I’ve complained here before about my disappointment with what I had learned from the DNA test my sister convinced me to sign up for back in 2012.
That test was a so-called “Y-DNA” test, which tracks the DNA inherited through the male line. Sons inherit this from fathers, generation after generation, apparently allowing it to be track back thousands of years.
I found it’s broad results pretty useless for all practical purposes.
Two things have changed that. First, I did a second round of new DNA tests, this time testing autosomal DNA, inherited from both parents. This is apparently better at actually identifying connections going back 8-10 generations.
While trying to make sense of those results, I started filling in a family tree. First with immediate family, then adding in the aunts and uncles that I knew. I quickly realized that the “known” family was a small part of the larger family tree. So I started filling in the missing pieces by digging through the huge archive of genealogical records compiled by Ancestry.com and similar research services.
After a while, it’s becomes just another puzzle, where you have to find the right piece to fill a known gap in the larger picture. I’ve always liked doing puzzles, and I have to admit that this can become addicting.
But recently Ancestry.com has offered a new tool, which searches through all of the public family trees in its system “to suggest how you may be related to your DNA matches through common ancestors.“
Now it gets very interesting. I’ve been playing with this tool for a week or so, and it’s confirmed family ties that I “sort of” remember being talked about, and found new ones.
For example, it led to a family link to Chang Apana, the Honolulu police detective a century ago who was the model for the fictional “Charlie Chan.” Turns out that my Hawaiian great-grandmother’s first cousin, Harry Lee Kwai, married Chang Apana’s daughter, Victoria Apana.
My mother recalled their being some connection with Apana, but had no details. My sister had tried to follow up, but before the ready availability of these computerized databases, she didn’t make much headway. I think it was on her “to do” list when she died three years ago.
What does that mean in the scheme of things? Nothing, really. And our families aren’t any closer with this knowledge in hand. But it’s one of those little bits of family trivia that makes the history interesting.
Ancestry is now turning up additional DNA matches with suggestions of how they are linked to my family tree. But I’m still hoping to identify the family link that left me with hundreds of DNA “cousins” in New Zealand and Australia. That answer still eludes me.
Instead of a weekend crossword puzzle, I guess that I’ll keep filling in the blank spots in the family tree.
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the new features on Ancestry has helped me fill out my tree but be careful with thrulines because some of the info on a cousins matches tree maybe inaccurate. I have found a lot of good info Washington state digital archives (if anyone has family in that state) some of which is not on ancestry.com in addition, it’s free. Also, findagrave.com when they include an obituary for the deceased you can build on your tree because of the inclusion of family members. Also, don’t discount those low centimorgan distant cousins, I checked one out with their family photos and found a possible connection there was a dead ringer for my 2x grt grandfather, with surname and county being the same. I think some ethnic groups in my family are more apt to put up a tree, others are not. My Asian side the trees are thin on the ground, however, I have a surfeit of Norwegians (I think the Nordic freeze is a myth!). Have you tried billiongraves.com they’re suppose to have good info on their site?
My daughter submitted her DNA sample to Ancestry.com and discovered a new second cousin on the mainland. As for me, I have no desire to discover long lost cousins in Korea who will ask me for money. Bah!