Is it Richard III's Body? Canadian's DNA May Be the Key

Researchers at the University of Leicester are currently analyzing bones discovered during a recent archaeological dig to determine if they are the remains of King Richard III, a 15th-century ruler of England.

Archaeologists had long sought the monarch's grave, which had been the subject of speculation for centuries. The recent discovery of a skeleton showing signs of Richard's famed spinal curvature and bearing signs of fatal battle wounds, however, isn't enough to solve the mystery.

A Canadian family who can name the king as one of their direct ancestors is providing the DNA evidence that will conclusively prove whether the remains belong to the late monarch.
 
Jeff Ibsen said his family contains a direct genetic link to the king with Ibsen's mother being a descendant of King Richard's sister.

When British historians established the ancestral connection nearly a decade ago, Ibsen said the family was warned that they may be pressed into service if the king's burying place was ever discovered.

Mitochondrial DNA is passed through the female line, and all the sons and daughters of the mother inherit her mitochondrial DNA.

 

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Canadians+confirming+whether+newfound+corpse+Richard/7231619/story.html#ixzz26M2lJWIi

My Y-DNA & mtDNA Surnames & Haplogroups

I've had my Mitochondrial DNA tested (mtDNA) and my brother's Y-DNA tested at Family Tree DNA . Here is a summary and our ancestor surnames in each category. I am only listing the surnames that belong in the direct lineage tested.

Perhaps someone will spot a connection.

My Paternal Lineage: Surname McGINNIS. Y-DNA Haplogroup is  I1b2a. Apparently my brother has a rare mutation called M284. 

McGINNIS (DOWNEY spouse) - Co. Down Ireland to Ontario Canada 1847
McGINNIS (KING spouse) - Wellington Co. Ontario Canada
McGINNIS (PEER spouse)  - Wellington Co. Ontario Canada

My Maternal Lineage: mtDNA Haplogroup is J

This follows the female lineage only from me, my mother, her mother, her mother's mother and so on.


ANSELL- England (married in Kent England 1792)
ELVERY - Kent, England
ELVERY- Kent England
STEAD- Kent England
SIMPSON - Kent England

Do you match any of these surnames and locations? I am going to start including this list in any emails I send to connections from Family Tree DNA . So far I've not heard back from anyone regarding my mtDNA and several email addresses bounce. I'm not sure why anyone would register with a DNA site, have their DNA tested and then not keep their contact information up to date. But they do.

mtDNA Test Results Arrived!

Written by Lorine McGinnis Schulze of http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com (see FN1)

Readers may recall that on May 10 this year I mailed in my mtDNA Test Kit which I ordered from Family Tree DNA . Well, last week an email arrived saying my test results were posted!

I was pretty excited and immediately went to the Family Tree DNA website to read the results. I have to confess that I'm confused. I'm not sure what I've learned that will help me in discovering my maternal origins.

It seems my Haplogroup is J and I have 5 mutations from Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS). But what does it all mean? I've got a lot of reading to do! One thing I spotted during a quick browse of various articles was reference to Haplogroup J being found more frequently in centenarians than in younger individuals. (Source: http://www.fasebj.org/content/13/12/1532.full) The women on my mom's side all live to be in their 90s so that's kind of interesting.

An intriguing but still puzzling result is my Recent Ancestral Origins section. Here FamilyTreeDNA displays a chart showing the countries of origin reported by the people I match. This intrigued me because my maternal lineage as far back as I know it (Mary Ansell born Kent 1771), is based solidly in England.

But my chart results show I match 80 people from England, 54 from Germany, 22 from Ireland, 13 from France, 11 from Sweden and several other countries where my matches are under 10. I'm going to have to do some reading to understand what these numbers mean because there are also percentages given showing what % of the total population tested within each country of origin match my test results.

England is low - yes it says I match 80 people who gave England as the country of origin of their most distant female ancestor. But it then shows that I only match 1.2% of the population tested. That seems low to me, especially since I also match at 1.2% the total who gave Austria, 1.2 % who said Denmark and 1% who gave Switzerland as their most distant country of origin. More research on my part is definitely required for me to understand these numbers.

I also gave in to temptation and upgraded from mtHVR1 to Mega. The sale price at Family Tree DNA was too good for me to resist!

An extra step you can take with your DNA test results is to submit them to mitosearch then you check for matches in their database. I did that and sent off emails to the people who most closely matched my 5 mutations. We'll see what develops from that!

It also seems to me that I need to join some DNA projects so I'm off to hunt for any that I think apply.


FN1: I've added my name and blog URL to the header of this post because two other blogs are copying  my DNA articles without permission and posting them on their blogs. No link back to my blog is given and my name is omitted as the author. Since I hope to make connections with other genealogists through my blog, I have added my name and blog URL. This may help ensure that some notation is kept that indicates to readers of these unscrupulous blogs that the articles are not written by the blog owners in question. These same blog owners have disabled their comment feature and removed email addresses so I cannot contact them.

The Massey DNA Connection

The Massey Cousins Meet

A few years ago my husband took a Y-DNA test for his Massey surname. There were no matches as the database of others who submitted was very small.

Hubs had previously connected with a woman who was also a Massey descendant. Annie knew her Massey ancestors back to the mid 1700s and my husband was convinced that his Massey line linked to hers.

But hubs only knew his Massey line back to William Massey born ca 1818 in Wicklow Ireland. He could not narrow his search to a more specific location nor could he find William's parents.

Hubs' suggested that his Massey connection have her father's Y-DNA tested.  She agreed and her father took the test.

Click to order your DNA test

Ancestry.com has a good DNA testing database and so does Family Tree DNA Hubs used Family Tree DNA this time.

Annie's father who lives in England,  ordered the Y-DNA test.

The results arrived. Annie's father matched hubs on 25 markers - an exact match. The comparison chart showed that hubs and Jim (Annie's father) had a 94% chance of sharing a common ancestor within the last 12 generations.

This led to many excited email exchanges between hubs and Annie. Circumstantial evidence and clues had led hubs to believe his Massey origins were near Delgany and Templecarrig area of northern Wicklow in Ireland. Annie knew that her grandfather and his ancestors were born in Delgany and environs.

Hubs knew that the Delgany Parish records existed but could only be viewed at an archives in Ireland. He was already in contact with another woman who has ancestors in Delgany and she agreed to travel from her home in England to the archives to copy the parish records for him. Lo and behold there was a baptism of an unnamed son born in Delgany in 1818 to an Edward and Catherine Massey from Templecarrig. 

William Massey named his first born son Edward and his second born daughter Catherine so if he followed naming conventions this could be the right family (first born son after paternal grandfather, second born daughter after paternal grandmother) There were other clues in the Delgany Parish records and those combined with Annie's father's Y-DNA match further cemented the conclusions that hubs' Massey line originated near Delgany, Wicklow Ireland.

This month, we had the pleasure of meeting Annie and her parents! Her mom and dad were in Canada for a visit and arranged to meet in a city near us. We spent a delightful afternoon with hubs' new-found cousins and exchanged many genealogy stories. What a wonderful time we had.

Hubs upgraded to the 67 Marker Y-DNA test recently so fingers crossed that more exciting adventures and finds arise from this test.

Update on 67 Marker Y-DNA Test

Yesterday I received an email from Family Tree DNA stating that a Y-DNA67 match was found between my brother's DNA test and another person in the Family Tree DNA database.

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!

Episode 2 Who Do You Think You Are: Emmitt Smith

Episode 2 of Who Do You Think You Are aired last night. Emmitt Smith was able to embark on a journey to trace his African American ancestry back to his slave roots. On his journey (both physical and emotional) he found his white ancestry and uncovered dark parts of the past. You could see how it disturbed him but made him think too - think about who he was and where he came from, the ancestors who had struggled and suffered to help make him who he is today.

During the show Emmitt made personal connections with people, used courthouses, online census records on Ancestry.com and other genealogy record sources to hunt for his ancestors.

I have nothing negative to say about Episode 2. I loved it. It was very well done and I especially liked Emmitt's comment that in order to know who you are, you need to know where you come from. He was absolutely right!

During the course of the show we learned that Emmitt took a Ancestry.com DNA test to find out more about his ethnic origins and facts were uncovered which pointed to a specific area of Africa as his homeland. If you have not yet taken a DNA test I urge you to do so. I had my brother take one last year to learn more about our McGinnis roots and the results were very exciting and worthwhile.

Hawass To Announce King Tut DNA Results : Discovery News

Hawass To Announce King Tut DNA Results : Discovery News

Posted using ShareThis

This is a fascinating example of the use of DNA in Genealogy research. If you haven't had your DNA done yet you may want to try it.

Fast track your genealogy with a DNA test. Contact others sharing your ancestry, learn where your ancestors originated.


I had my brother submit his DNA for testing so that we could search our male McGinnis ancestry. It was very helpful and quite fascinating!

DNA Genealogy - First Test Results on 12 Markers!

One month after my Y-DNA test kit was received by Family Tree DNA, they sent an email titled "New DNA Test Results Posted" It explained that "New Y-DNA1-12 results have been posted for your Family Tree DNA Kit" That was pretty exciting! The email explained that if I had ordered a Y-DNA 25 or 37 marker test, those results would be posted within a few weeks, as testing was done in sections.

The email went on to encourage me to join a Surname Project "Since genealogy is all about matching to people with your surname..."

Mention was made of joining a subsequent Geographic Project, and I was advised to add my DNA test results at Ysearch.org, the FTDNA sponsored public database.

Off I went. Adding my test results to YSearch was easy. Understanding my test results and matches was not. A second email had arrived the same day. Here is what it said

An exact 12 marker match has been found between you and another person in the Family Tree DNA database.

You and the other person match in all 12 loci. If you share the same surname or variant, this means that there is a 99% likelihood that you share a common ancestor in a genealogical time frame. If you match another person without the same surname or variant, you still probably share a common ancestor, but this ancestor most likely lived in the time before surnames were adopted.

I was so excited that I made what I assume is a beginner's mistake. I began writing to every single "match" shown on my test results page. This was a bit foolish on my part, and the answers I received from others demonstrated that they were as confused as I was!

I didn't wait for all my markers to be tested and I didn't stop to think that I needed to match with others carrying the same surname! (McGINNIS). I also manually entered all my markers from Family Tree DNA to Ancestry.com DNA pages
. That was mind-boggling and took quite awhile although I am glad I did it, as I found additional connections that way.

In my excitement I also rushed to pay an extra $15.00 to join the Genographic Project on the National Geographic website. In hindsight I wish I had waited until all my markers were tested and my complete DNA results in.

Because I did not understand what my matches on the 12-Marker results meant, I started reading every article and website I could find which explained DNA testing. By the end of the day I was more confused than ever. My husband was also reading up on DNA testing and seemed to grasp the concepts much quicker.

I did enjoy the National Geographic explanations and their charts and maps for my brother's Y DNA results. The website provided me with a Ancestral Journay map, a Genetic history of my lineage from Africa to the present and a Genetic Certificate. These were all printable and customizable with your own name. My brother's Y chromosomes were identified as haplogroup I1c (that sent me off to google that term to find out more!). My genetic history went on to say that members of haplogroup I1c carry these Y chromosome markers M168 > M89 > M170 > M223, and that this haplogroup is most common in Germany. There was also a nice little explanation of markers and haplogroup.

But what really confused me was that many websites noted that "I1c is now considered I2b-M223" What the heck did that mean?? I am still not sure I understand, so if anyone reading this story can explain it to me, please do.

The Geneographic Project had a very nice, easy-to-read Genetics Glossary. My husband and I read a great many articles and explanations. If you decided to test your DNA you must be prepared to read, and in many cases, struggle through an overwhelming amount of technical and scientific information.

Ancestry.com DNA pages, where I manually entered my brother's DNA test results, were very interesting. They referred to haplogroup I as "The Stonemasons" further adding that "The I1c haplogroup is found at its highest frequency in the German and Dutch populations as well as in Great Britain" Ancestry also provided an easy-to-use interface for me to see my test results compared with others.

I liked that they showed the matches as a chart with coloured squares. At the bottom of the chart was a legend explaining that the orange squares meant a match for a common ancestor within 1-6 generations, lighter orange meant 7-15 generations and so on. My top matches were with people who did not share my surname of McGinnis so that confused the heck out of me! But I was intrigued to see that one of my "matches within 7-15 generations" was for the Ontario McGinn family, who have long believed that their surname was originally McGinnis. Further explanations predicted that our common ancestor was within the last 200 years. Okay I'd have liked something closer but I'd start with anything at this point!

....to be continued

DNA Genealogy - Choosing DNA Groups to Join

When my husband and I sent for our Y-DNA Kits from Ancestry.com and Family Tree DNA, we knew we had to choose DNA groups to join.

My Y-DNA kit was to be taken by my brother so that we could find out about our McGinnis male ancestors, while my husband's was for himself for his Massey male lineage.

So what groups should we join? The obvious choice seemed to be a surname group - McGinnis for me, Massey for my husband. But the Surname Project for McGinnis on FamilyTreeDNA only had 22 members and the description stated it was for "McGinnis from No. Ireland (Ulster)who settled in America. This project was started by testing two men whose ancestors came from Ulster to Eastern Pennsylvania before the Revolutionary War .."

That didn't fit what I wanted. My McGinnis ancestors were Catholics from Northern Ireland but they settled in Canada during the Famine Years (1840s). So after some thought and further research into what was available, I opted to join Ireland Heritage My McGinnis surname was listed, and the group numbers were high. I felt there was more chance of a match with others who were related in this group.

My husband wanted to join the Massey Surname Group on Ancestry.com but it only had one member. His decision was to join the Ireland Scotland Wales England British Isles Group which had 121 members.

We honestly had no idea how to make our choices, DNA testing was new to us both so we just decided that a criteria would be the numbers in the group, the geographic location the group was focused on had to match our known ancestral origins, and if possible, our surnames would be included in the group list.

So - our Groups were chosen, we had sent in our DNA sample kits and now we had time to do more reading in our struggle to understand what we would see when our results arrived.

DNA Genealogy - The Kit Arrives

The big day had finally come. The Family Tree DNA kit arrived first (probably because I ordered it a few weeks before my husband ordered his Ancestry.com DNA kit). I was ready to have my brother come up and take the test so we could have our McGinnis Y DNA tested.

The kit was very user-friendly, instructions for use were easy to understand but we hadn't realized that my brother would need to collect 3 samples. As well, the instruction sheet (DNA COLLECTION METHOD) stated that scraping of the cheek for sample cells had to be done before eating or an hour AFTER eating and drinking. Each sample had to be collected 3 to 4 hours apart.

That was tricky logistically as my brother had only come up for the day and somehow we had to get those 3 samples taken before he had to head back home (an hour and a half drive). For anyone who has the collection kit in their own home it is not a big deal.

Family Tree DNA kindly provided 4 simple drawings showing opening the kit, scraping one's cheek, inserting the sample into the collection tube and sealing it. The instruction leaflet was 8 easy to understand steps.

My brother vigourously began scraping the inside of his cheeks for the required 60 seconds. Since the leaflet stated "A great scape gives us a great sample" he scraped quite forcefully to the point where his cheeks bled! That was overkill.

The next scrape was 3 hours later and unfortunately I forgot to start a timer for 60 seconds. So my poor brother scraped for almost 3 minutes (it's amazing how one's sense of the passage of time can be so wrong!) before we realized it was well past the 60 seconds required.

After all our little goofs, we were set. We had all the tubes inside the provided plastic bag with our kit number. We sealed it, my brother signed the release form and we put everything in the self-addressed envelope to be mailed.

Then we sat back and waited. And waited. And waited. It seemed to take forever but of course DNA testing, like good cooking, requires time and patience! It can't be rushed. Approximately 5 to 6 weeks later we got our first email from FamilyTreeDNA saying our first set of markers was complete. That was pretty exciting!

I had, after a lot of reading, decided on what DNA project(s) to sign up for on FamilyTreeDNA so I'll talk about that process in my next post.

DNA Genealogy - Friend or Foe?

Last year I decided to jump on the DNA Genealogy bandwagon. I wanted to find my McGinnis Family origins in Ireland and my years of slogging through microfilm and contacting others had not turned up any new clues. Even the county they originated from eluded me!

So I started reading about DNA, DNA testing for genealogy purposes, which companies were selling DNA kits, which DNA studies were considered the best and so on. It was extremely confusing! I didn't understand enough to know if I was comparing apples to oranges.

What was the difference between the number of markers being compared? Did it matter which test I purchased or what company I bought it from? The only thing I was sure of was that I wanted a Y-Chromosone test and that one of my male relatives (with the McGinnis surname) would have to take it on my behalf.

CHOOSING A MATERNAL versus PATERNAL DNA TEST

Paternal DNA tests give you information from your father's side of the family. It can provide close family connections and likely ancestors. Only males can have a Paternal DNA test done, and if you are searching a specific surname, the male being tested must carry that surname. Basically this is the DNA passed down from father to son through the generations

Maternal DNA tests follow your mother's line, back on through female ancestors only. So a Maternal DNA test will follow the path from your mother to her mother, to her mother's mother, and so on.

WHICH COMPANY TO CHOOSE?

After a great deal of research, I narrowed my choices to Ancestry.com DNA testing and Family Tree DNA.

HOW MANY MARKERS?

Ancestry.com DNA testing offers a 33 marker Paternal Lineage Test (Y-Chromosome 33) or a 46 marker Advanced Paternal Lineage Test (Y-Chromosome 46).

FamilyTreeDNA has a 12 marker, 37 marker and 67 marker test kit.

FamilyTreeDNA was much more money than Ancestry.com DNA testing

Both companies DNA tests included analysis of the markers of a man's Y-DNA as well as predictions of the haplogroup of the paternal lineage. Your haplogroup identifies the general area where your ancestors migrated tens of thousands of years ago.

MY CHOICE

Eventually I decided to go with the FamilyTreeDNA 37 marker Paternal Y-Chromosome - DNA Test which is $250.00. My husband ordered the Ancestry.com DNA testing 33 Marker Paternal Lineage Test (Y-Chromosome 33) which is $79.00. We wanted to try them both to see what the differences were between them.

Then came the wait for the kits to arrive. In my case I also had to work out the logistics of either getting the kit to my brother or getting my brother to drive to my house after the kit arrived.

At least the wait gave me more time to do more reading on the subject! I'll talk about taking the test samples and also the results of the DNA tests in a later post.

Jumping on the DNA Genealogy Research Bandwagon!

After following the growing enthusiasm for DNA Genealogy Research for a year now, I decided to take the plunge. Because I wanted to follow my father's McGinnis lineage, I needed a male McGinnis relative for a Y-DNA test.


Males inherit a Y-chromosome from a father, who in turn received his Y chromosome from his father and so on. Males also inherit an X chromosone, but females only inherit the X chromosone and thus can only test their maternal DNA, called mtDNA. This follows their mother, her mother, her mother and so on back through her maternal ancestors.

My brother was pursuaded to swab his cheeks for a DNA sample, and I ordered my 33 marker Paternal Lineage DNA test kit.

More about the test results to come!