My AncestryDNA Results

My results are in for the AncestryDNA test I took in May.  (My father's results are not in yet.)

Before the results were published, a cousin contacted me.  She is my mother's second cousin.  Our common ancestors were John D Preston (1859-1928) and Bridget Sheehey (1856-1916).  Her grandfather, George Preston, was a brother to my great grandmother, Anna Preston.  Previously, through DNA testing at 23andMe, I made contact with a descendant of another sibling, Hannah.

1900 federal census:  Independence, Warren County, New Jersey  USA
Household of John D Preston
I am descended from Anna Preston.  Last year, we met descendants of Hannah Preston.
In this post, we meet a descendant of George Preston.

My AncestryDNA closest matches are predicted to be 3rd to 4th cousins.

I don't know how the first person is related to me.  He has no genealogy information under his profile.  When my father's results are available, I will check if this cousin matches my father.  If not, the match is likely through my mother.

The second match is my Preston cousin.  We both attached family trees to our profiles.  Ancestry tagged her tree with a little leaf to let me know that Ancestry has a suggestion as to which ancestor in our trees may be the common ancestor.

John D Preston is indeed our common ancestor.  Bridget Sheehey, our other common ancestor, was left out of this suggestion.

This newly discovered cousin provided me with information on her branch of the Preston tree.  I followed them through the census and retrieved some of their vital records from the Archives in Trenton.  As a coincidence, in the 1920 census in Newark, New Jersey, we have George Preston and his wife, Margaret [Fallon], living a few houses away from my paternal great grandfather, Howard Lutter, and my great great grandmother, Clara Uhl.

1920 federal census:  Newark, Essex County, New Jersey  USA
South Ninth Street
The Prestons were living at 164 South Ninth Street.  The Lutters were at 158.

Finding George Preston's birth certificate provides me with a narrower time frame for when the family relocated from Dutchess County, New York to Warren County, New Jersey.  George's birth certificate for November 12, 1886 is the first found in New Jersey for the couple John Preston and Bridget Sheehey.  Strangely, the next two children, Hannah and Anna, had no certificates.  But Henry, born 1897, and Walter, born 1899, were issued birth certificates.  If the child count is correct, I am still missing some children.

The branches lost contact, but through the internet, we reconnected.  My grandmother's notes reveal that she continued receiving news about the family.  She wrote that George (her maternal uncle) had one son.

Now I have tested my autosomal DNA at the three major companies:  23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, and AncestryDNA.  I have close and distant relations at all three.  Unlike 23andMe and FamilyTree DNA, AncestryDNA does not reveal which pieces, or segments, of my DNA that I have in common with my matches.  This information is necessary to figure out the connection to more distant relations.

Some Interesting Genetic Matches

Here are some of my more remarkable genetic matches over at 23andMe.

This genetic cousin matches me on three segments, but my mother on only one and my father on none.  I probably received the other two chromosomes from my mother.  The match on chromosome 9 is perhaps just under 5 cM (centimorgan- a unit of measurement) for my mother and therefore under the threshold to report.  The match on chromosome 4 is an area of my mother's genome that was not read!

This genetic cousin matches me on one segment of chromosome 3 that I received from my father.  This man also matches my mother and her uterine brother on segments that I did not inherit (instead inheriting that part of my maternal side of chromosome 6 from my maternal grandfather).  This cousin does not match my father's known third cousin, but he does match some of their common Irish matches- which leads me to a specific branch in my father's tree- perhaps where my parents will share ancestors!

This cousin is really interesting because he matches me on a 21 cM segment- larger than what I usually see- but matches neither parent!  The 5 or 6 cM matches can be missed, as the threshold is 5 cM, but a 21 cM segment really should appear in a parent's account.

These strange matches are likely more distant than third cousins.  Our mutual links in our respective family trees are many generations back where the possibilities double every generation, making this a very large puzzle to piece together.

It's a Small, Small World

Over a year ago, I wrote about my quest to locate a second cousin of my paternal grandfather.  Some more information has come my way and I would like to share with you because it is amazing.

James Kittson died in September of 2003 and his last benefit was in Montclair, Essex County, New Jersey, according to the Social Security Death Index.  A few people with this last name or a close variant live in Montclair currently.  I sent them hand-written notes explaining how I was related to James and that I was looking for his family.  From old phonebooks, I found an address for James Kittson and sent a note to that location as well.

One person called me.  She and I worked together a few years ago.  James Kittson was a boarder in her home for over twenty years!  She said that he was quiet, kept to himself, talked very little, and gave her no information about himself.  After he died, a friend collected his sparse belongings, as he had no family that anyone knew about.

And here is the kicker:  he was a customer at our place of business!

When I heard this, I was shocked!  My mind raced back in time to so many people, names, faces.  I couldn't remember him.  I still can't.

This is so weird learning that our paths crossed- and I had no idea that he was related and that years later I would look for him.

Same Name, Same Family?

While researching Eugene Cook in New York and New Jersey in the 1800s and 1900s, I come across his doppelganger.  Eugene Everett Cook.  They were born about twenty years apart and seem to have no blood relation.  On my most recent trip to Trenton, I was not even looking for this other Eugene Cook and poof- I came across his death certificate.

This Eugene Cook died in Orange, Essex County, New Jersey in 1943.
He was born in Brooklyn in 1878 to Lyman Cook and Sarah See.

This Eugene Cook died in Florida in 1979.
He was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1898 to Charles Cook and Minnie Bishop.