A response to The View #nursesunite

So why am I upset over the View co-hosts comment?
Miss Colorado's choice for the talent competition was unique. She stood up and told the world about being a nurse. In a world that values the outside, in a pageant that for all points and appearances values the outside, she spoke of what is inside. She spoke of what every nurse or health professional knows. The value of what we do. We all have that one patient or several patients we won't forget.

The truth is, unless you are welcoming a baby into this world, chances are, you don't want to see us. We take care of you when you are sick, injured, and dying, situations that everyone pretty much doesn't want to have. You don't want to see me walking in your room in my scrubs with a stethoscope. I know that, we all, nurses, respiratory therapists, doctors, physical therapists, nursing assistants know this.

When you see us you are vulnerable. Your world is not your own, you are lacking control over things that no one wants to lack control over. You are in pain. You are scared. You feel like crap. Worse of all, you are often dependent on your healthcare team to perform the most basic functions. Who wants to have to ask for help to use the bathroom for Christ sakes?

We know this. And if we are good at our job, we will make it as easy as it can be, and it is not easy to be a patient. But it is even harder to be a nurse. It's hard to watch someone die. It's hard to break ribs doing CPR. It's hard to fight a losing battle. And we all have those days when that is what we are doing.
We may pour all our energy into doing everything we can do to keep someone alive, knowing that it is a futile battle. But still we do it. We do it because it's more than just our job. It's part of who we are. When I was in the Marines, we said "once a Marine always a Marine." Being a nurse is just like that. It forever changes you.
Miss Colorado did what we want every Miss America contestant to do, she stood up, and was a role model. A positive role model. Her talent performance did not deserve ridicule. There was nothing ridiculous about it. It was touching, it was moving. So when you bashed her for performing it, of course you angered 3 million nurses. Your apologies fell flat. I hope you realize that. You have done nothing but antagonize us even more. One day, you will see a nurse walking into a room where you or a loved one needs their care. And you will be grateful that they are there. But you will not, I think, ever understand what it is you did wrong.

So how much DNA do I get from my 5th great grandfather anyway?

Autosomal DNA is supposed to, unlike X chromosomal DNA be passed down evenly. I say supposed to because some of my mom's results sure have me wondering when I get much larger than normal matches that go back to a 6th great grandfather.

So according to all the tables it should go roughly like this.
You get 50 percent DNA from each parent, made up of 25 percent DNA from each grandparent.
That means that each great grandparent contributes 12.5 percent to your DNA.
Each 2nd great grandparent contributes 6.25 percent to your DNA.
Each 3rd great grandparent contributes 3.125 percent to your DNA.
Each 4th great grandparent contributes 1.5625 percent to your DNA.
Each 5th great grandparent contributes 0.78125 percent to your DNA.
Each 6th great grandparent contributes  0.390625 percent to your DNA.
Each 7th great grandparent contributes 0.1953125 percent to your DNA.
And so on.

We measure matches in genetic distance (cM's) and the number of SNPs they contain. To be valid a match should contain 700 snps and be at least 7 cM long. Some of us when we are working with a known match will consider smaller matches (for me it's 5-7 cM if the number of SNP's remains high) but the odds of a match being IBS (identical by segment) is much greater than it being IBD (identical by descent). What is the difference? IBS is random and IBD is passed down.

They also have tables you can view online that give you the amount of DNA on average shared between different relatives in both percent and in cM's. Such as this one here.

According to this chart a sixth cousin on average would share 0.0122 percent of their DNA.

Observing my mother's matches, because most of my Dad's larger matches have double connections I have observed the following. She shares 0.5 percent more with her one second cousin once removed. The chart states third cousins share 0.78 percent on average, but mom's ranges go from 1.7-1.9 percent and her second cousin once removed is 2.05 percent shared. Her  3rd cousins once removed range from 0.66 percent to 1.71 percent compared to the average  of 0.39 percent. Her two second twice removed matches of  0.62 percent is slightly lower than the expected 0.78 percent. She shares a whopping 0.56 percent with a Colonial 6th cousin yet only 0.52 percent with another third cousin once removed. Oddly enough on this family line, her half first cousin shares much larger matches and has smaller ones on my mother's larger ones. She also shares a whopping 0.38 percent with her 5th cousin on the 11th (see blog) with ranges on that particular match on the larger matches being from 0.38- 1.0 percent DNA that is no closer than her 6th grandfather.

So what am I implying?

I am implying that we don't get exactly half of each grandparent's DNA. That just like X DNA it mixed together on each chromosome so that it is possible to share almost 1 percent DNA with a 6th cousin that shares only one set of MCA. (which according to how DNA is passed down is impossible). It doesn't mean you don't get a bit of DNA from each line, you just get uneven bits of DNA I think, which is why mom's Collins matches are small and her Hager matches are larger for her and vice versa for her Hager cousin.

No proof, just my observations, and maybe some food for thought.

Hardy and Pyburn DNA what I hope to learn

Today I sent off four kits for autosomal DNA. Three of the tester's are descendants of a Hardy, Pyburn or both. This time I used Ancestrydna, mainly because it was on sale, and if I need to I can transfer tests to FTDNA an option no longer available for 23andme. (Though I hope it will be again someday). I know I want to send the fourth test off there, because it's my maternal grandfather's first cousin and is Choctaw DNA that I would like to get some more matches for.

Note to protect the privacy of individuals I am using the following format, their names are abbreviated to initials, first maiden married names. Thus if I were talking about my grandmother, Evelyne Hardy Barnes she would be EHB.

The tester's I am testing all descend from Gardner Hardy and his wife Harriet, last name unknown. We have some small matches presently with my father and fourth cousins, descendants of their daughter Rebecca. This time I am testing two descendants of  William Shepard "Shep" Hardy Sr and one from Robert Hardy. The first tester, MWE is a great granddaughter of Robert Hardy via his son George Gardner Hardy. MWE is also a descendant of the Pyburn's as George Gardner's maternal grandmother was Nicy Pyburn, a sister of my ancestor Benjamin Jacob Pyburn. The second tester, CPB is a great granddaughter of Benjamin Jacob Pyburn through her paternal grandfather and through her paternal grandmother she is a great great granddaughter of Shep Hardy Sr. There is more to why she's an invaluable tester, but as for my father's dna, her father was his grandmother's half brother, so they should have a good chunk of Pyburn DNA in common. The third tester, HHA is a great granddaughter of Shep Hardy Sr.

Tester	Siblings	Sibs/1st	1st/2nd	2nd/3rd	Once removed
HHA	Shep Hardy Sr	Robert Hardy	WS Hardy	HHA
CPR	Shep Hardy Sr	Rebecca Hardy	Hattie Campbell	Carlton Pyburn	CPR
JRB	Shep Hardy SR	WS Hardy Jr	Robert Hardy	Evelyne Hardy	JRB
MWE	Robert Hardy	George G Hardy	Mattie Hardy	MWE

Thus in the above table HHA and MWE are third cousins, HHA and CPR and my father 2^nd cousins once removed, and MWE and CPR and my father are 3^rd cousins once removed. It is important to note that genetic distance for a second cousin once removed and 3^rd cousin as for percent shared is in the same range.

For the Pyburn side we have the following

Tester	Siblings	Same/1st	Sibs/2nd	1sr/3rd	Once removed
CPR	Benjamin Jacob Pyburn	Archie Pyburn	Carlton Pyburn	CPR
JRB	Benjamin Jacob Pyburn	Archie Pyburn	Lula Pyburn	Evelyne Hardy	JRB
MWE	Nicy Pyburn	Elizabeth Fleming	George G Hardy	Mattie Hardy	MWE

So in the above table CPR and my father are half 1st cousins once removed and MWE and CPR are 3^rd cousins once removed.

So what is it I hope to find out? Well for starter's, we need DNA to another Hardy group to link Gardner Hardy to his parents and we have no idea as to the maiden name of Harriet. I have a tree for Sally Nelson, but I am not sure of it, so links there will be beneficial as well. On the Pyburn side, the rumor that either the Pyburn's, the Chitty's or both are native American has been in the family for decades (and is much stronger in my humble opinion than that rumor associated with Barbara Sunday). CPR may in fact show a higher percentage of native ancestry than my father's modest 0.1 percent and help answer that question. It's a long shot for sure, as we are talking CPR's ggg grandmother, but we still have no idea who the mother of Jacob Pyburn 2 is, only that she is from the Tensaw area, but in theory 3 percent of CPR's dna comes from this woman, so maybe we will get an answer.

In addition however, Hattie Viola Campbell is the granddaughter of Neil Campbell and Sarah Bowen. The common thought is that Sarah’s mother Nancy is a McCurdy because in 1870 she is living with Thomas Sunday and his wife, Anna McCurdy.  However we know believe that Anna is the daughter of Mattie Bowen and Elijah McCurdy, and because of this, Nancy was the aunt by marriage of Anna through her husband Joshua Bowen. The question remains still though, is Nancy a McCurdy.

With the plethora of testers now available, I hope to find out. We have enough double McCurdy’s running around that even a small amount of DNA should match. However, it is also complicated. If CPR matches three of the testers, SSM, CRB or PR then we can’t definitively say since all three descend from Joseph McCurdy, Elijah’s son by Mattie Bowen. If however they match one of the other (I believe we are at 10 or 11) testers, we can jump for joy, because CPR’s mother is in no way connected to the Panhandle DNA, and I pretty much have her paternal side nailed down.

To give you an idea on how the Bowen and the McCurdy side works, I will give you tables for the Bowen connected, my father and the doubles who share the most DNA with the other testers.

Tester	1st gen	2nd gen	3rd Gen	4th Gen	5th Gen	6th Gen
CPR	Joshua Bowen and Nancy McCurdy	Sarah Bowen	Wash Campbell	Hattie Campbell	Carlton Pyburn	CPR
SSM	Elijah McCurdy and Mattie Bowen	Anna McCurdy	Joseph Sunday	John Sunday	Sidney Sunday	SSM
CRB and her sister PR	Elijah McCurdy and Mattie Bowen	Joseph McCurdy	Anna McCurdy	Andrew Robinson	James Robinson	CRB and PR
JRB	Elijah McCurdy and Barbara Sunday	William McCurdy	Plina McCurdy	Lula Pyburn	Evelyne Hardy	JRB
SFM	Elijah McCurdy and Barbara Sunday	George W and William McCurdy	Charlotte McCurdy and Katie McCurdy	Florence McCurdy and DMF	Katie McCurdy and SFM	DMF (SFM would be next box to right)
GPK	Elijah McCurdy and Barbara Sunday	George W McCurdy	Elizabeth and Charlotte McCurdy	Admiral and Ola Morris	Blanche Morris	GPK
JVM/VMM	Elijah McCurdy and Barbara Sunday	George and William McCurdy	Jack and Carrie McCurdy	Child	JVM/VMM