April Update - FamilyTreeMaker event, developing my skills, DNA matches, and Ancestor Score

 April has been a good month for what I would describe as "background" or "foundational" family history research, ie, about the tools and techniques used, rather than about researching specific ancestors. 

Early in the month, we spent a few days on holiday near Swansea.  This was booked some months ago, so it was a very pleasant surprise to receive an email on the 3rd April, from Family Tree Maker, which is the program I use for my personal family history, indicating that they were doing a tour of Southern England and Wales during the month - and one of the events was taking place in Swansea in the same week I was going to be there!

What a wonderful coincidence of timings, considering one of my aims for this year is to get back into seriously working on my own family history, as well as my one-name study. 

I promptly booked, and so subsequently spent a very useful afternoon at St Illtyd's Church Hall, in Fforestfach, Swansea, learning more about the program and its features, as well as about the related software that works with it. 

St Illtyd's Church Hall, in Fforestfach, Swansea

I have since watched some of the videos on the FTM site, at https://www.familytreemaker.com/exhibition/demos/ftm_demos.html, all of which has helped me gain a better understanding of the program. 

A key point that was emphasised, "Don't be afraid to click"!

So that was encouraging.

I have just finished writing up a blog post for my one-name study, about the Guild Conference, which you can read at https://parry-one-name-study.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-guild-2026-conference-navigating.html 

Several of the things I have mentioned in that will be relevant to my personal family history research, as well. For example, the "more beer" song, and the potential consequences of my grandfather's generation fighting in WW1, add to the personal stories of those concerned. Also the tools and techniques, especially the DNA network program, should help me to be more effective in my research this year.

There is often an overlap between resources I learn about because of my one-name study, and those that assist me in my own family history.  One of the databases I noticed, as a result of keeping track of new information for the ONS, was the "Prerogative and Exchequer Court of York Wills, 1389-1858", which Ancestry added during the month.  As I described in my blog post last year, at https://notjusttheparrys.blogspot.com/2025/03/naylornayler-family-research-update.html my NAYLOR ancestors were connected to Yorkshire, so I searched for any records relating to a Joshua in the York Wills.  

There were several, but one in particular struck me - a Joshua NAYLOR, whose Will was proved in 1719-1720, having a wife called Mary, and whose residence was listed as Newland.  Newland was the initial residence of the Joshua NAYLER who married Mary GALL on 30 Jan 1718, in Cottingham, Yorkshire. 

So there is potentially a connection between the people in these two documents, the Will and the marriage.

However, since the marriage took place in 1718, at which time that Joshua was described as of Cottingham, and the Will was written just a year later, but mentions three sons, John, Joshua, Thomas, as well as the testator still being of Newland, I suspect the Joshua in the Will is possibly the previous generation to the one who married in 1718.

That still does not help in identifying whether this is the correct family to be my ancestors. But the Will does help in filling out more of this family's story, including some details for other people, which might, eventually, lead to information that either confirms, or disproves, any connection to me.

What a difference a haplogroup makes! 
I thought I'd take another look at my mitochondrial results this month, and it turns out that I now have 499 matches described as "exact" on the mitochondrial DNA full sequence test. 

My haplogroup is H1C1.

One of my relatives is a J1c3.  They still have no exact matches - the closest is two steps away.

And they only have 79 full sequence matches in total, unlike the 1276 that I have.

But I am puzzled by one thing - although the 499 matches are all said to be an exact match to me from the point of view of the "Genetic Distance", there are five different haplotypes listed among them.

Which is a puzzle to me - how can they be "exact" matches, with no genetic differences, and yet 371 of us are identified as F2034891, while the others are identifed as F1551904 (1 match), F1632040 (2 matches), F5051787 (82 matches), or F8215860 (43 matches)?

Clearly I still have a lot to learn!

But, since the time range for testers from my haplogroup to discover genetic ancestors seems to be from about 1350BCE to 1800CE, I won't be holding my breath until I find a shared mitochondrial ancestor!

It's a good job the autosomal matches are easier to find shared ancestry with.  

Back in February I shared about my "Ancestor Score" (at https://notjusttheparrys.blogspot.com/2026/02/bit-and-pieces-match-numbers-second.html) 

I was a bit disappointed that I ended up just repeating my 2015 table, and hadn't managed to demonstrate any progress on the number of ancestors known, or the number of DNA matches where the common ancestor had been identified. 

So, although I still haven't dealt with documenting any additional ancestors, I have carried out a rough count of the current numbers of DNA matches with identified common ancestors. (I have used the Ancestry "Common Ancestors" identification to help with this, but haven't included all of them, only those I know I have looked at, and agree with):

The figures are probably still not totally accurate, but they are a better representation as to how many DNA matches I have identified from particular ancestors at the moment. 

My task now is to get these written up properly, and then do the research to identify others among my current matches, before next February.