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The Education of a Genetic Genealogist

6/21/2018

I first started learning about DNA and its uses in genealogical research many years ago. My first DNA test was with 23andme, when they offered a test for the low price of $14.95 plus a year subscription to updates, at $9 per month. My matches were interesting, but not that useful. The only match I recognized was a cousin I'd already been corresponding with, who was a descendant of my German great-grandmother Caroline Dorsch Stoelt. I was very slow to test in other companies because DNA testing was expensive and I didn't understand how to use it.Yet.

In 2014, when the very first institute on Practical Genetic Genealogy was offered at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, I managed to get into the 2nd class (opened because the 1st class filled in a matter of seconds). I learned a tremendous amount in that class, which was taught by Debbie Parker Wayne, Blaine Bettinger and CeCe Moore, but I found that every afternoon about 2:30 pm my brain shut off and informed me that it Could Not Take Any More Information.

Since then, I have watched every DNA webinar offered by Legacy Family Tree Webinars, especially those offered by Blaine Bettinger. Through Feedly, I subscribe to every blog post written by Blaine Bettinger, Debbie Parker Wayne, CeCe Moore, Kitty Cooper, Roberta Estes, and many others.I've also watched webinars on DNA offered by the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Board for Certification of Genealogists, and the Virtual Institute of Genealogy. For the past two years, I have ordered and watched the entire set of videos from the International Institute for Genetic Genealogy annual conference, held in San Diego, CA in 2016 and 2017.

All along, I have practiced what I've learned. In 2012 I finally did a Family Finder test at FamilyTreeDNA, and last (but not least) did an Ancestry DNA test a couple of years later. As I could afford it, I tested other family members: my brother Craig Reed did a Y-12 test at FamilyTreeDNA before he died in 2014 (note: I need to upgrade that....); my husband Richard did the Y-37 test, and then the Ancestry test (which held a huge ethnicity surprise); my nephew Jason Reed did the Y DNA test at Ancestry before it was discontinued (which I transferred to FTDNA and upgraded to Y-37), and my son-in-law Perry did the Y-37 test at FTDNA, which revealed his Sage ancestors.
The test which (for me) was worth its weight in gold was the Y-37 test my cousin Marvin Prosser took at my request, which proved that we are descendants of John Prosser of Rhode Island. A couple of years later, in 2015, he took the Ancestry DNA test, which led to the discovery of our Wiltse ancestors, and last December, to the Prosser DNA matches proving our link to Louis/Lewis Prosser of LaPorte County, Indiana.

About the same time I broke through my 43-year brick wall, I solved my first unknown parentage case. Since the beginning of this year, I've solved or come close to solving six unknown parent or unknown grandparent cases, in two of which the father or grandfather changed his name.

At this point, I needed more education, and lots of it. I needed something beyond the basics, namely how to use chromosome browsers and segment data, to help me work with clients and my own research. It took me about ten seconds to sign up for Blaine Bettinger's new endeavor, DNA-Central. I began reading and watching the courses there, and as always, no matter how much I thought I knew, I always learn something more. I've been learning how to use DNAPainter, and just today began the tutorials on how to use GenomeMate Pro.

One of the tools I have learned how to use is LucidChart. Here is a chart I made that displays convincing evidence that Louis Prosser was my 2nd great-grandfather and the father of my great-grandmother Ruth Prosser Chase:

Thanks to Dr. Leah Larkin's tutorials on GenomeMate Pro, I have been learning how to use this tool for advanced analysis. Here are some of my matches from GedMatch, showing the chromosome segments where they match me on chromosome 8:

With everything I learn, I feel more empowered to make significant progress in my own research and my work with clients, especially those with unknown parents or grandparents. I now have 3 mantras that I believe to be true:

There is always something more to find.

There is always something more to learn.

And

There has never been a better time to be a genealogist!

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DNA Discoveries: Lisa's Story

6/17/2018

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Several years ago my client Lisa decided to do a DNA test with 23andme. Much to her surprise, she turned out to be 49% Ashkenazi Jewish. She said in her initial email: "What a surprise from a girl who grew up thinking she was Norwegian, Irish, English, German, French and of course, some Native American in there somewhere!"
Out of curiosity Lisa's sister took the test - and they turned out to be half sisters, with the same mother but different fathers. When Lisa confronted her mother with the results, she admitted having a brief affair with a man in the entertainment business in California about that time, who had changed his name to John Cronin. He was originally from New York, and also 20 years older than she was. With that, her mother let it be made known, The Subject Was Closed.
Lisa had already done a great deal of the work - in addition to 23andme, she also tested with FamilyTreeDNA and Ancestry, and uploaded her raw data to Gedmatch. But that's where her knowledge ran out, and I came into the picture - admittedly, because she was excited to find someone living in the same area. So was I - it's not often I get to meet my clients!
I first took a look at Lisa's 23andme results. Her ethnicity report was right on the money:

Her Ancestry DNA ethnicity report was very similar.

But (of course) I was mostly interested in her matches. Very helpfully, since Lisa's mother and sister had tested at 23andme; many of her matches there were identified as "Mother's Side". I zeroed in on the rest.
Her top paternal match was a man at the 2nd-3rd cousin level. From some judicious sleuthing, I found that he was a businessman living in Jerusalem. I contacted a colleague of mine in Israel, who supplied me with the man's phone number, and first names of his parents. Not much help there.
Using the "in common with" tool, I found 3 other matches who were (after some Facebook searching) probably a father, with his daughter and son. Using a variety of resources, I found that they were descendants of Saul Held, 1923-1999, who lived in Minneapolis. (Tip: Newspapers.com has an excellent collection of Minneapolis newspapers!) Lisa had another 4th cousin match who was a descendant of Maurice Zuckman, 1914-1998, who also lived in Minneapolis. It didn't take me long to find that these two families were connected. I used LucidChart (and Lisa's Ancestry family tree, which was private and unsearchable) to keep track of the relationships:

It was nice to tell Lisa that her paternal ancestors probably included Moses Held and Clara Steiner, but that got us no closer to her father's name. After hours of working with newspapers, Facebook, online directories, Ancestry, and other resources, I had gotten no farther. With Lisa's blessing, I decided to take a break to concentrate on other client projects.

Sometimes the key word is "patience".

At the moment I keep track of 35 Ancestry DNA kits, and almost that many at FamilyTreeDNA. I'm not actively researching all of them, but it's nice to have them on hand to look at whenever I learn something new.

About a week ago, as I was watching (yet another) webinar on DNA, it occurred to me to check Lisa's Ancestry results again. And how about that - she had a predicted 1st-2nd cousin match, who did not match a known cousin on her mother's side. His name was Joseph. I found him immediately on Facebook, with a friends list a mile long, at least half of whom had Jewish names: Levine, Cohen, Feinstein, Rosenbaum, Kaufman, Moskowitz. His wife's maiden name was Jewish. After doing research in online newspapers, I found his paternal grandmother's obituary. There was only one problem.

She was Catholic.

There it was in black and white: "Funeral services will be held at 9:15 a.m. Sunday from the funeral home, followed by a 10 a.m. Mass at St. Stanislaus R.C. Church....."

In disbelief, I returned to Facebook and double-checked. By looking at several friends' pages and doing more online searching, I deduced Joseph's mother's name. From there I soon found an article about her parents' 50th wedding anniversary, and both their obituaries. They were Jewish, with the last name of Kronberg, which I thought was close enough to Cronin to start getting cautiously excited. (If there is such a thing!) It didn't take long (with 20 tabs open on my browser) for me to find an obituary for the matriarch, Mary Kronberg, which mentioned the children and grandchildren I already knew about, plus one other son: John. When I searched on Ancestry, in the U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, there he was:

In the suggested hints was a link to Find A Grave, where I found his gravestone:

Lisa, of course, was elated, and philosophical when I told her that her father was deceased. From start to finish, this project took just a little less than two months to solve.

Of course, genealogy is never really finished.....

A key piece we are still missing is the maiden name (and parents' names) of the wife in the 50 year anniversary announcement. I have her Florida obituary, and I've sent for her death record. Another key piece is that Mary (Abramowitz) Kronberg had a Social Security number, and so I've sent for a copy of her original Social Security application. I'm hoping that these ancestors will tie in to her other matches, so that I can map out a (more or less) complete family tree.

Perhaps the greatest gift I gave Lisa is a newspaper photograph of her father:

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DNA Discoveries: Frank's Story

6/11/2018

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(some names in this story have been changed)

Earlier this year, I was contacted by a man who wanted to find his birth father. Frank had heard from his birth mother that his father's name was Matthew, and that he had Polish ancestry. He had done the Y-37 test at FamilyTreeDNA, and on my advice, took the Ancestry DNA test as well.

His Y-37 results were confusing to him, because most of the matches had the surname Rice, which was his maternal grandmother's maiden name. Out of 33 matches, 24 of them were to men with the last name of Rice. Seven of these men traced their ancestry back to Deacon Edmund Rice, who died in Massachusetts in 1663.

His Ancestry DNA results were also very interesting. I don't usually pay much attention to ethnicity estimates, but in his case I looked at them, looking for Eastern Europe ancestry. It wasn't there. I also noticed the New England Settlers migration pattern.

Frank's top match on Ancestry was a first cousin, whose father, Donald Rice, died in Denver, Colorado in 1974. (Frank was born in Denver in 1980.) I emailed this first cousin match, without a response.

In my written report I made these points:

Your birth father was almost certainly a Rice descendant, and a close relative of your first cousin match.
Since that name does not match what you were told, it is possible that your father (or his father) was adopted.
Paternity often goes unknown and undetected by fathers, who might have been present just at the conception, and never knew about their child.
Adoption and illegitimacy in the mid-twentieth century were often viewed as shameful and secret, hidden for decades.
The fact that your maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Rice is purely a coincidence and does not have anything to do with your paternal ancestry.
Since your grandmother's research only goes as far back as the early 1900s, it is entirely possible that her ancestry also goes back to Massachusetts Rice ancestors, including Deacon Edmund Rice.
This would mean that your birth mother and birth father may be very distant cousins – which is not at all unusual, especially for people with New England ancestry.

Two weeks after I sent the report, I got an email from Frank's first cousin match, who wrote:

My dad Donald Rice and his first wife Sheila had 2 kids, Matthew & Sylvia.
Sheila remarried at some point and her new husband adopted Matthew and Sylvia, and their names were changed from Rice to their stepfather's name.

Unfortunately, Matthew died in 2016. In spite of that, Frank's new-found family welcomed him with photos and memories, and a planned reunion.

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The Education of a Genetic Genealogist

DNA Discoveries: Lisa's Story

DNA Discoveries: Frank's Story

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