We’re excited to announce that after extensive renovations, American Ancestors will reopen on January 21, 2025! We are excited to welcome our members and the public back to the Brim-DeForest Library, R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, and the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center to explore their ancestry and strengthen their connections to the past. We are located at 97 Newbury Street in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.
For our daily schedule, location, and other details, please visit our websiteorcontact us at membership@nehgs.org or 888-296-3447 (choose option 1).
We look forward to seeing you in person!
Upcoming Online Seminar, January 2–30
Getting Started in Family History Research
Whether you are new to genealogy or have been conducting research for years, this five-week online course will provide practical steps for effective and efficient research and help you find the answers you’re looking for! Register Now
Cartoon Caption Contest!
American Ancestors, our quarterly magazine, is seeking a caption for its next cartoon (pictured)! The winning entry will be featured in our winter issue. Click the image to view a larger version (clicking will redirect you to our Facebook page). Enter Now
The Weekly Genealogist Survey
This Week's Survey:
Genealogical Resolutions for 2025
Share your thoughts about the survey!Please limit submissions to 150 words or fewer. Your submission may be featured in an upcoming newsletter or shared on social media; please note in your email if you do not want your story to be shared. Published responses may be edited for clarity and length.
Matrilineal (mtDNA) and Patrilineal (Y-DNA) Haplogroups
Total: 2,310 Responses
52%, Yes, I know my matrilineal haplogroup.
43%, Yes, I know my patrilineal haplogroup.
34%, No, I do not know my matrilineal haplogroup.
37%, No, I do not know my patrilineal hapologroup.
9%, I am planning to identify my matrilineal and/or patrilineal haplogroups.
8%, I am not interested in identifying my matrilineal and/or patrilineal haplogroups.
17%, Knowing my matrilineal and/or patrilineal haplogroups has been useful in my research.
31%, While knowing my matrilineal and/or patrilineal haplogroups has been interesting, it has not played a role in my genealogical research.
6%, Knowing my matrilineal and/or patrilineal haplogroups has not been useful or interesting to me.
Readers Respond
Greg Nash (Hagopian), Watertown, Massachusetts: Having been adopted, I met my biological mother when I was in my twenties. She told me the name of the man who she thought was my father. Fifty years later, I took an Ancestry DNA test. The results proved my deceased mother wrong. I took a Y-DNA test and matched with someone with whom I shared at least a great-grandparent. After I spoke with my match, I took a FamilyTreeDNA autosomal test and learned I had a half-brother! He had been encouraged to take a test for genealogical purposes by our deceased father’s cousin. I was warmly welcomed at that year’s family reunion. I have visited my half-brother several more times and we talk by phone weekly. I had lived in Watertown, Mass.—home to one of the largest Armenian communities in the United States—for years, never knowing that I was Armenian.
Kathy Lorber, Montville, New Jersey: Using traditional genealogical research methods my family knew that my great-great-great-grandfather Jean Mouton was born in 1790 on the island of Santo Domingo. Earlier records were lost, so the origins of the family were a mystery for a number of generations. Then, my brother took a Y-DNA test and matched three other Moutons. From them, we learned that we were descendants of an earlier Jean Mouton, who emigrated from Marseille, France, to Acadia in 1706. When the French were expelled from Acadia by the English in 1750, the ancestors of the DNA matches went to Louisiana and our Mouton ancestors went to Santo Domingo. Without DNA testing, we never would have known this additional history.
Steve Althoen, Dexter, Michigan: My great-grandfather Thomas Harty (1843-1917) was canon of the cathedral in Spanish Town, Jamaica, from 1899 to 1917. This cathedral was the largest Anglican church in the Caribbean. Surprisingly, Thomas’s lengthy obituary doesn’t list his parents. My grandmother told me only that he was born in Falmouth, but I could find no record of his birth when I visited Falmouth, England, in 1979. However, after I took a DNA test, a match from Australia—who was also a descendant of Thomas—informed me that Thomas was born in Falmouth, Jamaica. Armed with this information, I obtained a copy of Thomas’s birth certificate and learned that his mother, Susan, was of African descent. This explains why Togo/Benin appears in my DNA analysis and is the likely reason why his parents were not mentioned in his obituary.
Lois Harper, Fort Myers, Florida: Although knowing about my DNA has not changed my genealogical research, my spouse has had a different experience. When he took his DNA test, he found that he was raised by a stepfather and that he has a half-sister who he didn’t know about. At age 82, he doesn’t want to upset his sister in case she is unaware of his existence. We are both amazed that this secret was kept so long. It is a difficult situation for my husband, but he is coping by researching his paternal family. Perhaps one of them will eventually wonder how they are related to him—a stranger on their list of matches—and contact him.
Your Genealogical Will Nancy Battick, the “Family Discoverer” columnist for the Piscataquis Observer of Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, advises family historians to leave specific instructions in their wills about the disposition of their genealogy collections and research materials.
Skating into Winter “Biblomania,” the blog of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress, highlights a 1916 volume, Hippodrome Skating Book: Practical, Illustrated Lessons in the Art of Figure Skating, as Exemplified by "Charlotte," Greatest Woman Skater in the World.
Spotlight: Community History Archive: Carrington City Library, North Dakota
by Valerie Beaudrault
The city of Carrington, located in east central North Dakota, is the county seat of Foster County. The Carrington City Library has made several newspaper resources available in its Community History Archive. The collection comprises more than 90,000 pages from seventy newspapers, including The Foster County Independent (1914-1979), The Woodworth Rustler (1912-1935), The Carrington Record (1901-1921), Sykeston News (1901-1942) The McHenry Tribune (1905-1929), and The Kensal Times (1931-1942). The database can be searched by keyword or browsed. Search Now
As a family historian, you know that wills are important in your research—but have you created a will for yourself? Free Will, an easy and free online will creation tool, will guide you step-by-step through identifying beneficiaries for your assets, supporting the causes that are important to you, and planning for the preservation of your research. Learn More
