Lilian's Tree

In spite of the predicted cold temperatures and rain around 400 dedicated genealogists, descended on Castle Hill RSL, for the start of three days of talks on DNA. Registration was a very smooth process and very soon hugs were being collected, from old and new friends. 9.00am had us all settled into the main theater, for the start of the day. Blaine T Bettinger, the overseas guest speaker, started with, 'Understanding and interpreting your ethnicity results.' This wasn't something I fully understood and Blaine's way of explaining it had me going, 'I get it, now!' The rest of the day offered two or three different talks, with a variety of speakers. Kerry Farmer, was my choice, with 'Combining DNA with traditional techniques.'  Kerry is a great speaker and I've heard her give several DNA talks, over the years, all are interesting and today's was excellent. I have only just started digging deeper, with my DNA results and this talk re-enforced t

It is still a waiting game, for relpies to my Ancestry messages. (Insert a sigh, here.) I had Shelley Crawford from Connected DNA, re-do my matches, but only as far down as 30 cM's and I'm thrilled with the results. This is what Shelley does, she finds connections. The first picture is what she did for me, back in January, using all of my Ancestry DNA matches, then.                                                                                                    This is 654 nodes and 1,524 edges. As you can see it is FULL of connections, making it difficult to see exactly what is what. This one is this week and only to 30 cM's.                                                                                                       This is 80 nodes and 269 edges. It looks sparce but with the names on it, I can see EXACTLY which is my Paternal side and which is my Maternal side. My Maternal is the small cluster, with the green and red.  My Paternal side is the

I realise not everyone reading this knows how BIG my search field is. SO, My great-grandparents, Thomas Abberton and Mary Torpy had 15 children, 13 reach adult hood, 11 married and had large families. This is what I'm trolling through. Well, I've heard back from CH, he is related but he hasn't got back to me with his shared, if any cM's with my big match, DM. sigh. I haven't been idle and have contacted four more close matches. One I know is from the the eldest of the 15 and I don't think a match. Why? Well I also know two other ladies, PB and MW and they don't match DM.  Not totally crossing that link off, yet. I also contacted both SB and GA, both I know are on my Grandparents line. GA shares 282 cM's with DL, close.  SB is checking for me. I've also used Blaine  T Bettinger's relationship charts to try and work out the connection. https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2017/08/26/august-2017-update-to-the-shared-cm-project/ Here is the

Don't know what colour to paint the hall, bedroom or family room? Why don't you do as King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands have done? The photo, below is from the magazine Hello, number 1595, 5 August 2019, page 84. To quote the article, " The most intriguing room is the DNA Room, homage to Queen Maxima's interest in genetic research. To decorate the walls, British-Dutch artist Jacob van  der Beugel used 60,000 tiles to create a work of art representing Willem, Maxima and Catherina-Amalia's DNA sequence." Something a bit different.

When I did my Ancestry DNA, last year, I had a really good match come up.   This was it. 1st–2nd Cousin Shared DNA: 731 cM across 29 segments   I was thrilled as she was on my Paternal side. So I sent her a message, asking how we might be connected and waited, and waited and waited. Nothing back, so I waited some more and then sent another message and started waiting, again. I searched her tree and couldn't see a link but then she showed up as a link to a very close family member, as well as several others on my paternal side. I left it sit on the 'to be done' list and went away. Now I'm back I'm going to try and find our connection. Another close family member has joined Ancestry and yes is a connection to her.  I've also had a message from another connection, CH  and it is through him that I'm going to work. Method or madness??? Using ConnectedDNA, I sorted my groups, numerically, largest to smallest. Went to Ancestry and printed off,

While I was away I picked up these two books, to help with my research. Atlas of Irish History has five parts, Origins, The Conquest of Ireland, Reformation and Restoration, From Splendour to Famine and Modern Ireland. These parts have chapters and maps outlining such things as Post-Famine Emigration and The 1798 Rebellion. The Little History of Kent, is along the same lines as the Irish book but it doesn’t have maps. Starting with In the Beginning and ending with Modern Times 2000-, it tells the history of Kent.