Question about Y-37 DNA Test from FTDNA

[Benody1921]

My dad's Y-DNA results are in and I am completely lost. I have no idea how to read the results. I see he is part of the haplogroup R-M269. He has two DNA match. One has the surname Stewart and the other has the surname Price (Stewart). I think this is what I want to see since I was predicting my great-grandad was born a Stuart but adopted by the Dunns.

[Liz_in_Sussex]

Hi,

That is promising, but M269 is (I think) one of the most commonly found amongst men in the UK! My Dad is M269 but it gets broken down as others have said, if you test for the terminal SNP's.

The genetic distance is important - that is how many of the 37 markers you DO NOT match on. Hopefully it is 0?

I agree you should join one or both of the Stewart groups: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/stewart/about and
https://www.familytreedna.com/my/group-join?group=Stewart-2&

The group I joined had brilliant admins who were really knowledgable about how it all worked and I learned a lot from them.

Liz

EDITED see post below.

[Benody1921]

Hi Liz,

Thanks for that.

The two matches have a genetic distance of 3 and 4. I don't know what any of that means though. Autosomal DNA was much easier for me to understand.

I've joined a Stewart Project and the R-M269 Project. Should I post in those groups about my results?

[Benody1921]

Hi,

That is promising, but M269 is (I think) one of the most commonly found amongst men in the UK! My Dad is M269 but it gets broken down as others have said, if you test for the terminal SNP's.

The genetic distance is important - that is how many of the 37 markers you match on. Hopefully it is 0?

I agree you should join one or both of the Stewart groups: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/stewart/about and
https://www.familytreedna.com/my/group-join?group=Stewart-2&

The group I joined had brilliant admins who were really knowledgable about how it all worked and I learned a lot from them.

Liz

I've just had another look around the site and the matches. When I go to the Advanced Matches there are 7 pages of matches but a lot are on Y-12 (is that a marker?) When I switch from The Entire Database to just a Stewart Project, I now get 4 matches:
First match shows 1 on Y-12
Second match shows 1 on Y-12 (surname Stuart)
Third match shows 0 on Y-12, 2 on Y-25, and 3 on Y-37 (this is the match I saw earlier)
Fourth match shows 0 on Y-12, 2 on Y-25, and 4 on Y-37 (this is another match I saw earlier).

[J.A.M.]

Liz_in_Sussex,

In a yDNA test the more you match another across all markers the better. Matching 0 genetic markers is not good.

[Liz_in_Sussex]

Hi,

I'm sorry - I obviously didn't make myself clear! (Sorry I see now why my post was misleading.)

Yes, I know that matching on no markers is a bad thing! But a Genetic Distance of 3 or 4 on a 37 marker test is not suggesting a very close relationship. You need this number to be zero.

You need to match on all markers at 12 and preferably all markers at 37 to get any meaningful results. The higher the number of markers tested the better.

Liz

[Liz_in_Sussex]

Benody - Y-DNA is a case of lots of patience - my Uncle tested years ago and still has only a very few matches (all the same family) and none close. He has a rare non-British haplogroup which partly explains this, but also, you do need to consider the fact that other men from the same paternal line need to have tested.

If the Stewart group has an active forum post in there - it should help.

Liz

[Benody1921]

Would it be worth it to upgrade to the Y-111 test? My aunt would like to pay for an upgrade but I want to know what the Y-111 can give us. I know most will say to do the BigY700 but that's a lot of money.

What would upgrading to either one give us?

[davidft]

Simply put the higher up the scale you can test the higher is the potential that it will be helpful, but that of course depends on people you would match also testing and that's a bit of a lottery.

Yes Y700 would be better than Y111 but as you say its a lot more expensive. To give you an example from my own experience I upgraded from Y37 to Y67 and yet my closest match is still 5 steps away so I judge from that there is no point me upgrading further.

However as you want to upgrade from Y37 I would suggest missing out Y67 and going straight for Y111 if the cost is not too much to take on. If in time you get very close matches at Y111 you can then decide if you want to take further more expensive tests - or indeed new tests that may have become available in the interim.

Good luck.