Y-DNA Test

[melba_schmelba]

Thankyou for that Melba!
Are there tools on the ancestry site to match with other people? Or do i have to sign up to Myheritage to get better matches?

Tom

Yes with an Ancestry DNA test you will (as I assume, a Brit) get between 10,000-20,000 matches. They are shown as a long scrolling list by name or username, and you can click each one for a match page which will show their tree if they have one, and you also have a shared match page which will help you work out who is related to who and from what part of your family they connect. Ancestry is on offer until the 14th March. When your test is done you can download your DNA data, and upload to this tool to get a predicted Y-DNA haplogroup.
https://cladefinder.yseq.net/

If you then upload to GEDMATCH, usually match's haplogroups are listed (Y-DNA and mtDNA), but a 23andme test also lists them. 23andme will also give traits and neanderthal DNA % as standard, and you can get some other fitness and health data with the more expensive test, although the health stuff should be treated with a pinch of salt as it is only a very selective snapshot of your DNA and only tests for a small percentage of inherited disease markers in certain ethnicities. MyHeritage I don't think lists haplogroups, but they do have trees as some GEDMATCH kits do. You can also use shared matches and a chromosome browser on MyHeritage if you pay a small fee of about £20.

[jc26red]

I would go with the Ancestry test. You mentioned you suspected his father was James Blanch, assuming there is no other interaction with the Blanch family other than adoption if the name Blanch starts to appear in your match list you can start looking at likely suspects.
You do need to upload or creat a tree on ancestry and not mark it private. Ancestry is getting better at  helping sort out paternal and maternal names and does give hints bit you still need to check out the likelihood of matches being correct.

Test results take about 4-6 weeks to return.

Good luck

[tdgower2]

Thankyou for the info, will go for the ancestry test i think!

Tom

[tdgower2]

Hello, long time no speak.
I have just had the ancestry DNA kit bought for me for Christmas.
I'm going to send it off at the start of January. Before I receive it, is there any thing I need to do whilst I wait? I have a tree on ancestry up to my 3x and 4x great grandparents so that should help with matching I believe?

Getting excited! Even though I won't get the results till February!

Tom

[Ruskie]

Do you have a current Ancestry subscription? You’ll need it to get for the DNA results to be of use.

[tdgower2]

Hi there.
No I don't have a subscription at the moment. That's something that I forgot about over all this time haha. I will subscribe tomorrow, thankyou for the advice 

Tom

[rsel]

Before I receive it, is there any thing I need to do whilst I wait? I have a tree on ancestry up to my 3x and 4x great grandparents so that should help with matching I believe?

Hi Tom,
   A couple of suggestions/questions.
1)  Make sure to link your DNA test to yourself in your tree (you should still be able to do this before you get your results), as this will give you the full benefits of the ancestry tools (i.e you should see common ancestors and thrulines).
2) You don't mention how 'wide' you have made your tree, just that you have gone backwards to to 3/4th Grandparents.  Try and fill out your tree as much as possible with details on siblings families, as this can help make the identification of matches easier.

Other than that look forwards to the whole new fun game you will have trying to link up matches :-)

Richard

[Ruskie]

Hi there.
No I don't have a subscription at the moment. That's something that I forgot about over all this time haha. I will subscribe tomorrow, thankyou for the advice 

Tom

Unless you need it for general research you could leave subscribing till you get your DNA results.

I got a three month free trial when with my test and asked if I could postpone taking it up till my results came through which worked out well. 

I agree with Richard about building a wide tree. It’s probably just me, but I think virtually all my matches have come through female lines with name changes upon marriage down the genererations - something to keep in mind when you are trying to place people.

[Biggles50]

Hello, long time no speak.
I have just had the ancestry DNA kit bought for me for Christmas.
I'm going to send it off at the start of January. Before I receive it, is there any thing I need to do whilst I wait? I have a tree on ancestry up to my 3x and 4x great grandparents so that should help with matching I believe?

Getting excited! Even though I won't get the results till February!

Tom

Try not to subscribe to Ancestry at the full price, there are posts on RC about discount deals.

£60 for UK only and £90 for Worldwide is typical of what we can pay.

100% agree, work on your tree making it as wide and as up to date as you can.

Do check over the accuracy of your tree and then printout a Pedigree Chart to your Great Great Great Grandparent level.

On the chart at the Great Grandparent level annotate each of them starting at the top with a 1, the next one down with a 2.  Continue so that each of your Great Grandparents is given a number in the 1 to 8 range.

When you get your DNA results and as you work through them you can create DNA Groups each labelled with a number in the 1 to 8 range.  As you find which Great Grandparent(s) are or lead to the MRCA that you have with each of your DNA matches you assign them to the applicable numbered Group. Having them numbered makes it easier to relate to when viewing matches as the coloured Group marker will display with the first character of the Group Name and hence why I suggest using numbers rather than letters.

You then can assign the Shared DNA matches to the same numbered Group.

In practice you can then Filter the Groups which will aid in your research.

The goal should be to validate each of your ancestral lines through each of your Great Grandparents.  Mark the chart at the MRCA for each of the DNA matches that you link into your Family Tree.  This will give a visual representation of where on your Family Tree each of the DNA matches and you share the MRCA and where there are missing indicating marks is where potential problems may exist.

Now for the rub, only if each line in your Family Tree is validated with DNA matches and a MRCA with each match can you be confident that your Family Tree is accurate.  If you have “unvalidated” Family Tree lines then there may well be an NPE event and it is time to look at Cousins and Second Cousins for them to take a DNA test.  It can happen that if a “First Cousin” also takes a DNA test to help prove a Family Tree line that the results could be that the original DNA tester is not Biologically Related to the “First Cousin”.

So do be prepared for the unexpected.

Hope this helps.