Worked on My Daughter's Paternal Ancestry--The German and English Immigrants

AncestryDNA has updated communities so I checked for my daughter Brittany's test results but was disappointed that they still do not show any communities for her Germans which settled in Franklin County Indiana abt 1839.  I do understand that there are not many German testers, but this was an area with a high amount of German settlers--among them Beckman, Braun, Weidekuehn, Gessell, Bossert, Ritter, Wirth,  Those lines are represented in Thrulines so I don't feel like it is a lack of testers.

I checked her matches at MyHeritage from her DNA upload and found a Gessell descendant among her DNA matches. Not one from Phillip Leonard Gessell the immigrant, but a generation further back with descendants still living in Germany who have tested.  This totally made our day.  Worked on adding more information to that portion of the tree and added the segment to DNA Painter for my daughter's chromosome painting.  The Gessell line is back thru the ancestry of Brittany's paternal grandfather.   I have attached a screenshot below showing how it appears in her chromosome painting at DNAPainter.  She is fortunate that 3 of her 4 grandparents have DNA tested and I am able to use that to do a visual phasing of her chromosomes to determine each of those grandparents contribution to her DNA.

Found some additional info for the Gessell line and then started working on her English lines at FamilySearch.  Her Folley line was the most recent of any of her ancestors to immigrate to the US. I like to work on that line at FamilySearch since I cannot justify getting a World Explorer subscription for just that one portion of my research, especially when I can find records for that area elsewhere for free.  

Worked on getting her ancestors linked in the FamilySearch tree so that her fan chart would fully display.  She was impressed and it really didn't take much work once I had the more recent generation linked.

MyHeritage releases PhotoDater™ tool

MyHeritage released their PhotoDater™ tool today. See their announcement on their blog.

I was among those that got a preview of the tool and have been using it to see how well it does as well as to answer some questions I had about a timeframe for a photo which some claim is of my 3rd great grandparents (born in 1803 and 1808 respectively).  I have always felt that the photo was not them.  The clothes, hairstyles date the picture to about 1890 and at that time they would be in their 80s.  The folks in the picture do not appear to be in their 80s but closer to the 30/40 age range.  A number of the ancestry trees have it attached to Daniel and Comfort Hatfield Pittman's profiles.  The MyHeritage tool estimated the photo to have been from around 1890 with a high confidence level.

I knew the date of this picture of my Aunt Viola Cooke Agee. The PhotoDater™ was only off by one year.  There are limitations of course to what it can do.  This is going to be a very helpful tool to use in getting a quick idea of the time in which a picture was taken.  See the blog post announcement from MyHeritage for full details.  

New Improvements at MyHeritage

MyHeritage has made some great improvements to the tools available to help with our research.  In the past few days they have released a new view option for your photos.  In addition to grid view you now have a list view with quick edit & sort/filter options.  You can read more about it at their blog

Several months back they released a DNA Label tool which is very helpful in sorting your DNA matches into groups.  MyHeritage is so good about listening to customer suggestions for improvements.  Within a month after the initial release of the DNA Label tool they implemented a number of those suggestions to provide further value to the DNA Label tool.  You can read more about those improvements at their blog.

My DNA Labels at MyHeritage

Also check out their blog to see their 2021: Year in Review.

MyHeritage offers Free Access to DNA tools with DNA Upload Feb 21-28

I received this message from Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage yesterday and wanted to pass it on to anyone who has taken an autosomal DNA test at AncestryDNA, 23&me or FTDNA.

His message reads....

"For a limited time only, between February 21–28, 2021, we are waiving the unlock fee.You can now upload your DNA data to MyHeritage and get access to your Ethnicity Estimate, Genetic Groups, and other advanced DNA tools such as the Chromosome Browser, AutoClusters, and Theory of Family Relativity™ — absolutely free! These features will remain free forever for the DNA kits you upload to MyHeritage during this week."

Check out MyHeritage's Blog for more info on this.

MyHeritage to have 24-hour Genealogy Webinar Marathon March 12th-13th

I received an announcement from MyHeritage letting me know that they will be having the first 24-Hour Genealogy Webinar Marathon.  The marathon begins on Thursday March 12th(5pm Eastern) and ends on Friday March 13th(5pm Eastern).  Each webinar will be 45 minutes which includes 10 minutes for questions following each session. To attend the webinars click on the logo below and register for as many of them as you'd like to attend.  It's free.  The recorded webinars will be available free for a week and will be included in the LegacyFamilyTree Webinar library which can be viewed at any time with a LegacyFamilyTree Webinar Membership.

Click on the Image below for a listing of Topics, Speakers, and to Register.

Working with the NEW DNA Analysis Tools at MyHeritage

After my previous blog post about ThruLines™ and how I was using it with my Putman line, I moved on to MyHeritage's new tool  Theory of Family Relativity™.  I have about 12,800 DNA matches at MyHeritage for which about 77 theories were generated.  Among the theories was one for a descendant thru one of the Putman/Tyler children thru which I had previously found no testers descending thru.  Now to verify and check and recheck. 

In the example below, you will notice that there is hyperlinked text which says "View Full Theory."  This will allow you to see additional information about the connection or connections if there are more theories than one. It will also give you a confidence level for the relationship(s) on that page.

I'll be the first to admit, I don't do such a great job of my notes at MyHeritage(or FTDNA).  This makes it hard when I run AutoCluster reports because my note field offers very little hints.  I would recommend that you write notes on your first 100 or so matches at MyHeritage and use the Theory of Family Relativity™.tool for help with your notes before running the AutoCluster tool.  It will make the report far more useful.

RootsTech 2019--Day 3

Day 3 of RootsTech 2019.  Here is my take on Friday's happenings from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech

Friday's Live Stream

Why and How to Put Yourself into Your Family History--Curt Witcher, Amy Johnson Crow, Scott Fisher  What a moving presentation.  Amy shared some of her family stories and reiterated the importance of recording our stories.  "Experiencing stories alter our brains and make us better individuals," said Curt Witcher.  Scott Fisher gave us some great points to consider when planning the interview(Who? What? When?)  The Q & A portion made me cry.  I was reminded of my Grandmother when an attendee asked what to do when interviewing a family member who has Alzheimer's or dementia.

Essential Considerations for DNA Evidence--Blaine Bettinger
I LOVED this session!  Blaine covered so many things that we should consider when we are evaluating our DNA matches--Confirmation Bias, Tree Completeness, Pile Up Regions, Small Segment Matches, Segment Frequency, Total Shared DNA.  Catch this when they post today's sessions!  You won't be sorry!

Friday General Session: Saroo Brierley
What an AMAZING story!

Getting the Most Out of Billions of Records on MyHeritage SuperSearch--Mike Mansfield
Mike introduced us to the tree Sync feature between the FamilySearch tree and MyHeritage tree and how it was handling exceptions and conflicts in data, especially as it pertained to LDS researchers and maintaining the integrity of the FamilySearch tree.  He showed examples of the tree features and MyHeritage's SuperSearch.  He also discussed the new tool Theory of Family Relativity that premiered this week.

Discover Your Japanese Ancestors--Valerie Elkins
Valerie explained that while the Japanese are excellent record keepers they value their privacy.  When researching Japanese ancestry you need to understand the Japanese culture Names are laid out differently.  The Japanese have 3 different alphabets and use a different calendar.  They also have male heir adoptions and she offered an explanation of that.  The Koseki is a Japanese family registry.  Why did my Colonial Americans not have those?  Very informative presentation.

The Research Road Map: Your Path to Success--Amy Johnson Crow
We need research goals and a question we want to answer.  "Phrase it in the form of a question.  Pretend you are on Jeopardy." Review what you already have....your notes and your sources.  Identify holes in your research or opportunities.  Use a Timeline.  Evaluate your sources.  Is there a better source available now?  Amy gave a really great explanation of sources, information, and evidence and the two types of each of these. Be sure to check out her genealogy podcast, Generations Cafe.  It's available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify.  She is a wonderful speaker and above all an inspiring teacher.

Friday's Hottest News
MyHeritage announced that they are donating an additional 5000 kits to DNA Quest, a project they initiated which is helping adoptees to find their biological parents.  All of today's sessions were great and my news-feed was buzzing with people talking about the new AutoCluster tool at MyHeritage as well as the new Ancestry tools.

RootsTech 2019--Day 2

Day 2 of RootsTech 2019.  Here is my take on Thursday's happenings from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech.

Thursday's Live Stream

Making the Leap—Becoming a Professional Genealogist (Power Hour) --Luana Darby, Valerie Elkins, and Anne Teerlink  If you are thinking of going professional as a genealogist, this session was so FULL of great information.  Make sure you download the handout.  This presentation made me so glad that I have never wanted to go Pro. Not that I don't aspire to have my research at the professional level.  So glad they are now streaming the Q & A for the sessions today.

Finally! German Church Records and How to Use Them on FamilySearch--Trish Melander
Trish told the story of how the German Church Records were saved by Paul Langheinrich.  These are on FamilySearch and she showed how to navigate to them either using Records or Catalog.  I also enjoyed the case study by Karl Bodamer.  Loved the use of the Geogen site.  This has given me several ideas on where to search when working on my daughter's paternal lines.

Thursday General Session: Patricia Heaton--It was fun hearing from Patricia Heaton.  She's a funny lady.  She was so excited about her DNA reveal.

What You Don't Know about Ancestry (Sponsored by Ancestry)--Crista Cowan
YouTube feed was not working on this Livestream but I did manage view via the RootsTech.org homepage.  I think everyone wanted to hear what Crista had to say and that broke the feed. She talked about the new tools at Ancestry:  MyTreeTags™, DNA Matching List. and ThruLines™. ThruLines have replaced DNA Circles although you can still view your circles at this time if you have DNA tested.


Heirloom, Documentation or Junk: What to Keep or Toss--Janet Hovorka
What's important to keep? Preserving your personality.  Who should inherit specific items? Organize and explain what you can now. Preserve your digital materials. Who will you pass the torch on to...who will best preserve your precious items'  She also brought up the need for a Digital Will.  Definitely, something to think about.


Perilous Assumptions: Revisiting Those First Finds--Kris Rzepczynski
Love the case studies especially the one of the letter found in the WWI records.  An amazing account!  I've been researching for almost 30 years.  I need to revisit ALL of my earlier research.  Sometimes we build our own brick walls..


Thursday's Hottest News
The official announcement of the new Ancestry Tools.  Also monitoring social media and genetic genealogy Facebook group members' post as they worked with the new tools was insightful.  The announcement that GeneticAffairs' AutoClusters would be coming to MyHeritage was officially made and that option appeared on my account at MyHeritage this morning.

Link to RootsTech 2019 Day 1  --

RootsTech 2019--Day 1

Today was the first day of RootsTech 2019.  Although I'm not physically there are many ways to participate.  Here is my take on Wednesday from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech.


Wednesday's Live Stream

What’s New at FamilySearch?--Ron Tanner(FamilySearch International) talked about the exciting additions at FamilySearch as well as some new tools in the works.  I like the expanded fan chart(see mine below)  Also high-speed possible duplicates.  He also talked about an upcoming feature which will allow corrections to indexed images.  This is something that has been needed for a LONG time and I'm so glad to hear that's in the works.


Hear Them Sing! Social History and Family Narrative--Rebecca Whitman Koford CG, CGL
What a great reminder of something I need to do more of--write the stories of my ancestors.  She talked about using timelines to pull the history together.  I LOVE timelines.  They are such a great help in our research.

Uncovering Family Stories with British and Irish Historic Newspapers--Myko Clelland(FindMyPast)
Lots of great information on wildcard searching in this session.  Excellent list of the different types of articles in which you may find ancestors.  Get the App and download the handout!  It contains links to Newspaper sites, some of which are free.

Connecting Your DNA Matches--Diahan Southard
Great outline of what a genetic network is and how to create them.  Also, some tips about how to search for ICW(in-common-with)ancestors.  She also included a bit about the new features ThruLines(at Ancestry) and MyHeritage's Theory of Relativity.  I loved that she gave examples of why these are HINTs.and some situations where the suggestion is wrong.  I always enjoy Diahan Southard's presentations.


Wednesday's Hottest News

Today's hottest news--Genetic Network tools from MyHeritage(Theory of Relativity) and Ancestry(ThruLines).  Ancestry also has several other tools including TreeTags and AncestryDNA Custom Groups

The most exciting news for those with African American ancestry beyond the new tools for use with DNA research would be the donation of $2 Million dollars by the LDS church to the International African American Museum.


I also love the Extended Fan Chart mentioned in Ron Tanner's presentation.

My personal favorite announcement was that the GeneticAffairs' Autocluster tool will now be part of the MyHeritage Tools.  A VERY busy day!.

Attempt at comparing MyHeritage test amounts onsite to MyHeritage test Uploads at GEDmatch

I have been curious to compare how my matches at MyHeritage show up(amount-wise) when they are uploaded to GEDmatch.  Today I noticed that I had  three new matches from MyHeritage at GEDmatch in addition to one that I'd had for about a week.  Uploaded MyHeritage kit are those identified by a prefix of the letter H.  That gave me a total of 4 matches to compare the reported amounts from MyHeritage to the matching amount at GEDmatch.  Sadly, I was only able to positively identify one of the matches.  I could not find the other 3 matches among my 89 matches at MyHeritage.  I did a scan of all nine pages and when that didn't result in me finding any of the 3 matches  I did a search for the full names and email user names.  Still nothing.  So then I looked up to the amount shown at GEDmatch + 10cMs nothing that looked like a match despite the fact that most of the users appeared to have used their full name.

Below are the amounts from GEDmatch and the comparison with the one match I was able to identify.  

Below is a screenshot of the last two matches on my My Heritage DNA matches.  They were sorted from Greatest Total Amount to smallest.  Why are matches 2, 3 and 4 not listed?  Is the Total Matching Theshold to make the list 15 cMs?  Smallest amount to be considered a segment match 5 cMs?

More questions than answers.  I did check the DNA Match quality info button, as well as the DNA help files to see if I could find the answer to the above questions but did not see anything listing what the cutoff amounts were to be listed, nor the minimum amount of cMs to be considered a matching segment.  I'll post an update if I figure out the answers. Comments are always welcome.