Thursday, March 12, 2009

My Y-DNA Results - Post 3: GeneBase Family Tree

My daughters gifted me a 20-marker Y-DNA test from The DNA Ancestry Project (http://www.dnaancestryproject.com/) for Christmas. I sent it in via mail in mid-January and had not heard anything back from them. I checked into it on Monday and found that my results were available on Genebase.

The first post described Getting Started on the web site. The second post described Reading the Markers - seeing my 20 Y-DNA markers for the first time.

In this post, I will describe the uploaded family tree on Genebase. I went into my Family Tree Maker 16 program, and created a GEDCOM file of only my direct ancestors; i.e., no siblings, no extra people, just my 2,045 ancestors. For genetic purposes, those are enough. I saw no purpose in putting 23,000 persons in my database into this GEDCOM file uploaded to a genetics company. When the file was uploaded, I had to identify myself in the database so that my Y-DNA results could be attached to me in the database, and to my patrilineal ancestors also.

Now, when I click on the Family Tree tab on the Genebase Home Page, I get this page (two screens):




This identifies me as a Living Active person in the GeneBase world (Active meaning that I am a user of Genebase). The others are all listed as Deceased. The third possible category is Living, Inactive. I'm so old that I don't have any living ancestors any longer. Each person on the chart can have a birth and death date on the chart. While all of my ancestral data in the GEDCOM has birth and death dates, not all of them are shown for some reason. This may be a program flaw - I have no clue!

I can go back in time by clicking on the up-right arrow in the upper right-hand corner of each person. I went back to Robert Seaver (1608-1683), my earliest patrilineal ancestor:

For each person on the tree, the user can see what information is available for that person by clicking on the person's name. Here is the Profile provided for my grandfather, Frederick Walton Seaver:



I could add a photograph, add personal information, add or edit facts, add or edit the Profile information, etc. The Notes and some information about this person did not make it into the Profile for some unknown reason.

Under the "Family" link on each person (in the menu below the tabs), the family can be viewed. Here is the Family for Shubael and Hannah (Wilson) Seaver (Shubael was the son of Robert Seaver):



This chart shows only one son of Shubael and Hannah because I put only my direct ancestors in the GEDCOM file uploaded. Robert and Elizabeth (Ballard) Seaver had four sons, so if someone else inputs their Y-DNA data into this database they may or may not be able to quickly identify me as a possible Y-DNA match.

Under the "List" link in the menu below the Tabs, a list of all ancestors in the uploaded GEDCOM file can be listed:

There are other links on the menu line for Pedigree, Surname List, View All Trees and Invite Family.

This Family Tree function serves its purpose, but it needs more work. The dates and locations need to be identical to what was in the GEDCOM file. Navigation around the tree is fairly easy.

It's time to search for matches to my Y-DNA in the Genebase database. The next post will show the results. In future posts, I will go searching for more matches in other Y-DNA databases.





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