anna Charlotta was married to a Schwechheimer and had 9 or 10 children.

Here we see that the Gangnus patriarchs are still around. My ancestor Johann Jacob who was 4 is now 32 and has a son Gottlieb.

1816

A mere 5 years later. I started by looking at Farm #30 where I see that the widower Philip Jacob Gangnus is still living at age 60:

Here the men are on the left and the women are on the right.

Philipp Jacob’s second wife died in 1811, so does not appear here.

I have from my tree that that Jacon Gangnus married a Boehler as his first wife. He has Gottlieb and George by 1816, but Gottlieb died young. This does not fit in well with my Ancestry Tree:

There are three Georges in this tree. I assume that the George in the Census most closely matches Georg Michael by birth date. Gottlieb must be Philipp Gottlieb. I may have some of the relationships messed up here:

The relationships are a bit complicated due to a three generation household. It’s nice to get a peek into where my Gangnus ancestors were living in 1816. Here is a photo taken by a distant Rathfelder relative of a Rathfelder house in Hirschenhof:

I’m sure that you would have to imagine things looking a bit newer in 1816. Here is another view of the house from 1930:

My assumption is that this was a working farm at the time. It looks like the orientation of the barn has changed.

Gustav Gangnus in 1818

The above was from my Gangnus side. My Rathfelder side also has the ancestor of Gustav Gangnus. I have that he died in 1818, but another tree has his death in 1820. This latter date is more likely due to the 1818 Revision List:

I can’t make sense of the 15 year old boy. Here are the women:

I am not sure what the note is after Anna Christina’s age of 14 or why the ages are out of order. Is the 14 meant to be 1/4? I will take that to be the case. The Gangnus genealogy book I has Anna Christine born 1 Jan 1816.

The picture I get is of an elderly farm couple living with three generations of family, ready to pass the farm on to a son. Here are Farms 30 and 31:

Farm 31 appears to have been further divided.

Is there a stream going through the two farms?

1834

1834 finishes our 52 year tour of the Gangnus Family in Hirschenhof, Latvia. This is now 18 years since the last Revision List. The Farm numbers are now in Roman Numerals:

Philip Jacob has passed in 1818. This revision also has family numbers. 10 seems to be the number for Gangnus. There are fewer women on Farm #30:

For some reason, they missed the maiden name of my ancestor Jacob which should be Biedermann:

Note: only one name I have for her in my Tree matches which is Julianna and if she was born in 1802, she should have been 32 years old in 1834.

This shows that 6 children of Jacob were living in the household. The oldest 4 were from Jacob’s first wife Jacobina Boehler.

The 1834 Revision List Vs. My Ancestry Tree

Here are children from Jacob’s first wife:

From Jacob’s second wife:

Here the younger children had not been born yet. I descend from the eldest of the second wife.

Gustav’s Farm in 1834

Gustav passes in 1819, but here is the picture of Farm #31:

 

Here, the family numbers play a part as we have Family 10 (Gangnus) as well as Family 15 (Fischer) and 14 (Schwechheimer). I see what happened. Johann the son dies in 1821, leaving no male Gangnus of that generation. Johann was perhaps a widower at the time as no wife is shown. So there is a lot going on here.

Anna Charlotte Maria Gangnus Schwechheimer

I think I may have covered her in my Blog about the Schwechheimers, but here she is in 1834 on Farm 11:

Charlotte is 52 years old. There is also a Fischer on this property (Family 15). On the next page, there is someone from Family 16, but he had since passed away:

Here is Farm 11:

Charlotte moved from Meschlaider to Stinken!

 

The 1850 Revision Lists

I neglegted to mention above that there are also 1850 Revision lists, this brings us up 16 more years or 68 years from the original Audit of Souls. This is easily three generations of the Gangnus Family. This is making the Blog quite long, but hey, it does cover 68 years of genealogy – and from two different lines of Gangnus.

The 1850 List notes Charlotte’s death in 1847 at Stinken Farm 11:

Farm 30 in 1850

Jacob is still holing on to Farm 30 in 1850 at age 71:

Here are the women of Farm 30:

I’ll try to get this on to my Excel Spreadsheet to see if I can make sense of it.

This is a little confusing as I have that Juliane Biedermann dies in 1845. In fact, I have that Charlotte who was born in 1845 was Juliane’s youngest child. Further note is that my ancestor Johann Philipp had not married yet. He marries in 1855 and has my great-grandmother in 1856. My great-grandmother Maria Elisabeth Laura Gangnus marries in 1873:

This appears to be Maria or Marie as the older woman perhaps in Riga around Christmas:

 

Summary and Conclusions

  • The Revisions Lists are like the Census and give a good snapshot into the Gangnus Family in Hirschenhof between 1782 and 1850.
  • Between my lack of knowledge of German and my ability to read the writing, I am sure that I am missing some information from these Revision Lists.
  • The connections of the farm listings and age at previous Revision Lists helps to link the information together.
  • It would be interesting to compare these revision lists with DNA matches
  • This is my 700th published Blog!

 

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A New Gangnus Descendant DNA Match at MyHeritage

I was checking MyHeritage DNA matches recently and found a match for my mother who had Gangnus ancestry. As this is an uncommon surname, I was quite sure that there must be a connection.

Gladys and Maiga

Here is the match between my late mom and Maiga from Germany:

Maiga also has matches between other surnames that are in my ancestry. Here is part of Maiga’s Tree at MyHeritage:

According to her tree, our common ancestors should be Philipp Julius Gustavus Gangnus and Anna Eva Muller. Here is part of my current Gangnus DNA/Genealogy Tree:

However, I am missing Maiga’s ancestor Johann Gangnus:

Next, I’ll check my Ancestry Tree to see if I already have Johann:

Here is where things get complicated. My Johann Jacob Gangnus was born 1777 from Philip Jacob Gangnus and Anna Eva NICLAS. Did Philipp JG Gangnus and Anna Eva MULLER also have a Johann born in 1777?  My tree says they did:

I’m glad I didn’t jump to conclusions here. This Johann was born about 10 months earlier:

Now for some more complexity:

Maiga descends from Philipp Gangnus and Anna Eva Muller twice. Once by Johann and once by Jacobina M Gangnus. This was pretty normal for the German Colony of Hirschenhof in Latvia.

I also have Jacobina in my Ancestry Tree:

My next decision is whether I should accept Maiga’s tree as is or try to evaluate it.

A Quick Check on Maiga’s Genealogy

This will get Maiga into my tree at least. Here is some information on Maiga’s Line:

I am not sure how the Kaufmann name fits in. This is what the internet shows:

The German word Kaufmann is a masculine noun that translates to “merchant” or “businessman” in English. It can also refer to a trader, small shopkeeper, grocer, or someone with business or commerce qualifications. 

This shows information from St. Peter on Maiga’s father and grandfather. Here is some more information on Gustav:

This links him to his father and mother. Here is where it gets complicated as both of Gustav’s parents had Gangnus ancestors:

Georg Philipp marries for a second time:

At this point, I would be happy to follow Maiga’s tree.

The DNA and DNA Painter

Here is the DNA match between Maiga and Gladys:

So far, I do not see any Gangnus DNA matcing on that part of Chromosome 3 for my mom:

Here is the new match:

This match gets my mom’s painted side up to 47% from 46%. Also, it shows a crossover apparently from the Rathfelder to the Gangnus side. Actually the crossover is between Rathfelder and Scwechheimer (I think):

I say that because this match is on my Rathfelder side, but on the Schwechheimer side of my Rathfelder side. Johann H Rathfelder born in 1846 also married a Gangnus. At any rate, that is quite a large hunk of DNA to be shared between Maiga and Gladys coming down all the way from the mid 1700’s.

By crossover, I mean that the red DNA match with Katja goes down the Rathfelder Line while the blue match with Maiga goes down the Schwechheimer side to Gangnus. Usually where there are two DNA matches on one’s profile and one stops and the other starts, that is an indication of a crossover in the DNA – that is, a crossover from paternal to maternal DNA or maternal to paternal DNA.

Updating the Gangnus DNA/Genealogy Tree

Here is my first shot:

Notice that I need two lines for Maiga. The problem is that some information is missing from Maiga’s tree.

I just realized that I have a book on the Gangnus family, so I can use that. Jacobina apparently led an interesting life. She married at age 17 and had 17 children. Unfortunately, not all the spouses of the children of Jacobina are listed in the Gustav book by Gustav Gangnus dated 2003. I do have the name of her husband who was Johann Gurg Gottlieb Spengel. Interestingly, a Google search for the word Hofspowsky returned nothing.

Here I finished the Gagnus DNA/Genealogy Tree but I put some color in the box that I had a question on:

This shows that there is one good connection to the Gangnus/Muller common ancestors. Then there is another likely connection to the same common ancestors.

From Ancestry

Here are my mother’s ThruLines (through Philipp Julius Gustavus Gangnus):

Donna is actually a much closer relative. Reinhold is on my three. It is likely that Tristan and Michael could also belong there. This may be something to look into in a future Blog.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Maiga is an important match adding a significant piece of DNA to my mother’s DNA profile
  • The DNA match between Maiga and my mother appears to describe the crossover in DNA between my mother’s great-grandparents of Johann Rathfelder and Rosine Schwechheimer.
  • Maiga also has a very good tree. I could write to her to see if she has more information on the couple listed as private.
  • The Gangnus family was a large and important German family living in the German Colony of Hirschenhof. Many of these Hirschenhof families moved later to Riga.

 

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My Wife’s Rheinhold ThruLines

I believe that I have not done a comprehensive look at my wife’s Rynault ThruLines. Here is what my wife’s late mother shows:

This turns out to be a huge amount of matches. One problem is the spelling of the name. I see:

  • Rynault
  • Rheinhold
  • Rhynold
  • Rinold

Reynold was also a popular variation. They all seem fairly similar in sound. Joan has 46 matches to Rynault not on her own line. My wife wants to know how many matches she has:

Much less than 46 matches.

A Rheinhold DNA/Genealogy Tree

I do not believe that I have created one yet. I’ll start with my later mother-in-law:

This brings Joan back to her mother’s mother’s mother’s side.

The Casper John Rhynhold 1814 Line

Joan shows 7 matches here. If the father was Frederick Capar (or Casper) Rhynold, it would make sense that he would have a son named Casper.

I’ll start with a match named Leenie:

Her paternal side goes back to a Rhynold from Guysborough which is encouraging. I can add her as a floating tree to my tree and then connect her once it makes sense. Here are Leenie’s grandparents in Hazel Hill, Nova Scotia in 1921:

Here is the path that Ancestry wants me to investigate:

Here is Cora and family in 1901 living in Canso West. Her dad is a Methodist fisherman.

By 1911, it appears that the father had remarried:

However, this marriage for Alonzo is in 1914:

The marriage appears to have taken place in St. John, New Brunwick. This appears to imply that Maude Verge was Alonzo’s third wife?

Due to the confusion, I need to check the hints for Maude Smith. I have this:

This has to be the right Blanche. Here is Blanche in 1891. Her father is a Methodist fisherman:

Her mother is Ester. Here is the 1881 Census:

They seem to be having trouble with the name Esther – here transcribed as Easter. Esther is a Baptist and her husband appears to be a type of Methodist.

The best reference I could find for Esther was in this tree:

This person apparently has a book from 1950 with some important information:

I guess this will have to do for now.

Casper Rhinold

Here is Casper recorded as Reynold:

Fortunately, there is a transcription as the writing is a bit scrawley. Here is Half Island Cove:

Here is a deed which is supposed to explain things:

This is from 1817, so the must be the grandfather of Caspar selling his 300 acres to his son Frederick. This is quite interesting. Apparently Caspar was a military man who was granted 300 acres of land in Nova Scotia. It is unclear to me whether the elder Caspar ever lived on this land. This means that the elder Caspar died likely before 1817 or about 1816 as the above document refers to the Estate of ‘Gasper’ deceased. Casper’s children appear to be:

  • Elizabeth Rheinhold Uloth
  • John Reinhold
  • Ann Rheinhold Harrigan
  • Mary Rheinhold Tanner
  • Frederick Rheinhold

Here is Peas Brook which is probably the same place mentioned in the land deed:

Here is an entry someone shared at Ancestry:

These troops were mainly Germans hired by the British.

Rheinhold DNA/Genealogy Tree

I am fairly sure the ThruLine is correct, so I will add Leenie to the tree:

Having said that, I see that Caspar is quite a bit older than my wife’s ancestor George and there is 14 years between them. Is it possible that Caspar could be from a brother of Frederick? For now, I am going with the way it is above, as that is the information I have, presumably from the book on Guysborough families.

I see I got this one wrong:

Leenie is shown as the ThruLines as a 4th cousin once removed so that is a way of checking my DNA/Genealogy Tree.

Joan and Lorraine

Assuming that I got Esther right, it should be easy to add Lorraine to my tree. However, there is something I would like to look at before I consider this Line.

Joan’s ThruLines for George Tanner Rhynold

It makes sense to start with the more recent generation:

Here are the DNA matches with the descendents of the eldest proposed son of George Tanner Rhynold:

This appears to be George and family in 1871:

Lydia must be George’s mother. He marries and Irish woman which could explain the change to Catholic. It turns out that this Census is quite a find as it shows the implied relationships in this family.

However, the ThruLines show two different James in this family:

A 15 year old James in the 1871 would have been born in 1856 which is inbetween the two James. I am having trouble lining up the ThruLines with the Census.

Joan and Booklady

One person who seems to line up with the 1871 Census is Booklady:

Mary and John are both in 1871 Census for Crow Harbour:

This is likely Queensport today:

Booklady’s tree shows her paternal side only:

Another tree at Ancestry links Booklady’s father to the maternal side:

In 1921, Eunice is living in North Canso with her fisherman father and family:

The family is listed as Roman Catholic.

This Ancestry tree has John’s wife as a Snider:

However, the reference has a different surname:

The same tree shows that Mary’s son Clarence was from a first husband:

However, I believe that there is a mistake in the above tree. It has John Henry Rhyold born in 1886. I believe that he was born earlier. The 1921 Census has him being 53 years old which would have him born about 1868.

This tree has John Henry Rhinold as the son of different parents:

They also reference the 1871 Census:

This tells me that there were two John Rhynolds born about the same time, making researh difficult. Here is Molasses Harbour:

Based on DNA matching and the geography, my guess is that the above tree is incorrect for Booklady’s genealogy.

Doing the Geography Check

One reference has Eunice Rhynold born in Little Dover, but I could find no reference to back that up:

In 1921, the family was living in North Canso. In 1931, the family was living in the Town of Canso where John H was a janitor at the public school.

The question is, is the John who was the father of Eunice from Queensport or from Port Felix?

Perhaps the answer is not clear. If Eunice was born in Little Dover, then perhaps this is about the same distance by water to Fort Felix as Queensport is. If she was born in Canso, then Queensport would be closer and a straighter shot by water.

Clues from the DNA?

If Booklady descends from George Rhynold, that would make her and Joan 2nd cousins once removed. According to Ancestry, there is a greater likelihood that she would be a 3rd cousin once removed compared to a 2nd cousin once removed:

Shared DNA Matches Between Joan and Booklady

Jennis is a shared match:

However, Jennis has a much larger match with Booklady compared to her match with Joan. Here is the proposed connection:

However, the Grant Tree from Ancestry, which I looked at above has this connection:

I also do not see Johanna in the 1881 Census for George Tanner at Crow Harbour:

It appears that ThruLines for George Tanner Rhynold are a bit misleading in this situation:

John may be right and one of the James may be right.

Joan and Erin

Joan and Erin have a similar shared DNA match:

Ancestry is saying that chances are Erin is more closely related to Booklady than Joan. Erin’s tree goes out to a William Aubrey from Gloucester, Massachusetts:

My guess is that he was another son of Joanna Rhynold.

I was trying to set out to prove that Eunice descends from George Tanner, but that does not seem to be the case from the DNA.

Chelsea and Joan

Chelsea’s match with Joan follows the same line of reasoning:

Chelsea must be Erin’s sister:

Back to Eunice

Here is William Rhynold in 1891:

John must be born about 1886, not 1868 as the ThruLines have. Here is William Rhynold in 1881:

It seems like the couple had two families. The 1881 family moves out of the house by 1891, and there is a new family. However, in 1891 there were Claude, Alfred and George. Where were they in 1881? Who thought that this would be so difficult?

Joan and Gordon

Joan and Gordon have a healthy DNA match of 100 cM. Here is Gordon’s tree:

Gordon shows his line going back to George Tanner Rhynold. I will look at the evidence. According to Mabel Rhynold’s obituary, she was born in Fox Island:

The obituary is also helpful in that it gives her parents’ names:

Here is Mabel in 1921 at Fox Island with her parents:

If the 1871 Census was correct, father James Rhynold was a mason and a Baptist. He perhaps converted when he married and became a fisherman. This appears to be a marriage reference:

Next, it the connection between James and George Tanner Rhynold. The best reference for that has to be the 1871 Census for Crow Harbour

Next, I add in George Tanner Rhynold and Mary Sandwich to connect this line to my Ancestry Tree:

When I add Gordon to the Rhynold DNA/Genealogy Tree, it looks like this:

Summary and Conclusions

  • My late mother-in-law Joan has many DNA connections to the Rhynold Family of Canso, Nova Scotia
  • This was a large family and it is difficult to find records for some of the early families.
  • There is confusion as to the different James Rhynolds
  • It would be helpful perhaps, to look at the book about Guysborough families at a genealogical library to try to straighten out the relationships.
  • It is interesting to learn a little about the history of one of my wife’s German ancestors who fought for the British as a mercenary and received land in Nova Scotia for his service.
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Zerns of Bridgeport, New Jersey

It took me a long time to find Mary Zerns. She was the wife of my third great-grandfather Jacob Lentz:

Now I am stuck on her and there is a blank on her portion of the tree.

Here is a death record for Mary Ann Lentz:

This does not give her maiden name but does give a place of birth. The record says she was in her 80th year.

Lentz – Zerns Marriage Record

Hopefully, this is the correct marriage record from 1840:

It is at the Methodist Episcopal Church. Kensington is the right area for the Lentz family. This church is also known as the old brick church:

A search for Zerns in Bridgeport shows a Gideon:

This could possibly be a brother to Mary Ann.

Here is an obituary:

His service is at the M.E. Church which I take to be Methodist Episcopal. Notice the three different spellings:

  • Zerns
  • Zern
  • Zernes

Here is Bridgeport, New Jersey:

So far, I am reinforced in my belief that I have Zerns ancestors:

  • Mary Ann Lentz’ death certificate has her born in Bridgeport, New Jersey
  • There was a Jacob Lentz who married a Mary Ann Zerns in Kensington in 1840
  • There were others who were from Bridgeport with the surname Zerns, Zernes or Zern.

DNA Matches at Ancestry

When I searched for Zerns at Ancestry under my mother’s DNA matches I only found close relatives. However, when I searched for similar names, I found RA. RA’s line goes out to Elizabeth Zern:

Here is some more information on Elizabeth:

Her parents are shown as Gideon and Rebecca Zerns. Elizabeth could be a sister or cousin of Mary Ann Zerns.

In 1830, I see a Gideon Zerns in New Jersey:

This is a small household with only two people.  Here is Woolwich Township:

I do not see any Zerns in New Jersey in 1820, so perhaps they lived in Penssylvania or elsewhere at that time.

Mom and Hum

Here is Hum’s tree:

My Cousin Cindy and Zern Matches

Cindy has this Zern match:

Parent 2 is the side I match Cindy on. Here is Drew’s ancestor:

I believe that Montgomery refers to Montgomery County:

I see that my mother matches this Drew also:

Cindy’s also matches another Drew:

Drew has the same ancestor as the other Drew. The two Drews do not show as shared matches, but they may be below the threshold of 20 cM. My guess is that this is the area where my Zerns were from.

Cindy and Zerns

Here we have Elizabeth again:

This time her name is spelled ending with an ‘s’.

A DNA match between Cindy and Lois also goes back to Elizabeth Zerns in Lois’ tree:

Lois has Elizabeth Zerns from New Jersey in her tree:

Elizabeth is a common theme.

Rusty and Zern

I was so enMiccouraged by cousin Cindy’s results, that I asked my cousin Rusty if he would share his DNA matches. And he kindly did. Here are his Zern matches:

Michael

Michael has an extensive tree. Here is part of his maternal side:

He has Zurn from Germany changing to Zern in Pennsylvania. This surname morphed into Zarns and then Sarnes. This offers two new spellings of the name. Michael also has Anna Magdalena in his tree, but not as a direct ancestor:

As Cindy has a match with a descendant of Anna Magdalena Zern and Rusty has a match with a descendant of Johannes Adam Georg Zern who is potentially her father, that suggests, that the common ancestor could be Johannes Adam Georg Zern born 1732. Michael has this further information:

Here is Graben:

The name since 1972 has been Graben-Neudorf.

When I search for Zern in Michael’s tree, I get these names:

That means that it is possible that my ancestor Mary Ann Zerns descended from Frederick, Abraham or Michael Zern.

Linda

Her Zern ancestor also went by Zorn:

Bellheim is not far from Graben:

RA

My mother matches RA. His ancestry goes back to Elizabeth Zern from New Jersey as mentioned above. Speaking of Elizabeth, Rusty also matches Lois, like his cousin Cindy. Lois, as mentioned above, descends from Elizabeth Zerns.

 

Zerns in Philadelphia

As Mary Ann Zerns married in Philadelphia in 1840, I will look now for Zerns in that area. Here is a family living in Northern LIberties in 1850:

However, the relationships in this family are very unclear. Is Lee the last name of Sarah?

Here are Jacob Lentz, Mary and family in 1850 in Ward 6, Kensington:

However, here is a poster for the family business of a sale of meat in Northern Liberties:

Here is another Northern LIberties Zern family in 1850:

All these people are said to be born in Pennsylvania. Also note that the Lentz’ first child is named George (but possibly after George Washington). This family is clearer. All children could be from Maria Zern.

It is possible that George is a brother of Mary Ann. Further, if George named his first son for his father, then the father would be William Zern. The George Zern family is in Ward 11 in 1860:

There is a 9 year old Elizabeth Zern on the next page. They likely lived in the same area as here is Ward 11 in 1860:

This is likely George Zern in 1840:

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to find my first DNA match to a Zern descendant by looking at my mother’s matches
  • I looked at other Zern families living in the vicinity of my Lentz ancestors in 1850
  • I looked at other Zerns from Bridgeport, New Jersey where Mary Ann Zerns was supposed to have been born.
  • Although I found hints, I did not find any actual genealogical connection between Mary Ann Zerns and other Zern families.
  • It is possible that my Zern ancestors lived in Mongtgomery County, Pennsylvania, moved to New Jersey and then some of them moved to Philadelphia.
  • New DNA match information from cousin Rusty implies that our common ancestor could be Johannes Adam Georg Zern born 1732 in Graben, Germany
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Updating My Parker DNA/Genealogy Chart

Here is the chart I have for Parker DNA/Genealogy:

The easiest way I update these charts is by using Ancestry ThruLines. For example, here are my Isaac Parker ThruLines:

This shows where I got Barbara and TD. However, I do not show James. I see in my previous Blog on Parker ThruLines that I decided not to add him to my tree.

My Father’s Cousin Joyce and Parker ThruLines

Joyce has Parker ThruLines going back to 1698:

The ThruLines through Jeusha Parker split evenly:

The two matches under Thomas Landers also match much more closely on my Hartley side:

So I won’t bother to add them there. Their DNA probably comes from much more recent sources.

However, Joyce has much smaller DNA matches with these two:

It may not be too difficult to evaluate these two lines.

Jersuha Parker

Findagrave.com has this:

Jerusha ends up in Maine:

I see Content (Landers) Blackwell, so that is a good sign. Here is North Fairfield, Maine:

Joyce and R.C.

R.C.’s tree goes back to Thomas Parker on his maternal side:

That is a good sign. Abbie’s marriage record shows that these were her parents:

In 1880, Abbie’s father was a blacksmith:

In 1850, Jotham is living with this family:

This Obituary is helpful:

Here Thomas L Blackwell appears to be with second wife and her children:

Here the name of Heman is significant.

Here is the record of death for Thomas Blackwell:

Unfortunately his mother’s name reads as Thankful Lander. These records are notoriously inaccurate, so I will take this to be a match. Let’s see, what was his mother’s name? Content? Thankful?

This completes the circle for me. I just need to merge names to get this family into my tree.

I also found another full sister for Jotham named Julia.

Updating the Parker DNA/Genealogy Tree

We cannot prove that the DNA that R.C. and Joyce share come from the late 1600’s and early 1700’s. In fact the small amount of DNA that R.C and Joyce share is said to be on her paternal side which is the side I do not match Joyce (at least closely). However, I do not believe that the paternal/maternal assignments are foolproof.

Joyce and Edy

Joyce and Edy do match on Joyce’s maternal side, so the chances of this DNA being from Parker and/or Nickerson are greater than between Joyce and R.C. Here is the maternal portion of Edy’s tree:

Here is the family in 1920:

Edy’s father Leslie was born in Maine as well as her mother Bertha. Bertha is the one we are following.

Here is the marriage record:

Bertha is from Madison, Maine. This place came up in R.C.’s line also:

 

Here are Bertha’s parents:

I would think I would be following the Blackwell Line here, but the ThruLines suggest going with the Hayden Line. Here is Sarah or Sally in 1850:

The last step is to connect Ann Hayden with her mother Content Landers. Ancestry is suggesting:

Here is Ann or Anna’s death record from 1903:

.

Adding these two connects Ann Hayden to my main Ancestry Tree:

An Expanded Parker DNA/Genealogy Tree

A Peek at Maury’s ThruLines

Maury is another of my father’s cousins. My 2nd cousin is the administrator to his DNA:

Maury potentially adds another line (Thomas Parker) to the tree. He also has two potential new matches under Jerusha Parker:

I may look at these matches at some later date.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I was able to add two new matches to my Parker DNA/Genealogy Tree thanks to the DNA of my father’s cousin Jocye.
  • Due to the distance of the relation, it is possible that the DNA could be from somewhere else. However, the Ancestry computers did pick out this connection from all the possible connections.
  • Looking at the ThruLines help to solidify my own genealogy and correct and errors that may be there.

 

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My Father’s Cousin Joyce and Ancient Snell ThruLines: Part 2

In my previous Blog, I started to look at Joyce’s ThruLines through Samuel Snell born 1708 and his wife Mary Head. In that Blog, the last one I added to my Snell DNA/Genealogy Chart was Jane Budd:

Next, I would like to look at the 5 descendants of Joseph Snell.

Joyce and Linda

Here is the complete proposed connection:

Unlike Jane, Linda’s DNA match is said to be on Joyce’s maternal side which is the side I match Joyce on. Here is Linda’s tree:

There appears to be some discrepancy between the Fagen and Phillips surname. I think that Fagen is a married name, so I will pursue this line. I also see that I should have been looking at the maternal side of Linda’s tree:

This seems to put me back on track. Here is the family in 1930:

Cornelius owns a plumbing business in Salinas:

I just need to get from California back to Massachusetts somehow. I am also looking for Cornelius’ mother. This is perhaps Cornelius in 1900:

He from Salinas, but his father was from Maine and mother from Massachusetts. Ancestry’s proposed parents for Cornelius are from Maine and Massachusetts, so I will take a shortcut and use those suggestions:

This article ties the family together:

According to Massachusetts Birth records, Fanny was born in East Bridgewater in 1855:

Ancestry suggests this father for Betsy Pease:

At this point, I will merge Joseph Crandall Snell with the Joseph Snell I already had in my tree:

Here is where Linda fits in on my expanding Snell DNA/Genealogy Tree:

Four More Matches from Pardon Snell

These matches are from William Henry Snell who was the likely brother of Betsey Snell Pease. However, as Ella, Grace and Elmer Snell are in white, it looks like they may already be in my Ancestry Tree. When I choose John, I see this common ancestor for John and Joyce:

This is through Joyce’s paternal side. However, Ancestry has the DNA match on the maternal side which would be the side where Joyce and I match. I also see that this ThruLine is on John’s paternal side where the Snell ThruLine is on his maternal side.

Joyce and Janice

As I mentioned above, I have these lines already in my tree. I just need to evaluate Janice’s mother. I do note some discrepancies between what Ancestry shows and Janice’s tree:

Janice has her maternal grandmother as Lillian Grace Harlow and Ancestry has her as Grace F Snell.

B.S. and Renee

Perhaps these two Joyce DNA matches will make more sense:

B.S.’s tree is showing Snell all the way be to Samuel Snell and beyond:

Further B.S. and Joyce have a shared match with John:

Renee also shows as a close match to B.S. which makes sense. I think that the Janice connection is incorrect as shown by Ancestry.

In 1930, Elmer is a chair worker in Ashburnham, Massachusetts:

Edith and Ronald are there also.

Updating the Snell DNA/Genealogy Tree

I need to add John, B.S. and Renee:

I had to shrink the tree down to get Joyce in on the bottom left.

Joyce and the Job Snell Line

For some reason I do not have a birth date for Job Snell. According to a biography of Job Snell he was born September, 1742 or 1743. Most trees have him as born September 1742, so I will use that. This line is not as well built out on my Ancestry tree:

I’ll start with K.P. She has a tree built out to Edmond Snell. From what I have read, this line moved to New York state early on. Here is Monford and family in 1920 in Mexico, NY:

Monford’s father is a painter in the automobile gas industry. I am not sure what that means. It is Wanda who I am interested in next.

Wanda is said on her marriage record to be born in Scriba to a Jennie Snell. So far, so good.

Jennie Snell is born in New Haven, NY:

Here is the family in New Haven in 1865:

Coley (should be Cooley?) is born in Oneida. From here, the records get a bit thinner. I suppose this is Edmund the father of Edmund in 1820:

This tree has the father Edmund married to a Cooley which makes sense:

And if one has a father with the same name as yours, it also makes sense to go by your middle name (Cooley). This appears to be a list of the children of Job and Ruth from Rhode Island Vital Extracts:

It does not seem that Josiah fits in well as he was born 41 years after ‘Judeth’. Next, I connect Edmund to Job in my tree:

This gets Job Snell onto my Snell DNA/Genealogy Chart:

As Job moved out of the Massachusetts area early on, it is more likely that the DNA is from his line. I thought that I had posted a portion of this great bio on Job Snell by Fred Snell at Ancestry before:

Joyce, King and Ker

Above, we see Ruby in the Rhode Island Vital Records Extracts, so we are likely on the right track. Ellsworth grew up on a farm in Minnesota:

Next, I am looking for the mother of Jason M. Harrington. Someone kindly posted the death record for Elizabeth Harrington:

Her parents on the next page are just listed as Hulbert and Hulbert. I had to accept an Ancestry tree by faith, but there was a Hulbert willl which included daughter Bestsy Hulbert and the executrix (mother/widow) as I recall.

Joyce and Ker

My hope was that Ker would fit in easily. On Ker’s tree, I recognize the surname of her paternal grandmother:

Here is Mabel:

Her husband is a commercial traveler for a candy company. Mabel’s parents were born in New York. Findagrave.com gives some more information:

After this, I am hoping that Curtis’ mother is Elizabeth Hurlbert. It turns out I already have Curtis in my tree:

If I merge the two Curtises, I should be all set.

Finally, Joyce and Skylar

Skylar’s tree goes back to Samuel Snell and beyond. However, the linked tree is ambiguous:

 

The main person in the tree appears as a male. That means that Skylar may be the daughter. Due to the confusion, I’ll skip this match.

Back to the Snell DNA/Genealogy Tree

I’ll just add King and Ker:

My Father’s Other Cousin: MM

Maurey’s ThruLines are similar to Joyce’s. Here are the ones under Job:

Interestingly, there are three different matches. I do notice the Hulbert or Hurlburt name under Ruby Snell. The other interesting thing is that Maurey matches C.W. by DNA on the side that doesn’t match me:

So, as usual, it can get tricky. Maury matches me on his maternal side.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Because Joyce is a generation earlier than I am, I am able to find Snell relatives that match by DNA going back to Samuel Snell born 1708 in Tiverton, Rhode Island and Mary Head.
  • It takes some time to verify these DNA relatives. Some have closer matches on other lines, which means that the DNA match could represent that closer line
  • Sometimes the ThruLines appear to be incorrect.
  • In many cases, the genealogical evidence is scarce and the DNA matches tend to support that there is a connection
  • It is possible to use Shared Matches to help prove or prove some of the connections.

 

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My Father’s Cousin Joyce and Ancient Snell ThruLines

I have a pretty extensive DNA/Genealogy Chart for the Snell family already:

In this Blog, I’ll look at Joyce’s ThruLines through Samuel Snell born 1708 and Mary Head. Samuel Snell was a vintner and had a tavern for a while in Newport:

Joyce shows these Snell ThruLines:

My tree only includes brothers Anthony and Benjamin:

I’ll start in order:

These two should be easy. I alreaady have Charlotte’s sibling, so I can add her. O.T. lived not too far from me, so he should be easy also. I’ll start a floating tree for him. I used to teach Sunday School with O.T.’s daughter.

In 1910, the Tripp family lived on Rochester Road, Acushnet:

I knew the family on Perry Hill Road, so I wonder if the name of the Road changed.

Here is a marriage record for Frederick Tripp and Marcia Church Snell:

Her parents were Otis Snell and Mary Ann. That means that Otis Tripp’s name likely came from the Snell side. I realize that I already have O.T. in my Snell DNA/Genealogy Tree:

Our common ancestors are Otis Snell and Mary Ann Parker. This ThruLine is looking at a potential common ancestor three generations earlier. I am curious as to whether I am doubly related to O.T.

Frederick Tripp

What I need to find out is whether Mary Snell is the mother of Frederick Tripp:

Here is the marriage:

Apparently, Frederick who married Nancy was the son of William. It appeaers that he was also a Reverend:

findagrave.com has Frederick’s mother as Mary Snell:

It is beginning to look likely that the ThruLine back to Samuel Snell is correct. This shows the two ways that Joyce is related to Otis (O.T.):

I am one step down on this tree. So where Joyce is a third cousin to Otis, I am a third cousin once removed.

Joyce and Descendants of Pardon Snell

Joyce shows six matches to Pardon Snell descendants.

Joyce and Jane

Something seems off in my genealogy:

This shows Michael having children in his 60’s and 70’s.

I will start a floating tree for Jane. Jane has a tree with her two parents. I am looking at the paternal side based on her ThruLine. Here is the family in New Bedford in 1930:

The father, also Allen C. Ashley is a bus driver. However, ThruLines is directing me to Ida M. Here is Ida:

They get married in Portsmouth, NH. In Ida’s birth record, her father is said to be from Tiverton, R.I. That is a good sign.

The marriage record for Moses reveals that this was his second marriage:

Angles seems like a strange name. Having said that, genealogically speaking, it is a great name in that it is quite unique:

From Captain Angles’ death record, we get his parents names:

This appears to be Crawford’s burial record:

From this, it is not clear that Angle is a sone of Crawford and Sarah. However, he may just not be included in the list.

This list shows a Michael Crawford as the son of Pardon Snell.

Here I have merged the two Crawford Snells from my regular tree and my floating tree:

I started to delete the younger children. My guess is that I had the wrong Crawford married to Anna S. King. I’ll delete that family for now and add them back in later if I need to.

Next, I’ll add in the line to my Snell DNA/Genealogy Chart:

However, note that Jane’s father has Crapo as a middle name and Joyce and I also have Crapo ancestors. Further, Jane is said to have a DNA match on Joyce’s paternal side and I am related on Joyce’s maternal side. That makes this match off at least as proposed by the DNA. Nevertheless, the DNA assingment may also be off.

Regardless,, I think that the exercise has helped my straighten out the Snell genealogy some.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I started to udate the ThruLines through my father’s cousin Joyce going back to Samuel Snell born 1708 and his wife Mary Head
  • One relative was Otis who is also related on a closer line.
  • I spent some time connecting with Jane genealogically only to later realize that she shows as a DNA match on Joyce’s paternal side. I am related to Joyce on the maternal. Side. That means that the DNA match is either to a different connection, or the assignment of the DNA is incorrect.
  • I may further look at connections under Pardon Snell born 1747 and Job Snell in a subsequent Blog
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Updating my Cowen/Cowing ThruLines

I last looked at these in November of 2023. Here is what I have as of then:

Seth Cowing and Penelope Crapo are my 5th great-grandparents. They were born in the first half of the 1700’s, so well into the colonial period of Massachusetts. Penealope descends from the White family which goes back to the Mayflower. I grew up in Rochester where Seth Cowing and Penelope Crapo were born, so this is local history for me.

My Cowen ThruLines

I do not see these three people on my chart. Israel marries in 1795:

I can go down from Israel or up from the three matches which is the more proper way. I am hoping that Charles fits into the Cowen line, so I will put him in my tree as a ‘floating tree’. That means that he will be unconnected until I find his connection. On Thelma’s wedding record, her parents are given as:

Unfortunately, Ancestry transcribes her father as a Gifford also, where the last name is omitted and assumed to be the same as Thelma’s (Butts). Here is my floating tree:

Ancestry is loading up my tree with hints. My ThruLines say to follow the Butts Line. Here is Earle’s marriage Record:

The person who married him had the first name of Hartley. Next, I shift ot Calvin Butts. He was a carpenter in New Bedford in 1900. Calvin is recorded in a book of births for New Bedford:

That gets the name back to Polly Cowing. At this point, it would be helpful to have a marriage record for Polly Cowing:

I did find a death record, but Polly’s parents are listed as Zenas and Mary. So I guess I won’t be adding Charles to by Cowen tree.

Sharon and Robert

My sister Sharon matches Robert;

I already have Shaun in my tree. I ruled out Dawn on the Seth Crapo Line. I assume I already evaluated Shaun, so it is safe to add in Robert:

I had noted on a previous Blog on Cowen ThruLines that Shaun is also related on my Hathaway side. This makes sense as Excperience Cowing married Joseph Hathaway on my line. That means that we don’t know whether the match is on the Cowing side or Hathaway side or both. I say it could be both as Sharon matches Robert in two different segments of DNA. Technically, the DNA could be from Cowing, Crapo, Hathaway or Hiller. It gets complicated as I am related to Hiller on the yellow chart above also.

Cousin Joyce’s Cowen ThruLines

I have been noticing a few of these lately.

Right now I only have one match under Jonathan Cowing, so let’s take a look at Joyce’s matches under Jonathan.

I already have Kristine on my tree, so Julie is an easy add.

It appears that Jonathan Cowen could have been a Quaker based on his burial place:

Here is some further information from findagrave.com:

This seems to fit in well with Joyce’s Cowen ThruLines.

Joyce and Coynert

It is time for a floating tree for coynert. Here is Annie or Anna living with her family on a farm in Mattapoiisett in 1870:

Here is the floating tree I came up with:

The assumption is that Eliza Hiller is the same as Eliza Cowing. Next I need to merge the two Elizas:

Next, I add the line to my Cowen DNA/Genealogy Tree:

Joyce and angiesmom

I already have Abner on my Ancestry Tree:

This looks like a sure bet. Still, I’ll create a floating tree for angiesmom. Angiesmom’s maternal side tree does have a Cowen:

Here is the family in 1950:

Here is the 1920 Census:

Here we see Everett R’s father who is also Everett R was born in Massachusetts. That is a good sign. Here is Everett on Cook Street in Fairhaven, Massachusetts in 1900:

His father, James was a tool maker:

Confusingly, James Cowen marries a Bowen:

This brings us back to Abner. I merge the two trees and I now have angiesmom line.

There is no guarantee that the DNA that Joyce and angiesmom share is from Seth Cowing or Penelope Crapo as I have not considered every line of both people where there may be other connections. However, it is possible and it is also interesting to see where the different lines of Cowen ended up.

Abner Pease Cowen Born 1825 Rochester

I came across this photo of Abner at Ancestry. Keep in mind that in 1825 Rochester included present day Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester:

Joyce and Seth

I already have Frances and Helen on my yellow tree, so I will add Seth also.

The Cowen DNA/Genealogy Tree

This includes only one match from my father’s cousin Maury in the bottom left. It also does not show Maury on the right side of the chart. There are also many more Hartley relatives as my great-grandparents had 13 children. He has many more matches, but I will not look at them now:

However, I note that he does not have descendants of Polly Cowen which I determined were not right above.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Recent common ancestors shown under Joyce’s DNA matches resulted in me looking at some Seth Cowen Thrulines
  • I found one line that was not right. These were descendants of Polly Cowen. The confusion is probably that there were more than one Polly Cowen born around the same time.
  • I was able to expand my Cowne DNA/Genealogy Chart and see where some of the Seth Cowen descendants ended up living.

 

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My Cousin Paul’s Frazer Theory at MyHeritage

I recently looked at my cousin Paul’s Theories of Relativity at MyHeritage and saw this interesting one:

I already have a large Frazer DNA/Genealogy tree for this branch of the Frazers:

There may be some mistakes. I notice that I have McPartland here and also in another branch, so they should not be in both places. I do not have Fitzgerald Frazer here, but do have him on my web page:

Here is Franklyn’s tree at MyHeritage:

Ancestry shows a marriage certificate for William M Frazer:

This line seems pretty well documented:

Here is Haverstraw where Fitzgerald lived:

Frazer DNA

Here is how Franklyn and Paul match by DNA:

The match on Chromosome 17 is 6.8 cM and the cutoff for DNA Painter by default is 7 cM, so I won’t count that little segment. Here is Paul’s already busy Chromosome 12:

Notice that I do not have Michael Frazer in the Key above. Michael would add an important DNA link in this whole puzzle:

Franklyn is the missing piece of the puzzle between Joanna and BV.

Every Picture Tells a Story

I can try to interpret the meaning of all these segments on Paul’s Chromosome 12:

 

There appear to be breaks in the DNA matches which to me indicate breaks between Paul’s inherited Frazer side DNA and the McMaster side DNA.

The first section appears to be McMaster shown in blue. Suzzanne does not have any known McMaster, so this may indicate a small false reading or that Suzanne does have McMaster ancestry somewhere.

Barry has no known McMaster ancestor, so I have his section as Frazer.

The third section has John whose common Ancestor with Paul was Abe McMaster and Margery (no known last name). Keith also has two McMaster ancestors.

The fourth section appears to be just Frazer as Joanna has no known McMaster ancestors. Her ancestor was James Frazer who was born around 1720. Franklyn also has no known McMaster ancestors.

BV and Susan

Notice that BV and Susan are in both the McMaster and Frazer sections. BV descends from William McMaster and Margaret Frazer. So actually the common DNA represented by the orange would be from William McMaster and not his wife.

 

Susan’s McMaster ancestor is Margaret McMaster born 1846 at Kilmactranny, County Sligo. Keith has the ancestors of James and Fanny McMaster, but the common ancestor between him and my ancestors would be James McMaster.

Technically, the DNA that Paul and BV share in the fourth section representing Frazer is from Margaret Frazer born 1780 and not her husband William McMaster.

Adding Franklyn to My Frazer DNA/Genealogy Tree

This tree just represents my older half of my Frazer genealogy going back to James Frazer born about 1720.

Unfortunately, the tree got so large that the program could not handle it. The blank circle should be Franklyn. Also, Susan did not make it onto the chart. She would be on the lower row with Paul:

Here, I split out the Michael Line and added all my cousins in purple:

I guess Michael and his wife would be surprised to know about all their descendants. This chart includes Susan and Franklyn. The only one who is missing from the above chart is Joanna who descends from Michael Frazer’s father James Frazer.

On Second Thought

After looking at Paul’s DNA Painter profile, I thought that this may be a further refinement:

Barry has no known connection to the James Frazer Line. Joanna, BV (Barbara) and Franklyn have no known connections to the Archibald Line. Here is the Elphin Census of 1749 showing Archibald, James and their apparent mother Mary Frazer:

Mary Frazer had one male servant. Susan and the group in the darker green descend from both the Archibald and James Frazer Lines.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Finding Paul’s match to Franklyn at MyHeritage, including an accurate Theory was very helpful
  • That match fills in a gap which appears to solidify the fact that Margaret Frazer born 1780 and married William McMaster was indeed the daughter of Michael Frazer and Margaret Stewart.
  • By looking at Paul’s DNA Painter profile, it is possible to separate out different Frazer and McMaster ancestry.

 

 

 

 

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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.