More on the DNA of the Dicks/Burton Line of Newfoundland

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.