Thank You Note Vectors by Vecteezy In celebration of this period of gratitude, here are some thoughts from your SKCGS Board members.  May you all find peace and joy this season! Background Vectors by Vecteezy Background Vectors by Vecteezy Background Vectors by Vecteezy Background Vectors by Vecteezy Background Vectors by Vecteezy Background Vectors by Vecteezy Background Vectors by Vecteezy

Have you read the latest Morton Farrier genealogical mystery?  If not, you are in for another treat from the pen (computer?) of Nathan Dylan Goodwin. Nathan is a master at presenting believable characters in intriguing plots and time periods.  From 19th century smuggling through women's suffrage and World War II to post-war life, forensic genealogist Morton Farrier has used the latest tools available to construct family histories and solve mysteries for his clients as well as in his own life. The Mystery The Foundlings deals with three women who, abandoned as babies in the 1970s, have found that they are half sisters.  They ask Morton to help them find their common link. Nathan's books are subtle lessons in developing solid research techniques and his characters are so real, I want to search for them on Ancestry along with Morton.  I have to remind myself that they are fictional! Do Genealogy with Morton! www.freepik.com/photos/background' So, sharpen your pencils an...

 Hi folks, if you saw my post last week,  Wikitree, and the Value of Half-Relatives  then you know that I was excited to know that the one DNA segment that my mystery match and I shared was from one shared ancestor, my second great-grandfather Elias Henry Baysinger.  Elias Henry Baysinger 1832-1900 Elias married three times and had 15 children, one of whom died at birth or within days of birth and is buried in the same grave as my second great-grandmother Sarah who was the second wife and mother of ten.  My match descends from the third wife, Lydia, so the shared segment comes only from Elias, and from neither wife.  What can I do with this segment data beyond "painting" it? Gedmatch Free Tools The first tool I used was at Gedmatch , called People who match both kits, or 1 of 2 kits , a free tool. I often use this kit to find out who a mystery match is, because as the ungainly title of the tool says, it creates a list of those kits who match both kits. If s...

 I came across a useful feature of Wikitree yesterday; I was updating the Biography of my first cousin Pat, who died yesterday. Rest in peace, dear cousin. New DNA Clue Before I left her page I noticed a new name on the right, where DNA Connections are found. I've blurred the name of my new-found relative, but this is what I saw:  Search for a Match My first step was to search for him on 23andMe -- not found. Then, a one-to-one comparison on Gedmatch -- no shared segments. Nor with my sister, or another first cousin either.  How about with my uncle? Yes!  35.1 cM , quite a healthy segment for a third cousin. One to One Gedmatch comparison between my uncle and his Baysinger match Find Common Ancestors Next step: check the match's tree. His parents were private, but his grandfather's name was familiar, and in my own Ancestry.com tree. As I examined our two ancestral paths back to our common ancestor, an important aspect became clear: we share only a single ancestor, no...

 "As American as Apple Pie" "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" "An apple for the teacher" "The apple of my eye" "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" Food vector created by vextok - www.freepik.com The days are shorter, the air is crisper and it's apple harvest time.  If you drive along the Columbia River north of Wenatchee, WA with your car window down, you can smell the apples on their way to market! Apples have been a major part of my family's farming history.  From New Hampshire, through Vermont and Wisconsin, the Stowe and Dyer families were in apple growing country.  When Anna Wood Dyer proved the homestead land in Minnesota in 1881, the evaluation included over 700 apple trees. My great grandfather, Solomon Stowe, preferred apple pie for breakfast, my great grandmother, Mary Dyer Stowe, always had a supply on hand.  As a 4 year old child, my Aunt Ena was always sooo hungry when she went to Grandma's house...