Capeflier

This is a condensed  list of grandparents by generation of Owen Cottrell s ancestors.  I hope genetic matches will find the list useful because often our results have a predicted number of generations to our common ancestor. Found a common ancestor? please email me at mark@capeflier.com

Condensed list of the Ancestors of Owen Kent Cottrell  of Cement City, Michigan

Generation 1
Owen Kent COTTRELL, MI.
Generation 2
William Claude COTTRELL and  Lucy Frances TOMAN,  OH
Generation 3
William COTTRELL,  Eva Myrtle GIBSON, OH
George Leon TOMAN, Mary Florence DICKEY OH
Generation 4
John B M COTTRELL,  Sarah Catherine SPILLERS, Darke County OH
Isaac Newton GIBSON,  Sophia SCHELL, OH
Philip Sylvester TOMAN,  Susan Mary NEWBAUER.  OH
Peter DICKEY, Rosanna BENDER, 28 Jun 1895 in Rose Hill,Darke,Ohio,USA.
Generation 5
Asher R COTTRELL, Sarah Ann SHANER. OH
William SPILLERS, Catherine KINGER.  OH
John GIBSON, Margaret ROSE, OHUSA.
George SCHELL, Margaret Rebecca BOOCHER,  Ohio,
Joseph TOMAN , Sophia GRUBER.
Jacob NIEBUHR (Germany) , Mary Elizabeth LORENZ. England
Jacob DICKEY, Holmes, OH, USA. ,Caterine MARKLEY,OH
John Frederick BENDER , Wurttenburg, Germany.  Christina Magdalena MILLER, OH
Generation 6
Hiram COTTRELL, VA,OH ,Elizabeth REAVES. VA,OH
Adam SHANER,  Elizabeth FIELDS,  Virginia,
Peter Julius SPILLERS,SC,IA ,Susanna COATS, OH
Isaac GIBSON. OH , Married unknown possibly TREGO of Honeybrook PA
Hopkins ROSE,PA, Susana CONNER , PA OH
Jacob SCHELL, Lancaster, Pennsylvania,  Elizabeth KALER, (KOHLER) PA
John BOOCHER PA,  Elizabeth MILLER, PA,OH Samuel Henry GRUBER, PA  Mary Ann SHULTON PA
John DICKEY, PA,OH  Ann Maria DIETZ.
Peter MARKLEY  Mary MILLER. OH
John Jakob (Mueller) Baden-Wuerttemberg,Germany.Anna Marie BUSH  Germany.,OH
Generation 7
John COTTRELL VA , TN Sarah BIRDWELL VA,TN
Asher REAVES, Diana MILLER. OH
George SHANER PA , OH  possibly married Shin BONE Native American   OH
John FIELDS.  VA (Now WV). ,JANE Unknown
William SPILLERS SC/OH, Sarah REAGON. SC/OH
John COATE, SC  Susan BROCK. VA OH
Charles ROSE, RI/WV  Rebecca MULLINER NJ
John CONNER PA ,Sarah TRADER.PA
Andreas Andrew SCHELL , Sophia BECHT.
William KOHLER PA ,Anna ?
Daniel MILLER,  MD,OH , Elizabeth ULRICH PA,MD
Henry GRUBER, PA Anna Margaret KLOPP,PA
George DICKEY, PA Margaret ARNOLD, PA
Jacob DIETZ, PA  Susannah BAKER,PA
Johann George MULLER Germany  Anna Marie GACK.
Generation 8
George BIRDWELL, VA
George REAVES  Wales.,VA  Anna WEBSTER.  Wales,VA
John COATE, NC,  Meary MCCUISTON. PA TN
Elias BROCK,  Ann HOLLINGSWORTH.
Ezekiel ROSE, RI Mary FIDLER.  RI,NJ
Arthur TRADER PA Sarah Sabra CONNER  PA,VA.
Philip Jacob MILLER, PA  Magdalena ROCHETTE MD Kentucky
Henrich Henry Hans Heinrich GRUBER, Germany , Maria Eva EUPHROSINA ROSINA  PA
Johannes Peter KLOPP, PA  Maria Werina BECKER,  PA
Moses DICKEY, PA  Agnes WILSON. PA
George ARNOLD, PA OH  Catherine LEATHERMAN.
Johann Jost DIETZ  Germany, Anna Catherine SCHNEIDER Germany .
Henry or Heinrich BAKER ,OH  Margaret FUNK. Ireland OH

I am so grateful that five cousins who are descendants of Hiram Cottrell and Elizabeth Reaves have now tested with Family Tree DNA and several of them have joined the Cottrell Family Research project.  I hope more will continue to participate as a picture of our ancestry is starting to emerge and the participation by other members of the family is essential to our success.

Autosomal genetic genealogy is still relatively new and I think there is still a lot to be learned about the meaning of various degrees of matching.   Most of our research has focused on individuals with shared ancestry that goes back to 1783.  It is a known fact that the effects of recombination results in most 5 and 6th cousins not showing up as matches on Family Tree DNA. Once we examine these results using gedmatch.com and ancestor-projects.com we discover fascinating genetic connections that simply can not be ignored.   We may now have a match that will help us connect all 5 cousins.    There are still some mysteries but we are getting closer to solving them.  I am very grateful for everyone’s help and I am hoping 2012 is the year we get the answers we have been looking for.

I am curious about the significance of the number of matches with other Lost Colony/Melungeon Lore Project participants  in my Ancestor-projects.com research.   A certain percentage of participants in the Melungeon Lore project are quite certain of their Melungeon heritage they have a paper trail or perhaps have lived in the same area of Tennessee, North Carolina or other known Melungeon areas for centuries.  There are others who have joined the project just to see if they have Melungeon heritage. Perhaps they are adopted or they simply curious.

The purpose of this  post is to discuss a unique way of looking at the data to see if we can draw any conclusions.

So here is what I did, using the grid in ancestor-projects “Comparison matrix showing relationship between all project participants”  in Lost Colony/Melungeon Lore Project I counted the number of matches with other participants. In other words how many other kits predicted a match within 8.1 generations . Using  my kit as an example I matched 262 of the other kits out of a total of 391. I then sorted the list from most number of matches 281 to least 1.
It is important to note that the kit with the most matches or number 1 on the list had 281 matches. The average predicted genrations to my match was 7.13 That happens to be exactly when  my Cottrell ancestors lived in the Kingsport Tennesseee area in what is now Warriors Path State Park.  Interestingly I have two cousins  with  kits in the project with a  most recent common ancestor between 5 and 6 generations ago. One is number 4 with 270 matches and the other is number 33 with 250 matches.

So my cousins and I are all in the top 10%, I am concluding that the odds of us being  clustered in the top 10% if we were not related is significant. In addition all three of us share 199 of the same kits in common. There are some other really interesting aspects of this data. The average number of matches is 82 the median was 73 . Three quarters of the results were less then 91. The number of matches drops below 200 at number 46 and below 100 at 55 .  The clustering of virtually all of the results in the 0-100 and 200-300  is indicative of something that differentiates the two groups but I have no idea what. I want to make it very clear I am not suggesting that those with fewer matches do not have Melungeon Ancestry just that there appears to be a significant core cluster that have ties to a huge number of  fellow project members.

In conclusion I believe that those of us clustered  in the top grouping must have some sort of significant relationship to each other.     I would welcome thoughts about this.

For those who are interested here is the procedure I used

http://capeflier.com/wp/2011/12/16/sorting-number-of-matrix-matchs-in-ancestor-projects-com-projects/

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Raw data number of matches with other kits Notice how quickly it drops off.
281
271
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265
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138
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As I head off for Thanksgiving dinner I count my many many blessings.  I am so grateful Mom and Dad chose me to be part of their life and that they have proven over and over again their unconditional love for me.   The ultimate expression of their love is their support in my search for my biological roots.  They understand that my search has nothing to do with loving them any less it is simply a search to better understand who I am.  My identity is way more complicated  then most and I need all the information about my roots I can get.

I count my blessings that my birth Mom and sisters have been so forthcoming with information.  I was delighted that this fall my sisters shared over 500 pictures of their family’s journey through the decades.  This sharing is such  a precious  gift.  I  am blessed that my sisters have welcomed me.  Love is not a glass of water that will overflow , there is always room form more.

Finally I count my blessings that so many members of the Cottrell family are helping me determine once and for all that Owen Cottrell was my birth father.  I hope this is the year that the last remaining doubt will be put to rest.  Perhaps   Mary,  Amy, Laura and Ken will have a change of heart and  discover  the compassion to  open their lives just enough for me to get the answers I have spent a lifetime looking for. Perhaps they might even share a few pictures.

Thank you Lord for your many blessings, I have so much to be thankful for, Happy Thanksgiving indeed.

Mark

I have submitted my Family Finder  DNA results along with two living Cottrell cousins to the Ancestor-Projects Native American Reunion Project.    This may be just fun with numbers but I think the results tell a significant story. Our most recent common ancestor is proposed to  be Hiram Cottrell and Elizabeth Reaves.  We believe Hiram Cottrell born 1783 was the son of John Cottrell and Sarah Birdwell . We know John and Sarah Birdwell lived on the Holston River in what is today known as  Warriors Path State Park in Kingsport Tennessee.   I believe Hiram Cottrell  and Elizabeth Reaves would be my sixth generation ancestor and  John Cottrell and Sarah Birdwell would be my seventh  generation ancestor.

We joined this project as we are  interested in determining if perhaps  we had  Native American Ancestry and if so where it may have originated from. It may have come from either the Reaves family or Hiram Cottrells mother Sarah Birdwell . The fact that all three of us are so closely clustered within 13 of each other in the top 30 of over 300 test results it sure looks like we share some sort of common Native American ancestry .

Here is the technical recap

Hiram Cottrell and Elizabeth  Reaves had at least three children Asher Cottrell  , George Cottrell , and Obediah Cottrell . These are our respective proposed  Cottrell ancestors
There are 310 DNA test kits that are part of  the Native American Reunion project at Ancestor-projects.com as of October 12,2011  . I sorted the kits from highest number of kits to lowest and then looked at who had the most matches with each other.  On a matrix comparing who matches who the person with the highest number of matches within  8.1 generations has 200 matches  with other project members. The kits average  73 matches with each other the median is 69 out of 310. Anyone with more then 180 matches is in the top 10% of kits with the most matches with other members.

One living Cottrell  cousin is  17 with (188 Matches) , I am number 21 (186 matches) and the other cousin is number 30 (181  matches) . In addition all three average 7.1 generations predicted most recent common ancestor with their matches.

As I said this may be just fun with numbers but it tells two stories. One we have 310 people who joined a project thinking they had Native American Ancestry,  the shear number of our matches seems to indicate we belong here.  The other interesting fact  is that the three of us are so closely clustered together, We are within 13 kits of each other and in fact all 3 of us have a common match 144 of the same  kits.

The signs keep pointing to common ancestry… stay tuned.

As a side note – The Cottrell  Ancestor Project now has 29 kits with these three cousins sharing  24,24,21  matches with other members and 19 matches in common with each other.

When I first started my search for my biological roots as a young teenager some four decades ago it was very narrowly focused on the destination. I wanted to meet my mother I wanted to thank her for the courage to place me for adoption with a loving family that could take care of me. Later in life my search became more focused on wanting to know my medical history, most of the time my search was more about completing my sense of identity. I wanted to meet the others , my father and brothers and sisters so I could look in the mirror and say ah-ha that’s why I am who I am.

The quest for my roots is a story full of loving and amazing people. Some of my genetic cousins have become my friends. Genetic genealogy has changed my whole attitude about what my search is about. It really is the journey not the destination. The genetic cousins I meet along the way are no longer just a means towards an end they are part of my family history no matter how remote, they have stories to add to the rich tapestry of my genetic family history. Each sibling or cousins story about an ancestor adds to that sense of self, the circuit rider that traveled the Midwest preaching, the farmer , the psychiatrist, the teacher, and the list goes on.

Genetic genealogy is a funny pursuit, we know we are related to our matches after all the genetic tests tell us so, but many times we do not know how. The reality is perhaps I don’t always need to know exactly how, I’ll simply enjoy knowing that we share our history and that you are the roots I have been looking for all along. Some of these cousins have become my friends, others just like any family we meet at a family reunion its a “hi nice to meet you perhaps Ill see you at the next reunion” perhaps not but my life has still been made better by that ever so brief connection. When I think I find a cousin and we don’t find a match it turns out it dosn’t matter, my life is richer and new friendships have been made and the journey has been made better because of you. So as this journey continues know that whether you join me for a few brief moment or a lifetime  that I have endless gratitude that we met along the way.

Mark