Confessions of a Twenty-something Family Historian

I did something that I rarely do last week. I made an impulse buy, well I actually do that more often than I should, the thing I rarely do however is buy genealogical books or discs. I have my genealogical database software and subscriptions to the standard array of genealogy websites and an amazing local and genealogical library ten minutes from my house. I rarely feel the need to purchase books or discs as I can usually obtain the information from a subscription website or the local library. They become items that I use once or twice, scrape them of their usefulness and then shelve them until I need more space and sell them for pennies on the dollar at our local used book superstore. And lets not forget the expense: $40 to 60$ for a genealogy book equals a few months of ancestry.com.

So back to that impulse buy; I was skimming through a weeks worth of newsletters and spam email and came across an email from genealogical.com advertising their newest releases. Right there, front and center, was a product similar to something I’ve been planning to do for a few years. A DVD titled Cemeteries of Carter County, Tennessee by Dianne M. Snyder. So I grabbed my wallet and ordered it before I could talk myself out of it. And I didn’t think it would be a regretted purchase. First off, I love digital books… I would happily trade all of my tree based books for digital editions that I can have on my iPad everywhere that I go. Secondly, a sizeable chunk of my family tree is connected to Carter County, Tennessee. Lastly, as I said before, this is essentially a project that I had been wanting to undertake myself for a few years and never had the time.

The DVD retails for 39.99 on Genealogical.com and consists of a book in .pdf format and a folder containing photographs of the indexed tombstones sorted into folders by cemetery name. The book itself is a standard cemetery by cemetery index alphabetized by cemetery name and then by the names of the interred. We are given the name and birth and death dates, no transcriptions of epitaphs however. At the end of each cemetery’s index are directions to the cemetery and notes on the upkeep and the date that the inventory was taken. Overall, there are roughly  14,000 graves indexed in this volume, each with a photograph. Missing are the counties larger cemeteries such as Roselawn Memorial Gardens which the author describes as being “beyond the scope of the project”.

I popped the dvd in my laptop as soon as the FedEx driver handed it over to me. Within an hour I had made it through the index of the main surname that I was interested in, the Elliotts of Carter County, Tennessee and added about a dozen names to my family tree and found information to fill in some birth and death dates that I was missing. And what made paying $40 for a dvd worth it was finding a photo of my great great great grandparents tombstone which I didn’t know the location of. I also added many husbands to female ancestors and have several new lines to work on. I still have about half a dozen surnames to look into on the dvd and expect that I’ll have a similar experience with each surname as I had with the Elliotts.

Now onto the things that I’m not so pleased with. My main issue of contention is the quality of the photographs. They’re not bad photos, they’re just small. 534×400 pixels at 72dpi. I understand that with over 14,000 photographs size becomes an issue. I don’t understand however why the photos couldn’t be twice as large. As it is, the photographs take up about 1.3 GB. There is still 2.97 GB of unused space on the disc. The author could have provided images three times the size and still made it under the size limit. At $40, the photographs are an integral part of the package. Don’t get me wrong. It’s amazing to have access to photographs of every tombstone in the index. It’s like a self contained FindAGrave.com for Carter County that you never need to do a photo request for. My second issue, I’ve come across several mistakes in the index as far as dates are concerned. Thankfully there is a backup in the form of a photograph that you can look at and get the correct information. Here’s where my first issue comes in: one of the names in the index matched one of my ancestors, was buried the same place that a few other people with the same name as other known ancestors were buried but the dates didn’t match up with the dates that I have other sources proving. So I take a look the photograph and see that my data is in fact correct. The problem seems to be, and I don’t know this for a certainty, that the author based the transcriptions off of the photos rather than taking the transcription while in the cemetery. The tombstone in question was barely readable in the image and when zoomed was pixelated to the point of uselessness. This isn’t so much a problem when the tombstone is clean and well etched and filling most of the frame, but is a real let down when the stone is smaller and not as legible to begin with. My last complaint is that the author has locked the file. Find a page or two that you would like to print out? Too bad. Printing isn’t allowed.

Overall a nice DVD that I don’t regret purchasing. Nicely packaged and the digital book itself is professional and loaded with information. Would recommend to anyone with roots in Carter County, Tennessee. I am hoping to contact the author regarding obtaining larger digital photos of some of the stones. Hopefully this will be possible as it looks like they were all batch processed in Photoshop to obtain their final size. I really hope to see more projects like this one.

I have my iPhone (and will be upgrading to the iPhone 4) pretty much everywhere I go and have incorporated it into my genealogy workflow. It is a truly amazing jumble of electronics and despite the big brother attitude of Apple developers are constantly designing new tools to enhance your life on most every way. There are a handful of genealogy apps available in the iTunes store; some are worth the purchase and others haven’t been updated much since they were released. Missing entirely though is an app for FindAGrave.com. So I got to thinking about what I would want such an app to do and thought I’d share.

First off I’d love a GPS locator feature that would allow me to get directions to a cemetery, mark the location of cemeteries and to mark the locations of individual graves within a cemetery.

Secondly, a must have feature would be the ability to upload photos of cemeteries and gravestones.

Third, a no brainer, the ability to create new entries.

Lastly, an alert that lets you know if you are near a cemetery that has unfulfilled photo requests.

I saw a post somewhere a while back about a possible findagrave app, so if anyone out there is reading this that is an iPhone developer that can make this happen or if you own an iPhone and would be interested in such an app leave a comment.

I have had three big holes in my family tree for some time. Two of which were on my paternal line and they were hard to miss: my paternal grandparents. The third, my maternal grandfather’s maternal line. I have never been in contact with my birth father or his family. And was never all that curious about them until a few months ago when I came across my moms high school year books, which I had seen many times in the past. I happened to see a dedication to him from his mother and her then current husband. That little three line message sparked an urge to find out who I come from. As funny as it seems, I have always felt that I came from my maternal line without any further input. There was never a sense of being incomplete (nor is there a sense of that now), just a strong curiosity. So I set off with the most basic information: My birth fathers name, his birth date, his mothers first name and a vague idea that my grandfathers name could be Max.

As you can see, not much to go on. I googled hundreds of variations to no avail. I checked city directories but came up with little that I could be certain of. Not helping matters was that my paternal line has a very common surname. Then I checked checked http://www.intelius.com and did a basic people search. The search returned a list of several hundred people, a few though were in the right areas and I ordered a basic report for a few dollars that gave the basic information for the individuals. From this information I gained my paternal grandmothers first and middle names and a birth year. I plugged this information into ancestry.com and got a public records hit that gave me a birth date and information that led me to believe that she was no longer married. Then I hit a dead end. I didn’t have her maiden name. I didn’t have my grandfathers first name.

Then the moment of clarity hit me and I realized that I needed to obtain the most basic document that I should have went for first. Vital records! Amazing that I have a fairly routine procedure when I start research on a new person, but completely ignored it with my paternal line. I figured that obtaining my fathers birth certificate would be a walk in the park. I headed to the local health department (in Tennessee, local health departments can provide computer printouts of state births). Unfortunately the lady behind the counter said that she could be of no help since I didn’t have my grandfathers name or my grandmother’s maiden name (apparently a search of a name and birth date with one parents first and middle name and a second parents middle name isn’t an option). And furthermore, the information that I was looking for could only be found on e long form birth certificate that must be ordered through Nashville and they too would only be able to help if I could track down my missing information.

Back to square one. I have my fathers birthdate and name, my grandmothers first and middle names and a part of my grandfathers name. My next shot at finding the information that I needed was to find a birth announcement for my father. I emailed the library in the area and received a quick response that there were two people with my fathers name born on that day and both announcements were along the lines of “Born to Mr. And Mrs. So and so, a baby boy named…” This did give me two possibilities for my grandfathers first name.

Feeling lucky, I mailed off a form and a hefty sum to the state department of vital records. A month and a half later, having practically forgotten about placing the order I received an envelope in the mail. To my surprise, I had picked the right birth announcement to pursue. I had in my hand my fathers birth certificate… my grandparents names and birth dates .. number of aunts and uncles that I had at the time of his birth. Within an hour I had used census records to trace my paternal paternal line back several generations. A few months later I have the line throughly researched and documented.

Now for the problem. My paternal grandmother was born after the 1930 census. I requested her birth certificate but was denied for not being her child. I’ve search high and low and emailed dozens of possible cousins with no luck. This has become my existential brick wall that no amount of resourcefulness was breaking down. Then I happened upon the rewets of verification of birth facts request form on the states department of vital records website. For fifteen bucks I can request a verification of any birth that has occurred in Tennessee and not just a simple, yes they were born on that date but a full written transcript of the birth record. So hopefully in a month I’ll have one less brick wall and a few more lines to research and document.

My other gap in my family tree, my maternal grandfather’s mother.. Well all I had to do was ask. Simple enough. Ten seconds of conversation and I had names and the state they were born in. The same could be said about the simplicity of asking the same questions of my paternal line, but sometimes genealogy is complicated. I hope someone is asking the questions though so that when I get around to it there will still be answers.

If you have had to get creative to find info on a living relative leave a comment.

Well.. That certainly took longer than I had expected. I told myself several weeks ago that I would take a break from genealogy so I took a vacation, read a few books that I hadn’t made time to read and relaxed and then the guilty feeling of having neglected “the research” creeped upon me. So I felt that I should at least update the blog and says thanks to the people who have been stopping by despite the lack of updates.

As I mentioned a few postings back, I made the leap into genetic genealogy. I ordered a set of DNA tests from Family Tree DNA which included analysis of my mtDNA, Y DNA and also the newly introduced Family Finder analysis of autosomal DNA. It took a few weeks to receive my first results which I was disappointed to see netted me zero leads as it seems I am the only person who has tested the male ancestral line for my family. A month and a half later I received the results of my maternal line which provided a huge list of names… names that aren’t in the least familiar to me and of people of who declined or don’t know how to provide gedcom files so that we can piece together where we all fit in this giant puzzle. Note to those who may order a genetic test… provide a gedcom.. otherwise you are just a name without any hint at where you come from or relate to me.

Of course I didn’t go into the DNA tests expecting the undeliverable so I wasn’t too bummed with the results. With such a new technology, I feel good about my chances of connecting with long lost relatives further down the road. Oh, almost forgot the new Family Finder test. I have several matches most of which are in the 4th cousin range with a few closer but none identifiable when comparing gedcoms with my matches. Hopefully when I check back in a few months and actually learn what all the jargon involved with DNA means I’ll find something helpful. And maybe someone related to me will have tested by then.

On the subject of being related to me, I decided to be voyeuristic and do research on my birth father’s ancestry. I knew next to absolutely nothing about this part of who I am. A long story simplified: I am the child of high school sweethearts that didn’t last and went their separate ways before I made an entrance into the world. No hard feelings and until recently not much in the way of curiosity into my direct male ancestors. My maternal line has definitely kept me busy for the last decade. The curiosity grabbed me though and I decided to pursue it. While I could have went the route of making contact with my birth father and asking directly, I decided I wasn’t quite ready for that and decided to put my research skills to the test. Armed with a name and a birthdate I looked for a birth notice in the local paper and found a generic birth announcement with what I guessed to be my grandparents names. With this I requested a copy of my father’s birth certificate with confirmed my grandparents names and within an hour of snooping around ancestry.com I had traced my paternal family back over two hundred years through census and tax records.

Lastly, I plan on making a few updates to the indexes I had been working on before my extended break. Actually planning a lot of things that I keep neglecting to make time for.

First thought, I will never utter another word about Who Do You Think You Are on this blog. I am oversaturated and have lost interest. Despite my irritation that the subjects keep going around talking about the importance of doing family research yet having the actual work done by professionals I will continue to watch the show but my comments will not pollute the bandwidth of my few regular readers. For good measure though, having a show about “finding your roots” and not have the subjects actually do research is akin to making a Survivor contestant watch someone eat a rat and tell them about it.

Second thought, I was taking a look at my Google Analytics and Feedburner accounts and was excited to see that I actually have people reading my stuff… not thousands of people but a few hundred and I actually have a few dozen people that subscribe to my rss feed. So I wanted to say thank you to those that have stopped by more than once!

Last thought, I have a few themes planned for the coming weeks. Not the stuff everyone else is doing. So once I start please let me know what you think. I want to entertain others and not just myself.

There is no doubt that the future of genealogical research is molecular genealogy. The science of examining the bits and pieces of your DNA to figure out where you fit in the human gene pool is popping up everywhere from Ancestry.com to fully dedicated testing sources like FamilyTreeDNA.com.

Every person on earth has DNA which consists of 46 chromosomes (22 pairs of autosomes and 1 pair of sex chromosomes). Autosomal DNA is the hodge podge mixture of chromosomes that we inherit from both the maternal and paternal line and to which both males and females pass on in some random nature to their children. The X chromosome is passed from mother to children and from father to daughters. The Y chromosome is passed only from father to son and stays essential the same between generations. We also inherit Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which is passed through the maternal line to children of both sex and also stays essentially the same.

DNA is probably one of the trickiest tools to get your mind around in genealogy research. As the above overview shows, we have four types of DNA and all of them can be matched to where we genetically come from. There is nothing inclusive or exclusive about it. We all have it and 99.9 % of it is the same in all of us and the small part that isn’t the same is shared in some way by many of us.

Where many get lost is when the really useful parts of the science comes in for genealogists. Not only do we have all of those chromosomes plus mitochondrial DNA, each chromosome is further magnified into small pieces which is where markers come in to help indentify haplogroups which can in theory show where your ancestors came from.

While haplogroups are interesting, they’re not going to help you indentify whether your great-great uncles kid is another researchers great great grandfather or help you add cousins that someone living could possibly have heard rumor of the existence of.

What I feel to be the true value of DNA in family history research is the connections you can find with more recent generations. Each test offers a difference scope and each has their own shortcomings. You can trace your direct paternal line (Father to grandfather to great-grandfather, etc) with the Y chromosome test, you can verify if someone is your sibling with an X chromosome test, you can find links to your maternal line with a mtDNA test and very soon you will be able to put your autosomes to use to track down cousins from both maternal and paternal lines.

Family Tree DNA, a company that has for many years been the go-to place for genealogical DNA testing has added a new test to their arsenal. Their new Family Finder kit will use autosomal DNA, those 22 matched pairs that contain DNA from everyone that has had anything to do with genetic makeup, to match customers with cousins up to five generations back with relative certainty. Five generations is an amazing range to work within. With mtDNA and Y DNA, you are essentially hunting ancestors with a spear… a direct line. With autosomal DNA testing it’s like fishing with a net.

Bennett Greenspan is the president and CEO of Family Tree DNA and has assembled a team of geneticists and molecular anthropologists to help out family historians in locating ancestors that would be potentially difficult without the use of science. Mr. Greenspan was generous enough to be interviewed by geneacentric.com on the relationship between DNA and genealogy and on his companies new product Family Finder which will be available in the coming weeks.

MH: How long have you been in the DNA business and what inspired you to bring together DNA and genealogy?

BG: I have been an amateur Genealogist for over 40 years and in 1999 I was researching my mother’s mother’s father’s line and I hit a paper trail roadblock I wasn’t able to get beyond…I recalled that the Y chromosome had been used to prove that a male Jefferson was related to a slave of issue from Thomas Jefferson’s wife’s 1/2 sister and that the proof was provided by testing the Y chromosome…I also recalled the use of the Y in testing men who claimed to be Cohanim, in theory decedents of Aaron, the brother of Moses.  I conducted a proof of concept in 1999 and in April of 2000 I began selling Y and in June, mtDNA testing for Genealogical lineage confirmation.

MH: Genealogical DNA testing is something fairly new, at least in mainstream genealogical circles. I became familiar with the idea several years ago after reading an article on the Y chromosome testing of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’s descendents.

BG: That was the first MAJOR study that electrified the world (or Americans) and got us thinking of DNA testing in general.  As I say it took me 18 months to figure out that I, as a lowly genealogist, could use this technology for my personal purposes.

MH: Why should family historians explore their ancestral DNA?

BG: Everyone runs into a paper trail roadblock eventually.  So when the paper trail doesn’t exist, OR when you have questions about the accuracy of the documentation you can use DNA as a secondary source of that confirmation.

MH: In the Jefferson/Hemings case, there is much debate about whether Hemings are descended from Jefferson or one of his other male relatives. Is DNA testing accurate enough to more easily pinpoint an exact ancestor now than in the late 1990s when this test was performed?

BG: No, Y DNA testing can’t determine WHICH Jefferson male was the father of the one slave child of Sally Hemings, but Y DNA testing for sure has been able to confirm that some Jefferson male was with Sally Hemings.

MH: What can DNA testing not do? I imagine a lot of people go into the process thinking that they’re going to be greeted with a list of relatives that they can easily implement into their research. Is it more likely that they’ll find connections that will take a while to work out?

BG: Yes and no. Yes they will find relatives to the extent that our very large Y DNA database has male or female relatives along the direct Y or mtDNA lineages.  Of course you will also find (i.e.) men who have the same last name and you can’t initially figure out how they are related, but that is what genealogy is all about.  At least by using a DNA test you can easily determine that two men are NOT related, despite having the same last name, and therefore this can save you from wasting a lot of valuable time.

MH: Do you recommend DNA testing for those new to genealogy?

BG: I don’t suggest DNA testing as a substitute but in conjunction with conventional paper trial genealogy.

MH: Should those that are interested put in the time to work their family lines back four or five generations back?

BG: That could be a huge waste of time if the theory that someone is working is wrong…using the DNA as a first filter can save hours or years of wasted research.

MH: My blog focuses, in theory, on being a family historian that still has several living generations to work with. My great grandmother, for instance, just turned 90 years old a few months back. For those of us fortunate enough to have great grandparents around would having them participate in a DNA project be worthwhile?

BG: Yes, especially on the male side (and with our new Family Finder product)  if you are only looking at a direct male or female line. If you have other direct relatives it is not essential to test the oldest family members, but using the Family Finder you can gain another generation or two by testing older relatives.

MH: Will doing so provide better results if both me and my great-grandmother take the mtDNA test?

BG: There is no reason for two close family members who share the same Y or mtDNA to test (except for using Family Finder since the autosomal signal is reduced by 50% in each generation).

MH: Family Tree DNA’s new product is called Family Finder. What is the difference between this test and the Y chromosome and mtDNA tests that your company has become well known for?

BG: Family Finder uses Autosomal DNA and looks for matching HAPLOBLOCKS between two people that is indicative of a common ancestry.  Therefore for lineages that have daughters but no sons the comparison can now be made with Family Finder to show relatedness in ways that we have only dreamed of for the past 10 years.

MH: In the FAQ for Family Finder it is mentioned that the test is most accurate up to five generations back.

BG: Over time the HAPLOBLOCKS get ‘chopped’ up in the recombination process and we feel that a meaningful signal is lost after about the 5th cousin level.

MH: Going back to my own family, would there be any benefit to having my 90 year old great-grandmother take the new autosomal DNA test?

BG: By testing your grandmother you can get to HER 5th cousin which would be potentially a 7th cousin for you.

MH: Where does DNA testing go from here?

BG: Next stop:  Full Genome when the price becomes reasonable for the general public.

MH: Between Y chromosome, mtDNA and autosomal chromosome testing it seems that we’re out of chromosome’s to test and compare. Is it now more of an effort to gain accuracy in testing and to grow the number of samples in the databases to be compared?

BG: Accuracy is there, it’s the larger and larger database for comparative purposes that we are still seeking.

MH: What is the rough estimate of the number of DNA samples in the various databases that family historians have to compare their own to?

BG: 300-400 thousand in my best guess. Only Family Tree DNA states the size of the database.  Others do not presumably because they don’t compare well with our vast database.

MH: I think the thing that holds many family historians off from having the various DNA tests done is the cost. The costs have certainly gone done in the last few years and companies like your own offer several tests that many could afford. What would you say to the potential customers that are weighing the cost of the test with the potential return on investment?

BG: A one night hotel stay to look at courthouse records is priced the same as a DNA test.  Plus gas, and TIME…something that is a gift that will not last forever.  By that definition DNA testing is cheap.

MH: Is there a test that tends to produce more results than another?

BG: For men the Y is still by far the best way to find relatives going back 2-400 years on the direct name lineage.

MH: When can we expect to see the new Family Finder test available?

BG: Mid April is my best guess.  Could be a few weeks earlier or perhaps a little later depending on the volumes we sustain in our Phase I rollout.  The cost will be higher than our introductory price, but not substantially higher.

MH: Will there be a super-test option that combines the Y, mtDNA and autosomal tests?

BG: Yes, certainly there will be.

MH: Thank you for your time and I personally look forward to trying out the new offering from Family Tree DNA.

BG: Best regards.

I would like to thank Bennett Greenspan for taking the time to participate in this interview. I will be testing the new Family Finder product in the next couple of months and will post a full report with my experiences. If you have participated in genealogical DNA testing, what have your experiences been and do you plan on seeing what autosomal DNA test will add to your family tree?

As everyone is very well aware, NBC’s new show Who Do You Think You Are is airing tomorrow night. And PBS’s Faces of America is wrapping up. So hooray for mainstream coverage of the obsession that most of us share. I have a bit of a problem with these shows however. Kinda the same problem I have with a lot of genealogy enterprises: Selling the idea that everyone is going to find an ancestor on the Mayflower, in Salem, a concentration camp or fleeing catastrophe. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not down playing any of these events. I would just occasionally like someone to acknowledge that most people are descended from farmers, miners and entrepreneurs rather than Indian princesses, famous shipmates, or accused witches or those that burned them at the stake. Guess it would make boring television to most to watch a series about the less glamorous ancestors that were miners and before that farmers and before that nameless people on a ship coming from a country that we have yet to identify but believe could be Ireland.. or Scotland.. Or..Or..England..maybe Germany. And I would find it far more entertaining to watch a celebrity that is actually interested in genealogy trace their roots on their own rather than watch a professional sit and tell them about it while they only seem somewhat interested. I do like Lisa Kudrow.. so I won’t be too hasty to judge the new show.