Target testing

 

Made in Ideogram.

With the month closing out, in a few days I'll have a recap on my research question progress. The success of learning the mtDNA haplogroup descending from Maria Jesus Vasquez and the pending test result for the mtDNA haplogroup for Elizabeth Thornhill Jones and her mother Sarah Westall has me looking into other potential target testers for using mtDNA and YDNA to resolve some additional research questions.

I'd love to see if mtDNA could help sort out descendants of the wives of John Carter (1715-1783). I wrote about this question in August and am currently reaching out to the Carter Society. Perhaps this is something they have already started to research.

In the meantime, to help sort out potential descendants for a YDNA or mtDNA test, I have added custom tags in my Ancestry tree to mark "End of line" for those people who mark a spot where there is no known possible descendant to follow for a test. I also have added a custom tag for "mtDNA known" for those people who have a mtDNA haplogroup confirmed based on a downstream tester.

While looking for Jones descendants who might be able to take a YDNA test, I've found some descendants of Mary Catherine Green Jones. If one of them took the mtDNA test, this would give a haplogroup for the maternal line path, including her mother Sarah Sally Hickey, and her mother Rachel Cannon. As an example of how this mtDNA information can be useful, see this post from Diana of FamilyLocket (May 2024).

On the Armstrong-Martin line, there may be some descendants who could take the mtDNA test. This would also provide the mtDNA haplogroup for Deborah McLaughlin, putting us into Ireland for this 5th-great-grandmother.

I'm in the process of adding to my tree, following these extended branches to see if there might be potential connections. Something I had not considered last year, but may now be possible, would be to identify a direct maternal descendant of Nancy Jane Flatt who might be able to take a mtDNA test. This would give a haplogroup for Nancy Jane and Mary Alice Cain. Lots more to do.