Feb7
Someone on The Facebook was looking for an Excel spreadsheet to enter 10 generations of ancestors. The Google did not provide. So I whipped one up.
If you find such a large spreadsheet enticing, you may download one here for your own use.
Nothing fancy in it – no scary macros or any such thing.
Nov10
North Brooklin, Maine
30 March 1973
Dear Mr. Nadeau:
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.
Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society—things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.
Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.
Sincerely,
(Signed, ‘E. B. White’)
Oct13
Oct4
Update, June, 2017: I’ve downloaded the latest data for my AncestryDNA matches, and with 230+ more cousins, I can report the exciting news that: the chart continues to look like a kitty cat.
But, I did have 2 more close cousins show up – one of which I knew already, so our common matches might help triangulate. Waiting to hear from the latest close match… if you’re out there, let’s figure out our trees!
I’ve appended the new tree, with an additional, totally free bonus chart of total cousins by distance.
And now, back to the original post:
If you are like me you probably say “Harumph!” alot when you check for new genetic matches to your AncestryDNA test. Scrolling through 83 pages of matches, it gets a little depressing seeing the many, many, many “No family tree” next to the matches. And the many more with only token trees containing a small number of people in them.
Three of my grandparents were immigrants to the United States, and my fourth grandparent was the son of immigrants. So, unless a lot more Czech and Irish citizens start testing, I don’t think I’ll be seeing any AncestryDNA circles* on my profile. But, I am still hoping that a reasonably close cousin or three from a few of my Irish lines show up to help me figure out where in Ireland they came from. (*waving to Tierney and McDonald folk*)
Anyway, I know that sometimes things feel worse than they are, so I decided to crunch some numbers and see how bad (or good) I really have it. Using the handy dandy AncestryDNA Helper Chrome Extension, I scanned and downloaded a data file of my matches.
I found that I have 4,230 matches in the database.
Of those matches, 2,194 do not have a family tree attached to the DNA profile. BOO.
But, that leaves 2,036 matches that do have family trees. YAY!
About a 50/50 split. “But, Wait!”, I said to myself. (I’m an awesome conversationalist.)
What are the size of these trees? Well I charted it out.
Chart of Number of People in my AncestryDNA matches’ family trees that also kinda looks like a kitty cat.
However, flipping that around in my brain, about 1,400 people have trees with 50 or more people – that might get us somewhere.
(And I can’t imagine *ever* my own tree catching up to the one tree with 139,000 people in it. Wow.)
I think the long term outlook here, is it’s only going to get better, keep your fingers crossed, and rub some rabbits’ feet. (If you can catch them. I never can.)
Or, for a more succinct statement, as my dear old father would have said, “It’s better than a stick in the eye!”**
*For more information on AncestryDNA circles, you might want to watch their video Cousin Matches and DNA Circles over on The YouTube.
**AncestryDNA representatives: you can use “It’s better than a stick in the eye!” in your next ad campaign, but I’d appreciate a few gratis test kits for my trouble.
UPDATED Chart from June, 2017: Same old same old.
Sep30
Update January 3, 2017: My podcast app told me over the holidays that It’s About Time had published some new episodes, which I found as interesting as the first set. However, when I went to share a link to one of them on The Twitter, I found that Ancestry had not updated their podcast page with any of the new episodes! That’s some poor marketing right there.
So, for your own viewing pleasure, Visit the iTunes feed of this podcast to see the episodes titled “A Christmas Carol”, “Family Found”, “The Future of Family History”, and “All the Information John Tierney Needs to Find All of His Ancestors.” (Well, that last one may not be out there, but I am hoping it is just still in the editing process.)
Now, back to the original blog transmission…
A quicky bloggy post to point you in the direction of Ancestry’s new It’s About Time podcast.
I somehow missed the announcement of it earlier in the month, but stumbled upon it yesterday and have already listened to 4 of the 5 published episodes. (Thanks, daily commute!)
The podcast is comprised of 15 minute-or-so vignettes of personal histories, beautifully produced, well written, and wonderfully read by Sir Tony Robinson. I recommend it highly!
I believe my favorite so far is Episode 5: A story of identity, where Sir Tony talks about his own background and ancestral expectations prior to taking his own AncestryDNA test.
I do have a complaint, though: there are not enough of them – the “season”ended with episode 5.
You can read more about the podcast over on the Ancestry Blog.
As I have discovered more evidence of my family’s immigrations and documentation of their lives, I have become entranced by the idea that while we live in different times we often travel similar paths. Read More
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