Tuesday, March 2, 2021

A DNA Case Study/ Plus Would Sharing the Chromosome Number be Possible?

I've been working on trying to break down a brickwall by using atDNA match chart. I got that idea from the RootsTech session by that called "Organize Your DNA Matches in a Diagram". 

A couple weeks ago I found important information that might help lead me to a resolution of the Campbell brickwall. My only confirmed Campbell ancestor is Sarah "Sally" Campbell. She was born about 1811 (according to a daughter Polly Wray Hall her mother was born in Tennessee). She was married to Anderson Wray in Jackson County, Indiana. 

A James T. Campbell lived near the family in Indiana. I believe, based on his age, he might be Sarah Campbell-Wray's brother. I've been researching James and his family. I did discover that the family came from East Tennessee based on a death certificate but I hadn't found any other information on him. The recent find regarding this family was an obituary for an Eleanor Campbell referred to as a sister on a census and daughter by descendants. I don't know which is correct? I do know they are related because James is always recorded as being born in Tennessee on census records and they share the same last name. James T. Campbell was in Indiana by the mid 1830s whereas Eleanor said she came to Indiana in 1846. 

Eleanor F. Campbell's obituary gives her birth place as Greene County, Tennessee. 

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Even before finding this information I was leaning towards believing my Sarah might be from there. My mother has a number of atDNA matches descended from a George Lafayette Campbell of Greene County, Tennessee. I have not been able to find any other surnames in common or places in common with these matches. The families of these matches migrated from Greene County, TN to Alabama and Texas. All of my Mother's paternal ancestors had arrived in Indiana prior to 1840 and remained in the Midwest.

A problem I have is that I have other ancestors from Greene County, Tennessee. My ancestor Roger Browning migrated to that area in the 1790's. His second wife Elizabeth's maiden name isn't known so it's possible these matches match us through her family?

I knew my mother had a number of matches who descended from George Lafayette Campbell but didn't know exactly how many or how they were related to each other until I created the chart below. 



Charting each match descended from George Lafayette Campbell and Susannah Kaiser provided some very helpful information which has allowed me to find even more matches through this couple. I used the additional surnames of descendants to find matches that may not have their tree traced back far enough. I was then able to collect up segments for those who tested with companies who offer a chromosome browser. 

These matches shared DNA on chromosome 5, 12, and 18. Some of my mother's matches share a very large segment on chromosomes 8 & 12. There are false positive regions on both of these chromosomes  according to Genome Mate Pro. I believe that is why they predict these cousins are more closely related? 

Ancestry and 23andMe are pretty insistent that several of these cousins are 3rd or 4th cousins of my Mother. I believe they are at least 5th cousins probably with removals? George Lafayette Campbell's father was James M. Campbell born about 1800. The man I think might be my Sarah Campbell-Wray's brother is also named James and he was born about 1811. I doubt they would have been brothers with the same first name. They would most likely have been cousins. If they were cousins then my Mother would be at least a 5th cousin with removals. If the relationship is instead through Roger Browning's wife they would still be in the 5th cousin range possibly with removals?

Below you see AncestryDNA predicts chances are only 2% that one of these Campbell matches is a 5th cousin. 


When I clicked on the question mark next to the same matches name at MyHeritage a chart with the predicted possible relationship comes up. They don't give a percentage of the likelihood for each possible relationship. I believe the chart should have extended to 6th cousin or 5th cousin once removed? More research may prove I'm wrong about the relationship? 


A chart predicting the relationship of another match from the same family at 23andMe. They are predicting the match is a 4th cousin, and not extending the possibility the match is a 5th cousin. 


I noticed while making the chart two Campbell sisters married two Morton brothers. The growing list of matches with descendants from this one family all seem to come from the same 3 siblings Nancy Elvira Campbell, Mary Adeline Campbell, and James Wallace Campbell. 

Looking at the chart it's also interesting to see all of the matches are separated from George Lafayette and his wife Susannah by the same number of generations, except for one.

Going through matches on the same chromosomes I've found other families with the surname Campbell matching on the same segments as George Lafayette Campbell and Susannah's children. I'm not sure if that is a coincidence or these segments have been passed down in Campbell families for generations?


I believe it looks promising that these matches are related through the Campbell line. I need more documentation to prove it however. 

Would Sharing the Chromosome Number be Possible? 

Mapping the chromosomes of our Campbell brickwall matches has been very helpful. It has helped me confirm that segments have been passed down through this family because they are overlapping. It's also helped me find more matches through the same couple. 

I know AncestryDNA will never have a chromosome browser but I had heard they might share which chromosomes segments are shared on? Knowing the chromosomes segments are shared on would be helpful to me and others I'm sure. If I have distant cousins sharing DNA on the same chromosome that would suggest the segment could have come from the same source. 

The trees attached to DNA matches at AncestryDNA are very useful but without segment information the results aren't very useful when trying to connect with distant cousins. Many people share more than one couple with a match. The location of the segments is the only way to tell which couple a segment or segments came from. 

I may be mistaken about AncestryDNA planning on adding the segment chromosome numbers? It would be extremely helpful if they could do that though. The trees have helped identify my Campbell matches ancestors but there was no way to tell if the shared matches' segments came from the same ancestor? Additional segment information at AncestryDNA would help.   

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