Vining Newsletter - February 2008

Dear Vining Researchers,

Thank you to all who have been sending genealogical information, especially documentation such as gravestone images and scans of birth, marriage, and death records.

NEW ORGANIZATION OF ONLINE VINING GENEALOGY
Since the most recent Vining Newsletter (October 2007), I have been adding families to the online Vining genealogy (http://www.vfthomas.com/Viningfamilies.htm) and posting images of the census records of those families. Several years ago, someone told me they had had trouble with computer files that had many, many links in it. This past week I reached that point with the online Vining genealogy and, therefore, had to break the genealogy into more than one file. A central feature of the online genealogy was the links from one family to another (that enabled one to follow a lineage forward and backward). Fortunately, html code allows not only linking from one point in a document to another point in the same document but also linking from one point in a document to a desired point in a different document. So, this past week I have been adding the appropriate code so everyone can still follow a lineage, even though the various families may be in different documents. The only drawback to having multiple files is that you can no longer open a single file that contained everyone and search for the name of someone who was other than the father (or single-parent mother) of a family. (Also, an inconvenience for those who have a slow Internet connection may be a slight delay when linking from one file to another.) At first I thought I would just divide the genealogy into two or three files, but I decided that I might as well go "all the way" and create a separate file for each letter of the alphabet; that is, there is an "A" file for families whose father (or single-parent mother) has a first name that begins with A, a "B" file for families whose father (or single-parent mother) has a first name that begins with B, and so on. I don't expect that there are enough Vining families to ever require a further breakdown.

VINING RESEARCH PROBLEMS
Probably all of us who do genealogical research have at least one problem we struggle with (and I'm not referring to the aunt who is never satisfied with anything when she visits). For me it's a great uncle who moved to New York and had two sons who seem to have disappeared. I won't go into detail here, mindful of the following statement in the book Adam's Curse that I am now reading: "although there is nothing more fascinating than your own family history, there is nothing more tedious than someone else's." However, there is a new page (http://www.vfthomas.com/Viningresearchproblems.htm ) where you can have posted one or more of your history mysteries. Just e-mail me, and I will post it.

GENETIC GENEALOGY
Genetic markers and more recently DNA sequence data have been used to infer evolutionary relationships among species, genera, families, and even deeper connections in the tree of life. Today, molecular technology is applied to genealogical research. Of the 46 chromosomes in our cells, 44 are paired, the pairs numbered 1, 2, 3, ..., 22. In females, the other two chromosomes are two X's; and in males, they are an X and a Y. Of particular interest to those in a patronymic culture (one in which a surname follows the male line) is the Y chromosome, inherited by a male from his father. The chromosomes of the 22 pairs undergo considerable crossing over at cell division. In contrast, only a tiny portion at the tips of the male's Y chromosome pairs with his X chromosome, leaving most of the Y, when he passes it on to a son, unchanged, just as he received it from his father, his father's father, etc.; unchanged except for one thing: a mutation, an "incorrect" substitution of one nucleotide for another in the process of DNA replication (= copying). When DNA replicates (= makes copies of itself), occasionally a mistake is made. This is not particularly significant when the error is in a somatic (non-egg, non-sperm) cell, but it can be very important in a sperm or egg cell. You will hear some people go to the extreme and claim that mutations, one of the basic ingredients in the evolutionary process, are virtually all lethal. Now, although many are, there are many that simply aren't. In particular, a male can have a mutation in the Y-chromosome that gets passed to a son, and that son may very well experience no deleterious effects. In fact, without such mutations, genetic genealogy using the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome would not be possible. But mutations do occur, they are passed on, and those mutations can be identified and used to infer genealogical relationships. Interest has been expressed in a Vining DNA project. I just did a Google search for "surname DNA project" and received "about 90,900" hits. In such a project males would submit a buccal (= from inside the cheek) swab for testing. The results would yield a probabilistic assessment of relationship with other males who have been tested for the same genetic markers (= the DNA at a particular locus). As with other probability studies (e.g., political polls - I suspect you've heard them mentioned once or twice lately), the more markers/loci (per person) that are examined, the more nearly accurate the inferred relationships are likely to be. In fact, due to the (low) frequency of mutation (estimated as 1 per locus per 500 generations by www.familytreeDNA.com), looking at too few markers would probably not reveal any differences. One of the main interests I have heard expressed is to know how closely related are the "southern Vinings" (Georgia, Louisiana, etc.) and the "northern Vinings" (New England and branches). I have discussed this project with a principal researcher at a genetics lab (Jackson Lab in Bar Harbor, Maine - www.jax.org), and we suspect, based on the mutation rate estimated by Family Tree DNA, that one of the tests using a higher number of markers/loci will be required. Are any males reading this newsletter interested? My suggestion is to visit http://www.familytreedna.com and scroll down to "Tutorials". Then click on "Learn about the use of DNA for your Genealogy". On the page you are taken to, go down to "Basic Tutorial" and click on the link next to it. (You will note that being tested is not cheap, but the required reagents and equipment are not cheap either.) Also, do some other reading and send me your comments and questions. I will create a web page for them (with our without adding your name, your choice). You can link to that page by going to http://www.vfthomas.com/Vininghome.htm and looking for the relevant link (but no link until I receive something to post).

I hope to hear from you.

Thanks,

Tom

Thomas F. Vining
V. F. Thomas Co.
P. O. Box 400
Southwest Harbor, ME 04679
207-266-5748 = 207-BOOKS-4-U
http://www.vfthomas.com