Ethnicity Estimates If you have tested with more than one DNA company you probably have varied ethnic percentages, especially in the earlier years. Your ethnic breakdown could vary from company to company and, as sample populations increased, your comparison would be adjusted within a company such as Ancestry or FtDNA.  The genetic breakdowns didn't always agree with the genealogical findings either. Ancestry.com MaryLynn's most recent at Ancestry--Scandinavian 11% My Heritage MaryLynn at My Heritage--Scandinavian 34.5% FamilyTreeDNA MaryLynn at FtDNA--Scandinavian 22% My genealogical heritage was primarily English immigrants to New England in the 1600s with the addition of my Scots-Irish maternal great-grandmother in the 1800s.  But my DNA ethnicity always included a large percentage of Scandinavian   results.  I always figured it was due to the many invasions of the British Isles by the Danes and Vikings. Living DNA MaryLynn at Living DNA My test at Living DNA confirmed my ge

"The past is a foreign country" -- opening phrase of The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley, 1953. I have long avoided researching my ancestors pre-1850 because I didn't want to battle with the records in this foreign land. My excuse was the *lack* of records, but really there are lots of records, but they are *different* records; not what I'm used to searching, and not with which I'm comfortable. Now that I'm digging into the family of my third great-grandfather, born about 1799, there is no avoiding this foreign country, beginning with tick marks and tax lists.  Clinch-Powell rivers basin, Tennessee portion : Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hawkins, and Union counties, Tennessee [1] Putting Names to the Tick Marks In my work on my third-great-grandparents George Henry McBee and Martha Willis McBee, it is necessary to find each member of the family in every census to explore the history of this family. Anything less is not complete basic research

How to Get from Research to Proving Your Case   Making your proof argument a fun project! What do you do when you have finished a lot of research on one of your families? We all know what we're supposed to do -- write it up! Write It Up Devon Noel Lee from the Family History Fanatics in her series " Researching Over My Shoulder " has inspired me over the past couple of years to get better about this. When tackling a bit sticky family, I now generally start a new Google Sheet, and start roughing out a plan. As I work, I try to keep it updated with records found (and not found), other notes, and lately, adding citations as I go. Our Persons Of Interest group was an excellent impetus for that, because if you have written a detailed timeline for your person or family, it is much easier to have others look at your work and offer ideas and suggestions you have not yet considered. Of course not everything we write is a proof, but not every family is easy, and not every localit

  We are so proud and happy that one of our own is being honored for her many years of work - Helen Lewis.  2021 and 2022 President’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement Announced   – r eprinted with permission from Roxanne Lowe, who wrote most of this for the Washington State Genealogical Society Blog, https://wasgs.org/blog/ . WSGS President Kathleen Sizer is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2021 and 2022 Outstanding Achievement Award: 2021 — Helen McGreer Lewis, Renton, 1923 – 2017 2022 — Jill Morelli, Seattle Created in 2015, the President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement is designed to single out that rare individual, society or organization who has demonstrated exemplary service above and beyond expectations. The award is not given every year as it is based on merit and accomplishments, as you’ll see from reading about the recipients below. Helen Lewis Helen McGreer Lewis, 1923 – 2017 Helen Lewis’s final years of service to genealogy and family history were not only un

https://conference.ngsgenealogy.org/ Takeaways from the National Genealogical Society 2022 Conference NGS2022GEN Souvenirs This past week, I attended the NGS 2022 Conference, the first in-person event since 2019. Because everyone was vaccinated and masking was universal, I was comfortable attending. After hearing Andre Kearns' [1] keynote at the NGS Banquet Friday night, I am so proud to be an NGS Member, both personally and as Delegate for our Society. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee [2] which Kearns chairs is doing the work necessary to come to terms with the exclusionary past of the NGS, and to begin instead to tell a far more complete story of our families' and nation's past. His story about searching his son's lineage back to 1619 and a free man of color was inspiring.  If Kearns could find those scarce, precious documents and prove that case, then there is hope for all of us researchers. If Harvard and Georgetown Universities can confront their p

From the Stowe/Williams Family Collection As the weather warms up and Covid restrictions ease, people are traveling more and seeing friends and family members they have missed for too long.  Some are even meeting distant relatives they may never have met before. One of the joys of meeting after a long period of time is sharing photographs.  Hopefully everyone in the photos is identified and the date and place are well documented.  The photo is telling you a story and all the details are evident. But, unfortunately, that is rarely the case.  Some photos may have been identified such as the ones my Aunt Bea did--a man fishing from the shore of a body of water was identified as, "Dad at the lake".  Great!  Whose Dad?  at what lake?  at what occasion?  At least she tried.  That isn't always the case. Don't be steered wrong Sometimes the information given is not correct.  This photo had been identified as a three generation group and as 2nd great-, great- and grandmother o

6 generations of McBees, Willises and Smiths Don't Forget to Check GEDmatch While continuing to build the trees of my McBee DNA matches, I thought about two parts of GEDmatch that allow me to search for my mother's matches, even though she died years before autosomal testing was available. Both of the tools featured here are "Tier 1" tools, which means you need to pay for a month or more to use them.  GEDmatch - Free and Paid My mother's kit, LX517332, is a "Lazarus" kit which I created from the kits of my sister and myself, my father, me mom's brother, and all the cousins I could persuade to upload to GEDmatch. The reason my father's kit is part of the construction is that GEDmatch compares his data to that of my sister and me, and removes our matches to him, which leaves the DNA that we inherited from her. Even after my Tier 1 membership is over, I still have my mom's kit, along with my "super kit" which combines all of my autosom