Thursday, September 19, 2013

DNA Match between Fourth and Fifth Cousins


I met a fifth cousin online ("R.B.") when she wrote to me after I posted pictures of our mutual family graves.  Our common ancestors are our 4th great grandparents, Stephen Cook (1797-1853) and Elizabeth vanderHoof (1799-1878) of Morris County, New Jersey.  R.B. tested her autosomal DNA at FamilyTreeDNA while most of my family tested at 23andMe.  I previously uploaded results for some family members from 23andMe to FamilyTreeDNA, but R.B. was not in the matches.  Once you reach the third cousin level, your chances of sharing any identical autosomal DNA drop.

So we turned to GedMatch to compare our DNA.  GedMatch accepts files of DNA tests done at Ancestry, 23andMe, and FamilyTreeDNA.

R.B. and I share no detectable identical DNA.

GedMatch.com
No DNA detected between my fifth cousin, R. B., and me


Fortunately, I have members of the prior generation to test.  When choosing relatives to take DNA tests, the oldest generation available is preferred because half the DNA is lost with each new generation.

R.B. shares a little identical DNA with my father and my father's third cousin from this Cook line.  This could be a coincidence of no genealogical value, or it could be the same DNA passed generation to generation from Stephen Cook or Elizabeth vanderHoof.

GedMatch.com
Autosomal DNA comparison between 4th cousins, once removed
The segment size (11.1 cM) is good, but the number of SNPs (1038) may be too low to be identical by descent.
A relationship was predicted within six generations, which is fairly accurate.


GedMatch.com
Autosomal DNA comparison between 4th cousins, once removed
Both the segment size (6.6 cM) and the number of SNPs (1017) may be too low to be identical by descent.
No predicted relationship.


Fortunately, my father's siblings have also tested.  One sibling may demonstrate a match where another one will not.  That is the case with my uncle.


GedMatch.com
Autosomal DNA comparison between 4th cousins, once removed
Two identical segments of DNA are found.  Both brothers share the segment on chromosome 15 with R.B.
The segment on chromosome 3 contains more SNPs and is more likely to indicate a shared ancestor. 

R.B. and my uncle share two small segments of identical DNA, enough to trigger an estimate to the Most Recent Common Ancestor:  4.7 generations.  The actual number of generations back to the most common recent ancestors, Stephen Cook and Elizabeth vanderHoof, is 5 generations from my father and uncle and 6 generations from R.B.


Chart of Consanguinity
My uncle is 5 generations from Stephen Cook and Elizabeth vanderHoof,
while R.B. is 6 generations from this couple,
so R.B. and my uncle are 4th cousins, once removed.


What is gained from this information?  Two items.
First, the shared DNA within the parameters of the 4th to 5th cousin range makes it more likely that we have the correct Cook family lines.  It is not proof that we are related through Cook and vanderHoof, as the identical DNA could be from another shared line that we are unaware of at this time.
Second, we can view other genetic cousin matches on these same segments and specifically look for connections to Cook or vanderHoof.



Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Finding a German Hometown

One of the benefits of testing the DNA of family members for genealogy purposes is meeting other researchers online to exchange information and expand the family tree.

A genetic match to cousins of my paternal grandmother provided me with a fantastic link, providing me with a German hometown.  (Thank you D. L.)  My cousins' Wrage line had me chasing alternate spellings in New York because of the silent W and the German pronunciation.  Without a specific place or town in Europe, finding and identifying the correct Wrage family in a German area in 1850 (if it even was Wrage in Europe) was futile.



1869 Passenger List- Hermann Wrage and son, Hermann Wrage.
This was not the older Hermann's first trip to New York.
New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, database online Ancestry.com

The genetic cousin alerted me to a wonderful book online (The History of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Brooklyn, New York, from 1853-1903 by Hugo W Hoffmann at GoogleBooks) containing a picture of the immigrant Hermann Wrage, along with his birthplace, father's name, and a glimpse of his life as a soldier in Europe and then a pastor at the Church in New York.



Hermann Wrage  1831-1882






Hermann Wrage was also a published author of grammar and language books.  The advertisements for his books can be found in newspapers in the 1870s and 1880s and the actual books today are online at GoogleBooks.





Very importantly, I found out Hermann's town of origin in Europe:  Flensburg.  This is so much more helpful than working with "Germany" or "Prussia" as the place of origin.  Flensburg is currently in Germany on the northern border with Denmark.  Genetic cousins of Danish heritage in the DNA databases could be related through this Wrage branch.



Google Maps
Hermann Wrage's hometown, Flensburg, is in Germany, but next to Denmark.



23andMe: Genome of Cousin B. D.
The match on chromosome 1 with Danish and Swedish ancestry could be related through B. D.'s Wrage branch.





Next I searched for the surname "Wrage" for a geographical genealogy.  The surname is concentrated in the present-day State of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany, near Denmark.  This is the area of Hermann Wrage's stated hometown, Flensburg.  I can expect to find more records here.
GeoGen Surname Mapping for surname WRAGE



Another great feature at GeoGen is the Name Graph, which provides alternate spellings for a surname.  Wrage might appear with or without the W, and could even start with a vowel.  Finding and confirming records on this line will be tricky at times, especially if the family was Danish and became German before coming to New York.

Alternate spellings for surname WRAGE



Sunday, August 25, 2013

A Genetic Genealogy Success Story (Finally)


I have figured out my first genetic cousin match after years of collecting and analyzing.

The match is in my maternal grandmother's tree.  This surprised me because I have not been able to trace my grandmother's Irish tree very far back.  I thought my DNA success would be in my father's extensive Colonial American tree.

I noticed this close match in the DNA Relatives feature of my maternal uncle at 23andMe.  After the eight known close relatives, this match immediately followed, matching my uncle 0.87% over five segments.  (In contrast, this match in my mother's DNA Relatives is number 45.)  The match was anonymous, so I sent a request to "share genomes."  The other person, D. J., accepted, enabling me to compare him to my close relatives.  D. J. matched my mother, her half brother, and their first cousin; but not my maternal grandmother's paternal cousins (the O'Donnell side).  I figured the match would be through my maternal grandmother's mother's side (the Preston side).

23andMe
Family Inheritance:  Advanced


My sister and I inherited almost all of the DNA that my mother shares with this cousin.

Parents and grandparents of my maternal grandmother, Jeannette O'Donnell.
Because this mystery cousin matched my mother and her half brother, the match was from Jeannette's tree.
The mystery cousin did not match Jeannette's paternal cousins,
so the match was through Jeannette's mother, Anna Preston.
Family Tree Maker 2012


Next I viewed D. J.'s genetic distant cousins who also shared the matching segments.  23andMe makes available the Ancestry File of people who are sharing genomes with you.  This file contains their genetic matches and the segments where they match.  This provides limited info:  If the match is anonymous, no name is displayed; and if a match has not filled out a survey specific to this file, the person is omitted entirely.


Ancestry Finder matches of cousin D. J. from 23andMe


I was expecting Irish matches.  These look like my mother's paternal matches, not maternal.  If none of her close maternal relatives had tested, I would have erroneously classified D. J. as a paternal match of my mother.

Next I looked at D. J.'s Ancestry Composition.

Ancestry Composition of cousin D. J. at 23andMe

D. J. is approximately half Ashkenazi.  This bumps his smaller matches (in this case, Irish) out of the picture almost entirely.  My uncle is not Ashkenazi.  D. J. placed at the top of his unknown matches.

D. J. answered my inquiry.  The focus would be on his father's tree.  D. J.'s paternal grandfather was Norwegian and his paternal grandmother was of Irish heritage, born in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1922; last name Beirne, pronounced Burn.

Irish and Bayonne, New Jersey was a great place to look for the common ancestors!

Notice that he did not give me a surname that matched any of my ancestors.  Because I had traced my family tree up and then across and back down, I knew Beirne.

Obituary of my great grandmother, Anna Preston, wife of Frank O'Donnell.
Her sister, "Mrs Thomas Burns," is mentioned.  This is Hannah.

This was a difficult family to find because the name was spelled Byrne or Burn in indexes.  I figured it must have sounded like Burn.  My great grandmother's sister, Hannah Preston, married Thomas Beirne in Bayonne in 1911.

Copied at New Jersey State Archives in Trenton by J Lutter


I had found two children for this couple:  Mary, born 1912, and William, born 1915.

Copied at New Jersey State Archives in Trenton by J Lutter

Copied at New Jersey State Archives in Trenton by J Lutter


I guessed that D. J.'s paternal grandmother was Mary Beirne.  He replied that her name was Regina, born 1922.  I had come across Regina Beirne.  She was the contact person on Thomas Beirne's registration for the draft of World War II.  I had not determined how she was related.

Draft registration, 1942
Ancestry.com

If Regina was a daughter of Hannah Preston and Thomas Beirne, how did I miss her?  I returned to the 1930 census to find Regina.  If she was born in 1922, I should have found her with her family in 1930.

Line 46 is Regina Bierne.
1930 United States Federal Census
10 West 17th Street, Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey
ED 197, page 6A (Ancestry.com)

Do you see how I missed Regina?  She is listed with the prior Aiello family.

I checked my grandmother's family notes and sure enough, she had written "2 girls & 1 boy" for Hannah.

Family notes of Jody's grandmother


This makes D. J. my third cousin!  We share a pair of great great grandparents:  John David Preston, born about 1857 in Pine Plains, Dutchess County, New York, and Bridget Sheehey, born about 1857 in Ireland.

And here are our great grandmothers, Hannah and Anna Preston, sisters, in the household of their parents in the 1900 census.
Household of John D Preston
1900 United States Federal Census
Independence, Warren County, New Jersey
ED 190, page 7B (Ancestry.com)
Back to the DNA:  My sister and I match this third cousin 0.56% over three segments.  This is about half the DNA that my father and his siblings share with their third cousin.  D. J. is a second cousin, once removed to my mother, her brother, and their first cousin.

By comparing other genetic matches to this known third cousin, I can isolate some matches to the Preston branch of my mother's family tree.

For further studies, D. J.'s father could be tested.  This will show us additional common Preston segments, but will also reveal many more Preston genetic matches that are missed in D. J.'s own account because of his mother's Ashkenazi heritage.