Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Gravestone Picture from the Past

1903-1904 Turner's city directory for White Plains
I found a picture of a gravestone.  The picture itself is over one hundred years old.  I found it in Turner's city directory for White Plains, Westchester County, New York on a visit to the White Plains Public Library.  The picture is part of an advertisement for a monument company.  The inscription is very readable:

Theo. G. Mahland
Born Jan'y 22, 1843.
Died Feb'y 8, 1891.

The caption under the picture lists Woodlawn Cemetery.  Naturally, I wanted a current picture of this grave for comparison.  No match at findagrave.com.  There are over twenty cemeteries named Woodlawn in New Jersey and New York, so I am not sure which one holds this stone.

There is actually not much on Theodore Mahland or the Mahland family in general.  I did find Theodore in the 1880 census living at 281 East Broadway in New York City.  He had a wife named Louisa, a daughter, Ella, and a brother, Otto.

1880 federal census for New York City.  281 East Broadway.
Theodore Mahland, age 34.



Thursday, April 21, 2011

DNA Update

Have I found any common ancestors through my DNA matches at 23andme?  No.  But I am still hopeful.  I have more  people to contact- matches for both parents and me.  When a genetic match shares genomes, I can see where the common segment or segments lie and who else overlaps.  I have over twenty people matching me at the beginning of chromosome 7, but only one person matches on chromosome 5.  In theory, all 20+ of us are related from the same ancestor- if only we could discover this ancestor.

As the database grows, so does my chances of finding more matches and discovering the connections.  In the meantime, I am more motivated to uncover older generations on each line.


As of today, I have 1006 genetic matches in the database.  I can contact five people per day to ask them to correspond and share genomes.  About 50 of the 350 that I asked to share have accepted.  I am working with a very small sample size of genetic matches, so I am not too surprised that I have not figured out any connections yet.  I also have not figured out a way to inspire people to respond to my inquiry.

Monday, April 11, 2011

23andme.com DNA testing sale

23andme.com is having a sale on its DNA kits today only.  The kit costs nothing; you pay $14.95 for shipping PLUS $9 per month for one year for the "personal genome service."  For those of you debating having your DNA analyzed, this is a great deal.

I paid $100 back in December and then $200 for each kit for my parents earlier this year.  I am hoping that lots of people take advantage of this sale and grow the pool of genetic matches in the 23andme database.