Genealogy Proof Series: Surname Searching

Posted on June 29, 2024 by Roberta Estes

This is the third article in the Genealogy Proof series, in addition to the introduction.

In the article titled Gathering Location Resources, we focused on locations where you know your ancestor lived – but what if you’re looking for books or information about a particular family or surname?

Maybe you’d like to know if an article or book has been written about that family, either generally or maybe a branch more specifically. Many early books are no longer in print.

Maybe you can find information about your family in resources not typically checked by genealogists.

Of course, there are lots of resources, but I’m including several here that you can use and might otherwise miss. Feel free to add more in the comments.

Recording Your Findings

Don’t forget to record your search results and which resources you used on the spreadsheet we created in the Extracting and Recording Data article.

If you find that the information in the book or resource is too long for the text field in your spreadsheet, record and index the item anyway. Then, transcribe or copy/paste the entire text version in one of two places, but don’t forget to note in your spreadsheet where you put it.

Your genealogy software under that person’s name
A Word document under that person’s name

When I write my 52 Ancestors articles, everything I know about that person is gathered into a Word document and then organized and arranged into a cohesive story. The pieces have been gathered over the years in various locations and I have to be able to find them to be able to use them.

Book List

I have also created a list of books that I own.

This list needs to be updated because I moved and I would like to more accurately detail the locations of books I still have. It’s nice to know what you already have and where to find it. Tell me I’m not the only person who has purchased the same book twice!

Ok, now for surname resources where you just might find your ancestor!

Cyndi’s List

Cyndi’s list has a HUGE number of resources generally, but it also includes a surname category.

Under each letter of the alphabet, available resources are listed.

Be sure to check out everything for your surnames of interest.

BookFinder

At Bookfinder.com, you can enter a name in the title field.

That query produced a significant list. Remember that this list changes often, based on availability.

I now have another book on the way!

Higginson Book Company

The Higginson Book Company has long been known for carrying heritage books – both by location and for genealogy.

You can search by surname or any keyword.

Higginson reprints copies of original books out of print in addition to maps and a few other things. Note that sometimes you can find the text version of copyright-free books free at other locations.

State Archives

Check the website of every state’s archive where your ancestors lived.

If in doubt about what might be available, call the State Archives and ask a librarian. You might not believe what’s there.

In Tennesee, for example, there’s an index of Supreme Court cases that can be searched for the entire state, or by county, or year.

Cases that appear in the Supreme Court Index will not be recorded in the county records, because the case was appealed from there to the Supreme Court. It’s worth noting that the Hancock County, Tennessee courthouse burned (twice), so the Supreme Court records in the archives reflect lawsuits that we don’t even know existed today.

In many cases, local courts no longer retain case packets, if they ever did. They often only have the names of plaintiffs and defendants in an index book – not even an outcome. However, the county clerks faithfully copied the case packets when the case was appealed and sent to the Supreme Court, where this valuable information resides today – including depositions and receipts.

I’m entering the surname of every ancestor that was found in Hancock County. Sometimes, I search for their in-laws and neighbors too, just in case my ancestor is mentioned.

Look – paydirt! In an estate dispute – you know there are relationships explained and maybe also the source of the dispute.

When utilizing archives, be sure to search the archives of parent-states and parent-counties, meaning states and counties your state/county was formed from. The same goes for descendant states/counties formed from your state/county.

But wait, there are more resources.

Librarians

In addition to resources shown at the Tennessee Archives website, you can also click to chat with a librarian.

Librarians are an encyclopedia of knowledge.

Thanks to a librarian, I recently discovered that the Michigan State Archives holds an obscure collection – prison newspapers published by the inmates over the years, reaching back into the 1800s and early 1900s. It’s not evident from the collection information, but a call to the archives and a lovely discussion with a research librarian revealed that those publications have recently been scanned and OCR indexed, which makes it possible to search by surname or topic.

I love librarians. They have saved my bacon so many times over the years, as have volunteers at local museums, and historical and genealogy societies.

Chronicling America

Chronicling American is provided by the Library of Congress. This link is for the newspaper collection which spans 1756-1963, but there are also other collections

In the photo collection, you can search generally or very specifically.

I had always wondered why my grandparents chose to move to a tiny out-of-the-way farming community outside very rural Fowler, Indiana. I found my answer in the Library of Congress. My grandfather’s cousin, who lived up the road in Tennessee, had moved to Indiana, was running a farm for an absentee owner and needed assistance.

The rest, as they say, is history.

FamilySearch

FamilySearch has an extremely robust and easy-to-use search functionality.

Select “Search,” then “Books.”

I entered the word “Estes” under the Books search and found this:

Notice that full text results are available, which means that either the book is out from under copyright, or they have obtained permission to image. It’s also worth noting that this is one of the books available for print-on-demand from Higginson Books.

Another option, the “Images” search, searches for information by historical location.

Searching “Genealogies” and “Family Trees” is obvious.

I find the “Catalog” search particularly productive.

You can filter your Catalog search in any number of ways, but, as luck would have it, the very first entry is where my Estes family lived.

Oh, look, it’s my lucky day…

If a desired book or article isn’t available for viewing, start a list and look to see if it’s available through your local Family History Center or check elsewhere.

FamilySearch New Full Text Search

I just love this new full text feature that automatically transcribes and indexes entire handwritten collections, such as the will or deed books in a particular county.

On the search page, scroll down until you see the FamilySearch Labs image and click on “View Experiments.”

Click on “Go to Experiment”

I detailed how to use FamilySearch full-text search in this article, but I want to remind you here that you can search by surname.

One of my huge brick walls is identifying the parents of James Lee Claxton (Clarkson/Clarkston) 1775-1815.

All of our Y-DNA matches are spelled Claxton and are found in North Carolina, but that group of Claxton researchers and my line are both stuck at about the same time in history. It’s very likely that the common ancestor of both groups came from Virginia, but where? And who?

I’m searching for Claxton with the hope that there is some mention of a Claxton we don’t already know about – or something connecting my ancestor to Lee County, VA in about 1795.

There are thousands of entries in this database, but I can filter to restrict my search to Virginia.

Remember that FamilySearch is adding to the collection of books and records that are digitized and indexed daily, so if you don’t find what you’re looking for today, check back often.

Google

A general Google search for “Estes genealogy” produced a list. I’m not showing their generative AI result here, because it’s half right and half wrong. It’s fine to use AI for hints, but verify absolutely everything. AI is not ready to be relied on and may never be.

Here is a list of Estes resources from Google.

Always beware of internet links. “Fly” over them first. If the link address even looks questionable, just don’t click.

That said, there are a HUGE number of legitimate resources here.

Google Books

Google books can help you locate books that may not be found elsewhere.

Some are available as an eBook at Google Books, but if not, you can use these as leads to search elsewhere, including AbeBooks and sometimes, Amazon. I usually use Bookfinder after finding a book I’m interested in through Google, because they include other sites such as AbeBooks, Amazon and many more. Bookfinder is an aggregator, not a reseller.

You can also request to “Find in a library,” which might be useful if your local library participates in interlibrary loans, although often heritage books are not eligible for loan.

Internet Archive

I love the Internet Archive, the same company that provides the Wayback Machine, which also allows you to search by surname. The two sites provide different results, so be sure to try both.

You’ll find all kinds of information at the Internet Archive.

Under eBooks and Texts, I often enter “<surname> genealogy” so that their metadata will use both terms to narrow the search. Metadata is data about data, and in this case, it means which keywords they used to index these entries.

Many records aren’t relevant, but some assuredly are.

You can also narrow the results by many features – including the Allen County Public Library which has one of the largest genealogy holdings in the US.

Keep in mind that I’ve selected only items with text, meaning that I can read or download for free. There are certainly other items available that aren’t free.

I sometimes struggle with their search feature, so I often just search at Google using the term “Estes books at internet archive.”

Allen County Public Library

At the Allen County Public Library website, you want to search in the research collection

Please note that you can filter your results in many ways.

One of the wonderful features is that they actively collect newsletters. Estes Trails has been published for decades.

These newsletters are in their physical holdings, but if you know they exist, you can track them down in other ways. In this case, the publisher’s name is included in the full display.

Many newsletters are no longer published, so, fortunately, there’s another way to obtain an article.

PERSI

PERSI, an index for periodicals, such as Estes Trails, above, is also hosted by the Allen County Public Library.

At PERSI, you can search by surname

I searched for Estes, and look what I received. I absolutely must read these Civil War letters.

This is a GOLDMINE. No, Aaron Estes isn’t my ancestor, but again, he’s related, and I just have to read these.

Scroll to the very bottom to order the items.

WikiTree

WikiTree is one of my favorite resources. You can enter your ancestor’s name, or a surname.

WikiTree is a collaborative tree where different individuals add information and sources to the profiles of ancestors. They have a small army of helpful volunteers that are willing to help too.

As with all shared resources, some information can be incorrect. Treat all trees as information to be verified and sources to be checked.

One of the great things about WikiTree is that individuals who descend from ancestors in a specific way can connect themselves and their Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA test information.

Descendants who have taken an autosomal test can list the testing company and information. While testing companies use the DNA of the tester to connect to other testers – it’s up to those two people to determine their common ancestor.

WikiTree works the other way and is ancestor-driven, meaning that you see who descends from the ancestor, and you can go to the testing company indicated to see if you’re an autosomal DNA match.

Furthermore, if you’re working on your genetic tree, you’ll want the Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA information for each of your ancestors. If other testers have entered the information, you can find it here. Please enter yours as well.

Be sure to check the sources for each ancestor. There may be information and resources not found elsewhere. Add sources if you can. Collaboration is a good thing, and a rising tide lifts all ships.

Newspapers

After you’ve wrung out the more traditional records, such as deeds and wills and census schedules, you’ll want to turn to newspapers. Not all local newspapers have been scanned, OCRed, and indexed yet, and some quality is better than others.

Licensing and processing old newspapers is ongoing, so just because the location where your ancestor lived doesn’t have an indexed newspaper available today doesn’t mean they won’t soon.

Newspaper articles put meat on the bones of our ancestors as they reveal their everyday lives. Who visited whom after church for Sunday dinner, who hit someone’s cow, who had company from out of town, who was having a family reunion, who moved and to where, who caught a big fish, who went on vacation, who was “visited by the stork,” and much more. Some make you say “awww,” and some are downright juicy and scandalous!

News about neighboring counties and even neighboring states can be found in locations where you may not have thought to look for your ancestor.

Virginia Chronicle

The Virginia Chronicle is a historic newspaper collection curated by the Library of Virginia that produces amazing results.

What? A murder? You know, I just HAVE to go down this rabbit hole and read these stories.

Ok, so, here’s the skinny for those who are curious.

Theodore Estes was dating Miss Loving, the daughter of a judge who shot and murdered Theodore. As it turns out, Theodore’s father was the sheriff, so this story is particularly rich and full of intrigue.

It seems that Miss Loving, the judge’s daughter, drank whiskey, and one thing allegedly led to another, which Theodore, his family, and friends denied. However, the young woman’s father didn’t believe them and sought revenge. Some reports said that she only drank “one swig” of whiskey, and nothing happened. Others said that the whiskey was drugged, and “something” did happen. A third group said she asked for the whiskey and drank a whole lot more than a swig. Theodore took her home (to her house) in his buggy, to her parents, but clearly intoxicated.

It gets even more complex because it appears the families were related. I had to draw a chart to get this straight.

Theodore’s brother had married the Judge’s wife’s sister. I’m telling you, this trial was a humdinger. Whoo boy! Eventually, the charges against the judge were changed to something less severe than murder. This high-profile case was covered by several regional newspapers like the latest soap opera.

As I read through these articles, I noticed that some Estes family members had arrived from Danville, VA, which is in close proximity to where my Estes family was from. So, while this is not my ancestor, it involves my ancestor’s descendants.

Ok, enough of this rabbit hole, but you get the drift. You may never get anything resembling chores done ever again!

The National Genealogical Society membership now provides access to NewspaperArchive as a benefit of membership. As far as I’m concerned, this alone makes the membership worthwhile.

NewspaperArchive offers a notification service for subscribers, or did when I subscribed separately, so you’ll receive an email when the name of a saved search is found in a newly indexed newspaper.

I keep discovering previously unknown things!

Ancestry owns Newspapers.com for accessing newspapers and Fold3 for military records. I discussed the nuances of using Newspapers.com at Ancestry in this article. You’ll need to search in the Historical Newspapers Collection at Ancestry and/or in Newspapers.com. Ancestry is reimaging the newspapers and using AI to create associations between people – for example family members mentioned in a wedding announcement. The results will not all be found in one place. The newspaper itself will be found at Newspapers.com but the associated family grouping will be found at Ancestry itself in their collections.

You can now reference the Birth Index, Marriage Index and Auctions of Enslaved People and Bounties on Freedom Seekers Index, here. The larger Newspapers and Publications category can be found here, and the Historical Newspapers Collection can be found here.

MyHeritage includes a large newspaper collection for their subscribers, much of which is unique and not found elsewhere.

This collection is where I found hundreds of items about my mother’s family in rural Northern Indiana. I found previously unknown photos of my grandfather, and that he attended the “Normal School” to become a teacher. He never taught, instead going to work for the railroad, moving away, and meeting the woman who would become my grandmother.

MyHeritage actually has newspapers in two places. This search is on the MyHeritage site itself, available with a subscription. MyHeritage has a second, independent site too – OldNews.

OldNews is big news!

At RootsTech 2024, MyHeritage announced a separate subscription site called OldNews, which essentially doubles the number of newspapers that they’ve digitized and made available. Take a look!

I found information about my mother, such as when she had her tonsils removed, when and where she danced in plays as a child, and the amount of my grandparents’ estate. Newspapers reported things back then that would be considered privacy violations today. Check OldNews to see what’s there for you.

Colonial Williamsburg has made the earliest Newspapers in the colonies available, here. Some are through a subscription site, and others aren’t. It was through these old newspapers years ago that I discovered the name of my ancestor’s indentured servant who ran away. Now, DNA seems to point to a potential relationship. There are no records other than that “runaway” notice to connect these people together, anyplace.

Check Cyndi’s list for more Newspaper services

MyHeritage Surnames

MyHeritage offers many ways to search, but you can start by entering the name of your ancestor or even just a surname.

I could have simply entered the surname, but I entered James Lee Claxton.

I can filter by any of the collections, at left.

I check them all, but I particularly like the Books and Publications, and the Newspapers category. You just never know what you’ll find, and many of the books are digitized and free.

You can also just enter a surname. I entered “Estes.”

I checked every one of these categories and, among other things, found some fascinating historic maps.

I love my MyHeritage subscription. If you don’t have one, you can try one free for 14 days.

Ancestry Message Boards

Ancestry discontinued the RootsWeb-hosted websites, WorldConnect Trees, and RootsWeb mailing lists last year, but the message boards are still functional.

After signing in to Ancestry, scroll down until you see Tools and Resources in the right margin.

Click on “Message boards.”

These boards reach back at least 20 years and many of the original posters are deceased now. I know that I often posted information as I found it while traveling.

There’s an advanced search function, too.

I was shocked to discover that you can still initiate a thread, but I’m not at all sure that other people on that board are notified today. I had no idea these boards even still existed.

Another feature that’s helpful at Ancestry is the Card Catalog, one of their Special Record Collections.

You can enter a surname in either the Title or Keyword box.

Of course, you’ll get different results, but both are certainly worth checking.

Genealogy.com

GenForum was the message board for Genealogy.com. Ancestry purchased it years ago, and while you can no longer post messages, you can still search for messages that were previously posted, here.

American Ancestors

American Ancestors holds a large database that includes periodicals such as the New England Historical and Genealogical Register and the Virginia Genealogist, which you can search by name, here.

Additionally, they have a number of immigration and naturalization records not available elsewhere.

HathiTrust

HathiTrust has indexed millions of documents, including many governmental records and publications.

Select any publication or narrow by categories. Then you can search within the text and also view the text on the relevant pages.

DNA Projects

FamilyTreeDNA offers surname projects, along with geographic, haplogroup, lineage, and regional DNA projects.

You can find surname projects in one of two ways.

The first way is to Google “Estes DNA Project.”

You’ll see two links, either of which will take you to the project.

I administer this project and welcome everyone who has an Estes ancestor, regardless of whether their surname is Estes or something else.

By clicking on “DNA Results,” you’ll see multiple options.

Clicking on the “Classic Chart” shows groupings of males who have taken the Y-DNA test, along with additional information, including their Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) and, in the final column at right, their haplogroup.

If you take a DNA test and match other people, you can contact them to collaborate through matches on your personal page. Not everyone can test for every ancestor – and women can’t test for Y-DNA lineages (because they don’t have a Y chromosome,) so we depend on being able to check for our ancestors in Y-DNA projects.

If your ancestral line is shown, you can use the confirmed haplogroup (green) in the free Discover tool, here, to learn more about your ancestor’s heritage.

Here’s the “Haplogroup Story” tab for R-BY490 that represents a number of Estes lineages. There are 11 other tabs in the left sidebar just waiting for you to read about your ancestry.

Note that “Suggested Projects” is one tab. The suggestions are based on projects other men with this haplogroup have joined.

Y-DNA information through Discover, and soon, mitochondrial DNA information through MitoDiscover, is the ONLY place you can find this kind of information. Be sure to check out all of the tabs at left, including Ancient Connections.

If you click on the Group Time Tree, you’ll see a different view of the results of the project members who have taken the advanced Big Y-700 test.

By selecting the relevant groups, you can see the surname of the testers, their earliest known ancestor (if known and entered), at right, along with the haplogroup genetic tree at left.

The genetic tree shown at left confirms the genealogy of these testers, at least as far as the genetic tree is able to distinguish. I wrote about the Estes Group Time Tree, here, as an example,

If you are a male and have not taken the Big Y-700 test, please do. It unlocks your history in a way nothing else can.

A second way to find DNA projects that might be relevant to your surname is to navigate to the very bottom of the FamilyTreeDNA main page in the footer.

Click on “Group Projects.”

You can enter any surname and see the projects in which the project administrator listed Estes (or your surname of choice) as a surname that might be interested in their project.

If you’re a customer and signed on to your account at FamilyTreeDNA, you can find this same information at the top of your personal page under “Group Projects.” You can also join projects from there.

Social Media

I often overlook Facebook or other social media as a surname resource, but it is.

Today, many, if not most, genealogy and historical societies have pages, and so do many genealogists with an interest in a particular surname line.

Searching for “Estes” on Facebook shows several individual people, PLUS, two groups that might be very interesting.

Once you’re a member of a group, you can search within the group for a keyword.

This search gave me everything with either Moses or Estes, so I narrowed it by just using “Moses” or just searching for “Halifax” which is the county in Virginia where Moses Estes lived.

Facebook, especially groups with a genealogical focus, is a wonderful way to find men for Y-DNA testing.

I often ask if someone has already DNA tested, and if so, where.

If they have already tested at Ancestry, or 23andMe, but not at MyHeritage or FamilyTreeDNA, they can upload to both companies for free. Matching is free after uploading, and so are other basic tools. Advanced tools require an inexpensive unlock, which costs far less than retesting. The unlock at FamilyTreeDNA for advanced tools costs $19, and it’s $29 at MyHeritage.

Next Topic – The Proof Table

Our next topic in this series will be the Genealogy Proof Table.

What is a Proof Table, how do you construct one, and why?

We will assemble a Genealogy Proof Table for one of my lines as an example. You’ll need one for every ancestral lineage.

After that, we have four more articles in this series.

Genealogy Proof Standard
DNA
Leveling up
Writing it Up

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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

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
AncestryDNA Plus Traits
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Books

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Great News – Both e-Pub and Print Version of “The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA” Now Available Worldwide

Posted on June 11, 2024 by Roberta Estes

Anyone, anyplace, can order the full-color, searchable, e-pub version of The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA from the publisher, Genealogical.com, here.
Customers within the US can order the black and white print book from the publisher, here.
Customers outside the US can order the print book from their country’s Amazon website. The publisher does not ship print books outside the US due to customs, shipping costs, and associated delays. They arranged to have the book printed by an international printer so that it can be shipped directly to Amazon for order fulfillment without international customers incurring additional expenses and delays. If you ordered the book previously from Amazon and a long delivery time was projected, that should be resolved now and your book should be arriving soon.

Comprehensive

This book is truly comprehensive and includes:

247 pages
More than 267 images
288 footnotes
12 charts
68 tips
Plus, an 18-page glossary

To view the table of contents, click here. To order, click here.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience and your support.

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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

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
AncestryDNA Plus Traits
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Books

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA Released in Hardcopy

Posted on May 26, 2024 by Roberta Estes

Just what many of you have been waiting for! The hardcopy print version of the Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA has just been released.

The e-pub version was previously released and is available to worldwide customers only from the publisher. Now, the paperback print version is available too.
Click here to order the print version from the publisher in the US.
International customers must order the printed book from their country’s Amazon website to avoid delays, customs, and increased shipping costs.

As shown in the table of contents below, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA contains lots of logically organized information! It includes basic education about genetic genealogy and how it works, instructions on using the FamilyTreeDNA tests and tools, plus an extensive glossary.

Enjoy!

_____________________________________________________________

Follow DNAexplain on Facebook, here.

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

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
AncestryDNA Plus Traits
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Books

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Announcing: The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA; Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

Posted on May 4, 2024 by Roberta Estes

I’m so very pleased to announce the publication of my new book, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA.

For the first time, the publisher, Genealogical.com, is making the full-color, searchable e-book version available before the hardcopy print version, here. The e-book version can be read using your favorite e-book reader such as Kindle or iBooks.

Update: The hardcopy version was released at the end of May and is available from the publisher in the US and from Amazon internationally.

This book is about more than how to use the FamilyTreeDNA products and interpreting their genealogical meaning, it’s also a primer on the four different types of DNA used for genealogy and how they work:

Autosomal DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Y-DNA
X-DNA

There’s a LOT here, as shown by the table of contents, below

This book is chocked full of great information in one place. As an added bonus, the DNA glossary is 18 pages long.

I really hope you enjoy my new book, in whatever format you prefer.

_____________________________________________________________

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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

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
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23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Books

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Why Don’t Our Y-DNA Haplogroups Match?

Posted on May 2, 2024 by Roberta Estes

I’ve been asked this question several times recently, and the answer is resoundingly, “it depends.” There are several reasons why Y-DNA haplogroups might not match and most of them aren’t “bad.”

How Haplogroups Work

Haplogroups are the 79,000+ branches of the Y-DNA phylogenetic tree which you can view here, along with countries where those haplogroups are found. You can think of haplogroups as genetic clans of either closely or distantly related men. Major haplogroup branches have unique letters assigned. Downstream or younger haplogroups are designated by a letter-number sequence that is always preceded by the main haplogroup letter.

Image courtesy FamilyTreeDNA

Major haplogroups were formed tens of thousands of years ago, with more recent haplogroups added as they’ve been discovered. Haplogroups are discovered and added every day thanks to the Big Y-700 test. You can read more about that process, here.

As you look at the pie chart above, you’ll notice that haplogroup R represents about half the men who have tested and has several major subbranches. Every haplogroup R man belongs to all of the branches above his own that lead back to the root of haplogroup R.

Using haplogroup R, which is R-M207, its identifying SNP, as an example, it immediately splits into two branches: R-M173, which has 37,000+ more branches, and R-M479, which has 313 branches. My Estes men fall into a haplogroup several steps beneath R-M173, but they are still members of haplogroups R-M173 and R-M207, even though their descendant haplogroup is R-BY490, which was formed by a mutation that occurred 20,000 years later.

Haplogroup R-M173, then, in turn, leads back to Y-Adam, the first man to have lived and has descendants today.

As we approach the question of why haplogroups of two men might differ, we will review tools to use and how to interpret your findings to reach the appropriate answer for your situation.

What is Your Goal?

You may be looking for a very specific answer, or this may be a more general question.

If you’re evaluating closely related men who have different haplogroup assignments, not matching can be very disconcerting. Breathe. There are several perfectly legitimate reasons why they may not match, and we have easy, free analysis tools.
If you’re looking at your Y-DNA match list at FamilyTreeDNA, you may or may not match other men closely, but you do “match” at some level if they are on your match list. You may see several different haplogroups in your match list. How closely you match those men is a different question.
If you’re looking at autosomal results at FamilyTreeDNA, you may see haplogroups listed for males. You may or may not “match” the haplogroup of men with the same surname. What does this mean, and why don’t you match? Your autosomal match may have nothing to do with your paternal line, or it may be because of your paternal line.

We will cover all of these scenarios.

Where Did You Both Test?

Are you comparing apples and apples?
Did you both test at the same company?
Did you both take the same type or level of test?

These factors all make a difference.

Which Test Did You Take?

There are four types of tests that will provide males with some level of Y-DNA haplogroup.

Autosomal Tests – Some companies include a few Y-DNA location probes in their autosomal test, meaning that they test a few haplogroup-specific Y-DNA locations. LivingDNA, 23andMe, and FamilyTreeDNA’s Family Finder test provide a mid-level Y-DNA haplogroup to customers. The haplogroup that can be determined from these tests depends on a variety of factors, including the vendor, the probes they selected for their chip, the test version, and if that location is successfully read in the test.

Note that FamilyTreeDNA supports autosomal uploads from MyHeritage and Ancestry who do not provide Y-DNA haplogroups to customers, but who do test some Y-DNA locations. Therefore you can upload your autosomal test from those companies to FamilyTreeDNA for free and receive at least a cursory Y-DNA haplogroup.

FamilyTreeDNA is currently processing all of its Family Finder tests, followed by tests uploaded from other vendors, to provide all genetic male testers with a Y-DNA haplogroup at some level. Different vendors and test versions test different Y-DNA SNPs, so your mileage may vary. Y-DNA haplogroups are a free benefit at FamilyTreeDNA.

STR Tests – At FamilyTreeDNA, you can purchase both Y-37 and Y-111 STR (short tandem repeat) Y-DNA tests that provide matching at the number of locations you purchased, plus a predicted haplogroup based on those results. These haplogroup predictions are accurate but are often relatively far back in time.

If you match someone on STR tests, your match may be very recent or before the advent of surnames. For a more specific haplogroup, you need to purchase the Big Y-700 test, which provides at least 700 STR match locations but, more importantly, sequences the entire gold-standard region of the Y-chromosome for the most precise haplogroup and matching possible.

When viewing matches of two men who ONLY took STR tests, STR marker matches are more important for genealogy than haplogroups because the haplogroups were formed thousands of years ago.
When viewing matches on the Big Y-700 test, haplogroup matching is much more specific and reliable than STR matches because the mutations (SNPs – single nucleotide polymorphisms) that form haplogroups are much more stable than STRs which mutate unpredictably, including back mutations.

SNP Confirmation Tests – Historically, FamilyTreeDNA customers could purchase individual SNPs to confirm a haplogroup, or SNP packs or bundles to do the same for a group of SNPs. With the advent of both the Family Finder haplogroup assignments, and the Big Y-700, these individual tests are no longer necessary or advantageous and are being discontinued.

Big Y-700 Test – At FamilyTreeDNA, the Big Y-700 test provides the most granular and specific haplogroup possible, most often well within a genealogical timeframe. You may be able to tell, based on previously undiscovered mutations, that two people are brothers or father and son, or, depending on who else has tested and when mutations formed, testers may match further back in time. Here’s an example of using the results from multiple testers in the Estes DNA Surname Project.

You can also match men who took the Big Y-500 test which is less specific than the Big Y-700. In the now-obsolete Big Y-500 test, a smaller portion of the Y chromosome was sequenced and testers only received about 500 STR locations. The Big Y-700 test has been enriched to provide a wider range of more specific information. Men who originally took the Big Y-500, then upgraded to the Big Y-700, will very probably have a new haplogroup assignment based on the expanded coverage and increased resolution of the Big Y-700 test. The Big Y-700 ferrets out lineages that the Big Y-500 simply could not, and continues to provide additional value as more men test, which facilitates the formation of new haplogroups.

What Do You Mean by Match?

Matching doesn’t mean you have to have the exact same haplogroup. A perfectly valid match can have a different haplogroup because one haplogroup is more specific or refined than the other. Matching exactly as a result of a predicted STR haplogroup is much less useful than matching closely on a much more recent Big Y-700 haplogroup.

Not all haplogroups are created equal.

I know this is a bit confusing, so let’s look at real-life examples to clarify.

STR to STR or Autosomal to Autosomal Haplogroup Match

Two males might match exactly on a mid-range Family Finder autosomal haplogroup or on a STR-predicted haplogroup like R-M269, which is about 6350 years old.

This haplogroup “match,” even though it might be exact, does not confirm a close match and really only serves to eliminate some other haplogroups and confirm that a closer match is possible. For example, R-M269 men don’t match someone in haplogroup J or E. You may or may not share a surname. You may or may not still “match” if you both upgrade to the Big Y-700.

In this case, a father/son pair would match exactly, as would two men with different surnames whose common ancestor lived 6000 years ago.

Note that if you’re comparing autosomal-derived haplogroups across different vendor platforms, or even different DNA testing chip versions on the same platform, you may see two different haplogroups. Different vendors test different locations. Please note that second cousins and closer will always match on autosomal DNA, but relationships further back than that may not. Y-DNA very reliably reaches far beyond the capabilities of autosomal DNA due to the fact that it is never mixed with the DNA of the other parent – so it never divides or is watered down in time. When comparing two autosomally-generated haplogroups of men who are supposed to be closely related, always check their autosomal match results too.

Use the free Discover Tool to find various categories of information about any haplogroup, including its age. Take a look at R-M269 here.

Using Discover to Compare Haplogroups

You can always use the Discover tool to compare two haplogroups.

Go to Discover (or click through if you’re signed on to your FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA page), then enter the first haplogroup you’d like to compare.

Click search to view information about that haplogroup.

On the menu bar, at left, click on Compare.

Add the second haplogroup.

I’m selecting E-M35, a completely different branch of the phylogenetic tree.

R-M269 was formed about 6350 years ago, while E-M35 was formed about 25,000 years ago. Their common ancestor was formed about 65,000 years ago. Clearly, these two paternal lineages are not related in anything close to a genealogical timeframe.

These two men would never match on an STR test, but could easily match on an autosomal test on any line OTHER than their direct paternal line.

Now let’s compare two haplogroups that are more closely related.

Haplogroup R-M222 is very common in Ireland, so let’s see how closely related it is to R-M269 which is very common in western Europe.

We see that R-M222 descends from R-M269, so there is no “other haplogroup” involved.

R-M222 was formed about 2100 years ago, around 4250 years after R-M269 was formed.

There are 17 steps between R-M222 and R-M269.

The bottom block shows the lineage from R-M269 back to Y-Adam.

How cool is this??!!

Big Y-700 to Autosomal or STR Haplogroup Comparison

Joe took the Big Y-700 test and discovered that he’s haplogroup R-BY177080.

Joe noticed that his son, who had initially taken an STR test, had been assigned haplogroup R-M269. Then, his son took a Family Finder test and his haplogroup changed to R-FGC8601.

Joe was confused about why he and his son’s haplogroups didn’t match.

First, let’s check Family Finder to confirm the parent/child relationship. Joe’s son is clearly his son.

So why doesn’t Joe’s son’s haplogroup match Joe’s haplogroup? And why did Joe’s son’s haplogroup change?

Joe’s son had not taken a Big Y-700 DNA test, so Joe’s son’s R-M269 haplogroup was initially predicted from his STR test.

Joe’s son’s updated haplogroup, R-FGC8601 was generated by the Family Finder test. Think of this as a bonus. If you’re a male and haven’t yet, you’ll soon receive an email telling you that you’ve received a Family Finder Y-DNA haplogroup. It’s your lucky day!

Family Finder haplogroups always replace STR predicted haplogroups since they are always more specific than predicted STR haplogroups. Big Y-700 haplogroups always replace STR-generated haplogroup predictions and Family Finder haplogroups because they are the most specific.

Let’s compare these results using Discover.

Joe’s son’s original predicted haplogroup was R-M269.

Discover Compare shows us that Joe’s Big Y-700 Haplogroup, R-BY177080, is a descendant of R-M269.

So, they actually do “match,” just several branches further up the tree

Joe’s son’s more precise Family Finder haplogroup was assigned as R-FGC8601.

Discover Compare shows us that Joe’s Big Y-700 haplogroup also descends from R-FGC8601.

You can see that the haplogroup generated by Family Finder is more precise by about 4700 years and improves that comparison.

R-M269 was formed about 6350 years ago, but R-FGC8601 was formed about 1700 years ago.

Joe’s Big Y-700 haplogroup, R-BY177080 was formed about the year 1900, improving the family haplogroup by another 1600 years or so.

Joe’s son’s Family Finder haplogroup moved down the haplotree 21 branches and 4650 years, for free! If Joe’s son were to upgrade to the Big Y-700, they might very well be assigned a new haplogroup that, for the time being, only they share.

Of course, Family Finder doesn’t provide Y-DNA matching so you still need the Y-DNA tests for that important aspect of genealogy.

Big Y to Big Y Comparison

In our next example, a group of men, including a father and son or other very close relative may take the Big Y-700 test and have different haplogroups. If you’re saying, “Whoa Nelly,” hear me out.

George took a Big Y-700 test and discovered that he is haplogroup R-FGC43597. His son and grandsons tested, and they are haplogroup R-FTC50269. What happened? Shouldn’t they all match George?

On George’s Big Y-700 block tree, you can see that a mutation, R-FTC50269, occurred between George and his son. George doesn’t have it, but his son does.

A haplogroup isn’t “named” until there are two men with the same mutation in the same lineage. Therefore, when George’s son initially tested, he would have been assigned to the same haplogroup as George, R-FGC43697, but with one extra variant, or mutation.

Of course, that extra mutation was passed from George’s son to both of his grandsons, so when the first grandson tested, the new haplogroup, R-FTC50269 was assigned as a result of that mutation. Now, George has one haplogroup and his son and grandsons have a different haplogroup, one branch downstream.

Using Discover to check the haplogroup ages and path, we find that indeed, these haplogroups are only one step apart.

Checking Family Finder results can always verify that the match is close or as close as you expected.

Haplogroup Assignments

Haplogroup assignments range from good to better to best.

	Good	Better	Best
STR predicted	Yes – but further back in time
SNP Packs (now obsolete)	Between good and better
Family Finder autosomal		Yes – generally midrange between STR predicted and the Big Y-700
Big Y-500 (need to upgrade)		Usually between better and best
Big Y-700			The best – usually within a genealogically relevant timeframe unless your DNA is rare

Where Are You?

Older haplogroups, such as the STR-predicted haplogroups are useful for:

Eliminating some potential matches
Identifying where that haplogroup originated at that specific point in time. In other words, where your ancestor lived when that haplogroup was born.

If your Y-DNA matches another Y-DNA tester at FamilyTreeDNA, your haplogroups will fall someplace on the same haplogroup branch, although they may be thousands of years apart. STR-predicted haplogroups are “older,” meaning they range in age from about 6500 years to tens of thousands of years ago. They can tell you where the haplogroup originated at that time.

Autosomal haplogroups will be newer, or more recent, than STR-predicted haplogroups, but still (sometimes significantly) older than the Big Y-700 haplogroups..

FamilyTreeDNA provides Y-DNA haplogroups for free for every biological male who either takes the FamilyTreeDNA Family Finder test or uploads an autosomal result from either Ancestry or MyHeritage. Soon, 23andMe uploads will be resumed as well. This means that you will be able to view other men with a similar surname in your Family Finder results and:

Rule them out as a paternal line match.
Check your STR matches if they have taken a Y-DNA test
Check your Big Y-700 test for matches if both men have taken a Big Y test.
Encourage your matches to take a Big Y-700 test so you can see how closely you match on your paternal line.
Use the Discover Compare and other tools to reveal more information.

Family Finder haplogroups are relatively new, so currently, all new Family Finder testers are receiving haplogroups. Older Family Finder tests are being processed and will be followed by autosomal tests uploaded from other vendors. Haplogroups from autosomal tests are confirmed and will be newer, or more recent, than STR-predicted haplogroups.

The only test that can bring your haplogroup to current, meaning the most refined, recent, personal haplogroup, is the Big Y-700 test. Without taking the Big Y-700 test, you’ll forever be stuck with an older, less informative haplogroup branch. The Big Y-700 allows us to reliably sort families into lineages based on branching mutations.

The Big Y-700 haplogroup is:

The most detailed and granular possible.
Determined by sequencing the Y chromosome.
A test of discovery that continues to provide additional value as more men test and new haplogroups are formed.

Big Y-700 haplogroups generally fall into a genealogically useful timeframe and can be very recent.

The Discover tool and Time Tree provide a wealth of information about your ancestors, including locations, migration paths, ancient DNA, and more.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Now that you understand how to compare and interpret haplogroup matches, what additional information can you learn?

If you haven’t taken a Y-DNA test, you can order one here.
If you have taken an autosomal test elsewhere, upload it to FamilyTreeDNA and wait for your haplogroup assignment. Upload/download instructions for all vendors are available here.
For the best autosomal haplogroup, or if you don’t want to wait, take the Family Finder test here.
If you have already taken a Y-DNA test, upgrade to the Big Y-700 if you haven’t taken that test, then check your STR matches.
Join a surname project at FamilyTreeDNA to be included in that project’s Group Time Tree.

I always encourage Y-DNA matches to upgrade to the Big Y-700. Why? You don’t know what you don’t know. The article, Bennett Greenspan: Meet My Extended Family & Discover Extraordinary Deep Heritage illustrates the benefits of the Big Y-700 for all matches. Upgrading 12-marker matches is exactly how he made his big breakthrough.

The Big Y-700 test answers many questions beyond simply matching by using Discover and the Group Time Tree.

Where were your ancestors?
Who do you match, and who were their ancestors?
Genetically and genealogically, how do your surname matches fit together?
Where were your matches’ ancestors, and when?
Which ancient DNA results do you match, and where were they located?
What is the history of locations where your ancestors were found along their journey?
How closely or distantly are you related to other Big Y-700 matches?
Can your matches’ information break down your paternal line brick wall, or at least move it back a few generations?

Where are your Y-DNA results along the spectrum of useful haplogroup information? Do you or your matches need to upgrade? Click here to upgrade or order a Big Y-700 test.

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MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
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OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Book

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Acadian Ancestors and Their DNA

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Roberta Estes

Recently, I’ve been focused on writing about my Acadian ancestors, and I’ve come across new, never-before-published information. When writing my ancestor articles, it’s always easiest to work my way up the tree, from child to parents. This article includes a summary of each Acadian line, with informational links.

My mother’s grandfather was half-Acadian, so I have a LOT of Acadian ancestors. That’s also why I’m one of the volunteer administrators for the Acadian AmerIndian DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA. Many Acadian families have intermixed European and Mi’kmaq lineages. Our project celebrates both and welcomes all.

We are working hard to obtain at least two Big Y-700 tests for each paternal surname line and each maternal mitochondrial DNA line.

Why is that important?

Different DNA Tests Tell Us Different Things

Y-DNA descends through all males to only males, so men have their father’s and grandfather’s Y-DNA, on up that line. The Y chromosome is what makes males male. In the Western world, it’s the paternal surname line. You can view the Acadian AmerIndian project’s Y-DNA test results here.

Everyone has mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from female ancestors to both sexes of their children, but only females pass it on. If your direct matrilineal ancestor (you to mother to mother, etc., on up the tree) is Acadian, then you have Acadian mitochondrial DNA. You can view the project’s mitochondrial DNA test results here.

Additionally, we welcome all Acadian descendants who have taken an autosomal DNA test, meaning the Family Finder test at FamilyTreeDNA, or who have uploaded a DNA file from either Ancestry or MyHeritage. (23andMe DNA file uploads have been paused following the 23andMe data compromise, but will resume soon.) You can find upload/download instructions, here.

I encourage anyone who descends from any Acadian, Mi’kmaq, or Atlantic Maritime Native ancestor to join the Acadian AmerIndian DNA Project. We’ve been working on our genealogy together for 18 years, and we love to welcome new cousins!

Acadian Descendants are “All” Related

When I first discovered my Acadian heritage, my now-deceased cousin Paul LeBlanc told me that if you’re related to one Acadian, you’re related to all Acadians. I thought he was being facetious, but when he sent me a list of 137 ways we were related, I quickly realized how intermarried this isolated group of people had been.

The Acadians were French settlers who established homes in Nova Scotia beginning in the early 1600s and stayed until their forced removal by the English in 1755.

Click to enlarge any image.

Shiploads of people, after being stripped of all their belongings, were forcibly relocated elsewhere – locations that included various English colonies along the eastern seaboard, Caribbean islands, the Falkland Islands, South America, and France.

Some managed to return to Nova Scotia years later, but many either stayed where they wound up or made their way to Quebec sometime after 1766. A large number eventually relocated to the Louisiana area, where they are known as Cajuns today.

After deportation, all the Acadians had, literally, was each other, so they tried to stick together as best they could. Families were split as people were herded onto ships that were intentionally sent to different destinations. Most Acadians didn’t speak the language where they were exiled. They were also Catholics in an English world where Catholicism was often illegal. This meant that they remained in communities and intermarried with whatever other Acadians happened to have been herded into the same ship when the deportation occurred.

After at least a decade in exile, some Acadian families reunited in Louisiana, Quebec, or Nova Scotia, where they established communities.

It’s no wonder that today’s Acadian family trees are interwoven, and their DNA shows a significant amount of pedigree collapse and endogamy. So, not only are all Acadians related on paper, but many share some DNA with each other, too.

DNA Testing – You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Almost everyone is familiar with the benefits of autosomal DNA testing. You match lots of cousins with whom you can collaborate and confirm ancestors across multiple lines in a variety of ways. It’s like a big jigsaw puzzle.

Not everyone understands why we need to do Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA testing for each of our Acadian ancestors and ancestral lines.

Put simply, you don’t know what you don’t know. Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA provide additional tools, and you know exactly which line they pertain to. Unlike with autosomal DNA, you’re not limited to “maybe” matching someone with whom you shared an ancestor just a few generations ago. Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA are direct, targeted lineage tests that break through barriers.

Ideally, we need to test the following:

Males directly descended through all males for each line to confirm there is no biological break in the line. Preferably a Big Y-700 test.
At least one Big Y-700 tester from each of two sons of the original ancestor to confirm that ancestor’s Y-DNA signature.
At least two people who descend from each female ancestor through all females to the current generation, which can be male, to confirm that ancestor’s mitochondrial signature
At least one mitochondrial tester from each of the original ancestor’s female children to confirm that all of the children attributed to her are her children.

Big Y-700 tests and mtFull (full sequence mitochondrial DNA tests) provide a smorgasbord of information, including:

Continental-level ethnicities for that ancestral line including European, African, Asian, Native American, and Jewish.
Highly detailed migration paths with Globetrekker and the Discover tools.
Time ranges when the various mutations occurred forming lineages which can be critical for determining relationships and timelines.
Matching with ancient DNA samples, which informs us of history beyond surnames.
Sometimes literally a village or a very specific location in a country where other testers’ ancestors are from.

I can’t tell you how many brick walls have fallen, including several Acadian lineages that, without Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA testing, we would never have been able to unravel.

The more people who test, the more refined the results, and the more information that becomes available for all of us. Since DNA testing is illegal in France, it’s up to the descendants of those who emigrated elsewhere to step up and fill the void.

Acadian Genealogy Trees

As with any genealogy, sometimes it’s challenging to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to genealogical information. Often, DNA testing and other resources add to the library of knowledge that we have, correcting and refining what was previously believed.

Genealogy is a team sport, and future research, both for us and new researchers to follow, is built on the foundation of those who have come before us and continue to contribute.

I encourage Acadian researchers to utilize two of my favorite sources in addition to DNA testing.

Karen Theriot Reader is a professional genealogist whose family is Acadian. You can access her free tree with sources, here. Thank you, Karen.
WikiTree is a free one-world tree that utilizes specialized volunteer teams that focus on accuracy and, when needed, dispute resolution. You can find the WikiTree Acadian project here, and I encourage you to add your lineage.

My Trees

I’ve uploaded trees everywhere I’ve DNA tested, and I also have public trees available for viewing.

You can view my tree at WikiTree, here. Antoine Lore is my most recent Acadian ancestor, so the Acadian portion of my tree begins here.
My MyHeritage tree can be viewed for free, here.
My Ancestry tree can be viewed by Ancestry subscribers, here.
My branch of the FamilySearch tree can be viewed here. I love FamilySearch’s one-world tree, but it doesn’t have specialty moderation teams, so I find its trees less accurate than the Acadian WikiTree entries or Karen Theriot Reader’s tree.

Ancestors

It’s difficult to decide how best to organize these ancestors, so I’ve chosen alphabetical groupings with explanations.

Please note that I haven’t yet written a comprehensive article about each ancestor. I’ll be updating this page as I add articles. Right now, I’m adding articles every week or so in anticipation of a trip to Nova Scotia to visit where they lived.

You’re going to see some new Acadian surnames here. That’s because we recently discovered records that were previously buried in France.

Aucoin Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Aucoin	Jeanne	1630	1718	Francois Girouard	H
Aucoin	Martin	c 1595	Bef 1671	Barbe Minguet		I-FTC21121

Origins

The Aucoin family originated in LaRochelle, France, where Martin Aucoin was married in 1632. Jeanne Aucoin was baptized there on November 26, 1630.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

You can purchase an autosomal Family Finder DNA test here or upload a DNA file from another testing company. Then, join the Acadian AmerIndian project by clicking on “Group Projects” at the top of the page after you sign in.

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are an Aucoin male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here. If you are an Aucoin male who has already purchased a Y-DNA STR test, please upgrade to the Big Y-700.
If you descend from Jeanne Aucoin through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Aucoin Links

Blanchard Family

Click to enlarge trees.

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Blanchard	Jeanne	c 1675		Jean LePrince	HV4a1a4
Blanchard	Guillaume	c 1650	1715/1717	Huguette Gougeon	X2b4	I-M253 need Big Y-700 test
Blanchard	Madelaine	c 1643		Michael Richard	X2b4
Blanchard	Jean	c 1611		Radegonde Lambert		I-M253 need Big Y-700 test

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Blanchard male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here. If you are an Blanchard male who has already purchased a Y-DNA STR test, please upgrade to the Big Y-700.
If you descend from either Jeanne Blanchard or Madeleine Blanchard through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Blanchard DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need at least two Blanchard males from both Guillaume Blanchard and Jeanne Blanchard’s lines to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test. We don’t actually know if those two men are related.

Blanchard Links

Bonnevie Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Bonnevie	Marie Charlotte	c 1703	After 1742	Jacques Lore/Lord	X2a2
Bonnevie	Jacques	c 1660	1733	Francoise Mius		I-Y21507

Origins

Jacques Bonnevie was reported by Father Clarence d’Entremont to have been a conscripted soldier born in Paris, France.

Roberta’s Articles

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Bonnevie male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here. If you are an Bonnevie male who has already purchased a Y-DNA STR test, please upgrade to the Big Y-700.
If you descend from Marie Charolotte Bonnevie through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Bonnevie DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need at least two Bonnevie males to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.
We need mitochondrial DNA testers that descend from each of Marie Charlotte Bonnevie’s sisters to prove beyond a doubt that they share a mother. If you descend from Marie Charlotte or her female siblings through all females to the current generation, please take a mitochondrial DNA test.

Bonnevie Links

Bourg Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Bourg	Perrine	c 1626	After 1693	Simon Pelletret	H14b1

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Bourg male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Perrine Bourg through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Bourg DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Bourg male or similarly spelled surname to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Bourg Links

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bourg-20

Bourgeois Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Bourgeois	Marie Francoise	1659	Before 1697	Claude Dugas	H1ag1
Bourgeois	Jacques dit Jacob	1618/1621	1698/1700	Jeanne Trahan		R-FTC6661

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Bourgeois male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here. If you are an Bourgeois male who has already purchased a Y-DNA STR test, please upgrade to the Big Y-700.
If you descend from Marie Francoise Bourgeois through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Bourgeois DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need at least two Bourgeois males to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Bourgeois Links

Broussard Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Broussard	Marie Anne	1686		Rene Doucet	X2b4
Broussard	Francois	c 1653	1716	Catherine Richard		R-FT282415

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Broussard male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here. If you are a Broussard male who has already purchased a Y-DNA STR test, please upgrade to the Big Y-700.
If you descend from Marie Anne Broussard through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Broussard Links

Chaumoret Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Chaumoret	Francoise	c 1605	Before 1650	Antoine Chebrat	HV4a1a4
Chaumoret	Vincent	Before 1585				Need Big Y-700 test

Origins

Francoise Chaumoret’s husband, Antoine Chebrat, is found operating a mill in La Chaussee, Poitou, France, in 1650.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Chaumoret male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here..
If you descend from Francoise Chaumoret through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Chaumoret DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Chaumoret male to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Chaumoret Links

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Chaumoret-1

Chebrat Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Chebrat	Jeanne	c 1626	After 1677	Antoine Gougeon	HV4a1a4
Chebrat	Antoine		Before 1662			Need Big Y-700 test

Origins

Antoine Chebrat is found operating a mill in La Chaussee, Poitou, France in 1650.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Chebrat male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here..
If you descend from Jeanne Chebrat through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Chebrat DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Chebrat male to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Chebrat Links

Corbineau or Charbonneau Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Corbineau, Charbonneau	Francoise	C 1605	Before 1666	Guillaume Trahan	H1ag1

Origins

Francoise Corbineau was born in St. Etienne Parish in Chinon, Indre-et-Loire, Touraine, France, and was of de la Paroisse St-Etienne when she married Guillaume Trahan in 1627.

Francoise Charbonnier, born in 1599, may be this person, but additional research is needed.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Corbineau or Charbonneau male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Francoise Corbineau through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Corbineau or Charbonneau DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Corbineau male or similarly spelled surname from this line or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Corbineau Links

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Corbineau-3

Cousin Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Cousin	Marie	c 1667	After 1710	Nicholas Goicheau	Need mitochondrial DNA

Origins

Jacquette Soulard was married on July 2, 1685 to Pierre Garceau in Saint-Marsault, Deux-Sèvres, France, about 55 miles northwest of La Rochelle. From Filae, “Pierre Goicheau, age 33, laboureur, père Nicolas Goicheau, mère Marie Cousin; Jacquette Soulard, age 18, père Jacque Soulard, mère Perrine Estancheau.” Hat tip to cousin Mark for deep–diving and finding this extremely elusive record.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Cousin male whose ancestors are from this region of France, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Marie Cousin, through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Cousin DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Cousin male or similarly spelled surname from this line or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.
Additional children would certainly have been born to this couple. If you descend from Marie Cousin through all females to the current generation, which can be male, please purchase a mitochondrial DNA test.

d’Azy Family – see Mius

d’Entremont Family – see Mius

DeForest, Forest, de Forest, Foret or La Foret Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
DeForest	Marguerite	1747	1819	Francois Lafalle	HV41a14
DeForest	Jacques	1707		Marie Josephe LePrince	H1ag1	R-FT146490
DeForest	Rene	1670	1751	Francoise Dugas	J1b2	R-FT146490
DeForest	Michel		Before 1691	Marie Hebert		R-FT146490

Origins

Please note that Y-DNA testing has proven that this is NOT the Gereyt deForest line from Leyden, Holland.

Roberta’s Articles

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Forest male by any spelling, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Marguerite DeForest through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

DeForest Links

Desloges or Deloges Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Desloges	Renee	c 1570	Before 1632	Nicholas Trahan	Need mitochondrial DNA

Origins

Two of Renee Desloges’s children were baptized at Montreuil-Bellay, France in 1601 and 1614.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Desloges or Deloges male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Renee Desloges through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Desloges or Deloges DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Desloges male or similarly spelled surname from this region or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.
We need anyone who descends from Renee Desloges’s daughters, Anne, Renee or Lucrece Trahan through all females to take a mitochondrial DNA test.

Desloges Links

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Desloges-2

Doucet Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Doucet	Anne	1713	1791	Daniel Garceau	X2b4
Doucet	Rene	C 1678	After 1701	Marie Anne Broussard	H14b1	R-FT413594
Doucet	Pierre	C 1621	1713	Henriette Pelletret	T2b7a2	R-FT413594
Doucet	Marguerite aka Marie Judith?	1625	1732	Abraham Dugas	T2b7a2

Marguerite’s parents are unknown. She is the sister of Pierre.

Origins

Germaine Doucet, the uncle of Pierre and Marguerite, was born in Couperoue en Brye (or Coupri en Brie), today Coupru in the department of Haunts-de-France region, Picardie, France, about 20 miles northeast of Paris.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Doucet male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from either Anne or Marguerite Doucet through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Doucet DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need at least two Big Y-700 testers. If you are a Doucet male from this line, please take a Big Y-700 DNA test. If you are a Doucet male who has already taken a Y-DNA STR test, please upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Doucet Links

Dugas Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Dugas	Francoise	1678	After 1723	Rene DeForest	H1ag1
Dugas	Claude	1652	1732	Francoise Bourgeois	T2b7a2	J-FT168292
Dugas	Abraham	1616	1693/1700	Marguerite Doucet		J-FT168292

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Dugas male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Francoise Dugas through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Dugas Links

Estancheau Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Estancheau	Perrine	Before 1647		Jacque Soulard	Need mitochondrial DNA

Origins

Jacquette was married on July 2, 1685, to Pierre Garceau in Saint-Marsault, Deux-Sèvres, France, about 55 miles northwest of La Rochelle. From Filae, “Pierre Goicheau, age 33, laboureur, père Nicolas Goicheau, mère Marie Cousin; Jacquette Soulard, age 18, père Jacque Soulard, mère Perrine Estancheau.” Hat tip to cousin Mark for deep-diving and finding this extremely elusive record.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are an Estancheau male whose ancestors are from this region of France, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Perrine Estancheau through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Estancheau DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Estancheau male or similarly spelled surname from this line or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.
Additional children would certainly have been born to this couple. If you descend from Perrine Estancheau through all females to the current generation, which can be male, please purchase a mitochondrial DNA test.

Garceau, Garsseault or Goicheau Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Garceau	Appoline	1742	1788	Honore Lore	X2b4
Garceau	Daniel	1707	1772	Anne Doucet	U6a7a1a	Need Big Y-700 test
Garceau	Jean	c 1675	1707	Marie Levron		Need Big Y-700 test
Garceau	Pierre	c 1652		Jacquette Soulard		Need Big Y-700 test
Garceau	Nicolas	Before 1632		Marie Cousin		Need Big Y-700 test

Origins

Pierre Garceau married Jacquette Soulard in 1685 in Saint-Marsault, part of La Foret-sur-Sevres, about 55 miles northwest of La Rochelle. From Filae, “Pierre Goicheau, age 33, laboureur, père Nicolas Goicheau, mère Marie Cousin; Jacquette Soulard, age 18, père Jacque Soulard, mère Perrine Estancheau.” Hat tip to cousin Mark for deep-diving and finding this extremely elusive record.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Garceau male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Appoline Garceau through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Garceau, Garsseault or Goicheau DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Garceau or Goicheau male or similarly spelled surname from this line or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.
We need anyone who descends from Jacquette Soulard through all females to the current generation to test for her mitochondrial DNA. At this point, we know of no female children born to Pierre and Jacquette. If you discover those records, please reach out.

Garceau Links

Gaudet Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Gaudet	Marie	c 1633	1710	Etienne Hebert	J1b2
Gaudet	Jean	C 1575	1671/1678			G-YP786

Origins

Historian Geneviève Massignon believed that the Acadian Gaudet, Hebert, and LeBlanc families were already allied in France. Jean Gaudet, was censistaire (paid quit-rent to a feudal Lord) in 1634 on land at Martaizé (Vienne) in the Seigneurie d’Aulnay. D’Aulnay arranged for some of the people from this region to settle in Acadia. Massignon did not find baptismal or marriage records, although I’m unclear how much research was done.

Roberta’s Articles

Marie Gaudet (c1633-1710) – The Three Maries

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Gaudet male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Marie Gaudet through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Gaudet DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need at least two Gaudet males from this line to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Gaudet Links

Girouard or Gerard Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Girouard	Charlotte Anne	1659	1742	Jullien Lord/Lore	H
Girouard	Francois	1640/1651	1686/1690	Jeanne Aucoin		Need Big Y-700 test

Roberta’s Articles

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Girouard male by any spelling, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Charlotte Anne Girouard or her sisters through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Girouard DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need two Girouard males from this line or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test. One test is in process, but we still need at least one more.

Girouard Links

Gougeon Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Gougeon	Huguette	1647/1655	1717	Guillaume Blanchard	HV4a1a4
Gougeon	Antoine	c 1626	Before 1679	Jeanne Chebrat		Need Big Y-700 test

Huguette Gougeon’s mother’s first husband was Jean Poirier, so there is some confusion that Huguette was a Poirier, but she was the child of her mother’s second husband, Antoine Gougeon.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Gougeon male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Huguette Gougeon through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Gougeon DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Gougeon male or similarly spelled surname from this line or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Gougeon Links

Hebert Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Hebert	Marie	c 1651	1677	Michel DeForest	J1b2
Hebert	Marguerite	c 1652	After 1715	Jacques LePrince	J1b2
Hebert	Etienne	c 1625	1669/1671	Marie Gaudet		R-BY31006

Marie and Marguerite Hebert are sisters.

Roberta’s Articles

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Hebert male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Marie or Marguerite Hebert, or their sisters through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Hebert Links

Helie Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Helie	Madeleine	C 1626	Before 1678	Philippe Mius I	J – partial haplogroup – need mtFull test

Madeleine Helie’s parents are unknown. Her surname is spelled variably as Elie, Ellie, d’Elie, and E’Lie

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Helie male by any spelling, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Madeleine Helie through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Helie DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Helie male or similarly spelled surname to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.
We need anyone descended from Madeleine Helie through all females to the current generation to take a mitochondrial DNA test. If you have already tested at a lower level, please upgrade to the full sequence test.

Helie Links

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Helie-2

LaFaille, Lafay, or Lafaye Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Lafay, Lafaille	Marie	1767	1836	Honore Lore	HV4a1a4
Lafay, Lafaille	Francois	1744	1824	Marguerite DeForest		Need Big Y-700 test

Origins

Francois Lafaye, Lafay or Lafaille, was a French sailor whose parents may have been Joseph Lafay and Francoise Germon from Bordeaux, France.

Roberta’s Articles

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a LaFaille, Lafay, or Lafaye male by any spelling, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Marie LaFaille/Lafay through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Lafaille, Lafay, or Lafaye DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Lafaille, Lafaye or Lafay male or similarly spelled surname from this line or whose ancestors descend from from Bordeaux to take the Big Y-700 test.

LaFailly or Lafay Links

Lambert Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Lambert	Radegonde	c 1621	1686/1693	Jean Blanchard	X2b4

Origins

Radegonde’s parents are unknown, but there has been speculation for years that Jean Lambert, the only male in Acadia at that time with the Lambert surname was her father. It’s currently believed that she married and arrived with Jean Blanchard. Her mitochondrial DNA proves beyond a doubt that she is not Native.

Roberta’s Articles

Radegonde Lambert (1621/1629-1686/1693), European, Not Native

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Lambert male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Radegonde Lambert through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Lambert DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Lambert male or similarly spelled surname from this line or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Lambert Links

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lambert-395

LeJeune Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
LeJeune	Catherine	1633	c 1678	Francois Savoie	U6a7a1a

There may have been three LeJeune siblings in early Acadia, but no definitive information or consensus has been reached. At this point, Catherine LeJeune’s parents are unknown.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a LeJeune male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Catherine LeJeune or any female LeJeune born in the same timeframe in Acadia through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

LeJeune DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any LeJeune male or similarly spelled surname to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

LeJeune Links

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lejeune-11

LePrince or Le Prince Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
LePrince	Marie Josephe	1715	After 1748	Jacques DeForest	HV4a1a4
LePrince	Jean	c 1692	After 1752	Jeanne Blanchard	J1b2	Need Big Y-700 test
LePrince	Jacques	c 1646	1692/1693	Marguerite Hebert		Need Big Y-700 test

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a LePrince male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Marie Josephe LePrince through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

LePrince DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any LePrince male or similarly spelled surname from this line to take the Big Y-700 test.

LePrince Links

Levron Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Levron	Marie	c 1686	1727	Jean Garceau	U6a7a1a
Levron	Francois	c 1651	1714	Catherine Savoie		Need Big Y-700 test

Origins

Francois Levron’s dit name is Nantois, which may be the source of his origins being placed in Nantes. Additionally, other Acadians came from there as well. To date, we need confirmation.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Levron male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Marie Levron through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Levron DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Levron male or similarly spelled surname from this line to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Levron Links

Lord, Lore, Lor, L’Or, Laur, or Laure Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Lore	Antoine	1805	1862/1868	Rachel Hill	HV4a1a4	R-BY93943
Lore	Honore	1768	1834	Marie Lafay	X2b4	R-BY93943
Lore	Honore	1742	1818	Appoline Garceau	X2a2	R-BY93943
Lor/Lord/Lore	Jacques	1679	1786	Marie Charlotte Bonnevie	H	R-BY93943
LorLord/Lore	Julien	1653	1724	Anne Charlotte Girouard		R-BY93943

Julien’s dit name is LaMontagne, which was used as a surname at least once.

Roberta’s Articles

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Lore or Lord male by any spelling, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.

Lord/Lore Links

Minguet Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Minguet	Barbe	C 1600	After 1630	Martin Aucoin	H

Origins

The Aucoin family was from LaRochelle, France, so it stands to reason that the Minguet family was also from that area.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Minguet male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Barbe Minguet through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Minguet DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Minguet male or similarly spelled surname from this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Minguet Links

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Minguet-1

Mius, Muis, Miuse, Muise, Mews, d’Azy, or d’Entremont Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Mius	Francoise	c 1683	1515/1517	Jacques Bonnevie	X2a2
Mius	Philippe II	1660/1662	After 1726	Unknown Mi’kmaq	J	E-V13, need Big Y tester
Mius	Philippe I	c 1609	1700	Madelaine Helie		E-V13, need Big Y tester

Roberta’s Articles

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Mius, d’Azy, or d’Entremont male by any spelling, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Francoise Mius or her sisters through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Mius, d’Azy, or d’Entremont DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Mius, d’Azy, or d’Entremont male or similarly spelled surname from this line to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.
We need at least one person who descends through all females from each one of Francoise Mius’s sisters to the current generation, which can be male, to take a mitochondrial DNA test. We need to verify which siblings share the same mother. Her father, Philippe Mius, is known to have had one Native wife, is believed to have had two, and could have had more.

Mius Links

Pelletret, Pelletrot, or Peltret Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Pelletret	Henriette	c 1541	1686/1693	Pierre Doucet	H14b1
Pelletret	Simon	c 1616	1643/1645	Perrine Bourg		Need Y-DNA tester

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Pelletret male by any spelling, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Henriette Pelletret through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Pelletret DNA Needed – Can You Help?

Simon did not have any known male children. Therefore, we are hoping for a Pelletret male whose ancestors are from France to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Pelletret Links

Richard Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Richard	Catherine	1663	1716	Francois Broussard	X2b4
Richard	Michel	c 1630	1686/1689	Madeleine Blanchard		R-FT137222

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Richard male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Catherine Richard through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Richard DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Richard male from this line or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test. Please note that several men with the surname Robichaud match the Richard line. These men are also invited to upgrade.

Richard Links

Savoie Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Savoie	Catherine	c 1659	1701/1703	Francois Levron	U6a7a1a
Savoie	Francois	c 1621	Before 1679	Catherine LeJeune		R-FT397291

Origins

The Savoie family origins are uncertain, but Bona Arsenault cites Massignon and states that they are, “Doubtlessly originally from Martaize, department of Vienne, France.” Additional research is needed.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Savoie male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Catherine Savoie through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Savoie DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Savoie male or similarly spelled surname from this line or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.

Savoie Links

Soulard Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Soulard	Jacquette	c 1667	After 1710	Pierre Garceau	Need mitochondrial DNA
Soulard	Jacque	Before 1647		Perrine Estancheau		Need Big Y-700 test

Origins

Jacquette married Pierre Garceau on July 2, 1685, in Saint-Marsault, Deux-Sèvres, France, about 55 miles northwest of La Rochelle. From Filae, “Pierre Goicheau, age 33, laboureur, père Nicolas Goicheau, mère Marie Cousin; Jacquette Soulard, age 18, père Jacque Soulard, mère Perrine Estancheau.” Hat tip to my cousin Mark who did the deep-diving and found this extremely elusive record.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Soulard or possibly Foulard male whose ancestors are from this region of France, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Jacquette Soulard or her mother, Perrine Estancheau, through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Soulard DNA Needed – Can You Help?

We need any Soulard or Foulard male or similarly spelled surname from this line or this region to take or upgrade to the Big Y-700 test.
Additional children would certainly have been born to this couple. If you descend from Jacquette Soulard or Perrine Estancheau through all females to the current generation, which can be male, please purchase a mitochondrial DNA test.

Soulard Links

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Soulard-17

Trahan Family

Last	First	Birth	Death	Spouse	mtDNA	Y-DNA
Trahan	Jeanne	c 1629	1698-1700	Jacques Bourgeois	H1ag1
Trahan	Guillaume	c 1601	1684	Francoise Corbineau		R-BY34988
Trahan	Nicolas	1570/1580	After 1627	Renee Desloges		R-BY34988

Origins

Guillaume Trahan was born in Montreuil-Bellay, Maine-et-Loire, Anjou, France.

Roberta’s Articles

I have not written any articles about these ancestors yet, although they may be mentioned in others. You can search for the surname by entering the surname in the search box at my blog.

The Project

In addition to the autosomal test:

If you are a Trahan male, please purchase the Big Y-700 test, here.
If you descend from Jeanne Trahan through all females to the current generation, please purchase the mitochondrial DNA test.

Trahan Links

______________________________________________________

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DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
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MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
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AncestryDNA Plus Traits
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

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MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
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Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Book

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Washington Family Lineage Revealed from Family Burials & Opens the Door for More

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Roberta Estes

I’m excited to share the paper, “Unearthing Who and Y at Harewood Cemetery and inference of George Washington’s Y-chromosomal haplotype” by Cavagnino et al. 2024, and published in iScience, on which I’m a co-author.

When Goran Runfeldt, Head of R&D at FamilyTreeDNA called me last year and asked if I wanted to work on something fun, I had no idea of the significance of the journey I was about to undertake. I was privileged to join the team working on the Washington family story, as told through DNA via excavated family burials.

I’ll tell you upfront that this project is very close to my heart in a very personal way.

Let’s talk about the science first, then I’ll share my exciting personal connection.

The Washington Project

By the time I joined this study, Courtney Cavagnino and the team at Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, a division of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (AFMES-AFDIL), had already been hard at work sequencing burials from the Harewood Cemetery in West Virginia for some time.

By Acroterion – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5598643

The Harewood Cemetery is located on a plantation owned by the Washington family where two grandsons of President George Washington’s brother, and their mother, Lucy Payne, are buried in unmarked graves.

George Washington’s brother, Samuel Washington (1734-1781), had the home designed in 1770 and had moved there before his death in 1781 at the age of 46, from tuberculosis. George Washington (1732-1799) visited his brother there several times.

Samuel Washington’s son, George Steptoe Washington (1771-1809), eventually inherited the property and married Lucy Payne (1769-1846). With Lucy, he had sons Dr. Samuel Walter Washington (1797-1831) and George Steptoe Washington II (1806-1831).

Lucy Payne’s younger sister, Dolley, married James Madison, the future President, in the parlor at Harewood in 1794.

This graphic from the paper shows Samuel Walter Washington’s ancestors. Note that he is related to Augustine Washington and Mary Ball through three different paths.

The FamilyTreeDNA research team redrew the relationships in a more traditional genealogical view.

Image courtesy FamilyTreeDNA. Click to enlarge.

Complicating the analysis, and making it more interesting was the fact that present-day tester, Samuel Walter Washington (SWW) is descended from Augustine Washington, the patriarch of the colonial Washington Family, and his wife, Mary Ball, through three different paths.

The Burials

According to the 1882 last will and testament of Dr. Samuel Walter Washington’s wife, the graves at Harewood were relocated to the Zion Episcopal Churchyard in Charles Town, West Virginia, where gravestones were placed for the Washington males. Therefore, only fragments and small bones were left in the Harewood plantation graves.

The Harewood property still remains in the Washington family, so they had ready access to the cemetery location. The original excavation took place in May of 1999, after using ground-penetrating radar to identify the likely burial locations based on soil disturbances. The original goal was to locate the grave of Samuel Washington, George Washington’s younger brother.

As would be expected, bacteria had contaminated already degraded DNA. This precluded traditional as well as some forensic sequencing methods. DNA capture technology has improved significantly since 1999, so the AFMES-AFDIL team was using a combination of revolutionary technologies to process the remains.

A technique known as hybridization capture using bait panels was combined with NGS sequencing to attempt to obtain about 95,000 nuclear SNPs, similar to those used in traditional autosomal testing. Additionally, the capture was primed for mitochondrial and Y-DNA SNPs for haplogroup determination. Some Y STRs were captured as well. The paper, published today, provides more technical details for those who are interested.

Three Kinds of DNA

We were fortunate to be able to utilize three types of DNA in the analysis.

Each type of DNA, with its specific inheritance characteristics, was critically important for establishing relationships between the burials. The connection to SWW identified the male burials.

Y-DNA is passed only from male to male and is not mixed with the DNA of the mother, making it uniquely qualified for male lineage matching.
Mitochondrial DNA is passed only from women to both sexes of their offspring, not mixed with the DNA of the father, making mitochondrial DNA uniquely qualified for matrilineal lineage matching.
Autosomal DNA is inherited from all ancestral lineages and is divided in each generation. Half is inherited from one’s mother and half from one’s father. Based on both random inheritance and recombination, people, on average, inherit half the amount of autosomal DNA of each ancestor that their parents did.

Y-DNA

Y-DNA is passed from father to son intact, meaning that it is not mixed with the DNA of the mother. Small mutations accrue over time, forming branches of the Y-DNA phylogenetic tree. Those branches have names assigned, called haplogroups. The higher up the tree, the more descendant branches have occurred over time. The further down the tree, the more unique and refined the haplogroup. Haplogroups are formed when two or more men have the same group of unique mutations.

Additionally, a second type of Y-DNA, STRs, or short tandem repeats, is also used for comparison. These mutate much more quickly than SNPs, single-nucleotide polymorphisms, used to determine haplogroups. Both types of Y-DNA are utilized together.

The bait panels were constructed to recover at least some information about the Y-DNA of the male individuals buried in the graves. For comparison purposes, Samuel Walter Washington, the living descendant, took the highly refined Big Y-700 test at FamilyTreeDNA which tests millions of locations on the Y chromosome – including all of the locations on the bait panels..

Some Y-DNA of the two male burials was recovered and reconstructed. The DNA results matched each other, as would be expected of brothers, and also the Y-DNA of SWW.

This provided a relatively high-level haplogroup designation, R-U152, which was formed about 4500 years ago.

A matching haplogroup at this level does not confirm a close family relationship, but it also doesn’t preclude it.

Fortunately, the Big Y-700 test of SWW was able to reveal significantly more information, including his refined haplogroup of R-FTE201 which was formed about 2000 years ago.

George Washington didn’t have any known children, so we can’t compare his Y-DNA or autosomal DNA directly to either the Harewood burials or SWW.

Barring an unknown paternity event, George Washington’s Y-DNA haplogroup would be the same as that of his brother’s grandsons and the same as present-day tester SWW.

Of course, it’s possible that small mutational differences would have occurred in the past three centuries, since Augustine Washington, the common ancestor of George Washington and SWW, lived, but if so, their haplogroups would be nearly identical.

The Washington family has graciously permitted the Washington lineage to be included in Discover, so if you are haplogroup R, please check to see if the presidential Washington family shows up in your Notable Discover connections in the next few days.

Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mothers to all of their children without being admixed with the father’s mitochondrial DNA. Only females pass it on. Therefore, to obtain the mitochondrial DNA of any ancestor, one must descend from that female ancestor through all females. In the current generation, the tester can be a male.

Mitochondrial DNA has been the chosen methodology for the identification and repatriation of military remains for at least two decades. The reason is simple. Mitochondrial DNA is easier to retrieve since thousands of copies live in the cytoplasm of each cell. Only one copy of the 23 pairs of autosomes lives in the nucleus of a cell.

The mitochondria are comprised of 16,569 locations, while the autosomes contain 3 billion pairs, for a total of 6 billion locations across both the maternal and paternal chromosomes. As you can imagine, degraded autosomal DNA is broken into small pieces and mixed together. Think of a blender. Recovering that DNA and then piecing it back together is a massive undertaking.

Furthermore, with military repatriations, the mother or sibling or other relative who shares the mitochondrial DNA of the soldier contributes their mitochondrial DNA to the military for comparison against remains as they are recovered.

One of the ways that the graves of Dr. Samuel Walter Washington and his brother, George Steptoe Washington, were confirmed is that the mitochondrial DNA recovered from those burials matches the mitochondrial DNA of another burial, which was determined to be their mother, Lucy Payne.

While mitochondrial DNA alone is generally not adequate to definitively prove identity, it can be utilized along with other evidence, such as extra mutations in addition to haplogroup-defining mutations, and the geographical location where the remains were recovered.

The AFMES-AFDIL team recovered the full sequence of Lucy Payne’s and her sons’ mitochondrial DNA, which was identified as haplogroup J1c1b1a1 based on unique haplogroup-defining mutations.

Why the AFMES-AFDIL Team?

You may recall that the US government agency involved in this project is the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory. Why, you might wonder, are they involved in the identification of the people interred in the Washington family cemetery?

Did you notice that I said, “mitochondrial DNA has been the chosen methodology” for identification?

The AFMES-AFDIL team is developing and refining multiple techniques that can be utilized to identify badly degraded remains of servicemen.

For example, in this case, there were only small bones, the DNA was severely degraded, and there was significant contamination.

If the mitochondrial DNA was a very common haplogroup, and was perhaps only partially recovered, they could eliminate several possible soldiers as matches, but they could not make a positive ID.

This case was just “problematic” enough to be useful, without being an unknown or unresolvable situation.

The family was involved and supportive. They knew who the candidate burials were in the cemetery and SWW contributed his own DNA for comparison.

SWW’s involvement provided two very important genetic benefits.

First, SWW descended from Augustine Washington through the direct paternal line, so his Y-DNA should match that of the two Washington men in the burials.
Secondly, SWW was related to the male burials in a short enough time period that he should match them both – one as his direct ancestor – his great-great-grandfather. The second burial was his great-great-grandfather’s brother. He should match his great-great-grandfather more closely than his great-great-grandfather’s brother.

Individual	Relationship to SWW	Expected percent of DNA	Expected cMs of DNA	Relationship Degree with Dr. Samuel
Dr. Samuel Walter Washington	Great-great-grandfather	100	3500
Christian Marie Washington married Richard Scott Blackburn Washington	Great-grandmother	50	1750	First
Samuel Walter Washington	Grandfather	25	875	Second
John Augustine Washington	Father	12.5	437.5	Third
SWW	Present-day tester	6.25	218.75	Fourth

Lucy Payne would be SWW’s Fifth Degree relative, as would Dr. Samuel Walter Washington’s brother.

Full siblings share approximately 50% of the same DNA, so SWW would be expected to match the burial to whom he was more closely related with approximately twice as much autosomal DNA.

Therefore, using pairwise comparisons and kinship predictions, the team was able to discern which burial belonged to Dr. Samuel Walter Washington, because SWW matched that burial more closely.

But it turned out to be not quite that simple.

The Monkey Wrench

Relationships are classified as degree levels, as shown above. For example, children are first-degree relatives of their parents, siblings, and children. Genetic relationship levels are determined by comparing the DNA of two people and result in kinship predictions.

Normally, genealogists don’t think much about relationship degrees because we use the number of shared or overlapping centimorgans (cMs), and DNA testing companies provide kinship predictions.

However, because the AFMES-AFDIL team wasn’t working with the normal autosomal chip, they were only able to utilize a portion of the 95,000 locations, and they needed to “convert” SWWs results to compare to Dr. Samuel Washington and George Steptoe Washington Jr. They also needed to compensate for the fact that they were not able to obtain 100% of the 95,000 SNP locations on any of the burials. Recovered DNA ranged from 50%-85%

However, the burials matched SWW at one relationship degree level higher than expected.

Initially, Goran had asked me to review and work on expanding the genealogy of the Washington family, but now we had a new, very-interesting, wrinkle.

On a call, the team mentioned the disparity in the expected relationship level. I realized that the probable answer was that SWW was descended from Augustine Washington not just once, not twice, but three times, and we were seeing the genetic effects of pedigree collapse.

Those multiple relationships are beneficial when they provide one path to the Washington Y-DNA through a direct line to Augustine through his son, John Augustine, and another shorter path to Dr. Samuel Walter Washington for autosomal matching.

However, multiple relationship paths added complexity to autosomal relationship determination

There was yet a third avenue of descent to SWW through the father of Richard Scott Blackburn Washington, John Augustine Washington II.

In other words, there are three ways that SWW can and did inherit autosomal DNA from the Washington lineage, beginning with Augustine. Carrying extra autosomal DNA would affect the expected degree of relationship, potentially for SWW with both of the male Washington burials.

We needed a methodology to account for that.

Pedigree Collapse

I’m sure that the AFMES-AFDIL team didn’t view pedigree collapse as a benefit, at least not initially. They aren’t genealogists, so they really weren’t thinking about pedigree collapse in the same way genealogists do.

I’ve worked with pedigree collapse many times, but three separate events in the same line within a few generations was challenging in terms of getting the math right. It’s not obvious, and it’s not easy.

With pedigree collapse, it’s not just a simple matter of figuring out the expected percentage of DNA for all three relationships and adding them together because some of that DNA can be expected to be shared, which reduces the matching amount of DNA from the “add-three-together” number. So, the actual expected amount of shared DNA is someplace between the closest relationship, in this case, Dr. Samuel Walter Washington, and the additive result of all three relationships.

Plus, I couldn’t use cMs, so one hand was tied behind my back.

Therefore, we worked together to solve this puzzle.

My article, Pedigree Collapse and DNA – Plus an Easy-Peasy Shortcut is the result of my pedigree collapse calculations for this project – and how to make pedigree collapse easier for you to understand and account for.

It’s also the foundation of what I provided for the AFMES-AFDIL team, which integrated it into their protocol. Of course, when I published my Pedigree Collapse article, I had to remove anything that might have given anything away before the study and resulting paper was ready for publication.

Why the Monkey Wrench is Important

When dealing with unknown remains, we don’t have the luxury of already knowing who the family is and their potential position in the family.

The AFMES-AFDIL team wants to be able to utilize the techniques they are perfecting for the identification and repatriation of military remains as far back as WWII, 80 years ago. That means that those men would have been born nearly a century ago, and if a generation is roughly 20-25 years, the people available today to test may be as many generations removed from WWII veterans as SWW is from Dr. Samuel Walter Washington.

The repatriation team also won’t know if they are dealing with pedigree collapse until they see it. If a potential relationship comes back slightly differently than expected, they will know to consider either endogamy or pedigree collapse. Furthermore, tools that measure runs of homozygosity (ROH) can help inform them of either condition.

I’m glad this monkey wrench crept into the equation, and I was in the right place at the right time to help.

The Conversation

I joined this team someplace midway in the process, so I didn’t initially have the benefit of understanding why Courtney’s team was involved – that they hoped to refine their processes to begin utilizing autosomal DNA for repatriation.

I opined at one point that I was incredibly frustrated that this many years following the use of autosomal DNA for genealogy, the military was just now beginning to consider its use for repatriation, AND that they were not and had not been collecting autosomal DNA from family members of MIA/POW service members.

Courtney hopes this study will open that door sooner rather than later. As far as I’m concerned, next week would be great!

I was shocked that I had fallen into this opportunity, given that I have a POW/MIA family. member.

I’m a Gold Star Family Member

My first cousin, Robert Vernon Estes, Bobby, served in the Army in the Korean conflict. He was captured on November 30, 1950 in the horrific battle later known as “The Gauntlet.” He died on approximately January 31, 1951 in a POW camp someplace near Pugwon, Korea. He was only 19.

I am his namesake, and I also represent him as a Gold Star family member.

Robert Vernon Estes (1931-1951), Nightmare: Prisoner of War

I’ve written about Bobby’s story, obtaining and unraveling his military records.

Robert Vernon Estes (1931-1951): MIA, POW, Military Records

Bobby probably starved to death, as other members of his battalion did.

His mother died shortly after his capture, and he had no sisters to contribute mitochondrial DNA.

I’m the closest family member left now. We shared grandparents.

Robert Vernon Estes: Still Missing, But Not Forgotten

In July 2021, Bobby was honored by the State of Indiana. He served from White County. I was incredibly proud to be his representative family member.

When I accepted the invitation to assist the AFMES-AFDIL team with the Washington family burials, I had absolutely NO IDEA that their goal was to validate and extend this technology and these techniques to service member repatriation.

Bobby’s mother was adopted, so I have absolutely no ability to locate someone with Bobby’s mitochondrial DNA, which has frustrated me greatly for years. Therefore, if Bobby’s body were returned from North Korea today, his remains would remain unidentified and unclaimed. That possibility breaks my heart.

North Korea, “isn’t even answering the phone right now,” so the hope that Bobby will be returned to us in my lifetime fades a little with each passing day. That’s EXACTLY why it’s so important for the military to adopt and accept autosomal DNA from family members, even if they can’t utilize it today. My DNA and others can be archived for the future. Someday, Bobby and other servicemen may come back home.

Mitochondrial DNA alone couldn’t have solved the Washington mystery. There will be service members like Bobby who have no mitochondrial DNA sample waiting to be matched to them.

Just a few months before Goran asked me if I wanted to assist with a fun project, I had spoken with Bobby’s military representative, begging them to accept my autosomal DNA. No dice – at least not then.

Hopefully soon – very soon, so that we can begin to build the bank.

These men deserve to be identified. They gave their lives, their futures – that’s the least we can do for them.

The very least.

I’m so proud to be a part of this fantastic project. I’m incredibly grateful that Fate decided to put me in the right place at the right time, with the right combination of skills. I hope Courtney succeeds in pushing this door all the way open. It’s past time, and our team has proven beyond a doubt what can be accomplished. Our POW/MIA servicemen, servicewomen, and their families deserve it.

Thank you to my colleagues, Michael Sager and Goran Runfeldt at FamilyTreeDNA, Courtney Cavagnino, and the AFMES-AFDIL team.

_____________________________________________________________

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MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
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Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
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RootsTech 2024 Synopsis – Plus the MyHeritage Keynote is Online Now

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Roberta Estes

RootsTech isn’t entirely over yet.

Many vendor videos remain available
FamilyTreeDNA show pricing specials are still in effect until March 29^th. Don’t miss out.
Relatives at RootsTech is still available through March 29th
Recorded RootsTech speaker videos are available and will remain available indefinitely.
Gilad Japhet is the founder and CEO of MyHeritage, and his wonderful keynote has only become available in the last day or so. I always attend his keynote, but unfortunately, I was presenting a session at exactly the same time, so I couldn’t this year. Gilad revealed an incredible discovery that every genealogist will both understand and enjoy. You can watch, here.

Relatives at RootsTech

People have continued to sign up to view the free sessions, so don’t neglect to check back. Here’s the link.

Don’t forget that Relatives at RootsTech is the perfect avenue to connect with cousins who descend from specific ancestors. Seldom do you know which ancestor you share before you know if you are a DNA match – so take advantage of this opportunity and ask your relatives if they have tested their DNA and, if so, at which company or companies. Then, take a look at that company, see if they match, and paint your segments at DNAPainter.

Relatives at RootsTech is also particularly useful for finding candidates for both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA candidates since you can tell immediately if your cousin descends from your common ancestor through all females (mitochondrial DNA) or if they are a male and descend from a male ancestor through all males. Generally, the surname tells that story.

Close cousins may well have photos, stories, or other information that didn’t make their way down to you, so do reach out.

I write about Relatives at RootsTech, including instructions, in the article Relatives at RootsTech Returns!!! Don’t forget to take advantage of this while you still can.

The RootsTech Travel Journal Articles

I really had no idea how many people look forward to travel journal stories, for lack of another description. I know not everyone can attend, and I really wanted to give you a true flavor, like you were walking along with me.

For those of you who would like to be sure you read all of the RootsTech 2024 articles, or if you simply want to read them in order or check out the comments, here they are:

RootsTech 2024 Online Vendor Booth Videos & Resources – These are still available and free, so take advantage of them.
FamilyTreeDNA RootsTech Pricing Lowest Ever & Still in Effect – These bargain basement prices are still in effect until March 29^th, so don’t miss out.
RootsTech 2024 – Panic in the Cavern of Doom – Who needs an escape room??
RootsTech 2024 – MyHeritage is ON FIRE with 13 Announcements – Have you tried OldNews yet? Do you like the new Profile pages? I do and I like the hints too.
RootsTech 2024 Happy Dance – FamilySearch Library and RootsTech Setup
RootsTech 2024: Paradigm Shift – FamilySearch Knocks It Out of the Ballpark With Full Text AI Search, Transcription & Indexing – I’m making a list of each ancestor and running through each one. THIS IS AMAZING!!!
RootsTech 2024 – Celebrating 25 Years of Genetic Genealogy – I’m still in awe.
RootsTech 2024: DNA Academy and Ancestry Announcements
RootsTech 2024: Friends, Discover Tools, Highways of History and the Storm

RootsTech 2025

I always say I don’t know if I have another one in me. RootsTech, the presentation prep, planning, leadup, travel itself, the incredible show, and then returning home are both exhilarating and exhausting. I feel like I need to sleep for a week!

I tell my friends and my husband to remind me of this about mid-summer when I’ve forgotten the pain of childbirth, er, I mean RootsTech, and think this is a wonderful idea again.

They do, and then I sign up anyway.

Now they just roll their eyes at me. I don’t blame them one bit.

Did I mention that I don’t know if I have another one in me? 😊

I will say that RootsTech would be a WHOLE LOT MORE tempting if it didn’t take place in the winter.

I keep suggesting that FamilySearch purchase the hotel around the corner from the FamilySearch Library and rent rooms to researchers and conference attendees.

I sure hope you’ve enjoyed attending RootsTech with me this year!

_____________________________________________________________

Follow DNAexplain on Facebook, here.

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

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
AncestryDNA Plus Traits
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Book

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Rootstech 2024: Friends, Discover Tools, Highways of History and the Storm

Posted on March 16, 2024 by Roberta Estes

I didn’t want to open the curtains Saturday morning, given the blizzard warnings that were worsening all day Friday.

I finally screwed up my courage and peeked out.

Indeed, those skies look dark, grey, and foreboding.

Decision Time

I had a decision to make.

I originally planned to stay in Salt Lake City until Sunday, but I had already changed my flight to late Saturday afternoon following my session. I also changed my hotel reservation accordingly.

However, if I packed and checked out, got to the airport, and my flight was canceled, I was likely going to be stranded, potentially at the airport for at least two days. There aren’t any hotels in the Salt Lake City airport, but there are a few nearby. However, probably not enough rooms to accommodate an airport full of stranded people.

Would Uber even be available?

Could I get back into Salt Lake City to check back into the Marriott or any other hotel? Would they have space?

I was at the go-no-go decision point.

It was probably a 50-50 roll of the dice.

I packed and checked out.

It wasn’t snowing yet, but no one doubted that it would. The only questions were when the snow would begin, whether it would begin as rain and freeze into ice before the snow started falling, and how much snow would there be.

Maybe more important to the people at RootsTech – what about flights?

All day, you could see people obsessively checking their flight information on their phones.

I had two speaking engagements scheduled for the day: a morning Y-DNA “Ask Me Anything” panel and my afternoon session, “Highways of History – Flesh out Your Ancestors Using Discover Case Studies.”

The afternoon session was scheduled to end just half an hour before RootsTech closed for the year, so there really was no getting out early.

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Friends in the Expo Hall

I was still trying to visit every booth on the show floor.

I’ll just admit right now that I failed miserably. Not only was I bone tired by this time, but I kept running into people I knew. I realized that this was my last opportunity to see them this year, so I never made it past the halfway point in the Expo Hall.

I did notice that the crowds were very thin. Saturday was Family Day, but apparently, not many people wanted to risk venturing out. Even the locals were concerned which is never a good sign.

The Heritage Theater had a full schedule of events, but there were very few people in the audience through no fault of the speakers or RootsTech.

For those hearty souls who did attend, they received up-close and personal sessions and information from the presenters.

It was nice to see the folks from Family Tree Magazine again. I’ve written for them off and on for years, but had never met the staff in person before.

Be sure to check out their Best Genetic Genealogy Websites and also their Genealogy Books Guide, listed by subject.

When you get there, check out their other “best of” categories and other topics.

Walking on down the aisle, I stopped to talk to the “One Kind Act a Day” people,

Being the skeptic that I am, I kept trying to find the hook, but I couldn’t. It’s a nonprofit that seems to do exactly what it says.

This is absolutely something I can sign up for, so I did and took the pledge.

Doing one kind act a day is easy, so let’s do two!

You can follow them on Facebook, too.

Reclaim the Records is another nonprofit that has successfully advocated and reclaimed more than 60 million records to date that were behind lock and key.

Take a look at their successes and their to-do list.

They style themselves as intellectual freedom fighters. Did you know so many records were still entirely unavailable?

Hey, isn’t that Myko Cleland sitting at the Reclaim booth, on the left? He’s the Director of Content in Europe for MyHeritage, nicknamed the DapperHistorian, and you just never know where you’re going to find him!

How cool is this? Wear What You Love uses sublimation dying to permanently print/infuse your photos on t-shirts or other materials.

This also works on fabric that can be used in quilts but more reliably on polyester fabrics, not cotton.

Hmmm, I have some ideas.

Y-DNA Ask Me Anything at FamilyTreeDNA

The Y-DNA “Ask Me Anything” session began at 10:30. I don’t think attendees realized that FamilyTreeDNA brought the R&D brain trust and you could literally ask them anything. What an opportunity!

Left to right, Michael Sager, FamilyTreeDNA’s well-known Y-DNA phylogeneticist, Dr. Paul Maier, seated, population geneticist, and Goran Runfeldt, standing at right, Head of R&D.

The team reviewed how to use Discover and what can be revealed.

Janine Cloud, Manager of Group Projects, is beside me in the black shirt, seated at far right. Group Projects are important tools for Y-DNA testing and testers.

In addition to the Discover Time Tree, shown on the screen above, a Group Time Tree shows Big Y project members as grouped by the volunteer administrators, along with their earliest known ancestors (EKA.)

Here’s an example from the Estes surname project that I administer. My grouping of participants is shown at left, the Time Tree in the center, and the locations with earliest known ancestors at right. Results are displayed in the order that they are phylogenetically related, helping genealogists immensely.

Here, the team is explaining the Block Tree which displays matches in a different format.

Men displayed together on the same Block Tree branch are more closely related to each other than to men displayed in other branches.

Michael Sager observes while Paul Maier demonstrates Globetrekker, an innovative interactive map that shows the path that one’s male ancestors took on their journey from Africa to where they are most recently found.

One of the attendees had a question and looks on as the team explains their results using Globetrekker.

We tried to get a team photo after the presentation and managed to corral some of the team. You’ve met several already, but Bennett Greenspan, Founder and President Emeritus of FamilyTreeDNA, is to my right as you look at the photo, with Sherman McRae standing between Bennett and Paul.

I particularly like this “generations” photo.

In the rear, Katherine Borges stands with Bennett Greenspan. Bennett obviously founded the company, and Katherine was one of the early administrators. Dr. Lior Rauchberger, CEO of myDNA, which includes FamilyTreeDNA, is seated at left, along with Alex Zawisza, CFO, at right. MyDNA purchased Gene by Gene, which includes FamilyTreeDNA, just over three years ago, and the team has continued to work together for the benefit of FamilyTreeDNA customers.

Lior traveled from Australia to attend RootsTech. He could be seen checking people out at the booth, so he had the opportunity to talk with customers. He said he heard the words “brick wall” more in those three days than ever before, as in, “Thanks to FamilyTreeDNA, I broke down my brick wall.”

We all owe Lior a huge debt of gratitude for his continued commitment to FamilyTreeDNA research, and in particular, the Big Y-700 tools, such as Discover, along with the Million Mito Project which will be released with a similar tool, MitoDiscover.

Thanks Lior!

I turned around to see Stephanie Gilbert, who gave the keynote at the FamilyTreeDNA conference.

Stephanie is an incredibly engaging speaker, and I’m going to recommend her to RootsTech for next year.

It was wonderful to see Schelly Talalay Dardashti, at left. She has worked for MyHeritage since 2006 and administers the Tracing the Tribe – Jewish Genealogy Facebook group, which has more than 73,000 members. Schelly is a wonderful ambassador, always helpful and incredibly knowledgeable.

Between us is Dana Stewart Leeds, creator of the Leeds Method, a technique that launched the autocluster craze by manually grouping matches. I wrote about the Leeds Method, here, in 2018. When you see AutoClusters at Genetic Affairs or the Collins-Leeds method at DNAGedcom, think of and thank Dana. They automated her process, with her permission, of course, creating some of the most useful tools available to genealogists. You can follow Dana here.

I swear, it was brainiac day at RootsTech!

Mags Gaulden, one of the founders of mitoYDNA and who writes at Grandma’s Genes, was working in the FamilyTreeDNA booth and was quite busy – so busy that I almost didn’t manage a picture with her. We never did get to have a meal together. We will have to do better in October when we are both scheduled to be at the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference in person. Oops, did I say that out loud???

Save the dates!

GEDmatch – New AutoCluster Endogamy Tool

I’ve emailed back and forth with Tom Osypian with GEDmatch many times now, but I’ve never met him in person, even though we’ve been in the same place before.

This time, I was determined. Although Tom was busy several times when I stopped by the booth, there were fewer people on Saturday, so I stood a fighting chance.

Tom explained that GEDmatch has a new AutoCluster tool developed by Evert-Jan Blom at Genetic Affairs and Jarret Ross from GeneaVlogger that helps with unraveling endogamy. I told him that I already knew because we used my Mom’s autosomal results during testing. Mom is partly endogamous through her grandfather’s Acadian line.

The Acadian cluster in the upper left quadrant looks like an orange blob with no differentiation, where everyone is related to everyone else – because that’s truly how Acadian descendants are connected. As my Acadian cousin once said, “If you’re related to one Acadian, you’re related to all Acadians,” and it’s true.

Evert-Jan needed to optimize clusters for a partially endogamous person without negatively affecting their non-endogamous clusters.

He did a great job separating my Mom’s big orange blob endogamous cluster into these nice, neat mini-clusters.

To take a look, choose AutoCluster Endogamy on GEDmatch and make your preset selection.

There’s a YouTube video about this tool by GeneaVlogger, here.

Next I ran into Patricia Coleman, a fellow genealogist scientist, who wrote an excellent article about finding segment links to the opposite parent using AutoSegment AutoClusters, here. Check out her blog and published papers, here.

We are incredibly fortunate to have such dedicated researchers and scientists in our community.

Unfortunately, I was running out of time on the show floor.

Sisters of Heart

OK, now, I’m going to say something really sappy. Consider yourself warned.

By this time, I needed to find food and quickly eat before my session, which was scheduled to start at 1:15. This meant I needed to be in the room by 12:45.

Janine was doing consultations in the FamilyTreeDNA booth and couldn’t get away for food either.

Thankfully, with the storm approaching, there weren’t long lines at the food vendors. I peeked outside as I walked down the hallway looking for a food booth that wasn’t very busy.

It was ominously dark and gloomy outside, and had begun to snow.

I found the food stand that looked least bad and got in line. Neither Janine nor I knew what was available at the food vendors, but we’ve known each other for enough years and attended enough conferences that we kind of know what the other likes.

I was standing in line taking pictures of the menu and the pre-made foods in the cooler and messaging them to Janine. People must have wondered if I couldn’t find something better to take pictures of. I just chuckled. I’ll spare you the food pictures because they were unremarkable,

They were out of everything Janine thought looked good. Apparently, everyone else thought those items looked good, too. When it was my turn to order, and I had to choose, I messaged Janine that we were sharing a turkey wrap and asked if she wanted fruit.

“YES! Fruit sounds wonderful.”

Great!

I got both items and paid.

“So do chips. Chips sound great, too.”

Perfect.

I paid again.

Then I saw the muffins. Chocolate sour cream swirl muffins with large shiny sugar crystals baked on top.

No need to message Janine about this one.

Yep, I paid for the third time.

Then, I apologized to the people behind me, hoped they didn’t recognize me, and hurried back to the FamilyTreeDNA booth.

Janine’s customer had just finished up, so I sat down in that seat and spread out our goodies on the table between us. The turkey wrap was cut in half, and we shared half of everything.

I love breaking bread and sharing food with my favorite people. There’s something about feeding the body that nourishes the soul and bonds the heart. I can’t explain it, and I really wasn’t thinking about it just then. Both of us just needed a minute to relax and eat before rushing off to do something else.

I asked Janine if she wanted the last part of my half of the turkey wrap. She told me to take the turkey out and eat it because I needed the protein.

Bless her heart. She was right.

I grabbed two forks in the food booth, and we both ate out of the fruit box positioned halfway between us.

Then, after discussing and laughing that the muffin looked like a geode, I cut it into four sections. We ate them on the cupcake paper with forks, like cake. It tasted wonderful. If you’re thinking that I couldn’t finish my turkey wrap, but had plenty of room for chocolate cake, you’d be exactly right!

Someplace in the midst of our impromptu picnic meal, I realized that four years ago at RootsTech 2020, was the last time we would see each other – for years. A week after RootsTech, everything shut down. People died. Both of us had family members who perished in the Covid epidemic.

Everyone was traumatized.

Neither of us knew if we’d ever see each other again, but neither of us verbalized that because – well – we just couldn’t. Some days during that time, it was all any of us could do to simply hold it together.

I realized just how important these very relaxed impromptu moments, built on years of shared space and breaking bread together, really are. It’s exactly why we don’t have any old photos of “normal” things, just special occasions. Normal isn’t special, until it is – when someone is suddenly gone. Then, “normal” is everything.

None of us know which meal together will be the last. We never know when our number will be called, or how. We really only ever have today.

I wish someone had taken a picture of us smiling and eating, sharing our meal with each other, something we’ve done countless times before. Something so normal that we don’t even think about it. I never thought about taking a picture of something so routine, and neither did anyone else. Why would they?

Regardless, that moment is burned into my memory, along with just how precious our time together is.

Then, the moment of quiet respite, eating chocolate muffins and sharing more than food, was over, and the fragile thought bubble was broken by the ticking of the clock. I had to jump up and run off to my next presentation, and a customer approached and asked Janine a question.

Thank Goodness we were both able to return to RootsTech and relish something so absolutely normal once again.

Highways of History – Flesh Out Your Ancestors Using Discover Case Studies

My class on Friday, “DNA Academy,” was full, and sadly, people were being turned away at the door. Saturday’s “Highways of History” class was held in a larger room, but many people stayed home, so the room was only about three-quarters full. I forgot to ask someone to take a picture, so I’ll just share a few slides.

I really enjoy using AI occasionally for images. This was ChatGPTs idea of Highways of History.

Using Big Y DNA results, I provided examples of using the Discover tools to reveal the stories of my ancestors. Not every Discover tool reveals something amazing about each ancestor, but together, they tell a story we can’t unravel any other way.

I seek out men who descend from every male ancestor paternally through all males and offer a scholarship for Big Y-700 testing.

Here are just a few examples of what I’ve found and documented:

A descendant of Etienne Hebert (c1626-c1670), my Acadian ancestor, matches an ancient DNA burial found in Metz, France. Etienne and his brother’s children cluster in a group with a common ancestor about 1650, and the ancient burial dates to about the year 500 CE during the time that Metz was a Gallo Celtic Village. Among other things, we learn that their common ancestors were Celtic.

An adopted male matches several Estes men. Based on his Big Y-700 mutations, I can place him in the Estes family tree within two generations. His position in the tree is confirmed by autosomal matches to the ancestors of the wife of Joseph Frank Estes. Autosomal matches confirmed the Big Y-700.

Germain Doucet, born in France in the late 1500s, had two sons. One was born in France about 1621, and the second in Acadia (now Nova Scotia) was born to either a second or third wife in 1641 and named after Germain. Based on Big Y-700 tests, the son born in 1621 has a European haplogroup, but Germain, born in 1641, has a Native American father, suggesting the possibility that he may have been adopted by the older Germain Doucet. This was quite an unexpected surprise.

A Bowling descendant of Hugh Bowling (1591-1651) born in Chorley, Lancashire, England, had almost no English matches. STR matches are from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Cyprus, Germany, and Portugal, but the highest percentage are from Spain. Furthermore, his ancient Connections are from Hungary, Israel (4), Armenia, Rome, Italy, Turkey, Lebanon, Lincolnshire, and Norwich, England. Local history reveals a Roman Fort just 19 miles away from where Hugh Bowling lived, and the location, now excavated, was a settlement location for Roman Sarmatian soldiers.

Thomas Speak was born about 1634 in Downham, Lancashire, near Chorley, England where the family attended church. Big Y-700 testing shows that he and other English Speak men still living in the area share an ancestor about 1300 CE. When we visited in 2012, we discovered that Myles Standish’s family also attended the same church. Saxon Crosses are found in the graveyard outside, dating to circa 800-900 CE. A Standish male’s Big Y-700 test matches the Speak men, with their common ancestor dating to 850 CE, the same time that the Saxons were settling the region.

Bennett Greenspan’s Jewish ancestors were found in Ukraine in the mid-1700s, but he wanted to know more about where they came from originally. Were they Ashkenazi or Sephardic, or something else? By upgrading both close and distant matches to the Big Y-700, Bennett discovered that their common ancestors were in Spain in the year 296 when the two lines diverged and his line left. You can read Bennett’s story in more detail, here.

None of these mysteries or brick walls could have been solved without Big Y-700 tests and without the Discover tools.

This session was so much fun, and I can hardly wait to find more male ancestors and test their direct male-line descendants.

Goodbyes

By the time questions were answered, and I packed up my equipment, there were only about 15 minutes left until the Expo Hall closed at 3. Furthermore, I needed to retrieve my coat from the FamilyTreeDNA booth, retrieve my suitcase from the Marriott bellman, and order an Uber. My flight was only about two and a half hours away, assuming it left.

So far, it hadn’t been cancelled or delayed.

I mentioned my flight concerns to a colleague that I ran into on the way to the booth. He happens to live in Salt Lake City and gave me his phone number, with instructions to call if I got stranded.

My first (unspoken) thought was, “Thank you, but I’d never impose like that.” But then, I realized that was crazy and I really should call him if I needed help. What was wrong with me? I didn’t know him well, but I had known him and the company where he works for many years and felt completely safe. We are Facebook friends too, so I’ve joyfully watched him marry and start a family. I would have done exactly the same for him, and yes, I absolutely WOULD have wanted him to call. Plus, if I actually did wind up staying on his couch for a day or so, I would get time to “Grandma” his children, so HUGE BONUS!

You know who you are, and THANK YOU. I felt so much better after that. Genealogists are just the most amazing people!

Then, I ran into Lisa Rhea Baker who very generously gifted me with bracelets made by her veteran daughter as she healed from surgery. The bracelets around my wrist are beaded, and the one joining our hands is knotted in German colors. I’m wearing that one today. What a very talented and generous young lady.

I was very touched and so grateful. I asked her to thank her daughter on my behalf.

I saw Katherine Borges again in the booth as I was retrieving my coat and we quickly took a selfie. Neither of us realized we hadn’t gotten one earlier, although we did manage to have dinner with a small group where we all chattered like magpies.

Last, Goran, Paul and I took a quick selfie as I was preparing to run out the door. It was 3, closing time, and almost no one was left in the Expo Hall. I knew if I missed this flight, I’d not get another one. Everything was full.

I surely miss seeing these guys. Hopefully, I’ll see them again before the next RootsTech!

The Blizzard Strikes

I stepped outside.

The blizzard had begun in earnest. I could see a couple blocks down the street, but huge flakes of snow were pouring down. The wind was blowing viciously, whipping everything, making it difficult to hang onto my laptop rolling bag. The snow was sticking to everything.

At least it wasn’t slick yet, at least not where I was walking. If the wind hadn’t been so strong, it would have been pretty.

Would the plane be able to take off in this wind? The snow was blowing directly sideways now.

The only distance I had to walk was across the street. This is how much snow accumulated on my coat in just a minute or so.

A little later, Goran took this picture.

Ubers were becoming somewhat scarce, so two of us shared and made it to the airport in time for long TSA lines.

The plane was about 45 minutes late, which didn’t surprise me. I heaved a huge sigh of relief when it pulled up to the gate. At least it arrived, and as soon as it was cleaned a bit, we began to board.

Eventually, we pulled out of the gate and began waiting on the tarmac for the plane to be de-iced.

An hour later, we weren’t even halfway to the front of the line. The pilot estimated it would be another 90 minutes or so.

The snow continued to accumulate.

Would the pilot and crew time out and be unable to fly?

If we had to go back, there would be no prayer of getting another crew. Flights were already being canceled.

The woman beside me was ill. I felt awful for her, and it occurred to me that this might also be a reason to return to the gate.

At least the pilot allowed us to unbuckle our seatbelts and go to the restroom as we waited.

My flight had been scheduled to arrive just after midnight. But now, we were more than four hours late. What time would we get in? My poor husband. I told him to go to sleep and I’d just stay in the hotel in the airport. He said no, nothing doing.

I begged him to at least take a nap and recheck the flights at 3 or 4 AM.

The flight was extremely rough. We couldn’t get above or around the storm, and the seatbelt sign was only off for about 10 minutes during the entire flight.

I tried to sleep, but that wasn’t happening, even though I was beyond exhausted.

This is what love looks like. One single car in the cell lot at around 5 AM, as Jim waited patiently for me.

On the way home, in fact, all of the way home, we drove through the most incredible lightning storm I’ve ever seen.

It was someplace between worrisome/terrifying, and fascinating.

This lightning wasn’t reaching toward the earth in bolts. Instead, the entire sky lit up like daylight, horizon to horizon, flashing like an extremely bright strobe. It was so bright that, at times, it was nearly blinding, and the clouds looked like rainbows as the lightning flashed behind and through them. I had never seen anything like this.

This type of “sheet lightning” is crazy rare. Thankfully, it kept us awake and was stunningly beautiful in a very strange, ethereal way. We worried that we would be caught in a hellacious storm and unable to see in the downpour.

Florida is notorious for vicious storms and torrential downpours. It’s also the lightning strike capital of the US and ranks fourth in the world. This area, in particular, is known as Lightning Alley. Our house was struck last year.

As we exited the expressway, just a couple miles from home, the sky unzipped, and torrential rains began. Thankfully, we were spared for most of the drive.

I was incredibly glad to finally be home and hoped that others had been able to either escape the Utah storm or find a room in a hotel that did not lose power on Sunday. Reports said wind gusts in the Utah mountains were measured at 165 miles an hour, but Salt Lake City, tucked into a valley, was spared most of that.

What an incredible week in so very many ways.

I hope you enjoyed coming along with me. Dates have already been announced for RootsTech 2025.

_____________________________________________________________

Follow DNAexplain on Facebook, here.

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

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
AncestryDNA Plus Traits
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Book

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

RootsTech 2024 – Celebrating 25 Years of Genetic Genealogy

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Roberta Estes

On the first day of RootsTech, we celebrated the milestone anniversary of 25 years of genetic genealogy. Right now, we are at the intersection of two incredibly powerful tools: genetics and AI. Both technologies are revolutionary and have changed and are changing the genealogical world overnight. What an amazing time to be alive!

Day 1 is Just Beginning

Day 1 is just the beginning, although pre-show activities have been occurring for a day or two. Everyone is excited. The energy on the show floor and as attendees talk is palpable – a form of human electricity.

I’m going to share some of RootsTech’s flavor with you, so come along with me as I attend a few sessions, give my dozen sessions, and meet people.

First, I need to provide some caveats.

I wasn’t able to attend very many sessions
I didn’t get to half the expo floor booths
I was only at one keynote, but fortunately, most were recorded

I managed to overcommit myself “just a bit,” and I just couldn’t be in two places at once. Thankfully, recorded sessions are available here.

One of the reasons that I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped is because I kept running into people. There was more hugging at RootsTech than at a bear-hug festival. The fun of taking selfies is a thing – a modern-day bonding experience and lots of group selfies are floating around on social media.

I truly love my fellow genealogists, many of whom I’ve discovered are cousins, and some of whom have become lifelong friends. They are brothers and sisters of heart -people who I can’t imagine NOT having in my family. This group of troublemakers is the perfect example of that, with Lianne Krüger, Mags Gaulden, and me in the back and Janine Cloud in front. I think we look like a girl band. Perhaps we’ll call ourselves The Chromosomes. 😊

The first thing on my agenda for Thursday was a book signing for my book, DNA for Native American Genealogy.

Penny Walters wandered by while I was signing and said hello.

Penny, the queen of selfies, constantly has to instruct me on how to do this successfully. It seems I either shut my eyes or I’m smiling so hard I’m laughing. One day, Penny, one day!

Thanks, Penny, for taking this picture of me with my book.

Following the book signing, Janine Could, Groups and Events Manager at FamilyTreeDNA, and I had an AMA, Ask Me Anything session in the FamilyTreeDNA booth about determining if you have Native American ancestors. Our stories are so complementary.

I was raised with and participated in Native cultural traditions. Janine wasn’t, but she is an enrolled Cherokee tribal member. After we had known each other for several years, we discovered that we’re related, but not through that line – at least not that we know of.

The great thing about AMA sessions is that the speakers are literally there to answer your questions. During the conference, lots of people took advantage of the expertise of speakers and their fellow attendees.

Remember

Last year, I met Charis, in the middle between me and Janine. Charis made my day when she told me that she was driving by the Salt Palace a week or so before RootsTech, saw that I was giving a Native American session, and knew she had to attend.

We talked for a long time, and I wondered if I would see her again this year.

Sure enough!

I saw her walking down an aisle, so I knew she was attending. I wanted to give her a hug but I couldn’t at that moment.

She stopped by the FamilyTreeDNA booth and asked Janine if she thought I’d remember her.

You remember people that make you feel good, and she really did.

Someone once told me that people often remember you for how you make them feel.

This year, Charis attended my sessions, and it felt good to see a friendly, smiling face in the audience.

After one class, she waited for me until everyone’s questions were answered. I asked if we could sit down in the quiet at a vacant table in the back of that hall for a few minutes to visit.

Charis pulled out a bag with a card and gave it to me, saying she hoped I didn’t think it was weird or anything. I was stunned and quite moved.

Her name is Remember, the theme of Rootstech this year.

I cried. Charis’s gift was so thoughtful in so many ways, as was the card – and she had no idea how personally this touched me.

We talked for a long time, and while I’m not going to share details, I remembered how it felt to be young and have your life’s trajectory shifted in ways you can’t control.

I remembered what it was like to have hopes dashed.

I remembered when I was “just doing what I was doing” every day, not realizing that I was making memories – not just for me but for others as well.

I remember when Douglas explained the concept of GodMothers to me – and I wasn’t young.

Douglas told me that I had GodMothered people through our combined educational ministry (and I’m not talking about church here) and through my own individual work. Of course, the first thing I thought when Douglas said that was, “No, no, not me,” but then I remembered my mother’s “simple” ministry to others. I remembered how my step-father changed my life both with his actions and a few simple, well-placed words. I remembered the kindness of others when I desperately needed it – and still do.

I remembered.

I remembered that we all have a mission, a ministry, even if we don’t realize it. Even if we don’t understand it. Even if “all we do” is a simple kindness every day.

I remembered that some people’s lives are meant to intersect.

Charis is doing GodMother work, or maybe God’s Mother’s work, every day of her life.

Charis gives me hope for the future.

Thank you Charis, for Remember, and for helping me remember. And for being the next generation of GodMothers and shining your light for others to follow in generations of GodMother footsteps.

Remember.

Genetic Genealogy Turns 25

A few weeks before RootsTech, Diahan Southard emailed and asked me if I’d be interested in and willing to write a short, roughly 3-page “chapter” for a book she was preparing for RootsTech, celebrating the 25^th anniversary of genetic genealogy.

Additionally, Diahan would be hosting a panel where some of the contributors would share our remembrances, beginning with the earliest days and ending with more recent innovations.

You can watch the session here.

It’s not hyperbole to say that genetic genealogy changed my life. It also changed the trajectory of my career.

I was very proud to be included on this panel with Diahan and Bennett Greenspan, both of whom I have known since the beginning. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined an event like this – let alone being on this stage on this incredibly memorable day.

Diahan shared her story about beginning her career at Sorenson Molecular Institute with Scott Woodward, who joined us and told his story via video.

Bennett Greenspan spoke about his inspiration as a genealogist, and how and why he founded FamilyTreeDNA in 1999.

Bennett introduced Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA to the consuming public, planting the seeds of an industry that would flourish and ultimately become a household word in the genealogy community.

Tim Janzen spoke about the role of Y-DNA from the first 12-marker panels to the Big Y-700 today. The landmark discovery that Thomas Jefferson had fathered children with Sally Hemmings occurred as a result of Y-DNA testing and drew attention to the possibilities for solving long-standing mysteries – known or unknown.

Leah Larkin discussed the tipping point of autosomal DNA in the genetic genealogy industry.

Aimee Haynes with DNA Angels, an adoption search organization, explained how autosomal DNA, in particular, answers questions for adoptees, giving identities and histories to millions of people who “don’t know who they are.”

Diahan asked me to speak about ethnicity and genetic genealogy, and I actually managed to find my original ethnicity test from 2003. That image in the middle with the red dot and “parenthesis” bands was the extent of the information returned, in addition to the percentages. By the way, those percentages weren’t accurate either, but it was a beginning.

However, ethnicity, with associated segment information at FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe, has paved the way for painting both ethnicity and match segments with Jonny Perl’s DNAPainter.

Jonny spoke about his inspiration for DNAPainter and how he initially developed it for his own use. Now, just a few years later, everyone loves it!

Lori Napolitano spoke about the evolution of Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy (FIGG), also known as IGG, including a collage of people whose remains have been identified and a separate collage of perpetrators of violent crime who are now off the streets. She addressed the successes along with the challenges.

Lori’s 3 or 4 minutes were extremely balanced, presenting both sides of the coin, and I strongly encourage you to listen beginning at about minute 36.

Diahan has compiled these people’s contributions along others for a total of 34 vignettes in the book So Far: Genetic Genealogy – The First 25 Years 1999-2024.

Megan Smolenyak-Smolenyak
Scott Woodward
Bennett Greenspan
Ann Turner
Ugo Perego
Diahan Southard
Scott Fisher
Roberta Estes
Tim Janzen
Jim Bartlett
Blaine Bettinger
Daniel Horowitz
Debbie Kennett
Kitty Cooper
Angie Bush
Michelle Leonard
Paul Woodbury
Kelli Bergheimer
Judy Russell
Dana Leeds
Drew Smith
Diana Elder
Nicole Dyer
Leah Larkin
Nathan Dylan Goodwin
Mary Eberle
Mags Gaulden
Aimee-Rose-Haynes
Jonny Perl
Brianne Kirkpatrick
Laura Olmsted
Cheryi Hudson-Passey
Margaret Press
Penny Walters

The stories and visions of these pioneers and industry influencers are fascinating.

The eBook is free by scanning the QR code below or click here.

The following day, I found Diahan’s booth and was able to thank her for this labor of love.

Printed copies of Diahan’s book were available for sale in her booth, Your DNA Guide, and I was surprised how many people sought out attendees who wrote mini-chapters and asked us to sign our pages. What fun!

Diahan and I go back a long way. In the greatest of ironies, in the very early days, the Skidmore Family Association retained Diahan to “tell them what she could” about early Y-DNA tests of 51 Skidmore men. Initially, I was very concerned that the family association might have gotten themselves aligned with someone who was less than competent – but then thrilled when I discovered that consultant was Diahan. Better yet, my own line was one of 8 individual Skidmore lines that Diahan identified and was represented by several testers. Back then, Diahan was working with only a few STR markers and of course, today, we have Big Y-700 tests.

Sunny Morton, another author, joined us for a lovely photo in Diahan’s booth.

I’ve always been incredibly grateful to Sunny for taking me under her wing during my first year speaking at RootsTech, where I had 4 or 5 days to prepare a presentation to cover for another speaker who was unexpectedly unable to attend. Baptism by fire, for sure.

Another reminder that people remember you for how you make them feel.

Expo Hall Show Floor

In between sessions and events, I wandered around the show floor to see the booths, their offerings, and my friends. Many of these people are probably your friends, too, or you have seen their names in the community.

Near Diahan’s booth, I found Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer, pictured above, a lovely mother-daughter professional genealogist pair who founded Family Locket. Should I say this? I especially love the baby genealogist peeking at us from behind. I’m thinking in another year or so, it will be a three-generation endeavor.😊

I was excited to run into Marian Pierre-Louis, who facilitates the smooth running of Legacy Family Tree Webinars and slays technology gremlins left and right! Another person I’m grateful to!

Geoff Rasmussen, founder of Legacy Family Tree, both the Legacy Family Tree Software and the webinars, was staffing the booth. If you haven’t tried these amazing genealogy webinars, all webinars are free initially and for 7 days and are then available by subscription in the webinar library.

Here, Geoff and Marian appear together. What a wonderful team. I’ll have a new webinar in the library before year-end.

Further down the row, I found Geneanet. If you’re not familiar with Geneanet, they are the last totally free resource that I’m aware of that allows the free uploading of your tree, regardless of size.

I use Geneanet often, especially when searching for Europeans. One of my favorite trees at Geneanet belongs to professional genealogist Karen Theriot Reader, and it documents more than 166,000 Acadians and their descendants—along with sources.

Yes, there was food, although not as much as in earlier years. However, these lovely mini-bundt cakes were TO DIE FOR. Unfortunately, I never did manage to purchase a chocolate one.

Maybe I’ll just have to cross my fingers for next year.

_____________________________________________________________

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