Three Siblings' DNA Chromosome Match Results

I previously shared the ethnicity estimates for me, my mother, and my brothers.

The following images from the chromosome browser at FamilyTreeDNA shows where exactly, on which chromosomes, my brothers and I match.

The first image shows my brother S's matches with me in orange and with my brother R in blue. In other words, I am logged into S's account and looking at where he matches me and R.

FamilyTreeDNA Chromosome Browser

Three Siblings' DNA Ethnicity Results

I have previously written about DNA test results for my family - this link shows all posts with the DNA tag.

After I tested myself at FamilyTreeDNA, I had my mother's and one brother's autosomal DNA tested with that company. I just got the results from another brother and I thought I'd share one example of why it's interesting and helpful to have all siblings tested.

See my earlier blog post Autosomal Testing with FamilyTreeDNA (April 2014) which explains autosomal DNA and provides additional links to other helpful blogs.

The following colorful images are from FamilyTreeDNA's MyOrigins feature which shows estimates of an individual's ethnicity going back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The key word here is estimate - this is really just a fun way to see where your distant ancestors came from.

My family's autosomal DNA shows that we are 100% European. (No surprise there.) FamilyTreeDNA confirms that my brothers and I are full siblings, however, we received slightly different DNA from each of our parents and our estimates of ethnic makeup are slightly different.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun ~ Updating My Ancestor Score

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver is not new, but is interesting to update periodically.

1) Determine how complete your genealogy research is. For background, read Crista Cowan's post Family History All Done? What’s Your Number? and Kris Stewart's What Is Your Genealogy "Score?" For comparison purposes, keep the list to 10 or 11 generations with you as the first person.

2) Create a table similar to Crista's second table, and fill it in however you can (you could create an Ahnentafel (Ancestor Name) list and count the number in each generation, or use some other method). Tell us how you calculated the numbers.

3) Show us your table, and calculate your "Ancestral Score" - what is your percentage of known names to possible names (1,023 for 10 generations).

I did this challenge back in January 2014 and so to update my chart, in Family Tree Maker for Mac, I ran a new Ahnentafel report for ten generations of my ancestors and counted the names. I then updated the spreadsheet that I had created the last time I did this.

My "Ancestral Score" is 468 known names to 1,023 possible names in ten generations for a percentage of 45.7%, an increase of 3.1% (32 names) since the last time I calculated this.

The changes are on my mother's side, partially because of work I did on my Townsend line. (See Surname Saturday ~ Townsend of England, Massachusetts and Maine). This is a colonial New England line, so I should be able to add to this branch with not too much work.

New Year's Resolutions

I generally avoid New Year's Resolutions, but this year, with the announcement that Family Tree Maker is being retired, it prompted me to share my primary genealogy resolutions for 2016: By the end of 2016, I will have decided on a new genealogy software program and will have "cleaned up" my data, especially sources, in the process.

I have been reading about Thomas MacEntee's Genealogy Do-Over and I think that if I am exploring new genealogy software in 2016 then it's a good year for a Do-Over (or at least a Go-Over: I have over 5,000 people in my primary tree and I don't want to enter everyone from scratch).

See Genealogy Do-Over: 2016 Topics for more information. You can subscribe to this blog by RSS feed or by email. There is also a Facebook Group for the Genealogy Do-Over where members are very helpful.

If I don't blog as often as I did last year (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks really spurred me on), it's because I'm working on cleaning up my Family Tree Maker database in order to transfer it to new software. I will blog about interesting stories that I find during this "Genealogy Go-Over" process.

Mary Freeland Hunter - 52 Ancestors #52

To complete the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small,  I will share what I know about my second great grandmother, Mary Freeland.

Mary Freeland was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1850, according to family papers. Both the 1850 U.S. Census and the 1900 U.S. Census indicate a birth month of February 1850.

Mary Freeland Hunter

Mary was the oldest of five children of James Freeland, a plumber, and Nancy Rainey. As far as I can tell, she was the only one to marry and have children.

Before marrying, Mary worked as a dress maker (according to the 1870 U.S. Census).

At the age of 21, Mary married James Hunter on April 13, 1871. They went on to have ten children, listed here. One of her sons predeceased her, dying at the age of nine in 1889, and another lived to be 102 years old, dying in 1984!