Mystery solved after nearly 108 years!

Thanks to genetic genealogy something incredible has happened last Sunday! And I would have given anything to share it with my grandfather! However, during his lifetime people didn’t even dare to dream about the things that are possible today. I hope that my personal experience will not only show how valuable DNA can become for…

On the hunt for more hidden recombinations

In my last post, I’ve written about discovering hidden recombinations on the X-chromosomes of my father and his siblings after comparing them to a distant cousin match. This has raised several questions: Are there more? Where are they? How many of my previous Visual phasing results are incorrect because of hidden recombinations? Visual phasing is…

What do one of the first settlers of Montreal and I have in common?

Last updated on July 19th, 2023. Today I accidentally stumbled upon the baptism record for Marie Lorgueil. She was born in Bordeaux on June 15th, 1634. The record was found by Gilles Brassard. (No, not the famous quantum physicist, but a fellow Québécois now living in Paris.) Last updated on Jan 27th, 2023. All sentences…

An example of endogamy in my family

Last updated September 5th, 2023 After a thorough research at the archives it turned out that my grandmother and her second cousins share 6 out of 8 great grandparents! This is called endogamy. One generation further, my grandmother’s cousins encounter what is called pedigree collapse as Johann Martin Meier and Anna Elisabetha Wolf appear twice…

Visual Phasing of Chromosome 1 – updated version using Steven Fox’s Excel spreadsheet

If you have the possibility to test three full siblings, then the next great thing you could do with your DNA results is to try out the Visual Phasing technique developed by Kathy Johnston. It allows you to map the segments of your chromosomes to your four grandparents (without having them or your parents tested)…