Adrian passed away on 08 August of 2016.  A sudden heart attack.  It has taken me a year to get back to semi normality.  Now online again and I hope to get more posts out.  Odette

From Colin Lind

DNA testing: When science and family collide

May 26th, 2014 · History

It all started a couple of years ago, when my sister suggested I sign up for one of these DNA tests, for genealogical research, she said.

 

 

Bonnie inherited our mother’s genealogy gene. She also inherited boxes and boxes of my mother’s notes, compiled before computers streamlined much of the tedious process of tracing a family history.

 

 

Bonnie’s added her own meticulous research tracing my dad’s Lind family in Scotland, and she hoped my DNA test would help confirm some guesses and resolve some issues dating back a number of generations.

 

 

Here’s her theory in a nutshell, from a email to a person

believed to be a very distant cousin.

 

 

I have been researching our Linds since the early 1990′s and have a theory that all the Linds in the villages straddling the West Calder/Carnwath line (also the county line between Lanarkshire/Midlothian/West Lothian — yes, time to get out your map of Scotland) are related somehow. There are some gaps where the link comes a generation before those who died before Civil Registrations began in

1855, but in general the theory holds.

 

There’s lots more, but you get the idea. Bonnie even contacted the moderator of a forum for sharing DNA results and information from people with presumably related surnames–Lind, Lynn, Linn, etc., and arranged to sign me up with them in advance.

So after months of stalling, I finally paid my money and got a test kit from Family Tree DNA. You just scrape the inside of your cheek, send in the sample, and wait several weeks for the test results. The company then notifies you of every genetic match. Don’t get too excited. A lot of these are very distant matches and of little interest, unless, as one commenter put it, you’re interested in your caveman relatives. There are varying degrees of genetic matches, from extremely distant to the kind used for paternity testing.

 

 

We expected that I would soon be getting the names and contact info from a bunch of distant Lind family cousins.

 

 

But here’s where the science threw a curve ball. At last count, I’ve been notified of more than 1,200 genetic matches found within the Family Tree DNA database. Just two of them are named Lind, and one of those is John Lind from Hana, and we are pretty sure we know just how we’re related (my paternal grandfather and his grandfather or great-grandfather were first cousins who left Scotland independent of each other and came to the U.S.).

 

 

So now we have this mystery. Why aren’t I linked by DNA to any other Linds in the database? Actually, I don’t know how many there are, but there are enough to sustain one or more of these discussion “projects” through Family Tree DNA.

 

 

We’re left to figure out how to account for the negative

finding.

 

 

Bonnie had one theory:

 

 

In looking at the list of surnames associated with R-M269, the Glinn/Glynn/Glenn sequence leaped out at me. I can

see that GL sound getting slurred into LINN or LIND. Think how it SOUNDS, not how it looks. Think how it sounds based on variations in dialect and accent. Our Grandmother Lind’s mother was Janet Greig. In tracking the Greigs I had

a terrible time until I found the baptismal entry with the surname spelling GARIG. Irish priest in Ayrshire??? Or a priest from farther north or east in Scotland? Someone whose ear was not tuned to the guttural Ayrshire brogue and I can hear it happening. Glinn to Linn to Lind is not a long jump.

 

Of course, another kind of jump is a possible explanation. Someone might have “jumped the fence,” as they say. Or maybe one of my male ancestors was adopted, raised by a grandparent, or raised in a hanai family, as was common in Hawaii.

 

 

Lots of possibilities. Now I’ve got to figure out enough about how to interpret these DNA data to see if they contain any clues to be mined. Anybody else out there with experience in such things?'

DNA Testing

From: Brett [mailto:brettlind@hotmail.com]

 

DNA testing is a great tool 

But proceed with some caution especially when when testing between recent generations. 

In the US a large number of DNA test done to establish if guys are liable for child support after a divorce. The kicker is a large percentage find out they are not the father of their children !! 

 
Brett Lind

FDS Inc. 

(Foodservice Design Solutions Inc) 

Ph +63 9175375363

 

********************************************

Adrian had his DNA done last year – there are Linds in America and they wanted to prove relationship to the family – they paid for it and unfortunately for them there was no connection!

Anyway his DNA will now be stored for 25 years.

Kindest regards

Odette

Photograph - possibly 1950s

This has just been sent to us by Stuart - the family in about 1950

 

Brigit, Mary, Jane, Adrian and Michael

 

More information on the family

Dear Adrian and Odette,

I hope this finds you well.  I want to pass on something I’ve searched out recently concerning the grandmother of George Lind of Gorgie.  As you know, Douglas wrote that George’s grandparents were John Lind and Mary, “daughter of _____ Boyd of Pittfindie”.  Michael Boyd of Australia, who is most active in studying Boyd history and searching out all the related people and places, had no idea where Pittfindie was or anything else about that branch of Boyds.   It’s taken me a long time, but I believe I’ve finally found it.

 

Item No. 1641/8/404 in the online Records of the Parliament of Scotland

(http://www.rps.ac.uk/search.php?a=fcf&fn=charlesi_trans&id=id9476&t=trans) is a 1641 ratification of a 1622 charter for "the lands and lordship of Kinfauns and Pitfindie".  Kinfauns, as you may know, is in Perthshire, Scotland, east of the city of Perth and north of the Tay.  At www.streetmap.co.uk, even zooming in and scanning around, I couldn't find Pitfindie or anything like it, so I went to the website of the National Library of Scotland and found it on a 1583-96 map by cartographer Timothy Pont, written as Pitfindy and lying between "Kinfains" [Kinfauns] and "K[irk] of Kinfains".  A snippet is attached, and here's a link to the entire map:

http://maps.nls.uk/view/00002323. 

 

On page 2 of Douglas’s genealogy, he described the seal of the Linds/Lynnes of “Pitmadie” in a way that perfectly matches the Lind of Gorgie arms.  Pitmadie is in the Strathearn valley and appears on Pont’s 1583-96 map of Strathearn as Pitmuudry, on Thomson’s 1820 map as Pitmedie, and on current maps (e.g., www.streetmap.co.uk) as Pitmeadow.  It’s roughly 18 miles southwest of the location of Pitfindy.  Unlike Pitmeadow, however, the name Pittfindie/Pitfindy appears to have fallen completely out of use.

 

In any case, that all comports very well with Douglas’s account connecting the Linds of Gorgie to the Lynnes of Pitmeadow, which is very nice since he didn’t identify either “Pitmadie” or “Pittfindie”.

 

With kind regards,

Loretta

 

From: Keith Mitchell [mailto:scottishfamilyheritage@googlemail.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2014 12:06 PM
To: annlynn9 .
Cc: davidrm_99@hotmail.com
Subject: National Archives Report

 

Hi Loretta,

 

Thanks for your last email. Don't worry about responding too quick, I understand you are busy just now.

 

Thanks indeed also for the Lind genealogy. Of course it is of no help right now, but later on, who knows! Just wish we had something like this for the Lins of Lins Mill, but still mustn't complain, considering what we have so far. I told someone at our Elgin Writers club of which I am President, and she was gob-smacked that I could trace this line back to 1547. Quite a conversation piece it seems!

 

Search for Lin / Linn / Lind / Lyne, etc. in the Register of Deeds

 

This Register, which comprises many shelves of Indices can be exhausting to look through as there are so many and the volumes themselves are large, and this is made worse should you wish to make a thorough search. However, bear in mind, that there are other Registers of Deeds such as the Burgh Registers, etc. (see Google, etc. for better explanations - just type in Register of Deeds, etc.

 

Unfortunately there are significant gaps in the Indices and some of the earlier 16th century volumes are not really indices but more abridgements, which can take and hour or so to search each volume. A great labour indeed!!! The years which exist are 1554-1595, 1661-1702, 1705-1707, 1714-1715, 1750-1752, 1765 & 1770 to date.

 

The missing years are only for the Indices. I understand you can still search through the original volumes of Deeds, but handwriting,, etc., etc., are liable to cause significant problems particularly in the earlier ones. From experience it would take a very long time indeed to search through these volumes, but unless you do, who knows what could be missed!

 

As far as searching for Lin, etc. in  the Deeds is concerned I have checked from 1900-1930. I did not go later, but as I was looking for other family records I thought I would include Lin as well. I do not know if you want information about every Lin in Scotland in these Deeds, but the following is liable to give you an idea of numbers of documents available as in separate named entries. The number of entries I have inserted here in brackets.

 

1902(4), 1903(1), 1904(1), 1905(2), 1906(1), 1907(1), 1908(1), 1909(2), 1910(1), 1912(3),

1915(4), 1917(1), 1920(2), 1926(1), 1928(1), 1929(1), 1930(1).

 

I also searched from the earliest Index through to 1780, not of course including the missing years, and found the following.

 

1661(6), 1662(3), 1663(6), 1664(10), 1665(9), 1666(7), 1667(7), 1668(10), 1669(7), 1670(4), 1671(5), 1672(4), 1673(3), 1674(3), 1675(1), 1676(4), 1677(7), 1678(2), 1679(3), 1680(4), 1681(4) - This included a reference to WILLIAM OF LINSMILNE who was the Granter and it was a Bond dated 2 June 1681 and is 5 pages long.

 

1682(3), 1683(3), 1684(5), 1685(3), 1686(2), 1687(3). This included - Lin, William, in Pompherstoun.

 

In the following set of dates there were various references to George Lind, Merchant, Edinburgh & of Gorgie. Where these occur I have added an *.

 

1688(3) including *, 1689(1)*, 1690(4) 1691(4) inc *, 1692(4) inc *, 1693(1)*, 1694(2) inc *, 1695(1)*, 1696(4) inc *, 1697(4), 1698(4) inc *, 1699(1)*, 1700(3) inc *, 1701(1)*, 1702(2) inc*, 1705(6) inc*, 1706(8) inc *, 1707(10) inc*, 1714(6), 1715(7) inc *, 1750(4), 1751(5) inc*, 1752(4), 1770-72 includes Linn, Wm. of Lins - NOTE certain this is ours and that Lins is an error for Linsmill, 1776(1), 1777(1), 1778(1) ----- search to 1780 completed.

 

I hope you can make some sense of the above. The main thing to be aware of is that from the extant Indices there are obviously a lot of Deeds relating to various families of Lin, if you are interested in them, but it would take a very long time indeed to check them all out.

 

I still have to search these Registers from 1781-1899, and this will form part of our search when next in Edinburgh, which could be in a few weeks time. I will be making a search of the above period for other members of my family and am happy to note Lin entries for you if you wish me to. However, if you should decide that this would be of no interest, do let me know as it would save me a little time searching.

 

I do have more to report from the archives but will leave that for the next epistle.

 

With best wishes as ever,

 

Keith