Purchased AncestryDNA Kit

I logged onto my email tonight just in time to see the awaited announcement from Ancestry that I could purchase one of their new DNA kits.  The offer was good for only twelve hours.

Email from Ancestry.com received 9 June 2012.
Offer expires 9 June 2012.

I ordered one kit for $99 plus $9.95 shipping.  [On an aside note, I will get a percentage of the price credited to my Upromise account.  Another 27 years and those school loans will be gone!]

I returned to the Offer Page and tried to order another kit, but was denied.

This new offer from AncestryDNA is autosomal testing, meaning that the test captures DNA that you have from all of your ancestral lines.  [The trick is figuring out WHICH ancestral line you have in common with any one of your hundreds of distant genetic cousins.]  This is the testing offered by 23andMe and one of the tests available at FamilyTreeDNA.  This is not the same test that I did at Ancestry a few years ago for my father, his sister, and myself.

I now need to decide who to test.  I wanted to try the new autosomal testing at Ancestry.  I DO NOT want results for various family members scattered across companies.  I will not be able to compare genetic cousins against known, closer family members if I do not concentrate the tests at one company.

I will keep you posted . . .

More Genetic Comparisons

Another useful function of the expanded comparison abilities at 23andMe is comparing people who match both my father and his third cousin.  The most recent common ancestors were born around 1830 in New Jersey, Calvin Cook and Mary Neil.  Calvin's lines were in New Jersey and New York several generations before Calvin, while Mary was likely of recent Irish descent.

In the above graph, P. M., who lives in Ireland, matches David and David's third cousin, as well as T. R, who is also from Ireland.  T. R. matches both David and the third cousin (not shown).  Mary Neil represents David's only Irish branch.  Thus, P. M. and T. R. likely match David through one of Mary Neil's lines.  The question remains:  which of Mary's ancestors was also an ancestor of P. M. and T. R.?

Royal Genealogy?

Someone found this interesting handwritten genealogy at a garage sale in New Jersey.  It's interesting, though a bit difficult to follow the lines.  Ancestors include Charlemagne and several Kings of England.

This seems to be the area of more recent people.

DNA Update: 23andMe

A new feature at 23andMe is the ability to compare matches to one another, as long as they are "sharing genomes" with you.  I compared my father's 250+ matches.  (Took about eight weeks.)  Most matches matched a few others, usually with a very tiny segment.

In the above graph, my father (David) shares genetic material with all three of these people, though not on the same chromosome.  This could indicate a shared ancestry among all four of them.

In this graph, David matches all three of these people on the same area of Chromosome 12.
The limit of this DNA testing is that you are not told which side of the chromosome holds the match.
In other words, you have 23 PAIRS of chromosomes; one side from your mother, the other from your father.
All three people could match on the side from David's father, or from his mother, or one is on the maternal side, the other two on the paternal side.  We do not know from this comparison alone.

The new ability to compare matches against one another enables us to see that C. W. matches N. P, but not R. M.

In addition, N. P. does not match R. M.
From this, we can proceed with the hypothesis that N. P. and C. W. match David on one side of the family, while R. M. matches on the other.  We just have not figured out which one is which (yet).

Woodland Cemetery, Newark, New Jersey

Yesterday was the annual Safe Day at Woodland Cemetery in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.  Thanks to Mary Lish and John Sass for their coordination and help.  It was great seeing everyone!  After a stormy night, the clouds cleared.  The ground was soggy at first, but soon dried under the hot sun.

Woodland Cemetery was established in 1855 and holds over 80,000 burials.  The annual Safe Day allows volunteers to photograph and record gravestone transcriptions and guide the public in locating graves of loved ones.

Woodland Cemetery, Newark, New Jersey

Woodland Cemetery, Newark, New Jersey

Using a weedwacker to uncover these stones from ivy.

Using a metal detector to locate buried treasures.



Spoon found buried at the cemetery.  Silver-plated copper alloy.

Engraving on spoon.