DNA
For 2023, I’m writing responses to the 52 Ancestors in 52 Days prompts provided by Amy Johnson Crow on her ”Generations Café” website and Facebook page.
DNA is a wonderful research tool for genealogists. It provides links where the paper trail is weak and connects researchers looking for information on the same family line.
In my case, it has done both of these things – I have “found” DNA cousins (some as close as 2nd cousins) through Ancestry’s DNA function, and have used the information in their trees to enhance my own.
My most significant find was my mother’s first cousin Velma. My mother’s family moved from Texas to Arizona in 1931, when she was just 10 years old, leaving behind a whole slew of family members – grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Given the difficulty of travel at the time (and the lack of financial resources to facilitate such travel), my mother saw very little of her family after the move. She met and married my father in Tucson in 1940, and they moved to Virginia after World War II. As far as I can recall, she never went back to Texas after that to reconnect with any family members.
In 2018, Velma popped up as a new DNA match for me on Ancestry. I messaged her and soon got a response. We communicated by email a couple of times, and she joined my Facebook group “All My Cousins.” We spoke over the telephone a few times and she sent me information – including a picture of my mother as a young woman that I had never seen before. She told me stories about her relationship with my grandmothers – her Aunt Susie and Uncle Tom – that painted a broader picture of their lives than I was able to glean from the paper trail. She cleared up some questions about her part of the family – her mother had married Wesley Workman (my grandfather’s brother), and after he died in the 1918 influenza epidemic, she married his brother Charlie. I hadn’t been able to figure this out from the various pieces of information on Ancestry, and Velma clarified it for me.
Velma and I also bonded over the fact that we were both social studies teachers. She taught in a very different time and circumstance than I experienced, but we had common interests and it was fun to talk about them.
I connected her with other cousins living in Oklahoma and Arizona – my first and second cousins. Velma had heard of them but never met them before. I also connected her with my Aunt Mary – Velma’s first cousin – and they spoke on the phone a couple of times. It was difficult – Mary didn’t speak very clearly (poorly fitted dentures) and Velma didn’t hear very well – but they enjoyed connecting.
Velma died during COVID in 2020 – but her family was quick to explain on Facebook that she didn’t die of COVID but rather of congestive heart failure. She was almost 95 years old. Here’s what a family member posted on Facebook after Velma died:
Velma Workman Poenisch was the wife of first a farmer, then a deputy sheriff, then an avid golfer (all the same man, in case you were wondering). She raised eight children of her own and was a surrogate mother to many more who went through her classroom. She adopted anyone who needed a family. She was a Christian and epitomized what being a Christian should be. She loved the Lord and found the good in others. On June 1, she would have been 95 years young.
Velma lived a long and productive life. I wish I had known her sooner. I made a genealogy research trip to Texas a few years ago, and I was in a town only about an hour from where Velma lived. I would have enjoyed meeting up with her. I wish I had known about Velma before my mother died in 2012. She would have enjoyed reconnecting with a cousin who had been part of her immediate family when she was a child.
Ancestry DNA has provided me with more extended family members than I could ever research. Here’s a map that shows where I have DNA connections. I have an idea for a research project – identifying a set of DNA matches in a specific location and trying to figure out the connections between them and me. I like to travel to do genealogy research. Where should I go next?
I’ll never be “finished.”
I love your genealogy stories!
What a wonderful experience. And your mother was indeed lovely looking. I see you in that photo.