DNA General – Page 17 – Hartley DNA & Genealogy

September 29, 2021

Adding to my Ellis Mother-in-Law’s DNA Map: Part 2

Here is Part 1. In Part 1, In that Blog, I looked at MyHeritage Theories of Relativity for my mother-in-law Joan.

Looking at Gedmatch

Gedmatch provides good information, but the most likely combination would be Gedmatch and Ancestry. However, it can be difficult to match the two. Here is a match for David at Gedmatch:

This appears to be David’s tree at Ancestry:

Laura shows as being from PEI, so that would be a good start. Here is what I get for a tree:

That means that David’s common ancestor with Joan is Malcolm MacArthur and Ann MacDougall. David’s matches with Joan overlap with other matches except for the end of Chromosome 18:

Repairing Some Broken Theories at MyHeritage

Here is Joan’s match with John:

It doesn’t make sense. It looks like two women were married and gave birth to Malcolm. First, I’ll build out a tree for John:

This is John’s maternal side:

Here I found some interesting information:

According to ancestry James Ellis was the father of Alexander McDougall.

Here are the crazy results I get:

That means that John would be a fourth cousin twice removed to my mother-in-law Joan:

It seems like John and Joan share a lot of DNA for that distant a relationship, but I will try painting them in to see what happens:

On Chromosomes 17 and 18, the match is bumping into MacArthur/MacDougal DNA which makes sense given the genealogy. However, I was not able to easily figure out a common ancestor on the MacDougall Line. The match, though confusing, got Joan up to 34% painted paternally and 40% overall.

These results appear to be supported by AncestryDNA’s ThruLines:

Untanglling a Rayner Mess

MyHeritage has this wrong Theory:

This is the DNA/Genealogy tree I have so far:

Here, I’ll add in Jason:

However, I see a problem in that he has MacArthur ancestry also. Jason and Joan are 4th cousins once removed on the Rayner Line.

It turns out that there is an Ellis connection on the MacArthur Line:

It turns out Jason is a fourth cousin three times removed to Joan on the Ellis Line:

I’ll go ahead and paint in Jason on the Rayner Line as that is a closer relationship. Here is how Jason looks in DNAPainter:

He has no overlap with Joseph on Chromosome 7. That means that Jason has new Rayner DNA or that he is overlapping on other ancestral lines. Here is how it breaks down:

On Chromosome 1, Jason’s match probably represents a crossover between Rayner and Ellis

On Chromosome 4:

Here Jason is outnumbered by Ellis matches, so this is probably his Sarah Ellis DNA. Same problem on Chromosome 6:

Chromosome 14:

The overlap with blue means that Rayner is right here. It takes some time to tease out the genealogy and DNA.

Robert with Three Theories

I must not have painted Robert previously because he had three theories. I will paint the closest match now:

Here is Robert on Chromosomes 3 and 4:

Chromosome 3 probably represents Joan’s crossover between Ellis and Gorrill. Or it could be Robert’s older match. Here is one of the two older connections:

Chromosome 4 is confusing because Jason’s red was meant to be Rayner. If I corrected Jason’s segment is should be gold color or tan.

Again, Chromosome 15 is difficult to interpret:

The match appears to represent a crossover, but I’m not sure which one. This could be Ramsay DNA or Ellis/MacArthur. The other confusing part is that Ramsay is back on the MacArthur Line.

Unraveling Another Mess MyHeritage PEI Theory

This can’t be right as it appears to show that Ellen MacArthur had two children the same year with different men. The connection appears to be on Donna’s paternal side:

When I build out my tree the closest connection I see is here:

There is another connection but it is another generation out on the Yeo side:

I’ve started a DNA/Genealogy tree for MacArthur which is sure to get bigger:

Joan and Donna are 4th cousins once removed. I think that Donna and Joan are 6th cousins on the Yeo Line. Here is where Donna matches on Chromosome 17:

Donna appears to add to the evidence that John’s match should be on the MacArthur side. Of course, at this point, I don’t remember who John is!

Detangling Mona’s Tree at MyHeritage

Joan’s side appears right up to Malcolm MacArthur except that his daughter should be Marion MacArthur. This is what I got by building out Mona’s tree, but I couldn’t find any familiar surnames:

Actually MacDougall is familiar, but I don’t know where the connection is – probably way back. I’ll give up on Mona for now.

Christopher on the Rayner Line

Time to pull out my Rayner DNA/Genealogy Tree:

When I do, I see that I missed Jason’s ancestor Silas Rayner. Here is Christopher added:

Here is Christopher painted on Chromosome 6:

Here Christopher, who does not appear to have Ellis ancestry like Jason, is correctly on the blue Rayner side. At this point Joan is up to 35% painted on her paternal side.

Lauren on the Rayner Line

Lauren has two Theories at MyHeritage – both on the Rayner Line. Here is Theory 1:

Lauren is on the Silas Line which I already looked at. Lauren should be more closely related to Jason above. MyHeritage shows that she is, but without triangulation. Actually Lauren has three Theories with Joan, but I will go with the tree that I have already made for now and assume that the connection is with Edward Rayner born 1775 and Mary Watson. Here is Lauren in my Rayner DNA/genealogy Tree:

Lauren’s match on Chromosome 1 shows a possible issue:

Her match overlaps on the Ellis/Gorrill side. This suggests that Lauren could have a match on Joan’s Ellis/Gorrill side or that there could be some other connection. The other two DNA matches are not in areas with other matches, so there is nothing to compare them with:

George on the Ellis/MacArthur Line

George is painted onto Chromosomes 1 and 18:

George’s match with Joan on Chromosome 18 appears to indicate that the match is on the MacArthur side. That is due to the overlap with pink matches.

A Rayner Connection with Roy

The tree associated with Roy at MyHeritage ends with Eva Dawson:

Eva’s marriage record gives a Rayner for her mother:

When I build out part of Roy’s paternal side, I get this:

This shows the confusion at MyHeritage between Edward John Rayner Jr and John Rayner. I can add Roy to my Rayner DNA/genealogy Tree:

I have three sons of Edward John Rayner that I have been tracking via their descendants’ DNA. My ancestry tree has 10 children of Edward John Rayner.

Roy’s DNA match with Joan overlaps with Lauren’s match which is good. This actually ties the three Rayner lines together. This brings Joan’s painted paternal matches up to 36%. The Rayner family was large, so there are likely many more DNA matches out there.

Summary and Conclusions

DNA Painting is a good way to get an understanding of how your relatives fit in
DNA Painting points out places where there are multiple common ancestors. In some cases, it makes it possible to sort out which DNA comes from which which common ancestor when there are multiple pairs of common ancestors.
DNA matches tend to favor the more prolific lines
I wanted to get Joan up to 40% painted and was able to do this. However, it took longer than I thought
Using MyHeritage is a good way to paint matches as there is already some genealogy and they have the DNA matches in detail. The Theories are not always accurate, so need to be checked. I think that Ancestry’s ThurLines are one way to check the genealogy along with creating trees to flesh out the trees of the DNA matches.

September 24, 2021

Adding to My Mother-in-Law Ellis’ DNA Map

I learned something interesting recently. My wife’s mother’s DNA seems more endogamous than my wife’s father’s. Endogamous means that your ancestors tended to intermarry with each other’s cousins. One way to check this is through AncestryDNA. Here are some numbers for Joan:

Divide Joan’s close matches by all her matches and multiply by 100 to get a percentage. I get 9.6%. For Joan’s sister Elaine, I get 10.5%. My wife’s father is not at Ancestry, but his two sisters are. For Lorraine, I get 7.3% and for Suzy, I get 7.6%. That means that there was more intermarriage on the Ellis side than the Butler side. The higher the percentage, the higher the intermarriage rate. I had assumed, that as half of Butler was French Canadian, that there would be more intermarriage there, but the PEI and Newfoundland ancestry of the Ellis family trumps the Butlers.

Updating Joan’s DNAPainter Map

This is what I have:

The higher percentage Joan has explains why I had trouble finding consistant common ancestors for some of Joan’s DNA matches. Many matches had more than one possible set of common ancestors. Joan is 36% painted overall now. I would like to bring that number up a bit in this Blog.

Ivan at MyHeritage

MyHeritage has DNA and Trees, so is a good place to start:

Based on Joan’s ThruLines at Ancestry, George seems to be a likely son of Peter Upshall:

Ivan overlaps with two people who have Dicks genealogy:

That means that Ivan could have Dicks genealogy or that Edna and Cheryl could have Upshall genealogy. There are even other possibilities!

Glenys at MyHeritage

Glenys matches on the Upshall Line:

She shows as a 2nd cousin once removed. I can check on the tree quickly. Glenys has her mom as Gladys Upshall from Newfoundland. She has her grandfather as Theordore Malcolm Upshall from Harbour Buffett. That is where my wife’s ancestors came from, so that makes sense.

This record at Ancestry is helpful:

I painted Glenys in, but she did not add any new DNA.

Irma at MyHeritage (MacArthur)

The MacArthurs had a large family, so Joan will have a lot of 4th cousins from that line:

Here are the ThruLines from Ancestry:

Joan has 175 matches, with 55 matches on her Marion MacArthur Line. The Effie MacArthur at MyHeritage is probably the Euphemia at Ancestry. Let’s add in Irma:

On Chromosomes 4 and 9, the MacArthur DNA is bumping into the Ellis DNA, so something could be off in the genealogy on one or both sides.

Unfortunately, I’m not up to sorting it our right now. My guess is that Irma could have Ellis ancestry.

Mervyn on the Upshall Side

Mervyn is also on Ancestry:

Based on Joan’s 7 matches to descendants of Susan Upshall, I’d say it is time to add Susan to my wife’s ancestry tree.

The match on Chromosome 2 is interesting:

Mervyn is matching the Dicks. However, if Chris Dicks married a Collette for example, this would make sense as Mervyn is also a Collette.

Richard on the MacArthur Line

It is not clear to me why the top person was deleted. It seems clear that it would be MacArthur/MacDougall. I’ll just assume the genealogy is right.

Richard filled in some paternal DNA for Joan on Chromosomes 1 and 17, but her overall painted percentage is still 36%.

Rebecca: Another MacArthur Descendant

Rebecca comes down by way of Hugh MacArthur:

Rebecaa matches Joan on Chromosome 11:

Rebecca’s match overlaps a bit on the Rayner side. My colors are a bit off. I need more contrast between MacArthur and William Ellis. Also between Ed and John Rayner.

Rebecca brings Joan up to 37% painted overall and 29% paternal.

David at MyHeritage: A New Line?

David matches on the Gorrill/Newcombe line.

David’s match is on Chromosome 14 and gets Joan up to 31% painted (from 29%) on her paternal side.

Rhonda on the Ellis Side

I feel like I have a long way to go here:

Rhonda shows as a third cousin twice removed to Joan.

The match on Chromosome 17 should indicate that the match with Debbie should be on the Ellis side and not the Gorrill side.

Wendy on the Newcombe/Pring Line

This would be a new set of ancestors to map:

Joan and Wendy have a different possibility at the 5th cousin level, but I will stick with this option. First, I’ll check on William, son of William Newcombe. I see this in the 1851 Census for Devon, England:

That means that that William and Mary had a pretty big family.

This results in a bit of a mess as Chromosome 2 shows overlap with other families. Something to work out at a later time! Also, I see that other trees have names other than Pring for Mary.

Wayne on the MacArthur Line

The tree looks legit. We have come across Euphemia or Effie before.

Wayne fills in a bit of a gap at the end of Chromosome 4 for Joan:

Wayne also matches Joan on Chromosome 18 but only in areas already covered by other matches.

Devin on the Dicks Line

Bonnie on the MacArthur Line

I have had good luck painting in the MacArthur line:

Bonnie gets the paternal side up to 32% painted:

She fills in some missing area on the paternal side of Joan’s Chromosome 12.

Richard on Joan’s Daly Line

Joan doesn’t have many matches on her Daly side:

Richard is a good find. That brings Joan up to 44% painted on her maternal side and 38% overall. For some reason, the Theory above shows ‘deleted profile’. Here is Richard’s tree on his maternal side:

Richard would be a good candidate for an X Chromosome match to Joan based on their genealogy. However, MyHeritage does not show X Chromosome matches.

Loretta with a Single Ellis Common Ancestor

According to MyHeritage, Joan and Loretta are 1/2 third cousins once removed. That means that they only have one common ancestor who is James Henry Ellis born in 1801. That also means that the DNA that these two share comes from James Ellis.

Loretta’s matches with Joan are on Chromosomes 9 and 11. On Chromosome 9, Loretta fills in some blank space. On Chromosome 11, Loretta’s matches indicates that Marianne’s and Melissa’s DNA are from the Ellis and not the Gorrill side.

Janet on the Dicks Line

Janet fills in a small blank in the maternal copy of Chromosome 15:

Shantall and Hopgood/Watson Common Ancestors

Shantall provides the first painted in segment for Joan on her Chromosome 22:

Sharon on the Rayner/Simmons Line

Sharon is Joan’s first paternal side match on Chromosome 10:

This match tips the scales and gets Joan up one percent to 33% painted paternally and 39% overall.

Clarice on the Rheihold/Hurst Line

Clarice is the first maternal side identified match for Joan on Chromosome 16:

A Small Rayner/Hopgood Match with Brian

This small match was the first for Rayner/Hopgood and shows at the very beginning of Chromosome 9:

Josh on the Hopgood Line

Josh is the last Theory of Relativity at MyHeritage that Joan has right now:

The Theory has a few deleted profiles, but the genealogy seems alright:

Josh is the first painted Hopgood/Yeo segment:

Summary and Conclusions

Here is the new map for Joan:

I was pleased overall with looking at the Theories at MyHeritage. They added many new segments
I didn’t add some segments as there were multiple close common ancestors
There were some theories especially on the MacArthur line where the genealogy was messed up, so I didn’t try to fix the genealogy.
I was hoping to get Joan up to 40% painted. I think I can do that by working out the MacArthur genealogy or looking at Gedmatch for DNA matches. This can be handled in a subsequent Blog.
The interrelatedness of some of Joan’s ancestors presents some challenges when looking at the DNA.
I enjoy making these maps, but it can be a time-consuming exercise.

September 21, 2021

DNA Painting My Father’s Cousin Jim

Right now Jim is 1% painted:

I am interested in Jim’s maternal side which is where I match through the Hartley and Snell surnames.

I have mapped Jim’s sister Joyce up to 8%.

Ellen at MyHertitage

If the depiction at MyHeritage is correct, then Jim and Eleen are 1/2 third cousins through Abishai Chase only.

Here is Jim’s paternal side mapping with Ellen in orange added:

Jim and Brian at MyHeritage

Brian matches Jim on his maternal side:

This gets Jim up to 1% mapped on his maternal side:

Chromosome 11 was already mapped. Brian adds DNA to Chromosomes 12 and 15. The Churchill family is interesting as they were a colonial family living in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Cassie at MyHeritage

I already have some segments painted for Gurney and Reed. However, for some reason, I cannot see how Cassie matches Jim. Perhaps her results are private.

Michelle at MyHeritage

I didn’t know that Jim had an ancestor named Shadrack. Michelle’s match is in light blue:

Chasing More Chase DNA with Marylou

One problem I see here is that, after a quick review at Ancestry, I don’t see where Edward Chase had a second wife. I’ll skip this match for now.

One More Try?

Here is Jim’s DNA Map for now:

This is better than what I had, but there are only 14 segments painted and only four painted on Jim’s maternal side. That is the side that I am interested in. Next, I will look at common matches to an existing match. That match is Bradford who has the common ancestors of Churchill and Burbank with Jim. The match’s name is Helen and here is her tree:

Perhaps I can get back to Churchill and Burbank with Helen. By accepting at lot of hints at Ancestry, I get this tree:

At this level whichis around 1800, I don’t see the Burbank or Churchill names. Going back another generation where I could didn’t help either. I’ll leave this exercise for antoher day.

Summary and Conclusions

I am a bit surprised that I am having so much trouble finding matches to paint onto Jim’s map
I was able to improve Jim’s map, but the numbers are still low.
I had better luck with Jim’s sister Joyce’s map.

September 19, 2021

More Mapping of My Father’s 1st Cousin Joyce

Here is my father’s cousin Joyce’s ancestry:

I’m interested in Joyce’s maternal side through Annie Louisa Hartley. That is the side we connect on. I was also wondering if I could find any Hartley side X Chromosome matches. Joyce recieved an X Chromosome from her maternal and paternal side.

I only have 4% of Joyce’s DNA mapped out using DNA Painter:

I only have 2% of Joyce mapped out on the Hartley side that I am interested in:

Looking at Joyce’s X Chromosome Matches

The easiest place to look for Joyce’s X Chromosome matches is at Gedmatch:

The first match is Joyce’s match with herself. The second match is with Joyce’s first cousin. The third match won’t appear at Ancestry as the match is only on the X Chromosome. The fourth match is at FTDNA and I don’t remember Joyce’s password there. The fifth match is at Ancestry. I painted her on, but I had already painted her brother and she added no new DNA.

Joyce at MyHeritage

MyHeritage has Theories of Relativity. That is where there is a DNA match an a genealogical connection. I don’t think that I have painted Candee. Here is her ‘Theory’ at MyHeritage:

This is on my Hartley/Snell side, so that is good. Here is the new segment mapped:

The segment is near another Snell ancestor, so that tells me that the genealogy could be showing the correct DNA segment. This little segment gets Joyce up to 3% mapped on her maternal side.

James at MyHeritage

Joyce has this Theory with James:

This adds a new pair of ancestors for Joyce on her paternal side. However, I am not related to Joyce on that side.

Summary and Conclusions

Joyce still has a lot of mapping to go
Most of Joyce’s matches seem to be on her paternal side
There may be more matches for Joyce at FTDNA, but I have either not uploaded her results there, or I have forgotten her password.
Joyce has a lot of first cousin matches on her Hartley side, but I generally map only to the second cousin level.

September 18, 2021

Adding DNA to My Butler In-Law’s Map Using DNAPainter

My late father-in-law was Richard Butler. Richard is 24% ‘painted’ overall:

Most of that is on the maternal side. Richard is 8% painted on his Irish paternal side and 39% painted on his French Canadian maternal side. First, I’ll look at Gedmatch. I see a Melanie there that I don’t see mapped. She is also at Ancestry. Here is how Melanie and Richard match at Gedmatch:

By Melanie’s last name, I am guessing that the connection is on the French Canadian side. Richard did not test at Ancestry, but his two sisters did. Here is how Richard’s sister Lorraine matches Melainie:

This relationship is quite distant. Richard’s sister Lorraine has a large amount of DNA shared for a 5th cousin, once removed relationship. Richard’s amount of shared DNA is considerably higher at 88.7 cM. I’ll just go ahead and paint Melanie’s DNA match onto Richard’s map and assume that the common ancestors are correct.

Painting Melanie’s DNA Match to Richard

I see that Richard already has Louis Girard mapped by others, so I don’t have to add the Girard/Tremblay couple.

I see that the previous Girard/Tremblay DNA that I had added to Richard’s map was from Doris:

I might have expected some of these matches to overlap, but they did not. The only place there was overlap was on Chromosome 14:

That overlap was with Doris who had Delisle/Lanouette shared ancestors back in 1715. Melanie raises Richard’s mapped percentages to 40% maternal and 25% overall.

Richard and Benoit – Same Girard/Tremblay Ancestors from MyHeritage

Richard has this “Theory of Relativity” at MyHeritage:

Let’s paint in Benoit:

Benoit’s DNA makes sense compared to Doris and Sleuth as Girard and Tremblay go back from the Pouliot Line. Above, Melanie had an overlap with Charlotte. Charlotte goes back to Delisle who is on the LeFevre Line, so this made less sense. It shows that there may be other connections or the genealogy may be off. Other connections would be my first guess. Benoit raises Richard another percent on his maternal side:

Richard and Alan at MyHeritage

Richard has a Theory with Pierre, but there are two possible pairs of common ancestors. I’ll skip Pierre for now. Alan and Richard only have one pair of common ancestors shown:

These common ancestors are on the Bulter’s Lefevre side.

Alan overlaps on Chromosome 2 matches who have Lefevre ancestors.

The overlap with the brown DNA represents Edmond Lefevre and Leocadie Methot. That means that, if these matches are accurate and the genealogy is accurate, then the green DNA on Chromosome 2 that overlaps with yellow would be from Leocadie Methot and not Edmond Lefevre. It further means that the brown DNA that overlaps with yellow would be from Joseph Martin Lefevre and not Emma Pouliot. Richard’s match with Alan gets him up to 42% painted on his maternal side.

Reina at Gedmatch and Ancestry

Here is how Reina matches Richard:

Reina represents a new set of common ancestors:

Reina brings Richard up to 44% painted maternally and 26% painted overall.

Richard and Germain at Gedmatch and Ancestry

An Ancestry/Gedmatch combination is good for painting Richard’s DNA map. Here is how Ancestry shows Richard’s sister Lorraine and Germain connectiing:

the connection is so far out (back to 1690), it makes me wonder if there are other connections. Germain matches on Richard’s Pouliot side. Germain’s match is on the Pouliot side also in DNAPainter:

On Chromosome 9, Germain’s match overlaps with Benoit’s.

Here is Chromosome 17:

The area between Michelle and Germain would define a crossover. Michelle represents Richard’s Lefevre side and Germain (and the purple matches) represents Richard’s Pouliot side.

Richard is now 27% painted overall. Progress.

Richard and DR

Here is DR and Richard’s DNA match at Gedmatch:

Here is DR’s paternal tree:

The connection appears to be on the Rooney side which is Richard’s paternal side. That is where a lot of Richard’s DNA mapping is missing.

Here is a Rooney tree which I had built previously:

I’m not sure why I put the green as a different color. It could be because Daniel disagreed with the way I came up with the genealogy. Also I now see that I had two wives for Timothy Rooney. That first I have as Margaret Ann Gorman. If that is true that Richard and DR are half third cousins once removed. I just need to add in DR:

I note that in DR’s tree, his marriage record for John Rooney has Terence and Ann Rooney as his parents, but his death record has Timothy and Margaret Rooney.

Painting DR (Daniel at Gedmatch) to Richard’s Map

As it appears that Daniel and Richard are 1/2 cousins, that would mean that their only common ancestor is Timother Rooney.

This brings Richard up to 10% painted on his paternal side (from 8%).

More Painting of Daniel to Richard’s SIster Lorraine

Lorraine has a match similar to Richard’s with Daniel, but slighter larger on Chromosome 14:

My colors are not consistent between siblings.

Visual Phasing Butler DNA

I had visually phased Richard, Lorraine and Virginia:

This means that Virginia should not match with Daniel as Rooney is on the Butler’s Kerivan side. Virginia only recieved Butler DNA on her Chromosome 13.

Here is how I had visually phased Chromosome 14:

Again, Virginia has no Kerivan DNA on Chromosome 14, so has no match with Daniel. Lorraine has all Kerivan DNA, which explains her larger match with Daniel on Chromosome 14.

When I was doing the phasing, I also show why my wife Marie did not recieve any Kerivan DNA from her father:

Where Marie would have gotten green Kerivan DNA from her father, it was replaced by Richard’s maternal side Pouliot and Lefevre DNA.

Shared AncestryDNA Matches with Daniel

The largest shared match that Lorraine and Daniel have at Ancestry is with FG. Here is her tree:

I hope that, if I build out FGs tree, I will bump into a Rooney.

Here is a Rooney three generations out from FG. It turns out I already had Frances in my tree:

As Frances has a common DNA match with DH and Lorraine, the above connections are suggested.

People Who Match Richard and Daniel at Gedmatch: Jeanette

Gedmatch also has a utility to look for common matches. Jeanette matcches Richard and Daniel and also has a family tree:

Surprisingly Rooney is the first name on Jeanette’s tree. I have looked at a lot of Gedmatch trees and it is unusual to find what you are looking for. Now I need to check out Jeanette’s tree.

According to Findagrave.com, John H Rooney is John Henry Rooney. That means that I can add Jeanette to my tree:

My thinking is that Jeanette is a 1/2 third cousin once removed to Richard.

Adding Jeanette’s Match to DNAPainter

First, I’ll go with Richard:

The blue DNA in Chromosome 11 represents Tim or Terence Rooney’s DNA that came down to both Jeanette and Richard.

Jeanette and Virginia

Virginia is Richard’s sister:

So far, that is Virginia’s only match going back to Tim Rooney (in pink here).

Summary and Conclusions

I was able to paint some extra DNA onto Richard’s map and some onto his two sisters.
I was happy to find some Rooney matches as they are on Richard’s mostly unpainted paternal side
Many Rooney families had large families which is good for DNA matching
To me the DNA matches tie together two branches of the Rooney famiiy.
I didn’t mention the genealogy here, but I have looked at the genealogy in older Blogs. I also mentioned a Jenny there which is the Jeanette in this Blog.

September 10, 2021

An Update on Stan’s Frazer DNA at 23andMe

Last year I wrote a Blog about Stan. Here is how Stan and I are related:

Stan and I are second cousins once removed. At the time that I wrote the Blog, Stan did not have the option to share his DNA. He has since changed that and I can see how much DNA we share with each other:

This shows that we share a total of 53 cM on three different chromosomes. Here is how that works out between my match with Stan and his sister Brenda:

This shows that Brenda matches me a bit on Chromosome 5 where Stan doesn’t and that Stan matches me on Chromosome 10 where Brenda doesn’t.

Painting Stan

I use a utility to paint my DNA matches onto my chromosomes. The DNA that Stan and I share either came from George William Frazer born around 1838 or his wife Margaret McMaster. The DNA that I am most interrested in is on Chromosome 10:

On the right hand side, Stan fills in a missing gap. Here is the key:

In general, the maroon is DNA from my Frazer grandmother. The green is the DNA from my Hartley grandfather. They were married. However, the right side shows more detail. The red match on the right with Michael goes back another 2 generations:

Now this gets into how much we want to assume. Unfortunately, I don’t have a wife’s name for Richard Frazer at the top. However, we know that his daughter was Violet Frazer. She married James Frazer who we believe to be Violet’s first cousin. That means that for me, this red DNA would have come from Violet Frazer. Then before that, it either came from Richard Frazer or his unknown wife – we don’t know which.

Then at the very end of Chromosome 10, I have a match with Ron. That is a match on my Clarke side. Clarke is believed to be unrelated to Frazer, but married my Frazer great-grandfather.

So how does Stan fit in? It is possible that Stan and I share the DNA from James Frazer. He married Violet Frazer and was his first cousin. Confusing, isnt’ it? However, this is interesting to me as the James Frazer genealogy is more difficult to document than the Violet Frazer side. I believe that the father of James Frazer was Philip Frazer. I will keep that in mind in case I find another descendant of Philip Frazer who matches in that same segment of Chromosome 10. The reason why I think that Stan’s DNA may come from Violet’s husband James is because there is no overlap with the DNA that came from Violet.

How Much Am I Painted?

I don’t know if Stan’s DNA match brought my numers up, but here are the current numbers:

It would be nice to be up to 50% identified. To do this I will likely need to find more maternal DNA matches. Here is the percentage of my paternal paintedness:

Stan matches me on my paternal side.

Chromosome 6

Here is just the beginning of Chromosome 6 where I match Stan:

Brenda and Stan overlap with Ken and Doreen. Ken and Doreen descend from the brother of my 2nd great-grandfather. That means that the DNA that Stan and I share must come from my 2nd great-grandfather who was George Wiliam Frazer born about 1838.

Chromosome 7

Here I have the whole Chromosome represented. Stan shares DNA with Marilee. One great thing about DNA Painter is that it can handle matches with different companies. Marilee tested at MyHeritage and Stan at 23andMe:

That means that Stan and I likely share DNA from Violet Frazer on Chromosome 7.

Summary and Conclusions

Thanks to Stan sharing his DNA at 23andMe, I can see where I specifically match him, that is on which chromosome and on which part of which chromosome
The placement of the matches is important because they represent different ancestors. In this case, the different ancestors are likely different branches of the Frazer family. This is because my third great-grandfather who was a Frazer apparently married his first cousin who was also a Frazer.
Stan’s DNA match with me helps confirm both my Violet Frazer genealogy which seems more solid and my Philip to James Frazer genealogy which is more shaky.

September 9, 2021

A New Frazer DNA Match for Jane at Ancestry

I had an email from Jane recently about a new Frazer match she had. Jane’s match is with JD. His tree is private but searchable. That means that Ancestry can figure out likely common ancestors with his tree even though it is private. Here is how Jane and JD probably match up:

The Archibald above is from what I call the Stinson Line:

Archibald Frazer and Ann Stinson had other children, but I only show one who was another Archibald who married Catherine Parker.

Evaluating JD’s Tree

Ancestry suggests I evaluate JD’s tree, so I will. I created a tree for JD. I assume that he knows who his mother is. I have to further assume that the connection is on his mother’s side. In 1940, JD’s mother Mary was living in Bridgeport, Connecticut:

From here, we need to get the family back to Alexander Frazer who lived in County Roscommon, Ireland. So far, JD’s maternal side is checking out:

Carrie or Katherine?

Here is the 1920 Census for Bridgeport:

The one I have as Katherine in the tree appears to be Carrie. Her mother (also Carrie) is from Irish and speaks Irish. The 1900 Census has Carrie the mother immigrating in 1890, born in Ireland to parents who were born in Scotland. I seem to recall from Jane that her ancestors did move to Scotland and then back to Ireland, so this Census makes sense.

ThruLines for Jane

I see that Jane has many matches to the children of Alexand Frazer:

JD is right in the middle along with descendants of five of the children of Alexander Frazer. This seems to fill in where some of the records are missing for Carrie Frazer Ember. I like these ThruLines as they tie together many families in one image. Here is what I have for children of Alexander Frazer:

Apparently Alexander Frazer had 12 children.

Actually, I now see the marriage record for Charles Ember and Caroline Frazer after searching some at Ancestry:

This is the passenger record for Caroline from the Ellis Island records:

I found this once I typed in Fraser instead of Frazer in my search. What makes me sure about this record is that Thomas John Frazer, her older brother, is listed on the passenger record above her. Ancestry has some more information:

Adding JD to the Frazer DNA/Genealogy Tree

Here I have Anne Caroline born 1868 which is probably more accurate than Jane’s ThruLines show.

Adding in Jennifer

I still have one person missing from Jane’s ThruLines. This is Jennifer:

She descends from Elizabeth or Eliza Jane Frazer. I won’t go through the genealogy, as I think the genealogy is OK.

That now accounts for DNA matching of the descendants of six of the children of Alexander Frazer. Turns out that Jane also matches Jennifer’s father Larry by DNA. Apparently many of the children of Alexander Frazer settled in Connecticut Including Eliza Jane Frazer.

Jane doesn’t match Brenda by DNA. So the match must have been to someone else. Brenda descends from the older brother of Anne Caroline who was Thomas John Frazer. These two travelled to the US together as mentioned above.

Summary and Conclusions

DNA matches and ThruLines help in checking on genealogical lines. Because there are matches, it means that the records must be there to support the genealogy.
I was able to find the interesting shipping record for Carrie (Anne Caroline Frazer) and her older brother Thomas Joyn Frazer.
Because Alexander Frazer had many children, that resulted in many descendants, many of whom took DNA tests.
ThruLines at Ancestry continue to be a helpful tool in validating (in this case) Frazer genealogical trees. DNA matches coupled with genealogy is a powerful tool and ThruLines is good representation of the intersection of DNA and genealogy.

September 2, 2021

Re-Running My FTDNA Autoclusters

It looks like I have not run my autoclusters at FTDNA since 2018. As I recall, I didn’t get as much out of FTDNA as I did with Ancestry autoclustering. However, Ancestry autoclustering is not a valid option. I figured that autoclustering would be a good summary to show any important new matches that I may have missed.

First Try

I used the suggested parameters the first time, but the lower cutoff for a match at 50 cM was way too high. I just got three known Frazer relatives. This was less than helpful:

My assumption is that P means paternal side match as FTDNA makes that distinction based on testing or your own input. This showed that everyone matched everyone else except for Paul and Kenneth.

Second Autocluster with a Lower Cutoff of 15 cM

15 cM is a pretty good number because that is usually considered to be a high chance that the match is not by chance. Here is the 2nd run minus the names:

The Frazer Cluster – Red

The three Frazers who were in my first botched attempt are now in the red Cluster 3. There are an additional three people in that Cluster. Two I know and one I don’t know. One that I do know is sister to Susan who showed up in the first three person autocluster. That leaves Larry who shows a tree. Good news. His tree is a little sparse:

It’s sort of fun trying to build out these trees, but often frustrating finding the link. Here are some of Larry’s surnames:

Oldham and Hamilton were helpful names:

So I didn’t find an obvious connection. Too bad. I tried. Something may show up in the future.

Frazer/McMaster Connections Between Cluster 2 and 3

I think that the gray match between Robert and Paul is in the McMaster side. However, Benjamin and Robert don’t have trees at ancestry. My guess is that Robert descends from Edward Mcmaster and Celia Clarke:

Cluster 1 – Rathfelder

Cluster 1 is on my Rathfelder side based on a test by my cousin Catherine. However, I don’t know anything about Pamela and Romy. Romy appears to be from Germany. Pamela has a tree, but I don’t feel like going back a few hundred years of genealogy to figure out the connection:

Cluster 4: Maternal/Paternal Connection?

Cluster 4 is a bit mysteriious as it shows as a maternal cluster.

However, Craig has matches with Susan and Margaret. My assumption is that the connection is not through either of the two lines that I am related to these three people. I thinnk that Kenneth and Margaret are siblings.

Cluster 5: Big, Brown and Paternal

My assumption is that this could be my colonial Massachusetts side due to the number of matches. I also assume that the boxes with a P in it are the larger matches. Again, we see a maternal/paternal crossover. I would assume that this person (Brandy in the pink cluster) matches my mom but also has colonial Massachusetts ancestry.

Letterless Clusters 7 and 8

I’m on my own to figure out if these two clusters are maternal or paternal.

Cluster 7 in gray has a P connection with the brown cluster. Cluster 8 has connections with the pink and blue Maternal Clusters. Ned is the top match in Cluster 8. I had thought that my match with him went back to the Pilgrims on my paternal side, which seems to go against the side matches shown in gray.

Sarah in Cluster 9

Sarah is a familiar name in Cluster 9. She is my third cousin once removed:

However, that is almost impossible to tell from her FTDNA tree:

Her Margaret Shreak should be Margaret Shroek.

Clusters 10-13

Here there is no maternal or paternal designation. I’m on my own to figure these out:

I recognize Tracey as the first match in Cluster 12. She has a tree which I have built out in the past:

I have many matches which go back to the name of Lougheed in Ireland. I suppose this would be on my Spratt Line which I know the least about – or possibly Clarke.

Amy is also in that small Cluster 12:

Amy and Tracey are no doubt close relatives as they both share the ancestor of William Alexander Parr born 1939.

Summary and Conclusions

Autocluster is a good way to look at your matches as it puts them in groups with similar matches. It helps make sure you haven’t missed any important DNA matchs.
AncestryDNA autoclusters are more helpful, but they have not been available for a while. Perhaps FTDNA has tweaked their matching criteria which has also made FTDNA autoclustering more useful.
With thirteen clusters, one might expect these matches to be at around the third cousin level. Sarah was, but others are unidentifiable, so likely go out further.
The gray connections between clusters can be confusing, as they seem to indicate connections between maternal and paternal clusters in many cases.
When checking for connections, you have to look at locations. In my case, where I am missing information on my Clarke and Spratt ancestors from Sligo, finding common Sligo ancestry with my DNA matches can be a hint.

August 28, 2021

Denis’ DNA Match On My Wife’s French Canadian Side

I was looking at my wife’s Aunt Lorraine’s DNA matches at Gedmatch recently. I found that she matched Denis:

I was also able to find Denis at Ancestry:

His tree was modest, but was something that I could work with.

Finding a Common Ancestor Between Denis and My Wife’s Family

The next step is to build my own tree for Denis. My assumption is that the match is on the Lefevre side as my wife’s aunt’s mother was a LeFevre. As soon as I enter Denis’ parents into my tree, I start getting hints.

I see that my wife’s second great grandfather was Edmond Lefevre born in Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, so I feel I am on the right track.

Here is the baptismal record for Denis’ father Ernest:

Ernest’s father was Odilon. We further learn that Ernest’s mother’s name was Alma LeFleur.

Odilon LeFevre Born 1874

Next I would like to focus in on Odilon:

Here he is in 1881:

This appears to be three generations of LeFevre’s: Lazare, Joseph and Odilon. Here is Lazare from my wife’s grandmother’s tree:

Linking Joseph to Lazare

I next just need to show that Joseph was the son of Lazare. Here is a portion of Joseph’s marriage record:

This establishes that Joseph was the son of Lazare, “Notaire”. From what I understand, a notaire would be a sort of paralegal.

That means that we have a connection. I have a small LeFevre tree already, but it needs updating:

Let’s add Lazare and Denis:

According to this tree, Lorraine and Denis are third cousins. There may be other connections further back, but I will disregard those connections for the time being.

Mapping Denis’ DNA to My Wife’s Aunt Lorraine

The match between Denis and my wife’s Aunt Lorraine is either from Lazare LeFevre or Adelaide Bouré. We don’t know which without further DNA analysis. Here is what I have for Lorraine on her maternal side so far:

Lorraine’s DNA is 37% mapped out on her maternal side and 22% totally mapped (maternal and paternal). This would show as pink above. Denis bumped up Lorraine to 38% mapped maternally. Here is Denis’ contribution highlighted in gray:

He brings new information on Chromosomes 3, 5, 11, 12 and 16.

On Chromosome 11, it is truly new information. On Chromosome 12, it is already covered by RL, Sandra and Caroline.

Painting On My Father-in-law

I’m a bit behind on Richard as I don’t have a category for Lazare LeFevre and Adelaide Bouré. Richard has a more modest match with Denis:

When I paint this on to Richard’s DNA map, I see something interresting on Chromosome 5:

This shows that Richard’s DNA match with Denis is overlapping with Richard’s DNA match with Michelle. This is where I have a problem with my key. I had thought that Michelle’s common ancestor was Methot, but it is actually with Joseph Martin LeFevre born 1874. I need to differentiate my colors better. I changed Methot to yellow, so that it will be less confusing in the future;

Adjusting My Tree

Now that I know where Denis belongs in my tree, I can add him in:

That should help AncestryDNA figure out the ThruLines.

Speaking of ThruLines

Here are Lorraine’s ThruLines for Lazare LeFevre:

There is one match on the Joseph Line with Brad.

More Painting for My Wife’s Aunt Susy

I haven’t been paying as much attention to Aunt Susy’s DNA Map:

However, she has nice colors. Here is her match with Denis at Gedmatch:

I’ll need to add Lazare in to DNAPainter. Here is Aunt Susy’s maternal side:

DNA Painter gave me a boring color, but a chose a brighter color for Lazare and his wife. Susy was 33% painted maternally and 21% overall. Denis bumped these numbers up to 36% on the maternal side and 22% overall.

Denis and My Wife

Unfortunately, my wife and Denis do not share a lot of DNA.

Denis and Marie are third cousins once removed. That should translate to 4.5 generations to their common ancestors. That means that Denis and Marie share a little less than average for that relationship.

Painting this on to Marie’s map does not add any missing areas:

However, it does confirm the match with Caroline and others.

More on Caroline

I should have added Caroline to my LeFevre DNA tree. Caroline is at MyHeritage:

Charles Lefebvre shows as 1891. I checked my old blogs and see that the tree had “before 1891. Here is Lazare in 1851:

Charles is 9, so was born around 1842. The birthplace for all is Ville Quebec which I take to be Quebec City. I made a new tree with Caroline in it:

I’m sure that this tree could get quite big. This is what Marie has for ThruLines at AncestryDNA:

Outside of the Edmond Lefevre Line, Marie has 9 matches from 5 siblings of Edmond. And when I expand the Charles Line, I find Caroline in the photo:

Marie J G above is Marie Josephine Gratia who went by Gratia.

Summary and Conclusions

I started by looking at the DNA of Denis. I painted his DNA onto my wife’s map as well as my wife’s father’s and two aunts’ maps.
Marie’s father had a smaller match with Denis compared to the matches of his two sisters. Marie’s match was even smaller.
I made a DNA tree for LeFevre/Lefebvre
This tree included Caroline who I had mapped previously. She also appears on my wife’s ThruLines at Ancestry.
I was able to map Marie’s family’s DNA connection to Caroline because she also has her DNA at MyHeritage.

August 22, 2021

A Newfoundland DNA Match with Barbara on My Wife’s Side

I was perusing my mother-in-law Joan’s Gedmatch results recently and noticed that she had a match with Barbara. This match is a little over 200 days old, so fairly recent. Here is Joan’s match with Barbara at Gedmatch:

Barbara also shows as a match to Joan at Ancestry and Ancestry suggest a common ancestor between the two:

My guess is that Joan and Barbara could share other common ancestors. However, this DNA match is important due to the lack of vital records for this part of Newfoundland. I already have a fairly extensive family trees of Upshalls who match by DNA:

The Newfoundland branch descends from Sarah Upshall. The George Upshall Line from Sarah is in the 4th and 5th columns. Here I add in Barbara without checking Ancestry’s genealogy:

Barbara is on the bottom left in green. I use green to indicate that detailed chromosome information is available for her.

DNA Painter

Because there is detailed information for Barbara’s match with Joan, I can use DNA Painter. This maps out Joan’s DNA. Here is some of the DNA that Barbara has added to Joan’s map:

Unfortunately, the program gave Peter Upshall a lighter color. It is better to have lighter colors for the more recent ancestors. However, I can adjust that in the program. At this point, Joan is 36% painted over all. That breaks down to:

28% paternal
44% maternal

Barbara matches on Joan’s maternal side. I’m pretty sure that Barbara added to the maternal and overall amount of DNA that Joan has identified on her map. Here is Joan’s Chromosome Map as shown by DNA Painter: