Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Sally Handler (d. 1932)


Here lies
Our dear (or beloved) mother
Chaya Sarah daughter of Mr. Tzvi
Died 25 Tishrei 5693

Mother
Sally Handler
Died Oct. 25, 1932
Age 78 Yrs.

I got help with the Hebrew translation by the Steve Morse Deciphering Hebrew Tombstone Dates in One Step and JewishGen's Reading Hebrew Tombstones, as well as confirmation via the Tracing the Tribe Facebook Group.

This is my husband's great-grandmother, buried in Lansing Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio. I wrote about finding this at Great-Grandmother Sarah or Sally Handler.

Sally's youngest grandson was my father-in-law, who died this past March and whose gravestone will be unveiled this coming weekend. He was named after Sally's father.

Many thanks to FindAGrave volunteer PatMaruna for fulfilling my longtime photo request for Sally Handler's memorial.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

DNA ~ Chromosome Browser and Endogamy

This is a continuation of the DNA ~ Second Cousin post where I share some screenshots of the chromosome browser at GEDmatch.

The chromosome browser on GEDmatch is a little different than the one at FamilyTreeDNA (for those of you who have seen those results).  In the graphical results, each color represents a different length of cM (centimorgan, a unit of measurement of DNA). A user should look for red, orange and yellow (and maybe green) when scanning through the browser results. (You can also just look at the numerical results.)


When the GEDmatch user selects two or more DNA test results and compares them in the chromosome browser, the user sees numbers which represent where along the chromosome (and for how long) the match is.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

DNA ~ Second Cousin Results at AncestryDNA and GEDmatch

A second cousin (GS) has tested with AncestryDNA which shows that he shares 251 cM (centimorgans - a unit of DNA measurement) of DNA across 16 segments. This indicates a second cousin relationship, which we knew. They have the same great-grandparents: Aaron and Rozalia (Szali) Handler. (See their 1882 marriage record from Ilok, Serbia.)

Screen shot from AncestryDNA results

There are plenty of resources at AncestryDNA for a user to learn about and understand the results, and those testing at Ancestry should definitely upload a family tree, which makes this process much more useful for all. However, AncestryDNA does not have a chromosome browser.

I asked that this cousin upload the results to GEDmatch so I could compare his results with the results I have from FamilyTreeDNA and I can compare the DNA results using the chromosome browser there.

For more information about GEDmatch, visit the FAQ pages or the main page of the GEDmatch Wiki. It is a free resource though donations are accepted. (If you have a membership at Legacy Family Tree Webinars, watch this Legacy Family Tree webinar to learn more about GEDmatch.)