Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about chapter 7 of Research Like a Pro with DNA. We discuss ethnicity estimates and how they can help with your genealogy research. We review the ethnicity estimates from each testing company and GEDmatch. We also discuss locality research and three small case studies showing how ethnicity and location were instrumental in solving the case.
Transcript
Nicole (1s):
This is Research Like A Pro. Episode 244 RLP with DNA seven Locality and Ethnicity Welcome to Research Like a Pro a Genealogy Podcast about taking your research to the next level, hosted by Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder accredited genealogy professional. Diana and Nicole are the mother-daughter team at FamilyLocket.com and the authors of Research Like a Pro A Genealogist Guide. With Robin Wirthlin they also co-authored the companion volume, Research Like a Pro with DNA. Join Diana and Nicole as they discuss how to stay organized, make progress in their research and solve difficult cases.
Nicole (42s):
Let’s go. Today’s episode is sponsored by newspapers.com breakdown Genealogy Brick Walls with a subscription to the largest online newspaper archive. Hi everyone. Welcome to Research. Like a Pro.
Diana (59s):
Hi. Nicole, how are you today?
Nicole (1m 1s):
I am fabulous. How have things been going? What have you been working on?
Diana (1m 7s):
Well, we just finished up Roots Tech, so I’ve been working on catching up after those few days of intense giving Presentations and meeting people at our booth. But it was so great, so fun to meet so many of our listeners and it’s was great to meet new people who have never listened to a podcast and don’t know anything about it. It was fun explaining how it worked and hopefully some of our new listeners will figure out how to do Podcasts because it really is a great way to learn.
Nicole (1m 39s):
Yeah, it was fun to meet How many people said, I listened to your podcast while I’m walking my dog.
Diana (1m 45s):
Yeah, well, and I love Podcasts. I love listening to audiobooks. It just seems like a good way to do two things at once, listen and get some some other tasks done. so I’m looking forward to my garden being able to come to life. We’ve had Winter First Long and I like to listen to Podcasts while I’m gardening, so I’m hoping for some warmer weather someday.
Nicole (2m 6s):
Oh, true. You know, it’s spring here in Tucson already and our nectarine tree is out blossoming and bees buzzing all around it.
Diana (2m 16s):
Oh man, that sounds so fun.
Nicole (2m 19s):
The Rooster conference was so fun, I just wasn’t sure what it would be like after two years of virtual due to Covid and we wondered if it would be as big as it was in years past and it was definitely smaller, but I thought it was a good amount of people and in the, you know, I think in 2020 it was so crowded, the hallways were so stuffed with people that it was hard to get around and this time it was a a perfect amount of people in my opinion.
Diana (2m 46s):
I agree. It felt really good and our classrooms had plenty of room for everyone to spread out a little bit, but they still felt pretty full. So especially the class that we did together, that one actually was really full. So that was just fun to be in person and see people reacting to your talk. You know, when we, I don’t mind doing webinars and video Presentations as well through Zoom, but it’s fun to see faces from person,
Nicole (3m 16s):
Right. And we decided just to do in-person talks this time and not pre-record any of our videos. So if you didn’t attend in-person, our lectures were not recorded. However, you can always watch us talking on our Webinar series and we would love to have you join that.
Diana (3m 36s):
Right. We have got another fun new announcement and that is a new Airtable quick reference guide that Nicole designed. So if you’ve been working with Airtable and you would love to have a guide to refer to to help you with all the different features of Airtable that’s available as a PDF download on FamilyLocket in our shop. And then our research Cpro Webinar series for 2023 is well underway. We have monthly case studies featuring the research cpro and research cpro of DNA process And. so we invite you to join us for that. Those are all recorded and whether you attend live or not, you have access to the series on FamilyLocket.
Diana (4m 20s):
And we have our next study group beginning this fall, very end of August. It’ll go through November of 2023, and that will focus on purely documentary works. We also have a peer group leader application on our website if you’d like to join us as a peer group leader and have a complimentary registration. And as always, join our newsletter for coupons for special sales that we have going on. And the next big conference coming up is the National Genealogical Society Conference. That will be the very end of May 1st of June in Richmond, Virginia. It will be an in-person conference with 10 lectures being part of their online presence, and that is now open for registration.
Diana (5m 8s):
And then there’s also the Association of Professional Genealogist Professional Management Conference coming up in the fall and they’re having a call for Presentations. So if you’re a professional Genealogist or you have something interesting you’d like to share with that group, you might want to check out that conference and submit a proposal.
Nicole (5m 29s):
So many fun things coming up. Our topic for today is chapter seven from our book Research Like a Pro with D n a. And chapter seven is all about locality research and Ethnicity. And when we were preparing the plan for Research Like a Pro at D n a, we were trying to figure out, you know, what part of DNA evidence would we talk about in the locality research chapter? And we finally settled on Ethnicity because a lot of what Ethnicity is about is determining where your DNA is pointing to as far as location.
Nicole (6m 9s):
And originally the locations in our admixture were just very broad, but over time they’ve developed several new ways to make it more specific like communities and more specific locations within the more broad continents and countries. So it’s exciting. So usually when you receive your D N A test results, that’s the first thing to explore is that pie chart or Ethnicity estimate to see what percentage of each Ethnicity you are. And you wanted to match that up and see if it looks like the same as what your family tree looks like over time.
Nicole (6m 50s):
You may have seen that there are updates to the Ethnicity estimates. So it’s important to understand what’s going on here with these Ethnicity estimates and really know what it can and can’t tell us because Ethnicity estimates are estimates they can play a role in our research, but they also can’t tell us everything And. so our D N A does hold clues to where our Ancestors came from and where they settled. So we shouldn’t ignore this potential source of information, but we do need to Analyze our Ethnicity estimates and compare and contrast them across the various testing companies.
Nicole (7m 30s):
So they can be useful when used in conjunction with documentary research and often they can help us confirm or reject hypothesis. Another way we can use them is when we’re working to identify the most recent common ancestor with a DNA match and looking at the locations and suggested ethnicities can help us reach that goal. Sometimes we can even reach out to our d n matches and find out that they’re an expert in a Locality that might be able to help us and they can share research information or access records and repositories and history of that area. So often our DNA matches our resource to us to help us with our research and understanding localities that are far from us.
Nicole (8m 15s):
So it’s important to add Locality and Ethnicity information to our DNA research log to keep all of this information organized that we’re learning. So in the previous chapter we learned how to Analyze our Sources and make a timeline. And that timeline included specific locations and we also evaluated our DNA matches and started looking at their trees and maybe started noticing some shared localities. So to get ready for the next step, which is creating our research plan, we’re going to do locality research and that’s going to require us to select a Locality and prepare a Locality guide to help us really dive into the history, geography, records, and repository that will inform our research path.
Nicole (9m 0s):
So this chapter is all about that. It’s about weaving together locations in our matches, trees, Ethnicity results and locality research
Diana (9m 11s):
Thank you for that introduction to this chapter. Let’s begin by talking about the terms admixture and Ethnicity estimates. You will hear both of those as you listen to lectures or read articles and both of them refer to the same thing. We’re talking about this genetic mix of various populations that make up our unique DNA And. so I’m just going to use the term Ethnicity estimate because it’s just easier to have one term, but know when you hear admixture that has the same general meaning. So let’s just use my Ethnicity as an example. My ancestry is broadly European from the British Isles, Western Europe and Scandinavia.
Diana (9m 56s):
Well, as you know, those populations mix widely with one another. So at this point the DNA testing companies just can give me broad estimates. But if you have a very diverse population in your background such as Northwestern European and Mexican ancestry, you would have more success in distinguishing wish portions of your Ethnicity. Admixture originates from specific branches of your family tree. Here’s a fun example of an individual’s known ancestry of Latin America, British Isles and Scandinavian, a pretty big difference.
Diana (10m 37s):
So the specific communities listed in Eastern Norway and indigenous Americas slash Mexico are useful clues for continuing research in those locations. So this person has 46% Norway with specific communities noted there, and then 11% England wells and Northwestern Europe, 10% Ireland, 7% Scotland, then 7% indigenous Americas slash Mexico, then 6% Sweden, 5% Wales, 4% Spain, 2% Portugal, 1% indigenous Americas and Dien and 1% Eastern Europe and Russia.
Diana (11m 17s):
That’s a much more interesting set of ethnicities than I have in mind, which is pretty much just British Isles, Ireland, Scotland, and some Scandinavian. So it’s so interesting to look at different people and see what their DNA shows. Now you may have your DNA at several different companies and you’ll notice that each company defines geographic areas differently. One may include Denmark in a Scandinavian region while another company has it in a broadly northern European region. And this is just because every company defines regions differently. Our Ancestors migrated and the Ethnicity estimates are most accurate on the continental level.
Diana (12m 4s):
So some populations were more isolated such as Finnish, Japanese, Ashkenazi, Jews, And. so those Ethnicity estimates may be more accurate as a result. And with every update to the testing company’s Ethnicity estimates, I think we’re able to see those become more narrowed down and a little bit more accurate. And it will be fun to see how things change as the science evolves. So how do these testing companies come up with these estimates? Well, each uses a proprietary algorithm to compare our DNA to that of reference populations worldwide.
Diana (12m 46s):
And that just means a group of people with known origins in a specific location. And because each testing company does use a different reference population, our Ethnicity estimates vary among the websites and they are continually adding to the reference populations in refining their science. So the our Ethnicity estimates will continue to change. We’re going to take a look at each of the five main DNA testing companies and what they offer in the way of understanding our genetic origins and we’ll use my DNA estimates to illustrate the differences. And it’s always just really fun to do the comparison.
Diana (13m 27s):
I also want to note that if you take screenshots of your Ethnicity So you can compare through the years. That’s another fun thing to do. So looking at my genealogical family tree, here is the breakdown on my maternal line. I am three quarters English and this line immigrated in the mid 18 hundreds. And then on that maternal line, the other one quarter is Danish and they also immigrated in the mid 18 hundreds So, you know, a fairly recent immigration and we know exactly where they came from. Three quarters English, one quarter Danish. Now my paternal line, they are Colonial Ancestors who all came over 16, 17 hundreds early.
Diana (14m 10s):
And those lines are from the British Isles, Germany, France. And that is much more difficult to tease out exactly what belongs to which line. One thing that’s interesting is my great-grandmother was full Danish, so I would have received roughly 12.5% of her dna, but we know of with random recombination, I probably didn’t receive that exact number. So it’ll be fun to explore and see what the companies report as we go through this episode.
Nicole (14m 45s):
That’s so fun to think about what is your tree show and then compare that with what the Ethnicity estimates show and also to remember about Recombination that you maybe didn’t receive a full 12.5% from your great-grandmother. Maybe you only received like 8% from her, who knows. Right. Well let’s talk first about 23 and Me. Their report about Ethnicity is called Ancestry Composition. They have a large reference dataset and they also use some public reference datasets such as the Human Genome Diversity Project. One thing that’s great about the ancestry composition report is that it can break down the regions two specific areas and I think they’re one of the best for that because they break it down to smaller places.
Nicole (15m 38s):
Instead of just saying 97% Europe, they break it down. So they break it down to like Northwestern Europe. And then underneath that it has British and Irish, French and German Scandinavian and broadly Northwestern European. And then under Southern European they have Spanish and Portuguese, broadly Southern European, broadly European Trace ancestry and unassigned. So they have some things that are not that clear. But for the Scandinavian for Diana’s report, it says she has 7.9% Scandinavian and then you know, it had the broadly Northwestern European, which is 18.1% And.
Nicole (16m 20s):
so some of that maybe could be that Scandinavian as well. The 23andme ancestry composition report also has like a few different things. It has a timeline, a parental inheritance chart, and a chromosome painting, which is hugely valuable. The timeline, it kind of estimates when different Ancestors lived in different places. So it estimates that Diana’s Scandinavian Ancestors live there in the mid 18 hundreds, which supports, you know, the documentary trail that we have. The other great thing about 23andme is their ancestry composition chromosome painting and you can see the segments which the company predicts originated from a specific Ethnicity or region.
Nicole (17m 6s):
So that’s really exciting to be able to compare that with segments you’ve painted in D n A painter that are from known matches and maybe assign a segment to a particular region or location and then also possibly use that segment that you know is from a a specific region to help you determine how that matches connected to you. So that can be exciting, especially if you can figure out if that segment is maternal or paternal.
Diana (17m 34s):
Right. I love using the Ethnicity estimate at 23 and Me just because it lets you look at things differently and I think that’s so important in Genealogy to make sure we’re looking at things from all different angles. Well let’s turn to Ancestry DNA and talk about what they are doing And. so they have a DNA story and Ethnicity estimate and they have a reference panel made up of recently tested people with known roots in a specific region. They started this with a base of over 2,800 samples from two major genome projects and then they added samples from their own proprietary reference collection and from DNA samples from customers consenting to participate in the research.
Diana (18m 21s):
So what Ancestry did was they first looked at family trees and then they wanted to see if their lineages all traced back to the same geographic region. What I love about Ancestry is they give you a white paper that really explains how they did this and they used quality control to remove outliers that might be introduced because of misattribution in the family trees. So they also treat some populations differently if they’re thoroughly admixed and then they only include individuals on the reference panel if they’re part of a clearly delineated group. So how accurate are the percentages for each region listed on your DNA story?
Diana (19m 1s):
And I think we just have to remember it. The name estimates And. so as we click on each area we see a range listed and the percentage reported is the most likely. But Ancestry DNA explains that there are a thousand reasonable estimates when compared to the reference panel. So for example, my current ancestry DNA Ethnicity estimate shows that I have 63% England wells and Northwestern Europe, 12% Norway, which would be that Scandinavian part from Denmark, I’m assuming 10% Scotland, 6% Ireland, 4% Sweden, 3% Germanic Europe, and 2% Wales.
Diana (19m 44s):
So it’s interesting that I have the 12% Norway plus I have the 4% Sweden, which gives me more of a range of 16%. And this is so broad because some of that could come from my paternal side as well. It just shows me that yes I do have some Scandinavian ancestry from that full Dana, great-grandmother And. so that makes sense. The regions displayed in your Ancestry DNA story are based on your DNA indicated with a solid circle. And then besides those you have communities which I think are so helpful and the communities are going to evolve as the database grows.
Diana (20m 24s):
And I think we’ve seen that, that at one point we maybe didn’t have communities and then we logged onto Ancestry and all of a sudden we have communities. And I know that happened with my dna, my mother’s DNA had a lot of communities, but I didn’t have the same ones. And then gradually I’m getting more. So my mother’s 25% Danish And. so she does have some good communities. She has some specific ones from England in the Midlands, Northwest England, Southeast England. And then she also has some specific Danish communities of Jutland Zealand, Funen, Laman and Foster. Not sure how to say all those, but when I looked at the map it was exactly right on with our known ancestry from Denmark.
Diana (21m 8s):
So that was really fun to compare that. And then she also has the community of Mountain West Mormon pioneers, which is where those Danish and English Ancestors all came, came out to Utah. So it was really fun to see that her D n A Ethnicity estimates was pretty accurate and clear and there was just a little bit different than mine. It’s always fun to compare you with Ethnicity estimates of parents or siblings or children and and see how things are noted a little bit differently.
Nicole (21m 40s):
It is fun. You know, after we wrote this book, the Ancestry, Ethnicity Inheritance came out with the SideView. so I was just looking at your SideView to see because you had wondered if the Norway and Sweden and Denmark, if any of that came from the paternal side. And and what’s interesting is that it thinks that some of it did come from the paternal side, but there’s definitely larger chunks on the maternal. It actually has both for maternal and paternal. So maternal has Sweden and Denmark in Norway in larger amounts, and paternal has just smaller amounts of Sweden and Denmark and then Norway.
Diana (22m 15s):
Right. And that’s so interesting because I have no idea on my paternal side where that came from because they came over so early. So it’s just fun to look at that. I love the new SideView and the breakdown between paternal and maternal lines.
Nicole (22m 31s):
Right? And I just take it with a grain of Salt too because they just don’t really know exactly where it came from. But it’s cool to see the estimate.
Diana (22m 39s):
Well, and we just have to remember that intermingling of populations. I know one of my friends is full German, her parents both came over from Germany and the 1940s, early 1950s completely German and her Ethnicity estimate shows all this different Scandinavian naming things from all over Europe. so I think that just goes to show that our Ancestors intermingled and it’s hard to just really figure out exactly if we have European ancestry where peace comes from.
Nicole (23m 10s):
Good reminder. Well let’s jump to family tree D n A. Their Ethnicity estimate is called My Origins and they define 24 population clusters that include ancient origins as well as their unique population reference set. They use several projects to make up the reference set, the Human Genome Diversity Project, the International Hat Map project, the EST Bio Center, and the 1000 Genome. So they’ve validated these projects data against individuals in the Gene by Gene DNA database who have proven Ancestors in a specific area. So very similar to what Ancestry does when you click on these different population clusters, the learning center opens up and describes about it and tells about the ancient origins of those people.
Nicole (23m 59s):
And looking into these population clusters can help you learn about the diverse groups of people that inhabited a region. So that can be helpful and interesting with Diana’s d n a, it reported her Ethnicity as a 100% European and a breakdown of 55% Central Europe, 40% Ireland and 5% Scandinavia with less than 1% Finland, which I think is a new area for you.
Diana (24m 24s):
Yeah.
Nicole (24m 25s):
So, and it’s interesting that it only reported 5% of Danish and the rest of that probably is included in the central Europe region. So this is an example of how the results are more accurate to the continental level
Diana (24m 39s):
And just again, how each region is defined by the, by the company. You know, they just have different ways of talking about it. They don’t even discuss British Isles there. it is just Central Europe or Ireland And. so I think, oh my British Isles is slumped together into Ireland, which is 40%. So it is kind of fun just to look at the different companies. Yeah. Well let’s talk about living dna, which I think is so interesting. And Living DNA just defines their Ethnicity estimates as ancestry, but they have a unique algorithm that shows more regional details for the British Isles and it breaks Great Britain and Ireland into much smaller regions.
Diana (25m 21s):
So if you have ancestry in the British Isles, this gives you some really great potential for new discoveries. And because I have so much British ancestry, it was really good for me to look at. So I get to see that I have some very specific regions noted. So for instance, I have 14.6% reporting of Southeast England and that corresponds perfectly with my great-grandfather’s line out of Dover in Kent County. And then my Danish ancestry appears as part of the Scandinavia region. so I think that living DNA can really help to pinpoint some specific areas within the British Isles.
Diana (26m 4s):
So a couple of the other regions that they defined for me, for my Great Britain and Irish Ancestors, they defined the Southeast England a little bit out of South Central England, south Yorkshire, Northwest England, Northumbria, central England, east Anglia, south Wells, border, Ireland, Cambria, and North Wells. And some of those are very small, like 1.6%. But I think it’s really interesting that they can take all my English ancestry and break it down so small. And I will be curious to see if that changes through the years as they increase their reference population and as the science gets more specific.
Diana (26m 45s):
But if you have got, you know, British ancestry, how helpful would that be? That’s really awesome. So they also I have to note that if you test with living dna, you’ll get a maternal and a paternal happer group. It won’t be as specific as you get on family tree DNA N a, but it will give you your basic HAP group.
Nicole (27m 6s):
Yeah, testing at family tree DNA with the Y D N A or mitochondrial gives you like a very specific HAP group, especially if you do the big Y 700. Otherwise the Y D N A just gives you an estimate, like a high level HAP group. But I didn’t know earlier when we were talking about 23 and Me that they also provide a maternal and paternal haplo group if applicable with their autosomal test results.
Diana (27m 30s):
Right. And that could be really helpful in comparing to another DNA match to just take a look and see if you have the same haplo groups and that can help you to see, you know, which lines you might be sharing on. So that’s, that’s kind of fun with living dna. I had my son test there, And. so we do have the Haplo group and it shows our population out of the Sammy group, which is up Norway, Finland, you know, way up north, which yeah, that corresponds to that maternal line, which goes straight back through my Danish great-grandmother. So it made sense.
Nicole (28m 8s):
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Nicole (28m 50s):
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Nicole (29m 33s):
Looking at Diana’s results at my heritage, she had mainly Northwest Europe and England percentages with two additional regions not reported by the other testing companies, east Europe and Iberian. So that was interesting. The north and West European regions are likely where the Danish heritage was included. So it wasn’t broken down to Danish, but viewed on the continental level, the origins of Diana continue to be broadly European. Just reported a little bit differently here, and once again, we see that little piece of finish dna, so that was interesting.
Diana (30m 7s):
Yeah, I’m so curious about the Iberian and the East European where that comes into play because that’s really not anywhere else. So fun. Well, let’s finish up this section on Ethnicity estimates with the companies talking about GEDmatch, and maybe you’ve never used the GEDmatch tools, but they have a tool called Admixture Utilities. you, you’ll see they use the term admixture instead of Ethnicity estimates and they give you a different ways to look at your origins. Several third party developers have created calculators to compare your DNA to a specific reference population. So you get to choose, do you want to compare it to European, African, your Asian, et cetera.
Diana (30m 49s):
And each calculator page provides information about the developers and Links of their website. So to experiment with this, you first select Admixture from the list of DNA applications, and then you select a project from the dropdown menu and then how you want to process it. And then you enter your kit number and select the calculator model to use. And then the program will generate the charts or graphs comparing your DNA to the reference population that you selected. So because I have a European heritage, I selected the Euro Genes K 13 model and it generated a list of percentages and a pie chart, which was fun.
Diana (31m 29s):
I liked seeing it Visually a little bit differently and it showed a large region labeled North Atlantic, which reflected my English and Danish ancestry. And it was interesting because this did show a little bit of Mediterranean ancestry, just like my heritage showed the Liberian in southern Europe. So this GEDmatch Euro Genes K 13 models showed that I had 9.81% West Mediterranean, 5.7% West Asian, 2.6%, east Mediterranean, 1% Red Sea, which I found very fascinating. So if you have not looked at Jed match, go take a look.
Diana (32m 9s):
It’s kind of fun to see what it will show you. And it also will show you broken down by chromosomes, the different regions. And I found that it actually correlated pretty well with how 23 in me breaks that down by chromosome. So fun to compare across the different companies.
Nicole (32m 26s):
Neat, well that’s all the different companies. Now let’s just talk briefly about the limitations of these Ethnicity estimates. So they can be very useful, but there are limitations and it’s good to remember, remember that as the science develops and the reference populations grow, your Ethnicity estimate will likely change. And we have to also remember that some origins are difficult to accurately identify using D N A because of the broad migration between countries. So looking at your Ethnicity estimate on the continental level is usually going to be the most reliable way rather than pinpointing specific countries of origin.
Nicole (33m 9s):
And while that’s exciting to see those specific countries, they could be inaccurate. So just be aware of the potential for change and for inaccuracies. And also we need to be wary of the potential for us having confirmation bias when we’re looking at our Ethnicity estimates, we might be looking for a specific hope for Ethnicity and then when we see it, we’re like, yeah, that’s definitely correct. But we need to just be Objective when we’re evaluating our results and not search for what we hope we’ll see.
Diana (33m 44s):
We also don’t want to get too worried if we see something pop up that looks unusual, you know, just like that Western Mediterranean just know things will change and the science will get us more focused on figuring out the correct ancestry as we go. But also you might have a huge clue if you have a large amount of an unknown Ethnicity that will tell you maybe something’s incorrect in your family tree. So we also have to be aware that that might happen and we have seen that in our client work. So let’s talk about locality research. We spent a lot of time on Ethnicity estimates and when we are using DNA with documentary genealogical research, we are looking for two people living in the same location where conception could have occurred and how do you determine that location?
Diana (34m 35s):
Well, after we Analyze the DNA and existing records, we probably have a specific research Locality that has emerged, and this is where we’re going to search for new documentation, more Genealogy records that will help us to confirm or reject a hypothesis. And to create our viable research plan, we’ve got to study the Locality. We teach to create a Locality guide that helps us understand the history laws, geography, and records that inform the research. And some of the things we can include in a Locality guide are gatherers, migration, routes, jurisdictions, and boundary changes.
Diana (35m 16s):
It’s so important to do the study of the Locality and to study the Locality as much as we are studying the records. The reason we haven’t found the answer yet is because we don’t understand enough about where the records are or why they were created or what was happening in the area where our ancestor lived And. so we recommend you do a Locality guide and it can be on any level that you feel will help you. You know, generally I like to go local with a county guide, but it could be very beneficial to do a state Locality guide to understand records on that jurisdiction or even on a country level if you’re new to researching in say Ireland or Denmark or Germany, just to understand more about how record keeping in that specific location.
Diana (36m 5s):
So remember, your Locality guide is fluid, you get started with the bones of it and then you can add to it as you need. But as you get started, just keep it simple and focused on the time and the specific area that you think you’ll be researching in.
Nicole (36m 23s):
Great, well, to learn more about locality research, make sure you go to our chapter in our first book, Research Like, a Pro about Locality guides, and there’s a Rob robust section just talking about how to create those and some examples in the work samples section. Well now let’s just talk about three case studies where either Ethnicity location or both were important in discovering the genetic relationships. So the first one is an adoptee case where we were trying to find the biological father and the birth mother was located early on, but the birth mother didn’t tell anything about the birth father. So DNA testing was used and the first thing that was noticed is that the test taker had a sizable amount of finish in her Ethnicity estimate indicating she was probably about one quarter finish subsequent DNA matches that were found on that one side of the family that we believed to be the father’s side.
Nicole (37m 22s):
Some of them had this piece of finish ancestry in So. you can see at ancestry D n A, the Ethnicity estimate for your matches and looking at that can really help you narrow down which line they’re related to you on And. so that’s kind of what was done with some of these different DNA matches who had, you know, high percentages like 12% of finished admixture and then eliminating other DNA matches who shared with other people who didn’t have the finished dna. They were able to separate into two distinct groups and then using surnames and locations from their family trees, they were able to narrow it down to a specific family and then find all the descendants of those people and then find a specific paternal group that had localities in Montana where the conception likely occurred.
Nicole (38m 15s):
So that was exciting to be able to use Ethnicity and Locality to be able to solve this case.
Diana (38m 21s):
That was really a fun case. And one of the interesting things about that was that there was this little bit of Native American ancestry in some, a couple of the DNA matches that weren’t in client DNA And. so So, you know, that threw in another little branch like where does this come in? so I love looking at Locality and Ethnicity estimates as we’re working through a DNA case. Another case that we worked on was uncovering an unknown grandfather. And in this case we have Jack Jr, who never knew, knows biological grandfather. And as a young boy, his father Jack Sr. Had just found his birth certificate and his surname was green, which was not the surname of his adopted father that he had used his entire life.
Diana (39m 7s):
And his mother snatched that certificate away, And. so we’re never talking to this again. And he always wondered about this mysterious name of green. So he turned to DNA testing after his grandmother and father’s passing and took the Y DNA test as well as the autosomal DNA test at each of the DNA testing companies. And it revealed the surname of Rob, which was not Mr. Green. It was a completely different surname, And. so correlating that and some autosomal matches found a likely candidate for his grandfather. So then we had to turn to Locality trying to figure out a place where this man and Jack senior’s mother had been And.
Diana (39m 51s):
so it turned out using all the documentary research and studying the Locality that they were both in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in the 1920s And. so it became evident that yes, this could have been the father and the the mother and the father were in the same area within a few blocks of each other at the time of conception of this child. So we really had to use location in conjunction with the DNA N to solve this case. And this is how this always is with our DNA research. We can’t just do DNA alone, we always have to turn to Locality next and put together the pieces of the puzzle.
Nicole (40m 36s):
All right, our last case study is about connecting a female ancestor to her father. And as we know, female Ancestors born before 1850 are often a Brick wall for us. And with Rachel Cox, she was no different. Her marriage record revealed the surname of Cox and she was married in Navarro County, Texas to Hickman Monroe Schultz, but no father was listed on that marriage record. But research eliminated all Cox men in Navarro County in the 1840s except for one named Benjamin Cox. He was listed in proximity to Rachel’s husband on a list of road commissioners.
Nicole (41m 18s):
So he seemed like a good candidate. And researching him uncovered a migration path from Ohio to Indiana, Arkansas and Texas. So creating Locality guides for the counties in these areas that he lived in. And understanding the available records there made it possible to research and understand Benjamin Cox’s localities in that time period of migration. And some overlapping localities continued to point to a relationship between Rachel and Benjamin. Next d n a was used to see if the hypothesis would be supported or rejected with additional evidence And. so adding Benjamin Cox as the father for Rachel on our ancestry tree caused through lines to be generated to Benjamin Cox.
Nicole (42m 5s):
And there were over 70 possible D N A matches to Diana as a direct descendant of Rachel Cox to descendants of Benjamin Cox. And viewing the localities of these associated family trees again revealed these locations of Ohio, Indiana, Arkansas, and Texas correlating with the records for Rachel and Benjamin. So after much analysis and inclusion of additional D N A test takers, the D N A evidence did provide final confirmation of what the records indirectly showed. So it was exciting to see how correlation of different locations in a migration path was able to confirm the identity of Rachel Cox’s father.
Diana (42m 46s):
Right? That was such a great Brick wall case to solve. Finally, with D N A. Well, let’s give you a task. So the task for this chapter is to explore Ethnicity estimates and locations of shared matches. So first of all, consider what role Ethnicity estimates could play in your research project. View the reports on each of the company websites to see if they match your genealogical family tree and make notes about any conclusions in your research project document. And then compare your DNA matches, Ethnicity estimates to yours. Do they provide clues to the research question what localities are named in your DNA match trees or on the company websites?
Diana (43m 28s):
And add this information to your research log. And then second, you’re going to create a Locality guide. So now you’ve created a research Objective and analyzed the evidence So. you can create a Locality guide or guides to inform your research, look at the DNA matches that might be related to you on the same side as the subject of your Objective. Determine the time and place where their Ancestors lived. Do they seem to match with what you know? If so, this will give you confidence in following this line of reasoning. And then you will review your timeline analysis and decide which localities seem reliable, which may hold the answer to your research question.
Diana (44m 8s):
And then you’ll choose your time and your place to focus your Locality guide. Keep in mind, you may need to do two or three smaller guides if your ancestor migrated, such as the Benjamin Cox project where I had to do some Locality guides in Ohio and Indiana and Arkansas and Texas because he was a migrating ancestor. But in contrast, the Oklahoma City project only needed one Locality guide because the research centered right there in Oklahoma City. So just know every research project is unique, but every project will need a Locality guide to help you better understand your Ancestors time and place. It really is the key to your research planning and finding the answers that you’ve been looking for for so long.
Nicole (44m 56s):
Well, good luck with your task, and next week we will talk to you about chapter eight, which is about DNA tools and methodology.
Diana (45m 3s):
All right, bye-bye everyone.
Nicole (45m 5s):
Bye Thank you for listening. We hope that something you heard today will help you make progress in your research. If you want to learn more, purchase our books, Research Like, a Pro and Research Like a Pro with DNA on amazon.com and other book sellers. You can also register for our online courses or study groups of the same names. Learn more at FamilyLocket dot com slash services. To share your progress and ask questions, join our private Facebook group by sending us your book receipt or joining our courses to get updates in your email inbox each Monday. Subscribe to our newsletter at FamilyLocket dot com slash newsletter. Please Subscribe rate and review our podcast. We read each of you and are so thankful for them. We hope you’ll start now to Research Like a Pro.
Links
How SideView™ Technology Splits Your DNA Results by Parent – https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/SideView-Technology?language=en_US
NGS Conference – https://conference.ngsgenealogy.org/
APG Professional Management Conference Call for Presentations – https://www.apgen.org/cpages/2023-professional-management-conference
Sponsor – Newspapers.com
For listeners of this podcast, Newspapers.com is offering new subscribers 20% off a Publisher Extra subscription so you can start exploring today. Just use the code “FamilyLocket” at checkout.
Research Like a Pro Resources
Airtable Quick Reference – by Nicole Dyer – https://familylocket.com/product/airtable-research-logs-for-genealogy-quick-reference/
Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide book by Diana Elder with Nicole Dyer on Amazon.com – https://amzn.to/2x0ku3d
Research Like a Pro Webinar Series 2023 – monthly case study webinars including documentary evidence and many with DNA evidence – https://familylocket.com/product/research-like-a-pro-webinar-series-2023/
Research Like a Pro eCourse – independent study course – https://familylocket.com/product/research-like-a-pro-e-course/
RLP Study Group – upcoming group and email notification list – https://familylocket.com/services/research-like-a-pro-study-group/
Research Like a Pro with DNA Resources
Research Like a Pro with DNA: A Genealogist’s Guide to Finding and Confirming Ancestors with DNA Evidence book by Diana Elder, Nicole Dyer, and Robin Wirthlin – https://amzn.to/3gn0hKx
Research Like a Pro with DNA eCourse – independent study course – https://familylocket.com/product/research-like-a-pro-with-dna-ecourse/
RLP with DNA Study Group – upcoming group and email notification list – https://familylocket.com/services/research-like-a-pro-with-dna-study-group/
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