Step 1 - Overview 2 of 26

Step 1 - Overview

Family History Forms 3 of 26

Family History Forms

Reminder - If you're thinking about upgrading or ordering any new tests where FTDNA already has your DNA sample on hand, TODAY'S the day to do it to save a week on getting your results.    Place the order before 4:30 or so this afternoon, Mountain Time, to avoid waiting up to a week additional for the next batch to be shipped out.    You will recall my joy last Friday when the Y-Refine12to37 upgrade was ordered for Patrick, #60.    You can imagine my impatience seeing that order just sitting at FTDNA since then waiting to be shipped out with today's batch.    I'll finally be able to tell you tomorrow when those results will be expected.

Research Process Overview 1 of 26

I'm sorry but sometimes there just seems to be nothing to write about.    No results are forthcoming from FTDNA or other sources, no new folks are joining the Project or old folks ordering new tests, and I seem to just draw a blank.

I've come to feel a responsibility to have something here for those of you who regularly come to look.    I've occasionally posted a short film that I've found on some DNA subject but those are few and far between.    I have found a series of films on 'How To' do genealogy in the traditional sense and, since I don't know why we'd be doing genetic genealogy if we weren't interested in genealogy in the first place, maybe they'd be appropriate fillers.

I suppose if you don't agree, you just don't have to watch.

Research Process Overview

(mini) * * * HIATUS * * *

Ralph Roberts is a friend of mine in West Virginia.    He's one of those old fiddlers that I like to go over there to hang out with.  Well, Ralph's having a birthday sometime around now and we've been invited to go join them and some others to celebrate it.  So we're leaving early this morning for Frametown, WV, to join Ralph and Charlee and some others for some good food, good company and good music and won't be back until Monday evening.

While I'm gone, I'd like you all just to think about


     Since we invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003

               3,154 U.S. service members have been killed in

                    "W"'s War.


                            "When a man don’t use good judgment it’s the innocent who pays"

                                                                                                                             -- Echo Mountain

ADDENDUM:  POSTED AT 12:04 PMSNOWED IN/SNOWED OUT - Rats!    We thought we could make it, despite the forecasts of a major winter snow/ice storm.    Our bags and instruments were packed and by the door and I had driven the dogs to the sitter, but several inches had already accumulated. When I returned Betty said that they already had 8 inches in Moorefield and it was still snowing hard.    Since we had six mountain ranges to cross to get to our destination in central West Virginia and Moorefield was just across the first one, we finally decided we'd better not risk it.    So, it was back to the dog sitters (we don't like to leave them in the first place; we certainly weren't going to be within 10 miles of them and not have them with us.).    Turns out I spent the hours between 7:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. on the unplowed, snow-covered roads ferrying our dogs.    I don't care.    But we're missing a really good time.    Surprisingly, if we could have gotten there, at our destination in central West Virginia they're just having rain.    Global warming.   Global Warning!

prettyman

We got one more ySearch upload, five!    33%    Not too bad.

PLUS.    We have two new participants.    Our 91st participant, Nat Berry, #87, just receive his Y-DNA12 results and joined the Project.    Those results are posted.    He thinks he really is a Coffey.    We don't have his yAncestry to post, yet, but any of you with Coffey's or Coffee's in your line might want to contact him.    In addition, our 92nd participant, BJ Berry, #88, is a descendant of Prettyman (Isn't that a great name!) Berry.    Again, his yAncestry is forthcoming.    I don't know whether BJ expects to match any of our existing families or not.

warm now

We do have one new result.    Philip, #10, got the balance of his Y-Refine37to67 upgrade yesterday.    Alas, no matches.    Philip, and anyone else who has gotten recent results, should go his FTDNA Personal Page and upload them to YSearch from their Y-DNA Matches tab.

Hm-m-m-m-m.    I think I have to amend the signal.    This may be BIG for the Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys!    The Y-Refine12to37 upgrade has just been ordered for Patrick Berry, #60.    The reason this may be big for the Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys is that we and Patrick match 11/12 on the first 12 markers and his ancestors traveled to Australia from Ireland almost 100 years after the Augusta/Washington immigrants are believed to have come to this country from Ireland.    We've never been able to establish a paper trail back to Ireland.    If we continue to match at 37 markers, this IS big!

baby steps

Not too bad a response.    Day before yesterday I emailed fifteen of you who have not yet uploaded your results to YSearch offering to do the upload for you if you couldn't manage it.    I got responses from three of you.    20%.    That's o.k.    We're chipping away at it.
Oops!    Make that four!    26.6%.    I just got an email this morning that was sent at 2:00 p.m. yesterday?!    Must have been the bad weather slowed down the delivery truck.    I'll get right on it.

Remember - If you're thinking about upgrading or ordering any new tests where FTDNA already has your DNA sample on hand, TODAY'S the day to do it to save a week on getting your results.    Place the order before 4:30 or so this afternoon, Mountain Time, to avoid waiting up to a week additional for the next batch to be shipped out.

Operating your computer - lesson one

winter wonderland

My response to my son's blog post-

Census Records - part 5

In part 5 of Ancestors  -  Census Records, City Directories are introduced as an excellent companion research tool when working with census records.    For example, if you have the address for your grandfather, a city directory can reveal that his brother's family, or his parents happened to live across the street or in the same neighborhood.    www.rootstelevision.com

Census Records - part 4

Only a little piece for a small announcement.    Philip, #10, got the Y-DNA38-47 marker part of his Y-Refine37to67 upgrade yesterday.

In part 4 of Ancestors  -  Census Records, Darius Gray tells about an inspiring breakthrough moment in his research.    With his discovery, Darius is hooked on genealogy.    Professional genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills gives expert tips for census research, including the need to check every available census, no matter how thorough you think your research has already been.    By looking at more than one census, you may find more relatives than you expected, such as a child who died young, or an elderly parent who lived with the family for a time. www.rootstelevision.com

Census Records - part 3

In part three of the Census Records episode from the Ancestors series Darius Gray uses census records to find some of his African American ancestors; learn why despite their flaws census records are the best "people-finders" available, what an enumerator is, how census information was collected, and how to use the soundex index, a coding system based on the way a surname sounds, to help ocate your ancestor in the census. Part 3 of 5. rootstelevision.com

Project News

Yesterday was Wednesday, the day FTDNA ships batches to the lab.    I like to think that by design two new orders were placed just before the cut off and went right out.    A Y-Refine12to37 upgrade was ordered for Jeffry, #44, and Richard, #82, ordered a DeepSNP-R1b test.

Our unreceived lab results list now looks like this:

Kit      
Product              Test               Name        Batch EstResultDate
12790    
Y-Refine37to67   Y-DNA38-47 Markers   Philip,#10     189    3/12/2007  
                 Y-DNA48-60 Markers
                 Y-DNA61-67 Markers 
13030   
DYS434             DYS434             Jim,#7         174   11/27/2006  
DYS435             DYS435                            174
DYS485             DYS485                            174
DYS495             DYS495                            174
DYS643             DYS643                            174 

37125   
Y-Refine12to37   Y-DNA13-25 Markers   Jeffery#44     192    4/04/2007  
                 Y-DNA26-37 Markers                  
79452   
DeepSNP-R1b      DSNP-R1b             Richard,#82    192    4/02/2007  
                 
81521   
Y-DNA12          Y-DNA1-12 Markers    Gerald#85      189    3/09/2007  

N16245       
Y-Refine25to37   Y-DNA26-37 Markers   Cameron#58     191    3/28/2007                

N26644  
mtDNARefine       HVR2   Mary Ann Lasley Lewis, #m4  182    3/09/2007

Notice that Mary Ann's date has now slipped from 1/22/2007 to 3/09/2007 with this note added:

This test failed to yield results for your
sample. Your B swab is being run now.
Results from this round of testing are
expected by this date.

and mine is just way past due, without explanation.

FTDNA has added this notice to the Admin's site:

February 13, 2007
Adding members from other labs: At the request of many group administrators, we have agreed to offer a below cost set of tests to allow people that have tested with other labs to get tested with Family Tree DNA and be included in your Surname Project.    The new participant will have to fill this LAB CONVERSION FORM and send it back to our office.    This offer is valid until 3/31/07.

What this does is permit folks who are tested elsewhere to (for a price) have their results added to the FTDNA site.    The purpose being so that Project Admins who only use the site offered by FTDNA can then compare those others to their FTDNA testees.    So long as I manage our independent Berry Project website this isn't necessary for us since I post, group and compare all our Project participants wherever you were tested.    If anyone is interested, though, and you need any assistance, let me know.

Happy Valentines Day

More new results and other news.    Y-DNA13-25 marker results came in for Robert, #43, finishing his Y-DNA37 order.    In addition, I've been busily forming new families from the matching pairs, both within the Project and also borrowing from SMGF.

These new families are posted to both the numerical yResults page and the family yResults page, and I've also made up new family yAncestry pages for the New Jersey Berrys, made up of Laurence, #9, and Ron, #86, the Swiss Beerys, made up of Michael, #69, and SMGF Biery/Pomeroy, the Gum Branch Berrys, comprised of Norman, #74, and SMGF Barry/Thomas, and the English Colony Berrys, consisting of Robert, #43, and Lawrence, #61.

Robert's results also offer a prime opportunity for a good lesson on the value of testing sufficient markers.    Remember back on January 29 when we were discussing Robert, #43, or earlier, both times when he only had 12 markers back, and how he seemed to be related or possibly related to any number of people?

Compare that to Robert,#43, on the current genetic distance table:One match!    The value of a haplotype of sufficient markers to discriminate.

The Agony of DNA

That's when new results dash your hopes and expectations and send you back to the drawing board!    That's what happened last night to Richard, #82, who expected to match Michael, #69.    Not only are their haplotypes decidedly different, a genetic distance of 34, their haplogroups don't match, being R1b1 and G2, respectively.

The only thing good about DNA telling you that you don't match the line that you thought you did (or might) is that you now know to concentrate your efforts elsewhere.    Sorry guys!

One interesting thing about Richard's haplotype is that it contains a fairly obvious recLOH event, which, while not important to this comparison, might be at some point in the future.

As I may have mentioned before, those of you who have gotten new results, be sure to upload them to ySearch by clicking the 'Click here to upload to Ysearch.org' line in the 'Y-DNA Matches' tab on your FTDNA Personal Page.    If that line's not there you've already done it.    If it is there, click it.

Also, everyone who hasn't yet done so should go to your FTDNA Personal Page, click on the 'Setup Preferences' tab and select your matches to be set against the entire database so that you may see matches that may be of interest to you but are not in the Berry Project.

Next, the World . . . .

Census Records - part 2

Part 2 of 5 of the Census Records episode from the Ancestors series features professional genealogist Tony Burroughs, Elizabeth Shown Mills and Cyndi Howell of Cyndi's List, as well as representatives from the National Archives explaining how census records were created;   how to find census records  -  online, at the Family History Library, Family History Centers, the National Archives or through your local library;   variations in the type of information collected during a particular census;   how the 1890 census was "lost;"   and why census records are a good starting point for African American research.
part 2 of 5.    rootstelevision

Census Records - part 1

Remember that DNA is but a tool, not a substitute for real genealogy research.

During this segment of the Census Records episode from the Ancestors series meet Darius Gray, an African American, who begins his family history search using census records.    Expert genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills and Tony Burroughs explain why United States Census Records are a goldmine of information providing names, ages, birthdates, occupations, relationships, and much more.    Part 1 of 5.    rootstelevision.com

67 marker Overview

This isn't working out exactly as I planned.    I thought I would run a cladogram of the twelve 67 marker haplotypes that we have in the Project and, although it's so large that I had to do it in pieces and paste them together, I thought you'd just be able to click on the reduced image to see it full sized.    Oops.    I'm afraid that you'll have to look at it in sections.

First, this is the entire cladogram.    The one I thought you could click on to expand it to full size.    You will have to click on it but it will only give you a still reduced image that you'll have to use to locate the various Berry families relationship to one another.Each of those little marks you see between people is a mutation.

This is the Augusta/Washington Co. Berry family, from the lower left corner of the overall image.This family is quite some distance from the next and some long lines of mutations have been omitted from between this family and the next, which is . . .

the Culpeper Co. Berry family.
Continuing on we next arrive at the Barry/Berrys and Brian who is just off on a branch by himself.
And finally we arrive at the Berry Plain Berrys.

Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys cladogram

My lay interpretation of this cladogram is that Sterling, jim and Keith represent the older line of this family, from which, at various times, the others have branched off.    It also appears that John is a younger sub-branch of the Wendell/Jerry branch.

Only jim, Charles, #27 and John have tested to 67 markers (with no differences in the 38-67 subset) so we can't tell whether there would be a further branching of the Sterling, jim and Keith group with additional markers.

How does all this correlate with the ancestries listed below?    At first blush it doesn't seem to.    But maybe, as seems to be our constant refrain, we just need more folks to have tested more markers for it all to become clear.
Or maybe more markers won't make it any more clear.

I was hopeful that Colleen Fitzpatrick would have commented on our cladogram and I would be able to pass her remarks on to you.    But apparently not to be.    When (if) she does I will share them with you.

bright shiny faces

Sorry, I got so busy with yesterday's blog posting that I neglected to mention that on Monday Charles, #66, and Ken, #83, each received their Y-DNA13-25 results and that the Y-Refine25to37 test was ordered for Cameron, #58.    Cameron is an Augusta/Washington Co. Berry and that order will give eleven of the 14 members of that family 37 marker results.    Pretty good.    Three to go.

I'll have more to say about the Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys tomorrow.

Meanwhile, those of you who have gotten new results, be sure to upload them to ySearch.    This doesn't happen automatically, only semi-automatically.   You don't have to type the numbers in but you do have to click the 'Click here to upload to Ysearch.org' line in the 'Y-DNA Matches' tab on your FTDNA Personal Page.    Take a look.    If that line's not there, no worry.   You've already done it.    If it is there, click it.

Another reminder:   Everyone who hasn't yet done so, you really ought to go to your FTDNA Personal Page, click on the 'Setup Preferences' tab and select your matches to be set against the entire database.    Leaving it set to "display of matches only to my Surname Project" will severely limit your opportunity to see matches that may be of interest to you but are not yet in the Project.    Severely, as in 'No Chance'.

Yet another reminder:   If you are considering an upgrade, do it today before 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time.    Otherwise, your order will just sit around until next Wednesday before they process it in.

Those 'amorphous' Berrys

I thought we might try to examine a little further the question posed in yesterday's blog post about the interrelationships among that group made up of the Faires Berrys, the Rockingham Co. Berrys, the Barry/Berrys, the Spartanburg Co., SC Berrys, together with Robert, #43, Lawrence, #61, and Gerald, #64, and whether all or part of them might be part of the same Family.    For starters, here's their marker table showing distances from a calculated modal for all -Clay, #41, and David, #59, with only 12 markers each may show less distance simply because, as I explained earlier, they have less markers to differ on.

Not sure that generating a modal for several different groups and then seeing how far each differs from that modal is the way to discover whether any or all are related.

Let's try some cladograms.    You will recall that in order to generate a cladogram each person has to have tested the same markers to compare with one another.    All the folks in this group have tested 12 markers so here are their 12 markers compared.
Judging from this cladogram we would say that Robert, Kevin, Robert and Lawrence are likely related to one another and that group is possibly related to Gerald.    That C.E., William, Dean and David are likely related to one another and they could possibly be related to Wayne and Clay who are likely related to one another, and that Dennis is probaly not related to anyone.

This 24 marker cladogram shows only C.E. and William related to one another.    Everyone else would appear to be unrelated here.

From this 25 marker cladogram we would judge that C.E. and William were related to one another and that Robert and Kevin are also related to one another but that neither pair is related to the other, that Dean is probably related to Robert and Kevin and that Dennis is probably related to Dean.    It would appear that Gerald is probably not related to Robert and Kevin and certainly not related to anyone else, nor is Lawrence or Wayne.

At 32 markers C.E. and William are still together but of the others, only Robert and Kevin appear close enough to probably be related to one another.

Finally, of those who tested 37 markers only C.E. and William remain close enough to be related.

It's very difficult to make any judgment about the relatedness of this group as a whole when only four of the twelve have tested the same 37 markers.    Judging from at least 24 markers, however, I believe we could say that Gerald, Lawrence and Robert,#43, appear to be certainly unrelated to one another and to the Barry/Berrys and that the Barry/Berrys are unrelated to the Rockingham Co. Berrys, but I don't think we can be certain yet, from this evidence, whether the Faires Berrys and the Rockingham Co. Berrys are related to one another, or not.    I think the jury's still out on the Spartanburg Co., SC Berrys but they also seem unlikely to be related to any of the others examined.

Berry Family genetic distances

Here's an opportunity to find yourself on this table and determine your genetic distance from any other member of the Project -Pretty much straightforward, EXCEPT  --  look at how the Faires Berrys, the Rockingham Co. Berrys, the Barry/Berrys, the Spartanburg Co., SC Berrys, together with Robert, #43, Lawrence, #61, and Gerald, #64, all seem to form sort of an amorphous grouping?    Variously seemingly interrelated and not?What does anyone think that means?    I don't know.

The last Berry . . . .

. . . that I found in the currently published SMGF database is not even currently a Berry but calls himself Parkinson.

Here is his SMGF haplotype -
and here is his pedigree -As you can see, William Berry/Parkinson, 1800-1831, for whatever reason took his mother's surname.    Illegitimate?    Husband deserted and mother called him Parkinson in a fit of pique?    We don't know but it's clear that there's a story here.    So why do I call him a Berry?

Take a look at this genetic distance table -A Berry in his paper trail and a genetic distance of 4, 'Probably Related', from the Berry Plain modal.    Sure is at least a good possibility.

For reference, here are the markers -
and the TMRCA table -

Biery/Pomeroy in SMGF

Tomorrow's post, The last Berry, was going to run today until I decided to take one more look at SMGF and found this additional alternative spelling.    So here's the new haplotype.Using Whit Athey's Haplogroup Predictor this haplotype is haplogroup G2 with a fitness score of 81 and a probability of 100% (excluding DYS452 which doesn't fit the choices).

And here's Mr. Biery's pedigree -Recognize this person?    If so, we need to put him in touch with Michael, #69, who is a 28 marker PERFECT MATCH!

Take a look at the Genetic Distance Table -
Why do I say a 28 marker match when Michael has tested 37 markers and SMGF Biery has 39 markers?    Because of all those, only 28 of their markers tested are common to both.    Take a look at this haplotype table -
And finally, the TMRCA -
Even though I personally prefer to work with genetic distances to estimate 'relatedness' and don't find much use for the Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor table, some might, so I think I should take a minute to explain just what it tells us.

First, notice that at the bottom of each table we will find a note of the probability used for the estimation.    This can typically vary from 50% to 95%.    In this case we used 75%.    In addition, the subject of generation length is always the subject of great debate and the generation length chosen will obviously also affect the outcome.    That is also stated there.

So let's look at a specific example.    Since this is a posting about the SMGF Biery guy, let's look at SMGF Biery and Michael, #69.    Look where their respective lines on the horizontal and vertical axes intersect and you will see the number 150.    What this means is that there is a 75% probability that Michael's and SMGF Biery's common ancestor will be found within the past 150 years.    It doesn't tell us when within the past 150 years, though, and also necessarily includes the 25% possibility that he might be beyond the 150 years.    Here again, as in the other measurements, additional markers increase the precision of the test.

For further study see Time to Most Recent Common Ancestry (TMRCA) Calculator Using Genetic Marker Similarity Between Two Individuals, Bruce Walsh, Ph.D.

The Joy of DNA

This happened to me yesterday but it can happen to you at any time.    That's when out of the blue, with no prior warning or expectation, you suddenly have a DNA match that opens up whole new directions for research and discovery!    The Joy of DNA!

Charles, #66, matches the Augusta/Washington Co. Berrys!    My family!    Ken, #83, matches the Orange Co., NC Berrys but I think that was expected.    No one had a clue about Charles.

At least part of FTDNA's operation seems to be getting in gear.    Both Ken and Charles got their kits back to FTDNA on January 10th and received their results yesterday.    Three weeks!    Pretty good.    Ken got his Y-DNA1-12 markers results from his Y-DNA25 order and Charles got his Y-DNA1-12 and Y-DNA26-37 results from his Y-DNA37 order.

Our Unreceived Lab Results page now looks like this:

Kit      
Product              Test               Name        Batch EstResultDate 
12790     
Y-Refine37to67   Y-DNA38-47 Markers   Philip,#10     189    3/12/2007
                 Y-DNA48-60 Markers
                 Y-DNA61-67 Markers  
13030   
DYS434             DYS434             Jim,#7         174   11/27/2006  
DYS435             DYS435                            174   11/27/2006  
DYS485             DYS485                            174   11/27/2006  
DYS495             DYS495                            174   11/27/2006  
DYS643             DYS643                            174   11/27/2006 

42580   
Y-Refine12to37   Y-DNA13-25 Markers   Robert,#43     186    2/21/2007

79189   
Y-DNA37          Y-DNA13-25 Markers   Charles,#66    187    3/09/2007

79452   
Y-DNA37          Y-DNA13-25 Markers   Richard,#82    187    3/09/2007

80064   
Y-DNA25          Y-DNA13-25 Markers   Ken,#83        187    3/09/2007

81521       
Y-DNA12          Y-DNA1-12 Markers    Gerald,#85     189    3/09/2007    

N26644  
mtDNARefine       HVR2   Mary Ann Lasley Lewis, #m4  182    2/16/2007

Don't forget to upload new results to ySearch.

A bit of an aside.  -  I was just reading a favorable review of Microsoft's new Vista operating system written by Ian Tan of the Electric New Paper and was struck by his concluding advice.    "But if you've always wanted a smoother, sleeker and more Mac-like Windows experience, go for Vista."    Hm-m-m-m-m-m.    Why not go for a Mac?

Beery/Yates in SMGF

Here's some more data mining I've done from SMGF.    First the haplotype -
Next, the pedigree -
So, putting together all the Berry haplotypes we want to compare -
Here's the table of genetic distances, or relatedness, for those haplotypes -Nothing!    This Beery haplotype is a long way from anyone in the Project.    A genetic distance of 18 from Michael (Swiss) Beery.    Even though he doesn't match anyone, if you can recognize who it is that tested we ought to invite him in.

Here's the TMRCA table -

Oh, yeah. Here's January's blog usage -

Happy birthday, Jayne!