Meeting a DNA Cousin

Okay – so, not a cousin of mine, but a cousin of my daughter’s. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet Shannon Christmas today as he was in town speaking at an event on African American genealogy at Andrew Jackson’s home, the Hermitage (you can read more about the event here). 

My husband, Kalonji, shares DNA with Shannon’s maternal uncle and paternal grandfather. How about that! Kalonji shares DNA with both sides of Shannon’s family.  Shannon and I still have work to do if we are going to have any hope of figuring out the shared ancestor, but 23andMe predicts Shannon’s uncle to be about a 4th cousin. This would mean the common ancestor is about the 3rd great-grandparent level. We have a possible hope at triangulation since another 23andMe tester matches both Kalonji and Shannon’s uncle in this same spot too.

I’ve long followed Shannon’s work for genetic genealogy. So, no matter if we find the connection or not, Shannon’s family now and it was a pleasure to have a chance to meet him!