Brenda came up as a new match recently at Gedmatch.com. She is a good match to my mother-in-law Joan at 9th on Joan’s match list. Brenda tells me her great great-grandfather Samuel Dicks was from Harbour Buffett where my mother-in-law Joan’s maternal grandfather came from.
Joan’s and Brenda’s Genealogy
It would make sense, then, if Joan and Brenda connected on the Dicks Line.
Here is Joan’s maternal side tree:

Joan’s 2nd great grandfather was Christopher Dicks. He married an Elizabeth. I have theorized that this Elizabeth could have been a Crann. This complicates matters, as I have this tree for Brenda’s paternal side:

This shows that Brenda’s great-grandmother was a Crann. This is pretty normal for Newfoundland genealogy. I’ll try to connect Brenda and Joan by the Dicks family and see if there is a possible Crann connection also.
Joan’s 1/2 Aunt Esther
I have also tested Joan’s 1/2 Aunt Esther. Joan and Esther match on Esther’s dad’s side but not on Esther’s mom’s side:

I’ve circled some places where Brenda and Esther could match. Notice that Esther also has a Dicks on her maternal side. Joan doesn’t match Esther on her maternal side, but if we went back far enough could match somehow with this Dicks Line also.
More on Brenda’s Genealogy
My tree for Brenda has that Samuel Dicks married a Julia. Here is the 1935 Census:

This does not state, but seems to imply that Julia is Stanley’s mother. She would have been about 44 at the time of Stanley’s birth. If Julia’s age is right, she would have been born about 1857. Here is a marriage record for Flat Island:

This shows a Samuel Dicks marrying an Eliza Joyce who was 16-1/2. That would put her birth at 1857. Many online trees show that Samuel Dicks married Julia Rodway.
Here is the birth of Albert George Dicks:

This shows that Albert’s mother was Julia, but doesn’t give Julia’s last name. It is possible that Eliza died and Samuel remarried Julia. This record would support that:

Here a Samuel was born to Eliza and Samuel Dicks in 1877. Here is Samuel’s marriage to Juila Rodway:

Samuel Dicks Father Was?
All the trees I found on Ancestry support the following:

So I’ll go with that. Note yet another Crann in the line. This brings me up to the Dicks DNA Project that I have been working on.
The Dicks DNA Project
Here is part of the tree of the people descending from Christopher Dicks who have had their DNA tested:

The Robert Dicks/Crann Line is on the right. Joan and Esther descend from a brother of Robert named Christopher and go off the above image to the left.
Here is Brenda added to the Robert Dicks/Crann Line:

Brenda is 4th cousins to everyone on her level. She is third cousin once removed to Kenneth Albert and Diddie and 4th cousin once removed to Sandi. One issue is that this DNA tree does not match exactly with the tree I just made.

However, I just used someone else’s tree to get the above tree. William Henry matches on both trees. Also Priscilla and Samuel are on both trees. I don’t see John and Rebecca Dicks on the Ancestry tree.
Looking at the DNA Matches
First, I’ll compare all the descendants of Christopher Dicks born about 1784 to each other. Theoretically the DNA will sort out to these five different lines:

The green boxes represent those who have had their DNA tested. I say the DNA theoretically sorts out. However, some people are in more than one line, and some people are related on other family lines such as the Crann family that I have mentioned. Further, the DNA can get a bit fickle.

These are all the comparisons, though I may have missed a few. The way it is supposed to work is that the brighter colors would be within the outlined boxes. This worked for the Adams, Christopher and Joyce Lines. Not so well for Frances and Robert Dicks.
Dicks Triangulation Groups (TGs) and Brenda
Next, I look at Triangulation Groups. These are groups of three people or more that match each other on the same segment of Chromosome. This is supposed to indicate a common ancestor. To simplify things, I’ll concentrate on the TGs that Brenda is in.
TG02

This TG is made up of Forrest, Brenda, Joan and Esther.
Here is how it would look:

This has the lines going up to Christopher Dicks born 1874. However, I suspect that Esther’s great-grandmother was Elizabeth Crann, so this TG may be from the unproven Crann side on Esther and Joan’s side. Later I hope to bring in some people who are only related on the Crann side to see if I can tease any of this DNA out.
TG03: Brenda, Randy, Forrest and Joan


These are interesting TGs as they are from such far-flung families. These are actually the best TGs. I think of them as having a broad, steady base. Also, like the previous TG, there is a good possibility that the connection could also be on the Crann side.
TG06 – A Simpler Triangulation Group

This TG only includes three people.

The TGs between these two groups tend to confirm my theory that the unknown Elizabeth on Barry’s Line is a Crann.
TG06 – Another Far-Flung TG


In this case, there is not another additional Crann family involved, so this is more likely to be Dicks DNA. This tree is between the Adams Line and the Crann Line of Dicks.
TG07 – On Robert Dicks or Jane Crann


TG08 – Another TG from the Christopher Line


Again, it is possible that this is a Crann DNA match. Another thing is, that I was expecting Brenda to be in the Christopher (born 1812) group as her Dicks ancestor was from Harbour Buffet. It wouldn’t hurt to check the genealogy at some point also.
TG09


This TG is from three Lines of Dicks and more likely to be just Dicks DNA.
TG11 – Another Dicks or Crann TG?

I won’t bother putting up the circles and lines. This is another TG with Christopher Dicks descendants Esther, Joan, and Elaine.
An Interesting Possibility for TG16

Here Brenda is in a TG with Brenda, Esther, Molly and Howie. However, Karen matches Esther in the same area of the TG, but isn’t in the TG. My understanding is that Karen matches Esther on Esther’s paternal side – that is, the Upshall/Dicks side. That could mean that this TG represents the Dicks from Esther’s maternal side. I haven’t figured out where the Joseph Dicks Line fits in yet. The Joseph Dicks was also partially a guess based on a suggestion from a Dicks genealogist.

I have Esther’s maternal Dicks going to Joseph Dicks. He was supposed to have been born in 1810 at Famish Gut.
TG16B – Howie, Diddie and Brenda

This should represent the same more recent common ancestors as TG07.
TG18 – Diddie, Nelson, Brenda, and Esther


Apologies to Diddie as she went off the page to the right. This is most likely an older Dicks TG.
TG20

This is like TG18, except Nelson is not in this TG and Kenneth is. Kenneth could be in the Burton or Crann Line, so that makes this one confusing.
More on the Cranns
In my analysis above, I was having trouble figuring out often which DNA was Crann and which was Dicks. There is one possible way to determine this. That is to look at things through the Crann side. Here is a tree I have:

This is a Crann tree that I came up with based on, again, guesses, suggestions and DNA. The green line on the right is especially interesting. That is because these two lines are in New Zealand. That means that they have had no intermarriage with Newfoundland people. There is also a Samuel Crann Line. The Jane Crann/Robert Dicks Line is now outdated. Here is an updated tree:

Brenda Has Two Crann Lines
This is if I have my Dicks chart right:

Brenda descends from John Crann twice because Albert George Dicks married Jane Eliza Crann. Jane Eliza also descends from John Crann through Henry William Crann.

Looking at Crann DNA
I have already looked at Crann DNA in the past. At the top of the page, there is a caterogry for Crann Blogs. In a previous Blog, I started with Chromosome 22 as many people matched there. Why not start with the most complicated?

From what I can tell the people in orange or gold are in a Crann TG. Heather, Wayne and Marjorie have no Newfoundland ancestors as they are from New Zealand. Here is how I have it:

The ones in orange have as their common ancestor Henry Crann born 1757 and her wife Elizabeth Collens. Ironically, I haven’t proven this relationship by genealogy. I did show somewhere that there was an Elizabeth Crann who could have married Christopher Dicks. Now Brenda and Richard are not in the TG. Richard is interesting as he is a Crann descendant with no known Dicks ancestry. It looks like the connection between Richard and Brenda would be on the wife of John Crann born 1791. One good thing about genetic genealogy is that very often there are only two choices. We have two of each chromosome, so if it is not one chromosome then it is the other. If Brenda and Richard had Crann DNA at this segment of Chromosome 22, it should have matched with the other Crann DNA. Another interesting point is that Richard matched with Esther from position 17-22M on Chromosome 22. This would technically be Crann DNA as Esther is in the Crann TG at that point. At position 22, Richard’s DNA switched from Crann DNA to John Crann’s wife Elizabeth’s DNA.
TG02 – On to Simpler Things

There is some irony in this TG. Karen was put into the Christopher Dicks Line by DNA and now she is put into the Crann Line by DNA. I won’t bother drawing this out. However, the presence of the people from New Zealand highlighted in green brings the common ancestors back to Netherbury, Dorset, England.
Crann TG04


This is one of those triangles with a very stable base. I suspect that Brenda’s actual path of DNA should be through her great-grandmother Jane Eliza Crann as she is a much closer relative than her third great-grandmother Jane Crann.
Crann TG08 – No Dicks Required

Richard is the only one on the left side of the chart with no Dicks ancestry:

Crann TG10

We generally want a relationship further away than a sibling for a TG. Heather is the one that isn’t a sibling and she makes this a TG:

Molly and Howie are in more than one Dicks Line. This segment of Chromosome 10 identifies which lineage this is.
Crann TG11 – Heather, Esther and Joan

Crann TG18 – Very Similar

Here Elaine fills in for her sister Joan. There is one difference. It appears that Ken, Richard and Barry are in a TG. This looks a lot like TG22:

So if we ever want to figure out who married John Crann born 1791, we may be able to find out through other people that match on these segments of Chromosomes 18 and 22 that didn’t match our New Zealand friends.
Next Painting Joan’s Chromosomes
I have been painting Joan’s chromosomes. Perhaps there is some more painting I could do here. I’m not sure if I should just paint the Dicks DNA or also the Crann. I’ll go for both. Here is where Joan matches Brenda:

However, there is a problem. I have a Crann Tree and a Dicks Tree. If these trees are right, then there may be more of a chance that Brenda would match Joan along Brenda’s two Crann Lines. I guess I’ll skip that for now. Joan’s matches with New Zealand seem more unambiguous, even though I haven’t proven the genealogy.
Here is where Joan and Heather match:

Here is what I have so far for Joan:

In the key, the part below the line is Joan’s maternal side. I have up to Christopher Dicks. I’ll add Crann and Collens with Heather’s matches to Joan:

On Chromosome 8, there is new DNA. On Chromosome 11, the DNA is overlapping with Fred Upshall.

That is not a problem. It is telling me that Joan matches her Upshall grandfather there, but her grandfather got at least that portion of his DNA from Crann or Collens on Chromosome 11.
Adding Anne
Anne is a good match to Joan:

Unfortunately, I left her out of the Crann analysis. Sorry, Anne. I’ll paint her in as Dicks/Crann:

I just included Joan’s maternal side above for clarity. This shows that Joan’s maternal side is 37% painted in.
Others in the Dicks/Crann Line:
Randy

I circled that part that was not overlapping with others. Actually Chromosomes 14 and 21 overlap with Fred Upshall’s DNA, but Chromosome 3 is totally new.

Edward

Karen
Karen is a special case as she was added based on her DNA match more than documented genealogy. She should also have Upshall and Dicks DNA. It looks like I hae already painted Karen to Joan’s DNA. Chromosome 9 is interesting. The fact that Edward matches there tells me that long segment is DNA from Catherine Dicks. That is because Edward matches on the Dicks side.
Wallace
Wallace is someone else, like Anne, that I forgot.

I think that Wallace is on MyHeritage, so that makes it difficult to compare with others that have uploaded to Gedmatch.
Painting in Christopher Dicks Born 1784 Married Margaret
I’ve got the matches. I might as well paint them onto my mother-in-law’s chromosomes. That will give me a new color.
The Adams, Burton and Joyce Lines
I’ll assume that a match with someone from the Adams Line will have as their common ancestors Christopher Dicks or his wife Margaret.
The first match in the Adams Line is with Sandra:

Sandra showed a new maternal segment on Chromosome 2 for Joan. One Chromosome 11, Sandra shows that the matches above her are from Dicks and not Crann.
Judy is the first that I mapped on Joan’s chromosomes from the Burton Line. Judy seems to have an affinity to Wallace:

The Other Wallace
Next I painted Wallace from Burton Line. I was glad I did because the DNAPainter showed that I had already painted in this Wallace under Upshall Dicks by mistake. There are two Wallace’s: one on the Dicks/Burton Line and one on Joan’s Upshall/Dicks Line. Judy’s affinity to Wallace should have been where Wallace was in Green, not blue.
I corrected my mistake and now have a Wallace L on the Dicks/Burton Line and Wallace C on the Upshall/Dicks Line.

Now that I corrected my mistake, Joan is up to 30% mapped overall and 41% mapped on her maternal side.
One Step Back on the Dicks Line
Then there is the father of Christopher Dicks. I think his name was Christopher Dicks also, but I’m not sure. One tree has him born 1748 and his wife as Susannah. Here he is on top of the Henry and Christopher Dicks Lines:

That means that if Joan matches people on the Henry Dicks Line, one probable set of common ancestors would be Christopher? Dicks born 1748 and Susannah. That added a little to the map:

Summary and Conclusions
- First I looked at Brenda’s family tree. There are two places where Brenda could match my wife’s family on the Crann Line. There is one place on Brenda’s tree where they could match on the Dicks Line.
- Next I looked at Triangulation Groups. There were a lot of Triangulation Groups found between the Dicks/Crann Line that Brenda is in and my wife’s family’s Christopher Dicks Line. Based on DNA, I suspect that Christopher Dicks born 1812 married Elizabeth Crann.
- Next I looked at trees from a Crann perspective. The advantage of this was that there were Crann descendants in that group that did not have Dicks ancestry. Matches with them would be on the Crann side. The down side was that I did not look at other people outside those I suspected of having Crann ancestry. I also note that the common ancestors from Dorset, England also had a Collens name. I don’t know if this Collens is the same as the Collins from Newfoundland.
- Finally I looked at DNA Painting for my mother-in-law Joan. By painting the matches it was also possible to separate some lines where the DNA could be from one common ancestor or the ancestor’s wife. I was also able to correct a previous DNAPainting error that I had made.
- This exercise helped me to re-start the DIcks DNA Project and update it.