Tennessee settlers

 

Source: Ancestry Journeys.

With all the excitement around this week's update to Origins on Ancestry, I thought it useful to look back at the Journeys feature within AncestryDNA. While origins are updated once a year, journeys can be updated anytime, and can show where family may have lived within the past 300 years. I know I have some deep connections to Tennessee on both sides of the family, but the focus today is on the Jones and Thornhill lines in Eastern Tennessee.

Above is an extract from Ancestry showing the Tennessee Settlers journey description. When I look at this and compare with some matches in common from my Dad's DNA results on Ancestry and on FTDNA, I see some patterns sticking out on previously overlooked Jones and Thornhill connections. With ThruLines, I have 50 DNA matches descending from two older sisters of Joseph Jones, my 3rd-great-grandfather. There are 20 matches to descendants of Catherine Jones Murray and 30 matches to descendants of Elizabeth Jane Jones Barbee.

Ancestry's ThruLines.

I know this isn't the complete field of matches connecting up to Robert Thomas Jones Sr and Elizabeth Thornhill, but it gives a useful hint of where to look on shared matches of matches for additional possibilities.