Archives

How many ancestors do we all really have?

Aug16

In a post back in May, I discussed how there were not enough people on the earth in about the year 1000 A.D for all the ancestors we theoretically have.

Recently I found a great Utube video via a facebook post that explains the “how many ancestors” problem brilliantly. So here it is:

One can postulate that everyone alive at about 1000 A.D. in Europe, who has descendants, is the ancestor of every European person today. Therefore we are ALL descended from Charlemagne. I have at least 3 documented lines to him, how many do you have? See this page on my family history site for more.

Using my segment mapper for cousin Katy

Aug12

I finally got Katy’s data uploaded to GEDmatch so that I could compare it to all my other WOLD cousins. Naturally I had to make a spreadsheet of her overlaps, save it as a CSV file, and then run it in my segment mapper tool to get a pretty picture Here it is! Click on the image below to get to the full html page that includes the mouse-overs showing the actual cM size and the base pair boundaries.
KatysWOLDmatches
One thing I find interesting is how large the segments are for us fairly close cousins.
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A Success with my DNA Spreadsheet

Aug7

The other day I got an email from Katy, a new close cousin match for my Dad at family tree DNA, a 2nd to 4th cousin. I went and looked at where she matched Dad and saw two quite large segments,  34.47 cM and 18.87 cM. So I added those segments to Dad’s master spreadsheet and saw that the smaller one overlapped an 11.9 cM match with a known 3rd cousin on my WOLD line. But he was tested only at 23andme so I could not compare them. However because I am tested at both, as well as Dad, I could use the comparison with me to determine if they matched each other (see my post on alternate triangulation) and yes we all matched. So I wrote Katy back that she looked to be related on my WOLD line and she replied oh yes, my grandmother was a Wold!

My Gg-grandparents Jorgen and Anna Wold from another cousin

My great-great-grandparents Jorgen and Anna Wold

Her grandmother was the granddaughter of my great-great-grandparents whose pictures are shown above. So they are her gg-grandparents too, making us 3rd cousins and my Dad her 2nd cousin once removed. I had received these photos from another 3rd cousin some time ago. My family no longer had those pictures. One delightful thing about finding new 3rd and 4th cousins is that they often have photographs and stories of ancestors that are new to you.

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Fun with the relationship calculator at GENI.com

Aug3

My favorite feature at GENI is the relationship calculator. Often when I find a new Norwegian cousin via DNA, I can look them up at GENI and it will tell me how we are related. Plus a fun way to fritter away a few hours is to use the calculator to find out how you are related to various famous or historical figures. Norwegian records are good and thus many of us can trace back to early Nordic aristocracy which means we are related to all kinds of interesting people.

When I go to my 19th cousin 4 times removed George Washington’s profile, it shows me our relationship at the top. If I had not looked at the profile before then instead there would be a big blue button saying “How are you related” which I would have to click on to get GENI to find the relationship.

On George’s profile, if I click on the green button that says “Show 41 relatives” it will show me the names of all the ancestors on the path from me to George. Plus every name can be clicked to go to that person’s profile. Click the image below to see the names relating me to George over at GENI.

Geni George Washington Continue reading →

Angie Bush reports on a new DNA ancestry.com sharing matches feature

Aug1

Ed note: My friend, genetic genealogist Angie Bush, the author of this post, is an expert user of the DNA functions at ancestry.com so when she excitedly reported this new feature on the ancestry group at Facebook, I asked her to do a step-by-step explanation of it for my blog. Thanks Angie!

AncestrySeeMatchesSmllAncestryDNA launched a new feature today that allows DNA test results to be shared in much the same way that family trees can be shared with other Ancestry users.

So if you have family members that have taken a DNA test, and you want to see the DNA matches you have in common with them, you finally can! In order to find this new feature, go to “Your DNA Home Page” and click on settings.

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