As a rough guide, there are three types of tests: autosomal, Y-DNA and mtDNA. You just really need the first one to get started. Autosomal is a general one for everybody. Y-DNA is only for chaps! It just traces a male's father and his father and his father, etc. so it's very good for surname studies. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) tests are for everybody and they trace back along the maternal line.
If Admin allows it, this link is an excellent explanation of the different types of test:
familytreedna.com/learn
/ftdna/our-three-basic-tests
I've done the autosomal one (no needles, just a cheek scrape!) and uploaded it to other sites to widen the match possibilities, and I've got my brother to do the Y-DNA one.
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Thread: Basic types of DNA tests
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22-01-2016, 8:52 AM #1
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Basic types of DNA tests
Last edited by Lesley Robertson; 22-01-2016 at 9:40 AM. Reason: Sorry, it's a commercial link so, no. I've only broken the link, so copy & paste to your browser.
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22-01-2016, 9:13 AM #2Wilkes_mlGuest
Unfortunately it's the autosomal test I need, but it only matches up to 5 generations....the relationships I need to prove are 7-8 generations back! But it would still be interesting to see if I got any matches with people I haven't already made contact with over the last 25 years of research.
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22-01-2016, 9:17 AM #3
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22-01-2016, 9:30 AM #4Wilkes_mlGuest
Thanks for that info...I think I'll definitely give it a shot now, as I also have another 7-8 generation mystery where some one turns up in a parish as an 8 year old in the late 1700s, with no idea who his parent's were or how far he had come from. With no matching baptism in the county, he could have come from anywhere in the country, or have been baptised illegitimately under a different surname...
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22-01-2016, 9:37 AM #5
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- Cornwall
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Crikey ... now that really is a brick wall!
By the way, another great result from my test is that I've been able to 'prove' my pencilled-in possible connections. I have a citation button to a source called 'Jessie's educated guess' but now I can replace it with 'DNA evidence'.
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22-01-2016, 9:52 AM #6Wilkes_mlGuest
And that brick wall would have been a great one for y-dna testing if I had a sample of my grand-dad's DNA (as it was his direct paternal 2x great grandfather). Unfortunately my grand-dad died in the 1970s and was cremated (so I can't exhume him ) and we are not in contact with my mum's full brother....
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23-01-2016, 6:38 AM #7
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I have more recent brickwalls (the most recent being the identity of my greatgrandfather - my grandmother was illegitimate. I have uploaded recently to gedmatch and may have a clue as to his ancestry - the admixture test showed possible Cornish ancestry and a genetic match (3rd to 5th cousins) has Cornish ancestors.
Nothing definitive, of course, but it's something to follow up on.
My other brickwalls are more distant, but there are stills clues there. I have a bunch of matches with people with Irish ancestors. The problems are the records.
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27-01-2016, 9:04 AM #8
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My other brickwalls are more distant, but there are stills clues there. I have a bunch of matches with people with Irish ancestors. The problems are the records.[/QUOTE]
Like you, I have lots of tantalising matches and clues but each match is only as good as the research they've already done on their trees? I've 'met' people with forty years experience to those with no family tree or knowledge whatsoever who expected names to pop up immediately after their DNA test. The majority of people, though, have been fantastic and have sent some amazing old photos, stories and information I would never have found in a Record Office. It's like a fascinating genealogical jigsaw to me!
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27-01-2016, 4:00 PM #9
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28-01-2016, 5:37 AM #10
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