When your into DNA like I am; you test everyone you can talk into it in the family. So I’ve tested myself, my dad and mom, my two sons, various cousins and two uncles and my husband.
As you know with DNA matching it all depends on the number of people who have tested. When I recently got the results from our test through Ancestry; I was pretty happy because I had a 3rd cousin and 22 – 4th cousins. But imagine my surprise when I looked at my husband’s and found that he had 1 – 2nd cousin, 11 – 3rd cousins and 383 – 4 cousin matches. Well that was about a month ago… Since then I got a 2nd cousin which is really cool because she comes from a part of the family in my mom’s dad side that I didn’t know alot about. I have asked for further info but I’m still waiting to hear.
But here’s the stuff that makes you feel like that child that jumps up and down saying… “that’s not fair”.. because when I check my husband’s matches (I do check more than once per month) and he now has 1-2nd cousin, 12-3rd cousins and 457-4th cousins. Clearing the descendants in his family are more interested in DNA that mine are. Well at least more of them are on Ancestry DNA. But then I have his DNA on Family Tree DNA and I’m always getting notices that he has new matches.
So clearly I’m focusing on the wrong family. I need to get more back for my buck so to speak. So this past week I’ve been working on my husband’s ancestors.
Kevin is from Toronto but go back one more generation and you find yourself in New Brunswick. One of Kevin’s parents was born in Bathurst and the other in St. John’s. Both of these cities were discovered and settled in the 17th century by French pioneers. According to Kevin’s sister; Debby, the family are descendants from these pioneers.
At first I had some difficulty and frustration with Ancestry records and then I decided to search on-line for other databases. I came across the website; New Brunswick Genealogy Records Online and I’ve been working through that website for a week. I’ve found the birth, marriage and death records to be a wealth of information.
But don’t think that this website is just for New Brunswick; because it’s actually called Canadian Genealogy Records Online and there are records for every province. So take a look and you just might find some free records that you’ve never seen before.
I haven’t gotten back to the pioneers yet but I’m working on it and my hope is that soon I’ll be far enough back that I can connect with some of these DNA cousins that Kevin has.