This past Sunday, I had plans to go to the lake. If not that, then there is always something around my place that needs staining or painting, but instead, I looked at MyHeritage and my DNA matches. Just for a minute, you know, and if you know how an Ellen minute works, then you know I spend the next few hours figuring something out.
So if you have your DNA at MyHeritage, you can follow along. At the main DNA overview page, you see in the middle, it says I have 7 matches that are my extended family. So I thought I’d check that out because I hadn’t looked for a while. No big surprises, it was names I’ve seen before, but then I saw the three names that I know are from my dad’s mystery side. The mystery is that my grandfather was born out of wedlock, and he never knew who his father was. I’ve worked on this, but not as much as I have on the Beaton Batten Mystery, but I’m pretty sure I know who his father was. I’ve seen these names before, but something made me want to look at them all again.
I know my grandfather’s father was French Canadian, and every time I review my dad’s and uncle’s DNA matches, I’m reminded of a remark I once heard in a Quebec genealogy lecture: once your tree reaches Quebec, everyone is connected to everyone else—often several times over. That certainly feels true when I scroll through our matches. The surnames don’t line up, the connections pop up again under their dit names—those alias or “also-called” surnames that French-Canadian ancestors used to distinguish one branch of a family from another and I don’t really read French that well.
The three matches are 65cM – 87cM matches to me; if you can find even a bit of information, I should be able to figure out how they connect. These three people are in the tree I have for my dad, which I call “Havey’s DNA In Common With Tree” (ICW tree). It’s private and unsearchable, and if you want to watch my YouTube video about how to create one, you can see it HERE. You made one of these trees, so you can figure out how everyone else connects, and then it can help you figure out how you fit in.
I decided that I’d make a Scapple Chart with the three matches to get a better visual of how everyone connects. I know I can look in my tree, but sometimes there’s just too much going on. Especially if the generations have had lots of children. (Read more about Scapple below.)
Two matches I’d already figured out, as you can see below.
But the third person was in my ICW tree, but his branch was just floating because I hadn’t figured out how he fit. So now to take a closer look. It didn’t make sense because this person, let’s call him Mr 79.4cM, had the surname Nepveu in his tree, but that was also the surname of Ms. 65cM’s dad, and I had already mapped out our connection to her dad’s mom’s side. But remember, everyone is related to everyone, so I decided to flesh out Edgar Nepveu’s tree a bit more.
Ok.. so now I see that Ms 65cM is connected to Mr. 79.4cM through her father’s paternal side. Ok, got it. Then I noticed that Stephanie Drouin’s mother’s maiden name was Legault (not shown on the above image), and Mr. 80cM has that surname, so we built some more. So, as it turns out, Mr 80cM’s 2x great-grandfather and Mr 79.4’s 3x great-grandmother were siblings, and their father was Joseph Legault.
I’m sure you’re already yelling, but what about Drouin? There’s a bunch of them. Sure enough, Calixte and Janvier were siblings as well. So you see what I mean about once you’re in Quebec, you’re related to everyone, or so it is with my matches.
Here’s a final view of the entire Scapple Chart. This isn’t as complicated as some relationships can be. In some close-knit, historically small communities, generations of intermarriage have produced what genealogists call pedigree collapse—a pattern so interwoven it resembles a ‘DNA wreath,’ with the same ancestral branches looping back on themselves multiple times.
But how do I fit in? That remains to be seen. But using Scapple has made it easier to get a visual of what’s going on with more complicated relationships and how everyone is connected, and that, coupled with other matches, will eventually lead to the confirmation of my grandfather’s mystery father.
My To-Do List
- Downloaded a MyHeritage AutoCluster for both my dad and my uncle. (Note: that at the present time I’m having issues with the Ancestry Clusters and even when I do see them, from time to time, they aren’t very helpful so we’ll wait on those). Although I do love Matches of Matches on Ancestry ProTools.
- More Scapple Charts of my matches to see the trees rather than the forest. Or perhaps start another group of matches on this same chart. Stay tuned as to what I do.
Scapple is a mindmapping program, and it’s great for capturing your thoughts. They have a unique subscription model because it’s for 30 days, but that’s days of use. So if it takes you three months to use it 30 days, you won’t have to pay until then.
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