Sunday, January 14, 2018

Genealogy and DNA!

My cousin Connie got me interested in genealogy in 2011.  Her mother May Parker, was a school teacher and was very interested in researching their family roots.  May would travel on her vacation to England and search church records.  She also made a trip to Salt Lake City to search the records held there.   May passed away in 2003 and when Connie retired she took the six boxes her mom left and started to go through and organize them.  She started putting everything into a family tree on her computer.

In 2011 when Connie had finished the family tree, she called.  I invited all our cousins over and Connie gave everyone a wonderful binder with all the family tree.  Connie used an apple computer for her tree.  I use windows but my sister Louise had an apple so we copied Connie's files onto Louise's computer.  From there I moved everything over to Ancestry.ca using my windows computer. I have continued to grow my tree.

When I started my tree, my dad's father had a green leaf.  I clicked on the green leaf and it took his ancestors back to 1719!  The name had changed from Winterford to Winterflood!  Stephen Winterford did all the research.  I contacted him and thanked him.  This August when we return to the UK we will meet!   When I think of May Parker travelling to the UK to search church records and graveyards and then I see what one click of the mouse does now, it is amazing!  Ancestry has the most records of all the genealogy sites.

Both Cec and I did our DNA through Ancestry.  I've found many matches.  One email I got was from Andrew, a third cousin in Australia.  His great grandfather moved to Canada in 1911 bringing seven of his eight children, leaving Lizzie behind.   Lizzie was Andrew's grandmother!  He wanted to know about his Great Grandfather and thanks to May Parker, I gave him her notes, detailing his life in Canada!  As a child I remember my grandmother telling me about her sister Lizzie in England.

Cec and I have uploaded our DNA on GEDmatch which is a database for all DNA results from Ancestry, 23 and me and others.  We have many matches but it's very complex!  I've heard from people that match my DNA.  I really need to study DNA!  Here is what you can do on GEDmatch!

  • One-to-many - Free DNA comparison tool. Your top 2,000 matches on GEDmatch.com! Select more Tools from its results page.
  • One-to-one - Free DNA comparison tool. Compare two Kit#s. You must verify all matches with this tool!
  • X One-to-one - Free DNA comparison tool. Compare two Kit#s. You must verify all X-DNA matches with this tool!
  • Phasing - Use a parent's results to increase IBD match accuracy. Separate maternal, and paternal, matches!
  • People who match one or both of two KIT#s - Compare two Kit#s. Find common relatives that two KIT#s share - and the ones they don't!
  • Are your parents related? - Free DNA tool. Essential first test for everyone ...
  • 3D Chromosome Browser - Free DNA comparison tool. Compare 3 to 10 Kit#s. See segment matches in 3D!
  • Multiple Kit Analysis - Generic kit entry for submittal to visualization page. Select up to 50 Kit#s
  • Diagnostics - Verify your DNA file upload to GEDmatch.com worked OK Check your results for no calls, heterozygosity, gender of donor...
  • Genesis Beta - * New matching algorithm * - lower thresholds - better accuracy A peek at the future! Accepts raw zipped .VCF DNA data from more companies!

If you are interested in searching your family roots it will consume hours and it's so interesting!  In June while I was visiting the UK, I met a third cousin Glenn who lives in Essex!  We still continue to email.  DNA results continue to grow as more people do the DNA test.  On my Ancestry DNA, I have six shared close ancestors, and I know them all.  I have 211, 4th cousins or closer I share DNA.  Some I know, most I don't.  If they have a family tree on Ancestry, the database will show your common ancestor and your relationship.  If they contact me I always respond. 




It's time for Aunty Acid