Dragging cleaning out to three days seems excessive and yet it does work well. It means I am not exhausted on any of the three days and there is time for other things which is always pleasant.
Again some thoughts on Ancestry and Shared Recent Common ancestors and the value of that particular information along with trees when they are present. Sharing DNA in Ancestry is rather interesting as the common DNA shared by particular ethnic groups is stripped out of their results so that you are basically looking at "real" matching although you can not actually see the chromosomes on which you are matching but it isn't really necessary because you are sharing this common ancestor. But I also like it when I have the information as it gives me a picture of my grandparents that I can not readily have otherwise. The possibility of generating the DNA of my great grandparents (eight individuals) is also very very tempting to pursue. That though is mostly made possible because of endogamy rather than anything else. These closely knit families where siblings married into the same other family yielding interesting results for sure. All living in this case in the Winterbourne Valley of Dorset which is a cluster of small villages many carrying the name Winterbourne as part of the name of their village - Winterbourne Clenstone, Winterbourne Stickland etc etc.
Today perhaps some more work on the matches from the other databases that I have not collected for a couple of months although there are not that many probably. Ancestry had twenty new matches over four siblings in a four month period. There are actually far more matches than that but those are the ones that I collect generally down to 22 cM matching. I do however look at all of the matches that carry a Shared Most Recent Common Ancestor right down to the smallest one - in general I only do not record a couple in any of these large groups for the four siblings where I know that the ancestral line chosen is incorrect. Likely there is a match and occasionally I will solve that mystery but mostly they remain unclaimed by me because they do not match the ancestor they are selecting. For instance, my father was an only child and did not have any siblings. I do not have any extra great aunts and uncles in any of my lines although occasionally there is an attempt to give me one. I do agree that we are matching somewhere but do not accept full siblings for my father and extra full siblings for my great aunts and uncles. I only have one uncle and they did not have any children. With that history the matches are pretty clear in the close matching frame.
If anyone had told me back in the early 1980s that I would eventually spend all of my time on genealogy I would have denied the very idea (indeed when my husband's cousin Gordon Riddle (and our family doctor although I did prefer the French speaking Doctor with whom he shared a double office which I did mention when he told me he was related to Edward at the first visit (personally I think he should have referred me back to the one I asked for initially whilst looking for a new doctor but that is life)) invited Edward to go to the Ontario Genealogical Meetings (now Ontario Ancestors) Ottawa Branch I had absolutely nil interest and avoided them when they were chatting about their Kipp ancestry and attending these meetings. Really I just wanted to go to Church as my favourite personal external non work activity (I had agreed to go to Edward's United Church as a family and did follow through with that although once finished with volunteer secretary I did return to early service at the local Anglican Church (it didn't seem quite appropriate when I was volunteer secretary at the United Church) along with attending the later service at Edward's United Church); have good sermons (Anglican sermons tend to be more Bible oriented which I admit I prefer but then I have been Anglican all my life) and lots of good singing. My other recreational activities were centered around my child/children with helping at their school one day a week all school year long week in and week out - I am consistent, Brownies (I was Brown Owl at the nearby Roman Catholic School whilst my children were Brownies), music lessons and dancing. I was proofreading and copyediting for a private printer and a volunteer secretary at Edward's United Church (I did not volunteer, I was volunteered but doing God's work is always a good thing for sure and I have no regrets on doing the work although my concept of the United Church was to be radically altered). My Uncle and maternal grandmother (and mother) were United Church or in mother's case raised United Church but became Anglican in her teens and certainly there was no drinking of alcohol so was shocked at one of the Camp Bitobi Church weekends (which Edward planned and set up (I was treasurer for Camp Bitobi actually at that time)) to find the one refrigerator full of beer and there were children there however I did keep it to myself mostly although did mention to the minister and he didn't seem to see a problem with that - I mean I am Anglican and have no problem with having alcohol occasionally as a celebration/memorial but a United Church was based on alcohol free ideas! I had no interest in genealogy really at all as I could not see how one would prove the relationships. Enter DNA in the latter part of the 1990s when a spark of interest was being generated in my mother's thoughts. Transferred to me on several occasions I didn't bite although did listen to all that my mother said and wrote to me about DNA. When she asked me about working with the family DNA I paid good attention although I was still ambivalent as we were only looking at yDNA and mtDNA in those days and that was just a look at the deep past really (and of course personal matches). Enter autosomal DNA and my thoughts were aroused as I could see the potential of matching but still another decade would pass before it became mainstream. Now a genealogy really is not complete without DNA matching which I am happy to see as wandering through parish registers is very interesting but not conclusive like a DNA match (although land records can be more conclusive). Trips down memory lane are common in old people I guess. Our then doctor's wife told me back in the 90s that my husband and I were going to die in our mid 60s way back when I was working at the hospital in my early 50s. What a strange thing to have said to somebody really I think in retrospect at the age of 80 plus; sometimes it is very difficult to understand people's thoughts and probably better to just ignore them unless they are experts in something that involves you!
So today back to likely My Heritage or FT DNA although these days FT DNA is linked to My Heritage trees making that particular database more interesting perhaps along with My Heritage data as well. 23 and Me did not yield anything really interesting other than a couple of new larger matches (over 100 cM) but no details although I recognize the surnames for several of them and know they are Blake or Pincombe in all cases. I still hope that eventually we will get back to the original setup as it was quite valuable but I did extract all of the information whenever I was working on that database into particular files so still have all of the information. But it does begin to look realistic to think that I will begin rephasing my grandparent's DNA sooner rather than later which is great.
Tea brewing and time to do my solitaire puzzles. Still avoiding the news but praying for the children of Israel, the children of Gaza and the children of Ukraine that their lives will be radically improved over the next few months.
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