Exploring My 23andMe Historical DNA Matches

 

I thought it might be a fun exercise to look at my Historical Matches at 23andMe.  Historical DNA matches compare your genetic data with DNA recovered from ancient human remains or historical individuals discovered at archaeological sites.  I sorted my historical matches by amount of matches from each group and it looks like I match with more samples from the Viking Age era than any of the others.  

I pulled the match info into a table including all categories but only the top two of the Viking Age era

I gave this information along with the descriptive blurbs included for each of the matches to Gemini and asked it to give me a brief summary.  

Gemini's Summary:
Your historical DNA matches span roughly 3,000 years of human history (from ~1400 BCE to 1700 CE) across a broad geographic range, including Western Europe, Central Eurasia, Scandinavia, and South Asia.

Highest Shared DNA: Your strongest genetic connections among these profiles are to Viking Age Merchant VK479 (0.14% DNA / 9.86 cM across 2 segments) and Viking Age Individual VK368 (0.13% DNA / 9.11 cM across 2 segments). Because you share multiple segments and higher centiMorgan values with them, these represent your most relatively recent shared ancestry among the listed group.

Geographic Spread: While the majority of your matches are centered in Medieval Europe and Scandinavia (e.g., Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Faroe Islands), you also share ancient genetic links with distant Eurasian populations from Kazakhstan (Late Bronze Age) and Pakistan (Swat Valley).

Relationship Context: All listed matches are classified as "Very distantly related." Rather than direct linear descent, these matches indicate that you and these historical individuals inherited small, preserved segments of DNA from common ancestors who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago.

I think that is a far assessment.  All of my ancestors(paternal & maternal) were living in the American Colonies by the time of the Revolutionary War.

My current ancestry composition at 23andMe as of their last update-- September 09, 2025.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars' Newest Feature: Learning Paths

 

I'm loving Legacy Family Tree Webinars' new feature called Learning Paths. It pulls together 3–6 webinars on a focused topic, ranging from beginner to advanced levels. You can choose from over 100 pre-created paths or build your own custom path. Simply pick the topics you like, enroll, and the site automatically tracks your progress.

Enrolling in paths, tracking progress, creating playlists, and earning certificates is completely free. Watching the individual webinars follows standard site access rules: free webinars remain free, while members-only webinars require a Webinar Membership.

My membership continues to feel like one of the best investments in family history research education.

An Ongoing Workflow: Connecting Top Matches to Help Identify Shared DNA Lines

My latest research project workflow has me working on identifying and linking within my tree my DNA Matches at Ancestry. I'm starting on my paternal matches so I've filtered them to show paternal lines.  I have my view set to show my top 50 Paternal matches and all of those but 10 are mapped out in my tree.  Having 80% connected is pretty good. Since these paternal matches range from 56-76 centiMorgans, I should be able to at least narrow it down to a grandparent or great-grandparent's branch of the family.

I took a quick look at my top 50 maternal matches and I have all but 3 of those identified.  There is also one surprise cousin whom I have identified but am not linking.  The maternal top 50 range from 117-281 centiMorgans.  The difference in the ranges between the maternal and paternal top 50 matches is likely due to my maternal grandfather's branch having a high number of descendants and with more active researchers among them.

To find our relationship path, I use the shared matches to identify the tester's lineage.  Some are easier to figure out than others, especially when a match has a close relative with an attached tree.

Once I finish mapping the top maternal matches, I'll meet my goal of having all DNA matches sharing 50 cMs or greater identified within my tree. Accomplishing this will make identifying future matches a lot easier. Also once I get the first page for each side done I will likely do the same for the 2nd pages of  paternal and maternal matches.

Jonathan Acuff's Place Mentioned in Newspaper Article(1932)

My 3rd Great Grandfather, Jonathan Acuff was mentioned in an article in the Sept 22, 1932 edition of the Bledsonian and Pikeville Banner. The article was a follow-up to a previous piece about Blackmon Shirley(known as the oldest G. A. R.veteran) who, according to Calhoun Swafford, had at one time lived at the Jonathan Acuff's place. 

But at what time was that?  

I did find Blackmon in Bledsoe County Tennessee. during the 1850 US Federal Census. Blackman's age in census records is all over the place.  After looking at the listing of his reported ages as a whole, I feel his actual birth year was around 1830, which would make him about 103 at the time of his death--definitely an interesting character.

Mr. Swafford noted in the article that it had been about 55 years since he had seen Blackmon, placing their last encounter prior to 1877. Hamilton County Tennessee borders Bledsoe County, but it is most likely that Blackmon lived at the Acuff place sometime between the 1840s and 1860. While we know he was in Bledsoe County at the time of the 1850 Census, we cannot say for certain that he was living at the Acuff place at that exact time.

 

Transcription of the article:

Calhoun Swafford Knew Shirley 

Calhoun Swafford of Route 1, came to the Bledsonian office Saturday and said that he remembers Black Shirley. An article about Shirley was published in our last issue. He is now said to be living in Springtown, Texas, where is getting considerable publicity on account of his age, he having reached his 114 year. An article clipped from the daily press said that he was a native of Tennessee having lived at Pikeville. Mr. Swafford said Black Shirley at one time lived at the Jonathan Acuff place, now owned by Mrs. Mary Brown on Route 1. Later he lived near Summer City and afterwards moved to Rhea county and from there he moved to Texas. Mr. Swafford thinks it must have been at least 55 years since he last saw him. Mr. Swafford relates an interesting experience with Shirley. He said that Shirley came to their home many years ago and boasted that he could ride a wild horse they had in the barn lot. Shirley was warned by Mr. Swafford's father that the horse was wild and could not be ridden. Shirley tried it anyway, and after a fit of bucking Shirley was thrown to the ground and stayed at their home several days before recovering from injuries sustained in the fall. Shirley was related to Mr. Swafford's mother, Mrs. Miria Mills Swafford. He also married a Swafford, it is said. Mrs. H. G. Ferguson stated to The Bledsonian editor that her mother, Mrs. C. E. Pope, also knew Shirley or knew of him when he lived here.

Source:

"Calhoun Swafford Knew Shirley," Bledsonian and Pikeville Banner, Vol XIV, No 51,  Sept 22. 1932, p 1 col 2; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHK-Q3RX-38B8  : accessed 16 August 2026 ) IGN 8972078, Image 102 of 1057.

1850 US Federal Census Population Schedule, Bledsoe County, Tennessee, Eastern District, Household 361, line 11, Blackman Shurley; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6L9Q-R8N :  accessed 16 August 2026 ). IGN 4191096(Item 2 of 2), Image 202 of 276

Ancestry’s Updated ThruLines: What I Like and What I'd Like To See In Future Updates

The updated layout of Thrulines appeared in my account yesterday.  I think it's a great visualization tool.  It lets you see how many DNA matches have been identified AND fall within the specifications to show up on Thrulines for each branch as you can see in the image below of my Thrulines out to my 2nd Great Grandparents.  

There is nothing that checks to see if the matches are on the correct side though and even if you do evaluate and add or choose not to add there is no option to mark a match as "not valid thru this line."  Case in point, my paternal 2nd cousin once removed (also paternal for him) who is also a maternal 4th cousin once removed (thru his maternal lines) but shares no DNA thru the maternal connection. He shows up in the Thrulines of the Paternal line and the Maternal line. While we are close enough thru the maternal line to have many shared maternal cousins I know he doesn't share DNA with me thru that side because he doesn't share any DNA  with my Mom who has also tested at Ancestry.

Below is a look at my Paternal Grandmother's branch.  The Thrulines doesn't offer the next generations for my 3rd Great Grandmother, Margaret Frizzell. This is due to pedigree collapse as she is a sibling of James M Frizzell my 3rd Great Grandfather(they are the children of Nathan Frizzell and Ruahama Weaver.  It also doesn't show a duplicate of Nathan and Ruahama in card view.  I can't remember if it did prior to the layout change or not.  Regardless they would need to handle pedigree collapse the same over all views of the new display.  I'm guessing it would do the same on a repeat grandfather who had children by multiple wives.  

You can change back to the classic view (at least for now) by selecting Thrulines card view option from the menu on the left. .

When you evaluate the connections a side bar pops out much like it does when you are running comparisons in Hints

Vertical View of match's line of descent from
Polly Jakes sister of my 3rd Gr Grandfather, James Jakes(1788-1847)
of Franklin Co., Virginia

View I see when I click on Samuel Bird, son of Polly Jakes

The image above shows the timeline view

Just below that is the option to toggle Sources which for this one included: 

Records (7) 

Ancestry Member Trees (3)

Photos (1)

Family (6)

What I Like:

• Multiple View Options: Flexibility to switch depending on research needs.
• At-a-Glance Overview: A larger, cleaner overview across several generations.
• Dynamic Zoom: Seamless zooming in and out on horizontal or vertical views.
• Better Layout of Details in the Evaluating Process

What I’d Like to See Next:

• An "Evaluate & Dismiss" Feature: The ability to mark a proposed connection as invalid and remove it from view.
• Parent Side Filtering: Automatically suppressing match suggestions that contradict verified Parent Side assignments. While this wouldn't eliminate incorrect connections that happen to sit on the right parent's side through a different line, it's a great start and would clear up many common errors.

Do you have the new view yet?  What are your thoughts?  

Dunklin Co. Missouri--John Lightfoot Admin of Estate of Milton Lightfoot(Nov 1906)

 Letter of Administration granted to John Lightfoot for estate of Milton A Lightfoot dec'd

Milton Lightfoot departed this life on the 1 day of November 1906, intestate, leaving the following children and heirs at laws, residing as follows, to-wit Rosa Taylor, William Lightfoot, John Lightfoot, Vera Crews, Rena Ridge, and Alice Lightfoot all who reside in the County of Dunklin and State of Missouri, and stating that he will make a perfect inventory and faith fully administer the estate, pay on debts as far as the assets will extend and law direct, and account for and pay all cost which shall come to his knowledge or possession. And it appearing to the court that said Milton Lightfoot, died possessed of Property of a probable value of One Thousand dollars($1000)

It is ordered that Letters of administration of the goods, chattel, credits and effect of said deceased be issued to the said John Lightfoot and that he enter into bond to the state of Missourrit in the sum of Two Thousand Dollars($2000) With two or more sufficient securities residents of this county conditions according to law.  

Now on this same day comes John Lightfoot and files his bond in the sum of Two Thousand Dollars($2000) as such administrator with G.W. Simpkins and J W. Burres? as security.
The court after examining said settlement doth approve the same.

Source
Dunklin Co Missouri Probate Records. Book 11 , p 539 & 540 November Term 1906, Letter of Admin by John Lightfoot for estate of Milton A. Lightfoot dec'd; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89LS-N9WF-2 : accessed 12 July 2026) IGN 7632571(Item 1 of 4) Image 26 of 846. Continued from IGN 007632570(Item 3 of 3) Image 558-9 of 814.