Clintons or Austins or Parkers for a change

DNA results just in for another descendant of William CLINTON and Jemima PARKER have given us a few more identifiable segments for our chromosome map.

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This is presented slightly differently to the last two snap shots in that  the common ancestor(s) to blame for the dna still detectable in descendants today is identified as opposed to the initials of the matches.
As some of the matches descend from Emma Parker CLINTON's 1st and some from her 2nd marriage we can specifically identify the dna we've inherited from Emma.
Which will be very handy as more matches arrive at those spots.
I thought that nice long segment on chromosome 18 might bring in a few more matches to explore for some ancestral hints, but no, not yet, just two small matches.


For quick reference, the last two shapshots were

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MANSONs of Caithness anyone?

Have had another great find from DNA testing this week.
Although I do suspect that at least part of it was under my nose, un-analysed from a while ago.

One of my larger matches on 23andme shared genomes, ie we can now see the details of where we match.
Turned out to be at a spot I already knew about two other, smaller, matches and had got as far as determining that we shared some unknown ancestor back up my father's side somewhere.
Needle in haystack.
But the haystack has just got quite a lot smaller.
It is looking far more likely to be my Caithness ancestral lines.

Although none of these matches were on GEDMatch where we could compare across all three companies, one had helpfully tested on both 23andme and on FamilyTreeDNA.
Where I could see that he matched not only myself, but also the late David FINLAYSON, and David's 1C1R who shares his James COGHILL and Isabella WATERS (married 1873 Dunnet, Caithness) as their most recent common ancestors.

But did I also match David there? Not according to FamilyTreeDNA.

Back to the wonderful GEDMatch to see if there was a match below the matching thresholds FTDNA apply. Yes, just below the FTDNA threshold, two segments, totalling 17cM in all, one right where I wanted it to be.

I don't, to my knowledge, have any known COGHILL or WATERS direct ancestry, but we all do have MANSON families - who doesn't if your ancestors come from Caithness? Not that I can see any immediate connection, but somewhere, somewhen, there is a common ancestor who gave us that shared bit of dna on chromosome 13.

My known MANSON ancestry is more from Watten, tiny bit further south than Olrig/Dunnet etc.

Love to hear from anyone with any of the above MANSONs in their ancestry, particularly if you've ventured into DNA testing for genealogy so we can share research and genetics, and hopefully begin to pinpoint which family lines are involved.

Pity that it didn't show up as David's paternal side as we had always considered that our FINLAYSONs just might be related, just back from the beginning of parish records in Bower.
Looks to be a bit far for atDNA to prove, even with the inter-related Caithness families ensuring dna survival beyond the normal expected inheritance probabilities down the generations.

My RootsWeb WorldConnect database LornaHenderson will be updated shortly to include the relevant bits of the above pedigrees, or more accurately, the one or two missing linkages to connect up people already there, as many of David's "cousins" married my "cousins",  in Caithness, Australia, and New Zealand.

THOMSON or NEILSON?

Take your pick?

My WorldConnect database LornaHenderson has been republished to include, amongst all other updates, some of the family/ancestry of Gilbert THOMSON and Margaret NEILSON of Wishaw/Shotts/Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire (emigrated to Pennsylvania).
Somewhere back up either family's ancestry is a common ancestor to several descendants of William HENDERSON and Helen Sinton WIGHT.
But which side is it, the THOMSON or the NEILSON?

It could be yet another clue to the elusive Amelia MILLAR of Kippen's ancestry?
Or some other curious connection from the Scottish Borders ancestry of Helen Sinton WIGHT?

If you recognise any of these names, particularly if you are a descendant of a sibling of either Gilbert or Margaret and would be willing to see if you get a dna match with any of us who inherited this bit of shared dna, please do get in touch.  We mostly use FamilyFinder*, but as long as the dna file is on GEDMatch.com, comparisons are possible across testing companies.

The theory is that a descendant of a sibling of Gilbert's or Margaret's should show up as an excellent match with the descendants of Gilbert and Margaret who have a good match between second cousins.

If one side of the family also show up as a match to the HENDERSON/WIGHT descendants but the descendant from the other side's sibling doesn't, we've figured out whether it is THOMSON or NEILSON.

* using this link to order a test will give a small contribution to WikiTree.com

It gets better

An update to my tentative dna success story about Amelia MILLAR of Kippen, Stirlingshire.

My Ancestry dna match has uploaded to GEDMatch.com, where I was  able to compare results with several other kits.
Bingo has become BINGO in as far as we do now know that yes, from my ancestral side of the fence that bit of shared dna has a common ancestral line at James HENDERSON and Amelia MILLAR between the extended HENDERSON/MILLAR family kits I can compare, so the shared anecstry with my match is somewhere back up from that couple - and looks unlikely to be the HENDERSON side.

Looking good that the connection is to his David MILLAR and Elizabeth CHRYSTAL - but more work needed to confirm it fully.
As he has also transferred to FamilyTreeDNA, we should have more data to work with shortly.

Love to hear from anyone recognising this couple as their ancestors and has either already undertaken dna testing, or is willing to join in the fun, or has research to share.

This really is the closest I've come in 40+ years to finding out something concrete about Amelia MILLAR's ancestry.

Needle in haystack found

For many years a family story that Margaret HENDERSON and Robert SMITH's family also included a daughter who died as an infant on the voyage to NZ, sat in the too hard basket.
Find a SMITH somewhere between Lanarkshire and Otago around the 1880s?
When my original notes showed differing information as to which ship they came out on?

Wasn't actually that hard at all.
There weren't many SMITHs registered in Carnwath in the right timeframes, and really only one likely gap in the family, and only about 5 or 6 females registered at that time, 3 or 4 of them had middle names as well so they seemed unlikely, and several were on the verge of too close to other known children, which left the two most likely, a Jean and a Mary.
Yes, it took me two certs to get the right one, Mary.

Could I confirm the "died on voyage" story?
Well yes, that too fell into place. I picked the first of the two ship options provided, "Marlborough" or "Nelson", and searched PapersPast for the name in conjunction with "arrival" and "measles" in the approximate timeframe.

Although I've not found any passenger lists, yet, for the voyage of the "Marlborough" that arrived at Port Chalmers, it did have documented cases of measles on board (part of the information supplied by a fellow researcher re the ship).
The steerage passengers were embarked to "the island" (must find out more about that) and the cabin passengers allowed to stay on board the ship which now boasted a yellow quarantine flag.

The newspaper (Otago Witness Issue 1469, 10 January 1880, Page 14) reported "six deaths, all children, the eldest, being 10 years four from measles, one from suppurating sore throat, and one from acute bronchitis— the last death occurring on the 7th, when rounding Cape Saunders, the body being still on board the vessel."

What came up trumps however is this wonderful site: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~patricia/Marlborough.htm
which documented the deaths, and included a three year old Mary SMITH, of measles.
Q.E.D.

A bonus of the above page about the "Marlborough" is the sad story of its fate.
The story of the  "Mary Celeste" sprang to mind - although the latter's crew weren't on board as skeletons. (If you think you know about the Marie Celeste, read the pages at the link!)

Henderson Chromosome Map

Results have arrived in from another branch of the family of James HENDERSON & Amelia MILLAR.
Further corroboration of one segment, and one newly identified one.
So time to update the chromosome map.
Check out http://familytree.lornahen.com/spHENDERSON.htm for the current state of play.

Another intriguing dna match

Two American first cousins (HEATLIE) appear in my Ancestry dna matches.
As yet we have no real indication as to which line of their ancestry is to blame for this, nor exactly which chromosome this match is on, only that Ancestry defines it as "High" to one, and Moderate" to the other. (When will Ancestry DNA learn to provide customers with the detail we've paid for?)

As part of their paternal side tree is already known to me, without any apparent dna matches, I'm assuming, until more info is available eg from an upload of their ancestry data file to GEDMatch.com or a transfer to FamilyTreeDNA that the match belongs up the ancestry of Margaret Robson HOGG (who married David Brunton HEATLIE).

Love to hear from any dna tested descendants of any of the people shown in this pedigree in order to refine where the match might be.
NB some of this pedigree differs from that on ancestry trees, certificates available on request.
Surnames: HOGG, FORD, ROBSON, MAUCHLIN, DEANS, BLAKE, LILLIE, DALGLEISH
Birth places: Roberton (Selkirkshire); Hobkirk, Yetholm (Roxburghshire); Lauder, Legerwood, Westruther (Berwickshire),