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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: Gen List Lass on Sunday 03 March 13 07:56 GMT (UK)
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A couple of years ago, I persuaded one of the surviving males in our family to donate a swab for testing. Being a family rooted in Northumberland for at least 400 years, we were surprised to find our haplogroup of G2a places us in the Caucasus Mountains! But that was 16-20,000 years ago so I put the results aside until now.
I was wondering if any other Northumbrians born and bred have had their DNA tested and where they are supposed to have emerged from.....
I've joined a focus group for discussing DNA testing in relation to genealogy but it's NOT an easy subject to grasp. The folks on the forum are patient with DNA novices like me and I'm slowly learning.
My aim is to find out what happened between the year 1600 and 16,00 years ago! Big ask but why not?
Gen in NBL England
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Don't know if you are aware but ftDNA.com have a group of Northumbrian descendants who have been tested and may be of help
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/northumberland-england/default.aspx?section=results
Seems Joseph Stalin and King Louis XVI were both haplogroup G2a ............. as was Otzi the Iceman
http://uk.ask.com/wiki/%C3%96tzi_the_Iceman?qsrc=3044
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Thank you Davidft that is most useful and not known to me.
Gen in NBL England
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There is a programme on More4 on Wednesday 13 March at 9 pm about Otzi (who knows he might be a relative :))
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/iceman-murder-mystery
It goes into some of the medical tests they use to find out about him.
Warning: The link contains a picture of otzi's preserved remains
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I come from Northumbrian stock going back into Warkworth and recently I have taken a DNA test - am awaiting results. Happy to discuss once I get them back.
Roger
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Roger
Could be interesting! Especially if you are the same haplogroup as my male ancestors. Keep in touch.
Gen in NBL England
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davidft
Will be watching the Otzi programme on Wed. Thanks.
Gen in NBL England
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Will be weeks yet before I get the results, the DNA thing is a whole new area for me so a real newbie.
Roger
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I have my results now, but am trying to make sense of them..... not a simple thing at all.
Roger :o
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Good luck Roger, I STILL haven't understood what all those markers mean to me!
Gen in NBL England
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I have my results now, but am trying to make sense of them..... not a simple thing at all.
Roger :o
What test did you do and what were you trying to find out?
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I took the FTDNA test whilst at the Olympia Exhibition in February.
All I seem to have from that is a very broad brush Orcadian with some Middle Eastern mix and a load of names that I 'might' be connected to.
I guess part of the problem is I did the test without really knowing what I was expecting, and what I have got either isn't much - or else I really don't have a clue how to then use the information.
The 'tutorial' material on the website is far from helpful either.
Maybe I have just dipped my toe in the water of something that in a decade or two will be far more useful - due to advances in the science and a greater amount of people being involved, or maybe I just have stumbled across a modern version of the 'snake oil salesman'.
I'd like to think its just my lack of knowledge, but maybe I, like a lot of others, stumped up an amount of money expecting more than just the 'you basically come from western europe' thanks for the cash,
Roger ::) ::)
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I took the FTDNA test whilst at the Olympia Exhibition in February.
Which FTDNA test was it though?
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Family Finder....
Roger
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For most British people Family Finder won't tell you much. Exceptions may be people with adoptions in their recent tree or those with unusually mixed genes.
If you want more specific genealogical info you are restricted to testing your paternal line (STRs for very recent history, SNPs for further back) or your maternal line.
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Ok thanks for that, looks like I need to get my credit card out again....
Roger ;D
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The ethnicity part of the Family Finder test doesn't really tell you very much at present but there is supposed to be a more advanced admixture test in the pipeline. A lot of British people come out with a small Middle Eastern percentage with this test but it is not of any significance. There simply aren't enough reference populations available for matching purposes at present.
You need to go through your match list and contact your genetic cousins to see if you can work out where you are related. I find the easiest tactic is to download the match list, and then focus on the people with British, Australian or NZ e-mail addresses as these are the people with whom you will most likely to be able to find a genealogical connection. Start with the closest matches. It's almost impossible to find connections with fifth to distant cousins.
Make sure you add your list list of ancestral surnames and if possible upload a GEDCOM of your family tree.
The Y-DNA test would actually have been the most useful test to start with as the Y-DNA database is much larger and there are numerous well established surname projects. There is a sale on for the Y-DNA test which ends on 26th July.
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It. Is over 5 years since the previous messages were posted but I wondered if any more developments have been made re DNA of northumbrians since then? Like many others I have taken various DNA tests and found a few matches some of whom I can see clearly how we are connected, others with no obvious connection and a few with georgraphical connections which could be red herrings.
I live in North Northumberland with ancestry over last 250 years in this same area and Tyneside. My mitochondrial haplogroup is K1c2, not very common in England. Does anyone know if it is more common in North Nthbld than rest of country? My earliest ancestor in female line is Ann Thompson of Lesbury born about 1780-85. I harbour a fantasy that she stems from Scandinavian forebears as some of my closest DNA matches are Swedish and my ethnicity % from Scandinavia is in region of 13%.
The FTDNA group for Northumberland does not seem to have been updated for some time so has not proved very useful. But most of the other DNA sites are worldwide and I would like to find something more specific for this area. Can anyone suggest anything?
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A couple of years ago, I persuaded one of the surviving males in our family to donate a swab for testing. Being a family rooted in Northumberland for at least 400 years, we were surprised to find our haplogroup of G2a places us in the Caucasus Mountains! But that was 16-20,000 years ago so I put the results aside until now.
I was wondering if any other Northumbrians born and bred have had their DNA tested and where they are supposed to have emerged from.....
I've joined a focus group for discussing DNA testing in relation to genealogy but it's NOT an easy subject to grasp. The folks on the forum are patient with DNA novices like me and I'm slowly learning.
My aim is to find out what happened between the year 1600 and 16,00 years ago! Big ask but why not?
Gen in NBL England
Like most Scots, my Y DNA haplogroup is R1b-L21. My mtDNA is J1c2 - not too different from King Richard III, who was J1c2e. I think of him as Uncle Dick.
The one English branch on my family-tree is Stephensons from Northumberland. I've traced them back to Alwinton in Coquetdale, where my 4 x great-grandfather Joseph Stephenson and his brother Thomas both married their respective wives in the 1790s. Not sure if that was the original home of the family, though.
The reason I'm posting on this thread is that the Y DNA haplogroup G has been mentioned. As has been said, it seems to originate in the Caucasus but is found in small numbers elsewhere in Europe. I had ancestors on my mother's side called Familton - not Hamilton, Familton - at Earlston in Berwickshire, not far from the English border. Two male Familtons have done the DNA test and both are G -M210, which belongs in Georgia. According to Black's "The Surnames of Scotland", the surname Familton comes from a now lost place-name in the vicinity of Tantallon Castle in East Lothian.
Harry
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Like most Scots, my Y DNA haplogroup is R1b-L21. My mtDNA is J1c2 - not too different from King Richard III, who was J1c2e. I think of him as Uncle Dick.
Well he was a Neville on his Ma's side. She was a bonny lass. His brothers were tall and fair. Bonny lads. Scandinavian?
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Two new companies have entered the DNA market in the last two years: MyHeritage DNA and Living DNA.
Living DNA provides regional breakdowns within Britain and one of the regions is Northumbria. There are various reviews you can read here:
https://isogg.org/wiki/Living_DNA
AncestryDNA now also provide regional breakdowns within Britain though they don't have a specific region for Northumbria. They have a region for Northern England and another one for Yorkshire and the Pennines. You can see the full list of regions here:
https://support.ancestry.co.uk/s/article/DNA-Regions
It's always difficult to find information about the distribution of haplogroups within a country. If you've not already done so you can join the haplogoup K project at Family Tree DNA:
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/mt-dna-k/about/background
The results page of that project will give you an idea of the distribution of your subclade.
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Thank you for your suggestions, DevonCruwy. I have looked previously at the sources you mention and they don't tell me much about K Northumberland. We just don't have enough people in this part of the world! I'll keep on searching however.
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I've just had my second DNA test results (autosomal this time) and I've 93% ethnicity spread between Aberdeen and County Durham. The other 7% is Norwegian!
This makes much more sense that the paternal test 8 years ago that said Belarus and Georgia!
BUT maybe they traveled from Belarus to Northern UK via Norway....
Gen in NBL UK
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IT is fascinating to think of the possible roots taken by our ancestors to reach UK and for us Northumbrians it is good to imagine they came over Doggerland direct onto the Northumbrian coast! I am sure, in time, we will discover more about these routes. When you think what DNA can tell us today that was not possible just 20 or 30 years ago, you realise how quickly things are moving. I just hope more is discovered in my lifetime!
Belfordian
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When Ancestry first started doing DNA testing it was all about haplogroups. My latest test doesn't mention haplogroups anywhere!
Why is this?
Gen in NBL UK
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My Ancestry test doesn't mention haplogroups either. Just a small chunk of Norwegian (2%), which I'd expect on the north-east coast (Durham, Northumberland and Berwickshire).
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I think the marketing is targetting people’s percieved desire to know where they come from, (but not as far back as thousands of years ago).
Hence testing for ”ethnicity”.
If you tell someone they are 40% Scandanavian and 30% English plus a few exotic trace percentages, they can understand that, and have a bit of fun trying to work out where those percentages come from in their ancestry. It is DNA testing for the masses, something to discuss at dinner parties. Accuracy, or lack of it, doesn’t matter.
To tell someone that they are R2D2 ;) is too abstract a concept, and requires research and study to understand. It can be complex to get your head around (more so for some than others). :P
Just my thoughts Gen. :)
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Your latest DNA test does not mention haplogroups because it is an autosomal DNA test which is much more useful for tracing all of your ancestral lines. When you tested previously the main tests available were mtDNA (for everyone) and Y-DNA (for men). Both of these tests give you information about only one direct line. They are still available at some companies if you want to do more targetted testing of specific lines. However science has continued to develop and the newer techniques with autosomal testing are the best approach to finding out more about your whole family.
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I think I might have misread the question - I thought Gen was referring ti DNA tests in general but, re-reading, I think you have the correct answer Craclyn? ;)