An NPE DNA case study

1. Solving an NPE

2. Are all Forgy, or Forgeys, related? That was one
question I wanted to answer with DNA. According
to a 1950’s family history all early Forgeys in
America were likely related

3. Only one Forgy Y tested previous to when I
began my DNA group, and they were in the I1
haplogroup

4. The first distant in a different line who tested didn’t
match this Forgy (one Forgey was from an early
Tennessee line the other was from a Pennsylvania
line)
 It appeared all Forgys weren’t related
 My Forgey distant cousin belonged to a different haplo group than the
first tester
 To find the most common Forgy Forgey haplogroup we expanded the
number of testers. We now have a 7 cousins from different lines who
share the most common Forgy, Forgey haplogroup which is I2a. This
haplogroup is shared by a Forgie who came to America from Northern
Ireland much later than the other families, which confirms this haplogroup
is associated with the Forgies in Ireland and maybe Scotland?

5. I decided to ask the Forgy that didn’t
match to compare against another of
their own cousins
 We were shocked to find the other person who tested didn’t match their
own 5th cousin nor did they match our other group members? They are
also in completely different haplogroups. This Forgy is in the R1b
haplogroup. We have Forgey, Forgys in 3 haplogroups I1a, R1b, I2a

6. Both cousins are supposed to descend from John Forgy
and Jane Miller. You’ll also notice a Beatty ancestor in the
previous generation

7. The Forgy cousin with the R1B Haplogroup had
many matches. One of which was a Beatty from the
same area of Pennsylvania

8. Coincidental match? Or did a Forgy
adopt a Beatty child?
 Robert has 908 Y DNA matches which does increase the chances of a
coincidental match
 This would seem to be an unlikely coincidence however

9. The same R1b cousin also had a
Ferguson match (Forgy is a variant of
Ferguson).

10. Many of the I1 haplogroups matches are Scandinavian.
Not Scottish like the Forgeys

11. The Y test couldn’t answer why these
cousins didn’t match. We then turned
to atDNA testing
 The father of our R1b Y tester took the atDNA test in order to get a better
reach back in time
 The I1 tester is in his 80’s so we also got a good reach back in time with
him
 We were now dealing with two 4th cousins. They definitely could have
matched but they didn’t?
 Not all 4th cousins match however

12. Autosomal DNA results
 Our R1b tester did have a match with Forgy in their tree
 His Forgy cousin shared one 42 cM segment and one 7 cM segment
 We later learned they are 3rd cousins. One generation before the I1 match.
Meaning this didn’t preclude an event occurring after the John Forgy and
Jane Miller generation
 This cousin also had a Forgie match, suggesting there actually is a blood
relationship to the Forgey family? So they may not be related only on the
Beatty line
 Checking to see if perhaps the I1 cousin matched the 3rd cousin, they
didn’t match either

13. The two third cousins ancestors Warren and Nellie Forgy’s family on
group sheet. Newton was the son of John Forgy and Jane Miller who
were the ancestors of our non matches

14. Our I1 haplogroup atDNA tester had an
interesting Beatty match. This Beatty was also
from Pennsylvania

15.  There is still no resolution to the non matching cousins predicament?
 What we do know is the R1b Forgy is somehow descended from the Newton
Forgy and Phoebe Taylor family. It probably is unlikely that two siblings were
adopted by Newton and Phoebe but we should still keep an open mind to that
possibility
 One thing we have established is there is a blood relationship between two
Forgy 3rd cousins
 The I1 cousin has a Beatty match from PA but this could be a coincidence? It is
a small segment match
 If the I1 cousin tests at AncestryDNA they may get a better idea as to whether
they have a blood relationship to any early Forgy families. Family Tree DNA’s
database isn’t large enough to provide enough Forgys to compare with. So far
they have no Forgy matches
 When I examined the family group sheets of all of the families going back to
their earliest ancestors I didn’t see anything that would suggest there was a
line break. I also looked at Census records which didn’t offer any clues either?
This is a real mystery