A Puerto Rican Look at: Y-DNA111 (Correa)

Like my Avilés/Magraner line, I tested my Correa Y-DNA line while I was in Puerto Rico, this time with my maternal grandfather. Though I originally tested this line at Y-DNA67, I have upgraded the line to Y-DNA111 on FTDNA and with the recent Thanksgiving sales I have finally upgraded the line to Big-Y 700. The results will take a while to upload, especially with what I can only imagine are a bunch of people taking advantage of the sale. So I figured I would write about what I know at this level and see what else comes from the upgrade.

CORREA - SURNAME ORIGINS 

Though I have posted about the Correa surname before (post here and here). I'd figure I cover this quickly again to tie it into the genetic understanding of this line. The Correa surname comes to me via my mother and her father, and from there runs via the paternal line up to the 1700s. This is what the paper trail has shown me at least, remember that there is always the possibility of a NPE (Non-Paternity Event) which are usually not traced on paper. Below you can see me, Luis, at the bottom and my line all the way until my 6th great-grandfather Juan Francisco Correa (I have blurred of people who are still alive).

9 Generations of Correa [Personal Photo]

In an ideal genealogical world, this would mean that my Correa cousins and any other male Correa tied to this line would all descend genetically via their Y-DNA from this same man. Matching other Correa men would help attest to this, but unfortunately so far there haven't been other men in my family or relatives that I know who have tested. Y-DNA testing (and rightfully so due to its cost) is something more serious geneticists/genealogists use to trace lines that either ran dry via paper-trail, experienced traumatic events such as slavery, the holocaust, wars that disconnected them from information, and/or was adopted and not sure of their origins. I personally have not tested all of my Y-DNA possible lines, especially since I would have to find distant males cousins to test for lines that have "daughtered out". So far, I have tested my own Rivera line (since I wanted to know more about it since it's a common surname), my maternal Avilés line (said to be tied to Mallorca via a NPE), the Charles line (arrived to Puerto Rico from Guadeloupe and was previously enslaved), and my Correa line (surname interest/since the paper trail ran out). 

When I mean surname interest, I have always been interested in this name for two reasons. 1) It's not that common of a surname in Puerto Rico, though there is always the mention of Capitán Antonio de los Reyes Correa it's not a surname I often hear when I meet other Puerto Ricans, and 2) I have always heard that the surname is tied to Sephardic Jewish origins in Spain. 

The surname for example appears in Amsterdam via Isabel (Rebecca) Correa, a famous Dutch Sephardic poetess who was born in Portugal.

Isabel (Rebecca) de Correa [Jewish Virtual Library]

It has also appeared amongst those tried for "judaizantes" ("Judaizers") during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. A quick search of Correa + Inquisición gave me various hits. 

Tribunal de la Inquisición en Llerena [PARES]

Tribunal de la Inquisición en Llerena [PARES]

Does this mean that my own Correa family were Jewish as well? Not necessarily but the genetic information is interesting to add. Let's see what my grandfather's genes say about this line!

CORREA - GENETIC ORIGINS

When I got the autosomal and haplogroup results for grandfather on 23andme, I was very interested since it seems that his haplogroup isn't that common amongst men in their database/that have tested. So I wanted to see what it would be like in FTDNA.

FTDNA Landing Page [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

My grandfather's haplogroup is current listed as "J-Z18271", this name is expected to change once I get my Big-Y700 results - expected to arrive sometime in February. Below you can see where this specific SNP (Z18271) has been found in Europe. This specific branch can be found in various parts of the world, but it's interesting to note that it's mainly found amongst Eastern European countries. This is a very different result than expecting to find many "genetic cousins" scattered amongst the Iberian Peninsula and other parts of western Europe.

SNP MAP [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

CORREA - HAPLOGROUP ASSIGNMENT

The main haplogroup my grandfather belongs to is "J" which you can see how it got into Europe below. Further below is an image of my specific haplogroup for my grandfather as well, currently at Y-DNA111.

Migration Map [FTDNA]

Correa Haplogroup [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

This group has its origins mainly in the Middle East amongst the Arab and Jewish populations. This was interesting to me taking into consideration the Sephardic Jewish theory of this surname. Remember that genetics predate current religious, political, geographic divides. It is possible that somehow my Correa family was a part of the Arab/Morsico or Jewish/Sefardí population in Spanish which was later pushed out during the reconquista. It made it's way into Puerto Rico where it has been present for the last 300 years.

Some research places the haplogroup amongst the "Kohanim" or Cohen branch of Jews, which is the "priest" class. If this is the case for my family, this would obviously be very far back and probably not in recent times, though it would be very interesting nonetheless! My family has likely been Christian/Catholic for at least the last 300 years while in Puerto Rico. Since I haven't been able to trace them off the island yet, I am not sure what their history and religious practices were before arriving to Puerto Rico.

J-Z18271 Branch [GenoGenea]

GENETIC MATCHES

Currently, I have one match from the entire database of FTDNA for my Correa Y-DNA111 test, and it's a genetic cousin who shares another line with me, so it was interesting seeing him match me on the Y-DNA level on another completely different line as well. As you can see the surname for his earliest ancestor is not "Correa", if not "Santiago". So somewhere along our lines there was a NPE, we're not sure who's line it comes from but we're thinking it might be his. Currently, this cousin is tested at Y-DNA37 so their haplogroup isn't as specific as mine. The genetic distance is 3 meaning that our relationship is further back in generations, but I'm not sure if this distance "closes" once they upgrade their Y-DNA test.

Y-DNA Match [FTDNA/Personal Photo]

CONCLUSIONS

I'm hoping that upgrading the test will give some more insight into whether it's more likely to be Arab or Jewish in origin. I have been in contact with some of the administrators of the FTDNA project I am a part of via my results in the J haplogroup. They are also interested to see what comes out of this result since I don't match many other people. This is very fascinating for me and definitely something I am learning along the way with. I'm not super well-versed in Y-DNA analysis so learning via my multiple accounts has been pretty helpful! Hoping my results come faster than I expect!

ARE YOU A CORREA FROM PUERTO RICO? 

HAVE YOU TAKEN A Y-DNA TEST? 

My 200th Post- 8 Years of Blogging, 15 Years of Genealogy

July 4th, 2019 marks 8 exact years since I began blogging. It all started when I was 21 years old and home from college over the summer. I was inspired by Cece Moore who runs Your Genetic Genealogist and has become a common name in the genealogist household with all the work she has done with DNA, adoptees, and even working on "Finding Your Roots". In June of 2011, she herself had completed her first year of blogging and so I decided to trace my own family via a blog as well. Who would have thought that 8 years and 200 blog posts later, I'd still be on this journey!

Though I don't have many official followers for my blog (as I haven't dedicated myself full-time to running it/putting it out there), I really started doing this for two reasons:

1) Personal Motives - To keep track of my own progress, hurdles, difficulties, breakthroughs, and as of recently analyzing my DNA in conjunction with my paper trail/genealogical searches. In a sense it would serve as a digital journey for which I could refer to and keep track of my finds and brick walls.

2) Visibility - While initially researching my family, I hadn't found too many blogs that covered a wide range of Puerto Rican topics in regards to genetics and genealogy and I ultimately wanted to be a contributor in order to make Puerto Rican Genealogy more visible. There is a big misconception that genealogical records from Puerto Rico have been burned, lost, or destroyed by hurricanes and people give up without even realizing all of the amazing resources available for Puerto Rican research there are out there.

5 years ago, I posted my Post #100 and I actually really liked the style I wrote in so I think I'm going to mimic it for Post #200! Feel free to read post #100 to compare and contrast now that I have 100 more posts and 5 more years added!

What I've Learned

My first blogpost was titled "What Started it all - Part I", where I write about the typical Puerto Rican love story of a "Spanish man" and a "Taíno woman" who had fallen in love in Lares, Puerto Rico - my 2nd great-grandparents. By the time I had written that post I had about 7 years of genealogical research under my belt but I had only just begun to scratch the surface of research. There were many doubts about my tree and definitely many, many ancestors' names yet to be discovered. When I began at the age of 14 there were no known (to me) family trees out there, none created by my grandparents, uncles/aunts, parents, or cousins. All I knew at the time when I began my tree were 2 out of 2 parents, 4 out of 4 grandparents, 6 out of 8 grandparents, and 7 out of 16 great-grandparents - though it's a little, it's also a lot compared to what some people start out with.

My First Blog Post - July 4th, 2011 [Personal Photo]

I've been very fortunate that since I started my research and blog I have come pretty far with my pedigree, which I am both fortunate and blessed to have. Various of my lines reach the early 1700s with a few reaching the 1600-1500s and very few the late 1400s when they came over from Spain. A few lines stop at the 1800s due to the lack of records for slaves - these being my lines from Martinique and Guadeloupe. However, "Rome wasn't built in a day"! It's been 15 long years of painstaking research where I have put in literally thousands of hours to search for my ancestors. I have been blessed to be able to travel to Puerto Rico to continue my searches various times, as well as traveling to Mallorca to research my ancestors. I have also been able to visit towns in Spain where my ancestors lived/were from before heading to the New World. Recently, I have been able to continue to test various family members with DNA and across various companies to help triangulate and find new information about who we are on a genetic level.

I've linked above and below various posts to the different themes I've discussed over the years! 

Advances in Genetic Testing

There have been many advances in genetic testing since I first started researching my family, to believe when I first tested with 23andme back in 2010 the cost was somewhere near $600 for one single DNA test! Nowadays, genetic DNA testing has become much cheaper and fairly accessible to many, not only here in the US but in various other countries. Here are some of the more recent posts that highlight these advancements throughout the years. 

• Exploring my X-Chromosome
• Establishing an African-American Connection via Chromosome 7
• Deeper analysis of European Ancestry
• Deeper analysis of African Ancestry
• Using DNA Painter Tool to narrow down DNA inheritance

My Favorite Discoveries

Since 2014, there have definitely been some exciting finds! These discoveries are a combination of things: from DNA testing, finding new genealogical documents, to discussing/receiving help from other genealogists. There were a wide range of discoveries made, from very intimate ones to discovering my Dávila line's origin in Spain in the 1700s. Listed below are some of the recent discoveries I've been able to make! 

• How a RAOK (Random Act of Kindness) helped me learn more about my 5th great-grandfather, Jean-Charles Gustave
• Learning via 23andMe that my dad had a half-brother we had no idea about
• Tracing my Dávila line back to Spain via genealogical records
• Finding out I was related to another genealogist I had met in Spain with ties to Sóller, Mallorca

Words of Advice

I would tell myself keep doing what you're doing! I have come a long way since my initial searches and there is still a lot to find out! Researching my family has brought me much closer to Puerto Rico and my identity as a first generation mainland American born citizen. To those of you budding genealogists - it's never too late! Ask family members questions, document what they have to say, and search online to see what you can find. If you're interested in genetic genealogy - test those family members (with permission, of course!) who might be willing to help you learn more about your family's past.

Hopes, Dreams & Aspirations

Reading my post from 2014 it was interesting to see where I was amongst my hopes and dreams for genealogy. There are some I have been able to check off and some that are still on my genealogical "bucket list". For example, being able to travel to Puerto Rico and go around the island to discover the towns, barrios my ancestors lived in, and the churches my ancestors would have married in. I have been fortunate to travel to distinct parts of the island and as of recently meet cousins in Lares, Puerto Rico. I have also been able to travel to Mallorca which was amazing. I still haven't become a professional genealogist, though I'm sure there is still plenty of time and I also haven't been able to travel to Martinique and Guadeloupe yet. I haven't brushed up on my French though hopefully that is in the works and I am still interested in bringing genealogy to my everyday life and profession.

I still dream about connecting Eglantine Lautin to a certain country/tribe in Africa and it would be amazing to have DNA cousins that confirm my ancestors are connected to Martinique and Guadeloupe (I have one potential lead with a cousin but nothing solid yet!). I also want to continue collecting stories and record them to have a digital audio database of stories from my current living family members that I could look back on years from now and listen to. A genealogist's work is never done as you can see!

Here's to 2024 when I complete 20 years of genealogy! Let's see what's in store! 

A Puerto Rican Look at: My X-Chromosome

With Mother's day being this Sunday here in the United States, I decided to take a different and closer look at my DNA - I wanted to see how my X-Chromosome and those of my grandmother, grandfather, and great-grandfather were passed down; all exclusively inherited from my maternal side of the family. Since I am fortunate to have these members tested on 23andMe, I can visually see how this inheritance how trickled down via 4 generations. 

X-Chromosome Inheritance [Personal Photo]

Above you can see how I get my X-DNA through various generations and ultimately down to me. Having used DNAPainter (I've posted about it before) to trace my matches I have been able to trace which segments belong to which ancestors along potential my X-chromosome inheritance ancestors. It is important to note that as a male I have one X-chromosome inherited from my mother BUT from various ancestors including my BOTH maternal grandparents, both great-grandmothers, one great-grandfather, etc. This is demonstrated below:

X-DNA Male Inheritance [The Genetic Genealogist]

This would mean that by understanding which pieces of DNA came from which sets of ancestors I could have a better idea of part of their cultural inheritance passed down to me via my X-chromosome.

My X-Chromosome Inheritance [Personal Photo]

You can see above that mainly my maternal grandmother's DNA is the one I carry while my maternal grandfather's DNA "bookends" my grandmother's genes. Looking at my ancestors that have contributed to my X-Chromosome, I can start to unravel a bit of a story for my ancestors. It's also important to note that various siblings can inherit in similar but different patterns a X-chromosome, so while I may have a smaller amount of my grandfather's DNA my brother's may have inherited different segment start and end points along their X-Chromosome.

Genetic Breakdown

North African & Arabian; Broadly European

These two pieces of DNA here were inherited from my maternal grandfather's ancestors. I'm not sure from which specific ancestors these are from yet but these ancestors were from the areas of Toa Alta and Barranquitas/Morovis in Puerto Rico. The Toa Alta side includes surnames such as Santos and Chéverez while the Barranquitas/Morovis side includes Rivera and Rodríguez - these are the surnames from 7 generations back of my 4th great-grandparents.

Native American

The first Native American chunk seems to come from my maternal grandmother while the second Native American piece of DNA is from my maternal grandfather. Interestingly on the first native segment I have two matches from my dad's side of the family that match me on my X-chromosome. This would mean that somewhere along my 2nd-great-grandmother's line there is a shared ancestor that comes from my great-grandfather, to my grandmother, and to me who is tied to my paternal Rivera side. 

Surnames on the first Native DNA segment include Arvelo, Flores, Sánchez, Vera and were from the area of Quebradillas and San Sebastián in the 1700-1800s. The second DNA segment include the same ancestors from the previous "North African & Arabian; Broadly European" which where ancestors from the areas of Toa Alta and Barranquitas/Morovis. The Toa Alta side includes surnames such as Santos and Chéverez while the Barranquitas/Morovis side includes Rivera and Rodríguez.

Broadly Southern European; Spanish & Portuguese

This whole blue segment basically comes from my grandmother. The beginning broadly Southern European segment I think is tied to my great-grandfather while the Spanish & Portuguese I think is tied to my great-grandmother. Deducing that, that would mean that the Spanish and Portuguese DNA is mainly from my Maunabo and Yabucoa side of the family. Surnames on this side of the family include Burgos, Dávila, Orozco, Ramos, Ruiz, and Santiago. These family branches have been in this area for hundreds of years with some lines stretching back to Las Piedras and Humacao back in the 1700s. It be interesting to try and see if I can find more matches to try and parse down genealogically which of these Spanish & Portuguese segments are attributed to whom. Having recently discovered my Dávila line from Spain it would interested in seeing which of these segments could potentially come from that family. Also, these ancestors were mixed between identifying as "white" and "pardo" so it's interesting that such a big chunk is specific to Europe - it makes me wonder if it's specifically from a certain set of white ancestors. 

Conclusion

Studying my X-Chromosome has only given me a look into certain ancestors along my family tree. The more matches I have on my X, the better I will be at trying to triangulate which ancestors contributed to those segments and understanding their mixes. Of course, autosomal DNA and matching on other non-X-chromosomes is helpful as well but it's interesting to see that certain ancestors carried for example North African DNA to Puerto Rico and potentially those ancestors also contributed North African DNA to other chromosomes in my DNA as well. It's also amazing to see how the colors showcase the diversity of my family as well.

Chromosome 7 - An African American Connection

Chromosome 7 - Myself [Personal Photo]

With the continued use of DNA Painter, I have been able to see (in a sense) my results through a more magnified lens. Being able to break down genetic cousins via a comparison to my other tested family members has allowed me to better parse down a bit from which branch of my tree they come from. To learn more about DNA Painter you can read my previous post. As I continued to add cousins to my DNA Painter, I noticed that on Chromosome 7, I matched up with a few cousins via my mother's side of the family that had no known connection to Puerto Rico. Intrigued I decided to continue exploring this specific segment and set of cousins, two of which were African American.

European Ancestry - Spanish & Portuguese [Personal Photo]

Above you can see the highlighted segments in my Chromosome 7 that are attached for example specifically to Spanish and Portuguese DNA. My focus however are to the smaller segments that are cut up and distributed more unevenly across Chromosome 7 - amongst those pieces of DNA you can see Native American, Congolese, Senegambian & Guinean, and Ashkenazi Jewish. Knowing where these segments lay and where your cousins fall amongst them may be helpful to better understanding the genetic diversity of your ancestor from which you descend. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean that ancestor was 100% Native American, for example, but carried those genes in that chromosome which allows you to match with other cousins.

Mixed Ancestry - Indigenous, African, and Jewish [Personal Photo]

Simple Generational DNA

Remember that just because you match with someone on a certain segment of DNA doesn't mean that all of your siblings for example will match them as well. Each sibling may receive a range of combinations that might be similar or a bit different to your own. In a "simple generational" comparison, looking at my brothers and myself on Chromosome 7, you can see there is a difference in inheritance on that section. Below you can see exactly what I mean:

Chromosome 7 - Myself  [Personal Photo]

Chromosome 7 - Older Brother [Personal Photo]

Chromosome 7 - Younger Brother [Personal Photo]

My older brother for example received a Congolese + Senegambian/Guinean segment towards the end of his Chromosome 7, we both share the Congolese bit while my little brother seems to have received a mix of Native American and Senegambian/Guinean but no Congolese DNA in that segment. Notice however that he does share the Ashkenazi DNA segment with me while my older brother does not. DNA is crazy, huh?!

To strengthen my theory here a bit more, I searched both of my brothers' DNA relatives on 23andme. My younger brother does not share the African American cousins while my older brother does share them on his relative list. Analyzing this on a deeper level would probably show us that my younger brother received a different segment from a different maternal ancestor compared to my older brother and I who received this same bit from the same maternal ancestor.

Complex Generational DNA

Looking backwards a few generations, you can see where these segments come from. I knew going in that these African American cousins matched me via my mother, I have been fortunate enough to have tested my mom along with her parents which allowed me to easily make this distinction. The question now was: Would my mother, and one of her parents also have Congolese DNA on this segment? See below to see where the Congolese DNA segment can be found: 

PARENTS' GENERATION

Chromosome 7 - Mother [Personal Photo]

Chromosome 7 - Maternal Uncle [Personal Photo]

GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION

Chromosome 7 - Maternal Grandmother [Personal Photo]

Chromosome 7 - Maternal Grandfather [Personal Photo]

GREAT-GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION

Chromosome 7 - Maternal Great-Grandfather [Personal Photo]

As you can see, my mother and one of her brother's inherited the Congolese DNA (there's another sibling but currently he is not tested). At the next level you can see that this piece of DNA was inherited from their mother (my maternal grandmother) and not their father (my maternal grandfather). At the 3rd generation you can see that my maternal great-grandfather did not have this Congolese DNA, which would mean that they inherited it from my great-grandmother. Testing my grandmother's siblings would probably give me a better idea as to who inherited which DNA from my great-grandmother amongst them. 

DNA Painter

Using my DNA matches from 23andme I began to set out which cousins I received from my maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother - here on out just referred to as "grandmother/grandfather" seeing as how this is all on my maternal side. From there I was able to see who matched my great-grandfather and any cousins who might match anywhere in between. Below you can see that the yellow bit inherited is from my grandfather while the rest of the chromosome is from my grandmother. The light green denotes my great-grandfather while the darker green my grandmother, these dark green segments I imagine are from my great-grandmother. The beige color is for a cousin who matches me with 2nd great-grandparents via my Meléndez-Sánchez great-grandfather while the purple segments are cousins I match via my Dávila-Orozco great-grandmother. As more cousins match me on these sections with a paper-trail the better I will be at figuring out from which great-grandparents and further this DNA came from.

DNA Painter- Chromosome 7 [Personal Photo]

Chromosome 7 - Luis Rivera [Personal Photo]

Looking at where the Congolese DNA is, you can sort of see that it falls where the dark green chunk of DNA my grandmother passed onto me in Chromosome 7. Expanding the matches, you can see where various of these cousins fall. 

Expanded DNA Matches - Chromosome 7 [Personal Photo]

Above you can see that the 2 African American matches fall in the square of matches inherited via my grandmother. In that same box are 3 more segments on top, these being Puerto Rican cousins. Usually when matches fall under one another, it means that they probably share DNA and are related to you via a same ancestor as they are to those cousins as well. The question now was: Could these African American matches also share DNA with those Puerto Rican matches on Chromosome 7? Would they also match each other? It was time to test out my question!

Taking the cousin who shares 15cm with me, I compared that cousin to my Puerto Rican cousins and to my other African American cousin match within that shared segment. Below you can see that YES! they do share DNA with one another, both the African American cousins and to the Puerto Rican cousins. This mostly likely means that somehow on my grandmother's side of the family we all descend from a shared ancestor(s). With the ranges being between 11-16cm, this would mean that the relationship would be rather far back. DNA Painter estimates that at those CM the match lies at a ~60% chance of being anywhere between a 4C2R (4th cousins 2x removed) to as distant as 8C (8th cousins) - there are other scenarios such as 3C3R, 6C2R, or 7C1R. We would have to triangulate using everyone's results and family trees to be able to start to figure out and narrow down from where exactly we match. 

Chromosome 7 Comparisons [Personal Photo]

Taking a look at Chromosome 7 for my Puerto Rican cousins, you can see that they also inherited the Congolese DNA in that area as well.

Puerto Rican Cousin #1 [23andme]

Puerto Rican Cousin #2 [23andme]

African American Cousins

These two cousins have roots in the South and towards the mid-West respectively which makes it a bit harder to say exactly where they might match me since they don't overlap in similar states. However, these are probably recent states of residence and going further back might show an overlap in family both being from a certain state in the south, for example.  A look at their Chromosome 7 shows one cousin with "Broadly West African" and another with Congolese DNA in that general area. It is possible that they might have other cousins themselves tested who can help narrow down which side of the family I would match them on. 

African American Cousin #1 [23andme]

African American Cousin #2 [23andme]

You can also see that there is no European DNA in those areas for both cousins which would mean that our match is likely through an either mixed ancestor or ancestor directly from Africa. It is kind of amazing to see that amongst these 10 people, 9 of us have a classified Congolese DNA piece there. 

Many slave ships made their way first to the Caribbean and later made their way to either North or South America. It is very possible that along one of those routes a slave or various slaves were left in Puerto Rico and another, genetically related either as a parent, sibling, cousin, etc., was brought to the south in the United States. Take a look at "The African-American Migration Story" from PBS to learn more about the journey from Africa to the Americas. There are many sources that talk about the transportation of slaves to the New World, the various journeys taken, and the various stops the slave ships made. 

"Lehrbuch der Weltgeschichte oder Die Geschichte der Menschheit", William Rednbacher, 1890 [Wikipedia]

Further Research

I was both surprised and not surprised when I came across these DNA segments. For starters, I knew there were slaves in my family which was not surprising, but to be able to narrow it down to a Congolese segment inherited through various family members and traced back to my grandmother and shared by two African Americans was surprising. It's interesting to see how much can be discovered with the advent of genetic genealogy - these types of discoveries were only considered dreams back in the days. I'm lucky to live in a time where this type of genealogical work can be completed. 

My next step would be to try and figure out how we are related, though this task is quiet a big one. I have reached out to these cousins and have already started conversations with one, who equally was surprised to see our match. It might be easier to see how these two cousins are related and see how I am related to the other Puerto Rican cousins and then go from there. Though seeing as how these matches are through an ancestor from Africa, it is possible that we might not, at least for now, know exactly how we are related. 

The fact that we have been able to get this far has been nothing short of amazing!

Testing, Testing...

DNA tests ready to go! [Personal Photo]

Just like that I'm back home from my spring break trip to Puerto Rico! Though it was a quick trip I was able to get a lot of genealogical work done, among one of those tasks was fulfilling my goal to get DNA testing done from various companies (FtDNA, 23andMe, and AncestryDNA) from various relatives. These test are in line with my genealogical New Year's Resolutions of getting my Avilés and Correa line Y-DNA tested and adding more autosomal cousins to the mix of relatives currently tested. Here's the breakdown of the testing I got done while in Puerto Rico.

AncestryDNA

This DNA test was only one and it was an autosomal test for my maternal grandfather. I wanted to add him to AncestryDNA since they also have an African breakdown that I would like to see how he scores in and also to widen the pool of genetic cousins I receive. Though AncestryDNA isn't my first choice for autosomal DNA testing since you don't get the maternal/paternal haplogroup(s) or chromosome segments, I decided to add him anyways. 

23andMe

For this one, I got two autosomal DNA tests done. I brought an extra DNA test just in case I came across another cousin but I decided to test two Avilés cousins from Lares, Puerto Rico since I was already there and could benefit from having two cousins from this line. One test was for my 1st cousin 2x removed, his father was my great-grandmother's full brother, and he's a male descendant from the Magraner line - having him tested will help separate out my DNA from my 2nd great-grandparents in DNA Painter. I also tested my 2nd great-uncle, son of my 2nd great-grandfather and from his second wife. I'm hoping that by testing another generation closer to my 2nd great-grandfather connections to Spain will be stronger. Interestingly enough, my 2nd great-uncle's mother, though not my 2nd great-grandmother is my 2nd cousin, 4x removed - her paternal grandfather is my 5th great-uncle via a line that came from Yauco to Lares, Puerto Rico... that'll be interesting to see how it interferes with the DNA segments we match together!   

FtDNA (Y-DNA 67)

Y-DNA Test [Personal Photo]

This was my first time getting a Y-DNA test done in recent years, I had tested a Gustave/Charles cousin a few years back and so far I don't have any super helpful/relevant matches, besides the fact that it's a European line that matches men from the UK/Ireland/Scotland area. It was, however, the first time I administered a Y-DNA test myself. I tested two men on this trip - my 1st cousin, 2x removed and my maternal grandfather. Some people aren't very interested in haplogroup testing but for me these two tests will help shine some light into two very mysterious lines. My Avilés line which is supposed to be Magraner from Sóller, Mallorca and my Correa line which I'm not sure where it's from and 23andMe says the line is commonly found amongst Arabs/Jews. Hopefully these tests will help better understand those lines in my family. 

Cheek swaps ready to go! [Personal Photo]

Once my DNA results appear for these various tests I'll update with some posts my findings. I'm glad I was able to get this done and excited as well to learn more about my family!

A Puerto Rican Look at: DNA Painter

This summer I began to play with a tool called "DNA Painter" but with school starting up I didn't get a chance to write a blog post about it. Now that I'm on winter break, I can take sometime to talk about the tool and how as a Puerto Rican it has worked for me so far.

What is DNA Painter? 

DNA Painter is a tool currently in beta that allows you to take a look at your chromosomes with a bit of a more "microscopic" view into your exact segments and who you match with, also known as chromosome mapping. The tool was created by Jonny Perl and the application won the DNA Innovation Contest for 2018 at RootsTech. Take a look at this video about how he came into creating the tool and its uses!

DNA Painter Homepage [DNA Painter]

Taking a look into the homepage you can see what it does, breaks down your DNA into various segments matched to certain ancestors. You have to register for an account in order to use the tool and as always make sure the read the terms and agreements before you create your account.

Also, take a look at Blaine Bettinger's DNA Painter Video about how to use the tool as well.

How does it work? 

After creating an account you have to create a profile for yourself (or whomever you will be chromosome mapping for) and that is where you can keep track of your matching segments and cousins. You can create various profiles if you'd like and it has actually been interesting creating ones for my brothers and seeing where they match with certain people and the genes they inherited that I might not have.

You may use your genetic matches from various companies such as 23andme, Gedmatch (transferred results), and/or FamilyTreeDNA to name a few. Unfortunately, if you have AncestryDNA you can not use your segment data unless you have transferred them into Gedmatch and you'd have to hope (or convince that person) to transfer their results as well to see on which chromosome you match. This is important because this is how you begin to establish connections with those cousins and which ancestor(s) in your tree they match. Without the knowledge of the segment, you'd be lost as to where they match you and others.

Seeing as I have mainly used my 23andme information, this is what I'll mostly be referring to when it comes creating matches on DNA Painter.

If you take a look at how my grandfather and I match you can see that of course there are fairly large chunks. All of these segments below I got from him, so when I map these segments on my DNA Painter profile I can attribute them to him using his name or the name of his parents, my great-grandparents. Remember, these genes can be from any of his parents, so you'd have to use both of their names when you set the segments.

Me vs. My Maternal Grandfather [Personal 23andMe]

Under your DNA Painter, every time you want to set new segments or matches you have to click on "Paint a New Match". There, you can use the start position and end position of each chromosome you match on and upload that into the box (look below).

"Painting a New Match" [Personal Screenshot] 

The box will look something like this! Depending on how many times you match that person across various segments you can continue to pile on the segments on new lines in the same box. Once you have placed the segments and are ready to save the match, you can decide what color to save the match and what name they can go under. For example, I chose to use my grandfather's name and so anytime I match someone through him they go under the color yellow and attached to his name. For me, this allows me to see the matches that I have through him.

A Look at Comparisons

By using various of my own cousins, confirmed paper trail matches, and even unknown matches I have begun to map my chromosomes, currently they look like this!

My DNA Painting

As you can see there are various colors across my chromosomes and some gray areas. Overall, I have been able to map ~91% of my DNA through 489 segments of mapping. Some of the larger chunks such as yellow (maternal grandfather) and red/blue (paternal matches) are attached to just my great-grandparents while smaller chunks to older ancestors. It's definitely a work in progress and not so straight forward in the sense that you won't always have a match to help identify a grey zone or to go back further a generation. It also depends on how much the match knows about their family and how willing they are to talk about shared your genealogy.  

As I had mentioned each color is set to different ancestors in my family tree. A cool feature on DNA Painter is that you can limit it to your maternal or paternal side depending on who you are looking at or focusing on at the moment. 

Once you start matching up cousins they sort of begin to stack over one another. Taking a look at just my maternal side of chromosome 1, I'll break down what the colors means and the stacking: 

Maternal Chromosome 1

This view of my maternal chromosome 1 is an expanded view of the different matches I have, as you can see I have turned off the "show match names" to provide anonymity. However based off the colors you can notice a few things.

The chromosome starts off with two shades of green but quickly jumps to a long yellow segment. Then again to a dark green segment. As you know the yellow segment represents my maternal grandfather, while the dark green represents my maternal grandmother. Weirdly enough you can see how my maternal grandfather's DNA just cut in between and left a small segment in the beginning from my grandmother. The light green segments belong to my great grand-grandfather who I was lucky to test before he passed. This means that from the long dark green piece (grandmother), the light green piece (great grandfather) marks what I inherited straight from him. You can deduce than that the other sections from the long dark green piece are from my great grandmother (red boxes added by me). Marked below: 

Chromosome 1 - Maternal Great-grandparents

Within the red boxes I added you can see there are purple segments, the segments are from matches that match my 2nd great-grandparents Pedro Dávila and Francisca Orozco, parents of my great-grandmother. Any match that falls in between the dark green lines match my maternal grandmother and then from there I can deduce if they match me through my great grandfather or great grandmother. 

On the flip side, there are the yellow segments. As you can see I only have yellow there, which means that I don't have other family members to help narrow where along my grandfather's family these matches are from. However, it's interesting to see who matches me there. 2 years ago I wrote about genetic Ashkenazi Jewish matches that had segments with me on chromosome 1 and they all overlapped one another. Read here! As you can see below, these matches are from my maternal grandfather and they are all stacked one on top of the other meaning that they along with my maternal grandfather somehow share an ancestor. The segments are fairly small so I would imagine this match is rather far back. 

Chromosome 1 - Jewish Matches

As you can see, there are a couple of ways to use DNA Painter. The cool thing is that it technically helps matching others a bit easier since you can deduce where exactly they match you along your family tree a bit quicker, especially if that cousin is unaware of much of their genealogical history or just quiet about your connection.

As I mentioned early having siblings allows you to see where you matches might differ. A quick example below is the maternal side of Chromosome 8. My entire chromosome comes from my maternal grandmother where as my older brother inherits most of it my maternal grandfather. Lastly, my little brother gets good sizable chunk from both of our grandparents! 

Chromosome 8 - Older Brother

Chromosome 8- Me

Chromosome 8- Younger Brother

Another step can be adding your ancestral ethnicity information which overlap your segments and you can get a better idea who from your ancestors gave you certain ethnic segments. This however can be a harder task for those of us who have choppy pieces inherited from our ancestors which aren't inherited in longer pieces and we might have no idea exactly who they are from. However, if you take the time and with a bit of luck you might be able to piece together where some of these pieces came from.

Here you can see on my X-chromosome I've inherited some native Indigenous ancestry but also some European from my grandmother and her X-chromosome ancestors. These segments came from 23andMe and I overlapped them onto my grandmother's side seeing as how they all fall under the dark green line. 

X-Chromosome Inheritance

Conclusions

There's definitely a lot to play with and learn from on DNA Painter. For me, it's helped provide some clarity to matches especially when it seems that everyone matches everyone in my family. Knowing which lines they match through DNA Painter allow me to say "okay, now I can specify this conversation to my ancestors from this region/town/surnames". However, don't be fooled! Some matches share segments with both of my parents and therefore I save them twice, once under my maternal matches and again under my paternal matches when mapping my chromosomes. This way I don't associate incorrectly that segment to another ancestor. So you definitely have to be alert to how you match and use various cousins or profiles if you have them to confirm that match. I'm far from being an expert with DNA Painter but knowing the few things I know it has allowed me to become a bit more confident with genetic genealogy and using it to the best of my ability!