Who Do They Think I Am - A Look At Four Autosomal Analyses

Since a number of genetic genealogists have already participated in the exercise of analyzing their results from the various autosomal companies, I have decided to look at mine as well. To see what others have discovered, see the posts by CeCe Moore and Roberta Estes. In my analysis, I will only look at the results from four commercial entities that provide autosomal results: National Geographic’s Geno 2.0 Project, Family Tree DNA’s Population Finder, Ancestry.com’s AncestryDNA, and 23andMe’s Ancestry Composition.

Each of these four companies provided different results and I will compare these in light of what I know concerning my own ancestry from the last 500 years. Attempting to assign a person to a population is less difficult for someone who has a homogenous ancestry than it is for someone who is admixed from divergent populations. Some of the services will assign a primary population while others look at the constituent parts of one’s genetic background and provide an analysis of the segments.

Regional Populations

Another problem in comparing the results is that the various companies use different reference populations. In addition, regional populations are not consistent. For Europe (where all of my known ancestors hail), 23andMe classifies four regional populations: Northern European, Southern European, Eastern European, and Ashkenazi.

FTDNA’s European regions are identified as Western European, Northeast European, Southeast European, and Southern European. AncestryDNA features more European regions and these include British Isles, Scandinavian, Central European, Eastern European, and Southern European.

The Geno 2.0 project assigns local results based on a mixture of a variety of world regional populations with only two that are predominantly European in origin: Mediterranean and Northern European; however, the Mediterranean segment classification is not limited to Europe. With only two regional populations assigned to Europe, it is difficult to compare the Geno 2.0 results with the others – but we will get to this later.

My Ancestry

To the best of my knowledge, the following chart illustrates the nature of my ancestry within the last several hundred years. While I can take some lines back to the 1500s and beyond, others can only be traced satisfactorily to the early 19th century.

 
Primarily, I am English (38.28%) and German (31.25%). Scottish, Welsh, and Swiss are represented by each constituting 6.25% of my ancestry. My Scots-Irish, Irish, and French ancestries each contribute 3.13% of my lineage. My French ties come from the former province of Dauphiné in southeast region of the country.

Finally, my least represented known ancestry is of Norman stock from the Isle of Jersey. Two New England families on my father’s side constitute this lineage. My Gustin (formerly known as Jean de la Tocq) line and associated families are from St. Ouen’s parish and my Gavitt/Gavey line and related families hail from St. Saviour’s parish.

While I do not have any personal knowledge of Dutch ancestry, there are a number of residents of the Netherlands that match my mother on 23andMe with percentages that are consistent with third and fourth cousins. The origin of these connections has not yet been determined, but probably will show as one of my lines previously believed to be German. In addition, it is thought that my Maneval line, which originated in Dauphiné, may have intermarried with Italians in Piedmont.

National Geographic’s Geno 2.0 Project

In the Geno 2.0 project, the various reference populations are viewed from their specific admixture. Since my ancestry is European, we’ll concentrate on those references for this discussion. There are 12 reference populations from Europe and include the following ethnicities: British, Bulgarian, Danish, Finnish, German, Greek, Iberian, Romanian, Russian, Russian Tartars, Sardinian, and Tuscan.

All of the above populations have Northern European, Mediterranean, and Southwest Asian components. Certain populations (Bulgarian, Finnish, Romanian, Russian, and Russian Tartars) also carry segments from Northeast Asia. Depending upon the reference population’s geographic location, the majority of the segments were either Northern European or Mediterranean.

Mediterranean is also found as the majority component in the following non-European populations: Egyptian, Georgian, Iranian, Kuwaiti, Lebanese, Northern Caucasian, Puerto Rican, and Tunisian. Mexican-Americans also have a sizable Mediterranean component; however, Native American is their greatest percentage.

Other regional reference markers that are not found in the European reference populations are Southeast Asian, Native American, Oceanian, Subsaharan African, and South African. For an overview of the reference populations used in this study, go to https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/overview-of-regions-and-closest-populations/reference-populations/.

For my results, my Northern European component at 41% is less than the Northern European reference populations of Finnish (57%), Danish (53%), Russian (51%), British (50%), and German (46%). My Mediterranean component (39%) is greater than that which is found among German (36%), British (33%), Danish (30%), Russian (25%), Russian Tartar (21%), and Finnish (17%). It is also considerably less than more southerly European populations from Sardinia (67%), Tuscany (54%), Greece (54%), Iberia (48%), Bulgaria (47%), and Romania (43%).

Since European populations also have Southwest Asian genetic components, my 19% is slightly higher than most of Geno 2.0’s European reference populations; however, it appears to be more closely aligned with Eastern Europeans such as Russians (18%), Romanians (19%), Bulgarians (20%), and Russian Tartars (21%); however, I do not have any Northeast Asian markers, which are characteristic of all of these populations.

I have included a chart of four reference populations compared to my results. Included in those four are the primary (German) and secondary (Tuscan) reference populations as determined by Geno 2.0. I have added two additional populations (British and Danish) for comparison purposes.

Geno 2.0 lists German as my primary reference population. I am in agreement with this as I have a large percentage of German ancestry and an even larger percentage of English. When one remembers that Saxon, Angle, Jute, Frisian, Viking, and Norman invasions occurred on British soil, Germanic segments would have contributed greatly to this ancestry.

According to Geno 2.0, “This reference population is based on samples collected from people native to Germany. The dominant 46% Northern European component likely reflects the earliest settlers in Europe, hunter-gatherers who arrived there more than 35,000 years ago. The 36% Mediterranean and 17% Southwest Asian percentages probably arrived later, with the spread of agriculture from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East over the past 10,000 years. As these early farmers moved into Europe, they spread their genetic patterns as well. Today, northern and central European populations retain links to both the earliest Europeans and these later migrants from the Middle East.”

Geno 2.0’s secondary population for me is Tuscan. Even eyeballing the results tells me something is amiss. While I have a Mediterranean percentage that is larger than the Northern European references, it is not comparable with those from Tuscany. I have included British and Danish references in the above graphic and they appear to be more in line with secondary and tertiary populations.

If I were to score the populations based on the total percentage differences of the three categories of Northern European, Mediterranean, and Southwest Asian, the Tuscan reference is not as close as the British and Danish references. I have a total point difference of 10 with the German reference; however, the Tuscan population has a 30 point spread.

British, which is logical from what I know of my own ancestry, only has 16 points of difference, while Danish is further removed with 24 points of difference – still less than the Tuscan example. While I would be in agreement with the Germanic identity, I am not in agreement with the comparison to Tuscan populations.

Family Tree DNA’s Population Finder

When I first received my Population Finder results, I immediately dismissed these because of the inclusion of 8.42% Middle Eastern ancestry. My Western European ancestry was reckoned as being 91.58%. Knowing that my lineages were all European, I could not see where Middle Eastern segments could exist within the past 500 years; any Middle Eastern ancestry would certainly been too far removed to show in my analysis. Since receiving the Geno 2.0 results and seeing how pervasive Mediterranean and Southwest Asian segments were across all European populations, I have rethought my original opinions on these results.

Since populations are more complex than I originally thought, I am more inclined to view the Middle Eastern segments as either part of what is identified by Geno 2.0 as either Mediterranean or Southwest Asian in origin. This remains to be seen and since neither service provides a chromosome by chromosome analysis, it is impossible to see if there is a correlation.

Ancestry.com’s AncestryDNA

Ancestry’s analysis has me baffled, as they have assigned 21% of my ancestry to Eastern Europe. While I have a slight amount of my overall lineage traced back to Ukraine, it was 38 generations in the past and its overall impact on my autosomal results should be negligible.

 
Although not all of my ancestors are represented by the pins on the map shown below, the ones that are present show the predominance of my heritage coming from the British Isles and Central Europe. None are found in Eastern Europe. While I would love to lay claim on some recent Slavic ancestry, I cannot and I question the results as reported by Ancestry.com. Like Geno 2.0 and FTDNA’s Population Finder, Ancestry does not plot the results by chromosome.

23andMe’s Ancestry Composition

Introduced in December 2012, I will have to admit that 23andMe’s new feature is far and above the competition in accuracy based on my known ancestry. In the previous incarnation called Ancestry Painting, 23andMe’s ancestral analysis was pretty Spartan. My results were, in a few words, pretty vanilla – or in the color schemes used at the time – completely blue.

The new Ancestry Composition feature fine tunes these results with additional global populations going beyond their original European, Asian, and African classifications to the expanded European, East Asian/Native American, Middle Eastern/North African, South Asian, Sub-Saharan African, and Oceanian regional populations. In addition, several sub-regional populations were also added.

 
23andMe also defaults to a standard estimate of your populations and allows you to determine if you want to be more speculative or more conservative in your population estimates. I’m ready to go for broke (read “reckless abandon” for me) and completely rely upon the speculative results as it gives me more options.

While these results remained 99.7% European, some additional colors were added to my ancestral spectrum. These were very small by comparison with 0.1% each for Native American, North African, and South Asian. The results could be regarded as noise or just very small segments of my ancestry.

With two of these populations occurring at the same segment as my mother, I have a tendency to believe that they may be accurate – but very persistent and fairly distant markers. She shares the Native American and North African segments. Therefore, the Southeast Asian must come from my father. How they fit into my ancestry, I haven’t a clue. I would have thought that my father’s side had more of an opportunity to have Native American blood, as a majority of his ancestors were in the colonies over a hundred years prior to my mother’s first immigrants.

One thing that I believe is incorrect is the assignment for my X chromosome as being “British and Irish.” Having already phased my X as coming primarily from my maternal grandmother (see my previous post on this subject), I already know that her ancestry was 87.5% German and 12.5% French; however, the contributors to her X chromosome were all German.

Outside of this misidentification, I am pleased with how 23andMe assigned the various populations. My German ancestry is somewhat underreported; however, I am assuming that most of what came from my Teutonic predecessors is found under the “Nonspecific Northern European” category. While not having any known Sardinian (0.3%) or Balkan (0.2%) ancestry, I checked with my mother’s results and found that she only shared the Balkan markers. She also had a chromosome that was nearly all Italian which I did not inherit. This may indicate the supposed Italian ancestry from Piedmont.

The Sardinian must come from my father; however, his ancestry was primarily from the British Isles. There is one possibility though. My grandfather’s sister’s middle name was the Italian surname of Marcelli. Unfortunately, we have no clue why the second child of this family was named Essa Marcelli Owston. Was she named for a Sardinian or Italian ancestor or a friend of the family? Of my great grandparents’ five children, this is the only name that cannot be traced to a family member or a friend of the family. Alas, this is another mystery that hopefully can be solved at some time in the future.

Conclusion

Of the four autosomal services, I would have to say that 23andMe has the best analysis and it lines up closely with my known ancestry. It is the only service that drills down to the sub-regional populations and gives you the opportunity to speculate or be conservative about the analysis. It is also the only service that provides a chromosomal analysis. With the current price at $99, if you are looking for an inexpensive ancestral analysis, 23andMe is the route to consider.

Book Review: The Surnames Handbook

I’ve never met Debbie Kennett, but I feel that I have personally known her for several years. My first encounter with the author of The Surnames Handbook: A Guide to Family Name Research in the 21st Century came after I joined the Guild of One-Name Studies in 2011. Her helpful responses to me and others on the Guild’s list and related Facebook pages specifically helped me in the direction of pursing my own one-name study. Much of the advice that she personally offered is now available in book form from The History Press.

Frankly, I don’t know how she does it, but with her activity with the Guild as well as participating online with the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG), conducting her own her own one-name study (ONS), and managing a number of DNA projects – I am impressed that she has the time to write such a thorough volume. I imagine that the old adage rings true, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.”

While this edition deals primarily with surname research in the British Isles, it is very thorough in this undertaking; however, where she can provide information for research in other geographic regions, Debbie has added these data to the book. Being that my own ONS is traced back to England, I found this book and her advice extremely helpful.

The book sets the stage with a forward written by Derek Palgrave who is president of the Guild of One-Name Studies. Debbie then jumps head first into providing the necessary definitions – including one that would be specifically helpful for American audiences who may not be able to discern differences between Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and the British Isles. Her definitions on surnames and forenames also set the stage for what follows.

The book contains ten chapters of narrative. Although each provides extensive information, they are written in a style that can be easily understood by the average reader – an attribute that is not always found in other volumes dealing with similar subject matter. Despite an intense amount of research that has contributed to The Surnames Handbook, the book transcends the theoretical realm and contains a very practical approach. Anyone who is considering surname research – no matter how much experience he or she has with the name of choice – will find something that will contribute to his or her own study.

Every chapter is complete with Internet URLs that point to specific web sites and databases that will aid in accessing additional specific information. Seven appendices at the end of the book provide innumerable Internet resources for further study. While I purchased the print version from Amazon.com, I would recommend a digital copy to get the full and immediate effect of these online resources.

The ten chapters are as follows:

1. The History of Surnames
2. The Classification of Surnames
3. Variants and Deviants
4. Surname Mapping
5. Surname Frequency
6. Has it Been Done Before?
7. Laying the Foundations: the Key Datasets
8. Surname Origins: Pre-1600 Resources
9. DNA and Surnames
10. One-Name Studies

From the very first chapter, I learned something new. Her Surname Origins chapter provided me information about Lay Subsidies that helped me develop a new theory concerning my own surname’s source, as I was able to find similar names in the areas where my name had ramified. I am currently doing additional research regarding this theory.

While she draws from her own research and the Cruwys ONS, she does not limit her illustrations to her own experiences. Aptly, Debbie incorporates examples from others’ research in tracing a surname. In her final chapter, she provides an in-depth case study of her own ONS. I find it helpful to envision what others have accomplished in determining what may contribute to my own research.

The biggest surprise was that Debbie began her own ONS in 2002. From the depth of her knowledge and her constant and helpful advice, both inside and outside this work, I would have assumed that she had been researching surnames for several decades. Her writing exudes her passion for surname research.

With this book, you will gain practical knowledge of the following: the development of surnames, the differences between surname variants and deviants, how to map your surname and compute its frequency, where to research the surname in the medieval period, how to conduct a related DNA study, and how to proceed with a one-name study.

As previously mentioned, The Surnames Handbook: A Guide to Family Name Research in the 21st Century provides several appendices at the end of the book. These invaluable resources are as follows:

A. Genealogy Websites
B. Surname Websites
C. Lay Subsidy Rolls
D. Organisations and Journals
E. Linguistic Resources
F. Place-Name Resources
G. Population Statistics

If you are considering studying a particular surname – especially if that surname originated in the British Isles, you would be remiss by not having this important volume as part of your library. I highly recommend The Surnames Handbook: A Guide to Family Name Research in the 21st Century.

Phasing the X-Chromosome

Understanding the transmission of most human DNA is fairly straightforward. Y-DNA is transmitted from father to son and follows a patrilineal descent equated with a man’s surname lineage. Only males have Y-DNA and they can only pass it on to their sons. Mitochondrial (mtDNA) is the exact opposite and is passed from mother to child. It follows a matrilineal descent – great-grandmother to grandmother to mother to child. While men receive mtDNA, they cannot pass it to their children. Only women can pass mtDNA.

A third type of DNA is autosomal DNA. It is passed from the 22 pairs of autosomes that we as humans have. For each pair, one chromosome comes from our mother and one from our father. The chromosomes we receive from our parents are also combinations of the chromosomes passed from our grandparents. All of our ancestors, to a point, contribute to our autosomal DNA.

Finally, there is X-chromosomal DNA. Contrary to popular belief that it was named after its X shape when two X-chromosomes appear together, the 22 autosomes also appear roughly “X” shaped during mitosis and therefore there was nothing unique about its appearance. Hermann Henking named the chromosome the X element because of its unique properties. The “X” designation has been applied to other items with unique or unknown properties such as X in algebra, X-rays, and Planet X (Pluto).

X Inheritance Patterns

The X-chromosome, however, has a bit of mystery to its transmission. While it is not difficult to understand, it takes time to explain the unique ancestry that contributes to an X-chromosome. Additionally, the X ancestry for women is different than for men adding to its mystique.

Men only receive one X-chromosome as they receive a Y-chromosome from their father which in turn determines their gender as a male. Men inherit their X-chromosome from their mother. It is possible that a man may inherit his X as one of his mother’s two X-chromosomes completely intact; however, it is more likely he will receive a recombined X that includes segments from each of his mother’s two Xs.

Since women receive two X-chromosomes, they inherit these from each parent. The one received from a woman’s mother is transmitted the same way as a man receives his X-chromosome. The other X-chromosome transmitted intact from a woman’s father. This comes from his mother and may be an intact chromosome or a recombined X transmitted to him from his mother.

To get a clearer picture on the overall inheritance patterns of the X-chromosome for men and women, I recommend two blog posts by Dr. Blaine T. Bettinger: Unlocking the Genealogical Secrets of the X Chromosome and More X-Chromosome Charts.

My Specific X-Chromosome Issues

My interest in the X-chromosome transmission is based on the lack of matching X segments I have with my two brothers. In fact, the amount of 14.7cM on one segment on the X that I share with my oldest brother is rather insignificant by comparison to others in my family. My other brother and I share 45.9cM over two segments. My two brothers share quite a bit with each other on the X with 142.2cM across three segments.

To add to this disparity, I share more with my two first cousins than I do with my oldest brother on the X: 44.7cM over two segments with one and 102.9cM across two segments with the other. Even larger than these shares, my family has two second cousins who share 122cM on one segment. The grandmothers of these two second cousins were sisters.

Others’ Experiences

I was curious about this inequality and I asked individuals to post on 23andMe’s Community Forum their total matches on the X-chromosome with known relatives; however, some exceptions needed to occur as parent/children relationships will share 100% on an X-chromosome, a paternal grandmother and granddaughters will share 100% on an X-chromosome, and sisters and paternal half-sisters will share an exact copy of their father’s X-chromosome. Obviously, these numbers would skew the results somewhat and do not represent an unknown quantity.

While I won’t list all of the results here, I will list relationships where at least five matches were documented. The lower and higher ranges, as well as the central tendencies of mean and median, are represented in centimorgans (cM).

Relationship	Number	Low	High	Mean	Median
Sibling*	34	14.7	182.8	98.9	97.9
Grandparent	14	38.1	170.0	91.1	77.5
Avuncular	53	10.0	201.0	92.1	83.6
Great Avuncular	9	11.0	178.0	41.5	26.1
First Cousin	22	16.0	135.2	68.2	61.9
First Cousin, Once Removed	19	11.1	201.0	68.0	58.6
Second Cousin	6	17.0	122.0	50.7	43.4
First Cousin, Twice Removed	9	7.1	83.8	18.0	31.9
Second Cousin, Once Removed	6	15.9	47.3	24.9	17.2

*full brothers, full brother/sister, maternal half-brothers, and maternal half sisters.

The numbers are probably skewing higher, as I discounted all non-matches. This was done because I could not verify if the given relationship fell within X-chromosome inheritance patterns. For example, a male subject may have listed a second cousin relationship as 0cM without realizing that a male’s paternal second cousins do not share genetic material on the X.

This exercise revealed that it is difficult to ascertain a relationship on the amount shared via the X-chromosome, as the numbers were across the board. Part of the inequality may be attributed to daughters receiving an intact X from their fathers. Without recombination during these transmissions, larger segments of X-DNA will be inherited across generations.

In my family, a sibling match of 14.7cM was the lowest of the observed sibling pairs; as mentioned earlier, this was between me and my oldest brother. The aforementioned second cousin match in our family at 122.0cM is the highest reported for that relationship.

Phasing My X-Chromosome

Since spring 2010 when my results and those of my siblings were returned, I have been immensely curious on why I share so little on the X-chromosome with either of my brothers. In addition, Ancestry Finder lists my oldest brother (Chuck) as having three matches on the X. Two of those matches exceed the amount we share (20.6cM and 26.6cM). My brother John also has three matches – two of those match Chuck’s shares and one is unique. Unfortunately, I have no X matches in Ancestry Finder.

As I ruminated on the results, I began to realize that recombination of my mother’s two X-chromosomes dealt Chuck and me X-DNA from divergent maternal grandparents. The question was who inherited from whom?  My mother's parents and siblings, which would help in determining this issue, had died decades ago.  While I have five living first cousins on my mother’s side, three were adopted.

Of the two remaining blood first cousins, I tested Joan first in 2011 – she is the daughter of my mother’s sister Louise. Unfortunately, she could have received her X-DNA from either or both of our grandparents and there was no way to determine the origin of her matching segments.

Jane, my other blood first cousin, tested in 2012 and she and I had two matching segments totaling 102.9cM. This large match was significant in that she is the daughter of my mother’s oldest brother. Because of this relationship, I could use her results and partially phase our X-chromosome segments to specific grandparents.

Since she received one X from her father and one X from her mother, the matching segments she had with me, my brothers, and Joan would come only from our maternal grandmother. The X-chromosome that passed from Jane’s dad came solely through our grandmother. This is unlike my mother and my aunt who received an X-chromosome from their mother and an X-chromosome from their father.

In addition, those areas where Jane matched me but not my brothers indicated that my siblings received their corresponding segments from our maternal grandfather. While I could not satisfactorily phase all of my X-chromosome, over half of it was attributed to my mother’s mother.

Those areas where we did not match Jane do not indicate that those segments came from my grandfather. If fact when comparing Jane with my mother, they only match on the same segments that Jane matches with me. This indicates that my mother and her brother received different X-DNA from their mother due to X recombination.

As far as further testing is concerned, there are some second cousins and second cousins, once removed that are descended from my grandmother’s sisters that may shed additional light on the propagation of the X in our family. Finding these individuals and convincing them to test may prove difficult.

While my grandfather was the only child of his mother, she had siblings whose descendents should have some matching DNA segments to our family. Shared genetic material with these individuals may further confirm from whence my brothers’ and cousins’ X-DNA originated. In certain cases, tying our X-chromosome segments to a specific great-grandparent may also be possible.  

Some Theories

Since I can only confirm the originating grandparent of 51% my X-DNA, I tend to believe (but cannot confirm at the present) that my X-chromosome may be an exact copy of my mother’s inherited X from her mother. If this is the case, I would not have inherited any X-DNA from my grandfather. This would also indicate that my brother Chuck’s X-DNA is 97% from our grandfather and only 3% from our grandmother. My brother John would then have 77% of his X-DNA from our grandfather and 23% from our grandmother.

If my hypothesis is correct, it may suggest why I have no matches on the X-chromosome. With exception of one line which originated in Southern France, my grandmother’s ancestry was German. If one follows her X-chromosome inheritance to its natural genetic conclusion, her X-chromosomes were 100% Germanic in origin. The earliest date for her ancestors immigrating to the US was 1848.

While my grandfather had a significant German element to his ancestry, his X-inheritance contains Swiss, Scots-Irish, German, and probably English antecedents. To the best of my knowledge, my grandfather’s family appears to have been in America from at least the time of the Revolutionary War.

Since becoming a 23andMe customer in 2010, I have noticed a dearth of matches to my German lines. Since my mother is roughly 70% German and 12% Swiss, I find that most of her 23andMe matches appear to be related to her English and Scots-Irish ancestries rather than to her German and Swiss roots.

While I do not have facts and figures for 23andMe’s customer base, it appears that Germans are not among the best represented groups. While Ancestry Finder is not a perfect indicator of ancestral matches, it does allow for some additional conclusions to be drawn. For my mother, Germany ranks third behind the United Kingdom and Netherlands for her matches whose grandparents were born in these countries. I would have assumed that her German matches would have ranked first; however, this was not the case.

Conclusions

Despite my theories which remain unconfirmed, I was able to phase a large portion of our family's X-chromosomes to a particular grandparent by comparing our results with a first cousin who was the daughter of a maternal uncle. In the absence of a tested grandparent, a greater number of tested relationships of maternal uncles and female first cousins descended from maternal uncles would aid anyone in phasing his or her maternal X-DNA.

A Reunion 78 Years in the Making

Several years following my Uncle Walt’s death in 1980, my mother tasked me with the mission of finding his oldest child – my first cousin Jane. I had heard about her and that no one in our family had seen her since the 1930s. The story of her parents, Walter and Kathleen, was a tale of two lovers and a tragedy that caused their separation from each other with no fault of either party.

Walter later in life (circa 1940) and Kathleen in 1929 as a high school senior.

They were married in Wellsburg, West Virginia on May 16, 1930 and over 2 years later, their daughter Jane was born. In short time, the Great Depression had taken its toll, Walter was unemployed with no prospects for work, and at the request of family members, it was suggested that the two divorce. Reluctantly, they did.

A page from my grandmother's bible.

When Kathleen later remarried, she asked Walter to sign over Jane to be raised by Kathleen’s new husband Ron. He agreed and Jane was raised with the Miller surname of her new father. Walter too remarried and had a son, William Martin Brakeall. Bill was a successful Navy helicopter pilot. Having survived being shot down in Vietnam during his two tours of duty, he was killed in a freak helicopter explosion over Springfield, Missouri in 1971. The tragedy occurred just days prior to his planned discharge from the Navy.

Bill Brakeall graduating from Naval Officer's Training

According to Jane, “Growing up I knew that I had been adopted by my dad, Ron Miller, but I knew nothing about my biological family other than the surname, Brakeall. In 1972, Mom and I traveled to McKeesport to attend Jane Randolph's funeral. Mrs. Randolph was a dear friend for who I am named, i.e. Jane Randolph Miller Boyce. While I was there, the funeral director gave me a note from Louise [Walter’s sister]. She asked me to call her and gave me the number. I called that evening and we had a nice chat wherein I told her about my life, my husband, my children, our home in Florida, and I suppose a lot more.”

She continued, “In 1980, someone gave my mother a copy of the Walter Brakeall obit and she passed it on to me. The obit mentioned my half-brother, Bill. That was the first time that I knew that my biological father had another child. (It also gave his [Walter’s] address that was only a few miles from our home in Florida during the sixties and early seventies. I have often wondered why he never took the time to contact me. Maybe Louise never told him about our conversation.)”

It is likely, for whatever reason, my Aunt Louise never told anyone about talking to Jane. She and my mother were not only sisters, but best friends. It was not unusual for us to see Aunt Louise daily as she stopped by our home after work nearly every day. We often visited her home on Saturdays and we sat in the same pew every Sunday at church. They were confidants and they often shared information with each other that they never shared with anyone else.

Apparently, Jane’s conversation was a piece of information that Aunt Louise took with her to the grave. My mother was never aware of it and neither was Aunt Louise’s only child, my cousin Joan. So, it is likely that she never shared this tidbit with her older brother Walt. There may be reasons for that as well.

The conversation with Jane occurred less than a year after Bill’s death; and perhaps to give him time to grieve, she never mentioned it. In addition, Aunt Lou, Uncle Walt’s second wife, was a fiercely jealous woman and would have not have welcomed any contact with his former family. It is likely then that Aunt Louise never told anyone. Unaware of this important but hidden piece of information, I trudged on with my search.

Over the years, I had attempted to find Jane or her mother. We knew of the Miller surname, but not Kathleen’s husband’s first name of Ron. We were also misinformed that Jane’s dad was a dentist – he was not. That sent me on some wild goose chases. There also was the uncertainty during this time whether Kathleen and Jane were even still living. I had assumed that due to Kathleen’s age that she probably had died, but she hadn’t.

Since Miller is the seventh most popular name in the US, this made the prospect of finding Jane a near impossibility. Add to this the great possibility that Jane was probably married and her married name could be anything. It was the proverbial needle in the haystack.

When I first got access to the Internet in 1995, I thought this new technology would probably be my only vehicle in finding Jane. All through the subsequent years, my mother encouraged me to look for Jane, as she would like to see her again. She was probably two years old when my mother last saw her niece.

Jane as a baby with her grandfather and great-grandmother Brakeall

Over the years I used the various search engines and genealogy sites to make a connection; however, nothing even close emerged. In 2008, however, the tide began to turn. Florida’s death records were indexed on Ancestry.com and I found Jane’s maternal grandparents in the listing.

I sent away for the death record of Jane’s grandmother; however, no new information was gathered from it, the cemetery, or the funeral home. All listed Kathleen Miller as the next of kin, however, I could not find any current reference to a Kathleen Miller in the area that proved to be her.

My mother thought that Jane had grown up in Connellsville, Pennsylvania; however, she was only born there. Misinformed, I visited the Connellsville library in June 2008 and searched the high school yearbooks for a Jane Miller – nada. I also perused the city directories for a dentist named Miller – no hits on that one either. I felt I was no closer to finding Jane; however, that would quickly change.

On August 12, 2008, I logged onto Ancestry.com and was filling in details for my family tree. While I was adding the various hints for my Uncle Walt, I found a family tree hint – you know one of those “leaves” that Ancestry advertises. Intrigued on who might have him listed on a personal tree, I found the missing link. The other Ancestry subscriber’s tree had a child listed under Walter Brakeall and Kathleen Graffious. This child’s information was blocked because she was living. It also showed a blocked husband and two children.

Typically, I am suspect of personal family trees as many are riddled with misinformation. One tree I encountered had my sister-in-law married to my great-grandfather. This was interesting as she was born 30 years after his death. This new listing, however, was the real deal.

Jim and Paul; September 13, 2012

I immediately emailed the owner of the tree and she explained that Jane’s husband Paul had written a booklet on their families and she would send me the relevant pages. She apparently received this from a relative of Jane’s that had received it directly from Paul.

My copy arrived in the mail in a few days later and I was able to ascertain Jane’s and Paul’s address. I felt that for this introduction a telephone call would be too abrupt for a first encounter, so I wrote Jane a letter. I was able to go into some detail and would give her the opportunity to ruminate on the information. If she called, then she was interested. If not, we at least knew that she was well and had raised a family.

It was a few days later and I arrived home one evening after teaching class. I was met at the door by my wife Pam who had a horrified look on her face. “You’re going to kill me,” she said. “You know that cousin of yours you’ve been trying to find? Well, she called tonight and I thought she was one of those political telemarketers and I let her have it for calling after 9 PM.” She explained that when she found out it was Jane that she apologized “six ways to Sunday” about the misunderstanding. She was right; I was ready to kill her right then and there.

Being that it was the 2008 election year and my wife and I do not share the same political affiliations, we were besieged by representatives of both parties and by numerous political action committees about who we were going to support. Some of these calls violated FTC regulations regarding when such calls could be made. The cutoff was 9:00 PM local time and frequently when we received calls after that, I would remind these callers that they were violating a federal telemarketing statute. Pam’s reaction was learned behavior from me.

Jane’s husband Paul reminded me of this recently and said that Jane being “rebuffed, decided not to call again. I don't know what happened on your end, but within a few minutes you called back and the rest is history. I can't help thinking that could have been the end of it. Jane probably would not have called again.”

With my tail between my legs, I called Jane and apologized profusely. She graciously accepted the apology and we had a wonderful conversation. She told me what she knew about the family; and from that point, I corresponded with Jane and Paul – frequently speaking to Paul on the phone about his research on Jane’s newfound family. Finding Jane was a great birthday present for my mother who was turning 90 in just a few days. I shared this information with our mutual first cousin Joan and she too began corresponding with Jane.

Jane’s mother, albeit in her late 90s, was still living at the time. Unfortunately, she would not be a source of any additional information. According to Jane, “It’s strange, and I have no explanation for it, but my mother never talked to me about her first marriage, so I essentially was in the dark about it until only recently. Even after my contact with you she evaded questions about her marriage.” Kathleen passed away in 2010.

While Jane and Paul wanted to come back to the Pennsylvania to visit, that did not get to happen until two weeks ago. My cousin Joan coordinated a lunch gathering at a local restaurant and it was followed by a small get-together at Joan’s home. Paul, by the way, had enlarged his family history into much expanded volume and had brought a copy for us to peruse. His research and layout was impressive.
 

Jane and my mother, September 13, 2012

My 94 year old mother finally got to see her oldest niece – 78 years later. In addition to Jane, Paul, my mom, me, and Joan; the event was attended by another first cousin, Nancy; my brother Chuck; and Joan’s daughter Kathy. Children from all four Brakeall siblings that attained adulthood were present. It was a wonderful event and it was like Jane had been among us all of her life. She and Paul fit in well with our crazy bunch.

Nancy, Joan, Jim, Genevieve, Kathy, Jane, & Chuck

You can tell we are family, as at times the topics turned to those two forbidden subjects of religion and politics, yet no one got angry – that’s family. Meeting Jane was one of those items on my mother’s and my own bucket lists. At our meeting, Jane thanked me for writing that letter. The reunion was the highlight to my year. What once was a mission impossible became a mission accomplished.

Death Styles of the Rich and Famous

Those who know me well realize that I’ve spent a great deal of time in cemeteries. While it’s hardly a record, I’ve been to cemeteries in 77 locations in 12 states. Offhand, I cannot tell you how many I’ve visited as many of those aforementioned locations had several of these resting places. Since I’ve done much of my cemetery research in Pennsylvania, some of the towns where I’ve researched grave markers had quite a few cemeteries.

One of my favorite locations is Homewood at the edge of the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh. It’s rolling hills and pastoral setting is a perfect backdrop for some of the more interesting monuments and mausoleums in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

Stimmel

While taking a leisurely drive through Homewood Cemetery last Friday, I rounded a corner and a stream of yellow light caught my eye. I backed up my car and noticed that it was the stained glass in a mausoleum. I parked and grabbed my camera to snap one of the most interesting examples of stained glass I’ve ever seen.

I’ve been aware that some mausoleums had stained glass windows, but never paid any attention to these works of art. I decided to look at several examples of (cue the Robin Leach impersonation) the “Death Styles of the Rich and Famous.” All but one of the following examples come from Homewood Cemetery. These are typically located on the rear wall, but several also have side windows as well.

This first example is the one that started the idea of this series and remains my favorite memorial glass art. From a simple mausoleum with an Egyptian motif, this picture of Cleopatra is truly amazing. It is in surprisingly good shape with the exception of the flaking of the brown paint in the headdress and the fading of the colors around the bars that protect the window.

This is from the tomb of the William S. Stimmel family. Stimmel was the manager of the John Hancock Insurance office in Pittsburgh. Stimmel was also an art collector and it is only fitting that one of the more beautiful examples of funerary art was found in his final resting place.

Larendon

The Stimmel glass was not the first I had photographed – that distinction belongs to a window in historic Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. I spied the monument for Laure Beauregard Larendon and its circle of stained glass during a visit to the cemetery in July 2012. This particular glass is unusual because it was open on both sides and was not inside of a mausoleum.

 
This beautiful design also includes nine cut glass jeweled inserts. The monument and window were commissioned by Laure Larendon’s famous father Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, the Confederate General. Her husband was Colonel Charles A. Larendon of South Carolina.

Worthington

Typical of many windows are simplistic geometric designs. I like this one as the border reminds me of a Persian rug and the pastel glass in the center is similar to Amish hex signs. This window is found in the family crypt for Edward Worthington, Jr. Worthington was the assistant auditor for the Penn Oil Company.

Steel

In the tomb of oil magnate John A. Steel, four members of this family – husband, wife, son, and mother-in-law are bathed in the serene light of this pastoral scene. Notice the detail of the white and purple lilies in the lower left corner. The location of this mausoleum is in one of the higher elevations of the cemetery and its interior is one of the more pristine I’ve seen.

Young

This cannot be said of the Young tomb which was erected in 1907. Although the external façade is beautiful, the window shows damage. Notice that one of the pieces of glass is missing, another has slipped from of its associated lead came, and a third is broken and missing a piece. I tend to believe that the face of the angel probably that of the patriarch of the family. Note that the flesh tone of the neck is nearly gone and beginning to flake off on the face.

Because of the broken glass, water inside the structure has allowed mold and mildew to accumulate on the window. This is the worst example that I have in this series and I’ve only included it to show what could happen when one of these works of art are damaged. This tomb is the final resting place of the Andrew Gray Young and his family. Young was a traffic manager in the steel industry and the tomb was constructed following the death of his daughter Agnes Gray Young.

Cheswright

Another pastoral scene is found in James W. Cheswright’s mausoleum. The sun was directly hitting the top left portion of the window, so it appears washed out. This window is not without some damage as the lowest blue pane is cracked at it appears that it was hit by a hailstone in the past. There may also be some cracks in the orange colored glass as well.

There is also dirt and cobwebs that one might expect. In addition, the front glass doors were very dirty with mold on the inside indicating that there was some water seepage in this structure over its lifetime. Its owner was an officer in the North American Savings Company.

Reighard

David P. Reighard’s mausoleum has a traditional funerary design with the lilies of the valley. This was shot with direct sunlight that shows a shadow of the grating on the outside of the window used to protect the window and prevent access to the interior.

Reighard’s primary business concern was in oil; however, he also held interest in Duquesne Light Company, the Pittsburgh and Allegheny Telephone Company, and Central Bank of Pittsburgh.

Kress

The Frederick J. Kress family lies in state in a modern styled mausoleum which is on the Dallas Avenue side of the cemetery. Unlike the other monuments I perused, its window was of a different size than others.

This window is a fairly standard Christian design of a cross and a crown that might be found in a church building. Its vibrant colors and geometric designs are elegant.

Heinz

Shaped much like the Rotunda at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, the Henry J. Heinz (yes that Heinz) mausoleum is a medium sized, but impressive piece of architecture with a Romanesque portal. In the rear of the crypt is a Romanesque window depicting Gabriel holding lilies.

The colors of this window are muted, but that should not be an interpretation that the quality of the workmanship is lesser in this Old World style window. The Heinz name is synonymous with ketchup and the 57 varieties for which the H.J. Heinz Company was once known to produce.

Mueller

Unlike the tomb of his brother-in-law Henry J. Heinz, Sebastian Mueller's window's colors were not muted. In addition to his family connection, Mueller was a vice president of the H.J. Heinz company. His mausoleum is found in another section of Homewood Cemetery.

This Egyptian themed crypt is fronted with a winged sun and impressive columns. The structure is not square, but tapers and has an interesting pediment in an Egyptian style fit for a pharaoh. The window glass depicts the pyramids along the Nile.

While the physical structure of the window was in excellent condition, there appears to be some flaking of the paint on the left side and some outside water stains on the right third of this piece of art.

Benedum

One of the larger mausoleums in the cemetery is for the Benedum family. Having made his fortune in the oil business, Micheal Late Benedum’s tomb is not only impressive, but it has its own courtyard surrounding the crypt. The Romanesque window depicts a warrior at the end of his journey flanked by the archangel Michael and the messenger angel Gabriel.

At the bottom of the window, a quote of Mark 10:45 intimates the ministering functions of this family, as the Benedum name in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia is synonymous with philanthropy. Our university has a Benedum Center – a gift of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. The window is starting to show some damage on some of the darker gray panels.

Opperman

Finally, our last example may be one of the more expensive windows in Homewood Cemetery. Found in the crypt for the Albert C. Opperman family, it is the only window in this installment that contains a company’s mark. Franz Xavier Zettler of Munich may have been the best known stained glass artisan in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th century.

Zettler graduated from Munich Art Academy in the 1860s and apprenticed under his father-in-law Joseph Mayer, another well known artist. While any number of artists in Zettler’s firm could have crafted this window, a Zettler window was a prized possession for any structure. While Opperman, who owned a lumber concern, was not one of Pittsburgh’s wealthiest residents, his window is summarily impressive.

This scene doesn’t follow typical funerary art in that it depicts a mother with two of her children. The craftsmanship is exquisite. Unfortunately, an urn with a dried arrangement obscures a portion of the window.

Because these windows are found in mausoleums, their beauty is hidden from the general public. I felt they needed to be revealed.  While I did not depict any of the structures, the windows held the hidden beauty for these “Death Styles of the Rich and Famous.”  In closing, as Robin Leach would say, “champagne wishes and caviar dreams.” Dreams bathed in elegant colors, that is, until eternity.

Mystery Great (Grandparents That Is)

 
Those of you of a certain vintage will remember the 1960's Milton Bradley game “Mystery Date.” Obviously, I didn’t play the game, but I was familiar enough with it due to the countless number of commercials aired on television. In fact, I can still sing the first line of the commercial’s song ♫ “Mystery date” ♪ – now, that’s scary. The only other thing I could remember from the ad was the line – “Is he a dream or a dud?”

What about our “Mystery Greats?” – mystery great-grandparents in all configurations. We all have them and it is humbling experience to see how many there are in a set number of generations. I have taken the challenge of counting the number of my known ancestors. This exercise was inspired by the recent posts from the following blogs: Judy Russell's The Legal Genealogist and From Helen V. Smith’s Keyboard.

A number of genealogists have counted their known ancestors up to and including seventh great-grandparents. That’s nine generations with a possible total of 1,022 collective ancestors.

Some of these individuals are the same due to pedigree collapse; however, with my known ancestry only five from my paternal grandmother’s side and two from my maternal grandmother’s side are counted twice – thus, 14 slots represent the same seven ancestors.

I know there are other duplicates, but their identities are currently unknown. In addition, two of my maternal grandfather’s Myers lines are related; however, we do not exactly know how. The common ancestors for these two lines are likely my fourth or fifth great grandparents.

Enough talk, let’s see how I fared.

Relationship	Possible	Known	Percentage
Parents	2	2	100.00%
Grandparents	4	4	100.00%
Great Grandparents	8	8	100.00%
2nd Great Grandparents	16	16	100.00%
3rd Great Grandparents	32	28	87.50%
4th Great Grandparents	64	40	62.50%
5th Great Grandparents	128	57	44.53%
6th Great Grandparents	256	63	24.60%
7th Great Grandparents	512	71	13.86%
Total	1022	289	28.27%

My score of 28.27% is higher than some and lower than others. As for finding these missing leaves from my family tree, many lived at a time when record keeping was scarce, that is if documentation occurred at all. For example, my patrilineal 7th great-grandfather lived from 1636-1676 – therefore, he was born 376 years ago.

My numbers were influenced by the ancestries of my grandmothers. My paternal grandmother’s lineage is Colonial New England and these lines are fairly well documented. As for my maternal grandmother, her German ancestry is also well documented. Some of this knowledge came with a chance encounter of a third cousin about four years ago.

He knew the town from which our second great-grandmother was born; however, he did not know her name. I knew her name, but nothing about where in Germany she originated. The parish records were available on microfilm and he was able to secure copies for us to peruse. Our family trees were significantly enlarged.

It is my grandfathers' ancestries where the holes exist – especially the lineages from Pennsylvania before 1850. I can only go back so many generations and the trail is cold. I have some hunches that might take me back another generation, but I can neither prove nor disprove a relationship to other families with similar surnames. These places remain as blanks on my family tree.

I began my genealogical research in 1978, but must confess that I spent most of that time researching my surname by collecting data on collateral lines and seemingly unrelated lines of individuals who shared my low frequency surname and its variants. I only worked on other lines when it was convenient. Most of my research outside of my surname occurred from 1998 onward.

When I began in 1978, I could name all of my great-grandparents and 8 of my second great grandparents. I’ve come a long way, but at 28.27%, I have a long way to go. “Dream or a dud?” Finding any “mystery great” is always a dream.

My Top 10 Genealogical Finds

Over the years, I’ve had some interesting discoveries about my family. A few years ago, I made a list of 25 things I learned through my own research. Recently, I stumbled on that list and decided to add to it and whittle it down to the top ten. While I first became interested in family history in 1968, I did not begin serious family research until 1978.

Some of the following broke down brick walls, while others were just plain interesting and added to the information I already knew about an individual. I have listed these discoveries in descending order in importance. Much like Billboard magazine has a Hot 100 chart, my Famboard list has my personal “Hot 10.”

1.	There are three branches of my Owston surname that cannot be satisfactorily connected back to the 1500s by traditional methods; however, Y-DNA testing indicates that all three lines share a common patrilineal ancestor. East Riding of Yorkshire - home of the Owston families. Four of the participants (two from the Ganton family and one each from the Sherburn and Thornholme families) have 100% matches. Six other participants also had significant matches to these four individuals.  Our I1 haplogroup is a possible indication that we have Viking forebears which is consistent with the Old Norse prefix in our surname.
2.	William Owston, my third great-grandfather who was master on the flagship HMS Superb in 1815, dined with Napoleon as part of the wardroom officers. This occurred when the emperor surrendered to the Channel Fleet and was presented to Admiral Henry Hotham in July of that year. Napoleon on the HMS Bellerophon in July 1815 Although this discovery began as family legend, historical sources confirmed that it was valid. According to the ship’s logs, Owston was in command of the vessel that day and Hotham’s memoirs corroborate that the wardroom officers had brunch with their esteemed guest. Additionally, Hotham was criticized by the Admiralty for offering military courtesies to an enemy of the Crown. Napoleon spent three hours on the Superb before returning to the HMS Bellerophon.
3.	For years I was misinformed of my great-grandmother's name. I was always told that it was Alice Amy Champlain. Through her husband’s pension records, I found that she really was Amy Alice Champlin. Once I made this discovery, I was able to trace most of her lineage through the 1600s. Patriot Marker at the Gardner-Bulkeley Cemetery, Bozrah, CT Her ancestry includes at least four Revolutionary War patriots – of which I utilized my lineage to one (William Gardner of the 20th Connecticut Militia) to gain membership in the Sons of the American Revolution this year.
4.	My Gardner ancestors (of which I have three lines that converge) can be traced to King Edward III of England as well as to 70+ other royals in his lineage. These royal ancestors ruled areas that encompass geographic regions of the modern countries of England, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Ukraine, Italy, Germany, and Israel. King Edward III of England While many Europeans (perhaps most) probably have similar claims – it still seems interesting to have a traceable royal connection nonetheless.
5.	My 7th great-grandfather George Owston became so interested in the Society of Friends, that he locked the door of the Church of England Parish Church (St. Hilda's) at Sherburn, Yorkshire. He absconded with the key and tied the bell so it could not be rung. St. Hilda's Church prior to its 20th century restoration Because of his actions, he was the subject of a visitation by the Archdeacon of the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1670. Five years later, George was buried under the floor of this same church.
6.	My grandfather's half brother (Ross Milton Covalt) attempted to steal a woman's purse in Hancock, Maryland in 1908 while intoxicated. He was chased down by a Catholic priest who happened to have been a former golden gloves champ and a sprinter. The priest gave him quite the pounding. The Hancock police felt so sorry for Covalt that they sent him home to his mother in Pennsylvania and dropped the charges concluding that the priest's beating was sufficient enough punishment for the crime. The Washington Herald, May 4, 1908 The story appeared in numerous newspapers across America where he was misidentified as Jackson Covalt also known as Jackson Brakeall.
7.	The house that my 3rd great grandmother, Ann Elizabeth Rausch Völler Eichenauer, had owned and had deeded to her daughter Elizabeth Eichenauer Goebert, was lifted off of its foundation during the Johnstown Flood of 1889 and was moved approximately 175 yards down two streets without suffering any major structural damage or loss of life. Movement of the Goebert Home during the Johnstown Flood. It was later moved back to its original location. It is not known if any of their large family was in the home at the time the disaster struck.
8.	My second great grandfather, George W. Staley, who served in Tennessee in the 62nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, had a questionable injury during the Civil War. Some of his fellow soldiers testified that the ax wound he received as a pioneer was intentionally self inflicted and not accidental as he claimed. Grave at Independence-Butler Cemetery, Butler, OH Not enough evidence was present to prove the allegations and the US government granted him pension despite the testimony of some members of the 62nd OVI. Over 40 years later, the wound festered and required his leg to be amputated. He died shortly thereafter.
9.	My grandmother's first husband Timothy Dalton’s 1903 murder at the Hotel Victory in East McKeesport, Pennsylvania was precipitated by racial slurs and pop-bottles hailed at the assailant. John Walter Swingler (sometimes identified as Zwingler and Zwlinger) drew a revolver and fired two shots – one mortally wounding Dalton and the other wounding my double great uncle John Freemont Merriman. Hotel Victory in East McKeesport, PA. A capital murder charge was brought against Swingler; however, he was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Swingler was sentenced to 8 years in prison but the sentence was commuted to 5 years and 3 months for time served and good behavior. Swingler later returned to McKeesport and married. He is recorded as living with his brother Howard in the 1940 census. His wife Pearl predeceased him and they had no children.
10.	My step-father's father, Axel Peter Akerberg, was thought as being the only one of his family born in the US. This was the understanding of my stepfather and apparently the understanding of his father as well. Census records and the World War I draft registrations list him as being a natural born American citizen. Axel Akerberg and his wife Edith and son Charles circa 1905 Emigration records from Sweden, however, indicate that he was born there and traveled with his mother and brothers to the US when he was five months of age. His father had moved to the US earlier that same year.

These are the Top Ten genealogical discoveries I’ve made since beginning my journey as a family historian. I hope you found this as interesting as I had in making these personal discoveries.