DNA Testing. Why I did it and what I did with it. Part Two - Cousin Matching

This past week I've spent some time with the the cousin matching at the three sites, AncestryDNA, FTDNA and MyHeritage.  I concentrated only on 2nd - 3rd cousins matched with a total CM of 130 or greater.  These are considered to be fairly strong matches with fairly recent common ancestors.

I've now sent messages or exchanged emails with all of those people.  There are only 13 people with this close of a match.  My sister and a first cousin have tested as well and show up as expected.  Of the 13 people contacted I have heard back from 6 of them.  One I have actually met.  However, none of them have been able to help with my family history research.

I don't regret all of the testing and it was an interesting experience but I believe my interest really lies in the research area not so much the DNA.  However, it is out there now and perhaps someone in the future will contact me.

The only thing that has truly helped is the Varner surname project on FTDNA.  I have taken a Y-67 test on FTDNA and joined the surname project.  Based on my ydna it was confirmed that my paternal Varner family line is indeed part of the larger Varner family line that has immigrated from Germany.

DNA Testing. Why I did it and what I did with it. Part One - ethnicity

A couple of years ago I decided to get my DNA tested.  There were several reasons for this but chiefly among them were:

• Looking for cousin matches to further my family history research
• Learning my ethnicity
• Verify the assumptions that I have made in my family tree

So l did the following testing.

• AncestryDNA;  Autosomal only.
• Family Tree DNA; Autosomal, Y-DNA and MT-DNA.
• MyHeritage; uploaded AncestryDNA autosomal test only.
• Gedmatch Genesis; uploaded AncestryDNA autosomal test only.

My ethnicity results varied some by company, but not much.  Grouping's of countries are a little different but the actual breakdowns is fairly consistent. 

The results are;

Ancestry
England, Wales & Northwestern Europe  73%
Ireland & Scotland  17%
Germanic Europe  6%
Norway  2%
Sweden  2% 

Family Tree DNA
 British Isles 83%
 East Europe 5%
 Southeast Europe 5%
 Middle Eastern 3%


MyHeritage
North and West Europe  95.2%
             English  81.8%
             North and West European  13.4%
South Europe  4.8%
             Greek  2.8%
             Italian  2.0%

In my next post I will review the cousin matching effort.

Back from a long hiatus

I thought I would try to get back to blogging again this year.  I didn't realize that I took all of 2018 off.  Like most other things blogging is a habit.  When you skip a few weeks it's hard to get started again.  Not only did I take time off from blogging but I also stopped working on my family history as well.  Hopefully now that it is the dead of winter I can get back to both.

I discovered #genchat on Twitter this past year and have spent quite a lot time on Twitter keeping up with it.  Fun group of people that chat about all things genealogy.  If you have time on Friday evenings and you are on Twitter I highly recommend it.  I joined Twitter just for this.

This winter I was contacted by a first cousin (once removed) that I have never met.  He found me on Facebook.  There are good things that come from social media.

Today I started adding a few photos to my RootsMagic database.  I need to rethink my overall plan.  I have on line trees on Ancestry, FamilySearch Family Tree and MyHeritage.  I use all three sites for their historical record contents. 

I also have my DNA on Ancestry, Family Tree DNA and MyHeritage as well as GEDMATCH.  I don't really do much with the dna matches.  I have only had a couple of people contact me that we matched but we were not able to determine the nearest common relative we had.  But I was able to confirm my match to the Varner family line in Germany.  I was able to do this with a y-dna test at FamilyTree DNA and then joining the Varner surname project.

New Year new game plan -.Considering a genealogy "do over"

Took a break for the holidays but I'm ready to start working on my genealogy again.  I had almost decided to go with the Thomas MacEntee's "Genealogy Do Over" program.  Basically the plan is to set aside all existing research documentation and the existing family tree file and start completely fresh.  Re-enter all the data and sources from scratch in an effort to do a better job of source documentation and assure a more complete and accurate family tree.

I thought long and hard about it and decided that is not something I was willing to commit to.  So I've decided to take a modified and much less drastic approach.  I will go through my existing RootsMagic file and update all existing source citations to make sure they are using the correct template and are filled out completely.  I will also verify that it is a valid and provable source.  If questionable I will be sure and code it as such and search for valid confirmation prior to moving on to the next one.

Once all of the sources, along with their citations, have been reviewed I will begin working on the webhints.  My plan is to first do Ancestry, then Family Search and finally My Heritage.  I would expect this review to last well into 2019.

While doing this project I will still be available to share any information that I have with any other Varner family researchers.  As always you can either leave a comment here on the blog or send me an email.

Curtis Rarick family

Curtis Rarick is a first cousin, once removed.  He is the son of Levi Rarick and Amanda Varner.  I have just finished working all of the tree hints on my Ancestry member tree for Curtis's branch in my family tree.

Curtis was born in 1878 in the Miami Country, Ohio area.  In 1901 in Newton County, Indiana he married Vannice Pearl Rench.  They had three sons.  Waymond, Herrald and Dane.  Waymond and Dane survived and each of them had sons.  Herrald only lived eight days.

I have decided to leave the Rarick branch of the family for awhile and work some more on the direct Varner line.

Cousins meeting and John F & Julia J Breshears family

I have been pleasantly sidetracked the last couple of weeks.  Due to a new DNA match on Ancestry I have been corresponding with a newly found second cousin.  We are related through the William Carroll Green Breshears line.

This past Saturday we were able to meet.  Julia, my second cousin and her parents (her mother is my first cousin once removed) met with my sister and myself and we visited the cemeteries in the Breshears valley of Missouri.  We were also able to meet up with some other Breshears cousins (from the state of Oregon) while we were there.  They were vacationing with other relatives here in Missouri.  It was a beautiful day for our outing and we were able to visit for some time.

In preparation for the outing I have been working on the John F and Julia J Button Breshears family this past week.  This was the line that cousin Julia came from.  I tried to put as much information together for her in the time that was available.  I have updated my Ancestry working tree and matched with Family Search.  Much work on this family is still needed in Family Search.

This weeks spot light is on the Amanda Varner Rarick & Levi Rarick family

This past week I have begun working on Daniel Grant Varner's (Sr) children.  I'm currently working on the the family of Amanda Varner Rarick & Levi Rarick.  Their children were Curtis, Pearl, Raymond, Ralph and Mina.

I have found some first cousins 1x removed, second and third cousins.  Added seventeen new people to the family tree so far.

The Ancestry web hints are proving invaluable and the Rootsmagic "Tree Share" is working great.  As I'm going through them I am also adding to or updating the Family Search people and matching them to Rootsmagic.  I will turn on the Familysearch and My Heritage web hints after I've made it through all the Ancestry hints.

I hope to make it through the rest of this branch this week.