This Thanksgiving I’m thinking more about our Ancestors who arrive in 1620. I have several, yet to be accept Mayflower lines. Richard Warren, John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, Joan Hurst Tilley are just a few that I have a paper trail to. Next year the celebration of the arrival of the Mayflowers 400 years ago.
Here is my entry for Bill West’s 11th Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Contest. Here is the link.
I dedicate this Poem to all who struggled with the decision to leave their homeland and traverse to an unknown wilderness.
I’m using Ancestry new features to help narrow down my DNA match searches. A Focused Search is part of the Genealogy Proof Standard. When searching your DNA matches it is even more important to narrow the field.
First I sort by Date:
Date Sort
I check a match for Shared Ancestor Surnames
Surnames Johnson and Roberts can be either maternal or paternal lines.
Roberts-Vincent-Johnson Surnames
Now I checked for Shared Matches. In this case only one shared match. I do the same Surname search in the Shared match tree. Surnames Babbs, Goodwin-both paternal lines. Varney -maternal Pease lines.
Babbs- Goodwin-Varney Surnames
It is important to color tag both the matches to the potential family lines. I also make a note in the notes field for myself and others to follow in future research. My goal now is to group people together. This helps focus my research to a specific surname or family line.
Note and color tag
I noticed that if I did the Date sort; then the family surname search, the earliest surname is from three weeks ago. It didn’t include either of the ones I found in the last 7 days.
Still adding this search provides more potential matches for a focus group.
Surname matches
This is just the first steps in my DNA search organization. It is my way of working my matches. Others may research differently. No one way is correct or wrong. It is what you find comfortable working with.
Purple is a very impactful color. Use it wisely for the most postive rsults. Caution is your choices and utilization of those symbols. I choose the, to me, the most positive symols of Creativity and wisdom. You go forth and make you choice.
