Looking for Agee Ancestors - Building my Match Trees

In my last post about the Smith and Agee family, I discussed how I was able to connect my Smith family to the family of Thomas Smith and Leah Agee of Tennessee and Kentucky. By running a targeted surname search through my DNA matches for the Agee surname, I was able to determine that my family was connected to Mathieu Agee, the Huguenot who fled from France and moved to Virginia around 1700. Mathieu was the grandfather of Leah Agee who married Thomas Smith. Two descendants of Thomas Smith and Leah Agee have had their Y-DNA tested and they were a match to my grandfather, Darrel. The results of the Y-DNA test combined with the autosomal DNA test have led me to believe that Thomas Smith and Leah Agee were the common ancestors of my Grandfather and his two Y-DNA matches. My goal is to determine exactly how my Smith ancestors tie in to the family of Thomas Smith and Leah Agee.

I started off by entering all of the information I learned from my AncestryDNA matches. I entered all 11 of my matches' direct line ancestors into my Family Tree Maker software, starting with themselves and going back to their Agee ancestors. As I entered their direct line ancestors, I added a citation pointing back to their online trees to every name and fact I copied from their tree to mine. This is what my citations look like:

Citation Title: Public Member Tree Submitted by 5haags
Citation Detail: "Rapp/Knutson Family Tree," submitted by 5haags, accessed 02 February 2015; AncestryDNA match to Ginger Smith. Possible Common ancestor is Mathieu Agee.
Citation Text: This is where I enter the ancestor's name, place and date of birth and death and any other information pertaining to the data being cited.
Web Address: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/18580720

The full citation is as follows: "Rapp/Knutson Family Tree," submitted by 5haags, accessed 02 February 2015; AncestryDNA match to Ginger Smith. Possible Common ancestor is Mathieu Agee. http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/18580720.

Next time I will run a targeted surname search for the Agee surname in my ftDNA matches and also I will do the same for my Smith family members who have tested with ftDNA.

Posts related to this topic:
Looking for Connection to Agee ancestors via Autosomal DNA
Running a Targeted Surname Search in my Smith Relatives' Results

Looking for Connection to Agee ancestors via Autosomal DNA

My grandfather has several Y-DNA matches to men with the Smith surname.[1] We have not been able to figure out how they all connect to each other, however, we have been able to separate them into three distinct groups. I wrote about them previously here.

My grandfather, Darrel, descends from David Editon Smith, born about 1789 in Tennessee. [2][3] David was probably living in Jackson County, Alabama between 1830 and 1840 [4] and by 1850 was living in Johnson County, Arkansas. [3] His father was listed as James Smith on his daughter's Cherokee Citizen's Application. [5]

My grandfather's closest Y-DNA match, M Smith, descends from Patrick Smith, born about 1788 in Alabama. M Smith's daughter believe's Patrick's father might have also been James Smith. [6]

Two additional Y-DNA matches descend from Thomas Smith and Leah Agee, although there is some squabble about them being the ancestral couple of both of these matches and is therefore not conclusively proven. One of these matches descends from this couples' son Richard Smith who married Diana Braswell. The other match descends from Richard's brother, James Agee Smith. Both Richard and James were born in Tennessee, then followed the Mormons to Utah where they settled.[1]

The family of James Agee Smith was involved in polygamy which was outlawed at the time, but was still being practiced in the community where he lived in Utah. As you can imagine, this has made it difficult to define the exact genealogy of James Smith's family, not just because a man was allowed to have and live with multiple wives, but because it is nearly impossible to differentiate between the children of one wife from those of another. The multiple wives often co-habitated with their husband, "sisters," and their combined children. This is actually represented on the census reports. Here is an example of a polygamous family living in Saint George, Utah in 1880. You see Warren Hardy is the head of house and he has two wives listed with a bunch of children. [7]

1880 St George, UT Census record showing 

Polygamous family of Warren Hardy

The remaining two matches also squabble about who their ancestral couple was. I will list them individually here and link to previous posts I've written about this family. Their squabble is inconsequential to today's post, so I won't dwell on it.

Match No. 5, Mr. H. Smith, claims to descend from William Smith and Elizabeth Eunice Ritchie via their son Richard Smith who married Alicia Combs. There is a LOT of information about this family on the internets, but word of caution here - don't believe everything you see as fact! [8]
Match No. 6, Mr. A. Smith, claims to descend from Samuel Smith and Eunice Joliff. He has documentation to support Samuel was his ancestor and not William, as well as Eunice Joliff, instead of Eunice Ritchie.[9]

As I mentioned earlier, we have not been able to figure out the connection between these three sets of Smith families. We assume that David and Patrick were somehow related because they were both in Alabama around the same time, and they both came from Tennessee. [3] [6] Thomas Smith and Leah Agee's sons Richard and James Agee Smith were also born in Tennessee prior to moving to Utah. [10] [1] William / Samuel Smith and Eunice Ritchie / Joliff were actually from Kentucky and their family stayed in Kentucky - so 3 distinct Smith families with no known apparent connection. [8][9]

We wondered about how useful the autosomal DNA test would be in narrowing down our list of common ancestors. My grandfather's closest match took the Family Finder test by FamilyTreeDNA (ftDNA), so we compared them. Unfortunately, although they were a match on the Y-DNA, they were not a match on the Family Finder test.

In case you are wondering, there is an Advanced Matching feature in your ftDNA homepage, that allows you to compare to your match across multiple test types (ie, Y-DNA, atDNA, mtDNA). To access this feature, I logged in to my grandfather's DNA results, hovered my mouse over the My DNA link at the top left of the page, and when a drop down box appeared, I hovered my mouse over the My Y-DNA link and then when a new drop down box appeared, I clicked on Advanced Matching.

How to access the Advance Matching Page

From the Advanced Matching page, I put a check mark beside the Y-DNA67 and the Family Finder test options, then I clicked "Yes" beside the "Show only people I match in all selected tests" option. I then clicked the Run Report button to see my results.

No Results

As I said earlier, unfortunately, my grandfather's closest Y-DNA match is NOT a match on the Family Finder test. You might be wondering why or how this could be? There could be a few reasons for this. 1) The common ancestor is too far back to be picked up by the Family Finder test. The Family Finder test is only guaranteed to work back to 5 generations. [11] David Smith is my grandfather's 5th generation back. If the common ancestor was beyond David, which I'm positive it was, then it is possible it is too far back to be picked up. 2) It is possible that my grandfather and his match did not inherit the same DNA segments. DNA gets mixed up or "recombined" when it gets transferred from a parent to offspring. Oftentimes, siblings do not receive the same exact DNA segments, so one sibling may match a cousin but the other sibling does not.[12]

Since I could not do much more with my grandfather's closest Y-DNA match, the descendant of Patrick Smith from Alabama, I decided to work with the second set of matches - the descendants of Thomas Smith and Leah Agee. I could try to do a search in my Family Finder matches for anybody with Smith in their list of surnames - but that would results in a high number of matches and a lot of Smiths to go through! Instead, I focused on the AGEE surname.

Background of Leah AGEE:

The Leah Agee who married Thomas Smith was born about 1755 in Manakin, Goochland County, Virginia. [1] She was the daughter of Anthony Agee and either Christian Worley [1] or Nancy Jane Benin or Binnion. [13] Anthony Agee was the son of a Hugenot named Mathieu Agee who fled France and came to Virginia.[14]

One of the most successful ways I have found to work with my autosomal DNA results is through a targeted surname search. I have tested with both FamilyTreeDNA and AncestryDNA. I've had better luck working through my AncestryDNA results because more matches have trees posted than they do in ftDNA.

I started by doing a surname search for AGEE in my AncestryDNA results.

1.  Click the View all DNA matches button on my AncestryDNA homepage.
2.  In the Search Matches box, I entered Agee and clicked the search button.

AncestryDNA Surname Search box

3.  AncestryDNA returned a list of 14 matches

• 1 of them was a 4th cousin, but his tree was private, so I couldn't see anything
• 2 of them had private trees (I would contact them later)
• 1 of them did not have a Agee in their list of surnames at all

4.  I reviewed each of the remaining 11 matches one at a time. 

5.  This is where most people look through their matches' tree for a connection to their own tree, don't find it, give up and throw in the towel. I have a different methodology that is much more helpful. 

My Method: 

1.  I open a notepad file, or an Evernote note, or break out a lined notebook and I record the user name of the first match. I will use this file to take abbreviated notes about how my match descends from their oldest known Agee ancestor. 

2.  I review the first match. The Agee surname does not show up in the little green "Shared Surnames" box because I don't have the Agee surname listed in my tree - I don't actually know how I connect to the Agee-Smith family (yet). A bunch of other names DO show up in the Shared Surnames box, but I will ignore them for now (remember we are focusing only on the Agee surname! - Just Say NO to the Shiny Bobbly Objects!)

The list of Agee ancestors of my first DNA match

3.  I then scroll down below the green box and click on the Agee surname. On this first match, there are 4 Agees listed - Anthony, Jesse, Mary Polly, and Mathieu Isaac Agee. I click on the oldest one, Mathieu Agee, born 1670 France, died Virginia and it brings up a profile.

The profile of Mathieu Agee

4.  I then click on Mathieu's father, Anthony Agee, born 1639 France, died 1735 France, married Judith Chastain. There is a father listed for Anthony, but I ignore him for now. 

5.  In my notebook, I list the abbreviated descendancy as follows: Anthony Agee, b. 1639 France, d. 1735 France & Judith Chastain > Mathieu Agee, b. 1670 France, d. Virginia & Cecelia Ann Godwin 

6.  I then go back to Mathieu and I click on his son, Anthony Agee, b. 1719 Goochland, VA, d. 1799 Goochland, VA & Christian Worley and I record him in my notebook. Then I click on their son, Jesse Reuben Agee, b. 1757 Powhatan, VA, d. 1837 KY & Elizabeth Childress, and I add him to my notebook. My notebook entry now says: 

Anthony Agee, b. 1639 France, d. 1735 France & Judith Chastain > 

Mathieu Agee, b. 1670 France, d. Virginia & Cecelia Ann Godwin >

Anthony Agee, b. 1719 Goochland, VA, d. 1799 Goochland, VA & Christian Worley >

Jesse Reuben Agee, b. 1757 Powhatan, VA, d. 1837 KY & Elizabeth Childress...

7.  I  repeat steps 1-6 for the next 10 matches. I color code the ancestors of my matches in my list. Every time Mathieu is listed, I color him blue. Every time his sister Mary is listed, I color her pink. Doing this allows me to look at my list quickly to see what matches descend from which ancestors and it allows me to organize my list quickly and efficiently. 

My "Notes" on the ancestors of my Agee matches

Results:

• I end up with 4 matches whose oldest known ancestor is Mathieu Agee & Ann Godwin and 4 matches whose oldest known ancestor is Mary Elizabeth Agee. Both Mathieu and Mary Elizabeth are children of Anthony Agee and Judith Chastain. 
• 2 of the descendants of Mathieu descend from his son Anthony and 2 descend from his son James. 
• I also end up with three matches who have female Agee ancestors who have not yet been traced back to this family. 

I have pretty good evidence, based on my AncestryDNA results, that I probably do in fact descend from the family of Thomas Smith and Leah Agee. Leah was the daughter of Anthony Agee, who was the son of Matthew. This would mean that my closest autosomal DNA matches would be to other descendants of Mathieu's son Anthony. There were at least two of them who descended from Mathieu's son Anthony. According to AncestryDNA, one of these matches was a 5th-8th cousin, with High Confidence and the other was a 5th-8th cousin with Good Confidence.  

How does this help me Interpret my Smith Y-DNA results? 

The other thing that these results tell me is that the common ancestor is an Agee (not a Smith). Since my proposed ancestor Leah Agee was the daughter of Mathieu's son Anthony, I can conclude the following: 

• With the four matches who descend from Mathieu Agee, the common ancestor between me and the descendants of his son Anthony is Anthony himself. 
• The common ancestor between me and the descendants of Mathieu's son James is Mathieu. 
• The common ancestors between me and the descendants of Mathieu's sister, Mary Elizabeth Agee are their parents, Anthony Agee and Judith Chastain.

Now that I have identified a new common ancestor, I can start tracing him and his children down the line to see if and how my Smith line might fit in. I already  know that Leah Agee was the daughter of Anthony Agee and she married Thomas Smith. So my next goal is to determine how my Smith family descends from one of Leah and Thomas' children; Interesting enough, I learned that Leah and Thomas died in Kentucky, which is where the third group of Smith Y-DNA matches are from - so that might be their connection as well.

Next Steps: 

In my next post, I will start looking at Leah and Thomas Smith's children to see if and how my Smith family might have fit in. Because I don't know any of my Smith ancestors past David and his supposed father, James, I do not know which son of Leah and Thomas Smith we descend from. I will have to employ the same surname search technique I employed above to go through each of Leah and Thomas Smith's daughter-in-laws' surnames to see if any matches pop up. That will at least enable me to narrow down which son of Leah and Thomas I might descend from.

Before I do that, I have to do some housekeeping. I will enter the direct line ancestry of these matches into my online tree (but not connect them to myself because I do not yet know how they connect). I will then go through the process of looking for Agee surname matches in my FamilyTreeDNA Family Finder test results for myself and all of my Smith family relatives (my father, grandfather, and 3 6th cousins). 

Sources:
[1] Smith DNA Project, Website, http://www.smithsworldwide.org, accessed 01 February 2015.
[2] The middle name of Editon was found on a land grant patent no. 1953, Clarksville, Johnson County, Arkansas, filed 01 March 1855, issued to David Edison Smith, of Johnson County, Arkansas. Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, Http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch, accessed 08 December 2008.
[3] The birth year and place of David Smith were derived from the 1850 Johnson Co., AR census which listed David Smith as head, 61 years old, which estimates his year of birth to be 1789, born in TN. 1850 US Federal Census, Johnson County, Arkansas, population schedule, Horsehead, taken 11 Nov 1850, page 139, Dwelling 98, family 100, David Smith; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed ); NARA Film M432, Roll 27.
[4] David Smith's son Richard Smith was born 1838 in Jackson County, Alabama per my grandfather, Darrel Smith's personal notes given to me in 2006. The notes say this information was provided on Richard's enlistment papers, but I have not been able to find such papers. Richard's son William was listed as born about 1832 in Alabama on the 1850 Johnson County, Arkansas census (enumerated with his father David Smith); also David's daughter Sarah Smith was listed as being born in Alabama about 1826 on the 1850 Johnson County, Arkansas census. I have not been able to definitively locate David Smith on the 1830 or 1840 census report in Alabama.
[5] Cherokee Nation Citizenship Application of Sarah Grider, 1898. Obtained from the National Archives by Mike Freels. Sent to Ginger R. Smith by Mail, 2009. Scanned to digital Files by Ginger R. Smith, 07 August 2014.
[6] Briana Felch, brianafelch@me.com, to Ginger R. Smith, ginger.reney@gmail.com, "Smith y-DNA Test Results / Genealogy," 06 June 2014.
[7] 1880 US Federal Census, Washington County, Utah, population schedule, Saint George City, Page 11 (penned), dwelling 79, family 82, Warren Hardy; digital image, Ancestry.com, (www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 September 2013;
[8] Hilliard Smith, III, hilliard_smith@att.net, to Ginger R. Smith, ginger.reney@gmail.com, "FW: Family Tree DNA match," 18 March 2014.
[9] Al Smith, al.smith@insightbb.com, to Ginger R. Smith, grs3275@yahoo.com, "Smith DNA Match," 13 April 2011.
[10] Dana Ekins, dsekins@gmail.com, to Ginger R. Smith, ginger.reney@gmail.com, "Information Request for Kit #47033 from Smiths Official DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA :," 23 September 2013.
[11] Family Tree DNA Learning Center Beta, Website, FamilyTreeDNA, (https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/autosomal-ancestry/universal-dna-matching/generations-family-finder-analyzes/ : accessed 01 February 2015, "How many generations does Family Finder analyze or predict?"
[12] Judy Russell, "Looking at Recombination," The Legal Genealogist, posted 10 November 2013, (http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2013/11/10/looking-at-recombination/ : accessed 01 February 2015).
[13] Agee, Paul Myrtillo A record of the Agee family, Independence, MO, 1937, p. 322; Digital Image of the book downloaded from FamilySearch.org Family History Books, 01 February 2015.
[14] Public Member Tree Submitted by 5haags, "Rapp/Knutson Family Tree," submitted by 5haags, an AncestryDNA match to Ginger R. Smith, accessed 01 February 2015.

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Posts Related to this Topic:
Looking for Agee Ancestors - Building my Match Trees
Running a Targeted Surname Search in my Smith Relatives' Results

AncestryDNA Post 3 - Doing a Surname Search

In Part 1 of my series of posts about my AncestryDNA test, I wrote about one of my closest relative matches and in Part 2, I wrote about those Shaky Leafs you see in your results when AncestryDNA has found a connection in the family tree of you and your match. In Part 3 of my series, I will discuss how I found a connection by using the Surname Search function in AncestryDNA. This can be especially important when trying to narrow down a person as your ancestor or in adding sons and daughters to your ancestral couple. 

I became interested in the CREEKMORE surname while working with an adoptee who had several DNA matches with Jasper Newton Campbell and Dinah Creekmore of Whitley County, Kentucky as their ancestors. I, too, descend from this couple. They were my 5th great-grandparents. 

My goal is to find all my Creekmore matches, evaluate their trees and determine which matches are legit, or, in other words, which matches might share a Creekmore ancestor with me. 

1.  Log in to your Ancestry.com account 

2.  Hover your mouse over the DNA link and when the drop down box appears, click on "View Your DNA Results" - The next page will list your matches in order of relationship - your closest relatives are listed at the top. Any known family members will be listed at the top 

3.  Click the "Search Matches" box in the top right of your match list

4.  Type "Creekmore" into the Search Box. Leave the "Search by location" search box empty for now. Click the Search Button

5.  There are 11 distant cousin matches with "Creekmore" in their trees

6.  Click on the first person's name. This will bring up the pedigree for this match and a list of direct ancestor surnames that appear in both your tree and your match's tree

7.  To find ancestors associated with the Creekmore surname, click on the name in the shared ancestors (yellow) box or scroll down the list of names and click on Creekmore. 

Clicking on the name in the yellow box will bring up a box with your match's list of direct Creekmore ancestors on the left and your list of direct Creekmore ancestors on the right. 

This match has Nancy Ann Creekmore, born 1760 in Grayson, VA and died 1836 in Whitley, KY as his direct ancestor. I have 3 direct Creekmore ancestors – Robert, Ballentine, and Dinah. Ballentine, the oldest, was born in Norfolk Co., VA in 1784. Grayson Co., VA did not form until 1793, but its original county was Orange which eventually was split up into parts of Kentucky and West Virginia. It is possible that our two ancestors descend from a common ancestor, but who that common ancestor is not apparent at this time.

Clicking on the surname in the list below brings up information about that ancestor, including their parents’ names and their list of children. 

8. Click on the “View Full Tree” button to view their ancestor in their online tree. 

9.  Once the match and surname is reviewed, add a note and mark the match as a “favorite” by clicking on the star to the left of the match’s photo. 

I will file this match away as a possible cousin and their ancestor Nancy Ann Creekmore as a possible connection. I am still looking for more solid matches. Let's look at the next match. 

Clicking on the 2nd match provides a Shared Ancestor Hint (aka Shaky Leaf). It suggests that my match and I are connected via our shared ancestors, Ballentine Creekmore and his wife, Mary Lemon Brown. 

According to this "hint," my 5th great-grandmother, Dinah Green Creekmore and my match's 4th great grandfather, Duane Green Berry Creekmore, were siblings and their parents were Ballentine Batchelor Creekmore and Mary Lemon Brown. This makes my match and I 6th cousins 1x removed. According to AncestryDNA, we are predicted as Distant Cousins, with a possible range of 5th to 8th and a low confidence. Our actual relationship of 6th cousins 1x removed fits in with the predicted relationship of 5th to 8th cousins. 

My next step is to see if this match has uploaded their AncestryDNA results to Gedmatch.com. If so, then I can compare their DNA results to my father and grandfather, who are also direct descendants of Ballentine Creekmore and Mary Lemon Brown. If they have not yet uploaded to Gedmatch.com, then I will encourage them to do so. AncestryDNA does not give us access to our chromosome data, so Gedmatch is a good tool to use to view our chromosome data with and to compare to people who tested with other companies. 

I can also compare the chromosome segments that I share with this match to those that I share with another Creekmore descendant who tested with ftDNA. A positive match will help confirm that the Creekmore surname is the connection that I have with this AncestryDNA match. I had always suspected that Duane Creekmore was also the child of Ballentine Creekmore and Mary Lemon Brown, but I was not sure. An autosomal DNA match between me, a descendant of Dinah Creekmore, and my match, a descendant of Duane Creekmore, provides evidence that supports this suspicion. 

I will communicate with this match with the hopes of exchanging information and photos and stories. I will also add their direct line ancestry to my family tree file, thus building out my family tree further.  

Have YOU tested with AncestryDNA? And if so, what connections have you found? Tell us about them in a comment below or email me. 

Additional Reading: 

Working with my Closest Matches - How I found a new cousin on my King side (Part 1)

Those Shaky Leafs - The Shaky Leaf and How I found my Next Match (Part 2)

How my AncestryDNA stands up in Gedmatch - A tale about why it's important to have access to our chromosome data because it's not always what it looks like!

Leaping Into the Unknown - Why Take a DNA test by Judy Russell

How my AncestryDNA Match stands up in Gedmatch

In my last post, I evaluated one of my "shaky leaf" matches whom AncestryDNA predicted would have a shared ancestor with me. We compared our online family trees and determined that we were connected via the Long/Lang line of Jasper County, Georgia. This match was instrumental in both of our research efforts because conflicting documentation regarding the Long/Lang surname had made it difficult to place our ancestors with the correct set of parents. This DNA match allowed us to confidently place our ancestors within the same family of John and Margaret Lang.

I have to admit, by the time I finished writing this last post, I was pretty hooked with using AncestryDNA. But I know when something seems too good to be true, it usually is. I knew there were going to be limitations with the AncestryDNA service going in to it. And I wanted to put this to the test. Unfortunately, my suspicions were confirmed:  My AncestryDNA match and I were not really connected, genetically speaking,  via the Lang/Long line!

My Pedigree:

My descent from John and Margaret Lang is as follows:
Basheba Long & Washington Phelps
Lucinda S Phelps & Burwell Binns
Milton A Binns & Susan Ann Dupree
John Milton Binns & Perthinia "Pert" Brooks
John Brooks Binns & Blanche Kathryn Hill
B Binns and D Smith - my grandparents
T Smith & M Godwin - my parents
Ginger Smith - me

I have tested myself, both of my parents, and 3 of my 4 grandparents to date. If I received any DNA from my Lang / Long ancestors, I would have inherited it from my Father, who inherited it from his mother, my grandmother, B. Binns. However I tested all of us at FamilyTreeDNA and tested only myself at Ancestry.com. In order to compare any DNA results from AncestryDNA to results from FamilyTreeDNA, they must first be uploaded to a 3rd party website called Gedmatch.com. GedMatch allows you to compare autosomal DNA across all 3 testing companies - Ancestry.com, 23AndMe, and FamilyTreeDNA. It's FREE and easy to use!

What I Did:

I convinced my match to upload her AncestryDNA results to Gedmatch.com. Once uploaded, I compared her results to my grandmother, B. Binns, who descends from our Lang / Long ancestors. I expected to see a good match since my grandmother is closer to the shared ancestor than I am. Surprisingly, there was NO MATCH. Not only was there no match, but my match did not share the same segments of DNA with my grandmother that she shared with me.

Here is a list of segments S.A.T. shares with me:

Chr	Start Location	End Location	Centimorgans (cM)	SNPs
3	25052678	30683436	7.2	1487
7	88445250	91973622	3.0	731
7	117280746	123629411	3.5	933
13	66743336	69809017	1.9	739
18	22684849	25803725	3.3	977

Largest segment = 7.2 cM

Total of segments > 1 cM = 18.9 cM

Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 6.8

Here is a list of segments S.A.T. shares with my grandmother:

Chr	Start Location	End Location	Centimorgans (cM)	SNPs
1	95871096	98378320	1.6	970
2	34843826	37164843	2.6	705
3	47546444	53219643	1.0	801
10	73326487	77694862	2.8	759
12	20794787	22833572	3.1	812

Largest segment = 3.1 cM
Total of segments > 1 cM = 11.1 cM
Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 7.2

There are no overlaps between where she matches my grandmother and where she matches me.


Is this For Real?

If you look at how S.A.T. matches to me, you will see that the MOST that we match on is 7.2 cM on ch 3. Our total matching segments are only 18.9 cM. This is a very low resolution match in my opinion. In order for someone to be considered a "match" in FamilyTreeDNA, they have to share at least one segment of DNA that is 7 cM long - this requirement IS met in this example. The 2nd requirement by FamilyTreeDNA is to have a minimum of 20 cM total DNA shared between two people to be considered a match. S.A.T. and I only share a total of 18.9 cM, so this would not fulfill the requirement to be considered a match in the FamilyTreeDNA system. So is this a real match or not?

Not Maternal..., so Paternal?

Although I was discouraged, I did not let this set back keep me from looking at my match more closely. Although she wasn't a match to my grandmother as I expected, I then compared her to the rest of my family members, including my grandfather and my mother and her father. She DID come back as a match to my paternal grandfather.

Here is a list of common chromosome segments between my match and my grandfather:

Chr	Start Location	End Location	Centimorgans (cM)	SNPs
3	25052678	30677144	7.2	1475
5	50991761	54288881	2.9	846
6	151277980	153997386	4.8	924

Largest segment = 7.2 cM
Total of segments > 1 cM = 14.9 cM
Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 7.0

Here is a list of common chromosome segments between my match and me:

Chr	Start Location	End Location	Centimorgans (cM)	SNPs
3	25052678	30683436	7.2	1487
7	88445250	91973622	3.0	731
7	117280746	123629411	3.5	933
13	66743336	69809017	1.9	739
18	22684849	25803725	3.3	977

Largest segment = 7.2 cM

Total of segments > 1 cM = 18.9 cM

Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 6.8

You can see that my match shares the SAME chromosome segment on ch 3 from 25052678 to 30683436 with me that she shares with my grandfather. That segment is 7.2 cM long. This means that our genetic connection came down to me through my grandfather, not my grandmother, and that our common ancestors ACCORDING TO THE DNA, are not the Langs or Longs, but a different set of ancestors shared on my grandfather's side.

I am happy to have connected with my match on the Lang / Long line, and to have extended my tree out further with the addition of her line; However, I can no longer conclude that "DNA proves that my Basheba Long was the daughter of John Lang" ...because I am a DNA match to other descendants of John Lang....

This is where we have to draw the line between DNA testing and genealogy and make distinctions about what each one can do. My mantra has always been, "If you're going to do it, then do it right!" The bottom line is that you can't really use one research method independent of the other. You can't rely solely on the DNA to give you answers and sometimes the paper trail just isn't enough.

Conclusion:

AncestryDNA is a good tool to use to find connections and to expand your paper trail or family tree. However, its usefulness is limited with regards to DNA because the chromosome data is not made available to the testee. In this example, I found a connection with my DNA match via our online trees and genealogical paper trails. However, when I input the raw DNA data into Gedmatch.com, I realized that the DNA connection, represented by the DNA that is shared between us, was not carried down to me from my Lang or Long ancestors like the paper trail suggested. A side by side comparison of the segments my match shared with me to the ones she shared with my grandmother clearly showed that I did not receive the segments that I shared with this match from my grandmother who is a direct descendant of the Langs/Longs. Additionally, when I compared my match to my grandfather, it was clearly apparent that the segments I shared with my match were carried down to me through my grandfather because he, too, shared those same segments with my match.

Now, who's going to break it to my match that we have to go back to the drawing board and start over???

Related Posts: 

My AncestryDNA Test, part 1 - A look at the Closest Matches

My AncestryDNA Test, Part 2, The Shaky Leafs

My AncestryDNA Test, Part 2, The Shaky Leafs

FGS Report of my Lang Ancestors

This is the second post in a series about my AncestryDNA results. In Part 1, I discussed a 3rd cousin match I had found. I found him by looking at my top matches and clicking on one. He was one of two 3rd cousin matches. I clicked on his name, glanced at his tree which contained only 9 people, and immediately identified the connection. Even though I knew right off the bat what our connection was, AncestryDNA did not provide a Shaky Leaf "Hint" because he had not added enough people to his tree (remember I said he had only 9 people in it?). I'm sure that once he starts adding people to his tree, including his 1st, 2nd, and 3rd great-grandparents, whose names I gave to him, a shaky leaf will eventually appear.


The Shaky Leaf and How I found My Next Match

My DNA matches are sorted by relationship by default, with the closest relationships at the top of the list. Although a relationship is predicted, it is not guaranteed that a connection will be found and I will be able to place my match on my family tree. Another way to look at my valuable matches, is to sort by "Hints" represented by, you guessed it, those shaky leafs! In order to see my "Hints" I clicked on the "Hint" filter at the top of the page. This resulted in two pages of matches - about 100 total matches. I found my match to S.A.T. on page 2.


The Relationship Report

When I clicked on S.A.T.'s name, I got a report that told me the following:

• Our predicted relationship was Distant Cousins
• There was a Possible Range of 5th - 8th cousins
• There was a Confidence of Very Low

This looked pretty dreary at first. But then I scrolled down. This is where the Ancestor "Hint" came in. I was presented with a Relationship Report showing me how I was related to my match and who our common ancestor was based on that relationship. According to this relationship report, our common ancestor was John Lang, my 6th Great-Grandfather.

This comparison was run by the Ancestry.com servers (in the background - Ancestry.com people say it's an algorithm). For every match that has a tree, the servers run a side by side comparison between their tree and mine and when they find someone in both trees that looks like the same person and it is a direct ancestor of both people, they determine it to be a "shared ancestor."

Relationship Report with Ginger Smith on the left and my Match S.A.T. on the right

Finding DNA evidence linking my 5th great-grandmother to John Lang has been pretty instrumental to my research. And evidently, it was instrumental to my match's research as well, so she was pretty excited to learn of the match. We both had conflicting evidence about our Lang/Long ancestors that had yet to be resolved.

My Research Problem - the Lang/Long Conundrum

My 4th great-grandmother, Lucinda Phelps, and her husband, Burwell Binns, moved with their families from Talbot County, Georgia to Drew County, Arkansas about 1856. Lucinda's mother, Basheba Lang/Long and step-father, Green Berry Jackson also moved with them. Burwell died there in 1866 and his wife Lucinda died shortly after in 1870. Both Burwell and Lucinda were buried in Beulah Cemetery in Veasey, Drew County, Arkansas on land they donated to the Beulah Baptist Church.

Basheba and Green Berry died after Lucinda and Burwell, however, their final burial place is unknown at this time, but presumed to also be in the Beulah Church Cemetery. There is a piece of paper that someone tacked up behind the glass at the Beulah Church Cemetery entrance that talks about Lucinda's parents, including her mother, Basheba LONG:

Here is a transcript of this informative paper:

"Basheba LONG married Washington Phelps 21 April 1816 at Randolph GA. We have knowledge of one daughter, Lucinda Phelps, being born to them. 

I. Lucinda Phelps (born 22 Oct 1818 in Jasper Co GA) Lucinda married Burwell Binns II in GA on 29 Oct 1835. The had ten children and this is the Binns family who settled in the Beulah Community of Drew County. The children were: Milton, Sarah, Elizabeth, Lucinda, Matilda, Edna, Mary Jane, Christopher, and Burwell III.

Basheba Phelps married Green Berry (sometimes called Greenberry) Jackson 21 March 1823 in Jasper Co GA. Court records show Green Berry Jackson as being appointed guardian of Lucinda Phelps (dau of Washington Phelps) sometime after 1823. We have knowledge of 4 children belonging to Green Berry and Basheba Jackson and the names of 3. By the time Green Berry and Basheba Jackson got to Arkansas, Basheba was spelling her name Barshaby. We don't know when this family arrived in Drew County; but they were here by 1857. Children of Green Berry and Barshaby Jackson are: ...."

In this write up, Basheba's last name is "LONG." However, on Basheba and Washington's marriage record recorded in Jasper County, Georgia, she is listed as Basheba LANG.

Washington Phelps & Basheba LANG Marriage Record Jasper Co GA, 1816

Here is the transcript of the marriage record filed in Jasper Co., Georgia:

Georgia       ))

Jasper County ))

     I certify the within named persons Washington Phelps and Bersheba Lang were duly Solemnized in the holy bond of wedlock by me this 21st day of April 1816. 

                                                              Luke Williams, J. P.

Robert Robey, C.C.O

So far, we now have two conflicting pieces of documentation for Basheba's surname. The paper posted at the cemetery said her last name was LONG and the marriage record said her last name was LANG.

But I wasn't the only one with conflicting documentation. My match had run into similar issues with her family.

My Match Has the Same Lang/Long Conundrum

According to my match, her 2nd great-grandmother was Temperance Lang who was born 1850 in Stone Mountain, DeKalb Co., GA and died 1928 in DeKalb Co., GA. On her death certificate, the informant listed her father's name as John C. LONG, however, on every other record she encountered, including the death certificates of Temperance's siblings, her father's name was listed as John C. LANG.

With DNA testing, we were able to confirm that our two lines were related and that her John C. LANG was the sibling of my Basheba LONG. I had previously connected to another sibling, Lydia Lang via a DNA match as well, so I knew we were on the right path.

In this case, DNA helped to solve two mysteries and hopefully put the Lang/Long conundrum to rest.

As you can guess, I will be looking for additional documentation on my Basheba Long/Lang in order to determine if she changed her name, went by both names, or just didn't bother correcting the county clerks who wrote up various documents for her.

I would love to hear if DNA has helped to resolve any of your name conflicts. Please leave a comment below or email me directly.

My AncestryDNA Test, part 1

I finally ordered my AncestryDNA kit when it was on sale last month because I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Actually, what really happened was that I was helping a couple of people out with their AncestryDNA results and I was really impressed by how well they were finding matches and making connections.

I usually recommended Family Tree DNA as a testing company because they are the most transparent and because they offer testees the most tools with which to analyze their data. But frankly, I had burned myself out a year ago trying to do all that chromosome mapping and analyzing of the numbers.

So late last year I switched tactics. I've been downloading and building out the trees of my matches and looking for intersections between their trees and my own. This is also a very tedious process, but I found that I preferred doing this kind of "research" over just trying to crunch numbers that changed all the time. This process started working better for me. The number of connections I found doubled.

Since this new process of working the trees was working so well for me this past year, I decided I would try my hand at the AncestryDNA test which is based on finding matches within your trees.

Boy was I in for a big surprise!

I was on the site for 10 minutes and in that time I found connections to 3 cousins!

I don't have all the numbers to share with you, like the total number of matches - I actually can't find that. So if anyone knows how to determine what my total number of matches are, please let me know. I can tell you that I have 2 3rd cousin matches! I've already determined the connection to one of them (see below). I have about 3 pages of 4th cousins and the rest (about 253 pages) are distant cousins. 

Let's take a look at one of my 3rd cousin matches:

I clicked on his name. He only has 9 people in his tree, but it was enough to see that yes, we are, in fact, cousins. We descend from a common King line in Howell and Oregon Counties, Missouri. His great-grandfather, WilliamFletcher King, was the brother of my 2^nd great-grandmother, Dora King.

So if you've used Ancestry.com to build your family tree, you are all too aware of their little shaky leaves that offer you "hints" of records that might pertain to your ancestors. Well evidently they've applied these hints to your matches as well. Unfortunately,  I did not get a shaky leaf with this match. But I could tell by looking at his little tree where the connection was - Along the King line.

Family Tree of my AncestryDNA Match

Then I clicked on “King” inside the yellow box and it brought up a list of King ancestors for each of us. This is very helpful, especially if I have forgotten who my King ancestors were! His King ancestors are on the left and mine are on the right. I am not sure why it did not pull up a relationship chart.

Our King Ancestors

I entered my match into my Family Maker Software, synced with my online tree, and then asked my online tree to calculate my relationship to Mr. King. Here’s what it produced:

Relationship Report between my Match and I

It says we are 3^rd cousins once removed. This lines up with what AncestryDNA predicted which was 3^rd cousins. I'm not sure why it chose to display Tabitha House as the common ancestor between us. She was married to Robert King. He is also one of our common ancestors. We share both common ancestors - not just one. 

DON’T STOP THERE!

I always try to remind the people I work with and the people who attend my presentations that they shouldn't stop with just identifying the connection with their matches.

These are some of the Next Steps I take:

1.       Add my match to my tree. If they have additional family members tested, I add them as well

2.       Send him information about who his grandfather’s Virgil’s parents & grandparents were

3.       Ask him to upload to Gedmatch so I can compare our results to another known King cousin  match from ftDNA

4.       Foster the relationship – Exchange photos, stories, and information about your families

KEEP IN TOUCH!

In my next post I will discuss those shaky leafs.

If you have King ancestors from Oregon or Howell Counties in Missouri, I would love to hear from you.

Email me.