Electa Williams Oneida County, New York WILL

 

Source Citation 

Will Books, 1798-1900 With Index, 1798-1909; Author: New York. Surrogate's Court (Oneida County); Probate Place: Oneida, New York Image 557 of 597, Ancestry.com accessed 7 April 2021

Who is Electa Williams? A DNA match necessitated the following search. My search began by writing down all I could find on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, MyHeritage.com and basic browsers. The name and location of New England states produced too many results. And the name Lecta Williams added even more to the list. In an attempt to narrow the prospects, I resorted to public trees. Many of the public trees offered only one source, the source in the photograph above. This source would be great place to start.

 What did I find; the source is a digital image of an index page. How do I find the original document? I proceeded back to the beginning by checking the genealogy sites. My search was for the will in volume 53 on page 378 of the New York Surrogate Court. During my online search of American Ancestors.org (NEHGS), Melanie and James, live chat volunteers, offered several suggestions. One of their excellent suggestions was to contact the Oneida County Surrogate Court. After the online searches did not provide a digital image, I did call the Oneida County Surrogate Court. Within three business days, the digital image was in my email box.

 The following abstract is from the New York Surrogate Court, volume 53, pages 378 and 379:

In the Name of God, Amen. I Lecta Williams of the town of Trenton, County of Oneida and State of New York,…

First, after all my lawful debts are paid and discharged, I give and bequeath to my sister-in-law Mrs. Caroline Williams of Holland Patent, NY. All of my right, title and interest in and to the house and last owned by said Caroline Williams and myself … All real and personal property were willed to Caroline. And Mrs. Caroline Williams was to be appointed executrix of the estate. The will was signed on 30 December 1901; the witnesses were Philip M Egert and E Willard Jones. The will was probated 7 April 1902.

 Further research revealed:

The 1892 New York state census reads that Electa was living with her brother John and his wife Caroline.

The 1900 federal census reads that Electa, single, lives with Caroline Williams, widow, in Trenton, Oneida County, New York.

A minimal search revealed that John P Williams, 1822-1895, married Caroline Thayer 1825-1902. Electa was John’s younger sister; born July 1823 in Herkimer County, New York. Lecta died in Trenton, Oneida County, New York, in 1902.

Please check out my Roots_Digger (Under Construction, Help!) tree on Ancestory.com to follow my research.

My connection: currently NONE, still searching for our DNA connection!!!

Thank you American Ancestor’s, Melanie and James, live chat volunteers, for your assistance and suggestion to contact the Oneida County Surrogate Court.

Thank You, Colleen A. Wilson, Sr. Court Office Assistant, New York Oneida County Surrogate’s Court for your professionalism on the telephone, your efficient and prompt response in providing the digital images.

Comments, please contact me at sbgenealogy@gmail.com. Thank you!!!

Jane Angeline Dunham 1823-1906, parents William F Dunham & Sarah Metcalf

Green Bay Press-Gazette. 10 August 1893. Newspapers.com

William F Dunham and Sarah Metcalf have been connected as the parents of Jane Angeline Dunham 1823-1906. WE now have a paper trail and DNA trail. The reason I choose “WE” is because it has taken many years and many “cousins.” This hunt started in about 1990 with several photos from a 1900 Christmas album gift to my grandmother, Nettie Couch, 1884-1965. The hunt never ends. Now, I am looking for more cousins and more information on Jane’s parents. Along the way, I have found the names of DNA matches with every one of the siblings, several other Dunham families and several Metcalf families.

Special thanks to:

• Dunham’s of Rome including Ann Eldred (1935-2003), Phyllis KItson, P.C. Alger, and Bill Wood, these people put my original question, “Dunham by birth or by marriage?” to rest with many photos and family group sheets
• Beth for sharing a family group sheet from her research, especially on the Hickok line
• Rich for all his DNA hours and for answering my basic DNA questions
• Christina for this wonderful newspaper clipping that finally joins OUR family, for meeting me in Wisconsin several years ago, for introducing me to her sister, for sharing their family stories
• Jane Wilcox, Forget-MeNot Ancestry, for guiding me in my searches
• MyHeritage and Ancestry for DNA match suggestions
• NGS research trips, especially a full packed week in Madison, Wisconsin
• Gratia for sharing her vast knowledge of the Dunham family and her hours of research
• Many, many friends and family who have listened to me whine for 20+ years because I could not find Jane’s parents 

Jane A Dunham Couch

Jane Angeline DUNHAM (1823 - 1906)
2nd great-grandmother

Eugene Deloss COUCH (1851 - 1925)
Son of Jane Angeline DUNHAM

Nettie Ethel COUCH (1884 - 1965)
Daughter of Eugene Deloss COUCH

Mildred Louise SCHULER (1919 - 2008)
Daughter of Nettie Ethel COUCH

Selma Ethel KAMPE
You are the daughter of Mildred Louise SCHULER

Now, more questions:

• How come family Bible and all censuses except 1900 census list New York or Rome, New York as birth?
• How come the 43 year lack of family contact?
• How come migrated to LaSalle County, Illinois instead of Wisconsin?
• Who are Jane’s grandparents?

View my Roots_Digger tree on Ancestry and Roots_Digger Related on MyHeritage. Join me in our search for more family members, stories, photos. Contact me a sbgenealogy@gmail.com

Harriet Newell Dickson or Dixon 1814-1894 one lady with an remarkable family

Harriet Newell Dickson or Dixon 1814-1894, which is correct? Both! Death date on Find a Grave proclaims 20 May 1895. Death date in her will reads 25 May 1894. Is this one lady or two? One! Start with the obvious, ha, ha. Harriet married John Sindel or Sindle in 1830 or 1831. Everything has to be placed in history. Many people including census enumerators were poor spellers. Many people had accents and English was not their first language. How does the researcher make any judgment calls?

For every event, date, location, and relationship, ask, “How do I know that…?” Keep looking; try not to use one source only! New information comes to light daily both digitally and in paper boxes! Patti Lee Hobbs in an APG webinar “Better Together: Making Your Case with Documents and DNA” expects the researcher will do an exhaustive research of common records. These records include probate, land, vital, court and tax. The webinar was held in April 2018 and may be viewed at Legacy Family Tree webinars.

Different documents carry different weight. My example, Harriet’s digitized probate of her will carries more weight than a 1906 book which may have an error from the information gathering to the author to the typeset. Yet, a printed book from 1906 is better than an abstract of the chapter from that book. The will was transcribed into the Ohio probate court book. Hopefully the transcription is correct. This is not the will written in Harriet’s own hand. The historian would expect the date to be correct, at least the year. So a check of the records before and after read 1894.

Remember, no one sets out to purposely make errors whether in a family tree or a legal document! It is up to the family historian to gather all the past information and present a logical conclusion based on the evidence for that event in that date and time. As new information becomes available, the conclusion may change or be stronger.

Harriet’s page on Find a Grave provides an obituary and the mention of a book by Estill Sindel. As of the writing of this blog, I was not able to locate either. What information do I have? See Roots Digger tree on Ancestry. Where did I find it and my personal conclusions?

My choice for surname is Dickson. Both Dixon and Dickson are used interchangeably. The reasons I chose Dickson over Dixon for this article include the Ohio marriage registry, and in mother’s will, James Dickson was a witness. The 1870 LaSalle County, Illinois, census uses Dickson. Many other census and books list Dixon as his given name. As a researcher, we find many variations of surname spellings.  James Dickson witnessed Harriet’s will. Question, what is the relationship between James and Harriet? How is Dickson or Dixon’s name recorded in the LaSalle County, Illinois, land records? This question means that I may want to plan a road trip to LaSalle County, Illinois, to search for land records.

Will Records, 1853-1899; General Index, 1853-1972; Probate Place: Fulton, Ohio. Ancestry.com.

Death date of 25 May 1894 was chosen because of the probated will. Please look at my Roots Digger tree on Ancestry. Will Records, 1853-1899; General Index, 1853-1972; Probate Place: Fulton, Ohio. Ancestry.com. Ohio, Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Ohio County, District and Probate Courts.

Recommended books on this Sindel family:

Google books: Hoffman, U. J. History of LaSalle County, Illinois: Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead. Chicago: the S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906.  accessed 18 April 2018 https://play.google.com.

Mikesell, Thomas, ed. County of Fulton: A History of Fulton County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on Various Subjects, Including Each of the Different Townships; Also a Biographical Department. Madison, Wisconsin: Northwestern Historical Association. 1905.accessed 17 April 2018 on archive.org.

My connection to Harriet Nowell Dickson Sindel, she is the mother-in-law of the first cousin of the husband of my second great-aunt. Yes, I enjoy the hunt. More directly my relationship,

Mary Jane ARMSTRONG (1864 - 1906)
2nd great-aunt

Mary Jane BAKER (1841 - 1875)
mother of Mary Jane ARMSTRONG

Laura Eleanor ARMSTRONG (1856 - 1931)
daughter of Mary Jane BAKER

Nettie Ethel COUCH (1884 - 1965)
daughter of Laura Eleanor ARMSTRONG

Mildred Louise SCHULER (1919 - 2008)
daughter of Nettie Ethel COUCH

Selma Ethel KAMPE
You are the daughter of Mildred Louise SCHULER

As a researcher, always ask yourself, how do I know that? Where did the information come from? Please share your information and conclusions. Thank you!

Happy tree climbing and roots digging! Selma

Veraldine Louise Small (1901-1990) case study using online public hints

Methodist Church, Lockport, Illinois. scanned by LAGHS from Ancestry.

MyHeritage sent me a DNA match notice for a possible third to fourth cousin. We shared 7 segments with the largest 27 cM. GV has only eleven people in her tree. That was enough! Small is our mutual surname. Veraldine Small (1901-1990) and Roy Chaney (1885-1966) show up in her tree.

Already in my Roots Magic data base, it is time to search for Veraldine Small in Ancestry. I did add Roy Chaney from the My Heritage tree. The 1930 US census enumerates Roy, Veraldine and Eugene Powers as a step-son. Searching for marriage records for Roy and Veraldine produced scanned church records by Lockport Area Genealogical and Historical Society of Lockport, Illinois. Roy Chaney and Veraldine Powers were married in the Methodist church on 20 January 1928. This search also provided baptism information for the Small family.

Roy and Veraldine had two daughters; one of these is my third cousin. What a thrill for me to talk on the phone with a new relative! We would not have connected if it were not for DNA, online trees, individual groups scanning records and companies opening up these records for all to access. My research is open to all on Ancestry as Roots Digger. This provides copies of documents, photographs and sources when available. I am in the process of updating a tree on My Heritage. My current My Heritage tree KampeSchuler2 is open to the public with Roots Digger under construction in the update process.

How am I related to GV?

3rd cousin

Veraldine Louise SMALL (1901 - 1990)
mother of GV

Annie May PEMBERTON (1880 - 1951)
mother of Veraldine Louise SMALL

Elizabeth SCHULER (1842 - 1915)
mother of Annie May PEMBERTON

John SCHULER (1815 - 1875)
father of Elizabeth SCHULER

John SCHULER (1841 - 1916)
son of John SCHULER

William John SCHULER (1871 - 1964)
son of John SCHULER

Mildred Louise SCHULER (1919 - 2008)
daughter of William John SCHULER

Selma Ethel KAMPE
You are the daughter of Mildred Louise SCHULER

Thank you to everyone who posts public trees! Thank you to My Heritage for your DNA matching program! Thank you to LAGHS, Lockport Area Genealogical & Historical Society for scanning area records! I have found many family clues that are not available elsewhere. Thank you to Ancestry for providing access to these records. Everything a family historian finds, every record, every tree should be used as a clue to dig, dig, dig! Verify as much of your information as you can. If it comes from a family story, that is your source! Where did you find that piece of information?

Veraldine Louise Small:

Name Veraldine Louise Small source: baptismal records, Methodist Church.  Ancestry.com. Lockport Area, Illinois, Church, Cemetery, and Other Records, 1811-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

Original data: Genealogical Records. Lockport Area Genealogical and Historical Society, Lockport, Illinois.

Birth: 2 July 1901 from a private tree, about 1902 is the date given in four US census records on Ancestry.

Baptism: 25 December 1905, Methodist church, Lockport, Illinois. R.H. Dollliver, pastor. Ancestry.com. Lockport Area, Illinois, Church, Cemetery, and Other Records, 1811-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original data: Genealogical Records. Lockport Area Genealogical and Historical Society, Lockport, Illinois.

First marriage: Paul Powers (abt 1901- ) 15 August 1923. Cook County, Illinois. Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois Marriage Indexes, 1912-1942 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Private donor.

Second marriage: Roy Weldon Chaney (1885-1968) 20 January 1928 Lockport Methodist church, Lockport, Illinois. Ancestry.com. Lockport Area, Illinois, Church, Cemetery, and Other Records, 1811-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original data: Genealogical Records. Lockport Area Genealogical and Historical Society, Lockport, Illinois.

Third marriage: Roy Littlejohn 21 June 1943, Cook County, Illinois. Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930-1960 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Cook County Clerk, comp. Cook County Clerk Genealogy Records. Cook County Clerk’s Office, Chicago, IL: Cook County Clerk, 2008.

Death: 1990 Gary, Indiana, private information. My goal is to search further for a death certificate and or obituary.

See Roots Digger family tree under construction on Ancestry for more family details. 

Ruhama RAYMOND born about 1771 died 1853

   Ruhama RAYMOND born 17 January 1771 in New York, source Find A Grave. Her maiden name? She Married Joshua RAYMOND 1760-1839. My search is for documentation of death date. Also, I would to find her maiden name with documentation.

   According to Find a Grave and several Ancestry.com trees, Ruhama died in 1832. Other Ancestry trees have her death date as 26 January1853. Which is correct? After finding Joshua's will and probate on Ancestry, the 1850 US census on Ancestry, my conclusion was that Ruhama was alive after 1850. Continue my search. My find for today!!! St. Mathews Episcopal Church, Bedford, Westchester County, New York, Record of Burials in churchyard page 14. This clue was transcribed in 1952 by Natalie M Seth. Thank you Natalie! Copied from the Westchester County Historical Society records. The digital form accessed on FamilySearch.org. Several other RAYMOND family members buried in same churchyard. Someday, hopefully, the original records will be digitized too! Another great source used in my searching is Our Family Tree both their website and Facebook page.


   My connection 4th great-grandmother of 1st cousin1x removed, explanation, Fitch 1791-1882 (son of Ruhama) has a daughter also named Ruhama 1821-1894, daughter marries William Riley SMITH 1815-1877. Their son Arthur Albert SMITH 1855-1937 has a son Earl Leroy. Earl Leroy SMITH 1885-1957 has a son Arthur Clayton SMITH 1922-2007. Arthur's daughter married my cousin. Long trail, but somewhere the family may have records to match my biological and DNA family. Also, Joshua's will is about 14 pages long and full of wonderful information. See my tree Roots Digger on Ancestry.com.

Lester Daniel CAPPS 1878-1947 & 4 wives

   Why start a Do Over or Work Over? Mistakes!!! Read EVERY document. How much was missed or misinterpreted because I did not completely glean every paper. My example: Lester Daniel CAPPS born 1878 in Iowa and died 1947 in South Dakota.
   If only census records were searched, Lester would have had one or maybe two wives and two children. Without looking closer, possibly his children would be linked to the wrong wife. Let us start working back as we do in genealogy. US census for 1940 has Lester and Kathryn only. US census for 1930 has son, Chauncy and his wife Joan. Lester's wife is Mabel. In the 1920 US census, Lester, Mabel and two children Edna and Chauncy. In the 1910 US census, Lester, Stella and two children Edna and Chauncy. Remember, the census enumerator asks about the relationship to the head of the household, not to each other.
   Let us look further, again starting from the most recent and working backward. On 29 October 1836, Lester married Kathryn Krudwig Nichols. This was his fourth marriage and her second marriage. WOW! Three more marriage records to find! Thanks to Ancestry this task has been completed. On 26 November 1930, Lester married Emma Wood, number three. On 9 October 1915, Lester married Mabel Hall, number two. Mabel is listed as divorced; Lester is listed as widower. About 1901, Lester married Stella Mae Mitchell, number one. according to the 1910 US census, Stella and Lester had two children, Edna and Chauncy. Stella Mae Mitchell is the mother of Edna and Chauncy. If I had stopped with the 1920 and 1930 census, I would have guessed wrong, assuming Mabel as their mother. This accounts for the four wives. So far, I have not found any other children for Lester.
   What is my connection to Lester? Lester Daniel CAPPS is brother-in-law of my first cousin twice removed. This is on my paternal ELSNER line. For my tree, see Roots Digger family tree on Ancestry.
   How come I am chasing this far out? Lester's wife may be a DNA match. Also, I have found newspaper articles on other family members that have given me clues.

"The Lemming Conspiracy..." by McDonald & Hutcheson review

The Lemming Conspiracy: How to Redirect Your Life From Stress to Balance what is this all about?  What is the Lemming conspiracy? According to the introduction, a small arctic mammal know as lemmings gather together in vast herds and throw themselves over cliffs. The authors use this as a metaphor that too many people live a life of herd mentality. Alan Arkin, The Lemming Condition, states "Fearful of what lay ahead, but even more afraid of complete isolation, [the Lemming] threw himself into the crowd. It was defeat, and [he] knew it, but it was mixed with great relief. All decisions were gone. So was concern for the future, so was the fear of conflicting with his own kind."

In chapter one, the authors ask for answers to questions such as, why do we settle for stressful, unfulfilling lives or why do we ignore people who are important to us? The authors continue to answer by saying that we grow up learning to see limited options from family, school and work. We become out of balance with ourselves and that leads to stress.

The next five chapters talk about our foundation, personal vision using our abilities, skills, interests and personality. Chapters eight, nine and ten help the reader to create a personal vision. Your personal vision is your guide to your life and career and beyond. This book offer suggestions for people of all ages even age 80+.

What does this have to do with family history? Glad you asked, read chapter seven "Beating the Lemming Conspiracy with Your FAMILY of ORIGIN." The following quote is from page 159, "There is no more powerful influence on our lives than the family in which we were born and grew up. We form our personalities here....While we may have no recollection of exactly what we learned, the lessons become part of our emotional and social DNA." Pages 170-173 offer family interview techniques and questions with the suggestion to record and keep for your children. Continued on page 159, "Figuring out what positive things you learned in your family, finding out what makes you unique.... asking how your parents made life decisions.... moves you into new territory...."

Are you ready to discover new territory in your life? Do you want to learn what is important to you and how to prioritize your life? Family history can be one more tool in your tool box to understanding yourself and your goals.

"Family Tree page ideas for Scrapbookers" edited by Kerry Arquette + more books

The Gwinnett County Public Library, Georgia, acquaints readers with an ample variety of genealogy books. This article, the last in a series, completes reviews on all the genealogy books in the library's outstanding assortment. The articles were published in another no longer available site. The following books are special in their own way. They do not fit the basic "how to" molds. Yet, these books may be of interest to the family historian.

Arquette, Kerry, editor. Memory Makers: Family Tree page ideas for Scrapbookers. Denver: Memory Makers Books. 2004.
Family Tree page ideas for Scrapbookers offers instructions, patterns and photograph ideas for creating your family tree scrapbook.
Higgins, Becky. Family History Scrapbooking. Korea: Primedia. 2006.
Becky Higgins offers readers ten different ideas for album types. She includes examples of albums such as family tree album, recipe album, family stories and snapshot album. Her book includes how to begin and needed supplies. Tips include how to add pages without photographs to remember the family stories.

Jackson, Buzzy. Shaking the Family Tree: Blue Bloods, Black Sheep, and Other Obsessions of an Accidental Genealogist. New York: Touchstone Book. 2010.
Delightful narrative! Shaking the Family Tree reveals Buzzy Jackson's hunt for answers. The book starts and ends with the same question, why are you doing this? The author resolves this inquiry with an amusing paperback bursting with personal accounts.

Petričić, Dušan. My Family Tree and Me. Tonawanda, New York: Kids Can Press. 2015.
In My Family Tree and Me, Dušan Petričić introduces the young reader to family relationships. Read the father's ancestors from the front to the middle. Read the mother's ancestors from the back to the middle. The middle portrays the complete family with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. A attractively written and illustrated book.

Stewart, Alan. Grow Your Own Family Tree: The easy guide to research family history. London: Allen Lane. 2008.
Alan Stewart introduces the reader to his family with a 1913 portrait. Grow Your Own Family Tree provides a brief history and research hints for the United Kingdom. The author supplies extensive substance on the East India Company, military records and Channel Island records plus more.

Taylor, Maureen A. Family Photo Detective: Learn how to find genealogy clues in old photos and solve family photo mysteries. Cincinnati: Family Tree Books. 2013.
Family Photo Detective author Maureen Taylor alerts the family historian on how to use visual clues. These clues facilitate dating and identifying people or places.

Webster, Donovan. Meeting the Family: One Man’s Journey Through His Human Ancestry. Washington, DC: National Geographic. 2010.
According the Donovan Webster, everyone wants answers to these three questions: where did I come from, where am I going and how did I arrive here right now? Meeting the Family: One Man’s Journey Through His Human Ancestry bestows the reader with Mr. Webster's answers. His answers started with his ethnic DNA results. He travels the world from the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania (last hunter-gatherer) to Bilbao, land of the Basques (10,000 years ago). He traverses quite a few places before returning home.

Check area libraries, these books are available at the Gwinnett County Public Library, Georgia. Comments or questions, please contact Selma Blackmon, Thank you!

Can DNA Help Solve Two Dunham Brick Walls?

I hope to find the answer to this question, with the help of some cousins and some people I haven't met yet.

By way of background, my second cousin, Christina Streiff, and I have a brick wall ancestor named William F. Dunham, born in Pomfret, Vermont in 1799. Separately, Selma Blackmon has another brick wall named Jane A. Dunham Couch, born in Rome, New York in 1823.

Are Our Two Dunhams Related?

If so, it would provide a major clue regarding their ancestry. We have two documents suggesting they may be related.

First, Selma has a document showing an 1840s real estate transaction between her Jane Dunham and our William F. Dunham's son, Lindsey, when both families lived in Oneida County, New York.

Second, the death certificate for Jane's daughter, Carrie Sarah Couch, listed her mother (incorrectly) as Jane Hempton. The informant, Jane's granddaughter, got it wrong. But Hempton is the (uncommon) married name of William's daughter, Louisa. It suggests the two families knew each other.

We continue to look through records, though so far we have not cracked the case.

Along Comes DNA Testing

There are three kinds of DNA tests for genealogists (aka genetic genealogy):

• Y-DNA tests track a male's straight paternal (i.e. surname) line, which is not a fit in this case.
• Mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA) tests track everyone's straight maternal line - again not a fit.
• Autosomal DNA tests, though, might be useful.

First through fourth cousins generally share DNA with each other, and people also can share DNA with some more distant cousins. If William F. Dunham and Jane Dunham were first cousins, then Selma and I would be fifth cousins, so it was worth a try.

Selma and I had both taken autosomal DNA tests, and when we compared them, we found that we share one small segment of DNA on one chromosome. It might not sound like much, but we share enough (10cM) to know that we have common ancestors.

Finding Common Ancestors

If you've been down this path, you may know that two matches' common ancestors could go back hundreds of years. But there are ways to narrow the search for the common ancestors.

First, we can test our own first and second cousins.

Selma is not a DNA match to Christina, but she is a solid match to another cousin of ours, Elton, on the same segment, and he is on the 25% of my tree that includes William F. Dunham.  By definition then, Elton, Selma and I have common ancestors, and they are from this branch of my tree.

Second, we can look for DNA matches in the general population that can help.

Does anyone match Selma and me?

Nobody at Family Tree DNA matches both of us.

One person at 23andMe is a match to me on the same segment, but I can rule him out, since he matches a cousin on the other side of my family on that same segment.

AncestryDNA does not provide chromosome-level data, so I don't yet know if anyone matches on the same segment. If someone is a DNA match there, and has Dunhams in their tree, I ask them to upload their results to GEDmatch, a free service that can show two people which DNA segments they have in common.

The Search Continues

DNA has not solved our Dunham questions yet, but DNA analysis does indicate that Selma and I are related, and that our two Dunhams may be related. The next step will be to test more descendants of these two Dunhams to see if they match us on the same segment.

As more people test their DNA for genealogy, a match could come from the general population at any time that could provide a critical piece of information to help us solve our mysteries.

Thank you Rich Capen for this article explaining our DNA and how we match. Through FamilyTreeDNA, we are now three cousins with one in CA one in WI and the other in GA. What other cousins want to join us? Contact me at sbgenealogy@gmail.com.