B.L., a DNA match, is a matrilineal descendant of Mary Eliza Balkcum Aldridge. My father is a matrilineal descendant of Margaret Balkcum Henderson. B.L. and my father belong to mtDNA haplotype H3. “Plus one” for my theory that Eliza and Margaret were sisters.
Category Archives: DNA
DNA Definites, no. 13: Nicholson.
For all I malign the inadequacies of Ancestry DNA, it has yielded up distant-relative matches in a way that 23andme has yet to touch. I did a search for “Nicholson” among my matches, and J.W.B. popped up. As I scanned his family tree, the name that snagged my eye first was “Jehu Idol.” I knew that name. I LOVED that name. So economical. So Biblical. So 18th century. And the husband of Hannah Nicholson, sister of John Stockton Nicholson Jr. and half-sister of James Nicholson. J.W.B. and I are 5th cousins, twice removed.
DNA Definites, no. 12: Van Pool.
Iredell County, North Carolina, was settled in the mid-eighteenth century largely by Scots-Irish and German immigrants pushing down the spine of the Shenandoah Valley from the mid-Atlantic colonies. Interspersed among them, of course, were the omnipresent English, but also here and there a Dutch family. Such were the Van Pools, who settled first in Maryland before heading south in the mid-18th century.
Ancestry DNA estimates D.F.M. as my 5th-8th cousin. I would not have noticed her name among my hundreds of distant matches, but Shared Ancestor Hint — a comparison of family trees, and Ancestry’s best feature — brought her into sharp focus. To be precise, we are fifth cousins, once removed, both descendants of John Van Pool and his wife, Elizabeth Peyster Van Pool. I am descended from daughter Nancy Van Pool, who married Samuel McNeely, and D.F.M. from son David Van Pool. Nancy and Samuel McNeely’s son John W. McNeely fathered Henry W. McNeely, my maternal grandmother’s maternal grandfather.
Ancestry also estimates L.B. as my 5th-8th cousin, and I found him, too, via Shared Ancestor Hint. We are in fact 7th cousins, descended an equal number of generations from Jacob Van Pool and Elizabeth Hampton via sons John Van Pool and Henry Van Pool.
DNA definites, no. 11: Artis & Aldridge.
- I am descended from John W. Aldridge and his wife, Louvicey Artis Aldridge, via son J. Thomas Aldridge. Louvicey Artis’ parents were Adam Artis and Frances Seaberry Artis.
- K.H. is also descended from John W. Aldridge and Louvicey Artis Aldridge, via daughter Nora Aldridge Henderson. At 23andme, K.H. and I show a 4.4% match, estimated as second cousins. In fact, we are first cousins, twice removed. (Calculated on the Aldridge side. We are also Henderson cousins, but much more distantly.)
- W.H. is also descended from John W. Aldridge and Louvicey Artis Aldridge, via daughter Nora Aldridge Henderson. Ancestry estimates that we are 3rd-4th cousins; 23andme estimates 2nd cousins (2.51% match). In fact, we are second cousins, once removed. (We are also distant Henderson cousins.)
- E.H. is also descended from John W. Aldridge and Louvicey Artis Aldridge, via daughter Nora Aldridge Henderson. At 23andme, E.H. and I show a 1.75% match, estimated as 2nd-3rd cousins. In fact, we are second cousins, once removed. (Ditto re the Henderson relationship.)
- S.D. is also descended from John W. Aldridge and Louvicey Artis Aldridge, via daughter Nora Aldridge Henderson. Ancestry estimates that S.D. and I are 4th-6th cousins. In fact, we are third cousins. (Ditto re the Henderson relationship.)
- G.J. is also descended from John W. Aldridge and Louvicey Artis Aldridge, via daughter Correna Aldridge Newsome. Ancestry.com estimates that we are 4th-6th cousins. (Ancestry does not provide percentage shared.) In fact, we are 3rd cousins, once removed.
- B.L. is descended from Josephine Artis Sherrod, daughter of Adam Artis and Amanda Aldridge Artis. Amanda Aldridge was a sister of John W. Aldridge. B.L. and I are estimated at 2nd-3rd cousins and share 1.28% on 23andme. In fact, we are 3rd cousins, once removed, on the Aldridge side, and 2nd cousins, twice removed, on the Artis.
- A.S. is also descended from Josephine Artis Sherrod. Ancestry estimates our relationship as 4th-6th cousins. In fact, we are 3rd cousins, once removed on the Artis side, and 4th cousins on the Aldridge side.
- H.B. is descended from Henry J.B. Artis, son of Adam Artis and Amanda Aldridge Artis. Amanda was the sister of John W. Aldridge. Ancestry.com estimates our relationship as 4th-6th cousins. In fact, we are 2nd cousins, twice removed.
- B.J. is descended from Mattie Brewington Braswell, daughter of Joshua Brewington and Amelia Aldridge Brewington. Amelia was a sister of John W. and Amanda Aldridge. B.J. and I estimated at 3rd-5th cousins and share .37%. In fact, we are 4th cousins. B.J. also matches G.J. at Ancestry, but not S.D.
- R.M. is descended from Mathew W. Aldridge, who was John W. Aldridge’s brother. 23andme estimated that R.M. and I are 3rd to distant cousins and share .21%. In fact, we are 4th cousins. R.M. matches all the other Aldridge-Balkcum descendants on 23andme. She also matches D.D. at .46, 3rd-5th cousins. This is particularly interesting because the father of D.D.’s great-grandmother was said to be Jesse F. Baker, son of John Frank Baker and Mary Ann Aldridge. Mary Ann Aldridge was the daughter of John Mathew Aldridge, who I believe to have been the brother of Robert Aldridge. Assuming this to be the connection between R.M. and D.D. are, in fact, 5th cousins. (Also: D.D.’s great-grandmother and my grandmother were daughters of Bessie Lee Henderson, so she matches me, my father, sister and 1st cousin on 23andme, as well as K.H.)
- H.A. is descended from Mary Jane Artis Artis, daughter of Adam and Lucinda Jones Artis. At 23andme, H.A. and I show a .15% match, estimated at 3rd to distant cousins. We are, in fact, 4th cousins. H.A. also matches K.H. and B.L.
DNAnigma, no. 14: small worlds.
Last night, idly perusing my most recent Ancestry.com matches, I ran across a screen name I recognized. I zapped an excited Facebook message, and this morning here’s what M.S. posted:
“Cost of being an Ancestry.com member: $20 a month. Cost of getting your DNA analysis: $100. Finding out that Lisa Henderson, whom you already admire and love like a sister is actually related to you when you were just asking her to help you sort through all the genetic genealogy: PRICELESS! Wow!”
I’ve known M.S. and his sister A.S. for nearly 30 years — A. and I went to college together — and our friendship has deepened in the last several years. (A.S. has an amazing Tumblr, Hey to Your Mama N’em.) A few years ago, I did some rudimentary genealogical research for them and have encouraged M. and offered advice as his own research has deepened and as he began his foray into DNA testing. The last thing I ever imagined was that we’d share chromosomes! I have no idea what our link is, but neither of us will leave a stone unturned trying to find out!
DNA Definites, no. 10: A windfall.
The end of last week brought three significant new 23andme.com matches. I’d been waiting impatiently for the results to post for all of them, and I wasn’t disappointed. In summary:
- M.B. is my paternal first cousin. We show a 10.5% share across 31 segments. She matches, of course, my father and sister, but also our mysterious adoptee cousin S.A., and several more distant known relatives. Most exciting: she has a match that none of the rest of us has to a D.D., who’s descended from a Sampson County Balcum-Johnson marriage. That’s the first Balkcum DNA link I’ve found.
- B.J. has been a close collaborator in my Aldridge research for several years. She’s descended from the sister of my great-great-grandfather John W. Aldridge, and 23andme correctly estimated our relationship as in the 3rd-5th range.
- B.L. is from my hometown. I didn’t discover that we were related until I was in my 20s and had started researching my family. (My grandmother knew, of course, but wasn’t sure of the exact connection.) Her grandmother was the last of my great-great-great-grandfather Adam T. Artis’ children to pass away — in 1988, at age 101. There are some promising matches in her list that seem to be unique, too, including one to a Locus-Artis from the Nahunta area of Wayne County. 23andme predicted that we are in the 2nd-3rd cousin range, which is correct whether calculated from the Aldridge or Artis side.
Ancestry composition.
23andme’s version of my ancestry composition.
Nothing surprising. My parents and sister all hover around the same percentages: 58.8% Sub-Saharan African for my father and sister, 61.1% for my mother; 38.4% European for my father, 36.3% for my mother, 39.0% for my sister. I have the lowest East Asian/Native American, but none of ours is high: .6, .5, and .7. Our few Native ancestors probably lived in the 18th century. Given what I know of my parents’ ancestry, I had expected my father’s European ancestry to be significantly higher than my mother’s, but that just goes to highlight how painfully little I really know.
DNAnigma, no. 13: high-school classmates?
Over the weekend, I did one of my infrequent checks for matches at Ancestry DNA. I found a new match to C.B., an estimated 5th-8th cousin. Heaving a sigh, I idly checked his family tree — and immediately recognized many of his surnames as common to Wilson County, my birthplace. I looked a little more closely at his profile, and … I’ll be damned. His daughter was my high school classmate! How in the world are we connected?
M.W. is the second Beddingfield High School grad that I’ve matched in Ancestry or 23andme. The other was a classmate of my sister. I have no clue how we match M.R. either.
I can assume the C.B. match is on my father’s side, as is M.R. I also assume that it is through an Anglo ancestor. What throws me is that I don’t know of any white ancestors from Wilson County or northern Wayne or southern Edgecombe Counties, from which Wilson was created. Clearly, I have one, or some, though, as these and a couple of other Wilson County matches attest. The most likely conduit is through my Artis-Seaberry-Hagans, who had obvious Euro ancestry about which I know nothing and who lived in northern Wayne County.
An initial exchange of messages with M.R. has fallen silent, but I’m hoping a collabo with M.W. will get me somewhere.
DNAnigma, no. 12: Strasbourg?
I match T.N. at .36%, and 23andme estimates that we are 3rd to 6th cousins. He matches my mother at .99% (3rd-4th) and her brother at 1.86% (2nd-3rd). My sister is a .89% (3rd-5th) match for T.N.; my cousin C. is .42% (3rd-6th); another cousin C is 1.17% (2nd-4th); cousin M. is .98% (3rd-4th); and cousin J. is .48% (3rd-4th cousin).
Who is this guy?
So far, T.N. is the only person who matches all the members of my mother’s close family that have tested with 23andme. He accepted my share request, but has not responded to messages, so all I know about him appears in his profile. Which raises more questions than it answers. T.N. lists France and Norway as his countries of origin and cites Strasbourg, France; Oxford, England; and Durham, North Carolina, as places in which his family has lived. He shares the ultra-common R1b1b2a1a1 Y-DNA haplotype with my uncle and his sons, but I wouldn’t base any assumptions about our kinship on this.
So: is our link to T.N. through my mother’s mother? Her father? At this point, there’s no way to know. It’s time to follow up on my inclination to ask M., one of two living cousins on my maternal grandfather’s side, to test with 23andme.
DNAnigma, no. 11: Herring?
I have one certain Herring ancestor and an unexplained link to another Herring.
Ancestry.com pegs O.M. and me as 4th to 6th cousins, and L.P. and me as 5th to 8th. O.M., who is in her 80s, discovered her African ancestry (estimated at about 35%) only after receiving her DNA results. Apparently, this inheritance came entirely entirely from her father, whose identity her mother did not disclose. O.M.’s daughter B.C. and L.P. have deduced that their connection lies in an mixed-race African-American Herring family from Sampson County that I haven’t been able to connect to either Margaret Herring Price or Hillary Herring. Still, is that my link, too?
Scuffalong: Genealogy. 