DNA survey - please respond

[GrahamC]

Thanks - are you able to quantify this by adding an extra column with the number of 3G grandparents who are believed to have ancestors from each county?

Yes Peter. Probably tomorrow.

 

[GrahamC]

OK Peter. Here we go again. I found this exercise quite interesting.

I have 28 3x g, grandparents as my mother and father are 2nd cousins. I have only counted them once but perhaps I should count them twice. Feel free to alter my figure if you wish. The ancestors they have in common are all from Wiltshire. I have one pair of 3x g, grandparents of unknown ancestry (born in Ireland but probably English) on my mother's side and 2 pairs who are almost certainly Irish.

 

[peter]

I have 28 3x g, grandparents as my mother and father are 2nd cousins. I have only counted them once but perhaps I should count them twice.

An interesting question. My first thought was that counting them once was right, but on reflection I think they should probably be counted twice (or almost twice), since most of the DNA your parents inherited from their common ancestors will be different. You can verify this by running a check (Are your parents related?) at GEDmatch.

 

[canadianbeth]

According to the AncestryDNA website, my DNA has been analyzed so the next step is "results ready". However, now that Canada Post is beginning rotating strikes on Monday it is anyone's guess just when I will receive them.

 

[jorghes]

According to the AncestryDNA website, my DNA has been analyzed so the next step is "results ready". However, now that Canada Post is beginning rotating strikes on Monday it is anyone's guess just when I will receive them.

You receive the results online, so strikes in the Postal system are irrelevant.

 

[canadianbeth]

Really? I thought they sent you reams of paper.

 

[jorghes]

Really? I thought they sent you reams of paper.

All online - makes analysing the results so much easier ... and the wait a lot shorter than for a ream of paper

 

[canadianbeth]

And I received the e-mail tonight. I have 202 "matches" that are 4th cousins or closer. The name at the very top is of my niece, who is listed as "1st cousin?" I scrolled through the entire list and did not see any familiar names at all, but once I started with the Search Matches I found a couple that listed names that were in my tree and someone else's. One was on my mother's side and the other my father's, which is the one which has caused me so much angst, since my Dad was illegitimate. I now know that the Joyce and Lewington names I have in Lost Cousins are the correct ones. I have only just begun though and have many more to check; hopefully once the results are uploaded to Ancestry someone connected to my Dad will contact me and ask just who I am.

In the meantime, I need to upload something to Peter's spreadsheet and need to know just how to do that. My ethnicity estimate, which apparently does not mean all that much, states England, Wales and Northwestern Europe - 87%, Ireland & Scotland 7%, Germanic Europe, Norway and Sweden each 2%. I have yet to learn just where the ones that are not part of the 87% come in. Dad said both his parents were from Ireland; well he was wrong about his mother.

Oh - and what exactly are DNA circles? It says I have none and need to upload a public tree, which I have already done.

 

[Pauline]

In the meantime, I need to upload something to Peter's spreadsheet and need to know just how to do that.

See post #31 on page 2 of this thread. In addition, see Peter's posts #182 and #200 on page 10 about highlighting and listing your 3Gs with ancestry in each county.

However, you may need to wait a few days as it can take a while for Ancestry to index your matches.

Oh - and what exactly are DNA circles? It says I have none and need to upload a public tree, which I have already done.

See this thread.

 

[canadianbeth]

Ok, I went through my list and entered the number of pages for each district. There are not nearly the number that Peter has; most are just one or two with a few three pages. I doubt it will be of much use and have no idea what to do next regarding highlighting. What do I highlight? No 3Gs are listed; just 3rd, 4th and distant cousins. There are five pages of results. I did a copy/paste; if this is not the way you want it, please let me know.

And although the Joyce and Lewington names match what I already thought I knew, I am wondering now just who my grandmother was. She is listed as Ana in the 1891 census, Annie in the 1901 and 1911 census', yet when she married in 1918 she was suddenly Dorothy Ann with a completely different father's name, listed as deceased but his occupation was the same as what I have. Barnardo Homes said her parents were in prison for neglect and the children put in a workhouse; yet her father (the one I know about) is in every census up to and after she was still there. On my Dad's birth registration she is Dorothy Annie and on my aunt's Annie Dorothy. She emigrated to Canada as Dorothy A and newspaper articles here list her as Annie or Dorothy. My Dad said she was Dorothy Ann but he had the wrong birth year and place. There is a possible Anne Joyce in the GRO Index with the correct mother's surname. The district is Brentford; is that in Middlesex? I might add that when she emigrated she left behind my 10-year old father and 5 year-old aunt, who probably never met their father(s) so she could have told them any name when they finally made their way to Canada. The name I grew up with I might not even be the correct name at all.

Middlesex 856201 3 2.5 342480.4
Yorkshire 898862 3 2.5 359544.8
Lancashire 704037 3 2.5 281614.8
Norfolk 286092 2 1.5 190728
Devon 358963 3 2.5 143585.2
Somerset 286489 3 2.5 114595.6
Shropshire 175440 1 0.5 350880
Cornwall 197030 2 1.5 131353.3
Lincolnshire 218262 1 0.5 436524
Hampshire 229878 2 1.5 153252
Surrey 281563 2 1.5 187708.7
Herefordshire 93342 1 0.5 186684
Suffolk 220224 2 1.5 146816
Dorset 120685 2 1.5 80456.67
Worcestershire 145817 1 0.5 291634
Gloucestershire 262481 3 2.5 104992.4
Essex 236974 2 1.5 157982.7
Cumberland 122685 1 0.5 245370
Durham 167823 1 0.5 335646
Wiltshire 193721 2 1.5 129147.3
Cambridgeshire 93504 1 0.5 187008
Northamptonshire 137888 1 0.5 275776
Warwickshire 217878 2 1.5 145252
Northumberland 164412 1 0.5 328824
Kent 321939 3 2.5 128775.6
Leicestershire 136134 1 0.5 272268
Staffordshire 250282 2 1.5 166854.7
Huntingdonshire 39316 1 0.5 78632
Oxfordshire 114721 1 0.5 229442
Lincolnshire 218262 1 0.5 436524
Hertfordshire 102118 1 0.5 204236
Sussex 166725 2 1.5 111150
Berkshire 114297 2 1.5 76198
Buckinghamshire 112444 1 0.5 224888
Nottinghamshire 146881 1 0.5 293762
Cheshire 200674 2 1.5 133782.7
Derbyshire 16864 2 1.5 112427.3
Rutland 17117 1 0.5 34234
Westmorland 43554 1 0.5 87108
Bedfordshire 66343 1 0.5 132686

 

[peter]

The latest version of my spreadsheet can be found at #119. However if you don't where many of your ancestral lines originated it's probably not going to be helpful to take part in the trial - it will be better to wait until the final spreadsheet is available.

 

[canadianbeth]

Well, I certainly see a difference since the other day. I now have eight pages for Essex instead of just two and twelve for Middlesex instead of three. (I only checked those particular two). I now have well over a hundred pages of results compared to just five or so on the weekend. Does everyone go through every page where the tree is available? I did start looking for just specific names but where they appear I get the same information. At what point is it completely up to date?

 

[peter]

Well, I certainly see a difference since the other day. I now have eight pages for Essex instead of just two and twelve for Middlesex instead of three. (I only checked those particular two). I now have well over a hundred pages of results compared to just five or so on the weekend. Does everyone go through every page where the tree is available? I did start looking for just specific names but where they appear I get the same information. At what point is it completely up to date?

The only way you'll know that it's up to date is when the number of matches stabilises - if you have mostly British ancestors this is unlikely to happen until you have over 300 pages of results (ie over 15000 matches) and it could be substantially more.

You certainly don't want to look at every public tree - it's far, far quicker and simpler to follow the strategies in the Masterclass., and doing it that way takes into account private trees as well as public trees.

You'll be repeating the searches at intervals so it's not a major problem if Ancestry's database isn't completely up to date when you start, but make sure you leave comments in the Notes field so that you don't repeat the same analyses.

 

[Adam]

I have worked out my results - but can't recall having ever uploaded an Excel spreadsheet to a forum, could someone kindly advise? Thanks in advance!

 

[peter]

I have worked out my results - but can't recall having ever uploaded an Excel spreadsheet to a forum, could someone kindly advise? Thanks in advance!

I've upgraded your account - someone shown as a New Member (even though you joined 4 years ago) doesn't have the option of uploading a file.

 

[Adam]

I've upgraded your account - someone shown as a New Member (even though you joined 4 years ago) doesn't have the option of uploading a file.

Thank you, Peter.
My results seem very good, very significant. All the 'home counties' of my 29 known 3x gt-grandparents appear at or almost at the top of the graph. One question is, might counties which at present we have no known connection to, but appear amongst the top 10 or so, be worth always bearing in mind when pursuing research further back in time. A professional statistician could advise - is there one in the house?

Sorry to be a pain but I don't seem to have an 'add attachment' icon, have I missed something?

 

[peter]

My results seem very good, very significant. All the 'home counties' of my 29 known 3x gt-grandparents appear at or almost at the top of the graph. One question is, might counties which at present we have no known connection to, but appear amongst the top 10 or so, be worth always bearing in mind when pursuing research further back in time. A professional statistician could advise - is there one in the house?

At this stage the worksheet is still being adjusted, so probably best to wait for now.

Sorry to be a pain but I don't seem to have an 'add attachment' icon, have I missed something?

You should see 'Upload a file' to the right of 'Post reply'.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Probably worthless info but mine is all zeros as all Scotland

 

[Adam]

Here is my counties list which supports to a very large extent my family tree so far researched - 29 3xgt-grandparents, West Country plus East Anglia. However, there are three counties which figure high in the list but with (so far) absolutely no known family links, so we'll have to wait and see if this fascinating procedure can be further refined - really interesting!

 

[SarahLC]

Well, I didn’t think this exercise was for the likes of me, but decided to try it anyway, since the banner at the top of the forum keeps asking me to.

Firstly, you should know that my English ancestors all left England in the 17th or 18th centuries, so there is no point in noting where my 3G grandparents were born. What I have done is to take each 3G grandparent and then follow that surname back as far as I can in my ancestry. If I was able to make the jump back to England, then I noted the county where that family came from. This was not always possible, of course.

You’ll note that my numbers are very large. I have 1134 pages of matches… Since most of my matches are from the United States and many of them are in the same situation as I am (300-400 years from England) then what I am afraid I am seeing is just an illustration of what parts of England contributed most to the population of America! But here it is anyway, should you be interested. I also have known 3G grandparents from Scotland (Aberdeenshire gives me 13 pages of matches), Northern Ireland (39 pages) Germany (40 pages) and what is now Belgium (5 pages). Again, it just seems to me as if these are indications of where many immigrants came from, since the matches are not sorted for whether they are indeed matching me on those particular ancestors.

Living DNA breaks down my regions as follows:

South Yorkshire 17.4%
Northwest England 15.6%
East Anglia 13.2%
Devon 10.5%
Central England 10.1%
South Wales Border 5.3%
Northwest Scotland 3.6%
Northumbria 3.2%
Cornwall 3.2%
South Wales 2.9%
North Yorkshire 2.3%
Southeast England 2.1%
South England 1.8%
Orkney 1.8%
Aberdeenshire 1.5%
Lincolnshire 1.1%