DNA testing - genetic genealogy

[Redroger]

See my replies 262 and 264 above, my objectives were to cross the Atlantic and to take my family association back before the 18th century problems. Should I need to go further back then I will certainly bear higher marker tests in mind.

[supermoussi]

Then for you that is fine, but I was replying to another poster and your objectives are not the same as many others..

[msallen]

I had the 37 marker Y-DNA test done a couple of years ago. Even though I am in the common Haplogroup R1b (predicted R1b1a2), I have never found a single match either within or across surnames.

I have always assumed that this just means that no-one with whom I share a common direct male ancestor within the last few hundred years has tested yet. However my question to those more knowledgeable than me is, now that much larger tests (67 & 111 marker) are easily available, is there likely to be any benefit in me upgrading my test? For example could I only match on say 30/37 with someone now (and so not be considered to be a close match), but if I upgraded and found I matched with them at 104/111, then that would be close enough to mean something?

Thanks
Mark

[Adnepos_Iacobi]

Hi Mark
How did you check for a match with your 37 marker Y-DNA? The biggest databases are with Family Tree DNA (FT-DNA) and Ysearch. If you didn't get a hit with this test checking against either of these databases, you certainly won't get a hit if you test for more markers of your Y-DNA.

If you have a DNA test done to go looking for unknown, living relations then the product Family Finder by FT-DNA or the similar one by 23andMe (along with Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA tests) are probably the best tests to do. Other than expense, the problem with them is that they have been available for just over a year so the databases are relatively small; probably not useful unless your ancestry is in North America or western Europe because these are the people who predominate in the databases.

[msallen]

Thanks Adnepos_Iacobi. Thats what I thought, but there's no harm in making sure is there!

The test was with FT-DNA and I am also in the YSearch database, so I guess there's nothing to do but wait for a matching person to take a test.

[supermoussi]

so I guess there's nothing to do but wait for a matching person to take a test.

You could be more proactive than that, depending on circumstances. For example, I have solved two brick walls on my paternal line where I tracked down descendants of theoretical rellies and confirmed the link 100% via DNA.

[Redroger]

Similar to my situation Supermoussi, but where I see a difficulty is in persuading potential relatives to part with £100+for a meaningful test, and I certainly can't afford to pay for theirs as well as my own.

[Shropshire Lass]

You could be more proactive than that, depending on circumstances. For example, I have solved two brick walls on my paternal line where I tracked down descendants of theoretical rellies and confirmed the link 100% via DNA.

Which test did you use for this?  I have a case where I know two people share a grandmother but don't know if her husband was the grandfather of both of them.  Would the FamilyFinder test be the best one to try?

[Adnepos_Iacobi]

Hi Shropshire Lass
If there is an all-male lineage, a Y-DNA approach would be appropriate unless the two men in grandmother's life had the same Y-DNA (brothers, cousins, uncle/nephew...).

I suspect either one or both of the offspring of the grandmother or at least one of the two people were/are female. Autosomal tests such as Family Finder would do the business in this case but again, if the two men in grandmother's life were closely related, the result might be a little difficult to interpret.