Kentucky.gov site --Genealogy Gem

If you were to ask me if I had any research interest in Kentucky I would have said not very much.  Sure my Frizzells had ties there but moved back and forth from Bedford Co. TN and Calloway Co. KY and for reasons which I have never been able to find my maternal grandfather was born in Jordan, Fulton Co. KY in 1892 despite the family having lived in Dekalb Co. TN.  Beyond that there seemed to be no really lasting ties in Kentucky.  Today I found a wonderful Kentucky resource that made me think about something I'd really not considered.  Over half of my GGG grandparents came from Virginia.  Did they leave a paper trail through Kentucky?  Did some of the children or siblings settle along the way?  The Kentucky Land Office page of the Kentucky Government website has a great deal of information available online.  The section which really peaked my interest was where they had scanned copies of wills that were found in the patent files.

I would recommend that if you have Virginia ancestors who moved south into Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri or  or even Mississippi, that you check these resources and read through a few of the wills.

March 4, 2015 --- HeritageQuest Online to be powered by Ancestry

When I logged into my library's HeritageQuest Online tonight I noticed they had an announcement.
Looks like exciting news.

Finding the Sisters of my Direct Lines for Clues to DNA Connections

Following my own advice and working on the daughter lines of my GGGG Grandparents.(eventually I will do this for my 5th greats)  Had so many names not in my direct line among those with a large portion of DNA matching close enough to put us as connected around the GGG or GGGG and started noticing surnames that were repeating.  So now I am going in search of those names.  Have already found where a sister of my Frizzell married into the Elliot family.  That may be the reason for several occurrences of the Elliott surname in a few of my matches files.  This is not an easy process.  DNA by itself is meaningless if you can't find the connection and back it with a paper trail.  It's not like the DNA linking someone to a crime where you have the  crime.  So now I think I have about 20 specific DNA projects I am working on to find cousins.....and then there are the other priorities in my life which come first.  I so wish I was more organized but I guess that is something for which we all strive.

Just for fun

Thought it would be fun to run my DNA kit through a few of the Admixture utilities and see how they compared to AncestryDNA"s interpretation 

This was Ancestry's Ethnic makeup guesstimate shown below

Chromosome Mysteries and hopes for some answers....A learning process for sure.

After having gotten my DNA results almost a month ago I have been working on finding matches to help solve a few of the research issues I have had on several of my family lines.  While waiting for responses from some of those I contacted I started looking more in depth at names and groupings of people that match along each chromosome.  I have been comparing matches along the X chromosome(Chromo 23) and noticed that I have over 6 matches who have the Taylor surname listed in their user name.  Given the X inheritance pattern (paternal grandmother and maternal grandparents) it intrigues me even further because you would think that there would be a wide assortment of surnames.  I don't have a Taylor surname in my direct line that I know of though I have always suspected that my GGG Grandfather, William Taylor Hale(Warren & Van Buren Co. TN), possibly had the middle name because it was the maiden name of either his Mother or one of his Grandmothers.  Since I have not gotten his line back with proof any further than him I do not know if this is so.  Another thought as I was looking through the family tree shares of people who match my DNA --I have noticed that there are several who have the surnames Archer, Collins Martin & Scott in their trees. I checked over my new matches at AncestryDNA and found a tester's name that I recognized.  She is a 4th cousin through my Daniel Pittman & Comfort Hatfield line.  I have had known matches of Daniel & Comfort's son David & his wife Mary Adcock but to get the DNA connection back even further is exciting.  I recommended that she put her DNA data at GEDmatch so that we could compare chromosome segment matches.  Sure hope she does as it would really help to sort those lines out.  Still waiting on Mom's DNA to show up as processing.  I would expect to have the results by the end of this month which will help me to determine what matches are on her side and which were from Dad..

Using "wait time" for DNA results wisely

Over these past 2+ weeks since I've gotten my DNA results, I've been busy analyzing and comparing in an effort to break through some of my genealogy brick walls.   I really had a hard time waiting on the results but while waiting(and it really wasn't that long--around 4 weeks) I wanted to use my time wisely.  If you have additional suggestions please add them in the comments.

Things to do while waiting for your DNA results:

• SET UP INQUIRY & INFORMATIONAL TEMPLATES  --  I did set up several templates with a link to my working file at Rootsweb's WorldConnect...a listing of my GGG & GGGG Grandparents and areas in which they lived.
• "FLESH OUT" YOUR FILES   -- I also made some efforts to find the maiden names of a few of the females where I had just their given name.  While I didn't have a lot of luck with that, I was able to pick up some new names by finding who my direct line's siblings had married.
• WRITE A PLAN OF ACTION  --  I did my atDNA test at Ancestry so my plan was to download raw data...upload it to FTDNA & GEDmatch.  I set up my username at GEDmatch ahead of time and uploaded a GEDCOM.  I also uploaded a "barebones" file of my direct lines to Ancestry.
• DOWN LOAD GENOME MATE  --  This is a WONDERFUL software that lets you compare segments of your results.  The first week I had my results at GEDmatch I was doing this by writing things down or copying into a spreadsheet...this is so much better.  I don't regret having tinkered with it the hard way....I think I learned more by doing that.  When I started out researching in 1990 I used the hand cranked microfilm reader.....to this day it is still my preference when viewing microfilm.(Don't judge me...lol)
• STOCK UP ON OFFICE SUPPLIES  --  Truth is....I look for any and every excuse to do this.  You will need loads of index cards for notes..post it notes unlimited supply of ink pens and mechanical pencils...and Print off a few 100 blank pedigree sheets and family group sheets so you can just grab those when the notion hits you.  As far as the pedigree charts take two of them and label one X inheritence Son and X inheritence Daughter....use these as your guides for checking contributors to your X Chromosome.
• WATCH GENEALOGY SHOWS  --  I have a bunch of shows such as Finding Your Roots, Genealogy Roadshow and Who Do You Think You Are? on my DVR.  You may also be able to find these OnDemand or on the web.
• GET FAMILIAR WITH DNA TERMS AND TYPES -- Read DNA blogs like DNA Explained   Join USER groups for the site(or hopefully sites) to which you plan to upload your DNA.  For my budget, testing at Ancestry and uploading to GEDmatch and FTDNA was the way to go. 

Several things I learned since getting my DNA results:

If you email 30 people you will get several responses....but then one day 20 will answer all at once...it will be overwhelming...don't stress.

Having a public tree at Ancestry.com doesn't mean that anyone with a username can see it.  Be sure to send a share to a match if you use Ancestry.   Those who have their test there but who do not have a subscription(such as myself) cannot see your public tree.  I did not know that.  I assumed(wrongly) that if I made a tree public, that anyone that had registered and had a user id could see it.  That is not the case. I feel like the explanation of Public tree as given by Ancestry needs some clarification. Ancestry allows you to share(and turn off a share) with several different options.  Don't miss out on a cousin connection because you didn't share your tree.

Not everyone loves genealogy. WHAT!!!!   Some have done the DNA tests purely for the entertainment value of knowing their ethnic makeup.  Sad but true...