DNA hope

[louisa maud]

I too will   be keeping  my eye on this,  I have had  my DNA  done but must admit I am  a complete novice even though I have been chasing my family for nearly 30 years , I would really like to know more about my mother's side of the family, I am showing  94%  British which I am very pleased with, as far as I can see not many on my maternal side show up on Heritage. I watch with eagerness any DNA  programmes and really wonder how they come up with names and family   way back, is there one test for maternal and one for paternal?

LM.

[Biggles50]

I too will   be keeping  my eye on this,  I have had  my DNA  done but must admit I am  a complete novice even though I have been chasing my family for nearly 30 years , I would really like to know more about my mother's side of the family, I am showing  94%  British which I am very pleased with, as far as I can see not many on my maternal side show up on Heritage. I watch with eagerness any DNA  programmes and really wonder how they come up with names and family   way back, is there one test for maternal and one for paternal?

LM.

YES.

Ancestry and My Heritage are Autosomal and these cover both parental lines.

mtDNA is female, it is passed on by a Mother to her Children but only her Female Children pass it on in turn to their children. 

Y-DNA is Father to Son hence along the Male line and this test can only yield results if taken by a Male.

The Ethnicity should be regarded with scepticism as the results are based on limited gene pools which supply the data.  They will vary in time as numbers increase and processes change.  My Ancestry DNA test Ethnicity results six years ago bears no similarity to what shows today.  The My Heritage DNA test that I also took again shows a very different Ethnicity Mix than what I see in Ancestry.

Do read up on how DNA is inherited and how the process of DNA Recombination works.

[Biggles50]

Should I, shoudn’t I?

To take a DNA test or not?

Taking one can be life changing, especially if you find results that question your lineage and all your years of research.

Take the BBC Sounds series that looked at DNA and genealogy, one person interviewed spent 30 years researching his family only to find after taking a DNA test that they were not his biological family, no part of his tree was relative to him.

That is a pretty extreme example but one that did happen, and in my own case a high DNA match to me questioned the accuracy of my tree or rather a branch of it.  My DNA research allied to my family tree showed gaping holes where NO DNA matches lead to a MRCA.  Both of my Paternal Great Grandfathers had no DNA matches to them or beyond.  To help resolve I took and posted the results of a yDNA test a couple of months ago and I have been through an emotional roller coaster since the results came back.

My family name should not be what it is, and I have been struggling what to say to my Cousins.

So yes a DNA test can help your research tremendously but it can lead to revelations so do be prepared if you do take a test for all the possible outcomes.

[Jane Stewart]

Regarding whether to believe one's ethnicity breakdown : myself and my two siblings are on various DNA sites and in every case our ethnicity breakdown varies wildly from each other.  We have exactly the same parents so this is a very simple proof that these ethnicity estimates absolutely must not be trusted. 

[Biggles50]

The DNA we inherit from our Parents/Grandparents will be very different between siblings unless they are identical offspring.

The result is that the various Ethnicity gene pools used in the analysis can give very different results for siblings.

DNA is inherited by a random process called Recombination.

Below is a simple diagram, it shows how DNA is inherited differently between siblings

[LizzieL]

Below is a simple diagram, it shows how DNA is inherited differently between siblings

That's really clever
Now for a Christmas puzzle, pair up the three children with suitably named partners and work out the next generation 

[Biggles50]

Consider what DNA strategy you would like to try to follow when you want to validate your biological lineage.

In the light of recent developments in my own family if I was now early in the family genealogical research then I would adopt a sooner rather than later philosophy to DNA testing.

ie
Self and at least one sibling if possible.

Two Paternal and two Maternal First Cousins from different siblings of parents. 
Which will help validate Grandparents and Cousin relationships

At least one Second Cousin from each Great Grandparent line.

These then via cross referencing with Shared Matches will help to validate at each Great Great Grandparent level and DNA matches snd shared matches should help.

Now were are at Great Great Grandparent level and this is where the black holes can statistically start to appear in that the randomness of DNA inheritance can mean that no DNA is inherited as per the chart below.

So each generation is validated not only by documentation but by DNA hence the tree foundation will be robust and surprises found by a later DNA test are not then going to rename a section of the family tree from Biological to Genealogical.

Let us just clarify, a Genealogical Family Tree has all the citations and records to show that each person in the tree has a valid reason to be there.

A Biological tree uses DNA to substantiate that the persons in the tree are actually related by the same chemistry of life and the documentation merely shows the interrelationship.