DNA and Descendancy Research

Do you try and connect with other genealogists to pick up tips and tricks? Living in rural America, I rely on connections over the Internet to pick up many of those tips and tricks. I've recently been watching one of the Barefoot Genealogists' recent videos: Making Discoveries with the New and Improved AncestryDNA Match List.

Ancestry DNA Tips

This morning, I watched one of the Barefoot Genealogist''s new videos: What Are Ancestry ThruLines?

Even though I was already familiar with Ancestry's ThruLines - and appreciate how they are helping me with my DNA matches, I learned several things about how Ancestry's 'Common Ancestors' and 'ThruLines' work from this video.

How Many DNA ThruLines

Recently, Randy Seaver posted about the number of DNA ThruLines he had for each ancestor. Curious, I decided to check out my own ThruLines to see how many I have for each ancestor.

How Many DNA ThruLines do I have for each ancestor?

Grandparents:

• Leon Russel Crawford / Winnie Letha Currey - 2
• Edward Osmond Briles / Pauline Edith Mentzer - 7

ThruLines Issue - Can I Resolve It?

While trying to figure out why I can't find 4th cousin matches for descendants of Nelson G. Crawford, I ran across my first obviously incorrect ThruLines screen. One of my known third cousin once removed showed up on the ThruLines for my 4th great-grandfather, James Crawford thru the Walter Beggs and the Monroe line.

Crawford ThruLInes Question

I like Ancestry's new ThruLines feature!

Unfortunately, it is pointing out one of my frustrations with my DNA results. I have several verified second and third cousin DNA matches on my Crawford line but we never got a DNA circle for my 3rd great grandfather, Nelson G. Crawford. When Ancestry released ThruLines, I was hoping to locate some fourth cousins thru one of Nelson's other children.

However, the ThruLines for Nelson G Crawford only includes DNA matches going thru my 2nd great grandfather, Washington Marion Crawford. It does not include any lines going thru the siblings of Washington Marion Crawford.

Common Ancestor Puzzle

Do you ever participate in one of Blaine Bettinger's DNA quizzes? Or, do you ever see someone else's post about their DNA stats and decide to investigate your own? I know I often take the time to look at the data and see how my data compares.

That happened two days ago when someone (and unfortunately I don't know who and can't find the original post) posted about his Ancestry DNA Common ancestors. Basically, the poster indicated how many common ancestors he had at each cousin level and wondered how that compared to other testers.

Thus, I decided to look at mine:

• One 1st cousin
• Three 2nd cousins
• Five 3rd cousins

With over 3,000 4th cousin or closer DNA matches, I expected a lot of common ancestors at the 4th cousin level. Thus, I was shocked to only find EIGHT.

Out of curiosity, I looked at my incomplete ThruLines spreadsheets to see how many cousins I have identified so far.

ThruLines Validating Research

I've seen several negative posts and comments about Ancestry's new DNA tool, ThruLines. I haven't come close to looking at all of my lines, let alone verifying them. However, I am thrilled Ancestry developed this new tool.

Searchable Trees

Do you have a private tree on Ancestry? If so, I would like to convince you to make it searchable -- especially if you have a DNA test attached to that tree. (See AncestryDNA ThruLines FAQ)

Ancestry's new DNA ThruLines tool is helping me figure out how I connect with my multitude of DNA matches. The clues provided on my James Crawford ThruLines have helped me identify another granddaughter, Matilda Caroline Stoner.

Thru Lines Missing

I'm in love with how ThruLines is helping me learn more about my DNA matches. I wanted to show my husband how helpful this tool is.

Unfortunately, when I went to his DNA test to look at his ThruLines, the screen indated he didn't have any.

ThruLines Find

Have you experimented with Ancestry ThruLines yet? If not, you have to check it out!

As I posted earlier, ThruLines suggested that Matilda Caroline Stoner was a granddaughter of James and Sally (Smith Duggins) Crawford.

Based on the family tree suggested by ThruLines, I was able to research the family of Matilda Caroline Stoner and William Harrison Fields. Thru that research I was able to follow descendants to my suggested DNA matches.

DNA Thru Lines Potential Breakthroughs

Did you hear all about it yesterday? Both Ancestry and My Heritage announced new DNA tools. That combined with Diahan Southard's 'Connecting Your DNA Matches' presentation that was live streamed by RootsTech made for a BIG day in my DNA world.

In Diahan's session, she discussed using Blaine Bettinger's Shared Centimorgan Project to help verify relationships suggested by DNA. Even though I was aware of and had contributed to Blaine's project, I had never used the results to analyze my cousin matches. During her presentation, Diahan talked about using a spreadsheet to keep track of this data. 

Thus, I tried to create my own spreadsheet based on Diahan's presentation. So far, I haven't found any 'surprises' in the amount of shared DNA. However, I am finding an advantage to this type of spreadsheet for DNA matches. This type of spreadsheet will help me keep track of how I am related to my matches. Below is an image from my new spreadsheet. I have blacked out the identifying information for my matches.