There are three main DNA tests for genetic genealogy. The yellow the the most popular autosomal DNA and this covers very well through 2nd cousin, well enough, but missing many from 3rd cousin and the farther back missing more each generation. The red is the maternal DNA with relatively zero genealogy use (yes, yes in some cases) and the magic blue line is the y-DNA. With y-DNA you can identify a male ancestor from way back, by testing male line son descendant from each of that ancestor's sons. If the ancestor did not have two sons this cannot be done and work down until you can, or go farther back in time and over and test male cousin.
DNA
The Great Philadelphia Wagon Road
Using your own families’ genetic results you can follow the routes they took and use those matches to guide your searches for paper records and documentation. You are welcome to download this map. This is from a 1751 map that is in the public domain. (See Library of Congress website of map free maps, newspapers and records – all online and easily and freely accessible.) Although we know maps must be tweaked and re-tweaked, we must have a public domain map to work from and this is a great place to start.
OK, ftDNA has put together a really fun feature for y-DNA
I love it. It has the giggle-while-the-hair-stands-up-on-the-back-of-your-head genealogy rush of fun. And it does not stop there. These readings of a man's y-DNA haplogroup provide fun facts and are understood to be fun facts, only. As with all the bells and whistles of the genetic genealogy that we love to bits, I always say, "If … Continue reading OK, ftDNA has put together a really fun feature for y-DNA
Here’s Why We Test y – The Thomas Knight, Rockingham family comes into focus.
- A Herstory Guest - I hope my readers will help me welcome our guest blogger, one of my Knight cousins, Charlotte. Her trees and work can be found on ancestry.com and familysearch.org, all the usual places, but with a very special and not so usual story of her Knight ancestry. She has been a … Continue reading Here’s Why We Test y – The Thomas Knight, Rockingham family comes into focus.
y-DNA. No, it does not have admixture, but it does have thousands of years of human ancestry.
y-DNA. What is it? Who has heard of it? All the excitement about admixture aka ethnicity in at-DNA testing and matching trees took some of the focus away from the original DNA-for-genealogy testing and my own favorite test: -- y-DNA. What is your y-DNA, if you are a man? (Only men carry y-DNA.) Is it … Continue reading y-DNA. No, it does not have admixture, but it does have thousands of years of human ancestry.