AncestryDNA has won me over

If you've seen my other posts, I am not, in general, a fan of Ancestry.com . It's complicated. But recently I submitted DNA to Ancestry and currently am thrilled with some of its features.

Like	Don't Like	Same as other matching services
Lots of potential matches	Specific chromosome information hidden	Many matches don't respond to queries
5 generation trees (for those who have created them) List of surnames through 10 generations	Difficult to export match information for analysis or tracking in third party software
Common Ancestors (if you have submitted a tree, may show relationship between you and match, possibly passing through several other trees)	Lots of hooks to get me to subscribe to their (I think) expensive records service
Many shareable family trees	Must be a subscriber to easily view trees, pictures, documents, etc.
Easy to set me up to manage DNA kits submitted by others

I do recognize that the items I "Don't Like" are features that make sense from Ancestry's point of view, usually protecting privacy of members' data, and allowing Ancestry to build a "gated community" that requires paid access, and to generate the revenue they need for their enormous infrastructure and stores of genealogy records. As a long time genealogy researcher who has seen the disappearance of public, collaborative research, I can still "Don't Like" them.

A New LaBrune!

I've recently been in touch with a DNA match, seemingly through my LaBrune ancestors. I quickly was convinced that she is a descendant of one of my immigrant LaBrune family who disappeared. Here's why:

My Rationale for Adding Margaret to My LaBrune Family
My LaBrune family	New LaBrune	Explanation
?nne M. LaBrune (partially readable name on ship's passenger list)	Margaret LaBrune	M. could stand for Margaret
?nne M. was 14 years old when ship arrived in 1833	Margaret was born in ca. 1820	Ages are within a year of each other
LaBrunes were living in Clermont county, Ohio in 1840, but without ?nne M.	Married Margaret LaBrune Chauvet and her husband were living in Clermont county, Ohio in 1840	They lived near each other in 1840
LaBrunes moved to Dubuque in 1840s	Chauvets moved to Dubuque in 1840s	Both families moved to Dubuque in 1840s
Shared DNA with ten 4th cousin once removed descendants of George LaBrune ranges from 10cM to 29cM, with a median of 17cM (Ancestry can identify about 1/2 of DNA matches for this relationship, and my DNA tools may not be capturing all data below 10cM, so my median will be higher than the theoretical average of 7cM)	Shared DNA with 4th cousin once removed descendant of Margaret LaBrune is 11cM	Shared DNA is within range of my similar cousins

Here's my preliminary Family Group Sheet for Margaret's family. I'm still looking for information and some of this information may change. But here's what I have so far:

Family Group Record for Adolph Baptiste Chauvet

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Husband: Adolph Baptiste Chauvet
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           AKA: Cauvett, Schauvett
          Born: 16 Oct 1816 - Montpellier, Departement de l'Hérault,
                 Languedoc-Roussillon, France
          Died: 19 Jul 1895 - Dakota City, Humboldt co., Iowa
        Buried:  - Humboldt, Humboldt co., Iowa
      Marriage: bet 1837 and ca 1845            Place: Cincinatti, , Ohio
================================================================================
   Wife: Jeanne? M. "Margaret" LaBrune
================================================================================
          Born: 1820 - , , , France
          Died: 4 May 1864 - North Buena Vista, Clayton co., Iowa
        Buried:  - Holy Cross [Dubuque], IA
        Father: Philippe LaBrune (1794-Bet 1880/1887)
        Mother: Ann Rayne (1793-1868)
================================================================================
Children
================================================================================
1  F  Mary L. Chauvet
          Born: 23 Oct 1840 - Cincinatti, Hamilton, Ohio
          Died: 6 Nov 1918 - Kansas City, Jackson co., Missouri
        Buried:  - Kansas City, Jackson co., Missouri
        Spouse: Christopher Kalen (1838-1905)
    Marr. Date:
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2  F  Margaret L. Chauvet
          Born: 24 Dec 1843 - Dubuque, Dubuque co., Iowa
          Died: 2 Jun 1909 - Dakota City, Humboldt co., Iowa
Cause of Death: nervous prostration and heart failure
        Buried:  - Humboldt, Humboldt co., Iowa
        Spouse: Albert M. Adams (          -          )
    Marr. Date: 9 Dec 1876
        Spouse: Absalom Little (          -Abt 1863)
    Marr. Date: Abt 1859
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  M  Adolphus B. Chauvet
          Born: 1852 - , Dubuque co., Iowa
          Died: 17 Jan 1890 - Fort Dodge, , Iowa
Cause of Death: inflamation of the bowels
        Buried: 18 Jan 1890 - Fort Dodge, , Iowa
        Spouse: Sarah J. [Chauvet] (1856-          )
    Marr. Date:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4  M  William Louis Chauvet
          Born: 15 Jan 1857 - , Clayton co., Iowa
          Died: 5 Jun 1940 - Los Angeles, Los Angeles co., California
        Buried: 7 Jun 1940
        Spouse: Millie [Chauvet] (          -          )
    Marr. Date:
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Hawes Family History

A DNA link led to some genealogy research and a connection to the well-researched Hawes family history book, The Edward Hawes Heirs: Edward Hawes, ca. 1616-1687, of Dedham, Massachusetts, and his wife, Eliony Lumber, and some of their descendants through eleven generations, compiled by Raymond Gordon Hawes and published in 1996, and a supplement published in 2002. An excellent genealogy work. I've posted a family history of our Hawes family on my web site: go to http://cushings.com/roots/ , and select Hawes from the list on the left.