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PHILLIPS FOOTPRINTS

A Phillips Worldwide DNA Project Newsletter

Nancy Kiser, Editor

Phillips Worldwide DNA Project Websites
https://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/p/phillips/index.html
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/PhillipsWorldwide/

Volume 2 Issue 4 July/August 2008

Copyright © 2008 Phillips Worldwide DNA Project, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

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ADMINISTRATOR'S CORNER
By Nancy Kiser

Hello, everyone! This is my first article as the main administrator of the Phillips Worldwide DNA Project and I promise to work hard to fill Shannon Phillips’ shoes. Please feel free to make suggestions on how to improve our project. We are one of the fastest growing surname projects at Family Tree DNA and as of March 31, 2008, we were ranked the 25th largest surname project by World Families. We currently have 290 members and are gaining approximately 10 new participants a month. Using DNA analysis, we have identified 38 separate, distinct, unrelated Phillips families. In addition, we have over 80 participants who do not match anyone else in the project.

Over the past month, there has been considerable discussion among the members of Phillips Family Group 5 about genealogical message boards (forums) and mailing lists. Family Group 5 was recently blessed with a DNA match that elicited considerable potentially valuable discussion about their earliest known Phillips ancestors. However, all this discussion was carried on by email among a dozen or so people and there was a general feeling that this discussion should be archived somewhere on the internet for public use and future reference. Otherwise the clues and ideas and theories regarding Phillips Family Group 5 could be lost forever.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the differences between message boards and mailing lists, so I thought it might be helpful to describe the attributes of both. RootsWeb ( http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ ) is one of several genealogical websites that hosts free message boards and mailing lists. Here are definitions of each from the RootsWeb site:

A mailing list is simply an e-mail party line: every message that a list subscriber sends to the list is distributed to all other list subscribers. There are more than 31,518 genealogy-related mailing lists on RootsWeb covering surnames, U.S. counties and states, other countries and regions, ethnic groups, and other topics. Subscribing to a mailing list is one of the best ways of connecting to people who share your interests. If you do not find a mailing list covering your topic of interest, start one.

A message board is a computerized version of the old-fashioned bulletin board. There are more than 132,000 message boards on RootsWeb.com related to surnames, localities, and other topics. By posting a message to the appropriate message board, you create a record through which other researchers can find you. If you do not find a message board covering your topic of interest, start one.

Cal Phillips, one of our participants, is the administrator of the terrific Phillips mailing list at RootsWeb, which is “gatewayed” to the Phillips message board at RootsWeb. This means every message posted on the Phillips message board is also sent to the Phillips mailing list. Cal started the Phillips mailing list back in 1996, and all the messages have been archived and are fully searchable by the general public; ie, you do not have to subscribe to the list in order to read the messages that have been posted. Here is a link to the archives, which are full of useful and constructive Phillips information: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/PHILLIPS/1996-03. If you wish to subscribe to the Phillips mailing list at RootsWeb, just send a blank email with only the word “subscribe” and nothing else in both subject and message to phillips-request@rootsweb.com.

In addition to the mailing lists and message boards at RootsWeb, there are also message boards at http://genforum.genealogy.com/ and other genealogical websites where the general public can post and read messages for free. Another one of our members, expatriate Doyle Phillips of Mexico, constantly posts messages on the Phillips message board at genforum in an attempt to recruit more participants for the project, for which I am very grateful. Cyndi’s List at http://www.cyndislist.com/ has a categorized and cross-referenced directory of other sites useful for genealogical research, with hundreds of thousands of links.

Although not very many people have discovered it yet, the Phillips Worldwide DNA Project also has its own Phillips forum hosted by World Families at this link: http://www.wfnforum.net/index.php?board=1900.0. You may browse the entire forum without registering or signing-in, but you must be registered and signed-in to post. However, it is easy and free to register and I encourage all of you to do so. We also have a Phillips pedigree forum where you can post your pedigree at this link: http://www.wfnforum.net/index.php?topic=6461.0.

Finally, if you are proficient on the computer and want a truly customized and targeted “discussion group” that combines the best of both worlds, you can start your own group at a number of different internet service providers, including MSN, Yahoo and Google. One of the members of Phillips Family Group 5, Tom Hutchison, decided to do just that. Tom set up the "Eastern North Carolina Phillips and Allied Families" Group at Google. It functions as a mailing list primarily, but has the ability of a message board or forum to separate topics and discussions. It also has the ability to index and archive them and they are searchable by the general public. There are also extras in the form of web pages thrown in. If anyone out there is ambitious and wants to start a discussion group for a particular Phillips family group, please let me know and I will put you in touch with Tom, who can give you some tips on how to do it.

Nancy Kiser is Administrator of the Phillips Worldwide DNA Project, Inc. and her email address is nancy_kiser@hotmail.com. Nancy belongs to Family Group 8 of our Phillips Worldwide DNA Project.
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DNA MADE SIMPLE
By Nancy Kiser

Some of you have asked me why all the members of your family group do not show up as a match on your personal page at Family Tree DNA. There are several reasons this might happen. Sometimes it is because not everyone in your family group tested with Family Tree DNA. Sometimes it is the result of the way someone has set up his personal preferences. For example, if you have only tested 12 markers and someone in your family group has elected to only be informed of matches at the 25 or 37 marker level, then that person will not show up as a match on your personal page. Also, some people belong to more than one DNA project. If someone elects to only be compared against the members of his DNA project instead of the entire database at FTDNA, the computer at FTDNA will only compare his results against whichever DNA project he has selected as his first priority.

However, the main reason someone in your family group may not appear as a match on your personal page is because the computer at FTDNA only compares your marker values against other individuals in the FTDNA database instead of the average values for your entire family group. The parameters followed by the computer at FTDNA rule out any two men who mismatch by more than a set number of markers for each panel of markers. For example, if you mismatch someone on two out of the first panel of twelve markers, the computer at FTDNA does not consider you two to be a match and will not show you two as a match on your personal page under yDNA matches.

The computer at FTDNA is programmed to be conservative and does not look at the over-all picture. This is one of the reasons why (with the help and advice of experts at FTDNA) we began setting up family groups and showing the modal or average values of the family group for each marker. It is more accurate to compare the members of a family group against a modal or average DNA signature (known as a haplotype) for the entire family rather than just against each other individually. If you mismatch the modal haplotype of your family group on one marker out of the first twelve markers and someone else in your family group mismatches the modal haplotype on a different marker, this means you mismatch each other on two markers out of the first twelve markers. As I stated above, the computer at FTDNA will not notify you of a match if you mismatch someone by more than one marker out of the first twelve markers.

There is another way in which the computer at FTDNA does not look at the over-all picture. You may have noticed that your DNA matches are reported on a panel by panel basis. First, you are given all your 12 marker matches (aka the first panel matches). Next, if you have tested 25 markers, you are given all your 25 marker matches (aka the second panel matches). Next, if you have tested 37 markers, you are given all your 37 marker matches (aka the third panel matches). Finally, if you have tested 67 markers, you are given all your 67 marker matches (aka the fourth panel matches). As I have mentioned in the past, it is quite possible and even likely to have false positive matches at the 12 marker level. When you have a false positive match with someone at the 12 marker level and you have both tested more than 12 markers, your match with that person will go away at the 25 or 37 or 67 marker level. However, your personal page will continue to show the false positive match in your first panel of matches. The computer at FTDNA is not sophisticated enough to eliminate a false positive match at the 12 marker level even after it has been conclusively proven to be false positive match at a higher level of markers.

Here is one more tip on how to read and interpret the matches on your personal page. When someone has tested more than 12 markers, the number of markers he has tested will appear in parentheses after his name. If there is nothing in parentheses after his name, this means he has only tested 12 markers. So, for example, if Mr. John Doe has tested 37 markers and his DNA matches your DNA, he will appear on your personal page under yDNA matches as follows: Mr. John Doe (Y37). This means Mr. John Doe has tested 37 markers. If you have also tested 37 markers and Mr. John Doe appears as a match under your 12 marker matches but does not appear as a match under your 25 or 37 marker matches, this means he is a false positive match and he is probably not related to you within 1000 years.

I hope I have not bored you all to tears with this nitty-gritty shop talk. As always, if you have ANY questions about how to interpret your DNA results, please feel free to contact me. I know that DNA analysis is not easily grasped in the beginning, and sometimes not even in the middle or the end!

Nancy Kiser is Administrator of the Phillips Worldwide DNA Project, Inc. and her email address is nancy_kiser@hotmail.com. Nancy belongs to Family Group 8 of our Phillips Worldwide DNA Project.
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THE EMAIL BAG

Here are some questions of general interest we have received by email:

Question:
What is a gedcom file? The FTDNA site tells me to upload my gedcom file but it does not tell me what a gedcom file is other than a way for people who seem to know what they are doing to share information. It tells me to browse for it, and I don’t even know if I have it.

Answer:
A gedcom is created from special genealogical software that is not normally found on computers unless you uploaded it. Gedcom is an acronym for "genealogical data communication" and it was developed by the Mormons, who are really into genealogy. Most genealogy software programs support importing from and/or exporting to gedcom formats. You can download the software to set up a gedcom for free from the LDS website at this link: http://www.familysearch.org/. Just click on the words "Download PAF" on the right hand side of the screen. After you get your family history info entered into the program, you can upload it to the website at Family Tree DNA. It is an easy way to share genealogical info in a standardized format.

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Question:
My mother will be 92 on her birthday this year. Before the inevitable happens, would it benefit me or other researchers to have her mtDNA tested?

Answer:
I say yes, although mtDNA is not very useful for genealogy at the current time. However, I believe scientists will discover more and better tests for mtDNA as time goes on, and for that reason, it would be good to have your mother's DNA in storage somewhere. The FTDNA lab keeps DNA samples for 25 years. My mother is 85, so I went ahead and got her tested by FTDNA just so I would have her DNA available for future tests.

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Question:
A lady friend of my wife asked us today if DNA could be used to prove or disprove whether or not she has American Indian ancestry and if so, what tribal group. She has an old family history of Cherokee descendancy and has not been able to prove it.

Answer:
DNA analysis can be used to prove whether or not your straight paternal line or your straight maternal line is Native American, but it cannot identify the tribe. If the lady is not sure which one of her lines is Native American, she can take something called an autosomal test. However, if she is less than 10% Native American, the autosomal test may not detect it, because it is a random sample test of your entire DNA. Also, the autosomal test can't tell you which tribe. Basically, not enough Native Americans have been tested thus far to be able to distinguish the small differences between the different tribes. As more and more Native Americans get tested, I am sure the scientists will begin to figure it out. At the current time, FTDNA does not offer autosomal tests for ethnicity, because they think the tests are too unreliable.

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Question:
Someone in my Phillips family group mismatches the group on 2 markers out of the first 12 markers, but matches perfectly on the second panel (markers 13 through 25). This makes me wonder about all the people only testing 12 markers. What does this mean for accuracy and for those not placed in a group based only on a 12 marker test? Are there other people who could be grouped together if they had more markers tested?

Answer:
Probably yes. When my cousin's first 12 markers came back from the lab, he was a 10/12 match with a man in the project who had only tested 12 markers. I wanted to group them together since their Phillips ancestors both lived in northern Alabama, but FTDNA advised against it. They told me it is very rare for two men to be related within a genealogically significant time frame if they only match on 10 out of the first 12 markers. However, a year later, the man upgraded to 37 markers, and lo and behold, he matched my family group at the higher resolution!

So I think it is quite possible (even likely) we have some 12 marker people in the project who have not been properly grouped. However, if you study the results on the DNA chart that shows the family groups, you will note there are indeed very few men who mismatch by more than one marker out of the first 12 markers, but who go ahead and match on a higher number of markers. Therefore, I think FTDNA is right about their general rule, which simply says if two men mismatch on 2 out of the first 12 markers, they are PROBABLY not related within a genealogically significant time frame.

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Question:
Please explain “genealogically relevant or significant time frame” to me in terms of generations.

Answer:
According to FTDNA, a genealogically relevant or significant time frame means 24 generations or less. A generation is usually considered to be 25 years for calculation purposes. Therefore, 24 generations equals approximately 600 years. If DNA analysis indicates two people probably could not have shared a common ancestor within 24 generations or 600 years, FTDNA declares they are likely not related within a genealogically significant time frame. This also makes sense because surnames did not begin to come into common use until the 1400s.

The markers are not all weighted the same in DNA analysis. Some mismatches are less important than other mismatches. However, the general rules followed at FTDNA are as follows: two men are not considered to be related within a genealogical time frame if they mismatch by more than 1 marker out of 12, or 2 markers out of 25, or 4 markers out of 37 or 7 markers out of 67. The more markers tested, the more you can narrow down the time frame within which two men might share a common paternal ancestor.

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FEATURED PHILLIPS FAMILY
The Four Sons of Bennet Phillips
By Valerie Phillips Gildehaus
Phillips Family Group 7

I grew up in a very small town (1,100) in Southern Illinois where being a Phillips was like being royalty. My father and his brother were lawyers; their father had owned the bank, which he had inherited from his father “Judge” Phillips. When I was young (in the 50’s), my Great-Aunt Anne lived in the dilapidated Phillips mansion on the edge of town. Most people probably found it very spooky, but it was just a normal part of our lives. Aunt Anne’s husband had lost all his money in the Great Depression, and the house had been left to her in its entirety with all its contents. They had not thrown anything out since the house was built in 1893, so it was packed to the rafters. A few items that stand out were a boxed pair of derringers and newspapers announcing Lincoln’s death. When I was about 12, the house and all its contents were sold to pay for my aunt’s move to a nursing home. The new owners had a bonfire in the back yard with the pictures and letters and sold all the antiques to dealers who came from all over.

When I was 13, we moved to northern Illinois where no one knew the importance of being a Phillips, although that was largely rectified when my father became a prominent Judge in the area. I started doing family research when I was 16, writing a letter to a cousin. I continued on and off through my college years, and was pleased to find that my great-grandfather Judge Winfield Scott Phillips had been included in three different books which contained biographies of prominent residents of Illinois (or those who were willing to pay a fee to get their family in the book). One included the name of Winfield’s parents and grandparents and all their children. This was a huge boon when searching a name like Phillips. In my twenties, I started going to Newberry Library in Chicago where they had census records and DAR records (no on-line stuff in those days and few photocopiers). Among the DAR records, I found that Winfield’s great-grandfather was Bennet Phillips, a Revolutionary War Veteran.

Over the next few years, I found that Bennet Phillips had a pension for his war service, a will, AND owned land - all very important when dealing with a common name like Phillips. Through these I was able to determine that Bennet was born in Somerset County, Maryland, and lived in Granville County, North Carolina, before he settled in Rutherford County, Tennessee, in 1797. Bennet Phillips had eight children, four of whom were sons. I had the sons’ names, Samuel Phillips Esq., Richard Newton Phillips, Isaac M. Phillips, and William B. Phillips, but with a name like Phillips, it’s hard to be sure that you have the right man. In the 1800’s in Tennessee, there were at least 2 or 3 Phillips families in every county, and they ALL had a son named William. Samuel and Richard were easy to locate, as I knew they had both lived in Bedford County, Tennessee. Isaac should have been easy to locate, but he had died before the 1840 census. I did know from Bennet’s will that Isaac had left 2 children named Sofrona Jerusha and Isaac William. One day while browsing a book of Tennesseans in Texas, I came across a family that looked promising, but I couldn’t be sure - don’t you hate it when they used initials!

1850 Cherokee County, Texas, enumerated 24th Sept. 1850
Page 806, Dwelling 22-22

W. R. Wadley (m) 32 Carpenter $200 born Tenn
E R. Wadley (f) 34 born Tenn
Sam P N Wadley (m) 7/12 born Texas
F. G. Denman (m) 23 Merchant born Georgia
S. J. Denman (f) 14 born Tenn
Isaac W. Philips (m) 12 “

In the later 1990’s, after we had Internet access, I posted an inquiry about this family on the Cherokee County GenWeb site. Some time later, I received an e-mail from Mansel Phillips, who believed that this was his family, and was delighted to get a lead on where they came from in Tennessee. It turned out that Isaac M. Phillips lived right in the corner of Williamson County, Tennessee, in the area adjoining Rutherford and Bedford Counties. Mansel and I were sure we were cousins, but, again, with a name like Phillips, it’s difficult to be 100% sure. In 2005, I decided to venture into the DNA arena and asked my brother to take the test. He was glad to do it, and a few days later I contacted Mansel and asked him if he was interested. He was happy to do it and ordered a kit immediately. I anxiously awaited the results – was all my research going to be thrown out the window? We didn’t think so, but we were delighted to get the results – they matched, although not exactly. On the 12 marker test they had a 2-marker difference. This would teach me a lot about the value of a 12 marker match, because when we got the 67-marker results back we had a 3-marker difference and 2 of the mismatches were in the first 12 markers.

I knew that Bennet’s oldest son Samuel had a number of descendants still living in Bedford County, Tennessee. I had exchanged information with a female descendant whose grandmother was a Phillips. I contacted her to see if she knew any male descendants. She said she went to church with Howard Phillips, who was 88 and had only daughters. She also told me that Howard’s brother had been very interested in genealogy, but had passed away the year before. I told her that I would purchase the kit if she would talk to Howard. He was not especially interested in genealogy, but said he would take the test. I anxiously waited, again, (there are an awful lot of Samuel Phillips’s, too!) and was thrilled to find that Howard matched my brother 100% on the twelve marker test. Later, we got my brother, Howard and Mansel upgraded to 67-marker results and have been able to create a “genetic fingerprint” for Bennet Phillips – 40 years after I had first dabbled in family history.

Bennet’s fourth son was named William B. Phillips – an almost impossible name to research. Early in my years of research, I had come upon a book of Rutherford County cemeteries which included a few cemeteries located in southern Davidson County. Among these records was a William B. Phillips who was the right age to be Bennet’s son, but how to know for sure?! He looked promising, but I didn’t ever expect to solve this one. One helpful thing was that there were two Phillips men buried in the same cemetery with uncommon names – Leonard S. and Richard S. Their birth and death dates were given and their wives were buried with them. About five years ago, I took the plunge and subscribed to Ancesty.com. I was able to locate them in the census and other records, and, eventually, was able to get a reliable list of this William B. Phillips’ descendants. One of his grandsons was named William Bennett Phillips, so I was almost positive I was on the right track. The family also used the unusual name Richard Swepton Phillips three times. This really helped with tracking them down in the census. About a year ago, I found that someone had posted a family tree that included Richard Swept Phillips, grandson of William B. Phillips. I contacted the poster and soon got in touch with Joe Phillips. Joe’s family had wonderful Bible records, going back to William B. Phillips, but did not have anything on William’s father. A couple of months ago, I wrote Joe a note and asked him if he would be willing to take the test if I supplied the kit. He would! We received the results last week and Joe was an exact match to my brother!

Now that we have identified the descendants of the four sons of Bennet Phillips, I am ready to turn my attentions to Old Somerset County, Maryland, which includes present-day Wicomico County and part of Sussex County, Delaware. I have an extensive paper trail going back to Roger Phillips who settled there in 1672, and believe there are still descendants in the area. I hope to locate a few who will be willing to take the test. AND the teacher in the room next to mine is a Phillips! I have been working on her to get her father to take the test. Her grandparents were born in England, and I have traced her line back to a small town just 20 miles from Abergavenny, Wales, where I think my Phillips line came from – but that’s a different story.

Valerie Jean Phillips Gildehaus graduated from the University of Dubuque in 1973 (BS in Sociology), Southern Illinois University in 1994 (BS in Education), and SIU in 2002 (MS in Education). She worked as a probation officer, newspaper reporter/photographer, and layout artist/graphic designer before becoming a full time mother and housewife. She has been married to Richard Gildehaus for 30 years and has two children: Grant Allen Gildehaus who teaches nuclear engineering for the US Navy and Elizabeth Kathryn Gildehaus Casten who is a house parent at Brehm Preparatory School and is working on a degree in Social Work. When her children were young, Valerie went back to school to get her education certification and now teaches Language Arts and American History to 8th graders. Valerie’s email address is vgildehaus@mchsi.com.
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