Are you a descendant of John and Lucretia Burnett of Picataway Creek, Old Rappahannock County (now Essex County), Virginia? You are not a descendant of John Burnett, Merchant of Aberdeen.

Recently I attended the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference in Maryland. While there I was talking to another attendee and he mentioned he descended from an Isham Burnett. I have an Isham Burnett in my Burnett family and I said I'd get back to him after the Conference. In examining my Burnett line I found that the often followed ancestry for John Burnett and Lucretia Burnett back to Aberdeen, Scotland, appears to be incorrect.

According to research published in 2020, by Mary Neil Burnett and Susan Kromer Hunt, in "John & Lucretia Burnett of Essex County Virginia", John Burnett of Old Rappahannock County was an indentured servant claimed in a land patent dated in 1653 and released from indenture in 1656/7 and who acquired land in Lancaster County (later Old Rappahannock, and now Essex County), while John Burnett, Merchant of Aberdeen/Edinborough, acquired land in Old Norfolk County in 1637. Details with supporting documents and citations are in the referenced article above.

I find the evidence in the article to be very well presented and I agree with the conclusion. I look forwaard to their further research.

Have you done DNA testing at 23andMe.com? If so you may want to download your data.

About 18 months ago there was a data breach at 23andMe. If your data was taken you should have an email from them. Check your emails. Their major funder has pulled out of the contract with 23andMe. There have been layoffs and, this week, the resignation of the full Board of Directors.

If you haven't logged in to 23andMe in the past 18 months, do so now. You may have to change your Password a nd enable 2 factor authentication, TFA, to get into your account.

Once logged in go to the menu bar and click on each menu item to see what is there and to decide what you want to copy to your computer.

At the least:

• download your raw data;
• your Ancestry composition and map;
• and any Health data you may have there;
Consider making page captures of your DNA Relatives List matches down through one per cent of DNA matching;
• Note that the Family Tree at 23andMe is made from your DNA connections. If you can, download it to your computer. No other DNA test company provides this kind of tree.

US Revolutionary War records of Black and Native Soldiers and Sailors, British and American

Black and Indigenous soldiers in the American Revolution

FOLD 3 has released a new database of records for British and American Black and Native soldiers and sailors who served during the American Revolution.