Family Tree DNA has a "Family Finder" Test for both male & female lines
and it even crosses both back & forth. You need a paper trail to help you
figure out which lines match. But in my case, I have a gr gr grandfather for
whom I can find no primary source documentation. There is a lot of
circumstantial indication that his father was John Jennings who married Alcy Billis
in 1806 in Surry Co NC. They seem to drop off the face of the earth after
NC. My gr gr grandfather was born in TN (at least according to the census)
so I assume they made it to the Maury/Bedford/Marshall Co TN area where a
slew of Alcey's relatives lived.. But there's not a trace of them after 1810
NC. I have combed other TN counties as well. John's son married in Marshall
Co 1) 1838 & 2) 1843. But no trace of him either before that, except one
possible church school record with no date. And witness to deed with
proposed brothers. That I also supported with Family Tree DNA's Y test. Which is
for males only. I got tests from a known Jennings male descended from my gr
gr grandfather, Thomas D Jennings b 1815 and a male descendent of one of
Thomas D's proposed brothers, William B Jennings b 1807.And I got a
"probable" match at 37 markers with a genetic distance of 2. They are 6 generations
back.
John's father was a Rev War Soldier, James Jennings, born in Buckingham Co
Va according to his pension record.
Anyway, I was able to connect my female dna back 4 gen of females then
crossed to Male then back to female with gr gr gr grandmother Alcey. Alcey's
brother had a daughter who's descendant also tested. And we matched as 6th
cousins. Which lends support to proposed ancestor gr gr gr grandfather truly
being John Jennings.
Pretty cool I thought, so a known male 3rd 1/2 cousin.from John's son,
Thomas D Jennings (1st wife daughter) is descended from our Mutual gr gr
father. I descend from his 2nd wife's daughter. And right on target, we also
matched.
So apparently the test is reliable, at least with this small sample of 3.
But It's not perfect. I have a bunch of matches I have no Idea what the
ancestral line is to them. Still, this new dna technology is really exciting,
for situations where records are no longer extant or never existed, but you
have to have some strong paper indications if you have no smoking gun like
a Bible or Church Record or Will. Even then the paper trail is not always
perfect either.
Now if one of of James Jennings' parents (or sibs) descendants would test
maybe I could figure out who James Jennings b 1757 parents and sibs are.
James married 1) Miss Burch probably Charity probably abt 1780 my line & 2)
Hannah Martin about 1786 in Surry Co NC.) . Buckingham Co VA records are
sparce. I have several good candidates. But nothing conclusive yet. In
genealogy, Patience truly is a virtue.
I too am a stickler for being as accurate as possible. And am very
frustrated with Ancesty.com that allows members to post anything without any
documentation. And LDS records are not that accurate or documented either. But
both can give a clue as to which dusty courthouse basement (and more and more
online primary source doc pics) to look in. As always document, document,
document.
In a message dated 3/14/2011 3:10:14 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
I haven't read all of the threads to this topic. The problem that has
confronted me with DNA is the fact that my paternal grandmother had 3 boys
and 1 girl.. All of them have passed on. All of the boys i.e. my father and
his brothers had one girl. The daughter had 3 boys and one girl. With my
last name of "Cox" with my gggg-grandfather living in Buckingham County and
married to Rachel Watkins, I have wished upon all wishes that I could trace
my paternal DNA... My maternal line is Hastings out of Nottoway County..I
haven't traced that yet; but I had better get on the stick.
As far as DAR...I am with you, Bill. I started to join the DAR and my gut
told me to investigate and confirm my own lineage first. The DAR listings
are a nice little hint (like Ancestry.com); but nothing is better than DNA
and a little shoe leather..
On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Bill Davidson <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> While it is only part of the solution, I wish that more people would
have a
> man....with the surname of interest....take the DNA test. DNA has
already
> shown that some "approved" DAR lineages are "flat wrong," and many such
> other "myths" have also been "busted" by this technology. It is not an
"end
> all/be all answer," but to not take advantage of it, where such a male
with
> the correct surname can be found, is a huge omission in most cases. It
> amazes me that people will spend thousand of hours (and who knows how
much
> money?) researching in courthouses and libraries (and Ancestry.com) for
> years and years, but they won't spend a few minutes and $150 for a 37
marker
> DNA test.
>
> My own DNA test confirmed that my Davidson family in Cumberland Co., VA
> was part of the same Davidson family as the one in Buckingham Co., VA.
...and
> that helped me to "trace" the overall family back to James City Co., VA
by
> at least the 1680s. I also learned that I have a "Viking heritage"
versus
> the more common "Celtic heritage" for my surname. I never could find
> anything in "conventional documentation" that proved a "connection"
between
> the families in those two counties in VA.
>
> My mother's family had even more interesting results. Her male cousin
with
> the surname of "Brown" took the DNA test, and we found that he was
actually
> a "blood Smith" versus a "blood Brown." Since my maternal gg-grandfather
> was named Smith W. Brown, I guess that we should not have been too
surprised
> by that result....but nothing other than the DNA test would have ever
shown
> this. My "biological maternal Smith family" has been in VA since at
least
> the 1650s, and I am proud to be a member of that family (and I am happy
to
> finally know the truth....that only DNA testing could have provided).
>
> In closing, when I get frustrated with all of the bad data that is "out
> there," I remind myself that it is "just genealogy." Compared to what is
> going on in the world these days (like in Japan), trying to prove who my
> gggggggg-grandfather was seems far less critical.
>
> Bill Davidson
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> at
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>
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