52 Ancestors Week 17: DNA

+17 votes
542 views

From Amy Johnson Crow: April 25 is DNA Day, and it's no coincidence that the theme for Week 17 is "DNA." Has DNA testing broken down a brick wall for you? Is there a brick wall that you wish it would break down? Have there been any surprises? (If you're posting anything publicly, remember to not identify living people unless you have their permission.)

"Hey....Wanna send me some DNA?"*

* Says the mad scientist/genealogist.

in The Tree House by Chris Ferraiolo G2G6 Pilot (881k points)
Sure you may be surprised when the results come in. BUT! What if you're the one giving the surprise?! https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2023/04/52-ancestors-week-17-dna.html

12 Answers

+11 votes
Yes, I have brick walls that DNA hasn't helped with yet...

It revolves around the fact that I don't have Y-DNA. Would like to trace my 2nd grt. grandfathers on both sides, however, without some Y-DNA influx, it isn't going to happen. There is currently a lack of males of which to test for my lines that I know of. MY brother has no interest. I have a living paternal cousin, but i have no idea where he is living at this time.sigh.
by Janet Puckett G2G6 Mach 2 (29.1k points)
+10 votes

My GGF Paul Graul was a NPE, and his father's identity remains unknown (the last person knowing took the secret to her grave in 1972), so his father is the first gap in my family tree and my biggest headache brickwall. I joined a Graul group on FTDNA but that won't help as Paul has only one son (my maternal grandfather) but no grandson, and autosomal DNA is not specific enough to give reliable hints. Any ideas how DNA might help with that? I don't ... :(

by Oliver Stegen G2G6 Pilot (233k points)
+12 votes
Ha! I resemble that! What fun and Happy DNA day!
by Mags Gaulden G2G6 Pilot (669k points)
+10 votes

My paternal grandparents, a Miller married a Prichard.  On the Prichard side my grandmother's parents were Joseph Prichard Jr. and Elizabeth Bartlett.  Tons of matches of descendants to me on the Bartlett side.  Prichard side---nothing.  But his parents were Captain Joseph Prichard and Harriet Willett.  Tons of matches on the Willett side, proving grandmother's parentage.  But on the Captain Prichard side traced back two more generations....nothing.  I don't match a single Prichard descendant.  So is it Prichard's didn't produce enough children ?  Or descendants interested in DNA?  Or was my Prichard side dumped to make room for my mother's DNA?  Or did Harriet have a secret?  This is master mariner Captain Joseph Prichard.

by Pat Miller G2G6 Pilot (266k points)
+10 votes

With DNA I've been able to solve 3 brick walls in my wife's family, 2 going up, and 1 going down (a descent brick wall). 

I've discovered 2 NPEs within my own family.

I'm slowly working on trying to solve major brick walls in the Weddington Name Study.

by Eric Weddington G2G6 Pilot (557k points)
+8 votes
I still have a brick wall that DNA hasn't helped with. I'm not sure if anyone knows for a fact who the father of my Ggg-grandmother Sarah Davis-Jackson and her brother. I remember always being told it was a NA man. Although a cousin of mine says it was an African American man, I haven't quite figured out how he came to that conclusion entirely. But either way it's still just speculation and rumor really. Their mother married and had other children, and Sarah and William were raised by there grandfather according to the census.
by Daryl Blankenship G2G6 (8.5k points)
+12 votes

The most interesting discoveries I have made through DNA were the families of some younger sisters of my great-great grandmother Maria Sultzbach.

I had some rather close autosomal DNA matches named Davis, and no identifiable shared surnames. In a communication to one of these mysterious cousins, I commented that my great grandmother's sister Nora Stubblebine had married a man named Davis rather late in life, and never had children. Wow -- that information got results! It turned out that Nora's husband was the grandfather and great-grandfather of these "Davis" DNA relatives, and Nora (who lived to a very old age) was remembered by older Davis family members as their beloved step-grandmother. That led me to the discovery that the first Mrs. Davis, Malinda Long, who left several young children after her death from cancer, was a niece of Maria Sultzbach and a first cousin to my great-grandfather whose wife (my great-grandmother) was Nora's sister.  So my great grand-aunt Nora had married a family friend, and the step-children that she helped to raise are my relatives by blood as well as by marriage.

Discovery of these DNA cousins ultimately helped lead me to records for Malinda Long's mother (who was one of Maria Sultzbach's sisters) and other members of Malinda's birth family.

by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)
edited by Ellen Smith
+12 votes
One of my maternal great grandfathers was a mystery. He and my great grandmother divorced in the 1890s and he just wasn't talked about. My mother knew nothing about him. I did know his name and had records from before the divorce. But I was not able to find anything on him after the divorce. That is, until DNA. A few years after I had tested, I had a match that seemed to be part of this line. We put our heads together and realized that we had the same great grandfather! He had moved to Ohio and had a second family. I don't think either family knew of the other. Several others from this line have tested and are also matches. I not only found my great grandfather, but found his father and their Irish townland. Thanks, DNA!
by Jody Green G2G6 Mach 2 (21.8k points)
+12 votes
I didn't know who my father was before the DNA test. The only person who knew his identity was my mom, and she died when I was young. DNA testing broke down the biggest wall of my tree.
by Trevor Grismore G2G6 Mach 2 (27.9k points)

Amazing, Trevor.  Thank you for sharing this. heart

+10 votes

DNA - every year the subject I have to be very creative to find something to work on, since I didn't do a DNA-test.

This year I was wondering if I could look for people with the initials DNA. While playing around loudly with names and such stuff I suddenly landed at "Dan... ube". And here I found my topic for this year. I would look for the word "Donau" (German name of river Danube) and look for a branch I could connect.

Typing "Donau" in WikiTree+ gave me the profile of Anna Catharina Eberhardt. Her birth location was wrongly filled as to have been in the "Donaukreis" in Württemberg. Actually the village was a part of the Free Imperial city of Ulm. But the wrong information helped me find the profile and a branch of 36 profiles which are mostly located in the US.
Walking around that branch I found the profile of Joseph Bernard Hoskins. Clicking around in FamilySearch I found that the father of Joseph Bernard's daughter-in-law is already connected, which means that now nearly 40 more profiles are connected to the Big Tree.

by Jelena Eckstädt G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)
+7 votes

Brick walls I keep hoping to break though, since the paper trails are thin to non-existent.

1. 2GGP John Foley (Foley-3930) and Brigid Martin (Martin-59393), both b.Ireland around 1820 give or take a few years, no paper trail before the 1860 census, sourceless birthplaces for the kids all over eastern Pennsylvania so no FAN club to work with. John was a stone worker and apparently they moved around PA and NY following work until they settled in Kane, McKean, PA around 1862. The only other child of theirs we know had kids has given us several DNA matches but no new information, so I keep hoping for a 4th cousin who we can verify with MRCA on that line.

2. 2GGF Johannes Peder Jensen (aka John Peter Johnson, he used the two interchangeably) (Jensen-16340), b.22 Apr 1855 in Denmark but that's from his DC and the informant was a friend of the family who may or may not have had good info. I suspect the day and month may be correct but the year may or may not be. His paper trail starts in 1887 in Manistee, Michigan, when he married 2GGM Christine Marise Jensen, whom we've found several generations of ancestors for and who's DNA confirmed through 2C1R and 3C by way of her daughter by her first marriage. But John? Zip. His naturalization status was "papers" in 1910 and "alien" in 1920, so we could spend a small fortune paying Michigan for fishing expeditions for John Johnsons whom we wouldn't be sure were the right one anyway.

3. And one for my husband: His 2GGF was Charles Hall (1830-ISH - 15 Jul 1907) (Hall-55353). Family lore says he's the grandson of David C. Hall, son of Benjamin Hall and Elisabeth Mosely. DNA matches through several of Benjamin's siblings, none through David's. Nothing on David's children but names, so no known siblings or 1Cs for Charles. Charles was estranged from his family for marrying an Irish Catholic, so again no FAN club to work with. I've built out trees for Benjamin's siblings well into the 20th century, no sign of any other people who could be this Charles. So, DNA supports the "lore" but still no paper trail. Charles' birth varies over 20 years and three states on various documents. You'd think that having an aunt named Durzilla and an uncle named Elibeus I'd be able to find something on them, but no dice. :-(

John Foley, John Johnson, and Charles Hall -- hardly uncommon names! But, hope springs eternal, so I keep poking at these. :-)

by Lorena Wolfe G2G6 (8.7k points)
+7 votes
I am still in the process of using DNA (autosomal and yDNA) to determine the parents of my 2nd great grandfather William Macklem. He was born about 1823 in what is now Ontario, Canada, which didn’t start keeping civil records until 1867 when Canada was created. My brother’s yDNA does not match other Macklem descendants. The other Macklem’s are true Irish while my branch is Scottish. The search is slow going but I hope to get there at some point.
by Liza Gervais G2G6 Pilot (530k points)

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