Newsletter - 11th
March 2020
Why should a family historian use DNA?
Scaremongering or genuine concerns?
Save on DNA tests EXPANDED
COVERAGE
Review: Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry
The LostCousins
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Why
should a family historian use DNA?
When
I first began researching my family tree back in 2002 there was a schism in the
genealogy community between those who used computers in their research and to
record information they had found, and people who'd managed quite nicely, thank
you, without any new-fangled gadgets. The Society of Genealogists had a
specialist journal called Computers in Genealogy, and many family
history societies had separate branches for members who used computers - a sort
of quarantine. Amazingly, some still do!
Of
course, you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren't convinced of the value of
computers in your family history research. But this week I was reminded of that
earlier split in the community when an email arrived from a LostCousins member
which asked "could you give me the dates of newsletters explaining 'why I
should take a DNA test?' so that I can give the facts to some family members
who may be unsure?"
Almost
a year ago I reported that half of all readers of this newsletter have tested
their DNA, so recently I haven't felt it necessary to convince you of
the benefits, and any articles I've written in the distant past are likely to
be out of date. However, I can understand that when you’re asking a family
member to test it's useful to be able to explain why it's so important to your
research - and also to be able to allay any concerns
that they might have.
Clearly
your relatives need to accept that genealogy is an activity worth pursuing - if
you can't convince them of that, perhaps by telling them about the discoveries
you've made which are most relevant to them, then you're unlikely to be able to
persuade them to submit to a DNA test.
But
assuming you have managed to surmount that hurdle, here are some key reasons
why DNA testing is important to family historians:
For
people who aren't family historians there's only one thing that a genealogical
DNA test is going to reveal - their 'ethnicity'. Leaving aside the question of
whether ethnicity estimates are accurate, people have migrated for millennia,
and the answer to the question "Where did my ancestors come from?" is
clearly going to differ, depending on the timescale.
The
valuable output from a DNA test is something very different - it's long list of
genetic cousins. And I mean a long list - I don’t know anyone who has fewer
matches at Ancestry than I do, but I have over 23,000 genetic cousins. Those
matches are clues to my ancestry - if someone shares my DNA they must also
share one of my ancestors, and whilst it is challenging to pick a cousin at
random and figure out the connection, the strategies in the DNA
Masterclass will home in on the matches which are not only easiest to diagnose,
but most useful.
Although
we inherit all of our DNA from our parents we don’t inherit
all of their DNA, only half of it; similarly, they only inherited half of their
DNA from their parents, and so on.
This
means that with every generation part of our genetic inheritance is lost; no
matter how many offspring we have, there will be some parts of our DNA that don’t
get passed on.
FIRST
RULE: test the earliest generation
If
you are researching your mother's ancestry, but your mother has passed away,
are you better off testing yourself or your mother's brother? Whilst your uncle
will have inherited only half of your grandparents' DNA, you have only inherited
a quarter of their DNA - so it’s much better if your uncle tests, even though
he isn’t in your direct line.
SECOND
RULE: it doesn't matter whether the people testing are
male or female
Ideally
both of you would test. There are two reasons for this: one is that you will
have inherited some DNA from your grandparents that your uncle didn't; the
other is that by comparing your matches with your uncle's matches you'll be
able to tell which of you own matches are on your mother's side.
THIRD
RULE: shared matches are crucial
Trying
to figure out how you are related to your genetic cousins is much easier if you
know which part of your tree you should be looking at: someone who matches both
you and a documented cousin of yours is almost certainly connected to you in
the part of your tree that you share with your documented cousin.
Note:
a documented cousin is someone who appears on your family tree - you know
precisely how the two of you are related.
When
you work out how you are related to genetic cousins you will be able to add
them to your family tree - they too become documented cousins, and can help you
diagnose your connections to other genetic cousins.
FOURTH
RULE: distant cousins can be more useful than close cousins
When
you’re trying to knock down a specific 'brick wall' you want to be able to focus
your attention on matches with genetic cousins from that specific line - and
the best way to do is to compare your matches against those of a cousin who
shares only that one line. Thus if your 'brick
wall' ancestor is your great-great-great grandfather you'd want to compare your
matches with a half 4th cousin (or a 4th cousin if your problem ancestor only
married once).
Scaremongering or genuine concerns?
Over
the past few years there have been numerous scare stories about DNA testing, and
almost all of them have been blatant scaremongering. Fortunately
you can easily demonstrate that these stories are untrue by pointing out the protections
provided in the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy of the test provider.
There
are two genuine concerns, things that wouldn’t stop me from testing, and probably
wouldn’t stop you, but do need to be considered when we're asking others to
help us in our research. One is the possibility that DNA testing might lead to
a shocking discovery - you might, for example, discover that a family member
was adopted, or that you have an unexpected half-sibling.
The
other is the risk that your DNA might lead to the conviction of a distant relative
who has committed a serious crime. Again this isn't
something that would worry me, but in any case, provided you test with Ancestry
the chance of this happening is close to zero, because they won’t allow their database
to be used by law-enforcement.
Tip:
don't believe the scaremongering, read Ancestry's DNA Terms
& Conditions and Privacy
Statement for yourself!
Save on DNA tests EXPANDED COVERAGE
Ancestry's
offer in the UK continues until 17th March, but they've also launched an offer
at their Australian site (which includes New Zealand), and this closes on the
same date, so you'll need to be quick. All prices quoted exclude shipping but
bear in mind that shipping works out cheaper when you order more than one kit.
(If
there are any more offers announced before the next newsletter
I'll update this article accordingly.)
Please
use the appropriate link below so that you can support LostCousins (you may
find that you need to log-out of Ancestry, if so click
the link again).
Ancestry.co.uk
REDUCED FROM £79 to £59
Ancestry.com.au
REDUCED
FROM $129 to $89
Tip:
you don’t need to decide who will be testing before you place your order - you
can make your mind up at any time.
Last
September I visited the Royal Institution on London to hear Debbie Kennett (genetic
genealogy guru and long-time LostCousins member) and Aylwyn
Scally of the Department of Genetics at Cambridge University talk about consumer
DNA testing.
I've
known Debbie for a long time, but I hadn’t met Aylwyn
Scally before - however his is a name that's hard to forget, so when I spotted an
article in PLoS Genetics that he had co-authored with
Iain Mathieson of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania,
I decided to take a close look.
Entitled
What is ancestry? the article points that there are three quite
different concepts that tend to be conflated in everyday discussion:
I'm
not going to attempt to summarise the entire article because it's available free
online - and it's only a few pages long. Follow this link
- then click the Download PDF icon.
If
you’re quick you'll be able to hear Adam Rutherford's BBC Radio series based on
his recent book How to Argue with a Racist, which covers some of the
same ground. The first episode in the series is available only until 11th March
but you have a day longer to listen to each of the subsequent episodes - there
are 5 in all. Follow this link to
the radio programmes (which should be available worldwide), and if you decide
to purchase his book please use the appropriate link below so that you can
support LostCousins:
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.au
At
a time when present events are disturbing and the future uncertain it's
tempting to focus on the past. I don’t usually listen to podcasts, but these
interviews at the website of The Oldie magazine were a delight!
Hunter
Davies, Beatles biographer, on Abbey Road
Barry
Cryer on 60 years in comedy
Nicholas
Parsons on the success of Just A Minute
As
often as I can (which sadly isn’t very often) I attend the Literary Lunches
organised by The Oldie, which are usually compered by Barry Cryer. Given
the average age of the attendees I fear they'll be amongst the first events to
be cancelled as a result of the new coronavirus, but I'm going to take an
optimistic approach and book anyway.
Review: Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry
Chris Paton, author
of Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church & State Records,
was one of the top speakers at the Genealogy in the Sunshine conferences
that I organised in Portugal in 2014 and 2015 - so I had very high hopes for his
latest book.
I'm
glad to say that I wasn't disappointed - it's an amazingly comprehensive guide
that everyone with Scottish ancestry should have on their bookshelf. There are many
differences between England and Scotland in matters like civil registration and
marriage, but I suspect that there are more than a few researchers out there who
don't appreciate just how different the systems were (and still are).
For
example, I didn't know that between 1834-1854 it was possible for banns to be
called in a Church of Scotland church, but for the marriage to take place in a non-conformist
church, and to be conducted by a dissenting minister. Or that one of the
reasons that irregular marriages flourished was that until 1940 there were no
civil marriages, even though they had been introduced in England & Wales
more than a century earlier.
When
it comes to marriage, this book comes close to doing for Scottish marriage what
Professor Probert's books have done for marriage in England & Wales - but
there's so much more besides. Did you know that the record-keeping of Scottish
burials was so poor that only about one-third of Scottish parishes have registers
that have survived? Did you also know that whereas in England & Wales
illegitimacy is merely inferred from the information in the birth register, in
Scotland the word 'illegitimate' appears under the child's name prior to 1919?
There
are chapters on Land Tenure, Inheritance, and Law and Order - all of which generated
records - as well as one entitled 'Where Were They?' which guides readers through
the challenge of finding out where their ancestors lived - there is more to
life than censuses!
All
in all this is an excellent book which will repay its
cost many times over. I read the paperback, which would be my choice, but the
Kindle version is slightly cheaper if you want something you can carry around
wherever you go:
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.au
If
you want to be better informed about the new coronavirus, COVID-19, there's a
free online course starting shortly at FutureLearn. Developed
by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine it promises to help you
"Understand the emergence of COVID-19 and how we respond to it going
forward" with the help of international experts. Follow this link
to register or find out more.
The
course doesn’t start until 23rd March, but in the meantime you can keep track
of the latest statistics and advice here.
Finally,
if you think we could do with a miracle right now this story
from Italy of water turning into wine might cheer you up.....
This is where any major updates and corrections will be
highlighted - if you think you've spotted an error first reload the newsletter
(press Ctrl-F5) then
check again before writing to me, in case someone else has beaten you to
it......
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2020 Peter Calver
Please do NOT copy or republish any part of this newsletter
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