Busting Through Brick Walls

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So I've been AWOL from posting the last couple of weeks as I finish up some family vacations and catch up on things at my job.  This week I've also been diligently working on sorting out some questions I had on my family tree in preparation for another trip next week.  I'll be traveling south once again with my cousin to hit the local library's genealogy department and the courthouse in hopes we can gain some insight and credible sources to prove our connection to Plantagenet Kings (I'll talk about that more in another post).

This week my goal has been to try and touch base with some of my genetic matches on Ancestry.com and Family Tree DNA.  I'm still trying to learn all the ins and outs that go with using DNA for genealogy purposes.  There is a lot to learn!  And since I'm still very much in the beginner stage of my learning, I won't try to explain too much.  Basically, when you do a DNA test through one of the sites, you end up with a list of matches.  The matches are based on something called centimorgans (abbreviated as cM).  Centimorgans have to do with measuring genetic linkage.  It has to do with the distance between chromosome positions (that's all the definition I'm sharing right now because I'm sure I lost you at "chromosome").  When looking at your matches, the higher the number of shared centimorgans, the closer the relationship and the stronger the match.  For example, I have a known first cousin who also tested their DNA.  She is listed in my matches as a 1st to 2nd cousin  with the shared DNA being 840cM across 38 segments.  In comparison, someone listed as my 3rd-4th cousin shows the shared DNA being 101cM across 7 segments.  Anything above a 5th cousin is considered a good match.

Back to the story.... I'm currently trying to get past one person in particular in my Jackson line.  I have a James Jackson 1785-1836 and that is as far as my tree goes with Jackson (with any kind of accuracy).  I've also been trying to gain information on the Reade family that James married into (this would be the Plantagenet connection hopefully) and link Jacksons from the same area of Middlesex County, Virginia to my Jacksons.  So I emailed 3 different people listed in the Jackson DNA project on Family Tree DNA who are also listed as matches to see if they might be able to shed some light on any of my people.  Of the 3, I heard back from 2.  One gentleman is currently traveling and we have plans to email in the fall.  The lady I heard from was not able to help me out.  At first she didn't think there was any kind of connection, until she realized we're 3rd-5th cousin matches which is a strong match.  Her Jacksons are based in New York though some migrated down to North Carolina.  She has a brick wall for her family that she believes is somewhere in Virginia, and I have a brick wall getting past James Jackson in VA.  Somewhere there is a connection, and we're hoping that we'll be able to help each other bust through those brick walls.  I have not yet heard from the third person I emailed.

I didn't stop there, however.  The one lady I emailed gave me the names of a couple of websites to look at to see if anything might seem familiar.  So I started perusing Jackson genealogy websites, and I finally saw a listing for a tree that included a John Lewis Jackson, Sr born in 1806.  I too have a John Lewis Jackson, Sr 1806-1847 who is the son of the above mentioned James Jackson 1785-1836.  The link took me to a private Ancestry tree, so I messaged the tree's owner asking for any information they would like to share.  Thankfully, she messaged me back pretty quickly and granted me access to her information.  So last night, I added some siblings to the Reade line I'm interested in getting information about and linked those Jacksons in Middlessex County, VA all in about 30 minutes.  Better still, the information is actually backed up with research which isn't always the case with some trees floating around the internet.

So next week, my cousin and I are heading to Middlesex County, Virginia armed with some additional information that might offer some clues to help us in our quest.  My cousin is an excellent researcher- able to narrow her focus onto one specific goal while I tend to be like buckshot and scatter.  Together we make a pretty good team, so I'm hopeful we'll be able to come home with some more valuable information to share.