Jane’s Frazer Triangulation Groups

This is part of my series on the DNA of the Frazers originating in North Roscommon. This project is further split between the 2 main Irish Frazer lines of County Roscommon. The 2 brothers from the early 1700’s were Archibald and James. As of now, there are 4 Triangulation Groups (TGs) for the Archibald Line. Unfortunately we have not yet found any TGs for the James Line. I remarked to Jane, one of the Frazer testers, recently that she was in all 4 TGs. So I thought that I would run the Gedmatch Triangulation Utility for her to see what showed up in the TGs she was already in.

A Summary of Jane’s Archibald Line TGs

This chart is a relative chart showing the various TGs. It is not from Jane’s perspective, but includes how everyone matches everyone else in the project. Under the column labeled ‘Match’ it shows who is matching whom.

There is a lot of information in the above chart. Here are a few observations:

• These TGs are on Chromosomes 1, 4, and 12
• The Most Recent Common Ancestors (MRCAs) for Chromosome 1 and 12 are Richard Frazer (and his unknown wife)
• The MRCAs for Chromosome 4 are Archibald Frazer and Ann Stinson
• JH, SH and HHM are myself and my 2 sisters.
• The ancestors shown in pinkish colors are those specific to a closer relationship. For example, BR and my family have common ancestors in the early 1800’s. They are Violet Frazer and James Frazer (believed to be 1st cousins). However, as Violet descended from Richard Frazer and James Frazer did not, this DNA had to have come down through Violet Frazer.
• There are 2 TGs on Chromosome 4
• Note that Jane is in each TG
• On Chromosome 4 note that Pat and BR are 2nd cousins. Their match with each other extends to both TGs in that Chromosome, but they do not match with Jane, MFA or DV on the second TG.
• The most distant relationships represented in the above TGs are fourth cousins once removed.

Running the Gedmatch Triangulation Utility

This utility looks at least three people that match each other three different ways. The utility is not infallible. The best way to do triangulation is by hand, but the computer is good at doing tedious things and this is one of those tedious things. The results of the triangulation in the 4 areas shown above:

• Jane has TGs in Chromosome 1
• Gedmatch showed no TGs in Chromosome 4 for Jane
• Gedmatch showed TGs in Chromosome 12

First, Why No TGs in Chromosome 4?

There are a few reasons. The main reason is that the Gedmatch utility can only handle so many TGs. The ones in Chromosome 4 are small. They only have 3 people in each TG. That is the minimum. Also the matches were on the lower side. Because Gedmatch can only handle so many TGs, the smaller ones are not included. So I believe that the TGs are there, but just below Gedmatch’s radar, so to speak. Here is what Gedmatch’s Triangulation Utility results looks like for Jane in the area of Chromosome 4 that we are interested in (134-174,000,000):

Above we see portions of TGs before and after the area we are interested in on Chromosome 4. To the left of the image above, I left out two columns. In those 2 columns are the 2 Gedmatch numbers that match with Jane to form a the TGs.

Jane’s Chromosome 1 TGs

This is a TG with Richard Frazer b. 1777 as the MRCA. Interestingly, Jane didn’t know she was in this line until after she took the DNA test. She triangulated with others that did know they were descended from Richard and was added in based on that. Part of the reason for this exercise is to go on a fishing expedition. We are looking for others that are related. They may be related on Richard’s side or his unknown wife’s side. What if none of the others in the Chromosome 1 TG were related to Richard Frazer, but another common name came up? This could mean that that surname could be the surname of Richard’s unknown wife.

The area that we are interested in at Chromosome 1 is from position 198 to 231,000,000. Here is what Gedmatch shows for some of the first TGs on that section of Chromosome 1. The previous small TG is added for reference.

The 3 large green bars above are from the Frazer DNA Project. They represent Jane’s matches with:

• MFA and PF (my second cousin once removed)
• MFA and HHM (my sister) and lastly,
• PF and HHM

So these 4 make a TG of very large size. It is somewhat unusual that such large segments would make it to us from 1777! The first 3 shorter green segments represent someone that we likely don’t know. This person is also a match and in a TG with Jane, MFA, PF and HHM. That means we should all share a common ancestor with this person. It could be Richard Frazer, his unknown wife or and ancestor of either Richard or his wife. I’ll call this first short TG TG1A.

TGs Within a Larger TG At Chromosome 1

Next, there is a long line of shorter green TG matches below the 3rd longer bar. Notice that this shorter bar is to the right of the shorter bar above that had our first unknown TG person. In this group there are 5 new people. I’ll call this second short group of matches TG1B. Perhaps I will contact them to see if they know about their Irish ancestors. Here is that group as represented at Gedmatch:

These 5 new people match Jane and the other 3 in the long green bars, but not the people in the shorter bars above or below them. Perhaps one these 5 people will have excellent records reaching back to their ancestors in Ireland.

If you catch the progression, the next group will be TG1C. Again, these are all contained within the larger TG. TG1B ended around 221 (million). TG1C starts at 223. In TG1C we have BR. We know him as he is in our Frazer DNA project already with more than one known Frazer ancestor. The next image picks up at BR’s 3 short segments. It will be (you guessed) TG1D. There is some overlap with BR, but not enough for a significant match:

The next 3 matches after BR are all over 20 cM. This could be a hint, but, as it turns out, this person was adopted. I have been in touch with him before due to the size of the match. This person is, however, very interested in the Frazer DNA project. In TG1D, there are 4 new people. However, 2 have the same last name. The list looks long, but one person seems to be in twice.

Chromosome 1 Summary

All of these TGs are based on Jane’s results so she matches all of these. Also TG1A-D are all contained within TG1

• TG1 – MFA, PF, HHM – all in the Frazer DNA Project. These are the big matches
  • TG1A – One new person
  • TG1B – 5 new people
  • TG1C – BR – Already in the Frazer DNA Project
  • TG1D – 4 people. One I’ve contacted previously who was adopted.

Chromosome 12 TG

This is fortunately a smaller TG. I have the previous TG in for reference.

This TG is pretty much as I had it. However, there is a new person. The last 2 small matches represent that new person and how s/he matches with Jane, myself and one of my sisters. So what we have above is a larger TG in the middle. Then before is a smaller TG of 4 bars. After there is another small TG of 2 bars positioned to the right of the 1st small group. The Triangulation Group in the middle ties the other 2 together.

Summary

• This exercise was to look at the Gedmatch Triangulation tool to see if it would result in unknown cousins
• The goal is to start with the known genealogy and known TGs and add some unknown people to the genealogy and TGs
• I’ve written all the new people I found in the Gedmatch TGs. Now I just have to wait and see if anyone replies.