WikiTree Announces Source-a-Thon

Genealogy community donates $3,000+ in prizes to support sourced genealogy

September 7, 2016: WikiTree will be kicking off Family History Month with a three-day sourcing marathon, October 1-3, 2016. Individuals and organizations from around the genealogy community are coming together to support this event by donating door prizes for participants. Over $3,000 in genealogy prizes have already been pledged.

Citing sources is required on WikiTree’s collaborative, free family tree, but inexperienced genealogists don't always record them. As Mags Gaulden, a WikiTree leader, states, “In a perfect world all genealogies would be well-sourced, but unfortunately this isn’t the case. We have all run across online genealogies that are just repeats, copy-and-pastes, of what someone else had thrown up based on what aunt Mabel told them back in the 70s.”

Second-hand family information deserves to be preserved and shared, but it needs to be verified. Generous genealogists in the WikiTree community help each other every day by confirming the information in unsourced profiles and adding citations. 200,000 profiles on WikiTree's 12-million person tree are currently identified as needing independent verification. The Source-a-Thon is a major community event to slash that number, draw attention to the importance of sources, and to have fun doing it.

Live chats will be hosted every few hours during the three-day event for participants to cheer each other on. During the chats, random winners will be drawn for valuable prizes including full memberships at MyHeritage, FindMyPast, Ancestry, Fold3, Newspapers.com, and GenealogyBank, DNA tests from Family Tree DNA, conference passes for RootsTech, software, books, gift certificates, t-shirts, research assistance, and much more.

To be eligible for door prizes, participants must register in advance and get a “race number.” See http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Source-a-Thon

Prize donations will be accepted until race day. Contact eowyn@wikitree.com if you would like to support the Source-a-Thon with a donation for participants.

WikiTree: The Free Family Tree has been growing since 2008. Community members privately collaborate with close family members on modern family history and publicly collaborate with other genealogists on deep ancestry. Since all the private and public profiles are connected on the same system this process is helping to grow a single, worldwide family tree that will eventually connect us all and thereby make it free and easy for anyone to discover their roots. See http://www.WikiTree.com.

Help Blaine Bettinger with a DNA Study

Fellow genealogist and DNA expert Blaine Bettinger needs our help. Blaine is gathering data about the ranges of DNA shared by known relatives. While it is possible to predict approximately how much DNA you share with a close relative, the actual numbers vary greatly.

All Blaine needs is a known relationship (for example brother/sister; father/child; cousins) and two numbers from your DNA results.  Blaine explains where to find these numbers if you have a kit from FamilyTreeDNA at http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2015/03/04/collecting-sharing-information-for-known-relationships/ 

The submission form is also found there. If you are using 23andMe, you will probably need
 this explanation on how to get those two numbers. See  http://blog.kittycooper.com/2015/03/lets-all-help-collect-dna-statistics/

Please note that using Kitty's method above you will still need the largest number in the list as that is your second number to submit. 

If you submit before April 1, 2015 you will be eligible for a draw to win a Family Finder DNA kit. 

Olive Tree Genealogy submitted 3 sets of relationships for Blaine's study and have a few more to do. Let's all help Blaine with this study! 

WikiTree Announces: Finding Relationships with DNA Matches

6 November 2014: Today WikiTree.com is announcing two important features for genealogists who have taken DNA tests. These features make WikiTree’s Relationship Finder a uniquely powerful tool for genealogists who have taken 23andMe, Ancestry DNA, and FTDNA Family Finder tests.

“One of the biggest challenges facing genetic genealogists,” according to Dr. Blaine Bettinger, author of the long-running blog The GeneticGenealogist, “is finding the elusive common ancestor. Finding genetic matches is easy, but finding the common ancestor from whom we inherited a segment DNA is very hard. WikiTree’s new Relationship Finder is a great tool for identifying the ancestors that two or more people share in common.”

All Common Ancestors

Genealogical relationship finders are generally designed to find the first common ancestor between two people. Genetic genealogists need to know about all the common ancestors they share with a match. Everyone’s family tree intertwines in multiple ways. The first shared ancestor may not be the reason for a shared segment of autosomal DNA.

WikiTree’s Relationship Finder now enables you to easily browse all your common ancestors.

Filtering for Multiple Matches

When a genealogist shares a segment of autosomal DNA with two or more other people who also match each other on that segment, it’s a big clue in discovering which ancestor it came from

WikiTree’s Relationship Finder now enables you to filter the common ancestors shared by two people to only display common ancestors who are also shared by a third, fourth, or fifth person.

The Universal Family Tree

These Relationship Finder features are possible because WikiTree members are collaborating on a single tree for the entire human family.

“The genetic genealogy community absolutely must have a universal family tree,” says leading genetic genealogist Dr. Tim Janzen. “With smaller unlinked trees it's frequently impossible to see all of the true genealogical connections with the people who share autosomal DNA with us. We are finally getting to the point where this vision is becoming a reality at WikiTree.”

Understanding Your DNA Results: Comparison Charts

DNA is the latest genealogy tool and I've had my DNA tested with 3 different companies now (with one more pending). I used Family Tree DNA, 23andMe.com and DNA-me for testing. Since I'm a woman I can only test my Mt-DNA or my Autosomal. I have to leave the Y-DNA tests to a male relative. 

DNA results are not easy to understand and I don't pretend to understand them very well at all. So what I have done is make a spreadsheet of the summary of my DNA results - the Haplogroup I am in, my genetic origins and my percentages of various ethnicities. 

Each test is likely to show different results depending on the number of markers that were tested and the algorithms used to interpret the test. So I expected to find some differences but that is what makes testing with more than one company worthwhile. In fact it's important if you want to understand your DNA in more depth.

Definitions

You also have to do a lot of reading (aka research) to increase your knowledge of DNA testing, the various tests and what the results mean. What I have gleaned (admititily just the tip of the DNA iceberg!) Is this: 

MtDNA - Maternal DNA is passed from mother to child (of either sex) and does not change over the generations. A female testing her MtDNA is testing her female lineage from herself to her mother to her mother's mother and so on. This is the X chromosome

Y-DNA - Paternal DNA tests the Y chromosome which is passed, unchanged, from father to son. Thus if you wish to test for your surname and you are a woman, you must find a male relative with that surname to take the test. Women do not have the Y chromosome (We are XX while men are XY)

Autosomal: Autosomal DNA recombines with every generation and that means the number of markers you share with a common ancestor is halved with each generation. 

Haplogroups: The Haplogroup your DNA indicates you belong to will show your deep roots, your heritage going back thousands of years.  

This is very basic but it's a start to understanding. There's no sense paying money for DNA tests and then just letting the results sit there because you don't understand what was tested or what the results mean.




My DNA Test Results

Here is the chart I've finished which shows the comparison of the 3 companies whose results are in. My 4th company is still running my DNA samples so I don't have that yet.

Family Tree DNA is the one marked as FT DNA. They do not narrow down my ethnic origins as much as 23andMe.com but you can see that they both agree the majority of my ethnic origins are European of some sort. 

DNA-me is the surprise with their finding of a smidgeon of African origin. And their Haplogroup assignment of JT also throws me a bit. I have more research to do to try to understand how that happened. I am pretty sure they didn't test very many markers and the more markers tested, the  more accurate the results.

You can also see that 23andMe.com has both Standard (75% accuracy) and Speculative (50% accuracy) results so I included them. The East Asian was interesting especially when I compared my test results to my brother's. Since his tests include the full Y chromosome testing there are bound to be some differences. And I love that 23andMe.com tests for your percentage of Neanderthal ancestry in your DNA! 

My Brother's DNA Results

For example even though we know we have Native American heritage on my father's side, it does not show on my results with any company. But it does show on my brother's results through 23andMe (but not Family Tree DNA) and on tests that Professor McDonald ran on my brother's Family Tree DNA raw data. Again this points out the importance of testing with more than one company. 

You can see that testing my brother's DNA confirmed our Native American heritage and the Asian heritage shown for me in both 23andMe and DNA-me testing. The big surprise was the Ashkenazi in his speculative results. It's important though to note that these results are only considered to have 50% accuracy. They may be correct but they are equally likely to be wrong. 

DNA Matches

I've also been studying and reading about how to compare raw data with matches found for me in each of the DNA company's databases. I'm getting better and can now narrow down the ethnicity we share (based on what chromosomes we match on). This obviously helps with figuring out who our common ancestor might be, but I have much more to learn. When I have that a bit more figured out I will post here. 

Meantime if there are any readers who understand what I've posted today better than I do (or better than my explanation) please do leave a comment so we can all learn from each other's knowledge.  

It's Him!

Skull of King Richard III CREDIT: University of Leicester

University of Leicester researchers say tests on a  skeleton unearthed last year under a parking lot in Leicester prove beyond reasonable doubt that it is King Richard III who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and whose remains have been missing for centuries.

And it was Canadian DNA that provided the proof. Geneticist Turi King said Michael Ibsen, a Canadian carpenter, share with the skeleton a rare strain of mitochondrial DNA.

Ibsen and a cousin who did not wish to be named, both provided DNA samples for comparison. They are proven descendants of King Richard's older sister Anne.

It's quite fascinating to think that DNA was a major factor in solving this mystery. Wouldn't it be great if the DNA companies could get the DNA results to compare the DNA of those of us who have been tested? Maybe there are more of us related to King Richard or his sister.

I've had my DNA tested through Family Tree DNA and have a sample ready to mail off to 23andMe. Have you had your DNA tested yet? You're not guaranteed to find a royal connection or even a distant cousin who can provide you with your family tree back dozens of generations but it's very interesting! 

Read more:  

 http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/ University of Leicester

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/canadian-dna-proves-skeleton-found-in-u-k-parking-lot-is-king-richard-iii-1.1141753#ixzz2JwEosmzT CTV News

http://www.livescience.com/26814-skull-suspected-king-richard-iii.html Live Science

23andMe DNA Test Kits Arrive

My 23andMe DNA kits arrived yesterday. I ordered three - one for my brother (for Y-DNA), one for me (for mtDNA) and one for my husband (for Y-DNA)

We've already had our DNA tested at Family Tree DNA but we wanted to try another company and see what kind of results we get. 23andMe focuses on genetic health issues and that's intriguing. But I'm also interested in their

Previously I have written about my brother's Y-DNA results from Family Tree DNA
at Family Finder Test Results in for my Brother's DNA! His Predicted Haplogroup is I-M223.  Quoting from the website, this Haplogroup
"...has its roots in northern France. Today it is found most frequently within Viking / Scandinavian populations in Northwest Europe and extends at low frequencies into Central and Eastern Europe."
 
It's been really interesting reading up on this and finding out more about our McGinnis paternal line ethnic origins, especially since my brother's Y-DNA showed a mutation that scientists know exactly where and when it occurred! Turns out it was around the time Hadrian's Wall was built between England and Scotland and his gene mutation is known to have come from a group of Basque at this time.

I also had an exciting update on our results for Native American heritage, which you can read about at Update on DNA Testing for Native American Heritage

My mtDNA results from FT arrived and I wrote about those at mtDNA Test Results Arrived!
My Haplogroup is J2a1a1a2  but I still don't completely understand my full results.

I'm hoping 23andMe will provide more interesting details. 

Follow along with me as I get ready to provide the test sample and mail it back to 23andMe

Update on DNA Testing for Native American Heritage

Recently I talked about DNA and Native American Heritage. I'm a recognized Metis in Canada. I have my official Metis card. But I hoped for confirmation of my Native American heritage through DNA testing.


Through the kindness of a stranger on an online forum I learned that a Professor with the University of Chicago does in-depth DNA analysis of individuals' raw data to determine your ethnic origins.


Well I'm very pleased to say that the Professor's computerized analysis of my brother's Family Tree DNA raw data gave the answer I'd hoped for - he has .7% Native American heritage.

Along with his analysis, Professor MacDonald sent a computer generated map, a bar graph, a scatter graph and a 5 page explanation of how to read and understand the generated pages. 

I also ordered an upgrade to my brother's Y-DNA test on Family Tree DNA  for D9S919 which was suggested by Roberta Estes in her blog post Proving Native American Ancestry Using DNA .

Since I was advised to consult the FamilyTree DNA Help desk for answers, I wrote to them on January 14th.  My question was simple:

I've had  my brother's Y-DNA tested (also Family Finder for him) at Family Tree DNA.  What test or upgrade do I order to test for Native American heritage?

Yesterday I received a detailed response which began

"Any of our tests can potentially reveal Native American ancestry. The test results will show, depending on the type of test you choose, whether or not the line you are testing is Native American in origin or if you have a detectable percentage of Native American ancestry (>3%)."

The Help Desk went to provide a detailed explanation of the test for Y-DNA, MtDNA and Family Finder

Interesting enough, Family Tree DNA help desk did not suggest I order the test for Marker D9S919 which is available on their site.  I'm not sure why this wasn't suggested, but I'm not an expert and can only go by what Roberta and other online websites indicate. 

For instance, the International Society of Genetic Genealogy states:

"D9S919 is a STR marker located on chromosome 9. It was previously known as D9S1120 and under this name it was reported that an allele value of 9 was only found in the Americas and far eastern Asia. The presence of an allele value of 9 is therefore a strong indication of native american ancestry somewhere within a person's pedigree. This marker is available from Family Tree DNA."

Indeed it is. For a small fee of $15.00 I was able to order the test of this specific marker on the  Family Tree DNA website.

The Family Tree DNA help desk  explained that only the Family Finder test will give a breakdown of ethnic percentages found within the individual's overall genetic makeup, including Native American. Using the Family Finder test, it does not matter which line the Native American ancestry came from or whether or not that ancestor was male or female.

I had previously ordered Family Finder but it did not show our Native heritage - which was no surprise because Family Tree DNA pointed out that you must have 3% or more for the test to show your Native American heritage.

Help Desk provided a welcome explanation of the three tests that could determine Native American heritage but I am curious why they didn't advise me to order the $15.00 test for the D9S919 marker. My conclusion is that the onus is on the individual to explore and read everything he or she can find that might give the answers being sought. Or in other words, don't give up even if you hit a dead end! Keep looking for alternate answers. It's just like doing genealogy research.

DNA Tests Available Through Archives.com for the First Time

Archives.com Partners with Family Tree DNA to Offer DNA Testing

DNA Tests Available Through Archives.com for the First Time Providing Access to the World’s Largest Genetic Genealogy Database

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Nov. 22, 2011 -- Archives.com, a website devoted to making family history simple and affordable, announces another exciting way users can explore their family heritage. Archives.com has partnered with Family Tree DNA , the world leader in genetic genealogy, to enable users to purchase DNA tests through its website for the first time. These are being offered at up to 30 percent off the regular price for a limited time. Archives recognizes that DNA testing plays a critical role in family history research, and is glad to offer a simple, convenient way for  users to get started with genetic genealogy.

The growing field of genetic genealogy utilizes science to tell us more about our ancestors, and maternal and paternal lineages. Family Tree DNA can help researchers to verify known connections or uncover previously unknown ethnic ties with the world’s largest genetic genealogy database of over 350 thousand records, several times larger than the nearest competitor. Archives.com now offers three types of DNA tests: the Y-chromosome DNA test to trace paternal lines and surname matches; the mitochondrial DNA test to determine maternal line matches; and the Family Finder test kit, which tests autosomal DNA to reveal ethnic percentages and trace genes across maternal and paternal lines.

Archives Director of Product Joe Godfrey commented, “Genetic genealogy is an extremely exciting field. We’ve been interested in integrating DNA testing into Archives.com for some time, and I’m glad we are working with Family Tree DNA, the world’s largest genetic genealogy database, to make this happen. This initial integration will give users the ability to find historical records and start exploring their genetic genealogy all in one place. In the future, we intend to provide users with more robust tools and resources that will enhance the experience even further.”

Family Tree DNA VP of Operations Max Blankfeld noted, “We are thrilled to partner with Archives.com, a website we know will play an important role in the future of online family history research. Archives.com provides a genuine alternative to the more expensive websites out there. Easy access to DNA testing will allow Archives.com users to explore this important facet of genealogy research.”

Archives looks forward to collaborating closely with Family Tree DNA , the community, and project managers, to provide the best integrated experience between the two websites possible. Also Archives encourages people to take advantage of the limited time discount on DNA tests found on Archives.com.

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.

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!

Family Finder Test Results in for my Brother's DNA!

On April 15 I ordered an upgrade from Family Tree DNA called Family Finder for my brother's original Y-DNA test.  It wasn't clear to me exactly what I would learn from this test but I thought it sounded like fun and would probably provide us with new information on our family origins.

On May 18th I received an email saying my Family Finder Results were in. I was really excited and rushed to the website to read what they'd found. Confession time - I found it very confusing! But reading through their help with Family Finder Results page was very helpful. 

There I found answers to 61 questions about Family Finder including the very obvious questions

 What can it show me? What do my results mean?

 A brief but helpful explanation of Family Finder Testing was given

"The Family Finder test traces all of your ancestral lines. It uses your autosomal DNA to identify confidently relationships for five generations."

LOOKING FOR IDENTICAL DNA SEGMENTS

My understanding is that the test looks for identical blocks (segments) of DNA in other people in the database.  If you share identical segments with someone else, the odds are good that somewhere you have a common ancestor. So the test results include the names of those in the database who share identical segments - and your suggested relationship to them is calculated and given.

Unlike Y-DNA or MtDNA, the autsomal DNA testing will detect matches regardless of gender. Y-DNA  only tests males while MtDNA only tests females.  

As soon as I logged in to my brother's account, I saw the following choices under Family Finder

• Matches
• Chromosome Browser
• Known Relationships
• Population Finder
• Download Raw Data

MATCHES IN FAMILY FINDER RESULTS 

Checking my brother's results under MATCHES I found several people listed as 4th and 5th cousins, but no closer relationship. There were options to filter the results for those with a common surname, those who had close relationships and other choices.

What confused me (and still confuses me!) is that when I filtered on common surnames, I got a list of names and beside each, their list of ancestral surnames and the common surnames in bold. But the confusion is that NONE of the bolded surnames are in fact surnames that I submitted as surnames in my brother's list of ancestral surnames. In fact we do not have these names in our lineage on either my mom or my dad's side. Only two of those listed did in fact have a common surname - Downey in Ireland and Burkholder.

Beside each name is a link to contact the person via email and I'm going to contact the two who do have a common surname, so I'll be very interested in what information they might have that might help us figure out our common ancestor. 

POPULATION FINDER IN FAMILY FINDER RESULTS 

Leaving MATCHES, I clicked on POPULATION FINDER and that got really interesting! The explanation given on the new page that loaded stated

The Population Finder program determines your biogeographical ancestry — the story of your personal genetic history — by comparing your autosomal DNA to that of our world DNA population database

The percentage of your genome that matches up to 4 of the 7 continental groups is shown.  The continental groups are based on genetic similarities and not exact geographic boundaries. I was stunned to read my brother's results: 94.33% Basque, Orcadian, Spanish and the remaining 5.67% was Sardinian

THE FUN BEGINS!

What the heck? We know my father's lineage back to the 1600s and it is predominantly Irish, German, and Dutch with a scattering of English, French and Norwegian. Mom's lineage is English back to the 1600s and we don't know of any other ancestry in her lines.

But I believe genetics and DNA are solid indicators of origins, so this news is really exciting and interesting. I knew from my brother's original Y-DNA test that he has a mutation that is apparently rare and can be traced back to the Basque region and a small group of Basque who were up in Northern England and Southern Scotland during the time Hadrian's Wall was built. Of course my genealogy research does not go back that far in time so it's not unexpected that what I know of our lineage from genealogy research does not tie in with what genetics shows us.

How I wish I could trace our ancestry back to those origins and have names of our ancestors who were from those regions! After reading the Population Finder results, I rushed off to research Basque, Orcadian and Sardinian.

ORCADIANS

I learned that Orcadians, who reside primarily in Orkney, which is just off the coast of Scotland, are the descendants of Iron Age Picts, Norwegian Vikings and Scots. Okay now I'm off to look up Picts. According to Wikipedia, The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland.

BASQUES

I'm starting to get a very cool picture of our early genetic ancestral movements.  Next I checked Basque and learned that the Basque primarily inhabit an area  known as the Basque Country. This is a region located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddling parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.

SARDINIANS

My last one to look up was Sardinian. My search found that Sardinians originated on the island of Sardiania (considered part of Italy) and that during the Neolithic (or New Stone Age) period, people from Italy, Spain and the Aegean area settled in Sardinia. While we can't know exact dates for our ancestry in these areas, we have to remember that this is genetic DNA we're looking at  - our early biogeographical ancestry.

WHAT NEXT?

I can hardly wait to do more research on this new find, and to finish looking at the rest of the Family Finder Results from Family Tree DNA

I'm really not sure at this point what else I can learn from the test results but I am going to have a lot of fun doing in-depth research on the countries, the people, the history and the culture of the groups given as my brother's genetic origins. I'm also eager to exchange emails with the 4th cousins that are listed as matches for his DNA.

The DNA Journey - Update on my MtDNA Test

On May 10th I mailed my completed Family Tree DNA kit. Yesterday I received an email saying the kit has been received. Now I wait. If I recall it took a month or more for my brother's Y-DNA test results.

I took the MtDNA test for my maternal lineage. I know my maternal ancestors back to England in the late 1700s so it will be quite interesting for me to learn more about the very early origins of my maternal DNA.

The MtDNA test traces from either a man or a woman back up the mother's lineage, following the mothers (maternal) one generation at a time. So for me it goes like this:

Me
My mom
My mom's mom (my maternal grandmother)
My maternal grandmother's mother
and so on

Let me demonstrate with names

Me
My mom
Ruth (my mother's mother Ruth Simpson)
Sarah #1 (Ruth's mother Sarah Stead)
Sarah #2 (Sarah #1's mother Sarah Elvery)
Hannah (Sarah #2's mother Hannah Elvery)
Mary (Hannah's mother, Mary Ansell born 1771)

That's as far as I know. Will my MtDNA results give me my ancestors' names? No. But it should give me a glimpse into the earliest geographical origins of this female line. It may link me to others who descend from the same lineage.

My MtDNA test will tell me what haplogroup I am in. A haplogroup is the major branch on either the maternal or paternal tree of humankind. Haplogroups are associated with early human migrations and are associated with a geographic region or regions.

I am honestly not sure what other information I will find from this test, but I'll take you on my journey as I discover more.

Taking My MtDNA Test - Step One

Two years ago I had my brother's Y-DNA tested. I chose Family Tree DNA as they have the largest database for comparison purposes. I haven't written about my experiences with Y-DNA testing (all good!) but I will in a future blog post. Briefly, the 37 marker test allowed us to connect with others and eventually find our McGinnis ancestors place of origin in Northern Ireland. Only men can take the Y-DNA test which follows the paternal line unbroken from son to father.

A few weeks ago I decided to do three things - upgrade my brother's Y-DNA to a 67 marker test, order the Family FInder Test for Y-DNA and test my own MtDNA.

Both men and women can take a MtDNA test which follows the maternal lineage. I ordered my MtDNA test from Family Tree DNA and it arrived a few days ago.

When your kit arrives it has a Collection Number (your own unique ID), a welcoming letter from the head of the company, a page of easy-to-follow instructions, a return envelope and a plastic baggie with 3 collection sample tubes, 3 collection brushes and a permission slip.

Signing the permission slip is important as that allows  Family Tree DNA to compare your sample with others in their database and inform you of matches.

 I was excited to begin and read the DNA Collection Method. Basically it said I was to collect 3 samples several hours apart, by scraping the inside of my cheek for 60 seconds each time.

The only problem for me was that you have to wait a certain number of hours between scrapings as well as a certain number of hours after eating. Since I'm a "grazer" (I eat small amounts frequently throughout the day) it was difficult for me to figure out when I could get the samples.

Then it dawned on me that all I had to do was take Scraping #1 first thing in the morning, then Scraping #2 last thing at night and Scraping #3 first thing the next day.

 Scrapings done (easy!), permission slip signed and my test was back in the envelope ready for mailing. Now I wait. I don't know when I will hear from Family Tree DNA about my results but I'll post about it here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog when I do.