#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 38
Here a Cousin, There a Cousin, Everywhere a Cousin
The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde
Ancestry.com provides a DNA match to at least a thousand of my “cousins.’ People take the Ancestry DNA test for a variety of reasons, most seem to do so to find their ethnicity. The fee for an Ancestry DNA test includes a limited subscription. Many of my Ancestry DNA matches have not logged into their site for over a year. Few of the matches are willing to respond to questions about how we might match. Do they look at the test results and not check in again?
One of the new features of Ancestry.com DNA is a beta program called Thru-lines. It has mistakenly been called True-Lines. It is anything but True. The program uses Artificial Intelligence to match TREES to TREES! Yes, it matches those horrible Ancestry trees that are created by the user and built using hints provided by Ancestry’s algorithms. Nothing beats Ancestry’s marvelous digital collections for research, but Ancestry’s trees are notorious for being erroneous. So Ancestry’s DNA matches are largely being brought about through matching bad seeds: bad trees to bad trees.
Researching Ancestry’s Thru-Lines, the most informative article on the subject is a blog by Roberta Estes. Here is a link to her blog: https://dna-explained.com/2019/03/11/ancestrys-thrulines-dissected-how-to-use-and-not-get-bit-by-the-gators/
Read to the bottom of the blog for comments; here is the one I like best:
Bryan McLeod on July 25, 2019, at 10:01 pm said:
Interesting take and I agree with the majority of your comments for sure… the thing is though Ancestry is far, far too prone to working under the concept of “their way or the highway” and are not amenable to user input nor do they understand the concept of a true beta test… they seem to think it is totally fine having their paying customers endure their new toy trotted out long before any real quality testing and then ignore the feedback they send in. My personal take on this particular new tool is that it has loads of potential that most likely won’t be realized as like the DNA circles Ancestry is going to exhaust their limited brain trust and abandon it unfinished. When this was first trotted out I took the time to examine it closely and offered up some well-reasoned pieces of feedback encouraging they reply… like always I waited months without until I went to the bother of reposting the suggestions along with some illustrations to a user group and after a few hundred likes and comments over less than a week all of a sudden I get approached by one of their staff asking for more details… I provided them… and again have been ignored. They do not want what they claim to seek and that is sadly going to destine this to the trash bin like so many of their other toys, which you mention a small portion of in your article. I do wish they would take the user more seriously.
Ancestry’s trees do not enjoy a good reputation because they usually lack solid documentation. The Ancestry user inputs data to create genealogy trees. Ancestry helps them out by providing hints. It appears that Ancestry is determined to create the trees they want to see. Here is an example based on forty years of solid research on John Miller born 1803 in Tennessee. John Miller was a county and probate judge in Monroe County, Tennessee in 1830; he married about 1826, Nancy Mary b. 1806 Tennessee, according to U.S. Federal Census, Land records and gravestone inscription.
According to an article written by George Russell Miller, published in Western Arkansas Biographies, his mother, Nancy Mary was the daughter of Joseph Wilson, a farmer, and a trader.
Ancestry found a record for a man named John Miller who married a woman named Mary Harwood and provided that Hint. And just like that, on every Ancestry tree for John Miller b. 1803 Monroe County, Tennessee, he is now married to Mary Harwood whose father was Joseph Wilson. Never mind that Mary Harwood and her John Miller lived in far eastern Tennessee; never mind that this makes Nancy Mary Wilson born in 1806, a thirteen-year-old bride in 1819. Is it possible that Family Search and the LDS church control HINTS for those consecrated for all time and eternity?
And just like that, I have a thousand zillion trillion cousins!
Research Notes for John Miller and Nancy Mary Wilson:
John Miller was born to James Miller probably in Tennessee in the year of our Lord, 1803. His father, James was Scotch Irish and a Staunch Presbyterian, according to George Miller. Donald Miller believes that James immigrant father settled near Charleston, South Carolina in 1758. It is difficult to ascertain the truth of the situation without documentation.
In 1826, John Miller married Nancy Mary Wilson, of Tennessee, the daughter of Joseph Wilson, a farmer, and a trader. Nancy Mary and John are listed in the 1830 Federal Census of Monroe County, Tennessee. In 1835, the Millers and their children purchased $3000.00 worth of land in Dade County, Georgia., District No. 21, near Rising Fawn. The land was purchased and not won by lottery or given as bounty according to Dade County land records (Source: Sue Forrester – genealogist, Dade County).
John Miller was “a county and probate judge as well as a substantial farmer” according to George R. Miller’s biography - Polk County, Arkansas. Early records show they were “Presbyterian Denomination who later embraced the Methodist Episcopal Church (ibid.).”
Timeline John Miller
25 December 1803 – Birth - John Miller probably Tennessee to James Miller
6 July 1806 - Birth, Nancy Mary Wilson Tennessee to Joseph Wilson
1826 - Marriage, John Miller and Nancy Mary Wilson - Monroe County, Tennessee
1830 U.S. Federal Census - Monroe Tennessee 98Th Regiment
John Miller
1835-John Miller (Georgia Abstract Records Office) purchased 420 Acres of land in District # 21 near Rising Fawn, Georgia for $3000.00.
1835-1859 - Land acquisitions and land sales
1840 U.S. Federal Census - Dade Georgia Rising Fawn
Ancestry.com - roll 40 p. 81
John Miller 211-1-------/11--11
Two males under five
1 male under 10
1 male under 15
1 male 20-30
One female under five
One female under ten
One female 20-30
One female 30-40
1850 U.S. Federal Census Dade County, Georgia; p. 13 A- District No. 21 p. 125, TN599343463
August 25, 1850 by Stephen L. Pace
169-169 John Miller, 46, m. farmer, value of real estate owned: $3000.00 born: Tennessee
Married within the year (this must be an error... or it refers to one of the children)
Mary, 44, f, b. Tennessee - cannot read or write
Mary, 13, f, b. Georgia
John, 10, m. b: Georgia
William, 8, m, b: Georgia
Columbus, 5, m b: Georgia
Hiram, 3, m. b: Georgia
James, 22, m. Farmer, b: Tennessee
Joseph 20, m. Farmer, b. Tennessee
George, 16, m, Farmer, b: Tennessee
1860 U.S. Federal Census Polk County, Arkansas -Center Township - Dallas Post Office p. 7
Line 40 39-37 4 June 1860
John Miller 57 male farmer $2000. b. Ky
Nancy 54 b. Tennessee
Nicey
W.A. (William Anderson) 18 farmer
H.A. 13
C.C. 15
Mary Jane 6
Nancy 4
Wm G. 2
1870 U.S. Federal Census Polk county, Arkansas - Fulton Township District No. 21 p. 22 A , September 21, 1870
Miller, John 64 born Tennessee
Hiram Douglas, 22, Georgia
James' children:
Quillan, 18 - Georgia
Nancy E. 14 - Georgia
Nelson, 10, Georgia
Robert M., 6, Arkansas
Stafford, Nathan 64 Tennessee
Mary Jane, 33, Georgia
1880 U.S. Federal Census - Polk County, Arkansas, Fulton Township (Board Camp)
Stafford, Mary 43 Georgia. Tennessee Tennessee
Stafford, Georgiann 8 Arkansas, Tennessee Georgia
Miller, Hiram Douglas, 32 Georgia. Tennessee Tennessee
Notice that John Miller says he is born in Tennessee in 1850 and 1870. The 1860 census informant was George Miller’s wife reporting that her own father was born in Kentucky, making it appear that John Miller was the informant as to his birth state.
DEEDS
Submitter: The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Vold Forde
Copied by Sue Parham Forrester
HC-65-Box 715
Cloudland, Georgia 30731
17 May 1990
Clerk of Superior Court Office
Book ‘D’ p. 375
Dade County, Georgia
LOT #193 (Dist. 10 – 4th Section) 160 Acres
Sale: John H. Patrick to John Miller
2 April 1857
Georgia, Walker County
This indenture made this Second day of April in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty-seven between John H. Patrick of Franklin County of said State of the one part and John Miller of Walker County of said State of the other part.
Witneseth that the said John H. Patrick for and in consideration of the sum of Eighty Dollars to him in hand paid at and before the sealing and delivery of these presents the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged both granted bargained sale and conveyed and doth by these presents grant bargain sell and convey unto the said John Miller his heirs and asignes all that tract or parcel of land situate lying and being in the County aforesaid in the tenth district and fourth section of said county containing one hundred sixty acres more or less being lot number 193 originally granted to William Boughu (sic?) said grant is dated the first day of July eighteen hundred and forty-three to heirs and to hold said tract or parcel of land unto him all the rights members and appurtenances belonging to have and to hold the above described lot of land unto him the said John Miller his heirs and asignes together with all the rights members and appurtenances thereof to the same in any manner belonging to his and their own proper use benefit in behalf forever in fee simple and the said John H. Patrick for himself his heirs executors and administrators the said John H. Patrick hath hereunto set his hand and affixed his seal the day and year above written. Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of:
J.J. Morgan
R.H. Tatum, Notary Public
John H. Patrick (Seal)
Registered April 9th, H. L. W. Allison, Clerk
