Genealogical Dead Ends

I'm about to wind up the 4th Great Grandparent generation (still a couple more to go). There have been several dead ends in the research.  I'd like to briefly spend some time on what is known about some of these lines, so you can get a better sense of where we've been so far.  Here are some of the lines that I'm still working on.  Some of them will fill in eventually but many are probably lost....



Generation 4 (great grandparent) Fails:

1. The Yakas' line is the most conspicuous dead end.  It fades into the Lithuanian records that are not accessible to me currently.  Great grandpa's name was Frank Hicks/Yakas.  Great Grandma's may have been Bertha.

2. The Janowski line ends with Grandma Hedviga (Ida).  I still have not found out her parents names.  A recurring theme in genealogy is that when a person comes to the US, generally they leave their past behind and it fades from the records.

Generation 5/6 Fails:

1. Simon Evans parents (my wife's, father's Maternal grandparents) are lost in a sea of Evans and Jones in Wales, a country that apparently only has 5 or 6 last names and sometimes they use them for first names also.  The surnames are Evans, Jones, and Jenkins.  I also have a few of the 5th generation names but little detail (see the individual blog entries)  The likelihood is that line goes back a thousand years in that country.

2.  John Henry McAllister's line peters out into Northern Ireland.  His father was James and Grandfather was John.  His mother was Margaret Todd.  The surnames are McAllister, Todd, and McKenzie.

3. Jeannie McAllister's maternal grandparents, George Kirk and Eliza Gray end that line.  George's mother was probably Rebecca Hutchinson.  This line fades into Scotland.

Generation 7 Fails:

1. 18 additional names are lost at this point.  Mostly because the records are lacking on maiden names, birth and marriage records.  Virtually all of the missing folks are from the US (a couple from Canada). Some will sort out eventually; some clearly won't.  See the family tree for more details on who is missing.

Here are some statistics to put the completeness of the Hicks/Barker tree into perspective:

1. Percent of each generation accounted for with at least their full name:

Generation 1 (Me and My Wife)       - 2/2 (100%)
Generation 2 (Parents)                       - 4/4 (100%)
Generation 3 (Grandparents)             - 8/8 (100%)
Generation 4 (Gr Grandparents)        - 13/16 (81%)
Generation 5 (2nd Gr Grandparents) - 23/32 (72%)
Generation 6 (3rd Gr Grandparents)  - 40/64 (63%)
Generation 7 (4th Gr Grandparents)  - 61/128 (48%)

Total Relatives Identified through 7 generations - 151 (59%)

2. Nationalities @ 7 generations:

 Myself - 25% Lithuanian, 6.25% Scottish, and 68.75% American

 My Wife - 25% Welsh, 12.5% Irish, 12.5% Scottish and 50% American

3. How much is the current generation (me, my wife, brothers, and sisters) related to a particular person in the tree?  In other words, how much blood (or DNA) do we share with a person on the tree?

Generation 1 compared to a person in:

     Generation 2 (50%)
     Generation 3 (25%)
     Generation 4 (12.5%)
     Generation 5 (6.3%)
     Generation 6 (3.1%)
     Generation 7 (1.6%)

So anyone who thinks they are destined to look like Lydia Rock probably doesn't have to worry.