DNA Research Helps
I am currently running three DNA
projects and I have research to do on my own family problems and run
three websites. Consequently, I can't give appropriate time
to some of the problems involved with your DNA research. For this
reason I am posting this to all of you so that you will be able to
learn more and to perhaps work on the DNA for your own family.
If anyone is interested in doing more with their DNA, I will
advise, but I won't do it.
Some of you have done YDNA research
which follows the Y Chromosome. This part of the DNA is passed
down to male descendants and is not passed to female descendants.
It is extremely useful in proving whether or not your
particular surname line is connected to someone else's line with the
same surname. It changes little over time so can connect back to
a surname many generations before. I have begged for descendants
of various lines to take these tests to see if the various groups with
the same surname were related or not. In some cases they are, in
others, they are not. In some cases, people have discovered what
we call non paternal events. This means that your ancestor on
paper is not your ancestor in fact. It can come through adoption
or through illegitimacy. These is a lot more of this in the
past than we think. I don't mention this much because no one
wants to think that their ancestors were up to hanky panky. But
they were, just as much as today. And I know of one incident
where the father died, the mother remarried and all of the children
took their stepfather's name. It took us a long time to figure
that out. Unfortunately, many genealogy researchers are female and it
absolutely drives us crazy that we can't get our male relatives to take
a test. And in some cases, the name has died out in that line
which is just very frustrating.
Some of you have taken mtDNA tests which follow the female line.
This is inherited by the female descendants. It does not
pass through the male line. So if you took one of these tests you
would have the same mtDNA as the mother of your mother of your mother
etc. You may have seen in the newspapers the case of Richard II
whose bones were identified using this mtDNA. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhumation_of_Richard_III_of_England
] However, in practical terms it is pretty useless for genealogy
purposes. You may have a lot of matches, but a woman passes
this on to all her daughters who pass it to all
their daughters etc for many generations with almost no change.
I don't know of anyone who has made a major find with this.
I suppose someone has, but I don't recommend this test
particularly. It has been more of a headache to me than anything else.
The test that is best for many people is one of the autosomal DNA
tests. What happens with DNA is that each parent provides from 40
to 60 percent of a person's DNA. This is passed down again and
again. So you have, for example, some DNA from your gggrandfather
and your gggrandmother. These autosomal tests allow you to
compare your DNA with that of others to see the segments of DNA
which you share with other people. When you share a segment, you
absolutely share an ancestor which may be near or far depending on the
size of the segment. Then you share trees to figure out where you
match. This is a fascinating study. It is one of the best
ways to discover unknown wives, for example. Suppose that you
have a person who is a Mr. YYY living in Anson County, North Carolina
in 1825 where many of the records were burnt. If you are a
descendant of that Mr. YYY you might find a Mr. XXX descendant from the
same county and share a segment with that person. If so, it is a
good bet that one of the unknown wives is connected to the other
family. Which one? You have to find more descendants of
each one. Suppose that Mr. YYY had three sons. The
descendants of one of these sons shares DNA the descendants of Mr. XXX,
but descendants of the other two sons don't. This pretty
much proves which son married the daughter of Mr. XXX. This is a lot
like working a jigsaw puzzle. You find two pieces that fit
together and then you have to figure out how the pieces fit around
them.
It is a wonderful adjunct to traditional genealogy. But it is
worthless without traditional genealogy. And it may or may not work in
any specific case. All you can do is try.
I have a DNA cousin [distant] who matches me on a small segment.
He and his twin sister and his wife all match me which is
why I know him. He is trying to figure out the small match
with his wife. Although he and I match his wife and his twin
sister, his twin sister does not match his wife. I can't even
begin to explain this. It just is. The way that DNA is inherited
is simply random. And sometimes bits from very early ancestors
are the ones which happen to be passed on. Sometimes it is the
new bits that are passed on. I bring this up to point out that
nothing in this is certain but it is fascinating to work with.
There are currently three companies which are doing autosomal testing.
One of these is FTDNA which does Family Finder. It is $99.
Another is 23andme which also does it for $99. Ancestry
also does it, but I think it has some drawbacks. If you have a
test from FTDNA or 23andme, you can upload that data to
GEDMATCH.com to find more matches, clarify the matches you have and
find matches with people who tested at another company. I
personally really like the way FTDNA is displayed, but 23andme also has
the advantage of acquiring health data. Unfortunately, you can't
compare your results very easily. I have personally done both.
The human genome is very large and the companies do not test the whole
thing. There are parts of your DNA which dictate the fact that
you are human beings not elephants and run your body, but there is
also a different kind of DNA . It changes faster than the
first parts of your DNA and it is these parts which the companies test.
I bought a couple of books on DNA and genealogy which were published
two years ago. Both of them are totally out of date. DNA research
and genetics is changing too fast to keep up with in books. The
internet is a much better source for study. There are a number of
sites and a number of blogs which do keep up with current events.
I am listing some of these below. You will find more if you
look.
I urge every one of you who has done YDNA tests to consider an
autosomal test at one of the companies. They are cheaper now than in
the past. If you have a kit on file, you do not have to send another
one. Just contact the company and say I want to upgrade my YDNA
kit to an autosomal kit. They can use the same sample on
FTDNA. Remember you did more than one swab? And if you have done an
autosomal test at any of the companies such as FF on FTDNA or on
23andme or on Ancestry, PLEASE upload your data to GEDMATCH.com
Please. For one thing, you can do a specific match to
another kit by entering the kit number.
If you do this, PLEASE send me your kit numbers for reference. If
people want me to I can maintain a list of various family group kits to
share between you. I do not want to publish them, but if you
are related anyway, I see no downside to sharing your kit numbers.
But that would only be if you choose to, obviously. All of
you know that I have been extremely careful with everyone's
privacy. I don't even pass out email addresses without permission.
But if you send the kit number to me, I can at least help you out
with it.
One of the reasons I have done little lately is that I became
discouraged about it. I was told time and again that you can't
get a worth while match farther back than 4 generations.
However, experts no longer believe that this is necessarily true.
It is based upon the idea that each parent contributes
exactly 50% of the DNA so in theory in a few generations it could
be down to very little. But that is not in fact how DNA works.
I have heard of matches back 8-9-10 generations. They are
rare, but they do exist. You have to assume that there might be a
closer match and look hard for it. But if you work your matches
you can tell the difference. And those can often be in tiny
matches that don't show up normally. You have to look for them.
GEDMATCH is the best way at the present time to do that.
The first thing you should do is join this DNA Group List. It is for
Newbies. It is run by some gurus who know a whole lot more than any of
us. It is a great place to ask questions.
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DNA-NEWBIE/info
GEDMATCH
For uploading your data to GEDMATCH, see www.gedmatch.com If you
are uploading from FTDNA be sure to include the separate data on the X
Chromosome which FTDNA tests but doesn't not show. This accounts
for some of the discrepancies we see where the total Cm is more than
the total of the segments. This had bothered me before I found out
that. Gedmatch will allow you to see those. It will also allow me
to compare those of you who do NOT match on FTDNA but should
match. The different companies use different algorithms to do this
which creates different results.
Blogs:
See the following blogs on DNA research. You should probably join
some of these blogs. They may cause your brain to heat up reading
them the first time. My brain has had to be cooled with adult
beverages on several evenings as I have studied these kinds of blogs.
Just don't give up. And work your DNA results. Just start
with your close matches and work your way out. As you do you will
learn. Actually it is a lot like learning to cook. Anybody can do
it if they just start with the easy bits.
This one describes what you can do with your FTDNA Family Finder data
Go to the Legal Genealogist site. In the upper right hand corner do a
search for the following words: new family finder
You will get a number of great articles. She writes one on DNA
every weekend.
http://www.legalgenealogist.com/
This is a Wiki from ISOGG [International Society of Genetic
Genealogists.] It may be a good place to start.
http://www.isogg.org/wiki/Wiki_Welcome_Page
They off and on run online classes.
This is a blog by CeCe Moore.
She is one of the top genetic genealogists in the US today.
http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/
She also runs classes etc.
I am in love with this one. He talks about why things are not
totally predictable.
http://dna-explained.com/2013/10/21/why-are-my-predicted-cousin-relationships-wrong/
This is great, but do not attempt it without a brain cooling beverage
at hand.
http://gcbias.org/2013/05/10/identification-of-genomic-regions-shared-between-distant-relatives/
As it happens some of the absolutely sites for learning about
using DNA and the best use of the data on these DNA companies
are on a site intended for adoptees searching for their birth
families. But anyone can use the sites. They won't care.
June Byrne [email protected]