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Hello, I am new to Genealogy and I thought doing a Y-DNA67+mtDNAPlus test would be a good start. Unfortunately both my parents are orphans (WW2) and know very little about their family. I am really unsure what the test will provide and what insight will be gained but I thought it would be good to do regardless. I have a general idea of the test from the website BUT really dont know what to expect. Thanks for any information.
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Hello johnnicholas and welcome to FTF!
Have you actually handed over any money yet? If not, maybe think again!
If you get your parents marriage cert, that will give you the names of their fathers, and their ages. From that information, you can trace their births, and so on, backwards down the line.
DNA testing at BEST, will only throw you into a group of people who share a male ancestor with you. This could be five generations, or 50 generations ago, and not much use to you if you don't even know who your grandparents were.
Do you know how to search for your parents marriage cert? If not, we will be very happy to help you.
OC -
Hello and Welcome.
What are you trying to find exactly???? MY understanding of DNA testing is that it can tell you if your parents are really your parents (provided they are alive). There are many other DNA tests that are advertised (at highly inflated prices) that will tell you where your genes originated. Basically it will tell you that your genes came from Africa.
That's because according to out genetice makeup we all (or nearly all) did.
How much do you actually have about your family? There may be more than you think.
Were your parents adopted out/ fostered/ brought up in care???
Some of those places have records.
Not sure where you are, but have a look on our "Adoption" board. You might find some info there to help.
Don't give up.....I've had some results from help I got here that you wouldn't believe.
Please remember we are not allowed to name living people on the site, but I'm sure someone here will give you some more ideas.
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OC......I was hoping you were still here....Comment
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An afterthought!
WHICH? magazine recently said that these tests are useless and about as accurate as a horoscope!
I believe the state of California has banned the marketing of these tests for genealogical purposes, saying that they are misleading and inaccurate and make false claims.
Better to spend your money on conventional methods of doing your tree and see where that takes you. DNA testing is really only an answer to a specific question - am I related to you?
Y-testing and mt-testing can only pick out two ancestors, cannot tell you their names, nor when or where they lived, and completely ignores your other (literally) one million ancestors.
OCComment
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Another point on DNA results is that even if they were reliable there are so few people who have done the test and submitted their results and family trees that to find a 'match' is almost impossible. I saw an article in the paper a while ago that said Ancestry and similar sites only have around 50,000 names on their database linked to DNA test results. The chances of these people being identified as a match are zilch!Comment
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I remember a recent programme 100% English, they had a lady who was a member of a nationalist English party, still seething over the Norman invasion, (pmsl!). Chanel 4 told her her DNA showed a very real probability that one of her grans or great grannies must have had a fling with a Romany Gypsy, and she apparantly sued claiming the tests were misleading. Don't know how succesfully, but with the recent rulings in the states, starting to think it wasn't just sour grapes at being made to look silly..perhaps she was right!Comment
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Just one little plug for DNA successes- and its only in very particular circumstances!
Presuming from your name you are male and that the surname you have was also your father's BIRTH surname; there may be a 'One Name Study' on that surname and if so they may be running a DNA project. This can find matches with males of the same surname (lots of other things being equal too, such as marital fidelity!!!! :p)
The One Name Study I have dealings with (EAST) has had several interesting successes in both proving and disproving a link to an (often unknown) most recent common ancestor. Also in one set of members proving that the DNA was not EAST DNA at all but from a certain James NUNN who had six illegitimate children with a Sarah EAST! The study has also thrown up people with the EAST surname who all have ancestors in Lincolnshire but are NOT closely related.
To be statistically significant you would need at least 37 markers testing for Y-DNA and the cost is over £100.
Non of the above will help if your surname is a common one. In which case you need to obtain as many certificates as possible going back from your own birth to your parents marriage and then their births etc..... The certificates cost £7 each ....... you could get a lot for £100!! :D
I think the certificate route is the best way to begin anyway.
Here is the link to the Guild of One Name Studies
Guild of One-Name Studies
AnneComment
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To add to Anne's point my husband is considering doing DNA for a one name study and the person running it has siad that if the cost of paying privately is too dear, he does have access to some funds donated by others interested in the project which he can give to help.
BTW we need to send a 4 generation family tree to go with the DNA result so that might not be possible for you yet.
I agree the best route to start is to get certificates.Last edited by margaretmarch; 21-10-08, 09:35.Comment
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Anne
I agree with your comments, which fall into my category of "Am I related to you?" lol.
I have seen several DNA one name studies which have been intelligently done and have shown very interesting and useful results. None of them used the "advertised" DNA tests by you-know-who!
I also have seen the results of a Holden DNA study. The results are comical (if YOU didn't pay for them, that is) and have come up with the information that all 28 men have a common ancestor "sometime in the last 150-200generations". They don't mention his name.
There were only a few participants - about 28, I think, and they all had their conventional trees back to a gateway ancestor, Justinian Holden, who entered America on the Mayflower.
Problem is...he didn't, according to the records, and the only Justinian Holden I can find in England of the right era, was a WOMAN.
Probably one of the most impressive and useful studies I have seen is of the KAY family with variant spellings. 52 participants and four "controls", one of whom was a KAYE through the female line and another who had a "non paternity event" lol, and two completely unconnected men.
The results were staggering. The female-KAYE descendant was a full match, as was the non-paternity event man. He apparently later admitted that he only THOUGHT his mother must have been unfaithful!
Most interesting was that the variant spellings, which we all assume are random acts of illiteracy, were not, and the variants clearly delineated branches of the family.
The KAYs were manorial and are well documented. With the aid of conventional trees, all 54 men could connect with certainty to one man in the early 1500s, and barring non paternity, right back to William the Conqueror.
What was impressive about this study, was that there were only one or two marker differences between any of them and in fact they had to go to another level of testing to split into groups. The flip side of this is that it shows how useless a small marker test can be and how it can give false information in a closely related group of men.
OCComment
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a warm welcome johnnicholas,ask and you will have lots of offers of help,enjoy,brenda xxxComment
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