A great many family members have started a family tree on Ancestry. One thing you have to do with hints is view the supporting documentation/sources. If you just pull in info from member trees you may get wrong information and make a mess of your tree and information. I know because I’ve done it. When evaluating member trees in hints. Always, before inporting the information, check out the sources. I am not saying to always ignore the information. It may give you a “hint” to dig a little deeper. Also don’t just add a source without verifing the information in the source. Ancestry supplies hints based on “best available” information. I would say maybe 80% is accurate. But there is that 20% that may be wrong. Bottom line, check the sources.
A few observations about DNA testing. I am finding very interesting information via DNA. Here is a little overview.
I did the Ancestry DNA test. Ancestry tests your Autosomal DNA which is pairs of 22 X and Y-Chromosome’s and one Sex.
I may do the Y-DNA (Y-Chromosome) at some point, Ancestry does not do Y. Males pass down the Y-Chromosome in it’s entirety from generation to generation. Mitochondrial DNA tests trace people’s matrilineal (mother-line) through their mitochondria, which are passed from mothers to their children.
You will get thousands of DNA matches. And Ancestry & My Heritage will show you how much Chromosones are matched. The higher the percentage the greater the match. For instance for mom there is this.
Shared DNA: 3,470 cM across 32 segments
Unweighted shared DNA: 3,470 cM
Longest segment: 203 cM
A centimorgan (abbreviated cM) is a unit of measure for the frequency of genetic recombination. 1 cM = 1% chance of a split/match.
Don’t get me wrong you can get matches on the Paternal side as well. For instance I have a match for a cousin that was adopted out. Born an Ackerman and was adopted out in the first year. I didn’t know about this cousin until 2020.
Shared DNA: 493 cM across 23 segments
Unweighted shared DNA: 493 cM
Longest segment: 55 cM
This is pretty definitive that he is my 1st Cousin 1x removed (my cousin’s son) whom we recently discovered. However I am unable to research him any further without knowing his birth father.
It is said that any match with less than 20 cM is unreliable. So tread lightly on those as possible. The key would be supporting source documentation.
There are many things you can gleen from DNA and I encourage you to go ahead and do it.
I recently added Pro Tools to my Ancestry.com. This has put me on a course that is very interesting. When I looked at my DNA matches, those that either didn’t have a tree or have a private tree, meaning I can’t see it, I thought what’s the point. Yes, it’s a DNA match but now what? With Pro Tools you can take that DNA match and view Shared Matches. Anyone who is alive shows up as “Private” in their tree, if they have one. You may have a name for the initial match. Or you may have initials. And it will show you male or female. So there you have 2 clues. If you don’t have the last name in your tree, that’s where Shared Matches can come into play. A shared match may have the last name.
I will actually add that person to my tree as a floater. How do I do that? I add them as a sister or brother to me then go to their profile then to Edit Relationships and remove mom and dad. Now they are in my tree just sitting there all alone. So if I added Jane Doe, I can then add a father with the last name Doe with no first name. I may take a guess for a birth year. If a shared match has Doe in their tree, Jane is most likely a relative. Of course Doe could be a married name. So sometimes you may need to add a husband with the last name of Doe.
Then more searches. Maybe I’ll get a city and state from the shared match, so I’ll do a Google search for Jane Doe in that city. As you can see just because they have no tree, doesn’t mean I can’t find them. It just takes a bit of digging. Now if they have a basic tree with maybe grandparents, that makes things a bit easier.
So far I have added a bunch of family members this way. Adding the match and a bunch of the matches relatives.
I recently took the Y-DNA test from Family Tree DNA. If you didn’t know, Y-DNA is passed down on the paternal side. From father to son only and is not passed down to daughters.
The thing that amazed me was that out of the matches that I have seen so far, there were no Ackerman’s. No matter how you spell it. Now mind you there weren’t a lot of matches to begin with. Probably because I took the least expensive test. The surname that most of the matches had was Dillman.
Dillman (10) Blumentritt (1) Hill (1) Young (1)
I did a search on Ancestry for Dillman DNA matches and found two matches. One with a private tree and the other with very little information dating back to 1760 and possibly 1740ish.
This could mean that someone may have taken their mother’s name or changed their name at some point or was adopted.
Here I’ll talk about insights from the research from Phyllis Olewine including stories passed down via the Olewine ancestors.
Plyllis Olewine did her research prior to 1980. It included information from Donald Olewine college term paper which she termed Donald’s History and from Governor Warren Moltz which she referred to as Moltz Journal.
Other sourcces were; census records, deeds, church end cemetery records, county histories, newspaper notices, and family traditions make up the bulk of the other sources used. Some information was gathered from a family Bible.
A lot of the information in this document is in reference to the Olewine family. I will pull out the parts that refrence our Ackerman family.
First mention of Paul Ackerman
By February 12, 1796, the first OLEWINEs had arrived on the scene but for a long time no one could tell thet they had, for their name never showed up in any records. But we do know that on that date Deniel and Ann Eve COLLINS sold some land to a Paul ACKERMAN from Manor Township in Lancester County. Ann Eve, wife of Daniel COLLINS was the daughter of Daniel WOMMELSDORFF, who had recently died, end she wes the administrator of this estate and was disposing of her father’s lend.
The land owned by the lete Deniel WOMMELSDORFF bordered the land belonging to George MANN, the river Susquehenna, lands of John WEISER, and the north side of the Conodoguinet Creek and contained 122 acres. Paul ACKERMAN bought only 22 acres of this land however, and paid £ 154, land which wes next to George MANN’s property end the river Susquehannae. This larger tract of land had been part of the land owned earlier by John HARRIS. Paul ACKERMAN was one who played a very large role in the lives of the OLFWINES.
Here is information about Archibald, Margaret and children. This confirms the information I have about Archibald and Margaretha and children. I have 1789 as a death date for Archibald but no source.
In this document she states that Archibald and Margaretha seemed to have left no trace. Then we have the following.
We have since learned that Luthern and Reformed Church records from the mid 1700’s were taken to Germany for safe storage in advance of the American Revolution. Hopefully we can obtain some of those records.
The important thing in the above is that Margaretha’s second husband (Paul) showed up with four children. Those children would be; Catherine, John, Paul Jr. and Margret.
Now according to Phyllis via Moltz Journal it is stated that Paul was a widower suggesting that Anna Maria and child died at child birth.
According to sources, we have clues that this is possibly fact. However we do not have records as such. We only know the last child of Paul and Anna Maria had no name and no mother listed, which could indicate that both died at child birth.
The above is incorrect. Paul and Margaretha married in 1800. Possibly due to not have a minister to perform the ritual. Maybe they had an informal wedding prior to having children. I talk about this later. A second thought is that they married in the First Reformed chuch as Paul was First Reformed. Since Anna Margaretha was Lutheran, they then married in 1800 as Lutheran.
As stated in a previous post they were more concerned with pronounciation than spelling of the name. I find it interesting that they prefered it pronounced Auk vs Ack. I don’t know how many pronounce our name as Aukerman? Thinking maybe they gave in to Ack including later the family using a long A and Akerman.
We do know Paul arrived in 1771 on the Brigantine Recovery. We know that he was indentured for three years and six months. It is unknown if his indenture was extended or reduced so we assume he was indentured for the stated time.
In documents from Manor Twp, Paul was a inmate for owner John Stayman. In this case inmate is used to indicate that Paul was working for John Stayman and would share in the farm profits. Similar to a Sharecropper.
Doing some math, Paul arrived in October 1771. Indentured for three years and six months would mean his indenture ended April of 1775. In 1779 he is listed in Manor Township, Lancaster Count tax lists. With his first child being born in 1782, we can surmise that he and Anna Maria married in 1780 or 1781.
Timeline
Oct 1771 – Paul Arrived
Oct 1771 – Apr 1775 Indentured serving his indenture in Manor Twp. 3 years, 6 months
1777 – Working as an inmate for owner John Stayman (similar to a sharecropper) sharing in the profits
1779 – He is taxed on his property
1780 / 1781 – Estimated to meet and possibly maried Anna Maria
27 Feb 1782 – Catherine was born
07 Jul 1784 – John was born
18 Oct 1785 – Paul Jr was born
1786 – Margret was born
1789 – Archibald Olewine Passes
8 Dec 1789 – Barbara was born Anna Margaretha listed as Ackerman
Back in the 1700s and 1800s they were not concerned as to how to spell surnames. Especially with German immigrants.
When Paul arrived in 1771 his name was Acramon. Then it was Ackerman, and sometimes Aukerman. I have also seen Ackermann and Akerman. Then in a document from Manor Township it was spelled Aherman. I believe it to be a transcribe error mistaking the k for a h. I don’t have the actual document to see how it was spelled.
According to Phyllis Olewine, she listed probably 50 different spellings of Olewine.
