Reviewing DNA Testing Options
I confess that I wish I had never sold my genetics books from college! That being said, I have purchased or found free ebooks at places like Amazon, FamilyTree University, Barnes & Noble and a few recommended blogs and websites later and I am still struggling with my DNA test results. The number of results I have from AncestryDNA is overwhelming! Unfortunately, the majority range from 4th to 8th cousins.
My Ancestry.com DNA test and results
I did the Ancestry autosomal DNA test back in 2011 when it was still in Beta testing. My results have changed in the last four years as their database continues to grow. This was the same year I found birth mother who provided me with the first three generations of both sides of my maternal lines. That made tracing back my maternal lines easier. Since my original post of week 10, I was very lucky indeed to find two women who helped me make the genetic connection to my birth father!
What do my results say about me
So where does my ethnicity come from? Lets look at the breakdown from AncestryDNA. Below are the screen shots of my results.
I was not really all that surprised by my results, especially when you consider the history invasions of different peoples from one country to another. As you can see I am 94% European. It actually surprised me that there was no traces of Native American or African American ethnicities. What did surprise me was the Scandinavian, Finish/Northwest Russian and the Caucasus ethnicities, I had never head the term Caucasus used in reference to an area of Asia before. To be specific Caucasus refers primarily to the countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. It can also be found in Bulgaria, Jordan, Greece, Italy, Kuwait, Palestine, Romania and Turkmenistan. I have come to the conclusion that the West Asia DNA markers must go back thousands of years.
In October of 2014, I uploaded my AncestryDNA results to FamilyTree DNA for free when I stumbled upon a deal. I have approximately 1500 matches and I seriously doubt that I have covered even a quarter of those but the ones I have all come back to my biological paternal family. In April I received the results of the mtDNA test I did with FamilyTree DNA. I have approximately 100 matches but I have thoroughly looked through about a quarter of them. So far it has confirmed my biological maternal line up through 4 generations but I need to extend the test further but it will have to wait until next year.
Organizing Research Materials - Digital
I keep hearing more and more about the dangers that lie ahead for digital files. It is also one of the reasons I am so reluctant to go completely paperless and why I feel like I have a foot in both the digital and paper worlds. I have thousands of pictures of my family I need to go through and sort. I have begun the process of going through my personal photos and sorting them, it will take me forever I am afraid. I began saving the photos from my cell phone to Dropbox automatically and now I understand that Dropbox is going to cancel this feature so now I am struggling to get all of my pictures out of there onto flash drives for now.
How I Organize my Digital Files
I have seen how everyone is organizing their digital research using what I consider to be complicated file systems but that is my opinion. For me I need to "keep it simple stupid" better known as K.I.S.S.. This is a format I started using back when I began using computers for my genealogy in 1998. I have a digital file for every surname in my tree. Inside that file I have broken it down in the following way:
- Birth records
- Baptism records
- Cemetery records
- Death records
- Marriage records
- Military records
- Obituaries
- Immigration & Passenger lists
- Land records
- Wills/Probate records
- Family photos (I also keep a separate file in "photos" under each individual/group)
- Ebooks
- Rich
- Family of Charles Coulson Rich & Sarah DeArmon Pea
- Birth records
- Baptismal records
- Land Records
- Wills/Probate records
- Marriage records
- LDS records
- Migration records (LDS Missions)
- Military records
- Obituaries
- Cemetery records
- Death records
- Obituaries
- Ebooks
- Photos
- Daughter Sarah Jane Rich
- 1st Spouse John Tobin
- Child - Ella Tobin
- 2nd Spouse Thomas Rudolph Miller
Each child is broken down the same as their parents with digital copies of the data found for them and their own families. There maybe duplicate files such as birth and baptism records because I feel like these types of records should be in the parents file and the child's file. However information can vary depending on what records I can find for them. This is also how my paper files look with the exception of ebooks and photos. With ebooks and photos I make a list and insert it into that person's file. When I open my computer file for the surname of Rich there are multiple families from my immigrant Rich ancestor down to my grandmother, Peggy Rich. An example of what you would find if I were to go to Charles's file and click on Land records you will find each record copies of the land certificates for the roughly 200 acres of land he purchased in Caldwell County, Missouri in 1838.
Metadata
I have in my spare time these days I have been going through the photos on my computer and adding the metadata information and/or putting descriptions in a Google Doc and adding it to the master files of the photos.
Organize AND Backup Digital Materials
I am following the example set out by Thomas MacEntee by employing the 3-2-1 Rule. I will keep three copies of each file with the primary location being my hard drive. I will use i-drive, One Drive & flash drives for storage. My son has a huge cloud storage system and I am hoping he will allow me to start storing some of my information there as well.
Editor's Note: Portions of this post are from my original week 10 post which you can find here.
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