DNA - finding our connection

 How are we related???

The next time you're searching your list of matches, and you say to yourself.... I don't see any names I recognize, look at this chart....

 REMEMBER

1st cousins share a grandparent, (you have 4 of them on your tree they have 4 on their tree)
2nd cousins share a great-grand, (you have 8 of them on your tree they have 8 on their tree)
3rd cousins share a 2x great grand, (you have 16 of them on your tree they have 16 on their tree)
4th cousins share a 3x great grand (you have 32 of them on your tree they have 32 on their tree)

 Now we have 32 3x great grands (with no tree collapse) That's 32 different surnames you could have in common with your DNA match. IF you have all 32 names of your 3rd great grands, and they have all 32 of their 3rd great grands.

 Do you have all 32 of your 3x great grands names?? 

What about all their children's married names?  do you have those names too?

Now we all know most of our 3x great grands had 6-13 plus kids...and every female would have married adding another surname to look at on each of the 32 common names. So the list of surnames will grow by 1 for every female born to every generation. Let's say our common ancestor (3x ggp) only had girls, 10 of them (that's 10 different surnames) ... and then those girls (2x ggp) had 10 girls,(10 more surnames) Then those girls (ggp) had 10 girls (10 more surnames) We now have 30 different surnames just to get to ONE of our 32 different 3x ggp.

So, If you only have your direct line researched and none of their siblings researched, you may not see a matching name.

I'm not saying do extensive research on every child of every grandparent (although it can help) but you should at least list the names of all the children in every marriage, and who they married, so when Mr John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt shows up as your 4th cousin, and you look at his tree and your tree, you can easily see that his name Schmidt was the married name of your 3rd great grandmother's oldest daughter's daughter, and you come from her youngest daughter's daughter.

My DNA Journey (part 3)

So Im adopted (part 3)

I told my dad's sister about my thoughts of Lee being my real dad, and she stated, he was so happy when I came home from the hospital, and she had never seen him so happy.  It helped to add and bolster my idea of him being my real father.


I talked her into taking the DNA test.  I am the manager of her test and after 8 weeks at Ancestry, the results were in...

She and I were NOT related...Lee was just my adopted dad, and not my blood... square one again.

Now,  I've been doing genealogy since I was 17.   I have always loved puzzles and mysteries, and I was going to solve them. At 17 I had a few mysteries to find

1.  Who was my real parents
2.  Where are my adopted mom's girls (4 in all)

All I could research was my adopted line, and so I poured my heart and soul into it.  I used FTM, back when Broderband owned it.  I had all the disks, I used ancestry, roots web, message boards, etc.

I had a good tree at this point, and I had a major brick wall.  It was Margaret Schneider, wife of my 2nd great grand father.  Her marriage certificate had her name and my 2nd great grand father Jacob Debe on it. That was it.  No parents names no siblings, nothing.

So I searched, and searched and searched.  I looked through every single page of every census in Massillon, Ohio and there was no Margaret Schneider. This woman was my brick wall.

This became #3 on my list of mysteries.  I figured I would never find out about her or her family.  The line had stopped.  I searched for over 20 years and nothing.

 UNTIL.....

Remember my dad's sister who took the DNA test?  Well I got an email in 2016 from a DNA match on her DNA.  I looked at the DNA matches on ancestry, and found the only name they matched on was Schneider.  Schneider?  My 2nd Great grandma on my adopted tree?  So I looked further and all she had on her tree was a Philip Schneider, no Margaret.

We emailed back and forth, and I told her I had a Margaret Schneider, and that her last name was where the DNA matched.  She stated Philip had a sister named Margaret.  OK, my hope is building...

She looks through her handwritten papers given to her from a family member, and a few days later she tells me she has found an entry stating Philip's sister Margaret married a man named Jacob Debe.

The brick wall came tumbling down...I found my Margaret's family (adopted or not) I had been searching for her for 30 years, she was my family.

I only wish my dad were alive to know I broke down the brick wall.

So I continue researching in 2017, with a new found hope to break down more brick walls, as I build a list of other relatives to test to move further in my research.











will be linked after articles post


part 1
part 2

My DNA journey (part 2)

So I'm adopted (part 2)

Last week I talked bout being adopted and taking the ancestry test.

Here's the back story:

My adopted mom had been married prior to marrying my adopted father.  according to her (remember there are 3 sides to every story (his side, her side and the truth)  All I had was her side...

Her ex was powerful, and threatened her with all kinds of things, and to a young 22 year old, she was scared, so she let him take her girls (2 of them) and she never saw them again.  She would tell me stories all the time abut the girls and how she wanted to find them, well this was back in the 70s and 80s and searching for people was harder then than it is now.  But that didn't stop me.


While I looked for my real parents, I also looked secretly for her girls.  I had a few leads, but they were dead ends... My mom died in 1989, and I continued to look, scouring message boards on Ancestry, and roots web.  sending emails, and looking through records...NOTHING....


Fast forward to 2005 or so, and I get an email form a cousin who states she found the girls.  So I tell my older "sister" remember she is my adopted mom's daughter an probably no blood relation to me unless.....



Well in 2012 she offers to have us all (her, her sister and me) take a DNA test and she is going to pay for it.  This will prove if I am really part of the family or if I am just the "adopted daughter" of Jean.

So the DNA test was sent in, and 6-8 weeks later,  the results are in...no DNA match to my 2 sisters from my adopted mom.  So there goes the theory that I belongs to one of Jean's sisters.  But my "sisters" both said, we don't care what the DNA says, you are still our sister. 

I questioned my father, Lee, many times and he would just say I don't know, your mother handled the whole thing.  I believed him, as she was the one who handled everything in the family.

I questioned aunts on both sides, and every claimed to know nothing, so I was back to square one.

In 2011,  I lost my father.  He was my last hope of getting any info on my birth family.  But his determination to not tell me anything, made me question (at 48 years old) if he was really my birth father, and one of my childhood fantasies were really true.

Next week the continuation of my DNA story and what I find...







will be linked after articles post






part 1
part 3

My DNA journey

So I'm adopted.  I've known it since I was 7 years old.

The story was this:

My mom got pregnant on her wedding night, and my father said I wasn't his, and he left her.  She had another child who needed her more and she didn't want to see me go with out, so she gave me away.

My adopted mom never (or so she thought) gave me any inkling as to the identity of my father, and I only got tidbits of info on my adopted mother. So my brain went on wild fantasy ideas of where I came from.

I had the idea I was really a child of one of my aunts (adopted mom's sisters),

to

I was really my adopted father's child who he had with another woman, as my adopted mom couldn't have kids,

to

I fell from outer space,

to

I was stolen as a child,

You name it I thought of it.  I had an active imagination.

Fast forward to 2015, and the DNA explosion...

I took the test, and well I didn't belong to my adopted mom's side of the family...dang

Now to find out where I did come from....

And this began my DNA search for my family....

Watch my blog for everything I found from a little bit of spit....

Until next time




will be linked after articles post


part 2
part 3

DNA BASICS

I belong to a few DNA facebook pages, and I see the same questions posted over and over.

So I decided to write a blog on DNA basics to help out someone new to DNA and to refresh everyone else on how it works

First some biology basics

a woman gets an X from mom and an X from dad

a man gets an X from mom and a Y from dad

There are 3 types of tests

• autosomal
• MTDNA (traces mitochondrial dna)
• Y DNA (trances a Man's Y--his father's father's father etc)

  

Anyone can take the autosomal DNA test, which is the least expensive and should be the first test taken if looking for a blood relative.

• A woman or man can take the MTDna test to determine things about their mitochondrial dna 
• A man can take the Y Dna test to determine things about his father's line 
• A woman should never take the Y DNA test as she doesn't carry a Y chromosome

Places to test:

  

There are 5 major sites to test your DNA

• Ancestry
• cost varies between $69 on sale and $99, one Facebook group has an ongoing sale for $79
• Autosomal only (however, you can extract the Y haplogroup with 3rd party tools)

• 23 and Me
• Autosomal test costs $99, or $199 for test and health history

• FT DNA
• Autosomal test $79
• MT DNA $79-$199
• Y DNA $169-$359

Living DNA

MY Heritage

Some important information to know:

Ancestry by DNA is not a good place to test. They advertise on Groupon and have been reported by many to be a scam on the info they give you.  Steer clear unless you want to give away your hard earned money.

Gedmatch is a FREE service that you can upload your autosomal DNA results from any of the 3 sites, and you can see matches from anyone else who uploaded no matter what site they tested on. Now called Genesis

For example:

I test on Ancestry and upload my results

My long lost sister tests on 23 and me and uploads hers

My father tests at FTDna and uploads his results

I can see both my sister and my father's results and compare to mine.   So you don't have to test at all 3 sites. Especially if you are just starting out.  Start with Ancestry first. (the largest database)

 Promethease is a website that will take your DNA results and give you medical information for a mere $15.  It sure beats the additional $100 that 23 and me is charging.