As I said, it's been a stumbling GenealogyDNA journey. Life gets in the way. Shingles happen. Family photos happen. MyHeritage animation photos happen....
So what did I learn in those early days of this DNA journey. Not much, or so it seemed, but then when I actually take a good look at the leads I found, the people that showed up, and the questions answered and unanswered, it's been one foot step at a time.
Early on, I found that mtDNA wasn't too helpful for me and my search. Partly, because my knowledge base was so limited. Partly because I expected too much. However, I do know that my DNA "mother's" clan, so to speak, was that of Helena, as Bryan Sykes, one of the early DNA researchers, named her. Her clan of daughters is the largest and most widely spread throughout Europe- an early hunter-gather lady, born some 20,000 years ago. Those words didn't have much meaning for me when I received my first packet of information from FTDNA. An interesting bit of history, but no help in finding relatives or beating down brick walls. However, I was surprised at the number of Scandanavian names that showed up in my mother's haplogroup, but those names had little meaning for me.
I also joined, for a short time, a couple of DNA groups at my local genealogy center. Too advanced and not advanced enough for me., but I did gather a wider DNA vocabulary.
About this same time, I had encountered several brick walls. One had to do with the lady I call Cherokee Elizabeth. She was my mother's great great grandmother, who married Henry T. Duty and traveled along the Trail of Tears, whether with the long procession of dispossessed tribes or not is unknown. Cherokee Elizabeth may have been Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw or Creek, but family oral history has long been staunch that she was of of Native American heritage. My first DNA packet came back with no indication of Native American DNA in my sample. I could hardly believe the words on the paper, but I put the research into Cherokee Elizabeth's heritage aside for another day.
Another brick wall surrounded the ancestry of my maternal grandfather's ancestry. My grandfather, Frank Clemmon Sigford, often told his children that his father, Samuel Sigford, was born in Lower Augusta, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. Years later, I came across a book, The History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, which noted the death of Samuel Levan Sigford and the legal settlement of his estate. Everything that I had been putting together about my Sigford grandfather's family seemed to fit. I thought I had hit the pay dirt -- gold in the sand. The names, ages, and family stories, but it was a rather shifting bed of sand. I thought it tied back to Johannes Siegfried/Siegfrit of Berks County, Pennsylvania, but I lacked that final tie in. Then I met a well known Siegfried researcher who dashed my hopes with ice water. "You should look elsewhere. Our Siegfried family have never been known by Sigford or Sigfrit." Even though one of Johannes Siegfried's early land purchases was clearly written Siegfrit. Once this German family traveled over the Allegehney Mts. they became much more difficult to track. No Bibles or letters left, no letters to kin on the other side of the mountains, just a few random stories that seemed viable. I knew that I would need DNA confirmation to make the tie to the Berks County folks. Unfortunately, my only male Sigford cousin was not at all interested and indeed died leaving no DNA sample. I am still working on getting male offspring of my Grandfather's nephews but not having much luck. Research on back burner.
I thought my last brick wall would fold like a fan. My brother submitted his DNA to FTDNA. I had the 1800s marriage records of my McPherson great great grandfather, as well as his birth registration. We registered my brother's DNA in the McPherson Clan project. With all of my research they welcomed me with open arms into the group. Then, the DNA sample arrived and I received a nice letter, telling me that the Y-DNA sample came back with strong Irish ties. After a period of second guessing myself, questioning whether Peter McPherson was indeed the father of my great great grandfather James Peter McPherson, I settled down for the long haul.
What I knew. 1)The McPherson project through FTDNA was just over 300 members in 2017, and has now grown to 500 members. Not a huge sample. 2) The original Muirech brothers who became the McPherson clan (Son of the Parson) were indeed from Ireland. 3) I had always felt a bit sketchy about the Parish records about the marriage of Peter McPherson and Elizabeth Spink. In addition, James Peter's birth record was registered quite a while after his birth -- and the death of his father Peter. Nonetheless, this game is still in play. A fair amount to work with -- and with ever growing number of DNA samples submitted, that data becomes more rich. This research continues and the outcome will be what it is.
However, there were some bright spots in my early DNA journey. I reconnected with a few cousins and "cuzins" of one degree or another. The brightest spot was meeting up with the son of one of my favorite cousins, which would not have happened, except for the DNA connection. So stumbling along I did, but in retrospect, the pathway has always been forward.
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© Joan G. Hill, Roots'n'Leaves Publications
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