What's New at the VFA?

The November 2013 Newsletter

The VFA's November newsletter is out!  Members who enjoy stories of notable Vances will find a biography of US author Jack Vance (pictured) and a history of the Vance knights who ruled the area around Vance, Belgium for 700 years.   There is also a summary of the VFA's biannual reunion this past summer in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a recap of the Allen County Library's Genealogy Center and its resources.

Big changes have also been added to the Vance Family Association's website at http://www.vancefamilyassociation.org and are reviewed in the November newsletter.  The website now includes an Archives section with new resources for members like:

• Newsletters - fifteen of the VFA's newsletters from the past 30 years have been added already with more to come (by the way, if you aren't already aware, the VFA has indexed all the past newsletters, and indexes by topic and by Vance ancestor are already available at http://vancefamilyassociation.org/newsletter/).  
• Book Titles - to contain a growing list of books on Vances and Vance history, with titles, tables of contents, the V and W entries found in the index, and where copies of the book can be found either online or available via inter-library loan, and 
• Historians' Research, where digitized copies of the VFA's other archives will be posted.

There are also Newsletter Forums and DNA Project Forums set up for members to post corrections or questions on past newsletters and discuss items relating to genetic genealogy and the Vance DNA surname project.

If you're a VFA member already, don't forget to sign up for a user name and password to check out these new online resources.  And if you're not a member, look over the options at http://vancefamilyassociation.org/join-today/ and see if we have one that fits your budget.  For as little as $15 a year, you can avail yourself of all the resources of the VFA, get the quarterly newsletter, and support our goal of helping Vance researchers across the globe at the same time.

The Vance Family Association's Reunion - Aug 19-20, 2013

VFA members on tour at the Allen County Public Library

Officers and members of the Vance Family Association met on August 19-20 last week in Fort Wayne, IN for the Association's biennial meeting and reunion.   Thanks to everyone who made it out this year!  The sessions were well-attended and discussions were lively.  After the obligatory reviews of the by-laws and new officer elections, the group got down to some serious sharing of genealogy stories and techniques... and let me tell you this is a great group of people with a LOT of energy and experience in Vance family research across many family lines and DNA groups!  There should be a lot more about the reunion activities in upcoming VFA newsletters.

More of the VFA group on the Genealogy Center tour

But undoubtedly the highlight of the reunion was the tour and research time at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, which to my view is probably the best genealogy research facility in the US after the LDS archives in Utah.   The Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne has miles of collected reference works and stacks of microfilms, and every librarian there is a certified genealogist ready to help point you in the right direction.  Well-worth a visit if you are in or come through Fort Wayne!

One of the prize collections in the Genealogy Center is over 55,000 family history works collected over more than 50 years from past genealogists and associations.   Included in this collection are all the past Vance Family Association newsletters and bound copies of many family histories from past Vance researchers with all the details and pictures of their research.  The picture below shows them all on the library shelves.  I copied down the titles, authors and family lines and plan to share the list in a future blog post!

Books in the Allen County Genealogy Center related to Vance family history

The VFA reunion was planned this year to coincide with the FGS (Federation of Genealogical Societies, of which the VFA is a member) conference which was held for the rest of last week in Fort Wayne - sorry, I wasn't able to stay on myself but I'll be very interested to hear from the VFA members who did.

One more time - thanks again to all who made this year's VFA reunion a huge success!

By the way, you can find the Allen County Public Library's Genealogy Center website at www.genealogycenter.org for more information and their complete card catalog available online.

2013 Summer Vance Reunions (in the US)

That's right - "reunions" plural!  I would like to point out that there are two Vance surname-related reunions this summer in the US.   Social media and connecting over email are great in their own way, but after all, genealogy is in its heart a study of human connections and there is no substitute for getting out there and seeing people face to face!

The first Vance reunion is from July 5-7, 2013, at Beaver Lake near Rogers, Arkansas.  Kim Richardson Adams Emery and her relatives have organized several local Vance reunions in past years; most of their family is I believe descended from the Vances of Calhoun County, MS (themselves descended from James Alexander Vance who died in 1821 in South Carolina, and part of Group 8 of the Vance DNA Project).  You can bet this will be a festival of true Southern hospitality overrun by very active and energetic Vance family researchers!  Details, directions, hotel suggestions, and more are on their website at http://adventureswithvances.shutterfly.com/reunion2009.

The second is the Vance Family Association (VFA)'s own bi-annual reunion, from August 19-20, 2013, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  The VFA has coordinated their reunion with the Federation of Genealogical Societies' Conference (which takes place Aug 21-24 also in Fort Wayne, and VFA members may participate in any of the FGS conferences as well).  Most of the VFA's own meetings will be conducted before the FGS Conference at the Genealogy Center of the Allen County Library which includes a tour and research time taking advantage of the library's facilities and helpful staff.  A great way both to connect with VFA staff and members and further your own research at the same time!  This reunion is for VFA members, so details are in the May newsletter, or visit http://vancefamilyassociation.org/join-today/ to sign up for membership and get a quick note off to membership@vancefamilyassociation.org to request more details about the reunion.

Any other Vance or Vance-related (Vaux, Vans, Wentz, etc) reunions going on out there around the world? Let us know in the comments!

The new Facebook Page is here!

For the Facebookaholics among us, there is a new Facebook page about Vance History Online, designed to bridge those who enjoy social networking on Facebook with our blog here.

You can find the Vance History Online Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vance-History-Online/158912884276896.

"Like" us on Facebook, and spread the word to others you know on Facebook that are interested in Vance history!

Vance Family Association Corporate Tartan

Posted by Ron Vance

During my tenure as VFA president, I have received a few requests for help in purchasing an article of clothing made using the Vance tartan.  Individuals have either seen the tartan while surfing the Scottish websites that manufacture and sell these articles or by scanning the 'Gallery' tab on the Vance Family Association website. Yes, it is possible to make such a purchase and the VFA may be able to help.

VFA Member James Brady Melton showing off the Vance tartan

at the 2012 Highland Games!

The History

In 1994, an idea was put forth by Mark W. Vance, a VFA member and the tartan designer, to develop our own Vance Family Association tartan.  The idea was approved, the tartan was designed by Mark, and the registration purchased by the VFA.   

Please be aware that the approval of a VFA tartan was not unanimous.  Some researchers linked their family history to Vance's that did not go through Scotland on their way to the USA and saw no need for a tartan.  Also, as you will read, we have yet to prove that the ancestral Vance clan of Scotland had a tartan.

In 1995, VFA members made a coordinated order of the Vance Corporate Tartan material from a mill we believe to be:

  D.C. Dalgliesh Ltd.

  Tartan specialists

  Dunsdale Mill

  Selkirk, TD7 5EB

  Scotland

We have no knowledge of any later VFA group orders being made to this or any other mill.

As previously mentioned, the best we can determine, the ancestral Vance clan in Scotland did not have a specific tartan. This tartan was made specifically for the VFA and is not a product of our genealogy research into the history of  the Vance family.  Given all the spellings of our surname (Vance, Vass, Vans, Vanse, Vause, Vaus, Vaux, de Vallibus, Wass, Waus, Wentz, there's more) researching tartans and their history can get complicated.

According to our researchers, Vances, possibly listed as Vass, Vaus, Wass, and Vaus, may have fought with the Ross and Munro clans and presumably wore their tartans.  However from one of researchers:

" In my clan maps etc., the Vass family is always listed as a sept of the Ross and Munro families.  The strange thing about this is the Ross and Munro lands are adjacent to one another in the far north of Scotland along the west of the Moray Firth and across the firth from Colloden while the Vance lands were in the far southwest along Solway Firth.  That is a long way to communicate for battle."

[Then again, the Scots fought the English all over Scotland so it is hard to tell.] 

Some references that may be of interest:

•  The Clan Almanac by Charles MacLean (Eric Dobby Publishing)
• Clan Ross compiled by Alan McNie (Cascade Publishing Co, Jedburgh, Scotland)

Purchasing a Tartan

We contacted the Scottish Register of Tartans, http://www.tartans.scotland.net/, who confirmed our tartan and stated that a purchaser would need to obtain an authorization letter from the VFA to sent to the supplier with the order.  Since this tartan is a VFA registered tartan, the VFA requires the purchaser to be a member.  Authorization from the VFA can be obtained by writing, or emailing, the VFA President and requesting this letter.

The Scottish tartan business has gained participants since 1994 and our tartan may not be shown on all supplier websites. Examples of three suppliers who currently display our tartan are:

• http://www.scotweb.co.uk/
• http://www.tartans.scotland.net/
• http://houseoftartan.co.uk/

If you decide to purchase a garment, please let us know which supplier you choose and this specific supplier will be designated in the authorization letter.

Any more information you can find on an ancestral Vance tartan would be appreciated.  Please reply to this blog with your input.

Closeup of VFA Tartan pattern from VFA website

Back to DNA: Is it Worth It?

The past few weeks have been pretty hard on genetic genealogy (DNA testing).  First, a professor of evolutionary genetics came out strongly against genetic genealogy, calling it "genetic astrology".  Next one of the testing companies was accused of making exaggerated claims at a genetics conference.  And then a widely-publicized "consumer report" was issued slamming DNA testing and the companies and their claims.  

Debate still rages around the Internet about the value of these warnings, but most of the cooler heads seem to agree that the extreme positions are unwarranted; that DNA testing for genealogy can be very useful but people should have realistic expectations - and yes, some testing companies have made exaggerated claims.  So I thought I would post my own experience of what people should expect that DNA testing can and can't do for them.  

What it CAN do:

1.  The best value – by far – of any DNA test is that it can match your DNA to others who may already know more about your common ancestors.   An autosomal test could find a second cousin who knows who your biological parent was.  A Y-DNA test could connect you to someone with a documented 400-year old family tree.  This is mostly luck and depends on others testing and available historical data, not just DNA.  But you might never know you were connected to those people and that research if you didn’t take the test.  I include here the connections you can make to the projects that collect and analyze what is known about people with related types of DNA to help them as a group learn more about their origins - for instance, the Vance/Vans/Wentz Y-DNA Project is a great example of group knowledge you can connect to.  

2.  A Y-DNA (and to some extent a mtDNA) test can estimate for any two tested people how long ago their common ancestor lived (but still with a fairly wide margin of error, so it can’t tell you who that common ancestor was).   

3.  Any DNA test can identify general geographical areas where people with your DNA are believed to have lived.  But there are limitations.  Y-DNA and mtDNA tests identify your haplogroups which reveal the migrations of your ancestors thousands of years ago (many years before your family tree).  Autosomal testing identifies general areas for your more recent ancestors – areas as wide as “British Isles”, or “Eastern European”; nothing more specific, and it won’t say which ancestors or when or for how long they lived there. 

4.  A DNA test can tell you what countries today have the highest number of tested people that most closely match your DNA.  That could be useful as a general indicator of what part of the world your ancestors came from.  Or it could just be a coincidence if someone from a branch way back in your family tree moved there and had a particularly large number of descendants.   

5.  A DNA test can put you in a group that will continue to grow as more people are tested, and whose story will continue to grow with each test.  It may take months or years, but our knowledge of our ancestry will continue to evolve as the information and knowledge grows.

What it CAN’T do, unless you luck into a match with someone who has that information already:

1.  By itself a DNA test can’t name your ancestors, and it won’t add people to your family tree.

2.  Although some testing companies like 23andMe can give you medical information based on your DNA, the test can’t tell you which of your ancestors had those medical conditions.   Or where you inherited your red hair, blue eyes, or webbed toes from.

3.  It can’t tell you that your ancestors were Vikings, Celts, Romans, Normans, what tribe of Indians they were from, or how you personally connect to any other historical group of people.  Actually the experts can theorize that close matches to your DNA existed, say, among the Vikings, either through modern analysis or because they tested old bones.  But people intermixed so much throughout history that all those groups were made up of many kinds of DNA, and that’s still no evidence that YOU personally descended from one group and not another.  Any identification with a historical group is based on a general theory, not from anything they discovered in your DNA. 

4.  It can’t tell you that you’re descended from royalty or any historical figure, although groups who already believe they do try very hard to claim it’s proven when the DNA shows they all really ARE a close match to each other.   It’s still the historical research that proves the lineage, not the DNA.   You don’t have proof through DNA unless you dig the ancestors up.    Even if you match a known descendant of Prince Eduardo the Magnificent, your ancestor might have been his third cousin Fergus the Drooler. 

5.  And finally, a DNA test only tests part of your family tree, because even an autosomal test only gathers data from pieces of your total DNA and anyway you have many more ancestors than sections of DNA so many of your ancestors aren't reflected in your DNA at all.  So be prepared that the test may show a different ancestry than the one you thought you had.  You may still be right.

So... is it worth testing?  Only you can answer that.  But I still thought it was and I learned many interesting things from my tests and connected with many people who share my interests and research.  Just be sure you know what you're getting into before you test.

U.S. Research Tip: The (News)Paper Trail

Most people go straight to census records and other government resources for vital statistics about their ancestors: where they lived, the "BMDs" (birth, marriage, and death dates), and so on.

My ancestors in 1844
(Ok so the printer couldn't spell "Married"...)

But if you know where they lived, local newspapers can be a treasure-trove.  In the United States newspapers in major cities were common well before the American Revolution, and by the early 1800's even small towns had at least one and often several supporting the community.  In those days newspapers were the only source of news besides word-of-mouth and a sometimes unreliable mail service, and a local paper served a vital need.   If your ancestors were part of any community, there's a chance that they're mentioned somewhere in a local newspaper.

If newspapers for the places you're researching have survived, a local county or state historical or genealogical society will know about it.  Often state or local libraries will have copies already on microfilm and if you can't visit in person they will know someone who can do the research for a small fee.   Subscription sites like Ancestry.com or GenealogyBank are starting to offer images of many newspaper archives online, but before dropping money check if your local library already has a subscription to those or to ProQuest.  Or check out the free Library of Congress digital newspaper collection.

A local paper would usually carry marriage and death announcements (or even an obituary, if you're lucky) for subscribers.  You can confirm BMD dates, or even find other clues for your search.  What church did they attend and what records may have survived there?  Who else attended their wedding or funeral?  What did they die of?  What family relationships are mentioned?

But newspapers offer much more than dry facts - they give snapshots into our ancestors' lives.  Sometimes they're sensational... how would you like to find your ancestor in the story under one of these headlines (no, these aren't my ancestors, they're just taken from a sampling of the St. Louis Republic between 1888 and 1900):

Another tip:  don't rely just on the automated searches for the digital archives.  They're good, but they're not perfect at deciphering the old and often faded print.  Do your own manual search through newspapers over the time your ancestors lived there.  At the very least you'll understand more about your ancestors' lifestyle and what they were interested in.  And if you're lucky, you can find a hidden legacy from your ancestors that will help bring them alive in your records.

My oldest find - my 5x-great-grandmother's death in 1803.

Apparently in 1895 my ancestors were the place to rusticate!

A moment of my ancestor's farming life from 1844

Hannah Vance Crawford School

In the February 2009 Vance Family Association Newsletter I wrote an article "A School to Honor Hannah Vance". The school is part of the Colonel Crawford Local School District in North Robinson, Ohio.

When I wrote the article I had some pictures of the school that I was not able to use due to space considerations. Here they are:

The top picture is the Hannah Vance Elementary school. The bottom shows the center with the William Crawford Intermediate School on the left, and the Hannah Crawford Elementary School on the right.

The district's website gives the following description of the district:

"The Colonel Crawford Local Schools is a district housing 960 students grade pre-k-12. The district, covering 120 square miles is located in rural Crawford County about one hour north of Columbus, Ohio and 30 minutes west of Mansfield, Ohio. Colonel Crawford is a result of the consolidation of the Leesville, North Robinson, Sulphur Springs and Whetstone Schools.

The facility is located just south of the village of North Robinson. Pre-k-8 building The William and Hannah Crawford Schools was opened in 2006 and is located just south east of the 9-12 Colonel Crawford High School opened in 1960.

The Colonel Crawford Local Schools has a strong tradition of academic and athletic programs. Colonel Crawford is a proud member of the North Central Athletic Conference and the Ohio High School Athletic Association."

I took the pictures the day I visited the the then district superintendent, Ted Bruner, at the school district. He gave me a tour and showed me one of the schools that was replaced by the one built in 2006. Colonel Crawford was captured where the front yard of that school stands. As a descendant of Colonel Crawford, I found that particularly interesting. The district stands in the area where Colonel Crawford fought his last battle and died.

The Vance History "Travel Guide"

Have you ever read something about Vance history and wondered just where in the world it happened?  Ever come across a town of Vance or a Vance Peak and wondered how it got its name?  Or have you ever planned a trip and wondered if there was anything to see there related to your ancestry?  If the answer to any of those is "Yes", then the World Guide to Vance History is for you!  Click on the link under "Useful Information" on the right hand side of this blog and discover the hidden world of Vance history.

Don't worry... we're not going into competition with the major travel companies.  This is a community project to collect together in one place a reference to all the spots around the world associated with the Vance surname and its history.  Along the way we're also collecting stories, legends, and facts of interest about these places to highlight their role in Vance ancestry. 

But we need your help!  The first draft of this Guide has 47 locations in 7 countries, and we focused on collecting historical locations in England, Scotland, and Ireland first so you'll see we have a lot of entries for those countries already.  But you'll also notice we've only barely started - or haven't started at all - in other countries yet.  What Vance-related locations do YOU know of?  We invite you ALL to contribute - this will be a massive undertaking before it's anywhere close to finished, so we need your help to collect up all the many locations around the world that have an association with Vance history.  I think you'll get the idea if you take a look at the current version of the Guide.

But for now, even as a first draft, enjoy the World Guide to Vance History!

Holiday Season DNA Sales!

I'm not one to push any particular company or commercial venture, but sitting here in mid-December it would be remiss of me not to mention to a group of people interested in genealogy that if you were ever considering getting your DNA tested, or were looking for an unusual gift for anyone else, now's the time.  At least two of the major DNA testing companies - Family Tree DNA and 23andMe, have significant sales going on.  The third major DNA tester - Ancestry.com, has offers out as well; I just couldn't tell if they were having a sale when I checked.

If you want to know what it's all about, just type "genetic genealogy" or "genealogy DNA testing" into your favorite search engine; there really are a ton of helpful sites out there now to explain it all.  But to start you off, here's my amateur's explanation:

There are three main types of DNA being tested:  one is autosomal DNA, which covers all the DNA you got from all your ancestors but can only give you general percentages of how many of your ancestors were from what ethnic backgrounds... interesting if you think you have certain ethnic heritages, but it won't help you with who specifically your ancestors were.  Then there is mitochondrial DNA, a very specific piece of DNA both men and women get from their mothers, which gives you very general information on your mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's... you get the idea.  Interesting but again it won't lock in specific ancestors.  Finally, there is y-DNA - the Y chromosome that men inherit from their fathers, and women don't have.  Since traditionally family surnames were passed down through males in Western society, this is the DNA most often studied for genealogy; but it only tells you about your direct male ancestry (your father's father's father's father's father's father's... yeah I know, you get the idea).

There are two types of y-DNA testing: most test anywhere from 12 to 111 "STRs", which are a combination of markers on the Y-chromosome.  Think of it as if every father told their sons the same story, and usually the sons remembered the story exactly, but very rarely one son got a word wrong here or there and passed it on that way to his own sons.  With billions of fathers and sons over many generations, the stories remembered by each male living today would be very different.  STR testing pulls your version of the story out of your DNA, and by comparing it to others you can tell whose stories are closest to yours and therefore who is closest to you (through male ancestry, at least) on the great family tree that connects us all.

The other type of y-DNA testing is SNP testing, which finds specific mutations in your DNA that tie you back to older groups of humans.  Mapping SNP migrations is an on-going activity that one day may show us the exact path our male ancestors took across the globe, but for now can usually only barely reach about 1000 years ago when surnames first started.   Many of the debates though are VERY interesting... this is a science being born as we speak. 

How does this all help our search for ancestors?  Well, apart from the general "gee whiz" factor of knowing something about your most distant ancestors, DNA testing can only give you hints unless someone else closely related to you has more historical research you can connect to.  Just as an example, I have tested my STR markers and found that my Vance ancestors are connected to a number of other Vance immigrant lines to the United States.  The group is called "Group 2" by the Vance/Vans/Wentz Y-DNA surname project.  My Vance line is known to have come from northern Ireland, and a couple of the other descendants have traced their lines to Ireland also, so we know we're all connected to Vances that lived there around 1600-1700, and that we are more closely related to each other than we are to other Vances.  Beyond that, we don't yet know how our family trees connect.  But at least we all know we're working on the same puzzle.

So bear in mind that DNA testing won't (yet) tell you exactly who your ancestors were, or break through that brick wall to find where in the "old country" your Vance or Wentz ancestor was born, etc.   And you should also know some people have found adoptions in their family histories through DNA testing, so you need to be prepared for a possible surprise (I should note NONE of this does anything close to paternity testing). 

But the other advantage of DNA testing is that as the science evolves, you will continue to find out more and more about your own ancestry; both facts that can be verified through traditional genealogy, and facts that you could never hope to trace far enough back to learn.  It can be a fascinating parallel study to your historical record research.  If you were ever considering joining in, or getting additional tests done, this may be the cheapest time in awhile to do it - but act fast!