Digging Deep into My Roots

23andMe’s Relative Finder predicts Yvonne STEWART is my “Distant Cousin.” That means she would be greater than a 10th cousin. Up to “Distant Cousin” Relative Finder assigns a range around its prediction. For example the prediction might be 4th cousin with a range of 3rd to 6th cousin. Yvonne and I have one matching segment of DNA on one chromosome comprising just .07 percent of our total DNA. That is the only segment we both have from our shared ancestor that is at least five centimorgan’s long (the minimum threshold for Relative Finder to call a match).

When Yvonne and I first looked to see if we could find a shared ancestor in our pedigrees, I couldn’t find one. She later pointed out to me that I was mistakenly looking in my mother’s line when our match was in my father’s line (Yvonne did not match my mother). If Yvonne and I were 11th cousins we would have to share a 10th great grandparent. If I didn’t have the same person in more than one of my lines, I would have 4,096 10th great grandparents. I know I don’t have 4,096 unique 10th great grandparents, because my parents are 4th cousins, one time removed. I expect my parents' lines merge at other places in our family tree also. Nonetheless, there are a lot of possibilities at the 10th great grandparent level, and I do not know the names of many of my 10th great grandparents. In fact, my pedigree chart has many blank boxes after my 2nd great grandparents, so I doubt I will be able to find a shared ancestor with many “Distant Cousins.” Any shared ancestor with an 11th cousin I do find may not be the ancestor from whom I have inherited the segment. However, I expect to have a lot of fun looking (and I also expect to learn a lot in the process).

A couple of weeks ago I contacted another of my Relative Finder matches. In that case Relative Finder predicted we were 5th cousins (with a range of 3rd to 10th). I sent her a link to my pedigree, and she recognized the WYATT surname as being one in her pedigree. She told me Mary Ann WYATT, born in Rowan County, North Carolina in 1839, was her ancestor. I went to Ancestry.com and found a family tree that showed her Mary Ann’s WYATT line was Noah (1805-1871), Thomas (1773-1846), John (1743-1815), John (1714-1776), John (1679-1738). This last John married Rachel CALLOWAY (1675-1719) on November 17, 1696, in Albemarle Precinct, Perquimans County, North Carolina. John and Rachel are my 7th great grandparents, so the lady I matched is my 8th cousin. If the shared segment passed down both lines it came from either John or Rachel. I chart all my matches. I will be watching for another person who shares that segment with me. Perhaps I can then figure out whether the segment came through the WYATT line or the CALLOWAY line.

I mention this WYATT/CALLOWAY line because Yvonne and I then found we share a WYATT ancestor, the Reverend Haute WYATT (1594-1638). He was the brother of Sir Francis WYATT. Francis WYATT was the first colonial governor of Virginia. Fortunately, both are well-documented. As it turns out, the Reverend WYATT is my 10th great grandfather, and he is also Yvonne’s 10th great grandfather. So, Yvonne and I are 11th cousins. She is descended from Reverend WYATT’s first wife, and I am descended from his second wife. That means if we did inherit our shared DNA from this line, it had to be from Reverend WYATT.

If nothing else, Relative Finder is causing me to get to know my WYATT line a lot better. It is also causing me to extend every line I can in my pedigree to try to find why I match the people I do at 23andMe. I am learning a lot about my family history as I extend those lines (and I am having a lot of fun while doing it). I am also meeting some very nice new cousins.

We Are All Cousins

In our VICK and Allied Families DNA Project at 23andMe we are looking for people who match more than one of our project members. The hope is that some of these people will lead us to discover some of the missing names in our collective family tree. I have also noticed that my wife and I have some of the same predicted cousins at 23andMe. One lady matches two other members of our project in addition to me. I noticed she also matches my wife. Seeing that my wife and I match the same person (we actually have more than one shared match) caused me to start thinking about where my pedigree would first join my wife’s pedigree. Years ago when I was researching my father’s pedigree I found that my mother and my dad were 4th cousins, one time removed (their shared ancestors were Shadrach MERCER and his wife Rhoda PRICE).

At some point all of our pedigrees begin to merge, so it is just a question of how far back we have to go in each line to find that point. Yesterday I was researching the pedigree of the lady who matches the other two descendants of Joseph Vick, my wife, and me. Relative Finder predicted this lady was my “Distant Cousin.” Relative Finder also predicted she was my wife’s distant cousin. I found that the lady and I are 11th cousins. Our shared ancestor was Rev. Haute WYATT (born June 4, 1594, in Maidstone, Kent, England). Rev. WYATT was the brother of Francis WYATT, the first English colonial governor of Virginia. The lady I matched is a descendant of Rev. WYATT’s first wife and I am a descendant of his second wife.

After finding how the lady and I are related, I started looking for how she is related to my wife. Both had the surname MOORE in their pedigrees, so their MOORE lines seemed like a good place to start the search. As I looked at my wife’s pedigree I realized that the MOORE was a mistake. I had her as one of my wife’s 4th great grandmothers. Other trees showed that the correct name of this 4th great grandmother was Mary CLEMENS (actually CLEMMONS as it turned out). Mary’s father and mother were Samuel Thompson CLEMMONS (born March 15, 1751) and Martha COGGINS (born in 1756). When I looked back at my pedigree I realized these were my 5th great grandparents (in my father’s line), so my wife and I are 6th cousins.

My wife also matches three people that my mother matches. Maybe as I am researching all of their lines I will find a common ancestor of my wife and my mother.

Vick Ancestors in Scotland?

Today a lady who 23andMe’s Relative Finder predicts is my 5th cousin (with a range of 3rd to 9th cousin) accepted my contact request. Since Relative Finder predicted we are 5th cousins, we would be expected to share 4th great grandparents. My 4th great grandparents lived in the 1700s. Finding the shared ancestors will be a challenge, but if we were able to link our pedigrees it would be very satisfying.

The lady I match was born in Glasgow, Scotland. It is highly likely that our match is through my father’s line since my mother has been tested and she doesn’t match the lady. I looked to see if I have found any links to Scotland in my father’s line. Unfortunately, I haven’t done enough research to be able to connect our pedigrees.

In the time before surnames have been used I may have had at least one patrilineal ancestor who lived in Shetland or Orkney. I base that on an analysis of my Y-DNA done by Professor Stephen Oppenheimer of Oxford University. He said the few markers he used in his analysis have been found in a small number of men there with ancestry to Norway.

I have asked the lady to look at the surnames in my father’s pedigree and to see if any appears to be Scottish. If she finds one, I will try to extend the pedigree for that surname. The lady doesn’t appear to have done any genealogical research, so she is an example of how finding someone who wouldn’t be likely to order a genetic genealogy test can be very useful. The 23andMe database is loaded with people like her. When a member of our VICK and Allied Families DNA Project sends me a screenshot of a match, I enter into a spreadsheet the matches’ name, the chromosome, and the start and stop positions of the shared segment. Maybe another member of our project will match this lady. Maybe we will get really lucky and we will all share the same segment. Yesterday I noticed a case where a man who matches my mother probably matches another man my mother matches. The second man’s matching segment is contained within the segment my mother shares with the first man. Already we have several cases like this in our VICK and Allied Families DNA Project. So, it isn’t impossible that we will find another match with the lady from Scotland, even though it is a very long shot. Wouldn’t another match be very interesting especially if the match has an extensive pedigree?

Another DNA Tool To Consider for Our Vick Family History Research

Over 50 men and women have tested or are in the process of testing at 23andMe as part of our VICK and Allied Families DNA Project. Two more Vick descendants told me they were ordering the Full Edition 23andMe test today.

Family Tree DNA has announced it is going to provide a competitive product to 23andMe’s Relative Finder. FTDNA has named its tool Family Finder. Because almost all of our VICK Y-DNA Surname Project members tested at FTDNA, and we have had a great experience with FTDNA, we definitely have to pay attention to what FTDNA is doing. To get an idea of how Family Finder compares to Relative Finder, I ordered a Family Finder test. I am looking forward to using the tools Family Finder includes for managing projects. Hopefully 23andMe will offer similar tools since we don’t have any way to share our project results today except by transferring information from e-mailed screenshots to a spreadsheet and then sharing the spreadsheet. Just getting the screenshots is difficult. Not surprisingly, many project members don’t know how to make a screenshot or don’t have the time or interest to take them.

From the discounts 23andMe gave genetic genealogists last September 23andMe has a great head start on building an ancestry database, but with FTDNA’s very large surname project structure and all those unpaid project administrators extolling the virtues of FTDNA (and thereby steering project members to test at FTDNA), it may not take long for FTDNA to catch up in an important metric to genetic genealogists – a large database of customers anxious to compare pedigrees. If FTDNA was to follow deCODEme’s model of allowing 23andMe customers to transfer results for free, FTDNA might leapfrog 23andMe’s ancestry business.

While short of a full project management capability I have often wondered why 23andMe didn’t do something very simple like indicate on Relative Finder that there is more than one person in the 23andMe database who shares the same segment. 23andMe could then have a second level of contact request where each of the matching people could opt in to group sharing of results. It would seem like that little change could increase the chance that two of the people would have pedigrees they could use to solve the puzzle for the whole group. Solving the puzzle for the whole group might generate more enthusiasm about Relative Finder. It would be a far cry from a project management tool, but it would be at least a start.

I suspect the outcome of the Relative Finder versus Family Finder competition will make a good Harvard Business School case study. Hopefully, the outcome of the competition between the two companies will lead to the best product for genetic genealogists.

Was My Fifth Great Grandmother Mary Coleman?

In my blog yesterday (“Is There Any Hope I Might Find the Missing Names of My Female Ancestors in My Vick Line?”), I said that I would discuss some of the clues I am finding using 23andMe’s Relative Finder to help identify the missing names of females in my pedigree. My fifth great grandmother in my Vick line is one of those elusive females. As I mentioned yesterday, page 90 of Joseph Vick of Lower Parish, Isle of Wight County, Virginia and His Descendants, says she may have been Mary Coleman of Anson County, North Carolina. Mary [ ] Vick witnessed property records involving Colemans in the 1770’s in Anson Co.

Interestingly, my second highest match in Relative Finder is a man whose surname is Coleman. This match may be unrelated to my missing fifth great grandmother, but it may also be a significant clue. The match seems worth pursuing. He didn’t find any of my surnames in his pedigree.

My match’s Coleman ancestor came to America from Ireland in the 1880s. I don’t know when the Anson Co., NC, Colemans’ ancestor came to America, but it had to be before the 1772. I also don’t even know if the ancestor of the Anson Co. Colemans was Irish.

We would both have to extend our research to see if we have a shared Coleman ancestor in Ireland. I know nothing about Irish records, and I doubt I could even trace the Anson Co. Coleman’s back far enough to make a connection (if there is one). I do know that my match has paternal haplogroup R1b1b2a1a2f . There are Colemans in that project who have paternal haplogroup R1b1b2a1a. They may need a little more testing to see if they are R1b1b2a1a2f (my matching Coleman’s haplogroup). Since this is such a common haplogroup, it looks like my match would need the traditional Y-DNA genealogical test to learn much more from the Y-DNA project members’ results.

Maybe I will get lucky and have other matches with Coleman descendants. I will also try to find out if any of the other Vicks who have been tested at 23andMe and who share this line have matches with Coleman descendants. This reminds me of fishing. I have a lot of lines in the water, and I must wait patiently for the big tug. Maybe another researcher has a theory about who this Mary was.

Tomorrow, I will discuss another clue from Relative Finder about yet another female Vick line ancestor whose name I don’t know.

Is There Any Hope I Might Find the Missing Names of My Female Ancestors in My Vick Line?

In my first blog I mentioned how through our VICK Y-DNA Surname Project I was able to figure out which Jacob4 was my ancestor. The VICK Y-DNA Surname Project focuses like a laser on the patrilineal VICK line, and the findings have been very helpful to those of us who are trying to reconstruct Vick family trees. I also mentioned in my blog “Fill in Your Family Tree” that 23andMe’s Relative Finder looks at the DNA we inherited from all of our ancestors. Unlike the laser beam focus of the traditional genetic genealogy Y-DNA test, 23andMe casts a wide net in the search for ancestors.

While I have identified all of my Vick male ancestors through the immigrant Joseph Vick of Lower Parish, Isle of Wight Co., VA, I have not been so fortunate with the females in my line. I have identified my female ancestors in my Vick line through my third great grandmother Susannah MERCER. However, while I solved the mystery of who my fourth great grandfather, Jacob4, was, I only know my fourth great grandmother’s first name was “probably” Mary. In Joseph Vick of Lower Parish, Isle of Wight County, Virginia and His Descendants, John D. Beatty and Di Ann Vick said on page 242, “Jacob probably married MARY [ ] not long after completing his militia service.”

While I know my fourth great grandfather Jacob4’s father was Isaac3, again, I don’t know the name of my fifth great grandmother. Turning to the book on page 90 it says “Nothing is known of Isaac’s wife or wives. He may have married [?Mary Coleman] of Anson County.”

One again, I know my sixth great grandfather was William2, but I only know his wife was “Elizabeth” (see page 26 of the book). The pattern repeats itself with my seventh great grandfather Joseph1. There is much speculation and no proof as to who he married.

Fortunately, some clues are beginning to emerge on my 23andMe Relative Finder match list. Tomorrow I will discuss some of those clues.

“Fill In Your Family Tree”

Until recently we had just two avenues to trace our ancestry using DNA. Men could use DNA to trace their patrilineal line (father’s, father’s, father’s…), or men and women could use DNA to trace their deep matrilineal line (mother’s, mother’s, mother’s).

23andMe has a new tool to “fill in your family tree.” Instead of looking at just the patrilineal and matrilineal lines, Relative Finder looks at the DNA you inherited from all of your ancestors. You and the people you match can then compare pedigrees and try to find your shared ancestor.

On Saturday, February 13, 2010, at 1:30 p.m., I will give a presentation to the Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County on how I have used Relative Finder (and other 23andMe tools) to fill in my family tree. The presentation will be at the Main Library of Palm Beach County (3650 Summit Boulevard, West Palm Beach, FL)

Women Can Now Use Their DNA Test Results in Surname Projects

We have about 50 people who have been tested in our 23andMe VICK and Allied Families DNA Project, and 21 of them are women. Thirty-two of our project members are descendants of Joseph Vick of Lower Parish, Isle of Wight Co., VA. Of the 32, 14 are women.

Some of these women are finding matches with other descendants of Joseph Vick of Lower Parish, Isle of Wight Co., VA. The screenshot above shows a portion of Viola Potter’s 23andMe Relative Finder match list. Relative Finder predicted Viola Potter and Faye Paolino were 5th cousins with a range of 3rd to 8th cousin. Viola and Faye compared their pedigrees, and Vick is their only shared surname. They are 7th cousins one time removed, so the prediction is in the range.

We have just begun to collect results from project members, but Faye and Viola are not alone as other female project members are also reporting matches with other project members. Once we collect all the results, these women’s matches will be very helpful in our efforts to reconstruct our Vick family trees.

The Relative Finder Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) state that the odds of two people matching who are as distantly related as Viola and Faye are less than five percent. Fortunately, we have enough project members that we are finding matches even though the average project member is not closely related to the other project members. Of course, we are also benefiting from what we learn from matches with non-project members.

Getting all the data and analyzing it will be a lot of fun. Since new people are ordering 23andMe tests every day we will continue to get new results which help us learn even more about our Vick family history.

We Are Starting to Weave Together Our 23andMe Vick and Allied Families DNA Project Results with Results from Our Vick Y-DNA Surname Project

We have about 50 men and women who have tested at 23andMe through our Vick and Allied Families DNA Project. 23andMe tests single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from all 23 pairs of our chromosomes and our mitochondrial DNA. Twelve of the men in our 23andMe project are also members of our Vick Y-DNA Surname Project. The members of our Y-DNA surname project have had Y-DNA short tandem repeat (STR) tests. These Y-STR tests are the “gold standard” for those who want to explore just their patrilineal line (i.e. their father’s, father’s…line). Eleven of the men who are in both projects match the Y-DNA signature of Joseph Vick of Isle of Wight Co., VA. Joseph was born about 1640-1650. The twelfth may be descended from a Vick female.

To understand one-way we might use the 23andMe data in reconstructing our Vick family tree, a few of us have begun to share screenshots of our Relative Finder match lists and our Family Inheritance screens. Ralph Lewis Vick is one of the men who had both types of testing. Ralph’s Y-STR results matched the Y-STR signature of Joseph Vick of Lower Parish, Isle of Wight Co., VA.

Jesse Mayfield is Ralph’s second cousin. Their most recent common ancestors are Benjamin Henry Vick and his wife Mary Ann Elizabeth Turner. Jesse has also been Y-STR tested. However, since Jesse is not a patrilineal descendant of his Vick ancestor he cannot use his Y-STR results to support his VICK ancestry. His Y-DNA came from his father who is not a Vick descendant. Both Ralph and Jesse have been tested by 23andMe. Using their SNP results, 23andMe’s Relative Finder correctly predicted that Ralph and Jesse were second cousins.

Because of their match at 23andMe we have strong support that Jesse’s pedigree is correct and that he is also a descendant of Joseph Vick. Before 23andMe’s Relative Finder, Jesse could only ask his closest male VICK cousin to take a Y-STR test and then argue that his cousin’s results should also be extended to him. Now because of Relative Finder Jesse can show that his second cousin is his second cousin and that Jesse’s own DNA supports his Vick ancestry.

I love the way results from the two projects help us in our efforts to reconstruct our Vick family tree. I cannot wait to apply this technique to other non-patrilineal Vick close cousins of other men who have or will test in both projects.

23andMe's Relative Finder Helps Us Find Interesting Things About Our Shared Ancestry

In our VICK and Allied Families DNA Project at 23andMe our DNA helps us learn about more than just our Vick ancestry. 23andMe offers us the opportunity to use a suite of tools to explore our connections to all our cousins that Relative Finder identifies in the 23andMe database (and that list is growing).

One of the tools is Ancestry Painting. Ancestry Painting shows us what percent of our DNA can be traced to three geographic origins: Europe, Asia, and Africa. For Americans, Asian may mean Native American, since Native Americans came to North America from Asia.

By looking at our Ancestry Paintings we learned my mother and my wife each have an African segment. My wife’s segment is on chromosome 6 while my mother’s segment is across the centromere on chromosome 12. The first screenshot above shows my wife’s African segment and the second one shows my mother’s African segment. At first I thought these segments were artifacts that perhaps only indicated the segments had not been found commonly in European populations.

Then 23andMe’s Relative Finder said my mother and my wife matched the same man. As the third screenshot shows, he had seven African stretches in his Ancestry Painting (about one percent African). Finding this match made me think my wife and my mother had a more recent common ancestor who probably had an African American ancestor. Since both my wife’s and my mother’s roots in America are deep, I thought there might be some shared ancestry from a slave. Unfortunately, I have not been able to talk to the man both my mother and wife match to find out what he knows about his ancestry.

In the early 1990’s I went with my mother to visit her mother’s cousin. My mother mentioned to him that I was collecting family history information on my father’s side, and the man said we had a very interesting family history on my mother’s side also. He could not read or write (although he ran a successful business), but from his sharp memory he told me what he knew about our ancestry. What he said about one line in particular stuck in my mind. It was his patrilineal line the GRAYs. He explained that the Grays were really Grahams and that my mother’s great grandfather, James T. Gray, changed the family surname when he relocated from Union Co., KY, to Hancock Co., KY (I have found records which verify his statement). In tracing the line he told me he had been able to learn that my mother’s second great grandfather Isaac Jasper Graham had married an Elizabeth Collins. He said she was from the Cumberland Gap, and he recalled Newman Ridge being mentioned in connection with her. That was as far back as he had been able to go with the line.

Last week, my mother, my daughter, and I all matched the same lady. This lady has about 35 African segments (about seven percent African ancestry) and about 21 “Asian” (likely American Indian) segments which is about two percent “Asian” ancestry (see the fourth screenshot).

I called our new match and she told me that her Collins line had intermarried with the Goins family, and that her grandfather said the Goins line was African American. Looking on sites with information about Melungeon ancestry, I see Collins, Graham, and Goins are all surnames found in Melungeon histories. I also learned that Newman Ridge is in Hancock Co., TN (not to be confused with Hancock Co., KY).

I do not think anyone in our families (on either side) would have believed we could have an African segment and no one would believe we could have Melungeon ancestry. I doubt anyone in our family would know what Melungeon is.

From talking to the woman I learned there are two possibilities for who our Elizabeth was. One of the Elizabeth’s would have been too young to be ours, so that leaves the second one. Thanks to 23andMe’s Relative Finder, with more research I should be able to document the source of my mother's African segment. We will have learned something new about our ancestry from our DNA.

Next, I have to figure out how my wife’s family ties in. Finding people who share a common ancestor with both my mother and my wife is very interesting. Knowing the common ancestry appears to be Melungeon ancestry will really generate some conversation at the next family reunion.

The 4th cousin of our match is awaiting her 23andMe results. I hope she matches at least one person in my family and the man my wife and mother match. It would be good to get another link. I suspect as the database grows at 23andMe, and especially if they provide project management tools, we will be able to answer many family history questions (and discover many new things about our shared ancestry).

Vick Family History on CNN

On November 18, 2009, Bob Stubbs and I were interviewed by Deborah Feyerick of CNN for a segment on The Campbell Brown Show. The segment aired on December 2nd. While our interview dealt largely with how Bob and I used 23andMe’s Relative Finder to discover our common Young line, the interview does include a few comments I made on my Vick family history. You can see the whole segment by clicking here. The Spittoon has a link to just the interview here.

It was a real pleasure to meet Bob in person. Deborah Feyerick, Sheila Steffen (the producer) and Alfredo (the videographer) made it a very special family reunion. I we feel like our CNN friends are part of our family too. Finally, 23andMe continues to open many new windows into my family history, it is a great tool for genetic genealogy.