These links will be useful to those who have attended the DNA Part 1 Class on Choosing a DNA Test.  While you're waiting for your ordered test results to be available, read, read, read.

Learn about DNA:
1.  Beginner's Guide of DNA Resources (ISOGG):  https://isogg.org/wiki/Beginners'_guides_to_genetic_genealogy
2.  Learn about genetic genealogy (ISOGG):  https://isogg.org/
3.  Genealogical DNA testing myths (OSOGG):  https://isogg.org/wiki/Genealogical_DNA_testing_myths
4.  Genetics Glossary (ISOGG):  https://isogg.org/wiki/Genetics_Glossary
5.  Autosomal DNA (ISOGG):  https://isogg.org/wiki/Portal:Autosomal_DNA
6.  Mitochondrial DNA (ISOGG):  https://isogg.org/wiki/Portal:Mitochondrial_DNA
7.  Y-chromosome DNA (ISOGG):  https://isogg.org/wiki/Portal:Y-chromosome_DNA

HINT:  After you have ordered your DNA kit and before you receive your results, log in to the company from which you ordered the test, read the FAQ and Help files and tutorials.  Also create or upload your tree to the site and set up your profile for the site.  After your DNA results are available, LINK your DNA to your name on your tree.  Now comes the hard work, analysis AND fun!

DNA Link Pages:
Cyndi's List of DNA Resources:  https://cyndislist.com/dna/
Genie Links - http://www.genie1.com.au/links

YouTube has MANY videos on Getting Started with DNA Research
Example: Do a search on YouTube for  DNA Bettinger or search for DNA genealogy, you'll see several interviews and classes by Blaine Bettinger and useful videos.

Useful charts, tools and methods to help in determining relationships with DNA:
1.  Shared cM Project chart - https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2017/08/26/august-2017-update-to-the-shared-cm-project/
2.  The McGuire Method:  http://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2017/03/19/guest-post-the-mcguire-method-simplified-visual-dna-comparisons/
3.  X-Chromosome inheritance charts - http://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2008/12/21/unlocking-the-genealogical-secrets-of-the-x-chromosome/
4.  Y and Mitochondrial (mtDNA) inheritance - https://isogg.org/wiki/Paths_of_DNA_inheritance
5.  Mirror Trees - http://www.borninneworleans.com/how-to/what-is-a-mirror-tree/
6.  More on Mirror Trees - https://dna-explained.com/2017/07/29/concepts-mirror-trees/
          (update 4 Jul 2018 - Mirror Trees are used less often now)
7.  DNA Mapping - https://isogg.org/wiki/Chromosome_mapping
8.  DNAGEDCOM - http://www.dnagedcom.com/adsa/adsamanual.html.php
9.  More on DNAGEDCOM - http://blog.kittycooper.com/2017/09/solving-unknown-parentage-cases-with-dna/#more-5321
10.  DNA Painter Part 1 - https://dna-explained.com/2018/03/28/dna-painter-chromosome-sudoku-for-genetic-genealogy-addicts/
11.  DNA Painter Part 2 - https://dna-explained.com/2018/04/04/dnapainter-mining-vendor-matches-to-paint-your-chromosomes/
12.  DNA Painter Parts 3 & 4 - TBD
13.  The DNA Green Chart - http://thednageek.com/the-limits-of-predicting-relationships-using-dna/
14.  MAPMY23 - tool for transferring Ancestry data to FamilyTreeDNA  - http://www.mapmy23.com/tools/ancestry_ftdna_fix.php
15.  Genetic Genealogy Using GEDMATCH - http://smithplanet.com/stuff/gedmatch.htm

Blogs on DNA:
1.  DNAeXplained - Genetic Genealogy - Blog by Roberta Estes - https://dna-explained.com/
2.  The Genetic Genealogist - Blog by Blaine Bettinger - https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/
3.  KittyCooper's Blog - Blog by Kitty Cooper - http://blog.kittycooper.com/

Useful DNA Facebook Groups:
1.  GEDmatch.com User Group
2.  Autosomal DNA-Gedmatch-FTDNA-23andME-Ancestry-MyHeritage
3.  GEDmatch Lazarus Tool
4.  DNA Detectives
5.  Genetic Genealogy Tips & Techniques
6.  Genealogy! Just ask!
7.  Kentucky DNA and Genealogy-  (one I read, but look for YOUR state)
8.  GAA (Genealogy Addicts Anonymous)
9.  FTDNA User Group
10.  DNA for Genealogy
11.  Ancestry DNA Matching
12.  DNA Painter User Group
13.  DNA Newbie
14.  Genome Mate Pro
15.  DNAGedcom User Group

The four major testing companies in our presentation:
1.  Ancestry - https://www.ancestry.com/
2.  FamilyTree DNA (FTDNA) -  https://www.familytreedna.com/
3.  23andMe - https://www.23andme.com/
4.  MyHeritageDNA - https://www.myheritage.com/

#52ancestors - Valentine

A vintage pop-up Valentine sent to my mother, when she was a little girl. I don't know the date, but she was born in 1921, so it was probably sometime in the 1920's. The back says to: Geneva. from: Aunts. The aunts are probably Aunt Fannie, Ivey and Billie Cummins, sisters of my mother's mother, Mary Cummins Gray. The aunts lived together in their later years and earned a living by running a boarding house in Old Eddyville Kentucky.

#52ancestors - In The Census

I learned SO many interesting things from the U.S. Census records, but I'll make this a short entry.  Elizabeth Jones married Willard C Town in 1840 in Caldwell County Kentucky.  He died in 1847.  I had found her in the 1870 census, living with her oldest son and still showing her married name, Elizabeth Town, so it was a shock to find her, with her children, living with Samuel Pearce and going by the name Elizabeth Pearce in the 1860 census.  A trip to the courthouse was needed.  Sure enough, she had married Samuel Pearce in 1859, but they divorced on Tuesday the 9th of June in 1868 by petition of Samuel.  Sure would like to know more.....   Genealogy is such a wonderful mystery trip!!!

One more note.  Those frustrating things that happen between those ten years between census records:
A birth and subsequent death of a child (pre birth certificates; no burial record as probably buried on the home farm.....
A marriage and divorce in between census records.
A marriage and a death between census records.....

More mysteries....

#52ancestors - Who would I have liked to invite to dinner

This is the next installment of the #52ancestors challenge.  I'm supposed to decide which of my ancestors I would have loved to have had to dinner.  Since I'm a "gimme data" type of person, it would have been to grill the ancestor who could answer my most pressing brick wall questions, but there are others that I would have loved to invite to just listen to their life's story.

So many things I'd want to know.  So little time at a dinner.

I would have loved to talk with Willard C Town.  He was my first ancestor to move to Kentucky.  He arrived before 1840.  In 1830, in Ohio, his dad, Willard Oliver Town, left home and "headed west", never to be heard from again.  I would like to know about that.  What was his dad's reason for heading west?  Many questions.  I knew nothing about Willard C Town until I started researching my family in 1977.  He was my Second Great Grandfather.  HIS fourth great grandfather was the brother of two women hanged for being witches in Salem MA.  Did Willard C know this?  Were they better at handing down family info than our current generations?  My Willard C was born in Vermont, but moved with his parents and siblings to Ohio before he moved to Kentucky.  The family of witches was in MA and then in VT.  Maybe he knew.  The fifth great grandfather of Willard C Town was our immigrant ancestor from England.  I would love to know what Willard C knew.  I'd love to know what his trip was like from Vermont to Ohio.  Why did he move to Kentucky?  He married in 1840, not long after his arrival.  He did in 1847.  He was about 43 years old.  I don't know how or why he died.  He left a wife and two very small sons.  I want to know everything and I know so little.

I would also have liked to talk with David Bigham, whose father was born in Ireland.  What did he know about the trip by ship to North/South Carolina from Ireland.....

I would love to hear about the life of Beulah Chittenden, my fourth great grandmother.  She was the daughter of  Thomas Chittenden, who was the first governor of Vermont.  She married Elijah Galusha, who died at the age of 23, in a sawmill accident.  He had served in the Revolutionary War.  She then married Mathew Lyon, who became a representative from Kentucky and the first person in this country to ever be charged with sedition.  They moved to Eddyville Kentucky, from Vermont. What was her life like?

I would love another chance to sit down with my own grandparents and ask them the questions I never asked as a child and very young woman. 

Other questions:  A second great grandmother had 15 children, losing the first four as very young children or infants.  What was her life like?

Can't wait for that time machine to be invented.

#52ancestors - Longevity

My mother-in-law will be 91 this weekend.  I've spent the last couple of weeks scanning in her scrapbook photos from the 1940's.  She was in a group called Navy Sisters, which was a group of women with brothers in the Navy.  They met at the USO once a month.  She visited the USO many more times than once a month, however.  She met and danced with many sailors during that time.  From the pictures, it looks like a good time was had by all.  One of the sailors asked her to marry him but she turned him down because he would be shipping out and she planned to be seeing other guys.  I think he wrote to her once many, many years later, but all she'd tell me was that she "threw the letter away".  She, and he, went on to marry someone else.  There are quite a few pictures of him in the ones I've been scanning.  Her name is Velda Littlepage.  His name is Ray Schmorance (or Schmorans - she wasn't sure at this point), in case any of his descendants find this post and would like copies of the pictures I've scanned.  She didn't remember the names of the other people in the picture.  Velda and Ray are the first couple, in the front, on the left side of this picture.  I think age 91 qualifies as longevity!

#52ancestors - Favorite Photo

This is week two of the #52ancestors challenge and we're supposed to post our favorite picture.  I've just been loaned two scrapbooks from my mother-in-law, who will be 91 this month.  In the scrapbooks are pictures from the 1940's World War II era.  She obviously visited many clubs in Texas that look to be USO type clubs where she would talk with and dance with sailors.  MANY sailors.  I'm in the process of removing them from the black paper type scrapbooks and attempting to scrape off the remaining paper that is attached to a LOT of glue on the backs of the pictures.  It's going to be a LONG process and it looks like there are very few names on the backs of the pictures.  The glue and black paper have done their bad deed of helping to seep through the pictures, so I'm restoring the pictures (through software) also.  I'll post some of those when I get further along in my processing of the pictures.

I'm posting my favorite photo of MY side of the family today.  I've probably posted it before, but it's still my favorite.  This is a picture of my grandmother, Mary Evelyn Cummins (Gray), on the porch of their farm house, with some of her sisters.  This picture was taken in May 1907 in Lyon County Kentucky.  My grandmother was born in 1888, so would have been 19 years old.

Pictured, from L to R are:  Nina C Cummins 1893-1911, Fannie G Cummins 1876-1948, Iva Cummins, 1880-1957, Willie Moses Cummins 1886-1963, Mary Evelyn Cummins (Gray) 1888-1981, Rebecca Cummins (Gresham).

Not pictured are oldest child John Wesley "Pat" Cummins 1874-1959,  and Nonia Cummins (Oliver) 1883-1963.

The parents of these children were Michael Harvey Cummins 1845-1918 and Sarah Ann Warfield 1855-1893.  My grandmother was only five when her mother died and I've been told that her sister Fannie took over the responsibility of the household and the younger children.  Of all these children, only John Wesley, Nonia and Mary Evelyn had children who survived them.

I've also been told that Iva, Fannie and Willie ran a boarding house in Eddyville.

#52ancestors - Weekly Activities

I'm doing the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks ( #52Ancestors ) activity with https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/

I've been sending my kids more tidbits of interesting (I think it's interesting) stories on their ancestors, recently.  This is a notice to them that they'll be seeing more, hopefully.

Happy New Year.