Vining Newsletter - March 2005

Dear Vining Researchers,

I am always excited when I receive an e-mail about Vining family research. It may contain one more piece of information for the growing Vining Family web site (see "Expanded Web Site" below) or corrections to data that were gleaned from inaccurate secondary sources. Often it is a notice about a new entry to one of two myfamily.com web sites that I have been invited to be a part of. I appreciate each one of these messages and thank you for sending them.

FEBRUARY CONTRIBUTORS to the VINING FAMILY WEB SITE
Thank you to ...
... Murray Vining for sending corrections for the Vining Family genealogy web page
... Guy Vining for sending corrections to the Vining Family genealogy web page
... Ruby Gordon for contributing data and notes for the 1790 Vining census data web page
... Karen Liptrap for information about one of the oldest living Vinings
... Sharon Marvin for information about one of the oldest living Vinings
... Glenda Overstreet for information about one of the oldest living Vinings
... Barbara Sullivan for confirming information on the Vining Family genealogy web page

EXPANDED WEB SITE
This past month I have expanded the Vining Family web site. In addition to the Vining Genealogy that most of you are familiar with and the more recent 1790 Vining census data, I have added a page for Vining Place Names, Businesses, Schools, Libraries, etc., and have created an archive for the Vining Newsletter of which this is number 3. All these pages can be accessed from http://www.vfthomas.com/Vininghome.htm

1790 CENSUS DATA
The first decennial census recorded information about households from 12 states-CT, ME, MD, MA, NH, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, and VA (this state's information reconstructed from state enumerations). The current status of our knowledge of households headed by a Vining is reported in detail on http://www.vfthomas.com/Vining1790census.htm and summarized here as follows:
CT - 3 known, may be more
ME - 3 known, probably complete
MD - needs research
MA - 17 known, probably complete
NH - needs research
NY - 3 known, may be more
NC - 1 known, may be complete (see below)
PA - none found to date, needs research
RI - needs research
SC - 1 known, may be complete (see below)
VT - needs research
VA - needs research

This past month, Ruby Gordon contributed the NC and SC data, one household from each state and each headed by a Thomas Vining. She also provided the following information about the earliest U. S. census available for states south of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River.
AL - 1830
FL - 1830
GA - 1820
KY - 1810
MS - 1820
TN - 1820
VA - 1810

Ruby wrote near the end of her letter, "In the 1790 census, there were no uniform sheets to take the census. Massachusetts was the only state to have a printed form. The other states used all kinds of papers since it was usually the marshal's assistants who took the censuses. They provided their own supplies." I will update the Vining 1790 census web site as I receive new material from you.

OLDEST LIVING VININGS
The oldest reported living male Vining is James Vining (son of Oliver and Arloe Vining) - b. 1916
The next-to-oldest reported living male Vining is Thomas Frank Vining (son of Elmer Chandler Vining and Lelia Madge Day) - b. 9 January 1920 Boothbay Harbor, ME (He says "hello" to everyone.)
The oldest reported living female Vining is Alice Mae (Vining) Lantz (dau. Of Edward Harrison Vining and Mary Ella Chapman) - b. 15 January 1917 Mason City, IA
The oldest reported living daughter of a female Vining is Helen Fannie Marie Moskowitz (dau. Of Julia Estella (Vining) Traxler who was the dau. of William Harmon Vining and Sarah Margaret Ridenour) - b. 28 November 1912
For the problem of determining what is meant by a female Vining, please see DNA below.

INHERITANCE OF DNA
    Last month, I said the DNA topic for this month would be DNA fingerprinting. I am going to hold that until later and discuss here DNA inheritance and how this impacts on the question of how we determine who a Vining really is.
   Recall that we have DNA in two places in our cells. Nuclear DNA, found in the nucleus of a cell as its name indicates, is composed of the familiar 23 pairs of chromosomes (or, equivalently, 2 sets of 23 chromosomes). Mitochondrial DNA is a circular molecule found in each mitochondrion, of which we have many in each cell. We inherit these two units of DNA differently. Mitochondrial DNA is inherited from one's mother and nuclear DNA is inherited 50/50 from both parents. Maternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA means is that you (male or female) have essentially the same (barring any mutations, of course) mitochondrial DNA as your cousins (male or female) if your mother and their mother were sisters. Think of mitochondrial DNA as a family heirloom that is passed down from mother to daughter, except in the case of DNA, it is duplicated and passed down to each and every daughter. (It is passed down to a son also, but it stops there. A male does not contribute any mitochondrial DNA to the next generation.) So, your mitochondrial DNA is the same as your mother's which is the same as her mother's which is the same as her mother's mother's, etc.
   Nuclear DNA is biparentally inherited; you get half from your mother and half from your father. In all the cells of our body, EXCEPT the reproductive cells (sperm and egg), we have 2 sets of the 23 chromosomes. In our reproductive cells, we have only 1 set, which is a mix of the 2 sets that are in the rest of our cells. Imagine laying out the 2 sets of 23 chromosomes on a table and then making up a new single set by picking the first little bit, say 10%, from chromosome 1 of set 1 and then taking the next 15% from chromosome 1 of set 2, and so on until you have completed a new chromosome 1. Do this for all 23 chromosomes until you have a new single set of 23. That new set of 23 is what you pass on to an offspring. (Another offspring also receives a new set of 23, but his or her new set is created by a different mix of the 23 pairs, identical twins being an exception to this.) Another way of visualizing what happens in the production of each new chromosome in a reproductive cell is this. Lay out two shirts on a table (a shirt being the equivalent of a chromosome). Then make up a new shirt by taking the left sleeve from shirt 1, the right sleeve from shirt 2, half of the buttons from shirt 1, half of the buttons from shirt 2, half of the back of shirt 1, the other half of the back of shirt 2, etc., until you have a new shirt. Then proceed to do the same thing with 22 other pieces of clothing until you have created a new wardrobe that consists of half as many units as the original wardrobe. Pass on that new "patchwork" wardrobe of 23 pieces to an offspring (male or female). That's how your offspring get your nuclear DNA. This mixing of pieces (of DNA) is called "recombination" and is why an offspring may be said to have "his mother's nose", "his father's chin", etc. (Don't necessarily take it as a compliment if an offspring says she has "your brains". She may mean that she doesn't think you have them anymore!).
   Now we come to the issue of what is meant by a "Vining male" or a "Vining female". The question to be asked is: Is there any DNA that can be considered "Vining DNA"? The answer is, "Well, yes and no. Yes for a male, and no for a female." Let's start with the male. Recall from newsletter 1 (January 2005) that of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a male, there are really 22 pairs, and the remaining two chromosomes are not exactly the same. These two are the ones that determine gender; a male has an X and a Y chromosome, and a female has two Xs. That Y chromosome undergoes very little recombination (see paragraph above) and is passed from father to son pretty much the way the father received it from his father and so on back through the male line. Because the surname Vining is also passed from father to son, the Y chromosome becomes what we can call "Vining DNA". There is also "Smith DNA", which differs slightly from "Vining DNA", and there is "Jones DNA" which differs slightly from both "Smith DNA" and "Vining DNA", etc. So, going back to the question of what is meant by a Vining male, the answer is "any male with Vining DNA (that is, any male with the Vining Y chromosome)". Now, a daughter of a male Vining receives his surname and his X chromosome, but his X chromosome came from his mother, almost always a non-Vining. So, there is really no "Vining DNA" for a female. Therefore, when I ask about the oldest living Vining males, I am asking about someone who has identifiable Vining DNA, but when I ask about the oldest living Vining females, we are left to develop a somewhat artificial criterion such as "they were given the Vining name at birth".
   What if surnames were passed down the maternal line instead of the paternal line? Then the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA would be the Vining DNA, and all daughters, granddaughters, great granddaughters, etc., would possess it. Sons would also possess Vining DNA because a son derives his mitochondrial DNA from his mother. So, the scenario of having a surname passed down a maternal line is sort of a mirror image of the paternal line surname passing that we have now with one slight difference. With a maternal line surname passing, not all males would have to live with the artificial criterion of "they were given the Vining name at birth". Sons (but none of their offspring) of a Vining female would truly have Vining DNA, namely, their mother's mitochondrial DNA.
   Next time or the time after that, the topic will be DNA fingerprinting and then, hopefully, something about how DNA analysis is used in genealogy. If some/all of what I have said is unclear to you, but if you want to understand it, I am quite willing to talk you through it on the telephone, and I will make the call if you e-mail me your number.

FAMILY REUNION
I have been following with interest the planning for a Vining family reunion by those who live in the Georgia area. I have noted that at least one person has a busy spring schedule, another has a full fall, and everyone seems to agree that it is simply too hot in the summertime. Therefore, I have decided to invite all of you to attend a Vining reunion here at my place next January. That will give all of you plenty of time to set aside a few days for the event, and the heat will not be a problem. I have only two guest rooms, but there is plenty of space on the 29 acres for tenting. I have a picnic table in the back yard and a fireplace for cooking outside. It's covered by snow right now, but if I dig it out and start a fire in it, it will melt the snow for several feet around, and we can bring out lawn chairs and toast marshmallows. Be sure to bring your snowshoes and we can go for a hike. Please let me know if this possibility interests you and we can begin to firm up plans. I want this to be a reunion you won't soon forget.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Tom

Thomas F. Vining
V. F. Thomas Co.
Delta Institute of Natural History
219 Dead River Road
Bowdoin, ME 04287
207-266-5748 = 207-BOOKS-4-U
http://www.vfthomas.com