Wordless Wednesday ~ Benjamin Willis (1791-1870)

My fourth great-grandfather, Benjamin Willis. I recently shared an 1865 Massachusetts State census record for him and his family.

Gt. gr. grandfather

Benjamin Willis, Jr.

Born Nov 16th 1791

Died July 28th 1870

The relationship noted on the back of this photo was to my grandfather, Lowell Townsend Copeland, and his sisters. If a relative can identify the handwriting, please let me know.

My Willis line can be found at Surname Saturday ~ Willis of England and Massachusetts.

Bonus Birthplaces in the 1865 Massachusetts State Census

The availability of state censuses varies tremendously. They were usually taken in between federal censuses. State censuses for 1855 and 1865 are the only ones that survive for Massachusetts.

While working on the last assignment for my ProGen Study group, I realized that I had never looked for my Willis and Wells family in these state censuses. It turns out that the family didn't move from New Hampshire to Massachusetts until after the 1855 Massachusetts census enumeration.

But here they are in 1865, living in Brookline.

1865 Massachusetts State Census, Norfolk County, population schedule, Brookline, p. 88, dwelling 499, family 620, Benjamin Willis; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 May 2019).

AncestryDNA Ethnicity

Reading a blog post from Dick Eastman referencing an update to Ancestry's ethnicity results prompted me to take a look at mine this morning. And yes, my ethnicity, according to AncestryDNA, has changed yet again. (Update: In a later post, Dick Eastman notes that Ancestry updated many users' ethnicity estimates in the fall 2018 but some users are still being transitioned into the new estimates and if you want to save your old ones, you have just a few weeks to do so.)

Don't be surprised. AncestryDNA has added more regions, and more importantly for my changes, more reference samples (i.e. the number of tested people from around the world whose ancestors have lived in the same place for generations).

Following is a history of my ethnicity estimates according to AncestryDNA.

I first tested in November 2011, when Ancestry was offering DNA tests to subscribers for the cost of shipping. I blogged about my initial results in April 2012 and shared this screenshot:

My genetic ethnicity (according to April 2012 AncestryDNA results)

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By October 2013, Ancestry had updated its ethnicity estimates.

My updated genetic ethnicity (according to October 2013 AncestryDNA)

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In March 2017, Ancestry added Genetic Communities, but my ethnicity estimates were still the same.

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And today, my ethnicity estimates look only a little different.