Author Topic: Where are my paternal ancestors?  (Read 5013 times)

Offline shellyesq

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Re: Where are my paternal ancestors?
« Reply #18 on: Monday 05 February 18 15:25 GMT (UK) »
My husband and I have just done our DNA tests (courtesy of a Christmas gift from our son in USA) so it will be interesting to see if we have a match with our son in USA.  I think he did an Ancestry test, whereas the ones he bought for us are 23andme, so it's possible we won't have a match.

Ancestry & 23andme are entirely different databases, so you wouldn't see anyone who used one test on the other one.  I think you would all need to upload your raw data to Gedmatch if you want to see the comparison.  If he's your biological son, then the match should be clear.

Offline LizzieW

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Re: Where are my paternal ancestors?
« Reply #19 on: Monday 05 February 18 16:12 GMT (UK) »
When we get our results we'll upload the data to Gedmatch - yes he is our biological son although as he looks nothing like anyone else (he's very blond with greyish green eyes, whilst everyone else in our family has very dark hair and brown eyes , my husband always jokes his father must have been the milkman  ::)  (That is sort of an in joke between my husband and me because my boyfriend before my husband was the son of a milkman, but he had auburn hair and our son is our 2nd child born about 4 years after I last saw my previous boyfriend).

Offline Eric Hatfield

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Re: Where are my paternal ancestors?
« Reply #20 on: Monday 05 February 18 19:52 GMT (UK) »
Quote
All the matches I've been able to confirm on the Irish side are via cousins who emigrated to America, which is where a large proportion of Ancestry's database live. Emigration from Bedfordshire is by comparison far less prevalent, and the matches I have on that side tend to be people still in the UK, who I suspect comprise a much smaller proportion of Ancestry's database.

This is an interesting observation, for it highlights differences between the databases.

My Ancestry is mainly from Ireland and England, and many descendants have emigrated to both Australia and USA. I have tested with both FTDNA and Ancestry. But while Ancestry's database is apparently several times larger than FTDNA's, I have more matches with FTDNA. I think this is because Ancestry is strongest in USA (for a while it wasn't offering tests in Australia) but FTDNA has a larger percentage in UK and Australia. I think that is changing as all companies are increasing their sales, but it illustrates that some locations are better represented than others in the different databases.

Offline hurworth

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Re: Where are my paternal ancestors?
« Reply #21 on: Monday 05 February 18 20:21 GMT (UK) »
My grandmother of Irish descent has many more close matches on Ancestry than my grandmother from Bedfordshire does. All the matches I've been able to confirm on the Irish side are via cousins who emigrated to America, which is where a large proportion of Ancestry's database live.

I think another reason for having more matches on the Irish side is that civil registration was introduced later in Ireland, and very few census records before 1901 have survived, so people who know they have Irish ancestry often hit brick walls not so far back and have few genealogy research options left other than DNA.

Another issue is that the US census just recorded your country of origin, and compared to the USA Ireland is a small place, but it's still rather difficult to find an ancestor if you have is a name, approximate year and "Ireland".  English censuses only required "Ireland", but quite often the enumerator recorded more detail.  For example on the last census before she died one of my husband's ancestors must have said she was from Cork, and the enumerator recorded this. 

The frustrating thing is that there was an 1820 census.  One of my ancestor's sisters (who had a common first name and surname) married a Ryan, and almost a century ago someone who was researching Ryans transcribed census records of Ryan families in Limerick.  The sister is on this transcription with her husband and children and the ages match the parish records very well, so it confirms who they are (and led me to another daughter I'd missed) as the baptisms didn't include address or occupation of the father.  It makes you realise how much information was lost.


Offline Redroger

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Re: Where are my paternal ancestors?
« Reply #22 on: Tuesday 06 February 18 18:11 GMT (UK) »
When we get our results we'll upload the data to Gedmatch - yes he is our biological son although as he looks nothing like anyone else (he's very blond with greyish green eyes, whilst everyone else in our family has very dark hair and brown eyes , my husband always jokes his father must have been the milkman  ::)  (That is sort of an in joke between my husband and me because my boyfriend before my husband was the son of a milkman, but he had auburn hair and our son is our 2nd child born about 4 years after I last saw my previous boyfriend).
The description is very interesting Lizzie, as you have just described both the eye and hair colour of my first cousin, daughter of my father's sister, who will have an identical relationship to you through the Stantons to mine. I lost contact with her in the late 1960s, if she is still living she is now 98!
Ayres Brignell Cornwell Harvey Shipp  Stimpson Stubbings (all Cambs) Baumber Baxter Burton Ethards Proctor Stanton (all Lincs) Luffman (all counties)

Offline ozdelver

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Re: Where are my paternal ancestors?
« Reply #23 on: Wednesday 12 December 18 01:43 GMT (UK) »
Hi,
The points made by RogerK have gone some way to suggesting an answer to a problem I have come across in DNA results.

I am a long-time genie researcher, but I haven't posted here in a long time. At present I am doing a DNA research project to try and identify the birth parents of a cousin's father here in Australia. Four female cousins/nieces have done Ancestry DNA tests. I have used the Shared Matches in Ancestry to build a spreadsheet of 3rd-4th cousin matches and how they all connect. There have been several very kind and generous matches who have helped me along the way. I believe I have now identified very probable birth parents.

The maternal line has been a little easier because we always had a possible candidate for the mother, and DNA testing and matches seems to have confirmed that line as correct.

However, on the paternal line it has been far more complicated. We have had many matches who all have come from a common ancestor, and replies from very helpful 3rd Cousin Matches have allowed me to build a tree down to the point of either grandmother or great-grandmother. Looking at opportunity (a male being in the right place at the right time), we have identified two males as possbile father candidates -a 17 year-old or his 41 year-old father. There is some conjecture regarding which generation male was the possible father. The older man had three wives, and the younger one married once but had several other partners. I have done a lot of research on both men, who were larger-than-life characters here in Western Australia.

The complication occurs because the possible grandmother had two spouses. The putative father is a descendant from the second spouse. I have ten confirmed matches on the left side of my spreadsheet, which all point to a common ancestor of the grandmother. Of these matches, 8 are in USA, 1 is in England and 1 in Australia. Then in the centre of the chart, I have 5 matches from Australia. These matches are descendants from the putative grandmother and from her second spouse. They obviously have DNA from both the grandmother's side (the left of the chart) and the 2nd spouse's side on the right of the chart.

But on the right of the chart I have only 3 matches that have shared ancestors with the second husband, and two of them are aunt and niece. I have been very concerned that there is a lot of flow of matches from the centre of the chart (where the matches all connect to my 4 cousins) to the left, most of whom are from USA. But I have so little connection from the centre to the right (2nd spouse) side, and those matches are in England. I have been starting to doubt if my proposed paternal line was correct after all.

However, RogerK's comments have eased my mind a little. I guess the huge proportion of Ancestry DNA testing has been in USA, and so that is where the bulk of my matches have come from. I will have to be patient and hope that the latest publicity push by Ancestry will persuade more of you Brits to do a DNA test and give me more matches!

Offline hurworth

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Re: Where are my paternal ancestors?
« Reply #24 on: Wednesday 12 December 18 07:17 GMT (UK) »
ozdelver - has your cousin uploaded to other sites?  Initially FamilyTreeDNA was the only company that was taking tests from Australians, so there's a chance that there's matches there who've not tested at Ancestry.  It's well worth uploading to MyHeritage as well.

Offline ozdelver

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Re: Where are my paternal ancestors?
« Reply #25 on: Wednesday 12 December 18 09:42 GMT (UK) »
Hi, thanks for the suggestion. I will have to have a look at other sites I think. Our cousin's brother has also sent his DNA test off, so I think I will wait and see what his results throw up before going down that road. I do believe we are very close, and his matches might be the final confirmation we need.

Offline LizzieW

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Re: Where are my paternal ancestors?
« Reply #26 on: Wednesday 12 December 18 10:27 GMT (UK) »
Roger - Not sure why I didn't see your response last February  ::)  So what you are suggesting is that our son possibly has Stanton genes?  I've long since had my DNA results and then also did an Ancestry DNA but haven't found anything interesting really. 

Because my half 2nd cousin once removed (her g.gran and my gran were half sisters) has also done an Ancestry DNA, I managed to work out some of the 3/4th cousin relationships but they weren't the ones I was interested in, so I've not pursued them.  I'm trying to find out who my paternal g.grandfather was.  At least, I ruled out the parentage that many people on Ancestry have for him.  I always knew those trees were wrong, but until I found out that one of the people with a "wrong" tree had also done an Ancestry DNA I couldn't prove it.  Our results now show that I have absolutely no connection to this man, who is descended from the "apparent" mother of my g.grandfather.