Always warm and bright

 

London Transport Museum. 1912.

XDNA Inheritance

 

Source: Blaine Bettinger. The Genetic Genealogist, 2008.

In July 2025, I wrote about using XDNA with DNA matches. I am looking again at XDNA patterns, now that I also have access to my cousin Catherine's results with FamilyTreeDNA. I can compare XDNA matches in common between Catherine and my Mom, and possibly try to identify the most recent common ancestor with matches on the Mexican or Chilean sides of the tree.

Catherine and my Mom share 36 cM of XDNA, and 208 cM of autosomal DNA. Her common ancestor are my 2nd-great-grandparents Vicente Plutarco Campuzano and Maria Jesus Vasquez. With XDNA, because this has a specific inheritance pattern, those 36 cMs could be 50% from Vicente and 50% from Maria Jesus. In addition, Maria Jesus inherited her XDNA from both her parents, Gabriel Vasquez and Maria Jesus Suastegui, while Vicente only inherited his XDNA from his mother, Maria Concepcion Amado. As one of my research areas is to dig into the Amado DNA connections, XDNA provides another possibility for discovery.

Catherine has another XDNA match sharing 25 cM, but only 12 cM autosomal DNA. This match is in Brazil, so this hints at a possible Portuguese connection. It would help to see if there are more testers with a connection to the Amado side who also have a match in common with this particular XDNA match. We're currently waiting on another Campuzano cousin descending from Vicente Plutarco Campuzano and Maria Jesus Vasquez to complete his test, so I'll be curious if this match also appears.

Update - The chart at the top of the post shows female XDNA inheritance, highlighting the parts of the tree passing along XDNA (blue for paternal line inheritance, pink for maternal). So, if you have XDNA matches this can be a powerful tool for identifying matches and lines on the tree for research focus.

FamilyTreeDNA and Gedmatch are the only DNA sites I am aware of that currently display XDNA matches.

Revolutionary Veterans

 

Emanuel Leutze. Washington Crossing the Delaware. 1851.

With the PBS documentary series on the American Revolution premiering this week, I thought it was timely to look at some of the Revolutionary veterans I have covered previously on the blog. Since my meeting in Dublin, I've been providing some research assistance with a distant cousin's DAR application involving my 6th-great-grandfather James Tucker. This recap might be useful later in case S would like to pursue a DAR application.

• James Tucker, 1759-1849. He served in North Carolina.
• Azariah Davis, 1756-1830. He served in Pennsylvania.
• James Smith, 1755-1838. He served in Maryland. See also his pension file.

There's another group I think served during the American Revolution, but I have not yet verified this.

• Samuel Pollock, 1756-1835.
• William Allman, 1746-1830. Pennsylvania.
• Thomas Armstrong, 1734-1776
• Samuel Vail, 1754-1846
• Moses Lambert Jr, 1737-1782. New Jersey.
• Michael Braun. 1761-1826. Pennsylvania.
• John Read, 1734-1819. Virginia.

Finally, there's John McIntosh, the Scottish surgeon whose legend states he was captured at the Battle of Cowpens in 1781 while serving in the British Army.

Now streaming: The American Revolution

 

Source: PBS. The American Revolution (2025).

The 12 hour, six part documentary The American Revolution is now streaming (available each night this week or in full on PBS). Additional detail about the episodes is available on the PBS link above and in the image below.

Source: PBS.

Over the top Christmas lights

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Temple Bar Dublin. 23 Oct 2025.