DNA Testing

[Jo Simpsons]

Has anyone done DNA testing?
Do any of you know or have done one with smgf.org
They do one with a free kit, you dont actually get the results but its published online, as far as I know.
Eager beaver, so filled it in!
I kept away and really reading up on it as I thought it would be far too expensive.
I'd love to hear any thoughts on it.
Jo :)

[Ron Leech]

Jo


I thought we had a thread on this about a year or so back. My memory is hazy but I seem to think there were some issues about how effective it would be.

[Jo Simpsons]

Thanks Ron,

I had put DNA in the search box but the term was too short for any results. Adding Projects and Testing I have been reading up on some old threads now.
Thank you.
Jo :)

[Geordie Ken]

I have read all the items on this forum regarding DNA testing on what it can and cannot do.

I took a DNA test earlier this year as part of the Family Tree DNA Project

I was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and I have traced the family back to 1720 in Newcastle

I have discovered that

A genetic relative was born in Antrim, Ireland in 1695 and he went to Maine, USA about 1735. I know of two lines of descendants from him.

A genetic relative lived in Fife Scotland in the early 1800’s. He went to Canada about 1850 and I know his line.

The task now is to determine how these lines link together.

DNA is certainly not the total Solution to Family History but as I have shown it can open up new avenues of exploration in the same way as Parish records, War records the Internet etc

[BorderReiver]

I had my DNA (Y-Chromosome) tested by Oxford Ancestors last year, It cost me about £200 but they only do a standard 10 point marker test. It may indicate which haplogroup you belong to but it isn't accurate enough to determine a common ancestor for genealogical purposes.

I then retested with Family Tree DNA who are based in Houston Texas and are much more professional. They did a 37 point marker test for around £100. They sent me certificates and my details are added to a database on their website.

I receive regular e-mails informing me of possible DNA matches I can compare to on their database - My own details are kept on my own webpage.

My DNA is held for ten years, in which time if there are any further advancements in DNA testing it can be re-tested.

I am fascinated in knowing whether some of my fellow researchers, bearing my surname, are related. Our ancestors come from a small village in Cumbria and took it's name. The 37 point marker test would determine a common ancestor and I eagerly await them taking a test.

[Geoffers]

I am fascinated in knowing whether some of my fellow researchers, bearing my surname, are related. Our ancestors come from a small village in Cumbria and took it's name.

Good luck with this, I'm sure that you will have considered but others new to research may not - do bear in mind that not everyone with a locative surname will be related; even where the place name is unique and the location is only small.

Surnames based on a location could be gained once someone had left a place, in order to identify them from others with the same forename.

They may not even tie directly with a particular place - if someone worked in one place, for an employer who came from another location; they may have taken the employers location as a surname.

[MythicalMarian]

Might this be an appropriate time to ask what may be a daft question about all this DNA testing? I'm not the world's greatest science brain (all Arts in my family - tree included) but I do understand that this DNA research is conducted either through the male line or mitrochondrially through females. Now, suppose a guy sends a sample to the Bloggs DNA project to see if him and ten thousand other Bloggses have a common male ancestor. What happens if that Bloggs line is broken somewhere in the past - say with an illegitimate birth? Surely, the male line then comes to a stop and linking Joe Bloggs of 2008 to John Bloggs of 1730 is impossible? Would I be right in thinking that? Or am I way off beam?

[Geoffers]

You get the same problem if say a wife had an affair with one, or more men and fathered children by him/them - the closer to the present day such events happen, the greater the risk of this causing a bit of a problem.

It seems an expensive way to answer a single question; but each to their own.

[BorderReiver]

Good luck with this, I'm sure that you will have considered but others new to research may not - do bear in mind that not everyone with a locative surname will be related; even where the place name is unique and the location is only small.

Surnames based on a location could be gained once someone had left a place, in order to identify them from others with the same forename.

They may not even tie directly with a particular place - if someone worked in one place, for an employer who came from another location; they may have taken the employers location as a surname.

I realise that not everyone with the same surname will be related, that's the whole point of finding a 25pt or 37pt Y-Chromosome match and the reason for taking the test.

[MythicalMarian]

You get the same problem if say a wife had an affair with one, or more men and fathered children by him/them - the closer to the present day such events happen, the greater the risk of this causing a bit of a problem.

It seems an expensive way to answer a single question; but each to their own.

Thanks Geoffers, I had a feeling this was the case. The Jewish culture has it right - bloodline passed down through the females (no X chromosome = no life :D). So, although the surname would never be the same, I should imagine that tracing mitochondrially from daughter to mum, to gran etc. may actually yield a truer result. But there again - the couple may have brought up a baby as their own that was a sister's mishap or something.

As you say, it does seem to be an expensive process for something that seems scientifically hit and miss.

[Geoffers]

As you say, it does seem to be an expensive process for something that seems scientifically hit and miss.


You pay your money and take your choice, good luck to those who think it a worthwhile investment - if it only cost a fiver I might be tempted myself just out of sheer curiosity. But for a £100 (or whatever) I can get a large number of wills, fiches, books, CDs from The Parish Chest, downloads from TNA, etc, etc which will be of much more use to my own research.

I suppose that its value depends to some extent on how desperate you are to make contact with other people whom you know are biologically related - personally this has never been a driving force in my research, I'm not that bothered about making contact with living relatives....each to their own.

[MythicalMarian]

I suppose that its value depends to some extent on how desperate you are to make contact with other people whom you know are biologically related - personally this has never been a driving force in my research, I'm not that bothered about making contact with living relatives....each to their own.

Well - I am quite interested in contacting living ones as well as the dead - if only to exchange information and supplement my knowledge and theirs - that sort of thing. What would be wonderful is if these DNA projects could locate my particular Stokes family out of all the various Stokes families named after at least 81 places in England! As the tracing would not do this - for the reasons we've stated - it would be a waste of time for me - so on I go, extending parishes further and further until I find my John born about 1710. :) But then -- that's the fun of it all, isn't it? It's why we all have this crazy addiction.

[BorderReiver]

You pay your money and take your choice, good luck to those who think it a worthwhile investment - if it only cost a fiver I might be tempted myself just out of sheer curiosity. But for a £100 (or whatever) I can get a large number of wills, fiches, books, CDs from The Parish Chest, downloads from TNA, etc, etc which will be of much more use to my own research.

I suppose that its value depends to some extent on how desperate you are to make contact with other people whom you know are biologically related - personally this has never been a driving force in my research, I'm not that bothered about making contact with living relatives....each to their own.

Ah, but when you've followed the paper trail as far back as it is possible to go, let's say the reign of Henry I (1100-1135), then DNA is the only option left for further research into our past.

[tony vines]

Like Border Reiver I had mine tested a few years ago via the US based Family Tree. I do understand the effects of infidelity in such matters and I believe that DNA is only of potential value where its conclusions are backed up by conventional genealogical research of the type most posters spend so much time on.

Although Family Tree is probably one of the most active and successful providers of this service, its database is still very small. So it may be naive to expect random matches and certainly I haven't heard of any for my results in the period since I took my test. I did get some contacts early on but they were exclusively from people who hadn't read or understood the statistical probabilities of common ancestors where there were 2 or more non-matches in our codes.

I joined because there was an established project based on my paternal family name. It was being administered by a man in Australia who had already established a very large family tree originating from the West Country. I realised that if my DNA proved a match for living descendents of this family it might fill in a huge chunk of my history. Sadly my DNA did not match and I had to conclude that there was no likely common ancestor for at least 1,000 years. My family is more likely to be of different stock altogether, ignoring the admitted possibility that I may be descended in fact from a father who is not of my name (the words "cans" and "worms" should here be mixed very carefully!).

Incidentally the project had linked quite a few members of this family together in the UK, Australia and the USA and the evidence of the DNA ratified (or was ratified by) conventional research (BMD etc.)

[Geoffers]

Ah, but when you've followed the paper trail as far back as it is possible to go, let's say the reign of Henry I (1100-1135), then DNA is the only option left for further research into our past.

Whilst there are limits to a paper trail which may stop well short of Henry I, DNA testing will not in itself provide any informative research into previous generations, or their lives. A DNA test would not provide me with the name of an ancestor, for example in the time of the usurper, William the Bastard.

I think the usefulness of DNA testing has been exagerrated. If you go down the route of DNA testing, good luck to you, but I will spend my money on research more likely to provide information of use to me.

[mary elms]

We each have a different approach to this hobby of ours and like Geoffers I'd rather spend my money elsewhere.

For me, blood relationships are only part of the story. I was raised with a wider view of family which included people who are neither related by blood nor by marriage but who are as close to us as any of those who are. Going backwards in time I'm as interested in who these people might have been as I am in blood ties. And DNA can tell me nothing about the lives my anscestors lived. All these things combine to make families what they are and, in the end, to make me who I am.

Mary.

[benny1982]

Hi

I have often wondered about a DNA test but having read this, I am not certain if the money to be paid is worth it in the end. It might only tell me where my ancestors came from thousands of years ago.

However, I wonder if there are other ways of doing genetic research on family lines through genes as I think that genes and DNA have differences.

Ben