Triangulation of chromosome segments--Amazing new feature at Gedmatch.com

This is a very useful feature, and one that will really save time when trying to understand how your match matches you and others by chromosome segments. It is very simple--all you have to enter on the utility is your kit number. Your closest matches for each chromosome appear, and the matching segments are color coded to indicate where you match, where matches match each other and not you, and best of all, where there is a three-way match, where two matches match each other AND you. As noted on the utility: "This indicates ancestry." What an amazing utility to work with. This is exactly what autosomal DNA testing is all about. You don't have to break your brain seeking out segments, measuring them, and comparing them to potential matches. It is done for you in a flash.
Even better--while the comparisons show the kit numbers which match you, all you have to do to find out who the person (or pseudonym) is behind the match is to hover your cursor over the
number.

Gedmatch.com has taken an important step towards the future. Imagine a time when we will be finding matches with little effort, and that means extending our family trees with certainty. Slowly but surely we are getting closer to that experience.

Australian Descendants of Jefferson County, New York settlers

One narrative of the research  links between DNA results, the Patriot War, and New York ancestry.


Sometimes one thing leads to another in genealogy research, usually seemingly with reason, at least for awhile. Then it turns out that the connections weren't the ones we were looking for, or maybe they are, but we can't prove it yet. But...we always get a good story, and therein lies much satisfaction.

This story started with a speculation on a chromosome match spotted on Gedmatch. It appeared that there would be a Northern New York connection worth defining. Long story short, through pursuing the ancestry of the match, I found the name of  Ira Polley, born about 1816 in Lyme, Jefferson, New York.



All names connected to the DNA match were from an area of Tasmania. All of the names, not just some.  Considering that I was looking for a connection to  Northern New York ancestry, how could that be? Well, the Patriot War resulted in Northern New Yorkers being sent to Tasmania--"Van Diemen's Land." When I looked up the names of those transported to Tasmania,  I found that only one name matched--the very same last name of the person for whom I had found an online tree--Polley. The man "transported" (taken as war captive) was named Ira Polley.

Now the big question was whether Ira Polley had met a fate of death at sea or elsewhere, as did many who were transported, whether he was pardoned and returned to New York (again, like many others), or if by chance he had stayed in Australia.

Strangely enough (or not so strangely, given the DNA matching), he is  one of the very few who stayed--one of four--he was actually eventually pardoned, and got as far as Hawaii before returning to Australia. There is no explanation as to why he chose to stay, but stay he did, and he married twice and had many children. His descendants are now numerous.

Before the brief war waged against England in Canada, he had been living in Lyme, Jefferson County, New York. Although many researchers say that his father was John Polley, who also lived in Jefferson County, his death information in Australia names his father as William Polley. Other documents show that Ira Polley of Australia was born in New York, while the son of John Polley named Ira was born in Connecticut. It does appear that William Polley, also of Connecticut, but who moved early to New York, is indeed father of Ira. William Polley died in 1852 in Russia, Herkimer County, New York, not far from Lyme. He does not mention Ira in his will, however, and I cannot be sure he is the father without more documentation.

Sir George Arthur, of Upper Canada at the time of the Patriot War ordered the transportation of captives to Australia. Ira Polley named one of his sons George Arthur Polley. See the following website for details on this and on various captives  in the online article "American Patriots  Political Prisoners in Van Diemen's Land": leatherwoodonline

The story that I was able to piece together (beginning with a DNA clue) gave me more knowledge of, and interest in, the Patriot War of the late 1830's, and of the lives of those who begin as captives and continue as citizens of a different land and culture. 

Find your ethnic ancestry

Or my preferred title: Admix Utilities are so Interesting!

It is no longer terribly expensive to get your autosomal DNA tested. Using it to find your cousin matches and thus, at least you hope, your distant ancestor (who has been hiding behind a brick wall) is still a big challenge. Sometimes the clues will get you closer, but often they won't, at least so far. There just isn't enough information. But there will be. Eventually there will be a much larger database and the connections will be easy to make.

But what is easy, and rewarding right now is the admix!
While the testing company might not provide much in the way of ethnic ancestry, once you download your raw data (simple and quick) and load it up to gedmatch.com (a free website) and enter it into the multitude of admix utilities you will see beautiful pie charts or bar charts with your ancestry broken down into ethnic components. It is really a kick to see, and there are more options all the time.

The most recent Eurogenes breakdown (Eurogenes K36) includes such classifications as Iberian, Basque, Arabian, Eastern European, Italian, Armenian, and more (ultimately 36 reference populations).

You want admixture? Now you can find Pygmy and Amerindian ancestry and even Beringian ancestry on HarappaWorld!

HarappaWorld at Gedmatch.com

Gedmatch.com

Are you part pygmy? 

The admixture utilities seem to be, at least to me, one of the best features of Gedmatch.com. The results are beautiful, instantaneous. and you can go from one admixture program to another in minutes.

There is now yet another admixture program to plug your data into, and it is just as much fun as the others. This one is called HarappaWorld, and has some intriguing ethnic groups as reference points for the admixture. I had never heard of some of them.

 Anyone who has raw data from autosomal testing will enjoy this new utility. You can compare the results of two kits (say you and your uncle) to each other and see the painted colors representing ethnic groups on each chromosome. It is amazing and wonderful that genetic scientists are willing to put up these utilities on Gedmatch.com for anyone to use. It enriches everyone's understanding and curiosity.

 Yes, I'm intrigued. The results bring us as many questions as answers, and that is half the fun.

What is gedmatch and what can it do for me?

Gedmatch is an excellent website which can be useful to anyone researching a family tree. There are many possibilities.

If you have had your autosomal DNA tested there are lots of fun things to do.

But, even if you have never had your DNA tested, you can still use one section of Gedmatch. That is the gedcom matching section. You just load up your gedcom (family tree), and if you don't have one, it may be worthwhile to buy  a program like Family Tree Maker because of its great versatility. If you don't want to do that, there are some free alternatives for creating gedcoms. Just check around online. Once you have done that, you load the gedcom  up and it will automatically be compared to many other gedcoms to see where there might be names, dates,  and places in common. Some of  the results will seem silly--Jamie Johnson from Tennessee  is matched against Jamie Johnson of Wales, and they have nothing in common. Other matches will prove more intriguing. You can just scroll though the results to see where something looks like a good match. If you find a distant cousin, you may find that there is a chance to get more information on your ancestors, either by contacting that person, or by looking at other information on the cousin's tree.

Gedmatch and the matches of matches...

Now that more people are testing, there is less guesswork and more constructive logic involved in finding common ancestors with Family Finder or Relative Finder matches. When you can see matches for matches on Gedmatach, you can start plugging in possible ancestral names. All you have to do (well yes, it takes some time) is to build the family trees of each match, and see where convergences appear likely. Challenging, but in a fun, doable way. This is where Family Finder and Relative Finder have so much potential for success. They provide the matches, and online websites like Gedmatch.com provide forums for pushing info on those matches as far as possible. One by one, American ancestors will be found, named, and included in our trees.