A new tool for evaluating Vosper relationships using DNA results - Trying to figure out how Susan Katzban is related.

Hi Vosper Cousins!

As I’ve mentioned in previous emails, I have been working with Susan Katzban trying to determine how she is related to so many Vosper Cousins.

The backstory:  Susan’s father Henry was brought up as the son of the Brent family, but when she got her DNA results she noticed that no Brent family members matched her or her brother.  She then discovered that Henry was born 6 months after his mother, Hetty, married into the Brent family.  On further investigation, she found that Hetty had lived as a servant with the Prideaux family.  Susan noticed that both she and her brother match MANY Vosper descendants.  I knew that Jane Vosper married William Prideaux.  So, we’re trying to prove that Hetty was impregnated by a Prideaux man, and who that might be, or if there are other viable alternatives. 

There is a new tool on DNAPainter.com which allows you to build a tree and add prospective relationships to it.  You assign the tree to one individual, then add all the DNA results to the various descendants.  You add places in the family where you THINK the assigned person might fit into the tree, and it then figures out a probability score to help you figure out which of the possible places is the most likely.  Here is a small portion of the tree and results, using Susan’s DNA matches.

In the small portion of the tree above, you can see 4 hypotheses for where Susan might fit into the Vosper family.  The tool then calculates a score for each possibility (you can see the score in the green boxes). 

If you’d like to see the entire tree and various hypotheses and their scores, you can save the txt file attached, and look at the entire thing by following the instructions below:

Go to DNAPainter.com, and select Tools:

Select the What are the Odds Tool:

On the right hand side, click LOAD:

Select CHOOSE FILE, and load the file I’ve sent you.  Then select “IMPORT DATA”.

The tree will load, and you can see a table with the results below the graph:

It shows that Hypothesis 2 is slightly more likely than Hypothesis 7, among other things.

Of course, the more lines of Vospers and more DNA matches we can plug in, the better.  So, perhaps, if you haven’t tested your DNA yet, you might want to consider it?  I recommend Ancestry.com, where most of the Vosper cousins have tested.

I have done this analysis for Susan with the Vosper family, her brother David with the Vosper family, Susan with the Prideaux family, David with the Prideaux family, and will be working on analyzing their results with descendants of the ancestors of the mother of Richard Prideaux next.

So, yep, I’ve been busy.

You could take the txt file I’ve sent attached and change the target person and dna results as needed for your family matches, if you desire.

Have a blast!

Cousin Teri