Monday, February 3, 2020

My Living DNA Has Been Updated!

Yesterday I received an email from Living DNA announcing that a free update was available for my 2017 ancestry results.* So I followed the link, requested my update and was told that it was in process and would be complete in less than 48 hours. The confirming email arrived early this morning.

And here it is:**


[Living DNA Recent Ancestry]

According to their data, my recent DNA heritage is 100% European--5.7% from my 2X great grandmother Delilah Grove (1845-1925) and the remaining 94.3% Great Britain and Ireland from everyone else.

[Living DNA Recent Ancestry]

Of the more exotic traces claimed by my previous results only Orkney remains (with the addition of the Shetland Islands). My alleged connections to the Iberian Peninsula, Scandinavia, and the Kurds and Pashtuns have disappeared.



*See my previous results here.
**Sadly the company has chosen to show everything in a low contrast format so you may find it hard to read.. And I've emailed them about that.


© 2020 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

I Finally Found My 2nd Grand Uncle Herbert W. "Dutch" Porter's Obituary

Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 03 February 2020), memorial page for Herbert W Porter (1899–1971), Find A Grave Memorial no. 173492189, citing Mount Harmony Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Mableton, Cobb County, Georgia, USA ; Maintained by Bulldog Fan (contributor 48178484).


I have been struggling for years to find the death record or obituary for my 2nd grand uncle, Herbert W. "Dutch" Porter, my great grandmother Letta Estella Porter's brother.  Because he spent many decades in Chicago I kept looking there for his death record, but none of the Herbert Porters who died there matched his information.  I also had reason to believe he had lived until at least 1974.

Now, thanks to the constant updating of Ancestry's databases, I effortlessly stumbled on his obituary yesterday, but it was in 1971 in Cobb County, Georgia!  I would never have thought to look for him there.

Porter -- Funeral services for Mr. Herbert W. Porter, age 72, 4213 Springdale Circle, Powder Springs will be conducted Wednesday at 3 p.m. from the McEachern Methodist Church with remains placed in state at 2 p.m. Rev. William G. Edwards, officiating. Interment, Mt. Harmony Memorial Gardens. Survivors include wife, Mrs. Helen Porter; sisters, Mrs. Estella Turnball, Dallas; Mrs. Annie Sue Graham, Venice, Calif.; brothers, Mr. Calvin Porter, Dallas; Mr. Orville Porter, Los Angeles, Calif.  Turk's Memory Chapel, Powder Springs, 943-3547.
"Porter," obituary, The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA), Wednesday, 29 Dec 1971, page 25, col 6; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://newspapers.com), accessed 2 Feb 2020.




© 2020 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Saturday, February 1, 2020

i4gg Conference is February 2 & 3



Institute for Genetic Genealogy (https://i4gg.org)

Wow, I haven't posted for about six months!  Since last June my husband retired, a beloved cat died, and I was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer (complete with lumpectomy, radiation, and tamoxifen).

I've worked on my tree almost every day, but didn't put aside any time to do blog posts until things had settled down.

I've also been keeping an eye on the DNA Doe Project (also Wikipedia article "DNA Doe Project"):
DNA Doe Project (AKA DNA Doe Project, Inc. or DDP) is an American non-profit volunteer organization formed to identify unidentified deceased persons (commonly known as John Doe or Jane Doe) using forensic genealogy. Volunteers identify victims of automobile accidents, homicide, and unusual circumstances, and persons who committed suicide under an alias.[1] The group was founded in 2017 by Colleen Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press.
I love being able to see all the cases being solved!

Some of the people who are involved in this are almost certainly at the Institute for Genetic Genealogy (i4gg) conference.

I don't know the details behind the change in time and venue of this conference (it used to be in San Diego in December and now it is in Las Vegas in February), but fortunately for those of us who can't be there in person they have the option to purchase the videos of the sessions.  The videos have historically come out a number of months after the conference, so my guess is they will be available by the summer.


© 2020 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.