Genes Day Friday - Fred Gibson's Top 20

I'm going to try a new blog post series, I'm calling it the Top 20. I'll be going over my relatives' top five matches from each testing company they've tested at, and what that match shows me about our family. Of course, the Top 20 will only include matches that I didn't test, because what would be the point of talking about my grandpa matching my dad? That was kind of expected. So to kick of the series, I'm starting with my paternal grandfather, Fred Gibson. Of course, I won't be using their real names, because they haven't consented to being spotlighted like this in public like this.

Ancestry
1. His closest match at ancestry is on his mom's side. She's a granddaughter of Heinrich Joseph, Sam Joseph's older brother. Their common ancestors are Fred's great-grandparents, Ludwig Heinrich Joseph and Justine Witt. That makes her Fred's second cousin. She shares 347 cM with Fred, which is right in line for a second cousin. The cool thing is, everyone on their shared match list is connect to Ludwig, Justine, or their descendants. Now if only I had a chromosome browser to map those sections of DNA...

2. His next match is another Joseph relative. She doesn't have a tree up, and I can't find her online anywhere, but she looks like a second cousin (283 cM), and she shares a ton of Joseph relatives. Some of that Joseph DNA carried down to my dad, my sister and me too, so that was cool to see.

3. The next match is really interesting, and would be even more interesting if I knew her name and family tree in full. She matches on Fred's dad's side, and is a shared match with both Gibson and Cain relatives. That means she is likely a descendant of John Gibson and Catherine Cain, Fred's grandparents. They have 205 cM of DNA in common, so she's still pretty close. If only she'd log in to the Ancestry account and respond! But at least I can use her shared match list to find more Gibson connections.

4. Next up is another Joseph side match. She's a great-granddaughter of Christina "Tina" Joseph, Sam Joseph's sister. There's actually quite a few of Tina's descendants that have tested at Ancestry, so piecing together her family has been pretty easy. But it's great to have so many Joseph relatives to talk to, because when I first started out in researching my family history, the Joseph side was one that I knew the least about. Not any more!

5. Number five is actually the son of match 1. Every generation gets about half of what their parents have. This match shares 162 cM, just under half of what his mother shares with Fred. It's cool to see the laws of genetics play out like that right in front of you.

23andMe
1. The closest match at 23andMe is a granddaughter of Fred's uncle Elmer Joseph. It was pretty cool to find out that Elmer's descendants have tested, as grandpa knew Elmer pretty well, and has talked a lot about him. She shares 515 cM with, perfect for the first cousin once removed relationship they have.

2-4. I'm lumping these together because they are all children of Elmer's granddaughter.

5. This match is Fred's closest Gibson match at 23andMe. She is a great-granddaughter of Fred's aunt Annie Condon, his dad's only sister. One day I hope to get a picture of her, as Fred knew her really well and has lots of stories about her and her sons. It was from one of the Condon's that Fred heard about how his grandfather, John Gibson, would wait outside the Catholic church his wife Catherine (Cain) Gibson attended, never going inside, and walking home with her afterwards.

FamilyTreeDNA
1. The closest match at FTDNA was a real surprise. This cousin has ancestry from the same part of New Brunswick, Canada, that the Gibsons lived in for 40 years. He matches my other Gibson line relatives, but not the Cain ones, so he's gotta be connected to the Gibsons. As near as we can tell, he's descended from one of John Gibson's brothers, but we don't know which one. I'm thinking of trying to trace the lines forward and find some people to test, but it's been tough going to do that. So far my only success was tracing one of the sister's lines to about the 1980s. Not giving up on solving this one though! He shares 144 cM of DNA with Fred, so the match is real.

2. This one, I have absolutely no idea how she's connected. She doesn't match any of the Gibson or Joseph matches at FTDNA, and she shares just over 100 cM, so this one is a real puzzler.

3. Now this match was really exciting. He is a Gibson side match, and he has recent ancestry from Ireland! His grandmother's surname was Stephenson, which I found out not long ago was the maiden name of my 3rd-great-grandmother, Ann (Stephenson) Gibson, and she was from County Fermanagh, where my Gibsons emigrated from! I was hoping to hear back from him and see if he's found any more, but nothing yet. Maybe I should email him. He's another match over 100 cM so worth pursuing.

4. This one is another puzzler. Only 66 cM, but he doesn't match any of the Gibson or Joseph matches on here, including the cousins I've had tested. No idea where he fits in.

5. The last one at FTDNA is a Gibson match, and is a shared match with 1 and 3. She doesn't have a tree, and she shares just under 50 cM, so unless she puts up a tree, I probably won't pursue this one anytime soon.

MyHeritage
1. Fred's closest match here is another descendant of his uncle Elmer Joseph, making him a first cousin twice removed. I should point out too that Elmer's original name was Emil Joseph, and he (or his dad) anglicized it after they moved to Montana. He shares 467 cMs, so a great way to confirm Joseph side matches.

2. This is the same as #1 at FTDNA. He did the smart thing and tested at multiple companies (also at Ancestry and I think 23andMe as well).

3. Next up is another Joseph match. She doesn't have a tree on her account, but I can see she matches some of Fred's closest Joseph matches. She has 147 cM of shared DNA, so maybe 2nd cousin once removed, or first cousin twice removed.

4. This one turned out to be the same as #2 at FTDNA, but she had a tree attached to this account. The tree only shows most of her dad's side and none of her mom's but luckily we match on her dad's side. Turns out she's another descendant of Sam Joseph's sister Tina.

5. This one was amazing!!!! Turns out, I hadn't see her before today, so I went and checked out her tree to see how she matched up. Turns out, she is a descendant of Henry Gibson and Ann Stephenson, my 3rd-great-grandparents, through their daughter, Sarah Jane Gibson!! This is the first time I've found a DNA match to a cousin descended from Henry and Ann!!! She is Fred's second cousin twice removed, and shares 107 cM of DNA with him, which is perfect for that relationship. I have been wanting DNA confirmation that Henry and Ann were my people for years, I've had paper trail confirmation for a long time now, but I've always wanted to find another descendant and test them. Now I don't have to! I can use this connection to look for other people who are related to Henry and Ann, and maybe find some links to Ireland. I am bound and determined to find more info on my Gibson over there and then visit the country. One step closer!

So, in conclusion, this was an awesome and fun way to go through some of my grandpa's top matches, and it led to an amazing discovery! I think next time I'll do this with another grandparent's test. But which one?

Genes Day Friday - One more DNA test

As should be painfully obvious by now, I'm addicted to genetic genealogy and DNA tests. Having tested more than a dozen relatives, I've been amazed at all that I've learned about my family history through DNA.

When I got into genetic genealogy a few years ago, I learned there are two overriding principles that govern who to test - test the oldest generations first, and fish in every pond you can afford to. As to the first point, I soon saw the wisdom in such council - not even a year after testing my paternal grandmother, she passed away unexpectedly. Fortunately I was able to make some very signifcant discoveries in her ancestry through the DNA testing, and share them with her before she died. As my knowledge of the genetic history of my family increased, I found I needed more tests to answer questions that came up. I now have a pretty large pool of tests to work with. Some of them will need to be upgraded in the future (I only have one mt-DNA test at the full sequence level), and some additional tests will need to be ordered, but all the DNA I need from older generations is stored at the labs, and the additional tests and upgrades can be ordered as time and finances allow.

For the second point, I've done a pretty good job of that too. I tested my wife at Ancestry.com, most of my paternal and maternal family at 23andMe (back before the "new experience"), and more paternal and maternal family at FTDNA (as well as having the 23andMe and Ancestry results transferred over). And of course, everything has been uploaded to Gedmatch for maximum matching opportunities. So I feel pretty confident about the fishing in multiple ponds, except for one - Ancestry.

So far, my wife's test is the only one I have at Ancestry. And while many people who test at Ancestry take their data to FTDNA and Gedmatch, many more do not. I could be wrong, but Ancestry seems to be the "test here if you want us to do the work for you" lab. They still don't have a chromosome browser, even though the genetic genealogy community has been demanding one for years. They have the least in terms of tools to work with on their site, though the matching DNA to user's trees feature is pretty awesome. But overall, they seem more geared to helping people make fast and easy discoveries, even though they may not be 100% accurate (as Roberta Estes can tell you). But even with all those issues, I still want to get my lure in the Ancestry waters and find those cousins who for whatever have tested there and only there and won't spread their data elsewhere.

 

Then Black Friday came along, and with it, a whopping 30% discount on AncestryDNA's autosomal DNA test. That was a deal I couldn't refuse. Especially because this test was for the one person in all my testing that I haven't tested yet - me!





 

 

I bought the test Friday or Saturday night. Imagine my surprise, though, when the test came in the mail Wednesday afternoon! I wasn't expecting it for several more days. Score! 

 

 

I pulled it out of the box, activated it online, coughed up the spit, and sealed it in the envelope, all in less than a half hour. They really do make it easy for you. 

I put it in the mail Wednesday night, so now all I have to do is wait. I really hate waiting, but in this case, I am so totally swamped with stuff to do, I probably won't even notice the time go by. Ancestry said it normally takes 6-8 weeks for results to come back, so I won't be getting any results for Christmas unless they REALLY overdeliver. But things will hopefully slow down again for me by the middle-end of January, when the results are due back, so I can be patient. Probably. Maybe.

This is really exciting for me. Everyone else I've tested knowing that they share DNA with me or my wife and kids. This time I will actually get to see what MY DNA looks like - how much I actually have from each of my parents and grandparents and cousins. It's taken something I've grown to appreciate on a macro level, and delivering a whole new experience on the micro level. I can't wait to see what I look like! Genetically I mean. I do have a mirror at home.

I'm still working with my previous tests as much as time allows. But with genealogy projects popping out of the woodwork (which I LOVE), and all the Christmastime busy-ness, plus my upcoming role in my SAR chapter (I was elected Secretary at the last meeting), it's gonna be a whirlwind of a year in 2017. And I couldn't be happier.