Our Cook(e) YDNA Path : Comparing Y700 results with FTDNA's Estimate from an Uploaded Autosomal of the Y Tester's Brother

Below is the path of my youngest brother's results. He tested as a direct male descendant of Wm Clifford Cook(1811-1882) our 2nd Great Grandfather -- a brick wall of our Cook research.

YDNA Haplogroup Path: Descendant of Wm C Cook(1811-1882) Bedford Co., TN, USA

R-M269    --Descendants of Wm Tryon Patterson, Wm Cook(e), and Shem Cooke(1722-1796 Granville NC)

R-L23 
R-L51
R-P310
R-L151 --Wm Cooke b 1740 Surry Co Descendant
R-P312
R-Z46516
R-ZZ11
R-U152
R-L2
R-Z258
R-Z367   --(Carroll Co TN Roland Cooke Descend(Thru Shem's son James)
R-Z34  --Hunt Surname NPE;  My brother, David's estimated Haplogroup
R-Z33
R-BY164497
R-BY3604
R-Z256
R-Z275 -- (Shem Cooke--Carroll Co GA Descend thru Roland B Cooke;  Cook with unk path
R-CTS7352 My Brother at the Y500 Level
R-BY72556 --My Brother Y700 (Wm Clifford Cook descendant thru Wm Green Cook; Patterson who descends from Wm Tryon Patterson w/ Carroll Co GA connected Y Line.

We started out with the R-M269 and it stayed there with upgrades until I could purchase a BigY test.  I have placed several others I have identified in his match list to visualize where they are within the path.  I also included my other brother's estimated Haplogroup which FamilyTreeDNA notified me about this past week.  It is one of the haplogroups that FTDNA has estimated from an uploaded autosomal DNA test. I had expected that he estimated Haplogroup would be R-M269 but it was more precise.  I'm not complaining.

If you have a connection to Cook(e)s from  Granville, Wake or Warren Co NC or the Carroll Co GA or Carroll Co TN Cook(e) please consider testing now or when they have their next YDNA sale at FamilyTreeDNA  If you have tested or have a family member who has tested you both should consider joining the Cook(e)-Koch DNA Project. 

Y-DNA Badge for Haplogroup Estimate from
uploaded autosomal DNA

Don't miss out on FTDNA's Summer Sale

 

Just a reminder that FamilyTreeDNA is having their Summer sale and it's the perfect time to test.  If you have ever considered testing a patrilineal line from any your more common surnames don't miss this opportunity to purchase a YDNA test.  

If you have already tested there are also upgrades available thru the end of August.

Also on my wish list of folks I'd like to see test are any direct male line descendants of Shem Cooke.  This is the Shem Cooke who wrote his will in 1792 which was probated in 1796 Granville Co North Carolina.  There are descendants from his son James Cook that have tested but none that I have identified from his sons William, John. Shem and Claiborne.  I think my Cooke may be from son William but I don't have a known direct male from Shem's son William to compare ours too.  My Brother took the BigY700 and we have those results in the Cook(e)  & variation surname project at FTDNA.  

Checking in: A Few Thoughts on Various Genealogy Topics

I am thoroughly enjoying Legacy Family Tree Webinar's Best of ESM Series which is a perk of their webinar membership.  Each lecture is thought-provoking and motivational in so many ways it's hard to explain.  That said, I'm not going to try but I will recommend that you look into a webinar membership to have access to that series and many more wonderful webinars.  There are so many opportunities for education when it comes to genealogical research methodology and techniques--many of them free.  Just Google your interest.

I've also been revisiting some of the record books from my earlier research armed with my more recent discoveries. Names of previously unknown ancestors and family associates help to pull things together and provide a clearer picture of our family stories.

I also need to revisit the YDNA results of my Cook(e) line.  My brother tested for us and over the years I upgraded it to the BigY.  If only YDNA testing was as popular as autosomal testing.  The cost is what prohibits many from testing. Hopefully that will change and more folks will want to have representatives from their family lines test--especially some of the more common surnames doing that. This would be a good way to prove or disprove a lot of the older research where DNA testing was not available as evidence.  In the Cook(various spellings) YDNA project we most closely match descendants of Shem Cooke of Amelia VA and later of Granville Co NC.  Our group is Rlb and is broken down into further grouping however there is a group of testers who also claim descendance from that same Shem Cooke who are J2.  One of us is obviously wrong (or there is a split after Shem maybe?) but which one remains to be seen. 

More Pieces of the Puzzle: Cook and Harrison

While continuing to work on the paper trail to identify Elizabeth Harrison's Cook husband, I went ahead and connected her as Wm C. Cook's mother. I also attached the census data, the link to my blog post(s) with the reasoning, and a note in the Suffix field of her profile.  

I revisited the YDNA matches of my brother for the COOK(E) Project and went over my notes and corresponded with one of the project admins.  While we do match a group of Pattersons as close as we match Cooks, the Pattersons lived near the GA & NC Cooks that descend from the Shem Cooke and there seems to be a connection to his line.  If our connection is thru Wm Pope Cooke that married Betsy Harrison, then we would likely connect all the way back to Shem Cooke thru a line of men with the given name of William. Prior to the BigY testing the 37, 67, and 111 marker tests were all we had.  There is representation more so from Shem's son James thru his children  Roland(d. 1842 West TN) and Shem(d.1862 Carroll Co GA)  There is one tester who descends thru the elder Shem Cooke(d. 1796)'s son William but he only tested at 37 markers.  His result contains no differing mutations with my brother at that level so he is an exact match at 37 markers.  This is an older test so I'm unsure if an update is possible but I am trying to make contact with others from that line who might be interested to see if we can come up with a way to compare.  At the same time I'm working further on his paper trail to see if it crosses with ours.  When my brother's test came in, I worked the matches trees to figure out exactly how they all were the connected.  Many of them didn't have trees...so I had to do a lot of sleuthing to figure it out but for the most part I have a very good picture of how they connect.  

I have access to AncestryDNA match lists of several descendants of the Shem Cooke(Carroll Co GA) and I have been looking at their closer matches to see if I could find an intersection with our clusters of unknowns which are likely Cook/Harrison related.   I did find one where I started noticing surnames that were familiar among those matches and have now identified more Harrison matches.

After having Elizabeth Harrison Cook connected for 2 days I am now seeing matches that descend from her siblings.  The great thing is that those matches are not all thru Rebecca Harrison who would match with the Cook Putmans because of their connection to Hiram Putman(Elizabeth Putman Cook's brother).  There are descendants of Nancy Harrison Hight, Gideon V Harrison, Edward Cannon Harrison and Martha Harrison Smith.  I think too somewhere back in there is another HIGHT connection or a connection to the Nichols(wife of a Hight).  The relationships of those matches are mostly 5C & 5C1R and are all well in range for those relationships.  Checking the shared matches is helpful as well to make sure none of them matched her(they didn't.)  

It should be noted that Thrulines® is a Tool that works using our DNA match list along with the trees on Ancestry.  It's still up to us to document and prove our conclusions so that our research is solid.  

Article about Shem Cooke in Historic Maury(TN) journal

Over the holidays a Google search on Shem Cooke pointed to an Amazon listing. The publication though no longer available at Amazon, should be available at the Family History Library in SLC and likely at the Maury Co TN Library.  The journal in question is Historic Maury- (Volume 32, Number 1, March 1996)  – January 1, 1996. The article I'm interested in is "Shem Cooke & His Family in Granville & Franklin Counties, North Carolina."

 

I want to see who wrote the article and which Cook(e)s are part of the Shem Cooke line because Shem Cooke's Y DNA line is a match with our YDNA line(well my brother's test) at a Genetic Distance of 1. Our Cook(e) line was in Bedford Co TN but can be found in records for the surrounding counties of Rutherford and Williamson. I've not yet found the connecting generations whether it's back to Shem or whether we connect prior to Shem.

Off to try and locate a copy of that article.  Hope to post an update when I can get a copy.

FamilyTreeDNA Summer Sale thru August 31st

FamilyTreeDNA is having their summer sale from now thru August 31st.  There are some great deals.  Also look for sale prices on upgrades by viewing the shopping cart for any test you have there.

The Ralston Project at FamilyTreeDNA

Today's blog post focuses on the Ralston Project at FamilyTreeDNA.  While I have no direct Ralston connection, I do have Ralston cousin connections thru my King and Manire lines.  One of those cousins happens to be one of the administrators of the Ralston Project.  

I asked him to tell me and my readers more about the project.  The following was his response:

As a Ralston, I cannot tell you how many times in my life I have been asked, “Are you kin to the Ralston in Ralston-Purina?” We’ve all heard of it: Checkerboard logo, Rice Chex cereal, Chex mix for parties, Purina Dog Chow, Animal chow for just about any animal you can name.

The fact is, there never was a person named "Ralston" associated with the Purina Feed company. It was a marketing ploy, to piggyback on the Ralstonism movement that was popular near the beginning of the twentieth century.

But the net effect has been that everyone in America knows how to spell and pronounce the surname “Ralston". Or to put it better, we North Americans have all been brainwashed to this mindset.

There are over a dozen legitimate ways to spell the surname. There are probably at least 6 distinct ways to pronounce the variations in spelling. But the marketing efforts of the Ralston-Purina Company, TV ads, and the rest, have homogenized the spelling and pronunciation of the Surname Ralston, in North America.

That is not necessarily a bad thing. It makes it easier for strangers to understand how to spell and pronounce the name.

But other spellings and pronunciations are accepted elsewhere in the English-speaking world. So, Americans and Canadians should be aware that "RAWL-ston" is not the only way to pronounce it. That is just the way it has been pronounced in advertising for the last century.

So, in this limited context, the word R-A-L-S-T-O-N is an acronym for the following: Regime, Activity, Light, Strength, Temperation, Oxygen, and Nature.

So, although there was no “Ralston” in Ralston-Purina, there are many Ralstons in the world, most just regular folks, but some notable or famous ones. Are they all kin – or are they of different lineages? These families may spell their names differently; for example, Roulston, Raulston, Rolston, etc. The Ralston Project at FamilyTreeDNA.com wants to find out how/if these Ralstons are connected and where they originated. If you are a male Ralston (or variant of the name) you can help us with this effort and help yourself learn more about your origins. We are specifically looking for Ralston men who are:

• Irish Rollestons with clear English descent
• English Rollestons
• Scottish Ralstons with ancestors from Beith, Kilwinning, Glasgow and surrounds.
• Irish Roulstons/Rolstons/Ralstons, etc., or descendants of such.
• Any Ralston who wishes to learn more about the origin of their paternal lineage.

For more information visit  Ralston Project at FamilyTreeDNA.com or The Ralston Project.

Is Your Earliest Known Ancestor listed correctly in your FTDNA account?

Over the past 5 months, I've spent time working with my family's YDNA and mtDNA results at FamilyTreeDNA(FTDNA).  When I initially registered my account at FTDNA I was doing so in order to transfer a copy of my autosomal results from AncestryDNA.  Admittedly, I did not fill out all of the information other than what was required until after my results processed.  The Earliest Known Ancestors tab was a bit confusing to me.  I did finally realize that they were wanting my most distant patrilineal line and my most distant matrilineal lines.  I believe since that time(3+ yrs ago) they have changed the wording but it is still a bit unclear to some folks.

In the example below I am using the pedigree of my maternal Great Grandmother.  If she had an FTDNA account(oh how I wish) and need to fill out that information the path she would follow on her pedigree to get that info is marked by the arrows.

Blue arrows mark her patrilineal line.
Red arrows mark her matrilineal line.

I have used the LARGE arrows to indicate the ancestors that should be listed on her Earliest Known Ancestors tab.  Of course, this is from my perspective and she may have known those lines further back than that.   If so, she would have included the most distant one from each of those paths.

FTDNA asks for this info because if you are a male, the patrilineal line will be that associated with your YDNA test.  Females do not have a Y and cannot take that test but fathers, full brothers, and paternal uncles etc. can take those test so they should list their father-line as well.  The matrilineal line shows the path of your mtDNA or your mother-line.  Males AND females can both take mtDNA tests but only females pass on their mtDNA to their children.

Below is a snippet showing my Earliest Known Ancestor Tab. If my Great Grandmother shown in the pedigree above were entering the information she would use John N. Hale(blue arrow) for the Direct Paternal and Nancy Combs for the Direct Maternal(red arrow)

If you have an account(or accounts) with FamilyTreeDNA, PLEASE take the time to check and make sure you have this information entered correctly.  While you are doing that, it would also be a good time to make sure you have designated a Beneficiary for your account.  Hope this helps!

Savings on FTDNA Upgrades.

FamilyTreeDNA sent out an email to person's who have tested with them that has sale prices for upgrades.  I hope that the surname groups are taking advantage of this and upgrading the 12 and 25 marker kits to 37 markers.  I'm not sure how long this is running though I would imagine it will end when the holiday sale ends. 

You may also be able to find coupon codes which would save even more money on the purchase.  Check your FTDNA account(s) for further info.  Logging on the account you want to upgrade and then clicking on upgrade or CART(upper right corner of the page) will show you what is available for that kit.