Why I did a DNA test with Ancestry

I did a DNA test with Ancestry because I wanted to try and break down some brick walls. I did the test and had more questions than answers.

 

• 2 New Ancestor Discovery
• 16 DNA Circles
• 59 Shared Ancestor Hints (Green Leaf)
• 158 pages
• 205 4th cousins or closer

 

I think the DNA ethnicity is fun! I think the range is too broad. It was fun to compare with my other family members. It’s great to get the Green Leaf for Shared Ancestor’s because then you are correct in your research. I wish it would catch various spellings.

What makes me mad!

People that took the DNA test and do NOT have a tree. What is the point by wasting the money and not building a tree? The trees can be built on Ancestry for free, you do not have to have or keep a paid subscription for that information. What costs is looking at and saving the documents to the tree. I don’t always keep a paying subscription. I only pay half price for my subscription when I have 1. I am currently waiting for that magical email with a discount! I use Family Search most of the time and usually because their search algorithm is better than Ancestry.

I know it is hard to find the time! I agree with that. The real world takes precedence like my living family and my job. Also, keeping a house clean and having fun. But, researching my ancestors is “FUN!” I can’t always search for my dead ancestors, although the are a lot quieter. I would rather that be my full time job but it doesn’t pay the bills. I also understand it is hard to contact people, return emails or messages. I am terrible at that also. I think about it but can’t always find the time or sit down and  type it up.

I understand the need to keep the tree private. If the person is marked living then the information won’t be displayed, if the tree is public. People steal pictures and act like they were the original owners but, I believe in sharing information. People don’t look at the information correctly or just copy trees and they don’t do it correctly. Yes, that happens…a lot from what I’ve seen. It helps to follow the paper trail of your ancestor along their journey. There are also the emotions if you were adopted. The more reason to make trees public is to get the correct information displayed. Although some people’s username has been more revealing and I’ve been able to figure out their tree, from that.  I kept mine private while I did some major cleanup on it. Then, I made it public and the benefit has been greater. I am fascinated with the DNA circles to see which family members match to an ancestor. I have 16! I love the potential of the ‘New Ancestor Discoveries.’ That the same DNA markings are shared and they have the same surname as some ancestors and are most likely related but trying to find the paper trail…is the issue. I finally had 2 show up for me personally and they showed up for my paternal grandfather also who has the most brick walls. Like I wrote earlier “more questions than answers.”

Suggestion!

Please build a tree, if it only contains the names of grandparents, their parents names and so on. That would be more helpful than no tree. Or connect the tree that you have but have never connected it.

Thank You with a Big Shout Out to the people who have taken the DNA test, connected their tree, and it has names in it!!!

I’ve had my mother, father (I just sent in his test), my mother’s sister, maternal grandmother, paternal grandfather, and paternal grandmother take the test. Unluckily, my maternal grandfather passed away before he took the test. Having more people take the test has given different results and made it more interesting with a cherry topping of fascinating.

My Mother:

• 0 New Ancestor Discovery
• 10 DNA Circles
• 60 Shared Ancestor Hints (Green Leaf)
• 103 pages
• 169 4th cousins or closer

I like looking at the difference in stats between my mom and her sister.

My Mother’s Sister, a.k.a My Aunt

• 1 New Ancestor Discovery
• 10 DNA Circles
• 38 Shared Ancestor Hints (Green Leaf)
• 115 pages
• 235 4th cousins or closer

Maternal Grandmother:

• 0 New Ancestor Discoveries
• 5 DNA Circles
• 33 Shared Ancestor Hints (Green Leaf)
• 101 pages
• 172 4th cousins or closer

Paternal Grandfather:

• 6 New Ancestor Discoveries
• 0 DNA Circles
• 10 Shared Ancestor Hints (Green Leaf)
• 241 pages
• 404 4th cousins or closer

Paternal Grandmother:

• 3 New Ancestor Discoveries
• 6 DNA Circles
• 55 Shared Ancestor Hints (Green Leaf)
• 154 pages
• 302 4th cousins or closer

 

Hopefully, more discoveries to come this year…

 

 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Roy TRENT

Throw Back Thursday ~ Jessie Opal CONN FENN BRITTON

 

 

Wordless Wednesday ~ KLEYSTEUBER

Letter to My Ancestor ~ William J. STEPHENS

One of the FaceBook communites that I’m in for Ancestry, has had Jane writing letters to her ancestors. She is awesome and after reading her letters, I started mentally writing mine. I finally decided to put mine in print. I’m hoping it will help me, like it helps Jane.

Happy Searching!

Dear William J. Stephens,

If… that is your real name? I’m not sure anymore. You are very elusive in records and there are many with the generic name William J. Stephens or maybe’s it’s spelled STEVENS or STEAPHENS. What does your middle initial stand for James, Jacob, Joseph, John or any other J name? You are my 3^rd great grandpa. What is your story? Who were your parents? Did they die of disease? In the 1880 census, Illinois is listed as your father’s place of birth and Ohio was listed as your mother’s place of birth. Is it true or did you even know or did somebody guess? You are not listed in the 1850 census. I believe you were living with Risdon Kirby and Elizabeth RUSSELL VAUGHN/VAUGHAN KIRBY in the 1855 census in Henderson County, Illinois. I know that is you listed in the 1860 census with them and Elizabeth’s son William and his wife Mary. Elizabeth is Anna’s, your wife’s; great aunt and William who married his first cousin Mary are also cousins to Anna. I can only imagine how you met Anna at a RUSSELL family gathering. It seems like the RUSSELL’s arrived in bulk from Dorchester, Maryland to Henderson and Hancock counties in Illinois. In the 1870 census you had already married Anna RUSSELL and are living near William Asbury VAUGHAN/VAUGHN. You named your 5^th child after him in 1880. Where did you and Anna get married? Was it in Illinois or Iowa? You and your family are listed in the 1880 census with the STEAPHENS spelling. Then, you and your family head to southern Illinois…I’m guessing to be near the RUSSELL’s. They lived down in White and Saline County, Illinois. Would you have died in your 40’s if you had stayed in Northern Illinois? Did you die in Illinois or Indiana? Did they come to Indiana sooner than I think? Where are you buried? Are some of your children buried with you? Only your son, my 2^nd great grandpa, LeRoy lived to an old age. Your oldest son Jacob lived until his 40’s. Jacob had 2 daughters, Anna and Edna. I tracked Edna’s family but Anna’s seemed to disappear. I wonder if there was a name change? She married multiple times. Another question, why didn’t Jacob put his last name on the marriage license when he married Hannah Coleman? He just put Jacob Lester. Was he mad at you? Why the secrets? The government gave me security clearance.

I’ve often wondered what you looked like. I’m assuming you sported a beard. At least your wife Anna was kind enough to leave her photo.

 

Where.. Oh, where… are you? That is the question…

 

Your 3^rd Great Granddaughter

Family Tree Wanted Update

Hello,

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. I have mentally been writing this post for several months.  I am still researching my family history. I have been super busy with my kids, family life, and work. I work on my family history in any little spare time I get. I used Ancestry.com for awhile, I needed to clean up my tree, and I’ve still been scanning photos. I have many to share on Family Tree Wanted FaceBook page. I have made wonderful connections with people and hope to make many more in the future. Using FaceBook has been very beneficial for making connections. I’ve also gotton some great ideas.  I need to find the time and visit a couple road trip locations because the documents are not available online yet. There is never enough time. Too bad I can’t be paid to research my own family tree. LOL! 🙂

Happy Searching!

This was a draft blog from a while ago. The thought was there, just not the follow through to finish.

“I have been working on some different things lately. I finally signed up for Ancestry. They had a good six month deal. I have used it for free but now I have a better understanding of how it works. I have been building my tree on Ancestry since 2011 or from the one I imported. I realized recently that I had a lot of extra junk in it so I have been working to clean it up. I had been sharig my tree but decided to unshare it for a bit. It always bothered me the way people linked to pictures or documents that I had scanned in without telling how they were related. I understand it better now but I don’t want to link to any pictures or documents without telling the person thank you for sharing the information and how I am related. I think this is all about collaboration.
I did connect with a couple of woderful ladies using Find A Grave that are doing MONROE research. There is a lot documented on the MONROE family but it has been fun sharing pictures and stories.”

 

 

 

 

Old Photographs ~ Article from Readers Digest ~ “Mothers in Hiding”

I found this in Readers Digest the other day. I hadn’t ever thought about mother’s being disguised in the pictures. I always thought it was amazing that the children sat still for the period of time it took to take the picture.  I can barely catch my children smiling and standing still long enough with a digital camera.   Now, I will have to go back through all my old photographs and see if there is anybody disguised. The photos I’ve recently reviewed do not have anybody.

I found some articles with more pictures of hidden mother’s. They are kind of scary and creepy and that doesn’t even include the one’s that are post mortem.

From Daily Mail:

Old portraits of children with creepy ‘ghostmothers’ in the background show how far mums would go for a good photo ~ June 6, 2012

Pretend your mother is NOT disguised as a chair, children: Extraordinary photos capture 19th century fad for draping mum in a sheet in family portraits  ~ February 6, 2013

 

Can You Find the Hidden Mothers in These Old Photographs?

I found this naming pattern form on a FaceBook Genealogy Group

I thought this was interesting to read. I had not seen it written out until now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I got this list of naming patterns form another list I am on hope this helps.

 

1st son=father’s father

2nd son=mother’s father

3rd son=father

4th son=father’s oldest brother

5th son=father’s 2nd oldest brother or mother’s oldest brother

1st dau=mother’s mother

2nd dau=father’s mother

3rd dau=mother

4th dau=mother’s oldest sister

5th dau=mother’s 2nd oldest sister or father’s oldest sister

 

IRISH 1800’s

 

First daughter was named after the Paternal Grandmother

Second daughter was named after the Maternal Grandmother

First son was named after the Paternal Grandfather

Second son was named after the Maternal Grandfather

Then alternate names using the Grandmother’s,Granfather’s, Aunt’s and Uncle’s 

names.

 

SCOTTISH 1700-1800 and early DUTCH

 

First Daughter was named for her Maternal Grandmother

Second Daughter was named for her Paternal Grandmother

Third Daughter was named after her Mother

Other Daughters were named after other Family Members

First son was named after his Paternal Grandfather (sometimes Maternal)

Second Son was named after his Maternal Grandfather (sometimes Paternal)

Third son was named after his Father

 

ENGLISH and WELSH 1700-1800’s

1st dau= Mother’ Mother

2nd dau= Mother’s Father’s Mother

3rd dau= Mother

4th dau= Mother’s oldest Sister

1st son= Father’s Father

2nd son= Mother’s Father

3rd son=Father

4th son= Father’s oldest Brother

 

OLD GERMAN

 

The first name of each Daughter was usually the first name of the Mother

The first name of the Son was usually the first name of the Father

 

Often times the middle name of each child was the name of the baby’s 

baptismal sponsor and they were usually called by his/her middle name.

 

 TNGenWeb Project FaceBook Group

This thread:

• [GEORGIA] Nameing Patterns by RFAirEagle”

Wordless Wednesday ~ Disabled American Veterans of the World War

Amaneunsis Monday ~ Roy FENN ~ Letter Jan 27, 1947