14 September CVGS Research Group Review

The 14 September meeting of the CVGS Research Group had 15 in attendance.  

In the first hour, Randy highlighted some of the news from the previous month, including:

*  The Genealogy Rockstars were selected in a number of categories on John D. Reid's blog, by over 2,000 voters from around the world.  The winners of the U.S., International and Genetic Genealogy awards were the same three person:  Gold - Judy G. Russell; Silver -  CeCe Moore; Bronze - Blaine Bettinger.

*  The San Diego Genealogical Society and San Diego History Center Genealogy Day will be Saturday, 15 October.  The keynote speaker will be Anne Mitchell of Ancestry.com.  There will be other speakers during the morning also, plus exhibits.  CVGS will have an exhibit table.  

*  MyHeritage announced their DNA Matching service for users who submit their DNA raw data from either AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, or 23andMe.  Randy has heard from two matches in the two weeks since the announcement.

*  Ancestry.com updated their Member Tree index for the first time since February.

*  Randy demonstrated "stimulating" Record Hints in Ancestry Member Trees by clicking on a tree link attached to a tree person.  Just uploading or creating a new tree on Ancestry will provide Hints almost immediately.  He uploaded a 280 person GEDCOM, had 400 Hints within a minute, and then stimulated 400 more by clicking on a tree link for persons in the new tree.

In the second hour, the group discussed:

*  Karen Y. described a Scottish tartan article she found in the U.K. Guardian newspaper about an 1842 book that said that official tartans were made up and were not traditional.  She also looked at the Domesday Book at the San Diego Central Library, and looked at the Wikipedia article about it and the website http://domesdaybook.co.uk, which includes a search for English towns as of 1088 AD.

*  Diane has done research for her husband Ramon, and has been able to connect him to a famous person 24 generations back in Spain.  She challenged the group to guess who it might be.  Nobody could.  Don Quixote?  Miguel Cervantes?  Cristobal Colon?  King Ferdinand or Queen Isabella of Spain?  

*  Shirley found a line back to Maud Hastings, who is a gateway ancestor to the English royal line, and has gone back to King Henry II through his mistress Audrey Barlow.

*  Virginia has several 3rd cousin matches on MyHeritage DNA who share her second great-grandfather.  

*  Susi noted that Mary's cousin in riverside and his wife died recently, and a sister of the wife called Mary to say she has more Pentico genealogy information.  Susi also has a DNA match with a Benninghof person (Pentico is a derivative of Benninghof).

*  JoAnn visited a cousin who recognized a name on her family tree as the spy master for Queen Elizabeth I.  She also has a mystery John Sadler, born 1852 in England, on her 5 generation pedigree chart.

*  Karen S. has many English ancestors coming to colonial Virginia, who received lots of land but there is not much about their origins.  The group noted that many of these settlers were later sons of persons of quality, and there are books that may describe their origins.

*  Sylvia asked how to find "gateway" ancestors in colonial times that go back to the European royal and noble lines.  The best book is probably Gary Boyd Roberts book on the Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants.

*  Linda had a computer crash, has a new computer, and is cleaning up her genealogy files.  She had a brick wall ancestor - a paternal great-grandfather.  She found his birth record on Ancestry in an index and that led to finding the record on FamilySearch collections for Mexico.

*  Helen said that the ethnicity estimate for her brother's autosomal DNA had changed over time, and she wondered why.  The group noted that the estimates are based on reference groups, which can be relatively small.  Ancestry recently increased the size of the reference groups and that may be why the ethnicity changed.  All three DNA services have improved their autosomal DNA analysis tools.

The next CVGS Research Group will be the second Wednesday, 12 October, at 12 noon in the Conference Room at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library.