Maglio: The Surname DNA Project

   Have you had your DNA tested?  Did you get many close matches or like me did you get none?  I have no matches with the same surname.  The closest matches to my Italian yDNA were some Welsh guys.  If the Welsh connection were a few generations back, I’d be worried about my paternal line.  My closest DNA connections are 2000 to 3000 years ago.  This really doesn’t help me find my Italian roots.

   This doesn’t mean that my DNA testing has been in vain.  I’ve learned a lot about my origins.  I’ve used the DNA to trace my tribal migration from the Caucasus Mountains, across Europe and down the boot of Italy.  There is even a strong argument that a connection exists to the Etruscan culture.

   Since I am the first Maglio to be tested on the Family Tree DNA site, I guess it is up to me to start a project to gather all of the distantly related Maglios together.

   For all of you who have been tested and have no close connections it’s time for us to take the bull by the horns.  Let’s be the leaders.  Let’s create our own projects.  So, I’m creating a Maglio surname project on Family Tree DNA.  They make it easy and it’s free.  It’s free because they hope to get revenue as you invite other folks with the same surname to be tested.  FTDNA does offer discounted tests to project members.  It’s a win-win.

   “If you build it, they will come.”  Just because I start a project doesn’t mean that the Maglios will come flocking.  I’m going to need to get the message out.  I’m going to have to find them.  Like any relationship, it will take some wooing.

   Rather than just contacting random Maglios and asking for DNA, I have set up a Facebook group called Maglio Famiglia.  I plan to invite every Maglio on Facebook.  This will give us an opportunity to chat, compare stories and build connections.

   If anyone out there has been through this already, tell me about your experience building either a Facebook or Family Tree DNA surname project.

Contrived Coincidence: James Alexander Dewar & Peter Bent Brigham

   James Alexander Dewar invented the Twinkie in 1931.  The Twinkie and similar products were loaded with trans-fats and hydrogenated oils for years prior to the government stepping in to try to improve the nation’s health.  Trans-fat is a leading cause of heart disease.

   Peter Bent Brigham endowed $5.3 million in 1877 for the construction of a hospital in his name.  The Peter Bent Brigham Hospital was established in 1913 and would become a leading hospital for the treatment of heart disease.

   These men are cousins.

John Bent (1596-1672) & Martha (1600-1679)
Joseph Bent & Elizabeth Bourne	Peter Bent & Elizabeth
Joseph Bent & Rachel Fuller	Hopestill Bent & Elizabeth Brown
John Bent & Elizabeth Badcock	Peter Bent & Mary Parris
Jesse Bent & Hannah Vose	Mary Bent & Josiah Fay
Jesse Bent & Dorothy Freeman	Elizabeth Fay & Uriah Brigham
William Freeman Bent & Abigail Chapman	Peter Bent Brigham (1807-1877)
Eliza Bent & Alexander Dewar
Allen Dewar & Louisa Gray
James Alexander Dewar (1897-1985)

   Is it a coincidence that these two men are related?

   Yes, because I forced the coincidence.  There is no such thing as coincidence.  When two things occur at the same time, we can’t help but look for a connection.  Humans are hard wired that way.   Coincidence is an illusion.

   I started researching James Alexander Dewar because the Hostess Company is in the news with headlines of a potential bankruptcy.  An equal number of headlines predicted the end of the Twinkie.  I thought the ancestry of the inventor of the Twinkie would make an interesting blog post.  I always look for a connection to my own family first.  I didn’t find one.

   The surname Bent kept jumping out at me along with the name Peter Bent Brigham.  Don’t ask me why but the name Peter Bent Brigham has always been lodged in the back of my gray matter.  With a middle name of Bent, it indicated a probable maternal maiden name and a link to Dewar’s family.  With that link, I could connect a heart-clogging snack with a heart-fixing hospital.

   Family trees are a network of connections.  With any network of connections, there are a statistically large number of optional pathways.  If I didn’t find a Brigham link then I would have contrived something equally amusing.  Also with a network of connections, someday network analysis techniques will be a common place method for breaking through brick walls and proving family history mathematically.

   Next I should find the connection from the Twinkie to Dewar’s Scotch.  Tasty.