Yeah for 23andMe! Today I had a new connection – a 2nd cousin for Kalonji’s grandmother, Frances. Frances passed away in August at 89 years old, so we are especially grateful for this new cousin. Her match wrote back to me today and told me who her grandmother was and I was quickly able to recognize her grandmother as a sister to Frances’ grandmother, Matilda McGhee Coleman. The sister of mention here is Fannie, as shown below.
In the 1880 census, Henry and Matilda were living in Talladega, Alabama with 5 daughters – Fannie, Alice, Matilda, Lou, and Saidee. At present, I have no family information for any of the girls except Matilda, as she is Kalonji’s direct ancestor, but I look forward to now learning more about Fannie. This is a lesson on how important it is to capture relatives of our direct ancestors, for had I not had Fannie in the database, it would have taken me longer to make the connection.
The new cousin shared 3.5% of her DNA with Frances, so falls in line with 23andMe’s predicted relationships for that amount of shared DNA. And, since the connection is already confirmed via the paper trail, I will be able to label their shared DNA specifically to Henry and Martha. Anyone else who has a match at these locations can then be connected to them as well. I am so excited to have connected and am looking forward to learning more about her family!