Book Recommendation: A History of England--John Thorn, Roger Lockyer, & David Smith

For those of us who are researching our family history and who have English ancestry, one of the best resources is the book, A History of England by John Thorn, Roger Lockyer, & David Smith.  I was lucky enough to find a 1963 printing at a thrift sale for 99 cents about 15 years ago.  It has 600 pages including the index and many maps of the area for the time period covered in each of the sections.  This could really be helpful to those doing DNA research to give them more information about what was going on in England during the time in which their ancestor was there. Also if your ancestor immigrated from England it could be helpful in determining why your ancestor decided to leave England.

My family's AncestryDNA Genetic Communities

At RootsTech 2017 Tim Sullivan, CEO and president of Ancestry announced that Ancestry would be rolling out a new tool in March for those who have taken their AncestryDNA test(an autosomal test).  As the name suggests it groups your DNA matches into communities.  If you are interested in knowing more about all the research put into developing and the basis for this feature you can see that at the Genetic Communities: Whitepaper.

Expectations

What were my expectations?  In my own ancestry I have a great deal of colonial lines many of which settled in the southeastern United States.  Paternal lines I expect a good deal of English/Irish  represented in those matches.  Many of them were in Logan Co. KY, Union Co. SC and later Bedford, Rutherford and Williamson Co.,  TN.  My maternal lines are from the Isle of Man, England and Ireland.  In the states the concentration would be White, Warren and Van Buren Co TN area.  

For my daughter's ancestry my expectations were German and English with colonial communities in Georgia, East Tennessee, Alabama and Virginia.  She did have ancestors who immigrated a lot later than mine 1830s and 1890s and I expected to see communities for them in Florida and also Franklin Co Indiana.

For my sister's results I was expecting along the same lines as my own even though we have a lot of variation in what we inherited from our Dad.

Results for:

Me

Early Settlers of Northern Arkansas & Middle Tennessee--You and 466 of your DNA matches, along with 114,564 other AncestryDNA members, are all genetically linked to form the Genetic Community Early Settlers of Northern Arkansas & Middle Tennessee.

.....Settlers of the Ozarks & Middle Tennessee--You and 114 of your DNA matches, along with 9,988 other AncestryDNA members, are all genetically linked to form the Genetic Community Settlers of the Ozarks & Middle Tennessee.

Early Settlers of Tennessee & the Deep South--You and 709 of your DNA matches, along with 214,588 other AncestryDNA members, are all genetically linked to form the Genetic Community Early Settlers of Tennessee & the Deep South.

My Daughter
Early Settlers of Tennessee & the Deep South
Early Settlers of Northern Arkansas & Middle Tennessee
Early Settlers of Georgia & Florida

Mom
Early Settlers of Northern Arkansas & Middle Tennessee
....Settlers of the Ozarks & Middle Tennessee
Settlers of East Tennessee & the Blue Ridge Mountains
Settlers of Missouri Ozarks & East Tennessee




















My sister(full sibling)
Early Settlers of Northern Arkansas & Middle Tennessee
Settlers of Western Tennessee, Arkansas & Northeast Texas
.....Early Settlers of Tennessee & the Deep South
Early Settlers of Northern Alabama

Clicking on one of your Genetic Communities takes you to a Origins page which includes a timeline and a more close-up view of the area it covers.

From there selecting CONNECTION loads a page which has a list of your matches and the Top Surnames found in that community.

I'm sure this feature will be helpful to many people especially those who don't already know much about their ancestry and those who immigrated later on.  Keep in mind that I'm writing this from the perspective of someone using the US version of Ancestry with colonial American roots on both sides of the family.  The experience will be different for each person.  I feel like the communities are too broad right now to be of any significant help to me.  I'm hoping that will change as time goes on and we will be able to look at a more detailed group.  While I do like to see the Associated last names, I think a better option would have been to link those names to a search of your matches from that genetic community.  When I clicked on a name that was what I expected(Yes I didn't read the text up above the names before clicking).  Still, a great feature and I'm sure it will bring additional interest in researching both genetic and traditional ancestry.

Beckman family in 1930 Nashville City Directory.

A follow-up to my post from last Friday about finding my daughter's Paternal 2nd Gr Grandparents and their son(from Franklin Co. Indiana)  enumerated in Nashville Tennessee during the 1930 census.

It doesn't look like they were just passing thru.  I also found them in the Nashville Directory.

Directories are a great resource that often times get overlooked.  Ancestry has a pretty good selection of directories especially for the larger cities.  In addition to placing a person at a specific place within a given time period you can also find out about the area by reading the business directory section.  Some directories also contain additional information about the areas which they cover.

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.

Examining a Maternal DNA Circle--Mason Combs(1746-1802)

Mason Combs, while not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, is most likely my 5th Gr Grandfather and the father of Nancy Combs Fleming.

Examining the Mason Combs AncestryDNA Circle
Members:   124
Groups:    39

Mom matches 50 members which represent 18 groups.

I match 26 members also within the 18 groups.

My sister matches 18 members also within the 18 groups.




Members of the 18 Groups represent the following connections:

• Descends from John Fleming and Nancy Combs thru their daughter Charlotta Fleming(This is the source of my Combs line)
• Descends from John Fleming and Nancy Combs thru their daughter Martha Fleming. Walling.
• Descends from John Fleming and Nancy Combs  thru their son Samuel Logan Fleming
• Descends from John Fleming and Nancy Combs thru their son William Logue Fleming.
• Descends from Martin Johnson and Sarah Combs thru their son John Clark Johnson.
• Descends from Martin Johnson and Sarah Combs thru their son Martin Johnson
• Descends from Martin Johnson and Sarah Combs thru their daughter Nancy Johnson.
• Descends from Martin Johnson and Sarah Combs thru their son Pleasant Miller Johnson.
• Descends from Simon Combs & Martha Murrell thru their daughter Ellender Combs Hammer.
• Descends from Jeremiah Combs and Charity Rhodes thru their daughter Nancy Combs Clark.
• Descends from Jeremiah Combs and Charity Rhodes thru their daughter Sarah Combs Lane
• Descends from Daniel Paine and Silvia Combs thru their son Herbert Murrell Paine.

There are several different subgroups within 3 of these groups.  Also, a group shows as descending from  Amelia Millie Combs Hitchcock thru her daughter Nancy Hitchcock Fleming.  This group is totally misnamed and attributed because of a long-standing belief that the Millie who married George Hitchcock was a Combs.  She was not. She was a Riddle.  The marriage record was found by Agnes Jones over 15 years ago in the  Roane County Tennessee marriage records.  Given that Millie was fairly young when she married George it is highly unlikely that this could have been a second marriage for her.  Nancy Hitchcock(sister to James P.) mentioned above married Alfred Patton Fleming a brother of Charlotta(and child of Nancy Combs Fleming)  and that is the source of the Combs DNA thru the Combs Fleming Connection and not thru a Hitchcock/Combs(which is actually a Combs/Riddle connection.)

I should mention that I descend from George Hitchcock and Amelia Riddle as well as John Fleming and Nancy Combs so those who descend thru Alfred Patton Fleming and Nancy Hitchcock would be Double Cousins with me as Alfred is the brother of Charlotta and Nancy is the sister of James P. Hitchcock my 3rd Gr Grandparents.

Of course just being in the circle doesn't prove kinship to everyone in the circle.  We could just have common matches or lines on our trees could be attributed to the wrong ancestors and we could share DNA thru another ancestor.   The will of Mason Combs who dies in 1802 only mentions 2 sons Simeon and Jeremiah who apparently are not yet of age.  More research is necessary in order to draw solid conclusions.

Will of Phillip L. Gesell--1871 Franklin County, Indiana

My daughter's Paternal 5th Great Grandfather Phillip L. Gesell has such an informative will.  I found it today at Ancestry.  I've been wondering what all I'd see as far is it pertained to my own ancestry with the roll out of Ancestry's  Genetic Communities and today I thought about what it might mean for her ancestry as she too has atDNA tested at AncestryDNA.  While pretty much all of my lines are here in the US prior to the Revolutionary War, my daughter, Brittany has German lines which come to the US around 1830.  She also has an English line that immigrates in about 1890.

Phillip L. Gesell's Will is so wonderful because it names the children  and the husbands of his daughters as well as naming those who live out of state.  Three of the children are living in Iowa.

His Will is Recorded in Franklin Co Indiana.

Below is a small snippet of the will but it is perhaps the most informative portion.

Will of Phillip L Gesell
Probate Date 28 Aug 1871
Probate Place Franklin, Indiana, USA
Item Description Will Records, Vol 2-3, 1870-1890

Will Records; Author: Indiana. Probate Court (Franklin County); Probate Place: Franklin, Indiana   Will Records, Vol 2-3, 1870-1890  Ancestry.com. Indiana, Wills and Probate Records, 1798-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Indiana County, District and Probate Courts.
Accessed March 21, 2017