A Few Memories and Digital Connections

John Alfred Wright (1882-1962)

Louisa Ann Staples Wright (1882-1944)

We stayed overnight at my parents' last night. We made sure we cleaned up after ourselves, washed the sheets, etc., to be sure we were not a burden. They like us to come. We had a restful exit as dad insisted on making waffles.

On arrival last night, I had a flash in the bedroom where I noticed the familiar portraits of my mom's grandparents. "Hey," thought I, "those aren't in the digital family pics I have from my mom." I was thinking of the ways they could mysteriously disappear to be carefully packed in our car but I opted for the straightforward approach the next morning.

Curiouser and Curiouser

Found it.

Yes, you can download and upload the raw DNA data from ancestry and use on other sites. The easiest appears to be gedmatch.com, a "crowd-sourcing" site that needs our financial along with DNA contributions. It's all still very confusing and I still haven't figured out how to look at my Y Chromosome which I seriously need for Welsh connections.

But I found my American Indian percentage! Or at least one of the versions. There are several ways to look at DNA on the Gedwatch site. It scares me to begin to understand them cuz of a little knowledge and stranger-danger, etc. One of the analyses gave me:

Amerindian

0.22%

Not Illegitimate - Not Adopted

Not that there's anything bad with adoption or even illegitimacy for that matter. We know my Vaughans, with "John the B," started out illegitimate. Apparently Petersons back in Denmark, too.

What my DNA testing through Ancestry.com accomplished well was to link me genetically to the families I already have in my tree. Mormon family genealogies are largely to credit for that. (Along with not much foolin' around).

There is one significant name missing. Yep, Vaughn. We need more Vaughn/Vaughan DNA tested! Cousins, Uncles, Aunts, etc., please note! In another section of my Ancestry profile, I have confirmed Vaughan DNA with a distant cousin in Utah County with matching ancestors from Thomas Vaughan (1850) back. So it's there, it's just not well documented yet. We need more testing.

Here is the general genetic confirmation of my Family Tree: