I cannot find much anything about this subject on the forum and a lot of the articles found thro' Google are pretty technical so I wondered if members would like to share any experiences of having their DNA analysed. How much did it cost? How was it used? Did you use it for maternal or paternal lines and what are the benefits or drawbacks of both?
I ask this because I have been asked to get my wife to have her DNA analysed by a distant, and previously unknown, relation of hers in the U.S. There is no scam but the only connection is a shared Greatx10 Grandmother down in darkest Cornwall. The line is not purely maternal either as there are male descendents along the way on my wife's side but not in the U.S. lineage.
I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences and it could be useful for others contemplating DNA analysis as a research tool.
Dagwood
ID:5526
* What did DNA do for your research?
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gerrynuk
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What did DNA do for your research?
Hi Dagwood,
I had a DNA test done by Sorenson. The test is free but the unlock fee is about 50USD for each of the Y-DNA and MT-DND. The tests are done, I think, on 36 markers, which is a good number. Sorenson will only accept people who fit their profile so they really don't need/want any more angle-saxons unless they have a lineage that takes them into one of their current geographic or ethnic projects.
I did unlock my Y-DNA and have a tentative match. The match was 35 out of 36 markers which equates to about 7 or 8 generations. However, it has proved very difficult to find a common ancestor because of the lack of any positive geographic location (central Europe is the best we can get). Consequently DNA has not, so far, proved very helpful. I have yet to unlock the MT-DNA but may one day as I have a brick wall on my female line.
My view, for what it is worth, is that DNA testing is still a relatively young procedure and it will be quite a few years before there are sufficient people tested to make speculative testing worthwhile. Having said that, if two people think they are related then a DNA test might be just what they need to prove or disprove the link. Another point to bear in mind is that any match which equates to more than about 12 generations is going to be almost impossible to prove by documentation unless you think there might be printed pedigrees to take you back that far. We are quite lucky in the UK in that we have parish records going back in some places to the early 16th Cent plus manorial, court and other records going back further.
New sorts of DNA testing are becoming available. One is the Family Finder but this only works, I understand, for about 6 generations back before the DNA becomes so diluted as to be impossible to use for genealogical purposes.
Good luck,
Gerry
I had a DNA test done by Sorenson. The test is free but the unlock fee is about 50USD for each of the Y-DNA and MT-DND. The tests are done, I think, on 36 markers, which is a good number. Sorenson will only accept people who fit their profile so they really don't need/want any more angle-saxons unless they have a lineage that takes them into one of their current geographic or ethnic projects.
I did unlock my Y-DNA and have a tentative match. The match was 35 out of 36 markers which equates to about 7 or 8 generations. However, it has proved very difficult to find a common ancestor because of the lack of any positive geographic location (central Europe is the best we can get). Consequently DNA has not, so far, proved very helpful. I have yet to unlock the MT-DNA but may one day as I have a brick wall on my female line.
My view, for what it is worth, is that DNA testing is still a relatively young procedure and it will be quite a few years before there are sufficient people tested to make speculative testing worthwhile. Having said that, if two people think they are related then a DNA test might be just what they need to prove or disprove the link. Another point to bear in mind is that any match which equates to more than about 12 generations is going to be almost impossible to prove by documentation unless you think there might be printed pedigrees to take you back that far. We are quite lucky in the UK in that we have parish records going back in some places to the early 16th Cent plus manorial, court and other records going back further.
New sorts of DNA testing are becoming available. One is the Family Finder but this only works, I understand, for about 6 generations back before the DNA becomes so diluted as to be impossible to use for genealogical purposes.
Good luck,
Gerry
What did DNA do for your research?
Thanks Gerry for your reply. I guess it raises doubts in my mind regarding how accurate going back 12 generations would be and with that expense how good the value is. I wonder what others think. What always surprises me is the number of times you hear on TV that they've traced someones lineage back to a village up the Limpopo or that they are Viking and from a certain village in Norway or wherever. How diluted must the DNA be when you consider all the pairings that have gone on over many hundreds of years?
Am I sounding skeptical or just plain ignorant of the technology? Both I think.Perhaps others will come forward with success stories.
Thanks again
Dagwood
Am I sounding skeptical or just plain ignorant of the technology? Both I think.Perhaps others will come forward with success stories.
Thanks again
Dagwood
What did DNA do for your research?
Let me tell you about the successes our One Name Study has had with male Y-chromosome DNA. Emphasis on the MALE .. this is not suitable for matching females or those with an illegitimate past because the Y-choromosome is only passed to males and therefore keeps the same surname. Hence the success with a One Name Study.
We are a smallish society (usually about 90 members in any one year.) Several people know they are from the same family. Others can only go back so far before sticking. The DNA project we have does a 37 marker test (anything less is not really statistically significant). Not surprisingly, the people who knew they had common ancestors did match on 36 or 37 markers. Several other people matched them as well, although they don't know how they are related .... proving that they should probably look in the same area as the others even though the family may have moved 200 miles away in the 18C.
Another pair of members knew they originated from the same village. One of them thought he had traced back from the early 19C to nearby places and the 17C. The other knew he was descended from an illegitimate 19C birth in the village. BUT .... their DNA was a perfect match. Very lucklily we found a will proving the unmarried mother had had 6 children with James NUNN (he acknowledged them in the will). One of the other children turned out to be our member's ancestor and not (confusingly) another of the same name in the same place and time. In this case the DNA has proved which ancestor was the correct one BUT .... it is not the DNA of our One Name Society but NUNN DNA!
About 6 other members do not match any of the others. Does this mean that there were many more original families with this name or that unknown 'paternal events'(!!!) happened?
We use the American firm Family Tree DNA. They have a large database and do other tests but I am not sure of the significance of findings of any other tests, which seem to go much further back in time .... is this actually useful in a genealogical sense?? Unfortunately the 37 marker Y-chromosome test is quite expensive (currently over £100) and some of our members who might benefit are put off by this.
Anne
We are a smallish society (usually about 90 members in any one year.) Several people know they are from the same family. Others can only go back so far before sticking. The DNA project we have does a 37 marker test (anything less is not really statistically significant). Not surprisingly, the people who knew they had common ancestors did match on 36 or 37 markers. Several other people matched them as well, although they don't know how they are related .... proving that they should probably look in the same area as the others even though the family may have moved 200 miles away in the 18C.
Another pair of members knew they originated from the same village. One of them thought he had traced back from the early 19C to nearby places and the 17C. The other knew he was descended from an illegitimate 19C birth in the village. BUT .... their DNA was a perfect match. Very lucklily we found a will proving the unmarried mother had had 6 children with James NUNN (he acknowledged them in the will). One of the other children turned out to be our member's ancestor and not (confusingly) another of the same name in the same place and time. In this case the DNA has proved which ancestor was the correct one BUT .... it is not the DNA of our One Name Society but NUNN DNA!
About 6 other members do not match any of the others. Does this mean that there were many more original families with this name or that unknown 'paternal events'(!!!) happened?
We use the American firm Family Tree DNA. They have a large database and do other tests but I am not sure of the significance of findings of any other tests, which seem to go much further back in time .... is this actually useful in a genealogical sense?? Unfortunately the 37 marker Y-chromosome test is quite expensive (currently over £100) and some of our members who might benefit are put off by this.
Anne
What did DNA do for your research?
Anne, thank you for sharing your experience of paternal DNA studies with us. It reinforces my feeling that:
a) I still do not know very much about the subject
b) how careful one needs to be before plunging into one's wallet and paying out good money until Mrs Dagwood and I are certain that we know what we want and what we will be getting.
Your comment and Gerry's about the markers and how many are needed to be statistically significant is well taken. I have just read thro' an ad for a company who will carry out a DNA test for 20 markers and only charge £169 !!
Before I go much further I need to do some extensive reading and have ordered 4 of Brian Sykes' and Stephen Oppenheimer's books on DNA and population movements from the library for a little light reading over the next few weeks.
My thanks again, and if there are any experiences others would like to share with us it would be most interesting.
Dagwood
a) I still do not know very much about the subject
b) how careful one needs to be before plunging into one's wallet and paying out good money until Mrs Dagwood and I are certain that we know what we want and what we will be getting.
Your comment and Gerry's about the markers and how many are needed to be statistically significant is well taken. I have just read thro' an ad for a company who will carry out a DNA test for 20 markers and only charge £169 !!
Before I go much further I need to do some extensive reading and have ordered 4 of Brian Sykes' and Stephen Oppenheimer's books on DNA and population movements from the library for a little light reading over the next few weeks.
My thanks again, and if there are any experiences others would like to share with us it would be most interesting.
Dagwood
What did DNA do for your research?
I have started reading Brian Sykes' book 'The Seven Daughters of Eve' and halfway through feel nothing will be the same again. As a youngster many years ago I followed with interest the travels of Thor Heyerdal and his Kon Tiki expedition which sought to prove that Polynesians had travelled with the trade winds from Central or South America to the Pacific Islands. Professor Sykes' studies of mitochondrial DNA show this was not the case and that even allowing for variations in dna they had in fact travelled from SouthEast Asia. His book shows that such variations are very slow, I think he says 1 variation takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years per variation and to put that into perspective a dinner lady in Wales shares a common maternal ancestor with a native of the Cook Islands approximately 150,000 years ago and yet has only 16 variations out of a sequence of 500.
I am no expert on DNA and probably have not explained this too well but write now only to suggest that anyone with an interest in human history and migration would do well to get hold of this book. The other reason for writing is to say that so far my understanding is that, with mitochondrial DNA there appears not to be dilution generation by generation. I should say here that it also appears that mitochondrial DNA is passed from a female to all of her children but only the female children pass it on to their offspring.
Why do I run the risk of incurring the wrath of those who know far more than I about this subject? Well you will recall this started with a request by a distant relation of my wife to ahve a DNA test. Having read the book (halfway) I know enough to suggest that with male and female ancestors between the ancestor shared with the distant cousin it would appear there would be no benefit.
I'm discovering so much and will come back and let you know what I think after I have read about paternal DNA and the next book which is about the people of the British Isles and is called 'Blood of the Isles'
Dagwood
I am no expert on DNA and probably have not explained this too well but write now only to suggest that anyone with an interest in human history and migration would do well to get hold of this book. The other reason for writing is to say that so far my understanding is that, with mitochondrial DNA there appears not to be dilution generation by generation. I should say here that it also appears that mitochondrial DNA is passed from a female to all of her children but only the female children pass it on to their offspring.
Why do I run the risk of incurring the wrath of those who know far more than I about this subject? Well you will recall this started with a request by a distant relation of my wife to ahve a DNA test. Having read the book (halfway) I know enough to suggest that with male and female ancestors between the ancestor shared with the distant cousin it would appear there would be no benefit.
I'm discovering so much and will come back and let you know what I think after I have read about paternal DNA and the next book which is about the people of the British Isles and is called 'Blood of the Isles'
Dagwood