Testing the DNAPainter Matrix tool

 

DNAPainter Matrix.

DNAPainter has a new shared DNA matrix tool (launched in May 2025). You can read more about it on their blog. I tried it out using a group of mystery matches on my Mom's side of the tree. These people likely connect into our Portillo branch, but I have not quite worked out how. Some of them are very closely related to each other (parent-child, siblings, first cousins, etc). It is somewhat useful, but given how much time it takes to enter the data, maybe just sticking with the Shared Matches of Matches tool on Ancestry's DNA ProTools is enough.

Update: There's a new blog entry I missed describing some updates to the matrix tool (see DNAPainter Blog, 28 Aug 2025).

Of interest to data nerds

Data nerds or others interested in the computing details of how Ancestry manages its massive data sets will be interested in reading this blog published yesterday by AWS (Amazon Web Services). They describe "how Ancestry optimizes a 100-billion-row Iceberg table".

From the Alte Nationalgalerie

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Berlin. 7 June 2025.

The painting above is from the Alte Nationalgalerie of the State Museum of Berlin, by French artist Narcisse Virgillo Diaz de la Peña. The painting is "Oriental Woman with her daughter" from 1865. This probably depicts a scene from Ottoman Türkiye, and reminds me of the painting of the Ottoman woman I shared in 2015 from the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum.

482 new newspapers added

Newspapers.com has added new content this summer, from 482 newspapers across the US, Canada, England and Scotland. There's a subscription required, but if you have Ancestry's All Access or a Newspapers.com subscription, you can now search in these sources.

Several Spanish language newspapers have been added from California. A quick look in some of these papers for "Campuzano" revealed an entry for Jose Maria Campuzano, who I wrote about previously as a tailor in Los Angeles in 1875.

Las Dos Republicas. 27 Feb 1875.

Another entry shows Jose Maria Campuzano was in Los Angeles from October 1873, as there was a letter sent through Wells Fargo express for him. An earlier entry in the newspaper was dated from 6 September 1873, for another letter sent through Wells Fargo. Jose Maria also contributed funds for a Cinco de Mayo event in Los Angeles in May 1873.

Las Dos Republicas. 4 Oct 1873.

 I have more looking to do in these new sources.

End of Summer

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Tompkins County, NY. 16 Aug 2025.

According to the calendar it is the last week of August, which means it is a short week as we head into Labor Day weekend. This marks the traditional end of summer, although we expect it will remain summer-like in temperatures for a bit longer here on the East Coast. This is the time of the year where the calendar picks up speed. Shorter days, lots of activity.