One
thing I always stress to people when they want to take a genetic DNA test is to
start building their family tree first. Not only that, please have an available
family tree or pedigree chart that they are willing to show to DNA matches upon
request to aid in figuring out family connections. Even if they desire for their
family tree to be private, I advise people to be willing to accept requests
from DNA matches to view it.
I
have prepared two family trees on ancestry.com. One is loaded with pictures,
scanned documents, etc. that is synced to my Family Tree Maker software. This
tree is for my use only. I have another one that contain names, dates, locations,
and any other information I chose to show that’ll help DNA matches to connect
the dots. This second tree is the one that I allow DNA matches to view publicly.
It’s attached to my ancestry profile. Viewing family trees or pedigree charts
is essential to making the connection. Back and forth e-mail exchanges of names
and surnames can swallow up a lot of
time. Just simply show me a family tree! I will demonstrate how this greatly
helped to connect the dots within an hour! This DNA connection is especially
wonderful because it enabled me to find my great-grandmother’s younger sister!
Recently,
I obtained a new match in AncestryDNA. Her name is Sherri, and she is a “Very
High” confidence match with a prediction of 4th cousins. According to
AncestryDNA, “very high” confidence means that the approximate amount of
sharing is 20-30 cMs. Her DNA account is maintained by her husband. Thankfully,
he made Sherri’s family tree public. I clicked on it and started looking at the
names of her ancestors. The first ancestor to catch my attention was her
maternal great-grandmother, Maria Bass, because Bass is one of my surnames.
Then,
I opened up the profile for Maria Bass to garner more information. Census
records were attached to her great-grandmother’s profile, which helped a great
deal. My eyes opened wider when I noticed that her Maria Bass resided in
Sharkey County, Mississippi in 1910. My father’s maternal grandmother, Angeline
Bass Belton, lived in Sharkey County too after 1910. She was originally from
Warren County. Shortly after her daughter, my great-aunt Pearlie, was born in
1912, Grandma Angeline relocated to Sharkey County, leaving Aunt Pearlie in
Warren County to be raised by her father. Apparently, Grandma Angeline had
family in Sharkey County. I opened up that 1910 census page to look at Maria
Bass’ household. Immediately, I saw a major clue!
1910 Census – the Robinson Household, Sharkey
County, Mississippi
Source
Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Beat 4, Sharkey, Mississippi; Roll: T624_749; Page: 7B;
Enumeration
District: 0085; FHL microfilm: 1374762
Maria
Bass Robinson (age 28) was the wife of Will Robinson. This was Will's first marriage because "M1" was recorded. This was Maria's second marriage because "M2" was recorded. Two children that Maria had before her marriage to Will Robinson were in the household. Their
surname was McAllister. This was a
big clue! Take a look at the 1900 Warren County, Mississippi census below, where
I had found my great-great-grandmother, Frances Morris Bass McAllister, and her
second husband, George McAllister. Her first husband, my
great-great-grandfather Jackson “Jack” Bass, had died after 1880, and Frances
remarried to George McAllister in 1888.
1900 Census – the McAllister Household,
Warren County, Mississippi
Source
Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Bovins, Warren, Mississippi; Roll: 831; Page: 3B;
Enumeration
District: 0138; FHL microfilm: 1240831
In
1900, the McAllister household was a blended family that contained some of
Grandma Frances’ adult children by Grandpa Jack; one of them was Grandma
Angeline Bass (age 20). Two of George McAllister’s children by his previous
wife were also in the household. By 1900, George and Grandma Frances had two
children together, Willie (son) and Annie McAllister; they were also in the
household. But more importantly, Maria
McAllister (age 18), with her baby daughter Rebecca (age 1), was also in
the household. Her marital status was “married.” Maria was reported as being
George’s daughter-in-law.
Prior
to this, I had assumed that Maria McAllister was Grandma Frances’ step-son’s
young wife. I was wrong. Why? Because on Maria Bass’ profile page, Sherri’s
husband included the following note: Maiden
name: An obit has her down as Mariah Bass Robinson. Therefore, Maria was
truly a Bass and appears to have been another daughter of Grandpa Jack Bass
& Grandma Frances who was born around 1882. While Grandma Frances remarried
to George, Maria married one of George’s sons. Was she truly my
great-grandmother Angeline’s younger sister? Well, a second major clue was in
the 1920 census!
1920 Census – the Robinson Household, Drew
County, Arkansas
Source
Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Bartholomew, Drew, Arkansas; Roll: T625_61; Page: 11B;
Enumeration
District: 48; Image: 772
Thankfully,
Sherri’s husband had also attached the 1920 census to Maria Bass’ profile. The
family had left Sharkey County, Mississippi and relocated to Drew County,
Arkansas by 1920. Maybe that was the reason why Aunt Pearlie never mentioned
them. By 1920, Maria and Will Robinson now had a total of eight children
together. However, the second major clue was that a young man named Will McAllister was living in the
household. He was reported as the head of household's brother-in-law! Bingo! As previously
mentioned from the 1900 census, Will (Willie) McAllister was indeed Grandma
Frances’ son with her second husband.
Therefore,
Sherri and I are a DNA match in AncestryDNA as predicted 4th cousins because
our great-grandmothers were sisters! We are actually 3rd cousins. Her match to
me identified a new sister that I had not included on my family tree. To add,
this new sister – Aunt Maria(h) Bass McAllister Robinson – had 10 additional
children with her second husband, Will Robinson, for a total of 13. All this
time, my father and I thought that this branch of his biological mother’s
family tree had basically “died out.”
There
are three things that made this DNA connection very discoverable:
(1) A public family
tree was included on Sherri’s AncestryDNA profile.
(2) Census records were
attached to her ancestors’ profiles, which allows DNA matches to see where they
were living.
(3) Sherri’s husband
included an important note on her ancestor’s profile about her maiden name.
This
blog post is not to suggest that if people have a viewable family tree
available, family connections will be made within an hour. That is not the case
at all. However, family connections can indeed be found more quickly if family
trees are available for DNA matches to view. Again…show me the family tree!
