Using ethnicity to find unknown ancestors

[brigidmac]

I know this is controversial but I'm having a go at using ethnicity to pinpoint mutual ancestors

As many of you know Im a fan of using regional differences

CASE 1
I've been trying to find the link between a Scottish gold miner who went to Canada and a lumberjack s family on the border of USA.

At first sight it's not very hopeful
As there is a big variation between 4 siblings

They are 26-43cm matches with me
I believe they are.  half 2c2r ancestry predicts

They all have french & Germanic from mother's side

My paternal  aunt has mostly Scottish but some Irish

These are the 4 siblings DNA percentages

Scottish 38%   37% . 25%. +2%
Eng         28%.   6%.    0%.   26%
French  31%.   31%.  55%.   55%
Germanic 4%   14%.  17%.  17%

I'm not sure that looking for their cousins with Scottish percentage is going to help with this one

CASE 2
Someone looking for bio father whose DNA should  be Irish with about 6%germanic
I've built a tree from mutual matches+believe I've found one paternal great grandmother
+ Am colour coding any matches with Germanic

[Biggles50]

Good luck with those B, it looks like quite a task.

If the DNA matches are in Canada you are certainly going to have issues if my own research there is any indication.

The location of records is disjointed as it what you might find.  Census records are there but hit and miss as to what has been digitised.

https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/index

There are also the Henderson Directories that might help.

[brigidmac]

Thanks biggles the DNA matches are in Michagen  but the lumberjack ancestor used to go across the border to work in Canada and lived there with a family at some point.

I don't know if the Scottish gold miner
W3nt to USA on his way back to Scotland

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

I never pay much attention to ethnicity/origins as they change with the wind, initially my half sibling had just 5% Irish which was all from our father whereas I had 50%, after an update she dropped to zero and I went up to 65%, the next update dropped me to 45% and she went back to 5%, the last update puts us at 35% and 40% respectively. The predictions are so variable they are meaningless.

[brigidmac]

I know what you mean Glen  but occasionally a particular ethnicity is significant. My mother has 1 Jewish grandparent & 1 Welsh grandparents
1 Scottish great grandparents and links to matches with 90-100 percent of those ethnicities and shared matches do descend from their ancestors

Occasionally new definitions turn out to be significant
A friend has Cornish father + Welsh African mother. Matches are specific to Ghana + Congo and Cornwall shows up in matches

I'm hoping that this Germanic ethnicity will show up in matches
To someone who doesn't know her father and we.ll be able to narrow down grandfathers line I think I've identified the paternal grandmother

I'm colour coding paternal matches that have germanic when I see them

[brigidmac]

Glen how long ago did you test ?
Initially Irish Welsh  and Scottish were less well defined and there was no Cornish
If you have ancestors s from isle of Man or isle of wight  ....they may have particular markers in DNA but get out into wrong box

I suspect your present amounts are more accurate..have you found Irish grandparents and what ethnicities did you gain when you lost the IRISH.  ??

 

[brigidmac]

Case 1 is about how  S McMartin s lumberjack family matches to miner Charles Stevenson who went from Lanarkshire Scotland to Canadian gold miner   and brought back a gold nugget for all his nieces and great nieces to make into  jewelry. I don't know if the brothers got anything

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=887971.msg7612430#msg7612430


 I've had some success on case 2
Which is the FULLER FLEMING story.
I LL add the links

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=887972.0

A key person seems to be their daughter Caroline Jane FULLER

[brigidmac]

Case 3
HJ My mother's grandmother Mary s grandmother was Scottish . Married Nimrod Gardner

 The only ancestor from  Scotland
Corresponding with her 8% Scottish Ethnicity 

It took a long time to discover that her maiden name was BROWN and that her birth region was  Dumfriesshire

HJ has a few matches which I suspected were from this ancestor

The top one apart from her half cousin and a
  35cm contacted tree manager and learned that the matches mother was an adoptee mother's maiden name Oag

No connections to that surname so conclusion thru her bio grandfather unknown

That person has 84%scottish origins 12. shared matches with HJ
Including the half cousin who shares the grandmother with a Scottish grandmother

The next match by 48cm has 55%scotish  and comes from a long line of JARDINE s from Dumfriesshire
Great grandmother Nicolas KERR 1844 also from Dumfries married John JARDINE  whose mother's name was HALL .*which could be the link to the Northamptonshire GARDNERs 

Next shared match 42cm also half Scottish again unsurprisingly no surnames in common on either of these 2as we didnt  know Mary BROWNs lineage

Since recent developments he now appears on thru lines as 5th C1R

I will explain how we found her parents names and I'm now going to use pro tools with the remaining matches

From.21cm -34cm.

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

I tested back in 2021 but both parents and at least one grandparent are NPE's. I have no full sibs or full 1c's.
It's about  the worst case scenario possible and difficult to determine whether many of my matches are full or half cousins as there are a lot of travelling showmen and military connections involved along with illegitimate children in the mix. There are advantages to half matches in certain circumstances but there's also disadvantages that come with them too.