DNA Test

There are 22 posts filed in DNA Test (this is page 3 of 3).

My Genealogical DNA Test Experience Part 2 – My First Look at the Matches

My test arrived after about 10 days and it took me a few days to open and complete it, because I was a bit nervous.  I watched a Youtube video on how to do it which helped.  As it happened, all went smoothly.  I sent the test in but must have put something dicey on the customs declaration because they did not receive it for five weeks.  However, the day came when the order history showed that it had been received, then batched.  It was going to take 5-7 weeks to process.

At about this time I began to read the forum posts.  Initially I intended to post in them, but I found several message threads where someone had been rather cutting in response to what seemed like an innocent question.  I decided I didn’t want that to happen to me so I simply read through, hoping to gain hints.

The process time dropped to 4-6 weeks, then 3-5, then suddenly it was there three weeks early!  I received a very brief email saying I had matches. I logged in and found that my Family Finder results were there, and the MTDNA had some time to process yet.

At first, it all looked quite straightforward.  I clicked on ‘Matches’ and it took me to them.  I had 21 pages of them!  I scrolled through from page to page, becoming familiar with the format, with the way to view my matches’ profiles, ancestor names and gedcoms.  Then I discovered the chromosome browser and spent some time acquainting myself with 22 chromosomes plus an X chromosome.  It was all very pretty and very satisfying.  However, I then settled down to view the connection.  This was when the confusion began.

Across 21 pages of matches, only about half of them had surnames listed and about a quarter had gedcoms.  Of course, I first concentrated on them.  I began viewing gedcoms in search of my ancestor names.  Nobody had them.

Nobody!  Not a common name, not a common location – nothing even close.  A lot of them were in the United States and the one common factor was the states of North Carolina and Virginia.  This was a location which they shared with each other, not with me.  I had NO connection that I knew of with the United States, certainly not within the last 5-6 generations.  However, nobody shared a surname. I found this perplexing but guessed that a sister of some long-distant ancestor of mine had married someone I hadn’t discovered and emigrated to the United States.  It made sense.  It still makes some sense. That must have happened for some of my ancestors.

Then I read the helpful book which FTDNA provides and settled in for a more informed look through.  I had four matches at 2nd-4th cousin level, one of which was a nice 93 cM total with a few longish segments.  This was my closest match.  Longest block was 34 cM.  I’ll call him John Samuelson which is a very long way from his real name. He provided a gedcom in which I found a single name which matched my ancestors.  Of course, one name is all you need and this one was a brickwall so I was rather excited.

Just to be clear, I will not be using a single real name in this blog for my matches or other living people – but the long-deceased ancestor names will be accurate.

My second match was Jennifer Harrison with a distance of 47.6 cM and longest block 21 cM. No details provided in either profile or ancestor surnames, and no gedcom.

Next was Cecilia Williams, matching with 54 cM and longest block 18 cM.  No details provided but a photograph attached and she looked friendly.

Last was Jacqueline Rhodes, we shared 49 cM with longest block 16.5 cM.  Once again, no details provided.

So I did as was recommended and emailed them all.

My Genealogical DNA Testing Experience

In April 2014, after much thought, I purchased a DNA test through FamilyTreeDNA.  I did this with no expectation of a result, just out of curiosity.  Having recently resigned from my job to spend time with my children, I had a moderately sized lump sum of money and decided to spend $299 US on a Family Finder test and an MTDNA test.

The Family Finder, as I understood it, would match my autosomal DNA with cousins of within six generations who had inherited the same DNA from an ancestor.  The MTDNA test would test my mitochondrial DNA which is a type of DNA that only changes after many hundreds of years, and then in the most minute way.  This comes down the direct maternal line so can help if I have an ancestor lady who had a few daughters, each of whom had daughters each of whom had daughters down to myself and another lady who has never connected with me.  This appealed since the women in my family have consistently taken their husband’s surnames so female descendants can be harder to trace.

I duly purchased the tests and waited for the kit.  A login was emailed instantly and I played with my FTDNA profile for a while, adding my picture, uploading my gedcom, adding my ancestor surnames, my most distant paternal and maternal names.  I had fun.

I noticed for the first time that although I have some extensive and thoroughly researched branches in my tree, my maternal and paternal lines are woefully lacking.   My deepest paternal ancestor was Edmund Dillane born about 1814 in Athea, County of Limerick, Ireland and the best efforts of many individual descendants have failed to make that step further back, although many have reinvented the wheel and gone over the same ground to reach the same point.  They were Catholic and had a large and extended family with cousins everywhere, all with the same names.   Edmund and two brothers were transported as convicts after setting fire to his father-in-law’s haystack.  There seems to have been quite a mob of them.  The Dillane brothers were approaching middle age at the time and left wives and children behind. In the paperwork attached to their transportation, their surname became Dillon and they kept it from then on.

On my maternal side it is even harder.  I go back with full confidence to one Frances (Fanny) Fox born circa 1855, an orphan who was raised in Hanwell Orphanage in inner London.  She was sent out to Australia – seemingly alone – at the age of 13 to be a domestic servant. The only reference to her parents comes from her marriage certificate.  Her original marriage record does not appear to exist, the civil record is written all in one scrawly hand and states father Unknown Fox and mother Fanny Rice (or Price, the handwriting is unclear). Her death record has her age at death and no more.

The UK 1861 census shows three children in Hanwell with surname Fox. One of them was old enough to appear in the UK 1851 census where he can be found with parents Barney and Ann Fox, both born Ireland.  It is possible that these are my Fanny’s parents if that Fox boy was her brother.  In the 1861 census Frances Fox’s birth year is given as 1857, which would make her closer to 11 or 12 when making her basically solo journey to Australia.

I did wonder if the MTDNA test might help me solve the mystery of Fanny Fox.  As to the Family Finder – I didn’t know anyone else who had tested so I didn’t think there’d be a match. My family arrived in Australia, on every side, around that 5th or 6th generation back and I was pretty sure I knew who was who.  Australia wasn’t that big a place 150 years ago.

On this rather relaxed note, I waited for the kit to come through international mail to me.