Non-Paternal Events

I haven't done much serious work on genealogy in a while. However recently I finally had some distant cousins and possibly great aunts/uncles inquire about a family group we share on ManitoulinRoots. It was a bit unhelpful to see someone else regurgitating photos of mine that they obviously took off my public tree however it definitely collided with the last work I did on the genetic side prior to 23andMe turning into a worthless piece of bunk. After comparing my father and I on a few of the direct tests such as Dodecad9, I took another crack at generating parental emulated files from my own sample. My father's emulated sample perfectly matched his real data so I can only assume that my mothers is more than 75% correct even without her test to confirm it.

Part of the fun on spreadsheeting my results versus my fathers in Dodecad was that I discovered I inherited his older DNA contribution. When run against my mother's 'sample' I inherited her more recent groups. Something glaringly obvious is that the south european, which I had tracked down to primarily Portuguese, is actually from my mother. It's also the most recent population addition for her estimated at two generations above her. That generation just happens to be within the Bryants who everyone is suddenly so interested in.

Ironically in this case the infidelity was entirely well known to the family. What no one ever seems to discuss is the time gaps between children and the fact that only half or less look related to each other. Something more strange is the appearance of a unique firstname for the youngest child. While the story is that the mother chose it because she admired a foreigner her brother had dated once I find that a bit odd. To add flame to this fire in researching the origin of the name I discovered that it is actually of Portuguese origin despite the Italian spelling.

So how does one really confirm a highly likely NPE? I seem to have two avenues, one to compare the male line of my great grandmother's three brothers. This could be supplemented with their sons tests but of course that means a confirmation for a non paternity could also be a illegitimacy in that younger generation. The other would be to compare the autosomnal records of the sister's children for glaring different builds. No one of course wants to confirm a non paternity for the family who raised them and who they believe is apart of their personal identity. In that sense I would require either a science and truth driven youngblood like myself or one of the closer generations who doesn't care. As of yet I have not located either.

I imagine if I was local and a bit more skilled at hard copy research I could probably discover names and dates for the unfaithful spouse after the separation. It is likely that the man who took her in as a live-in maid was also her lover. Perhaps he was Portuguese?

Disadvantages of Generalized Consumer Information

Recently I was introduced to two sources: Snpedia.com and James Licks haplogroup reader. Originally I began an excel chart looking for a map/result of correlating my major rcrs differences to known markers of each subclade. When I completed my cursory search and had found only some related to the in typed mutation I was quite disappointed. Through a happy coincidence I searched that marker coming across a blog post which indicated James Licks haplogroup reader using phylotree data. Indeed I had found what I was looking for! When I third party transferred and took my mtDNA test with Family Tree DNA they had not yet differentiated the basic and full sequence test so while I thought I was getting a awesome deal I was indeed being short changed. For most people knowing your major haplogroup is probably very helpful. The general information will no doubt apply to at least part of your research and you may choose to look no further. In researching H I began to try and guess which subclade I might be. I began to notice that much of the research on Haplogroup H was inconsistent. When I first looked it up I was told H stood for Helena featuring most women found in the area of Greece and Turkey. More recent clippings will tell you it is actually a young line found in Norway and Scotland....the inconsistency being an east or west haplogroup. 

Running the James Lick emulator for my true subclade has been invaluable to discerning not only my origins but also understanding why information is so distorted suddenly on the topic of line H. The result from inputting my hrv1 and hrv2 differences was H2a2a1g. Major research has been done recently in recovering that haplogroup from the eurocentric viewpoint and possible selection biases. My own upper subclade of H2 is perhaps one of the least European of all the H derivatives with H2a2a1 represented in highest amount among Saudi Arabian women. H2a is also the only of the H2 subclade to have integrated back into Asian phylogeography after initial migration towards Europe. [Correction: As of Fall 2015 that build was replaced for giving false positives related to H2a2a. That is not my haplogroup.]

On advisory from a more seasoned genetic genealogist than I was the idea of charting matches to the most recent common female ancestor in the States. Of course for me this actually means Canada. Indeed my female immigrant ancestor of the mtdna line is Elizabeth 'Betty' Beck (1814-1874) who came from Dumfries-shire, Scotland to settle in Grey, Ontario, Canada with her husband John Swanston (1808-1891). From there I am to work backwards into Europe but I have a feeling the separation between North America and Europe might be better served by a more popular female such as Sebithy Ann Coultis (1857-1951) of Manitoulin Island who married William Henry Bryant (1864-1939).

Conversing on Ancestry.com has become even more limited without a subscription much to my annoyance so it will be hard work to find people matching my MRCA to compare mtdna results. Incidentally I noticed that the interactive genealogy map I made sometime ago has a strange overlay with the known path for the development of the H haplogroup both the predominant Eurasian and European subclades. Heatmaping the sources of my major subclade H2a2a has also been helpful though I intend to revise it further with matching recent populations excluding deep ancestry.

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http://dna.jameslick.com/mthap/

Family Historian: Hit or Miss

I've had a wonderful set of short messages this past week with a second cousin of mine. She brought up the woes of being a family history researcher. In particular she has been rather glum about family secrets and salacious stories. I've encountered a few of those myself and it seems that once you get past someone's reluctance you then have to deal with the next persons dismissal and anger at the facts. Some of my closer family has just discovered my work which apparently was of no value to them previously. I've suddenly found myself put upon with questions and angry dismissals of fact. Whatever romantic notion my father gave me of how important a family historian is must be on its last legs by now.

As a anthropologist I've been trained to look at the qualitative information but not to the disregard of hard quantative sources. I happen to revel in cultural quirks which seem irrelevant to other people. Corrections are one thing to approach but flat out disgruntled and condescending relatives are another. It is a part of my adaption into a specialization instead of a entire pedigree. In fact with the last angry message I've considered jumping ship. Then again I have to remind myself that the person complaining is not apart of my specialization itself. I am barely scratching the surface as it were of my French family history of the Detroit region.

I also had a awkward conversation with my sister this week after having reviewed some DNA research with my father. The insanity of patriarchal naming hit me out of no where in the fact that I carry the surname Grant yet don't have any of its DNA as a daughter. Then again the same would be said for my mothers side that by a juvenile interpretation of genetics I could also not be a Jones. Unspoken irony then to the fact that my research is focused almost distinctly on my matriarchal lines. Still perhaps that is the answer to having any work undervalued that in truth the relevance of that complaint comes from your perception of your place in those families. Simply adjust ones world view and it seems to seldom matter what facetious opinions people hold except for the sake of accuracy. Then again when people are suffering under the delusion of self serving bias its a fat chance that they can admit to the validity of facts even in the presence of documentation.

So who am I researching for myself or my family? I started this all to learn about my origins and connect to family members that were lost. Now suddenly the ones I've always known are resentful that I'm searching. As the black sheep you'd think I'd have more freedom but maybe that is what they are afraid of...finding family more like myself. I am lucky at least to fit into my own little immediate group of four.

Last of the Line

It's a very depressing thought to realize that in many ways your family will end with you. It occurred to me as I began the feat of typing up a new Jones family history and decendency list that I am the only record keeper that I know of for the Jones family. This of course may be a misnomer since I am removed from some of my Jones cousins and they may also be researching as well. I do have researching relatives that I just discovered for the Mills family through my Grandmother. These second cousins however are researching thier surnames Bryants and Mills as a main focus however. My Great Aunt Arvilla is also a genealogy hobbyist but she too is removed in her focus from me by being a child of the Wismer and Craig families. Recently she did show me a indirect relationship to the Jones but for the most part her research is Wismer centered. My cousin once removed follows his father's tree for the Kettlewell family.

David, my father and Joseph my grandfather had focused most of their energy strictly on the paternal line for Grant's so once my Father dies that will be it. I doubt it would do much good for me to pick up that research since the majority of it is taken up by Day and Morford researchers anyway, both popular families. In fact recently a Day family third cousin contacted me out of the blue for acquiring a photo of his grandfather. I must admit he was quite rude considering we haven't met. There is also the more personal side to this that I am the last of the Grant children carrying the Grant genetic line or more likely the Street family genetics. My Father once thought that neither my sister or I would have children and it truly broke his heart to think that he had failed to continue the family somehow.

Here I sit however the only researcher that I know looking into the Jones family. All of my Grandfathers generation has now past and most of the children are lost in time in my mothers age as well. I have yet to find a close relative my own age who researches which seems such a shame. In a way then I guess it is fate that I have such good instincts with the Jones/Boussey line since I might be the last to devote time to it.

Major Aggravations

This week I have come to a pass where it is no longer a coincidence that I seem to be missing fringe folks in my Tree's. I came across the reference to the Dybbuk Box to which the most recent owner has the surname Neitzke and is from the general area as a spouse I just added into my work recently. I made a note about the box as it is featured in the newest horror flick, "The Posession".

Yet coming back to my tree's to coordinate data I cannot find a Neitzke at all and their are whole chunks missing. I have yet to check my backup files but finding a cousin featured in the news and then losing the information to fact check is highly aggravating. This also comes along with the news that I have a rare genetic form of anemia requiring transfusions and the only other recorded cases are from a singular family line in the Island nation of Sardinia. Within my Father's genealogical work their is also a claim of Jewish ancestry though the family claimed to be Mennonites when they populated the United States.

Another note is that I received my invitation to Ancestry DNA but was unable to accept it in time. My Father had his results updated from the Y-DNA panel he had done to the new system. His results were interesting especially when searching for Jewish ancestry. DNA testing results for him list- 54% Central European, 35% British Isles, 8% Scandinavian, and 3% uncertain. According to the given information this counter balances the data which gives no notion of Jewish ancestry for the bulk of his tree. History of course shows that most families changed their names and locales to escape persecutions. As for now my Father jokingly claims that the 3% uncertain is due to a crumb that must have contaminated his swab from the snack he had before hand.

##Update##. I have located the confusion as a name scramble. My relative's surname was Lietzke but the records are still missing from my old backup and recent live files on Ancestry.com.

A History Divided

As readers no doubt would know my focus on genealogy always seems to come back to the War of 1812 within the Detroit River area. At the time our nation was liberal and as such the peoples straddled lands that today are quite separate. While renewing my research interest I came to the realization that this division is a great hurdle to my record finding.

My maternal line consists of a strong influx of French and German Canadians all of who traveled quite often into Michigan. This creates a disparity between records. While I can easily search the Library of Canada's Genealogical supply I am limited in my findings due to coresidency or immigration. Sadly during this period not only were the first generational wave immigrants themselves, from France (or otherwise), but their children then became Canadian immigrants into the United States. 

Growing up in my day I have always visited my family still residing in Canada so I can understand how living so close in the Detroit River area one simply considers it a skip across the stream. Our Secretary of State would of course not agree since I have to hold a Enhanced license as supplement for a Passport. Historical Detroit's records are measly at best from what can be accessed online and I feel as if the States has failed me in this respect.

Yet new information always appears such as my stumbling upon a possible site for my Ancestors wedding site. I had been given the name "Eagle Hotel" in Detroit, Michigan to which nothing existed. However a pleasant surprise in my search today lead me to the Eagle Tavern of Greenfield Villiage.Possibility is high that this tavern was the site of my Great Grandparents wedding as the groom was a Ferryman for some years running the water trail from New York to Detroit originally. I can only look forward to what more study might bring and perhaps more records may open up here in Michigan.