#52Ancestors in 52 Weeks: DNA

DNA holds the key to identifying my 3x great-grandfather. I continually watch webinars, and I’m grateful to have received a scholarship for the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) DNA intensive in June. I have my uncle’s Y-DNA (currently waiting for the results of the Big Y upgrade), and atDNA from my great-aunt, who is two generations closer to the mystery man. I am quite sure the answer is hiding in my shared matches, and I just have to use the right analysis for the answer to become clear.

Mostly I have used DNA to confirm my document-based genealogy. The first time I used DNA to confirm a theory was with my great-grandfather, Billie Stevens’ mother‘s family. I had a marriage record for couple with the right names, albeit spelled differently than they were on Billie’s death certificate. I found a likely Reid family group in the FamilySearch tree that all was filled out with spouses except for daughter Mary, who was the right age to be my great-great grandmother. I was confident, and yet, there could have been another couple with the same names. Then, eureka! I found a cousin match who descended from Mary Reid’s sister. Since then, I’ve found several matches from that Reid family. One mystery solved.

More recently, I found a cousin match that leads back to a Chitty family that I had suspected was Mary’s husband William Stevens’ maternal family. I’m still not 100% sure, because we know how Southern families intermingle, and I’m still nervous that I could be missing another connection, but it seems very likely that this is correct.

What I’d really love to do is take a class in extracting DNA from objects. Things like my daddy’s old hat, or a postage stamp, or even a tooth (my daddy morbidly kept some of his teeth when he had them all pulled). I know there are companies that will do that now, but the pricing is out of reach for me.

I’ll close with my wish list for DNA matches:

• Use your biological birth surname, if you know it, on your profile.
  
• Attach your DNA to yourself in a family tree.
  
• Fill in as much of the family tree as you can; if your ancestor has died, be sure to include a death date OR simply check the box that they’re deceased, so their name will show up to your matches.
  
• Go to your profile page and fill in some information. 23andMe has a place to list surnames and locations. Write a short biography that tells where you are in your research. Include a link to your blog or family tree (if it’s not on the DNA website). Consider including some kind of contact information.
  
• Provide login information to a trusted family member, so if/when you pass on, someone can sign in and check messages and/or update your family tree. (I have told my husband, if I die before him, he is to go immediately to my FamilySearch profile and make me dead.)
  
• While you’re living, check your messages. I get email notifications from some of the companies, but for some reason MyHeritage won’t send me notifications. I’ve checked my settings, and I can’t figure out why. So, don’t assume you’ll be notified if there’s a message in your inbox. Then please respond. Maybe you don’t how you’re related to your match, but if they care enough to contact you, maybe you can help each other.

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