Works Progress Administration

Application for a Social Security Number
Note that the employer was Works Progress Administration at 309 Washington Street in Newark, New Jersey

The Depression of the 1930s resulted in high unemployment rates, including my own family.  My grandfather worked for the Works Progress Administration, a government sponsored program that was part of President Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal.  Specific to genealogy, the WPA catalogued and indexed records of vital events and cemeteries.

An article in the summer 2012 newsletter of the Genealogical Society of New Jersey alerted us that we may request employment records for people who worked for the WPA.  You may write to:

National Archives and Records Administration
Archival Programs
PO Box 38757
Saint Louis, MO  63138
or email stlarr.archives@nara.gov

I wrote to them and will let you know about any promising returns.  If you can obtain employment records on an ancestor or relative, proceed.  You never know what surprises await you.

DNA Testing: Grandfather's First Cousin

Katherine Dunn (1865-1944)
Wife of William Walling Winterton
I think I inherited her lower lip.  Maybe the nose.

Another DNA kit is on the way to my paternal grandfather's first cousin.  23andMe had a sale, so it seemed like a good time to test another relative.  The common ancestors of this cousin and my father (and me) were William Walling Winterton (1863-1932) and Katherine Dunn (1865-1944).  They lived in Monmouth County, New Jersey and are buried at Green Grove Cemetery in Keyport.

If we tested both cousins, they would share about 12.5% of their DNA.  We can't test my grandfather because he is deceased, but we do have the results of my father.  My father should share approximately half the DNA that his father would have shared with this first cousin, or 6.25%.  As the next generation, I should share about 3.125% with this first cousin, twice removed.

(Keep these percentages in mind as you flashback one year ago to my 5% match who is still silent.  This person could be as close as a cousin to one of my grandparents.  This is so strange because I *think* I am aware of everyone researching my closest lines and they deny DNA testing.)

DNA inheritance can be rather random, so it will be interesting to see the exact percentages shared.  To view charts comparing DNA of cousins, please view this post by Andrea Badger.

The purpose of testing this latest cousin is to triangulate matches.  The DNA testing companies provide you a bunch of "genetic cousins."  You search your ancestral tree and the tree of your genetic match to locate a common ancestor, or source of the shared genetic material that survived all these generations.  This sounds easy, but it is not.  Once the results of this cousin are complete, we will identify genetic matches in common.  This will point us to a specific branch in my father's tree:  his father's mother's branch.

Two Years of Blogging

Today is my blogiversary!  I have been blogging for two years.  I thank all of my readers for their feedback and support.  I am glad that I have helped many of you uncover your roots.  Your questions help me to view the facts from a different angle.

Blogging inspires me to continue my research, always looking for the next lead.  I have been inspired to visit places in order to have something fresh to write about, and in doing so, often I have found wonderful records to assist my research.

Since starting this blog, I have joined genealogical societies and explored my genealogy through DNA testing.  It has been great learning about DNA and sharing this experience with you here.

I hope to inspire you to research well and often to uncover your own roots.