DNA testing

[Jamboesque]

Hi Folks

It's been a wee while since I've last posted on, read the forum's quite regularly just not have too much to say and my working life is now not so amenable to the hours required for research.

I have done quite a bit on my families various twist and turns and occasional blind alleys. The earliest I can get back with any accuracy is an Alexander Hood born at Airlie Forfarshire in 1698. However I am thinking of getting my DNA tested via Scotland's DNA and wondered if any one else has done it and if so what did they think about the results. I realize the DNA results are looking way back beyond the bounds of normal genealogy but I am thinking it might confirm a possible link to France via the Huguenot diaspora to the north east (Stonehaven) with the family name Jolly, but if that doesn't work out I would still be interested in the results

It is quite expensive but I have a wee windfall and thought that might a good use of the money.

I'm really just asking if any one has any comments on DNA research

[paddyscar]

Hi Jamboesque:

While waiting for a response to your query, you may find it interesting to do a search on DNA Genealogy and what has been previously posted on TS.

Frances

[Falkyrn]

You may be interested in having a look at the Jolly DNA project at http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/jolly and quite often these projects offer a discount for the test - I have been looking at a similar project for my own surname and believe it may have more genealogical value than some of the more generic "tribal" origin tests.

[SandySandilands]

I took the plunge a few years ago over at http://www.familytreedna.com/ and my results are part of the Scottish Clans and other British Isles DNA studies.

The DNA results are brilliant in one respect. They can identify that there are certain lines of a particular surname and that not everyone with the same surname shared an ancestor. They can identify your haplogroup : http://www.familytreedna.com/understand ... roups.aspx - I'm a Celt

They can also help to clear up some beliefs i.e. "our name may be spelt different but we are descended from X" - - if all the other descendants of X have a completely different DNA sequence then you are NOT and vice versa.

You can also find a close match and compare your family trees, and as more and more people are tested the more likely that will be. I have yet to find a match Mind you, as I'm the only one with my surname in the "dna bank" it could be a good thing

I would advise against testing if:

1). You want all the answers now and will only be happy if you have an instant match.
2). You would not be happy to discover what you believe to be is not necessarily so - prepare for anything! I know of someone whose family had been local to one place in the UK for hundreds of years and their DNA results came back as Native American Indian. Seems Wild Bill Hickok and his show were once in town...

[alex19canteen]

HI, I did this with 23andme.com recently and to be honest it doesn't really do anything other than establish that you're deep ancestry is probably post glacial European. At this stage family names/relationships are meaningless.

My results were: Paternal Haplogroup: R1b1b2a1a2d*

R1b1b2a1a2d* is a subgroup of R1b1b2, which is described below.
Early inhabitants of Ireland constructed monuments such as this one more than 6,000 years ago.Early inhabitants of Ireland constructed monuments more than 6,000 years ago.

Introduction

Haplogroup R is a widespread and diverse branch of the Y-chromosome tree that is extremely common in Europe, where it spread after the end of the Ice Age about 12,000 years ago. The haplogroup appears to have originated in southwestern Asia about 30,000 years ago. It then split into two main branches. R1 ultimately spread widely across Eurasia, from Iceland to Japan, whereas R2 mostly remained near its region of origin. Today it can be found in southwestern Asia and India.

In my group we have Turks, Jews, Scots, Irish, English, French, Italian, Swiss, German, Swedes, Danes, Spanish, Basque, Georgians, Armenians and a load of others, with any Surname you can imagine.

Because of recent immigration, both branches of R are now found worldwide among men of European, Middle Eastern and South Asian descent – though our haplogroup maps indicate only their pre-colonial distributions.
Haplogroup R1

R1 is the dominant haplogroup in Europe today, accounting for well over half of all men. After being confined to the continent's southern fringes during the Ice Age, it expanded rapidly in the wake of the receding glaciers about 12,000 years ago. Various branches of R1 also trace the many migrations that have shaped Europe since then, from the arrival of farmers between about 10,000 and 7,000 years ago to the movements of ethnic groups such as the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings.
Haplogroup R1b

Haplogroup R1b was confined during the Ice Age to pockets of territory in Mediterranean Europe. The largest was in the Iberian peninsula and southern France, where men bearing the haplogroup created the famous cave paintings at Lascaux and Altamira. They also hunted mammoth, bison and other large game in a climate that was more like present-day Siberia's than the mild conditions prevailing in southern Europe today.

Some men bearing R1b Y-chromosomes also seem to have spent the Ice Age in the Balkans and Anatolia, where the haplogroup is still present today.

After the Ice Age, the haplogroup expanded rapidly in the wake of the retreating glaciers. Today R1b is by far the most common haplogroup in the western half of the continent.
Haplogroup R1b1b2

R1b1b2 is the most common haplogroup in western Europe, where it is found in more than 50% of men. Ancient representatives of the haplogroup were among the first people to repopulate the western part of Europe after the Ice Age ended about 12,000 years ago. In the process the haplogroup differentiated into even more distinct groups that can trace the details of the post-Ice Age migrations.
Haplogroup R1b1b2a1a2b

R1b1b2a1a2b arose about 20,000 years ago, when the Ice Age was at its peak. It appears to have originated among the ancestors of the present-day Basque, because of the relatively high diversity of the haplogroup in that population compared to neighboring ones. Today R1b1b2a1a2b is found in about 5% of Basque and 1% of Iberians.
Haplogroup R1b1b2a1a2f2

R1b1b2a1a2f2 reaches its peak in Ireland, where the vast majority of men carry Y-chromosomes belonging to the haplogroup. Researchers have recently discovered that a large subset of men assigned to the haplogroup may be direct male descendants of an Irish king who ruled during the 4th and early 5th centuries. According to Irish history, a king named Niall of the Nine Hostages established the Ui Neill dynasty that ruled the island country for the next millennium.

Northwestern Ireland is said to have been the core of Niall's kingdom; and that is exactly where men bearing the genetic signature associated with him are most common. About 17% of men in northwestern Ireland have Y-chromosomes that are exact matches to the signature, and another few percent vary from it only slightly. In New York City, a magnet for Irish immigrants during the 19th and early 20th century, 2% of men have Y-chromosomes matching the Ui Neill signature. Genetic analysis suggests that all these men share a common ancestor who lived about 1,700 years ago. Among men living in northwestern Ireland today that date is closer to 1,000 years ago. Those dates neatly bracket the era when Niall is supposed to have reigned.

Outside Ireland, R1b1b2a1a2f2 is relatively common only along the west coast of Britain.
Haplogroup R1b1b2a1a1

Today R1b1b2a1a1 is found mostly on the fringes of the North Sea in England, Germany and the Netherlands, where it reaches levels of one-third. That distribution suggests that some of the first men to bear the haplogroup in their Y-chromosomes were residents of Doggerland, a real-life Atlantis that was swallowed up by rising seas in the millennia following the Ice Age.

Doggerland was a low-lying region of forests and wetlands that must have been rich in game; today, fishing trawlers in the North Sea occasionally dredge up the bones and tusks of the mastodons that roamed there. Doggerland had its heyday between about 12,000 years ago, when the Ice Age climate began to ameliorate, and 9,000 years ago, when the meltwaters of the gradually retreating glaciers caused sea levels to rise, drowning the hunter's paradise. Doggerland's inhabitants retreated to the higher ground that is now the North Sea coast.

My Haplogroup is very rare in Scotland less than 5% and concentrated along the east coast, the highest concentrations are in Corsica, Sardinia and Northern Italy.

I Started off thinking I was a pure Scot,family having lived here for centuries, it turns out I'm just a Human adult male.


Basically telling me nothing genealogically, but proving the old adage we're a' jock tamson's bairns.

[johnniegarve]

alex, you seem very clued-up on this. My own result from FTDNA is R1b1b2e on a single name study. It has all been very interesting but not very fruitful so far.

[alex19canteen]

alex, you seem very clued-up on this. My own result from FTDNA is R1b1b2e on a single name study. It has all been very interesting but not very fruitful so far.

Most of that was a cut and paste job from my 23andme report, I'm certainly no expert.

There's an open source project at http://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Promethease where you can download a free program and run your downloaded raw data from FTDNA. It can take four hours depending on how many SNPs are in your file.

You get some more information such as health risks and traits, you can watch a short demo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dogCbiTEWU

Haplogroup data is constantly being updated as new SNPs are found and analysed with the ongoing sophistication of the scanning chips. Maybe worth a wee look into.

Alex

[johnniegarve]

Thanks for that Alex, food for thought.

[derbyfour]

I heard that the DNA testing was more worthwhile for males than females. Does anyone know if this is true?

[SarahND]

Hello derbyfour,
There is an excellent recent series of 4 articles on the different types of DNA testing for genealogy, written by CeCe Moore:

http://www.geni.com/blog/dna-testing-fo ... 75984.html

All the best,
Sarah