“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (Romeo and Juliet – Act 2, Scene 2) An admirable sentiment to be expressed in a love story. Not exactly much help to a genealogist. I have been looking at just a few of the variations in…
All posts in Geography
DNA ethnicity update
In August 2020, my ethnicity profile, according to Ancestry, was as follows: SE England (with Kent highlighted): 41% (range 39-43%) Ireland (with Connacht and Roscommon highlighted): 36% (range 4-39%) Scotland 21% (range 0-23%) I had serious concerns about these results at the time. I haven’t delved too deeply into the algorithm that they use. Far…
The Irish Pimpernel
I seem to have mislaid my grandfather. He has disappeared, again. I started my search for Patrick Stanley in 2006. The lack of census returns for Ireland in 1891 was a known problem. I looked for him in both Ireland and England on the 1901 census (taken 31st March) without success. (I rechecked earlier to…
More heartbreak for Patrick (2)
There is a major unanswered question. When did Leslie Dunn first meet his future wife? He married Kathleen Stanley, my aunt, in Brighton Registry Office on 12th May 1944. Their daughter was born on 23rd November, six and a half months later. She must have conceived in the middle of February 1944. This is only…
What to believe (3)
Whilst proof reading the final draft for “What to believe (2)”, I had a flash of insight. “Any account of events written more than 40 years later is likely to contain errors. Dates can become mixed up. Events can be forgotten. Others can be, albeit unwittingly, exaggerated. Details become blurred.” Almost all accounts of historic…
Kane cluster
I have been examining the family trees of people in one of the DNA clusters that I have accessed from Ancestry. The fact that there is a cluster tells me that there should be a common ancestor. I do not know where. I do not know how far back in history to look. Geography helps…
Sowing more seeds
I have been doing a course in the last few weeks. The subject is Genetic Genealogy. It has helped to clarify a few points. One of the suggestions made by the course tutors has paid immediate dividends. I had my DNA analysed by Ancestry. But, as some broadcasters are fond of pointing out, in the…
MRCA 4
The last connection that I want to explore, at least for the present, is that of the Lally family. (See MRCA 2 and MRCA 3 for further investigations along these lines.) A number of Lally family members have had their DNA results uploaded onto Gedmatch. Estimates of the number of generations back to the Most…
MRCA 3
The second best MRCA score comes in at 3.97. (See ‘MRCA 2’ for information on the best score.) I have known about this connection for some time. It does not feature very highly on my list of matches through Ancestry. Gedmatch provides more information. There is a 22.5 cM match on Chromosome 3, as well…
MRCA 2
As explained in the previous blog (MRCA), for the top matches with a score of just under 4, the common ancestor should be a great, great grandparent. The top match (MRCA=3.81) has a comprehensive tree containing a lot of information. There are a number of ancestors with roots in Ireland. Much of this information comes…