Welcome to the Griggs Moon family DNA project! The objective of this project is to use documentary and genetic genealogy to identify the father of Griggs Moon.
We are looking for descendants of Griggs Moon who are willing to share their DNA results to help us in our search for Griggs’ father. Previous research suggests Griggs’ father was a member of the family of Robert Moon Sr., who died in 1824 in Jackson County. We are also open to any information you may have on the Moon family through sources or family stories. Below is a preliminary tree of all the children of Griggs. There is also a link to a more detailed tree that includes his grandchildren. You can enlarge that tree by clicking on the zoom-in magnifying glass in the top left corner. If you see one of your ancestors in the following tree, you may be able to help us with our project!
Moon Family Tree, Including Griggs’ Grandkids
If you descend from Griggs Moon and would like to help us with our project, there are a few things you can do:
- If you have already had DNA testing through Ancestry, then you can follow these steps to add us as a viewer to your DNA. As a viewer, we won’t be able to make any changes to your DNA account but will only be able to view your matches to make our needed analyses. Here is an article from AncestryDNA explaining the various permissions. Please note that sharing DNA results cannot be done from the app on a phone but must be done by accessing the DNA results on a browser.
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- From any page on Ancestry, click the DNA tab and select Your DNA Results Summary.
- On your DNA homepage, click Settings in the top-right corner.
- On the DNA Settings page, scroll down to the Sharing Preferences section and click Change beside DNA Ethnicity and Matches.
- If you’ve never shared your results with the person you’re inviting to view your test, click Add a person and go to the next step. If you’ve shared your results with them before, click their role and change it to Viewer. After changing their role, enter your password and click Assign Role. Skip the rest of the steps below. You’ll receive an email when the person accepts their role as a viewer.
- Enter their email address (rmyers3093@aol.com), select Viewer, and click Send Invitation. Whether you enter their email address or username, the invitation will be sent by email.
- When your invitation is accepted, you’ll receive an email letting you know.
2. If you have not done your DNA but would like to, you can purchase an Ancestry DNA kit here.
3. If you’d like to see if you’re eligible for us to purchase an Ancestry DNA kit for you, you can e-mail us how you descend from Griggs (Diana@familylocket.com).
4. If you’re not interested in sharing DNA with us but have genealogical information you’d like to share, e-mail us anytime at Diana@familylocket.com.
How does it Work?
Autosomal DNA can only help identify ancestors up to 6-8 generations back. When reviewing a DNA match, the testing website will report the amount of DNA shared with a match, but the specific relationship can only be discovered through analyzing pedigrees. Placing matches in genetic networks and tracking the surnames and locations that appear in different pedigrees can help pinpoint a common ancestor between a test taker and a DNA match. This process can help prove family relationships and lead to hypotheses for missing ancestors.
To find a genetic cluster that would point to Griggs’ father, more DNA needs to be collected for descendants of Griggs. Collecting more DNA of the descendants of Griggs will increase the likelihood that his father’s DNA will be represented in the analysis. The term for this in genetic genealogy is DNA coverage. For example, if the objective of a project was to prove a test-taker’s father, and only the test-taker’s DNA had been collected, then 50% of the DNA of the research subject (the test-taker’s father) would be covered in the analysis. In this case, Griggs is the second great-grandfather of Test-Taker 1. That means an estimate of only 6.25% of Griggs’ DNA could appear in this analysis, and only 3.125% of Griggs’ father’s DNA.
To increase the coverage of Griggs’ genome, best practices would be to collect DNA from multiple descendants of each of his children. This would ensure that the analysis was not limited to DNA only passed through one child. Keep in mind that if DNA matches increase the DNA coverage of a research subject by more than 5%, it is highly suggested to collect that DNA. To learn more about DNA coverage, you can read Paul Woodbury’s article “Covering Your Bases: Introduction to Autosomal DNA Coverage.”
Progress of the Project
So far, two reports on the project have been written. We currently have access to DNA for 1 descendant of Griggs Moon, covering 6.25% of Griggs’ DNA. To review what we know, both with documentary and genetic genealogy, you can read the completed reports here:
Moon Nov 2021 Report Anonymized
Moon Mar 2022 Report Anonymized
For any questions on the project, you can e-mail Diana Elder at Diana@familylocket.com.