These profiles are for other individuals who have taken the AncestryDNA test whose genetic makeup is similar enough to yours for Ancestry to speculate that you are related. There are several key facts you can learn about a match from this page. Below an individual's user name, Ancestry provides an estimate of a person's relation to you, such as in the profiles pictured above in which Ancestry hypothesizes that these individuals are 4th-6th cousins of mine. Underneath the possible relationship range, Ancestry includes an estimate of how likely it is an individual is related to you, such as the 96% confidences in the picture above. There is no guarantee that the people who show up as matches are related to you, but the higher the confidence, the more likely it is that an individual is related to you.
The middle column tells how many individuals a user has in her or his family tree. If there is a lock next to the number, like in the case of M. in the above picture, this person's tree is private. I would have to send her a message if I wanted to view her tree and she would have to confirm me before I would be able to see it. If there is a leaf next to the number, as with WABRYANT in the picture below, this means that Ancestry has found an ancestor in your tree who matches an ancestor in their tree. This does not mean that all of the people without hints are mistaken matches. The two of you may just not have traced your trees back far enough to find your common ancestor or one of you may have made a mistake in tracing your tree.
You can click on the surnames and a list comparing some of the people in your tree with a given surname to people in the other tree with that same surname will pop up. So, for example, I clicked on Hathaway, and these are the results I received:
These comparisons can help give you an idea of where a connection between your tree and this other individual's tree may be located. Notice that TDanielsPA's William Hathaway and my Joshua Hathaway (born 1727) are two years apart and were born in the same town. This is a strong indication that the two were related, perhaps as brothers or cousins. Pulling out my copy of Hathaway's of America, I quickly located a William Hathaway, born June 6, 1725 in Freetown, MA to Ephraim Hathaway and Abigail Davis. Ephraim's father was John Hathaway Jr. In my tree, Joshua's father was the Isaac Hathaway listed in the above picture. Isaac's father was Jacob and Jacob's father was John Hathaway Jr. This would make William and Joshua first cousins once removed, according to this kinship chart. Comparing TDanielsPA's family tree with mine, I found that we are 10th cousins, so we're very distantly related on the Hathaway side. Since Ancestry estimates we're 4th to 6th cousins, there may very well be another shared ancestor between our trees.
Note that not all shared surname results will be as helpful as this one was and there is no guarantee that your link to this individual will be through one of the common surnames. One or both of you may have yet to discover ancestors with the name that links you to your common ancestor. So, for example, TDanielsPA and I both have Smiths in our tree, but there is not a clear link between my Smiths and his Smiths:
There are two Smiths in my tree born around the same time as his Elizabeth, but neither one was born in the same geographical area as Elizabeth. This does not ensure that there is no connection, but it does diminish the likelihood that I would find a close relationship between my Smiths and his Smiths.
If Ancestry has found a common ancestor, when you click on the other user's profile, you will receive a shared ancestor hint, like in the picture below.
The shared ancestor hint starts with out common ancestor, John Wheeler, and traces from him to me and from him to koestler, telling me how I am related to each person in her tree. When you receive a result with a shared ancestor hint, you need only make sure it makes sense. Once you have done this, you can look through their tree to see what sort of information they have about your shared ancestor and perhaps learn something new.
Photo of the Day
Annie Rebecca (Southall) Biggs
Annie Rebecca Southall was born in September of 1850 or 1851 to Sarah Clifton (Wheeler) and James Hunter Southall. In 1860 she was living in Columbus, Mississippi with her parents and siblings. Her mother died on July 13, 1861 and Annie and her brother Jimmie (James Hunter Southall Jr., profiled in my Photo of the Day in this post) were then brought by their father to the plantation Mulberry Grove in Hertford County, North Carolina, owned by their aunt Julia Munroe (Wheeler) Moore and her husband Dr. Godwin Cotten Moore. Their father died the following year in December.
In 1870, Annie and her sister Josephine (my great great grandmother) were attending Wesleyan Female College in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. According to the 1940 census, Annie completed four years of college. On November 10, 1874 Annie married at Mulberry Grove Walter Joseph Biggs, born in September of 1850 to Lucy A. (Myrick) and Kader Biggs. In 1880 the couple resided in Norfolk, Virginia with Walter's parents and their four month old daughter, Lucy, one of two children to live to adulthood. By 1900 they were living in Salem, Roanoke, Virginia with their two children. By 1910 Annie had been widowed and was still living in Salem, where she resided for the remainder of her life, with Lucy. She died in 1948 and was buried on August 23, 1948 in Sherwood Memorial Park, Salem, Virginia.
Children Annie and Walter:
1. James Southall Biggs, born October 18, 1875 and died in August of 1876.
2. Kader Biggs, born October 18, 1875 and died on September 16, 1876.
3. Louisa Myrick Biggs, born March 3, 1877 and died August 23, 1879.
4. Lucy Clifton Biggs, born February 9, 1880 and died September 14, 1967, married
Lewis W. Langhorne
Lewis W. Langhorne
5. Julia Southall Biggs, born January 4, 1883 and died January 5, 1883.
6. Walter Joseph Biggs Jr., born June 4, 1886 and died February 11, 1968, married
Mildred Armstrong.
Mildred Armstrong.
Want to learn more about Annie and Walter's children Lucy and Walter Jr.? Keep your eyes peeled for my next blog post, in which they will be chronicled in my Photo of the Day.
Sources:
"Descendants of the Reverend Daniel Southall of Eastern North Carolina" by Seth Warner, The Genealogist Vol. 22, No. 2
1860 census
No comments:
Post a Comment