I look at our list, and a familiar surname was at the top, associated with my maternal family. My Fennimore family is on my father’s side, and this was unexpected.  The name is very familiar, and I believe that he is my second cousin’s son.  My great Aunt, his grandmother, was not a Fennimore, and my parents are not remotely related (Gedmatch verified).  I examined the match a little closer:

23andMe makes this very easy.  I can see that we three do not have shared DNA, we match, but not in the same way. I also look at our relationship, and you can see that there is a large difference between the two.  Even when I put my “2^nd cousin” into DNA Painter, it associates the kit with one set of maternal great-grandparents, which I am mapping.  My conclusion is that my cousin’s unrelated paternal line has a far removed match with this test kit or a possible anomaly.  I hadn’t even considered that my paternal and maternal lines could be intertwined, my mother is second generation Irish-German.  My Paternal Grandmother was a mixture of recent British immigration (her mom was born in London), and New Jersey for at least nine generations. My Dad’s father was from New England. I knew that I didn’t have any misaligned parental events in recent generations. Again I lucked out; I could easily resolve this twist.

Do you agree with my analysis?  Have you encountered any DNA conflicts? If so, how did you resolve them?

I’d love to hear from you!

[i] Coakley, Louise. “Tips for using Gedmatch.” Genie1. https://genie1.com.au/tips-for-using-gedmatch/, 2020.

GEDmatch – Tools for DNA and Genealogy Research ©Copyright 2011-2020 by GEDmatch, Inc.
23and Me – © 2020 23andMe, Inc.
DNA Painter – © DNA Painter, 2020

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I’ve chosen to create my Project Management tracking in Excel, but use what works best for you. I like a particular spreadsheet software because I use it daily for my “day job,” and I can pivot and parse data quickly with it. Also, I can add fields easily. I hope to use a third-party tool for analyzing the details, but for now, I need to track my matches across different testing companies and contact the individuals who share DNA. I’ve tested in multiple companies, and I am sure that I am not the only one. I want to track the tests they have taken, whether there is a paper trail, and, most importantly, whether they are willing to participate in the project.

Two crucial subjects to consider are privacy and permission. If I intend to write up my findings (which I do), then I need the approval of the test takers I will use in my proof statement. If a kit is in the “public domain,” it can be used for analysis, but our professional standards require permission to publish. But we will get into that in a later post. Privacy is paramount; I will mask the identity of the test takers. Even though the data is “public,” it is too easy to link kits, and living people to not take this extra step.

For today I am beginning with the shared matches in Ancestry DNA  between a descendant of William H. Fennimore (me) and the descendant of a brother with the most paper documentation.  One of my children is a match, that kit will not be included in the analysis since it is a subset of mine. We have 14 shared matches. I chose Ancestry because I feel more people will have started there, and I have communicated with a few of the other users over the years. The downside is that I don’t know precisely where we match. If I want to identify the potential chromosomes and segments, I will need to convince them to take their DNA to a third party program. Some of the testers have already done this, so I will work on locating them in our various companies and start building my project plan.

My initial project tracking database has the following fields:

I want to obscure the identity of the participants in any “sharing,” going forward, plus I need to link kits, so I don’t contact the same person multiple times, or consider them a separate person. I also want to ensure that I have adequate coverage across the children of William and Mary Fennimore. The matches must come from different lines, not just mine. Finally, I want to make sure I have adequate permission, that they have consented (or not), and to map them via traditional research. Looking at many of my matches, I can tell quite a few have not logged on in over a year. I’m sure the response rates will be low. I will be messaging a total of three times, and then move on.

I’m hopeful we will get enough participants willing to play along.

The post The Fennimore Family of Somerset and Morris Counties New Jersey A DNA Project -Organization and Privacy appeared first on Once-Removed Genealogy Services.

The Marriage

William Fennimore of Morristown, Morris County New Jersey, married Mary Elizabeth Day of Bernards, Somerset County on 16 December 1859, in Millington, Morris County. Rev. Hopper officiated the marriage at the Parsonage of the Millington Baptist Church. Mary Elizabeth was the daughter of Israel Day and Gracia Ann Elizabeth Blazier.[1] William’s parents were not listed on the marriage record.

The couple would have thirteen children, of which nine would survive to adulthood; of the nine, it appears that seven would have children of their own.

The Project

Through traditional research, public trees, and correspondence, I have identified six* Ancestry.com kits that share DNA and have a “paper trail.” Using the “paper trails,” it can be determined that we are descended from four different children of William and Mary. 

The ultimate goal of the project is to identify the parents of William Fennimore of Somerset and Morris counties born 1834-37 in New Jersey. By contacting descendants, we can share traditional research, but also hopefully isolate the “Fennimore” DNA. If you match, I will be contacting you via Ancestry messages, and be asking you to help me with our quest. 

[1] New Jersey, Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics, Marriage Returns, Somerset County, Bernards Township, AE:323 (1859), William Fennamore [Fennimore] and Mary Eliz^h. Day, New Jersey State Archives, Trenton

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