More DNA results are in!

FamilyTreeDNA sorted out their mis-belief that my mother hadn’t paid for her DNA test upgrade, as I discovered a couple of days ago when she told me that they had notified her that her first DNA test results were available.  She ordered tests without consulting with me, so it was only when I went to look at hers that I discovered that she hadn’t just ordered a more complete mtDNA test (as I said in my most recent entry, she had been one of the early participants in National Geographic’s mitochondrial origins study), but also what FamilyTreeDNA calls their “Family Finder” test, which is their term for their autosomal DNA test.  This is the test that had been completed, with the results available on their site.

I’m glad she didn’t tell me she ordered it, as I probably would have told her that it seemed like the technology didn’t make it worthwhile at the current stage to do this test without having a relative also being tested with whom to compare results.  But as it turns out, she has 2 matches in the database that are stated to be in the 2nd-4th cousins range, with the database estimating them as 3rd cousins.  I wrote to both of them yesterday morning and so far one of the two has responded.

He says his family was primarily clustered in the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania border region, wherein my own research on my mother’s lines in this area really flounders; I know from records in Canada that one of my mom’s Loyalist groups was from that area, and I know from a longtime researcher of that family that some of their grandchildren moved back to that area from Canada.  But I have not had any luck tracing their common name, Stewart/Stuart/Steward, back to the previous generation in the States, nor discovering the maiden name of the mother; and from what I have discussed with other researchers of this group, it appears that nobody else has been able to do so either.   My educated guess based on our initial contact is that this is the connection between her and this other person, but it is also possible that they come from some other Colonial New Yorkers who strayed farther south (most of her other direct NY lines were farther north in New York but there’s no reason that relatives of theirs couldn’t have moved south).

DNA results have been so fascinating for me as a researcher because they’re the exact opposite of the way I usually connect with other researchers.  Instead of finding the specific connecting person(s) and working our way outwards from there swapping information (and sometimes theories or leads), we have to start with information that’s as general as possible without being too general to be of any use, and try to work our way inwards to figure out exactly what the specific connection is.