I was pretty excited and went to see who we matched and whether or not the surname was the same as ours (McGinnis). Readers might recall that I recently upgraded my brother's Y-DNA test to 67 markers.
There were several matches ranging from genetic distances of 1 to 7. But the two that jumped off the page were two McGinnis males. One was a genetic distance of 2, the other was 3. You might be wondering what that means.
A click on the icon for the Tip Report for the man with genetic distance of 2 (and the same surname) showed the comparison chart:
| Generations | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 4 | 43.60% |
| 8 | 83.46% |
| 12 | 96.35% |
| 16 | 99.30% |
Wow that means there is a 96% chance that within 12 generations we share a common ancestor. I'm even happy with that 8 generation showing of 83% because I can trace my McGinnis ancestry back 6 generations counting me. So there's a chance if my match knows his ancestry back further, we can link up or at least narrow locations for residency and origins.
I checked the McGinnis male who was a genetic distance of 3 from my brother. The comparison chart showed
| Generations | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 4 | 24.70% |
| 8 | 70.14% |
| 12 | 91.91% |
| 16 | 98.24% |
Those are pretty good numbers too.
My next step was to write to both these men. I was pretty excited but the first one bounced back with a rejected email address. That's really aggravating and disappointing when people take the DNA tests, sign up to share their information and then don't keep their emails updated. So I have no way of contacting the man who was a genetic distance of 3 from my brother with the 67 marker DNA test
I'm waiting eagerly to hear from the other connection. Fingers crossed that he knows something we don't!
3 comments:
that is very cool indeed! I have been involved in several discussions with groups about doing DNA to try and make those connections that one may not ever be able to make, and there are a lot of people out there afraid that their DNA will be stored and used in some nefarious way. I personally want to submit to ongoing project research groups so that I have a better chance at finding a match (ie: my fathers danish roots) - keep us updated! one thing that people have said is that once you find that match, the people tend to not respond :( which kind of defeats the purpose of trying to go back further
Lorine,
I'm excited for you - but how frustrating.
The lesson for people submitting details is to leaave a email address like a gmail or yahoo one that is not tied to one ISP.
You are so lucky to have a brother who could be tested.
I look forward to hearing about your further discoveries.
Hi Loraine,
I'm a big believer in the DNA testing, especially when you have a common surname as I do -- Wilson. I enjoy reading your posts about the status of your tests and contacting individuals. I wonder if I could ask you advice on a similar matter. Through obituaries of people who I suspect are related, I have found people who share my last name and I would like to contact them to see if they would have their DNA tested (I would of course pay for it). Do you have any advice for how to contact them (phone, letter, etc.) and what to say so that you don't scare them thinking you're trying to steal their identity?
Thanks,
Rick Wilson
New York, NY.
rwilson7@aol.com
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