Inventory--AncestryDNA circles- reinforcement of the importance of uploading to GEDmatch

When I worked in Retail, February was our Inventory time so it felt like a good time to take inventory of my Ancestry DNA Circles.

Ancestry DNA Circle Inventory  57 Circles:
Maternal:  29
Paternal:  23
Non-Direct: 5(Shipman/McMurry, Acuff/Harmon/Pharris. Nathaniel Haynes)

Largest Membership is Mason Combs(maternal) circle containing 112 members
Yep! No Television back then and the Combs are known for testing.  I do think that some
of these are attributed to the wrong group and should be in a Riddle circle. If they
claim to descend thru Amelia "Milly" Combs who was thought to be a COMBS for many years.  Many people still have her as a Combs.  She was a Riddle

The next largest is that of Jabel Putman with 62 Members.

Honorable mentions
Paternal:  Ann Knox(39 members)
Paternal:  Mark Lambert Jackson(36 members)
Maternal:  James Hatfield(50 members)
Maternal:  Peter Luna/Looney (55 members)

My sister(full sibling) has 58 Circles  She loses two of the Non-Directs but gains 3 Non-Directs.  Felix Grundy Crick, Susan Frances Putman and Wade Henry Carlton.  These are from our Paternal Grandfather's side who is a descendant of Cook, King, Putman, Manire, Harris, Ogilvie, Jackson.

Mom has 33 circles 4 non-direct(Includes the one maternal sis & I share and 3 ones which come and go on mine)
2 of the Non-Directs on Mom's can be attributed to Double Cousins testing--Two Hitchcock siblings marrying two Fleming siblings.  The other two are Acuff/Campbell cousins

My daughter has 62 AncestryDNA circles

Maternal:  52

Paternal:  7

Non-Direct:  3

She has all 52 of my Circles.  I have done a good bit of research on her Paternal lines and she would probably have more circles but the majority of those families had  less children than most of mine did which may account for the lower amount of circles--less descendants available to test.  The Hogland and Demonia lines are the exception.

Also while all three of the Non-Directs she has are from my lines she has only one of them in common with me(the Acuff cousin)  The other are the Hitchcock/Fleming ones that my Mom has from the Double cousins.  I should also note that my daughter, my Mom and my sister all have New Ancestry Discoveries.  I have none at this time.  I have had several appear in the past but they didn't stay long.

To me this reinforces the importance of working your circles and asking if the members will upload to GEDmatch.

My November Blog Post on How To Upload to GEDmatch

New Ancestor Discovery--most promising one so far

I had some New Ancestor Discoveries that showed up this past week on my AncestryDNA test.  The New Ancestor Discovery feature is still in Beta and I haven't really found it to be useful. These were a Shipman and McFadin couple and the father of the Shipman.  I have marked the New Ancestry Discoveries with an M if they are ones which also appear on my Mom's AncestryDNA test. They others and the new ones I have marked with a P(for Paternal) to note they are not ones I share with my Mother.

On first glance this doesn't really give much hope as this couple was born in the mid 1800s.  My Grandparents were born in the 1880s & 1890s.  and I have most of the direct lines back to my 4th great grandparents with the exception of my Cook(e) line which I only have proven to the 2nd Great Grandfather who was said to be born in NC in 1811.  Upon further examination of the couple I could see that they had people in early Bedford Co TN which is where my Dad's ancestors were early on in Tennessee's history.  It looks like the Shipmans were all listed as Chisums in the 1830 of Bedford Co TN.  Do not know why but see them in tax listings as Shipmans all other yrs.  Near them are Landers, Walker, and Turner families.  I should also mention that there are Shofners also on the same page.  I mention this because I have noticed matches with descendants of Martin Shofner.  There are also some Prince families on the next page(My Prince line married into the Putman line and was from Union Co SC).  I looked at the wife(Sarah Samantha McFadin) and worked her lines back to her grandparents. Bingo.....Her Paternal Grandmother is a Sally Brandon and a sister to my Nancy Brandon who married John King(they are my 4th Great Grandparents).  This may or may not be the connection but it possible.  The parents of Sally and Nancy are Charles Brandon.......and possibly Sarah Cook which further complicates this as she could be from my Cook line. This is a great argument for friends associates and neighbors research as well as cluster genealogy.  Families traveled together.  In colonial times and even up to the turn of the 20th century ...many people traveled in groups.   Families that had intermarried ...usually of the same faith as well.  Another cool thing about this New Ancestor Discovery is that in the grouping of what can best be described as the precursor to the Ancestry Circle(which groups together matches who have common ancestors with you in their tree) was that there was a group with which I share a rather large segment.  What's next...I will be looking more for more available records in Bedford Co. TN and the other areas in which the Brandon, Shofner, Landers  and Shipman families lived.  Hope to have more information to blog about from that.