Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Ellen's Questions, Part 2

For this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver, we're picking up right where we left off last week:

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

(1) Ellen Thompson-Jennings posted 20 questions on her blog — see Even More Questions about Your Ancestors and Maybe a Few about You (posted 27 June). 

(2) We will do these five at a time, with Questions 6 to 10 tonight (we did 1 through 5 last week).

(3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.

Okay, here are my answers.

6.  How many DNA companies have you tested with or transferred to?  Have you tested at all the five major companies?

I have tested my autosomal DNA with AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA, 23andMe, and Genes for Good.  I have a LivingDNA kit that I have not yet mailed in, and I think I have another test from someone else that I haven't completed yet.  I have transferred my autosomal results to GEDMatch and MyHeritage.  I have also done mtDNA testing with Family Tree DNA.

7.  Do you have an ancestor who had a successful business?  Is it still in business?

The longest-lasting business and the one that was most recently active (that I know of) was my paternal grandfather's stamp, coin, and rubber stamp shop in Niceville, Florida.  It was called Sellers Stamp Shop.  He started it decades ago, and it was there when my family moved to Niceville in 1973.  My first job was working for my grandfather in the shop.  I think it was still operating when Grampa passed away in January 1995.  It is no longer in business, however; the shop died with him.

8.  How long ago was your last “genealogy/DNA happy dance?”

I think my last genealogy happy dance was about two years ago in 2017, when I connected with a second cousin on my paternal grandmother's side who was able to fill in lots of information I didn't have about one of my grandmother's sisters.  I'm still waiting for her to write back to me again, though . . . .

9.  Did you ever discover that a friend was also a distant cousin?

If you count **really** distant, yes.  I have found that a few of my Jewish genealogy friends show up as my cousins on FTDNA, but they're all listed as distant, and because of endogamy the relationship is probably even further back than the listings suggest, so the odds of us actually being able to determine the specific relationship are Slim and None and Slim just left town.  And Tony Burroughs says that if you can't say what the exact relationship is, it just doesn't count.

10.  Do you have a genealogy brick wall?  Do you think you will be able to use DNA to work past it?

I have no genealogy brick walls. :)  That's because I define a brick wall as a question for which I have checked every available resource and still can't find the answer.  There isn't a single one of my research questions for which I have checked every resource, so none of those questions ia a brick wall yet.

As for the second half of this question, for research on my father's side, yes, there's a good possibility that DNA might be helpful in some instances.  On my mother's side, which is Jewish, not likely.