Week 16 - DNA - Combining Genealogy with Genetic Genealogy

Week 16: DNA – Combining Genealogy with Genetic Genealogy

I’ve had to do a fair amount of study this week on DNA before I could put my first sentence down on paper.

My wife and I have known the basics about DNA for five or more years. We have each taken two autosomal DNA tests, one from Ancestry.com and the other from 23andme. We’ve marveled at our growing lists of DNA matches showing hundreds and now thousands of 1st thru 6th cousins.

Until I started looking at it this week, I had not had any technique to zero in on all those DNA matches for adding to our trees. I had not discovered a way to identify how I am related to each of my matches except my closest few (one daughter, one 1^st cousin, two  1^st cousins 1x removed, a couple of 2^nd cousins and only about 3 or 4 - 3^rd cousins).

My wife would tell you I am sometimes not good at reading and following instructions, a case in point, Ancestry.com’s ThruLines^TM.  Earlier this week I searched for, Use of Ancestry.com ThruLines^TM  and here is what I found.

 ThruLines^TM shows you how you may be related to your DNA matches. ThruLines^TM are based upon information from family trees; they don’t change the information in trees. If there’s inaccurate information in your tree, you may receive inaccurate ThruLines^TM. We use the family tree linked to your test to find people who are in your tree and are also in your matches’s linked trees. ThruLines^TM are available for ancestors through 5^th great-grandparents. ThruLines^TM wouldn’t appear for 6^th great-grandparents and beyond.  Source: Ancestry.com

After struggling with that a bit, I opened my family tree on Ancestry.com, then opened ThruLines^TM and found I have thirty-two  5^th great-grandparents in my tree (16 couples).  The first 5^th great-grandparent I went to was a man named Ebenezer Crowell (1698-1771). 

 

ThruLines for Ebenezer Crowell are the same for his wife Mercy Gorham

Below Ebenezer Crowell, I found direct connections through two of his daughters (Temperance and Daty Crowell) to four of my DNA matches (one 5^th cousin 1x removed and three 6^th cousins), while my line is on the right through Gorham Crowell Sr. There are thirteen descendants of Ebenezer Crowell that show as not yet in my tree (displayed within dotted line boxes). If I understand all of this correctly, I believe all I have to do to add these newly identified ancestors into my tree is to work my way down checking all the hints, name by name, along the ThruLines^TM, to my four newly identified cousins.

This has the potential of adding a total of thirteen deceased ancestors into my tree plus four living DNA matched cousins for a total of seventeen new entries. The presence of my four DNA matches below Ebenezer Crowell and his descendants, in my mind, validates my DNA connection to these seven generations of descendants. I’ll just need to do due diligence to make sure the names, dates, and sources are all correct, a genealogy job I enjoy doing very much.

One 5^th great-grandparent couple down, 15 to go.