I'm wondering if results of my DNA test can help link me to others with a common ancestor so that I
I will attempt to ask my question here although I am not great at explaining things by writing. If anybody can help me with this I would prefer to ask my question over the phone.
I am trying to find the parents of my 3rd great grandfather. I have been trying for several years. The link below is my previous post that explains this in more detail.
I have done an AncestryDNA test and I had the results transferred to MyHeritage as well. The results are very different by the way. Anyways, I know that there are "DNA matches" which are areas of similar DNA which signify a probably blood relation to other individuals.
My question is can these DNA tests find a "DNA match" that is based on a specific surname and can it tell me that the match was found by that surname? For example, can I find a 6th cousin that is linked to me by the surname "Barnard"? Are the tests that specific?
Again, I could probably explain this better over the phone if anybody has a few minutes. Thanks,
Jake Barnard
Answers
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Jakebarrettbarnard, To answer your question it appears that your surname is BARNARD and that your possible a male. I'm not an expert in DNA by any means but if it was me I would look to Ft-DNA case study for your surname. In doing so I would go with other individuals who have had higher segment testing then say 12. It is my understanding that this lower testing is really no different than at-DNA testing with the other major companies. What will Y-DNA tell you. It should help prove the surname is actually the surname. As far as your question can results of your DNA test help link you to others with a common ancestor in order to find the parents of your 3rd great grandfather.
The answer is YES! However, it is up to you to complete the research to prove or disprove your theory. Basically you would probably need to complete a DNA triangulation in order to pinpoint the exact couple. Caution is given when using this process. Example: In my case, We had always believed my 3rd great grandfather Thomas Alderson Busby's mother was a Mary Morrow. It was a little over 10 years ago when I came across recorded marriage record that made me even question the possibility of a different mother for Thomas. This is when I completed a Ancestry's DNA test. which at the time was not at-DNA rather is was sold to me as a mt-DNA. prior to this it was Y-DNA test they were doing. Anyway, my test was matching some people who were showing the family of interest but it was very weak. I uploaded my DNA to gedmatch in order to compare it to others I had other people who were my 3rd great grandfather's descendants take DNA test I even had many of them upload their DNA to gedmatch. We used these matches to do DNA triangulation. Almost every single one was matching at the exact same place if not they over lapped the same exact place. Some people matched the other females. But all and all my numbers were still weak. So I asked my mom to test. She came closer but it still was weak. Doing like ancestry indicated the more you test the better the results. Well I had my mom's siblings test this was even better but still weak in my opinion. So I went a bit further and had my great aunt test. Her test was the mother load and showed the very strong connection that I was looking for. Not only was her test positive but we had other descendants of my grandmother's siblings and they were positive hits to this other females family members. So no my 4th great grandmother was NOT Mary Morrow rather her name was Elizabeth WITHROW. She was daughter, granddaughter, cousin, aunt, wife and mother loved by her family. She lived and died before census data included names of family members, her husband already owned his home before she married him and he did not mortgage it by the time people started preserving history the memory of her was long gone so she was one of many females lost in history. Thanks to DNA she has been found!! and yes she was my fourth great grandmother so the answer to your question is YES you can identify your 4th great grandparents but you may have to do a bit more work.
I do want to ask a question though. Your Barnard family appeared to do a migration pattern that raised a flag to me. By chance were they members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or where any of their family members? If so, there may be a clue to the migration from church history. Your George and his family are in close locations to the Saints at the same time frames and in my opinion should be considered when looking for further clues. You mentioned Mexican War pension. In order to obtain pensions one typically filled out paper work. In all the files I have looked at for pension records they're gold mines for information to help further your research in the case of your George I'm shocked he didn't mention where he was born.
I hope some f this feed back helps.
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I forgot to mention the differences in DNA results from various companies. I have found that the DNA story as Ancestry calls it. Is a visual to help sell the product and in my opinion gives you nothing more than the same thing your parents typically shared with you. Granted some people may see some things totally different than they expected but the commercial where the lady indicated she had a certain amount of Native American and had no idea. I believe this is hog wash. But that is just me.
My husbands father's family is German His grandfather is who came to America from Germany. The family can be documented in the same area through the 1500s, Yet Ancestry claims my father in-law has less than 10% German. What Ancestry doesn't have is his DNA connected to a tree showing his connections and where his family is from. I did this basically as an experiment. I did the same thing with my mother in-laws DNA. And my daughter's DNA. Some of my mother in-laws family did come to the US from Germany in the early 1800s. Her DNA story implies she has 28% German My DNA indicates I have 4% German yet my daughter has 30% German. My husband has not tested. My daughter does have high matches with her grandfather's German ancestors descendants. I called Ancestry about this and asked where they got their data from? their answer, basically from individuals trees and when people share DNA. This is all done by cookie data.
To let you know my father in-law was the last male heir in his family line. Individuals passed away before DNA was even being considered. My husbands grandfather's brother's passed away during and right after WWI with no descendants. His grandfather came to America from Germany in 1923. I share this with you only because the location data is only as good as the test they're comparing your DNA test results to. Taking the documented research and the DNA results into consideration I find the DNA Story not to be of value to me personally in solving genealogical problems but that is just me. It may be of help to you.
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful and lengthy response to my question. I read your response quickly because I don't have a lot of time. I will go through it in more detail when I have time.
My ancestors were not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as far as I know. Both of my parents are converts to the Church.
Again thanks for your response. I really appreciate it.
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I do need to do more research with the DNA test. I did the AncestryDNA test and it shows that I am:
England, Wales & Northwestern Europe 68%
Ireland & Scotland 20%
The other percentages are small.
When I transferred my results to MyHeritage it showed:
Irish, Scottish, and Welsh 67.0%
English 0.0%
I know I have at good percentage of English. Just thought this was kind of strange. Has anybody else had a large difference with the DNA tests?
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Your family may not have been members of the church, but they may have had family members that were. A tall tell sign or read flag to me was your Ancestor was in Quincy, Illinois when he enlisted in the Mexican-American War 1846-1848. He was then in Warren County, Illinois (which was right next to Hancock County, Illinois which is the county Nauvoo, Illinois is in) Saints started leaving the area in the late 1840s but some people were still there in the 1850s. it was shortly after this that you will see family members migrating across the bottom of Iowa. (this is because Saints were having problems with being in Missouri) then you see your ancestor and his family in Iowa basically one county over and very close to Council Bluffs another know location of members of the church. In my opinion these are all signs NOT to ignore in genealogical research. Your ancestor is so close it is like being in New Jersey when the twin towers went down in New York. (Basically to close not to be affected some how by the events of the time)
I have an ancestor who was not a member of the church yet several of his siblings and their family members were. Even though I didn't understand it at the time, This was the exact reason I noticed my family living all around members of the church without ever seeing my direct line connected. It wasn't until I wanted to become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution "DAR" and needed to research my ancestors siblings did the information come full circle.
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Chances are good the Northwestern Europe is what ancestry is using to cover the Irish, Scottish and Welsh.
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The short answer is YES, you can use your DNA results to find more information about your 3rd great-grandparents and their descendants. I would recommend attaching a tree & finding common descendants of the 3GG in question. On Ancestry, look at the Shared Matches of you & a 2C or 3C match - mark each shared match with a colored dot. Check other matches down the list & mark with the same dot. (Clear as mud?) Look at each of their trees for clues. Sometimes, it's just a regurgitation of information in every other tree, but occasionally there will be something more. This method can also help you find other shirt-tail relatives from the same geographic area.
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Thanks for your response Jenna. This is worth a try. I have already looked through many peoples' family trees of my 3rd great grandfather and none of them have his parents's names. So, I am not super hopeful, but it's worth a try. Thanks again.
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I’d suggest you search your Dna matches.There is a box for surnames,if you type in the name it will list matches with that name as well as matches with the name in their tree.
You could link your Dna to your self in the family tree.It would need to be public,then you can click the Dna icon on the left in the family tree to turn on thrulines.I have had success finding parents not listed in my tree if they are a direct line.It is based on other member trees.If your Dna match listed them as the parents of ....You can look at their sources to determine if the information is correct.Hope this helps.
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Thanks Angela for your response. I have searched by surname and found some potential relations, but it is hard to prove that I am related to individuals through the common distant ancestor I am focusing on.
I have also looked by DNA matches and thrulines, but haven't had any success yet.
I will keep working at it. Thanks again.
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Just a note explained to me by a professional DNA genealogist: the most important aspect of your DNA test is not your ethnicities, only 30% accurate due to various data pool factors, BUT your cousin matches with 99.9% accuracy (when over 7 Cms.) Focus on cousin matches, not ethnicities, although ethnicities are interesting & results can provide clues.
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Great information to know A.M. Pili. Thank you.
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I've been looking at sending my DNA results to GEDmatch. Has anybody else done that? Is it very helpful/recommended? Is there any dangers to doing it? Please share if you have any experience with this. Thanks,
Jake
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@Jake Barrett Barnard I have used GEDmatch for the past several years. I think it is great for DNA triangulation especially if you have other DNA test you want to compare yours to. You can opt out of having your DNA used by investigators to solve cold case crimes. But I personally have kept mine available for the police. To see how Cee Cee Moore solves cold cases with genealogical DNA you should tune into ABC tomorrow night and watch the Genetic Detective. It comes on at 9:00 PM central time. I Love watching the cold cases be solved. It will help you see how you can use DNA to prove your own case. Good Luck!
Cindy
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Absolutely, I highly recommend sending in results to Gedmatch. They will give you a Gedmatch number and then you can join specific groups sponsored by Gedmatch or FaceBook. That has been a huge help for my many family lines that have virtually no records. It has led to many miracles in my family tree. Do not hesitate!
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Great thanks for the advice.
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I just wanted to give an update on the search for the parents of my 3rd great grandfather George Barnard. I have seen some miracles.
I went through my DNA matches one by one on Ancestry and found a match with a DNA tree showing Caroline Barnard born 1819 in New York. Based on my research, my ancestor George Barnard was born around 1816-1817 either in New York or on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. So I decided to do more research about this Caroline to see if she was possibly a cousin or sister of George.
I found that in one census she reported her parents being from England, which is what George reported in the Census. Then, I found her (with her married name) living literally a few doors down from George in Warren County, Illinois in the 1860 US Census. At that point I was almost positive they were brother and sister.
I contacted the DNA match. He had a marriage record he sent me saying that Caroline Barnard was an orphan. He also had an obituary of Caroline stating that she had 1 living brother named George living in Sydney, Iowa. That is when I knew for sure that they were brother and sister. Pretty neat experience.
My guess is that George was an orphan like his sister. I am finding that orphan records that far back are pretty non existent. I will not give up though.
I asked the DNA match to upload his DNA onto GEDmatch, which he did. I did a DNA triangulation and found one person that matched both of us. She is researching her lines to see where she connects with me.
Just thought I would give an update. If anybody can think of anything else to help me, I would appreciate it. Thanks everybody for your help.
Jake
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This is such great news! Finding the relative with the obituary is extra icing on the cake.
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Somebody told me I should do a Y-DNA test to try and find out George Barnard's father. Has anybody done one before or does anybody have some knowledge about them? I was doing some research online about it. Does it sound like a good idea for my situation? Thanks,
Jake
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My father was adopted & my Y-DNA experience comes from his matches and relatives. We paid for the Y-67 test & for a year we had no matches with the correct surname. Now, we have two matches with the right surname but still without any known common ancestors. The TiP report (based on genetic mutations between generations) estimates that we share a match within 99.59% certainty in the past 20 generations. That's not very helpful - other than to tell me that the surname is right for a few people.
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Have you looked for passenger lists? Did they immigrate together?
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Thanks for the info about your experience with the Y-DNA test.
I have looked for passenger lists. Pre 1820 passenger lists are pretty hard to find though.
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I've posted before about finding my 3rd great grandfather's parents. His name was George Barnard. I did a Y-DNA test and got the results back this week. Of the 112 matches on my 67 marker there are no Barnards, but there were 31 Elliott matches. So I believe at some point my ancestors' surname was changed from Elliott to Barnard. Through autosomal DNA testing I found out that George had a sister named Caroline Barnard. Her marriage record states that she was adopted. George was not consistent in what he reported on the US census every 10 years. Some state that he was born in New York and others say that he was born on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. One says he was born in Pennsylvania. His birth year was probably around 1816. I'm thinking that George and his sister did not know their parents and were possibly adopted into a family with the last name Barnard. I'm still trying to figure how to interpret all of the results of my Y-DNA test. If anybody has any thing they could offer me, please let me know. Thanks,
Jake Barnard
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