It is rather fascinating, though time-consuming, to see what the various sites come up with regarding ethnicity, DNA matches and family tree hints. I have already given an explanation from a couple of sites regarding ethnicity identification on the page for my Ancestry DNA results and it just shows how different interpretations can be. The more tests the merrier I suppose! As for matches - well, MyHeritage throws up matches based on the Ancestry raw DNA data I uploaded and I assume these are the same matches that are given in GedMatch to which I also uploaded my data. In the latter, though, you have to go through the list yourselfand you can’t see named matches at a glance.

A lot of matches and hints appear to be taken from diverse family trees that have been uploaded by others and, since the family tree that I uploaded myself is actually my Raitt master file on my computer, then it contains a lot of Raitts (and other names associated with them) who are not actually related to me, at least, in the recent past, so far as I thus have been able to ascertain. I put them in so that I could easily create trees to put on the website when I wrote up about that particular family. Now, some of the Raitts are from Arbroath/St Vigeans and so might be related to my Raitts somewhere - but as crucial parish registers are missing from the Angus archives, then it is not currently possible to be sure of certain relationships. The fact that some of these Raitts show up as hints is very interesting though and indeed useful because they are providing me with some information I do not currently have down for them - so that a) spurs me to look into those names a little more deeply and b) saves me some effort!

And, of course, some of the suggestions are not so helpful - showing me a record for a person with the same name as a person in my tree for whom I have all the information, but in say the USA, as opposed to Scotland. What is also thrown up are individuals in other people’s trees who are the self-same named people as in my own tree, but with different dates. This is, of course, useful because not only does it point to someone who is presumably related to me somewhere along the line and who I may not know or have details about, but it also forces me to go back and double check my own findings re dates and places. On the other hand I have found that some people are not quite so precise in recording individuals from long ago in their trees. I liken it a bit to looking up a foreign word in a dictionary and taking the first meaning in the list of several - which is often not the correct translation. So someone trying to find an ancestor called John Raitt born in 1756 in Angus (for the sake of argument) may often take the first John Raitt born then that they come across, perhaps not realizing that there are several John Raitts born in or around that year in the same town or village. Which is really the right one? And of course an earlier blog pointed out that someone (Alexina Raitt Wilkie) whose names ticked all the boxes to be related to me, simply was not!

Although we can often trace our ancestors for quite a few generations back from BMD records, it seems that in so far as DNA is concerned autosomal DNA analysis is only useful for about six or seven generations back - and even then we only receive a bit more than 1.5% from each ancestor for six generations - not really enough for decent analysis. A helpful introduction to interpreting GedMatch details can be found at http://smithplanet.com/stuff/gedmatch.htm. And a very useful table for explaining relationships can be found at https://lifehacker.com/second-cousins-once-removed-and-more-explained-in-1661572056. Once removed means one generation removed or away. Thus if someone has the same great great grandparents as me (i.e John Raitt and Elizabeth Dorward) then we are 3rd cousins and their children will be my 3rd cousins, once removed.

Disappointingly I have no DNA matches with anyone actually with the surname Raitt. I do know of two females, born Raitt, who have uploaded their DNA, but sadly we appear to have no matching segments and thus are unrelated. However, looking through the list of 137 4th cousins or closer for me on Ancestry (the number was 134 the other day), then six people show up as 3rd cousins - or rather in the possible range 3rd-4th cousins with extremely high confidence. Two Americans show up as possible 3rd-4th cousins with extremely high confidence because they have the name Raitt in their family trees. They both turns out to be descended from Matilda Raitt, a daughter of my great grandfathers eldest brother, John Raitt and his wife Cecilia Crabb who emigrated to the United States in 1863. Although Matilda, born December 1878 in Illinois, is in my Raitt master file, along with her husband and children, I do not have any details down about the children’s marriages, offspring etc. So it will be nice to add further details to my master file. Of the other four, they all seem to be in the USA - one related to the others above despite posting no family tree or public profile.

If I search my 137 matches for the name Raitt (i.e. the name will be in the trees), then I have the two 3rd cousins above with extremely high confidence; five 4th cousins (one extremely high confidence, on very high, one high, and two good).; and three distant cousins (range 5th-8th cousins) - one with good confidence and two with moderate. Three of these five cousins (4th-6th range) are descended from other children of my great uncle, John Raitt and Cecilia Crabb. Two are descended from their eldest daughter, Elizabeth Ann Dorward Raitt, while the third is descended from their daughter Margaret Anne Raitt. As with daughter Matilda above, I do not have all the descendants in my master file, so it will be useful to go through the various trees and add more to my master file!  

Another match (of the five 4th cousins) with good confidence gives someone as a 4-6th cousin - but in fact I think we are actually more closely related because this person does not have parents down for Jemima Raitt, born 1904. This Jemima’s parents were John Purvis Raitt and Georgina Clark. I have a note in my file to say that it looks as though she may have gone to Canada in 1929 because a person of that name and age is found on a ship heading that way. She married over there and had children. The father of John Purvis Raitt was David Dorward Raitt and he is my great grandfather! One of his three son’s, my grandfather, was William Raitt - an elder brother of John. So hopefully we will be able to fill in some gaps. None of these people appear to have had their DNA tested - or at least uploaded it to GedMatch.

The remaining 4th cousin only has two people in his tree - himself and private. However, judging from his distinctive first name then he will be descended from my great uncle James Dorward Raitt and his wife Elizabeth Abbot who emigrated to America in 1871.

However, with a couple of my other matches in GedMatch, I have managed to work out how I am related to that person. For instance, on my maternal side, in one match from Canada, we have two matching segments and share a total of 27.5 centimorgans (cM) which equates to about 0.4% of shared DNA. Thus he is a third cousin once removed. GedMatch indicates that the most recent common ancestor is 4.5 generations back. Since Ancestry actually informs you of the relationship with your matches, then they say that my Canadian cousin is in the possible range of 4th-6th cousins with good confidence. In fact, he is descended from the elder brother of my great grandfather - thus their parents (my great great grandparents - and his great great great grandparents are shared). Actually, we had already come across each other before by virtue of our family trees. And, also via trees, another individual in Canada turns out to be descended from the elder brother of my grandmother and thus we share the same great grandparents. Though he has not had his DNA analysed yet.

In another instance, the link goes a bit further back. Again on GedMatch we have two matching segments and share a total of 18.6 cM which equates to a little over 0.2% DNA shared. She is thus a fourth cousin or a third cousin twice removed. GedMatch indicates that the most recent common ancestor is 4.8 generations back. Ancestry says the possible range is 5th-8th cousins with moderate confidence. The link appears to be that my distant cousin’s 4xgreat grandfather’s younger sister married the elder brother of my paternal great great grandfather!

But there are other matches that allude me so far. My top two matches on GedMatch, both with two matching segments and with centimorgan way higher than any other in the list (though possibly not including my other cousin in Canada with whom I have shared great grandparents and for whom no DNA is uploaded), are a mother, and daughter in America. My third highest match, but with only one matching segment, is another daughter of the mother. But we just cannot find the connection at the moment - possibly because the names aren’t yet in our family trees (which is interesting in itself that the DNA is picked up). With the mother I share 59.8 cM and with one daughter I share 56.5 cM. Interestingly, with the mother’s other daughter I share only 33.2 cM. his means that the two sisters inherited different pieces of their ancestors DNA (a fact explained in the GedMatch article noted above). The most recent common ancestor for the mother and daughter is 4 generations back, and for the other daughter it is 4.4 (I also have two other 4.4 matches). The first two equate to a little over 0.8% shared DNA and shows them to be third cousins or second cousins twice removed. Looking through the family trees we have online and discounting several names, one possibility is that we are descended from two male surnames, just a few years apart in dates of birth, who could be brothers. At present we do not know their parents - but this is clearly something to try and verify. Ancestry gives a very high confidence that we are 4th-6th cousins for the mother and one daughter and 4th-6th cousins with good confidence for the other daughter.

One interesting name in their tree is that of Alexina Raitt Wilkie who I have discussed in an earlier blog entry (mentioned above). The earliest known in that line is a William Wilkie, born about 1797 and I have a John Wilkie, born about 1787 - so they could be brothers (we don’t have parents for either). This is something to try and check. Perhaps Alexina and her descendants arer related afterall! Another possibility, perhaps more likely, is that we may be through the Drummonds since we go back four generations. For this to work, it would have to mean that my William Drummond (born Nov 1919) had an elder sister named Margaret, born about 1818 (birth so far not found). William’s parents were David Drummond and Elisabeth Hendry, whose marriage is unrecorded  I had assumed they married about 1818 since William was born in 1819 - but they may have married (or had a liaison) earlier and Margaret might have been their first child. That would make it 4 generations then.

Sunday 12 November 2017

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