The Simple Way to Understand Genetic Genealogy Tests, Part 2

In part one of this series we discussed mitochondrial DNA and how it mutates (changes) so slowly that there are almost no changes over genealogical time periods, which would be the last 700 years when surnames and vital records have been commonly maintained.

However, the y-chromosome does mutate much more frequently. In fact if you are looking at 67 markers on the y-chromosome, the mutation rate is about 100 times the rate of mutation of the mitochondrial DNA.

If you wish to think of these markers as a hand of cards, about one changes in each four times the cards are dealt. However, an easier way to visualize these changes is to imagine a slot machine with 67 wheels turning, not the three wheels on the machine illustrated. Only about every 4 times you pulled the lever would you get a change in one wheel—corresponding to a marker on the y-chromosome. You would be pretty much guaranteed a change with 9 pulls of the lever.

Not only that, the change would be such that it could easily be seen as the offspring of the original!

For this reason, y-DNA testing is the most widely used genetic test for genealogy purposes. We know that males carry their father’s same y-chromosome, with the occasional one-mutation change.

This property of the y-chromosome allows us to see which men are related to each other within a genealogical time frame and how closely they are likely related along their paternal line. It is of great use to establish lines of descent when records are not available that accurately trace the movements and offspring of our ancestors. However, it requires a sample from a male, and samples (and hopefully genealogies) from other men who turn out to be related.

Lalia Wilson for the Taylor surname project

The Simple Way to Understand Genetic Genealogy Tests, Part 1

As a co-administrator of a y-DNA/surname project, I and my colleagues get many questions about what various genetic tests can do for people. The long answer probably requires an advanced degree in genetics… something most participants don’t have. Here is a simpler explanation which is true in the macro sense, though extended details are not covered.


Basically, there are three different kinds of genetic tests used in genealogy. One test is for markers on the y-chromosome. This test requires a sample from a male, as females do not have a y-chromosome. It looks at markers and allows you to compare them with other samples of known or unknown genealogies in hope that you will find a relative who proves a specific lineage.

The second type of test concerns mitochondrial DNA, the DNA which was in the egg from your mother (that became you!) and consequently the bodies of your cells today. Mitochondrial DNA comes only from your mother. It is only passed down a female line. Your mitochondrial DNA came from your mother and her mother and her mother back in time to the first human woman.


The third test is of autosomal DNA. Autosomal DNA is the DNA other than the sex chromosomes. In reproduction the autosomal DNA is mixed up with the creation of each new child, sometimes coyly referred to as a “transmission event.”

These three types of tests give us different information; and importantly, that information yields different genealogical information for different time periods.

Let us begin with our mothers and mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA changes very slowly. One research paper recently reported a rate of one change per 371 “transmission events.” Thus, over 371 generations, there is a 50% chance that one child will have a change in her/his mitochondrial DNA. Population geneticists and genealogists define a generation as somewhere between 20 and 30 years. If we use 25 years here, we are talking about the likelihood of one change per 9,275 years. Now this change is random, so it could have occurred between you and your mother, but the likelihood of that is 1/371.

Here’s the simple way to look at this. Suppose we represent your mother’s mitochondrial DNA (mt-DNA) as a hand of four playing cards: the 2 ♦, the Queen ♥, the 10 ♠, and the Knight of ♣. The odds are that your mt-DNA is exactly the same (the 2 ♦, the Queen ♥, the 10 ♠, and the Knight of ♣); actually 370/371, or 99.73%. And if there is a change, it is minor and closely related. An example of a change would be represented by this configuration: the 2 ♦, the Queen ♥, the 9 ♠, and the Knight of ♣. We expect this same situation to hold true up and down your maternal line. A fifth cousin sharing the same maternal lineage will likely have the exact same mt-DNA with perhaps one minor change. For that reason, mt-DNA is very useful for establishing maternal shared ancestors, but of much less use to understand lineages in what we call genealogical time—the seven hundred years since surnames and some record keeping became more common. (Though royal lineages have been kept for thousands of years.)

Because mt-DNA changes so slowly, and because it is present in much larger quantities in people than other DNA and usually survives for years after death and burial, it is used to understand the genetics of earlier humans. One group of people killed by the Mount Vesuvius volcanic eruption of 24 August 79 AD (which destroyed the two ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum) was analyzed over 1,600 years later. The mt-DNA showed that six of 13 individuals in one house were maternally related, all having the unusual haplogroup T2b. Because of the slow rate of change of mt-DNA, scientists can confidently say that all of our mitochondrial lineages trace back to a common ancestor who lived in Africa 100,000 to 150,000 years ago. Some lineages migrated out of Africa about 60,000 years ago, while others remained.

I will return with further information about the rates of change for y-DNA and the autosomal DNA. The card game becomes much more complicated! Mitochondrial DNA changes so slowly you could think about dealing out the same four cards 371 times in a row. But for y-DNA (at 67 markers) it is just 3-4 hands in a row. And for autosomal DNA you get a new shuffle and a new hand with every transmission event.

Lalia Wilson for the Taylor surname project

Adding in Taylor data from non-Family Tree projects

Family Tree DNA is offering special pricing to include people who have tested their y-DNA with other companies.  This is important to the existing members of the Taylor Project at FTDNA, and to other people who have tested at other companies.  Why?  Because everyone new being added to FTDNA brings more matches.

If you are currently a FTDNA member, tell your friends about this.  You also can expect to pick up new matches as more samples are added to the entire database of y-DNA.

If you are a member of another project at a company other than Family Tree DNA, you can add your sample to the world's largest genealogy DNA database and will then have much more likely matches!

To summarize, in the words of our project leader Ralph Taylor:

§ For $19, Taylors with Ancestry (or other testing company) results can transfer to FTDNA and join Taylor Family Genes. Their results can then be compared and possibly matched.  We could pick up as many as 200 additional members.


§ For another $39 ($58 total), they can add analyses of markers “missing” from the FTDNA 25- or 37-marker panels to make for consistent comparisons.

If you are a person who has tested elsewhere, go directly to the FTDNA website to arrange to be included in the largest database.

If your sample is already at FTDNA, encourage others to take advantage of this opportunity.  It is a way to find more matches for all of us!

I certainly am looking for some missing "links" on some of my family lines.

Lalia

The Case for Using Family Finder in a Surname Project

Members of the Taylor Project have almost all participated by means of y-DNA testing. You submitted a sample, provided a basic pedigree and the name of your earliest know Taylor ancestor and now (ideally) you are matched with a group of Taylors. Your group descends from a single line and the other group members are your cousins.

In an ideal world, you know your exact relationship with each member of your Taylor group. Knowing this relationship, each of you can now claim your combined paper trail of lineage.

Isn’t that why you have participated in DNA testing?

Well, it doesn’t always work out like that. And you, dear reader, may be one of the people who is an exception to the ideal portrayed above. This is where the Family Finder test can be of great benefit. The Family Finder test looks at autosomal DNA, which is inherited from all of your lines of descent, not just the male-to-male lineage of y-DNA or the female-to-female lineage of mitochondrial DNA. It is a way to investigate all your lines.

I’m writing this because there is a price reduction on this test for current FTDNA members. Take advantage of a major price reduction through June 22nd.

What can the Family Finder test contribute? Let’s look at several situations.

First, you are a male Taylor, you have a fairly close match with other Taylor project members, enough to form a group, but you don’t know your exact relationship. If you and others in your group do the Family Finder test (henceforth FF), you can close in on your relationship. For example, if your y-DNA suggests a 50% likelihood of a common ancestor within 6 generations, doing the FF will indicate if your common ancestor is within seven generations (the equivalent of 5th cousins) and suggest the number of generations between you. This should focus on exactly where to look for the paper trail indicating a common ancestor. It also may help identify a relative who has not yet tested who would be “the missing link.”

Second instance, you are a female Taylor. You don’t have any y-DNA, and you don’t know any living male Taylors of your line. Doing the FF test will allow you to match with Taylor males currently unknown to you. You can then use their Taylor group, from their y-DNA results, to work towards your earliest Taylor ancestor.

Third instance, you are a male Taylor. Your y-DNA did not match any Taylor line, but did match another surname project. The evidence is pretty conclusive that one of your male ancestors carried the name Taylor, but was not biologically a Taylor. However, you do not know when that NPE (non-parental event) occurred. Was it in your generation? Five generations? More? With the FF test, you can compare your results with other known Taylor relatives, second cousins, great aunts and uncles. If you match them, the likelihood is that the NPE occurred prior to the births of all those tested, and that a common ancestor of all of yours came subsequent to the NPE. (However this inference cannot extend beyond seven generations due to limitations of the testing, nor can it extend beyond the parameters of your individuals sampled.)

Fourth instance, you are a male with a non-Taylor surname. Your y-DNA matched the Taylor line in multiple close matches. You don’t know when the NPE occurred. You do the FF test. If you match a Taylor group with the FF in addition to y-DNA, this suggests the NPE occurred within the last seven generations. It may be fewer generations depending upon the FF results. At least you can begin to discover your roots.

Finally, what about the unique individual who has tested 67 y-DNA markers and mt-DNA and has no matches? I know one of these people. We hope with the FF test to finally find someone who matches!

I look forward to us all finding out our ancestry.

Lalia

Collaboration is the Name of the Game

A lot of work goes on behind the scenes of this Taylor DNA project. Among what happens is that the administrators are actively working with project members to facilitate a win-win experience for all. One of the principal parts to making your experience with the project a success is offering as much information as you can about your family lines—excluding personal information on living persons.

 

On your personal page at www.familytreedna.com, you have ways to input data about your father’s line, your mother’s line and all family lines. These can be input as a gedcom or individually.

When you post this information, it allows near-matches to begin to see where their line connects with your line. For best results, all project members should be forthcoming with family pedigrees.

But your job is not over! A next part is to actively collaborate with people who ask you for information. This means responding in a timely manner to project members who inquire about possible connections. It means responding thoughtfully. It means being responsible for your own safety and protection as well—don’t share mother’s maiden names or birthdates or social security numbers for living people!

It may be that you get a lot of e-mail; I do. If you are busy, give a quick response. “I got your message. I may have some information on your question. I cannot get to it until after the 20th. Please contact me again if I don’t get back to you.”

 

I have been in many conversations with project members and other genetic genealogists about how to best work collaboratively. Here are some thoughts from our member Richard A. Taylor:

 

I don't understand why so many folks spend all their money and time testing with FTDNA or some other DNA testing company, joining the Family Finder group and/or signing up for any of the many groups, projects or blogs and then DO NOT SUBMIT FAMILY TREES, GEDCOMS, MULTIPLE SURNAMES OR NOTES ABOUT THEIR FAMILY ORIGINS AND WORST OF ALL - DO NOT REPLY TO A CONTACT E-MAIL MESSAGE OFFERING TO SHARE/COMPARE INFORMATION!!!

 

I've sent out e-mails to three people listed as possible matches, 2 for my line and 1 for a friend’s Taylor line, without any reply or acknowledgement. Reckon this is sort of analogous to "leading a horse to water but you can't make him drink."

 

Why go to all this trouble if you're not going to respond or share any info?

I know that Dick’s a bit annoyed in his tone above, but he is simply repeating some of the frustration that all of us face as we start working through our matches in the Taylor project (and with our other related lines).

 

To the extent we can, we should work to make our own experience and that of our related lines as pleasant as possible. We can do this by submitted your family pedigree, or gedcom.

• Did you post your earliest known ancestor (of your male Taylor line)?
• Have you posted your earliest know female ancestor on your female-to-female line?
• Finally, if you are doing the Family Finder test, have you posted all the known surnames for all your lines in the last seven generations?

By completing these details, which are about people who are usually many years deceased, you improve your chances of determining how you link to anyone whose DNA you match. You also improve the ability of those you match to find their link with you. (This is because the person you match may have more family information than you have, which is a blessing in that it adds important family information you may not have known about.)

 

Lalia

  

Always happy to share Taylor or any other info I possess. My wife (surname Ford/Foard from MD to NC to TN to VA) and I have been researching since about 30 years or more.

 

 Richard (Dick) A. Taylor

 

 

 

 

 

Using Genetic Matches to Understand Your Roots

Finding out the story of our ancestors, who they were and something of their personal history, involves a combination of genealogy research techniques, serendipity, and the science of genetics. Serendipity, the accidental discovery of something fortunate, is unplanned and cannot be anticipated. While it is always nice to have, serendipity cannot be your entire family history strategy.

This leaves us with family stories, census data and other sources of records for our ancestors. Sometimes these contradict one another. Should that happen, there are ways to evaluate and settle on the most likely answer. However, the final way to compare family history to current reality is DNA. Should DNA results contradict the family history, no matter how well researched, the DNA (as measured in a member of the family line being studied) is incontrovertible!

This is best understood by examples. I am going to use a fictitious Taylor ancestor and demonstrate what various DNA results will tell us. Let us begin with an imaginary ancestor, John Q. Taylor, born in 1824 in Belmont, Ohio, USA. As were all years, 1824 has its distinctions, on November 5th – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (the first technological university in the English-speaking world) was founded in Troy, New York, the Florida State capital moved to Tallahassee, where it remains, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony premiered on May 7th. This ancestor (for our example we will assume he is our earliest known ancestor) grew up, married and produced four sons: Abe Taylor, Bryon Taylor, Charlie Taylor and Daniel Taylor. All four sons were born in Ohio in the period 1845-1860 and you have records of them and their marriages. Each produced at least one son who was named after him, Abe Taylor II, Byron Taylor II and so forth.

Skip ahead to the current day. You are Daniel Taylor IV born in 1950 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Or his close female kin.) You have records and a pedigree showing your descent from your great-great-grandfather, John Q. Taylor. You submit a sample and join the Taylor project.

Luckily, it turns out that there are existing samples in the Taylor project for three others of your third cousins, direct descendants of Abe Taylor, Byron Taylor and Charlie Taylor. Let us look at what the results might mean.

In our first case, let us assume each of these Taylor cousins does a 12 marker y-DNA test. In our example, all four match. Does this prove the family history? No! (Nor does it disprove the family history.) All a 12-marker match tells us is that these four men share a common ancestor sometime before 1200 AD, which predates the use of surnames. It does not tell us that they are third cousins, or that they are not.

What if you each tested 25 markers and had a perfect match? A perfect 25/25: The chances are 90% that your most recent common ancestor is within the past 28 generations, roughly since 1300 AD.

What if you tested 37 markers and had a perfect match? A perfect 37/37: The chances are 90% that your family lines are connected within 19 generations, most likely since 1530 AD.

If you find a perfect 67/67: The 90% probability level is a common ancestor no earlier than 1735 AD, with a 50% probability that your common ancestor is your great-great-grandfather.

These, however, are the easy cases.

What if, of the four descendants of John Q. Taylor in the Taylor project, yourself and three different third cousins, representing three different lines, three of you match 67-67 and one matches 65/67? While it is unlikely that there would be two random mutations in the same line over so few transmission events , it is within possibility that the four lines are connected as the paper trail indicates.

But let’s make this more complex. Three lines connect at 67/67, and the fourth line, which has an equally compelling paper trail, connects at 62/67. From mathematics, we know that the fourth line, with only a 62/67 connection, is not a recent cousin of the other three lines. Their genetic connection is before surnames came into common use in the English speaking world.

What can we conclude about these four lines? Most likely, three of the lines are the direct descendants of John Q. Taylor, and the fourth line is of similar ancestral stock, but not a direct descendant of John Q. However, there is also a possibility that the one individual is the sole true descendant, and the other three lines represent similar ancestral stock. And there is always a remote possibility that none of the samples is a direct descendant.

How do you proceed to understand more about these lines? There are several ways to proceed. One is to compare the 67 marker matches to all surnames at the Family Tree DNA project. If that line ends up having 15 perfect matches to individuals with the surname Miller, then there is a likelihood that somewhere between 1824 and 1950 either an adoption or a “non-paternal event” occurred that introduced the Miller genes into the Taylor family.

In addition to following the genetic science, you also want to further explore the family history. Was there a time that rumors spread about an affair? When husband and wife were separated? Follow that thread to find out more…

Lalia Wilson for the Taylor DNA Project

Beginning Steps to using Family Finder or Autosomal DNA Tests

We are getting queries and getting results with the new Family Finder test available from Family Tree DNA.  There are many benefits to using Family Finder.  One is to confirm how collatoral branches of families link together.  This will become quite useful to the Taylor project over time.  Even today we have "matches" where we can confirm that two or more individuals with different pedigrees have "related" DNA, but we do not know from the y-DNA or the paper trail exactly where the lines converge into a common ancestor.


With Family Finder we should be able to see where two (or more) lines converge if it is within the last seven generations.  This is because Family Finder works best with relationships at the 5th cousin or closer range. 


One of the steps in using Family Finder, other than submitting a sample, is to provide a list of surnames in your family line.  I have done this for my direct line and will include it below as an example.  Since the test goes out to fifth cousins, ideally you will go out to your seventh generation in lineage.  I have a couple of gaps, but most of my other 5 times great-grandparents are included.  Some of the surnames are duplicated, so that reduces the number and for some I give alternate spellings.

• 
  
  Augustus
• 
  
  Barteaux/Berteaux
• 
  
  Beall/Bell
• 
  
  Born
• 
  
  Bright/Brecht
• 
  
  Cassell
• 
  
  Crockwell
• 
  
  Dickerson
• 
  
  Foster
• 
  
  Gaston
• 
  
  Glover
• 
  
  Harbaugh
• 
  
  Hinton
• 
  
  Hockersmith
• 
  
  Hutt
• 
  
  Jackson
• 
  
  Johnson
• 
  
  LeCain
• 
  
  Leonard
• 
  
  Lingenfelter
• 
  
  Lockwood
• 
  
  Madden
• 
  
  McDonald
• 
  
  Mead(e)
• 
  
  Moore
• 
  
  Perry
• 
  
  Pope
• 
  
  Pulliam
• 
  
  Rice
• 
  
  Ritchie
• 
  
  Robinson
• 
  
  Ryerson
• 
  
  Scott
• 
  
  Simon
• 
  
  Smith
• 
  
  Spence
• 
  
  Springer
• 
  
  Starratt
• 
  
  Stone
• 
  
  Taylor
• 
  
  Vail
• 
  
  Wheat
• 
  
  Whitman

 Assembling that list of surnames will be vital to matching records--documented paper records--when you get a Family Finder match.  It's time to start your own list!

Lalia Wilson for the Taylor Surname Project

Newly Available Technique at FTDNA

Greetings,

Family Tree DNA has announced to current members that they can do autosomal testing of their DNA. This new test is called Family Finder by FTDNA. So here's a quick explanation of what that means. If you are a member of a surname project, such as the Taylor project, you have had y-DNA tested. This is the Y-Chromosome which is inherited from father to son throughout history. The minor changes that occur in that chromosome happen such that over generations family lines separate. Y-DNA is extremely useful to determine one's patrilineal lineage.

Similarly mt-DNA is testing the genetic material that comes only from one's mother. She got it from her mother and so on back in history. Mitochondrial DNA mutates more slowly than y-DNA, making it less useful in following one's ancestors in historical time, but more useful, perhaps, for deep ancestral investigation.

Autosomal DNA is the DNA in the 22 chromosomes that do not include the final 23rd chromosome that determines whether we are male or female. Thus the remaining 22 chromosomes have genetic pieces from all our ancestors, not limited to our father's direct paternal line or our mother's direct maternal line.

Family Tree DNA proposes to test your sample, should you request the test, and compare it with their database of samples. They assert that with this test you can locate genetic relatives in the database from as far removed as 5th cousins. This would include relatives unknown to you, who may have been lost to your version of your combined family history. While the new autosomal testing will be administered separately from the surname project to which you belong, it will provide useful information that may enhance your knowledge of your family tree. See the quote below from the FTDNA website:

"Surname projects can use Family Finder to better define branches in a family tree. By using Family Finder testing, close Y-chromosome and mt-DNA matches without traditional records may be assigned to a pedigree with greater confidence. Even more exciting, surname projects may now bring female cousins into the project as additional evidence."

Lalia Wilson for the Taylor Surname Project

More Inclusion of non-British Isles Taylors

Hi,

We know that some of our Taylor group are connected with African Haplogroups such as E3a.

Others may identify as African-American even though their DNA is of European origin.

However FTDNA is now participating in research that will allow those of African origin, recently as opposed to a millennium or two ago African origin, to better understand their roots.

See this article at http://blog.familytreemagazine.com/insider/2009/10/26/DNATestsInGhanaMayShedLightOnAfricanAmericanOrigins.aspx

Lalia

Haplogroups and Race

Each Haplogroup is associated with a geographic origin and therefore an ethnic identity, or more accurately a biological race. For a full treatment of the origins of each haplogroup, see this article at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Y-chromosome_DNA_haplogroups

However, here are some of the particulars[1]. Most of our Taylor project are representative of the R1b and R1a that are western European:

R1b Western Europe

R1a Eastern Europe

I Nordic

J2 Semitic

E3b Semitic

Q3 Native American

It is important to point out that racial identity in the United States, at least in the year 2009, is a cultural matter. People identify with their culture of origin. They do not have a DNA test to determine their major ethnic identity. For that reason, a person who self-identifies as African-American may test and find he is of the Western European haplogroup. Similarly, a person may identify as a white American and discover his y-DNA is linked to an African haplogroup.

Because of this, some possible participants may not want to be tested, fearing the results. These fears may be unrevealed, even to the self. And even today, people do make value judgments according to racial profiling. So, let us address some possible issues.

Outside of this project, no one will know your haplogroup, unless you share it. Closely related people who test and share results with you probably have the same haplogroup.

Second, your haplogroup may or may not coincide with your ethnic identity as you have lived your life. This may be reassuring, or not. Your ethnic identity is a complex mixture of family, local, religious, regional and biological factors. Two people in relatively similar circumstances may self-identify as different ethnic groups.

Finally, speaking to the Black/White issue which is a hot button for Americans, having a haplogroup which does not match your sense of ethnic identity does not necessarily mean that your female ancestor was raped by a member of the other group. This is a reoccurring explanation for why a haplogroup does not match a perceived cultural identity. It presupposes that no ancestor had consensual sex with another ethnic group. It would be reasonable and fair to assume that some mixtures of different genetic lines were desired by both parties.

Until next time,

Lalia

[1] See Wikipedia noted above for a more complete list.

When Do You "Own" Your Surname?

Since this is the official blog of a surname project—the Taylor surname project—it is reasonable to question, when is a surname yours?

If you have the surname Taylor by marriage or adoption, is it yours? My answer is yes. If you psychologically identify with the surname, and use it as your legal name, it is yours in my opinion. (Readers are encouraged to comment, if they have strong feelings about this.)

Thus, within our Taylor surname project we have y-DNA matches that do not carry the surname Taylor, but trace back to Taylor lines, and we have people who carry the Taylor name and trace back to other male lines and other surnames. All of them are part of the Taylor project because they identify themselves by personal preference, by identity, by law, or by DNA, as Taylors.

We welcome them all.

Consider Jeremy Taylor, the dream expert. Taylor is a founding member and past president of the Association for the Study of Dreams, he has written three books integrating dream symbolism, mythology, and archetypal energy. The latest is: The Living Labyrinth: Universal Themes in Myths, Dreams and the Symbolism of Waking Life. His earlier books, Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill, and Dream Work, have been translated into many languages. As far as I am aware, he is not a member of this project.

Jeremy Taylor is a most interesting person; I have met him, interacted with him at a week-long retreat, and read one of his books. See more about Jeremy at his website: http://jeremytaylor.com. I mention Jeremy Taylor because, having an interest in Taylor genealogy, I asked him about his Taylor connections. He told me his father had been adopted. While I suspect that his father is deceased, as Jeremy is in his 60s, Jeremy’s y-DNA can still be used to determine his father’s paternal lineage.

By my reckoning, Jeremy Taylor is a “real” Taylor, even though his father was adopted. Jeremy has used the Taylor name throughout his life. What do you think?

Lalia