Genealogy

For quite awhile, I've been cautioning people that 23&me did not want genealogists, and was not serving us. Now although they still hide the tools, they are available. First, many people have now "opened" their profiles, allowing matches to see what the match IS. Of course this is the default on all other sites. And I've figured out how to see all those opened matches on your matches page:  https://you.23andme.com/tools/relatives/#people . Sort by Open Sharing . Now for the fun stuff. Go to  https://you.23andme.com/tools/relatives/dna/  and search for your first open match. The code controlling the search is a bit funky, but keep at it and search for the rare part of the name, rather than the common part -- "hiram" rather than "smith". One can compare two other users as well as with yourself. I do that before before writing to people, so I can give them a bit of information. Be sure to scroll down below the simplified chromosome map to the...

Mysteries and questions are what got me hooked doing genealogy, many years ago. My sister had found our great-grandfather in the 1900 Warren County, Iowa census, and with the help of a cousin, we found his will, since he died soon after 1900. But what was described in his will did not seem to match the family we had seen in 1900. And of course there is no 1890 census to consult, so real digging and thinking was required. And so it has continued. Every time I've gone back over stuff I've found before, I see it with new eyes, and it both teaches me to see what I didn't see before, and always also raises more questions. The latest: one of my mother's cousins was listed as a widow, living with her family of birth and young child in rural northern Missouri in the 1900 census. So of course once I found the name of her first husband, I searched for their marriage record and his death. And then I found him, apparently alive and well, living with his family, in the same coun...

Nancy Jane BOOTH born around 1858 and who married Samuel McBEE was my mother's grandmother. She had 5 children: 1. Rosie McBEE who married Bert SMITH, and later died of TB in Oklahoma; 2. Lola who married 1.? BOYD in Indianola, Warren Co. Iowa, had three children, and 2. Charles HIGDON; 3. Sidney McBEE born 3 Mar 1884 in Cainsville, Harrison Co. MO, married Clara KING on 2 Jan 1907 in Indianola, Warren Co. IA, and died 15 Jun 1950 in Fillmore, Sask. Canada. They had four children:   a. William Earl McBEE b. 3 Dec 1908 in Iowa,   b. Mary Grace McBEE b. 2 Oct 1910 in Osage, Sask. Can.,   c. Alta Mae McBEE b. 18 Nov 1912 in Osage d. Feb 1913, and   d. Lloyd Sidney McBEE b. 17 Dec 1920 in Fillmore d. at 3 weeks of age.   b. Mary Grace McBEE, daughter of Sidney, married John CHARLETON 24 Sept 1939 and four children: Shirley Grace b. 21 Jul 1940 in Osage, Sask., Can; Gloria Lee, b. 21 May 1945 m. Dale SCHNEIDER 1969; Sidney John b. 11 Nov 1948; and Linda...