I thought I would add another "Success Story" from YDNA for my mother's Brooks line. We have traced our line back to my oldest proven ancestor, Robert Brooks, b. 1730s residing in Lunenburg and Mecklenburg Counties, VA most of his life. However, there was a problem with connecting his two oldest sons, Jordan (b. 1765 and my ancestor) and Robert. Through personal property tax lists and extensive probate records, we found both Jordan and Robert being listed in the same household as Robert Brooks, Sr. for poll taxes (taxes for the right to vote) since his large slave holdings made it easy to determine which Robert Brooks it was from his estate and the personal property tax lists. Since Jordan and Robert, Jr. were the first to move out of the area to South Carolina, we thought that they had been given their inheritance up front when they left or were omitted since they did not stick around. Robert, Sr. signed Robert, Jr marriage bond and Jordan signed the marriage bonds for two of Robert, Sr.'s daughters found in his will. Also, after the death of Robert, Sr. in 1805, around of his ten children moved from VA to SC and lived near Jordan and Robert, Jr. So we had substantial documentation implying that these two men were sons of Robert, Sr.
There had always been "family history" that Robert Brooks, Sr. married Brambly "Wade" and we did find many Wade families living nearby to Robert Brooks, Sr. and the couple named one of their sons Wade Brooks as well. So this was supporting evidence but very weak documentation. So I extensively YDNA tested (both 67 YSTR markers and significant YSNP testing as well) to see if I could connect the known ancestry of Robert Brooks, Sr. which was somewhat speculative in nature. Well, testing this line was negative for a match and after 400 Brooks testers were not related either (other than those known to be descendants of the two sons), YDNA was not panning out too well and unfortunately, we do not have any known male descendants of the sons found in Robert, Sr.'s probate records.
However, more and more Wade testers were matches with my line (getting down to a genetic distance of only two at 67 markers). So we began to warm up to the idea that maybe Robert Brooks, Sr. married a young widow who married a Wade first and then Robert, Sr. informally adopted and raised her two orphaned sons as his own (but left them out of his will). With this information in hand and the pretty solid ancestry of Robert, Sr. being discounted, a high profile researcher (professional for 40 years in family history and State Archives employee), decided to research in depth which Robert Brooks was ours (out of around five of the same age in the same area). They narrowed down and determined which one it was (via ten page summary) and determined they lived very close to the Wades in the county. With some assistance of my Wade YDNA matches, these neighbors were their ancestors. Not solid proof to date but the evidence is mounting that the two oldest sons were probably adopted and that there just may be some truth to the connection to the Wade family via YDNA. Signed Robert Brooks Casey (or should I change my middle name to Wade and ask my son, Jordan Brooks Casey, to change his middle name to Wade as well)