gathering dust

So I was terrible at the 52 weeks challenge. Are we surprised? Nope. But anyway, with the increase in it's database Ancestry's DNA estimates are being refined so I thought I'd have a look and see what these new estimates look like compared to the old. So Me: Mum: Dad: Given what I know of our geographic ancestry none of these changes are particularly surprising, except for that giant purple blob added to Mum's that represents the Baltic States.  Challenge Accepted Ancestry DNA. 

This time of my paternal ancestry. I threw the kit at Dad and told him to spit. So from Ancestry: No surprises there; well actually I was expecting it to be a little more homogeneous because his first cousin's looks like this: The German on Dad's maternal side makes all the difference it seems. What did surprise me is how similar mine and Dad's FTDNA maps are. His: Mine: The southern European that I assumed must all be from my maternal side; seems to reflect what I am guessing may be from Dad's maternal as well. I think I may have to throw my other half's science brain at the problem because numerical data analysis is not my strong suit.  

After I got my AncestryDNA results my mother was so excited that she ordered her kit straight away. Well her results are in and SURPRISE I wasn't switched at birth (no chance of that really with how much we look like each other but it does ruin my dreams of being a fairy princess) and her DNA mapping is really interesting. It makes me want to bail up my grandpa and make him spit into a tube, so without further ado - AncestryDNA:  FamilyTreeDNA: I really do want to know more about my grandfather's side of the family now other than a vague mention of his mother having Romany heritage. 

My AncestryDNA results are in and one of the things I have been looking forward to is comparing what my DNA map looks like compared to my genea-map. My genea map, plotted using google maps and the earliest ancestors I have been able to trace looks like this: My AncestryDNA map: And not being satisfied with that I transferred the raw data to FamilyTreeDNA to have a squizz: So overwhelmingly European is the not unexpected results then.

The recent announcement that Ancestry 's DNA genealogy testing service is expanding to Australia is one I am kind of excited about. I have been contemplating genetic genealogy for a while and I will admit to a significant amount of curiosity and a desire to share my 'genea-map' with my 'genetic map.' Although there are websites that will create a map of ancestors for you from your gedcom files, I have been using Google maps' custom maps function to create my own. Below is a rough map of the earliest spots I have traced family lines. Genetic genealogy may be able to tell me whether the overwhelming Englishness is as it seems. I can't wait to pester everyone for cheek swabs.

I mentioned yesterday my desire to map out my family history in some way and to this end, Trove has been a fabulous resource. I've previously used a family notice found in Trove to begin a search of electoral roles and confirm some names , and again the family notices of Trove'd newspapers have turned up some wonderful gems. "Family Notices."  The Advertiser  (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931) 25 Oct 1902: 6. Web. 5 Feb 2013 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4891551> According to this, at the turn of the century, my great (x3) grandparents, Charlotte and Edward Black were living on Pulsford Road in Prospect, South Australia. According to Google Street View, there are still some delightful houses with period features along Pulsford Road. I wonder which one was the Black's! You can find all the #TroveTuesday posts over at  Branches, Leaves & Pollen  or search the hashtag on twitter.

I have a bit of a weakness for maps, and lately I have been contemplating how to plot some of the never ending list of place names that appear in the course of digging around in genealogy and family stories. I know there is software out there intended to do this but I'm thinking more of a DIY approach using Google Maps in a similar way to  HistoryPin  (If you haven't checked out HistoryPin  before you really should). The problem now is, where to start!