The second form of graphical representation I use are Descendancy Sheets. These are a series of spreadsheets keyed to a set of DNA results. Each one is based around a pair of ancestors and shows a simple path of descent to all other confirmed DNA matches descendant from those ancestors. The share similarity with Ancestry's ThruLines trees, but are necessarily user-maintained and hence not just more complete, but also can incorporate matches from non-Ancestry sources.
They are a useful reference tool for keeping track of matched DNA tests and a good document to share with those matches to help them with their own tree investigations, which in turn leads to reciprocation as they are able to grow theirs. Individuals will appear on such sheets who are not common matches for others and hence can confirm family lines that their DNA has not been able to.
A note on organisation: Websites and family tree software helpfully organise and store records within their systems. For my own files and copies of records from those sites, I keep a file structure that automatically backs up to my Google Drive. This is "<Genealogy Folder>/Individuals/<maiden surname>, <all first names/initials where known> (<year born>-<year died>)" If the years are unknown, they are replaced by underscores (_). If the individual is still alive, the folder name is left blank. Within that folder, I keep copies of all files pertinent to the individual. When creating descendancy sheets for an individual, a Descendancy Sheets subdirectory is created to keep them separate.
The first sheet is named for Elder's parents and begins with a root identifier to create a structured view in the file system, hence "r DNA Descendants of <father> & <mother>". It simply places Elder's parents in one cell and Elder below. Elder's cell is highlighted in green, which represents a confirmed DNA test. The only other individuals that would appear on this sheet are descendants of Elder's parents. At this moment in the project, there are none, so I can move on.
Elder's top DNA match with a common ancestor has a lineage path suggested by Ancestry which is easily confirmed by standard records. The common DNA ancestors are a pair of Elder's great-grandparents. I decided at the start of the project that, other than the paternal surname, the names of this generation would be acceptable to publish as part of this series of articles, as they were individuals that would have died before anyone living today was born.
As this first match is on Elder's paternal line, the second spreadsheet I make is named for their paternal grandparents and prefixed with an "A" to represent the paternal line being followed, hence "rA DNA Descendants of <paternal grandfather> & <paternal grandmother>". I expand the first sheet by adding two lines above, adding their paternal grandparents and then remove Elder's mother's name, as she is not part of this descendancy. There is no further expansion, as there are no second cousins at this point.
The third sheet is where I can add the first of the DNA matches. A copy of the previous is made and renamed "rAB Descendant of Edward Giles & Harriet Pratt", using the 'B' to denote a maternal line. Similarly, two lines are added to the top of the sheet with their names and, beneath, Elder's grandfather is removed to follow the family lineage. The descent from Edward & Harriet is via another one of their children, older than Elder's grandmother, so placed to the left of her, with the direct descent via three generations recorded. This DNA match is Elder's second cousin once-removed. Also present in the DNA matches are two other descendants of this pair and, once confirmed by the records, they are also added.
At time of writing, there are seventeen Ancestry DNA matches designated with 'Common Ancestors', all on Elder's paternal side. These were all easily verifiable through the standard birth/marriage/death records and censuses. In verification, all associated and linked individuals are added to the tree with the pertinent records attached, and graphics representing their DNA origin and place of birth were uploaded as per Chapter 6 of this blog series. As I confirmed each, Descendancy Sheets were expanded and updated. One branch of ancestors included intermarrying cousins, so this had to be dealt with as follows.
rABAB and rABBA would be identical, due to dual descent. In such a case, rABBA would be considered an end to Descendancy Sheet progression and is named "rABBA Dual Descent, see rABAB". The content of rABBA shows only the dual descent. The content of rABAB does show both descendancy paths, but the younger, second iteration of it (to the left) has the line highlighted in grey and all names italicised to make it clear that the information is relevant, but superfluous. Note that DNA matches usually highlighted green in this second iteration are instead grey so as to clearly avoid double-counting.
The final additional graphical representation I use is chromosome mapping. However, as Ancestry, being my main initial source for investigation, does not support this currently, I will leave it for now and come back to it once the main body of Ancestry work is done, and I have moved on to using the MyHeritage and GEDmatch sites.
In the next blog, the real investigation work begins. Using the foundations laid out so far, I'll begin to expand the tree further, seeking out unidentified shared matches using clusters.
Comments