Wednesday, September 24, 2014

DNA News: "Finding Your Roots" Premiere And X Chromosome Match Browning



I enjoyed the first episode of the new season of "Finding Your Roots" on PBS. Stephen King's experience was very much like my own. Some of his ancestors migrated to Indiana from Tennessee; just like my ancestors. Like him, I had no idea I had southern roots until some cousins shared their research with me. That information was never passed down in our family. I also found Gloria Reuben's story very interesting. Her father's ancestry was Jewish. Apparently many Jews fled Spain during the inquisition and migrated to Jamaica, where Gloria's ancestors also settled. I was very interested in her admixture results, curious to see how much Ashkenazi would show up?  I replayed her segment and could see what I believe is 12% Ashkenazi. I suppose European Jews have substantial European admixture, and not as much Middle Eastern as I expected? Also I expected to see a higher percentage of Ashkenazi in her results? I was surprised that more Ashkenazi didn't show up in my own results?
Browning family Tree mostly circumstantial evidence

Edna Kapple 2nd to 4th cousin
Browning match
I was so surprised to find a new Browning match at Family Tree DNA. This match shared a large segment on the X chromosome with Mom, but zero on the X with me. My Mom shared an 18.9 cm segment with this Browning match, and a 5 cm segment. The 18.9 segment is the largest X chromosome share I've found in our matches. My Mom shared substantially more DNA with this match than I did. My relationship prediction, with this match, was 5th cousin remote. The prediction for my Mom was 2nd to 4th cousin. This match is a 3rd cousin 1x removed to me Mom. This same person also matches us at AncestryDNA, and is predicted to be a 4th cousin there. We also have another Browning match at Family Tree DNA. This person is a more distant cousin, and didn't match our closer cousin.

I noticed a glitch in the surname search at Family Tree DNA. Our new match has Browning in their tree, but this match doesn't show up when you search on that name?


Annette Kapple Distant Remote
 5th Cousin Match Browning
My goal on our Browning line is to confirm a circumstantial lineage. It's believed that Roger Browning of Greene County, Tennessee is the same Roger Browning mentioned in Benjamin Browning's estate records. Benjamin died in Maryland. I haven't found any source material verifying the fact Roger of Tennessee migrated from Maryland?  Unless a document surfaces we will need to support this inference with DNA testing.

My Mom and I have a remote cousin match with a descendant of Francis Browning and Rachel Marriott who were supposed to Grandparents of Benjamin Browning. My Mom shares a 16 cm segment with this match. This would be a 7th cousin to my Mom. At AncestryDNA we have a moderate match with a descendant of Benjamin's parents Edward Browning and Elizabeth.

List of Browning matches
  1. Match through Roger Browning and his Daughter Malinda. AncestryDNA very low confidence for me and moderate for my Mom.
  2. The match I talked about above is through Richard W. Browning and Obedience McPike, and son William Jennings Browning. AncestryDNA. Predicted 4th to 6th cousin to my Mom, and 5th cousin remote to me. Actually 3rd cousin 1x removed to my Mom. Family Tree DNA.
  3. Match through Roger Browning and Mary, and their son  Amzi. Down through Amzi's daughter Emma. At AncestryDNA.
  4. We have a match through Richard Washington Browning, my great-great grandfather and his son William Jennings Browning at AncestryDNA. Predicted 4th cousin, but actually 2nd cousin twice removed to my Mom.
  5. A possible match down the Francis Browning and Rachel Marriott line through son John. This tree is quite mixed up. This is a predicted 4th- 6th cousin match to my Mom, which would actually be 7th at AncestryDNA.
  6. We have another match through Richard Washington Browning, my great-great grandfather and his son William Jennings Browning at AncestryDNA. Predicted 4th- 6th cousin, but actually 3rd cousin twice removed to my Mom.
  7. Match through Edward Browning and Elizabeth  moderate match. AncestryDNA.
  8. Match through Francis Browning and son John. Ancestry DNA. Low confidence to Mom.
  9. Match through Francis Browning and daughter Catherine. Ancestry DNA. Low confidence to Mom.
  10. Another match through Nathan Browning and Obedience McPike and son William. Ancestry DNA. Very low confidence to Mom. Actually 3rd cousin 2x removed.
  11. Another match through Francis Browning and Rachel Marriott through Catherine. Ancestry match. Very low confidence to Mom.
  12. Yet another match through Francis Browning and Rachel Marriott through Catherine. Ancestry match. Very low confidence to Mom.
  13. A match through Francis and Rachel and son John. AncestryDNA. Very low confidence to Mom.
  14. Another match Edward Browning and Elizabeth through son Nathan. AncestryDNA. Very low confidence to Mom.
  15. Match through Nathan Browning and Obedience McPike and their daughter Mary (Polly). AncestryDNA match very low confidence. Actual relationship 3rd cousin 2x removed to Mom.
  16. Another match through Nathan Browning and Obedience McPike through daughter Elizabeth. AncestryDNA very low confidence match. Actually relationship 3rd cousin 2x remove to Mom.
  17. Another match through Roger Browning and his daughter Melinda's line. AncestryDNA. Very low confidence to Mom.
  18. A match through Francis Browning and Rachel Marriott through their daughter Catherine. At Family Tree DNA 4th cousin remote to Mom. Would actually be 7th cousin.
If anyone reading this matches us on the Browning line at AncestryDNA please let me know if you'd like to compare at Gedmatch? If I could get our Browning matches to compare at Gedmatch, and we can compare notes, maybe we can confirm our circumstantial lineage. I'm finding that some of the Brownings, among my matches, settled in Culpepper County, Virginia. I'll have to see what I can find in their records.

Something else that struck me is how cousin removals affect the amount of shared DNA. My Mom has many cousins in the 3rd and 4th cousin range who are removed from her by 1 to 3 generations. Most of these cousins are very low confidence matches, although some are more confident. I'll have to examine a chart showing the amount of DNA generally shared by these cousins. I wish I could see how much DNA we share, and where it is on the chromosomes at AncestryDNA.



5 comments:

Your Genetic Genealogist said...

Hi Annette,

Good eyesight! Gloria's paternal ancestry was much more complex than they had time to show. She was not only Ashkenazi Jewish, but Sephardic Jewish as well. Sephardic Jewish does not have its own category at any of the companies and therefore is not clearly delineated in the admixture results. It will show up as a mix of ancestries of which Ashkenazi is only a portion.

CeCe

Annette said...

Thank you very much CeCe! I always review the DNA results shown in these episodes, and find them very educational. It could be my family was also part Sephardic Jewish? We have some Spanish Y DNA matches. Hopefully our Jewish roots will show up eventually?

Your Genetic Genealogist said...

Possibly. Sephardic admixture often shows as Spanish, low levels of Ashkenazi, North African, Middle Eastern, sometimes Italian and non-specific Southern European.

Annette said...

Thanks very much CeCe! I do have some Middle Eastern and Italian in my admixture.

Luanne said...

I've been searching for some of my Brownings too and would be happy to compare DNA matches to see if we can help each other.

I have an ancestry account under Luanne Browning Gilbert.