Genealogy

 Genealogical Applications for atDNA Exercises for Chapter 5 1. Sisters with an AncestryDNA test get results; one matches to a predicted third to fourth cousin; the other does not. Should they both match? Why or why not. They could both match, or neither. About 90% of third cousins are detectable DNA matches; only about half of fourth cousins cousins. 2. Fred is testing numerous relatives in an attempt to map his chromosomes. He shares no detectable DNA with Victoria, a seventh cousin, who is a descendant of fifth great-grandparents. Can Fred conclude that these Quincy ancestors are not in his genetic family tree? No, testing one distant relative with whom he is likely not to share detectable DNA proves nothing. It is simply a lack of evidence. 3. Roy and Mike share a single 6.43 cM segment of DNA. Which company or companies will show them as genetic relatives? Which will not. At the present time, none of the testing companies will show them as matches. While AncestryDNA reported m...

As the year draws to a close, it feels time to start something new in a an old container: this blog. I've been writing for my society at  https://skcgs.blogspot.com/ . I've learned a lot about DNA and how to do better research, and it's about time to tell some of the stories uncovered along the way.  I'll also be writing here for the new study group we are beginning in January, of the book Genetic Genealogy in Practice .  First though, new book for Christmas: Mastering Genealogical Proof , by Thomas W. Jones, 2013: National Genealogical Society, Arlington, VA Thank you Paul & Tara! It is a textbook, with questions at the end of every chapter.  Mastering Genealogical Proof Chapter One: Genealogy's Standard of Proof 1. What is genealogy? Genealogy is the study of families, known and unknown, by "accurately reconstructing forgotten or unknown identities and relationships of all sorts.[1] Research is drawn from all sorts of records, including those created by ...

This Veteran's Day is more special than usual because this is the centenary of the Armistice in Europe. So I was very excited to discover that my aunt Florence Estella Rawles who was born and died in Montana (1925-2007), trained for the World War II Cadet Nursing Corps in both Montana State College in Great Falls, Montana and in Providence Hospital in Seattle! It seems that the war was over before she was sent to serve, and later married my uncle Hollis McBee. When I shared this new information with some of my genealogy buddies, David got excited because he also had an aunt who served in the Nursing Corps, and also trained in or around Seattle. However, it turns out that his aunt served in the Great War, which we now call the First World War. David sent me his research on his great-aunt, which has been written up so well that this will be a guest post. "Zowitza Nicholas left Dawson to study nursing in Seattle. She joined the American nursing corps and served in France, ...

SKCGS is on the move! At the last Board Retreat, we created a twitter account and set up a blog. Follow @skcgs1 and watch the website to see the blog go live soon. Our newsletter will publish a final issue, at which point our blog will be our broadcast to the world about South King County past, records and stories and how you can help our society preserve and educate about these resources. The big story is our Seminar which is coming up Saturday, September 22 at Salish Hall on the Green River College campus in Auburn. Register now! http://skcgs.org/2018-seminar.html If you have not yet registered, please do it now!

Given the way that autosomal DNA tests for genealogy work, there are two things that are important for success in using that DNA data to find matches: finding your ancestors back to ten generations, and finding all possible descendants from them. I came to this conclusion after reading the excellent blog post, How Much of Your Family Tree Do You Know? And Why Does That Matter?   where the author says, whenever we make a conclusion about a particular ancestor or ancestral couple based on segments of DNA shared with a relative, we absolutely must address whether we do, or could, share other ancestors with that relative. The author made a nice little chart summarizing how much he knew, so I did the same thing. Mine is not as pretty, but here it is anyway: Key:   Generation: from me; Relationship: to me; Date of Birth: roughly averaged; Matches: description; # Poss. Anc.: total number of possible ancestors in each generation; # Identified: number of ancestors identified...

The Goosics didn't come quite as early as the Disneys, and were not as numerous as the Baysingers. Here is what I find on a search of the Warren Co. IA Genweb: WARREN COUNTY TAX LIST – 1855 in Washington Township: Goosic, Andrew Index of Warren County Marriages 1849-1899 (Brides) BRIDE GROOM DATE Goosic, Delilah Nichollson, Elisha 15 Oct 1854 Goosic, Margaret Stierwalt, William A. 14 Apr 1870 Goosic, Mary Nichelson, William 8 Aug 1866 Goosic, Sarah Basinger, Elias H. 15 Aug 1861 Wilkinson, Nora C. Goosic, James E. 1 Mar 1877 Index of Warren County Marriages 1849-1899 (Grooms) GROOM BRIDE DATE Nichelson, William Goosic, Mary 8 Aug 1866 Nichollson, Elisha Goosic, Delilah 15 Oct 1854 Goosic, A. T. Jr. [Andrew Jackson Jr.] Burner, Lavina 17 Jun 1813 Goosic, James E. Wilkinson, Nora C. 1 Mar 1877 In order to take a more global look, I went to Linkpendium's Goosic page . * Findagrave reports 54 Goosic graves, mostly in Nebraska, some in Iow...

The history of the Disneys in Warren County, Iowa begins very early, 1846, and continues in pioneer deaths, as is told in the Warren County, Iowa Genweb page here:  http://www.iagenweb.org/warren/cemeteries/carlislehistory.html . Hadleys, Ormes and Browns, and even a connection to the underground railway during the Civil War also weave into this story. Names, dates and places: * Jacob Disney arrived in the Summerset-Carlisle, Iowa, area in the spring of 1846, from Knox County, Ohio. With him: Richard Hadley and Jacob's brother Mordecai Disney. * Hadley and Disney were the first burials in Carlisle Cemetery, in summer 1846, both dead of cholera. *  Eliza and Joseph Petre, relatives of Disney, finished out the claim and deeded the cemetery to the county in 1860. Eliza and Joseph's son, Albert Petre , was the first [white] child born in that area. * Mordecai Disney , blacksmith, later went to California (1849?) to dig for gold. * "The third burial in Carlisle ...

It's been about a month since I gave up waiting and started "making something happen" on 23andme . I have 983 "DNA Relatives" there, and Gedmatch shows me my top 1000 matches. I've messaged all of the 23andme matches, with mixed results. First, only about one-third of the cousins have a name or profile that I can see on 23andme. Those people I have messaged by name, and if they have surnames and/or localities listed, I often mention those if they sound interesting or familiar. Many people have nothing listed in their profile but a name. Those folks without a name can be messaged, but it has to be generic. A few of those nameless people have accepted contact, and some "sharing", which is what 23andme calls comparing genomes. Of course sharing genomes is the whole reason I'm doing this, so it has been a lot of work just to get to starting line. For those who are not interested in doing this work to get matches, my advice is: use FTDNA or An...

I've loved the search for genealogy and my family's history since my children were young. I wanted to understand my roots, and why some of the difficulties my family endured happened, and how those events changed all those who were touched by them. I found young orphans, babies born before marriage, rape, and tragic death by fire among the more normal events. I've also found some family lines that are rather well-researched, which took away the challenge. For some years other projects took my time. Then, the yDNA tests became affordable, and I bought an Family Tree DNA kit for my dad for Father's Day. Because those "beginner kits" don't tell you much, and have far too many meaningless matches, I kept paying for upgrades, all the way up to 67 markers. This took his high-quality matches down to under 10, but as we followed up on these matches, we realized that this line of Cowans came from Stirling, in Scotland. The recorded part of the family went to t...

It took me a year to really start using 23andme. I think it was because it is hard to know what to do. Recently I got tired of waiting for something to happen, and decided to just wade in and make it happen. As of now, I have over 85 people I'm sharing with, with another 252 invitations to share. Altogether, tonight I have finished contacting all 962 matches that they report, unless I skipped someone inadvertently. The page where you can make this happen too is https://www.23andme.com/you/relfinder/ . This page links every match up to 1000, and you can sort it various ways. What I did first was sort it this way and that, randomly messaging people, with very few responses. When I got serious, instead I made a little text: We may be related according to 23&me. I've been doing genealogy research for quite awhile, and my old GEDCOM is online at Rootsweb: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~valoriez. And GEDMATCH: kit # M186808 Main surnames are Baysinger, Booth, Cowan, Disn...

Last Christmas I got a 23andMe kit , and sent in my spit. Now it is finally paying off in matches. I spent part of last night writing to my newly-found genetic cousins, and hope to do more of that. It would be good to get a GEDCOM online again too, so we can more easily compare lineages. One weakness I found is that all the hours I put in after I sent off the kit, putting in information on the website, seems to be totally absent. Oh well, I sent this to some of my cousins: Hello, I see that we may be related, according to 23 and me. I've been doing genealogy research for quite awhile, but my chart isn't online right now. However, some of my main surnames are Baysinger, Booth, Cowan, Disney, Goosic, McBee, McPhail, McPherson, McQueen, Walters. I have a genealogy blog: http://genweblog.blogspot.com/ . My email is valorie.zimmerman@gmail.com, and I'm on G+, Facebook, Twitter, etc. http://about.me/valoriez All the best, Valorie I hope to improve that as I gather my thou...

I read a wonderful comment today on Dick Eastman's site, by Geoff Riggs ... Genealogy is the bones - gathering of the facts about ones ancestors such as names, dates, places. Family History is 'putting the flesh on the bones' - finding the stories, history, geography, and so forth that shaped the lives of our ancestors. Rudyard Kipling wrote: I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew) Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who I added a second verse to this some years ago: For pure Genealogists 'Who, When and Where?' suffice But Family Historians> Add 'Why, What, How?' for spice Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient. - Eugene S. Wilson

Prosopography: the study of collective biography, for individuals of a certain group (social class, profession, time frame, geographic origin, etc.). By accumulating data on individuals in a group, one learns more about the group. The term may have been coined by anthropologists but it is widely used among medieval historians, particularly social historians. - Nathaniel Taylor, ntaylor@fas.harvard.edu freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~randyj2222/gendictp.html Prosopography is an important methodological tool within historical research, its goal being the collection of all known information about individuals within a given period, often in the form of a register or database (frequently also known as a "Prosopography", e.g. The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopography Thanks to Sharon Sergeant of the APG list for introducing me to this term. She references Mel Wolfgang's presentation Researching 'Birds of a Feather'...

William Briggs DISNEY 1853-1912 had children by 1. Mary WALTERS: Foresman lists Hester as the first child, with no dates, but I see no evidence of her (note at end of post). Roy Lee DISNEY will be covered next. My great-grandmother Minnie DISNEY is covered here: John BAYSINGER, Viola, Minnie and children I. George L. G. (Luther Granville) Disney is 6 in the 1880 census, born in Arkansas. Foresman says he born 1873, and I think he must have been named for his uncle George Luther DISNEY. He married Ava Marie WELSH 1896, and had sons Cecil (1898-1980, born Illinois) and Luther Granville (1906-1965). I can't find him after 1920, so perhaps he died between 1920 & 1930. The Illinois Marriage database has a listing for: DISNEY, GEORGE marrying WELSH, NORA ELLEN on 10/24/1896. Vol. 00E page 43 in WARREN County, IL. 1900 United States Federal Census (index spelling correction submitted to Ancestry) Name: Geo L Disoney Home in 1900: Berwick, Warren, Illinois Age: 26 Estimated birt...

William Briggs DISNEY was the son of George Disney and Anne Elizabeth ANDERSON, born 22 Jul 1853, in Iowa , according to his death certificate. George joined sister Amelia Jane and brother George Luther, and was followed by Martin Luther in 1847, and Alice A. who died in 1852 at age two. His father George died 8 Aug 1855 at age 39. His little brother Martin Luther also died in 1855, and his mother followed them in death in 1856, leaving little William an orphan at age three. They are all buried in Carlisle Cemetery, Allen Township, one-helf mile from the town of Carlisle, Warren County, Iowa. I've never found them in any 1850 Census, but I believe this is the family in the 1853 Iowa State Census, living in Warren County. GN Disney, with 3 females, and 3 males. That would be daddy George, sons George Luther or Martin Luther, and William Briggs; mama Ann Elizabeth, and daughters Amelia Jane and Alice A. Source Information: Ancestry.com. Iowa State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [datab...