Sunday 31 August 2014

Spring's early

Heard, then saw, my first cuckoo this afternoon.
It did of course fly away before I got the photo.
Tomorrow is the first day of spring.

Saturday 23 August 2014

Maternal chromosome map

While I'm in dna snapshot mode, here's an updated picture of my maternal chromosome map.
Lots of gaps, but an increasing amount of information that will allow identification of likely areas to focus on for matches.
Click to enlarge

Wednesday 20 August 2014

Henderson brick wall

One of my reasons for venturing into DNA testing for genealogy back in 2007 was to break through several brick walls.

Yes, there have been some successes, many intriguing finds, and a lot of new correspondents to share with.

No, I still have no more idea about where Archibald HENDERSON, or Amelia MILLAR for that matter, came from.

Here's the current state of play of mapped chromosome segments inherited/shared by the tested participants, along with those where their matches also match each other forming a triangulated group. The caveat however is that we do NOT know the segments are from the HENDERSON side of the ancestral couples shown, and for those marked as ... anc., the link can be back up either side of the couple, somewhere, somewhen.

In theory, one day a WOW moment will arrive when one of these matches holds the key in their trees and dna to break through that wall.
Click to enlarge
This picture, and any subsequent updates to it, may be found on both:
and Any descendants of Archibald and Margaret interested in exploring this further would be most welcome to join my autosomal dna (atDNA) project FFLornaHen.
The inheritance of atDNA is such that even siblings can show up different segments, and thus more matches, to add into the mix to triangulate.

Saturday 16 August 2014

Government records are always accurate - yeah right!

Great granddad William HENDERSON has been getting some attention of late as more of the dna several of us inherited is identified.

It occurred to me however that I'd never actually looked at his official immigration records.
After all, I have the ship board diary he wrote and knew he arrived in Port Chalmers on the 8th July 1872, and travelling by steamer "Golden Age" to Dunedin the following day, going to the barracks.

With FamilySearch having digitized the assisted immigration records from our National Archives off I went to check the images.
Couldn't find him!
When the obvious fails, start looking at the less obvious.
The voyage has been identified, and thus indexed, as having arrived in Wellington.
Examination of the papers associated explained why.
Although the cover of the file shows the "William Davie" as "for Otago",
 the next page shows it as arriving Wellington.

Newspaper reports

do confirm that great granddad wasn't lost, and his diary does not show the ship landing anywhere at all other than Port Chalmers after it left Greenock.


William recorded most of the daily lat/long values during the voyage.
See the William Davie voyage for more details, click on the voyage link for the map, and the markers on the map for the dates and any notes.