An early morning zoom with Ancestry

From time to time the bods at Ancestry.com invite groups of genealogists along to online briefing sessions. As someone who doesn't like getting up at dawn I miss most of these events. 

Today's event was repeated - one session was at 2am my time and the other 7:30am. I signed up for the 7:30am session in case I was conscious by then. Fortunately I was awake before 7am so I grabbed my laptop and earbuds from my study and crawled back under the covers.

Rearranged genealogy apps and widget

On logging in I saw several familiar faces from Australia, New Zealand and the US. The session was hosted by Crista Cowan accompanied by a team of Ancestry tech guys. I was pleased that I attended because the session focused on the Ancestry mobile apps which I had installed as soon as they were released.

Pre-Covid I often used the Ancestry App and the AncestryDNA app on my Android phone but, while
homebound over the past 18 months, I have only used the desktop application to communicate, collaborate and research with Ancestry. I was impressed by the demos of all the new features in these apps. The functionality has improved heaps and many new features have been added, these apps now appear have most of the features of the desktop product. The tech guys online took note of the user comments in the chat and will consider points raised for further development.

I must have been sleeping under a rock because I was unaware of the Ancestry widgets (one available in Australia, one to come). I thought I'd log into my apps and follow along and install the widget while watching the presentation but I had been logged out of the apps and couldn't remember my password. 

My first job after the session ended was to grab my phone, locate my password and log in to my apps. As I wanted to install the Ancestry widget I had to move all the icons around on the screen that has my genealogy apps. With a two-three hour car ride ahead of me tomorrow I have another option to keep me amused.

Ancestry has recognised that many of us live on our mobile devices and has created a fabulous mobile option that will give us access to all our Ancestry data when we are on the move. I'm so pleased I joined in to learn about it this morning. 

Ancestry DNA testers please download your data

I spent a few hours yesterday painting (or plotting) my Chromosome Matches with Jonny Perl's fabulous DNAPainter but the results were disappointing. I was able to paint in the data for 32 of my confirmed cousins from three sites: Family Tree DNA, Gedmatch and MyHeritage. I don't have any confirmed matches on Living DNA or 23andMe accounts.

As long as one is methodical the process of painting one's matches is quite easy. I have a very pretty diagram that maps from those 32 cousins only 24% of my DNA with 122 segments painted.

My chromosome map so far.

The good news is that I've had more success with my daughter's DNA, I have mapped 39% of hers. My poor husband's map is sadly very empty.

My problem is that the majority of my confirmed matches, 137 to be exact, are in the Ancestry database and one cannot use DNA Painter to compare with one's matches that are only in the Ancestry Database. Currently one can only get the info to paint matches directly from Family Tree DNA, Gedmatch and MyHeritage but the good news is that one can get one's data from Ancestry and upload them to another site than paint away. There's plenty of help on the Ancestry support site to enable you for downoading and on the other sites for uploading.

 Only a handful of those 137 Ancestry matches have downloaded their data and added it to the another database but more than 100 of my confirmed matches only have their data in Ancestry. Imagine what a pretty and nearly complete picture I could paint if these 100 people uploaded to another database where I can compare ourchromosomes .

I implore anyone who only has their data in Ancestry to upload it to Gedmatch (or one of the other sites mentioned) where one can compare one's data with the matches in that database. Uploading to Gedmatch is free, the only cost is your time.

Please give it a go and if you need assistance call on one of your genimate who will guide you through the process..... and there endeth the rant.

The ironing's not done ....

.... and it's all Shelley Crawford's fault.

Since she wrote about her network graphs for Visualising Ancestry Matches last year last year I have been hooked. Shelley posted detailed  instructions for creating these very useful visual representations of one's Ancestry matches (and beyond 4th cousin level too). What was easy for a cluey chick like Shelley was hard labour for this old girl. I persevered and created my first graph which helped me work out a few connections.

Since I created my first masterpiece my number of Ancestry matches has grown greatly. In October before I went on holidays I started the process again but it took me ages and my resulting graph looked like a dog's breakfast.

Shelley must have realised that there were quite a few people like me who didn't really have the patience and persistence to create these useful things because in December she announced her ConnectedDNA service. For a small fee one can avoid the headaches associated with creating network graphs by contracting Shelley to do the dirty work for you.

I placed my order and coughed up my $80 on Saturday. I was sent a link to upload some files to Dropbox for Shelley to work on. When I opened my email Sunday morning my files were waiting for me.   I received four files : the most amazing spreadsheet that listed all my matches with lots of relevant data, my very pretty network graph in two formats (.pdf and .jpg) and  a group map that gives an overview of my pretty graphs.

My pretty graph looks something like this but it also has names on each of the dots

The pretty graphs show clusters of relationships of my matches so I can see at a glance who matches with whom and therefore deduce where in my tree a relationship may be (very handy for those matches who are treeless and have meaningless kit names).

I love the spreadsheet and have gone down a rabbit hole today adding the notes from my own basic sheet of matches into Shelley's.  I have already been able to work out where a few more matches fit into my tree. I'm so impressed that I want to order graphs for all of the kits I match on Ancestry and FTDNA but I had better work with what I have and save up some pennies for more graphs from ConnectedDNA.

Perhaps I could even do some ironing.

Biddy

Ancestry.com's new ethnicity results are in. My social media streams this morning are full of people sharing their new ethnicity results. Many users report that the results more accurately match their research and family lore.

My results more accurately reflect my traditional research. There is a marked increase in Irish/Scottish which is more in sync with my research. I am most excited about the 2% Melanesian which recognises my aboriginal ancestor, Biddy Sergeant. 

For 30 years distant cousins and I have tried to find some hard evidence to confirm family stories that the mother of my 2 x Great-Grandmother, Bridget Ann Hayward, was Biddy. This latest piece of scientific evidence convinces me that our family stories and circumstantial evidence are correct and that  Biddy is my 3 x Great Grandmother.

My latest ethnicity results from Ancestry DNA

Did you find any surprises in your results?

The Ancestry Bug

I hear that Ancestry now have over 7 Million samples in their DNA database and after travelling around for several weeks I am not surprised.

So often at dinner on our cruise the conversation would turn to DNA and I would announce that I had taken 5 DNA tests and uploaded my results to some other sites - on hearing this some of my fellow diners' views labelled me as either an expert or a nutcase. Most of the affluent retirees had taken Ancestry DNA tests (and it was always Ancestry - good marketing at work there) but were clueless about the DNA matching side of things, they were all focussed on the ethnicity results and that is all they wanted to know about. They did the tests because it is an in thing to do. I did mention that these could be inaccurate due to the reference groups used to make these predictions but my fellow diners just wanted to know where their ancestors came from and don't question the results.

I learn lots of lessons when I travel. These conversations have reminded me not to expect everyone on my lists of matches to share my enthusiasm for hunting down cousins and to accept that others have valid reasons for taking DNA tests.

Reflecting on this has made me revisit my four Ethnicity results (still waiting on Living DNA to come back). There are no major surprises but I am pleased that all tests seem to confirm my aboriginal ancestry as Melanesian, Oceania, Melanesia and Oceania. I am kicking myself that I didn't take screenshots of the results when I first tested so that I could monitor changes over time.

Following are my results as at 4 May 2018.

23andme Results

FTDNA Results

Ancestry Results

My Heritage Results

A Visit from Ancestry

At the last meeting of the Lake Macquarie Family History Group the guest speaker was Jason Reeve , Ancestry's man in Australia.

Jason kindly posed for me

Jason, a passionate genie, chose to focus on the Ancestry DNA product in his talk to the members. Jason was a lively and personable presenter. I was impressed by his knowledge of the product and his honest answers to questions posed by the audience. It was also pleasing that Jason didn't try to do a hard sell on his product.

As I was impressed by Jason's presentation I will be inviting Jason along to talk to the members of another FHG with which I am involved. I look forward to hearing him speak again.

Thwarted by a Dodgy Connection

Update: (Thanks to my genimate Shelley from TwigsofYore)
Why I am able to access these extra search functions is because I have the AncestryDNA Helper extension installed on my Chrome Browser. I didn't realise that this was giving me the extra search functions - Worth having.

--------------------------
Yesterday in response to a question put to me in a Facebook Group I decided to provide a response by video.

The Question

Firstly I spent an hour or so trying to get my Logitech webcam to work to no avail so I had to resort to the webcam on my laptop that provides a mediocre image. As my webcam is 5 years old I hopped online, read a slew of reviews and purchased a new model. I was wanting to broadcast screenshots so I wasn't so worried about my blurry image that appeared at either end of the broadcast.

I got set up made a first attempt at recording my response. On replaying this effort I discovered that the images of my screensharing were not displaying. The ADSL connection at our new home is dodgy. I moved my gear into the living room to be closer to the modem in case that helped. Attempt two wasn't any better.

I then went back into my geneacave and tried again. This effort was slightly better but there were still patches of the video where I am prattling on unsupported by my screenshared images. I think anyone who watches this video right through should be able to grasp what I am on about. I mulled over whether I should delete this recording or make it public. I opted for making it public in the hope that it may be of use to someone even though it is mediocre.

View it here:

Initial Frustration

I realise that many folk who undertake DNA testing want an element of anonymity. While I find this difficult to understand this I respect their wishes.

It would be so helpful if these folk could exercise a little creativity in assigning names to their kits. This morning I was doing a little tidying on the spreadsheet I use to record details of matches when I realised I hadn't filled in the column for shared centimorgans for one of my matches. So I logged into AncestryDNA and did a search for my D.W. match.

Surprise, Surprise! I found that I matched with 13 kits named D.W. This was both good and bad - I found a few new D.W. folk with shared matches but, as I was trying to focus on one closer match, I had to spend time going through each one to find which the one I wanted (I am easily distracted).  Some of the matches were helpfully labelled as D.W. (managed by Mickey Mouse) or some other name thus giving them a user name that was closer to a unique one but some were just plain D.W. (Grrr). Dare I risk going down some rabbit holes by searching for my S.G., S.L. and S.M. matches?

By the way I am pleased to report that D. W. is a confirmed 4th cousin with a match of 19.8 centimorgans shared across 2 DNA segments.

Might I suggest that testers who wish to remain anonymous put a bit more thought into their kit names and try to come up with something that makes their kits more easily identifiable by hapless potential cousins like me. Perhaps use initials and a few digits from a phone number  eg D.W. 1888 or an old number plate BRO040, or an old student number DW667234. The possibilities are endless.

And while I am at it might I also suggest that you fill out a few fields in your Ancestry profile that may give potential cousins a few clues about yourself. A geographical location would be good for starters.

It's a Time Thing

I tend to give priority to my DNA links on FTDNA and Gedmatch ... but then there is Ancestry.

Overwhelmed by my DNA matches on Ancestry DNA I've had to find a way to manage them all and get through the 115 pages of "New Matches" for less close matches that I haven't yet examined. At 50 per page that's 5750 matches.

Having had some success recently in finding a 3rd cousin and a 2nd cousin once removed in the Confidence: Moderate range that I had previously ignored I realised that I should further investigate these 115 pages but I am Time Poor.

Whilst I'd love to connect with all potential cousins including the beginners with no trees there is no way I can in this lifetime. So I have had to be ruthless.  

I am going through the new matches page by page. Firstly I check for shared matches as these may give me a clue to a relationship. Just this morning I worked out where a treeless match fitted in by looking at shared matches and then the contributions the user had made to Ancestry Message Boards. His message posts gave me a clue to where the match was. 4th cousin found.

Where they have them I check the matches' online trees (including their full trees) and lists of surnames for something that may ring a bell. If I work out a connection I send off a message, if not I move on. I will continue to respond to each and every message I receive but this is not an onerous task as I get such a paltry number.

In order to tame this beast I have to be cruel so it's if there is  No Shared Match, No Tree, No Surnames there will be no contact from me. Hopefully this will enable me to prune down my list of new matches (some of which are really old).

Diving into the too hard basket

I've invested a few $$$ into DNA tests for family members.

So far I have tested with Ancestry DNA and FTDNA and Mr GeniAus, My Mum and Mr GeniAus' cousins have tested with FTDNA. I uploaded my results to Gedmatch some time ago. I also have three more kits for other family members to use.

DNA research had been in my gunna pile or too hard basket.  I haven't devoted much time to chasing up connections. I wonder if this is because most of the approaches I made to other folk have been ignored. Added to this I am scientifically illiterate so this DNA stuff doesn't come easily to me.

Since my Mum's results came in I thought I should bite the bullet and devote some time to DNA. This has been my week for it. I have uploaded Mum's results and Mr GeniAus' results to Gedmatch plus I have uploaded gedcoms for all three of us. Unfortunately Mr GeniAus doesn't have any significant matches on Gedmatch . I have had fun with Mum's results and have identified and contacted several folk with whom we both match.

I only got an MTDNA test for one of Mr GeniAus' cousins - I will add an autosomal test for her. Another of his cousins is only on FTDNA with an autosomal test. I have been talking to her and she kindly given me access to her results so I am adding a Gedcom for her to FTDNA and uploading her results to Gedmatch  (at least Mr GeniAus is assured of one close match then).

As I have been disappointed with the lack of responses I have had from my closest matches I thought about identifying less close matches who might actually answer me. As a first step I downloaded all of Mum's and my matches and combined them into one spreadsheet. That's 2410 matches. I went through these and identified all of the email addresses that were obviously Australian plus a couple I recognised as belonging to genimates. I also identified those who were matches to both Mum and I. I  have started emailing people from these groups.

I am pleased to report a modicum of success. Both of the genimate's email addresses I recognised sent me replies. I have been envious of my genimate Sharn who has found connections with people we know. The good news is that I have a connection with Mr Cassmob, my genimate Pauleen's husband. I suspect that this is way back in Ireland - time will tell.

I had speedy responses from three other Australians I emailed but nothing from the overseas ones who connect with Mum and I.  A new 4th cousin match on my Irish Ryan/Harrington line responded to me. Once this lady gave me her grandparents' names it was easy to place her in my tree. It's such a good feeling when one can confirm one's paper trail with DNA.

There was another surprise in my mailbox yesterday - I got a message from a chap who matches both Mum and me. I responded straight away with some thoughts about where we may connect. I just hope he replies.

After trying to use Genome Mate Pro to track my matches I have left it in the too hard basket for the time being. I am sticking with my home grown spreadsheet. On comparing my columns with those suggested in a post on Kitty Cooper's blog I found that I had only missed two of the suggested columns: "Date – I use the date the Match was made (a sort on this column lets me see the most recent) and Tree – copy in the URL of any Tree or site for your Match’s Tree. I've added those." I also have the matches names in one column but will split these as suggested "Match Name (two columns for first and last names, which permit a sort either way)". I have an additional column for the geographical location of the match. That spreadsheet is just for managing my connections I am still pondering how I'll track matching segments.

I'm wanting to highlight my DNA matches in my Family Historian software and am hoping that some user who is cleverer than me will come up with a solution.

Should you want to see if you are a cousin of mine on Gedmatch please do a one-to one comparison with me T775101 or my Mum Elsie T929154.

Although my dive has been a challenge my vigorous attack on the too hard basket has given me an increased understanding of DNA and yielded some positive results.

More diving is on my agenda.

Spit Hit - Now I'm a Believer

One of the last geneatasks I carried out before my holiday was The Big Spit in which I provided a sample of saliva for DNA analysis by AncestryDNA.

As I was having so much fun on my travels I didn't think much about this until I was heading home. Conveniently two months later while waiting in the airport lounge in Bangkok I received notification that my results were in. I didn't look straight away but sat on the results until I got home.  So what did I find?

On my DNA page that was clearly set out I found a summary of my ethnicity estimate and links to my DNA matches. I was pleased to find that there were some matches. With the AncestryDNA  service being very new in Australia I thought that I might not find anyone close to me.

My Summary Page

I firstly selected the link to look at my Full Ethnicity Estimate. There were no great surprises there. As all my Dad's side hails from Ireland and Mum has a couple I expected this to be over 50%. The Scandanavian bit was at first a surprise as I have no known ancestry from that region but I guess I can put that down to marauding Vikings who invaded the British Isles (my convict roots?) centuries ago. I have D'arcy in my ancestry so that might account for the Iberian Peninsula percentage.  I was not able to confirm any Australian aboriginal ancestry as I have learnt that Ancestry does not test for this yet.

Full Ethnicity Estimate

It was then time to search for cousins. The results told me that 10 4th cousins or closer plus some more distant ones had been identified. I have been a bit sceptical about all this DNA stuff - how could a bit of spit contain so much information? I haven't the foggiest idea but the results I received confirmed some of the research I have done over the past 25 years.

I am so fortunate that two distant Australian cousins in my tree have undertaken AncestryDNA tests and that their results match mine closely - one as a 3rd cousin and one as a 4th cousin. How's that? Now I'm a believer. That's only two from my list of matches but I now have faith that these others must be related waaaaay back.

My closest match is a 3rd cousin named Michelle with whom I was in contact yonks ago. I had lost her details but have now reestablished communication and she is as excited as me. In a message she said "It is so exciting! I don't know a lot about this line so would love to collaborate with you." We are related through my ancestors James Pusell and Maria Tucker. I have been able to trace the Tucker line back to Datchet, Bucks but in spite of visits to Wigan and their archives and years of searching cannot identify James Pusell with confidence. Hopefully DNA will lead me to an answer.

The image below from AncestryDNA shows how I am related to Michelle. For reasons of privacy I have only shared three generations from the image.

My shared ancestors with Michelle

Although I immediately contacted the other confirmed cousin (with whom I have no previous contact) he has not yet responded. He is a descendant of my ancestor Elizabeth Phipps. Although he does not have Elizabeth Phipps listed in his online tree it was easy for me to work this out from my research and the names he had published.  If one wants to find matches it is vital to link one's DNA results to a tree and to make it public so that others can find you.

I have gone through all of the matches identified by AncestryDNA and cannot work out where we have a connection. Of course some of the matches have not made their info private or shared a tree so I will get round to messaging them individually.

Today AncestryDNA added a new Shared Matches tool that interrogates one's matches trees for shared matches. It showed Michelle as a shared match but not the other cousin (because he doesn't have Elizabeth phipps in his online tree).

As one who has an unscientific brain I find the way the AncestryDNA platform easier to use than the other DNA testing company with which I have tested.

I am trying to decide whom in my family I will get to test next. Perhaps someone on my Dad's side. The two confirmed matches I have so far are from Mum's side so a test from my paternal line will help me organise my matches.

Now I am going to sit back and hope some of my genimates and unknown cousins take a test with AncestryDNA so that their database can grow and provide more surprises.


Disclaimer AncestryDNA provided me with a complimentary DNA testing kit

Spit and Wait

Thanks to Ancestry.com.au I was given an opportunity to test my DNA with their service that has recently been launched in Australia. 

Ancestry say "AncestryDNA looks at autosomal DNA. Autosomal DNA tests, unlike Y- or mtDNA tests, survey a person’s entire genome at over 700,000 locations where genetic markers that identify an individual typically appear. Plus, autosomal DNA tests look at both maternal and paternal lines, meaning discoveries come from both sides of your family tree.". 

As I often jump in feet first I accepted the invitation and my kit arrived promptly in a pretty bag.  I opened it and took a look but because I had a cold/chest infection I didn't rush into things. As I was tidying up prior to my holiday I thought I should do the spit even though I was still a bit poorly. 

The Ancestry DNA  test uses a sample of saliva while the FamilyTreeDNA test I did earlier in the year required a cheek swab. I found it much easier to spit than to scrape.

Anyway I spat and now I am waiting patiently for my results. I did however record a few happy snaps for those who may be curious about the process - it was a breeze. I also set up a public tree on Ancestry with just my direct lines in anticipation of finding some new unknown cousins. Ancestry uses one's tree as a means of connecting cousins.

The Box

The Grand Opening

Under the Instructions

The sealed collection vial

Prior to breaking it open

I read the instructions

Even I could follow them

I registered the kit online

I did the spit

Vial filled to squiggly line as directed

Sealed up ready for posting to Ireland for testing

How easy was that! You too can do the big spit - details here.  

So that you can get a discount on this test it might be wise to wait until Ancestry have a special as they often do.

Disclaimer AncestryDNA provided me with a complimentary DNA testing kit