One of my eighth great grandfathers was Richard Dana (1617-1690), a New England Puritan, who landed in Massachusetts in 1640. Richard married Anne Bullard in about 1648.
My seventh great grandfather Daniel Dana was born on 20 March 1664 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Daniel was the tenth of twelve children.
In 1661 Richard Dana had purchased a farm of 108 acres near the area later called “Oak Square”. Daniel probably grew up here.
Richard Dana and his family attended the “First Church” in the older part of Cambridge. Richard and his family crossed the Charles River each Sunday to attend church. Daniel was baptized in the church which was then in Harvard College Yard on 3 April 1664.
In 1689 Daniel served in the militia. In that year there was a revolt against the Governor, Sir Edmund Andros; Daniel may have played some part in this.
In 1694 Daniel married Naomi Crosswell.
They had nine children:
- Thomas Dana 1694–
- Caleb Dana 1697–1769
- Richard Dana 1700–1772
- Naomi Dana 1702–1726
- Timothy Dana 1705–1705
- Priscilla Dana 1706–1785
- Daniel Dana 1708–1713
- Ebenezer Dana 1711–
- Hepzibah Dana 1714–1789
Daniel had been a cooper and a farmer and worked as a surveyor of highways and as a tithing man. In 1715 and in 1723 he served as a selectman – on the local board of government. In 1736 he served on an important church committee.
On 10 October 1749, Daniel died, age 86, and was buried in the Old Burying Ground at Harvard Square, Cambridge . His headstone made of slate still survives.
DNA
Daniel was one of twelve children and he himself had nine children; his descendants number in the thousands.
In 2016 I found that my DNA matched that of several people also descended from Richard or Daniel Dana.
In the brief notes that follow:
– AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, GedMatch and MyHeritage provide DNA analysis services
– a centiMorgan (cM) is a measurement of how much DNA is shared. Higher centiMorgans, more shared DNA
– fourth cousins once removed commonly share from zero to 117 centiMorgans. The average in one survey was 28cM.
DS is my fourth cousin once removed. We share William Pulteney Dana (1776-1861) as a common ancestor. We share 38 centiMorgans of DNA across one segment. The amount of DNA we share is consistent with our relationship of fourth cousins.
AncestryDNA gives us limited information about our DNA matches. It does tell us though for perceived close matches who we share DNA with. DS and I share DNA with DV and EH who both descend from Daniel Dana’s son Ebenezer. 8th cousins have been found to share between zero and 50cM. The amount of DNA I share with DV and EH is within the range for 8th cousins and 7th cousins once removed.
Without more information about the segments shared I cannot make predictions that the shared DNA does come from Daniel Dana and his wife Naomi. If my matches uploaded their DNA data to FamilyTreeDNA, GedMatch or MyHeritage, those sites would give me information to see if the segments match. We could then infer using the principles of triangulation that our paper trail pedigree matches our genetic tree.
At this stage it seems likely, based on the information from AncestryDNA that we share DNA even though this information is not quantified.
I have two other DNA matches with Dana descendants. As we share only small amounts of DNA, AncestryDNA does not provide the information if we share this with any other matches.
With such distant common ancestors, it is quite possible that we share other ancestors that we have not yet researched and the shared DNA is attributable to another ancestor.
It would help enormously if AncestryDNA gave us more information about our shared DNA as do the other companies. Otherwise, if people who have had their DNA tested would be prepared to upload to the other companies, we would be able to understand more about our shared DNA and determine if we have correctly identified out most common recent ancestor and there confirm our paper pedigree with shared DNA. Uploads to FamilyTreeDNA, GedMatch and MyHeritage are free, no further testing or payments are required.
Although it is interesting that I can find that I share DNA with distant cousins who are descended from the same forebears, it does not tell me more about Richard Dana and his son Daniel. I have learned most from Elizabeth Ellery Dana‘s genealogy of the Dana family.
Sources
- Dana, Elizabeth Ellery The Dana family in America. Cambridge, Mass. 1956, reprinted 2018. It can be viewed online through archive.org at https://archive.org/details/TheDanaFamilyInAmerica
- “The Church in Harvard Square: The Church And College.” Harvard Square Library, 9 Sept. 2014, www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/congregational-polity/the-church-and-college/.
- Lucius R. Paige (27 May 2017). History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, Volume 1. Jazzybee Verlag. pp. 194–. ISBN 978-3-8496-7722-0.
- “International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki ISOGG Wiki.” Autosomal DNA Statistics – ISOGG Wiki, International Society of Genetic Genealogy, 29 Nov. 2017, isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_statistics.
lindamaycurry said:
I really should upload my DNA to other companies other than Ancestry. I did uploadto Gedmatch and have received one email from someone on my mother’s side. How amazing is it to have a picture of the Dana House and also the gravestone!!!
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Anne Young said:
Hi Linda – I really recommend uploading to MyHeritage – they have excellent tools and seem to be continually developing new ones since I posted https://ayfamilyhistory.com/2018/01/12/a-new-chromosome-browser-in-myheritage/
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Dianne said:
Wow! How fabulous to have a photo of the house. That first little add-on might possibly be a summer kitchen. They were very popular on the east coast where it can get hot and muggy in the summer. Using the regular kitchen would warm the house the other months.
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Wendy Mathias said:
I love those old slate tombstones. And what a gift that Daniel and DNA combine to make such a rich post for today’s challenge.
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kristin said:
I guess I will upload my dna to My Heritage. That is one place I have not done so. I find it interesting to find cousins what I share DNA with when it let’s me be sure that someone I suspected was related, but was unable to prove with a paper trail. I have learned much more from digging through the records though.
http://findingeliza.com/
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Tawnya said:
I’m loving this blog so much! It makes me want to do some research of my own!
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tawnyalarie said:
Love this! Thank you for giving me the desire to go do some research of my own!
https://ayfamilyhistory.com
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tawnyalarie said:
Ha! I linked your blog instead of mine! Sorry!
http://authenticallylivinglife.blogspot.com/2018/04/a-to-z-challenge-d-is-for-diapers.html
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