Category Archives: Best DNA Articles

Discover’s Ancient Connections – How Are You Related?

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When FamilyTreeDNA released the new Mitotree, they also introduced their new mtDNA Discover tool, which is a series of 13 reports about each haplogroup, including one titled Ancient Connections.

Ancient Connections shows you ancient relatives from your direct matrilineal line through a mitochondrial DNA test or through a Y-DNA (preferably Big Y-700) test.

Ancient Connections help you connect the present to the past based on archaeological excavations around the world and DNA sequencing of remains. Ancient Connections links you through your DNA to ancient people, cultures, and civilizations that would be impossible to discover any other way. You don’t have to wonder if it’s accurate, or which line it came from, because you know based on the test you took. Discover’s Ancient Connections track the journey of your ancestors and relatives.

Ancient Connections can be very exciting – and it’s easy to get swept away on a wave of jubilation.

Are those people your ancestors, or relatives, or what? How do you know? How can you figure it out?

So let me just answer that question generally before we step through the examples, so you can unveil your own connections.

  • You are RELATED to both Ancient and Notable Connections. Notable Connections are famous or infamous people who have lived more recently, and their relatives have been tested to identify their haplogroups.
  • It’s VERY unlikely that Ancient Connections are your direct ancestors – but someone in the line that you share IS your ancestor.
  • Many factors enter into the equation of how you are related, such as the haplogroup(s), the timeframe, and the location.
  • The sheer number of people who were living at any specific time makes it very unlikely that any one person with that haplogroup actually was your direct ancestor. They are much more likely to be your distant cousin.

Factors such as whether you share the same haplogroup, similar locations, and the timeframe make a huge difference. Everyone’s situation is different with each Ancient Connection.

Ok, are you ready for some fun???

Let’s find out how to leverage these tools.

Ancient Connections

Ancient connections are fun and can also be quite useful for genealogy.

In this article, I’m going to use a mitochondrial DNA example because full sequence testers at FamilyTreeDNA just received their new Mitotree haplogroup. mtDNA Discover was released with Mitotree, so it’s new too. However, the evaluation process is exactly the same for Y-DNA.

Everyone’s results are unique, so your mileage absolutely WILL vary. What we are going to learn here is a step-by-step analytical process to make sure you’re hearing the message from your ancestors – and interpreting it correctly.

To learn about your new mitochondrial DNA haplogroup and haplotype, read the articles:

Radegonde Lambert

Let’s start with an Acadian woman by the name of Radegonde Lambert. She’s my ancestor, and I wrote about her years ago in the article, Radegonde Lambert (1621/1629-1686/1693), European, Not Native.

At the time, that article caused a bit of a kerfluffle, along with the article, Haplogroup X2b4 is European, Not Native American, because Radegonde’s X2b4 haplogroup had been interpreted by some to mean that her matrilineal ancestors were Native American.

That often happens when a genealogical line abruptly ends and hits a brick wall. What probably began with “I wonder if…”, eventually morphed into “she was Native,” when, in fact, she was not. In Radegonde’s case, it didn’t help any that her haplogroup was X2b4, and some branches of base haplogroup X2 are in fact Native, specifically X2a, However, all branches of X2 are NOT Native, and X2b, which includes X2b4, is not.

The Acadians were French people who established a colony in what is now Nova Scotia in the 1600s. They did sometimes intermarry with the Native people, so either Native or European heritage is always a possibility, and that is exactly why DNA testing is critically important. Let’s just say we’ve had more than one surprise.

I always reevaluate my own work when new data becomes available, so let’s look to see what’s happening with Radegonde Lambert now, with her new haplogroup and mtDNA Discover.

Sign on and Identify Your Haplogroup

You can follow along here, or sign on to your account at FamilyTreeDNA.

The first step is to take note of your new Mitotree haplogroup.

Your haplogroup badge is located near the bottom right of your page after signing in.

The tester who represents Radegonde Lambert has a Legacy Haplogroup of X2b4 and has been assigned a new Mitotree haplogroup of X2b4g.

Click Through to Discover

To view your personal Discover information, click on the Discover link on your dashboard.

You can simply enter a haplogroup in the free version of mtDNA Discover, but customers receive the same categories, but significantly more information if they sign in and click through.

You can follow along on the free version of Discover for haplogroups X2b4 here, and X2b4g here.

Clicking on either the Time Tree, or the Classic Tree shows that a LOT has changed with the Mitotree update.

Each tree has its purpose. Let’s look at the Classic Tree first.

The Classic Tree

I like the Classic Tree because it’s compact, detailed and concise, all in one. Radegonde Lambert’s new haplogroup, X2b4g is a subgroup of X2b4, so let’s start there.

Click on any image to enlarge

Under haplogroup X2b4, several countries are listed, including France. There are also 7 haplotype clusters, which tell you that those testers within the cluster all match each other exactly.

It’s worth noting that the little trowels (which I thought were shovels all along) indicate ancient samples obtained from archaeological digs. In the Discover tools, you’ll find them under Ancient Connections for that haplogroup. We will review those in a minute.

In Mitotree, haplogroup X2b4 has now branched several granular and more specific sub-haplogroups.

Radegonde Lambert’s new haplogroup falls below another new haplogroup, X2b4d’g, which means that haplogroup X2b4d’g is now the parent haplogroup of both haplogroups X2b4d and X2b4g. Both fall below X2b4d’g.

Haplogroup names that include an apostrophe mean it’s an umbrella group from which the two haplogroups descend – in this case, both X2b4d and X2b4g. Apostrophe haplogroups like X2b4d’g are sometimes referred to as Inner Haplogroups.

You can read more about how to understand your haplogroup name, here.

In this case, haplogroup X2b4d’g is defined by mutation G16145A, which is found in both haplogroups X2b4d and X2b4g. Both of those haplogroup have their own defining mutations in addition to G16145A, which caused two branches to form beneath X2b4d’g.

You can see that Radegonde Lambert’s haplogroup X2b4g is defined by mutation C16301T, but right now, that really doesn’t matter for what we’re trying to accomplish.

In descending order, for Radegonde, we have haplogroups:

  • X2b4
  • X2b4d’g
  • X2b4g

Your Match Page

Looking at the tester’s match page, Radegonde’s haplotype cluster number and information about the cluster are found below the haplogroup. You can view your cluster number on:

  • Your match page
  • The Match Time Tree beside your name and those of your matches in the same haplotype cluster
  • The Scientific Details – Variants page

I wrote about haplotype clusters, here.

Click on any image to enlarge

On your match page, which is where most people look first, you are in the same haplogroup and haplotype cluster with anyone whose circle is also checked and is blue. If the little circles are not checked and blue, you don’t share either that haplogroup, haplotype cluster, or haplogroup and haplotype cluster. If you share a haplotype cluster, you will always share the same haplogroup.

Haplotype clusters are important because cluster members match on exactly the same (but less stable) mutations IN ADDITION to haplogroup-defining (more stable) mutations.

However, you may also share an identifiable ancestor with people in different haplotype clusters. Mutations, and back mutations happen – and a lot more often at some mutation locations, which is why they are considered less stable. Normally, though, your own haplotype cluster will hold your closest genealogical matches.

In Discover, you can see that Radegonde’s haplotype cluster, F585777, displays three tester-supplied countries, plus two more. Click on the little plus to expand the countries.

What you’re viewing are the Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) countries that testers have entered for their direct matrilineal ancestor.

Let’s hope they understood the instructions, and their genealogy information was accurate.

Notice that Canada and France are both probably quite accurate for Radegonde, based on the known history of the Acadians. There were only French and Native women living in Nova Scotia in the 1600s, so Radegonde had to be one or the other.

The US may be accurate for a different tester whose earliest known ancestor (EKA) may have been found in, say, Louisiana. Perhaps that person has hit a brick wall in the US, and that’s all they know.

The US Native American flag is probably attributable to the old “Native” rumor about Radegonde, and the tester didn’t find the Canadian First Nations flag in the “Country of Origin” dropdown list. Perhaps that person has since realized that Radegonde was not Native and never thought to change their EKA designation.

The little globe with “Unknown Origins” is displayed when the tester doesn’t select anything in the “Country of Origin.”

Unfortunately, this person, who knew when Radegonde Lambert lived, did not complete any additional information, and checked the “I don’t know this information” box. Either Canada, or France would have been accurate under the circumstances. If they had tracked Radegonde back to Canada and read about her history, they knew she lived in Canada, was Acadian, and therefore French if she was not Native. Providing location information helps other testers, whose information, in turn, helps you.

Please check your EKA, and if you have learned something new, PLEASE UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION by clicking on the down arrow by your user name in the upper right hand corner, then Account Settings, then Genealogy, then Earliest Known Ancestors.

Don’t hesitate to email your matches and ask them to do the same. You may discover that you have information to share as well. Collaboration is key.

Radegonde’s Discover Haplogroup

First, let’s take a look at Radegonde’s haplogroup, X2b4g, in Discover.

The Discover Haplogroup Story landing page for haplogroup X2b4g provides a good overview. Please READ this page for your own haplogroup, including the little information boxes.

The history of Radegonde’s haplogroup, X2b4g, is her history as well. It’s not just a distant concept, but the history of a woman who is the ancestor of everyone in that haplogroup, but long before surnames. Haplogroups are the only way to lift and peer behind the veil of time to see who our ancestors were, where they lived, and the cultures they were a part of.

We can see that Radegonde’s haplogroup, X2b4g, was born in a woman who lived about 300 CE, Common (or Current) Era, meaning roughly the year 300, which is 1700 years ago, or 1300 years before Radegonde lived.

  • This means that the tester shares a common ancestor with everyone, including any X2b4g remains, between now and the year 300 when haplogroup X2b4g was born.
  • This means that everyone who shares haplogroup X2b4g has the same common female ancestor, in whom the mutation that defines haplogroup X2b4g originated. That woman, the common ancestor of everyone in haplogroup X2b4g, lived about the year 300, or 1700 years ago.
  • Your common ancestor with any one individual in this haplogroup can have lived ANYTIME between very recently (like your Mom) and the date of your haplogroup formation.
  • Many people misinterpret the haplogroup formation date to mean that’s the date of the MRCA, or most recent common ancestor, of any two people. It’s not, the haplogroup formation date is the date when everyone, all people, in the haplogroup shared ONE ancestor.
  • The MRCA, or most recent common ancestor, is your closest ancestor in this line with any one person, and the TMRCA is the “time to most recent common ancestor.” It could be your mother, or if your matrilineal first cousin tested, your MRCA is your grandmother, and the TMRCA is when your grandmother was born – not hundreds or thousands of years ago.
  • Don’t discount mitochondrial DNA testing by thinking that your common ancestor with your matches (MRCA) won’t be found before the haplogroup birth date – the year 300 in Radegonde’s case. The TMRCA for all of Radegonde’s descendants is about 1621 when she was born.
  • The haplogroup birth date, 1700 years ago, is the common ancestor for EVERYONE in the haplogroup, taken together.
  • Mitochondrial DNA is useful for BOTH recent genealogy and also reveals more distant ancestors.
  • Looking back in time helps us understand where Radegonde’s ancestors lived, which cultures they were part of, and where.

There are two ways to achieve that: Radegonde’s upstream or parent haplogroups, and Ancient Connections.

Parent Haplogroups

X2b4g split from X2b4d’g, the parent haplogroup of BOTH X2b4d and X2b4g, around 3700 years ago, or about 1700 BCE (Before Common (or Current) Era).

Looking at either the Classic Tree, the Time Tree (above) or the Match Time Tree, you can see that haplogroup X2b4g has many testers, and none provide any locations other than France, Canada, the US, unknown, and one Native in the midst of a large haplotype cluster comprised of French and Canadian locations. Due to the size of the cluster, it’s only partially displayed in the screen capture above.

You can also see that sister haplogroup X2b4d split from X2b4d’g around the year 1000, and the ancestors of those two testers are reported in Norway.

Many, but not all of the X2b4g testers are descendants of Radegonde. Even if everyone is wrong and Radegonde is not French, that doesn’t explain the other matches, nor how X2b4g’s sister haplogroup is found in Norway.

Clearly, Radegonde isn’t Native, but there’s still more evidence to consider.

Let’s dig a little deeper using Radegonde’s Ancient Connections.

Ancient Connections

While ancestor and location information are user-provided, Ancient Connections are curated from scientifically published papers. There’s no question about where those remains were found.

When signed in to your account, if you’ve taken the mtFull Sequence test, clicking on the Ancient Connections tab in Discover shows a maximum of around 30 Ancient Connections. If you’re viewing the free version of Discover, or you’ve only tested at the HVR1 or HVR1+HVR2 levels, you’ll see two of your closer and one of your most distant Ancient Connections. It’s easy to upgrade to the mtFull.

In Discover, the first group of Ancient Connections are genetically closest to you in time, and the last connections will be your most distant. Some connections may be quite rare and are noted as such.

Please keep in mind that oldest, in this case, Denisova 8 and Sima de los Huesos, will never roll off your list. However, as new studies are released and the results are added to the tree, you may well receive new, closer matches. New results are being added with each Discover update.

It’s very exciting to see your Ancient Connections, but I need to say three things, loudly.

  1. Do NOT jump to conclusions.
  2. These remains are probably NOT YOUR ANCESTORS, but definitely ARE your distant cousins.
  3. Ancient Connections ARE wonderful hints, especially when taken together with each other and additional information.

It’s VERY easy to misinterpret Ancient Connections because you’re excited. I’ve done exactly that. To keep the assumption monster from rearing its ugly head, I have to take a breath and ask myself a specific set of questions. I step through the logical analysis process that I’m sharing with you.

The first thing I always want to know is where the genetically closest set of remains was found, when, and what we know about them, so let’s start there. Keep in mind that the closest remains genetically may not be the most recent set of remains to have lived. For example, my own haplogroup will be the closest genetically, but that person may have lived 2000 years ago. An Ancient Connection in a more distant haplogroup may have lived only 1000 years ago. The closest person genetically is NOT the same as the person who lived the most recently.

Our tester, Radegonde’s descendant, has no Ancient Connections in haplogroup X2b4g or X2b4d’g, but does have two in haplogroup X2b4, so let’s start there.

Discover provides a substantial amount of information about each set of ancient remains. Click on the results you want to view, and the information appears below.

Radegonde’s first Ancient Connection is Carrowkeel 534. The graphic shows the tester, the Ancient Connection being viewed, and their shared ancestor’s haplogroup. In this case, the shared ancestor haplogroup of Carrowkeel 534 and the tester is X2b4, who lived about 5000 years ago.

It’s very easy to look at Carrowkeel 534, become smitten, and assume that this person was your ancestor.

By Shane Finan – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35098411

It’s especially easy if you WANT that person to be your ancestor. Carrowkeel 534 was buried in a passage tomb in County Sligo, Ireland. I’ve been there.

However, don’t let your emotions get involved – at least not yet.

This is the first example of the steps that determine that these remains are NOT YOUR ANCESTOR.

  • Carrowkeel 534 was a male, and we all know that males do not pass on their mitochondrial DNA. Well, that’s an inconvenient fact.😊
  • There are two sets of X2b4 remains in Ancient Connections. Carrowkeel 534 remains are about 4600-5000 years old, and your common ancestor with them lived about 5000 years ago. However, Radegonde was French and migration from Ireland to France is not typical.
  • The other set of X2b4 remains, Ladoga 16, lived more recently, between the years of 900 and 1200 (or 800-1100 years ago), but they are found in Russia.
  • Radegonde’s parent haplogroup, X2b4d’g was born about 3700 years ago, which excludes the Russian remains from being Radegonde’s direct ancestor.
  • Radegonde’s common ancestor with both these sets of remains lived about 5000 years ago, but these remains were not found even close to each other.

In fact, these remains, if walking, are about 3299 km (2049 miles) apart, including two major water crossings.

  • Given that Radegonde is probably French, finding her ancestor around 5000 years ago in an Irish passage tomb in County Sligo, or in a location east of St. Petersburg, is extremely unlikely.

What IS likely, though, is that X2b4d’g descendants of your common ancestor with both sets of remains, 5000 years ago, went in multiple directions, meaning:

  • Radegonde’s ancestor found their way to France and along the way incurred the mutations that define X2b4d’g and X2b4g by the year 1600 when she lived, or about four hundred years ago.
  • Another X2b4 descendant found their way to what is today Ireland between 4600 and 5000 years ago
  • A third X2b4 descendant found their way to Russia between 800-1100 years ago, and 5000 years ago

If any question remains about the genesis of Radegonde’s ancestors being Native, Ancient Connections disproves it – BUT – there’s still an opportunity for misunderstanding, which we’ll see in a few minutes.

Ancient Connections Analysis Chart

I’ve created an analysis chart, so that I can explain the findings in a logical way.

Legend:

  • Hap = Haplogroup
  • M=male
  • F=female
  • U=unknown

Please note that ancient samples are often degraded and can be missing important mutations. In other words, the tree placement may be less specific for ancient samples. Every ancient sample is reviewed by FamilyTreeDNA’s genetic anthropologist before it’s placed on the tree.

Ancient samples use carbon dating to determine ages. Sometimes, the carbon date and the calculated haplogroup age are slightly “off.” The haplogroup age is a scientific calculation based on a genetic clock and is not based on either genealogy or ancient burials. The haplogroup age may change as the tree matures and more branches are discovered.

I’m dividing this chart into sections because I want to analyze the findings between groups.

The first entry is the earliest known ancestor of the current lineage – Radegonde Lambert, who was born about 1621, or roughly 400 years ago. I’ve translated all of the years into “years ago” to avoid any confusion.

If you wish to do the same, with CE (Current or Common Era) dates, subtract the date from 2000. 300 CE= (2000-300) or1700 years ago. With BCE dates, add 2000 to the BCE number. 1000 BCE= (1000+2000) or 3000 years ago.

Connection Identity Age Years Ago Location & Cultural Group Hap Hap Age Years Ago Shared Hap Shared Hap Age Years Ago
Radegonde Lambert (F) 400 France or Canada -Acadian X2b4g 1700 X2b4 5000
Carrowkeel 534 (M) 4600-5100 Sligo, Ireland – Neolithic Europe X2b4 5000 X2b4 5000
Ladoga 16 (M) 800-1100 Ladoga, Russia Fed – Viking Russia X2b4 5000 X2b4 5000
  • Age Years Ago – When the Ancient Connection lived
  • Hap Age Years Ago – When the haplogroup of the Ancient Connection (X2b4) originated, meaning was born
  • Shared Hap Age Years Ago – When the Shared Ancestor of everyone in the Shared Haplogroup originated (was born)

In this first section, the haplogroup of the Ancient Connections and the Shared Haplogroup is the same, but that won’t be the case in the following sections. Radegonde Lambert’s haplogroup is different than her shared haplogroup with the Ancient Connections.

Let’s assume we are starting from scratch with Radegonde.

The first question we wanted to answer is whether or not Radegonde is European, presumably French like the rest of the Acadians, or if she was Native. That’s easy and quick.

Native people crossed Beringia, arriving from Asia someplace between 12,000 and 25,000 years ago in multiple waves of migration that spread throughout both North and South America.

Therefore, given that the first two samples, Carrowkeel 534 and Ladoga 16, share haplogroup X2b4, an upstream haplogroup with Radegonde Lambert, and haplogroup X2b4 was formed around 5000 years ago, the answer is that Radegonde’s X2b4 ancestor, whoever that was, clearly lived in Europe, NOT the Americas.

According to Discover, Haplogroup X2b4:

  • Was formed about 5000 years ago
  • Has 16 descendant haplogroups
  • Has 29 unnamed lineages (haplotype clusters or individuals with no match)
  • Includes testers whose ancestors are from 23 countries

The Country Frequency map shows the distribution of X2b4, including all descendant haplogroups. Please note that the percentages given are for X2b4 as a percentage of ALL haplogroups found in each colored country. Don’t be misled by the relative physical size of the US and Canada as compared to Europe.

The table view shows the total number of self-identified locations of the ancestors of people in haplogroup X2b4 and all downstream haplogroups.

The Classic Tree that we looked at earlier provides a quick view of X2b4, each descendant haplogroup and haplotype cluster, and every country provided by the 331 X2b4 testers.

For the X2b4 Ancient Connections, we’ve already determined:

  • That Radegonde’s ancestors were not Native
  • Carrowkeel 534 is a male and cannot be Radegonde’s ancestor. It’s extremely likely that Carrowkeel 534’s mother is not Radegonda’s ancestor either, based on several factors, including location.
  • Based on dates of when Ladoga 16 lived, and because he’s a male, he cannot be the ancestor of Radegonde Lambert.

Radegonda’s haplogroup was formed long before Ladoga 16 lived. Each Ancient Connection has this comparative Time Tree if you scroll down below the text.

  • Both Carrowkeel and Ladoga share an ancestor with our tester, and Radegonde, about 5000 years ago.

Think about how many descendants the X2b4 ancestor probably had over the next hundreds to thousands of years.

  • We know one thing for sure, absolutely, positively – X2b4 testers and descendant haplogroups live in 32 countries. People migrate – and with them, their haplogroups.

What can we learn about the genealogy and history of Radegonde Lambert and her ancestors?

We find the same haplogroup in multiple populations or cultures, at different times and in multiple places. Country boundaries are political and fluid. What we are looking for are patterns, or sometimes, negative proof, which is often possible at the continental level.

X2b4, excluding downstream haplogroups, is found in the following locations:

  • Bulgaria
  • Canada (2)
  • Czech Republic
  • England (2)
  • Finland (2)
  • France (3)
  • Germany (4)
  • Portugal
  • Scotland (2)
  • Slovakia (2)
  • Sweden (2)
  • UK (2)
  • Unknown (11)
  • US (2)

Note that there are three people in France with haplogroup X2b4 but no more refined haplogroup.

Looking at X2b4’s downstream haplogroups with representation in France, we find:

  • X2b4a (none)
  • X2b4b (none)
  • X2b4b1 (1)
  • X2b4d’g (none)
  • X2b4d (none)
  • X2b4g (24) – many from Radegonde’s line
  • X2b4e and subgroups (none)
  • X2b4f (none)
  • X2b4j and subgroups (none)
  • X2b4k (none)
  • X2b4l (1)
  • X2b4m (none)
  • X2b4n and subgroups (none)
  • X2b4o (none)
  • X2b4p (none)
  • X2b4r (none)
  • X2b4+16311 (none)

I was hoping that there would be an Ancient Connection for X2b4, X2b4d’g, or X2b4g someplace in or even near France – because that makes logical sense if Radegonde is from France.

All I can say is “not yet,” but new ancient sites are being excavated and papers are being released all the time.

Ok, so moving back in time, let’s see what else we can determine from the next set of Ancient Connections. Haplogroup X2b1”64 was formed about 5050 years ago.

Connection Identity Age Years Ago Location & Cultural Group Hap Hap Age Years Ago Shared Hap Shared Hap Age Years Ago
Radegonde Lambert (F) 400 France or Canada X2b4g 1700
Carrowkeel 534 (M) 5100-4600 Sligo, Ireland – Neolithic Europe X2b4 5000 X2b4 5000
Ladoga 16 (M) 800-1100 Ladoga, Russia Fed – Viking Russia X2b4 5000 X2b4 5000
Parknabinnia 186 (M) 5516-5359 Clare, Ireland – Neolithic Europe X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050 years ago
Rössberga 2 (M) 5339-5025 Vastergotland, Sweden – Funnel Beaker X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Rössberga 29 (M) 5366-5100 Vastergotland, Sweden – Funnel Beaker and Early Plague X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Rössberga 38 (M) 5340-5022 Vastergotland, Sweden – Funnel Beaker X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Monte Sirai 797263 (U) 2600-2400 Monte Sirai, Italy (Sardinia) – Phoenicians X2b35a1 3350 X2b1”64 5050
Bogovej 361 (F) 1000-1100 Lengeland, Denmark – Viking Denmark X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 5050
Ladoga 410 (M) 800-1000 Leningrad Oblast, Russia – Viking Russia X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 5050

Our first group ended with haplogroup X2b4, and our second group consists of haplogroup X2b1”64, the parent haplogroup of X2b4. X2b1”64 is a significantly larger haplogroup with many downstream branches found throughout Europe, parts of western Asia, the Levant, India, and New Zealand (which probably reflects a colonial era settler). The Country Frequency Map and Table are found here.

X2b1”64 is just slightly older than X2b4, but it’s much more widespread, even though they were born about the same time. Keep in mind that haplogroup origination dates shift as the tree is developed.

  • These seven individuals who share X2b1”64 as their haplogroup could be related to each other individually, meaning their MRCA, anytime between when they lived and when their haplogroup was formed.
  • The entire group of individuals all share the same haplogroup, so they all descend from the one woman who formed X2b1”64 about 5050 years ago. She is the shared ancestor of everyone in the haplogroup.

One X2b4 and one X2b1”64 individual are found in the same archaeological site in Russia. Their common ancestor would have lived between the time they both lived, about 800 years ago, to about 5000 years ago. It’s also possible that one of the samples could be incomplete.

A second X2b1”64 Ancient Connection is found in the Court Tomb in County Clare, Ireland, not far from the Carrowkeel 534 X2b4 site.

However, Monte Sirai is fascinating, in part because it’s not found near any other site. Monte Sirai is found all the way across France, on an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

It may be located “across France” today, but we don’t know that the Phoenician Monte Sirai site is connected with the Irish sites. We can’t assume that the Irish individuals arrived as descendants of the Monte Sirai people, even though it would conveniently fit our narrative – crossing France. Of course, today’s path includes ferries, which didn’t exist then, so if that trip across France did happen, it could well have taken a completely different path. We simply don’t know and there are very few samples available.

Three Ancient Connections are found in the Rössberga site in Sweden and another in  Denmark.

Adding all of the Ancient sites so far onto the map, it looks like we have two clusters, one in the northern latitudes, including Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, and one in Ireland with passage burials, plus one single Connection in Monte Sirai.

If I were to approximate a central location between all three, that might be someplace in Germany or maybe further east. But remember, this is 5000 years ago and our number of samples, as compared to the population living at the time is EXTREMELY LIMITED.

Let’s move on to the next group of Ancient Connections, who have different haplogroups but are all a subset of haplogroup X2.

Identity Age Years Ago Location & Cultural Group Hap Hap Age Years Ago Shared Hap Shared Hap Age Years Ago
Radegonde Lambert (F) 400 France or Canada X2b4g 1700
Carrowkeel 534 (M) 5100-4600 Sligo, Ireland – Neolithic Europe X2b4 5000 X2b4 5000
Ladoga 16 (M) 800-1100 Ladoga, Russia Fed – Viking Russia X2b4 5000 X2b4 5000
Parknabinnia 186 (M) 5516-5359 Clare, Ireland – Neolithic Europe X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Ross Rössberga 2 (M) 5339-5025 Vastergotland, Sweden – Funnel Beaker X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Rössberga 29 (M) 5366-5100 Vastergotland, Sweden – Funnel Beaker and Early Plague X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Rössberga 38 (M) 5340-5022 Vastergotland, Sweden – Funnel Beaker X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Monte Sirai 797263 (U) 2600-2400 Monte Sirai, Italy (Sardinia) – Phoenicians X2b35a1 3350 X2b1”64 5050
Bogovej 361 (F) 1000-1100 Lengeland, Denmark – Viking Denmark X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 5050
Ladoga 410 (M) 800-1000 Leningrad Oblast, Russia – Viking Russia X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 5050
Barcin 31 (M) 8236-8417 Derekoy, Turkey – Neolithic Anatolia Ceramic X2m2’5’7^ 9200 X2b”aq 13,000
Abasar 55 (M) 500-800 Abasár Bolt-tető, Abasar, Hungary – Medieval Hungary X2m1e 5350 X2b”aq 13,000
Gerdrup 214 3779-3889 Gerdrup, Sealand, Denmark – Middle Bronze Age X2c1 3400 X2+225 13,000
Sweden Skara 275 800-1100 Varnhem, Skara, Sweden – Viking Sweden X2c1 3400 X2+225 13,000
Kopparsvik 225 950-1100 Gotland, Sweden – Viking Sweden X2z 5650 X2+225 13,000
Sandomierz 494 900-1100 Sandomierz, Poland – Viking Poland X2c2b 1650 X2+225 13,000
Kennewick man 8390-9250 Kennewick, Washington – Native American X2a2’3’4^ 10,450 X2 13,000
Roopkund 39 80-306 Roopkund Lake, Uttarakhand, India – Historical India X2d 13,000 X2 13,000

The next several Ancient Connections have haplogroups that are a subgroup of haplogroup X2. These people lived sometime between 500 years ago in Hungary, and 8390-9250 years ago when Kennewick Man lived in the present-day state of Washington in the US. Kennewick Man merits his own discussion, so let’s set him aside briefly while we discuss the others.

The important information to be gleaned here isn’t when these people lived, but when Radegonde shared a common ancestor with each of them. The shared haplogroup with all of these individuals was born about 13,000 years ago.

Looking at the map again, and omitting both X2 samples, we can see that the descendants of that shared ancestor 13,000 years ago are found more widely dispersed.

Including these additional burials on our map, it looks like we have a rather large Swedish and Viking cluster, where several of the older burials occurred prior to the Viking culture. We have a Southeastern Europe cluster, our two Irish tomb burials, and our remaining single Monte Sirai Phoenician burial on the island of Sardinia.

Stepping back one more haplogroup to X2, which was born about the same time, we add a burial in India, and Kennewick Man.

The Migration Map

The Migration map in Discover provides two different features.

  • The first is the literal migration map for the various ancestral haplogroups as they migrated out of Africa, if in fact yours did, culminating in your base haplogroup. In this case, the base haplogroup is X2, which is shown with the little red circle placed by FamilyTreeDNA. I’ve added the red squares, text and arrows for emphasis.
  • The second feature is the mapped Ancient Connections, shown with little brown trowels. Clicking on each one opens a popup box.

After haplogroup X2 was formed, it split into haplogroups X2a and X2b.

The X2a group, Kennewick Man’s ancestors, made their way eastward, across eastern Russia to Beringia where they crossed into the Americas.

They either crossed Beringia, follow the Pacific coastline, or both, eventually making their way inland, probably along the Hood River, to where Kennewick Man was found some 2,800 years later on the banks of the Kennewick River.

The X2b group made their way westward, across western Europe to a location, probably France, where Radegonde Lamberts’ ancestors lived, and where Radegonde set sail for Nova Scotia.

After being separated for nearly 13,000 years, the descendants of the single woman who founded haplogroup X2 and lived someplace in central Asia around 13,000 years ago would find themselves on opposite coasts of the same continent.

So, no, Radegonde Lambert was not Native American, but her 600th matrilineal cousin or so, Kennewick Man, absolutely was.

Radegonde Lambert and Kennewick Man

Here’s where confirmation bias can rear its ugly head. If you’re just scanning the Ancient Connections and see Kennewick Man, it would be easy to jump to conclusions, leap for joy, slap a stamp of “confirmed Native American” on Radegonde Lambert, and never look further. And if one were to do that, they would be wrong.

Let’s work through our evaluation process using Discover.

Radegonde Lambert and Kinnewick Man, an early Native American man whose remains were found Kennewick, Washington in 1996, are both members of the broader haplogroup X2. Kennewick Man lived between 8290 and 9350 years ago, and their shared ancestor lived about 13,000 years ago – in Asia, where mitochondrial haplogroup X2 originated. This is the perfect example of one descendant line of a haplogroup, X2 in this case, going in one direction and a second one traveling in the opposite direction.

Two small groups of people were probably pursuing better hunting grounds, but I can’t help but think of a tundra version of the Hatfields and McCoys and cousin spats.

“I’m going this way. There are better fish on that side of the lake, and I won’t have to put up with you.”

“Fine, I’m going that way. There are more bears and better hunting up there anyway.”

Their wives, who are sisters, “Wait, when will I ever see my sister again?”

One went east and one went west.

X2a became Native American and X2b became European.

Looking back at our information about Kennewick Man, his haplogroup was born significantly before he lived.

He was born about 8390-9250 years ago, so let’s say 8820 years ago, and his haplogroup was born 10,500 years ago, so about 1680 years before he lived. That means there were many generations of women who carried that haplogroup before Kennewick Man.

Let’s Compare

Discover has a compare feature.

I want to Compare Radegonde Lambert’s haplogroup with Kennewick Man’s haplogroup X2a2’3’4^.

The Compare tool uses the haplogroup you are viewing, and you enter a second haplogroup to compare with the first.

The ancestral path to the shared ancestor, meaning their shared haplogroup, is given for each haplogroup entered. That’s X2 in this case. Then, from the shared haplogroup back in time to Mitochondrial Eve.

I prefer to view this information in table format, so I created a chart and rounded the haplogroup ages above X2.

Hap Age – Years Ago Radegonde’s Line Shared Ancestors and Haplogroups Kennewick’s Line Hap Age – Years Ago
143,000 mt-Eve
130,000 L1”7
119,000 L2”7
99,000 L2’3’4’6
92,000 L3’4’6
73,500 L3’4
61,000 L3
53,000 N
53,000 N+8701
25,000 X
22,500 X1’2’3’7’8
13,000 X2 – Asia
13,000 X2+225 X2a 10,500
12,900 X2b”aq X2a2’3’4^ 10,400 Kennewick Man born c 8800 years ago
11,000 X2b
5,500 X2b1”64
5,000 X2b4
1,900 X2b4d’g
Radegonde Lambert born c 1661 – 400 years ago 1,700 X2b4g

More Ancient Connections

Radegonde Lambert’s matrilineal descendants have an additional dozen Ancient Connections that are found in upstream haplogroup N-8701. Their shared ancestors with Radegonde reach back to 53,000 years ago in a world far different than the one we inhabit today. I’m not going to list or discuss them, except for one.

Identity Age Years Ago Location & Cultural Group Hap Hap Age Years Ago Shared Hap Shared Hap Age Years Ago
Radegonde Lambert (F) 400 France or Canada X2b4g 1700
Carrowkeel 534 (M) 5100-4600 Sligo, Ireland – Neolithic Europe X2b4 5000 X2b4 5000
Ladoga 16 (M) 800-1100 Ladoga, Russia Fed – Viking Russia X2b4 5000 X2b4 5000
Parknabinnia 186 (M) 5516-5359 Clare, Ireland – Neolithic Europe X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Rössberga 2 (M) 5339-5025 Vastergotland, Sweden – Funnel Beaker X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Rössberga 29 (M) 5366-5100 Vastergotland, Sweden – Funnel Beaker and Early Plague X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Rössberga 38 (M) 5340-5022 Vastergotland, Sweden – Funnel Beaker X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 Before 5050
Monte Sirai 797263 (U) 2600-2400 Monte Sirai, Italy (Sardinia) – Phoenicians X2b35a1 3350 X2b1”64 5050
Bogovej 361 (F) 1000-1100 Lengeland, Denmark – Viking Denmark X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 5050
Ladoga 410 (M) 800-1000 Leningrad Oblast, Russia – Viking Russia X2b1”64 5516-5259 X2b1”64 5050
Barcin 31 (M) 8236-8417 Derekoy, Turkey – Neolithic Anatolia Ceramic X2m2’5’7^ 9200 X2b”aq 13,000
Abasar 55 (M) 500-800 Abasár Bolt-tető, Abasar, Hungary – Medieval Hungary X2m1e 5350 X2b”aq 13,000
Gerdrup 214 3779-3889 Gerdrup, Sealand, Denmark – Middle Bronze Age X2c1 3400 X2+225 13,000
Kopparsvik 225 950-1100 Gotland, Sweden – Viking Sweden X2z 5650 X2+225 13,000
Sandomierz 494 900-1100 Sandomierz, Poland – Viking Poland X2c2b 1650 X2+225 13,000
Sweden Skara 275 800-1100 Varnhem, Skara, Sweden – Viking Sweden X2c1 3400 X2+225 13,000
Kennewick man 8390-9250 Kennewick, Washington – Native American X2a2’3’4^ 10,450 X2 13,000
Roopkund 39 80-306 Roopkund Lake, Uttarakhand, India – Historical India X2d 13,000 X2 13,000
Ranis 10 43,500-47,000 Ranis, Germany – LRJ Hunger Gatherer N3’10 53,000 N+8701 53,000
Zlatý kůň woman 47,000 Czech Republic – N+8701 53,000 N+8701 53,000

Zlatý kůň Woman

Zlatý kůň Woman lived some 43,000 years ago and her remains were discovered in the Czech Republic in 1950.

Believed to be the first anatomically modern human to be genetically sequenced, she carried about 3% Neanderthal DNA. Europeans, Asians and indigenous Americans carry Neanderthal DNA as well.

Unlike many early remains, Zlatý kůň Woman’s facial bones have been scanned and her face approximately reconstructed.

There’s something magical about viewing a likeness of a human that lived more than 40,000 years ago, and to whom I’m at least peripherally related.

Like all other Ancient Connections, it’s unlikely that I descend from Zlatý kůň Woman herself, but she is assuredly my very distant cousin.

What else do we know about Zlatý kůň Woman? Quoting from her Ancient Connection:

She lived during one of the coldest periods of the last ice age, surviving in harsh tundra conditions as part of a small hunter-gatherer group. She died as a young adult, though the cause of death remains unknown.

Her brain cavity was larger than that of modern humans in the comparative database, another trait showing Neanderthal affinity. While the exact colors of her features cannot be determined from available evidence, researchers created both a scientific grayscale model and a speculative version showing her with dark curly hair and brown eyes.

Zlatý kůň Woman may or may not have direct descendants today, but her haplogroup ancestors certainly do, and Radegonde Lambert is one of them, which means Radegonde’s matrilineal ancestors and descendants are too.

Ancient Connections for Genealogy

While Ancient Connections are fun, they are more than just amusing.

You are related through your direct matrilineal (mitochondrial) line to every one of your mtDNA Discover Ancient Connections. Everyone, males and females, can take a mitochondrial DNA test.

I find people to test for the mitochondrial DNA of each of my ancestral lines – like Radegonde Lambert, for example. I wrote about various methodologies to find your lineages, or people to test for them, in the article, Lineages Versus Ancestors – How to Find and Leverage Yours.

Radegonde’s mitochondrial DNA is the only key I have into her past, both recent and distant. It’s the only prayer I have of breaking through that brick wall, now or in the future.

Interpreted correctly, and with some luck, the closer Ancient Connections can provide genealogical insight into the origins of our ancestors. Not just one ancestor, but their entire lineage. While we will never know their names, we can learn about their cultural origins – whether they were Vikings, Phoenicians or perhaps early Irish buried in Passage Graves.

On a different line, an Ancient Connection burial with an exact haplogroup match was discovered beside the Roman road outside the European town where my ancestral line was believed to have been born.

Ancient Connections are one small glimpse into the pre-history of our genetic line. There are many pieces that are missing and will, in time, be filled in by ancient remains, Notable Connections, and present-day testers.

Check your matches and your Ancient Connections often. You never know when that magic piece of information you desperately need will appear.

What is waiting for you?

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New Mitotree Haplogroups and How to Utilize Them for Genealogy

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Have you received a new Mitotree haplogroup? Or maybe you didn’t? Are you wondering why you might not have received a new haplogroup? How do the new haplogroups work anyway? And how do you work with them?

Great questions!

Approximately 75% of full sequence testers received a new haplogroup with the Mitotree Beta release, which means that about 25% did not. Keep in mind that new sequences are being added to the database, so the tree will be sprouting new haplogroups with each subsequent release.

Check For Your New Haplogroup

Click on any image to enlarge

Sign in to your account at FamilyTreeDNA and look at the Badges in the bottom right corner of your page.

Your Beta haplogroup is your new Mitotree haplogroup, and your Legacy haplogroup is your old one – prior to Mitotree. They may be the same. My haplogroup, shown above, did not change.

This is a good place to note that the tree is not “done,” yet, nor will it ever be. New samples are added daily as more people test and as academic samples from published papers are added to the database as well. Additionally, FamilyTreeDNA is tweaking the algorithm, so the tree branching structure may change from time to time.

When your haplogroup changes, you’ll receive a notification email.

Some people’s haplogroup will remain the same. There can be several reasons why you might not have received a new haplogroup.

Before we discuss that, I’d like to stress that your haplogroup remaining the same isn’t exactly a bad thing because there is SO MUCH new content for everyone. It’s like receiving a whole new book about your mother’s direct matrilineal line.

mtDNA Discover Offers 13 New Reports for Everyone

MtDNA Discover was released with the new Mitotree, and it includes a dozen new reports for EVERY haplogroup.

Discover is available publicly, and also through your FamilyTreeDNA dashboard which provides a customized experience for mtFull testers with additional information that is not available in the free version.

Think of these Discover reports as chapters in your personal book – all about you and your matrilineal ancestors.

The Discover reports are provided in addition to the tools in the mtDNA Results and Tools section of your dashboard on FamilyTreeDNA.

There’s something for everyone, even if you don’t have a new haplogroup. There’s certainly new information that will help with your genealogy and with understanding the history and ancestral journey of your mother’s direct line maternal ancestors.

Three Reasons Why You Might Not Receive a New Haplogroup

Ok, so why might you not have received a new haplogroup?

The first reason that you might not have received a new haplogroup assignment is the simplest. The new tree is only updated periodically.

After your results are returned, and before the next Mitotree version is available, your Mitotree haplogroup Badge will show as “Analyzing.”

If one of your matches is waiting for a new haplogroup, their Mitotree Haplogroup will show as “Pending Analysis.”

There is no published tree-update schedule, but you’ll receive your new haplogroup soon.

However, you can probably determine your new haplogroup quite easily. If you have any exact matches on your mtDNA Match page, their haplogroup will be your haplogroup as well, so check your full sequence mtDNA Matches on your dashboard for a hint.

For, example, here’s one of my exact matches with their haplogroup.

The second reason you might not have a new haplogroup assignment is that you may not have taken the full sequence mitochondrial DNA test – mtFull.

Only testers with full sequence test results can receive an updated haplogroup, because the full mitochondria needs to be tested. The older HVR1/HVR2 Plus tests only tested a fraction of the full sequence – around 1000 locations of the 16,569 locations tested in the full sequence test.

If you have only taken the HVR1 or HVR1/HVR2 level test, you will only have one badge, and it will say “Predicted.”

The haplogroup for the Plus test is predicted at a high level based on those 1000 locations, while the full sequence test tests the entire mitochondria and uses all locations to confirm your most granular and detailed haplogroup possible.

On your dashboard, if both the Plus and Full icons are pink, you have taken the mtFull test. If the “Full” is grey, you have not. You can click on that grey button to upgrade.

You can also navigating to on Add Ons and Upgrades in the top bar to upgrade to the full sequence test.

The third reason why someone might not have received a new haplogroup assignment is if they didn’t match with anyone else who has the same mutations, or variants, for a particular haplogroup.

In other words, if my mitochondrial DNA has had a mutation or two since my assigned haplogroup was formed and no one else has tested that has those exact same mutations, there’s no one else to form a new haplogroup with, but there might be in the future as additional people test and the tree continues to grow.

Think of those additional mutations, called Private Variants, as foundation blocks, or haplogroup seeds since they are still private to you, and not yet used for a haplogroup.

It’s easy to see if you have any Private Variants by clicking on Discover on your mitochondrial dashboard.

Scientific Details – Private Variants, Building Blocks, Haplogroup Seeds

If you have taken the full sequence test, click through to mtDNA Discover from your dashboard. If you aren’t signed in and click through from your dashboard, you won’t be able to see your variants or other information customized for you.

Navigate to Scientific Details, then click on the Variants tab.

Click on image to enlarge

Be sure that “Show private variants” is toggled to “on,” which is blue with a checkmark.

At the very top, you’ll see two things:

  1. Your haplogroup, which is indicated by the solid pink square.
  2. An F number followed by your private variants, if any, and if so, which ones.

I have no private variants or haplogroup seeds available to form a new haplogroup, so I have no ability to receive a more refined haplogroup.

Haplotype Clusters

However, I’m NOT out of luck, because I have something else – a Haplotype Cluster, indicated by having an F#. My Haplotype Cluster is F1752176 and is indicated by the pink outlined box.

I wrote about haplotype clusters in the article, Mitochondrial DNA: What is a Haplotype Cluster and How Do I Find and Use Mine?.

In a nutshell, haplogroups are only formed around reliable, relatively stable mutations, meaning those that are reliable and don’t tend to randomly mutate back and forth.

You may match exactly with a group of other people who share the same haplogroup, PLUS the same unstable mutations that don’t qualify to become haplogroup-defining.

Those groups of two or more people who match exactly on all mutations are members of the same  Haplotype Cluster – and Haplotype Clusters can be INCREDIBLY genealogically useful. In fact, let me go out on a limb here and say that I think they are even more genealogical useful than haplogroups, although both have their strengths. Let’s look at a good example.

Using Haplogroups and Haplotype Clusters Together

My family member, Jim, had a surprise waiting for him in his mitochondrial DNA. When he received his new haplogroup, I took a look to see what new information might be forthcoming.

His legacy haplogroup was V, and his new Mitotree haplogroup is V216a2 which is significantly more refined.

Before Mitotree and Haplotype Clusters, there wasn’t much to differentiate him from his other matches.

Let’s take a look at JUST his genetic information before adding genealogy.

If I click on the Time Tree for haplogroup V216a2, I see two testers with no cluster, meaning no one matches them exactly, and Jim’s cluster number F9712482.

Keep in mind that Jim might not match everyone in his haplogroup – only people at or beneath the matching threshold.

Jim’s new haplogroup, V216a2 was formed about 1056 CE, or about 975 years ago. Note that as the tree changes and becomes more refined, haplogroup formation dates change too. A haplogroup’s birth date is an approximate year when the mutations occurred that define that haplogroup, based on surrounding mutations and mutation rates.

Many people look at a haplogroup, especially one with a birth date of, say, 1056 CE, which is long before the formation of surnames, shrug their shoulders, and give up.

Don’t. Do. That.

So, let me say this as loudly as possible.

A haplogroup’s most recent common ancestor is NOT the EKA (earliest known ancestor) with any individual match. It’s the approximate date when ALL of the people with this haplogroup share a common ancestor.

When looking at haplogroups, don’t let locations thrown you. Keep in mind that country boundaries are fluid. What was at one time Hungary could be Germany or Romania or something else just a few years earlier or later. So don’t discount that information either. Think regions and take into consideration that people move around – and some people enter incorrect genealogy/location information.

Your common ancestor with the people, individually, who share your haplogroup,  is sometime between the haplogroup formation date and today. Everything else is a clue. 

Think about it this way. You share a haplogroup with your mother, and while you are both descended from the woman who lived when your haplogroup was formed – your most recent ancestor with that haplogroup is your mother – not the woman 975 years ago. Your most recent common ancestor (MRCA) with your mother and her sister is your grandmother – a lot closer in time than 1056 CE. 1056 CE the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) date for everyone in the haplogroup, not between you and any one person in particular. The MRCA date for you plus another person is sometime between now and 1056 CE.

So, let’s take a look at Jim’s results.

Finding Jim’s Gold Nugget

Jim has 27 coding region matches, of which six share both his new haplogroup, V216a2, AND Haplotype Cluster F9712482. His other matches are split between three related haplogroups, and multiple haplotype clusters.

Most of his family, meaning three of his grandparents, were from eastern Europe, meaning Germany, Hungary or the Austro-Hungarian empire as it was recorded in American records. Many genealogical records no longer exist in that region, or if they do, you have to know exactly where to look.

We were brick-walled with Jim’s matrilineal great-grandmother, Sophia Smith, who was born about 1877 and seemed to appear out of thin air.

Thanks to the new haplogroups, combined with Haplogroup Clusters, I knew to focus on his matches in this order:

  • Same haplogroup plus same Haplotype Cluster
  • Same haplogroup plus different Haplotype Cluster, because clusters are built around identical but less reliable mutations
  • Related haplogroup – this is unlikely to yield direct genealogical results, but can be very useful in terms of origins

Of Jim’s exact matches with the same Haplotype Cluster, three showed an earliest known ancestor (EKA) and three did not. Three provided a tree, and three did not. Of the trees, one was private and the other two provided no useful insight.

Of the people who provided EKA information, one EKA matches their tree information, one conflicts with their tree. After viewing their tree, it appears that they did not understand that the mitochondrial EKA is the most distant ancestor in your mother’s direct maternal line. They listed someone in their grandmother’s paternal line.

I find this easiest to deal with if I organize the research in a chart for each match.

Match # Earliest Known Ancestor EKA Location Tree Comment
#1 No No No
#2 No No No
#3 No No Yes – Private
#4 Yes – only one name “Egan” with brith and death dates Ireland Yes – Egan is surname of their grandmother EKA person listed tracks up wrong line in tree
#5 Yes Hungary No Elizabeth Schmidt Hornung b1888 d 1930
#6 Yes No Yes – matches EKA Ancestor born NC in 1811, no common names or location

Match #5 provided an EKA, but no tree, showed a country of origin as Hungary, and the identity of her EKA as “Elizabeth Schmidt Hornung b.1888 and d.1930.”

Hmmm…three things of interest here:

  • The location of Hungary, even though the oral history in Jim’s family said his great-grandmother was a Smith from the US, maybe New York. Jim’s family, including Sophia’s husband, was Eastern European. Remember, I couldn’t find any early records for Sophia Smith.
  • Smith is the anglicized version of Schmidt.
  • Hornung may be a married name.

I’m a genealogist, and Jim’s match had provided enough information that I was able to identify her ancestor, Elizabeth Schmidt, and find additional information.

Sure enough, Elizabeth Schmidt immigrated as an adult by herself, married Karl Hornung in Richland County, Ohio, the same location where Jim’s family was living. That information led me to another record, identifying a brother whose marriage license application provided their parents. Elizabeth’s parents were Ignatius Schmidt and Catherine Schlowe, and her sister was Sophia Schmidt, Jim’s great-grandmother. Deeper digging suggests that Ignatius and Catherine were from Timisoara in what is now Romania. I have been unable to confirm with birth, death or marriage records, but that part of Romania was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during that timeframe.

Immigration of siblings, alone, at different times after the 1910 census, without their parents, made this particularly difficult, as did cultural and language barriers – but mitochondrial DNA, and Jim’s Haplotype Cluster in particular, provided the key I needed.

Jim’s common ancestor with his Schmidt match is the birth date of Catherine Schlowe, which was probably about 1850 – NOT 1056 CE, which is the haplogroup formation date.

Don’t get discouraged by misinterpreting haplogroup origin information or missing genealogy information. All you need is that one good match. That gold nugget. Don’t forget that you can email your matches and ask for more information.

The Match Time Tree makes all of this easier.

Match Time Tree

The Match Time Tree shows match, haplogroup, location and Haplotype Cluster information all in one place.

It’s easy to use the Match Time Tree to view how all of your matches are grouped, along with their EKA, displayed together in one place.

Here are all of Jim’s matches. They were all originally haplogroup V, but now his matches have been divided into V216, V216a, V216a1, and V216a2 (Jim’s haplogroup).

I’ve obfuscated the names of his matches, but the EKA, when provided, is there. Each person is grouped into their haplotype cluster of exact matches, and the user-provided country of origin for their ancestor is shown by their profile photo.

Jim’s match with the descendant of Elizabeth Schmidt is indicated in the red boxes, and Jim has updated his own EKA and her country of origin.

Who is waiting for you in your match list?

Will extending and building out trees help?

Have you emailed your matches to see what additional information they can provide?

Female ancestors are sometimes the MOST difficult to find, often due to name changes  – so be sure to mine every possible avenue and don’t become discouraged if you don’t immediately see something “familiar.”

Every generation in a female lineage will probably carry a different surname and the match you need may not have researched as far back as your ancestor, or vice versa.

Don’t forget that autosomal matching can play an important role in confirming relationships.

But wait – there’s STILL more about Jim’s ancestors…

There’s Even More to Discover

There’s more to discover about Jim’s ancestors.

Jim’s Discover Ancient Connections tells me that 5200 years ago, Jim shared a common mitochondrial DNA ancestor with two Hungarian and a Slovakian Yamnaya cultural burial whose remains date to about 2800 BCE, or about 4800 years ago.

To be clear, the common haplogroup between Jim and all three burials dates to 5200 years ago, when their common haplogroup was formed, but the remains themselves are from about 4800 years ago – so only about 400 years difference between the haplogroup birth date and when those people lived, died and were buried.

How close are the remains to the location of Jim’s ancestor in Timisoara?

Using Google Maps, I placed the three Yamnaya burial locations (blue pins), plus Timisoara.

The two most distant points, Timisoara to Lesne, Slovakia, walking, is 393 km or 245 miles. The closest burial to Timisoara, located in Sárrétudvari, Hungary, is 157 km  or 119 miles.

So Jim’s ancestors remained in the same general area for someplace between 4,800 and 5,200 years. And, his great-grandmother was born not far from those burials. That alone is an INCREDIBLE find!

So, what happened to the people of the Yamnaya culture? I think we might have gained some insight into that question.

So, there’s even more to discover using Discover.

You don’t know what you don’t know about your matrilineal ancestors, so test your mitochondrial DNA at FamilyTreeDNA and break through those brick walls. I’ve already solved multiple long-standing mysteries and added generations to my own tree.

Plus, I really, REALLY want to know where every single ancestor “came from,” what culture they were a part of, and when. History is part of genealogy – and a part of our ancestral journey that we can’t reach any other way.

Fortunately, your matches, Scientific Details, Time Tree, Match Time Tree, and Ancient Connections help you visualize all of these various situations and aspects of your ancestor’s history, and evaluate your results.

Both haplogroups and Haplotype Clusters provide very fine degrees of granularity that were not previously available. MtDNA Discover adds a dozen new reports, and Ancient Connections allow you to time travel.

Let me know what you discover!

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DNA for Native American Genealogy Webinar & Companion Book

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For those who couldn’t attend RootsTech 2025, you’re in luck, because my session, DNA for Native American Genealogy, was recorded as a webinar.

RootsTech tried something new this year, and some webinars were recorded live on the actual show floor. Seating for approximately 50 people was available, but unfortunately, these sessions weren’t included in the session schedule, so no one was aware that they could attend them live.

I’m very grateful to RootsTech for making the recording widely available – and for free.

The webinar includes 10 different techniques and tools available for testers to find and confirm (or sometimes refute) Native American ancestors.

I discuss ethnicity and why it may or may not be helpful, and how to morph your ethnicity results into a tool to identify which ancestors were Native. You may have Native ancestry, even if your ethnicity results don’t reveal that. Learn how to guage that possibility and what to do next.

Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA, yours and other peoples, can confirm or refute Native heritage in each individual ancestral line.

After we discuss each of these techniques and how to use them, we talk about creating a DNA testing plan, and various ways to find autosomal, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNA test candidates – or identify people who have already tested.

You can watch this webinar for free on YouTube, here.

Companion Book

I’ve also written a companion book, DNA for Native American Genealogy, which is available here for buyers inside the US, and purchasers outside the US can order at Amazon, here.

Enjoy both the webinar and the book!

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If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an e-mail whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.

You Can Help Keep This Blog Free

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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Welcome to the New FamilyTreeDNA® mtDNA Group

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If you are a member of the Mitochondrial DNA for Genealogy Facebook group that I started when we launched the Million Mito Project, you may have noticed something new.

Not only does the group have a new name, FamilyTreeDNA® mtDNA Group, and an updated map, but it’s also now the official FamilyTreeDNA mitochondrial DNA group. A company-sponsored group provides one official, moderated, social media platform for mitochondrial DNA discussions and ongoing education.

I’m very pleased to “bequeath” this group to FamilyTreeDNA. It’s the perfect time, too, with the Mitotree release and full sequence testers receiving new haplogroups, along with the mtDNA Discover reports. Have you checked your new haplogroup – and mtDNA Discover?

I’m still an administrator, but I have been joined by several talented people from FamilyTreeDNA, including Million Mito Team members. We’ve assembled the best group possible to educate and answer questions.

You probably know that FamilyTreeDNA has an official Big-Y DNA group as well, here, where people can engage in conversation and education about Big-Y testing and results and how to use them for genealogy. This is the companion mitochondrial DNA group.

This FamilyTreeDNA® mtDNA Group is a private group, but anyone is welcome to join – whether you’ve already tested or are just thinking about it. It’s the “go to” place to learn about mitochondrial DNA.

Everyone can test their own mitochondrial DNA, so take a test, come on over, and join the fun, here.

See you soon!

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Pierre Doucet (c1621-1713), Walking History Book Lived to Nearly 100 – 52 Ancestors #442

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Pierre Doucet was born around 1621, someplace in France, to unknown parents. It was believed for a very long time that his father was Germain Doucet dit Laverdure, which is why Pierre is often listed with that dit name. However, Germain is not his father.

There is evidence in the form of dispensations for consanguinity in subsequent generations that Pierre’s mother may have been a Bourg. I question this, though, because Pierre married Henriette Pelletret about 1660, daughter of Simon Pelletret and Perrine Bourg, whose parents are unknown. Acadians had only been in Acadia for one generation. If Pierre’s mother was a Bourg and closely related to his wife’s mother, their marriage could not have occurred. Of course, there could have been two completely different Bourg families in Acadia, but given how small the population was, and that Charles d’Aulnay had recruited many, if not most, of the families from his mother’s signeury in France, the chances are slim. The ongoing discussion can be viewed on Germain Doucet’s WikiTree page, here, and Pierre Doucet’s page, here.

The 1649 will of Charles de Menou d’Aulnay, Governor of Acadia and one of the original founders of the colony, was discovered a few years ago and indicates that Germain Doucet was caring for his nieces and nephews.

D’Aulnay specifically left Germain 200 livres in recognition of his many years of “loyalty and affection.” Doucet and his wife also received a promise of free food and 50 écus of rent per year for the rest of their lives. Additionally, d’Aulnay left Germain additional funds for the help Germain had given his “nephews and nieces”, which can only mean Pierre, Marguerite, and their unknown sister, Inconnue Doucet.

Therefore, Pierre Doucet was the nephew of Germain Doucet, and Pierre’s father was Germain’s unidentified brother. We don’t know if Pierre’s father (and mother) died after arriving someplace in Acadian as early settlers, or if they died in France and their uncle brought the children along to raise. It appears that Germain had no children of his own, although, based on Y-DNA results, he may have adopted a Native American child who was his namesake.

There is speculation about where in France Pierre was born, but no one has produced any evidence or sources. If we knew where Germain was born, or married, that would assuredly help, but we don’t know that either

It’s possible, in fact probable, that Pierre Doucet’s unidentified parents arrived in Acadie at the same time as his uncle, Germain Doucet dit Laverdure, as early as 1632 with the “300 elite men” brought by Razilly. Families began arriving in 1636. Regardless, Germain was there by 1641 when he is listed as the “Captain at Arms” living among the families residing in Pentagouët, Acadie.

Fort Pentagouet in present-day Castne, Maine, along the Penobscot River, was built in 1625 and served as the first capitol of the French colony of Acadia, serving as both a military outpost and trading center. 

An archaeological dig in the 1980s revealed the fort’s remains in the yard of the Our Lady of Holy Hope Catholic Church, marked by a cross today.

You can see the outline of part of the fort, above.

We know that Germain Doucet was there in 1640, when Pierre would have been about 20, just a few years after families had begun to settle both here and at La Have.

If Pierre was at this remote outpost with his uncle, and perhaps his parents, he came as a child or teen. Just think what a great adventure this would have been for a young boy.

If they arrived in 1636, the family would have spent time at Le Have (LaHave) where the Fort Point Museum is located today..

His parents could have died and been buried in the cemetery at Fort Ste Marie de Grace at Le Have near Razilly, Fort Pentagouet, or Port Royal before 1649. Based on d’Aulnay’s will, it sounds as if Germain has been helping his nieces and nephews for some time.

It’s fairly clear that Pierre arrived with his parents, because his siblings were in Acadia too. Pierre’s sister, Marguerite, born about 1625, married Abraham Dugas about 1645, another very early settler who lived beside the fort in Port Royal. Another sister, whose name is unknown, married Pierre Lejeune about 1654. She was probably born about 1634.

Acadia was still tiny in 1654 – the Port Royal area only had about 270 people, and most of those lived at Port Royal, with a few across the river. Families didn’t move “upriver” until after 1654, hoping for more safety. 

Pierre apparently knew d’Aulnay, and fairly well. In 1687, several Acadian men signed an attestation regarding the work of d’Aulnay, and Pierre was among the signers, which also suggests he was in Acadia for several years before d’Aulnay’s death in 1650.

Steven Cronier in Acadians in Grey tells us that Germain was a minor nobleman and “captain at arms,” born in the mid-1590s and came to Acadia with Isaac de Razilly and d’Aulnay in 1632. He was master at arms at Pentagouët in 1640 and testified in an inquiry against former governor Charles La Tour that year.

D’Aulnay moved the seat of Acadia from Le Have to Port Royal sometime between 1635 and 1640.

The men would have worked together to dyke the marshes. It took three years for the salt to be washed clean so the fields could be farmed, but when farming commenced, the land produced fantastic yields. Port Royal was a good choice for multiple reasons. It addition to fertile land, it was also protected somewhat from the sea and was less likely to be embroiled in constant warfare like Fort Pentagouet – or at least it would appear that way.

Germain Doucet and d’Aulnay were apparently quite close as Germain was appointed guardian of d’Aulnay’s children after his death in 1650.

Germain was commanding Fort Anne in Port Royal in 1654 when the English seized Port-Royal, defeating the French.

If Germain was raising his nieces and nephews, including Pierre, this suggests that they would have been living with Germain, probably in the fort in the commander’s quarters.

In 1654, when Port Royal was lost, per the capitulation agreement, Germain would have been required to return to France. If Pierre, who was still unmarried at that time unless there was an earlier marriage we know nothing about, had been Germain’s son, it’s very likely he would have been forced to leave too.

While Pierre and his sisters would have bid a tearful goodbye to their uncle, all three remained in Acadia. Germain returned to France and we know nothing further about him.

By this time, Pierre would have been in his mid-30s. He assuredly fought side by side with his uncle in 1654 to defend Acadia against the English, but to no avail. French settlement ceased immediately, and the Acadians began refusing to sign a loyalty oath to the English King – much to the chagrin of the English. The loyalty oath, its language, how it was written, and what it meant was a constant source of turmoil for decades.

Pierre married much younger Henriette Pelletret about 1660. She was 19 and he was about 39.

They began their family in 1661 and over the next 24 years, had 10 living children and probably four who perished.

In 1670, the French regained control of Acadia through the Treaty of Breda. The following year, the first census was taken, tallying a total of 392 people. There were more than twice as many cattle and sheep than humans.

Although France was now officially in control, France pretty much ignored and neglected Acadia, fostering a culture of stubborn independence among the Acadians.

The Census

We would be entirely lost without the Acadian censuses, especially given that no church records in Port Royal exist before 1702.

The 1671 Census:

Pierre Doucet, bricklayer 50 (so born about 1621), wife Henriette Peltret 31; Children: Anne 10, Toussaint 8, Jean 6, Pierre 4, and 1 daughter 3 months; cattle 7, sheep 6 and 4 arpents of land.

Thanks to this census, we know that Pierre was a brick or stone mason.

The houses in Acadia were almost always wood, but they all had stone fireplaces and  bake ovens outside.

This is a reconstructed Acadian home in the historical gardens in Annapolis Royal, formerly Port Royal.

Baking was done outside, but cooking in a pot or kettle was done inside in the fireplace.

Through the house and out the “back door” here, you’re viewing the Allain River and on the other side, Abraham Dugas’s land.

Homes were generally one room and relatively small, overlooking the marshlands and fields. The roof was thatch, which made them particularly vulnerable to fire, and a second story provided sleeping quarters in the rafters for children.

Sometime in the 1670s, Father Pettit established a school at Port Royal, but it was probably only for boys. The Sisters may have opened one for girls in 1687.

The 1678 Census:

Pierre Doucet and Henriett Pelletret, 1.5 arpents of land, 10 cattle, 1 gun, 5 sons, 17, 12, 14, 6, and 3, 2 daughters, 10 and 3.

The census enumerator was going back and forth across the river because Pierre is enumerated “beside” Abraham Dugast and Marguerite Doucet, Pierre’s sister, who lived by the fort, and “beside” Antoine Bourg who lived adjacent to Pierre’s property on the north side of the river.

In 1682, Acadians began to settle along the Bay of Fundy in the Minas Basin and at Beaubassin, but Pierre chose to remain at Port Royal. Probably, in part due to the fact that he had posession of good land that was well drained and producing what they needed. Plus, at about 61, he was no spring chicken. The next generation, younger couples, were in need of land..

In 1684, yet another new Governor arrived who described the Acadians as having a simple, pastoral existence stating that they lived better than Canadians … for they never lacked bread or meat. But they weren’t as industrious, and never put away harvests in case of a bad year. The dowries were usually less than 20-25 francs in goods, a cow in calf, a ewe and a sow. Well-off families sometimes included a feather bed.

The 1686 Census:

Pierre Doucet 55 (should be 65), Henriette Peltret 40; children: Toussaint 23, Jean 20, Pierre 18, Magdelaine 16, Louis 12, Jeanne 10, Pierre 8, Marguerite 6, Mathieu 1; 2 guns, 5 arpents land, 8 cattle, 12 sheep, 6 hogs.

The family was doing well.

We are fortunate to have a 1686 map and I was able to place the Doucet property from 1707 and later maps.

This map also shows the Catholic church that they attended and the neatly fenced cemetery. The legend indicates that the fort is in ruins. “Un fort ruine.”

In 1688 the governor noted that both labor and manure (for fertilizer) were in short supply, as were untapped tidelands that could be dyked and drained – noting that as the reason why 25-30 mostly younger people had moved to Minas in the past six years.

Whoever thought of manure being in short supply.

Here’s a contemporary view. It’s necessary to understand the lay of the land. The land farmed by Pierre, and later his son Rene, lay acros the river directly from the fort.

The 1690 Attack

1690 was a terrible year. Acadia, and more specifically, Port Royal was caught up in the tide of escalating warfare between France and England.

The Acadian governor, Meneval, only had 100 soldiers in the garrison at Fort Anne.

Phipps, the English commander from New England sailed up the river, arriving with 7 ships and 700 men. He had more soldiers than the entire population of Acadia.

The Acadians’ goose was cooked. The Doucet land laid directly across the river Dauphin, and Pierre’s sister was married to Abraham Dugas, whose land lay directly beside the fort.

The English struck, burned 28 homes, probably every home in Port Royal and across the river within sight, plundered anything of value, including from the church that they torched.

They didn’t bother with the upriver farms and for some reason, and they didn’t burn the mills either. Phipps captured Meneval, the Acadian governor, and several French soldiers taking them back to Boston with him. Before departing, he put a council of Acadians in place to conduct business, forcing the Acadians to sign an oath of allegiance.

After Phipps departed, English pirates arrived and burned more, murdering people and killing livestock just for sport.

Indeed, if it weren’t for bad luck, the Acadians would have had no luck at all.

Pierre Doucet, by then 69 or 70, signed the loyalty oath with a mark which tells us he was illiterate. Of course, in that time and place, the priests read the Bible and interpreted its meaning for you. There was little need to read.

The 1693 Census

In 1693, another census was taken which lists Pierre Doucet, widower, 56; Rene 13; Mathieu 8; 10 cattle; 12 sheep; 10 hogs; 8 arpents of land; 1 gun.

Pierre’s age is incorrect. He would have been 72, an odd mistake to make. Sadly, even though Henriette was 20 years younger than Pierre, she predeceased him. Just goes to show that you never know.

Henriette was 40 in 1686. She could have died in childbirth between then and 1693, or she could have been killed in the 1690 depredations, given that they lived within sight of the fort and would surely have been targeted. Of course, she could also have died of something else, but one thing is certain – it wasn’t old age.

Pierre Doucet’s son, Pierre, born about 1667 is also missing after 1686 and before 1693. He would not have signed the 1690 Oath of Allegiance because he was not a head of household, unless he had married. He was living with his parents yet in 1686 where he is listed as age 18. No more records are found for this Pierre, nor is he ever listed as a head of household. He likely died sometime after 1686, but before 1693 when he would have again been listed in a census. It could well have been in 1690.

Pierre Jr. and his mother are both probably buried in the cemetery at Fort Anne. Pierre Sr. would have stood at their gravesides as the Priest spoke, probably wishing it had been him instead.

The 1698 Census

Pierre Doucet, widower, 80; Louis 24, Rene 18; Mathieu 10; Margueritte 12; 12 cattle, 8 sheep, 5 hogs, 16 arpents of land, 40 fruit trees, 1 gun.

The fruit trees are interesting. Acadians are known for their apple trees which still stand as silent reminders along the back roads where their fencelines were and near the marshes where their homesteads used to be.

Anyplace Acadians lived, you’ll find apple trees – many of them very old now.

The 1700 Census

Pierre Doucet, widower, 63; Rene 20; Mathieu 15; 8 cattle, 10 sheep, 8 arpents, 1 gun.

Pierre’s age is vastly incorrect. He would have been 79 or 80.

By now, there were 2000 people in Acadia, but they had scattered between multiple locations. The capitol of Acadia had been in Beaubassin for awhile, but was moved back to Port Royal

The 1701 Census

Pierre Doucet, widower, 80; Rene 21; Mathieu 15;  2 gun; 9 cattle, 6 sheep, 2 hogs; 6 arpents of land.

Clearly, a man of 80 was not doing the heavy part of farming, so sons Rene and Mathieu would have taken over most of the chores.

The Acadians realized they really needed to shore up the fort, but only limited supplies were arriving from France, so they began the backbreaking work by hand, carrying each rock and every barrel of dirt by wheelbarrel or cart.

The 1703 Census

Pierrer Doucet, widow[er] 1 female, 1 arms bearer.

Clearly, Pierre was still considered an arms bearer, capable of defending Acadia.

Rene had married in 1702 but was in all probability farming his father’s land. Mathieu did not marry until 1712, so I have no idea where he was, and Marguerite had married about 1700. Perhaps the female listed should have been a male.

In June 1704, Port Royal came under attack again. The fort was not ready to fully defend Port Royal. Churches were looted again. Dikes were dug down and the fields flooded, meaning no crops could be grown and harvested for another three years.

Based on drawings, it appears that the English ships remained closer to the far side of the river in order to stay out of cannon range. That means they were closer to Pierre’s home.

In 1705, 550 English men arrived in two gunboats, 14 transports, 36 whaleboats and a shallop, killing people and capturing prisoners along the way as they made their way up the Bay of Fundy. Imagine the dread watching all of those vessels sailing up the river towards your home.

New Governor Realizes the Acadians Are in Big Trouble

A new governor, Daniel d’Auger de Subercase arrived in April of 1706 and quickly realized he had years of both mismanagement and neglect to overcome.

The fort was dilapidated and even the old powder magazine was leaky and wet. You can’t fire cannons without dry powder. The fort was in terrible condition and morale was at an all-time low. The Acadians at Port Royal were sitting ducks, but Subercase heroically attempted to rectify the situation as best he could – going so far as to sell his clothes to do so.

The attacks continued. In March of 1707, the governor only had 160 soldiers to defend not only the fort, but the town as well. Of those, many soldiers were inexperienced and had no desire to fight. Essentially, they had been recruited from the “quays of Paris” and likely had no choice in the matter. Many defected to the other side.

Now, all Acadian men who could carry a gun were soldiers defending their homes, families and homeland.

Governor Subercase managed to hold the fort, somehow, against more than 1000 men from New England, but the sheer imbalance foreshadowed the future.

Having no other choice, the governor recruited pirates who were more than happy to assist the Acadians by taking English ships as “prizes.” While France ignored Subercases’s please for help, the Acadians lived off the booty of the corsairs for the next three years.

This did help, but it also enraged New England whose ships were being lost and who could no longer easily access the fishing grounds on the Grand Banks.

On this 1707 map, you can see Pierre’s home (red arrow) almost directly across the river from the fort.

Today, the same location, marked with the red arrow.

From the fort, we can view the opposite shoreline where Pierre Doucet raised his family.

Standing in Fort Anne, Pierre could see his home across the river.

Moving more to the right and viewing Pierre’s land across the wharf where his descendants would be forced to walk and board the ships that would rip them from Acadia in 1755.

A 1733 map shows the location of homesteads.

Two homes are shown on this map where Pierre Doucet had lived. Earlier, they would have been inhabited by Pierre and his son, Rene’s family. By 1733, one would have been Pierre’s son, Rene’s home and probably Rene’s daughter Anne Doucet and her husband, Daniel Garceau.

MapAnnapolis identified the current location of Pierre’s home.

A closer view, along with a “rough patch,” similar to those in other locations that conceal the foundations of original buildings.

No one was safe in 1707. Pierre was an old man with one gun fighting against hundreds of young healthy English soldiers with a lot of firepower.

By this time, many of Pierre’s children had departed for the northern parts of Acadia. He probably wished he had too.

  • Marie Doucet was in Grand Pre with Husband Jean Hebert, but would die in 1710 at 49.
  • Toussant Doucet married Marie Caissie about 1690 in Beaubassin.
  • Jean Doucet married Francoise Blanchard about 1692 in Cobequid.
  • Pierre Doucet disappeared from the records between 1686 and 1693 and probably died.
  • Magdeleine Doucet married Rene Bernard about 1689 and was living in Beaubassin by 1690.
  • Louis Doucet married Marguerite Girouard about 1702 in Beaubassin.
  • Louise Doucet married Pierre Chenet about 1691 and remained near Port Royal.
  • Rene Doucet married Marie Broussard about 1702 and farmed his father’s land.
  • Marguerite Doucet married Alexandre Comeau about 1700 and remained near Port Royal.
  • Mathieu Doucet married Anne Lord in 1712 and remained near Port Royal.

In 1707, only Mathieu was left at home, and Rene was literally farming his father’s land. Louise and Marguerite had remained near Port Royal. Unfortunately the Doucet land and homstead was very vulnerable – probably more vulnerable on that side of the river than the houses near the fort because it was essentially undefended.

1710

The worst was yet to come in 1710 as Pierre reached his 9th decade of life.

To begin with, the harvest failed. Then an epidemic drove the corsairs away. While France was ignoring and neglecting her colony, the English were strenghtening theirs.

The English dispatched five ships with more than 3400 troops to Acadia. Subercase had only 300 soldiers, plus Acadian men. According to the 1707 census, there were around 100 male heads of household, plus 72 boys age 14 or over. The entire fighting force was less than 500 men and older boys.

There were more soldiers on those ships than the entire population of all of Acadia, including the northern settlements. The ships sailed up the Riviere Dauphin, right up to Fort Anne – in front of the Doucet home.

The English documented their plan of attack for posterity.

This map shows the fort and the location of the various homesteads and settlements.

Using the English map combined with various Acadian maps identifying the Doucet homestead and that of their neighbors, it looks for all the world like the British came ashore on Pierre Doucet’s land. Pierre’s home is shown with the red outline and the red arrow points to the location that the English labeled, “where our whole body of men landed.” Of course they landed across the river from the fort. Cannon shot could’t reach that far.

What did Pierre do? Did an 89-year-old man go to the fort and either fight or help the soldiers in some way? Did he watch his home burn, again, from the fort? Alternatively, was he put in charge of keeping Rene’s wife and young children hidden and safe someplace?

If I had to bet, I’d wager that if Pierre was physically able, at all, he was right there in the fort with the other Acadian men. Or, was he one of the guerilla fighters in the woods? He doesn’t seem like a shrinking violet to me. Did they have to hogtie him to keep him out of the way?

While the earlier siege had failed – this one would not. They would win by sheer numbers and treachery. Of course, they burned everything – again!.

Miraculously, the overwhelmed Acadian men held the fort for 19 days, but on October 12th, understanding the gravity of their situation, they surrendered. It was surrender or be massacred, along with their families.

Pierre’s sons, Rene and Mathieu were assuredly fighting, as were Pierre’s sons-in-law. Pierre, depending on his health and stamina may have played a role as well – or maybe he simply prayed becasue he could do nothing else.

The Acadian men were permitted to leave the fort with all the honors of war, “their arms and baggage, drums beating and flags flying.”

The exit gate archway still remains, today, and if you stand quietly, you can hear them across the years.

Subercase, begrudgingly, but honorably handed the key to the fort to his English adversary, Francis Nicholson, quipping that he hoped to pay him a visit in the spring, and with that, the English took posession of Fort Anne, Port Royal, and in 1713, all of Acadia.

The surrender agreement stated that the French soldiers would be transported back to France, and they were probably glad to go. The Acadians were in such bad shape that the French couldn’t even provide provisions for the soldiers, so the English had to provision the soldiers for their return trip to France.

Additionally, the English required an oath of allegiance, stating that the residents who took the oath and were “within cannon shot,” which was about 3 miles, could remain for 2 years, but then had to remove their moveable items, meaning furniture and livestock, to somplace else in the French territory. In 1710, the rest of Acadia, like Beaubassin, was still French, as was mainland Canada. Apparently a list given to Nicholson listed 481 people who had taken the oath, although based on the 1707 census at Port Royal, there were less than 200 males that would have been of age, and only about 100 heads of household.

So, now 90-year-old Pierre Doucet had a new problem. Should he stay or go? Was resistance futile? The priests were gathering people beyond the 3 mile perimeter and encouraging resistance, but that did little for the families like Pierre’s, across the river from the fort. Worse yet, his home assuredly was burned for probably at least the third time.

Did he even have anything left to move? Did he want to move?

Unfortunately, there is no census before 1714, and even that one doesn’t tell us anything about livestock or arpents of land – so we are left in the dark about their condition in 1710 and for several years after. It’s difficult to feed your family if your farmland has been ruined by seawater.

We do know that disease ravaged the 450 English soldiers that were left to occupy Fort Anne and between that and desertion, a year later, only about 100 remained.

The Acadians were appealing to the Governor of Canada, asking for his assistance to leave. Another faction was plotting to overthrown the English in Port Royal, resulting in a confrontation upriver in June of 1711 called the Massacre of Bloody Creek in which about 32 English soldiers were killed by “Indians,” although I very strongly suspect Acadians men were involved as well.

Following that successful ambush, a group of about 600 men blockaded Fort Anne. Although they outnumbered the soldiers substantially, and the garrison was small, the Acadians had no artillery, and the fort was accessible from the back side by water.

Ironically, as the Acadians prepared to leave the area, the English began putting up roadblock after roadblock. They had discovered how useful the Acadians were, and they couldn’t feed themselves without the Acadians’ produce. Oh, the irony.

So now the Acadians were willing to go but couldn’t. There was no shortage of confusion, and I’m sure, a multitude of differing opinions. A few younger families did leave, but the majority of Acadians in the Annapolis River Valley had well-established farms and really had no desire to start over by clearing land and creating fields out of marshland. Worse yet, land they were offered elsewhere was rocky and stony and they had no idea how to farm that type of land. They claimed they would starve and wished to stay in Acadia near Port Royal, even if it was under the thumb of the English.

On April 13, 1713, “All of Nova Scotia or Acadia comprised in its ancient limits, as also the city of Port Royal” was ceded to England in the Treaty of Utrecht.

Pierre’s Death

I think of all this upheaval and wonder if Pierre was able to correspond with his children who had relocated along the Bay of Fundy in the late 1600s. Did he know his grandchildren at all? Did he ever visit? Did he, too, consider transplanting himself to the Minas Basin?

Perhaps all this was just too much for Pierre.

In the 1701 census, Pierre was already the oldest person in Acadia by a full decade—a living relic of an earlier generation. By 1713, he was no longer just an anomaly; he was a venerated legend, the exception to every rule, the last thread connecting the present to a distant past. He had endured wars, famine, and disease, outlasting friends, family, and entire communities. While others had fallen to time and tragedy, Pierre remained—a wizened, revered elder whose very survival defied the odds, a testament to resilience in a land where few lived long enough to see old age.

I wonder if he was lonely as he aged and had no contemporaries.

I’m unclear whether Pierre died on June 1, 1713 and was buried the following day, or if he died on June 2nd.

According to the parish register, penned by priest, Justin Durand, Pierre was “nearly 100 years old.”

The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755 are held in a collection titled “An Acadian Parish Remembered” by the Nova Scotia Archives. They don’t translate verbatin, but provide the relevant data, as follows:

I asked ChatGPT to translate this, but it introduced language that was not there. A big thank you to Karen Theriot Reader for reading and translating the original document correctly. I have removed the erroneous translation and substitutied hers. Thank you so much Karen!

Pierre
Doucet
[in another
hand]
100 ans!!

Ce deuxieme de Juin de L année Mil Sept cent Treize
Moy Soussigné faisant les fontions curiales a port royal
de L Acadie ay Inhumé Solennellement le corps de
pierre Doucet habitant de port Royal aagé de
pres de cent ans En foy de quoy jai Signé le jour et
an que dessus F. Justinien Durand Recollet Missionnaire

—————————————————————
Pierre
Doucet

This second day of June of the year one thousand seven hundred thirteen,
I the undersigned, doing the curical functions at Port Royal
of Acadia, have solemnly buried the body of
Pierre Doucet, resident of Port Royal, aged
of nearly one hundred years. In witness of which I have signed on the day and
year as above. Fr. Justinien Durand, Missionary Friar
—————————————————————
You may notice that only the burial date of June 2, 1713, is given. However, Stephen A. White’s Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes has Pierre listed as dying on 1 Jun 1713, buried on 2 Jun 1713 (p. 528).

Pierre was the last man alive who personally witnessed the founding of Acadia. The first seat at La Have, probably the Fort at Pentagouet in Maine, settling and clearing the land across from the fort at Port Royal, building Fort Anne, again and again, losing Port Royal in 1654 and regaining it again in 1670, the brutal attack of 1690 followed by murderous pirates, the incessant demands for loyalty oaths and many attacks by the English accompanied by burned homes and barns and ruined fields, rebuilding his home repeatedly, trying to rebuild the fort by hand without supplies in the early 1700s, and the final blow in 1710 where the Acadians lost Port Royal for the final time.

Amongst all of this, Pierre buried his wife and probably at least six children. I wonder if he even knew that his daughter died in Grand Pre on November 3rd, 1710, less than a month after Port Royal fell. Was there any way to receive notice, especially given the warfare? 1710 was a terrible year, no matter how you slice it.

Pierre was a walking history book. Given that he lived to “nearly 100,” he clearly figured out how to co-exist and get along with the English. I surely wish he had been able to write, and had scribed a journal for us. Just think how invaluable that would be today, not only for family history and genealogy, but for world history as well..

Pierre would have been laid to rest in the Garrison Cemetery, in what had been the churchyard in Port Royal before the English destroyed everything – buried near his wife and at least one child, his namesake, who had waited a very long time for him to arrive.

Their graves are unmarked, destroyed by the English when the Acadians were all rounded up and deported in 1755.

Yet, they are not gone.

They live on.

Rest in Peace, Pierre. You surely deserve it!

_____________________________________________________________

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RootsTech 2025 – The Year of Discover and the New Mitotree

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Last week, RootsTech was a whirlwind and full of discoveries – which, ironically, was the 2025 theme.

I always take you along with me and share the RootsTech experience, start to finish, so here’s my 2025 “feet on the ground” report.

I might, just might, have overcommitted myself. I taught the half-day DNA Academy,  three more sessions, plus several other commitments such as book signings, get-togethers, and interviews.

One class, “DNA for Native American Genealogy,” was a live webinar from the floor of the expo hall. You can watch that here for free, if you’re interested.

Unfortunately, none of my other sessions were recorded, but I’ll see what other alternative options may be available to bring those to you.

Additionally, I did two book signings at the GenealogyBank booth, along with two other authors, Drew Smith and Sunny Morton. I’m sorry, I don’t have any pictures. I should have asked someone to take some.

There were long lines and books sold out. Still, you can order either of my books, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA or DNA for Native American Genealogy, at Genealogical.com. Thank you to GenealogyBank for being so welcoming.

The book signing was particularly fun because people shared their success stories or their hopes of what they want to achieve. I met a couple of new cousins too! Even people waiting in line were helping each other with information about research resources.

I had created my “RootsTech plan” for sessions I wanted to attend, but I was only able to actually attend one of those. Several were happening at the same time as mine, or directly before or after. As a presenter, you arrive early to get set up and make sure everything is working correctly.

Then, after your session, attendees have questions and are interested in your topic, which is a good thing. So essentially, you can’t attend sessions either before or after your session either.

Before I share photos, I’d like to share something else.

It’s About the People

I have never attended RootsTech for the classes, although there are wonderful offerings – and I have enjoyed them immensely.

Having said that, for me, the best part of RootsTech is the people. People I know and love but never get to see – many of whom I met in-person at RootsTech initially. I get to meet my blog followers. I meet with or reconnect with friends and cousins from around the world. I am privileged to talk with people about their challenges and their victories – when they’ve broken through a brick wall using DNA that they could never have otherwise achieved. People collaborating and helping each other. It’s all beautiful.

The reason I started blogging in the first place, and the reason all 1750 articles are free, is because I wanted to help people do just that – confirm ancestors, find ancestors, and connect with their fsmily.

My cousins that I’ve met through genealogy are some of my closest friends and closest family members. Outliving everyone is a mixed blessing but it makes me extremely grateful for my various cousins since all of my siblings and close family, with the exception of the next generation, have transitioned to the land of the ancestors.

So, yea, for me, RootsTech is about connecting and reconnecting with the people.

That’s also why I never get anything done because I’m always talking with someone.

Additionally, this particular RootsTech was a celebration.

Mitotree Release

Just a few days before RootsTech, the Million Mito Team at FamilyTreeDNA released the brand new Mitotree, 5 years in the making, reconstructing the tree of humankind to reflect our combined heritage more accurately.

At RootsTech 2020, I was honored to announce the Million Mito Project, and the new Mitotree initiative was born.

At some point, I will write about the deep, personal significance of the Mitotree for me,  but for now, suffice it to say that there is something profoundly moving about rewriting the tree of humankind and in doing so, giving a voice to our ancestors from long ago. Yes, I know many of them are thousands or even tens of thousands of years old, but had they not survived, we would not be here today. Now we can identify who they are and that they lived.

Million Mito Team, left to right, Goran Runfeldt, Dr. Paul Maier, me, Dr. Miguel Vilar, Bennett Greenspan, John Detsikas

Our amazing Dream Team has given life to our ancestors and said their names once again, even if their name is a mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. Four team members, Goran, Paul, me and Bennett were at RootsTech. Where else can you actually approach and speak with the actual scientists?

When I say RootsTech is about the people, I know that I am related to every single individual at RootsTech, it’s just a matter of how far back in time. So are you.

Just think about the significance of that for a minute.

Every. Single. Person.

The other end of the mitochondrial DNA spectrum is genealogy, of course, and the new Mitotree with it’s haplotype clusters brings mitochondrial DNA results into the genealogical timeframe. In future articles, I’ll be writing about each one of the new tools, what they mean, and how to use them.

Dr. Paul Maier, lead scientist doing most of the hard science behind Mitotree, had the much-deserved honor of introducing the Mitotree to genealogists at RootsTech.

I’m not sure the audience understood they were witnessing history unfold, but they clearly were. We needed a drum roll and some balloons!

This wasn’t like most vendor announcements of a new product or feature – this was a major scientific achievement that led to genealogical benefits.

In celebration, I asked my friend to make double helix zipper pulls so that I could give them to colleagues, friends and cousins that I ran into at RootsTech. It’s my way of celebrating and sharing the joy!

Five years is a very long time to work on a project. The Mitotree is a massive accomplishment. Every customer at FamilyTreeDNA who has taken the full sequence test received their new haplogroup either the week before or during RootsTech, AND, the second updated version of the tree was released too.

While this is truly wonderful, the true highlight is the testimonials – seeing how Mitotree is actually helping people break through their brick walls.

Here’s just one.

Breathless Testimonial

I’m going to try to convey this exactly as it happened.

A lady that I don’t know literally runs up to me in the hallway. This isn’t unusual. She was so excited that what she said was one long breathless sentence, which I’m going to try to reconstruct here, although I’m adding a bit of punctuation. I also can’t remember how many “greats” were attached to the “grandmother,” but you’ll get the idea.

Roberta, Roberta, I’m so excited – I just wanted to let you know – I found my ancestor using mitochondrial DNA. I got my new haplogroup and I had like 47 matches before but now they are clustered together so I could focus…and there were three matches in my cluster…and one of them had an EKA but the other didn’t…so I built out the EKA matches’ tree and guess what??? They were from the same place and then I found that her great-great-grandmother’s sister is my great-great-grandmother but she had her surname so now I have more generations too. OMG I ‘m so excited I could never have broken through this wall without mtDNA because I had no surname. This is THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL DNA TEST I’VE EVER TAKEN, and I’ve taken them all. Thank you, thank you!

And with that she quickly hugged me and ran off to something she was obviously late for.

I never got to say one word, which was fine, but I stood there with tears in my eyes, thinking to myself, “This – this is what it’s all about.”

It doesn’t get better than this!

I want to hear your stories too. I just scaled my fourth brick wall last night using the new Mitotree and mtDNA Discover features.

RootsTech Week

RootsTech week started early for me – as in leaving the house at 3 AM Sunday. I fly on Sunday because the flights are cheaper and because the pre-conference meetings and events begin on Monday.

We took off into the dawn, jetting our way westward through the azure blue sky.

I have never gotten over the majesty and beauty of the Rocky Mountains.

And then, of course, the Great Salt Lake, for which Salt Lake City is named.

Looking at the Salt Palace across the street from the Marriott hotel. The silver building is the new Hyatt which is attached to the conference center behind the windmills which extends another very long block to the right, out of view. The mountain range is visible in the distance, and the beautiful sunset.

Speaking of the Marriott hotel, several people have asked if it was any better this year, and if I got trapped in the fire exit again, like last year.

No, I didn’t get stuck because I didn’t tempt fate again. It looked just the same though, so I’m presuming nothing has changed. Furthermore, there was no heat in my room, so they gave me a space heater and a pass to the concierge level – which they did not do last year.

That was kind of them, but food ran out, and there was only one poor server in the restaurant. I’m not even going to mention the nauseating thing that happened with my food. Let’s just say I’m not picky, but I will NEVER eat there again, and that makes it particularly difficult because there’s very little close by, especially when you’re exhausted.

I’m hoping that RootsTech will negotiate someplace different for speakers in the future. I’ve stayed in a lot of Marriotts and most of them are just fine. I have never had issues like this with any of them, let alone repeat issues year after year.

The good news is that we’re not there for the hotel, and the fun began on Monday.

Monday

My interviews began on Monday morning with “Mondays with Myrt” at the FamilySearch Library, which you can view here beginning about 16 minutes.

Mondays with Myrt is a RootsTech tradition and Myrt incorporates people present in person and tuning in virtually as well. Left to right, Kirsty Gray from England, John Tracy Cunningham, me and Myrt. Kirsty had a huge breakthrough that she shared with us just a few minutes after it happened.

I met John at the ECGGS Conference last October. He’s one of the few people I know whose 8 great-grandparents were born in the same county. I’m so jealous. Mine were either born in or first generation immigrants from four countries.

Sometimes the broadcast waiting area is just as much fun as the actual broadcast – in part because it’s the first day of RootsTech week and everyone is so excited to see their friends that they haven’t seen in forever. Call is a reunion!

Do Kirsty Gray and I look like we’re about to get into mischief?

Behind me is the first group of folks to be interviewed.

Pat Richley-Erickson, aka Myrt, Cheryl Hudson Passey, Laura Wilkinson Hedgecock, and Jenny Horner Hawran.

This is the livestream room at the FamilySearch Library. The waiting area for the next group is to the right, and the three presently being interviewed are sitting on the left beside Myrt.

For those who know Gordon, aka Mr. Myrt, he’s coordinating interviewees outside the livestream room. His job is herding cats and he’s the nicest cat-herder you’ll ever meet!

Pre-RootsTech Library Research

I love the FamilySearch Library. It feels like coming home to me.

So many passionate genealogists at every level – learning and searching. Lots of volunteer helpers available, too.

Normally, I create a research plan for the library, but I had been so utterly slammed between preparing my several RootsTech sessions and the Mitotree release that I hadn’t really been able to prepare anything.

I did, however, have a group of ancestors in mind that settled in the Oley Valley in Pennsylvania, so I decided to focus on the Berks County books.

I won’t bore you with the details, but among other things, I found confirmation that the Hoch surname is also the same as High and Hoy, which explains some very confusing Y-DNA results. So even though I didn’t get much productive time there, I did find something very useful in the land records.

I also ran into cousins and friends, of course, which is why I didn’t get more actual research done.

I knew Judy Nimer Muhn, at left, was going to be at RootsTech as a speaker, and I knew we connected through Acadian lines, but we never took the time to really piece together that puzzle.

My cousins, Mark and Manny were also coming for RootsTech, and to visit the library, for the first time. Mark, Manny and I visited Nova Scotia together in the summer of 2024, chasing our ancestors.

You know, fate is a funny thing.

We all descend from Acadian, Francois Savoie who was born about 1621 in France, but settled in Acadia, today’s Nova Scotia. Mark, Manny and I knew that we are cousins through Francois, but Judy and I did not. Mark, Manny and I ran into a local historian, Charlie Thibodeau, the Acadian Peasant, last year, outside of Port Royal. It just so happened that he was taking another couple to see the remains of the Savoie homestead deep in the salt marshes at BelleIsle.

We asked if we could join them, and Charlie was kind enough to include us. It was a long, brutally hot, tick-infested hike through the swamp, but oh so worth it!

We also found the well, located between three homesteads.

The year before, Judy had been in the same place in Nova Scotia, found the same man, Charlie, at the BelleIsle Hall Acadian Cultural Centre, and he had taken her to the remains of the same homestead.

And here we all four are in Utah.

What are the chances?

Needless to say, we had a LOT to talk about, and still do. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get to Judy’s talk, but Mark and Manny attended.

I ran into Katy Rowe-Schurwanz, the FamilyTreeDNA Product Manager at the library too, and look what she’s wearing – a mitochondrial DNA scarf. How cool is that!

The rest of Tuesday and most of Wednesday morning were spent trying to update my several presentations to reflect newly released information by various vendors and practicing the timing of the presentations. I had another interview, and more people were arriving.

I found time to visit Eva’s Bakery about 3 blocks from the Salt Palace. If you’re ever in Salt Lake City, Eva’s is a must! Lunch is wonderful, and so are their French pastries.

Wednesday is “tech prep” day at RootsTech, along with speaker instructions and then the Speaker Dinner.

Steve Rockwood, President and CEO of FamilySearch always delivers an inspirational message and this year did not disappoint.

If you’ve wondered about RootsTech conference stats, they provided this information. I can’t even imagine trying to coordinate all of this – and that’s not including the vendors, expo hall, technology in the presentation rooms, food, security and so much more.

Last year, in 2024, the final attendance numbers were more than 16,000 people in person and 4 million virtual attendees. I noticed a few days ago that there were more than half a million people participating in Relatives at RootsTech, which is still live until April 12th.

On Wednesday evening, after the Speaker’s Dinner, vendors in the Expo Hall were putting the final touches on their booths and preparing for the thousands of excited genealogists who would descend Thursday morning.

Discover

This year’s RootsTech theme was “discover” and attendees were greeted with this display just inside the door.

Attendees listed their discoveries on Post-its and could either post them on the board or plastic boxes, or on the green tree.

I placed my discovery from the day before at the library on the Rootstech tree.

Some people place their wishes here, kind of like a technology wishing well.

I couldn’t help but think of the new Mitotree, now forever green and growing, so I posted a second discovery, “Mitotree.”

Thursday – Opening Day

For those who don’t know, the Salt Palace Convention Center is two lengthy blocks long, a block wide, and two or three stories high, depending on whether you are in the front or rear portion. In other words, it’s massive and you need a map!

The huge Expo Hall with vendors is located in the center on the first floor and vendors have aisle addresses. The show floor is always very busy, and this year was no exception. One of the things I love is that spontaneous conversations just spring up between people who often find commonalities – common ancestors, common locations, and more. People compliment each other and join others at tables. It’s like a big family gathering of sorts.

I always try to walk the entire Expo Hall, because I really enjoy seeing the vendors and their wares, but this year, I never actually had enough time to traverse all the aisles. I took several pictures as I was passing through and running into people, but not nearly enough. I know I missed a lot, but there just wasn’t enough time and I arrived at RootsTech already tired.

However, the energy of RootsTech is like no place else and just infects you.

It’s like you can’t drink from the genealogy firehose fast enough!

Let’s Take a Walk

Ok, come along on a walk with me.

Left to right, Lianne Kruger, a speaker, and Courtney, in the FamilyTreeDNA booth. I believe they said they are cousins.

Daniel Horowitz, genealogist extraordinaire, in the MyHeritage booth. More about MyHeritage’s announcements shortly.

Geoff Rasmussen in the Legacy Family Tree Webinars booth. For those who don’t know, there’s lots of good material at Legacy, and the freshly recorded webinars are always free for a week.

Several vendors offer booth talks, including MyHeritage. I love their photo tools and use their site in some capacity almost daily.

One of the RootsTech traditions is ribbons. Collect one, collect ‘em all. Liv’s ribbons almost reach the floor. I think she wins!

Selfies are also a RootsTech tradition. Me, here with Jonny Perl of DNAPainter fame. I owe Jonny an apology as he asked me if I had a minute, and I had to say no because I was on the way to one of my own classes. I never got back to his booth to view his new features. Sorry Jonny – don’t take it personally!

Jonny released a new Ancestral tree version titled Places, so take a look here at his blog. I need to go look at my ancestors Places.

You’ll find this new feature under Ancestral Trees, Places. These are my most recent 8 generations. Just think of all those brave souls who climbed on a ship and sailed for the unknown. Check this feature out and have fun.

In a booth talk, Dave Vance, Executive Vice-President and General Manager at FamilyTreeDNA is speaking about the three types of DNA, which are, of course, Y-DNA, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA – all useful for genealogy in different ways.

Dave is explaining how in-common-with matches, also known as shared matches, operate with the chromosome browser. You can use the chromosome browser, shared matches, the new Matrix Tool, and download your match segment information at FamilyTreeDNA, a combination of features not available at any other vendor.

WikiTree, a free a moderated one-world-tree is one of my favorite genealogy tools. One of their best features is that you find your ancestor, and in addition to lots of sources, their Y-DNA, mitochondrial DNA, and those who are related autosomally are listed. Here’s my grandfather, for example.

Several DNA connections are listed. The further back in my tree, the more DNA connections are found, becuase those ancestors have more descendants.

WikiTree volunteers were wandering around taking pictures of “WikiTreers” holding fun signs.

Paul Woodbury, a long time researcher with Legacy Tree Genealogists, who specializes in DNA. I don’t take private clients anymore, and regularly refer people to Legacy Tree.

Me with Janine Cloud taking our annual RootsTech selfie. Janine, the Group Projects Manager at FamilyTreeDNA and I co-administer one of those projects and accidentally discovered a few years ago that we are cousins too. How fun is this!!!

I wanted this shirt, but by the time I got back to the booth, it was too late. I’m going to order it online from Carlisle Creations, in case you want one too. This is so me.

Land records are critically important to genealogists. Rebecca Whitman’s class was about plotting land plats. What she’s holding is a surveyor’s chain. You’ve read about chain carriers? This is what they carried to measure land boundaries – literally metes and bounds. Some of my best discoveries have been thanks to land records.

The only session I actually got to attend was Gilad Japhet’s “What’s New and Exciting at MyHeritage.” For those who don’t know, Gilad is the founder and CEO of MyHeritage and it’s always great to hear about the new features straight from the top executive who is, himself, a seasoned genealogist. That’s why he started MyHeritage in the first place – 22 years ago in his living room.

Gilad had several wonderful announcements, but the one I’m most excited about is their new Cousin Finder. Cousin Finder finds and reveals cousins who are DNA candidates if they have not yet taken a DNA test.

I’ll be writing more about the MyHeritage announcements soon, but you can read their blog about Cousin Finder now, here, and their Roundup here about the rest of their announcements!

My Last Class – Reveal Your Maternal Ancestors & Their Stories

My last class at the end of the final day of RootsTech was “Reveal Your Maternal Ancestors & Their Stories – Solving Mitochondrial DNA Puzzles.”

Had I tried to coordinate this presentation with International Women’s Day, I could never have done it, but fate winked and here I was.

I’m often asked what it’s like from the presenters’ perspective. This is one of the smaller ballrooms. My earlier sessions were in larger rooms, maybe 3 times this size. I took this picture about 15 minutes before the session started as people were beginning to drift in.

The amazing RootsTech techs had me wired up to microphones and had verified that the audio and video equipment was working correctly, so now it was just waiting.

My cousin, John Payne, who co-administers the Speaks surname project with me, came by and took this great picture of the two of us. We’ve made huge inroads connecting the various Speake(s) lines in America, plus finally proving our home village in England, thanks to the Big Y-700 test, followed by church records. All is takes, sometimes, is that one critical match.

As I sat there, waiting to begin the mitochondrial DNA session, I couldn’t help but reflect upon all of the women who came before me and how fortunate I was to have been in the right place at the right time to be a member of the Million Mito team.

These are my direct matrilineal ancestors who give me, and my daughter, pictured at left, their mitochondrial DNA. I felt them with me as I sat there, waiting.

The woman at furthest right, Barbara Drechsel (1848-1930), immigrated to Indiana from Germany as a child with her parents in the 1850s. Before her came thousands of generations of women with no photos, of course, and no names before Barbara Freiberger, another eight generations earlier, born about 1621 in Germany.

Before that, which was before church and other records, prior to the 30 Years War, this lineage came from Scandinavia where some of my exact matches are still found today.

Before beginning, I said a positive affirmation and thanked my ancestors – so very honored to introduce them. I know they were proud of me, a member of the team that opened the door to the distant past. I wouldn’t be here if not for every one of their lives.

In this session, I would discuss, for the first time ever, the new Mitotree and my/our connection to all of humanity some 7000 generations ago, more or less.

The mutations we carry over those generations form an unbroken chain of breadcrumbs, connecting us to mitochondrial Eve who lived about 145,000 years ago. We revealed that breakthrough finding in the Haplogroup L7 paper, published in 2022.

I’m still in absolute awe that we have been able to both reach that far back in time AND, at the same time, make the newest haplogroups and haplotype clusters genealogically relevant. I will write more about that soon, but for now, I wrote about the Mitotree release here and you can find articles by Katy Rowe-Schurwanz here and here.

I’m very excited about my new mitochondrial DNA results for my ancestral lines that I track and have already made headway on several.

I’m not the only one.

Not only was I excited about my results, many other people have had breakthroughs too, including Mark Thompson, one of our genealogy AI experts who also spoke at RootsTech. I particularly love his AI generated image.

If you haven’t yet, check your mitochondrial DNA results.

It’s a Wrap

Another year done, another RootsTech under our belts. Hopefully everyone is over the “conference crud” by now and are busily applying their newfound knowledge.

You can view either live-cast sessions or RootsTech webinars, here.

I saw a meme posted sometime during the conference that coined the term “exhausterwhelmulated,” a combination of exhausted, overwhelmed and overstimulated at the same time.

I added exhilarated and elated to the mix and asked ChatGPT to draw me a picture of someone at a genealogy conference feeling those simultaneous emotions.

ChatGPT titled this request “Genealogy Conference Overload,” which made me laugh.

The first two attempts looked like the person had a headache, which I fully understood, so I asked ChatGPT to make the person look happy to be there.

This person, carrying a coffee like I often do, looks like they have just discovered the great irony that they have chased the wrong ancestor for some 20 years – with “laugh or I’ll cry” mania being their overwhelm “go to” in that minute.

This one made me laugh too!

Yes, indeed, I think every single one of us, especially at RootsTech, has experienced this exact adrenaline-fueled emotion.

We leave with a VERY long to-do list, exhausted but full of anticipation and buoyed by excitement. Filled with so much gratitude for our cousins and fellow genealogists, the speakers, vendors, DNA to solve thorny problems, new tools and records, FamilySearch who sponsors RootsTech itself and their amazing employees, plus the legions of the volunteers who make it all work.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

_____________________________________________________________

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If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an e-mail whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.

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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

Genealogy Products and Services

My Books

Genealogy Books

Genealogy Research

Mitotree is Born

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Mitotree is born and I can hardly contain my excitement.

The Million Mito R&D team members, along with many others at FamilyTreeDNA, are proud to introduce the new Mitotree and mtDNA Discover, which were brought to life thanks to one pivotal entrepreneurial figure, Bennett Greenspan, whose support and vision set the ball in motion and made Mitotree possible.

Left to right, the Million Mito science team is:

  • Goran Runfeldt, Head of R&D at FamilyTreeDNA
  • Dr. Paul Maier, Senior Population Geneticist at FamilyTreeDNA
  • Roberta Estes, DNAexplain, scientist, blogger, author, genetic genealogist, and Genographic Affiliate Researcher
  • Dr. Miguel Vilar, Genetic Anthropologist, Lead Scientist with the Genographic Project, and Professor at the University of Maryland
  • Bennett Greenspan, President Emeritus of FamilyTreeDNA, and avid genealogist
  • John Detsikas, Front End Developer who is responsible for the user interface for both Y-DNA Discover and now mtDNA Discover

The Million Mito Project Inception

The Million Mito Project was launched at RootsTech 2020 and encouraged people to test their mitochondrial DNA, both for their genealogy and to help build the database. More than a million samples were candidates, but only high-quality, full sequence results were used. In the process of building the tree, additional samples were incorporated from other public sources for tree construction.

Drum Roll – The Mitotree

A beta version of the Mitotree is being released today, and boy, is this a big deal.

Before we discuss the rest of what’s coming, I need to mention that the Mitotree is now evergreen, meaning that the tree will be updated periodically, as will mtDNA Discover. This lifetime value is included with the cost of your test, so there’s nothing more to purchase.

Haplogroups will change from time to time, as the tree does, so don’t fall in love with yours, and definitely, no tattoos😊

I’m going to be speaking in terms of “we,” meaning the Million Mito team who built the Mitotree and mtDNA Discover, plus an amazing team of FamilyTreeDNA folks who were absolutely essential in getting this out the door and to you.

The Mitotree is new from the ground up, and yes, haplogroup naming consistency with PhyloTree has been maintained where possible.

One of the unanticipated challenges we encountered was that the 2016 PhyloTree had to be recreated, essentially reverse engineered, to determine the rules they used regarding mutations for haplogroup creation. In other words, which mutations were valid and reliable, which weren’t, determining their relative importance, and so forth.

After the existing 2016 tree was recreated, the next hurdle to overcome was that none of the existing phylogenetic software used in academia would scale from 24,000 samples and 5500 subclades to more than a quarter million samples and 40,000 haplogroups, so that software had to be designed and written by R&D team members.

More information about this process will be forthcoming shortly, and a paper will be published with our methodology, but for right now, let’s look at the user experience and what’s being released now.

Here’s what’s coming today and over the next few days.

The beta Mitotree includes:

  • Over 40,000 branches
  • Over 250,000 mtFull Sequences from FTDNA
  • Over 10,000 third-party full sequences from GenBank, 1000 Genomes, etc.
  • Over 1000 Ancient Connections
  • Over 100 Notable Connections

More is on the way.

The new Mitotree is the tree provided in several formats within mtDNA Discover. You can view the public version of the tree, here, or sign on to your FamilyTreeDNA account and click through from your dashboard to see more.

Today’s Releases

The Mitotree doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so several updates and new features will be rolling out today.

  • mtDNA Discover, which includes the new Mitotree
  • New customer haplogroups for those who have taken mtFull sequence tests
  • New mtDNA matches page

New Haplogroups

New haplogroups have been calculated for FamilyTreeDNA customers who have taken the full sequence test. Those who have taken only the HVR1 or HVR1/HVR2 tests are encouraged to upgrade to the full sequence test.

Not everyone will receive a new Mitotree haplogroup that is different from their classic haplogroup, but most people will. Your original haplogroup is displayed with the classic tag, and the new Mitotree haplogroup with the beta tag.

If your classic and Mitotree haplogroups are the same, it means that either you have no more private variants (mutations) available to form a new haplogroup, or no one else from your lineage has tested yet.

New mtDNA Matches Page

If you click on your mtDNA matches, you’ll notice that the page has been redesigned to look and function like the other FamilyTreeDNA match pages.

If you click to view your matches, you’ll be able to view both the “old” classic haplogroup, and your matches’ new Mitotree haplogroup, plus a new haplotype if they have one. We will talk about haplotypes in a minute.

The people you match are the same as before, but matches may be recalculated in the future.

If you click through to the new mtDNA Discover from your dashboard, you’ll be able to view the public portion of mtDNA Discover, plus the additional customized information provided to FamilyTreeDNA mtFull sequence customers.

mtDNA Discover

If you have taken a full sequence test, sign on to your account to view your new haplogroup, then click on the new mtDNA Discover icon on your dashboard.

If you haven’t taken the mtFull sequence test, but the partial HVR1 or HVR2 versions, you can still view mtDNA Discover on your dashboard, but without the mtFull customization.

Customization that occurs exclusively for FamilyTreeDNA mtFull sequence customers includes:

  • Most detailed placement of your branch on Mitotree
  • Haplotype clusters
  • Additional Ancient Connections
  • Additional Notable Connections
  • The Match Time Tree
  • Globetrekker™ (coming soon)
  • The Group Time Tree (coming soon)

mtDNA Discover is similar to Y-DNA Discover.

You’ll be able to view a dozen new reports about your haplogroup in addition to the tools provided on your dashboard.

The new Mitotree can be viewed in several formats, each with its unique benefit.

  1. Time Tree – a genetic tree that shows when each haplogroup was formed, plus a country flag for where present-day testers report as the location of their earliest known ancestor (EKA)
  2. Classic Tree – a more traditional view of a phylogenetic tree, including the number of testers on each branch, the variants, or mutations that define the haplogroup, the era and approximate date of formation, and other details about the tree topology
  3. Scientific Details Variants Tab – shows the variants that differ in each haplogroup as you reach back in time
  4. Ancestral Path for the selected haplogroup – outlines your path back to early humans, including Denisovans.
  5. Match Time Tree for you and your matches (must be signed in to your account and click on mtDNA Discover icon)
  6. Group Time Tree (coming soon) for those who have joined projects

Match Time Tree

The Match Time Tree is extremely useful because it overlays your matches, plus their earliest known ancestors (EKA), on a genetic Time Tree, by haplogroup and haplotype, so you can see how you may be related, and when.

You can also see your matches that have now fallen into neighboring haplogroups, which suggests that they probably aren’t as genealogically close as people in your haplogroup. However, that’s not always the case, because mutations can occur at any time.

Haplotype Clusters

A haplotype cluster is a new concept introduced specifically for genealogists with the new Mitotree. Haplotypes are identified by numbered “F” groups. Three are shown, below.

There may be groups of people within a haplogroup that have exactly the same mutations, or genetic signature, and no additional mutations. Still, they may not form a new haplogroup. There could be several reasons for not forming a new haplogroup, including known SNP locations where mutations occur that are known to be unstable, such as location  315, which tends to accumulate random insertions and is ignored because of its known instability.

When multiple people share an exactly identical signature, meaning all of the same mutations, they are shown within a haplotype “F” cluster to provide additional specificity to the tree.

The haplotype has been designed to provide additional granularity to the tree and genealogically relevant information. The haplotype “Fxxxxxx” numbers are randomly generated and have no special meaning.

A word of caution here. While the haplotype sequences are identical, it is still possible that another tester from outside the cluster could be a closer relative. For example, they could have accumulated a fast mutating SNP in the last few generations, which would give them a different signature.

Someone who is actually genealogically close to you may be in a different haplotype, or no haplotype at all because no one matches them exactly. For example, if your aunt or sister has a heteroplasmy, they are a close relative and will be in your haplogroup, but won’t be in your haplotype cluster because of the heteroplasmy. So don’t ignore matches who aren’t in your haplotype.

In the above example, under haplogroup V71b, there is one group of three people of unknown origin, meaning they didn’t enter any location for their earliest known ancestor, plus haplotype F9712482 – all of whom are identical matches to each other, but don’t form a new haplogroup.

Beneath V71b is haplogroup V71b1 with nine people, plus two haplotype clusters. F1965416 consists of two people, and F8189900 consists of 16 people.

You can also see haplotype clusters bracketed on any of the Time Trees in mtDNA Discover as well.

More to Come

There’s more information to come in the next few days and weeks, and at RootsTech. I’ll be writing articles when I get back.

For now, take a look to see if you have a new haplogroup. The new haplogroup rollout is being staggered, and you should receive an email when yours has been posted. But there’s no need to wait. Go ahead, sign in and check now, check out mtDNA Discover, and have fun.

Guaranteed, you’ll learn something new, and you may discover the key to a new ancestor!

Resources

Here are additional resources about the new Mitotree, mtDNA Discover, and the associated updates:

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FamilyTreeDNA’s New Matrix Shows How Your Matches Are Related to Each Other

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Click on any image to enlarge

FamilyTreeDNA’s new reworked Matrix includes relationships, in other words, how your matches are related to each other. But there’s more. It also includes the number of shared segments and the number of cMs shared between your matches.

You can then push those matches through to the chromosome browser to see exactly which segments overlap between you and your matches.

This is a game-changer!!

Why Are These Features Important?

For genealogists, knowing how your matches are related to each other, or not, is a HUGE clue about your common ancestor. Clusters of people who match each other are an important road sign directing you to a specific ancestor who contributed the same DNA segment or segments to all of you.

FamilyTreeDNA just released several VERY cool updates for their Matrix comparison tool. Plus, you get to select a group of 10 people to compare.

The purpose of the Matrix tool is to select Family Finder autosomal matches who are then displayed in a grid matrix for comparison, showing if and how those matches match each other.

Specifically:

  • Do your matches match each other?
  • What is their estimated relationship to each other?
  • How many segments of DNA do they share with each other?
  • How many cMs (centiMorgans) of DNA do they share with each other?

You can then push 7 matches through to the chromosome browser to see if they match on any of the same segments.

Automated Triangulation

If you are comparing bucketed (maternal or paternal) matches, or matches known to belong to the same side of your tree, the shared segments are automatically triangulated.

How cool is this?!!!

Keep in mind, though, that you may be related to someone through multiple ancestors, and they could be from both parent’s sides, so pay attention to the ancestral segment history.

Remember, every segment has its own unique history.

Let’s step through the new Matrix features and see how they work.

Select the Matrix

Navigate to the Matrix tool under “See More” under Autosomal DNA Results and Tools.

Under “Select Matches” you can select “All Matches” to choose from all of your matches, or you can select a grouping of matches to be displayed in the menu, below.

These groupings are shortcuts for you so you don’t have to pick everyone individually. You can also search for a name.

Click on the individuals you want to compare in the Matrix. The people you’ve selected from the group, at left, will appear in the box, at right. That’s who will be compared to each other.

Next, select which type of data will be compared.

I’m selecting “Close Relatives” for this example and “Relationship range.” First, I added my mother so I could see who matches with her.

Then I added the rest of the people I want to compare. In this case, I’ve added my closest matches, even though they are from both sides of my tree.

Relationship Range

I’ve selected “Relationship range,” which will show me how my matches estimated relationships to each other.

Based on the identity of these matches, and how they match each other, I can now determine their ancestral connection.

If I didn’t know who was related maternally and paternally, this grid would remove all doubt became I’m comparing to one of my parents.

If you don’t have a parent, adding close, known relatives on one or both sides will help immensely.

Be sure to make notes about what you’ve discovered on your matches page, and paint to DNAPainter if that’s how you’re tracking your segments to ancestors.

Number of Segments Shared

Now, I’ve selected “Number of segments shared” to compare the same group of people.

You can see the number of shared segments between Mom’s matches. Donald and Cheryl are full siblings.

The display shows how these people match Mom, and each other.

Melissa is Mom’s paternal second cousin. I was able to piece this together with the help of how she matches Mom and Mom’s known paternal first cousins, Cheryl and Donald.

Total cMs Shared

Next, I’m selecting “Total cMs shared” for comparison.

Looking at the number of shared cMs, even if I didn’t know that Donald and Cheryl were full siblings, I would now.

You can also push these through to the chromosome browser. I’ll illustrate in a minute.

Bucketed or Parental Side Matching

My favorite groupings for the new Matrix are the bucketed, meaning parental or maternal “side” matching.”

When your matches are already bucketed, thanks to having linked known matches to their profile card in your tree, the system does a lot of the “side” work for you behind the scenes.

When you select “Maternal, “Paternal” or “Paternal and Maternal” matches, the people who have been bucket to either side, or those related to you on both sides, are listed in the selection box.

I’m selecting 7 of my maternal bucketed matches because I’m going to push them through to the chromosome browser for additional evaluation. I’m not including my mother because I already know these people are related to both me and her, because they are bucketed maternally.

They’re compared in the various matrix configurations.

From the Shared cM comparison table, I can easily click to display matches in the chromosome browser.

If you’re comparing more than 7 people, you’ll need to reduce it to 7. I excluded my Mom because I already know she matches all of them.

Click on the Compare Chromosome Browser at the bottom for the 7 people selected.

I know that cousin Charles descends from Mom’s paternal Lentz line, and has no other connection, so I know that these other cousins who also match me on that same segment are also from Mom’s Lentz line.

I can also tell that the shared segments on chromosome 1 are from Mom’s maternal Lore line.

Shown here are the common ancestors in Mom’s pedigree chart. They are 4 and 5 generations back in time for me.

Look how easy that was!

I love this new Matrix tool.

Triangulation

Because three or more people, including me, match on the same segments, this means they also triangulate.

In the example above, we have two distinct triangulation groups. I’m only showing chromosomes 1-3 for illustration purposes, but there are also more triangulation groups on the other chromosomes. If I add other people, new triangulation groups will form!

Of course, these are my maternal bucketed matches, so I’m safe to reach that conclusion. If my father’s matches were also loaded here, I would have to check the matrix and see if these people also matched each other before I could determine that they triangulate.

Check Your Matches and Upload

Be sure to upload any tests to FamilyTreeDNA that you manage at other vendors, and encourage your cousins to upload too.

This combination of features is unique to FamilyTreeDNA. The more relatives you have available to match, especially when you already know the common ancestor, the better. Be sure to link your matches to their placard in your tree so that FamilyTreeDNA can do the bucketing for you.

Even if you don’t link people, you can still benefit greatly from the new matrix tool by just having your DNA available for matching. The matrix will help you sort out matches and identify who is related to whom, and how.

Take a look! What are you discovering?

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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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Welcome to 2025! – Opportunities and New Genetic Genealogy Articles

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It’s a new year with new opportunities. Lots of ancestors to find and others to confirm.

For me, the best part is actually learning about my ancestors’ lives. If you’re a subscriber, I’m sure you’ve already noticed that.

These adventures and misadventures are what inspire my blog articles. What works well, what doesn’t and how to use multiple tools to unveil more about our ancestors.

That’s what motivates me. I hope it motivates you, too.

New Articles in the Works

I’d like to share some of the articles and educational events I have planned for 2025, then ask what topics you’d like to see.

Articles on the drawing board include:

  • MyHeritage DNA File Download Instructions Update
  • Mitotree – when released
  • Mitochondrial Discover – when released
  • Genealogy Proof Series – The series continues with autosomal, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNA proof.
  • The Forest of the Trees – Lots of different kinds of trees for both Y and mitochondrial DNA at FamilyTreeDNA. How to use them, for what, and when. This will probably be written as a series.
  • New features and developments from vendors as they occur
  • Acadian Ancestors – I hope to complete my Acadian 52 Ancestors articles. For those who don’t know, “52 Ancestors” is a challenge to write about one ancestor each week for a year. You can sign up with Amy Johnson Crow here to learn more and receive weekly prompts. It’s fun and allows you to focus on one ancestor at a time, and the history that occurred in their lifetime.

Other Learning Opportunities

In addition to those articles, I’ll be at RootsTech in person presenting:

  • DNA Academy – the 2025 version, soup to nuts
  • DNA for Native American Genealogy
  • Reveal Your Maternal Ancestors and Their Stories Using Mitochondrial DNA
  • Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Using Y-DNA, Mitochondrial DNA, Autosomal, X-DNA and Associated Tools

I’ll also participate in other educational events with Legacy Family Tree Webinars, WikiTree, the North Carolina Genealogy Society, and FamilyTreeDNA. I’ll provide more information about them later.

Finding Information

Remember, you can always use a keyword search on this blog to find any topic I’ve written about previously.

Also, Google’s AI has apparently trained itself using my blog articles, as have a couple of other AI tools. I know this because my blog comes up as a resource when I google questions. You can try that, too.

Your Turn – What Do You Want?

There are always new topics, new features, or different ways to explain things.

  • What would you like to see covered in 2025?
  • Are there any hot genetic genealogy topics that you’d love to learn more about?

Please make your suggestions in a comment on this article.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful 2025 with lots of ancestor discoveries.

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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

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2024 Retrospective – Plus New Color Version of Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA

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I hope 2024 was a great year for you.

2024 was an amazing year that included the release of my new book, Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA, and two genealogy-focused trips. I was also able to use Y-DNA to extend multiple paternal lines and break down a mitochondrial brick wall. It hardly gets better than this, but I have a focus list for 2025 already – and I hope you do, too.

But before we move on to 2025, let’s take a look at what was popular in 2024. Did you miss anything? Now is a great time to review, and I’ve assembled a list of this year’s top ten articles for you.

2024 in Review

Each year, I look back at my blog’s end-of-year statistics to see which articles were the most popular. I published 75 articles in 2024, which is an article about every four and a half days.

The Top 10 List isn’t just compiled from this year’s new articles, but the top 10 articles read this year from all 1738 articles that I’ve published over the past 12.5 years. I’ve noted the publication year by the article name.

Four of this year’s top 10 also fall in the all-time top 10. Of course, articles that have been published longer have more time to accrue views.

Article 2024 All Time
Concepts – Calculating Ethnicity Percentages (2017) 1 2
442 Ancient Viking Skeletons Hold DNA Surprised – Does Your Y or Mitochondrial DNA Match? (2020) 2
Ancestral DNA Percentages – How Much of Them is in You? (2017) 3 5
Proving Native American Ancestry Using DNA (2012) 4 1
23andMe Trouble – Step-by-Step Instructions to Preserve Your Data and Matches (2024) 5
DNA Inherited from Grandparents and Great-Grandparents (2020) 6
Ancestry’s ThruLines and Shared Matches Now Require a Subscription (2024) 7
Native American Mitochondrial Haplogroups (2013) 8 10
FamilyTreeDNA Tree Integration with MyHeritage – Step-by-Step Instructions (2024) 9
Y-DNA: Step-by-Step Analysis (2020) 10

Consistently, Native American DNA, ethnicity, and inheritance prove to be overwhelmingly popular topics. This probably explains the success of my book, DNA for Native American Genealogy. It’s timeless, and there are always new people searching! Thank you to everyone who has purchased it.

Of course, articles about this year’s announcements in the genetic genealogy world are always popular. The articles that didn’t make the Top 10 List but are in the 11-20 category include articles from RootsTech, two more Native American articles,  determining full or half-siblings, pedigree collapse, the Washington family burial article, plus one about my Acadian ancestors and their DNA.

Thank you to everyone who subscribes, reads, and comments. Please share this article or site link with another genealogist who you think might benefit. As you know, it’s easy to subscribe and completely free.

You can also search for keywords in articles throughout the year to answer questions when you see them on social media or elsewhere. It’s easy and educational to post or send an article link.

Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Now Available in Color

Are you ready for a good laugh?

As I was reviewing these articles, I thought to myself, “where’s the announcement of the new color version of my book, “The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA”?

I literally forgot to publish that article. How could I?? I mean…seriously. (My excuse is that I was traveling, plus conferences and back-to-back hurricanes.)

So, here’s the (slightly late) mini-announcement.

Initially, in May, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA was released in a full-color e-pub version, which is available from the publisher here. You can take a look at the table of contents here.

That was followed shortly by the release of the black and white print version, available in the US from the publisher, here, and worldwide from your country’s Amazon. Selling outside the US through Amazon removes the issues of expensive international shipping, VAT tax, and customs, which significantly increases the cost of the book and delays its delivery.

The decision was made to publish initially in black and white due to printing costs, but lots of people requested a color book.

For those who have already purchased the black-and-white version, the publisher has provided a free downloadable PDF with 26 of the most critical pages in color. We really had no idea that people would be eager to purchase a color version, but that has proven to be the case, and we didn’t want earlier purchasers to be disappointed.

Drum Roll

You spoke, and we listened.

In the fall, we released a full-color print-on-demand version of The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA. Again, in the US, the book is available from the publisher, here, and at Amazon elsewhere.

This book truly is comprehensive and includes both DNA education, along with how to use the FamilyTreeDNA tools, many of which are unique in the industry. For example, no other vendor offers either Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA testing and matching.

You don’t know what you don’t know, and I encourage you to find out!

Thank You!

Thank you so much for your ongoing support. Twelve years strong, going on 13.

Be thinking about what you’d like to see in 2025, because I’m going to be asking you tomorrow!

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Share the Love!

You’re always welcome to forward articles or links to friends and share on social media.

If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an e-mail whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.

You Can Help Keep This Blog Free

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

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