Category: Dicks

In my last blog, I gave some updated information on the DNA matches of descendants of Henry Dicks of Newfoundland. As I was writing the blog, new DNA was being uploaded to gedmatch.com. Perhaps the most important results for the Henry Dicks group were tokenized between the last Blog and this one. Those were the DNA results of Gordon. Here is why his results are so important:

You might say that Gordon is higher up on the ladder than the other Henry Dicks descendant DNA testers. That makes all his relationships to other Dicks ancestors closer by a generation or more.

Step 1: All Gordon’s Matches

The first thing I do when I look at new results is run a ‘one to many’ at Gedmatch. That shows all the matches Gordon has.

Out of Gordon’s top 13 matches, 6 are already in our group. Larry is his son. Kenneth, Nelson, and Judy were mentioned in the previous blog. Esther is my wife’s great aunt. Esther and Nelson are one rung up the ladder from Gordon – closer to a common ancestors.

Step 2: All Gordon’s Dicks Descendant Matches

The next utility I use at Gedmatch is called the Multiple Kit Analysis. Here I’ll look at 18 Dicks descendants at once and compare them to each other:

The first 6 testers are from the Henry Dicks Line. The 2nd 12 are from the Christopher Dicks Line. The numbers are in cM and represent the closeness of their DNA matches. I don’t have the names going across the top, but the order is the same as going down. The first grey box in the top right is grey because it represents Gordon’s match with himself. The next box shows that Gordon and Ivy match each other at a level of 14.2 cM.

Now, how to interpret this?

• Shannon has poor matches overall, so we will look at her Uncle Dennis’ results instead
• Gordon and Eric seem to have larger matches with the Christopher Dicks Line as compared to the Henry Dicks line. There may be more than one explanation for this.
• Ivy, Dennis and Crystal have higher matches with Henry Dicks descendants than they do with Christopher Dicks descendants.
• Dennis and Crystal share a common ancestor of Henry Harold Dicks b. 1811. That explains their larger match.
• Crystal and Ivy share Dicks and Matthews ancestors. That would explain their larger match.

Step 3: Dicks Triangulation

Triangulation Groups or TGs have been called the gold standard of genetic genealogy. In this step I download all the specific matches from the last chart. The specifics are what Chromosome the matches are on and what location on the chromosome that the matches are on. These go into a spreadsheet of 608 lines. This represents 304 shared Dicks descendants’ DNA. Not all the DNA is from Dicks. The closer the relationship that is looked at between the 2 people, the more likely the match is not representing Dicks DNA.

Chromosome 6 TG

The first TG that Gordon is in is fairly straightforward.

The gold area is the area of the TG. There are 3 other matches that could be in the TG but aren’t. They don’t even match with people within the TG. For that reason, my assumption is that they match on the non-Dicks side of the realtionship. For Wallace and Judy that would be their Lewis ancestors. Likewise the Mercer ancestors are likely represent on Chromsome 6 for Nelson and Sandra. For Joan and Esther, the large segment they share is likely Upshall DNA. So the TG helps not only those that are in the TG, but those that could be but aren’t.

Here is the Dicks TG on Chromosome 6 displayed on the genealogy chart:

So the fact that Gordon is in TGs with those in another line of the Dicks family doesn’t mean that Gordon is not in the Henry Dicks Line. It just means that there are more outside his line to match and the relationships outside the Henry line are as close as those within. For example, the relationships here are 5th cousins. The relationship Gordon has with the person to his lower right in the Henry line is 4th cousin twice removed. That is equivalent to a 5th cousin.

Chromosome 15 TG

This is the one I mentioned I would address later in my previous Blog. Now is later. This one is a little more complicated, so I took out the double match entries to simplify it:

This is a 4 person TG, so there are more matches. However, within the TG are 2 non-TG matches. These are likely for the Upshall and Joyce Lines. I wasn’t going to draw out the genealogy chart TGs, but doing so illustrates a few points:

Here the patriarch, assumed to be Christopher Dicks, is at the top of the orange TG. The first point I wanted to make is that Gordon is a 4th cousin once removed to Nelson. That is a closer relationship than he has with those currently in his own Henry Dicks Line. The second point I tried to make showing the blue TG. The blue TG is the existing TG which consists of those within the Christopher b. 1789 (son of Christopher) TG. There is even a 3rd point. Assume that Gordon does not descend from Christopher b. 1789 (and I have no evidence that he does). This diagram shows a pretty rock solid intertwined pair of TGs. The first TG identified Christopher b. 1789 and the second one identified that there is also a TG leading up to the patriarch Christopher. In other words, this is proof to me that Henry and Christopher Dicks are brothers. Finally, the above can be seen as one or two TGs. I would prefer to keep them separate as one identifies one ancestor and the other identifies older Christopher ancestor.

Chromosome 17 TG – Hold on to your seats

The ride may get a bit bumpy on this next TG. Here is Chromosome 17 from about 52M-78M:

Here, we have the TG found in the previous Blog with Dennis, Crystal and Wallace from about 52M-64M. Then after that is a new TG with Gordon, Nelson, and Esther from about 58M-72M. So that shows 2 TGs with different people in them, but the TGs overlap a bit. Then after that are two matches. One is between Forrest and Esther that would have to be outside the TG. The other is between Nelson and Sandra that would also be outside the TG.

These two TGs have has me a bit stumped. I have a few theories:

1. This could be due to endogamy. Esther has Dicks on her father’s and mother’s side
2. Could it be that one TG represents the patriarch Christopher’s DNA and the other represents his wife’s DNA? In that case we would be seeing a sort of mid 1700’s phasing?
3. Another option is that these 2 TGs represent common ancestors from different lines.

I suppose it won’t hurt to draw these 2 out.

Given that the chart is geared toward the Dicks Line in general, it would tend to favor Theory #2. Does anyone else have any ideas?

A Note on Ivy and crystal

In a previous Blog on the Henry Line, I had identified a TG with Esther, Joan, and Crystal. Here is what it looks like in gold on the current spreadsheet:

Note that Crystal is conspicuously missing from this TG. Well, not that conspicuous as I didn’t notice at first. I was looking at Ivy/Crystal DNA matches, because at the top of the blog, I had noted they matched each other more than usual because they both shared not only the ancestor of Henry Dicks but also shared a common Matthews ancestor. Now we have a TG on Chromosome 5 between Esther, Joan and Crytal. We assume that TG represents Dicks DNA and a common ancestor of the patriarch Christopher Dicks. That means that between 73M and 111M Esther and Joan share Dicks DNA. Then why do Crystal and Ivy match each other and not match Esther and Joan from 77M to 85M? A likely explanation is that location is where they share Matthews DNA. This also means that at some point between 85M and 90M, Crystal has a crossover. This particular crossover is where the DNA she received crossed over from Matthews to Dicks or more specifically from John Matthews to  Fanny Dicks.

So we can identify very specifically from this TG, the exact ancestor that Crystal got her DNA from in these two segments of Chromosome 5. Usually we can just know it is one or the other ancestor. We have essentially phased Crystal’s 2nd great grandfather William Matthew’s DNA into a paternal and maternal side.

There are other likely implications from this TG

• Wallace and Judy probably share Miller DNA in their Chromosome 5 segment above
• Pauline and Kenneth likely share Joyce DNA in this area of Chromosome 5
• Molly and Kenneth likely share Joyce DNA in this area of Chromosome 5

Now look at the last two bullets. If Kenneth shares Joyce DNA with Pauline and Molly, why do Pauline and Molly not share Joyce DNA with each other? The answer is that they do:

So while finding a non-Dicks match within a Dicks TG, I found a separate non-Dicks TG. These 2 TGs, like the Chromosome 17 TGs are overlapping TGs to some extent. However, unlike the Chromosome 17 TGs, I was able to explain these 2 overlapping TGs at Chromosome 5. Perhaps what I have learned at Chromosome 5, I will be able to apply to Chromosome 17. But not now.

My Dicks Family TG Summary Table

This is a sort of a fingerprint of the Dicks TGs to date.

A few notes:

• I have the new (non-Dicks) Joyce TG I mentioned above as TG5A in a raspberry color
• Here I split out TG 15A and 15B. 15A goes with Christopher Dicks b. 1789 and 15B goes with his father Christopher.
• TG17A & B are the problem ones!
• Gordon is in the most Henry Line TGs
• The dark green TGs represent the common ancestor of the patriarch Christopher Dicks and his wife. The light green represent Christopher Dicks b. 1789, the son of the patriarch.
• There is still no TG just within the Henry Dicks Line. A lot of that is due to there being no critical mass there yet. There needs to be a few more Henry Line testers for that to happen.

Summary and Conclusions

• The addition of Gordon’s results have resulted in some more Dicks TGs
• G17A and 17B were a problem as these were 2 overlapping TG – making it difficult to interpret the results
• TG16A & B were interesting as they appear to show a definite link between the Henry and Christopher Lines and a link between the father Christopher and his two sons.
• There appears to be no reason to question the genealogy chart as posted
• I was able to find some non-Dicks DNA while looking at TGs. What other secrets are lurking out there deep within our DNA?
• It has been interesting watching the Dicks DNA project expand.

 

My past Blogs on the Dicks family of Newfoundland with one exception have focused on the Christopher Dicks descendants. I’ve written about the Christopher Dicks descendants because my wife is from that line. Here is a Henry Dicks Line working tree:

I haven’t put much thought into the tree. I just mushed together trees I found. Eric is unsure of how he is connected to this line, so he is off to the side until we find out more. I believe that P.M. is on Ancestry but not Gedmatch.com so will not be analyzed. The others in green with first names are on Gedmatch. I use Gedmatch.com to analyze the DNA.

• One important thing to note is that this chart shows that Shannon, Crystal and Ivy are all 6th cousins to each other. As such, their chances for sharing much of the Henry Dicks (b. 1774) DNA is quite small.
• G.D. aka Gordon has the best chances to match others. He is a 4th cousin once or twice removed to the other Henry Dicks Line testers.
• Also note the ancestors in pink. There are 2 Frances Dicks. They both married a Matthews. This is possible, but also looks suspicious.

This chart is from FTDNA which indicates less than 2% chance of matching for 6th cousins:

The chances of a 4th cousin, once removed matching should be halfway between the > 10% and > 50% (>30%?).

Now All the Dicks DNA

Above I have the everyone comparison. Actually not everyone as I don’t have Shannon’s Uncle Dennis and Larry’s father Gordon yet.

Here’s what I see:

• Ivy, Larry, Shannon, Crystal, and Eric in the purple rectangle are believed to be from the Henry Line from their research.
• Everyone else is from the Christopher Dicks line.
• My wife’s mom is Joan and her 1/2 great Aunt is Esther.
• Christopher and Henry are believed to be brothers.
• The DNA tested people within the Henry Line group don’t appear to match each other at significantly higher levels than those within the Christopher Dicks group. One exception to that rule appears to be Ivy and Crystal.
• The DNA above seems to suggest that Ivy, Crystal and Eric are from the same line. On my earlier genealogy chart, Ivy and Crystal both show descent from Frances Dicks who married a Matthews. Perhaps this is one line instead of two. Perhaps Eric is also in that line.
• To the right of the purple box shows where the Henry Line Dicks descendants match with Christopher Line Dicks descendants. This could mean that the groups match at the parents of Henry and Christopher. Alternatively, it could mean that 1) The two groups match because they descend from both lines or 2) The two groups could match on another non-Dicks line. Confusing, isn’t it?

To get to an answer to the questions in the last bullet requires a closer look at the Dicks DNA.

Dicks DNA and Triangulation

Triangulation is the case where at least three people have matching DNA. The DNA must be in the same area of the same Chromosome. Also Person 1 must match person 2, person 2 must match person 3 and person 1 must match person 3 in the same area. When that happens, we say that triangulated matching DNA segment represents a common ancestor or ancestral couple. This is helpful in sorting out which Dicks descendant goes in which Dicks Line. In a place like Newfoundland where intermarriage was not unusual, triangulation can be both helpful and/or confusing!

To triangulate, I downloaded everyone’s match to everyone else (with the exception of Larry and Gordon for now). Those DNA matches are put in a spreadsheet.

Here I have highlighted the Henry Dicks Line testers in green. The way this downloads from Gedmatch, every match shows up twice: once in the name1 column and once in the name2 column.

A Deeper Look Into Chromosome 13

I picked Chromosome 13, because it appears that a lot is going on here.

Here I have sorted by Chromosome and Start Position. Right now, let’s just look at Larry, Kenneth, and Judy. It appears that there is a Triangulation Group (TG) between these 3 people. Larry matches Kenneth and Judy and Judy matches Kenneth. That is all we need and it is all at location 107M or before on Chromosome 13. That means that Larry, Judy, and Kenneth must have a common set of ancestors. But who are they? A good candidate would be Christopher Dicks. This is the Christopher who is believed to be the father of Henry. This will be difficult to show as I need to go to the bigger Dicks Chart:

On the left, I circled Larry and his dad. On the right is Judy and her 2nd cousin once removed Kenneth. That means that Larry is a 6th cousin with Judy and a mere 5th cousin, once removed to Kenneth. Just to be sure, I’ll check Larry’s dad, Gordon, to see how he matches with Kenneth.

That is a good match. Gedmatch thinks that these 2 have a common ancestor close to 4 generations away. Their actual Dicks ancestor according to the Dicks genealogy chart is actually 6 generations away from each of them. Other explanations:

• These 2 may have more than one set of common ancestors. That isn’t obvious from my chart, but my chart doesn’t show everything. It just focuses on the Dicks lines.
• These 2 could have a set of common ancestors that is closer to 4 generations away that isn’t obvious right now.
• These 2 may just share a lot of DNA down from the mid 1700′ from Christopher Dicks and his wife.

Speaking of Larry’s father Gordon, I wrote to Larry and told him that his DNA results – at least for this Blog – would become obsolete once his father’s results were in. The reason for this is that Larry got all his DNA from his Dad and his dad would have on average twice as much Dicks DNA as Larry. Larry was fine with that.

Now that I have this new TG, I need a place to put it. Fortunately, I have a chart of the Dicks TGs that I have discovered:

I have the Henry Line TGs in darker green – or rather the TGs in which there were Henry Line descendants . The Christopher Dicks Line only TGs are in lighter green. Non-Dicks TGs are in pink. Marilyn is in 2 different Dicks lines, so she is in grey as it is difficult to tell which line she is in from the DNA. The TG numbers and positions are in the first 2 column. As I look at Gordon’s new TG with Judy and Kenneth, I see the only other TG that Judy and Kenneth share is with Nelson. That TG is on Chromosome 15 from 51-65M. Let’s see if Gordon matches Nelson.

They do match on Chromosome 15, right in the area of an existing presumed Dicks TG. But that will be the subject for a future Blog on the Henry Dicks line.

Back to Chromosome 13

What about the other matches on Chromosome 13?

First is Ivy and Esther. I’m not sure about this match. Esther is my wife’s 1/2 great Aunt. That means that Esther’s father was my mother in law’s grandfather, but Esther was from a second wife after the first died in the Flu Epidemic.Esther also has Dicks ancestors from both her parents. One Dicks line has not been figured out yet.

The next match is Joan and Esther. There is no overlap between this match and the previous. If there was, we may be able to show that the matches were for 2 different lines. This could be an Upshall match.

Nelson and Sandra – these 2 are uncle and niece, so they will share a lot of non-Dicks DNA.

More on Shannon’s Uncle Dennis

While I was out doing an errand I see that Dennis’ DNA at Gedmatch has been tokenized. I’m not sure if that is a real word, but it is a good thing. That means I can use all the features at Gedmatch now for him. Here is the revised all Dicks Matrix with Dennis at third down from the top of the list:

Now this is interesting. Where Shannon had no DNA matches with other Henry Dicks Line testers, her Uncle Dennis does. He matches with Crytal and Eric. The larger match between Dennis and Crystal appears to confirm a common ancestor with Henry Harold Dicks b. 1811:

If the chart is right, these 2 would be 4th cousins, once removed.

Dennis’ First TG – chromosome 17

Here Dennis matches Wallace and Crystal. Then Crystal and Wallace match each other: a classic 3 person TG.

This is a bit of a far-flung TG with Dennis and Crystal on the left representing the Henry Line and Wallace on the right. Assuming Christopher Dicks as the common ancestor, the chart represents 5th cousins, once and twice removed.

This is the first Dicks TG for Chromosome 17. Also the first TG for Dennis and the first Henry Line TG with 2 Henry Line descendants.

Summary and Conclusions

• The addition to the Dicks DNA project of Ivy, Shannon, Dennis, Larry and Gordon is making a big impact.
• Those in TGs will need to check their genealogies to see if there are other possible common ancestors. If not, we can assume that we were right in assigning common ancestors to the Dicks line.
• Comparing the DNA in some ways is the easy part. Then there is the interpretation of the DNA matches.
• Next, I will look at Gordon’s DNA and also see if there are other implications that can be made from the DNA matches.

 

 

 

 

In my last post on Newfoundland DNA, I looked at Pauline and how she matched others in the Dicks DNA Project I have been working on. I found that she was in 3 Triangulation Groups (TGs), but I wasn’t totally convinced which family those TGs represented as there was some ambiguity whether they were Dicks TGs or Joyce TGs for two of the TGs. The other TG she was in was with my wife’s Upshall family which has Dicks ancestry also. However, due to questions in the Upshall ancestry I wasn’t totally sure those were Dicks TGs either. Pauline expressed a desire to find out more also, so I though I’d take a second look at Pauline’s DNA

People Who Match One or Both or Two Kits

This is a utility at Gedmatch that is helpful in DNA analysis. I’ll use this to find out more about Pauline. From my previous Blog, here are Pauline’s top matches with the Dicks DNA Project:

Her top 2 matches are with Molly and Kenneth of the Joyce Line. Coming in at #3 is Esther who is my wife’s great Aunt.

Pauline’s matches with molly

First I’ll run the Gedmatch Utility for People who Match Both Kits. Those kits being Pauline and Molly. I understand this utility as similar to the Ancestry Circles. Another term I have for it is ‘Where there’s smoke there’s fire”. In other words, these people match both Pauline and Molly, so maybe they have common ancestry. The difference is that Gedmatch can find the fire, so to speak. The fire is the TGs that show that there are common ancestors.

After finding all the people that match both Pauline and Molly, I look at those matches at gedmatch’s chromosome browser. Here is Pauline’s Chromsome 5 which I looked at in the last Blog, but now the net is spread a little wider. The matches are to Pauline.

Matches #1 and #2 were identified previously as being in a TG. They are Molly and Kenneth of the Joyce Line. #3 is also in the TG, or at least in one with Molly. This is someone called opcarrie at gedmatch who I don’t know. opcarrie is a lead which Pauline may contact to find common ancestry. Perhaps this person will be the tie breaker and indicate whether this DNA is from the Joyce Line or Dicks Line.

To the right of Chromosome 5 is another smaller likely TG. 3 of 4 of those matches have the name of Pike which may be recognizable. This TG is probably not a Dicks TG as it was not found in my previous look at Dicks descendants.

Common matches: Chromosome 15

Pauline has more interesting matches on Chromosome 15.

#1 is Molly again. #2 is Richard who I don’t know. I looked him up on Ancestry, so Pauline may find some common ancestry there. He also matches my wife’s Aunt Esther and they have a common ancestral surname of Kirby. This looks like a strong TG for Pauline also.

Pauline and Chromosome 21

I found this Chromosome interesting even though there was not an apparent TG.

Here Pauline has large matches with #1 Molly and #2 Kenneth. Both of these are on the Joyce Line. The reason I find this interesting is that it looks like there is a break right around the 23M mark. Assuming that these segments represent Rachel Dicks and her husband James Joyce, it could be that one segment is the James Joyce Segment and the other is the Rachel Dicks Segment.

People Who Match Both Pauline and Kenneth

Next I run the Gematch utility again for Pauline and Kenneth. This resulted in a smaller group of matches than Pauline had with Molly. I didn’t see anything much new here that was not already in the group of people that matched Pauline and Molly.

People Who Match Both Pauline and Esther

Here I would expect different results as Esther is not from the Joyce Line unlike Molly and Kenneth. Actually, when I look at the results, they look similar to the first 2 looks at results. There is one difference at Chromosome 15.

Now look at the Chromosome 15 matches Pauline had when looking at her Molly in common matches.

#1 above is Molly, #2 is the Richard who was not in the Dicks DNA Project. #5 is Jennifer. I’m also unfamiliar with her. This Jennifer also did not come up when I looked at the people who matched both Pauline and Kenneth.

Summary and Discussion

After taking a second look at Pauline’s DNA there is a little clearer picture of what is going on. I set the net a little wider. But with a wider net comes some more questions.

• The new TG at Chromosome 16 appears to be a non-Dicks TG. However, Pauline may want to follow-up with some of the names there to make sure. One of the people in that TG shares a Kirby surname with my wife’s great Aunt. However, that may not be the surname of the shared ancestor with Pauline and Molly.
• There is a new person to follow up with on Pauline’s TG on Chromosome 5
• Pauline matches Molly and Kenneth on Chromosome 21. Assuming that these 2 matches represent Rachel Dicks and James Joyce, it would appear that the dividing line between these 2 matches represents the dividing line between the DNA that Pauline received from her 3rd great grandparents Rachel Dicks and James Joyce.

It’s been since last Spring that I have written about Newfoundland DNA – specifically the Dicks Family of Newfoundland. Since that time two things have happened:

1. There is now a new Facebook Group called Newfoundland Gedmatch. The purpose is to find those with Newfoundland heritage who have tested their autosomal DNA and uploaded those results to Gedmatch. At that point people compare their DNA results and their genealogy.
2. I believe that as a result of 1 above, Pauline has joined Newfoundland Gedmatch and also this Dicks DNA Study Group.

Both of the above are great news. We now have 12 in the Dicks Study group that have tested their DNA. That is plenty of DNA for comparing results. The chart below makes it look like 13 people but Marilyn is in 2 lines. There are two other people that have tested from another Dicks Line. They probably descend from a brother of the Christopher Dicks in the second box from the top below. Due to the large size of the Dicks family, they provide a good study group.

Here is an overall view of Dicks descendants that have tested.

Those in green have tested their DNA. Pauline is descended from Rachel Dicks. I call her Line the Joyce Line because Rachel married James Joyce. The Joyce Line was already the largest Dicks Line – now it is bigger with 5 DNA tested members.

Here is a closer view of the Joyce Line:

Our new member, Pauline, is in the lower left.

Let’s Get Into the DNA

First I’ll do a comparison of everyone to everyone.

It looks like Pauline hit the jackpot with Molly at almost 109 cM shared. Eric and Crystal were from the more remote Dicks Line and don’t show any shared DNA with Pauline. Esther is my wife’s great Aunt. Wallace and Kenneth are a generation closer to a common ancestor than Judy, so they have higher DNA shared amounts. This doesn’t mean that all the DNA shared above is Dicks DNA. However, as the Dicks are the common ancestors, it would explain a lot of the matches.

Triangulating with Pauline

I like to look for triangulation groups (TGs). That is when Person A has a match with B and C. Then Person B also has a match with C. Hopefully it will become clear. When this happens, it pretty much locks in the common ancestor. It’s not needed if we are sure about our genealogy, but if there is any doubt these TGs help clear up the doubt.

There are a couple of ways to look for TGs. One is by spreadsheet and the other is by chromosome browser. I’ll try the chromosome browser method. For example, here is Chromosome 5:

The bars represent DNA matches with Pauline. Molly is in yellow, Kenneth in green, Nelson is in blue and Eric from the faraway Dicks branch has a tiny pink match. I won’t bother looking at the small pink match. So it looks like Pauline, Molly and Kenneth are in a TG. All we need to know is if Molly and Kenneth match each other.

Yes, they do, from about position 76M to 122M. Here is what our first TG looks like:

However, there is only one problem with this TG. Well not a problem, but is it a Joyce TG or a Dicks TG? All these people descend from James Joyce as well as Rachel Dicks. I tend to lean toward the Joyce TG as there are other Dicks descendants that could have matched here but didn’t. Either those Dicks descendants didn’t match by chance or this is a Joyce TG. I suppose if Pauline, Marilyn or Kenneth match any of their Joyce relatives that aren’t related to the Dicks that would prove that this is a Joyce TG.

Another Joyce tg at Chromosome 7?

Here is the next potential TG at Chromosome 7

#1 is Kenneth, #2 is Wallace. #3 is a tiny match with Crystal on the faraway Dicks Line. Kenneth and Wallace are both Joyce descendants. But do they match each other’s DNA?

They need to match near the beginning of Chromosome 7 and they do from position 4M to 19M. I won’t do the circle and line thing as it is similar to the previous image. Kenneth and Wallace are 2nd cousins.

Chromosome 12 TG on the Upshall Line

On Chromosome 12 Pauline matches my wife’s family: her mom Joan and her great Aunt Esther.

#3 is a small match with Sandra. I would think that even though Esther is Joan’s 1/2 Aunt that they still should match here at the end of Chromosome 12:

They have too many matches to show them all, but Joan and Esther do match Pauline from 107M to 132M which matches with the Chromosome Browser. Here comes another triangulation image:

Except I have another potential problem. Pauline tells me that some of her ancestors were from Harbor Buffet. This could be a Dicks TG or some other TG. Perhaps there is a clue here to bolster some of the missing ancestors in my wife’s Newfoundland genealogy. In cases like this, I tend to assume the match is with the known ancestor rather than the unknown. However, it is good to keep an open mind.

Here are some of the missing ancestors on my wife’s Upshall Line:

Summary

• Pauline has shown good matches to others in the Dicks DNA Project – especially to those in the Joyce Line which she is a part of.
• Pauline is in 2 Triangulation Groups (TGs) with the Joyce Line. These TGs point to the James Joyce/Rachel Dicks couple. Further testing may show which specific person of the couple that the DNA comes from.
• Pauline is in 1 TG with my wife’s mother and great Aunt. This TG likely represents DNA from Christopher Dicks b. 1784. As some of my wife’s Harbour Buffet ancestors are unknown, there is also a chance that this TG represents some of those unknown ancestors.

 

 

 

The Dicks Family DNA Project has a new person who has uploaded her DNA results to gedmatch. Her name is Kirsten. Kirsten is part of the Dicks/Burton Line. In this Blog, I would like to look at how her DNA compares to the other Dicks descendants that have tested their DNA. I am also interested in her Burton Line as my wife’s great Aunt Esther had a great grandmother named Margaret Burton. Then I would like to sum up the Triangulation Groups (TGs) found so far. These TGs are important as they indicate common ancestors.

Kirsten and Denise

I looked at Denise’s DNA in a previous Blog: DNA from the Dicks/Burton Line of Newfoundland

The above chart shows that Denise and Kirsten are 4th cousins once removed on the Burton Line. Here is a brother of one of Kirsten’s ancestors. Meet Heber Burton, brother of Martha Burton who was born 1878.

I am grateful that Martha was willing to share this photo taken 90 years ago by her grandfather at Harbour Buffet, Newfoundland.

Here is what Family Tree DNA uses for the chances that Kirsten and Denise will match each other. It looks like their chances of matching are only a little better than 30% as a 4th cousin once removed would be halfway between 4th and 5th cousin.

When I compare Denise to Kirsten at Gedmatch at the default settings, I get no match. This is no cause to worry, as they have a two in three chance of not matching.

Comparing Kirsten to All the Descendants of Christopher Dicks b. 1784

Next, I will look at how Kirsten compares to the other 10 Christopher Dicks Descendants in this DNA Project. So far all the project members have been in at least one TG. Will Kirsten be any different?

When I put all the names in my favorite DNA utility, Gedmatch, these 11 people match each other 446 times. These are not all Dicks matches, but as we have pre-selected Dicks descendants, a majority of these matches should represent DNA passed down from Christopher Dicks and his wife Margaret to their many descendants.

Kirsten matches Christopher Dicks descendants 9 times. She matches:

• Sandra on the Dicks/Thomas Line
• Molly who is on both the Dicks/Joyce and Dicks/Cran Lines
• Joan and Esther are on the Christopher Dicks b. 1812 Line
• Judy and Wallace are on the Dicks/Joyce Line

So Kirsten matches on a good number of Dicks Lines.

Next I’ll look at each of the above Chromosomes individually.

Chromosome 2 – A new TG found

This is interesting. See that Kirsten matches Sandra and Molly. If Sandra and Molly matched each other, we would have a TG. I’ll check Gedmatch again using the one to one utility between Molly and Sandra.

In order to find the match between Molly and Sandra that I was looking for, I had to go way below Gedmatch thresholds – down to 3 cM and 300 SNPs. This is not always advised, but in this situation it worked out. It may be difficult to see in the previous chart, but Sandra and Molly only had a small opening where they could match between 145 and 151 and that is where they matched each other.

Notice above that Wallace and Kenneth are not in the TG. This means they match on a non-Dicks Line which is their George Miller ancestor. Here is a somewhat complicated view of the matches:

Here the TG is shown in circles and lines. Wallace and Kenneth are in the blue circles with their Miller common ancestor. Marilyn doesn’t match Wallace and Kenneth here, but she wouldn’t anyway as she does not descend from the Miller line. That means that her part of the TG could be from the pink line or the red line on the right. If Marilyn had matched Wallace and Kenneth, that would prove that she matched on the Dicks/Joyce Line. The fact that she doesn’t match means that she matches Sandra and Kirsten either on the Dicks/Joyce Line or the Dicks/Cran Line. It gets complicated, so that is why I chart these matches where I can see them.

Chromosome 9 – A new TG found

I’m ready for an easier Chromosome after the previous one.

Yes, it is simple. Here Kirsten is in a TG with my mother in law Joan and Joan’s 1/2 Aunt Esther. As Joan has no known descent from the Burton Line, this would be the Dicks DNA coming down from Christopher Dicks b. 1784 and his wife Margaret. I went below the TG to show that Joan also matches Kirsten at a higher position [124-133]. This is one of the many cases where Joan has inherited more of the known Dicks DNA than her Aunt has. At position 123 or 124 Esther switches off from matching Joan to matching Nelson. That match is likely on Esther’s maternal side where she doesn’t match Joan but has another Dicks ancestor.

There are 2 Chromosomes to go.

chromosome 15 – Another new tg

Here, Kirsten is in a TG with Wallace and Judy from position 69 to 88. Wallace and Judy are in another TG described in a previous Blog with Joan from 88 to 93. There were actually 2 other Chromosome 15 TGs mentioned in that Blog. Here is the third TG with Kirsten at Chromosome 15:

chromosome 21 – Using dicks NOn-TGs to find non-dicks matches

Here there are no TGs and probably no Dicks DNA. These are all the matches of people in the Dicks DNA Project at Chromosome 21.

I will give my guesses on these matches:

• Sandra/Nelson – their Adams Line
• Judy/Wallace – their Lewis Line
• Kirsten/Esther – this would be Esther’s maternal line which has Dicks and Burton. Esther’s maternal great grandmothers are Margaret Burton and Jane Ann Dicks b. about 1841. As other Dicks descendants aren’t jumping in on this match, my first guess would be that this is a Burton match.
• Esther/Joan – probably on the Upshall Line
• Judy/Wallace – more of their Lewis Line

Summary of All the TGs Found So Far

I mentioned that I found 3 new TGs in this Blog alone. I would like to sum up all the TGs to date. The dark green are for Henry Dicks b. 1774. Raspberry is the non-Dicks TG.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far, we have 10 people that have genealogies descending from Christopher Dicks b. 1784. They all triangulate in one way or another which is a good indication that their genealogies are correct and that their common ancestors are Christopher Dicks and his wife Margaret. That has gone so well, why not get a little wild and try something more difficult?

Henry or Harold Dicks born around 1774

As I was traipsing around the internet, I came upon another Dicks who was born around the time of Christopher Dicks. His name was entered in genealogies as a Henry and/or Harold Dicks b. around 1774. I took some of these genealogies of people that had tested their DNA and mushed them together and got the 4 lines on the left below:

In my chart, I assumed that Henry was Christopher’s older brother and that they both had a father named Christopher. The names in pink I thought might be worth looking into as they looked so similar. There are 4 lines of people that have tested their DNA descending from this Henry Dicks line. One of them appears to be on Gedmatch, though I have not had further contact with this person. Her name is Crystal and she descends from the 2nd Crewe Line above.

Further, I have been in touch with Eric who believes that he descends from this line, but is not sure how. His ancestors were from Lamaline.

Eric said that Henry Dicks moved his family to Burgeo in 1820. I noticed a lot of the Henry Dicks descendants mentioned Burgeo in their ancestry.

Dicks DNA Goals for This Blog

In this blog I’ll try to answer the following questions:

• Does Eric’s DNA show that he descends from the Dicks family?
• Does DNA show that Harold and Christopher Dicks were brothers?

eric and crystal

First, I’ll compare Crystal to Eric at Gedmath. Crystal is the one who I think also has a tree on Ancestry showing descent from Henry Dicks. Eric thinks he likely descends from the same person. Here is how Crystal and Eric’s DNA compare:

They have a small match out at almost 8 generations which is a long way out.

Crystal and the Christopher Dicks descendants

Next, I’ll compare Crystal to all the people that descend from Christopher Dicks at Gedmatch. These are the people that I have already compared in the Dicks DNA Project. Here is where Crystal matches those people:

She has single matches with Molly, Wallace and Kenneth. Perhaps more importantly, she matches both Esther and Joan, forming a Triangulation Group. Here is a diagram of her matches.

The single matches are shown as circles without lines. Marilyn had 2 chances of matches as she descends from 2 Dicks Lines. I have her 2 possible matches to Crystal in light purple. The Triangulation Group on Chromosome 5 indicates a common ancestor which appears to be the father of Henry and Christopher Dicks. Out of the 10 Christopher Dicks descendants with DNA results, Crystal matches half. The relationships are pretty far out. They range from 4th cousin, 3 times removed to 6th cousin, once removed.

More on Crystal’s tg

Even though Crystal does not descend from Christopher Dicks, her TG seems to tell us something about 2 Christopher Dicks descendants: Molly and Kenneth.

Notice that Molly and Kenneth match each other in the area of Crystal’s TG 5 [at position 76 to 122]. But they aren’t part of TG 5 which indicates a Dicks ancestor. That means that the DNA Molly and Kenneth share is likely from their  common ancestor James Joyce and not his wife Rachel Dicks b. 1817. Conversely, if Molly and Kenneth were in TG 5 that would mean that the DNA that they shared would be Dicks DNA through Rachel Dicks.

eric and the Christopher Dicks descendants

Now to get to Eric’s question. Let’s see how he compares to known Dicks descendants and Crystal. I’ll compare everyone to everyone else that I’ve compared so far. This is analogous to ordering an everything pizza.

Again, there are singleton matches with Molly and Esther on Chromosomes 1, 4 and 18. In addition, there are multiple matches at Chromosomes 1 and 4 which could indicate Triangulation Groups. Those are the pots of gold that we are looking for.

eric’s TG 1with joan and esther

Here the part in gold is the TG. The other matches of Sandra, Nelson, Wallace, Judy and Molly likely represent non-Dicks Line ancestors.

Is there a tg 4?

It would seem like a TG at Chromosome 4 would tie everything together between Eric and Crystal.

Unfortunately, to have a TG here, Crystal and Sandra would have to match each other and they don’t. However,  this looks close to a TG.

What Did I Just Do? Did I Prove What I Set Out To?

• Does Eric’s DNA show that he descends from the Dicks family? PROBABLY
• Does DNA show that Henry and Christopher Dicks were brothers? MORE PROBABLY

Let’s look at Eric. From what I understand, he believes that he may descend from Henry Dicks, due to Henry’s living in Lamaline prior to 1820. This is tied to the fact that Eric’s family was also from Lamaline at the same period. Eric is in a TG with my mother in law Joan and her 1/2 Aunt Esther. Eric also matches others from the Dicks DNA project. In addition, he matches Crystal who has posted that she descends from Henry Dicks. Perhaps I should have rated this “MORE PROBABLY”. The other option is that all the matches are from other unknown relatives, or a mixture of unknown relatives.

I feel like Henry and Christopher Dicks were brothers. We have triangulation with Crystal who descends from Henry Dicks. Again, there is a possibility that the triangulation is with an unknown ancestor. However, I would like to think that the triangulation is with the known Dicks family. I would like to see others that have tested their DNA with paper trails leading to Henry Dicks upload to Gedmatch. That would give me more confidence in proving the connection with the 2 brothers.

 

 

 

 

 

Dicks DNA Project Background

The purpose of the Dicks DNA Project, so far, has been to find descendants of the Dicks Family of Newfoundland that have tested for DNA and uploaded their results to Gedmatch. These results have been compared to confirm the genealogical research that has been done by the different Dicks families. So far those in the Study Group are:

• Esther – my wife’s great Aunt from the Christopher Dicks Line b. 1812. She also descends from another Dicks Line but the lineage isn’t known for that line.
• Joan – my mother in law – same line. [I didn’t include my wife as she got all of her Dicks DNA from her mom.
• Sandra – from the Elizabeth Dicks/Adams Line. Elizabeth was b. 1809
• Nelson – Sandra’s Uncle
• Judy – from the Rachel Dicks/Joyce Line. Rachel was b. 1817
• Wallace – Judy’s Uncle
• Kenneth – Wallace’s 2nd cousin also from the Dicks/Joyce Line
• Marilyn – She descends from the Dicks/Joyce Line and the Robert Dicks/Cran Line. Robert was b. 1824.
• Forrest – She also descends from the Robert Dicks/Cran Line

All these lines mentioned above are children of Christopher Dicks who married Margaret and was b. about 1784.

The Dicks/Burton Line

To add to the above 9 Dicks descendants that come from  these 4 Lines, we have another descendant named Denise whose ancestor is Frances Dicks b. 1811. Frances married Charles Burton. To complicate things, my wife’s great Aunt Esther descends from a Burton and my mother in law does not. But I may be able to sort all that out. I can almost squeeze everyone in below. I left out the Robert Dicks/Cran Line on the right of the chart.

Denise is a bit lower on the totem pole, so her DNA matches with the others may be a bit weaker. However, note that she has an extra Dicks named David that married into the Burton line. I’m not sure what Dicks family David descended from. Kirsten who is also on the Dicks/Burton Line is not yet in the project.

Let’s Compare Everyone’s DNA

Next I take everyone’s DNA and compare it with each other. The goal is to find Triangulation Groups (TGs). These are where 3 people match each other on the same part of the same Chromosome. A TG indicates a common ancestor. Usually, in this case, the common ancestor should be Christopher Dicks b. 1784 and his wife Margaret.

chromosome 2 triangulation group (TG)

Denise fits into an existing TG with Sandra, Joan and Nelson here:

For whatever reason, a lot of the Dicks DNA came down on Chromosome 2. Denise and Sandra share much more DNA than average considering they are 4th cousins twice removed. Here is what Denise’s TG looks like on the left hand side of the Dicks family Chart:

This is a great TG as it includes 3 different Dicks Lines: Elizabeth, Frances, and Christopher Dicks Lines.

a new brain teaser from an older tg

In a previous Blog, I had mentioned that there were 2 TGs in this area. The first had Joan, Sandra and Nelson. The second had Molly, Sandra and Nelson.

But in the TG with Denise above, her match with Nelson and Sandra are in the area where she should be matching with Molly (173-218). So why doesn’t she match with Molly here at 201-209?

The answer found in changing the gedmatch defaults

Usually it is not a good idea to change the defaults at Gedmatch. There are some situations where it is necessary. This is one of those situations. I lowered the thresholds at Gematch, because it didn’t make sense that Molly and Denise were not matching in this specific area of Chromosome 2. I lowered the cMs from 7 to 5 and the SNPs from 700 to 500 and here is what I found – they did match from 201 to 208:

This means that we can look at this as either one TG or two. I’ll look at it as one as that makes more sense to me right now. Joan and Molly didn’t inherit enough Dicks DNA to match each other. Joan matched at the beginning of the TG and Molly matched at the higher locations on Chromosome 2 TG. Now to draw this out:

Here I gave Joan and Marilyn lighter shades as they are on opposite ends of this larger TG. Sandra, Nelson and Denise have darker orange showing they are in the whole TG. I also have question marks on Marilyn’s lines as she is descended from 2 Dicks lines and we know that she got her Dicks DNA from one of the lines, but we don’t know which. There is an equal chance of her DNA being inherited from the Rachel or Robert Line.

Possible Burton Match

I had mentioned that Esther and Denise share Burton ancestors. I notice also that Esther and Denise have a match on Chromosome 5:

This is likely to be from the Burton family – or at least not the Dicks family – as I don’t see any of the other Dicks descendants matching in this area of Chromosome 5. In addition, even though Joan is a niece of Esther, she is a half niece and not descended from the Burton Family. I note that she also does not match Denise on Chromosome 5.

The X Factor: Dicks or Burton?

Here is a shot of Esther’s DNA match spreadsheet:

It shows that Esther has a good match with Denise on the X Chromosome. On Denise’s side this could be from the Dicks Line. The X Chromosome does not travel from father to son. Denise is descended from Christopher Dicks and in that descent, the lineage alternates between male and female. However, Esther, descends from two Christopher Dicks. This means that the X chromosome that they share could not be shared with Christopher Dicks as no X Chromosome was transferred from father to son. This leaves a good chance that the X Chromosome match could also represent the Burton line. Esther’s mother’s father’s mother was a Burton. This is the likely way that Esther got the X Chromosome that matches with Denise.

Summary and Conclusions

• Denise is a great addition to the Dicks DNA Study Group and has fit into a TG like all the others in the Project even though she is further down on the Dicks Family Tree
• Denise’s Chromosome 2 TG results added some confusion until I lowered the Gedmatch thresholds. Then it was clear that Denise matched Molly as she should have.
• There are two areas that could have caused problems: 1) two Dicks Lines for Marilyn and; 2) Denise and Esther likely having ancestry in the Dicks and Burton Lines. However, these issues did not cause a problem here.
• It is likely that the single match on Chromosome 5 that Denise and Esther share apart from the other Dicks descendants is likely from the Burton family.
• X Chromosome matches give good clues to family inter-contentedness as they are only inherited in specific ways.

 

Recently Marilyn from the Dicks DNA Group mentioned a new person from the Dicks Line. It took me a little while to realize that this person was already on Gedmatch.com. Based on her gedmatch name, I will call her Forrest. She descends from the Robert Dicks Line. Robert Dicks was born in 1824 and married Jane Cran.

Here is a chart with Forrest on the bottom right.

The above chart shows only 2 of the children of Christopher Dicks b. 1784. There are 3 other lines represented by this DNA project.

The New TG at Chromosome 2

Chromosome 2 seems to be a Dicks DNA hot spot. In my previous Blog, I had noted 3 TGs on that Chromosome. It looks like this TG makes 4:

This TG, shown in gold, is spread out. It consists of Esther, Joan and Forrest. In between is one of the other TGs with Esther, Joan, Nelson and Sandy. Judy and Wallace are in there also, but not as a part of the TGs. As they are not matching in the TG, the DNA that they share should be from their [non-Dicks] Smith Line.

What’s going on at chromosome 2?

Here is a summary of all the Dicks TGs at Chromosome 2.

1. TG 2A – Esther, Joan, Nelson and Sandra
2. TG 2B – Esther, Joan, and Forrest
3. TG 2C – Joan, Sandra and Nelson
4. TG 2D – Nelson, Sandra and Molly (Note that Molly could be in one of two different Dicks Lines)

Chromosome 2 is quite a long one. Apparently there is room at this Chromosome for several TGs. Here are TG 2C and TG 2D from my previous Blog:

Now I will try to show the 4 TGs at Chromosome 2 with colored lines and circles:

I didn’t think that would be easy. The takeaway from this chart is:

• The 2 nieces (Sandra and Joan) share a lot of DNA with their Uncle and Aunt on the left side of the chart. Two of the TGs (TG 2A and 2C) are made up of these 4 people.
• For TG 2D, we can’t know for sure if this TG Marilyn that is in is from the Rachel Dicks/Joyce Line or the Robert Dicks/Cran Line. It would be one or the other, but not both.
• There is always a small chance that the TG 2B could be with a non-Dicks Line. This is because we don’t know the maiden name of Esther’s great grandmother. However, as we do know that Forrest, Esther and Joan all share the same Dicks ancestor, I tend to believe that Christopher Dicks b. 1784 is the common ancestor.

Relationships and Shared DNA

Based on each relationship in the chart, there is a certain amount of expected DNA that would be shared. As these relationships go further out, there is a chance that there will be no DNA shared between, say, 5th cousins. Another way to express your relationships is in the generations to your Most Recent Common Ancestors (MRCAs). For example 2nd cousins will share the same grandparents. Your grandparent is 2 generations away from you. For your aunt or uncle, they are one generation from the common ancestor and you are two generations away, so that averages out to 1.5 generations. Here is a chart from gedmatch that guesses how far away to a MRCA based on the amount of DNA shared between two people. After that number, I added the actual number of generations to the MRCA for people in the Dicks DNA Project.

I added some purple for Esther and Molly as they both have more than one known Dicks ancestor. For them, their generations to MRCA based on their gedmatch predicted DNA shared is always less than the actual relationship. One exception to this is between Esther and Joan. Esther is Joan’s half Aunt. That is where the analogy would break down as Joan would only share the DNA from Esther’s paternal side.

The darker salmon colored boxes are where there was no DNA shared at normal gedmatch defaults. This is expected at 5 generations to MRCA or more. In the chart below, a MRCA of 5 generations is equivalent to a 4th cousin.

What all this tells me is that the Dicks Ancestry Chart compared to the amount of DNA shared looks pretty good. Nothing looks out of line with what would be expected.

 

 

In my last Blog, Unraveling Some of the Dicks Family DNA from Newfoundland, I looked at several things:

• I found many descending from Christopher Dicks b. 1784 from Newfoundland
• These people had also tested their DNA
• 6 of these had also uploaded their results to gedmatch where I was able to analyze their DNA
• Out of these 6 all were found to be in Triangulation Groups (TGs)
• TGs are good things as they indicate a common ancestor
• As all these people descended from Christopher Dicks b. 1784, I took him to be that common ancestor that the triangulated DNA pointed to.

I was a bit surprised at how successful the exercise was. Christopher Dicks helped me out a bit by fathering so many children. This has resulted in the spread of his DNA through many descendants to triangulate with each other.

Two of my goals in the previous Blog, were:

1. to find other Dicks descendants who had uploaded their DNA to gedmatch that I may have missed, and;
2. to find other Dicks descendants who hadn’t uploaded their DNA to gedmatch, but would be interested in doing so.

Within one day of writing my blog, I have easily found one person in each category above.  The person in the first category is Judy. Another goal I had was to try to find more Dicks Family Genealogies for those that had uploaded to gedmatch. That happened also when I heard from Marilyn.

This study group works best for people in both these categories:

1. Those who have an ancestry going back to the early Newfoundland Dicks family
2. Those who have tested their DNA and have uploaded their results to gedmatch.com.

Judy and Marilyn’s Dicks Genealogies

Judy is someone I missed in the last Blog. She is a little further down on the Dicks Relationship Chart and further down on my Aunt Esther’s DNA match list at gedmatch.com. However, her results are important nonetheless. I was surprised that the 6 Dicks descendants from the last blog all triangulated. I was equally surprised that I found Judy to be in 4 triangulation groups. In the previous blog, I only found 5 triangulation groups with the 6 people I looked at.  This speaks to the importance of having many in a DNA study group.

First, here is one of my favorite photos of Harbour Buffet, Newfoundland where some of my wife’s ancestors came from and where many in the Dicks family lived. It looks quite peaceful, but I know that many hearty souls lived there and many drowned at sea.

Here is the tree for Judy and Marilyn. The tree is starting to get bigger, so I only have the Rachel Dicks and Robert Dicks Lines. Note that Marilyn is in twice. This is because she had Dicks relatives that married. This is not that unusual. For my Frazer family in Ireland, there were many in this situation. Marilyn and I wondered why the match between her and my wife’s Aunt Esther was so high. This is because Marilyn and Esther both have Dicks in their ancestry more than once. I wrote a blog on this subject for my own Frazer family here.

Judy and Marilyn are 4th cousins, once removed to my mother in law Joan and 3rd cousins twice removed to my wife’s Aunt Esther. That means that through their common ancestor of Christopher Dicks, Judy and Marilyn have a better than 30% chance of matching with the people on Joan’s row and a 50% chance or better of matching those on Esther’s row. They are 5th cousins to each other. This usually indicates about a 10% chance of matching each other. Here are the match probabilities as posted by FTDNA:

Here is the whole chart with Marilyn added:

Let’s Re-Triangulate – Chromosome 2 TG

This one is a bit tricky. It looks like 2 TGs.

Sandra and Nelson are in both TGs. Joan is in TG 2A and Molly is in TG 2B. Kenneth and Judy didn’t make the cut. They likely match on a non-Dicks Line – probably the Miller line.

I hope that the chart above looks sufficiently confusing! Judy and Kenneth don’t triangulate but both descend from George Miller in blue above.

tg – chromosome 4

2 TG’s – chromosome 12 – Hold on to your seats

Here at Chromosome 12, a few interesting things are going on.

• First, there are 2 TGs: TG 12A and 12B. Sandra and Nelson don’t match the 1st TG. That means that they must have gotten that segment of their DNA from their non-Dicks side.
• Secondly, note that these 2 TGs overlap each other from about position 107 to 120.
• Even though these 2 TGs, overlap, they have different people in each. That means that they must both have separate common ancestors.
• Wallace, Judy and Kenneth are in a TG, but the common ancestor would be George Miller. The reason I say this is that as mentioned above, the 2 TGs overlap. In the Miller Line TG 12A, there is no match with Esther, Joan and Molly in TG 12B. If there was a match, then TG 12A would have Rebecca Joyce as a common ancestor.
• Esther, Joan and Molly are in TG 12B. But does this TG go through Molly’s Dicks/Joyce Line or Dicks/Cran Line? This is assumed to be a Dicks TG.

I was actually looking for a TG between Judy, Wallace, and Kenneth and here is where it showed itself.

TG 14

This TG had Marilyn, Joan and Esther again. This would be expected due to the double Dicks ancestry that Marilyn and Esther both have. See the above diagram with the pink lines.

2 TG’s – Chromosome 15

Here again, there are 2 TGs. However, they are not overlapping TGs like the ones at Chromosome 12. The first one, TG 15A has Nelson, Kenneth and Judy. TG 15B Has Judy, Wallace and Joan.  Esther is not in either TG. Where she matches with Joan likely represents Upshall DNA.

TG 16

Here is a 4 person TG.

Some of the ambiguity of Marilyn’s TGs may be resolved by finding other Dicks descendants that have tested for DNA and comparing their results to these TGs.

Finally TG 19

This TG was mentioned in the previous blog. Now it is bigger with 4 people – including Wallace’s niece Judy.

Summary of the New and Augmented TGs

It turned out that this update was longer than the original Blog – at least for the triangulating part. In the previous blog, there were 5 TGs indicating Christopher Dicks b. 1784 and his wife Margaret. Now there are 13 TGs. This gets to the triangulation explosion that I mentioned in the title.

• TG12A likely represents a non-Dicks ancestor on the Joyce Line: George Miller. This is represented in a different color. However, this is good to know for those in this TG as matches in this area of Chromosome 12 will be along Miller ancestry and not Dicks ancestry.
• Marilyn is represented in a different shade of green as we don’t know which line her TG’s are from. All the TGs that Marilyn are in appear to indicate her common ancestor of Christopher Dicks. We just aren’t sure which path the DNA took at this time.
• This is also an issue for Esther where she is in a TG that her 1/2 niece Joan is not in. For the 2 TGs that Esther is in and Joan is not, the TG is with descendants of Elizabeth b. 1809, so that would be a possibility for the line of the Dicks ancestor with the unknown parents on Esther’s maternal side. As Esther’s maternal Dicks ancestor’s ancestry is not known, that line is not represented on the Dicks family tree chart.
• Joan is in the most TGs which is a bit surprising as she is a 1/2 niece of Esther. based on this I would think she would have 1/2 or less of the matches of Esther as Esther has 2 known Dicks ancestors and Joan has one.

So far, triangulating the Dicks descendants DNA has been hugely successful. With the results of only 8 descendants, we have 13 TGs. All but one of these TGs point back to Christopher Dicks b. 1784 or his wife Margaret.

For comparison, I head up another DNA project with 27 that have tested their DNA. 9 of them have multiple Frazer ancestors and there are fewer TGs in that project than in this one. Part of the reason for that is that many of the Frazer relationships are more distant than what we have with the Dicks family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my first Blog on Upshall DNA, I gave some background and made some guesses on where the related ancestors were in my wife’s Upshall Newfoundland ancestors. At that time, I came up with a family diagram that looked like this:

My wife’s grandmother Florence is represented by the lower left circle, her great Aunt Esther is the circle to the right of Florence. Florence and Esther have the same father, but different mothers. This turns  out to be useful knowledge to have. That means that my mother in law, who is the daughter of Florence, will be related to Esther on the Upshall/Dicks lines but not on the Shave/Kirby lines. This is a bit complicated due to the fact, that Esther’s parents were related to each other. Gedmatch estimates that Esther had a common ancestor 4.0 generations before her. Note that, assuming my drawing above is correct, she could have a Dicks ancestor 4 generations before her. I added the question marks above as I am not positive of the relationships.

After visiting my wife’s Aunt Esther recently, I came upon an ancestry chart that she wrote up in the 1990’s.

I asked her about the father of Catherine Dicks who Esther had as Christopher Dicks, b. 1781 as that seemed old for that generation. That would put the average generations between Christopher Dicks and Esther at 49 years. She mentioned that it was possible as she knew of a man in his 60’s in Newfoundland marrying an 18 year old. Esther’s father was 49 when he had her. I also believe that this Christopher Dicks had a son Christopher, so there are other possibilities. I was ready to go with Aunt Esther’s results until I found a blog I had saved from Heather Lynn that she wrote in 2011:

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Puzzle of the Day: Christopher DICKS of Newfoundland

Christopher DICKS was born (likely in February, 1784) somewhere in England. There are competing theories concerning his origins.
He and his wife Margaret (born 1789) had at least 11 children over the course of 24 years between 1808 and 1832, born in various places around Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, including Trinny Cove, Jean de Baie, & Hay Cove.

William (1808-1894) married Mary Ann Sheave
**Elizabeth (1809 – 1892) married Thomas ADAMS in Burin 1839 (my 3rd Great-Grandmother)
Joseph (1810-abt 1857) married Mary Griffith
Frances (1811 – ) married Charles Burton
Christopher (1812- ) married Elizabeth
Henry (1815- )
Rachel (1817-1893) married James Joyce
Robert (1824-1903) married Jane Crann
Susan (1827- )
James (1830- )
George (1832-1892)

Christopher DICKS died October 24, 1845 in Harbour Buffett, Newfoundland. His wife Margaret lived until February 1867. Here is an excerpt from his will:

Secondly,   All my money whether in cash or credits in Merchants Accounts as also such money as shall be and remain in the British Funds at the time of my decease, I hereby give and bequeath to my dear wife for her sole use and benefit and afterwards to be disposed of at her death as she may be inclined ~ Subject nevertheless to the following deductions, that she my said wife shall pay unto our sons James Dicks and George Dicks the sum of thirty pounds currency each at the time of my decease.
Thirdly,   My fishing room situate in Harbor Beaufet with all buildings and appurtenances there unto belonging together with all boats, skiffs, punts, seines nets and all kinds of fishing craft, I hereby give and bequeath unto my four sons Christopher Dicks Junior, William Dicks, Henry Dicks, and Robert Dicks to be equally divided share and share alike in value among them.

Let’s see how this information fits in with my chart above. Based on Esther’s and Heather Lynn’s research, I come up with this chart:

Based on the chart above, it appears that Jane Ann Dicks b. 1841 (top right) could likely be the grand daughter of Christopher Dicks b. 1784 (top left).

Here is Fred Upshall in 1920 wearing a straw hat:

Here is a map of Harbour Buffet and vicinity where my wife’s Newfie ancestors hailed from. Living there, it was important to have a boat or access to one. Many living in these parts of Placentia Bay were fishermen.

More Dicks DNA

Now that I know how Aunt Esther is descended from the Dicks family, I have tried to piece together a Dicks Chart based on the blog above and family trees I’ve found at Ancestry and FTDNA. I left out one line of the Dicks line for now to simplify things. That would be the Henry/Harold Dicks Line. I think the Henry/Harold is a parallel line to the Christopher Dicks Line (perhaps a brother).

The green boxes are those that have taken DNA tests. However, not everyone has uploaded their DNA to gedmatch.com which would make comparisons easy. There are 10 DNA testers in the green boxes, but I will be looking at the 6 that have uploaded their results to Gedmatch.com.These 6 are:

• Sandra
• Nelson
• Joan
• Esther
• Wallace
• Kenneth

My wife’s great Aunt Esther is on the row 4 generations down from Christopher Dicks, b. 1784. So is Nelson. We already know that those 2 have high matches of DNA between them. In fact, gedmatch.com estimates that Nelson and Esther should have a common ancestor back 3.2 generations instead of 4. This is likely due to the past intermarrying on Newfoundland, which increased the amount of DNA shared.

Triangulation of Dicks DNA

The goal is to find triangulation groups. If three people all match each other on the same segment of a chromosome, that is an indication that the 3 got that DNA from a common ancestor. Actually, the real goal is to confirm that the genealogy shown in the chart above is correct [using triangulation], and that these people do indeed descend from Christopher Dicks b. 1784.

Let’s Triangulate

First I entered the 6 of the 10 testers in green above and compared them in Gedmatch.com using a utility called Multiple Kit Analysis. Then I downloaded all those matching segments into a spreadsheet and sorted them. It wasn’t long before I found a triangulation group. The first one was at Chromosome 2.

In the table above, the 2 in the first column is the Chromosome number. The next column is the start of the match. Then the end of the match location and the cM value for the match. The above is actually a triangulation group of 3 people: Esther, Joan and Nelson. Sandra didn’t match with Joan or Esther. Note also that the gedmatch utility puts in every match twice. So the first match is Joan/Esther. The second match is Esther/Joan.

I almost missed this Triangulation Group (TG) because Esther and Joan had such a large match. Here is what Esther’s Chromosome Browser looks like at Chromosome 2:

The large red line is the match between Esther and Joan. This has to represent Esther’s father Fred Upshall who descended from the Dicks family. Fred is Esther and Joan’s common ancestor. Fred had 2 wives and Esther and Joan descend from different wives. The smaller green match is between Esther and Nelson. The pink match is between Esther and Sandra but is too tiny to consider. Plus, it is out of range of the DNA match that Esther has with Nelson.

Here are the 3 that triangulated on Chromosome 2 shown on the Dicks Chart:

Five Dicks Triangulation groups

All in all, I found five Dicks triangulation groups. The second TG was also in Chromosome 2:

Note that this TG is similar to the first one except that this time Sandra is in and Esther is out.

What happened to Esther? Esther got her DNA from her 4 grandparents. That fact that Joan matches two Dicks descendants and Esther doesn’t must mean that Esther must have  gotten her DNA in this part of her Chromosome 2 from her grandfather Henry Upshall and Joan got her DNA at that location from Catherine Dicks b. 1851. This is all good to know. So any paternal matches Esther has in this area of Chromosome 2 (location 171-192) where she is not matching Sandra, Nelson, and Joan would be a match along the Uphsall Line. I would like to add that Cheryl in the chart above is not counted as she tested at AncestryDNA and I don’t think that she has uploaded her results to Gedmatch.com. That means we don’t know if she triangulates with the others or not. The same is true for the person below Elizabeth that doesn’t show.

The third TG at chromosome 9

The TG at Chromosome 9 has a different apparent Dicks descendant: Kenneth.

Here I note:

• This TG is from 3 different children of Christopher Dicks: Elizabeth, Christopher and Rachel.
• Note that Joan is not in this TG. This could mean one of 2 things
  1. She just didn’t inherit that segment of DNA or;
  2. Esther’s part in the TG is through her mother’s side where she has another Dicks ancestor. I didn’t show that Dicks ancestor in the chart as I don’t know which Dicks that ancestor descended from.
• Sandra and Kenneth are 4th cousins by way of their common ancestor Christopher Dicks b. 1784. There is a little better than 50% chance that they would show as a DNA match. However, having Newfoundland ancestors means that they may match on more than one line.
• As Wallace is a known 2nd cousin to Kenneth, his descent from the same Dicks ancestor is inferred. Wallace just didn’t inherit the same segment of DNA that Kenneth did.

TG 11

This is just another permutation of the first TG. Note that Sandra inherited the Dicks DNA in Chromosome 11 while this same segment bypassed her uncle Nelson.

And finally, the TG at crhomosome 19

This final TG includes the last Dicks descendant who uploaded his results to Gedmatch.com: Wallace.

This group includes Christopher Dicks b. 1812 and Rachel Dicks b. 1817. Note that for any TG that Joan is in, Esther’s Dicks relationship is through her father and not her mother. This is because Joan is only a half niece to Esther on her paternal side.

Summary of TGs

Green in the box below a name means that the person is in the TG to the left:

Here is how they are related:

Disclaimer

There is always a small chance that the triangulation represents an unknown family. For example, the last name of Esther’s great grandmother Elizabeth is unknown. Also Elizabeth’s mother Margaret’s maiden name is unknown. It is possible that Wallace, for example, is actually triangulating with one of those families. However, as it is the Dicks that are in common in all these TGs, it is most likely that the Dicks are the common ancestors.

Summary, Comments and Conclusions

• I am very happy to see that all 6 of the Dicks descendants that uploaded their DNA results to Gedmatch triangulated with other Dicks descendants, zeroing in on Christopher Dicks b. 1784.
• Triangulation gives weight to genealogy showing common ancestors.
• It is likely that other Dicks descendants are already at Gedmatch or could upload their DNA results there.
• Having more Dicks descendants in the study group would improve the results and further solidify genealogies and lines of descent from common Dicks ancestors.
• It should be possible to use this same triangulation technique to unravel the ancestry of other Newfoundland families.
• The Dicks family was a good choice to look at as there are so many descendants from Newfoundland. Many descendants can make the genealogy confusing, but it is a plus in DNA analysis as they provide more potential to look at shared DNA and Triangulation Groups.
• TGs that both Joan and Esther are in show that the Dicks DNA that Esther inherited was from her paternal side – not her maternal side. This information may be helpful in further DNA analysis.
• Next step:
  1. Look for more descendants that are at gedmatch or who could upload their results there;
  2. Expand the triangulation to other Dicks Lines.